Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

Sure, there's less than 24 hours before everyone and their grandmother can hop online and grab 'hold of the SIP-VoIP application, but if you won't be bothered with it unless there's proof that it works, you're in the right place. The crafty folks over at touch mods have videoed "the first VoIP call" made with an iPod touch, the aforementioned software and their own microphone appendage. Granted, the dialogue is about as uninteresting as it gets, but trust us, that's not what's important here. Check out a couple of in-action videos after the jump.

[Thanks, Tyler]

Continue reading iPod touch SIP-VoIP application videoed in action

 

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Another year has passed us all, and 2008 beckons tomorrow. For those not out and about this New Years Eve, here’s a few places you can join the experience online:

Video Streaming Sites

Sites such as Ustream, Kyte, Justin.tv and others will have many users live stream the new year from where ever they are.

Twitter

Twitter will provide a rolling text version on NYE around the world. The first off the mark are two new Twitter friends I met today, Eli and n8duke, who are both located in Antarctica.

I did a brief interview today with Eli, one of the two most remote Twitter users on the planet:

how long have you been down there?

I’ve been living (and working) at McMurdo Station (on Ross Island) for 3 months, and I’ve got about 6 more weeks to go before the end of the summer season.

How long have you been using Twitter?

my first tweet was posted on 07/07/07 and i’ve really loved it from the very beginning.

Do you find Twitter helps narrow the distance to the rest of the world?

definitely. i have friends all over the planet (US, Europe, etc) using twitter right now and it makes it so easy to stay in touch. it is especially helpful for me down here because the internet connection is pretty terrible, so it’s nice to just hope on to twitter, type a few characters, and be done with it.

What are you doing for new years eve? will you be watching others on the net?

well, it’s 10:45pm on new years eve for me right now, so in a few minutes i’m going to suit up in me ECW (extreme cold weather) gear and hike to the top of Observation Hill with some friends. there’s about 6 inches of snow on the ground (in the summer!) and it’s still snowing. we’re going to bring in the new year in true antarctic fashion!

There’s also live streaming cams as well.

Earthcam is streaming NY NYE live, -5 GMT. MSN is promising a live NYE feed as well, but just don’t try to open the link on a Mac, or not in IE…ouch.

If anyone else has some NYE live links let us know in the comments.

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

Epoq's no (complete) stranger to the portable media player realm, and apparently, the firm is gearing up to crank out another of its own at CES 2008. The Nextgen 4GB will reportedly sport a 3-inch 320 x 240 resolution display, 4GB of internal storage space, USB connectivity, an SD expansion slot, FM radio / audio recorder and support for RMVB, AVI, DAT, FLV, JPG, GIF, BMP, MP3 and WMA files. Admittedly, we're a bit bummed the likes of AAC, OGG, APE, FLAC and DivX / XviD were seemingly disregarded, but nevertheless, it should be available in the not-too-distant future for around $250.

[Via PMPToday]

 

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2007 was an eventful year in Web Technology, with the rise of Facebook, some frenzied acquisitions from the likes of Google, Yahoo and Microsoft, and of course the iPhone. To round out the year (and put an end to the December lists!) here is a look at what we think were the 10 biggest Web tech stories of the year. They're ordered in terms of technology impact and innovation - however it's a subjective list, so let us know in the comments what you think should be in there.

This post doubles as the final Weekly Wrapup of 2007 -- it's been a great year and all the best everyone for 2008! Here's looking forward to more Web innovation and startup success in '08!

1. iPhone Launch

On January 9, 2007 Steve Jobs announced at Macworld "three revolutionary new products": an iPod, a phone, an internet mobile communicator. But turned out it was all one device: the fabled iPhone. This is our number 1, because it finally made the Mobile Web real for the influential US market (and the geeks who bought it in America, then took it overseas and unlocked it! cough).

2. Facebook Announces Platform

Much has already been written about this announcement on May 24, but suffice to say that it ushered in a new era for social networks - where outside companies could deploy advanced functionality inside the Facebook site.

3. Google Acquires DoubleClick for $3.1B

On April 13 Google acquired online advertising company DoubleClick, which set off a frenzy of acquisitions in this space - notably Microsoft's $6B purchase of aQuantive. The Google/DoubleClick deal confirmed that online advertising was in a bubble period.

4. Google Announces OpenSocial

At the end of October Google launched OpenSocial, a set of common APIs for building social applications across the web, in a bid to cut off Facebook's momentum with third party developers. Perhaps the biggest part of this news was the world's largest SNS MySpace joining OpenSocial the day after.

5. Amazon Launches Kindle eReader

Despite mixed reviews of this e-Reader device with internet connectivity from Amazon, the Kindle promises to shake up the e-commerce giant's core business model - by delivering books electronically instead of the familiar brown box.

6. CNN/YouTube Debates

On July 23, eight Democratic presidential hopefuls took the stage in South Carolina -- a crucial early primary state -- for a debate sponsored by CNN and YouTube in which all of the questions were submitted by users of YouTube. The Republicans got their chance in September. In the same vein, 2007 also saw the MySpace/MTV Candidate Forums and the rise of web 2.0 tools in politics.

7. Google Announces Android

On Nov 5, Google announced an open-source mobile operating system called Android. This could significantly change the way that Mobile Web applications are developed.

8. Steve Jobs' open letter against DRM

On Feb 6, Apple CEO Steve Jobs posted his Thoughts on Music in the 'Hot News' section of the Apple website. In it he outlined why DRM should be abolished by record companies. And Jobs' pleas seemed to be heard by the record industry, with first EMI and then later Universal and Warner on AmazonMP3 ditching DRM.

9. Facebook Beacon Saga

Late this year Facebook announced a new advertising system that used retail data collected from its users. But after howls of privacy protests, Facebook had to back off some and make the system opt-in. It's also worth mentioning here another Facebook story that just missed this list: in October Microsoft invested in Facebook at a $15b valuation.

10. Adobe AIR Launches

On June 10, Adobe officially unveiled Adobe Integrated Runtime, or Adobe AIR for short. Formally called Adobe Apollo, it is a cross-operating runtime developed by Adobe that allows developers to create Rich Internet Applications for the desktop. It was a close call between this and Google Gears (the offline browser plug-in), or Microsoft's Silverlight (a Flash-like plug-in) - both of which were also launched in '07.

What have we missed? What were your top Web tech stories of 2007?

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

We already saw this thing in the wild way back when it was known as the DivX GejBox, but now the real deal has finally been acquired and unboxed. The DSM-330 DivX Connected HD Media Player has at long last made its way into a lucky soul's hands, and as if that weren't enough, it was even photographed right beside a beta box for good measure. Hungry for more? Hit the read link and indulge.

 

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Hairy DIY mouse responds to your caress
Stop with the ‘Tattoo Designs’ already
What did you get?
Optimus not prime for shipping on time
CrunchDeals: Refurbed Slingbox AV on Woot

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Hairy DIY mouse responds to your caress
Stop with the ‘Tattoo Designs’ already
What did you get?
Optimus not prime for shipping on time
CrunchDeals: Refurbed Slingbox AV on Woot

ShareThis

Hairy DIY mouse responds to your caress
Stop with the ‘Tattoo Designs’ already
What did you get?
Optimus not prime for shipping on time
CrunchDeals: Refurbed Slingbox AV on Woot

ShareThis

Filed under: Robots

Yeah, we gave you a plethora of hatching photos to ooh and ahh over when we received our first Pleo, but considering our inexplicable fear of needles and prehistoric blood, we never considered taking things any further. Apparently, the folks over at Pleo Dreams completely disregarded our recommendation to not de-skin the dinosaur, and proceeded to remove every square centimeter of Pleo's covering on video. Believe it or not, things get pretty interesting once the garb comes off, but you'll have to endure a near-24 minute clip in order to say you saw the entire procedure from start to finish. You ready? It's waiting after the break.

Continue reading Pleo goes under the knife in astonishingly long video

 

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