The Good NET Guide

Posts Tagged ‘nearly-everyone’

These days, thanks to its growing ubiquity in the media, nearly everyone knows what Twitter is. But back in 2006, when it was known as Twttr, a side project of the podcasting service Odeo, no one knew what it was. So co-founder Biz Stone made a video.

As you can watch below in “Twttr 101,” dug up by Say OMG, Stone dresses up as some sort of crazy scientist with Harry Potter glasses and sports an even crazier accent. Also worth noting is that at the time, Twitter was described as a “social texting service based on the contents of you mind.” Most users today don’t realize it, but in the early days, Twitter was almost entirely based around SMS.

For those wanting to know more about Twitter’s past, you should also check out Stone’s blog post from July 2006, announcing the launch of Twttr. In it, he writes, “Jack Dorsey is one of Odeo’s brightest stars so when he told us about this idea that has been haunting him for six years we had to listen. It’s not even remotely related to audio but it’s an awesome idea so we told him to go for it.” This foresight in switching from audio idea of Odeo and going with Twitter proved to be a very smart move.

Let me say upfront: I have never been to TED, mostly because I have never been invited and I can’t imagine a world where I justify paying $6,000 for a conference. But I live in Silicon Valley so every year leading up to the star-studded event, I have to hear about it from nearly everyone I know: People who love it and people who hate it.

For the last few years, these conversations have gotten ugly. What I’ve seen and heard from the outside depicts the sad transition from what used to be an inventive, elite industry conference that cross-pollinated experts from the worlds of technology, entertainment and design to a $6,000, always-sold-out-unless-you-“matter” invitation to rub shoulders with celebrities and talk about how compassionate of a millionaire you really are.

I don’t really blame the attendees. Truth be told, if I had $6,000 that my mortgage or a worthy charity didn’t need and was important enough to be courted by the organizers, I’d probably be a TED-head too. But a few years ago, I’d heard so many ugly stories about treatment of the people who aren’t quite-important-enough that I finally had to call the fawned-over conference out in one of my highest-read BusinessWeek columns ever, all but guaranteeing I’ll never be let in its hallowed doors. Full rant here. Sour grapes? Probably. But then again, there are tons of conferences I’m not allowed to attend that I have no issue with at all.

Since that rant, I’d grudgingly given TED some credit for opening up a bit. A move to Long Beach gave the conference a bigger venue and more people who really wanted to go seemed to be able to get tickets. TEDTalks are now posted for free online, and some are even streamed from the conference.  TED has also expanded its events to the emerging world, even sponsoring some locals who can’t afford the ticket price.

So imagine my surprise when I started to hear rumblings from the Valley TED faithful that the relocation to Long Beach has ruined what was great about the conference, making it even more elitist. TED has always been an expensive clique, but once you were in, you were in. Like the World Economic Forum in Davos, there wasn’t much more to do in TED’s old home of Monterey so everyone mixed and mingled. It was a rare place you could hang out with Al Gore and Meg Ryan at the same dinner and, come on, that’s kind of cool, right?

No more. Now when the day’s sessions are done there’s a hierarchy of parties throughout the LA-area with strict lists and security. Cliques within cliques, if you will. One friend I spoke with yesterday told me it was so bad last year he couldn’t even hang out with his friends much of the time. Because that’s what you want when you’ve paid $6,000 to attend an event—to be told your friends are still better than you.

Now, to be fair, these aren’t necessarily official TED events. But it’s still striking to hear the TED faithful complaining about the TED clique.

Yes, yes, it’s an overdone Internet meme, but it also precisely sums up nearly everyone’s reaction yesterday to the iPad . Enjoy.

Original post:
Hitler’s take on the iPad

BillShrink, the startup that looks to help users save money across verticals including cell phones, credit cards, and savings accounts, has just announced that it has grown to 1 million members since its launch in April 2008. Alongside the milestone, the site is also announcing that it has found “$1 billion in savings on everyday bills”.

That second statistic is a little confusing. BillShrink basically means that if its users had signed up for the top matches generated by its cost cutting tools, they would have saved a total of $1 billion. Of course, not everyone who uses the service decides to change their cell phone carrier or credit card, so the total amount of money saved isn’t that high. That said, this is the first time BillShrink has disclosed the size of its userbase, and it’s clear that the site is getting some solid traction.

BillShrink has been gradually rolling out its cost saving services in new verticals over the last year and a half. The site kicked off with support for finding the cheapest cell phone plan in 2008. Since then it has expanded to include a service for picking the best credit card, saving money on gas, and choosing the best saving account or CD. Most users are interested in the wireless service though, in part because of a marketing push from T-Mobile, and also because dealing with hellish cell phone carriers is something nearly everyone has to do.

BillShrink is able to expand to new verticals relatively quickly because of the technology that’s working in the background. The site is essentially taking unstructured data from across the web and converting it into searchable structured data. That’s a feat that’s harder than it sounds — Google is trying it with Google Squared with mixed results. Granted, BillShrink is dealing with a smaller set of data than a search engine that can query any term, but the site’s backend is more tech-heavy than you might think.

Looking forward, CEO Peter Pham says that the site will be launching some new verticals next year, some of which will include major new partners. Pham says that BillShrink will likely be exploring the ‘Triple Play’ deals offered by cable companies for internet/cable/phone service, as well as a service looking at mortgages (a space that Google has recently entered).

Image by Don Hankins

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Today’s the first day of the rest of Microsoft’s life. Windows 7 is officially available . Nearly everyone loves the OS expect for one notable person: Fake Steve Jobs .

See the rest here: 
Fake Steve Jobs on the Windows 7 launch

Finally, actual PS3 Slim sales numbers. Before all we had were percentages—sales up 300 percent over last week, that type of thing.

Read the original post:
One million PS3 Slims sold worldwide since its launch

Where did this rumor that Microsoft wanted to buy EA start? You know what, it doesn’t matter where it started, because it’s not true . No, Microsoft has no plans to buy EA, so don’t sweat the technique ($1 if you get that reference).

Here is the original: 
No, Microsoft will not buy EA. Just sayin’.

Just when you thought it was safe to buy a pair of headphones - BAM! - Klipsch releases the S4i In-Ear headset with iPod buttons and mic! WHAM! New Breakthrough Product: Klipsch® Image S4i In-Ear Headset One of the first third party headphones with integrated microphone and remote. SLAM! BIFF! It will cost $99. INDIANAPOLIS, IN (July 21, 2009) — Klipsch plans to re-define the music listening experience with its new Image S4i, an in-ear headset that combines the company’s acclaimed sound performance and amazing comfort value with a unique in-line microphone and remote.

Here is the original post: 
Klipsch Image S4i has integrated microphone and remote

Oh man, Expansys. Either you’ve got someone who doesn’t know how to punch in embargo dates properly, or whoever is in charge of determining when your product pages go live likes to live on the edge.

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Sony Ericsson “Rachel” is the XPERIA X3, Specs leaked

Nearly everyone around the TechCrunch office is a Mac user, and we’ve been waiting rather impatiently for Google to port over its Chrome browser since its debut (for Windows only) last September. Google has been pretty quiet on when a Mac version might come out, and with Google’s I/O event this week we thought that there might be a chance that the search giant would finally release Chrome for Mac during one of its two keynotes.

Today’s keynote was a swing and a miss - we learned about Google’s web elements, new application features using HTML 5, and everyone in the audience got a shiny new GTC phone. But Chrome for Mac was nowhere to be soon. Should we expect more tomorrow?

TechCrunch IT Editor Steve Gillmor caught up with Google co-founder Sergey Brin, and asked when we could expect Google Chrome for the Mac. Brin’s response? “I ask about that every other day.”

Brin says that Chrome for Mac is definitely coming along. The team measures its progress by how long it can get Chrome to run stably on their computers, and they’ve moved from a few minutes at a time up to a number of hours. But it doesn’t sound like it’s close to being finished. Brin could be playing coy, but it sounds like he wants this as badly as the rest of us.

If you’re feeling adventurous, you can always try out the in-development (and buggy) versions, though these obviously aren’t ready for public release.

Be sure to watch the rest of the video for more on Google’s experimentation with HTML 5 and YouTube.

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