You know what’s not smart? Tweeting about being on the lam. Who would do such a thing? If you guessed former UFC fighter turned porn star War Machine you’d be correct.
It was so close I could taste it. Two weeks ago we were ready to publicly launch the CrunchPad. The device was stable enough for a demo. It went hours without crashing. We could even let people play with the device themselves – the user interface was intuitive enough that people “got it” without any instructions. And the look of pure joy on the handful of outsiders who had used it made the nearly 1.5 year effort completely worth it.
Our plan was to debut the CrunchPad on stage at the Real-Time Crunchup event on November 20, a little over a week ago. We even hoped to have devices hacked together with Google Chrome OS and Windows 7 to show people that you could hack this thing to run just about anything you want. We’d put 1,000 of the devices on pre-sale and take orders immediately. Larger scale production would begin early in 2010.
And then the entire project self destructed over nothing more than greed, jealousy and miscommunication.

So this is how the other half lives, huh? It must be nice to have a house full of $1200 remotes customized with user profiles and home automation controls. Yes, this remote costs $1200 and that doesn’t include installation and yes, you need it to be installed professionally. This isn’t a Harmony remote that can be set up in 10 minutes. But once it’s installed, holy cow, it’s effen amazing. I would call it the perfect remote, but I had two demo units die on me. Read More
Today is Cyber Monday. It’s like Black Friday but with more indoorsiness. And while Black Friday is more of a brick-and-mortar, you’re-there-in-person type of thing, Cyber Monday is all online and there are far too many stores and deals to completely cover. Here’s a head start on some of the better deals from the bigger sites, though.
You’re going to have to wait a bit longer to pick up the $260 Nook in some Barnes & Noble retail stores. The lot that was earmarked for the brick and mortar retail market has been redirected to fullfill Internet pre-orders. Those damn early adopters always get all the fun.
TransferJet is a close-proximity wireless transfer technology that was introduced by Sony in 2008. Toshiba announced during IFA in Berlin this year they are planning to use the technology in their products soon. The idea is to let two electronic devices quickly exchange data, theoretically at up to 560 Mbps, just by bringing them close together (touch is possible, too).
And today, Sony announced in Tokyo [press release in English] that the first LSIs supporting the standard will be shipped to manufacturers before December starts. The “CXD3267AGG” (pictured on the left) and the “CXD3268AGW” will cost $17.45 each. Sony says they managed to optimize the technology so that TransferJet can now be integrated into smaller electronic devices, too. The LSIs can be used by makers of cell phones, digital cameras, computers and HDDs.

As you likely know, Tiger Woods was in an accident under apparently mysterious circumstances early Friday morning. Predictably, the reports and reactions thereto pertaining varied somewhat in quality and timeliness, and predictably, this has led to paroxysms of futurist glee in some and sullen condemnation by others. Now that the smoke has cleared, we can examine the event, which is certainly worth a little inspection despite its obvious triviality, with a little perspective.
I’m not going to speculate on Woods’ injuries, the cause of the crash, or rumors of fights and affairs. I don’t care, personally. But how the information proliferated makes for interesting dissection. And the fun part is that there’s something for everybody’s agenda! Many will choose to ignore or emphasize unduly one party’s role in this drama, but the fact is that it very neatly exposes both the strengths and weaknesses of both traditional and so-called new media. I hope you’re sitting comfortably.
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It’s Sunday and I want you to be happy. That’s why I’m offering you your very own Vue Personal Video network so you can keep an eye on Santa as he sneaks up to your back porch and steals your garbage cans.
We reviewed this kit a few months ago and were impressed. It’s completely wireless and the cameras are battery powered.
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Hey, guys. I, John Biggs, will be in Hong Kong and Guangdong next week (November 30-December 5) to visit some folks and would love to meet up with Web 2.0 and gadget purveyors in mother China. If you would like to chat, drop me a line at john @ crunchgear.com and let me know what’s up. I’m thinking about doing an informal meet-up on Thursday so advice on places to meet in Hong Kong are welcome.
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Do you know what’s awesome? One of our readers won the Best Buy Black Friday VIP contest. Here’s his story via the Seattle Times.
The Zune HD has been kick’n it for a few months on retail shelves. But if you’re planning on buying one sometime soon and purple and magenta are your colors, you might want to wait until December 1st. On that day the portable will be available in those lovely colors in addition to the five that are already available. Of course you can customize your Zune HD even more with the signature Zune Original Artwork and through the holiday’s, free engraving.