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CrunchGear Week in Review: New Milkman Edition

John Biggs — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 21:00:08 +0000

It’s… a self-rolling ball Customized streetmap clocks from FluidForms USB-powered Alien figure with illuminated tongue

Condé Nast Will Officially Be Apple Tablet Ready In 2010, Apparently Without Apple’s Help

Devin Coldewey — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 02:20:31 +0000

Well done, Apple. You've finally done it. You've got the world bending the knee for a device they've never seen, and which you deny exists. Condé Nast has declared that Wired will be Apple tablet-compatible by mid-2010, although they admit that Apple hasn't actually told them how they might go about doing that. While this isn't exactly comparable to adjusting office doorway heights in case someone hires a Yeti, the parallels are clear. Of course, it's not so strange to want to streamline your product for tablet access. Make sure column flex doesn't break the layout, don't put critical links in rollover menus, that sort of thing. But if the Apple tablet is anywhere as interesting as people hope it will be, I doubt you're going to be reading Wired in a browser anyway. Quixotic would be too kind a term for what they're doing; not only are they tilting at windmills, but the windmills don't officially exist.

Word Of The Year: An Unreliable Yet Fascinating Barometer Of Tech

Devin Coldewey — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 01:30:23 +0000

The New Oxford English Dictionary has announced that 2009's Word of the Year is unfriend. While it is perhaps not used as broadly as the newly-verbed friend, the latter is already in the dictionary, so they can't very well call it new. The best they can do is run with unfriend, which implies and extends the other. A worthy choice, I think, with "currency and potential longevity," as Oxford's Senior Lexicographer puts it. It set me thinking, though: how prescient have Word of the Year choices been? Have they infallibly documented the rise of tech in mainstream language and culture? —or are they a dusty collection of buzzwords, a history of folly and haste? And really, which of those is the truer depiction of the world of technology? I examined Oxford's WotY lists going back as far as their blog documents them, and consulted a few other word-tracking sources. Unsurprisingly, the popularity and continued pertinence of new words have been as unpredictable as the technologies they describe. Still, the world from a dictionary's perspective makes for a unique retrospective.

Should Nintendo Fear The Apple Juggernaut?

Devin Coldewey — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 23:30:11 +0000

These days, when people aren't talking about the Apple Tablet, they're talking about how Apple's next target is the Big Three gaming companies. The iPhone will topple them! iPhone is a revolutionary gaming device! Well, certainly a little optimism is warranted; the iPhone has inarguably changed the landscape of mobile phones, personal media players, and to a lesser extent personal computers. Why shouldn't Apple extend its holy sovereignty to gaming? It already has, in fact. But Apple has come kicking and screaming the whole way. The iPhone, you understand, was not meant to be a gaming device, and in Cupertino, Apple's intentions are paramount. Apple could never accidentally create a platform for gaming; if it wasn't meant for gaming (or enterprise, or medical use, or reading e-books, etc.) from the beginning, Apple doesn't want it happening at all. Because if Apple didn't intend it, it's outside of the bounds they set into the platform (regardless of how well it works, much like tethering) — it breaks the mold and, ironically, that's the last thing Apple wants. And there are plenty other reasons not to expect Apple to jump into the gaming arena any time soon.

Twitter, Facebook Come To Xbox 360 On Nov. 17

Nicholas Deleon — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 19:49:02 +0000

As of next Tuesday, November 17, you'll be able to access Twitter and Facebook on your Xbox 360. The software update is free, like previous updates, and also includes Last.fm and Zune video compatibility. “What are you doing?” “Losing to 12-year-olds in Modern Warfare 2 over and over again! Not fun.” The idea, I guess, is that you'll be able let your friends know just how much fun you're having while playing the latest game, or streaming the latest Netflix release, without having to go through the trouble of whipping out your phone or walking over to your computer. I see it as a convenience and nothing more. It may also mean that there's nothing you can to do stop Twitter's worldwide dominance.

Facebook Coming To PS3 In Mystery Update

Devin Coldewey — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 01:40:08 +0000

Some leaked screenshots from Sony show a PS3 running with what looks like a native Facebook client configurable. There's also a new photo browser and the ability to change the color of your gamercard, but at those features I make a dismissive gesture— thusly. A Facebook app would be handy, though a constant stream of status updates from heavy players might be lead to mutings by less gaming-orientated friends. "Devin found a new item!" There's one small picture of Facebook on the PS3 (yes, that's all there is), and it's not even of a client. It's a user accounts configuration screen that happens to include Facebook. So it's not much to look at, but it was traced to Sony UK's site, so we're pretty sure it's legit. Sony "doesn't comment on rumor or speculation," obviously, so we won't be hearing from them, but it would be ridiculous to think that a all-in-one entertainment device like the PS3 wouldn't have Facebook on it eventually.

Google Expands Free Holiday WiFi Program To 47 Airports

Devin Coldewey — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:37:20 +0000

Well, the spirit of giving arrived a little early this year! For my birthday last month, Google announced it was partnering to offer free Wi-Fi on all Virgin America flights until January 15th. Great, thanks Google, now I have to check the feeds even while flying at 500MPH. But I guess that just wasn't enough kindness to satisfy the Goog. They've just announced that they're going to be extending the free Wi-Fi to 47 entire airports. And not only that, but there's a raft of giveaways, charity matching, and other nonsense in the bargain as well. I'm starting to think that it's not "Don't be evil" so much as "Give away enough stuff that people forget about the evil." Maybe that's disingenuous. In fact, I'm sure it is. Oh well, 'tis the season for moral ambiguity.

Exclusive Video Of The Litl Webbook

Doug Aamoth — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 21:37:07 +0000

When news of the Litl Webbook broke out on Wednesday, I was pleased to learn that the company is located here in Boston, since there aren't nearly as many people in this area making actual hardware devices, as opposed to software and web companies. I got a chance to sit down with CEO John Chuang for a thorough overview of the Webbook, so check out the video inside for some information about the design philosophy and user interface behind the $699 transforming internet computer.

Dual-Screen OLPC Design Binned; Get Ready For The OLPC Tablet

Devin Coldewey — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 03:00:30 +0000

The One Laptop Per Child project has seen mixed success. With competition from similar, but more familiar-looking items from Intel and others, the OLPC found itself suddenly competing in a market it had no intention of entering. But they're out there, they've had some serious orders, and despite some other speed bumps, has certainly lent a hand in increasing computer literacy in the developing world. You may remember that the sequel to the XO laptop, as the OLPC hardware was actually called, was spied at Davos in January after its initial debut in May of 2008. It was noted at the time that there was some doubt as to whether it would be made, and now those doubts have come to glorious anti-fruition. The XO-2 is dead — but only because Negroponte decided it should be a tablet.

Sorenson’s Squeeze 6: A Connected Media Encoding And Distribution Platform

Devin Coldewey — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 01:20:37 +0000

A couple weeks ago, a friend of mine came to me with a problem. The British distribution company handling his music video was shockingly backwards in its formatting, and was asking for a Real Media encode of the video. They didn't specify bitrate, resolution, where it would be shown, or anything like that. Quicktime was being a bother, and we needed to use my PC to do a few encodes at this or that specification. We ended up running it through in Vegas, and going to grab a coffee while it churned out the frames. Now, the point is not that you need a PC to encode heinous old formats, but rather that digital distribution is a weird, complex process that could use a bit of simplification. Sorenson's Squeeze 6 appears to go to some lengths to make this happen. It's far from the only encoding platform out there, but I think they're moving the right direction with this version, which not only integrates tightly with your Mac, but also with SMS, Twitter, and other popular services. After all, there's no guarantee that you're going to be working in the same office, or even the same country, as people who need to be informed every step of the way. (link fixed)

NSA Datacenters To Store Yottabytes Of Surveillance Data

Devin Coldewey — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 02:30:32 +0000

There's an interesting article in the current New York Review of books (predictably, a book review) detailing the history of the National Security Agency, that shadowy power-behind-the-power to which we surrender much of our privacy. That in itself is interesting, but I found the introduction a bit shocking: the NSA is constructing a datacenter in the Utah desert that they project will be storing yottabytes of surveillance data. And what is a yottabyte? I'm glad you asked. There are a thousand gigabytes in a terabyte, a thousand terabytes in a petabyte, a thousand petabytes in an exabyte, a thousand exabytes in a zettabyte, and a thousand zettabytes in a yottabyte. In other words, a yottabyte is 1,000,000,000,000,000GB. Are you paranoid yet? The more salient question is, of course, what are they storing that, by some estimates, is going take up thousands of times more space than all the world's known computers combined? Don't think they're going to say; they didn't grow to their current level of shadowy omniscience by disclosing things like that to the public.

CrunchGear Week in Review: Monster Mash Edition

John Biggs — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 20:52:46 +0000

Here are some stories you might have missed this week on CrunchGear. All about the Motorola Droid Helmet radar: coming to a supersoldier near you Spooky Tesla Radio in a jar

CrunchGear Week in Review: By Cell Light Edition

John Biggs — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 17:39:31 +0000

Here's a look at what happened on CrunchGear this week: The real life Burger King Windows 7 Whopper is a disgusting joke to humanity Quick Look: 13.3-inch Acer Timeline Orchestral movements by LCD light

Interview: Talking To The Rentals’ Matt Sharp About His Music And Photography

Nicholas Deleon — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 17:52:54 +0000

I spoke to Matt Sharp, founder and frontman of The Rentals, a few weeks back as a result of my weird fascination with film photography. (Incidentally, I have Louis CK, who you can now see on Parks and Recreation every week on NBC, to thank for my initial interest in film.) Current fans of the band know that it's been working on a yearlong project known as Songs About Time. Rather than going through the standard rigamarole of recording an album in a secluded studio, then touring to support it (not to mention dealing with the apparently crazy record labels), Sharp and Co. came up with a different idea: how about, instead of one big album, which is so start-stop, we sprinkle a few EPs throughout the year, and document our days together for our fans in the form of short movies and frequent photographs? Or, in Matt's own words:

The project is one year in photography, film, and music that's all coming, in real time, on our Web site. There's not a better word for it than a multimedia project, but we have one element of the site that deals with photography, one part that deals with film, and one part that deals with music. At times they intersect and feed off each other, and have a cyclical, creative rhythm.

This Is Why Apple’s iFrame Is A Bad Idea

Devin Coldewey — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 23:34:37 +0000

Yesterday, word got out of Apple's new iFrame standard, which purports to expedite video editing by keeping the video in "the same format used on a computer." Really, it's nothing but a resolution and wrapper. So why am I losing my mind over it? Because the way iFrame is being positioned and propagated is misleading and harmful to consumers. Oh I know, what an alarmist, right? It's just a video format! But with personal video becoming more and more ubiquitous and invading class after class of gadgets, these former trivialities are becoming more important by the day. And for once, we are actually gravitating towards a couple unified standards in both encoding and resolution — and then Apple butts in with this ugly stepchild of a format.

iTunes LP $10,000 Fee Too Much For You? Make Your Own

Devin Coldewey — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 22:41:54 +0000

The whole world was bullish on iTunes LPs when they were announced; I called it a black eye for the majors, whose CMX format has yet to be popularized. But the hype was curbed when it was discovered that there was a $10,000 fee associated with the service, putting it completely out of reach for less affluent artists and small labels who can't afford that price for promotion. Luckily for them, Apple was nice enough to make the format rather basic. It turns out anyone versed in a little HTML and Javascript can put together an LP that's just as good as a "real" one. It's not as simple as drag-and-drop, and without Apple's proprietary TuneKit library, some functionality is difficult or impossible to replicate at this point. But iTunesLP.net is trying to collect all the information you need into a few tutorials and demo files.

Internet Archaeology: In Which The Internet’s Sordid Past Is Preserved And Curated

Devin Coldewey — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 22:35:55 +0000

It wasn't long ago that we heard about the imminent demise of one of the net's most infamous and venerable sites: Geocities. At the time, we could see the pendulum hanging from the rafters, but earlier this week it was set a-swinging and the site will die quietly and gallantly on October 26th. Of course, while the sites will no longer be accessible at Geocities itself, they will be preserved in our hearts — and on the Internet Archive, of course.

This Is What Happens When Your Mother-In-Law Uses Internet Explorer 6

Matt Burns — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 20:17:13 +0000

I removed IE from the desktop, taskbar, Start Menu, and even hid the icon in Windows Explorer. I then installed Firefox and Chrome and renamed them both "Internet." But yet somehow my mother-in-law still found a way to use Internet Explorer and wonders why her computer runs like poo. Oh, and she wants to keep all of the toolbars. She uses them.

The Windows 7 Launch Party Video Was Not An Isolated Incident; They Have Party Favors!

Devin Coldewey — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 19:25:17 +0000

It was only two weeks ago that the Windows 7 Launch Party video cut a burning swath across the internet, leaving only scorched sensibilities and a feeling that you'd lost something fundamental never to be regained. We lied to ourselves then that it couldn't be more than a blip on the radar, a PR pitch gone awry and furtively uploaded, unfit for human consumption as it was — a tainted morsel of the promotional meat grinder. And to be honest, I was ready to let it lie. But it wasn't just a morsel. Little did we know, the Windows 7 launch sausage factory would be squeezing gristle into our inboxes regularly — and now they've gone and sent us party favors.

Microsoft Demos Prototype Multi-Touch Mice

Devin Coldewey — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 21:50:20 +0000

The other day, I went on a short tour of some of Microsoft's Labs, where they do everything from rapid prototypes of new products to acoustic testing in anechoic chambers. Most of my time was spent in the Applied Sciences group's labs, where they are working on some seriously interesting devices. And they're not just into mice; in fact, the lab's specialty seemed to be anything to do with optics and/or input. This lab worked on Project Natal, and also on the pressure-sensitive keyboard I wrote about a while back. They were kind enough to show me all these crazy multi-touch mice, and, when I was too inept to demo even one of them solo, offered to go through them with me on video.

A Handheld Sega Genesis For the Ages

Devin Coldewey — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 20:04:52 +0000

PSP what? Nobody cares about that old thing. Honestly, do you want to carry around yet another heavy, fragile, state-of-the-art toy? No. What you need (what this country needs) is a cheap little handheld Genesis sporting 20 of the system's greatest semi-hits. No need to worry about managed copies, DRM, firmware updates, or UMD transfer — just hit the power button and you'll be playing Altered Beast or Sonic & Knuckles before you can say "Seeegaaaa!" It's Saturday. Relax and check out the video while you digest brunch.

Microsoft Courier Gets Demonstrated More Fully, Limitations Suggested

Devin Coldewey — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 23:15:28 +0000

The trickle of news about Microsoft's Courier device continues, and this time there's a bit more of a realistic walkthrough. The device is being shown to be much more of a next-generation notepad than all-purpose tablet, and that's probably for the best; Microsoft overreaching with a device like this could result in a real crash and burn. I suppose the best way to picture the Courier is just as a web-connected organizer — you know, one of those leather-bound ones that business people used to have, and which the Courier seems clearly designed after. Of course, with an internet connection and full-color touchscreen, much more is enabled and the device becomes much more complicated. Microsoft's (and Pioneer's) task has been to pare that down to a product, and it really looks like they've done it right. Still all renders, though.

Disney To Put An End To Those Pesky Paper Books By Putting Them Online

John Biggs — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 13:39:59 +0000

As a parent I love a little one-on-one time with the son and daughter in front of a good book. What I don’t like are those crap-gasmic Disney books that float through every child’s book collection, titles like “The Jungle Book” that are basically advertisements for the movies. And what I really don’t like is this new initiative by Disney and their partner to suck the life out of even those abhorrent configurations of words.

That said, you can probably tell what I think of these online versions of over 500 Disney books available now at DisneyDigitalBooks. Kids can read over 500 Disney books, make their own books, and even “befriend Disney characters,” as creepy as that sounds.

The books appear on-screen on your laptop and you can click on words for pronunciation. That’s right. It’s a book on a laptop. It features Disney characters. But what, there’s more.

You can add up to three kids for $8.95 per month or $79 for the year. $8.95 so your kid can prop a laptop on your kids bed and let him or her read Toy Story while you fix yourself a Tom Collins. Seriously. Is this what Disney wants? We have enough trouble convincing the kids not to ask to play Mario Kart Wii all day let alone equate reading with dragging a pointer across a laptop screen.

Add in wonky stuff like this request for a D-Name and the fact that this automatically enrolls you into Disney.com, entitling you to free spam, is an extra bit of insult to injury.

Maybe I’m old fashioned but is my outrage justified here? I agree that I’m a bit hypocritical in my adoration of the Kindle but after a certain point reading becomes a solitary pleasure. However, during the short window between birth and the age of gaining the ability to amuse oneself, there is a period when human interaction in front of a dog-eared, garage sale copy of “The Poky Little Puppy” is a small, good thing.

Oh, ok, that makes sense. Thanks.

CrunchBase Information

The Walt Disney Company

Information provided by CrunchBase

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Lighthouse SQ 7: A “Social Media Tablet” With Voice Recognition

Devin Coldewey — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 23:55:43 +0000

Social media applications are increasingly abstracted from their web-app roots, be it in Adobe air or an iPhone app. Devices like the Chumby have made some inroads towards completely breaking something like Facebook away from your desktop, but they haven't been popular enough or good enough to catch on. I doubt that will change too much with the Lighthouse SQ7, but I'd be happy to be proved wrong. It's just that incorporating voice recognition technology into your device seems like overreaching, as cool as it would be if it worked. At any rate, it's good to see companies still plugging away at what seems like a sort of awkward tweener device, but honestly, one I might like to have around. A combination alarm clock, social media doodad, and lightweight browser — fitting somewhere on the twisted continuum between tablet computer and digital picture frame.

Paramount Proprietor Polemicizes Poorly On Piracy At Public Policy Presentation

Devin Coldewey — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 01:15:57 +0000

In what was ostensibly a meeting of the majors last week to advise the FCC on broadband policy, the COO of Paramount was allowed to wax ignorant for 10 minutes on piracy and file-sharing technology. As a major content provider, they should certainly have some input, but this was sheer soap-boxery. Sure, peer to peer and torrent traffic (legal and otherwise) is going to be a major driver of broadband adoption and major consumer of the resource, but Paramount's contribution to the discussion didn't limit itself to germane observation and reasonable speculation. On the upside, we have a fabulous new quote on the level of Ted Stevens' "series of tubes" that demonstrates how utterly out of touch people like Paramount's COO are with actual Internet terminology and capabilities. Behold:

"We are uploading it essentially to a 'cyber locker,' which is nothing more than electronic locker on the Internet."

Mr. Huntsberry, we are in your debt for this immortal chestnut of cyber-wisdom. That's nothing more than electronic wisdom on the Internet, for those of you who don't know.