Crave

Parental Advisory: Explicit Content!

(Credit: Jeff Bakalar/The 404)

If you've ever sat around with friends and mourned the death of the mixtape, you'll certainly appreciate the first half of today's episode of CNET's The 404 Podcast. While Jeff was at home for the break, he stumbled upon a a collection of old cassette tapes including the Cool Side/Awesome Side mix you see up there. It's got a solid collection of '90s hits including "Mr. Jones" by Counting Crows, Soundgarden's "Black Hole Sun," and, of course, "Smells Like Teen Spirit."

I spy "Crazy" and something that starts with "Livin...," which I can only assume to be Britney Spears and Ricky Martin. Just kidding, Jeff, but seriously--we've all pulled some pretty embarrassing stunts in a pathetic attempt to win a girl's heart, so stick around to witness the humiliation.

(Credit: Tech Crunch)

Speaking of death, we're (kind of) sad to see the demise of the CrunchPad. The brainchild of TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington and Fusion Garage, the CrunchPad was supposed to be an aluminum tablet computer with a 12-inch LCD screen running Ubuntu Linux and Webkit browser. Unfortunately, Arrington reported today that the CrunchPad project is officially dead. We're disappointed that we'll never be able to test the product ourselves, but we're sure that Arrington has something else up his sleeve.

We imagine that a lot of you guys will be traveling by plane for the holiday season, but what if you were forced to hand over your iPod to security agents to check it for pirated music at the airport? Sounds like a nightmare, but Wilson tells us that the Australian government is apparently proposing a plan to search iPods and other MP3 players for illegally downloaded songs, punishable by heavy fines or even jail time!

From a technological stand point, we're not even sure how the government plans on checking for purchased vs. bootlegged music. At the end of the day, it's always comforting to know that you'll NEVER get busted for listening to The 404, and isn't that the most important thing?

A prototype of the CrunchPad tablet computer

(Credit: TechCrunch)

In a turn of events that has sent the blog world into a frenzy, TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington said on Monday that the CrunchPad tablet computer that he announced more than a year ago is officially dead.

According to Arrington, Fusion Garage, his company's manufacturing partner, said that it would take over full control of the CrunchPad project and cut TechCrunch out just days before its debut.

"Bizarrely, we were being notified that we were no longer involved with the project. Our project," Arrington wrote on TechCrunch. "[Fusion Garage CEO] Chandra [Rathakrishnan] said that based on pressure from his shareholders he had decided to move forward and sell the device directly through Fusion Garage, without our involvement."

Fusion Garage, according to Arrington, wanted to offer him the opportunity to "assume the role of visionary/evangelist/marketing head." The company would also acquire Arrington's rights to the CrunchPad name and brand. Arrington said that Fusion Garage and his company "jointly own the CrunchPad product intellectual property," but Arrington's firm solely owns the CrunchPad trademark.

For now, we only know Arrington's side of the story. (Disclosure: I wrote for TechCrunch in 2008.) He claims that he was ready and willing to launch CrunchPad with Fusion Garage. He said that he is "enraged, embarrassed, and just...sad." He plans to unleash a flurry of lawsuits on Fusion Garage.

But as you might expect, TechCrunch isn't providing the only word on the matter. Blogs across the Web are giving their two cents on where they stand on Arrington's announcement and the CrunchPad itself. Some support Arrington and still hope the CrunchPad will hit store shelves. Others aren't so sure.

Let's take a quick look around the Web to find out what others are saying.

Supporters

Gizmodo: "The whole situation is lousy, and FusionGarage certainly doesn't come out looking all that smart in it. I can't imagine anyone wanting to work with them again after this, but I guess we'll have to wait and hear what their side of the story is."

OSNews: "This is all very sad. The CrunchPad had a lot of promise, because it was driven by the very best incarnation of the Hacker Ethos. Talented and driven people, who surveyed the marketplace and failed to find a device that met their wants and needs, pulled together hardware and software talent to bring their dreams to reality, and designed a very appealing-looking device. It's a thin, light, open, relatively inexpensive device for "couch computing," and because the designers were motivated by a desire to have the device for themselves and make it available to as many others as possible, there were no hidden agendas or app stores or value-added nonsense or artificial limits on use, such as exist in the iPhone or Kindle or Sony eBook ecosystems."

Slashgear: "Away from the production wrangles, it's disappointing news both for anybody interested in portable electronics and for those to whom the CrunchPad project represented the potential for individuals and small companies to come up with an idea and make it reality."

Techland: "It seems as though Fusion Garage was being pressured by shareholders to ditch Arrington and co. They seem to forget that Arrington is a former lawyer and a pitbull at that."

Ubergizmo: "Of course, we haven't heard both sides of the story yet, but based on what we've heard (from TC), it all does seem a little sad. At least it has generated its fair share of marketing and publicity for TC, and that's worth something."

Detractors

JKOntheRun: "A basic on-screen keyboard for a 12-inch slate simply won't cut it for most people. It's too large to thumb-type on, which means you'll be holding the device in one hand while pecking with another. And the price is another issue. $300 buys you what I'd consider an equally portable, yet far more function device in either a Netbook or a smartphone. Unless there was a subsidy model in play, a web-only tablet isn't what folks expect for $300 or more."

Technologizer: "Arrington has always said that the CrunchPad sprung from his own desire to have a "dead simple" tablet he could use to get online from his couch. I get his desire. Well, mostly: I've never been entirely clear why the CrunchPad would be a better couch computer than a more typical, versatile cheap portable computer."

Wired: "Arrington's earlier promises regarding the CrunchPad never panned out, and his latest missive only points to his inability to walk the talk."

So while it seems that the Web is split over where they stand on Arrington and the CrunchPad, it's arguably John Gruber over at Daring Fireball who best summed up the CrunchPad news: "No word from Popular Mechanics yet on whether they get to keep their product of the year award."

Now it's your turn. Share your thoughts on the death of the CrunchPad below.

We're all still in shock about receiving a tweet from one @LesMoonves, but we get through it to bring you an awesome Monday show. Today's stories cover Twitter getting hacked and why it does (and doesn't) matter; a guy who got a Palm Pre tattoo; and Kazaa making a (paid) comeback!

(Credit: Icon Designer/Flickr)

Per usual, there's a lot of Twitter news today, including a story about employee data getting hacked. According to TechCrunch, which broke the story, a hacker calling himself "Hacker Croll" managed to steal a Twitter employee's e-mail password and access to users' personal information and even some documents that exposed Twitter's inside business practices. Within this story, though, are two hidden stories. First of all, why is TechCrunch even posting about this? Instead of just reporting the information, they actually posted some of the stolen information...is that a smart thing to do?

My other question is, even after gaining access to Twitter's business notes, has anyone figured out how that site is going to make money, if at all? I'm sure Biz Stone is living comfortably, but what about the admin assistant that got his or her e-mail account jacked by the hacker? What about the little people!?

In other ridiculous Twitter news, check out this video of a guy getting a Palm Pre tattooed on his arm for PreCentral.net's "What would you do for a Palm Pre?" contest. I know we've seen this before with the guy who got a Microsoft Zune tattoo, but this is getting ridiculous. A lifetime of permanent artwork for a device with a two-year relevance, at most! It might be even shorter if people can't figure out a way to sync a Palm Pre with iTunes. Wilson actually found two ways to sync your Pre to iTunes, but neither of them are free or work with Windows, so PC users should still stick with the previous version.

Also, get ready for the resurgence of Kazaa, but this time it's a paid service. Is anyone paying attention to what happened to BitTorrent and Napster?

The conceptual rendition of the near-final CrunchPad design.

(Credit: TechCrunch)

TechCrunch's Michael Arrington, who last year boldly proclaimed TechCrunch would break every embargo it agreed to, apparently has broken his own embargo and leaked some news about his little consumer electronics side project, the CrunchPad.

OK, maybe he didn't really break his own embargo, but we wouldn't put it past him. The fact is Arrington says he's "just about nailed down the final design for the device" and that he'll have "first working prototypes" in a few weeks.

Arrington has been posting progress reports on the creation of the CrunchPad, which was originally envisioned as a "dead simple" Web tablet that would cost $200. Arrington is working with Fusion Garage to create the sexy-looking CrunchPad, which will be next talked about publicly "at a special press and user event in July in Silicon Valley." But the good news is you can talk about it privately all you want.

An earlier prototype was making the rounds in April, but this new version will be slimmer (less than an inch) and have an aluminum case, "which is more expensive than plastic but is sturdier and lets us shave a little more off the overall thickness of the device." As it stands, the CrunchPad will run on an Intel Atom chip and is Linux-based.

It's unclear how the new concept will price out. In April, Arrington said the device could be built for around $250 (with packaging) and sold for $300. But we suspect the ultimate, final price tag may be higher. In fact, by the time Arrington gets it finished, there will be plenty of Netbooks with slightly smaller screens that do more or less what the CrunchPad does (except boot up to a browser as quickly), are less fragile, and have a physical keyboard.

Of course, the other possibility is that Apple will come out with its own touch-screen tablet-style Netbook that costs a lot more but everybody wants to buy.

Comments?

(Source: TechCrunch)

On this week's installment of the Digital City podcast, we discuss we discuss the dangers of being a Web celebrity, a possible new iPhone, traffic throttling from your ISP, the DTV transition, and read some listener mail (again about Joey's PlayStation fanboyism).

Listen now: Download today's podcast

For years, celebs and CEOs have the luxury of having a personal fitness trainer shadow them, tracking their activity levels, urging them along so they look better and feel better than the rest of us. Fitbit won't provide you with your own personal trainer, but the tiny clip-on wireless motion sensor/recorder may be the next best thing.

Introduced today at TechCrunch50, the small, wearable, $99 device records and then transmits to the Fitbit server an encrypted stream of motion data. Your motion data. The server translates the recorded movement into exercise intensity levels, calories burned, sleep quality, steps and distance. You don't have to do anything.

Click the button on the Fitbit Tracker you're wearing and you get an icon back telling you if right now you're living up to your fitness activity plan. Click it again and you get chapter and verse, or in this case calories burned, steps taken, and distance covered.

This is not your mom's pedometer. You wear the Fitbit Tracker 24/7. It knows when you've gotten a good night's sleep; it knows when you took the elevator instead of walking. Combined with entering your food intake at the Fitbit web site and you have the type of complete fitness picture only the very rich or high-tech Olympians have had until now.

What's more, at the web site which will be up and running when the first Fitbit ships late this year or early next, you'll be able to share your fitness plans, and your data, with others.

(Credit: Bob Walsh)

The scary side: If you thought corporate keycards and RFID tags that can rat you out were an invasion of privacy, those were the warm-up acts. Or maybe not: you're the one who decides for the sake of that (hopefully small) potbelly you're forming from too many hours in front of your laptop who gets to know what you're doing to reduce it. Furthermore, the company says data between the tracker and the web site will be encrypted, that you set your privacy settings there, and they will not share user-identifable data with 3rd parties.

Can FitBit really make tracking fitness so simple that people will change what they do and therefore actually improve their health? "The goal of Fitbit is to make people more aware of their overall wellness, and to help motivate them to set and achieve their personal fitness goals," the company's CEO, James Park, said in an e-mail. "We created the Fitbit Tracker to be effortless and easy to use. By automatically collecting data, and wirelessly updating this information to the Fitbit Website, the Tracker can seamlessly blend into everyday lives, and empower users to improve their overall wellness."

The company has promised me an evaluation unit when they're available; as unsettling as it will be, I need to lose some pounds, and all the usual ploys, diets and pills haven't cut it, so I'll be making my own personal bargain with Fitbit later this year.

The inventor of the T9 keyboard technology for numeric keypads, Cliff Kushler, is back in the game with a new alphanumeric entry technology for today's devices: touch-screen laptops and smartphones. His new technology, Swype, is quite simple to use, although beneath the user interface there's a lot going on.

Swype works with an on-screen QWERTY keyboard like you have on the tablet version of Windows and on the iPhone. But instead of tapping letters out, you press your finger or stylus on the first letter, then, without lifting it, move it to the remaining letters in the word. When the word is done, then you lift.

We tried it. It works. Even on tiny smartphone keyboards, it is intuitive and fast, and we didn't even run the tutorial. Basically, it's an amazing new input method.

A built-in 65,000-word dictionary corrects obvious and even creative spelling errors. A word menu pops up if the correction is somewhat ambiguous; in our tests, the top choice was usually correct, and it can be selected with a simple swipe upward.

Little tricks make it possible to capitalize words (jerk the stylus up and down) or select double letters (wiggle the pen over a letter).

Kushler says he can type 55 words per minute on his product. Discount the developer's advantage: Real human beings should be able to motor along at about half that, we estimate.

The development team is focused on Windows Mobile (smartphones) and also the tablet version of XP and Vista, and Surface. However, Kushler mentioned how great the iPhone hardware was for his method. While no deal with Apple is pending, I do agree with Kushler that his technology would improve the iPhone experience.

The company may also develop Swype for other platforms such as Linux and Symbian.

Challenges for the company: Selling the technology. For it to work best for users, it should be embedded at the operating system level. I really do hope Swype gets those deals.

One of the coolest things to be shown off at the TechCrunch50 conference might not ever become something any of us can use. It was a mythical technology demo from a company called Tonchidot Corporation, which showed off its "Sekai Camera" application. It uses both the camera on your phone and GPS to offer up a near real-time tag of what you're looking at.

The funny thing is the entire demo could have been a complete hoax. We never saw the service in action--just a video of it placed in the gadget-saturated Akihabara district of Tokyo. It identified things like restaurants, local shops, and even products with links to user reviews, ratings, and of course buying options.

If the technology is working, objects on the touch screen get tagged in near real time. Users can then interact with those objects, making use of their handsets' interface. In this case it was the iPhone, so users could manage what they're seeing into ordered lists and candy-colored floating tags that moved as they moved.

According to its creators, the technology does not pull as much information from the camera as it does from your location. The information gets piped over to Tonchidot's servers, then filtered into tags. It also uses a similar model to some of the location-based social networks seen on the iPhone, so users can leave little virtual "hobo codes" for one another around major cities. So say, for instance, you ate somewhere and didn't like it, you could visually tag it and leave your review. Others would then be able to see it when they use the application.

Things we still don't know about the technology include:
-Who will be serving the advertisements attached to local shops and products
-If it's limited to the iPhone or any device with a camera, GPS, and a fat data pipe
-What happens when things change in local areas, since the visual tags are based partially on things the technology recognizes
-When this would be available as something you'd get in the iPhone apps store

(Credit: Tonchidot Corporation/CNET Networks)

(Credit: Valleywag)

Following rumors that MySpace co-founder and "everybody's friend" Tom Anderson was lying about his age on his profile, Newsweek did a little digging. According to "professional license information, voter registration and utility and telephone service applications," Anderson is actually 36, not 32.

Which means that he was 31, not 27, when he co-founded MySpace, and apparently he was either self-conscious or sketched out (or both) about being in his 30s when he founded a youth-oriented social network.

TechCrunch's Michael Arrington expressed concern, saying that "the fact that MySpace and News Corp. had knowledge of the lie, and did nothing to fix it, makes it worse." But Valleywag comments, "(it) would hardly make Anderson the first person to lie about his age on MySpace." (Yeah, a lot of those "99-year-olds" aren't telling the truth.)

In other news, "Tom" is known to be so insecure about his popularity that he adds every single MySpace user as a friend the moment that they sign up for the News Corp.-owned social-networking site, and he also seems to be too lazy to change his dorky profile photo.

Can we get some real news now, please?