Postcards Go Virtual With SwingVine Gallery For The iPhone

People don’t send postcards anymore. Why bother when you can photo MMS a friend? Attempting to restore some of the social experience behind photography, SwingVine has created SwingVine Gallery, an app that attempts to bring back some of the mystique and enjoyment of social photo sharing. Using your iPhone’s camera and GPS, the SwingVine Gallery [...]

Bezos On iPad: “You are not going to improve Hemingway by adding video snippets.”

Amazon’s Kindle has always been an interesting device to me. When I first heard about it in late 2007, I was sure I wouldn’t want one. It was awkward looking and at $399, way too expensive. But when the second iteration came in 2009 with a sleeker look, I decided to buy one to see [...]

Groupon Launches Deal Personalization, Opens Door To (More) Explosive Growth

Local deal goliath Groupon is launching a major new feature today: deal personalization, giving the site the ability to send you the deals it thinks you’ll be most interested in. Before now, Groupon has always offered one or two deals per city per day to its users. That’s still going to be true, but with a twist: [...]

Hacker Proves Facebook’s Public Data Is Public

Security specialist Ron Bowes has once again proven how easy it is to glean valuable user information from Facebook, by spidering Facebook’s online directory and compiling it all into one neat little torrent that could be downloaded off his site, SkullSecurity.com. Bowes created a torrent containing over 171 million entries with links to profiles that [...]

So Is The iPhone An “iPhone Killer” Killer?

This morning, Reuters published this article. On their site, it seems fairly innocuous, with the title “RIM stock jumps as market eyes revamped BlackBerry” but that wasn’t the original title. And it’s not the one Reuters syndication partners are picking up. That title is “RIM seen unveiling ‘iPhone killer’ next week“. Yep. Here we go again. If [...]

Amazon Reveals New Kindle: $139 For Wi-Fi Version, $189 for 3G

Amazon today unveiled the new Kindle e-reader, though it was not personally revealed by Bezos, as we heard rumored. The new device has a 6″ display like the old Kindle, but is the newer type of E-ink display found in the Kindle DX Graphite. There are other differences, but the main one would be price: [...]

Exclusive: Answers.com Gets 200,000 Video Answers From 5Min

Every big publisher on the Web wants to be able to serve up ad-friendly videos, but creating them can be a pain. But there are already plenty of high-quality videos out there in every subject imaginable. With that in mind, Answers.com has quietly launched Video Answers with about 200,000 videos from video distribution network 5min [...]

Grace Digital’s Tuner Wireless Radio & Media Player adds internet radio to existing stereos

So, we’ve two main issues here. One, who in their right mind would pay $219.99 for a device that still requires a dedicated stereo in order to play back the internet radio streams that Grace Digital’s Tuner Wireless Radio & Media Player delivers? And secondly, who would want to put up with Grace Digital’s thoroughly [...]

New Kindles now available for pre-order

You might’ve heard about a new Kindle model or two this evening, and good news if they tickled your fancy — they’re now on Amazon and available for pre-order. Both the WiFi-only and WiFi / 3G models are shipping August 27th, the former in graphite and the latter in graphite and white options. Search your [...]

Evatran’s Plugless Power gives your wheels a wireless proximity-based charge

Trading gas nozzles for electric sockets may be the green thing to do — in more ways than one — but wouldn’t plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles be that much sweeter if you could just forget about the plug? That’s what Evatran is trying to do with its Plugless Power technology, shown off at Plug-In [...]

Apple investigating issues with iOS 4 upgrade on iPhone 3G

Back when we outlined the iOS 4 features missing from iPhone 3G, we forgot one key bullet point: performance. As more and more two-year veterans of Apple’s phones have taken the plunge and upgraded to the latest firmware, slowdown and battery drain issues have become a common complaint, which is even more irksome when you [...]

Motorola takes another shot at the iPhone 4, says Droid X is ‘no jacket required’

Well this is getting good. Motorola was one of the first to take a subtle swipe at Apple’s iPhone 4 antenna dilemma with an ad saying you could hold the Droid X “any way you like,” Apple came right back with a video purportedly showing the Droid X suffering similar attenuation issues when held in [...]

HTC will ship all Android phones in China with Froyo on board, fuels fire for immediate update closer to home

A wordy headline, to be sure, but a pleasing one nonetheless. We came across HTC’s Chinese web portal listing the Desire as coming with Android 2.2 (with Sense!) and simply had to ping the official source for confirmation. It turns out the info up there is no mistake: all HTC Android handsets shipping to China [...]

Zynga Confirms Softbank Investment. They’ll Confirm Google Investment Later

Zynga issued a press release tonight confirming the more than month-old news of an investment by Softbank – $150 million – and are announcing a joint venture to “develop and distribute social games across Japan.” Zynga didn’t talk about the other $150 million they took from Google in connection with a partnership over the new [...]

Nokia N8 up for official €469 pre-order in Italy, available in September

Nokia’s Symbian^3 flagship — the 3.5-inch N8 with 12 megapixel camera — just went up for pre-order on Espoo’s Italian storefront showing an end of September availabilty. Now before you get up in arms about the €469 price tag (about $610), remember, the €370 estimated retail price announced was pre tax and pre carrier subsidy. [...]

BeagleBoard finds new purpose in DIY wearable computer

We’ve already seen the small and flexible BeagleBoard used for a couple of different DIY projects, but few quite as impressive as this wearable computer built by Martin Magnusson. In addition to complementing any outfit, this rig runs Angstrom Linux, uses a modified pair of Myvu Crystal video glasses (and some stylish shades) for a [...]

Britain joins cyber-security race

Cyber Security Challenge contest is just one sign of growing fears – and employment opportunities As the world’s military forces become increasingly vulnerable to attacks from cyberspace, a growth area is opening up in digital employment. China has set up its first military cyber-crime department just months after the United States announced the opening of [...]

Is there really a key to reboot the net?

Sort of. Meet one of the seven trusted individuals who can fix the internet in the event of a major catastrophe It sounds like a Fellowship of the Ring for the internet age – a carefully chosen alliance of technology warriors, safeguarding a mythical key that could one day shut down the internet. According to [...]

Patent confirmed in Microsoft XML fight

Toronto-based company i4i gets confirmation of patent that resulted in an injunction against versions of Word 2003 A software company that won a patent injunction against Microsoft has had the patent confirmed in the US. The company, i4i, which is based in Toronto and has 30 staff, won an injunction in Texas last year preventing [...]

New Amazon Kindle announced: $139 WiFi-only version and $189 3G model available August 27th in the US and UK

Let’s be honest — you saw this one coming, didn’t you? Today Amazon is introducing a new reading device for e-book aficionados dubbed simply… the Kindle. The new handheld — slated to be released on August 27th — is 21 percent smaller and 15 percent lighter than the previous model, has a 20 percent faster [...]

Answers.com Gets 200,000 Video Answers From 5Min

Every big publisher on the Web wants to be able to serve up ad-friendly videos, but creating them can be a pain. But there are already plenty of high-quality videos out there in every subject imaginable. With that in mind, Answers.com has quietly launched Video Answers with about 200,000 videos from video distribution network 5min [...]

Porsche 918 Spyder plug-in hybrid headed for production

What once seemed to simply be a ridiculously extravagant concept for a plug-in hybrid has now become a ridiculously extravagant reality — Porsche has just announced that it’s putting the 918 Spyder into production. First unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show earlier this year, the car (in concept form, at least) packs a 500-horsepower V8 [...]

HBO Sinks Its Teeth Into GetGlue To Reward Fans For Checking-In To Hit Shows

Forget about checking-in to venues. Apparently, the new thing to do is to check-in to whatever you’re doing — like watching television shows, or reading a book. It’s something that Hot Potato offers, and they’re in the process of being acquired by Facebook. It’s what GetGlue offers as well, and they’re already seeing over 4.5 [...]

Kanye West Finally Has A F*cking Twitter

Last May, Kanye West was pissed off. Why? Because people were impersonating him on Twitter. He was so mad that he even wrote a blog post about it — entirely in CAPS. It began, “(This spaz comes courtesy of losers making fake Kanye West Twitter accounts) I DON’T HAVE A FUCKING TWITTER… WHY WOULD I [...]

Rogers’ budget-friendly chatr brand launches in Canada

We knew it was coming, and now it’s official: Rogers Wireless has today launched its entry-level “chatr” wireless brand for Canadians everywhere — and by “everywhere,” we mean Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, and Ottawa (Montreal is coming soon, as is possibly elsewhere). Two plans are available: $45 monthly for unlimited talk-and-text and $35 for unlimited [...]

Toolbar Developer Wibiya Takes On Meebo As Traffic Soars

Watch out Meebo, there’s a new kid on the block. Israeli startup Wibiya, which publicly launched its web-based, customizable toolbar to publishers in January of this year, is seeing impressive traffic for a year-old company. According to Quantcast, Wibiya is seeing 151 million monthly visitors to its toolbars. In contrast, Quantcast also reports that Meebo [...]

Sony’s 360-degree RayModeler 3D display brings its glasses-free act to LA (video)

Sony talked up its cylindrical no-glasses 3D 360-degree prototype display last fall, and now it’s showing off the tech, dubbed RayModeler 3D, on US soil at SIGGRAPH 2010 through tomorrow. A major bonusof that showcase is an English language video (embedded after the break) showing how it all works, from an eight-camera rig and turntable [...]

Sony’s 360-degree RayModeler 3D display brings its glasses-free act to LA, plays Pong (video)

Sony talked up its cylindrical no-glasses 3D 360-degree prototype display last fall, and now it’s showing off the tech, dubbed RayModeler 3D, on US soil at SIGGRAPH 2010 through tomorrow. A major bonus of that showcase is an English language video — embedded after the break, plus a hands on including a game of Pong [...]

Sony’s 360-degree RayModeler 3D display brings its glasses-free act to LA, plays Breakout (video)

Sony talked up its cylindrical no-glasses 3D 360-degree prototype display last fall, and now it’s showing off the tech, dubbed RayModeler 3D, on US soil at SIGGRAPH 2010 through tomorrow. A major bonus of that showcase is an English language video — embedded after the break, plus a hands on including a game of Pong [...]

Mortgage Recommender Home-Account Acquired By Bills.com

Last year, we covered the launch of Home-Account, a mortgage search and counseling service. Though launched in the implosion of the housing market, the site raised funding from an impressive group of investors, including Charles River Ventures, Marc Benioff, Ron Conway, Mark Pincus, and Jeff Clavier. One of the seed investors in the round was [...]

Patent Trolling Doesn’t Pay: Intellectual Ventures Shows A Negative 73 Percent Return

You can always count on Hunch founder Chris Dixon for interesting Tweets.  He just sent out this one: turns out patent trolling might not pay. Intellectual Ventures has negative 78% return.http://bit.ly/bSfamC The link is a PDf download of a document from the University of Texas Management Company listing all of its private investments in venture [...]

Weebly’s ImagePerfect Gives Users Drag-And-Drop Image Editing

Weebly, the startup that lets you build a website with an easy drag-and-drop interface, is looking to help you give your site a little extra flair: they’ve just launched a new image editor called ImagePerfect that allows users to craft nifty custom header images with a few clicks. It may not be a Photoshop killer, [...]

Twitter Begins User Streams Testing. Realtime Tech Should Help Ease API Strain

For some time now, Twitter has been working on a new API: the Twitter Streaming API. The idea behind it is to allow third-party Twitter clients to receive continuous tweet updates in realtime. As developer advocate Taylor Singletary notes today on the Twitter Development Talk Google Group, limited testing of this new feature (also called [...]

RIM takes control of blackpad.com, laughter takes control of our minds

A quick WHOIS confirms that RIM’s taken control of blackpad.com — yes, it’s long been rumored as a potential name for the BlackBerry tablet, but we’re certainly hoping Waterloo’s just parking a domain name to keep squatters at bay, because, seriously, we just got over the iPad jokes, you know? P.S.- And might we see [...]

As Mobile Advertising Heats Up, Millennial Media Prepares For An IPO In 2011

Mobile advertising is currently a billion dollar market and we’ve witnessed tech giants like Google and Apple move into the space with the acquisitions of mobile ad networks AdMob and Quattro Wireless, respectively. AdMob is now part of Google’s mobile advertising business and Apple is using Quattro to power its new ad format, iAds. But [...]

Review: Dell Streak

Short Version If Charlie the Unicorn has taught us anything it’s that the road to success is fraught with setbacks and, if you’re not careful, your best friends will cut out your kidneys. It is with these life-lessons in mind that we examine the Dell Streak, a 5-inch Android 1.6 tablet that shows much promise [...]

GoodData Secures Another $6.5 million In A Round Led By Fidelity

GoodData is rapidly becoming a key example of the technology innovation emerging from Central Europe – and laying a bet on Europe seems to be paying off for Fidelity Growth Partners Europe, the venture and growth equity investor, which backs European entrepreneurs exclusively. It’s invested $2 million in the startup, the second investment for the [...]

Vodafone Launches Mobile Clicks Startup Competition, Dangles €150,000 In Prizes

Vodafone has launched Mobile Clicks 2010, a competition to identify and reward innovative mobile Internet startups. Now in its third year, the competition will be open to any fledgling mobile Web startup – provided your market is The Netherlands, Portugal or the UK. Vodafone has set aside a prize fund of €150,000 (2/3 of which [...]

Apple, Time, Inc. Fighting Over Ability To Sell Digital Subscriptions?

Time, Inc. and Apple are going through a rough patch. Time wants to be able to sell digital subscriptions of its properties, including Sports Illustrated, via the iTunes Store, but Apple won’t let that happen. This puts Time in a weird spot: it can either sell its magazines like any company would sell any widget [...]

Victory For Nintendo As R4 Cards Made Illegal In The UK

The importation, sale, or advertising of the R4 card, used to pirate Nintendo DS games, is now illegal in the UK. Defendants tried to argue that the R4 shouldn’t be demonized, much less made illegal, because it can also be used to play homebrew software. The High Court disagreed.

Could This Be the Eve Of the Kindle 3?

It seems that all Kindle orders have been frozen and, it seems, that Jeff Bezos is hanging around New York right now and will speak on Charlie Rose tonight. While I seriously doubt that Bezos will whip out the Kindle 3 on the Charlie Rose show (he’ll probably talk about ebooks outselling hardbacks) it seems [...]

Mobile Roadie Goes Pro; Launches New Version Of Customizable App Builder

Mobile Roadie, a startup that helps anyone develop and create iPhone and Android apps, has launched a more customizable version of their app builder today, called Mobile Roadie Pro. The idea Mobile Roadie Pro is to offers clients more creative control over the development of their app, offering customization of menu layout, colors, buttons, and [...]

Nick Bilton Lives In A Future Where There Are No iBooks (Video)

The future, as William Gibson once said, is already here. It is just unevenly distributed. You can find the future in new technologies and the people who wade into them early on—people like Nick Bilton, the chief blogger for the New York Times. (His official title is lead technology writer because the New York Times [...]

Facebook To Pay $10 Million Cash For Hot Potato, Says Source

We broke the news yesterday on Facebook’s most recent acquisition – social activity service Hot Potato. Like most of Facebook’s acquisitions, this deal looks to be mostly about getting a great team of engineers on board, not about the product. And like many of these acquisitions, investors in the acquired company don’t stand to make [...]

Safari 5.0.1 Lands, Comes With Extensions

Fresh off the heels of launching a slew of new products yesterday, Apple this morning debuted Safari 5.0.1, switching the flip on Safari Extensions and formally introducing the Safari Extensions Gallery, a directory of available extensions across categories. The company had introduced extensions support in Safari 5 last June, giving developers the opportunity to start [...]

Looks Like Even Google Forgot Knol Existed

Knol, Google’s platform for sharing articles about specific topics, appears to have been shutdown. It’s unclear if this is a temporary or permanent situation. We’ve reached out to Google for comment. We’ve long been speculating as to when Google will shut down Knol. The knowledge-sharing site has essentially been reduced to a “Craigslist wannabe.” The [...]

RIM Buys “BlackPad.com”, Presumably As A Home For The BlackBerry Tablet

Unless someone at Research In Motion is taking the time to screw with all of us, it looks like we might have an official name for their long-rumored BlackBerry tablet project: BlackPad. Word of the name comes not from a disgruntled employee, nor from a prototype left at a bar; this one’s straight out of [...]

ZTE Peel for Sprint outed by FCC, another 3G-equipped iPod touch case

What is it about the word peel that screams “throw on the back of an iPod touch and grant it the power of mobile internet?” We spotted Yosion’s Apple Peel 520 just the morning bound for Chinese markets, and now the FCC has unveiled ZTE’s own Peel 3G router. Although the user manual and external [...]

Google Rolls Out Android’s New Anti-Piracy Mechanism

If we’re hearing any one thing from developers that is scaring’em away from Android, it’s that Android apps are just way, way too easy to pirate. Hell, you don’t even have to go through shady third party download sites; just buy an app, copy it to the sd card, and refund the application. Ta-da! (Read: [...]

Tinychat Boasts 500 Million Minutes Of Usage And 300,000 New Users Per Month

Not so tiny after all: Tinychat, a simple text, video and audio communication platform, is growing by leaps and bounds. First launched in February 2009 as a simple way to create Web-based chat rooms, Tinychat today is a full-blown chat system with lots of bells and whistles. And the service is gaining traction, fast. Founder [...]

eWise Raises $12 Million For Online Payments Technology

Online payments company eWise has raised $12.1 million in funding led by Balderton Capital with Total Technology Ventures, and Allen & Co. participating in the round. eWise develops an technology, called Secure Vaults Payments, to allow users to automatically deduct a payment from their bank account without disclosing their personal information to online businesses. Payments [...]

European VC Funding Bounces Back, Information Technology Is “Star Performer”

European VC funding has bounced back. That’s according to Q2 figures produced by Dow Jones VentureSource which reports that investment is up by 50 percent compared to the record low of this time last year. €1.1 billion into 289 deals against 252 deals, which raised just €735 million. But specifically, says Dow Jones, the Information [...]

Purported myTouch HD leaks out alongside promise of T-Mobile’s first HSPA+ smartphone

Someone should really tell T-Mobile USA it’s got a rather large hole that needs plugged. Hot on the heels of the (presumably) T-Mob-bound G1 Blaze leak comes this duo, which includes a purported leak of the myTouch HD (or 3G HD) as well as a web portal that quite clearly prepares us for the launch [...]

LG aiming to ship ‘a couple’ of Windows Phone 7 devices by year-end

The company’s not committing to any US carriers just yet (ahem), but LG is already puffing up its chest and talking big about its impending Windows Phone 7 release plans. To date, all we’ve had to go on was Microsoft’s vow of seeing WP7 devices on store shelves before this holiday season, but now Ken [...]

Aircord Lab’s N-3D concept turns an iPad into world’s second least practical 3D display (video)

Think giant active-shutter glasses are a roadblock to 3D adoption? Wait until you get a load of this, the N-3D from Aircord Labs, a glass pyramid with semi-reflective sides that allows you to peer through while reflecting the image of a screen above. In this case the screen is provided by an iPad which, as [...]

Carnegie Mellon’s robot snakes converge into creepy hand-like wargadget

President Eisenhower, in his famous farewell speech in 1961, warned against the the acquisition of unwarranted influence by the “military industrial complex.” If he had given those remarks some sixty years later, he might have worked academia into the phrase — especially if he knew about the snakes! Certainly one of the more viscerally unnerving [...]

Best Buy to offer free invisibleSHIELD 4fix to aggravated iPhone 4 owners

It’s hard to say for certain what exactly this flyer means, but it sure looks as if at least some iPhone 4 owners will be able to snatch a free invisibleSHIELD 4fix (valued at $9.99 or so) from their local Best Buy. Based on a number of tips that we’ve received, we’re getting the impression [...]

Samsung unveils WiFi-enabled ST80 camera, swiveling-lens HMX-E10 pocket camcorder

Camera releases are somewhat a by-the-numbers thing with so many different variations being released by numerous companies throughout the year. Samsung‘s pair here does have some interesting standout features, but one at a time. The 14.2 megapixel ST80 point-and-shoot boasts WiFi capabilities for email / direct upload of images (DLNA supported, to boot). It’s also [...]

Super Talent’s dual interface UltraDrive MX SSD does SATA II and mini-USB

She ain’t the first solid state drive to ship with a keen understanding of both SATA II and USB, but in the case of niche storage devices, the more the merrier, right? The newest member of the UltraDrive family (that’d be the UltraDrive MX, if you’re curious) has given Super Talent its first two-faced SSD, [...]

Hori’s mesmerizing PS3 Slim LCD dock now available for import

Love at first sight may be debatable, but we had a feeling we’d be into Hori’s PS3 Slim LCD dock just as soon as we laid eyes on it. A few months after first appearing overseas, the simplistic device — which mounts an 11.6-inch LCD atop your PlayStation 3 Slim console — is ready to [...]

Synaptics shows off multitouch screens for multitouch tablets up to 10.1-inches

If there’s one thing the world needs it’s a few more tablets, tablets with fancy multitouch screens, and that’s exactly what Synaptics is helping to spread. The company has announced a suite of touchscreens called the ClearPad 7200 series in sizes up to 10.1-inches, each offering the 10-point multitouch capacitive juju we’ve come to expect [...]

Kensington’s Laptop Locking Station is a thief’s worst nightmare… maybe

Make no mistake, this one’s no docking station — rather, it’s a locking station. Kensington, which has somehow managed to get a self-labeled lock slot embedded into nearly every modern Windows-based laptop, has just introduced a new duo meant to keep your lappie locked down and unavailable for thieves. The Kensington Laptop Locking Station ($79.99) [...]

Apple releases Safari 5.0.1, Extensions Gallery now open

Safari 5′s extension support just got a whole lot more useful this morning, as Apple’s just released Safari 5.0.1, which enables the feature for end users, and opened its official Extension Gallery. Extensions can be installed from anywhere, but you might think of the Gallery as the App Store for browser add-ons — and it [...]

HP’s 30-inch ZR30w IPS LCD monitor reviewed: exceptional performance, reasonable price

The market for 30-inch monitors is growing, but that’s not the same as saying that your options are plentiful. You’ll have a far easier time finding high-res 24- and 27-inch screens to toss together, but if you’ve got your mind set on a single LCD workspace, HP’s ZR30w has to be on the short list. [...]

Facebook Q&A Service ‘Questions’ Begins Rolling Out, Could Be Massive

Facebook’s worst-kept secret is finally ready for its closeup: the company is starting to roll out Facebook Questions, a Q&A service that allows users to poll all of Facebook. Facebook has been inviting users to apply to join a sneak peek of Questions for months now, so we’ve seen much of this before, but this [...]

More People, And Inevitably Scammers, Are Using Twitter

2010 thus far has been a year of milestones in terms of online population, with Facebook hitting 500 million active users and Twitter reaching 100 million users. This growth explosion is not without its dark side; a rising tide lifts all boats, even the more miscreant ones. According to a report by Barracuda Labs, both [...]

Sprint reports $760 million net loss for Q2, slightly less than expected

Well, it looks like Verizon has a bit of company at the negative end of the earnings spectrum — Sprint has now also reported a loss for the second quarter, although it’s a slightly smaller one than expected. Specifically, the company posted a $760 million net loss for the quarter that’s just ended, or 15 [...]

NVIDIA’s refreshed Optimus interface sheds more light on what your GPU is doing

There’s no question that NVIDIA’s Optimus system — which enables a discrete GPU to operate when a machine is taxed and a power-sipping IGP to function when you’re involved in less strenuous tasks — has changed the way the world looks at laptop graphics, but it hasn’t been able to avoid a fair amount of [...]

HTC beginning Froyo rollout tomorrow? Maybe, maybe not

HTC Europe spokesperson Mark Moons caused quite a stir this morning when he tweeted that the company would begin rolling out Android Froyo updates to devices tomorrow, starting with the Desire, but we wouldn’t get too excited yet — HTC tells us that it’s possible a rollout will begin tomorrow, but nothing’s finalized yet pending [...]

UK bans R4 cards, makes Nintendo DS pirating ‘double illegal’

While us Yankees are celebrating the one small victory for all that’s right and good represented by the recent DMCA jailbreak exception, things are looking a little bleaker for UK gadget-heads this afternoon. London’s High Court has ruled that R4 cards, which are used by homebrewers and the occasional no-goodnik game pirate to circumvent security [...]

Head-mounted display controls video camera, keeps you painfully single

At the University of Electro-Communications in Tokyo, Satoshi Nariai demonstrates something called the head-mounted Mobile Video Communication System. With acceleration and position sensors built into a head-mounted display, the remote camera moves in relation to your head’s movements. The researcher sees this being used primarily for videoconferencing where he thinks it will promote effective communication [...]

New ‘licensing service’ replacing existing copy protection method in Android Market

Copy protection has always been a concern in the Android Market, primarily because applications can be sideloaded onto phones without a root or other modification from the end user. In a brief announcement made today, Eric Chu has made clear that a new method for protecting the work of paid app creators will be implemented [...]

Time Inc. execs said to be frustrated over lack of iPad magazine subcriptions

Not interested in paying $4.99 for an issue of a magazine on your iPad? Well, Time Inc. execs don’t seem to be too keen on the idea either. As Peter Kafka of All Things Digital reports, Time was planning to launch a subscription version of its Sports Illustrated iPad app last month in which you’d [...]

Is there really a key to reboot the internet?

Sort of. Meet one of the seven trusted individuals who can fix the internet in the event of a major catastrophe It sounds like a Fellowship of the Ring for the internet age – a carefully chosen alliance of technology warriors, safeguarding a mythical key that could one day shut down the internet. According to [...]

Tech Weekly: Elevator Pitch 3 years on

This week we find out what has happened to the startup companies that we’ve profiled in the Elevator Pitch over the past three years, such as Moo.com and Nestoria. Charles Arthur talks to the man who put the “e” into e-democracy – Steven Clift – about whether we should be forced to use our real [...]

Adobe Buys Swiss Company Day Software For $240 Million

Adobe is strengthening its product portfolio with its intention to acquire Swiss firm Day Software, which makes Web content management systems aimed at marketers. Adobe announced an all-cash tender offer for Day’s shares. The purchase price is approximately $240 million. Many of Adobe’s products, such as Illustrator and Photoshop, are used already to create marketing [...]

Eric Schmidt: The World Doesn’t Need A Copy Of The Same Thing

By this point everyone and their mother knows that Google is trying to create a Facebook-type social networking service. It’s been confirmed by Quora’s Adam D’ Angelo, given an ETA by a source internal to Google, and a name, “Google Me” by Kevin Rose. And now the The Wall Street Journal reports that Google is [...]

The Mouse Is Dead. I Just Killed It. Now Can We Move On?

This morning when I wrote a post about Apple’s new Magic Trackpad, I knew it would be a little controversial. After all, I basically said that it was the beginning of the end of the mouse — a device that everyone reading the post probably still uses for a good chunk of their computing on [...]

HP crams Fermi-based Quadro 5000M GPU inside 17-inch EliteBook

Gotta live up to the name, right HP? NVIDIA’s new pro graphics solution for mobile creatives, the Quadro 5000M, was unsheathed only yesterday but HP appears to have been first in line to get some of that new 40nm goodness. Electronista reports that the world leader in PC shipments is readying a 5000M solution for [...]

Indesit unveils smart-grid washer, thumbs nose at GE

General Electric may have a host of smart appliances in the works, but looks like one Indesit may beat it to the punch — at least on the washing machine front. The Italian home appliance firm just unveiled a ZigBee-compatible washer at the Freescale Technology Forum in Florida this week, capable of communicating with the [...]

Toshiba’s latest Cell Regza LCDs are Slim, but don’t go calling them 2D

Ready to climb Mount Fuji and see what the next top Japanese TV will look like? Toshiba has just outed its trio of flag-bearing displays for this fall: the Cell Regza Slim 55XE2 and 46XE2, and the full-bloodied 55X2. Inch-based dimensions are already given in their model names, but you’ll also want to know they [...]

Microsoft Street Slide: it’s electric! (video)

Remember the first time you used Google Street View? Amazing, right? Thing is, traversing a busy urban street in a 360-degree photographic bubble can be disorienting, especially when searching for a specific address or business. So check this: Microsoft Research has developed a rather nifty solution it calls Street Slide. Zoom out of your panoramic [...]

Android 2.2 upgrade for Droid X may already be trickling out, other Droids shortly?

We’ve already gathered that Verizon, Moto, and HTC all seem to be pretty well committed to bumping most of their Droid models to Froyo (as well they should), but things are starting to get real — really real. First off, we’ve been fed a shot of a tipster’s Droid X that has apparently already been [...]

Panasonic’s new DMP-BDT100 is a cheaper, slimmer choice for Blu-ray 3D playback

Panasonic’s not letting us know exactly how cheap it’s going with the new DMP-BDT100 Blu-ray player, but with an existing lineup that starts at $399 for the DMP-BDT300 it’s not hard to see why it would need a mainstream option to compete with Samsung, Sony and the rest. The DMP-BDT100 still promises high quality playback [...]

Panasonic will offer interchangeable 3D lens for Micro Four Thirds by year’s end

Like Panasonic’s new 3D-capable HDC-SDT750 camcorder but don’t want to shell out $1,400 for a brand-new kit? Get a load of this Micro Four Thirds lens. That’s right, Panny’s just announced an interchangeable 3D lens that affixes to the standard Lumix G-series mount, meaning any of the company’s new sub-DSLR shooters could see in stereo [...]

Modu’s T-Phone captured in the wild chilling with Android? (video)

Look everyone, it’s the littlest handset come to deliver Android cheer. Last month we got word that Modu was working on a touchscreen device dubbed the T-Phone, featuring full 3G and microSD expansion, also referred to as the Modu 2. Now we have video of what looks to be the same phone out in the [...]

iPod touch becomes iPhone using Yosion’s Apple Peel 520?

Oh sure, VoIP on the iPod touch is hardly breaking news these days, but what if you could actually slap on a regular SIM card and make calls on said device? That’s what Yosion’s appropriately named Apple Peel 520 claims to do. Powered by an Infineon baseband chip, this adapter not only offers voice calling [...]

Hungry For Growth, Search Marketing Startup KENSHOO Raises More Funding

Search engine marketing startup KENSHOO has secured an undisclosed late-stage round of funding from Sequoia’s Growth Fund, the Israeli company announced this morning. This marks the fourth time Sequoia Capital has injected capital into the company, which claims it is now profitable and has doubled in valuation since 2009. KENSHOO offers search marketing campaign management [...]

Sharp microchip enables dual-screen smartphones, e-readers and netbooks

Judging by the fact that our lovely planet is home to the Libretto W100, the Kno, Onkyo DX and oodles of prototypes that utilize twin panels rather than a panel and a keyboard, Sharp’s newest microchip is likely to draw some serious industry attention. Improving on an idea that began in 2008, the company has [...]

Runco intros 3D-ready Signature Cinema projectors: $90k+, still require glasses

“Runco” and “cheap” have never, ever been used correctly in the same sentence before, but being elite apparently doesn’t mean that you can just turn a blind eye to rambling bandwagons. With just about every other projection company flipping out 3D-ready alternatives, Runco has decided it best to follow suit. The company has just added [...]

Short Notice: PayPal Removes Electronic Withdrawal Option For Indian Users

PayPal, the eBay-owned electronic payments company, continues to run into operational issues in India. Earlier this year, the company had to suspend personal payment transactions from and to India, albeit temporarily, when the Reserve Bank Of India (RBI) concluded that PayPal was not in compliance with all relevant regulatory requirements. This morning, an email was [...]

LG’s Application Store launches in places you don’t live for devices you don’t care about

LG’s official Application Store — not to be confused with an App Store, App World, or App Catalog — just went beta is 23 countries with the aim of serving up 4,000 apps to 33 countries (including the UK, Germany, France, Italy, and Spain) by the end of the year. Sorry US netizens, you’re seemingly [...]

Google vs Facebook: Google fights back with gaming social network plan

Facebook: it’s the world’s biggest website, by some calculations, and fast overtaking Google as the technology poster child of our time. But don’t underestimate Google, which is reportedly working on a new social networking project to try and rival Facebook’s domination in the space. Social networking is one area where Google has failed to get [...]

Kanye West Raps About Getting Laid And Disses Twitter At Facebook [Video]

Facebook may be in the middle of negotiating a deal to acquire the check-in service Hot Potato, but that didn’t stop most employees from stopping by the cafeteria at the headquarters in Palo Alto today to see hip hop artist Kanye West freestyle. West, dressed in a suit, appears to be standing on a table [...]

With Olark, You Can Follow Customers Around Your Online Store To Make Sure They Buy

Last August, we first wrote about Olark, a Y Combinator-funded startup that gave e-commerce site owners a simple way to interact with their customers: an IM widget. Now, Olark is expanding the functionality of these IMs to include detailed information about that shopper in realtime, and partnering with Shopify to make it easy to install. [...]

Xtreme Power Gets $29.5 million to Store More Power From Renewables

A Kyle, Texas company that makes utility scale power storage systems, Xtreme Power, nabbed a $29.5 million, series C round of venture funding the company announced today. The investment was co-led by Bessemer Venture Partners, the venture capital arm of The Dow Chemical Company and clean tech investors SAIL Venture Partners. Xtreme Power aims to [...]

Panasonic will offer interchangable 3D lens for Micro Four Thirds by year’s end

Like Panasonic’s new 3D-capable HDC-SDT750 camcorder but don’t want to shell out $1,400 for a brand-new kit? Get a load of this Micro Four Thirds lens. That’s right, Panny’s just announced a interchangeable 3D lens that affixes to the standard Lumix G-series mount, meaning any of the company’s new sub-DSLR shooters could see in stereo [...]

Chatroulette Calls The PoPo And Crosses Fingers In Hopes Of Investment

Chatroulette founder Andrey Ternovskiy recently posted this strange missive detailing Chatroulette’s commitment to cleaning up its act. In battling the porn plague, Ternovskiy has resorted to tracking offending IP addresses and turning them into the police, among other things (I’m assuming the hilariously named “penis recognition software” wasn’t enough): “While many people understood the concept [...]

Canada Sinks $5.5 Million Into River Turbine Technology

Canada is testing the water for modular river turbines. The project, led by Renewable Energy Research, received $5.5 million in funding from Sustainable Development Technology Canada and the government of Quebec. RER will install two turbines in the St. Lawrence River. RER, along with TREK technology, will develop the turbines to be covered, self-anchoring and [...]

By The Numbers: Chevy Volt vs Nissan Leaf

It’s hard to ignore the looming EV vehicle showdown between the Chevy Volt and the Nissan Leaf even though the vehicles are totally different in nature and target market. While the Nissan Leaf is simply a beautifully-packaged electric vehicle with around a 100 mile range, the Chevy Volt takes a different approach by having a [...]

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