Here’s a selection of recent posts on TechCrunch Gadgets:
Brinno Peephole Viewer Is A Viewer For Peepholes
LL Cool G: Ladies Love Cool Gadgets Too, Says Study
Real Augmented Reality Google Goggles In Prototype Stage?
Report: Samsung Planning A F…
Archive for the ‘Tech Crunch’ Category
Daily Crunch: Myopic
Posted by Bryce Durbin on February 7th, 2012
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Those Millions On Facebook? They Actually Visit, And It’s Not A Huge Deal Anyway.
Posted by Eric Eldon on February 7th, 2012
Traffic numbers provided by companies should always be questioned — I mean, of course each company is going to try to present the data in a way that makes them look as good as possible. Which is what New York Times finance writer Andrew Ross Sorkin has understandably done, going to town on Facebook for how it counts its active users, in an article out tonight called “Those Millions On Facebook? Some May Not Actually Visit.”
Startups, VCs Call For “Fresh Perspective” On Piracy Legislation
Posted by Anthony Ha on February 7th, 2012
In the aftermath of the defeat of the Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect IP Act, a long list of organizations have sent a letter to Congress asking members to “take a breath” before they trying to push through new piracy legislation.
The letter argues that the “wide variety of important concerns” that were expressed during the SOPA/PIPA protests cannot be addressed through “hasty revisions” to the bills. Instead, there needs to be more research and transparent discussion about the broader issues:
Citing “Short-Term Difficulties”, HTC Forecasts Weak Q1, Significant Revenue Drop
Posted by Robin Wauters on February 6th, 2012
Smartphones and tablets maker HTC this morning said it foresees a huge drop in revenue (PDF) in the first quarter, citing “short-term difficulties” as it gears up to – reportedly – launch four new phone models at the Mobile World Congress later this month.
The Taiwanese company sees revenue dropping as much as 36 percent in Q1, to between NT$65 billion and NT$70 billion (roughly $2.2 and $2.4 billion) due to this “product transition”.
Facebook Could Jumpstart HTML5 Platform With App Bookmarks On News Feed
Posted by Josh Constine on February 6th, 2012
Facebook’s late-comer HTML5 mobile app platform lags way behind the Apple App Store and Android Marketplace. Yesterday I spotted Facebook’s latest effort to catch up — a test showing bookmarks for third-party applications at the top of the mobile news feed. Currently, Facebook buries HTML5 app bookmarks at the bottom of its mobile site’s pull-out navigation menu, and only shows them in the iOS or Android Facebook app’s search bar.
Placing them much more prominently atop the mobile home page could increase engagement — the first step in attracting developers to the platform and earning money on in-app purchases.
The Phone Stacking Game: Let’s Make This A Thing
Posted by Anthony Ha on February 5th, 2012
So it’s Saturday night and you’re out with friend. Are they the inconsiderate jerk who can’t stop checking their smartphone? Or is that you?
Either way, here’s one way to make dinner a little more interesting.
I’ve seen/heard this described as both “The Phone Stacking Game” and “Don’t Be a Dick During Meals”. It’s been mentioned on a couple of blogs, but a quick straw poll of my friends suggests that it hasn’t become widespread yet, at least on the West Coast. Which is a shame, because it’s perfect for folks in tech.
Google Adjusts Political Posture With Sponsorship Of Conservative Conference
Posted by Devin Coldewey on February 4th, 2012
In interesting but ultimately not very shocking news, Google has signed on as a major sponsor of the Conservative Political Action Conference, which is more or less what it sounds like. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. It’s just a little odd seeing Google, which is becoming increasingly political, listed next to such organizations as the Koch Institute, the Heritage Foundation, and the NRA.
But this isn’t the moment Google comes out as a closet Republican. It’s actually quite in keeping with Google’s position of aggressive neutrality.
The 16-Year-Old Startup CEO And The Hong Kong Billionaire [TCTV]
Posted by Mike Butcher on February 3rd, 2012
Keen On… Sonic.net: Why Fiber Is The Future Of Wired Connectivity
Posted by Andrew Keen on February 3rd, 2012
It’s always nice to see a small, plucky start-up take on the big guys and not only survive but also prosper. My excellent Santa Rosa based ISP Sonic.net is doing just that – laying its own fiber-to-the-premises network in Sebastopol for only $70 a month and signing up 30% of the local market. While the numbers are still small (the fiber network still only reaches 700 Sebastopol homes), the Sonic.net story is encouraging because it shows that innovation is still possible in the ISP space, a market that has been dramatically “consolidated” since 1995, shrinking from thousands of thousands of local providers in the nineties to just a handful of national carriers today.
Visualizing Facebook’s Media Storage: How Big Is 100 Petabytes?
Posted by Sarah Perez on February 3rd, 2012
Just a little tidbit from everyone’s favorite reading material this week, the Facebook IPO filing: the company noted that it now stores over 100 petabytes of media (photos and videos) uploaded by its 845 million users. In case “100 petabytes” didn’t blow you over, the filing further explains that’s equal to “100 quadrillion bytes.”
OK, now you’re just showing off, Facebook.
