Friday, June 12, 2009

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Holocaust Museum Death Won't Change Facebook's Mind On Hate - But Advertisers May Be Able To Top
Earlier this week a Holocaust denier shot and killed a guard at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC. Facebook didn’t change its policy on allowing Holocaus denial groups , even though one group quickly put up a cartoon mocking the event. If attacks on Jews by Holocaust deniers won’t be enough to sway Facebook that this is all hate speech, perhaps angry advertisers will do the trick. Brian Cuban has been tracking advertisers who have insisted their ads don’t show up anywhere near Holocaust denial pages on Facebook, and at least one who doesn’t want ads to be placed on profiles of people who are members of such groups. Vodafone, Tesco, American Airlines and Domino’s Pizza have pulled advertising, says Cuban. Domino’s Pizza’s Social Media Specialist Phil Lozen wrote to Cuban saying that “initially, Facebook was pushing back on their ability to block ads” from some of the pages. But as of today even pages showing search results for hate groups won’t have Dominoes ads. He also says that Dominoes would not have purchased ads at all if they knew of the possibility of their ads appearing near Holocaust denial pages. What we really need are a set of large advertisers to boycott Facebook entirely until these groups are banned. There’s a reason why eBay and other private companies won’t let this kind of hate speech on their sites. It’s bad for business. And as soon as Facebook realizes that, they’ll change their policy. Then look for lots of talk from Facebook employees about how proud they are that their company did the right thing - [insert current policy here]. And for those of you who will argue that the best way to handle hate is to shine a light on it, debate these people openly, and generally assume that reason will prevail: you’re wrong. Read this USA Today opinion piece that is talking about the steady rise of hate groups in the U.S. - “the Internet gives formerly isolated racists, whether individuals or small groups, a means to stoke one another’s smoldering anger. With the ready availability of weapons, even a single person can do enormous harm.” Crunch Network : CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
 
Dotcom Hangover: Amazon Pays $51 Million To End Long-Standing Battle With Toys "R" Us Top
Back at the height of the dotcom bubble, Amazon was signing lucrative deals with traditional retailers to be their online store. One of the biggest such deals was with Toys “R” Us. It was announced with much fanfare in 2000 and was supposed to last a decade. Toys “R” US would handle the toy buying and inventory management, Amazon would handle the Website. It made sense until, oh, about 2004, when Toys “R” us filed a lawsuit for breach of contract. While Amazon was perfectly happy to be the exclusive online presence for Toys “R” Us, it didn’t feel that it had agreed to make Toys “R” Us the exclusive of provider of toys on Amazon. A New Jersey court ruled in favor of Toys “R” Us back in 2006 . But only yesterday did Amazon finally settle with Toys “R” Us, agreeing to pay $51 million. In an SEC filing Amazon states: On June 11, 2009, Amazon.com entered into a settlement agreement in its lawsuit with Toys "R" Us, Inc., and its affiliates, with terms that include, among other things, (i) a one-time payment from Amazon.com of $51 million in the third quarter 2009, substantially all of which was unanticipated and will be charged to "Other operating expense" in the second quarter, (ii) dismissal of all claims and counterclaims, and (iii) mutual releases. Nine years after the initial agreement, that particular dotcom hangover is finally over. It lasted almost as long as the original deal was supposed to be. The lesson here: don’t hand a key part of your business to someone else, especially if it is where your growth is going to be coming from. That is the same as handing control over your destiny to someone else. (Photo credit: Flickr/ Daniel Chan ). Crunch Network : CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
 
Why Europe Won't Go Browserless This Fall Top
The web is currently ablaze with headlines that IE8 will not be included in the European release of Windows this fall. In fact, no browser at all is going to be included with the latest version of Microsoft’s operating system. No, Hell has not frozen over — the news is the result of Microsoft’s longstanding (and very costly) antitrust issues with the European Commission. And it has everyone, from the regulators to consumers to IE competitors, very upset. Fortunately, it seems like this is much ado about nothing. The way some people are portraying it, it’s as if millions of computer users are suddenly going to be left Internet-less, isolated on their home PCs without any hope of ever reaching the web beyond. But an important statistic that some major news outlets are failing to highlight (though most others are pointing out ) is that the vast majority of people won’t notice the change at all. That’s because PC makers — your Dells, HPs, etc. — will be able to install IE8 before their computers ever reach the consumer. And you can be sure that for nearly all of computers they sell, they’re going to do just that. But what about that 5% of users that are buying the the OS in a retail store? For one, consider the fact that many of the people taking the initiative to actually go out and buy Windows 7 are perfectly capable of finding a way to install Firefox or IE on their computers. But what about everyone else? Microsoft has made it clear that it’s going to offer IE on an “ easy-to-install basis “, which includes distribution via “via CD, FTP, and retail channels”. In other words, every single computer store you walk into is going to have giant displays inviting you to grab your Internet Explorer pack. At checkout, your friendly clerk is going to remind you to make sure you grab one. If you find yourself walking out of the store without an IE CD, it’s almost certainly because you made the decision not to. In the incredible event that you do install the OS and can’t figure out where your browser went, there will likely be a hotline at Microsoft dedicated to answering this exact question. No, it’s not going to be especially user-friendly (at least compared to having the application pre-installed). But this is hardly going to be a crisis. Now, it’s easy to decry Microsoft for this move, but it’s also pretty easy to understand why they’re doing it. The company is eager to launch Windows 7 on time, and it isn’t too keen to hand over another 1.7 billion euros in fines. It also doesn’t want to resort to the so-called “ ballot screen which would present a list of alternative browsers during the OS’s first boot, which is one of the solutions being proposed. Microsoft may work out (or be forced to use) an alternative solution, but in the mean time this should help the company avoid any further fines. It’s also a way for Microsoft to effectively tell the European Commission to piss off. Crunch Network : CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
 
Review: Kindle DX Top
Another month, another version of the Kindle . I've been using a Kindle since it was shaped like a very thin doorstop and I'm delighted each time I see a new version. The latest version is the DX , a monstrous 9-inch version of the smaller Kindle 2 that supports direct PDF reading without conversion. Why am I interested in the Kindle? Well, I already have a first-gen Kindle so I'm not too keen on upgrading immediately. But I've been waiting for Amazon to solve something with the Kindle DX that has been nagging me for quite a while. You see, I have a problem. I don't want to read the New York Times on paper anymore but paper seems like the only logical way to read it. Reading the newspaper on a gadget is rude and dangerous - especially with toddlers around the house. It's a tough sell to have a gadget at the breakfast table. But then I know that I'll never read it on the desktop whether through the Times Reader or any other source. So the DX sounded great. It has all of the features of the current Kindle plus rotational sensing and a beautiful, huge screen that might just fit the entire NYT front page and not just one article. So that's why I wanted to see the DX.
 
Gliider Makes Makes Trip Planning A Breeze Top
At Launch Silicon Valley this past week, I saw a demo of Gliider, a Firefox plug-in and tool that allows you to drag and drop travel information you collect from around the web. The video explains the concept behind Gliider, which is still in private beta, fairly well. While the travel 2.0 space is nearly saturated with a plethora of competitive products, Gliider’s tool is incredibly useful and its focus is narrow (Gliider only wants to help users with planning), which could make it standout in the crowd. After you download the plug-in, you can pop-out the Gliider trip planner box from your browser when you need it. Within the planner box, you can create a trip, specify where you are traveling to (Gliider’s search box offers auto suggestions), and when you plan to go. Gliider will automatically create folders for each type of information, including flights, hotels, shopping, transport and food. You can also create customized folders. When you come across useful travel info, like hotel, restaurant, or flight listings, you can highlight the text and images and simply drag and drop the info into the box. Once the item is in the organizer, you can make insert comments to each item. It replaces bookmarking for travel and automatically organizes links, sites, and listings for you. Once you’ve finished the planning process of a trip, Gliider will email you all your details in a PDF file. The startup will also be rolling out a iPhone app that will let you view your planned trips. Gliider’s proprietary technology will read where and when you will be traveling and provide customized hotel deals for you. And Gliider will also track hotel deals, letting you know when a price goes up or down. The tool doesn’t yet do the same for flights, which would also be a useful item to track. Gliider will soon have a “ask around” feature, which via Facebook Connect, will let you solicit advice on a trip or listing from your Facebook friends. Gliider mainly makes money from affiliate fees—when they suggest deals (they have a partnership with Expedia) and a user clicks to the deal and books, Gliider will get a cut from the purchase. The startup’s CEO and co-founder Jordan Stopler, declined to say how much they receive in these deals but also added that the startup will be offering deals on flights as well in the future. Gliider will also be adding functionality for IE8 soon. The most obvious and serious competitor to Gliider in this space is TripIt, a popular travel site (and one that Mike can’t live without ) that lets you generate an itinerary by simply forwarding the service your email confirmations from hotels and airlines. NileGuide also is similar in function. But the beauty of Gliider is that it’s solely focused on planning a trip and not on creating a step by step itinerary for travelers. And the fact that Gliider is a plug-in makes it easy to access and integrate with the browser experience. Crunch Network : CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
 
Twitter Moves Up The Twitpocalypse. All Hell May Break Loose Today. Top
Twitter users, the Twitpocalypse is upon us. Twitpocalypse is the name given to a bug that’s about to be exposed. Apparently, it’s similar to the Y2K bug in its nature, and stems from the fact that every tweet sent out has a unique numeric identifier. This identifier is about to hit 2,147,483,647. This number is the signed integer limit and apparently when some third-party Twitter clients start hitting it, the identifiers will start turning negative, and those apps are likely to crash as a result. This crash was supposed to happen sometime tomorrow, according to the countdown, but it looks like Twitter has just moved up the Twitpocalypse time to 21:00 GMT, which is 2 PM Pacific/5PM Eastern time today. Yes, in a couple hours. They’re forcing the failure now so that all hands are on deck working on the issue, rather than having it go down in the middle of the night. This Google Group thread run by some developers working at Twitter explains more. Engineer Matt Sanford originally explained: The overflow of the 32-bit signed integer value for status ids (a.k.a “The Twitpocalypse” [1]) is fast approaching. The current estimate is around tomorrow at around 11am GMT, or 3:00am Pacific time in the case of Twitter. There is some discussion internally about  accelerating things so we’ll be in the office and able to cope. Nobody is their freshest at 3:00am, not to mention it would be nice to not have apps broken throughout the weekend if one-person developer teams don’t notice. No decision has been made yet but I wanted to get something out to you all so you know what’s going on in the event we decide to do this. But now is saying: The responses to @twitterapi and all discussions internally show a preference to not waiting until the middle of the night. The current plan is to force this issue at 21:00 GMT (2:00pm Pacific/5:00pm Eastern for those in the US). This will let us make sure we have all staff available in the unlikely event something goes wrong on our end. We’ll also be available when people who don’t follow the twitter-dev-talk list start reporting errors. While we did warn developers about the Twitpocalypse I’m sorry we didn’t think about setting a drop-dead date and scheduling this previously. We’ll keep trying to improve on warnings like this. Good night, and good luck. So yeah, be prepared for some Twitter apps to fail in about 2 hours. Hopefully Twitter will be able to resolve this quickly. Update : It’s possibly a coincidence, but Twitter has just welcomed two new members to its API team today. Is Twitter manning up for the battle? Update 2 : It’s now past 2 PM and no reports of massive failures yet. Perhaps this really is just like Y2K. Update 3 : Here’s an update from Twitter developer Doug Williams: Just an update, there is a lot of coordination that it takes to pull something like this off. We need the operations team to watch the servers and application. The services team to work closely with the ops folks to ensure that any problems on our end are properly tracked and fixed. And Matt is running around coordinating the entire effort. That said, the deadline may slip a bit as we work to ensure that we’ve covered our bases, and that the engineering team is ready to react to unforeseen problems. Doing what we can to keep the tweets flowing. CrunchBase Information Twitter Information provided by CrunchBase Crunch Network : CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
 
Help CrunchGear Raise Money For the Child's Play Charity Top
Here's a quick update on this year's Wiimbledon , folks. If you're unable to make the event in Brooklyn on June 27th and you still want to help CrunchGear raise money for Child's Play then donate your used gadgets to Gazelle. We've set up a "Gazelle for Goods" page and we're hoping to raise $2500 for Penny Arcade's charity, Child's Play. Go dig into your desk drawers and find some old gadgets to donate! Don't forget to sign up at Eventbrite if you want to play in the tournament and remember, it doesn't cost anything to attend. Wiimbledon Gazelle
 
Interview: Ben Heckendorn, Console Modder Top
I recently sat down with the king of gadget modders, Benjamin J. Heckendorn . Ben recently spoke at the Games for Health conference here in Boston, where he talked a bit about his Access Controller , which was born from a request for a controller that could be used with one hand by a soldier who had lost his arm in combat. Heckendorn also brought up the idea that Microsoft ought to make a "Brain Box" available for the Xbox 360, which would enable people to make their own controllers without having to deal with licensing issues. Microsoft would still make money by licensing and selling the Brain Box, while hackers and modders would be free to create unique controllers like the Access Controller without having to go through the expense and legal trouble of getting the controllers approved for retail sale. Sort of a standardized peripheral concept, if you will.
 
This Is Getting Ridiculous: Startups Already Trying To "Assetize" Facebook Vanity URLs Top
Facebook vanity URLs may not be here just yet, but that isn’t preventing startups from readying offerings that aim to complement them (or you could say piggy-back on them). Assetize , for one, is readying its account username marketplace for the highly-anticipated-in-some-circles unique addresses. Coinciding with the impending introduction of unique Facebook URLs for the masses ( at 12:01 AM Eastern Time tonight ), Assetize will enable users to buy and sell them much like you can with regular website addresses on so-called domain name after-markets. The startup already provides the same service for a variety of other accounts, such as Twitter, Gmail and Ning, and will now be adding Facebook to its roster. As Facebook noted in its blog post announcing the upcoming availability of the unique addresses, it’s not possible to change or transfer vanity URLs. This doesn’t pose a problem, says Assetize, because you’re still able to buy and sell ‘access’ to the account, i.e. your login credentials. In related news, SocialToo is jumping on the Facebook vanity URL bandwagon too, by offering its users a way to get a bunch of analytics on their Facebook profiles, like which browsers visitors to the account are using, where they’re located, and where they’re clicking from (if available). All a user would need to do is register for the service, click on the link to get a special code from Facebook, provide the code along with a SocialToo username and password (the username will be what their vanity URLs will be based on), and click submit. Next time they log in, they’ll see a new “SocialStats” tab with statistics for their URL. Crunch Network : CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
 
YouTube and Yahoo Logos Offer One Last Reminder About The TV Broadcast Transition Top
If you’re reading this, chances are you haven’t been using an over-the-air antenna to get analog television service for quite some time. I’m not even sure I’ve seen the “rabbit ears” since the 80s. But just in case you are one of the rumored 6 million Americans who aren’t ready for the switch from analog to digital, Yahoo and YouTube are doing their part to remind you. Both sites feature analog-to-digital logos to mark the transition that happens today. While YouTube’s is purely cosmetic, Yahoo was nice enough to link its to a site that gives users more details about the switch. But again, I’m not sure that at this point if you’ve missed the notice after notice that the transition was happening, that’s you’re surfing Yahoo either — or own a computer, or even watch TV. The U.S. government started a $1.2 billion campaign in 2007 to let people know about the switch. But somehow all that time and money still wasn’t enough as Congress had to delay the transition in February (when it was supposed to occur) and give the program more money. Now that the transition is finally happening, the companies that bid on that spectrum last year can finally start actually using it. The auction of those airwaves by the FCC raised nearly $20 billion , with Verizon taking a large chunk of the coveted C-block. You probably remember hearing about the auction on a lot of tech sites because Google threw down the gauntlet early on and promised to pledge at least $4.6 billion towards a part of the spectrum. It didn’t end up winning any part, but by raising the stakes, Google no doubt helped ensure that the minimum bid was met — because the thought of Google winning a huge chunk of wireless airspace that it could use for a number of things, including mobile communication, likely scared the hell out of the giant telcos. And Google also pushed hard to make sure that no matter who won the bidding, that the spectrum was “open,” meaning any company’s products and services could be used on it. Products and services like the ones Google provides. While Google of course owns YouTube, it’s own logo doesn’t reflect the transition today. Perhaps it realizes that the vast majority of its users probably haven’t been in danger of being effected by it since the 80s. Crunch Network : MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
 
Shutterfly Finally Adds Video Sharing Top
Shutterfly, an online photo sharing and printing site, is adding video capability to its photo sharing sites. Shutterfly is using video hosting site Motionbox to power its video sharing service. So when you upload a video to your Shutterfly Share site, it will also be stored in your Motionbox account. If you upload to Motionbox directly, you will be given the option to post your video to your Shutterfly Share site. Users can also share videos to social networking sites including Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and Blogger can upgrade for unlimited video storage and HD-quality playback. The free account is a little limiting for storage—you can only upload ten video clips. For $30 per year, you can have a premium subscription which allows higher file size limits, unlimited video downloads and HD-quality playback. I’m assuming that Shutterfly will monetize the addition of videos by offering customized DVDs of clips. Currently, the company offers users a variety or printing services where users can not only print their photos, but also create cards, mugs, invitations, apparel and more with photos emblazoned on each item. But I’m not sure how else Shutterfly can make money off of the video component. Shutterfly, which IPO’d in 2006, is playing catch up to other more popular photo sharing sites, like Flickr and Photobucket, which both host video as well as photos. Even Facebook is becoming the go-to destination to share photos and videos. But Shutterfly, a vestige of the dot-com boom and bust, has managed to survive, despite being in an ultra competitive space that’s chock full of similar offerings and products. Crunch Network : CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
 
Flickr Tests Twitter Integration With Email Uploads Top
Watch out TwitPic, Flickr is finally waking up to the power of letting users share links to their photos over Twitter. Flickr members can now sign up for the Flickr Twitter Beta , which allows them to link their Flickr and Twitter accounts (using Oauth) to their send out a Tweet whenever they upload a new photo via email. Here is an example from a Twitter employee (see screenshot), which then links to this photo on Flickr. This only works for email uploads right now. Flickr gives you a special @photos.flickr.com email address which allows you to email photos directly into your Flickr stream from your mobile phone or desktop email. If you want to Tweet out a photo, you simply add “2twitter” at the end of your special email address before the @ sign. It is a bit kludgy. (Why not just add it as a feature to a mobile Flickr app instead?) But once you set it up, it is pretty easy. I just tried it myself. There is nothing like T weeting out a photo to get an instant response. This is just a taste of where Flickr might be going. Right now, you can’t choose to Tweet out photos you upload directly to the Website (yet). But the beta test points in that direction. Flickr is using its own shortened URL (http://flic.kr). And it is letting users choose which photos to share via Twitter instead of automatically sharing all uploaded photos, which is the right way to do it. (Hat tip to Ouriel, who has a more complicated way to do the same thing via Twitterfeed). Crunch Network : CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
 
Browser Wars Continue: Apple Claims 11 Million Downloads For New Safari In 3 Days Top
Opera may be reinventing the web next week , but in the meantime the browser wars continue to rage on. Apple has come out with a news release claiming its latest browser, Safari 4 , has topped 11 million downloads in the first three days of its release . Surprisingly, it also claims over half of those (or 6 million to be specific) were the Windows version of the program. Apple continues to tout the speed of its browser, claiming that it loads HTML pages 3 times faster than both Firefox 3 and IE8, and that the new Nitro JavaScript engine executes JavaScript nearly 8 times faster than IE 8 and more than four times faster than Mozilla’s latest browser version. On a related note, Apple also says in the upcoming Mac OS X Snow Leopard release, Safari will run as a 64-bit application, boosting the performance of the Nitro JavaScript engine by up to 50 %. As Erick has stated before , the discussion regarding which company now markets the fastest browser - I’m sticking to Google Chrome - is irrelevant as long as all of them speed up. Crunch Network : CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
 
Next Week, Opera Claims It Will "Reinvent The Web" Top
We’ve heard the phrase ‘reinventing the web’ too many times already, so we’re wary of Opera’s claims, but this made us curious anyhow. The browser maker has just unveiled Opera 10 in beta , so it could be taking the wraps off the product and taking it public rather quickly. Or it could be something entirely different. Opera users don’t seem to know what’s going on either. We’ve asked the company for clarity, although we don’t expect a clarifying response at all. We’ll just have to wait until June 16th; everyone can stop doing whatever it is they are doing on the current Web for now until Opera is ready with the new version. In the meantime, anyone care to venture a guess? And no, it’s likely not the Internet on a stick. Crunch Network : CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
 
A Recipe Site Goes IPO, In Japan (Cookpad) Top
It seems that even in this downturn, there is still room for tech IPOs, at least in Japan. Cookpad [JP], the nation’s biggest site for sharing recipes, today announced it will be listed in the “Mothers” section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange on July 17. Cookpad was launched as early as 1997 by the Tokyo-based company of the same name. The Japanese-only site now offers nearly 560,000 different recipes (submitted by users) and saw a whopping 351 million page views last month, generated by 6.8 million unique visitors. By way of comparison, one of America’s leading recipe sites, Allrecipes.com , claims it has almost double that number, but Google Trends shows there isn’t too much of difference. Targeting mostly Japanese women in their 20s and 30s, Cookpad makes a decent amount of money. The site expects $18.5 million in revenues and $3.6 million net profit for the current fiscal year (that ends April 2010). Basic membership is free, but users can opt-in for a premium version ($3 monthly) to get access to more functions. Additional money comes in via display ads. More information (in English) about the site can be found here . The “Mothers” section for high-growth startup companies is the same in which Japanese site GREE , a mobile-only social gaming service that went IPO in December last year , achieved a market cap of $1.3 billion on its first day. GREE and Cookpad going IPO is good news for the Japanese web industry, which targets the third biggest Internet population in the world. Crunch Network : CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
 
Online Furniture Outlet MyFab Raises An Extra €5 Million Top
Paris-based MyFab has just raised €5 million ($7 million) in a second round, coming from previous investor Alven Capital and led by BV Capital. The total amount invested in the company is now €7 million ($8.9 million). MyFab - which is currently available only in French and German - is an interesting e-commerce play in that its mission consists of cutting out all middlemen in the process of consumers buying furniture. According to the company big furniture brands - particularly those wearing the 'design' hat - often outsource the whole manufacturing process of sofas, lamps, etc. to factories in foreign countries and charge ridiculous prices for the end-product compared to the total cost of production.
 
WizeHive Shaping Up To Become A Powerful Collaboration Tool Top
At the end of last year, we talked about and gave away some beta invites for newcomer WizeHive , a group messaging and task management app that rivals the likes of Yammer, Present.ly, Producteev and to some degree even more full-fledged collaboration services like BaseCamp and Central Desktop. Since then, founders Mike Carson and Michael Levinson - the latter is also founder of DreamIt Ventures - have been bootstrapping their way to a pretty powerful business tool boasting a lot of useful features. One recently added feature is push/pull integration with Twitter , which enables users to perform certain actions like creating tasks and notes from individual Twitter accounts, with the additional ability to retrieve and modify certain information from Twitter. Also, WizeHive now comes with what Levinson refers to as "3D task management", or the ability to pick which data to display in rows, columns and which data you want color coded at intersecting cells, creating a nice visual overview of your current ‘workspace’. You can get an overview of all new features in separate demo videos on Levinson’s Vimeo channel . The core task management functionality has also been revamped and now sports a nifty AJAX front-end that allows people to easily drag and drop tasks, assign tasks to other people, etc. Last but not least, WizeHive now also comes with an Adobe AIR-powered desktop client that features a tab with Twitter-style activity feeds as well as a list of tasks much like you would if you were using the web app. WizeHive, which is still in beta mode, now boasts about 1000 active users who have entered or e-mailed in over 26000 notes and over 6700 tasks. When it’s finally ready for the public, WizeHive will have to compete for attention with a boatload of online collaboration and task management application providers, but if it ultimately turns out it can’t, it most certainly won’t be because the product doesn’t stack up to the rest. Crunch Network : CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
 
Palm Pixie Is Real, But May Never Come To Market Top
Lots of excitement today over a second Palm WebOS device now that the Pre has launched. The only problem is that none of this is news. We broke the story about the device, code named Pixie, on April 29. A day later we had the Pixie name and additional details . As far as I can tell there are no additional details coming out now. So I’ll supply additional information that we’ve gathered. Our sources in Asia tell us that Palm continues to push development of the device but is far from making a launch decision. “Palm has decided to put the Pixie on hold until they have better visibility into how its current models are selling in the market.” Our guess is that low Pre sales rates make it less likely for the Pixie to hit the market this year. Palm’s WebOS is the best mobile operating system in existence, in our humble opinion. But the hardware is, at best, a B. We’ve also heard from multiple sources that Palm initially ordered 500,000 units of the Palm Pre from Foxconn for delivery by the end of May. Instead, they got 150,000 units in June. The reason? “the device’s complicated mechanical design caused low yield rates.” The result was a delayed launch and poor supply. Crunch Network : CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
 
Twitter User Spamming Himself Crazy Top
A Twitter user who has effectively spammed himself senseless reaches out to us for help. And we’re going to oblige. The only trouble is, he’s making yet another error in judgment, because my guess is this is going to make things worse. Ryan Barr started a petition on Twitter to ask AT&T to “offer reasonable iPhone 3GS upgrade prices.” And even though it’s unlikely that AT&T cares even a little bit about this or any other petition, it’s getting some traction. Nearly 10,000 people have “signed” it. The problem is that every time someone signs the petition it autotweets the message “Petition: AT&T to offer reasonable iPhone 3GS upgrade prices http://twitition.com/f96aq @ryanbarr,” which sends a message back to Barr and absolutely pollutes the reply stream (the only really useful way to interact with Twitter). Anyway, here’s Barr’s message. I just signed the petition myself and I’m guessing a lot of you will, too. But don’t worry Ryan. It’ll slow down eventually, probably. Dear TechCrunch, My name is Ryan Barr, known on Twitter as @ryanbarr . If you may have noticed, I started a petition (or twitition) found here: http://twitition.com/f96aq . I want out. When I first started the petition, it was due to a rant I was having about the price of the phone. It didn’t take long for me to truly not care about the prices as much as I had. And it didn’t take much longer for the petition I started to go out of control. At the time of this e-mail the petition just passed 9200 signatures. For each signature, a message is tweeted as follows: “Petition: AT&T to offer reasonable iPhone 3GS upgrade prices http://twitition.com/f96aq @ryanbarr” That’s right, 9200 @ryanbarr’s over the span of two (going on three) days. This does not include the unnecessary retweets people also make. I can no longer stand not being able to see real replies in my timeline. I have AT&T employees following me and saying stuff behind my back when I was just ranting on a site that seemed to have little activity. I completely, COMPLETELY regret pressing the submit button. As the petition nears the 10000 mark I fear even more. As at that mark, TweetMeme will show me as a TM_10000 (@http://twitter.com/TM_10000) … the first, ever. TechCrunch — you have the power to make businesses grow. You have the power to make or break the reputation of a new device. Please, help me find a way out of this petition. The attention I am receiving is unwanted — I just want to be able to come clear to all the signers and say, “I don’t want in this anymore. I didn’t mean for it to last this long.” Thanks for anything and for the great reads over the longhaul. Best Regards, Ryan Barr Crunch Network : CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
 
Flowgram Was Cool. Now It's Dead Top
Well, this is a bummer. Flowgram , a promising startup that launched last July , is a goner. The service let users create screencasts with live websites, and the early beta users really liked it: What you see above is not a video or a slide show, it is a Flowgram. If you click on it, you will be taken to a full-screen player with what appears to be a screencast with a voiceover. Except that you can control the pages by scrolling up and down, watching any videos that might be on the page, or clicking on the live links (which takes you out of the Flowgram to that Website, but if you hit the back button it picks up where it left off). You can also add comments and share the Flowgram via a widget like the one above, which is muted and requires you to click through for the full experience. But this evening founder Abhay Parekh sent an email out to users letting them know that the service would be closed by the end of June (in fact it’s dead now): Dear Flowgram user: Today is a sad day for us. We have decided to terminate the Flowgram service as of the end of the month (June 30th, 2009). The service received excellent reviews and had an enthusiastic core user base. However, we were not able to demonstrate (especially in these economic times) that Flowgrams would ever be prevalent enough for us to adequately monetize the business, either though ads or subscriptions. This is obviously very disappointing, but building the Flowgram platform was a lot of fun, and it was wonderful to see how many of you used our tool to express yourselves in a deep and meaningful way. Although you won’t be able to play your Flowgrams after the end of the month, you can export them to video by clicking “share” from the website or “more sharing options” from the Flowgram player and scrolling down to the export to video section. It is very important, if you wish to keep your content, that you export to video and download the video by the end of the month. Please let us know at support@flowgram.com if you have any difficulties doing this. Again, I would like to thank you for your support, for your Flowgrams and for your good wishes. Best Regards Abhay Parekh (Founder) and the rest of the Flowgram Team Flowgram enters the DeadPool after raising $1.3 million from prominent angel investors Reid Hoffman, Josh Kopelman, Caterina Fake, Stewart Butterfield, Bud Colligan, Kevin Lynch, Joi Ito and Rajeev Motwani. Just goes to show that even the smartest and richest people in Silicon Valley can still make a whopper of a bad investment decision. Crunch Network : CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
 
Thing Labs: We Had Plinky, Now We Have The Brain — And It Uses Twitter Top
Back in January, Jason Shellen , a former Googler known for his work on Blogger and Google Reader, launched Plinky , a new approach to blogging that wanted to give users a way to be more engaged in the process. The service got off to a fast start, but talk about it has dwindled in recent months. So now Shellen is ready to start something new. Something that utilizes yes, Twitter. While Plinky will continue on as a product, Shellen is changing the name of the company to Thing Labs . The catalyst of this change was Plinky acquiring the technology Google Reader co-founder Chris Wetherell has been working on since he left Google. Wetherell is joining the company as the VP of Technology. The rest of the Plinky team will be joining in this new endeavor, and Shellen also tells me that they’ve made a new high-profile hire on the engineering end, that they’re not ready to announce yet. So what is Thing Labs? Apparently, it soon will offer a new user-facing social media application that makes use of existing social networks. Shellen wouldn’t go beyond saying that it will involve the hot social network of choice, Twitter. It should be out at the end of June, we hear. The company is also moving its headquarters from the east bay of San Francisco, into the city. Crunch Network : CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
 
Twitter Starts Verifying Accounts Without Actually Verifying Them Top
It looks like Twitter has just rolled out its verified accounts. As you can seeing on Michael’s personal account , there’s a “Verified Account” logo right above his name. Twitter has previously announced that it was going to do this, but did so tonight without warning. What’s odd is that Michael never actually verified his account with anyone at Twitter. Granted, it’s obvious that it is his actual account, but it’s still a bit odd that they would verify it without, you know, verifying it. Expect to see this rolling out over more accounts over the next several days. What else is a bit odd — okay, odd in a self-serving way — is that a guy with more followers than Michael (yours truly) would not have a verified account while his boss does. Sigh. Even TechCrunch’s regular account with over 700,000 followers isn’t verified. I guess it’s only those select “celebrities” or high profile people that are getting verified, following the Facebook model for vanity URLs . Update : Here’s Twitter’s explanation for who gets the verified accounts right now: We’re starting with well-known accounts that have had problems with impersonation or identity confusion. (For example, well-known artists, athletes, actors, public officials, and public agencies). We may verify more accounts in the future, but because of the cost and time required, we’re only testing this feature with a small set of folks for the time being. As the test progresses we may be able to expand this test to more accounts over the next several months. CrunchBase Information Twitter Information provided by CrunchBase Crunch Network : MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
 
Scoble's Building 43 Launching Tonight With Practical Tips For Businesses Stuck In The 90's Top
Tonight sees the launch of Robert Scoble’s newest project, Building43 , an online community that he’s building in partnership with web-hosting provider Rackspace (we’re having them over to celebrate with us at our birthday party ). When we first heard about the new site, Scoble described it as a “community that's for people who are fanatical about the Internet”. He’s still sticking with that vague tagline, but now it’s becoming a bit clearer as to what he actually means by that. The site’s goal is to help businesses use modern technology and social sites to increase their exposure and the money they’re making. But rather than focus on the latest in breaking news, it’s looking to offer more practical advice, like how to “Pimp Out Your Facebook Page” (see the video below), or The new economics of entrepreneurship , a blog post by Guy Kawasaki. Scoble says the big difference between the content he’s previously offered and Building43 will be a new emphasis on practical tips, though there will still be more general interviews. He says that we can intially expect to see two new videos a week, but that soon it will have new video features on a daily basis as the site ramps up (there will also be regular blog posts). And he’s kicking things off with an impressive roster of interviewees, including Fred Wilson, Mark Zuckerberg, and Marissa Mayer. Building 43 has five people working on the site full time, but it’s also looking to accept content from the community. Users will be able to upload video and blog posts after agreeing to a Creative Commons 3 license, and the site will also feature a FriendFeed room that monitors for mentions of the term Building43 across the web. The hope is that any time you have a tech tip that could be applicable to businesses, you can share it with the Building43 community by mentioning it in your post or tweet. Building 43 has a good idea on its hands — it’s no secret that there are countless businesses with websites stuck in the 90’s and absolutely no idea how to tap into social media. But it’s still going to have to find a way to make these businesses aware of Building 43, which isn’t going to be an easy task (if they don’t know how to use Facebook, there’s a good chance they don’t know who Robert Scoble is or that Building 43 exists). To hear Scoble talk about Building 43 a bit in his own words and his thoughts on clown computing, check out this Qik video taken at the TechCrunch offices yesterday. Crunch Network : CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
 
Happy 4th Birthday, TechCrunch Top
On June 11, 2005 I wrote a post titled Technorati Beta Profile , and TechCrunch was born. Today we turn four years old. Over the years I’ve written l ong posts marking the day with lots of stats. I’m not going to do that today though. All I’m going to do is say Thank You to the awesome people who I get to work with, and the awesome people who come here to read this blog. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you. We’re having a small party at our office today to celebrate. I know everyone can’t make it, but you can watch along on the CrunchCam if you like. The fun starts at 4 pm PST. And you can’t miss me, I’m the one wearing the yellow Captain Kirk tshirt (thanks @orli! ). ps - ok just a few stats. This is the 12,896th post on TechCrunch (and lots more across our blog network). Readers have taken the time to leave 607,031 comments to those posts (after we’ve deleted around 20 million spam comments). That’s an average of nearly 50 comments per post. 5.5 million of you come to visit us each month, making us by far the largest media company in the world that starts with “T” and ends with “Crunch.” I love each and every one of you. Except for the crazy psychos. I don’t love you so much. Crunch Network : CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
 
Someecards Have Ads I Actually Pay Attention To. And They're About To Do Video. Top
Most online advertising is lame. Yes, the idea of a click-through ad is great, but let’s be honest, a lot of time that involves tricking people into clicking on your ad. Whatever happened to building brand awareness through compelling advertising? I think someecards is pretty damn good at that — and they’re going to get better. You probably know someecards as the startup that makes those hilarious online greeting cards with the oddly black and white, and usually outdated pictures. If you don’t know what I mean, just look around at any of the examples I’ve included in this post, I’m sure you’ve seen them before. But what you might not know is that the company is also doing branded advertising on some of its cards. For example, they offer cards branded by the hit Showtime show Weeds , the show Bridezillas , the shoemaker Puma and Jose Cuervo . And the branded campaigns are genius because they include the same witty text as regular cards, but tie it into the campaign in some way. They popped onto my radar a couple weeks ago when I saw a few circulating around the web for the show Weeds, and I immediately saw the appeal of advertising this way, because I actually recalled the Weeds promotional part of the card. Most people, when they look at something online now, simply are trained to not even look at the ads. But when the ads are a part of the content, you have to look. Obviously, this approach won’t work for all types of content, but for these cards it does. “You’re getting a lot better affinity for the brand if you’re doing things this way,” someecards co-founder Duncan Mitchell tells us. And while someecards also wraps more traditional online ads around the cards on their main pages, the company realizes that a lot of times those ads that surround content or appear as interstitials in videos, violate the content in some regards. So why not work the ad into the content someway because, “what’s funny is funny,” says co-founder Brook Lundy . While most advertisers are still obsessed with the idea of click-throughs in online ads, they’re “reluctantly moving” beyond that a bit, according to Mitchell. One thing someecards offers for its cards is the immediate share numbers, through the URL shortening service bit.ly . Mitchell says that advertisers like to see when a card is virally spreading on services like Twitter and Facebook. And they’re starting to acknowledge that this kind of word-of-mouth spreading on the web by way of the share is a powerful tool. The next step in the branded movement for someecards is to get into video. In the next few weeks, the company will launch its first video campaigns, promoting a new show made by Comedy Central. The clips, like the someecards, will be brief (around 15 seconds) and will feature the actors of the show performing some dialogue outlined by someecards writers. Someecards has a bunch of other branded campaigns in the pipeline, including some in the pharma area and PSAs, which should be fun. Embedded below find some great branded someecard examples. CrunchBase Information Someecards Information provided by CrunchBase Crunch Network : MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
 

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