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- Sprint ‘about to serve up something big’
- iPod Shuffle 2G is no more
- Bing Loves The Porn Hounds
- To proceed another five miles, TXT ‘DESIGN FLAW’ to your Reva electric car
- The SportsStream Comes To SBNation
- Media Center CableCARDs freed from OEM requirement
- Is Facebook Preparing To Launch ‘Facebook Labs’ For Experimental Features?
- WD ships 2.5-inch 640GB standard 9.5mm-height laptop drive
- TweepML Gives You A Way To Make Your Own Twitter Suggested User List
- Somebody Has To Say It: It’s Time For iTunes Lite
| Sprint ‘about to serve up something big’ Posted: 09 Sep 2009 07:55 PM PDT
 Sprint Premier customers are being told that the carrier is “ready to change the game once again” with some sort of big announcement tomorrow morning, though it’s anyone’s guess what it is. It clearly isn’t the Pixi (if it is, someone forgot to give the Premier department the memo), though the note’s mention of Simply Everything and Right Plan Promise suggest that the news is going to be plan-focused, not hardware-focused. There’s a curious “anymobile” subdomain dug up by a Boy Genius Report tipster that could have something to do with it — right now it just leads to a “Coming Soon” page — but otherwise, your guess is as good as ours. Free unlimited data for everyone, perhaps? Ooh, a sudden reversal of strategy with a move to LTE? [Via Boy Genius Report, thanks Matt G.] Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless Sprint ‘about to serve up something big’ originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 09 Sep 2009 21:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Posted: 09 Sep 2009 07:32 PM PDT
 Every highly-polished stainless steel lining has a cloud, it seems, and today’s music player overhaul by Apple has been no different. Amidst all the excitement about moderate improvements and video cameras, we’ve also had to say goodbye to an old friend. Having been kept around for six months after the release of its successor, the second gen Shuffle has finally succumbed, leaving the newly colorful 3G option all on its lonesome in the minimalist music lover space. Ah well, if you really have your heart set on the old rocker, refurb models are still available at Apple’s online store, though probably not for long. [Via iLounge] Continue reading iPod Shuffle 2G is no more Filed under: Portable Audio iPod Shuffle 2G is no more originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 09 Sep 2009 21:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Posted: 09 Sep 2009 07:02 PM PDT
Bing is an excellent search engine. For one thing the surprising early reviews probably forced Yahoo’s hand as they entered into one of the dumber corporate transactions I’ve ever seen. So, kudos to Bing. Golf clap. Etc. But one things about Bing really stands out – it may be the best porn search engine ever created (see Badda-Bing Indeed). In private conversations Microsoft employees always said that the porn search feature was an unintended byproduct of good video search. But we always wondered if that was true. Anyway, in May we noticed Bing ads on Google, which seemed a little ironic to us given how seriously the two companies compete with each other. But one thing we didn’t notice until now is that Bing is also advertising on Google for the query “pornography.” Which in our opinion removes all doubt about Bing’s intentions. There’s nothing wrong with being a good porn search engine, in our opinion. And why not go ahead and advertise it to the world. Discovered via a TechCrunch employee who has asked to remain anonymous. Information provided by CrunchBase Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily. View original post here:
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| To proceed another five miles, TXT ‘DESIGN FLAW’ to your Reva electric car Posted: 09 Sep 2009 07:02 PM PDT
 Not long ago a motorcycle with a fuel gauge was basically unheard of and even “low fuel” idiot lights were rare. Riders used advanced (and generally inaccurate) mathematics to calculate remaining mileage and, when the engine inevitably sputtered, switched over to a reserve tank that would let them nervously motor along a few more miles. Reva, an Indian company set to start shipping electric cars next year, plans to resurrect that most irritating sequence of events in their two-door NXR — albeit with a modern spin. Now, instead of reaching down and turning a dial to get to that precious extra juice, drivers will need to call or text Reva HQ. Some overworked customer service agent will then remotely activate the “reserve battery,” which surely doesn’t even exist, to give a bit of extra range. We pity the fool who runs out of charge somewhere outside of cell range, but not quite as much as the designer who pitched this terrible idea. Filed under: Transportation To proceed another five miles, TXT ‘DESIGN FLAW’ to your Reva electric car originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 09 Sep 2009 21:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| The SportsStream Comes To SBNation Posted: 09 Sep 2009 06:55 PM PDT
This whole stream idea is starting to catch on. Even sports blog network SBNation is adopting what CEO Jim Bankoff calls StoryStreams for a new redesign it is launching tonight. A StoryStream is “the latest news feeds, Tweets, videos, comments that move a major sports story along,” says Bankoff. SBNation is a collection of 212 sports blogs across major sports like basketball, baseball, football, and hockey. So far it’s main site, SBNation.com, has been not much more than a glorified directory for all the blogs. But tonight it is changing to more of a true sports destination site in its own right with a small team of editors who cull the best stories from the 212 blogs, as well as articles, videos, and Tweets from elsewhere. Each different major sport will have its own aggregation page, and new items will stream in on a continual basis. But that’s not really the stream part. A big sports story, like basketball player Allen Iverson moving to the Memphis Grizzles (what is he thinking?), will sometimes show a number next to teh headline which indicates how many individual items are showing up about that one big story. If you click on one of those headlines, you come to a StoryStream page for that particular story, with blog posts, editor commentary, videos, Tweets, and so on about Iverson moving to Memphis or whatnot. Sports news is like financial (and tech) news in that it attracts sports junkies who like to constantly refresh their favorite sports site to see the latest scores or updates about their favorite teams and players. Why not just stream all of those stories to them so that they never leave? That is sort of the idea behind SBNation’s StoryStream, which I like to think of as more of a SportsStream. SBNation’s 212 blogs are already attracting a quickly growing audience. Quantcast measures a tripling since April to 350,000 monthly U.S. uniques,while comScore shows as similar trend (see chart below). Adding more content and organized headlines on the main homepage and then keeping visitors along longer with a constant barrage of headlines and links to the hottest sports stories should help move those numbers higher.
Information provided by CrunchBase Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware. More:
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| Media Center CableCARDs freed from OEM requirement Posted: 09 Sep 2009 06:20 PM PDT
 This just in from our team at Microsoft’s MCE event at CEDIA — the OEM requirement on CableCARDs has been officially lifted, freeing Joe Six Packs all over from having to buy whole systems. The photo above pretty much says it all — enthusiasts (hey, that’s us!) can add CableCARD tuners to their PC. Even though a DIY workaround has been around for a while, it’s nice not to have to break/bend the rules to get your shows recorded, isn’t it? Filed under: HDTV Media Center CableCARDs freed from OEM requirement originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 09 Sep 2009 20:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Is Facebook Preparing To Launch ‘Facebook Labs’ For Experimental Features? Posted: 09 Sep 2009 06:19 PM PDT
At this point there are two possibilities: Facebook either has an internal directory of Facebook applications that are tested by employees and a bug let us access Desktop Notifications, or it’s preparing to give everyone the chance to try out these new experimental apps, while clearly specifying that they are an “experimental feature built by a Facebook engineer” so that it doesn’t have to worry about offering support for them. Given that the Desktop Notifications app has been public for a while now and Facebook hasn’t pulled it, I’m guessing the latter. This would be similar to a model that Google has adopted with Gmail Labs, which it launched last summer and has led to a number of useful features. And it’s a model that would be perfect for Facebook, which is well known for running marathon ‘hackathon’ sessions during which its engineers cook up new features over the course of a few all-nighters. Information provided by CrunchBase Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware. Read more:
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| WD ships 2.5-inch 640GB standard 9.5mm-height laptop drive Posted: 09 Sep 2009 06:13 PM PDT
 Monkey see, monkey do — ain’t that right? Whatever the case, we’re stoked to see one more player in the 2.5-inch 640GB game, with Seagate, Samsung and Toshiba recently introducing versions of their own. Western Digital’s iteration — the Scorpio Blue 640 — sports a luscious standard 9.5mm-height package, which should fit just fine within pretty much any laptop out there. WD also claims that this HDD consumes some 30 percent less power than the previous generation Scorpio Blue, though the 5400RPM spindle speed certainly won’t impress the performance junkies in the crowd. Look for it to slide into your next portable for $149. [Via HotHardware] Filed under: Storage WD ships 2.5-inch 640GB standard 9.5mm-height laptop drive originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 09 Sep 2009 20:13:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| TweepML Gives You A Way To Make Your Own Twitter Suggested User List Posted: 09 Sep 2009 06:06 PM PDT
Basically, if you’ve ever used an OPML file to bundle together feeds in your RSS reader, you’ll understand the concept immediately. TweepML takes a bunch of Twitter users that you choose, bundles them together, and allows you to share that bundle with whomever you choose. When the person on the receiving end loads up the bundle, they will be following all the people you suggested. A good use case for this is for individual blogs. Here’s TechCrunch’s TweepML, for example. If you click on that link, you’ll see a bunch of us TechCrunch writers are selected for you to follow. You can individually uncheck any of us as well. You then sign in with your Twitter credentials below that list and you will be following those users. Oddly, TweepML opts not to use Twitter’s popular OAuth authentication system and instead has you sign in on their own site. But it promises that once it follows the users you’ve selected, it “forgets your password forever.” Marcelo Calbucci, the man behind TweepML, has created a few other interesting bundles of Twitter users to follow, including U.S. Senators, and the Twitter’s employees TweepML, the service, is launching today with a couple partners, including Twitter grouping service Twibes and Twitter sound bite service Chir.ps. They also claim to have support from OneRiot, Gnip, Gist and others. It’s a good idea, executed in a simple enough manner that it could just work. TweepML, the format, promises to be extensible and open so others are free to use it as well. It’s based on simple XML, and Calbucci hopes that sites start making it a standard by implementing it and including .tml files on their servers for visitors to access.
Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware. See more here:
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| Somebody Has To Say It: It’s Time For iTunes Lite Posted: 09 Sep 2009 06:00 PM PDT
For years Apple has been adding to iTunes, and while some improvements have been welcome, many have simply added to the bloat. It’s time — way past time, really — for Apple to put out something lightweight and basic. I understand that iTunes is a wedge (and weapon) for Apple, and I don’t propose gutting it, but considering there are no credible alternatives to the program, it’s at the point where I feel Apple has stopped simply adding to the feature buffet, and has started force-feeding users.
I just prefer apps that do one or two things, and do them well — surely I’m not the only one. I play movies in MPlayerOSX or VLC and organize them myself, as I know many people do. Even if I did use Twitter, I wouldn’t want to tweet what I’m listening to or buying; LastFM works fine for that and already has a client or is embeddable in many services. Same for liking things on Facebook. And App management? I don’t have an iPhone or an iPod, why would I want my media player to include support? You can hide some of it, but far from all of it, and it disturbs me that it’s always lurking there, just underneath the surface. Waiting. Songbird is out there, I guess (I should switch), but it still emulates iTunes shamelessly and adds yet more features I don’t want in a music player, plus a browser. I already have a browser, guys. Use that one for your fun rich content. What else is there? Audion, abandoned these five years? Cog, abandoned a year and a half? Banshee and Vox, for six months? I’ve seen forums where people recommend running Winamp in a virtual machine to save RAM! We’re in a gilded cage, fellow Mac users, and unlike the iPhone’s gated and patrolled garden of mobile delights, it’s not one you should be satisfied with. Many Mac users chime in angrily whenever I have the nerve to mention bloat in a precious, perfect Apple product. Is it really such a stretch of the imagination to believe that some people might just want to play their music, or perhaps organize and browse it differently from how iTunes lets you? I think for every person who is excited to let Genius pick their party’s music, there is someone who can’t stand how playlists work. And for every person who likes the way iTunes organizes albums and tracks, there’s someone for whom its method of displaying their collection is frustrating and backwards. For instance:
What’s wrong with this picture? It’s janky as hell is what, and this kind of weirdo sorting issue is far from rare. To say nothing of the many other annoyances I find in this monstrosity of a media player. So what are people for whom iTunes isn’t right supposed to do? For years now, the answer from Apple and OS X developers has been “just deal with it.” Meanwhile, among the several options I have to me on XP (and 7) are very competent free and/or open-source alternatives to Microsoft’s iTunes-equivalent, Windows Media Player — which isn’t as bad as everyone says, but lord it ain’t good. Take a look at the features available in Winamp. Now observe the following screen:
Why don’t I have one of those for iTunes? Does Apple not trust me when I say that I’ll never use Genius or Facebook integration? Do they not have the ability to decouple these decadent sidecar-apps from the fundamental functionality of their media player? It’s a fail one way or the other. At the risk of getting too general in my criticism, the lack of a variety in certain kinds of software is one of the unanswerable complaints against OS X. There are dozens of programs on my PC that have no equivalent (or only a weak one) on a Mac, and rarely because, as is often said, the functionality is duplicated in the OS or what have you. If I weren’t away from my desktop, I’d list ‘em off for you. But this iTunes thing is symptomatic of that larger problem. With no alternatives, Apple’s option becomes more and more entrenched, and as it becomes entrenched, it spreads its tentacles hideously, and results in things like the present iTunes (and to a lesser extent, iMovie, iPhoto, and others). After today’s shenanigans, the program is fatter and more tentacular than ever. In the end, it seems to me that it would be so easy for Apple to make a smaller media player that they must have made a choice not to do so. Considering there are no other options, that’s a decision that is, to users like me, very damaging. Unfortunately, that’s unlikely to change, since it clearly hasn’t been damaging to their business. Looks like it’ll continue to be their way or the highway, except without the highway. It’s not spoiled to want what I’ve had for years on the platform Apple disparages as unusable. I think what I’m asking is reasonable enough, though I have no expectation that the way of the world should be suspended for my convenience. Here’s what I’d like:
What do you think? Is that really such a crime? Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware. Read the original post:
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A few minutes ago we published a post about Facebook’s new 
Twitter’s Suggested User List is the source of much controversy. But the rationale behind it is sound, even if the execution isn’t: It’s a way to bundle users that may be interesting to follow together. A new service called 
On my PC I use Winamp — have for years, love it. I understand I can’t have a carbon copy, if you will, on OS X, but at the very least give me a program that isn’t 80% features I will never use.
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