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Startup-Stravaganza TechCrunch50 May be Done For, Co-Founder Reveals to Puppet

Paul Lilly — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 09:33:41 -0500

Some say the third time's the charm, but for the TechCrunch50 conference, the third time is the last, if event co-founder Jason Calacanis is to be believed. In a strange puppet interview (NSFW - explicit language) with humorist Loren Feldman, Calacanis said it has been a good three-year run, but it's all coming to an end.

"I can tell you that this is the last TechCrunch50," Calacanis responded when probed about an open feud between him and event co-founder /TechCrunch editor Michael Arrington.

According to Cnet, the fallout between the two began when Arrington publicly called attention to plagiarism charges against Calacanis, which you can read all about here. What happened after that is anyone's guess, and while Calacanis seems convinced this is the end of the line for TechCrunch50, Arrington doesn't sound ready to throw in the towel.

"I don't know how to respond to that. After seeing that video, it seems to me that he's engaging in theatrics and fireworks," Arrington told VentureBeat in a phone interview. "I'm waiting to see what his plan is. It seems to be distracting from the startups."

New Netbook From Always Innovating Boasts 15-Hour Battery Life, Touchscreen

Andy Salisbury — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 15:21:48 -0600

At today’s DEMO conference Always Innovating plans to debut their new netbook, which will offer 10 to 15 hours of battery life, weighs under two pounds and will feature a touchscreen, all for less than an Amazon Kindle.

Always Innovating will offer a base model of the netbook for $299 that will not feature a touchscreen, but will have an ARM Texas Insturments OMAP3 processor, a 1024x600 8.9-inch screen, 8GB of flash storage, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth, and 6 USB ports. For $100 more, you can upgrade to the touchscreen version.

It’s reported that the Touch Book will be available in the U.S. around May or June 2009.

Image Credit: Always Innovating

The Future of Web Apps Isn't... Free?

David Murphy — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 13:35:11 -0600

It almost seems like common sense, but 37signals' Jason Fried had some specific words for those in attendance at this year's Future of Web Apps conference in Miami, Florida: the future is not free.

Continuing on, his point is that companies need to turn away from the business model of pump-and-dumping free applications to a gleeful audience. Open-source and free software might be an excellent means for attracting attention and eyeballs to a product, but now is not the time to pack alternate revenue strategies around these concepts. Advertising and other extraneous revenue add-ons are a distraction that pulls a company away from developing benefits for its customers, argues Fried. It's time to shift back to a meat-and-potatoes business model, and that involves selling a product that contains enough quality to make an audience want to pay for it, even given the current economic difficulties.

But that's not to say that there isn't a place for free software in the modern business model. A company needs to consider the distinction between people who would use an application for nothing versus those would actually cough up the cash. That's where Fried's concept of a high-quality product comes into the picture. Instead of turning away from development to focus on external revenue add-ons for free software, Fried believes that companies need to focus on churning out high-quality software development. That's the 37signals model, at least: 90 percent of the company's revenue comes from Web applications like its Basecamp project management system. The rest is split between advertising, job listings, and other miscellaneous income like books.

It's a compelling argument that's already played out in the open-source world on both sides. Consider the case of Adobe's Photoshop: It remains the dominant graphical platform even given the alternative of open-source alternatives like Gimp. On the flip side, look at Google. The company accrues massive amounts of traffic and interest with its free Web products. It then sells this rapt audience straight to advertisers, although the argument can be made that Google has yet to find success beyond its money-making search tie-ins.

So is the future free? I think Fried's point finds its best applicability as a recommendation. Splitting the difference always feels lame, but it's exactly how the future of Web-based business could play out. A company needs both sides to generate the greatest combination of appeal and profit: free software that can attract interest, balanced with a strong revenue generation mechanism that isn't just tied to third-party services with no relationship to product enrichment. Get the eyeballs interested, then offer them a quality product for consumption. Or as Fried puts it in an interview with the Chicago Sun-Times, "Free is OK as long as you have something to sell."

TED 2009: Maximum PC Takes You Behind "The Great Unveiling"

Norman Chan — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 19:14:15 -0600

If you check the list of hot topics on Twitter right now, you’ll fine #TED at the top of the list. That’s because today is the opening day of the annual TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) conference, a prestigious gathering of just over 1000 of the world’s most influential thinkers, entertainers, and futurists. This private event (registration costs $6,000, and that’s only after you’re invited) hosts a series a thought-provoking presentations aimed at stimulating the minds of attendees who are then encouraged to engage in an exchange of ideas throughout the week-long session.

Past speakers include Al Gore, JJ Abrams, and Jeff Bezos, who each gave provocative talks about their passions and innovations. This year’s lineup includes Green Auto Pioneer Shai Agassi, web pioneer Tim Berners-Lee, and one Bill Gates. The public typically has to wait several months before videos of these 18-minute long TED talks get uploaded, but we’ve received special access to the live stream of the main stage. Over the next three days, we’ll be posting recaps of tech-related talks to give you some insight into what goes on in this exclusive and enlightening forum. Keep tabs on our TED coverage by clicking this link!

(image via Flickr)

No BS Podcast #56: The "Whale Versus Wail" Edition

The Maximum PC Staff — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 21:10:52 -0600

This week, Dave, Will, Gordon, and Andy spend hours upon hours dissecting all the hot news from this week's Game Developers Conference. We also chat about all the fun stuff we're doing in the Lab--including media streaming and virtual machines--and answer your crazy reader questions!

We sincerely appreciate crazy reader questions.

To learn more about our Intel-sponsored LAN parties, mosey on over here.

Do you have a tech question? A comment? Just need someone to talk to? Email us at maximumpcpodcast@gmail.com or call our 24-hour No BS Podcast hotline at 877.404.1337 x1337, operators are standing by. Also, get your game on with the editors of Maximum PC by joining our Steam group or Facebook Page.

Modders and modding aficionados, check out Mod Shop: submit and vote on the coolest mods around—and win prizes!

Subscribe: http://feeds.feedburner.com/maximumpc/1337

The World's Most Hostile Network

Erin Simon — Sun, 05 Aug 2007 21:17:26 -0500

Greetings from DefCon, fair readers, or rather, greetings from the Las Vegas airport, where my flight has been delayed but there's free wifi, so I'm not too upset. I'm at the end of the magical weekend where thousands of haxors converge on Las Vegas to learn, drink, and break into each other's computers. The result is a Riviera full of hands-on tutorials, exploit demonstrations, scholarly talks and gaming. In the main conference room sits the infamous Wall of Sheep, a list of unfortunate people and their (obscured) cracked passwords. Since the network is renown as the world's most hostile, I've gone dark for the weekend – I got on the internet for the first time in Vegas to post this article, well away from the convention hall.

I've spent most of the weekend at the EFF booth, meeting lots of EFF members and other geeks, talking law with a few. I even took a turn in the dunk tank to raise money for them, and there was a line of people waiting to dunk me. Since the machine was miscalibrated, that was exceptionally easy to do: any strong hit to the backstop would trip the switch. The Goons figured it out and fixed the problem, but only at the very end of my shift. Thanks, guys.

One of the most amazing things at the con was the Lockpicking Village, sponsored by (iirc) The Open Organization of Lockpickers and SSDev. Their skybox was full of wonderfully helpful, skillful people happy to explain the basics to a noob like me. Deviant's tutorial was especially informative – I can pick a three-pin lock without much trouble now, but the five-pins still elude me. The other best thing about DefCon was Lostboy's mystery box, a 25-lb inch-thick steel contraption which required crypto, coding, electronics, physical security skills, and even some scavenger hunting to figure out how to open. It's the best spirit of Defcon, a creative task that takes a multitude of skills, so various people have to bring their different expertise together to solve it. Plus it's just really cool.

You probably already heard about the best DefCon 15 story, the Dateline reporter who tried to come to Defcon undercover and solicit evil hackers to do illegal things, "To Catch A Predator" style. The Goons, however, had an informant and knew about her even before she got here. After giving her a chance to register as press, they turned a panel into an impromptu game of Spot the Reporter and a camera-wielding mob chased her out of the conference. They played the footage on a loop in the main room, and are working on a highlights reel. I <3 DefCon.