SmartBlogs for IAB SmartBrief
Gmail Creator Thinks Email Will Last Forever. And Hasn t Tried Google Wave.
TechCrunch | 7 minutes ago
"Email is not going to disappear. Possibly ever. Until the robots kill us all." - Paul Buchheit, creator of Gmail, co-founder of FriendFeed, currently doing vague infrastructure things at Facebook. Today, at our RealTime CrunchUp event in San Francisco, Buchheit and Threadsy founder Rob Goldman sat down for a chat with our own Steve Gillmor and Erick Schonfeld. The topic was: Can We Kill Email Already? All Aboard The Micro-Message Bus. So can we kill email?
ESPN.com's Bill Simmons Gets A Twitter Time Out, Sort Of
PaidContent.org: The Economics of Content | 20 minutes ago
Part of the joy of following Bill Simmons on Twitter is the feeling that he doesn’t hold back—that, plus not only he can be snarky as all get out when the occasion demands, his tweets, snarky or not, are usually spot on. (He has one of the highest “repeat out loud” ratings in our house.) But The Sports Guy went a tweet or two too far under the sports net’s social media guidelines, and is now serving a two-week Twitter time out. It’s not a full suspension, m...
RealTime CrunchUp: Where s The Money In Real-Time?
TechCrunch | 25 minutes ago
Brian Singerman Founders Fund Ron Conway Angel Investor Dan'l Lewin Corporate VP for Strategic and Emerging Business Development at Microsoft George Zachary Charles River Ventures Paul Buchheit Facebook/FriendFeed Andrew Braccia Accel Partners Michael Arrington Editor and Founder, TechCrunch Moderated by Steve Gillmor and Erick Schonfeld
Large Hadron Collider up and running again
Blog.news.com | 27 minutes ago
The world's biggest particle accelerator is in full operation after a year of repairs.
RealTime CrunchUp: The Rise Of Geo Streams
TechCrunch | 1 hour 5 minutes ago
Today at the RealTime CrunchUp, representatives from some of the top companies in the location-based service space came together to talk about the current state and future of geo-based services. I'll be taking some notes about the top themes to come up during the panel, and we'll have a full transcript available a few minutes after the panel concludes. Participating in the panel were: Matt Galligan, co-Founder of SimpleGeo Ryan Sarver, Director of Platform at Twitter Tristan Walker, VP o...
Finally, MySpace Music Licenses 'Fifth Label' Merlin; Reins in Fiercest Critic
PaidContent.org: The Economics of Content | 1 hour 6 minutes ago
MySpace Music has now finalized a global licensing deal with the labels represented by Merlin, according to details tipped Friday to Digital Music News. Both companies confirmed the relationship, thanks to resolution on a major sticking point related to equity. MySpace noted that Merlin - and other indies - are now structured to “benefit from the financial growth of MySpace Music” as part of a “growth participation plan,” the exact terms were not shared.For Merli...
Nielsen Biz Selling Print, Online But Not Until December; Lachlan Murdoch Considering Investing
PaidContent.org: The Economics of Content | 1 hour 12 minutes ago
No sale yet for Nielsen Business Media (NBM) but most of it is about two weeks away from being acquired by a consortium led by James Finkelstein s News Communications, paidContent has learned from multiple sources. We have also learned that Lachlan Murdoch—yes, that Lachlan Murdoch— is considering joining the consortium. The parts being sold are the print and online, while events will be retained by Nielsen. Also, the sale doesn’t include all international territories. Magaz...
Seize Seesmic Twitter app on BlackBerry, Android
Blog.news.com | 1 hour 33 minutes ago
Twitter service Seesmic expands from the desktop with two new apps for Google Android and BlackBerry phones.
Rippol s Video Discovery Engine Launches To The Public
TechCrunch | 2 hours 17 minutes ago
Rippol, the video discovery site that combines both complex algorithms with user suggestions to surface interesting content, has launched to the public at today's RealTime CrunchUp. We recently took an in-depth look at the service, but for those who haven't seen it yet, here's a recap: Rippol looks at your video watching activity on the site, as well as that of your friends and people in your demographic. It then looks at meta data from video content ingested from sites like YouTube and H...
Game developer cuts back on Android in favor of iPhone
Blog.news.com | 2 hours 18 minutes ago
One game developer said it is cutting its investment in Android in favor of Apple's iPhone because it sells 400 times more games for the iPhone than it does for Android.
Reporters' Roundtable Podcast: Tech business turkeys
Blog.news.com | 2 hours 18 minutes ago
In the history of tech, some decisions stand out...as truly awful. This week, Rafe Needleman speaks with executive editors Charlie Cooper (CBS News) and Jim Kerstetter (CNET News) to go over the worst tech business decisions ever.
RealTime CrunchUp: Media Streams As The Ultimate Marketing Vehicle
TechCrunch | 2 hours 24 minutes ago
At our Real-Time CrunchUp today in San Francisco, we are hosting a panel titles "Media Streams: Are These The Utlimate Marketing Vehicle?" Panelists include Sean Rad, CEO of Ad.ly; Ryan Amos, co-founder of DailyBooth; Jesse Engle, CEO of CoTweet; Robin Bechtel, a celebrity agent and Philip Nelson, SVP of strategic development for NewTek. Below find my live notes (paraphrased):
VideoLobby Wants To Help You Create Your Own Custom-Branded Live Webcasts
TechCrunch | 2 hours 37 minutes ago
Today at the RealTime CrunchUp we saw the launch of VideoLobby, a new service founded by Peter Urban that's looking to make it easier to create professional-looking webcasts, complete with custom branding. The service is an extension of Urban's "sales software for real people" service Smibs. Urban says that while some other services offer embeds, you're generally responsible for building your own branded site to insert those in. That's where VideoLobby comes in: the site helps you build y...
Retweets Are Hot. Will Retweeting Ads Be? TweetMeme Thinks So.
TechCrunch | 2 hours 44 minutes ago
You know the retweet button you see on content spread throughout the web? You can thank TweetMeme for that. Long before Twitter's new Retweet functionality existed, this button was the way to share on Twitter. And it still is for content not on twitter.com. But now it's time for TweetMeme to think about making money. And they've come up with a way that people are either going to love or hate. At our Realtime CrunchUp in San Francisco today, TweetMeme founder Nick Halstead has unveiled AdTwee...
FlixUp Is Rotten Tomatoes For Twitter Movie Talk
TechCrunch | 2 hours 44 minutes ago
Rotten Tomatoes is a great site because it takes all the movie reviews from around the web and condenses them into an easy-to-understand aggregate score. But let's be honest: Most movie reviewers suck. Why not instead rely on people in your social circle to recommend movies to you? That's the idea behind FlixUp. This new iPhone app unveiled at our Realtime CrunchUp event in San Francisco today essentially scans Twitter for what people are saying about a movie and shows you a rating based on ...
Can Facebook group change World Cup game result?
Blog.news.com | 2 hours 58 minutes ago
The World Cup elimination game between France and Ireland was decided by a piece of blatant cheating. A Facebook group, more than 250,000 strong, wants it replayed.
PlyMedia: Transcribing And Captioning Videos In Real Time
TechCrunch | 3 hours 10 minutes ago
With services like Ustream.tv, Justin.tv, Kyte, and Qik bringing live video streaming to the masses, the web is turning into a viable competitor to television for real-time content. But while all of these services are great for bloggers remotely broadcasting footage,or streaming live events, but they come with a few problems: video content isn't optimized for search engines, and unlike TV, there's no closed captioning. PlyMedia is looking to change that. The company is launching a servic...
SuperFeedr Wants To Speed Your Feeds
TechCrunch | 3 hours 10 minutes ago
The first randomly selected audience winner today at the RealTime CrunchUp is SuperFeedr. They are an API service that works with both XMPP and PubSubHubbub (which launched at the frist CrunchUp) to create realtime content feeds. As they noted on stage, it's hard to demo something that is API only, but one implementation that we've written about before is Excla.im, which we wrote about recently. This allows for the realtime tracking of keywords on Twitter via IM. But this idea works for all ...
Mozzler s Real-Time Search Engine Scours Twitter For The Most Retweeted News
TechCrunch | 3 hours 29 minutes ago
At today's Real-Time CrunchUp, Mozzler launched its real-time search engine based on Twitter. Mozzler, which has real-time functionality, searches Twitter for the most popular content in the last six hours based on retweets. You can search Mozzler by keyword, similar to searches you can do on OneRiot and other search engines that include Twitter results. Results can include videos and images as well. Mozzler has also created numerous categories of searches under technology, entertainment,...
How smoking can ruin your Mac
Blog.news.com | 3 hours 37 minutes ago
According to a report, AppleCare warranties can be voided if Apple deems the damage was caused by secondhand smoke. Appeals to Steve Jobs have, apparently, not succeeded.
Techmeme Mobile launches for iPhone, Pre, Droid
Blog.news.com | 3 hours 37 minutes ago
Popular tech news aggregator Techmeme has launched a new mobile version of the site for the Apple iPhone, Palm Pre, and Motorola Droid.
CNET News Daily Podcast: Nokia's layoffs and Skype's eBay adieu
Blog.news.com | 4 hours 5 minutes ago
Nokia is cutting its R&D workforce, while eBay says goodbye to Skype. Hear more about these stories and others in today's episode.
Windows 8 in 2012?
Blog.news.com | 4 hours 11 minutes ago
It's not clear what Microsoft's desktop plans are, but the Windows Server team included slides at PDC suggesting a new major release coming around 2012.
Electric carmaker Tesla preparing IPO
Blog.news.com | 4 hours 29 minutes ago
An IPO filing for the electric car start-up is expected any day, according to sources.
Sony planning new online store
Blog.news.com | 4 hours 42 minutes ago
Taking a page from Apple's iTunes, Sony is devising an online store offering music, movies, books, and other downloadable content for its various devices.
Google And The Amazing Technicolor Search Options
TechCrunch | 4 hours 47 minutes ago
I'm a big fan of keeping things simple, but that doesn't mean things have to be bland. Google search results are pretty bland. Sure, sometimes you get returned things like YouTube thumbnails or pictures, but many results are still just a monotonous stream of blue links. Google tried to break this stream up a bit with its Search Options, an expandable feature, that gives you a left-side toolbar. But even that is just a bland series of links. Google is finally thinking about changing that. Tod...
Nook sold out for the holidays
Blog.news.com | 4 hours 49 minutes ago
Barnes & Noble has announced on its Web site that its much-anticipated e-book reader, the Nook, is sold out through 2009. Is that good news for Amazon?
Status.Net: The WordPress For Microblogs Gets A Hosted Solution
TechCrunch | 4 hours 54 minutes ago
Last year, we saw the launch of identi.ca, the open-sourced alternative to Twitter. At the time, we wrote that the company was never going to rival Twitter. As it turns out, that's not the goal of parent company StatusNet. Instead, the startup is looking to become something akin to a 'WordPress for microblogs'. That is to say, they make a platform that others can easily download and install to their own servers. And today they're showing off the next major step in their platform: a hoste...
Knx.To Is Your Social Graph And Address Book Rolled Into One
TechCrunch | 5 hours 1 minute ago
Angstro, a 2008 TechCrunch50 startup, launched with a product that socialized the content on the web by tapping into your social graph. At the Real-Time CrunchUp today the startup is launching Knx.to, a real-time search engine capability and API that looks up most recent social information about any of your friends, from their LinkedIn profile to their Flickr account to their Facebook profile. In order to understand Knx.to's virtue, it's best to see the technology implemented in an applic...
Qwisk Brings Your Social Networks To The Browser
TechCrunch | 5 hours 7 minutes ago
Qwisk, which is launching today at the Real-Time CrunchUp, is an innovative new way to add a social twist to your browser. The site, which is a product of Y Combinator-funded company Socialbrowse, connects with you with your friends on Facebook and Twitter in real-time as you browse the web. We have 500 invites exclusively for TechCrunch users. You can redeem these invites simply by clicking here. It's important to note that Qwisk is a browser extension, not a plug-in to a browser. On the ...
Bedside vital signs monitor goes mobile
Blog.news.com | 5 hours 9 minutes ago
Drager's Infinity M540 displays a patient's real-time vital signs on the go. Designed to fit in the palm of a caregiver's hand, the display auto-rotates so that it is always upright.
Seesmic Ventures Into Mobile With Powerful New Apps For Android And BlackBerry
TechCrunch | 5 hours 14 minutes ago
Seesmic is having a huge week. The startup that develops Twitter and Facebook clients for the web and desktop just unveiled a native Windows client at Microsoft's Professional Developer Conference earlier this week. At the Real-Time CrunchUp today, Seesmic is launching its first venture into the mobile space with impressive apps for both the Android and BlackBerry, which are now available for download here. This is a pivotal moment for Seesmic because the startup is now conquering all the m...
RealTime CrunchUp: Win A Signed Copy Of Benioff s Behind The Cloud
TechCrunch | 5 hours 20 minutes ago
Today at the RealTime CrunchUp Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff took the stage to talk about the social enterprise with Erick Schonfeld and Steve Gillmor (he also introduced us to a new real-time Salesforce Chatter platform). Benioff has also signed a pair of copies of his book Behind The Cloud, which we're going to be giving away to attendees of today's conference. To win one, just tweet out your favorite moment of the RealTime CrunchUp so far, and include the hashtags #CrunchUp and #Cloud in y...
Hot Potato Organizes The Stream Around What s Really Happening Now
TechCrunch | 5 hours 20 minutes ago
Yesterday, Twitter changed its organizing question from "What Are You Doing?" to "What's Happening?" But the new call to action might be better suited to Hot Potato, a startup launching right now at our Realtime CrunchUp. Hot Potato is releasing an iPhone app which lets you create a stream of conversations around events based both on your location and what your friends are doing. Hot Potato is a micro-messaging app that organizes the conversation stream by events. For Hot Potato, an ev...
Google News Updates Mobile Site for iPhone, Android, and Palm Pre
Search Engine Watch Blog | 5 hours 27 minutes ago
Google has made some enhancements to its mobile news site. The updates are just for the iPhone, Android, and Palm Pre. The look and feel is pretty much the same. What's new is more stories, sources, and images. A new "Jump to" link brings a pop up box offering quick access to a specific news category.Any personalizations you make on your desktop will be accessible via your mobile now, as well (as long as you're signed into the same account on both).Screenshots:News.Google.com on an iPhoneJump to
Brin: Google's OSes likely to converge
Blog.news.com | 5 hours 35 minutes ago
Puzzled onlookers have wondered why Google is overseeing two separate operating system projects. Co-founder Sergey Brin thinks that at some point, the two will become one.
Facebook Agrees To Set Friend Lists Free. Mashups With Twitter Lists Should Follow.
TechCrunch | 5 hours 52 minutes ago
Today, during the Filtering the Stream roundtable at our RealTime CrunchUp, Seesmic's Loic Le Meur asked why Facebook isn't giving third parties access to their Friend Lists. Obviously, that's a good question now that Twitter has starting giving third parties access to its Lists feature via an API. Normally, you'd expect a canned response along the lines of "we may do that in the future" or "we're thinking about it," but Facebook's VP of Platform Bret Taylor was much more candid. Taylor said...
paidContent Quick Hits 11.20.09
PaidContent.org: The Economics of Content | 5 hours 53 minutes ago
» Five ex-Googlers are putting working full time on what they hope will be the next big thing, Brizzly. [LA Times] » Hoping to be the Canadian Pandora, Listen.fm buys up the remnants of Streamzy. [TechCrunch] » What Walt Disney’s management style can teach the news industry about succeeding in a difficult marketplace. [OJR] » The New York Times’ board of directors amended its bylaws to make their future shareholders’ holdings mo...
Why Sony's Planned Music Store Won't Start Out As A Serious iTunes Challenger
PaidContent.org: The Economics of Content | 5 hours 53 minutes ago
Sony keeps flip-flopping over adding music downloads to the PlayStation Network (PSN). After scrapping plans to add a music store to the gaming network—complete with the ability for gamers to port tracks to the handheld PSP—comes news that the company will indeed expand the PSN into a full digital download store, with music, books, as well as mobile apps available. It has been tentatively (and blandly) named the “Sony Online Service.” SCEA President Kaz Hirai said the...
Spain mandates affordable broadband for all
Blog.news.com | 5 hours 54 minutes ago
pain is following the lead of Finland and making affordable broadband a legal right.
Week in review: Browser breakthroughs
Blog.news.com | 5 hours 54 minutes ago
From Azure to Windows 7 to Firefox, operating systems and browsers grabbed headlines this week as Google proved, with its unveiling of Chrome OS, how interrelated they are.
Yahoo! Adds Tweets, Breaking News to News Shortcut
Search Engine Watch Blog | 5 hours 59 minutes ago
After announcements from Google and Bing about incorporating Twitter into their search results, Yahoo! is throwing hopping on the real-time results news bandwagon. Yahoo!'s Twitter integration is part of a new update when the News Shortcut is implemented in the search results.Yahoo! is also recognizing when there's breaking news and indicating as such on the News Shortcut. Here's a screenshot of a search for the space shuttle Atlantis shortly after launch earlier this week (per the Yahoo! Sea...
Blackberry Storm 2 for 99c at Wirefly - Black Friday only
Ubergizmo.com | 6 hours 5 minutes ago
For those interested in the Blackberry Storm 2: Wirefly has just announced that it will sell the phone (with a new contract). If you already have a Verizon contract, you might be eligible for a $29.99 upgrade. From Wirefly: "Verizon is waiving the activation fee, as well. And additional savings of $35 for one line. And up to $135 for 5 lines."Our advice: check the Motorola Droid first.Permalink: Blackberry Storm 2 for 99c at Wirefly - Black Friday only from Ubergizmo | Hot: Motorola Droi...
RealTime CrunchUp: Salesforce s Benioff Talks Social Enterprise Strategy, Chatter And More
TechCrunch | 6 hours 5 minutes ago
Salesforce.com co-founder and CEO Marc Benioff is sitting down with TechCrunch IT editor Steve Gillmor and TechCrunch co-editor Erick Schonfeld to discuss the socialization of the enterprise. Benioff recently unveiled his own social strategy for Salesforce: Chatter. Debuted at the company's Dreamforce event, Chatter allows any company to collaborate in real time with a secure, private social network for their business. Content, applications and people will now have profiles, feeds and group...
Friday Poll: How will you spend Black Friday?
Blog.news.com | 6 hours 13 minutes ago
Some people live for the Superbowl of gadget buying, others can't imagine facing the maddening crowds. How do you plan to spend the day after Thanksgiving? Vote in our poll.
Why Sony's Planned Music Store Won't Start Out As A Serious iTunes Challenger
PaidContent.org: The Economics of Content | 6 hours 18 minutes ago
Sony keeps flip-flopping over adding music downloads to the PlayStation Network (PSN). After scrapping plans to add a music store to the gaming network—complete with the ability for gamers to port tracks to the handheld PSP—comes news that the company will indeed expand the PSN into a full digital download store, with music, books, as well as mobile apps available. It has been tentatively (and blandly) named the “Sony Online Service.”SCEA President Kaz Hirai said the c...
FunMail Takes The Work Out Of Picture Messaging
TechCrunch | 6 hours 25 minutes ago
Everyone loves picture messaging - or at least, they love the idea of it. The iPhone carrying masses clamored for it, then celebrated once they got it by sending everyone pictures of their immediate surroundings and beloved pets before forgetting the feature exists. After the novelty wears off, it's generally reserved for the occasions when there is genuinely something interesting to show. Need the wife's advice on whether to buy the blue shirt or the green one? Picture message. Want to ask...
paidContent Quick Hits 11.20.09
PaidContent.org: The Economics of Content | 6 hours 25 minutes ago
» Five ex-Googlers are putting working full time on what they hope will be the next big thing, Brizzly. [LA Times]» Hoping to be the Canadian Pandora, Listen.fm buys up the remnants of Streamzy. [TechCrunch]» What Walt Disney’s management style can teach the news industry about succeeding in a difficult marketplace. [OJR]» The New York Times’ board of directors amended its bylaws to make their future shareholders’ holdings more vis...
Microsoft's embrace of MySQL could kill it
Blog.news.com | 6 hours 33 minutes ago
Microsoft is now offering support for MySQL, which should give pause to every open-source company that expects to make money through support subscriptions.
Sony, B&N's Kindle-Challengers Could Be Scarce Come Christmas
PaidContent.org: The Economics of Content | 7 hours 16 minutes ago
Sony and Barnes & Noble may be launching two of the most high-profile challengers to Amazon’s Kindle, but supply chain challenges could keep both companies from denting Kindle’s popularity this holiday season. (Then again, Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) has had its own problems shipping Kindles over the holidays last year).
SEC Watch: New DirecTV CEO Could Make $35.5 Million (And Then Some)
PaidContent.org: The Economics of Content | 7 hours 16 minutes ago
Michael White, the PepsiCo vet who takes over as president and CEO of DirecTV (NYSE: DTV) Jan. 1, could make more than $35 million during his three-year contract, according to an SEC filing. His base salary is $1.5 million a year with up to 200 percent bonus based on meeting performance goals. Another $25 million is a three-year grant: half in stock options, half as performance restricted stock units, plus there’s the “usual” exec benefits. It’s a raise for White from ...
Sinofsky's Windows plan: More data, less testosterone
Blog.news.com | 7 hours 16 minutes ago
In an interview, the president of Microsoft's Windows unit tells CNET why he does things the way he does.
Reminder: New York CG Meet-Up Is Tonight, Meet the CrunchBoys and Cali Lewis
TechCrunch | 7 hours 22 minutes ago
Sorry for the short notice but I thought it might be fun to toast to Turkey Day and the launch of our our Gift Guide. I'm teaming up with Cali Lewis of GeekBrief.TV for an impromptu CG meet-up in New York. We'll be meeting at 7pm Friday at Heartland Brewery, 35 Union Square West, in Manhattan. We should be able to commandeer the back of the pub for our purposes.
Bandit To Help With Your Exercises
Ubergizmo.com | 7 hours 40 minutes ago
Are you too busy to find a gym partner? Well, the folks over at the University of Southern California Center for Robotics and Embedded systems have pulled in the stats (and we’re fairly sure everybody is busy). The robot called Bandit is now offering Robotics and Embedded Systems exercise training. This certainly seems suitable in the gym, though you had to admit the fact that the it’s so huge would probably deter a lot of people from checking it out. Permalink: Bandit To Help Wit...
Steering Wheel With Integrated Desk
Ubergizmo.com | 7 hours 52 minutes ago
Ever needed a place to wrote or doodle some stuff while you were waiting in your car? Well, with the steering desk wheel, you’ll certainly be reclaiming a little bit of space that was initially yours. Would you attach this innovative table to your expensive car?Permalink: Steering Wheel With Integrated Desk from Ubergizmo | Hot: Motorola Droid Review
Liquid metal battery being developed
Ubergizmo.com | 7 hours 52 minutes ago
A group at MIT led by Professor Donald Sadoway is busy developing grid-scale storage solutions for times when electricity is scarce. They’ve come up with a rather novel way to keep things running, which is by using high temperature liquid medals. The team has even had time to award a grant from ARPA-E (Advanced Research Projects Agency and Energy. We’re not too sure how getting high temperature liquid metals will be feasibly, but we’ll leave that to the experts for the momen...
RealTime CrunchUp: Filtering The Stream Roundtable
TechCrunch | 7 hours 52 minutes ago
At our RealTime CrunchUp event today in San Francisco, the first roundtable is entitled "Filtering the Stream: Getting Rid of the Noise." The panel is populated by a lot of big players in the space: Facebook, VP of Product Chris Cox, Google, Google Fellow, Amit Singhal, Seesmic, CEO Loic Le Meur, Futurity Ventures, investor/entrepreneur Edo Segal, CrowdEye, CEO Ken Moss, Microsoft, GM of FUSE Labs, Lili Cheng, Facebook, VP of Platform, Bret Taylor, MySpace, Chief Product Officer, Jason Hirsc...
Twitter COO: We ll Have An Advertising Business Soon. And You re Going To Love It.
TechCrunch | 7 hours 52 minutes ago
It seems that Twitter has come across the Holy Grail of advertising, and it's coming soon. Today during his interview at the RealTime CrunchUp, Twitter COO Dick Costolo told the audience a bit about the company's upcoming advertising business. Costolo was vague on the details, but he did make some promises: "It will be fascinating. Non-traditional. And people will love it... It's going to be really cool." Costolo didn't divulge many more details, though he did mention that it wouldn't be...
Twitter Consults the Ghost of Fred Berry for New Status Prompt
Search Engine Watch Blog | 7 hours 52 minutes ago
Twitter has announced that the question that appears in the status update box will no longer be "What are you doing?" Now, it will be "What's happening?"My immediate reaction was this (and I wasn't the only one):
Facebook, Zynga Face Class-Action Suit Over Offer-Based Ads
PaidContent.org: The Economics of Content | 7 hours 59 minutes ago
Offer-based ads seemed to be the secret to monetizing social games—and social network users, in general—that standard banner ads couldn’t provide. But amid ongoing accusations that the ads actually “scammed” users into paying for things they didn’t want and giving up their personal info, comes the inevitable: a class-action lawsuit. The suit, which seeks upwards of $5 million in damages, is being handled by Sacramento-based law firm Kershaw, Cutter & Ra...
Soccer Ball Shaped iPod Speaker
Ubergizmo.com | 8 hours 10 minutes ago
Thinking of buying a set of speakers for your soccer-crazy friend, but can’t think of something? Well, it seems that the iPom is out; it was designed to look like a soccer ball. The speaker also has an AUX input jack, which is really useful because not everybody can own an iPhone/iPod. Would this design be something that David Beckham would like to promote?Permalink: Soccer Ball Shaped iPod Speaker from Ubergizmo | Hot: Motorola Droid Review
Leica M9 Ready For Pre-order
Ubergizmo.com | 8 hours 10 minutes ago
Are you a camera aficionado? You know, because if you are, you could drop $7000 case to pay for the Leica M8 B&H preorder. Of course, for that price, you would probably get a half-decent car, not to mention in home air conditioning. If megapixels is your thing, you would be glad to know that the Leica M9 sports an 18-megapixel resolution.Permalink: Leica M9 Ready For Pre-order from Ubergizmo | Hot: Motorola Droid Review
Google Tests Permanent Sidebar for Results, Blue Submit Buttons for Homepage
Search Engine Watch Blog | 8 hours 10 minutes ago
Lately, Google is experimenting more than Sheldon Cooper on their homepage - and now, also on their search results.They're testing a permanent left sidebar in their search results, which would turn the results into three columns: new sidebar, organic results, search ads. Hmm, this reminds us of Bing. And Bing reminded us of Ask's 3D design (which they've since abandoned).Additionally, after experimenting with removing the submit buttons on the homepage, now Google is bringing back the buttons...
Those Filthy Scrubbing Bubbles
ClickZ News Blog | 8 hours 11 minutes ago
Shiny Suds from People Against Dirty on Vimeo. Method's perfectly executed parody of old-time bathroom cleaner ads, released this week, makes other house cleaners look positively filthy. The magic happens after Method's send-up of Dow's Scrubbing Bubbles commercials of the late '70s and '80s (example from 1978 below), when mom pops in the shower only to find those same bubbles -- still lingering, transformed into creepy chemical voyeurs. The video is hosted at PeopleAgainstDirty.com, which Me...
Times Publishing Sells Governing Magazine To e.Republic
PaidContent.org: The Economics of Content | 8 hours 17 minutes ago
Times Publishing Co. has sold Governing magazine to e.Republic, a publisher of titles focused on state and local government and education. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. The sale comes a few months after The Economist Group paid over $100 million to acquire Congressional Quarterly from Times Publishing.
UMUD mBook Now Available In Pink
Ubergizmo.com | 8 hours 21 minutes ago
Pink certainly isn’t a manly color, but if you’re looking for a UMID for your significant other during the Christmas, you could always check out the UMID mBook that we reviewed a short while ago. More importantly, especially as a gift for the fairer sex, the UMID mBook is currently also available in pink Features stay the same with its 4.8-inch WVGA touchscreen, 5 hour battery life, powered by Atom processor. Permalink: UMUD mBook Now Available In Pink from Ubergizmo | Hot: Motor...
RealTime CrunchUp: Conversation With Twitter COO Dick Costolo
TechCrunch | 8 hours 22 minutes ago
Opening our RealTime CrunchUp event today in San Francisco is Twitter COO Dick Costolo. Our own Michael Arrington and Steve Gillmor are sitting down with Costolo for a 30 minute conversation. Twitter is one of the hottest players in the realtime field right now. And it has a $1 billion valuation, which has been the source of much controversy. Twitter also recently signed search deals with both Microsoft and Google. Below find my live notes (paraphrased):
Live From The RealTime CrunchUp
TechCrunch | 8 hours 28 minutes ago
We're here at the second TechCrunch RealTime CrunchUp in San Francisco, where we'll be taking a deeper dive into realtime technology and where the streams are taking us. Kicking off the event is a conversation with Twitter COO Dick Costolo. And we'll have much more real-time goodness coming your way throughout the day (see the agenda below). Watch the live stream of the event, powered by Ustream, here!
Shirt that helps you identify stress
Ubergizmo.com | 8 hours 34 minutes ago
There’s no denying the importance of clothes in our daily lives, but would you want your shirt to be able to get more information about you, specifically your stress levels? Well, this shirt has bio sensors that will be able to determine the level of your stress, after which signals will be sent to the corresponding LEDs connected to the shirt. The higher your stress levels are, the faster the LEDs will blink, and therapy will certainly be much easier since your partner knows where to s...
CarterCopter Personal Air Vehicle
Ubergizmo.com | 8 hours 34 minutes ago
Sometime in the near future, will we all own one of these as personal transportable devices? If you’re attracted to the scene in that pretty picture, maybe we will be having such a future, eh? Carter Aviation technologies, which has been trying for 15 years to win acceptance for its radical gyrocopter/aeroplane technology seems to have finally gotten a good deal, as it has partner with successful military robot make AAI. There isn’t any mention on the estimated cost of building/bu...
Infoaxe Launches Real-Time Search Engine Based On Web History Platform
TechCrunch | 8 hours 41 minutes ago
There are a number of real-time search engines in the space, including Collecta and OneRiot. Today, at the Real-Time CrunchUp, Infoaxe debuts its real time search engine. What makes Infoaxe unique is that it doesn't tap into streams from Twitter, Facebook, or Digg for content. Infoaxe's search engine relies completely on attention data generated by the startup's web history search engine.
Browser security features compared
Blog.news.com | 8 hours 42 minutes ago
The newest versions of Internet Explorer, Firefox, and other browsers all protect against phishing and malware attacks, and most also let you browse anonymously, though they implement these features in very different ways.
Details Of New Intel Atom In 2011
Ubergizmo.com | 8 hours 53 minutes ago
Some initial information on Intel’s successor to the Pine Trail platform has surfaced. The next iteration will be codenamed Cedar Trail and this 2011 update will be built on the 32 nanometer processor. Aside from that, it will take advantage of a new integrated graphics core, and also support DirectX 10, as well as HD video decoding. Other features should include dual digital outputs that support DisplayPort and HDMI, not to mention support for 1,066MHz DDR3 will also be a welcome addit...
Lawyers Court Banned Xbox Live Gamers
Ubergizmo.com | 8 hours 53 minutes ago
Are you one of the folks affected by Microsoft’s recent move to ban about 600,000 Xbox Live gamers who were running modified Xbox consoles? Well, it seems that the law firm Abington IP wants some input from you, and might be interested in launching a class action lawsuit against Microsoft. One of the points mentioned is that of “obtaining information from Xbox consoles without the permission of the owner”. Would you want to take part in a class action lawsuit and try and for...
DIY MINI controller kit
Ubergizmo.com | 9 hours 5 minutes ago
Looking for some simple DIY stuff to fiddle with over the weekend? Well, if you’re feeling particularsly rich, you could always go for DJTechTools’ upcoming solder-free MIDI controller kit, which gives users 16 arcade style button triggers and LEDs that will apparently be released as open source when it’s launched. $165 seems a little steep for a simple ready to assemble DIY kit, but if you’re up for it, you’re welcome to pick one up when it’s launched.Perm...
Report: How risky is cloud computing?
Blog.news.com | 9 hours 18 minutes ago
The European Network and Information Security Agency outlines the benefits and pitfalls for companies thinking of entrusting a third party with their data and even their entire business infrastructure.
Dr. Dre Club Beats Launches At Best Buy
Ubergizmo.com | 9 hours 24 minutes ago
It looks like Best Buy has teamed up with Monster and Beats by Dr. Dre and will be offering popular DJ equipment such as turntables, headphones and software. If you’re keen on picking a turntable or headphones, you could always potter over to Best Buy and try it out there. Will you be shopping for a new (or your first) turntable over the Christmas period?Permalink: Dr. Dre Club Beats Launches At Best Buy from Ubergizmo | Hot: Motorola Droid Review
Philips releases new LED Pro HDTVs
Ubergizmo.com | 9 hours 24 minutes ago
Philips has unveiled 2 rather interesting new models in its LED HDTV line up, namely the 40PFL9704 and the 46PFL9704. These TVs boast “LED Pro” which is Philips’ next generation LED backlight technology. Aside from that, you’ll find better contrast ratio, 200Hz refresh rate and it’s claimed to be 50 percent more power efficient than your standard LCD TV. There are also a whooping 5 HDMI ports on this TV, and you’ll also get Philips’ online NetTV servi...
Facebook Lets Page Owners Target Content by Region
ClickZ News Blog | 9 hours 24 minutes ago
Facebook has added an important new feature for Page owners with large numbers of geographically distributed fans. The capability allows Page admins to target content by location and language, offering brands, celebrities and major media orgs the promise of more relevant messaging. Using the function, a large brand like Adidas (above) can publish details about an event in Chile to its acolytes in that country. From Facebook's blog post about the feature: A dialog box will appear in which...
Pantech Impact out this Sunday
Ubergizmo.com | 9 hours 36 minutes ago
AT&T will be offering the Pantech Impact from this Sunday onwards, where you get a “high-gloss faceplate” with haptic-enabled keys alongside a full QWERTY keyboard. You get an internal and external display alongside 3G support, GPS navigation, a built-in music player, AT&T's HTML mobile browser, a camera with video recording capability alongside easy access to IM and email. Available in bright blue and soft pink colors, the Pantech Impact will retail for $99.99 with a 2-ye...
Windows Mobile 7 could arrive in March 2010
Ubergizmo.com | 9 hours 36 minutes ago
Word has it that Microsoft will roll out Windows Mobile 7 in March sometime next year, and we sure as heck hope that Microsoft doesn't botch this one up considering how far Windows Mobile already is behind the game where smartphone operating systems are concerned. Hopefully Windows 7 is an omen of things to come, as healthy competition will always benefit the consumers at the end of the day.Permalink: Windows Mobile 7 could arrive in March 2010 from Ubergizmo | Hot: Motorola Droid Review
Hackers work around Mac OS X 10.6.2
Ubergizmo.com | 9 hours 36 minutes ago
Hackers have managed to get around Mac OS X 10.6.2, allowing netbooks running on Intel Atom processors to work with it again after being shut out by the recent update. Bear in mind that this hack is applicable only to a selected number of users, since not everyone who installs Mac OS X on unauthorized machine run netbooks with an Intel Atom processor inside. It still remains to be seen whether Apple will disable Atom processor support permanently in the future.Permalink: Hackers work around M...
Nokia Slashes Jobs In R&D
Ubergizmo.com | 9 hours 36 minutes ago
While most people believe the economy is beginning to recover, some folks will probably still feel the effects of it, especially after Nokia announced that it would cut 330 jobs in its research and development group, which will be spread between an office in Oulu and Copenhagen. The cuts will represent just under 2 percent of its entire research team, so it’s not that big a hit, and Nokia says that it’s only meant to reflect the company’s “focused portfolio of future p...
Bamboo Comic Pen & Touch
Ubergizmo.com | 9 hours 36 minutes ago
The Bamboo Comic Pen & Touch, also known as the CTH-461/S1, is similar to the Bamboo Fun Small where its body and pen are concerned. However, since the Bamboo Comic Pen & Touch is meant for illustrators as well as those who dabble with comics and manga, you get five dedicated software including Pixia Edition, Illust Studio Mini, Comic Studio Mini and Pencil LITE for the Windows platform, while a Mac/Windows-compatible software would be the Corel Painter Essentials 4. Permalink: Bamboo...
Brizzly Opens To All. And Snatches Someone From Facebook.
TechCrunch | 9 hours 42 minutes ago
Brizzly was first unveiled in private beta at our first CrunchUp event in July, so it's only appropriate that today, the day of our next CrunchUp, it's being opened to the public. Now, to be clear, the product is still technically in beta, but that's only so the team at Thing Labs can keep experimenting with new ways to make Brizzly even better. For those who have not had the opportunity to try Brizzly yet, it's a web app that serves as a way to interact with both Twitter and now Facebook. I...
NAA: Q3 Was Worst Quarter For Online Newspaper Ad Revenues; Print Ad Spend Starting To Thaw?
PaidContent.org: The Economics of Content | 9 hours 42 minutes ago
Newspaper websites’ ad revenue got progressively worse in Q3, as the declines reached nearly 17 percent to $623 million, according to the latest Newspaper Association of America stats. In comparison, newspaper sites’ Q308 decline was only 3 percent; sequentially, Q2 newspaper online numbers fell 15.9 percent. Despite the deep revenue woes newspapers find themselves in on the print side, the combined print and online category actually saw some improvement sequentially, but it’...
SEC Watch: Skype By The Numbers
PaidContent.org: The Economics of Content | 9 hours 42 minutes ago
The morning-after paperwork from eBay (NSDQ: EBAY) as control of Skype shifts to a private investment group led by Silver Lake Partners offers a look at the post-split financials for both companies—and the kind of detail on Skype we aren’t likely to see much of now that it’s no longer majority owned by a public company. According to the SEC filing embedded below, Sykpe ended Q3 with $60 million in operating income on $508 million in revenue.
Daily Beast Taps Former CNET, Dennis Publishing Exec Colvin As President
PaidContent.org: The Economics of Content | 9 hours 42 minutes ago
The Daily Beast has named publishing vet Stephen Colvin as the site s president. Colvin has left his post as an EVP of CNET after two years. He was previously president and CEO of lad mag purveyor Dennis Publishing for 11 years. In his new post, he’ll handle all aspects of the business, the company announced. Colvin reports directly to Tina Brown, the year-old IAC-backed site’s co-founder and editor-in-chief. Specifically, Colvin will be responsible for revenue generation, audien...
Online Marketing/Media Firm Quinstreet Files for $250 Million IPO
PaidContent.org: The Economics of Content | 9 hours 42 minutes ago
Quinstreet, the Foster City, CA-based vertical media and marketing firm that recently bought Insure.com and Internet.com, has filed for an IPO to raise as much as $250 million, according to its S1. Last month Quin paid $16 million for Insure.com, and its related media assets, and the month before it bought Internet.com division from WebMediaBrands (NSDQ: WEBM) for about $18 million. The company plans to list on Nasdaq under “QNST”.
Brizzly opens up...and translates
Blog.news.com | 9 hours 42 minutes ago
The Twitter client has built in Google Translate for quick decoding of international tweets--and also, no more invite codes are required.
N900 price drops to $480
Ubergizmo.com | 9 hours 56 minutes ago
Who would've thought that the delectable Nokia N900's price point would have dropped to a relatively affordable $480 over at Amazon? This is after a $50 mail-in rebate, of course, where you can snag this 32GB capacity smartphone for cheap. Other features to jog your memory include an ARM Cortex-A8 processor and a 5-megapixel camera. No idea on the shipping date though as the device is still in the pre-order stage, making us wonder what led Nokia to make the price cut?Permalink: N900 price dro...
Sony demos 3D LED Wall
Ubergizmo.com | 9 hours 56 minutes ago
Sony certainly thinks that the future lies in 3D technology even when you're viewing your favorite sitcom right in the comfort of your living room. In order to accentuate their faith in 3D technology, they placed 70 LED displays together at the International Broadcast Equipment Exhibition 2009 in Japan, where you'll need to wear a pair of dorky-looking glasses to enjoy the benefits of 3D shows.Permalink: Sony demos 3D LED Wall from Ubergizmo | Hot: Motorola Droid Review
Sprint Incognito SCP-6760
Ubergizmo.com | 9 hours 56 minutes ago
Sprint has just rolled out its Incognito SCP-6760 from Kyocera where this model will boast a glowing keypad that makes it easier to type at night, alongside an OLED display for clearer viewing. Flip the Incognito open and you will get a full QWERTY keyboard alongside the benefits of a 2.6"display at 320 x 240 resolution. The Incognito will play nice with Sprint's EVDO network, while the keypad is touch sensitive with haptic feedback for easier and more convenient use. A 2-megapixel camera and...
Twitter's geotagging API goes live
Blog.news.com | 9 hours 57 minutes ago
The geolocation tool allows developers to incorporate a user's location in tweets. It's an opt-in service.
Daily Beast Taps Former CNET, Dennis Publishing Exec Colvin As President
PaidContent.org: The Economics of Content | 10 hours 2 minutes ago
The Daily Beast has named publishing vet Stephen Colvin as the site s president. Colvin CNET was president and CEO of lad mag purveyor Dennis Publishing for 11 years, will oversee all aspects of the business, the company announced. He will report directly to Tina Brown, the year-old IAC-backed site’s co-founder and editor-in-chief. In his new role, Colvin will be responsible for revenue generation, audience development, brand development and social media. He will also oversee the new Da...
What drives China? Soon, cleaner fuel
Blog.news.com | 10 hours 3 minutes ago
Still, the world's second largest oil consumer is taking a cautious approach to introducing tougher diesel and gasoline specifications.
Playstation Network to get fee-based subscription
Ubergizmo.com | 10 hours 8 minutes ago
In what would most probably be an unpopular move, Sony looks set to introduce a fee-based subscription for the Playstation Network sometime in 2010 or the year after that. It isn't meant to replace the free Playstation Network access but complement it instead, where they reiterate the mantra that money gets you places - in this case, perhaps an increased download speed or more detailed profile online among other exclusive benefits. What do you think of this development?Permalink: Playstation ...
Shake N Wake Alarm Clock
Ubergizmo.com | 10 hours 8 minutes ago
Finding it hard to get up each morning without disturbing your partner? The Shake N Wake Alarm Clock might just help - retailing for $25, you wear this like a watch on your wrist, where it will shake and vibrate when the appointed time to rise and shine approaches. Perfect for folks who don't want their sweetheart to wake up at an agonizingly early hour, or for the hearing impaired. Apart from that, you can still turn on the bleep alarm if you so desire, having being brought up on a diet of a...
31337 phone
Ubergizmo.com | 10 hours 8 minutes ago
Check out the 31337 (Elite) phone from designer Shane Crozier - it looks much more like a fashion accessory than anything else, where it is able to hook up to Facebook and Twitter, downloading and synchronizing your contacts onto the handset so that you no longer have the excuse not to have anyone's number. Other standard features such as a camera, speakerphone, music and video playback alongside Internet functionality have been omitted in order to keep the form factor small enough to slip in...
Bmorn BM-870 portable media player
Ubergizmo.com | 10 hours 8 minutes ago
Where do you draw the line when it comes to the screen size of a portable media player? We are inclined to think that the Bmorn BM-870 does not qualify although it claims to be one, as it has a massive 8.9" display which supposedly offers full HD playback - hopefully the display has the necessary pixel support to keep you entertained in high definition. Permalink: Bmorn BM-870 portable media player from Ubergizmo | Hot: Motorola Droid Review
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