Monthly Archives: July 2009
The Cannabis iPhone App Helps You Score Weed
There really is an app for everything. Even one that helps you score weed. An App called Cannabis helps you get your hands on legal medical marijuana.
The app helps you find MDs who can prescribe medical marijuana. If you get in trouble with the law, the app will help you find a lawyer who specializes in marijuana relates cases.
The app’s creator, AJNAG.com, said it will donate 50 cents to a cannabis non-profit reform fund for each sale of the app. The fund will be setup once the app gets 1,000 sales.
Gateway Launches Its First $300 Netbook
Gateway has launched its first netbook, the LT2000. The netbook comes with a 10 inch display, a 1.6 GHZ Atom processor, 1GB of RAM, and a 160 GB hard drive. It also includes a multi-touch trackpad and a built in camera.
The netbook has a three hour battery life. It is available in two colors – red and black.
The LT2000 goes on sale today.
Categories Gateway
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Flossie The Biker Robot
Castrol has developed a very cool test rider robot named Flossie. Flossie helps the company test its lubricants on motorcycles. The robot has a self learning mode that lets it get a feel for any bike it is testing.
Here is a video of Flossie:
Categories Robot
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Mirror Free, The Worst iPhone App Ever, Possibly Generates As Much As $2,000 a Day In Ad Revenue
Mirror Free is an ad supported free app on the App store. The app simply creates an empty picture frame on the iPhone. When you look into the empty frame, the screen’s reflection supposedly creates a mirror effect. The app has somehow become a hit. It is one of the top free apps on the app store.
The app does absolutely nothing. Seriously nothing. It is literally a blank screen. Even the app’s description warns people not to download it. But the app still manages to make top ad dollar.
According to AdWhirl, the ad click through rate on the app is surprisingly high. AdWhirl’s co-founder himself said that the app could make as much as $2,000 a day from ads.
Via WSJ
Categories iPhone, Mirror Free
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The Mobile App Market Will Be As Big As The Internet
Ilja Laurs, CEO of of GetJar, a top independent app store, said that apps will be as big if not bigger than the Internet at the MobileBeat conference in San Francisco. He said that the economics of mobile apps are a different story. According to him, roughly 90% of app developers fail. He says there are simply too many applications out at the time.
Apple’s App store now hosts over 65,000 applications. Its very hard to reach the top of a category when you are competing against that many apps. Most top selling iPhone apps are a one hit wonder. They get popular for a short time and then lose traction. So its becoming increasingly difficult to build a solid business model around the App store.
Lee Williams of the Symbian Foundation thinks that that Apple’s current App store is flawed because its a mixed bag of apps. He feels that there are simply too many low quality apps in the store.
Google on the other hand feels that the App store is a fad. Google says that consumers will set their focus away from native mobile apps to browser based apps.
Categories Apple Inc., GetJar, Google, Symbian
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Sedo Says Domain Market Still A Good Business To Be In
Mouse.com recently sold for $125,000 and Keyboard.com recently sold for $100,000. Sedo says that the domain buying and selling market amounted to $77 million last year. Obviously the days of huge domain sales worth hundreds of millions are long gone. But from time to time, large domain sales do take place. The lucky few who got their hands on a top level .COM dictionary word can make a very good return on their investment.
Domains have had an annual growth rate of 30% over the last five years.
Sedo’s Jeremiah Johnston says that domain values typically increase over time. However, he says that a better option for would-be domain entrepreneurs is to turn low quality websites on good domains into profitable websites. Once the site’s value increases, flip it for a healthy return.
Johnston says that good value domains are words people typically type into the address bar or search for on a search engine. He also says that domains with targeted demographics usually make good money when parked.
You can see his full interview at BusinessWeek.
Categories Domains
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Ann Arbor, Michigan Man Gets Palm Pre Tattoo To Win Free Phone
Some guy got a Palm Pre tattoo on his arm to win a free Pre. He got the tattoo in Ann Arbor at this place. He is trying to win a “What Would You Do for a Palm Pre” Contest at PreCentral.net. Pulse2 is headquartered in Ann Arbor.
Categories Palm Pre
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James Altucher Says The Internet is Dead As An Investment
James Altucher, a managing partner at Formula Capital, says the Internet is dead as an investment. He says the days of infinite margins and and high growth are long over for the Internet. His argument is that nobody can figure out a business model.
He uses Time Warner as an example. “Time Warner would rather keep their legacy old-media businesses like People magazine than hold onto one of the biggest Internet companies out there, AOL. And News Corp. is shaking up its MySpace business as it figures out its next steps.” He also mentions that Facebook and Twitter are struggling to make a profit and Google is doing so well because it got lucky with AdSense.
Mr. Altucher does not say much to back up his point. He says he would rather tell clients to invest in utility companies and companies that are “rebuilding the country” than Internet companies. He says that in this economy, we should be going back to the basics and invest in companies that help us spend the stimulus.
Categories James Altucher
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Rock Band Game Opening Up To Independent Musicians
MTV Games and Harmonix announced the launch of an independent track store for the Rock Band game. The store, called Rock Band Network, will launch in August. Rock Band Network will allow independent musicians to sell tracks they create for the game through Microsoft’s XNA Creator’s Club.
First a track will be submitted for approval. Once approved, the track gets put on the Rock Band Network store. Players on the 360 can then download the track if they like it. Track artists will receive royalties.
A selection of approved tracks will later be added to the PS3 and Wii.
Categories Rock Band
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Icahn Supports Search Deal Between Yahoo And Microsoft
All Things Digital reports that a search deal between Microsoft and Yahoo may be nearing completion. Icahn, one of the earlier proponents of the deal, said he would favor the deal. Icahn owns 5 percent of Yahoo. He is also a director on the board.
“I’ve been a strong advocate of getting a search deal done with Microsoft,” Icahn told Reuters.
Microsoft tried to buy Yahoo for $47.5 billion in the spring of 2008. The offer was taken off the table when Yahoo’s board said the price was not high enough. Icahn later came in and tried to broker a deal between the two companies. He also tried to oust Jerry Yang and take over the company. He launched a proxy battle to take over Yahoo’s board.
If and when the deal takes place, Microsoft will likely take over Yahoo’s search advertising business.
Categories Icahn, Microsoft Corporation, Yahoo!
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