Category: Tech news

Product: BeoLab 11 Subwoofer

Manufacturer: Bang&Olufsen

Wired Rating: 0

Sure, summer’s here, but maybe you don’t like the outdoors. Maybe you burn easily. Still, you can bring a little of the outside in with a “flower” that drops more bass than a lowrider on La Brea &mdash Bang & Olufsen’s BeoLab 11 subwoofer. Nicknamed the Tulip, its distinct design is optimized for both a fresh look and stunning performance. Audio designers typically add ballast to their room shakers to kill sound-spoiling vibrations. Instead of piling on pounds, B&O set two 6.5-inch drivers across from one another. The sound waves they create push in opposite directions, preventing vibrations from propagating. At just 18 pounds, the 200-watt powered sub is light enough to mount on a wall. It’s also eerily still: Set a cocktail on top and the booze won’t even ripple. But don’t make a habit of it &mdash this flower doesn’t like to be watered.

Product: L’il Grills

Manufacturer: Roundup:

Wired Rating: 0

Summer and cookouts go together like Baby Ruths and swimming pools. Compact grills let you BBQ anywhere at a moment’s notice.

1. Big Green Egg (small)

The Egg lived up to its lofty rep: Our food came out flavorful and juicy—even veggie burgers! Unfortunately, at 65 pounds this charcoal burner weighs nearly as much as the other three grills combined. And the Egg’s brittle ceramic shell made us apprehensive about carrying it down steps, much less tossing it in the trunk. When we did take it on the road, we had to wait hours for the thing to cool down before lugging it home.

WIRED Can be configured for grilling, baking, smoking, or convection heating. Equally capable above 750° F or south of 250°.

TIRED Switching setups was tough to do while the coals were lit. 13-inch-diameter cooking area is the smallest of this batch. $500, biggreenegg.com

2. Solaire Everywhere

Equipped with its own shoulder bag and weighing in at just 15 pounds, the Solaire is as portable as a briefcase, and its infrared burner and stainless steel housing positively drip with geek cred. The grill was ready to cook in five minutes, and a maximum measured temperature of just over 700° F meant we were able to produce tempting grill marks and juicy insides. With such spunky burners and a lid that isn’t designed for flame-on use, though, slow cooking is sadly not an option.

WIRED Quick cleanup and cooling make it easy to head home.

TIRED Hard to throttle down the heat. Buy a few extra bottles of propane—this baby is thirsty. 155-inch cooking area is second-smallest in our test. $289, rasmussen.biz

3. Weber Q140

After we got over our prejudice against its electric heating element, we realized that the Q140 was a pretty effective cooker. Its heat-reflecting lining and oval shape direct BTUs at your grillables, and closed-lid cooking provided excellent results on fish and veggies. Keep the cover down, though: Even though you plug this 1,560-watter into a 120-volt outlet, it still struggles to reach 500° F. Serious searers should look elsewhere.

WIRED Never runs out of fuel (as long as you pay the electric bill). Optional fold-up stand leaves table space for food and eating.

TIRED Low top heat. No temperature gauge. Portability is limited to the length of your extension cord. $280, weber.com/

4. Char-Broil CB500X

The CB500X looks like a tough man’s treasure chest, with black metal construction, preseasoned cast-iron grate, and a front-side fire-pit door. But we struggled to achieve precision grilling: The charcoal burned too hot and fast, and the vents were too small to let us control the temperature effectively. On the plus side, it offered the largest cooking area in our roundup (24 x 10 inches) while still fitting nicely into the back of our Honda Civic.

WIRED Removable bottom for easy cleanup. Adjustable fire rack.

TIRED At 37 pounds, it approaches don’t-lift-with-your-back territory. Hot metal vent knobs inflicted the only burn of the test, and back flash singed arm hairs. $150, charbroil.com

Product: Off-Road Trip

Manufacturer: Roundup:

Wired Rating: 0

Route 66 has the world’s largest ketchup bottle. Yay. Here’s a better ro ad trip idea: Leave the asphalt behind and visit someplace that’s not already on a postcard.

1. Outdoor Research DryComp Ridge Sack

WIRED Super lightweight and surprisingly strong. Shrugged off mud, water, rocks, and scrapey branches. This day pack even survived the ultimate test—being checked as airline baggage. Comfy straps.

TIRED Hip belt could use some padding. Still smells like our campfire, even after washing.

$119, outdoorresearch.com

2. ARB Fridge Freezer

WIRED It may be the size of your old Igloo, but this is no mere cooler; it’s a full-on fridge, complete with electronic thermostat. Runs off a 12-volt socket yet works as well as your kitchen model.

TIRED Costs almost as much as your kitchen model. Exposed cooling fins are easy to damage. Heavy.

$854, arbusa.com

3. Cobra CJIC 350 Power Pack

WIRED We brought it along for its air compressor—handy for tailoring tire firmness to terrain—but it does so much more. It’ll jump-start a V-8, power a flatscreen, or charge your iPod.

TIRED Jumper cables too short. Wimpy compressor takes forever. Three separate power switches?

$100, cobra.com

4. Garmin Oregon 550t Navigator

WIRED Because “Elvis Rock” (a) isn’t on any map and (b) might not look like Elvis when you’re sober, the 550t lets you take a geotagged photo that you can click on later to find your way back. 16 hours of battery life! Water- and shock-resistant.

TIRED Better off-road than on: Street maps cost $100, screen is too small, and instead of “Turn here,” it just says “beep.”

$600, garmin.com

5. Black Diamond Sprinter Headlamp

WIRED Small, bright, and rugged. Flashing red “follow me” light on back. Comes with a jillion different plugs for overseas charging.

TIRED No plug will help if you run out of juice in the middle of nowhere. Wiring-lined head strap chafes a sunburned brow.

$100, blackdiamondequipment.com

Product: CJ3b

Manufacturer: Icon Motors

Wired Rating: 8

Back when LPs were the state of the art, the Willys CJ3B was king of the trail. Unfortunately, its motor skills haven’t aged as well as its looks. So Icon Motors has produced an aesthetically faithful update. Did we say update? More like a total reengineering. The new steel body is protected by a Teflon polyester powdercoat; leaf springs are replaced by a fully independent suspension. The four-cylinder engine makes 205 horsepower but gets 23 mpg. The 4WD system is adapted from a 2010 Jeep. And while the original 3B topped out around 50 mph, we throttled the Icon down LA freeways at over 80. When we hit the Miller Jeep Trail, we switched into 4WD low and went way beyond our comfort zone without a hiccup.

WIRED ATV-narrow and insanely capable. Every light is LED—from dashboard to headlamps. Just try to scratch the paint—we drove through a big-ass thornbush and wiped away the evidence with a rag.

TIRED 83 grand. Just like on the original, high-beam switch is next to the clutch—easy to hit by accident. Shifter feels sloppy … er, retro.

Product: Master Blasters

Manufacturer: Roundup:

Wired Rating: 0

Share your playlist. Loudly. A new era of boom boxes is upon us, and they’ll have you jamming like it’s 1989.

1. Altec Lansing MIX

With easy-to-grasp handles and ridiculously powerful bass, the MIX was our choice for the new-millennium remake of Say Anything. Throw in eight D batteries and the MIX can travel with you to your neighbor’s house party or your crush’s window. A high-contrast digital display scrolls song titles and artist names—making it easy to send a message to that special someone.

WIRED Two auxiliary inputs and a designated dock let you connect three devices at once for the Longest. Playlist. Ever. Front handles for easy military-pressing.

TIRED Not beachworthy; too many nooks and crannies to catch the sand. A bit deep for shoulder wielding or shallow shelving.

$300, alteclansing.com

2. Lasonic i931 iPod Ghetto Blaster

Oh, nostalgia. Lasonic’s aptly named Ghetto Blaster would be at home on the shoulder of someone wearing Skidz and blasting Kool Moe Dee. This gigantic relic of a bygone era even has a faux tape deck that conceals an iPod dock. But though your jams might be rocking, the sound will disappoint. Chalk it up to true 1980s fidelity—audio quality and all.

WIRED Quite the head-turner. Preprogrammed sound settings for different types of music means it’s time to bus’ out the Mozart, yo!

TIRED Tape deck dock doesn’t support iPhone or iPod touch, and it’s hard to get your ‘Pod situated. Ten D batteries?! Only spacecraft should need that much power.

$139, lasonicstore.com

3. DeWalt DC012

Power tools and crashing metal can’t silence the DC012. Neither can short drops, rain, spilled coffee, sawdust, or other job-site hazards. Volume is not an issue, but clarity is: This rugged sound blaster is as sturdy as Andrè9 the Giant, and cranked up to the limit, it might level a city block. Too bad the sound quality is lacking.

WIRED Power cord stows on a bottomside spool. Also works as a charger for DeWalt power tool batteries. Three outlets on the side—this is the rockinest powerstrip ever. Weatherized construction makes this our beach blaster of choice.

TIRED A little bulky and awkward for residential use. Charges your drill but not your iPhone. Runs on proprietary batteries only.

$170, dewalt.com

4. Memorex miniMove

A boom box shaped like a purse? Of course! As long as you’re comfortable in your masculinity, the easy-to-tote design does make the miniMove ideal for traveling and picnics. And once you get to your destination, you can stash this girlie embarrassment in the shade and control your tunes with the included remote. But don’t stray too far—this mini can’t get as loud as its larger competitors, and sound suffers at higher volumes anyway.

WIRED Available in six colors, and fortunately, one of them is black. Squishy buttons are fun to push. Fifty bones = bargain alert.

TIRED Tiny speakers produce tinny sound. Radio antenna sticks out awkwardly from the side.

$50, memorex.com

Product: Self-Helpers

Manufacturer: Roundup:

Wired Rating: 0

A mirror will tell you how you look, but it won’t tell you what’s going on under your skin. These gadgets will help you monitor your inner health, so the contents match the wrapper.

1. Garmin Forerunner 110

The newest Forerunner is small enough to fit under the cuff of a dress shirt and yet it still talks to satellites. It’s also a great example of a company listening to its customers: Garmin users have been clamoring for a less expensive watch that records where they go and how fast they get there. The 110 does just that.

WIRED Small, affordable, accurate. Lets you use Garmin’s Connect Web site, where you can save and track all your workouts.

TIRED Clip-on USB adapter can be flaky. Getting a lock on the satellites can take a minute or two, so leave time to do some quality stretching before you take off.

$250, garmin.com

2. Zeo Personal Sleep Coach

Strap on the headband before you nod off and in the morning you’ll have a quantified picture of your night’s sleep. Zeo takes an EEG of your nappytime brain waves, so it knows how you doze. And it goes deeper too: By identifying “sleep stealers,” the device helps you find out how, for example, the light from your TV increases the time it takes to fall asleep.

WIRED Opt for detailed information or a single number—your “ZQ”—that measures quality of slumber. Can use your brain signals to determine the best time to wake you up.

TIRED You might sleep better without a transmitter strapped to your head. No wireless uploading.

$249, myzeo.com

3. Tanita BC-350

Your scale only measures your weight? Please. The BC-350 not only tracks your pounds but measures body fat, bone mass, metabolic age, and hydration level. Using a mild electric current (too small to feel), the scale measures the impedance of your body to analyze the nitty-gritty details.

WIRED If you can read standing up, you can use this thing. Allows multiple profiles, so you can see how you stack up against friends and family (eek).

TIRED No way to store data, so get comfy with Excel if you want to track your stats. Don’t expect any advice, either: Though it serves up lots of info, the scale offers no action plan or system for setting goals.

$270, tanita.com

4. GoWear Fit

Who knew so many sensors could fit into a single armband? The GoWearFit packs an accelerometer, a temperature monitor, and a galvanic skin detector. These three electronic superheroes join forces to provide an insanely accurate accounting of how many calories you burn in a given day.

WIRED Fits unobtrusively under clothes. Data uploads to an easy-to-navigate Web site.

TIRED Not waterproof, so it can’t crunch how many calories you burn in the pool (or the shower). Elastic armband gets a little ripe, snuggled up next to your armpit and all. Ugly display sold separately. The Web site has only basic goal setting, like “I want to get more active.”

$190,bodymedia.com

5. Philips DirectLife

Toss the DirectLife in your pocket or dangle it around your neck and its accelerometers keep tabs on how much you move. USB-sync it with a Web site account to track activity levels, identify trends, and set fitness goals. Wow, that was easy.

WIRED Online training coaches are just an email away; their periodic friendly reminders help you stay focused.

TIRED Do you really burn the same number of calories lifting weights as you do sitting on the sofa? (No.) There’s no display except some LED dots that show how much of your daily goal you’ve accomplished. No wireless data transfer. $12.50 monthly fee. Boo.

$99, philips.com

It’s finally here. After months of planning and building and learning and fixing and hiring and spending, TechCrunch TV goes live right… NOW.

Broadcasting daily from our fully-featured San Francisco studio, TechCrunch TV will be packed with some of the most recognizable and inspiring faces in tech. The entrepreneurs, the investors, the developers — everyone in fact who is helping to change the world, one start-up at a time.

We’ll also be travelling the country (and the world), livecasting major events, visiting start-up offices and generally poking our cameras into every corner of the tech globe.

TechCrunch TV will be littered with familiar TC faces – Mike Arrington, Sarah Lacy, MG Siegler, Jason Kincaid – either as show hosts or regular guests, plus we’re thrilled to have signed up some amazing names from outside of TC to host their own shows, including author Andrew Keen (whose debate show, Keen On, airs every Monday) and entrepreneur/investor, Cyan Banister (the first episode of her interview show ‘Speaking Of…’ airs Thursday).

Behind the scenes, TechCrunch has invested big in the project, reflecting Mike and Heather‘s vision of a multi-platform TechCrunch. Not only have we built an awesome studio – connected to our distribution partners Brightcove and Ustream – but we’ve also hired Jon Orlin (below, right), previously at CNN and Yahoo, as Production Director (welcome Jon!). Jon joins a team which includes Evelyn Rusli (previously at Forbes) as breaking news anchor/producer, Producer Sophia Kittler and TCTV Intern Shirin Ghaffary.

(On a personal note: the whole team – along with TC lead developer Andy Brett – has been working day and night to get everything ready for launch – their dedication to TCTV is both inspiring and terrifying. Thanks guys.)

My official role is Creative Director which means, as well as being responsible for pulling together all of the various elements into one coherent channel, I’ll be on the look out for new show ideas and ways we can improve our current line up. Your suggestions, as always, are very welcome.

In true start-up style, we’re launching with a limited beta service: about 40 minutes of original programming a day, supported by a wealth of previously recorded shows so there’s always something interesting to watch at TechCrunch.tv. The ‘live’ channel is also available on mobile, right here.

And of course all of our shows – along with just about every video TechCrunch has ever made – will be available on demand; fully embeddable and sharable. Right now our on demand catalog includes highlights from TechCrunch Disrupt and TechCrunch 50, plus a variety of keynote interviews and profiles, with more being added every day, including new shows as soon as they’ve aired.

There’s plenty more to say about TechCrunch TV, but if video really is the future then a blog post doesn’t seem the right way to do it. Instead I sat down in our brand new studio with TCTV’s own Evelyn Rusli (who is anchoring our daily news discussion show, as well as producing a variety of special feature segments) and explained some of the thinking behind TCTV before giving a tour of our new studio to explain – sort of – how it all works.

Enjoy! And don’t forget to send us your feedback: [email protected], or via twitter – @techcrunchtv.

Welcome to the future.

On the 5th floor of 36 Cooper Square, the Foursquare team works alongside Curbed and Hard Candy Shell. There are no offices in the cramped room, just rows of thin desks, monitors, a couch, a couple of classroom chairs stacked in the corner and a small conference room off to the side.

At the center of the room, Dennis Crowley presides, sitting a few feet away from his co-founder Naveen Selvadurai. Because the 5th floor doesn’t fit the entire 25-person staff, a handful have set up ad hoc work stations a few flights below.

This is the guts of Foursquare, the widely acknowledged front runner in the red-hot location based service market.

The young startup, launched in 2009, is on a tear, accumulating high profile partnerships with the likes of Bravo, Wall Street Journal, Zagat and quickly growing beyond its member base of 1.8 million users. As evidenced by an over-the-top UK Wired cover, which anointed Crowley the “New King Of Social Media, press has come easy. However, the team, which has grown from a party of 6 to 25 in the past year, is still adjusting to the pains of growing up.

“Because we’re growing so quickly, it’s not just me and Naveen hammering out features day after day… now there’s a product team, now there’s an engineering team and so you know I think every organization goes through this but like we’re growing very quickly and this is getting all the pieces to play nice together,” Crowley says. “The thing we’re struggling with is where are people going to sit, Tristan is over there sitting on a bench, Harry moves to a different seat every day, we’re shuttling up and down three flights of stairs.”

Many of those logistical issues should dissipate, as the team relocates to a far more expansive space on the 6th floor, but Crowley understands its a long slog ahead. With so much attention focused on the LBS market, the success of Foursquare is always discussed in the context of its closest competitors, like Loopt and Gowalla. Crowley acknowledges that they are indeed rivals, but he says his true competitors are “those above us,” specifically identifying Twitter and Facebook (a rumored suitor). More from Crowley and his co-founder Selvadurai in our video above.

Our video feature on Foursquare is the first in our series of company profiles. Under the TechCrunch TV banner, I’ll be visiting the top startups to get you inside the office, the culture and up close with the founders and CEO. Comments, suggestions? E-mail me at [email protected].

The iPhone 4 vs. the EVO 4G. It’s the battle of our time. Or, at least, it was until Verizon unveiled the Droid X, thus continuing the cycle of Android phones one-upping one another from week to week. But regardless, iPhone 4 vs. EVO 4G is an interesting battle — at least among fanboys of the iPhone and Android platforms. And now there’s a great video to personify it.

The video below may look familiar to those who saw the awesome I Will Honor The Embargo video (created by TechCrunch Europe Contributing Editor Steve O’Hear) — both were made using the Xtranormal text-to-movie technology.

Without further ado, an iPhone shopper walks into a store… (Warning: the video has plenty of NSFW language — especially towards the end)

[thanks Aditya]

>>Groupon Clone Script<<

Just $89, Full Featured ,Paypal, Tweet Machine

Red-hot deal site Groupon has been a tear lately. Hot off a $135 million funding round that valued the company at $1.35 billion, it recently acquired European deal powerhouse CityDeal, Chilean deal site ClanDescuento, and mobile development studio Mob.ly. But it seems that some of its expansion strategies are downright shady: we’ve received three separate reports that ClubeUrbano, Groupon’s Brazilian site that it acquired earlier this month, is loaded with fake deals and venues that don’t even exist. As one source put it: “Fake names, stock photos, fake addresses, everything.”

We reached out to Groupon, which confirmed that the majority of the deals are not real, save for one running in São Paulo — deals from the site’s 30+ other locations are for venues that don’t exist. So why is this happening? Groupon President Rob Solomon explains that Groupon’s standard practice when it expands to a new market is to show users examples of the kind of deals they could get once the site goes live in their city. All of the fake deals on ClubeUrbano, he says, are meant to serve this purpose, but he concedes that Groupon has “done a terrible job of calling that out on the website”. Soloman says this will be fixed immediately.

In other words, up until now there hasn’t been anything on the site explaining that these deals were merely examples. Granted, users haven’t been able to sign up for these deals so they haven’t lost any money, but this is still shady — it makes the site look far more popular than it actually is, which could be used to both attract more customers and more businesses clients. Also odd is the fact that the phone number listed on ClubeUrbano doesn’t work (Solomon says that the number is real, and that Groupon is working with the phone company to get it working).

Could this just be an honest mistake, where a designer forgot to clarify that these deals were merely examples? Sure. But I seriously doubt we’re the first to raise questions to ClubeUrbano about the validity of its deals — something doesn’t smell right. That said, even if this was done deliberately, Groupon HQ may have been unaware of the practice — Groupon’s Latin American sites, including ClubeUrbano, are being run by its recently acquired CityDeal team, which is based in Berlin.

Groupon was also criticized when it acquired Chilean site ClanDescuento, as bloggers alleged that the site had built up its user base through agressive spam tactics.

I can’t say much about the Galaxy S Captivate that hasn’t been said, other than to inform you that this ultra-slim Android phone is amazingly small, light, and very exciting. Styled like the EVO 4G but running on AT&T, the phone features 16GB internal storage and a 1GHz processor. The model I saw was production-ready and ran Android 2.2.

Read more at MobileCrunch >>

1.7 million iPhone 4s sold in three days. It’s a massive number any way you slice it. But it’s perhaps even more impressive when you consider the initial pre-order system failures, the device shortages (which Apple apologized for in their release), and the fact that half of the family isn’t even available yet (the white iPhone 4). And most impressive may be that those who bought it in the U.S. were willing to sell their souls to AT&T for another two years.

But GigaOM’s Kevin Tofel gives the beleaguered network credit for the launch today, citing the network as a “huge reason” Apple sold so many iPhones. On one hand, he has a good point. If AT&T hadn’t advanced the upgrade eligibility time (in some cases by as much as six months), it would have been much more expensive for many of them to upgrade from the iPhone 3GS to the iPhone 4 — and many likely wouldn’t have.

The fact that at least one survey suggests that as many as 77% of iPhone 4 buyers were people upgrading from older iPhones may make this idea even more potent (though only 600 or so people in three cities were surveyed — again, of 1.7 million phones sold).

But first of all, let’s remember that included in the 1.7 million number are four other countries not tied to AT&T that saw the iPhone 4 launch on the same day as the U.S.: UK, France, Germany, and Japan. Still, while Apple doesn’t break down iPhone 4 sales by countries, it’s likely safe to assume the majority were sold in the U.S.

So let’s say that Apple sold over a million of those iPhone 4s in the U.S. Now close your eyes and imagine a world where the iPhone wasn’t tied to one carrier in the U.S. (it’s easy if you try). I don’t think I would be going out on a limb at all to guess that Apple would have doubled that sales figure. Hell, even if they just added Verizon, I bet they would have doubled it (provided Apple produced enough phones in first place, of course). And even in that scenario, doubling the number may very well be modest.

At this point, the biggest inhibitor of iPhone growth in the U.S. is AT&T. Period.

I believe Apple knows this. But, as they so often do, they’re taking the side of profits over market share. They have a very sweet deal with AT&T. A deal that makes the iPhone their largest source of revenue. If they have to give up those exclusive terms, the subsequent deals with other carriers would likely be less sweet — particularly a Verizon deal, as they have some leverage being the largest carrier in the U.S. and one closely aligning itself with the competing Android platform.

So while AT&T may deserve some credit for the 1.7 million iPhones sold this weekend, they also deserve a significant amount of credit that more weren’t sold. And don’t think they don’t know that either.

PR bullshit aside, the reason AT&T allowed some iPhone users to upgrade to the iPhone 4 early is purely a business decision. In order to get the new phone, those customers also have to sign a new two year contract, tying them to the network for that timespan. Obviously, AT&T will be getting paid for each of those months by each customer. It will only take a couple months or so of your new contract for them to recoup the cost they ate so you could upgrade. So let’s not pat AT&T on the back too much here.

Further, while few people outside those at Apple know the terms of the exclusive AT&T agreement, at least some of those people work at AT&T. They have an advanced look at the writing on the wall. If they know that Apple plans to move the iPhone to other carriers, say, next year, AT&T would want to start maneuvering now to make sure customers can’t abandon ship so easily. How do you do that? Lock them into new contracts. New contracts with more expensive early termination fees.

I’m not saying that’s for sure what is going on here. But it makes a lot of AT&T recent maneuvers make a lot of sense.

So, yes, the number of iPhone 4s is impressive. But the number of iPhone 5s Apple sells next year may be out of this world.

When it comes to local advertising, everybody wants to replace the Yellow Pages, which makes money hand-over-fist from local merchants across the country. Seeing Interactive, A Y Combinator startup which launched last March, just raised a seed round of about $1 million from some high-profile investors to help local newspapers take more of those local advertising dollars away from the phone directories. The investors include Baseline Ventures, Lerer Ventures, FriendFeed co-founder Paul Buchheit, Delicious founder Joshua Schachter, and Alex Moore (an early employee at Palantir).

In small towns across the country where many people still haven’t heard of Yelp, the Yellow Pages is the only game in town for local business advertising. Seeing Interactive goes to the local papers and gives them a white-label service for selling online ads and services to local businesses. They are already selling these businesses print ads for $200 or so. Now for an extra $5 or so, they can turn those exact same print ads into online ads. They can also get listed in an online SEO-optimized directory of local businesses, and even get their own simple Website (via Weebly). In other words, Seeing interactive creates an online presence for local businesses and leverages the existing salesforce of local newspapers to sell those ads.

Each directory is different and tied to the newspaper. For instance, here is a local business directory created by the Herald-Mail in Hagerstown, MD. Each directory page has a map, address, phone number, description, and business hours. People can leave reviews using Facebook Connect. Seeing Interactive is currently working with 87 newspapers. iPhone and Android local directory apps are in development. It could also make deals down the line with local online-only news sites.

Lerer Ventures, Baseline (Steve Anderson), Paul Buchheit, Joshua Schachter, and Alex Moore (Angel, Early Palantir employee).

Amazon and other holders of business method patents can breathe easy for now. (One of the most famous business method patents is Amazon’s One-Click shopping cart patent).

In a ruling today, the Supreme Court basically punted on whether or not business method patents, in general, should be upheld. Instead, it ruled narrowly on the business method patent in question in the case, Bilski v. Kappos . That patent was thrown out. In that sense, it affirmed an earlier U.S. Federal Appeals Court ruling.

But the Court also warned people not to read to much into its decision. As Mike Masnik at TechDirt explains:

Basically, the court just said it would rule on this particular patent and not make any real statements on the overall patentability of business methods or software. So, in effect, it’s no real change on how the patent system works.

The debate around business method patents revolves around whether or not business models or features of business models can be considered to be a “process,” and thus patentable. (Most software patents are also described as a “process” or “method” because originally patents were described in terms of mechanical inventions so they all get shoehorned into that language). At least one Justice, retiring Justice Stevens, concludes in a concurring (but not the majority) opinion that a “business method is not a ‘process.’” Most sane people would tend to agree.

The other Justices in the majority, however, didn’t go so far. It looks like we are stuck with business method patents for now. Sigh.

Photo credit: Flickr/Jon Oropeza

Perhaps you’ve heard the news by now that Matthew Papakipos, the key architect of Chrome OS, is leaving Google to go to Facebook. While it’s not entirely clear what Papakipos will be doing yet at Facebook beyond joining the engineering team, this is massive news. This is the key component of Chrome OS leaving the company before its launch to join what can perhaps be seen as Google’s most important competitor going forward. So what does Google think about the defection?

“Matt made great contributions to Google and Chrome OS, and we know he’ll do the same in his next endeavors. We wish him the best. We have a deep bench of talent and are very excited about the launch of Chrome OS devices later this year,” a Google spokesperson tells us.

So first of all, Google is confirming that despite the loss, Chrome OS remains on track for release this year. This echoes what Papakipos hinted at in his tweet: “Now that Chrome OS & WebGL are in good shape, it’s time for something new. I’m going to work @ Facebook! Love the product and team. Woot!“

Still, while the product may be in “good shape“, it’s still not released, so it’s just odd that he would leave before he sees his vision come to completion. I can only imagine Facebook made an offer he couldn’t refuse.

Second, in their statement, Google refers to their “deep bench of talent.” That’s an interesting way of putting it. Basically, without saying it directly, Google is suggesting that Papakipos was expendable. They’re saying that they’re like a well-built basketball team. Even when they lose a star player, they can survive and keep winning games.

Still, it’s nice to have that star player if you want to win the championship. That appears to be what Facebook is attempting to do.