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Posts Tagged ‘Existence’

Samsung Galaxy Spica grows up to Android 2.1

Also known as the Galaxy Portal in the UK, Samsung’s i5700 is today officially entering the Eclair portion of its Android existence. We got a nice leak of the 2.1 ROM in February, whose small glitches will no doubt have been ironed out in this official release. You’ll need to either hook up to the Samsung neural network using their proprietary PC Studio 7 software to leech the upgrade or just buy a new handset — it all depends on the ratio between your disposable time and income. Guess this will make the Spica that little bit more seductive to Rogers customers, who only just got the option to own the handset last week. Full PR after the break.

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Samsung Galaxy Spica grows up to Android 2.1 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 17 Mar 2010 04:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Prepare for an iPad App Explosion: Developer Activity Up 185%

Recent data from mobile analytics firm Flurry shows iPhone OS developer activity has increased by 185% since Apple announced their upcoming slate computing device known as the iPad earlier this year. By measuring new application starts within the Flurry community, the firm was able to determine significant increases in developer activity, including the largest spike ever in their recorded history during the month of January after the announcement occurred. The growth continued in February and now the company reports that a large proportion of the new applications they are seeing are custom version of existing applications tailored specifically for use on the iPad.

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When Apple began taking pre-orders for the iPad on Friday, March 12th, the Apple.com website was updated with new information about the device. One of the most significant reveals was that iPad applications would soon have their own dedicated section within the iTunes App Store. The website text reads:

Browse a section of the store that features apps designed specifically for iPad. You’ll find hundreds that make the most of its large display, responsive performance, and Multi-Touch interface.

Although current iPhone applications will work on the new Apple device without modifications, developers who want to take advantage of the larger screen could use the updated iPhone SDK (software development kit) to modify their apps in order to release custom iPad-only versions. Now it appears that those who chose to do so will be rewarded for their efforts by having their apps made more visible via this new section of the iTunes Store. Considering that the number of  iPhone apps now in existence is somewhere near 140,000, being able to achieve this increased visibility will allow developers “the opportunity to establish an early presence on this new device and drive more downloads,” says Flurry.

Last week, we took a look at some of the iPad applications we’re looking forward to, including things like comic books, magazines and games, but there’s clearly a lot of others we haven’t even anticipated yet. We’re only days away from knowing what those will be: Apple’s iPad will be available for sale starting April 3rd, and along with its launch, the new iPad App Store will go live as well.

Discuss

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Sony opens idyllic new retail store in Nagoya, Japan

We heard back in January that Sony was looking to reface itself somewhat by introducing a minty fresh retail look that takes a note or two from the Apple and Microsoft shops already in existence, and for those lucky enough to find themselves in Nagoya this weekend, you can check it out in person. March 13th marked the opening of the all new Sony Store Nagoya, and with an ample of amount of glass, white demo stands and black overhead signs, it’s certainly one of the more seductive retail shops that we’ve seen. We’d bother knocking Sony for following instead of leading, but considering just how far the brand has fallen over the past couple of years, we’re just stoked to see it putting forth an effort to turn things around.

Sony opens idyllic new retail store in Nagoya, Japan originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 14 Mar 2010 09:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Lotus outs wild Evora 414E Hybrid plug-in concept car

Concept cars are like unicorns — they’re so prevalent and vaporous, they’re hardly worth remarking upon. Every so often, though, one pops out into the ether that’s really worth a second look. Lotus’ Evora 414E Hybrid concept certainly fits into that category.This plug-in car boasts (or would boast, should it come into existence), 1.2 liter, three-cylinder engine, independent electric motors for the rear wheels, with a range of about 300 miles. The glass engine cover pictured above, however, is just one of the features we find ourselves double-taking here. The Evora 414E would also pack some ‘vroom vroom’ noises by way of its audio system to take care of the ever-pressing danger of silent auto engines. The engine can operate on alcohol-based fuels or regular old gasoline, and the battery-only range is in the neighborhood of 35 miles. The Lotus Evora 414E hybrid will be unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show.

Lotus outs wild Evora 414E Hybrid plug-in concept car originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Mar 2010 00:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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I Pissed Off A PR Spammer Today

It’s no secret that we consider the PR industry, for the most part, the bane of our existence. They’re just under too much pressure to get results, and when we don’t do what they want (write about their clients), things turn ugly. And before things turn ugly, we get spammed. By phone, by Twitter, by Facebook, by email, by mail and by fedex. Some PR firms will lie, cheat, manipulate and then just smear your reputation to get what they want.

Today something new happened though. It wasn’t a PR firm we went to battle with, it was a press release distributor – prMac. I know these guys well, because for the last year and a half they’ve sent me an average of 15 emails a day, sometimes far more. Each email contains a useless press release that someone paid them to spam out to the media. As far as I know, not one of these emails has ever turned into a story.

Most PR emails come from a human, and it’s easy to just reply and tell them to stop if it becomes annoying. The more streamlined operations that spam stuff out at least give us an opt out to get off their dreaded mailing list. But not prMac – none of their emails have an opt out.

Today was the day I decided to take a stand against the onslaught of prMac emails. Some small step in my hope to regain human dignity, I guess. Since there was no opt out, I simply sent out a Tweet, saying “prMac really needs to chill out on the unsolicited press spam, and give an unsubscribe link.” I followed up with a link to a single day’s emails from the company.

If I were prMac, I would have seen this and either kept on spamming, or quietly taken techcrunch emails off their list. But that didn’t happen. Instead, they got angry. Really pissed off, actually.

First came a comment to that image of the spam, saying “Claims it’s spam, but OPTED IN to the service. The reason for the duplicates is TechCrunch provided two email addresses.”

Then a barrage of emails (sort of ironic). One said in part, and I’m not kidding, “prMac is an OPT IN service for the media. We’re not spammers. We set up your account for you, only for your convenience and under your behalf…”

Yep, they followed a statement that they are opt in only and that they aren’t spammers with an admission that they set up our account for us “only for your convenience” (and certainly not at our request).

Unpleasant words were exchanged over the course of ten or so more emails. prMac forwarded an email from 2008 where they cajoled a CrunchBase staffer into giving up our emails to start the whole process. I noted that I had no way of stopping the barrage, and kept pointing out that a simple opt out in each email would have been so…legal of them.

But by far the most perfectly absurd comment came from prMac in one of their last emails, where they said to me “…you seriously need to take some diplomacy lessons my friend. The smart ass remarks aren’t assuaging me one iota, and only making a situation worse than it didn’t even have to be.”

Indeed. And since I want to become a better person, I’ve enrolled myself in a course on how to be diplomatic with spammers who don’t want to let go. Hopefully, I’ll handle the situation with more finesse next time.

In the meantime, though, the whole PR profession really needs to get a grip. We aren’t here to do their bidding. We serve our readers. At least, the readers we like. And our community. If they want to be part of that community, they need to lose the sense of entitlement and chill out on the aggressive marketing a little bit.

I would have been quite happy just venting on Twitter earlier today and eventually setting up an email filter to remove anything that came from them. But we’re only human. And this tirade of angry emails (just now yet another one from them popped into my inbox – “If your receiving distributions from us were such a problem, when didn’t you bring this up long before?? It’s not like we started doing this yesterday.”) was a little too aggressive and a little too much. So now I’ve vented more fully.

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Steve Ballmer’s shocking autograph of MacBook Pro caught on video

It’s likely that if you were told to describe what you think would happen if someone asked Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to autograph a MacBook Pro, it would go something like this:

Steve would fly into a blind fury, grabbing the laptop and smashing it against a far wall with the force of ten men, laughing as the computer shattered and sparked out of existence. He would then leap towards the young man who’d made the request and pin him to the floor, pulling out a Bowie knife while whispering that he would like to “Gut [him] like the pathetic animal he is.” Next Ballmer would dash out of the room only to return with a canister of gasoline, some hairspray, and one of those long lighters, all while shouting that he would “Show the world what [he's] really made of.” Ballmer would escape from this scene of utter destruction in a helicopter, but not before circling the college campus (or wherever this took place) and dumping toxic waste on hundreds of students.

But, no. He pretty much just signs the laptop. See it all happen after the break.

Continue reading Steve Ballmer’s shocking autograph of MacBook Pro caught on video

Steve Ballmer’s shocking autograph of MacBook Pro caught on video originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 22 Jan 2010 11:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Rumored HTC tablet project both confirmed and suspended in one fell swoop
Remember those rumored HTC Android / Chrome OS touch tablets that were supposedly being shown behind the scenes at CES? In a brief statement given to Australia’s Channel News, Sales and Marketing Director Anthony Petts not only confirms the existence of the aforementioned project, he also announces in the same breath —
way to be efficient, guys — that the slate are on hold as the company is now “focusing their efforts on a new generation of mobile phones.” He’s not saying never, but don’t get your hopes up for the near future. At any rate, if a 4.3-inch device like the HTC HD2 is still considered a phone by its standards, we can be happy with that — maybe they can try five on for size while they’re at it.

Rumored HTC tablet project both confirmed and suspended in one fell swoop originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 18 Jan 2010 19:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Crapgadget Crapdown, CES 2010: the best of the worst

It’s that time of the year again, where we round up all the gadgets we found on the CES show floor that help us to reset our gauge for bad ideas and hardware. Following in 2009’s footsteps, there seemed to be much less crap this year than before. Still, we’re here to recognize those souls who strive harder than most to hit that point of mediocrity — pick your favorite below, then rest easy knowing that you live in a world that accepts the existence of all kinds of products, no matter how miserable.

The nominees

Crapgadget Crapdown, CES 2010: the best of the worst originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Jan 2010 02:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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