Apr
30
The old “accepted wisdom” was that folks in Europe communicated via SMS text messaging, while folks in the US were mainly doing internet-based instant messaging. There were a variety of reasons for why things developed this way, but it was a generally accurate statement for a while. However, even early on, some of [...]
Apr
30
Samsung’s High End 650 Series LCDs Reviewed (Verdict: Great) [HDTVs]
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CNet’s reviewed Samsung’s 52-inch 650 series LCD, the LN52A650. While there is a 750 series, it’s worth noting that those sets get MPEG and MP3 playback from USB drives but have the same picture. So,…
Apr
30
Microsoft Says They?ll Pay More
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Microsoft is leaking that they are willing to increase their Yahoo bid to as much as $33 per share, up from the original $31/share offer. That original offer, which included payment in Microsoft stock, has fallen in value to just $29.12/share.
This is a surprise since Microsoft has previously stated they wouldn’t increase their bid. Analysts [...]
Apr
30
Warner Bros. to Release Movies for Apple TV and On Demand Same Day as DVD [Home Entertainment]
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The format war over, and Blu-ray safely enthroned as the victor, Warner can now turn its sights beyond—to downloads and the infinite format war. Time Warner’s chief executive announced today…
Apr
30
Meebo Closes Big Funding Round
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Web chat startup Meebo has closed the funding round they’ve been working on with investment bank Montgomery & Co., a source tells us. Expect an announcement shortly.
The best information we’ve been able to gather says the company raised $20 million or so on a $200 million valuation. Earlier this month they abandoned efforts to sell [...]
Apr
30
On TMO Doing 3G Voice Only… [Wireless]
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BTW, you might have seen our post this morning about T-Mobile not having 3G data at launch. What I’ve learned from Wilson is that actually, no carriers launch with 3G data. That’s just how it’s done,…
Apr
30
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on
Search Engine Land and from other
places across the web
From Search Engine Land:
Microsoft Live Search Adds More Images, Multimap, Find My Location, & Celebrity RankLive Search has informed us that they have made a few enhancements to the search engine. The enhancements include an expanded image search [...]
Apr
30
Israeli Military Guardian Vehicle is Like the Batmobile Without Batman Driving [Robots]
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Other than taking obvious influences from the Tumbler from Batman Begins, this Israeli Guardium unmanned patrol shares more in common with the iRobot PackBot than Batman’s roof-hopping car. The…
Apr
30
iCompany: A Wide CMS Web Template
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We’ve had the iCompany CMS web template mockup sitting in the wings since January and are finally getting around to releasing it.
Designed by noted illustrator Von Glitschka, it features custom icons, a wide layout, tabber sidebar, three page template options and widget-ready sidebars and feature areas.
Take it for a test drive here and get purchase [...]
Apr
30
Robert Scoble Sell Out Complete
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Update to our January post: Super blogger Robert Scoble, who has argued that having advertisements on blogs destroys trust, added advertisements to his blog today along with a redesign. At least it’s clear now who scratches Scoble’s back - Seagate.
One thing I do like - the FriendFeed widget that shows his activity stream and comments [...]
Apr
30
Meet Watercooler, a startup developing social network applications for all the usual suspects - Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, Hi5, and Friendster - that allow fans to rally around their favorite sports teams and TV shows.
The Mountain View-based firm raised a previously undisclosed $4M in Series A funding from Canaan Partners this past September. While it’s been [...]
Apr
30
Meet Watercooler, a startup developing social network applications for all the usual suspects - Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, Hi5, and Friendster - that allow fans to rally around their favorite sports teams and TV shows.
The Mountain View-based firm raised a previously undisclosed $4M in Series A funding from Canaan Partners this past September. While it’s been [...]
Apr
30
Fujitsu’s “Zero-Watt” Monitor Uses Zero Power in Standby Mode [Displays]
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Fujitsu Siemens has developed a new monitor that claims to use zero power in standby mode. This money-saving monitor miracle is made possible thanks to a built-in switch that shuts down the monitor…
Apr
30
Today at Boing Boing Gadgets
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Today at Boing Boing Gadgets we started off the morning by looking at some zombie robots who like to eat brains. From there, it was straight to serious gadgetry: AT&Ts plans to subsidize the 3G iPhones, a look at a WiFi detecting [...]
Apr
30
Mathew Ingram notes that Jimmy Wales’s company, Wikia, has unveiled a new version of its search engine. The basic premise of the search engine, allowing users to edit search results the way they can edit Wikipedia pages, is clever. But I think Wales is going to have difficult making the project successful. The fundamental problem, [...]