Monthly Archives: February 2009
Mark Zuckerberg Interviewed On The Today Show
This video is regarding the Facebook ToS mess:
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
Categories Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg
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LG Spyder 830 Recalled For Having Poor Voice Quality With 911
The LG Spyder 830 cell phone was recently recalled by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). The phone was pretty much seen as a hazard because it doesn’t hold a good connection when calling 911 emergency services. The recall was made when a trapped motorist tried to call 911 from the phone from a disabled car. The call was constantly being dropped, but fortunately that person was uninjured. About 30,000 phones were removed across 9 states.
The LG 830 has a dual slider keypad and a touch screen. The phone has GPS and EV-DO built-in. The problem is caued by the software in the versions T83LGV03 and T83LGV04. The recall does not pertain to the models on US Cellular and Alltel.
Several weeks ago, LG’s Canadian division recalled 250,000 LG 150 phones.
[via Om]
Categories LG, LG Spyder 830
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The Text-To-Speech Feature On The Kindle 2 Is Legal
Earlier this week, the Amazon.com Kindle 2 started shipping. The Kindle 2 has more space to hold more books than the original and even contains a feature called text-to-speech. A robotic computer voice even reads the book for you if you like.
The Authors Guild, a group that represents 9,000 book authors apparently criticized Amazon for having this feature. Amazon wrote a press release saying that the feature is legal, but decided to give the copyright owners the option to choose whether to allow the ebook to have Text-to-speech built-in. Amazon pretty much did this as a concession, but they didn’t have to do it.
Below is the full press release:
(more…)
Categories Amazon.com, Kindle 2
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YOU & US FAIL! UBS Makes $31 Billion Order In Capcom, But Cancels It Out Of Error
The Union Bank of Switzerland made a pretty massive error. The Swiss bank company made a $31 billion order ($3 trillion yen) in convertible bonds in the Japanese game company. This deal would have been the biggest on the Tokyo stock exchange, but it turns out the order was made on accident. The amount was wrong due to a computer error.
In actuality the investment amount was supposed to be 31 million yen ($314,000). On the official Capcom blog, the company revealed that they were ready to do a happy dance when they first heard amount the investment.
“The official Capcom happy-dance began when we heard that financial titan UBS AG placed an order for 3 TRILLION yen (that’s 31 billion bucks!) in Capcom stock yesterday. We were unfortunately forced to reveal that there, um, isn’t ¥3 trillion worth of Capcom stock for sale, so they revised their order to a measly ¥31 million.”
Regardless of the error, at least Capcom will have a great year with the release of Street Fighter IV and it sounds like The Legend of Chun Li movie is doing okay. Capcom is also about to launch Resident Evil 5 on March 13. UBS apologized for their error.
[via VentureBeat]
Categories Capcom, UBS, Union Bank of Switzerland
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Super Bowl Ad Leads To 50% Traffic Jump For Hulu
John Battelle of Federated Media recently interviewed Jason Kilar, CEO of Hulu. Hulu is a joint venture between NBC and FOX. Jason Kilar is an Amazon.com veteran. Battelle asked Jason how effective the ad on the Super Bowl advertisement for Hulu was. It turns out that it was very much worth it.
Although Jason did not answer directly, Battelle was able to obtain a number from a different source. It turns out that Hulu’s traffic jumped by 50%. Considering that about 100 million people tune into the Super Bowl in the U.S., it is no surprise that Hulu’s traffic would see a sudden jump.
[via BI]
Categories Hulu, Jason Kilar, John Battelle, NBC
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SPONSOR POST: Get Things Done With Vitalist
Categories Vitalist
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Need Stickers Printed? Check Out Frontier Label.
Frontier Label is an online digital printing company that can take any image and print it out in sticker form. Frontier Label donates about 10% of their profits to a ministry that makes a difference in the community. Frontier Label also donates time and labor to non-profit organizations.
Some of the small businesses that have utilized Frontier Label’s services include coffee brewers, home-based candle markers, and even custom bottled water companies. Frontier’s customers range from small businesses to Fortune 100. The company started in 2004.
The way Frontier Label works is that you create an account, upload the artwork, and place an order. Stickers come in 892 different sizes in stock.
Many other companies in the sticker printing industry uses flexographic or offset printing equipment. This requires them to use many plates for each separate sticker and label designs. Using this method limits the amount of colors that appear on a sticker. Frontier Label uses Digital Printing which makes the stickers look high in quality. By using this method, Frontier Label has seen their business grow quicker.
Frontier Label’s stickers are pressure sensitive (also known as self adhesive labels). Most stickers have a standard 1/8th inch gap between the labels. Frontier Label also puts a liner thickness for stickers that of 40 pounds.
In terms of customer service, the Frontier Label website has live chat and phone service. The customer service phone number is 1-877-277-4682.
*Sponsored post
Categories Frontier Label
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AOL CEO Randy Falco Lists Goals For 2009
AOL CEO Randy Falco has presented a list of goals to achieve for 2009. Over the last decade, AOL has been transitioning from an ISP to a content production company powered by advertising. AOL’s revenue has been hit hard as their it has dropped 23% in the 4th quarter. AOL had to also lay off 10%, or 700 employees as a result. Quite a few executives have been quitting and shuffling in the process as well. Below is the full memo that Falco sent to AOL employees (after the jump via WSJ):
Categories America Online, AOL, Randy Falco
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Upcoming Console Acer Hornet To Take On The Wii
When the Nintendo Wii entered the video game console market, it proceeded to dominate. The console was sold out in stores and eBay sellers that happened to get their hands on it early sold it at inflated prices. Since Acer already has hardware figured out, perhaps they are thinking it may be a good idea to take on the Wii head-on. At least that is a rumor going around on Donanimhaber.com.
The Acer console is believed to be code-named “Hornet.” It appears to be an HDMI-supported PC with a remote that is similar to the Wiimote. According to a translator, it appears that the Hornet would cost a couple hundred dollars, have full HD video, contain dual-core Atom processors, and use the Nvidia GeForce 9400. Maybe it may work with some PC games that already exist.
Should Nintendo be worried? Highly unlikely, but they should keep their eyes peeled.
[via BI]
Categories Acer, Acer Hornet, Nintendo, Nintendo Wii
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Rolcats.com, LOLcats in Russian
LOLcats is pretty famous in the tech and cat lover scene. LOLcats even invented their own language. In this language you spell the word “has” as “haz.” But what about people in Russia that don’t understand the LOLcat language? There’s a similar blog available for LOLcat Russian fans called ROLcats.com. The Russian language is layered on the cat images. ROLcats is maintained by an author named Demetri.
In the below image, one of the images says in Russian, “Drat, thwarted so close to freedom’s sweet caress… I dreamed for but a taste of the decadent west, and now my eulogy is sung by guard dogs and alarm bells.”
“I thought it was bizarre that Soviet-era kitsch should be the subject of the humor,” stated Ethan Zuckerman in a blog post. Perhaps if Demetri uses less political connection to Russia in these images, his blog may have a future.
[via LAT]
Categories ROLcats.com
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