It started off as an innocent marketing mistake: Microsoft photoshopped a black man out of a picture for their Polish website and replaced it with a white guy. They left the black guy’s hand in the photo, but whatever. and that monitor still isn’t plugged in to anything at all.

Microsoft apologized and changed the Polish site to the original image.

But it’s too late. We’re already getting comments from users who are doing a little photoshopping of their own. This first one, which was submitted anonymously, shows a famous shot of Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.

We like it. But we think you can do better. So get Photoshop fired up and make your funniest (and yet not in any way offensive) version of the Polish Microsoft head replacement. No rules. Replace all the heads if you want to. Add costumes and props. And text bubbles. Whatever. Winner (chosen by our interns at the end of the day on Wednesday) gets a Bing Tshirt. You can have any size you like, as long as it’s XL. And we’ll even mail it to you for free. Just post your image online somewhere and add a link in the comments. Make sure to use a real email address so we can contact you.

We declare this a meme. Compete, and win.

Hewitt also says he’ll post screen shots and more detais on this Facebook page for the iPhone app next week, and that he’s looking forward to getting started on v. 3.1 tomorrow.

We’ve been tracking 3.0 since details first became available in July. A list of some of the much needed improvements is here. And as a bonus, Hewitt said he’d be able to include video uploads to Facebook from iPhone 3Gs phones as well. And from our most recent post (yes, Hewitt has been teasing this out for weeks):

That means that shortly, we’ll have access to the much-improved app which is scheduled to have features such as a News Feed that is more like the one on Facebook’s site, the ability to “like” items and a new customizable home screen. More importantly, it will also have video support for the iPhone 3GS, something which Hewitt threw-in at the last second, unexpectedly. And perhaps best of all, the app will have the ability to manage events, finally.

It’s likely Apple will approve this app in short order. Not only are they trying to avoid high profile app problems, there’s also not very much in the Facebook app that they or AT&T would take exception to.

If you haven’t heard it, make sure to listen to our interview with Joe Hewitt two years ago when Facebook first launched a special browser-based version of Facebook for the iPhone.

Thanks for the tip, Matthew.

Tokyo-based crap gadget specialist Thanko is usually known for selling USB stuff nobody needs. Their newest hit product doesn’t feature a USB port, but the target group for their Catgirl Earphones [JP] should be quite small, too. Marketed as a gadget for the Cosplay crowd, the earphones are supposed to turn your girlfriend into a cute catgirl.

The Catgirl Earphones are available in black or the inevitable pink (price: $20). If you live outside Japan and are really interested in getting the device, wait for Thanko to list it in their international online store.

via BBG, who writes the funniest thing I’ve seen all day

Wow. You guys wanted a Pleo. When we offered you one a few days ago I didn’t realize 707 people would comment wildly in hopes of winning a little green dinosaur. Well, there is a winner and he is…

Long time commenter Tom Woolf. Thanks for reading, Tom, and enjoy your sassy little robot.

The HTC Hero delivers powerful, compatible video playback performance using Flash technology, and interactive content enabled by ActionScript® 2.0. Users can enjoy and navigate through Web videos using intuitive video controls. With progressive streaming of large MP3 audio files from a Web server and the local file storage, the HTC Hero provides a seamless audio experience. Support for Sorenson and On2 VP6 codecs enables higher quality video and playback of existing Web content. A demo of the user experience enabled by the Flash Platform on the HTC Hero and the Android operating system can be viewed at www.adobe.com/go/htchero.

Not official word on availability right now but it should arrive with the new Hero handset this summer and in the US later this year on, it is assumed, T-Mobile’s version of the Hero device. There is no information on whether this implementation will be available on other handsets – the G1, for example – at this time.

Adobe and HTC Bring Flash Platform to Android
New HTC Hero Delivers More Complete Web Browsing Experience with Adobe Flash Technology
SAN JOSE, Calif. and LONDON — June 24, 2009 — Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) and HTC, a global designer of mobile phones, today announced that the new HTC Hero is the first Android phone to ship with support for Adobe® Flash® Platform technology. The new phone delivers a more complete Web browsing experience and provides access to a broad variety of Flash technology based content available on the Web today.
“As the first Android device with Flash, the new HTC Hero represents a key milestone for Android and the Flash Platform. With close to 80 percent of all videos online delivered with Adobe Flash technology, consumers want to access rich Web content on-the-go.” said David Wadhwani, vice president and general manager, Platform Business Unit at Adobe. “The collaboration with HTC offers people a more complete Flash based Web browsing experience today and presents an important step towards full Web browsing with Flash Player 10 on mobile phones in the future.”
The new HTC Hero is a key element of the HTC experience and a new generation of HTC mobile phones and devices. Users can browse and discover a broad set of Web content and applications not supported by mobile phones in the past. People can also view YouTube videos using Flash technology, and enable full screen viewing mode by simply double tapping the screen.
“Adobe Flash is an important core technology for people interacting and experiencing the Web, it is only natural to be offering it on the new HTC Hero first,” said John Wang, chief marketing officer, HTC Corporation. “We look forward to continuing our close collaboration with Adobe and to bringing Flash Player 10 support to our phones in the future.”
The HTC Hero delivers powerful, compatible video playback performance using Flash technology, and interactive content enabled by ActionScript® 2.0. Users can enjoy and navigate through Web videos using intuitive video controls. With progressive streaming of large MP3 audio files from a Web server and the local file storage, the HTC Hero provides a seamless audio experience. Support for Sorenson and On2 VP6 codecs enables higher quality video and playback of existing Web content. A demo of the user experience enabled by the Flash Platform on the HTC Hero and the Android operating system can be viewed at www.adobe.com/go/htchero.
HTC Participates in Open Screen Project
HTC also announced its participation in the Open Screen Project, a broad industry effort to deliver a consistent runtime across screens and to provide access to all Flash technology based Web content in the future. As a contributor to the initiative, HTC is collaborating with Adobe and more than 25 other industry leaders to bring Flash Player 10 and full Web browsing to the next generation of Android based smartphones and other mobile computing platforms and devices. For more details on the Open Screen Project, visit www.openscreenproject.org.
About Adobe Flash Platform
The Adobe Flash Platform is a complete system of integrated tools, frameworks, clients and servers for the development of Web applications, content and video that runs consistently across operating systems and devices. Adobe Flash Player content reaches over 98 percent of Internet-enabled desktops, and Adobe Flash technology is the No.1 platform for video on the Web. In addition, the mobile runtime has shipped and delivered Flash technology based content on close to 40 percent of all new mobile phones and devices in 2008. For more information about the Adobe Flash Platform visit www.adobe.com/flashplatform. For details on the goals set for the Adobe Flash Platform as part of the Open Screen Project, visit www.openscreenproject.org
About Adobe Systems Incorporated
Adobe revolutionizes how the world engages with ideas and information – anytime, anywhere and through any medium. For more information, visit www.adobe.com.
About HTC
HTC Corporation (HTC) is one of the fastest growing companies in the mobile phone industry and continues to pioneer industry-leading mobile experiences through design, usability and innovation that is sparked by how the mobile phone can improve how people live and communicate. The company is listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange under ticker 2498. For more information about HTC, please visit www.htc.com.

]]> http://techcrunch.com/2009/06/24/flash-comes-to-android/feed/ 0 john flashicon http://techcrunch.com/2009/06/18/here-comes-the-iphone-3g-s/ http://techcrunch.com/2009/06/18/here-comes-the-iphone-3g-s/#comments Thu, 18 Jun 2009 10:53:42 +0000 Robin Wauters http://www.techcrunch.com/?p=74380 official word about the upcoming wave of iPhone 3G S device deliveries to its retail locations and directly to customers who have pre-ordered the widely anticipated phone. TechCrunch is here to make it easier for you to skim the information by breaking the press release down to the core items (no thank you required): (after the jump)]]>

AT&T has just released official word about the upcoming wave of iPhone 3G S device deliveries to its retail locations and directly to customers who have pre-ordered the widely anticipated phone. TechCrunch is here to make it easier for you to skim the information by breaking the press release down to the core items (no thank you required):

When, how, where

- the device will be sold in 2,200 AT&T retail locations and 211 U.S. Apple retail stores

- you can expect these locations to open at 7 AM local time (pre-ordered only)
- customers who have pre-ordered at an AT&T store should go to the same store they ordered the device at, with their receipt, but check their arrival date before to avoid disappointment
- customers who have pre-ordered online can expect their devices to start getting shipped over to them today at the earliest
- other customers can come at regular business hours and will be served at a ‘first come, first served’ basis

Pricing (with two-year contract commitment)

(ad verbatim)

- $199 (16GB) and $299 (32GB) for all new AT&T customers and existing AT&T customers who have fulfilled their previous agreement. In addition, AT&T yesterday extended this pricing to iPhone 3G customers who will be eligible for a full upgrade in July, August, or September 2009.
- $399 (16GB) and $499 (32GB) for existing AT&T customers who have not yet fulfilled their existing agreement but would like an early upgrade to iPhone 3G S. This early upgrade option is exclusively available for iPhone 3G and iPhone 3G S.

Data plans

- monthly plans for consumers start at $69.99 per month for voice and data, and families who share minutes get special rates (starting at $129.99 a month for two iPhone lines with bundled voice and ‘unlimited’ data)
- small businesses are also eligible for special discounted service rates and can share up to 20,000 minutes per month between as many as 40 employees
- all iPhone plans include nationwide long distance and roaming, Visual Voicemail, Rollover, and unlimited Mobile to Mobile calling

MMS and tethering

Coming ‘later this Summer’ and ‘in the future’, respectively.

How many can you buy?

- New customer: one iPhone 3G S per person
- Existing customer: one iPhone 3G S per eligible telephone number
- Online customer: one iPhone 3G S per household
- Inheriting the good old iPhone 3G from someone else? Visit an AT&T store to activate your device.

So, are you getting one?

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iPhone 3G S

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]]> http://techcrunch.com/2009/06/18/here-comes-the-iphone-3g-s/feed/ 0 robinw http://techcrunch.com/2009/05/27/video-review-bleep-labs-thingamagoop/ http://techcrunch.com/2009/05/27/video-review-bleep-labs-thingamagoop/#comments Wed, 27 May 2009 19:00:52 +0000 John Biggs http://www.crunchgear.com/?p=91995 Kaossilator and a Chumby mate? How about the Thingamagoop from Bleep Labs? This little bugger has an LED, a photo-resistor, and some knobs and it makes a lot of noise. What kind of noise? Noise-rock noise, which could put a damper on my plans to add this to the woodwind section in the orchestra playing my new opus, the iPhone Sonata in D Minor. The website has a collection of sample sounds to show you what this thing is capable of which, it turns out, is a series of piercing squawks.]]>

What do you get when a Kaossilator and a Chumby mate? How about the Thingamagoop from Bleep Labs? This little bugger has an LED, a photo-resistor, and some knobs and it makes a lot of noise. What kind of noise? Noise-rock noise, which could put a damper on my plans to add this to the woodwind section in the orchestra playing my new opus, the iPhone Sonata in D Minor.
The website has a collection of sample sounds to show you what this thing is capable of which, it turns out, is a series of piercing squawks.
But look at the cute little guy. He’s so fun looking! He’s got a little 1/4″ inch jack for audio output and I’m sure you could bitfreak him a little to mess up your guitar music or something, so why not give him a chance? You can even customize yours.
He costs $120 and is available now.

]]> http://techcrunch.com/2009/05/27/video-review-bleep-labs-thingamagoop/feed/ 0 john bleep-2_jpg http://techcrunch.com/2009/05/17/the-swarms-of-summer/ http://techcrunch.com/2009/05/17/the-swarms-of-summer/#comments Mon, 18 May 2009 00:05:19 +0000 Steve Gillmor http://www.techcrunchit.com/?p=2439 While we continue to debate the Death of RSS, another more interesting battle is taking place inside the walls of some important companies about the shape of the new realtime network. Though Google has seemed to capture the imagination of the Valley and the respect of Microsoft, it is Redmond where the impact of realtime is most sharply felt.

Google’s 20 percent project has finally reached official mainstream status: Google Apps, Gmail/Chat/Reader, and its attendant Open Social constructs are sufficiently mature to garner structural attention within the search giant. Loss leaders including Android/Chrome and YouTube are about to pivot from bottomless pits to viral attention farms. YouTube in particular is poised to capture the lion’s share of realtime video as it becomes the hard drive for the Twitter DVR.

How a virtualized media network transforms our usage patterns is already understood by the networks and their more aggressive forward scouts such as the New York Times. Many see this period as the death of the newspaper, but watching how the Times and Murdoch’s Journal are crushing the second tier of almost-but-not-quite national publications suggests the papers are girding for battle not with each other but with the cable networks. It may look like a collapse, but who better to compete with for the attention of news-hungry desktop and mobile users.

These are the same users who’ve been fleeing RSS for Twitter in recent weeks as the message bus gets clogged with old-media marketing crud and Brittany trivia. Users still want their gossip and such, but they want it prioritized behind any significant realtime information that can help them save/keep/find revenue and outlast Depression 2.0. It’s not that RSS has suddenly stopped working; it’s just that realtime is faster, and it increasingly is using custom transports that are more socially attuned. The results of an affinity cloud increasingly trump other notification engines.

With high priority signals clamoring for position at the center of the desk/phone top, those networks with pole position will push out the rest. If it’s video, it’s YouTube. For that matter, if it’s audio, it’s YouTube. Podcasts? Sorry. Streaming notified over the realtime bus. H.264 across the iPhone and Silverlight. The rest will follow. Notice for the first time I include a Microsoft pole position. Google builds the standard, Microsoft ratifies it.

Microsoft must move quickly in this environment to align with winners in the message bus prioritization queue. I’m not talking here about Silverlight v. Flash adoption; that’s marketing blocking and tackling while waiting for the viral events that fuel the rollout, what John Borthwick calls bursts and what Ray Ozzie discovered in the swarm accelerator he called Groove. We don’t know what those swarm events will be, but we know what they look like when they materialize. And those technologies that accelerate swarms will also proliferate, and in the process overwhelm and dominate the attention of developers, innovators, entrepreneurs, money, and the media.

Swarm technologies thrive on the extended efficiency of social properties. Take links, for example. Swarm technologies depend on speed and economy of gestures, or actions. If I have to choose between a static link that appears embedded in a document and a dynamic link emanating from a tweet, I’ll choose the combined authority of the original author plus the tweeter (who I’ve followed or tracked). Likes or retweets accelerate the swarm further with additive or iterative influence. This is why Twitter’s @reply attack strikes at the heart of idea discovery too. A link to someone not followed from cross-talk with someone I do follow is a strong signal of potential value. The cross-talk may seem diffused, but users will migrate to tools that let them make the most efficient assessment of value.

If Microsoft wants to engage with realtime prioritization, what assets does it have? Office, for one. If we follow the logic of swarm economics, it’s not a contest between Office Live and Office Dead, but between Office Static and Office Dynamic. Since Office 2010 is already in BitTorrent release, there’s not a lot of time to jump into the stream. Where is the entry point? A quick look at Google will tell an interesting tale:

Email? Gmail didn’t incorporate Google Reader, because RSS is static not in design but in contrast to realtime streams. Instead, they integrated chat over XMPP, which was then bootstrapped by Twitter for 2 way Track until it was withdrawn from circulation. By tracking my user name (stevegillmor without the @ sign) I set up a notification point for anyone to signal that I might be interested in a link, whether to a post or a person). These dynamic links quickly stole my attention because they were weighted with social gravity, not to mention the rest of the context and metadata embedded in the message.

I won’t examine the rest of Google’s Office because we already have the answer in the preceding sentence. The stream of social gravity, layered with context (the message) and (perhaps encrypted) metadata via the URL shortener gateway, becomes the rich center of the desktop and beyond. Google’s recent experiments with context switching and synchronization between desktop and mobile device can be seen as dynamic link conversion at their core. A search for a restaurant before leaving home is wrapped as clickable phone number or on-deman map while fumbling at a traffic light.

Microsoft has some significant skin in this dynamic on-demand link game, what with Mesh now a part of the Windows/Windows Live core. Silverlight is the wild card here, politically charged with its implications for a cross-platform Office. It’s also the likeliest host for a dynamic link hub utilizing Mesh’s social constructs and Azure’s scalable back end. On the media side, Microsoft competes with Apple and Amazon with the Kindle platform for the deep but frightened pockets of the record, movie, book, and magazine businesses. Look for those industries to collapse into one, starting with newspapers and magazines blurring into dynamic books. Imagine a FriendFeed realtime chat appearing inside a manuscript as it reacts to realtime events.

A quick check of the calendar reveals how quickly this will happen. Windows 7, Azure, and a mindshare edition of Office will ship by November. Track will reappear first on FriendFeed, then Facebook, and probably simultaneously in Twitter. Microclients will unpack dynamic links and present them for consumption and contribution, updating those dynamic links with contextual social gestures that will hit the prioritization engines and synthesize swarms. It’s gonna be a hot summer.

CrunchBase Information

Microsoft

Google

FriendFeed

Information provided by CrunchBase

]]> http://techcrunch.com/2009/05/17/the-swarms-of-summer/feed/ 10 steve heavyweather http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/05/13/ilike-launches-custom-iphone-apps-syndication-platform-to-help-artists-cast-a-wide-net/ http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/05/13/ilike-launches-custom-iphone-apps-syndication-platform-to-help-artists-cast-a-wide-net/#comments Wed, 13 May 2009 15:03:29 +0000 Jason Kincaid http://www.mobilecrunch.com/?p=12847 iLike, the popular music discovery site with a huge presence on social networks, is launching a set of new syndication services for musicians. Beginning tonight, iLike now offers extensive integration with Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and YouTube, allowing artists to distribute content to each of their online presences from a single control panel. In addition to these, the company is also launching a new self-serve platform for building customized iPhone applications for artists, allowing them to establish themselves on the App Store with a minimum amount of effort and resources. While most readers probably associate iLike with music playlists and streaming, the service is also home to 300,000 artists who use its services to help manage and distrbute their content. Before today's annoucement, the service offered more limited syndication options, allowing them send data through the iLike Facebook application, its iGoogle widget, and an iTunes plugin. But the new options go much further.]]> iLike, the popular music discovery site with a huge presence on social networks, is launching a set of new syndication services for musicians. Beginning tonight, iLike now offers extensive integration with Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and YouTube, allowing artists to distribute content to each of their online presences from a single control panel. In addition to these, the company is also launching a new self-serve platform for building customized iPhone applications for artists, allowing them to establish themselves on the App Store with a minimum amount of effort and resources. While most readers probably associate iLike with music playlists and streaming, the service is also home to 300,000 artists who use its services to help manage and distrbute their content. Before today's annoucement, the service offered more limited syndication options, allowing them send data through the iLike Facebook application, its iGoogle widget, and an iTunes plugin. But the new options go much further.]]> http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/05/13/ilike-launches-custom-iphone-apps-syndication-platform-to-help-artists-cast-a-wide-net/feed/ 0 jason http://techcrunch.com/2009/05/08/ticketleap-goes-anywhere-with-online-diy-box-office-solution/ http://techcrunch.com/2009/05/08/ticketleap-goes-anywhere-with-online-diy-box-office-solution/#comments Fri, 08 May 2009 12:25:19 +0000 Robin Wauters http://www.techcrunch.com/?p=62957 TicketLeap, the Philadelphia-based provider of Internet ticketing services for event organizers, recently launched a product that turns any Internet-enabled computer with a browser into a functional box-office ticketing system. The new product, dubbed Anywhere, allows organizers of events - big or small - to facilitate the online handling of ticket sales at the venue door or when talking to customers on the phone. While there are many companies offering online ticketing services to organizers (full disclosure: I'm a partner at Oxynade, which also markets an e-ticketing solution), TicketLeaps claims to be the first one that provides its customers with a way to use their own computers to sell tickets at their events. It does acknowledge however that there may sometimes be extra equipment needed too (think bar-code scanners or printers) and thus offers a way for their customers to rent it directly from them in case they don't own any.]]> TicketLeap, the Philadelphia-based provider of Internet ticketing services for event organizers, recently launched a product that turns any Internet-enabled computer with a browser into a functional box-office ticketing system. The new product, dubbed Anywhere, allows organizers of events – big or small – to facilitate the online handling of ticket sales at the venue door or when talking to customers on the phone.

While there are many companies offering online ticketing services to organizers (full disclosure: I’m a partner at Oxynade, which also markets an e-ticketing solution), TicketLeaps claims to be the first one that provides its customers with a way to use their own computers to sell tickets at their events. It does acknowledge however that there may sometimes be extra equipment needed too (think bar-code scanners or printers) and thus offers a way for their customers to rent it directly from them in case they don’t own any.

The cloud-based Anywhere software service includes ticket barcode scanning, the ability for customers to choose their exact seat and support for all sorts of venue customization. TicketLeaps charges a ‘small fee’, although it’s unclear exactly how much, for every ticket that gets sold through the platform and says most organizers opt to simply charge the extra fee to the patron. The company expects most ticketing solutions to follow suit and eventually live in the cloud as well.

“It’s only a matter of time before every ticket you buy comes from web-based ticketing software like this,” TicketLeap CEO Chris Stanchak says. “There’s really no comparison when it comes to cost, convenience and flexibility.”

TicketLeap was started by Stanchak as a recent Wharton graduate back in 2003. In July 2008, the company raised its first round of financing: $2 million from MentorTech Ventures and Ben Franklin Technology Partners.

CrunchBase Information

TicketLeap

Information provided by CrunchBase

]]> http://techcrunch.com/2009/05/08/ticketleap-goes-anywhere-with-online-diy-box-office-solution/feed/ 0 robinw http://techcrunch.com/2009/05/06/amazon-kindle-dx-97-inch-screen-and-489/ http://techcrunch.com/2009/05/06/amazon-kindle-dx-97-inch-screen-and-489/#comments Wed, 06 May 2009 14:48:20 +0000 Matt Burns http://www.crunchgear.com/?p=88151 Amazon’s third incarnation of the Kindle is here, folks. All 9.7-inches of it. Specs and info leaked about the now official Kindle over the last week and they seemed pretty much dead on. It comes packing with the larger screen, auto-rotating screen, and finally supports PDF files fully with a native PDF reader. This larger Kindle also ups the storage capacity from 1,500 books on the Kindle 2 to 3,500 on the Kindle DX thanks to 3.3GB of on board memory. The pre-order is up now and will ship shortly if you’re willing to drop $489 on one.

More pics and info after the jump.

Slim: Just over 1/3 of an inch, as thin as most magazines

Lightweight: At 10.2 ounces, lighter than a typical paperback

Wireless: 3G wireless lets you download books right from your Kindle, anytime, anywhere; no monthly fees, service plans, or hunting for Wi-Fi hotspots

Books in Under 60 Seconds: Get books delivered in less than 60 seconds; no PC required

Improved Display: Reads like real paper; now boasts 16 shades of gray for clear text and even crisper images

Longer Battery Life: 25% longer battery life; read for days without recharging

More Storage: Take your library with you; holds over 1,500 books

Faster Page Turns: 20% faster page turns

Read-to-Me: With the new text-to-speech feature, Kindle can read every newspaper, magazine, blog, and book out loud to you, unless the book is disabled by the rights holder

Large Selection: Over 275,000 books plus U.S. and international newspapers, magazines, and blogs available

Low Book Prices: New York Times Best Sellers and New Releases $9.99, unless marked otherwise

[PSGallery=5vforf7hvt]

Introducing Kindle DX–Amazon’s Large Screen Addition to the Kindle Family of Wireless Reading Devices
Large Kindle DX Display and New Features Provide Enhanced Experience for Reading a Wide Range of Professional and Personal Documents
SEATTLE–(BUSINESS WIRE)–May. 6, 2009– Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) today introduced Amazon Kindle DX, the new purpose-built reading device that offers Kindle’s revolutionary wireless delivery and massive selection of content with a large 9.7-inch electronic paper display, built-in PDF reader, auto-rotate capability, and storage for up to 3,500 books. More than 275,000 books are now available in the Kindle Store, including 107 of 112 current New York Times Best Sellers. New York Times Bestsellers and New Releases are $9.99 unless marked otherwise. Top U.S. and international magazines and newspapers plus more than 1,500 blogs are also available. Kindle DX is available for pre-order starting today for $489 at http://amazon.com/kindleDX and will ship this summer.

“Personal and professional documents look so good on the big Kindle DX display that you’ll find yourself changing ink-toner cartridges less often,” said Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com Founder and CEO. “Cookbooks, computer books, and textbooks – anything highly formatted – also shine on the Kindle DX. Carry all your documents and your whole library in one slender package.”

New Large Display

Kindle DX’s display has 2.5 times the surface area of Kindle’s 6-inch display. The larger electronic paper display with 16 shades of gray has more area for graphic-rich content such as professional and personal documents, newspapers and magazines, and textbooks. Kindle reads like printed words on paper because the screen works using real ink and doesn’t use a backlight, eliminating the eyestrain and glare associated with other electronic displays.

The New York Times Company and Washington Post Company are launching pilots with Kindle DX this summer. The New York Times, The Boston Globe, and The Washington Post will offer the Kindle DX at a reduced price to readers who live in areas where home-delivery is not available and who sign up for a long-term subscription to the Kindle edition of the newspapers.

“At The New York Times Company we are always seeking new ways for our millions of readers to have full and continuing access to our high-quality news and information,” said Arthur Sulzberger, Jr., chairman, The New York Times Company and publisher, The New York Times. “The wireless delivery and new value-added features of the Kindle DX will provide our large, loyal audience, no matter where they live, with an exciting new way to interact with The New York Times and The Boston Globe. Additionally, by offering a subscription through the Kindle DX to readers who live outside of our delivery areas, we will extend our reach to our loyal readers who will be able to more readily enjoy their favorite newspapers. Meanwhile, we are continuing to work with Amazon to make The New York Times and The Boston Globe experiences on Kindle better than ever.”

Kindle DX’s large display offers an enhanced reading experience with another category of graphic-rich content—textbooks. With complex images, tables, charts, graphs, and equations, textbooks look best on a large display. Leading textbook publishers Cengage Learning, Pearson, and Wiley, together representing more than 60 percent of the U.S. higher education textbook market, will begin offering textbooks through the Kindle Store beginning this summer. Textbooks under the following brands will be available: Addison-Wesley, Allyn & Bacon, Benjamin Cummings, Longman & Prentice Hall (Pearson); Wadsworth, Brooks/Cole, Course Technology, Delmar, Heinle, Schirmer, South-Western (Cengage); and Wiley Higher Education.

Arizona State University, Case Western Reserve University, Princeton University, Reed College, and Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia will launch trial programs to make Kindle DX devices available to students this fall. The schools will distribute hundreds of Kindle DX devices to students spread across a broad range of academic disciplines. In addition to reading on a considerably larger screen, students will be able to take advantage of popular Kindle features such as the ability to take notes and highlight, search across their library, look up words in a built-in dictionary, and carry all of their books in a lightweight device.

“The Kindle DX holds enormous potential to influence the way students learn,” said Barbara R. Snyder, president of Case Western Reserve University. “We look forward to seeing how the device affects the participation of both students and faculty in the educational experience.”

New Built-In PDF Reader

Kindle DX features a built-in PDF reader using Adobe Reader Mobile technology for reading professional and personal documents. Like other types of documents on Kindle, customers simply email their PDF format documents to their Kindle email address or move them over using a USB connection. With a larger display and built-in PDF reader, Kindle DX customers can read professional and personal documents with more complex layouts without scrolling, panning, or zooming, and without re-flowing, which destroys the original structure of the document. Everything from annual reports with graphs to flight manuals with maps to musical scores can be viewed on a single, crisp screen with Kindle DX.

New Auto-Rotation

Kindle DX’s display content auto-rotates so users can read in portrait or landscape mode, or flip the device to read with either hand. Simply turn Kindle DX and immediately see full-width landscape views of maps, graphs, tables, images, and Web pages.

New 3.3 GB Memory Holds Up To 3,500 Books

With 3.3 GB of available memory, Kindle DX can hold up to 3,500 books, compared with 1,500 with Kindle. And because Amazon automatically backs up a copy of every Kindle book purchased, customers can wirelessly re-download titles from their library at any time.

Incredibly Thin

Kindle DX is just over a third of an inch thin, which is thinner than most magazines.

3G Wireless, No PC, No Hunting for Wi-Fi Hot Spots

Just like Kindle, Kindle DX customers automatically take advantage of Amazon Whispernet to wirelessly shop the Kindle Store, download or receive new content in less than 60 seconds, and read from their library—all without a PC, Wi-Fi hot spot, or syncing. Amazon still pays for the wireless connectivity on Kindle DX so books can be downloaded in less than 60 seconds—with no monthly fees, data plans, or service contracts.

Syncs With Kindle for iPhone and other Kindle Compatible Devices

Just like Kindle, Kindle DX uses Amazon Whispersync technology to automatically sync content across Kindle, Kindle DX, Kindle for iPhone, and other devices in the future. With Whispersync, customers can easily move from device to device and never lose their place in their reading.

Massive Selection of Books—Plus Newspapers, Magazines, and Blogs

The Kindle Store currently offers more than 275,000 books, including popular books like New York Times Bestsellers, New Releases, and fiction and nonfiction released in the past several years. Dozens of newspapers and magazines are also available for subscription or single-edition purchase. BusinessWeek and The New England Journal of Medicine are available in the Kindle Store starting today, and The Economist will be available soon. Subscriptions are auto-delivered wirelessly to Kindle overnight so that the latest edition is waiting for customers when they wake up. Over 1,500 blogs are available on Kindle and updated and downloaded wirelessly throughout the day.

Kindle DX includes all the other features Kindle customers enjoy every day, including:

Wirelessly send, receive, and read personal documents in a variety of formats such as Microsoft Word and PDF
Look up words instantly using the built-in 250,000 word New Oxford American Dictionary
Choose from six text sizes
Add bookmarks, notes, and highlights
Text-to-speech technology that converts words on a page to spoken word
Search Web, Wikipedia.org, Kindle Store, and your library of purchased content
No setup required—Kindle comes ready to use—no software to load or set up
Amazon Kindle is sold through Amazon Digital Services, Inc.

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Amazon Kindle 2

Amazon Kindle

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]]> http://techcrunch.com/2009/05/06/amazon-kindle-dx-97-inch-screen-and-489/feed/ 0 mjburnsy bookstack-hero-01_v244132742_ http://techcrunch.com/2009/04/09/third-episode-of-laptop-hunters-1500-and-they-still-dont-buy-mac/ http://techcrunch.com/2009/04/09/third-episode-of-laptop-hunters-1500-and-they-still-dont-buy-mac/#comments Fri, 10 Apr 2009 02:33:36 +0000 Matt Burns http://www.crunchgear.com/?p=83659 Laptop Hunters has been brought to you by Microsoft and Sony VAIO. Spoiler: the actors don't buy a Mac, instead wander aimlessly around the dozens of PC models until finding a Blu-ray equipped Sony VAIO. Sorry to ruin the surprise. Video after the jump.]]>  
This episode of Laptop Hunters has been brought to you by Microsoft and Sony VAIO. Spoiler: the actors don’t buy a Mac, instead wander aimlessly around the dozens of PC models until finding a Blu-ray equipped Sony VAIO. Sorry to ruin the surprise. Video after the jump.

Adding commentary to these things is getting fairly tedious. The Mac attack wasn’t very egregious: “They’re kind of popular with this age,” eh? At least this model performed a bit better in standard benchmarks and it has Blu-Ray, one of the bigger draws for most people. Sadly, it’s not really a “full-HD” (1080p) laptop and it’s as big as a pizza box.

Here’s the product page in case you want to pick one up.

]]> http://techcrunch.com/2009/04/09/third-episode-of-laptop-hunters-1500-and-they-still-dont-buy-mac/feed/ 0 mjburnsy http://techcrunch.com/2009/04/09/barnes-and-noble-ereader-coming-soon-could-it-be-called-the-bnindle/ http://techcrunch.com/2009/04/09/barnes-and-noble-ereader-coming-soon-could-it-be-called-the-bnindle/#comments Thu, 09 Apr 2009 08:59:38 +0000 John Biggs http://www.crunchgear.com/?p=83373

TheStreet has a juicy rumor that Barnes & Noble, a store where physical “books” in “paper” form are sold to “customers” who stand in line to pay with “cash” or “forms of credit” is working on an eBook reader, possibly in partnership with Verizon.

The rumor has all the makings of a real live product. They may offer book downloads over the air and come in a sexier format than the already smokin’ hot Kindle 2. All I can say to B&N is “Good luck, Sally, because you’re going to need it.”

You will agree that Amazon doesn’t have a first-mover advantage, a concept I believe is bogus. There have been ebook readers since the dawn of time. Instead, it has a first-winner advantage. Just as Twitter>Plurk>Yammer and iPod>Creative>Sony, Kindle will always do better than a BNindle and will, in all ways, do better then the unconnected ereaders that are bound to populate the stores in benighted areas. Amazon wrapped easy ordering in with a huge selection to create a package that the average consumer – and the average computer nerd – could easily understand. Sure, it has some fussiness about it – emailing PDFs to yourself to get them sent to your Kindle a huge pet peeve – but no matter what Barnes & Noble does, the Kindle still stands out as the ur-ereader.

Sony has tried to enter this space with multiple partners for years and while I agree that their products are fine if you’re a big old pirate, I doubt many of us have PDF version of the latest bestseller lying around. Just as iTunes changed the way the average consumer gets music onto their music player, the Kindle changes the way people interact with ereaders. Whereas the old music/book paradigm was, essentially:

1. Find a service that isn’t full of spyware
2. Search for songs/books of dubious quality
3. Worry the police will arrest your unborn babies
4. Download music/book for free
5. Install drivers
6. Reinstall Windows
7. Plug in MP3 player/reader
8. Drag music to player/reader
9. Eject player
10. Discover the music is ten minutes of a twenty second loop of Gwen Stefani singing about Harajuku Girls/Discover that the book is written in German
11. Repeat

The iTunes/Kindle paradigm is:
1. Buy device
2. Buy music, maybe rip a CD, download a book, whatever! Drink a nice glass of brandy, maybe?
3. Play music/Read book
4. Repeat

Which process do you think is more lucrative? This is not the say the BNindle won’t have an incredible ordering system with great hardware and amazing vibrate feature, but there can only be so many sheriffs in town, as Microsoft learned with the Zune, and the second paradigm isn’t easily copied once you’ve bought into a system – and most of the consumers of note, the guys who bought the Kindle 2 just so they could use their perfectly-working Kindle 1 to hold open the back door when they brought in the groceries, are already Kindle-men.

Amazon is a winner here. The BNindle will probably be an also-ran.

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]]> http://techcrunch.com/2009/04/09/barnes-and-noble-ereader-coming-soon-could-it-be-called-the-bnindle/feed/ 0 john kindle2_wideweb__470x3760 http://techcrunch.com/2009/04/02/wendys-asking-you-to-bid-on-prizes/ http://techcrunch.com/2009/04/02/wendys-asking-you-to-bid-on-prizes/#comments Thu, 02 Apr 2009 18:22:48 +0000 Contributor http://www.crunchgear.com/?p=82217 This may seem a little off topic for CrunchGear, but once you see the prize list, you’ll understand why we’re talking about it. Hamburger huckster Wendy’s is holding a contest of sorts, auctioning off a few different prizes each day. Again.

They did this last January and it seemed to be pretty popular.

There’s a few things of interest to gamers, including an Xbox 360 elite, an Ultimate Game Chair, Panasonic 50″ plasma, and a few other things coming up in the next few days. The premise is that as each item comes up for bid, it will start at the full retail price. People will click and try to be the first person to bid the item down to $0.99 Now, I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess that Wendy’s won’t actually expect you to pay $0.99 for any of the items that you might win.

]]> http://techcrunch.com/2009/04/02/wendys-asking-you-to-bid-on-prizes/feed/ 0 tcbucket wendys http://techcrunch.com/2009/04/01/general-mills-enters-tech-news-space-with-acquisition-of-crunchgear/ http://techcrunch.com/2009/04/01/general-mills-enters-tech-news-space-with-acquisition-of-crunchgear/#comments Wed, 01 Apr 2009 07:48:23 +0000 John Biggs http://www.crunchgear.com/?p=81880 Hello CrunchGear Readers!

On behalf of Kendall J. Powell and the entire General Mills team I’m proud to announce that CrunchGear, TechCrunch’s former tech blog, is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of General Mills and will feature both tech news as well as local news relating to our consumption of Big G cereal products including, but in no way limited to, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Boo Berry, Buc-Wheats, and Reese’s Puffs.

TechCrunch received $15,000 for the site as part of a trademark infringement lawsuit against the entire Crunch Network which will be renamed at a later date. All of the writers including Peter Ha, Devin, and Nicholas will remain and Doug has been made head of cereal testing.

With that, we welcome our General Mills managers and hope you enjoy the new directions CrunchGear is headed. Don’t forget to eat a great breakfast!

]]> http://techcrunch.com/2009/04/01/general-mills-enters-tech-news-space-with-acquisition-of-crunchgear/feed/ 0 john 100px-general_millssvg http://techcrunch.com/2009/03/26/google-lays-off-200/ http://techcrunch.com/2009/03/26/google-lays-off-200/#comments Thu, 26 Mar 2009 21:12:42 +0000 John Biggs http://www.crunchgear.com/?p=81079 VWag a tipster wrote:

A friend of mine in the San Francisco office's AdWords division (who wants to remain nameless) was laid off this morning. She also said there were 200 people total. They are still on payroll for two months and have the opportunity to apply for other jobs within the company. If they don't have another job at the end of the 60 days they get a severance package.

]]>
Google has cut 200 jobs in sales and marketing, a first for the search giant. According to VWag a tipster wrote:

A friend of mine in the San Francisco office’s AdWords division (who wants to remain nameless) was laid off this morning. She also said there were 200 people total. They are still on payroll for two months and have the opportunity to apply for other jobs within the company. If they don’t have another job at the end of the 60 days they get a severance package.

The official Goog blog says that the lay-offs are an effort to rethink some of their internal organizations, essentially cutting fat in a way that won’t tank their stock price and/or won’t run afoul of SEC rules. At least they’re not sending 5,000 jobs to Hyderabad.

Google and Apple have been dropping these tiny lay-off bombs while the rest of the world is shedding thousands of jobs. It will be interesting to see what happens in the next few months – either it will be piddly lay-off after piddly lay-off or we’re going to see a big cut at some point. What think you? Is this it for Google or are things going downhill?

]]> http://techcrunch.com/2009/03/26/google-lays-off-200/feed/ 0 john ninja-kitten-defeats-dog-with-google-search-skills-always http://techcrunch.com/2009/03/23/matchcom-launches-native-iphone-app/ http://techcrunch.com/2009/03/23/matchcom-launches-native-iphone-app/#comments Mon, 23 Mar 2009 19:53:50 +0000 Leena Rao http://www.techcrunch.com/?p=51313 Match.com is releasing a native iPhone application for its 15 million members to date on the go. The app allows users to edit their profile, upload photos, and even has an opt-in to a location based feature that allows them to see singles in their area. The last feature seems to be the most innovative one-there is definitely a market for location based dating on iPhones and other smart phones. We wrote recently about Skout, a location-based dating iPhone app, and said that location based dating might be more successful and appealing via big dating sites like Match.com and eHarmony. Now that Match has unveiled its new app, we think this could become really popular amongst its exisiting member and perhaps even draw new ones.]]>

Online dating site Match.com is releasing a native iPhone application for its 15 million members to date on the go. The app allows users to edit their profile, upload photos, and even has an opt-in to a location based feature that allows them to see singles in their area.

The last feature seems to be the most innovative one-there is definitely a market for location based dating on iPhones and other smart phones. We wrote recently about Skout, a location-based dating iPhone app, and said that location based dating might be more successful and appealing via big dating sites like Match.com and eHarmony. Now that Match has unveiled its new app, we think this could become really popular amongst its exisiting member and perhaps even draw new ones.

Match.com hasn’t been slow to jump on the mobile bandwagon. In 2007, the dating site launched its MatchMobile service, which provided subscribers with text messages to their phones when they received an e-mail from other Match.com users.

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Match

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]]> http://techcrunch.com/2009/03/23/matchcom-launches-native-iphone-app/feed/ 0 leena http://techcrunch.com/2009/03/11/expensifys-free-expense-report-system-takes-the-hassle-out-of-reimbursements/ http://techcrunch.com/2009/03/11/expensifys-free-expense-report-system-takes-the-hassle-out-of-reimbursements/#comments Wed, 11 Mar 2009 14:59:02 +0000 Leena Rao http://www.techcrunch.com/?p=48932 Expensify, the startup that took second place at TC50's demo pit last year, has launched the public beta version of its business expense tracking and reimbursement system. Expensify has created a bigger and better version of its system, which we reviewed last fall. Expensify still offers the “electronic payment card,” which is essentially an Expensify-branded MasterCard that is linked to your original credit card (which doesn't have to be a MasterCard). When you use this card, business expenses are immediately charged to the linked credit card's account. Not only does this allow you to still rack up any frequent flier miles associated with your primary credit card but it takes only a week to get the Expensify card and you don't have to undergo a credit check. You can get numerous cards (and are able to manually write what each card id for in a blank white spot on the top of the card), which is ideal for consultants who are billing reimbursements to different clients.]]>

Expensify, the startup that took second place at TC50′s demo pit last year, has launched the public beta version of its business expense tracking and reimbursement system. Expensify has created a bigger and better version of its system, which we reviewed last fall.

Expensify still offers the “electronic payment card,” which is essentially an Expensify-branded MasterCard that is linked to your original credit card (which doesn’t have to be a MasterCard). When you use this card, business expenses are immediately charged to the linked credit card’s account. Not only does this allow you to still rack up any frequent flier miles associated with your primary credit card but it takes only a week to get the Expensify card and you don’t have to undergo a credit check. You can get numerous cards (and are able to manually write what each card is for in a blank white spot on the top of the card), which is ideal for consultants who are billing reimbursements to different clients.

Now Expensify also gives you the option of using an existing corporate or personal credit card and the service will automatically import your purchases directly from the banking website. Expensify currently can import over 90 percent of U.S. credit cards. Expensify also allows you to apply for an American Express Blue Card, from which the startup receives a referral fee when a user enrolls.

Here’s a quick demo:

http://expensify.com/expensify_demo.swf

Once the billing information is set up, Expensify will automatically generate an expense report with “e-receipts” for all purchases under $75 and gives you the ability to import any receipts over that amount via an email, jpeg, or pdf file (e-receipts are all formatted to IRS regulations). Expensify will also have an iPhone app that will take a picture of the receipts and upload it to the site directly. The drawback to the e-receipt is that it doesn’t give a line by lie itemization of a receipt, which shows for example, how much each entree cost and whether there was alcohol on the bill. Many employers have certain restrictions on expensing alcohol with meals or how much money can be spent per person in a group.

Once all receipts are uploaded, Expensify will create a one-click expense report organized by category of expense (i.e. food, travel), attaches all the receipts and even includes charts detailing the breakdown of expenditures. You can also label expenses in the report and add comments. Once you sign off on the report, Expensify will send a PDF of the report via email directly to the reimbursement contact, along with a link back to the report where the admin can approve or reject the report. Once approved, funds are deposited directly back into the credit card used or a checking account. You also have the option of sending the report directly to the whoever is reimbursing you directly and going through their channels for reimbursement.

Expensify is now completely free-the startup eliminated the 3 percent transaction fee it was originally proposing to charge users during private beta. With its new service options and its free platform, Expensify will undoubtedly challenge similar expense report sites out there like Shoeboxed and Concur, who both charge a monthly fees for users.

This service is ideal for freelancers, contractors or small businesses looking to integrate or use an expense system at little to no cost. Its doubtful that big businesses, who often have established in-house expense report systems with strict rules on how to submit expenses, will allow Expensify reports to pass by freely. But CEO and co-founder David Barrett says that Expensify is specifically targeted towards small businesses and the self-employed and delivers options that will suit both groups expense needs

Here’s a look at a sample expense report:

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]]> http://techcrunch.com/2009/03/11/expensifys-free-expense-report-system-takes-the-hassle-out-of-reimbursements/feed/ 0 leena http://techcrunch.com/2009/03/10/liftopias-ski-lift-ticketing-system-begins-to-snowball/ http://techcrunch.com/2009/03/10/liftopias-ski-lift-ticketing-system-begins-to-snowball/#comments Tue, 10 Mar 2009 21:23:58 +0000 Jason Kincaid http://www.techcrunch.com/?p=48830 Liftopia is an innovative ticketing system for ski resorts that brings the variable pricing structure of online airline tickets to the ski slopes. Using the system, resorts can adjust the prices of their ski lift tickets to suit demand, with customers getting an average 33% discount. It's a great idea, but one that had largely failed to take off until this year. Liftopia launched back in October 2006 but was met with widespread skepticism from the industry, and had a hard time finding resorts that were willing to sign up. The company's initial plan was to concentrate on the Tahoe market (given that it was closest to Silicon Valley the company hoped it would perhaps be more willing to try out the new system). But after the major resorts rejected the idea, Liftopia instead partnered with a handful of smaller ski lodges scattered across the country.]]>

Liftopia is an innovative ticketing system for ski resorts that brings the variable pricing structure of online airline tickets to the ski slopes. Using the system, resorts can adjust the prices of their ski lift tickets to suit demand, with customers getting an average 33% discount. It’s a great idea, but one that had largely failed to take off until this year.

Liftopia launched back in October 2006 but was met with widespread skepticism from the industry, and had a hard time finding resorts that were willing to sign up. The company’s initial plan was to concentrate on the Tahoe market (given that it was closest to Silicon Valley the company hoped it would perhaps be more willing to try out the new system). But after the major resorts rejected the idea, Liftopia instead partnered with a handful of smaller ski lodges scattered across the country.

Since then, Liftopia has gradually been gaining momentum, growing to 35 resorts last season and reaching 85 partners this year. Resorts are drawn to the system because they can adjust their prices in real time to ensure a maximum yield, without impacting the standard prices they offer to customers who purchase tickets on the slope. Liftopia has seen 4x growth year over year in terms of gross bookings and has done nearly $2 million in sales this season (which still has around six weeks left to go).

Now some of the larger resorts are beginning to take notice: Liftopia recently announced that a number of major Tahoe resorts, including Alpine, Sierra-at-Tahoe, Mt. Rose, and Boreal, have signed on to participate. To entice these larger resorts, Co-founder Ron Schneidermann says that the company makes joining Liftopia as easy as possible, with no contract lock-in and the ability to discontinue the service whenever they’d like

Schneidermann acknowledges that Liftopia is still relatively small, with only around 5,000 visitors a day. But he’s optimistic about the company’s future, and it certainly seems on its way up. The obstacle now is to make ordering lift-tickets online as common as it is with airline tickets – and for 33% off, I doubt it will be too hard to convince people.

Here’s a more comprehensive list of the site’s largest resorts:

Park City, Utah
Snowbird, Utah
The Canyons, Utah
Copper Mountain, CO
Winter Park, CO
Durango, CO
Taos, NM
Sierra-at-Tahoe, Lake Tahoe
Alpine Meadows, Lake Tahoe
Mt. Rose, Lake Tahoe
Whiteface, NY
Sunday River, ME

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]]> http://techcrunch.com/2009/03/10/liftopias-ski-lift-ticketing-system-begins-to-snowball/feed/ 0 jason