On Monday evening I received a phone call from someone I trust who told me that one of our interns had asked for compensation in exchange for a blog post. Specifically, this intern had allegedly asked for a Macbook Air in exchange for a post about a startup. |
After an investigation we determined that the allegation was true. In fact, on at least one other occasion this intern was almost certainly given a computer in exchange for a post. |
We are all shaken here at TechCrunch – this is someone who was our friend and who we trusted to be honest with our readers. Our hope is that the intern learns something from this experience and grows into the kind of person that will be more welcome in this community. |
Update: Daniel, the intern in question, has decided to talk about this situation publicly on his blog. I’m glad that he has. You can read his thoughts here. Read more at www.techcrunch.com |
| In what he hopes will be the first big demonstration of the “crowdsourcing” potential of AOL’s new Seed.com service, former New York Times writer Saul Hansell says he is looking for writers who will write up interviews with all of 2,000 or so bands and artists at the SXSW music festival in Austin. The assignment will involve “real reporting,” Hansell said in an interview, in which writers will have to pick up the phone and call the band or artist and write up a 1,000-word interview in question-and-answer format, as well as a 300- to 500-word biography. The price for this assignment? The princely sum of $50. |
He also said that Seed was “not trying to find something new to say about Bruce Springsteen for the cover of Rolling Stone,” but instead was expecting “light, fun questions” and that the project was an experiment (AOL recently bought a video production studio called StudioNow to add to the Seed network). As he put it to me: Read more at gigaom.com |
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IPad? That’s So 2002, Fujitsu Says
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TOKYO — It’s sleek. It’s mobile. It has a touchscreen. |
It’s Fujitsu’s iPad from 2002. |
Fujitsu’s iPad, which runs on Microsoft’s CE.NET operating system, has a 3.5-inch color touchscreen, an Intel processor and Wi-fi and Bluetooth connections; it also supports VoIP telephone calls over the Internet, a technology also used by Skype. |
“Mobile is a keyword for Fujitsu’s iPad, too,” Mr. Yamane said. “With the iPad, workers don’t have to keep running back to a computer. They have everything right at their fingertips.” |
Apple may have an edge on pricing, however: the iPads from Fujitsu can sell for more than $2,000, compared with $499 for an entry-model iPad from Apple. |
While the dispute between Fujitsu and Apple centers on the United States, there are other iPads around the world. The German conglomerate Siemens uses the name for engines and motors, while a Canadian lingerie company, Coconut Grove Pads, has the right to market iPad padded bras. Read more at www.nytimes.com |
The cellular signal will be provided by AT&T for $15 a month (250 megabytes of data transferred — think e-mail only) or $30 a month, unlimited. Amazingly, those AT&T deals involve no contract. You can cancel whenever you like. And since this thing isn’t a phone, you don’t have to worry about dropped calls; you’re paying exclusively for Internet service. |
There’s no reason you couldn’t use it to make calls using Skype, of course — Apple says that virtually all of the existing 140,000 iPhone apps run fine on the iPad. (You can run them either at regular tiny size, or blown up double with some loss of clarity.) |
Then again, you might look a little bizarre walking through the airport holding this giant clipboard up to your ear. |
Now, though, it looks like Apple really has created something new. Criticisms of “Like a laptop” and “a big iPod Touch” don’t really do justice to the possibilities. Read more at pogue.blogs.nytimes.com |
Did you get one of these messages? | The message reads, “Great News! We’ve added 2 new cell sites in Alexandria, enhancing coverage in the areas of Mt. Vernon Ave & Glebe Rd as well as W Braddock Rd.” AT&T is going to have to increase its capacity to handle the amount of bandwidth that is going to crop up from the new iPad launched today – in addition to the hoardes of iPhone users that are already overwhelming their circuits (yes, this means you New York and San Francisco). |
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google Inc unveiled a new version of its Internet phone service on Tuesday in its latest effort to bypass Apple Inc’s gatekeepers and make Google Voice a popular service on the iPhone. |
The disagreement over Google Voice comes as Google, the world’s No. 1 search engine, and Apple are increasingly encroaching into each other’s markets. Earlier this month, Google began selling the Nexus One smartphone directly to consumers, and Google is developing an operating system for PCs that could compete with Apple’s line of Mac PCs. |
Google already had a version of Google Voice available through mobile Web browsers. |
But Google described the new version of Google Voice as a “Web app,” noting that it is much more interactive than the previous browser-based version of the service, with the ability to listen to voice mails directly from within the browser and to dial phone numbers on an interactive on-screen keypad. Read more at www.reuters.com |
Google Reader Lets You Subscribe to Any Page on the Web |
Today Google has rolled out a subtle change to Google Reader that lets you create custom feeds to track pages that don’t already have them. So you can subscribe to updates for any webpage simply by typing the URL into the “Add a subscription” text box. |
Should you put the new feature to work, you’ll start to receive short snippets for any updates made to the pages, and Google asserts that it’s committed to improving the quality of these tiny blurbs over time. On the flip side, webpage owners can choose to opt out by adjusting a few lines of code. |
So when might this come in handy? While most companies have their own blogs, receiving automatic notifications any time there’s an update to the homepage or product pages of a business of interest could prove to be vital. For example, with Apple releasing a “new product” and potentially news about the iPhone on Wednesday, you bet that I’m going to create some custom feeds. Read more at mashable.com |
This makes sense if your a post-supervisor or someone who needs to know the technical jargon of - well, just about everything there is to know about video. But if you’re me - you already know most of this stuff so its not really necessary. Also - you can look almost all of this stuff elsewhere. $1.99 for an all inclusive production/video glossary? Depends on you I suppose…
Moviola Studios, a division of Moviola, has announced the release of the Pro Video Guide iPhone app, (Pro Video Guide) a comprehensive mobile resource for industry professionals seeking in-depth information on the technical aspects of video production, post production and distribution in both SD and HD.
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The material covered in the first two sections of the Guide - Library and Glossary - cover the full spectrum of topics regarding video technology and its application, from the basic to the complex to the leading-edge: video standards, formats, resolution, storage solutions, file-base workflow options, etc.
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Randy Paskal, President of Moviola, believes that the guide will become an indispensable tool for the creative and technical community looking for a single point of contact for answers to questions about video production in a professional setting.
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“The mindshare contained in the Pro Video Guide is searchable elsewhere, but the way it is assembled and presented in the guide is unique.”
Read more at www.prweb.com |
I’m glad to see the update on these numbers. Americans with cell-phones - you are big hearted bastards. Verizon - you’ve made it official - you’re not making money on the texting fees. Big hearted bastards. We’re setting records with our connectivity, helping people with our technology. I’m really glad to see everyone reaching out, and touching someone - to steal the phrase. U.S. cellphone users donate $22 million to Haiti earthquake relief via text |
The American Red Cross has received more than $22 million in U.S. text-message donations for Haiti earthquake relief efforts, far outpacing the charity’s previous record of $400,000 for emergency relief using similar technology.
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The $22 million is roughly one-fifth of the $112 million total that the American Red Cross has so far raised for Haiti, most of which has come through more conventional sources such as corporate and online donations.
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Wireless providers have said they are forgoing standard text-messaging fees for the Haiti effort.
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“We make no money on this,” said Verizon Wireless spokesman Jeffrey Nelson.
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To get the money to Haiti faster, Verizon said Monday that it transmitted nearly $3 million in text-message pledges to the American Red Cross. Normally, telecommunications companies wait for the user to pay their phone bill, a process that can take a few months, before passing the donation to the charity.
Read more at www.washingtonpost.com |
3rd-Party Candidate Named Kennedy Could Tip Senate Race in Massachusetts
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SPRINGFIELD, Mass. — In most elections, a politician calling himself the Tea Party candidate would cheer Democrats, raising hopes that he would siphon votes from Republicans by attracting some of the disaffected anti-Washington, anti-Obama electorate. |
Democrats here are concerned that some uninformed voters might confuse him for a member of the better-known, well-loved Kennedy clan, which he is not. And Mr. Kennedy’s libertarian positions make him even more of a wild card in the last days of the race: some could appeal to the right, like his call to abolish the federal Department of Education, while others could appeal to the left, like his call for immediately ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. |
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