Tokyo-based crap gadget specialist Thanko is usually known for selling USB stuff nobody needs. Their newest hit product doesn’t feature a USB port, but the target group for their Catgirl Earphones [JP] should be quite small, too. Marketed as a gadget for the Cosplay crowd, the earphones are supposed to turn your girlfriend into a cute catgirl.
It’s only $32.99, it includes an auxiliary jack for your iPod, MP3, or CD player, and runs off wall power o one 9-volt battery. Sadly it’s only available for pre-order right now, but heck, you’re not doing anything until August anyway. Just order it and wait.
Wow. You guys wanted a Pleo. When we offered you one a few days ago I didn’t realize 707 people would comment wildly in hopes of winning a little green dinosaur. Well, there is a winner and he is…
Adobe and HTC are bringing Flash to Android on its new Hero smartphone. The implementation will support video and audio codecs familiar to users of Flash on the desktop.
The HTC Hero delivers powerful, compatible video playback performance using Flash technology, and interactive content enabled by ActionScript® 2.0. Users can enjoy and navigate through Web videos using intuitive video controls. With progressive streaming of large MP3 audio files from a Web server and the local file storage, the HTC Hero provides a seamless audio experience. Support for Sorenson and On2 VP6 codecs enables higher quality video and playback of existing Web content. A demo of the user experience enabled by the Flash Platform on the HTC Hero and the Android operating system can be viewed at www.adobe.com/go/htchero.
What do you get when a Kaossilator and a Chumby mate? How about the Thingamagoop from Bleep Labs? This little bugger has an LED, a photo-resistor, and some knobs and it makes a lot of noise. What kind of noise? Noise-rock noise, which could put a damper on my plans to add this to the woodwind section in the orchestra playing my new opus, the iPhone Sonata in D Minor.
The website has a collection of sample sounds to show you what this thing is capable of which, it turns out, is a series of piercing squawks.
Amazon’s third incarnation of the Kindle is here, folks. All 9.7-inches of it. Specs and info leaked about the now official Kindle over the last week and they seemed pretty much dead on. It comes packing with the larger screen, auto-rotating screen, and finally supports PDF files fully with a native PDF reader. This larger Kindle also ups the storage capacity from 1,500 books on the Kindle 2 to 3,500 on the Kindle DX thanks to 3.3GB of on board memory. The pre-order is up now and will ship shortly if you’re willing to drop $489 on one.
More pics and info after the jump.
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This episode of Laptop Hunters has been brought to you by Microsoft and Sony VAIO. Spoiler: the actors don’t buy a Mac, instead wander aimlessly around the dozens of PC models until finding a Blu-ray equipped Sony VAIO. Sorry to ruin the surprise. Video after the jump.
TheStreet has a juicy rumor that Barnes & Noble, a store where physical “books” in “paper” form are sold to “customers” who stand in line to pay with “cash” or “forms of credit” is working on an eBook reader, possibly in partnership with Verizon.
The rumor has all the makings of a real live product. They may offer book downloads over the air and come in a sexier format than the already smokin’ hot Kindle 2. All I can say to B&N is “Good luck, Sally, because you’re going to need it.”
You will agree that Amazon doesn’t have a first-mover advantage, a concept I believe is bogus. There have been ebook readers since the dawn of time. Instead, it has a first-winner advantage. Just as Twitter>Plurk>Yammer and iPod>Creative>Sony, Kindle will always do better than a BNindle and will, in all ways, do better then the unconnected ereaders that are bound to populate the stores in benighted areas. Amazon wrapped easy ordering in with a huge selection to create a package that the average consumer – and the average computer nerd – could easily understand. Sure, it has some fussiness about it – emailing PDFs to yourself to get them sent to your Kindle a huge pet peeve – but no matter what Barnes & Noble does, the Kindle still stands out as the ur-ereader.
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This may seem a little off topic for CrunchGear, but once you see the prize list, you’ll understand why we’re talking about it. Hamburger hucksters Wendy’s is holding a contest of sorts, auctioning off a few different prizes each day.
Hello CrunchGear Readers!
On behalf of Kendall J. Powell and the entire General Mills team I’m proud to announce that CrunchGear, TechCrunch’s former tech blog, is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of General Mills and will feature both tech news as well as local news relating to our consumption of Big G cereal products including, but in no way limited to, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Boo Berry, Buc-Wheats, and Reese’s Puffs.
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Google has cut 200 jobs in sales and marketing, a first for the search giant. According to VWag a tipster wrote:
A friend of mine in the San Francisco office’s AdWords division (who wants to remain nameless) was laid off this morning. She also said there were 200 people total. They are still on payroll for two months and have the opportunity to apply for other jobs within the company. If they don’t have another job at the end of the 60 days they get a severance package.
Hey, girls and boys! Do you have kids? Or are you a kid at heart? Or do you like free things? Then take these computer speakers off my hands. Funkeys are some sort of thing that kids like and these things unlock stuff on the Funkeys website.
Ever wonder what the little droid was really saying? I mean, C-3PO translated sometimes but you know he was always putting a politicly correct spin on it. Highlights from Episode one are above and Episode 2 are after the break. These might not be safe for work, but they’re funny as hell.
I did a quick video of Amazon Video on Demand on the Roku box and, as you can see, I really need to lose some weight. Otherwise, it’s a great service that really makes this tiny little box a real contender for a spot next to your TiVo and cable box in the TV shelf.
If we are to believe this Vodafone ad (and who are we to doubt the Internet), the European carrier will be the exclusive provider of HTC’s next Android phone, the Magic. The phone does somewhat resemble early spy shots so we could be looking at the real deal, folks.
Calcalist is reporting (Hebrew only) that Modu has brought in another $7M in funding courtesy of Qualcomm which as part of the agreement will also manufacture the Modu “core”.
Modu has had a whirlwind of a year, first debuting to much fanfare at last year’s Mobile World Congress, where we had a chance to sit with the company’s CEO, Dov Moran, for a 1-on-1 for a demo. The company then went on to raise a whopping $100M round. Then in November Modu announced a 33%, 88-employee downsizing in November.
BBG has an interesting bit about how netbooks nicked 20% off of standard laptop revenue even though there was a 1% increase in revenue. Why? Because foolish laptop manufacturers have been gunning for that sub-$999 price point for years now and now that they finally hit it they can’t bring it back up to sane levels thanks to sub-$500 netbooks.
Dan “Fake Steve” Lyons appears on CNBC and basically takes down Jim Goldman, the fellow who believed everything that came out of Cupertino up to and just a little beyond the ultimate admission by Steve that he was really sick.
By raise of hands, who else thinks that all these anorexically thin HDTVs are dumb? LG’s latest set measures only 6.5mm thick and Sony’s isn’t that much more thick. (pictured)
Who the hell cares Though? Why is HDTV’s latest cockfight over TV thickness? This also applies to Blu-ray/DVD players too, btw.
Samsung has been making moves to launch laptops here in the U.S. and one of their first may be a 12-inch netbook with a Via Nano chip. However, they won’t display it publicly at CES for fear of Intel’s wrath. Here’s what seems to be happening:
