Whoo! Now i can get myself a Wii and play some WiiCade till i drop!

I hope they have better information available for those who want to buy a Wii of PS3. I was one of the unlucky ones on their web site for hours on end when the Wii launched.

At least the Wii is getting in to more homes. I wonder how sales for the XBOX360 are faring on Amazon.

I’m using RefreshThing.com - So far it looks like it’s helped a lot of people find Wiis and PS3s

I second the refreshthing.com thing. Looks useful.

“Amazon sold out of the Wii on the first day it was released in less than one minute and has not been able to keep PS3 in stock consistently at all.”

What’s to say that won’t just happen again?

Natali — this is what it says on the about page - not sure if you have seen it since you are new,

TechCrunch, founded on June 11, 2005, is a weblog dedicated to obsessively profiling and reviewing new Internet products and companies. In addition to new companies, we will profile existing companies that are making an impact (commercial and/or cultural) on the new web space.

Is this story related to any of that? Just missing it - I mean naturally Amazon will sell these devices - maybe your next column could be that Amazon is going to sell Zelda soon too. I don’t get what this story is about.

I still don’t understand how grown people can spend their time playing video games. But that’s just me. I have other more important things to do to keep me occupied. Like looking at Natalia’s picture ….. all day every day!

And Natalia, what is up with that ring on your finger on the picture of the About page? LOL.

Keep up the good work Senorita.

I was at GameStop looking at the Wii when a couple on their way out of the store stopped to tell me how great the Wii was! Wii seems to have a very loyal following.

The big offline retailers like Best Buy and Gamestop are also holding their current stocks of Wiis/PS3s so they will have some next week. It would be an interesting idea if Amazon did one of their discount deals, since the demand is so high anyway - that would REALLY create a lot of angry customers. The 360 sale last month sold out in a matter of seconds.

But I kinda agree with #6 - I’ve been with ya on the other posts but this one is a ‘lil OT.

Why is this on Techcrunch? There are so many cool startups out there and techcrunch is talking about where you can buy video games. Amazon is about to change the technology game by offering up their infrastructure and techcrunch is talking about buying games on their site. I guess if you do not understand technology it is difficult to report on it…so report on where you can buy video games.

Amazon.com, a leading online retailer, will sell gaming consoles for Christmas season. Soon. Or, maybe later. But Amazon.com will sell stuff. On their website. Eventually.

Film at 11.

I’d like to point out that for some reason Amazon sold a handful of Wiis (in bundles and by itself) on the night of November 30. They sold a few at a time for a few hours that night, and after about 2 hours of constant refreshing I was able to order one for $249.99. They honored those orders while customer support adamantly denied they were ever in stock. I took a few screenshots just in case: http://www.flickr.com/photos/g.....56/detail/

Instead of that refresh thing, just use outtastock.com/wii or outtastock.com/ps3 to find them. Both have RSS feeds too.

Morha and Igly, did you guys say the same thing to Mike when he posted this? http://www.techcrunch.com/2006.....x-for-100/.

TechCrunch follows Amazon news regularly, in addition to Yahoo, Google, eBay, etc. These are the “existing companies that are making an impact on the new web space.”

We will see about that!
Great suggestion David!

Morha and Igly need to relax. Maybe play some Wii, I suggest WiiSports bowling

I got mine waiting in line 30 minutes before a GameStop opened on Black Friday. Anxiously awaiting improvements to it’s online features.

TechCrunch’s quality is going down fast…

I now find Read/WriteWeb to be very informative and they provide great analysis and reviews daily, something TC used to do. Now all we get here are quick snippets of B.S…

Sorry Natali, must have missed that post. Will try to refresh this hourly not to miss another. No reason to get mad or whatever. I was simply pointing out that this post has NOTHING to do with anything that TC is supposed to be reporting on.

Next post: Amazon will “in the coming month” replenish their stock of Tide 100 oz.

I don’t want to seem rude, but read your post. Naturally “in the coming days” is not really a scoop, I mean anyone could post this. What really is the news here? Here is another scoop, Walmart will sell Wii’s sometime in the next 6 months. That’s what the post seems like, just a random, at some point. Tell us they will show up at 2pm on Tuesday, maybe that is worthy, but I doubt that too.

AND more importantly, WHY is this not on crunchgear - isnt that the blog for this type of item? Hmm…

@Morha

You must be new. They pimp CrunchGear on here quite often.

$100 xbox 360 was a scoop and was covered later by “old media”. Saying Amazon will replenish stock for a popular item for Christmas some time in the future? Shooting fish in the barrel.

I dont see the big negative deal about the story. Natali Del Conte is letting you know that Amazon will have 2 hard to get items in the coming week. They will have them not “may” like some stores.

I do however agree with you jj, that there are far too many snippets.

@Morha - you said it. This is a CrunchGear post if anything.

That said, I miss the old TC. Good quality reviews and remember when it was blue and not ugly? I’ve watched this thing grow since the beginning, and I hope someone on the other end is listening. Bring back the good ol’ days. Until then, Mashable FTW!

Natalia,
They are only defensive towards your post because the probably don’t know how to act towards pretty educated ladies.

I am still using a Nintendo 64, though one of the guys that lives us brought an original XBox. I mainly use the computer at this point for gaming. Though I’ll be interested in console gaming more when it becomes more interactive - like DDR except with different games.

What happened to your reliable source from Amazon who mentioned that Amazon will start selling XBOX 366 for $100.00?

jj thanks for pointing out Read/WriteWeb. I’m going to give it a test spin.

I agree that TechCrunch quality has gone down fast. For example, I expected more analysis for the Google employee stock option deal, especially because Michael Arrington was a former corporate lawyer. Now all these pieces of snippets are just boring…..

@Morha Shazam:
If you’re so upset I think the best thing for you to do would probably be to cancel your subscription to techcrunch and ask for a refund. Oh wait…

I do not know of a single blog that doesn’t, from time to time, venture slightly outside of what they’re “supposed” to cover. A lot of people are interested in the handling of the new consoles by the major retailers. And it’s not like she’s talking about how Best Buy is handling it at their brick & mortar stores.

Amazon is in the unique situation of having a store where hundreds of thousands of people can be competing to get the same limited product. How they handle it is very relevant.

“What happened to your reliable source from Amazon who mentioned that Amazon will start selling XBOX 366 for $100.00?”

Uhmm… they did do that promotion.

Wii and PS3???? I thought this website catered to men and not kids. I must be wrong.

I’m guessing Amazon won’t have Wii available until it’s too late to get it shipped to me by Christmas.

And at that point, *everyone* will have Wii consoles in stock, because the price will crash to normal and the scalpers will stop buying them all.

Yes…at least I can buy in a more comfortable setting…from my home (or my mobile perhaps)…that way I dont risk loosing my wig in a mad rush at Walmart….

You really wonder how these things work but I would think a company like Amazon could pay a fee to introduce these products….the anticipation and demand are worth it for the traffic it would generate….but what do I know…

Its probabely structured like that already………………

http://www.jollyjo.org

“I’m using RefreshThing.com - So far it looks like it’s helped a lot of people find Wiis and PS3s” — Kelly

RefreshThing.com ???

Sounds like a new service…Ah well….more surfing…more research….

Sorry, gotta agree with the naysayers here

The $100 xbox, while still probably not belonging on TC, was at least specific and to the point. Whereas I was laughing at a few earlier comments along the lines of “BREAKING NEWS! Retailer who has out of stock item will have it back in stock sometime in the future!” That sums up how random and unimportant this story is.

Geez and I have nothing against Natali at all but all the people ogling over her in the comments is getting older than the crappy stories. Ok so she’s good looking - but I don’t need to read comments like “I have other more important things to do to keep me occupied. Like looking at Natalia’s picture ….. all day every day!” (#7). I mean come on people

Hi,

I am a huge fan of Techcrunch, Arrington, Natali and co…. The big thing about Techcrunch (unlike someplace like Paidcontent) was that it focused on a few blog updates and primarily on startups. In fact, Mike’s original reason was around that :

See the WSJ article here (http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB116244521605611149-xEEW_Dh1mMLLs0dtYRdw492SQYE_20061109.html)
“Mr. Arrington got into blogging last year after Mr. Teare asked him to run a new online classified-ads site called Edgeio Corp. Mr. Arrington didn’t know much about the newest Web trends, so he surfed the Internet to catch up. When he didn’t find any central place to learn about new Web companies, he started a blog to provide that resource to others.”

However, recently, I have noticed many types of stories are about different topics (see below only 8 of the last 28 stories are about startups) but the focus on start ups seems not to be there. If the focus has changed away from “more of startups and little bit about internet” to “startups, internet and web2.0 in general”… that’s fine and I can just calibrate my expectations…

Of the 28 stories in the last 72 hrs, only 8 were about start ups…
1. Amazon To Sell Wii and PS3 Soon
2. Yahoo Music Releases Video 3.0
3. Glam Media Gets $18.5 Million And A CNET Chairman
4. Jaxtr Widget Lets Social Networkers Chat On Real Live Phones
5. Bill Gates On The Future Of DRM
6. It’s Time To Thank The Sponsors
7. StumbleUpon Launches Video Referral Site, StumbleVideo
8. Yahoo Begins Panama Roll-Out In The U.S.
9. CrunchGear This Week
10. Skype Unveils 3.0
11. FTC May Regulate PayPerPost
12. Happy Birthday Yahoo Answers
13. Time For Skype To Start Charging In The U.S.
14. Google’s New Employee Stock Option Program
15. Caroling For Pop Culture: Sing Along With “Nuckin’ Futs” By JibJab
16. It’s Official(ish): MySpace Is Biggest Site on Internet
17. The Venice Project Launches In Private Beta
18. Salesforce Launches iTunes-like Store For AppExchange
19. Darejunkies Is A Social Networking Site For Jackasses
20. Google Finance Overhaul
21. Yahoo’s “Project Fraternity” Docs Leaked
22. Google Fixes Yahoo-Copied Splash Page
23. Startup Cries Foul at Google’s New Radio Ads Product
24. Gotuit SceneMaker Lets Users Tag And Cut Online Video
25. Red 5 Studios Aims To Be Pixar of Online Gaming
26. Wikio Launches Digg-Like Site For U.S., Germany, And Spain
27. Omniture Announces Marketing 2.0 Analytics Tool
28. Google Copies IE7 Promo Material From Yahoo
8 Stories about startups…
1. Jaxtr Widget Lets Social Networkers Chat On Real Live Phones
2. StumbleUpon Launches Video Referral Site, StumbleVideo
3. The Venice Project Launches In Private Beta
4. Salesforce Launches iTunes-like Store For AppExchange
5. Darejunkies Is A Social Networking Site For Jackasses
6. Gotuit SceneMaker Lets Users Tag And Cut Online Video
7. Red 5 Studios Aims To Be Pixar of Online Gaming
8. Wikio Launches Digg-Like Site For U.S., Germany, And Spain

Sorry to follow up on that… Maybe, you can still write about start ups but just have the other stories on the side or on the related links so that people who are interested in that can read it.

#32 Sean - I completely agree about the Natali looks - Jose seems to be the main culprit (though there are a lot of others) and I am frankly shocked that Arrington has not done something about it. Jose appears to change her name to Natalia, keeps calling her by looks, and hispanic/spanish words. Stop it already.

In fact, in my post today about Amanda’s blog on ABC News, I included this exact topic. All it does is widen the gap. Most of the comments come from 12 yr old boys, but to the general reading mass, no one knows that.
http://www.centernetworks.com/.....e-to-women

Yeah I can’t say I’m thrilled about the postings about my looks either. Jose, please don’t call me Natalia anymore.

As for the topics at hand, I am trying to maintain a balance between keeping you all informed of industry-changing events, and introducing you to new companies. The former is my specialty and I am quickly learning the latter. I really don’t understand all the hostility but if it makes you feel better, by all means, let it out. I’m listening.

I am sorry I was not trying to be hostile towards you (Natali) at all. I really wanted to know if there has been a definite change in TC’s coverage.

Natali - maybe one day we can do an interview on CN - I think it would be interesting and fun

My conspiracy theory of the day is that Jose is really Michael letting out the sexual tension. He posts in every single Natali article and says the same retarded things.

Natali, learn to embrace your hotness and let it define you. Men just don’t understand it when a woman is both attractive AND intelligent and frankly you are disturbing us all. Stop it.

Now kindly send me some webcam snaps via iChat kthxbai.

Get rid of this newbie. We want better content. TC is starting to go downhill. Almost as bad a gigaom content.

Natali you have to learn to deal with this more professionally. Simply ignore/delete comments you consider inappropriate and do not reply to immature posts. The way Michael does it is perfect.

#27

Yeah, didn’t they sell out in like 10 minutes?

Jake - I disagree completely. Imagine for a second that Natali was working at her own clothing shop or at the Gap or a supermarket, whereever. If someone was making comments like the ones here, she should ask that person to leave, not just ignore it.

Personally, I would warn and then ban those that do this and remove the crap parts of comments.

Don’t let us get you down Natali People are just resistant to change is all…

I disagree about any sort of censorship, unless a comment is blatantly offensive or completely off-topic, it should stay put. Jose’s comment is a perfect example of both, and should be deleted

Although truth be told, one of my favorite things about this site is that Michael et al get some serious criticism thrown their way but they never resort to banning people or deleting anything.

Natali,
Don’t let them get to you. Keep up the good work. Seriously, I’m glad they brought new blood to the site. But please write about more web 2.0 companies.

And don’t take anything to seriously. It’s the net, you don’t know who I am, and we don’t know each other. Hell, my name probably isn’t even Jose. So no need to get offended.

Wow Allen, you sure got the right way of dealing with life.

If things aren’t right according to you might as well do the juvenile thing and delete it and outright ban them right? Let’s erect up some more walls around our little worlds and not let in any disagreements or opinions. Because, god knows, that’s what mommy has been able to do for you why can’t you do it now?

Irrelevant to TechCrunch. Perhaps stick it on the gadget site that no one reads.

speaking of dead sites, I’m sure that if Crunchboard decreased the listing fee from $200 to $25 then it would get 10-30x the number of job listings.

now this is something i want for christmas. i wonder why amazon did not carry these items earlier in the season when people where still making their shopping plans? right now, most people have either already bought their gifts or already plan to buy it somewhere else.

Alaska - please re-read what I said - I am talking about sexual, racial type comments that would not be allowed in public.

Not removing comments because you disagree with them.

TechCrunch doesn’t do many reviews about Internet startups anymore. When a review is done, it’s usually short and bland…just the company name, some name-dropping about the investors and founders, and funding amount. It’s as if you are bored to tears with doing in-depth startup reviews.

Where’s the beef? According to Michael a few weeks ago with Guy Kawasaki, you guys receive a steady stream of startups every day looking for coverage. I would expect to learn about at least one new startup a day…and to learn more than just-the-facts stats.

Please, please, please focus on introducing your readers to Internet startups again! Or write about interesting up-and-coming websites like Marcus Frind’s PlentyOfFish.com, who is a one-man band kicking the pants off of much larger paid online dating sites. I could find only a paragraph of TC coverage here: http://www.techcrunch.com/2006.....find-love/ I find it completely fascinating what Marcus is accomplishing by himself. TC’s coverage of PlentyOfFish would have you believe it is nothing special…but indeed Marcus has a hugely important and interesting story to be told and analyzed by the startup crowd.

Every non-startup story you post is yet another interesting Internet company/service you didn’t provide me and your readers an opportunity to learn about. I don’t even care if you feel the company “deserves” coverage…let your readers determine that. Also, why not post a list of all the companies that get rejected for a write-up? That would be a great source of information, too.

Reporting on the small no-name underdogs is much more interesting than yet another Google/Yahoo/Amazon/MySpace story. Your readers are more than likely to be working at the underdog companies, not at the category leaders. Help us dream our dreams as the underdogs!

I shouldn’t have to be writing this. TC is plugged into the Internet startup scene more than possibly anyone else. You are doing everyone a great disservice. You are wasting the time of the startups forwarding themselves to you, and you are sitting on information you are not sharing with your readers.

If you can’t honor the passion about startups contained in your mission statement on your About page, then be courteous and announce to everybody your new focus (or lack thereof) so we can read someone else’s blog to find leading-edge news about Internet startups.

I seem to recall a period — not long before Natali got hired — when folks were complaining (rightly IMHO) about Michael’s posts “pimping” startups no matter how trivial and mundane that they were. TC seemed to be shilling for certain start-ups. So TC (again before Natalie arrived) began to include more criticism on startups. And then we had the “youtube tool” cease and desist controversy — again a Michael post. Some folks were complaining that providing downloading tools had nothing to do with TC’s mission. But I assume that TC got a boatload of hits from that whole saga. I seem to recall over 100 comments.

Now it’s Michael’s blog and he can do what he wants. I sense perhaps a change in his vision for TC, though. Whatever. I still enjoy reading it.

And then Natali was hired. As with any employer, I assume that Natali is doing what her employer wants her to do. If the direction of TC is changing then perhaps Michael is the one who folks need to hash this out with.

I DO know that this endless pile-on on Natali and her posts and the condescending treatment of her is getting tiresome. If posters were piling all this crap on some newly hired dude, I bet that he would have already told you to f#%k off — in one way or another. Sometimes it just doesn’t pay to be polite.

So here’s my suggestion. If you’re that unhappy with TC, go read something else. Otherwise, why don’t you STFU about Natalie this and Natalie that and everything sucks.

Oh, and Michael, how about standing up for your employees? Sitting there and letting her take all the hits for your changing vision is tacky, dude.

Hang in there Natali. Don’t let the bastards get you down.

I will most probably keep an eye on amazon over the coming few days.

Yes, just in time for after holiday sales crunch. Maybe this will inject some much needed traffic toward the ‘zon affiliates.

Yup, start using the “delete comment” option liberally, Natali. Don’t feel guilty at all. It’s time to start kicking ass and taking names, girlfriend. It will all work itself out in the long-run. Some folks are just getting their jollies by using you for target practice. Pull their plug. If they don’t like it, well then they can write their congressperson.

You’re doing great, Natali…your old PC Mag crew is proud of you for what you’re doing over here on TC. I’m learning myself how stressful it is to jump feet-first into tech blogging, and I have the utmost respect for you for being able to jump right in and do it under such intense scrutiny.

gr8 news, finally I can get my Wii console! Cheers.

what is a wii…and I like xbox…:)

I’m waiting for Nintendo to drop the price to $200. Unless that doesn’t happen, which means I may be Wii-less for awhile.

“Amazon is going to start selling both game consoles “in the coming days.””

Notice coming days in quotes…should I hold my breath (which may be just as dangerous as the alternative) or should I risk being trampled on…..

Adrian
http://www.jollyjo.org

Looks like White Marketing. Or retro marketing at the best. Cool strategy of compnaies not to ceate a glut of their Gizmos.

Cool news.. i wish i have my luck in that… xbox rocks..

TechRaunch. Another worthless post. Go Amazon!

Just got an email from Amazon with the subject “An Important Message Regarding PlayStation 3 From Amazon.com” - unfortunatley the body of the email only contained the text to opt-out of future emails and nothing at all pertaining to the PS3! Not sure if they screwed up the announcement or if this was sent out pre-maturely.

To all who criticized Natali Del Conte:
All of your criticism on Natali is harsh and unfounded. How was your first week on the job? Were you an expert? This reminds me of a school bully in which you get your thrills by being cruel instead of objective.

If you have time for critcizing during this time of year to which you are expected to be nice, then perhaps you should get employed with Techcrunch and let us see what you can do.

Sorry but what a pussy you all are!

W.L - you just made it worse for Natali

I don’t understand why people get agitated so easily. If you don’t like Techcrunch just go to another blog.

I know I’ve been reading less and less of TC lately and have almost never visited Crunchgear.
Blogs are changing a lot these days. Maybe there are too many of them that I can’t give the same kind of attention I used to give or maybe I am bored of this stuff. I go anywhere I get the same stuff.

“I’m waiting for Nintendo to drop the price to $200. Unless that doesn’t happen, which means I may be Wii-less for awhile.”

Tim, you may have your wish:
http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets.....222182.php

Silvia, spam elsewhere with that broken english.

rug
rugs