Earlier this month, Nokia announced that they were aiming to move 10 million units of the Nokia N97 NAM. The N97 rivals the iPhone 3G S. The phone officially started shipping this past week and we will be monitoring the sales progress of the device as the time passes.
The N97 is selling in about 75 countries across the globe and they are available for purchase at Nokia’s flagship stores in Chicago and New York. The price of the device is $699 unlocked. The device can also be pre-ordered from Nokia USA’s website. The phone is available in black and white.
Hammacher Schlemmer has designed a $60 pair of sandals that contain a 9 volt battery and copper wire. If any change or metal is discovered while walking around the anklet pack tied to the beach roamer’s leg vibrates. The change or metal could even be 2 feet below surface. If you spend a lot of time walking around the beach, I highly recommend picking up a pair of these. You never know if a treasure chest could turn up.
JVC has unleashed a new OLED TV called the GD-32X1. The GD-32X1 is 6.4 mm. thin and beats the Samsung 8.9 mm. thin OLED TV. The specs of the TV include the Genessa Premium image processing chipset, 2x HDMI ports, RGB, component, composite, etc. The resolution is 1920×1080 when acting a Full HD monitor. The contrast is 4,000:1. Shipping starts in August, no word on price yet.
The three founders of Last.fm Richard Jones, Martin Stiksel, and Felix Miller will most likely be leaving CBS by the end of the year. About two years ago, Last.fm was sold to CBS for $280 million. The three founders will be leaving to start another project.
“This is the latest stage in a long journey for us founders, which began in a living room in east London in 2002, and took us to the headquarters of one of the biggest media companies in the world,” stated the founders of Last.fm.
The founders are not planning on any reasons revolving around the acquisition, but more because the website is in great shape. They even said the company may even do better without the “crazy founder dudes hanging around.”
The three co-founders will be stepping down by the end of the month, but will serve as advisors for three months. The three co-founders will also help pick another head for Last.fm. Last.fm has about 37.7 million users.
In the past, TechCrunch had heard rumors accusing either CBS or the Last.fm founders of sending user data to the RIAA. Both CBS and Last.fm had denied those claims.
Hangout.net is a virtual environment that has fully customizable rooms, avatars, etc. The company makes it possible for MySpace users to create custom virtual rooms. Highland Capital Partners and Polaris Venture Partners has extended their Series A investment by an additional $4 million in Hangout.net.
The total funding that Hangout has raised is now about $10 million. The company’s seed funding is $1 million and the initial Series A financing was $5 million. The $4 million extension gave Hangout enough backing to last them a long time. The company confirmed the funding in an SEC document. Hangout is based in Boston, Massachusetts and is led by CEO Pano Anthos.
Over the last 4 years, Kiva.org has been helping micro-finance poor entrepreneurs across 44 impoverished countries. Now the company will be providing micro-financing to small U.S. businesses. Kiva.org services will become available in about 45 different businesses in the U.S.
Originally Kiva wasn’t planning on focusing on U.S. businesses, but due to banks feeling higher pressure in investing the company had to reconsider. Kiva’s investments in entrepreneurs abroad relies mostly on “crowd-funding.” People log in to Kiva and invest money in increments of $25 loans to people that submit business plans. The money is pooled together and end up amounting to thousands or millions of dollars.
Kiva has raised over $75 million from about 500,000 people and invested in 180,000 entrepreneurs across 44 countries. Around 98% of the loans have been paid back in time according to Kiva President Premal Shah.
“It will be interesting to see if someone from South Central Los Angeles will be able to get a loan on our site more quickly than a small business in south Sudan,” stated Shah.
Monkeylectric is an LED system that connects to bike wheels and displays patterns and words as you ride around. The LED system is controlled using AA batteries and a 256RGB system that is strapped between a bike’s spokes. The lights start working at 8MPH and really put on a show at 20MPH. Monkeylectric is available for $60.
New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton has come up with an idea for a movie. Payton is very serious about the idea that he hired Hollywood agents to help find representation for the movie.
The movie will be about a magical XBox that has the ability to control actual NFL football games that a boy plays. The magical refurbished XBox was given by the boy’s grandfather. The working title of the movie as of right now is called “The XBox Kid.” This movie could be a major plug for Microsoft.
It would not surprise me to see Microsoft become heavily involved in the project as well. Other movies that involve Microsoft include Pirates of Silicon Valley, Nothing So Strange, and The Gates-trix.
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