By Luke Anderson I’ve been a fan of the Simpsons for years. I’m not obsessed, nor do I own a single piece of Simpsons memorabilia (not since the Bartman shirt I had as a kid). However, I know several people whose love for the yellow citizens of Springfield know no bounds. This webcam is perfect for […]

By Luke Anderson

I’ve been a fan of the Simpsons for years. I’m not obsessed, nor do I own a single piece of Simpsons memorabilia (not since the Bartman shirt I had as a kid). However, I know several people whose love for the yellow citizens of Springfield know no bounds. This webcam is perfect for them.

This cam bears the likeness of evil businessman Mr. Burns. He is wearing one of his pleasant scowls whilst sitting at his desk. The front of his desk is the cam which captures 30fps at 640 x 480. It’s compatible with Windows 98 and up and plays nicely with Skype, MSN, AIM and Yahoo messengers. I’m not quite sure why someone would want Mr. Burns scowling at them all day, but you’re welcome to fork out $49.99 to have just that.

[ ThinkGeek ] VIA [ UberGizmo ]

Nostalgia, USB

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Update: It looks like some of us jumped the gun on calling this, including the New York Times. It turns out that there are still enough bidding units left in the C-Block for one or two deep-pocketed companies to still make a bid. So it is not necessarily over yet. Because of […]

Update: It looks like some of us jumped the gun on calling this, including the New York Times. It turns out that there are still enough bidding units left in the C-Block for one or two deep-pocketed companies to still make a bid. So it isn’t necessarily over yet. Because of the secrecy surrounding the auctions—companies are not allowed to talk about it until it is over—we can only guess what is happening. The post below is entirely speculative.

The most closely-watched part of the wireless auction for the 700 MHz spectrum that started earlier this week appears to be over. The auction for the coveted C-block of spectrum, which is a nationwide license and is subject to special open-device/application rules, might have been won by a $4.7 billion bid—just a smidgen above the $4.6 billion minimum required by the FCC. Until the entire auction is over for the other blocks of spectrum, the FCC won’t disclose who the winner is. But the consensus is that the winner is either Google or Verizon. Update: We’ll see in the following days whether any other bids emerge. This could just be a pause in the bidding.

Bits blogger Saul Hansell at the NYT has been watching the spectrum auction like a hawk. His theory, after looking at the pattern of bidding for the C-block, is that either there were two bidders playing a drawn-out game of chicken or only one bidder slowly raising its price, nearly reluctantly. That one bidder could have been Google, which showed its hand earlier by publicly stating it would bid the $4.6 billion minimum to support its suggested open access rules (and stuck by that pledge even though only two of its four suggested rules were adopted ).

Verizon could have sat the auction out, deciding not to bid and instead watch Google squirm as it realized it was the only one in the game. There is a lot of skepticism about how serious Google really is in its desire to actually win the auctions as opposed to influence their outcome and the rules of the game. When it became apparent that there was only one other bidder in the early rounds of the auction, Verizon could have calculated that Google would bid just shy of the $4.6 billion if it realized it was on its own. If that had happened, the FCC would have nearly certainly re-auctioned the C-block at a later date without any of those pesky open-device and open-application rules that Verizon really doesn’t like.

But somebody did make the minimum bid, and those rules will be in effect. If Google indeed was the lone bider, it might have just swallowed hard and decided to go ahead and purchase the spectrum. Maybe it was worth more to Verizon to see Google pay a $4.7 billion penalty for stepping on its turf than to have the spectrum for itself. Or maybe it wanted the spectrum all along, and it waited until the last minute to put in the minimum bid, betting that Google wouldn’t respond. Either way, Verizon might feel enjoy it snookered Google on this one.

But we’ll all be superior off for it because whoever builds the next wireless network on this spectrum won’t be able to discriminate between devices or applications. And if it turns out that Google did in fact win, there would be nothing stopping it from pursuing its two other goals of opening the network up to other service providers through wholesale leasing and other networks (both wireless and wireline) as well. That would help make the wireless world less a collection of silos and more Internet-like.

So who snookered who?

(Photo by Steve Jurvetson)

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By Andrew Liszewski Even though I have no actual sales numbers, I can only assume the Star Wars Poker Set I wrote about the other day is a popular item, if only because it’s Star Wars themed. But can the same be said for an R2D2 Peppermill? Well I think it’s safe to assume there’s […]

By Andrew Liszewski

Even though I have no actual sales numbers, I can only assume the Star Wars Poker Set I wrote about the other day is a popular item, if only because it’s Star Wars themed. But can the same be said for an R2D2 Peppermill? Well I think it’s safe to assume there’s a large chunk of the population who will go out of their way to procure an R2D2 themed peppermill instead of a regular model.

And who can blame them? All you have to do is twist R2’s domed head and delicious freshly ground pepper will fall from his undercarriage. It’s guaranteed to take any meal from just delicious, to R2D-licious. (Awful.) In fact, if those Jawas had realized how useful R2 could have really been, they never would have sold him to Skywalker.

You can find the R2D2 Peppermill at ThinkGeek for $19.99.

[ R2D2 Peppermill ]

Kitchen, Unusual

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By Andrew Liszewski Current commercial grade solar panels are only able to transform about 20% of the usable energy that strikes them into electricity. And while the most complicated and expensive panels are a bit better, operating at about 40% efficiency, there’s obviously room for improvement. So researchers at the Idaho National Laboratory working with Microcontinuum […]

By Andrew Liszewski

Current commercial grade solar panels are only able to transform about 20% of the usable energy that strikes them into electricity. And while the most complicated and expensive panels are a bit better, operating at about 40% efficiency, there’s obviously room for improvement. So researchers at the Idaho National Laboratory working with Microcontinuum Inc. and the University of Missouri are hoping a new type of solar panel made with nanoantennas could be the next breakthrough.

The new approach, which garnered two 2007 Nano50 awards, uses a special manufacturing process to stamp tiny square spirals of conducting metal onto a sheet of plastic. Each interlocking spiral “nanoantenna” is as wide as 1/25 the diameter of a human hair.

Because of their size, the nanoantennas absorb energy in the infrared part of the spectrum, just outside the range of what is visible to the eye. The sun radiates a lot of infrared energy, some of which is soaked up by the earth and later released as radiation for hours after sunset. Nanoantennas can take in energy from both sunlight and the earth’s heat, with higher efficiency than conventional solar cells.

The researchers predict that each nanoantenna could absorb close to 80% of the available energy, but there’s still research needed to perfect the design. While they can simulate how one nanoantenna will perform, things get a bit different when you cram about 10 million of them into a 6-inch circle. But the possibility of having a highly-efficient solar panel that’s as thin and flexible as plastic wrap, and as cheap as inexpensive carpet is very encouraging.

[ Harvesting the sun’s energy with antennas ] VIA [ EcoGeek ]

Eco friendly, Innvoation

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By Andrew Liszewski Leonardo Bonnani, who runs hyperexperience.com, recently visited the Panasonic Center in Tokyo and discovered these solar and wind powered streetlights around the building. During the day the solar cells on top and the turbines generate power that’s stored in a battery at the base. At night the battery is used to run the […]

By Andrew Liszewski

Leonardo Bonnani, who runs hyperexperience.com, recently visited the Panasonic Center in Tokyo and discovered these solar and wind powered streetlights around the building. During the day the solar cells on top and the turbines generate power that’s stored in a battery at the base. At night the battery is used to run the streetlights, though the turbines continue to spin and produce power even in the dark.

There’s also a short video of the streetlights in action on Leonardo’s site, since at first I actually thought the photo was a 3D concept rendering, but they’re definitely real. Also, the Panasonic Center is less of a corporate HQ, and more of a place for the public to come and experience current and future technologies being developed by the company. So I’m not sure if these unique streetlights are actually used by Panasonic at their other buildings.

[ Spinning Streetlights ] VIA [ Interactive Architecture dot org ]

Eco friendly, Innovation

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By Andrew Liszewski Leonardo Bonnani, who runs hyperexperience.com, recently visited the Panasonic Center in Tokyo and discovered these solar and wind powered streetlights around the building. During the day the solar cells on top and the turbines generate power that’s stored in a battery at the base. At night the battery is used to run the […]

By Andrew Liszewski

Leonardo Bonnani, who runs hyperexperience.com, recently visited the Panasonic Center in Tokyo and discovered these solar and wind powered streetlights around the building. During the day the solar cells on top and the turbines generate power that’s stored in a battery at the base. At night the battery is used to run the streetlights, though the turbines continue to spin and produce power even in the dark.

There’s also a short video of the streetlights in action on Leonardo’s site, since at first I actually thought the photo was a 3D concept rendering, but they’re definitely real. Also, the Panasonic Center is less of a corporate HQ, and more of a place for the public to come and experience current and future technologies being developed by the company. So I’m not sure if these unique streetlights are actually used by Panasonic at their other buildings.

[ Spinning Streetlights ] VIA [ Interactive Architecture dot org ]

Eco friendly, Innovation

Via [Ohgizmo]

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By Luke Anderson Remember last year when we told you that those crazy Japanese pet feeders that you could control from anywhere? It seemed like just another one of those gadgets that only the Japanese would probably use, and thus would never be available over here. Well, I was wrong, someone has developed a similar feeder […]

By Luke Anderson

Remember last year when we told you that those crazy Japanese pet feeders that you could control from anywhere? It seemed like just another one of those gadgets that only the Japanese would probably use, and thus would never be available over here. Well, I was wrong, someone has developed a similar feeder just for us here in the US.

Like the iSeePet360 you’ll have a decent-sized container for dry food, and a webcam for viewing your pet. You can choose to feed your pet on a timer, or do it manually. You can tune into the webcam to watch your pet eat (if that’s your thing) or simply have it automatically email pictures of your pet at each feeding. The best part? It only costs $298, which is almost $150 cheaper than the Japanese product.

[ SmartHome ] VIA [ Red Ferret ]

Household, Mobile and Unwired, Remotes

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Suggestions engine Loomia has signed deals with the Wall Street Journal, CNET, and NBC to provide users of those companies’ news websites with suggestions based on what their Facebook friends are reading. Readers of these publications who are also Facebook users with Loomia’s SeenThis? application installed will see a list of suggested news articles like the […]

Suggestions engine Loomia has signed deals with the Wall Street Journal, CNET, and NBC to provide users of those companies’ news websites with suggestions based on what their Facebook friends are reading.

Readers of these publications who are also Facebook users with Loomia’s SeenThis? application installed will see a list of suggested news articles like the one seen to the right. These recommendations are in addition to the ones typically made by the news sites, and they’re derived totally from what your other SeenThis?-using friends on Facebook have been reading on the site. The so-called “social annotation line” below each headline gives users a sense of how the suggestion was generated.

Loomia co-founder and CTO David Marks states that there are many factors that go into determining whether a recommendation should be made. Of course, a user must actually visit an article before it can be considered for suggestion, but other factors such as link clicks are also taken into consideration. If a user explicitly shares an item on Facebook through Loomia, the behavior will show the strongest preference for an item. As for how the system decides which of your friends’ articles are most appropriate to show you, SeenThis? thinks about which Facebook groups and networks you are part of, in addition to which articles you have read personally.

Sound a lot like Facebook’s own Beacon? Well that’s because it is…but it also isn’t. With Loomia, all of the data is anonymized so there’s no fear of revealing your reading habits to others. Loomia’s SeenThis? system also inverts the Beacon concept by providing social recommendations outside of Facebook and on partner sites themselves, in addition to the other way around (the SeenThis? application within Facebook will let you see what your friends have been reading across Loomia’s partner sites). Finally, SeenThis? differs by focusing on news article suggestions and not purchases from places like Amazon. Don’t anticipate to see a scarf suggestion from Loomia while browsing Amazon anytime soon.

When pressed on whether he’s concerned that Facebook could extend Beacon’s capabilities to include off-site suggestions, Marks responded by saying that content partners actually have an incentive to work with a third celebration company like Loomia when integrating social recommendation features. If they were to partner with Facebook directly, they would then have to partner will every other social network individually as well. With Loomia, they need to establish only one business relationship and the SeenThis? application will then aggregate information from across all participating social networks.

Oh yea, and about that WSJ subscription wall - Facebook users will be able to read any WSJ articles suggested to them for free.

Update: Marks wanted to add to the distinctions between SeenThis? and Beacon by emphasizing that SeenThis? isn’t an advertisement network like Beacon. Whereas with Beacon advertisers essentially pay Facebook for the chance to participate in the on-site “recommendations” by Facebook users, no one is paying Loomia to advertise on Facebook. He also emphasizes that 95% of SeenThis?’s usage takes place outside of Facebook, although the application within Facebook serves as a destination for suggestions.

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Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.

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SezWho has teamed up with BlogCatalog, a social network of sorts for bloggers, to distribute its comment reputation system to BlogCatalog members. BlogCatalog will provide a special version of the SezWho plugin that harnesses the data already stored in BlogCatalog user profiles to generate profiles for SezWho. While the plugin will be offered to all BlogCatalog […]

SezWho has teamed up with BlogCatalog, a social network of sorts for bloggers, to distribute its comment reputation system to BlogCatalog members.

BlogCatalog will provide a special version of the SezWho plugin that harnesses the data already stored in BlogCatalog user profiles to generate profiles for SezWho. While the plugin will be offered to all BlogCatalog users, SezWho participation will be necessarily opt-in (BlogCatalog does not host members’ blogs itself and therefore can’t impose SezWho on them).

The plugin will work with WordPress and MovableType 3 & 4, with support for hosted blogging solutions coming later in the form of a JavaScript and OpenID-based solution.

It’s important for reputation services like SezWho to establish these partnerships, and to support the widest range of platforms, because reputations are not terribly useful if they are restricted to a small segment of the web.

We currently use SezWho on CrunchGear to track reputations there. You can see our previous coverage of SezWho here.

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What is it about Turkey? They are really getting into social networking. Turkish social network Yonja (whose logo actually looks Irish to me) has raised $12.5M in Series A funding from Greywolf Capital Partners and Tiger Global Management, reports PEWire. HQ’d in San Francisco, the firm is led by founder and CEO Kerim Baran, who […]

What is it about Turkey? They’re really getting into social networking. Turkish social network Yonja (whose logo actually looks Irish to me) has raised $12.5M in Series A funding from Greywolf Capital Partners and Tiger Global Management, reports PEWire. HQ’d in San Francisco, the firm is led by founder and CEO Kerim Baran, who was educated at Harvard and Siebel before launching Yonja. Founded in 2003, Yonja claims a billion page views per month and nearly 5 million members. Owners Yonja Media Group also launched MetroListe (a craigslist for Turkey), 7inci (a DailyCandy for Turkey) and Nolyo (a Twitter for Turkey), states AlarmClock. In fact, Turkish startups aren’t doing too bad. Last week we reported that Xing, the Germany-based European business social network which resembles LinkedIn, had bought Turkish business social network Cember, for about $6.43 million (€4.36 million).

Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.

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