A picture of what may or may not be the next-generation Blackberry 9000 popped up in an online forum. The device does not appear to have a touchscreen, but it does sport a black iPhone-like sheen. Again, this could be the real deal, a hoax, or some unrelated prototype. But one thing is for sure: iPhones and Blackberries are on a collision course. As iPhones gain more enterprise-class e-mail capabilities, Blackberries will add more consumer-friendly design to its devices.

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Filed under: GPS

Raytel is bringing a new GPS navigator to CES 2008 next week in Vegas, but decided to share the details a few days early. The EGO Drive sports a 4.3-inch touchscreen with stylus, 3D maps, voice recognition and multiple user profiles, but where it really shines is in phone compatibility. Bluetooth features include hands-free calls, text-to-speech SMS reading, phone voice commands, A2DP and AVRCP audio streaming, and DSP tech for cutting down on noise and echos while you're zooming along. There's also an external knob for operating the unit without taking your eyes off the road. Media support is plentiful, and you can augment built-in memory with SD cards. No word on price or availability just yet.

[Via NaviGadget]

 

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Okay, final list for 2007. Here are the top-25 bookmarked or shared posts from the year, as determined by people who used the “Add This” bookmark button at the bottom of each post (see also our other year-end lists: Popular, Headlines, Launches, Deals, Deadpool):

1		The Secret Strategies Behind Many “Viral” Videos
2		Forget YouTube: Go To These Sites If You Want Hard Core Copyright Infringing Content
3		Eventbee: AdSense for Events Has Busy Plans
4		Details Revealed: Google OpenSocial To Launch Thursday
5		If You Don’t Use Del.icio.us, You Will Now
6		Google To “Out Open” Facebook On November 5
7		The New Portals: It’s the Bread, Not the Peanut Butter
8		Google Earth’s Easter Egg: A Flight Simulator
9		Google Tops Feed Reader and Social Bookmark Rankings
10		9 Ways to Build Your Own Social Network
11		34 More Ways to Build Your Own Social Network
12		Google Launches Free 411 Service
13		Could Facebook Become The Next Microsoft?
14		I Want This In Photoshop Immediately
15		Google’s Response to Facebook: Maka-Maka
16		Facebook Source Code Leaked
17		Digg Surrenders to Mob
18		AOL One Step Behind Again: New Home Page Identical To Yahoo
19		MySpace v. Facebook: Its Not A Decision. Its an IQ Test
20		Adobe Open Sources Parts Of Flex Platform
21		Fotowoosh Will Turn Any Picture Into 3D Image
22		Kaltura Wins Spot as 40th Company at TechCrunch40
23		Breaking: Google Spends $3.1 Billion For DoubleClick
24		$100 Million Payday For Feedburner - This Deal Is Confirmed
25		Bubble 2.0: The Video

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Filed under: Portable Audio

So we're starting to realize how Best Buy is pulling in record profits while the rest of the industry crashes and burns: it's the little things, you see. For instance, the ubiquitous big box retailer is offering a $50 pre-paid Sirius gift card on its online site for the bargain price of only $55; a $5 markup for a little voucher whose "holiday version" can be purchased three lines below for the normal price -- that is, if it wasn't somehow sold out online. (How hard is it to print up a new batch of those things, anyway?) The distraught customer could head to Best Buy's XM section, where $55 gift cards only cost $55, or he or she could simply click over to rival Circuit City, where not only does the same $50 card actually cost $50, it's available immediately and not backordered one to two weeks.

[Via Orbitcast]

 

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Not really bedazzled, but I was just listening to Dane Cook and he was talking about his sisters bedazzling his jean jackets when he was a kid. Umm. Ok. Awkward. Asus is looking to cash in on the popularity of the Eee with a handful of accessories for the new year. Whatever shade of vomit you decide on for your Eee, if you don’t have one, can be accompanied by a mouse with the same shade. The noise-isolating headphones, unfortunately, only come in white as well as the power adapter and extra battery.

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There is still something to be said for actually owning albums and all that come with them – that’s why CD sales only slipped 21% this holiday shopping season versus the full 100% that many pundits would like to have you believe. Album art, lyrics, and other extras are what keep some people actually buying the physical CDs from their favorite artists, as opposed to buying individual tracks online.

However, these features that keep CDs worthwhile for some folks might soon also have their digital equivalents and more. An article from Billboard this morning highlights a few new features that digital downloaders can expect with their purchases in 2008, which could further accelerate the shift away from CDs. The article notes that Warner Music Group has added interactive booklets to about 75 albums on iTunes. Additionally, with cell phones increasingly adding mp3 capabilities, manufacturers are beginning to bundle full-length songs, ringtones, and wallpaper images into a “mobile album” of sorts.

Song lyrics, another bonus of actually buying a CD, are also going to become more tightly integrated with digital music services. A company called Gracenote is serving as a lyrics licensing hub, allowing services like Yahoo Music to tap its database to provide users with song lyrics. There are of course thousands of unauthorized music lyric sites out there already that have come under fire from the music industry, but tightly integrating lyrics with the digital music services in a legal way will be a major step forward.

One other area that Billboard notes will soon be getting a digital facelift are the so-called “linear notes” – details on who produced the album, who the artist would like to thank, and other information. Of course, in the digital format many more details can be added and linked to additional content, such as videos.

While I like the fact that the music industry wants to bring more of the album experience online, the problem is that most of the features they are thinking of adding are already available elsewhere in the form of the artist’s web page or MySpace profile. Integrating the content with the actual digital music downloads adds some convenience, but it’s more likely that CDs will remain a declining niche item for music fans that can’t live without the extra goodies, while the digital realm will continue to be dominated by single-track downloads and mega-multimedia artist pages.

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Filed under: Portable Video

Reports keep on pouring in with promises of juicy info on Apple's upcoming video rental service for iTunes. The latest news comes from Variety, and claims that the rentals will last a mere 24 hours before becoming unplayable, but it's unclear if that includes multiple plays within the 24 hour window. Prices will start at $2 but range all the way up to $5. Variety also syncs with previous reports stating that Disney and Fox are the only studios confirmed so far for rentals, with Lionsgate, MGM and Paramount as candidates and Sony, Universal and Warner Bros. as perennial holdouts.

 

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I haven’t been playing much in the last week or so, but I know there were some issues and everything seemed to have been resolved over the weeekend. I remember having difficulty signing in and gave up after a couple attempts. I thought it was just my network connection. But I guess not. Anyone still having problems with XBL? What should MS do to make this up to us? Is the Zune marketplace working? Doesn’t want to work for me.

Microsoft, what’s going on?

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Filed under: Gaming

We know customer support reps have a lot on their plates -- especially those responsible for answer the queries of 13-year-old Halo mavens protesting supposed hackers stealing all their kills -- but it looks like the Xbox Live support staff is dropping the ball on this particular issue. Pro gamer Skyllus vBi, a member of pro gaming group Team vBi, was awarded some super-rare "Recon Armor" by Bungie staff a few months ago for his entertaining method of suicide depicted in a popular online video. Naturally, his account became an immediate target for hackers, and they didn't have much trouble swiping his info. Turns out there's a bit of a flaw in the phone support system that allows a hacker to use social engineering to sweet talk account details out of a customer support rep without much hassle. Skyllus has had this particular attack performed on his account three times so far, and is having a bear of a time working it out with Xbox Live support staff. Not only is his precious armor in jeopardy from attacks like this, but all the credit card info and other personal details stored on a Xbox Live / Windows Live account. Stir in some of the login and account retrieval woes that many users have been experience of late and you've got a recipe for some much-needed intervention over in Redmond.

[Via Joystiq; thanks to everyone who sent this in]

 

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Rounding out our year-end lists—see also the Most Popular Posts of 2007, the Year in TechCrunch Headlines, the Year in Deals, and the Year in Deadpool—here is a selection of some of the notable startup and product launches TechCrunch covered in 2007:

• Ribbit Pulls Back the Covers On Its Voice 2.0 Master Plan (And Raises $10 Million B Round) December 10
• Office Live Workspace (Beta) Finally Goes Live. Still Needs Work. December 10
• Health Search + Patient Social Network = iMedix December 10
• Adroll: The Social Ad Network (Beta Invites) December 3
• Zopa To Launch In U.S. November 30
• Kindle: First Impressions November 19
• Attributor Launches Service to Track Copyright Infringement Across the Web November 4
• The New York Times’ Blogrunner—A Techmeme Killer? November 1
• Details Revealed: Google OpenSocial To Launch Thursday October 30
• Hulu Launches Private Beta, Makes Very Good First Impressions October 28
• Twine Launches A Smarter Way To Organize Your Online Life October 19
• Stealth Startup Kango Working on Semantic Search For Travel October 11
• CNET Founder Shelby Bonnie Unveils His New Startup: PoliticalBase October 9
• FriendFeed To Aggregate Social Network Data Into A Single Feed October 1
• Bitgravity Officially Launches The Content Delivery Network Than Everyone’s Been Talking About September 30
• Polar Rose Debuts At Gnomedex August 9
• Amazon To Launch Payments Services; Will Compete With PayPal and Google Checkout Aug. 1
• Ooma Launches Free Consumer Phone Service July 18
• Kevin Rose’s New Startup: Pownce June 27
• Virgin Charter Launches: Private Aviation Marketplace June 12
• Movable Type 4.0 Beta Launches, Platform To Be Open Sourced June 5
• Lala Launches On-demand Free Streaming Music Service June 4
• Jason Calacanis Launches Mahalo Today: Human Powered Search May 30
• Justin.TV Network Launches: More Shows to Come May 22
• Truemors Launches May 15
• Silverlight: The Web Just Got Richer April 30
• Kyte Launches: More Rich Media Streaming Presence April 23
• Kongregate Gets $1M, Launches User Generated Games. March 22
• Adobe Apollo Launched. So Go Build Something. March 18
• PowerHype at PowerSet. February 12
• Yahoo Launches Pipes. February 7
• Geni Launches January 16, 2007
• Venice Project Launch Name: Joost. January 15
• Use WeatherBill To Bet On The Weather January 2

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