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Glenn Beck: We Must Stand Together Against All Violence (With A Gun In Our Hands)

Mon, 10 Jan 2011 21:56:17 +0000

Apparently, right wing pundit Glenn Beck likes to stand against violence with a gun in his hands. At least that’s the impression you might get if you visit his website. . One of the top three featured articles right now is his response to the Arizona shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords with the reasonable quote: “We must stand together against all violence.” But if you look to the side, you might also catch a photo of Beck peeking around the corner a gun in his hands (see screenshot above). It’s as though he wants to shoot the crap out of violence. Or maybe he wants to stand together and sing Kumbaya. Will the real Glenn Beck please stand up? If you don’t see the image right away, keep reloading the page (go ahead, don’t be scared). Different photos of Beck appear as whimsical design elements along the side of the page. There’s Beck as a teacher, a Founding Father, and gun-toting lunatic or some sort of Secret Service agent (I’m not really sure what he’s supposed to be, actually). There’s also one of him holding a boulder over his head (see below). I guess that is what he means by “stand together against all violence.” I am assuming these juxtapositions are unintentional in the same way that contextual online ads are sometimes inappropriate. But they certainly do send a mixed message. Below are some more potential captions we came up with for this post. Please add your own headline or caption in comments: Glenn Beck Will Teach You To Stand Together Against Violence… With His Gun Let’s Shoot The Crap Out Of Violence. Glenn Beck Aims To Kill Violence (Hat tip to Anna Holmes via Dan Primack )

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Glenn Beck: We Must Stand Together Against All Violence (With A Gun In Our Hands)

Nokia N900 firmware 1.3 coming soon, will enable dual boot MeeGo configuration

Thu, 14 Oct 2010 11:39:37 +0000

Nokia’s N900 is starting to feel a bit long in the tooth. Sure, it’s powerful, but with all these new versions of Android and iOS popping out almost every few months now, Maemo 5 is beginning to show some signs of aging. We’ve seen the Nokia N9 already, and Eldar Murtazin from Mobile-Review has called the hardware “near perfect” while the software on the other hand, unsurprisingly, is a bit lacking. So what’s going to tide people over between now and early next year when Nokia’s first MeeGo device ships? How does a firmware update that lets you dual boot MeeGo and Maemo on your N900 sound? That’s right, beginning in PR 1.3 users will be able to have both Maemo and MeeGo installed on the exact same device. If that isn’t geeky, I don’t know what is. All the warning associated with beta software, especially cellular software, have to be mentioned. Your precious little pocket sized Linux box will crash, calls will be dropped, and the appropriate levels of UI bling bling may be turned down or off completely to increase stability. Other new features in PR 1.3 weren’t mentioned, but I’m sure we’ll hear about it more as we get closer to the release date. Don’t forget that the first ever MeeGo Conference is going to take place next month and topic covered include porting MeeGo to Texas Instrument’s OMAP 4, aka one of the fastest processors out there. The N9 is due to be announced there as well, but as preciously mentioned, don’t hold your breath for a 2010 launch date. Nokia’s got enough on their plate with the N8 starting to ship, as well as all the other devices announced at Nokia World last month. Of course you could always just pick up a cheap Android device to tide you over under summer 2010, but hey, that all depends on where your loyalties lay. [Via: The Nokia Blog ] Copyright © 2005-2010 IntoMobile. All rights reserved. Use of this feed is limited to personal use. Portions of this feed may be used with attributions, however, publishing of this feed in its entirety for public or commercial use and/or misrepresentation by a third party is not allowed. p9jxMDO3f0KB

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Nokia N900 firmware 1.3 coming soon, will enable dual boot MeeGo configuration

LG Comes Out Swinging: “Our Tablet Will Be Better Than the iPad!”

Fri, 20 Aug 2010 20:30:53 +0000

It’s an unwritten rule that every other tablet of 2010 and beyond is gunning for the iPad. Apple’s device pretty much defined the tablet market and has been sliding off the shelves at a feverish pace. Most companies are content with letting analysts compare their devices with the iPad–particularly since they have little to no experience in the tablet segment when launching that first device. LG, on the other hand, is personally taking the fight to Apple. Chang Ma, president of mobile marketing, told the Wall Street Journal bluntly: “”Our tablet will be better than the iPad.” Given the iPad’s success, and LG’s comparative lack of experience in both tablets and smartphones, that’s a rather bold claim. Ma didn’t get into any juicy specs, but did mention that the device, which will be based on Android, will be slanted more toward active creative ventures like writing documents, editing video and programming. So far, consider our interest piqued. LG also told the WSJ that it will open the flood gates on smartphones this year in an attempt to catch up in the segment. It has 10 handsets planned between now and New Year’s. [via WSJ ] Related Posts 1.3 GHz Motorola Droid Pro and Other New Things From Verizon HP Sidelines Yet Another Tablet Acer Hitting the Market With Two Tablets in Fourth Quarter Micrsoft Previews LG Windows 7 Tablet Motorola to Launch Android Tablet? Dell Streak to Launch Next Month New Android Tablet Spotted Running Adobe Flash and Air

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LG Comes Out Swinging: “Our Tablet Will Be Better Than the iPad!”

Why I’d Use Shopkick But Not Foursquare

Tue, 10 Aug 2010 23:34:43 +0000

Sometimes it feels like I am the only one in the world who is not into Foursquare . Or at least the only one in Silicon Valley. Or at least the only one who works for TechCrunch. I’m definitely the only one on staff who has never written a post about them, and that includes our guest poster Vivek Wadhwa who usually obsesses about issues like patents and immigration. Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s a smart idea, and I have plenty of friends who get sucked in by the cleverly-exploited game theory dynamics. I think eventually location-based services and bringing a real world, micro-location aspect to a Web that has erased the importance of where-you-are is the next huge market. And I give the founders props for not taking the easy sale and driving a hard bargain with some of the industry’s toughest investors. But, as a user, telling my friends where I am doesn’t gives me enough in return to warrant the privacy invasion. The problem isn’t more seamless check-ins or putting more barriers to protect my privacy — the problem is giving me a good enough reason to share. The assumption is that return will be loyalty coupons, but with rampant fake-check-ins and the sales and marketing challenge of selling every mom-and-pop hipster bar, coffee shop, restaurant that’s going to be one hard network effect to pull off. (Ask Craigslist, Yelp, OpenTable and the zillions of competitors that failed to get that local network effect in even one city.) The social media rules, for me, are simple: I don’t get hung up on privacy. I assume if I voluntarily put something on the Web, it’ll get out. If I don’t want it out, I don’t put it on the Web. And if I’m sharing things that help you as a marketer, I need something in return. That whole endorphin rush of connecting with far-flung friends, knowing where they are, what they are doing, who they are dating? Facebook and Twitter already have nailed the low-hanging fruit there so you have to up the ante considerably if that’s supposed to be the users’ motivator, just like Groupon upped the ante on Amazon. Enter shopkick —which launched last week and is the first location-based product I’ve seen that could give me a reason to share. Cyriac Roeding Shopkick’s founder and CEO was on Press:Here with me last week and I figured it was worth posting for anyone else out there who’s felt alone and adrift in this Foursquare-obsessed world. (Full show is here .) There are three things I like about shopkick and two reasons I’m waiting to try it. Likes: Doesn’t rely on bogus, fake-able check-ins; the sharing is between a retailer and me and they already know I’m in the store so it’s not much of an invasion; I actually get points I can use broadly across several online and offline brands, including making charity donations. Two caveats: It’s only on the iPhone and there aren’t close to enough retailers to make it a must-have….yet. CrunchBase Information shopkick Information provided by CrunchBase

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Why I’d Use Shopkick But Not Foursquare

Washington Attorney General Hits Intelius With Fine, Injunctions

Tue, 10 Aug 2010 20:36:01 +0000

Well, it’s official . The Washington Attorney General is one of the first government entities to do more than yell about post transaction marketing scams like the ones we’ve been writing about at Intelius for years now. A Consent Decree filed in the King County Superior Court in Washington requires the payment of $1.3 million in fines by Intelius. And they’re also restricted from engaging in some types of post transaction marketing, particularly where the consumer’s credit card is automatically being charged for services without them re-entering their payment information. Intelius is also being required to offer refunds to some Washington residents who’ve been scammed. Those consumers will be sent a postcard stating that they may be entitled to a refund. In a press conference Attorney General Rob McKenna stated that 19,000 Washington consumers signed up for the useless services between July 2007 and July 2008, and just one of those consumers was able to successfully get a refund. Up to 80% of consumers viewing the offers signed up, accidentally or not, and were charged for the service. They were then charged an upfront fee, typically $10, and a variable monthly fee, typically $20/month. We did a visual walk through of just how these scams work here . We’ll upload the Consent Decree shortly. Update: The documents: View this document on Scribd View this document on Scribd CrunchBase Information Intelius Information provided by CrunchBase

Gmail Revamps Its Contacts Area To Be More Like Gmail. Which Is To Say, Good

Tue, 10 Aug 2010 17:00:06 +0000

Gmail is a great product; easily one of my favorites on the web. But it has an Achilles heel — well, actually it’s more like a bum leg: Contacts. Despite a solid contact area being a vital part of pretty much every email and productivity service, Gmail’s is awful. Or, it was awful. Today it’s getting a lot better. Starting today, Google is rolling out its latest version of Gmail to users around the world. As you can see, it has been slightly redesigned to more prominently display both Contacts and Tasks. While you click on the link to go to the new Contacts area, you’ll notice that Gmail’s left sidebar transforms to show you labels for your various contacts. And the contacts themselves in the main view are now one big stream of names and email addresses — it looks a lot more like Gmail. And it acts more like Gmail too. Clicking on a contact opens their card very quickly. From here you can easily edit information on the fly. There’s no longer a need to hit any “edit” and “save” buttons, all of this is done automatically. You’ll also notice a huge new area for Notes. Product Manager Benjamin Grol says this was one feature a lot of business users in particular were asking for. Along the top of the new contacts cards, you’ll notice a drop-down menu for Groups. This is a key element to the redesign. By default, new Gmail users now have four groups that contacts can be placed into: My Contacts, Friends, Family, and Coworkers. The My Contacts group is the main one — these are the ones that are essentially your actual contacts. Google still keeps track of the people you email the most, but those are automatically added to the Other Contacts area below. If you wish to added someone to your actual contacts, simple label their card with My Contacts. And, like Gmail itself, you can add you own custom labels to contacts. These labels are now shown on the right side of the main contacts area when in list view. And the labels are then added to the left sidebar for easy sorting. Speaking of sorting, you can finally do that by first or last name. This is a must-have feature in many European and Asian countries, Grol says. But up until now you couldn’t do it. Also new is the ability to use the same keyboard shortcuts that Gmail users are used to. This is a great addition for power users. The two main themes of this redesign were simplicity and consistency (with the rest of Gmail), Grol says. From the looks of it, they’ve done a nice job. While it’s still not the prettiest thing in the world, it does look a lot like Gmail now, and the area is much easier to use. I’ve been playing around with it for the past day or so, and I’ve already done more contact organizing in that short time span then I have in the past several years. Grol says that Contacts was easily the feature that users complained about the most within Gmail. People may have to find something else to complain about now. Google notes that Google Apps users won’t see these new Gmail changes just yet, but they’re working on it. CrunchBase Information Gmail Information provided by CrunchBase

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Gmail Revamps Its Contacts Area To Be More Like Gmail. Which Is To Say, Good