Andrew Mason must be some kind of spirit animal of optimism. We assumed he was kidding when today he wrote that he had recorded “a seven song album of motivational business music”. Just three months ago the founder and CEO got booted from Groupon. But we’ve just confirmed with him that his album “Hardly Workin’” is for real. Hold on to your ear holes, startup people. → Read More
Meet the PR2 personal robot from Willow Garage. The human-sized bot can learn to fold clothes and do other activities via voice commands, and it can even get into sword fights. Watch as I challenge the PR2 to a lightsaber duel today at Google I/O, and learn how Willow Garage could help anyone run their own experiments with robots. → Read More
Every now and then I see something so ridiculously stupid, it’s just begging to be called out. That’s the case with this promotional video from the kind folks at Rippln, which is more or less a two-minute case study in how not to pitch your soon-to-be ultra-viral app to the general public, or the press, or potential employees or investors. → Read More
Twitter has done a great job at keeping the whole “blue badge” verification process a mystery. If curiosity eats away at you like it does me, you’re in luck. A new video from comedians Hari and Ashok Kondabolu, featuring Anil Dash who has around 500k followers, shows the magical transformation from start to finish.
First off, it’s important to know that you can’t ask to be verified. Twitter… → Read More
Matthew Inman is sick of memes about bacon and kitties. Better known as web comic artist The Oatmeal, Inman gave TechCrunch the lowdown on what’s funny, what’s not, and how he finds inspiration. In this video interview he shoots off his thoughts on 4Chan and The Harlem Shake. When asked about LolCats, he bluntly replied, “Tired of that”. → Read More
The first ever musical recording in space (that we know of anyway) was performed just a few days ago on the International Space Station by Col. Chris Hadfield, commander of the International Space Station. The song, which is already climbing up Reddit’s r/Music page, is an original Christmas Carol called Jewel in the Night.
Based on the commander’s Facebook and Twitter pages, he and his crew… → Read More
On Black Friday, discounted boxed smartphones seem to be the equivalent of dry foods in a post-apocalyptic movie.
This video, first spotted by the Telegraph, shows customers of a Walmart in Moultrie, Georgia duking it out over discounted pay-as-you-go smartphones. → Read More
“How do I love thee, cloud storage? Let me count the ways.” You see, Dropbox’s CEO Drew Houston is an inspiring guy, and a joy to talk to as a tech journalist because he’s not afraid to describe the grand vision for his company in bold quotes. So this morning after writing up my interview with him about the significance of Dropbox hitting 100 million registered users, I wrote this little poem. → Read More
Scientists are yesterday’s wizards and demigods. And Nate Silver is a scientist. One whose ability to predict the outcome of elections is so precise, it’s nearly indistinguishable from magic. That’s why IsNateSilverAWitch.com is so funny. But really what his flawless prediction of the presidential election signifies is the coming of age of the quantified universe. → Read More
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