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Posts Tagged ‘techcrunch’

Lost iPhone 4G, Gray Powell, Jason Chen and Gizmodo immortalized in Hitler meme [VIDEO]

Posted by andreaitis on April 20, 2010

If there was a Webby Award for all of the Hitler meme videos out there, this one would hands-down win.  It brings together all the elements in an inspiring takeoff of the iPhone 4G takedown.

Hitler shows his frustration for the lost iPhone 4G that wound up in the hands of @Gizmodo

via Michael’s Posterous

Some quick background, for those lagging behind.

What’s with the Hitler meme?

“The Hitler Meme” or “Hitler finds out” is a video meme involving the addition of new subititles to the dramatic scene of Hitler’s final meltdown from the German movie Downfall directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel. The subtitles are often anachronistically altered with humerous English subtitles surrounding current events.

via Know Your Meme

What’s with the lost iPhone 4G?

Apple software engineer Gray Powell drinks beer.  Loses never-before-seen-next-gen  iPhone 4G.   Gizmodo’s Jason Chen and Jesus Diaz acquire never-before-seen-next-gen  iPhone 4G.  Write blockbuster expose posts.  Apple asks Gizmodo to please return  now-seen-but-still-next-gen iPhone 4G.

1. How Apple lost the next iPhone

2. All the details about the device

3. And finally, how Apple asked for their phone back

via Gizmodo

What’s with the lost iPhone 4G Hitler video? Behold, while you can.   Just like the iPhone 4G, Hitler meme videos are disappearing.

Constantin Film is the German film production and distribution company behind the film Downfall (Der Untergang in German). The uploader of one of the Hilter parodies notes in the comments of his video that, “Constatin Films has filed a copyright infringement claim against this video, right before it was about to reach 500,000 views! Even though it falls under Fair Use, I suspect this video will be taken down soon. Sad face.“

via Hitler Is Very Upset That Constantin Film Is Taking Down Hitler Parodies – TechCrunch

Since we found a blogger who still has the video up — watch it quickly one more time before it’s just a memory, like Gray Powell’s life before that ill-fated German beer bash.

The Webby acceptance speeches are traditionally only five words. After watching this video I think we all agree:

Gray loses iPhone.  We win.

Posted in Business, technology | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments »

Ode to True/Slant: First year of a news startup in rhyme

Posted by andreaitis on April 8, 2010

One single year has come and gone
Since the Alpha launch of trueslant.com
Launches tend to be crazy, that’s the default
Ours was no exception courtesy of Mossberg-comma-Walt

But let me back up, start with some history
Of how True/Slant first came to be
LD had the idea, he needed a check
He got the first round with a powerpoint deck

Whiteboard'ing

We sat in an office;  year 2008, month July
Just three of us then: Lewis, Coates and I
In the back right corner we commandeered our space
Our office christened once the whiteboard was in place

We talked, we drew, we diagrammed and graphed
We walked to the corner for lunch at ‘Wich Craft
We posted on Techcrunch for a CTO
Enter SMcNally; he had us at “Hello”

Like speed-dating we interviewed for UI and Design
Surely we met with at least eight or nine
Then James rolled in, the last one to show
With his Williamsburg skinny jeans and glasses; he had us at “No”

He was smart and clear but he did not hob-nob
J argued back.  As LD says, “That’s what got you the job.”
With the Athletes on board we could really begin
The beat was on: No Sleep Til Brooklyn

During this time I came to realize
A VC’s Fred Wilson was very nearby
Up one floor, in fact, and me a big fan
That’s how my Fred Wilson Watch began

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Business, technology | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments »

7 Million Twitter accounts and the sounds of silence

Posted by andreaitis on June 6, 2009

Web security firm Purewire just released an analysis of seven million Twitter accounts.   Techcrunch did some number-crunching:

What stands out from this data is that about a quarter of all accounts are not following anybody, nearly 30 percent have zero followers, and more than a third have not posted a single Tweet. The problem with all of this data, however, is that it includes abandoned accounts (as most likely does the Harvard data as well).

Like any popular Web service, millions of people create a Twitter account, try it once, and never come back again. The Purewire data shows that about 40 percent of users have not sent out a Tweet since the day they created their accounts. You can compare this with the 60 percent abandonment rate claimed by Nielsen. But even these may not be the true abandonment rates. Just because you are not Tweeting does not mean you are not listening.

via On Twitter, Most People Are Sheep: 80 Percent Of Accounts Have Fewer Than 10 Followers

Are these numbers surprising? Nope.  But the last sentence is key: Just because you are not Tweeting does not mean you are not listening.

In online communities — forums, message boards, even blogs — there has always been a common ratio of active vs passive users.   That ratio shows that you will, without a doubt, always find more lurkers than post-ers.  Many more people will engage passively than participate actively.  At AOL, this was a constant, sometimes by a huge margin of readers to post-er.

Does that mean the ‘readers’ aren’t participating?  Of course not.  The word ‘follower’ gets a bad rap. One doesn’t have to post Twitter messages to be an engaged user. The followers are out there, and they’re not going away.  That only increases the need for organization of content on Twitter through search, trending and grouping mechanisms.

Now, come follow me at twitter.com/andreaitis.

Posted in technology, twitter | Tagged: , , , , | 1 Comment »

Reporting: Being First vs Being Right

Posted by andreaitis on February 24, 2009

I posted on the Last.fm / Techcrunch face-off yesterday, but after reading Journalism, or irresponsible rumour-mongering? I’m thinking a bit more about it.  And the thought I’m thinking is this: editors.  What we’re seeing is a mad rush — to post, to critique, to judge.  We now live in a world of immediate immediacy, and many have lost track of the pause button in the frantic race to be first. Editors provided that pause, the questioning and probing that often made our stories better: clear, crisp, tight, and more often than not more accurate.

Now, though, the fact that anyone can publish anything at any time means editors are not actually needed. Desired by some, maybe, but not necessary for the act of publishing.  Is that a blessing or a curse? In the mashup of Journalism and Darwinism, I’ll say what every local TV anchor has said at least once in a classic on-air moment: only time will tell.

TechCrunch, one of the Web’s top tech blogs, sparked a firestorm of criticism with a recent story about Last.fm — the popular music-sharing network that CBS acquired last year — by reporting that the service had turned over a pile of user information to the Recording Industry Association of America. The story turned out not to be true, and Last.fm co-founder Richard Jones responded with a blistering denial, in which he said that TechCrunch was “full of shit.” Plenty of people on Twitter and elsewhere have been using the piece as a stick with which to beat TechCrunch, arguing that the report was irresponsible and the blog has lost all (or most) of its credibility as a result, etc.

Journalism, or irresponsible rumour-mongering?


Posted in news, technology | Tagged: , , , | 5 Comments »

Last.fm Wants the Last Word

Posted by andreaitis on February 23, 2009

Eh, who needs actual facts and reporting when rumors are rampant….

On Friday night a technology blog called Techcrunch posted a vicious and completely false rumour about us: that Last.fm handed data to the RIAA so they could track who’s been listening to the “leaked” U2 album.

I denied it vehemently on the Techcrunch article, as did several other Last.fm staffers. We denied it in the Last.fm forums, on twitter, via email – basically we denied it to anyone that would listen, and now we’re denying it on our blog.

Last.fm – the Blog · “Techcrunch are full of shit”

Posted in news, technology | Tagged: , , | Leave a Comment »

For Those Who Don't 'Get' Twitter….

Posted by andreaitis on February 16, 2009

Think: Real-time thought streaming, zeitgeist and search.

twitter and thought-streaming

What if you could peer into the thoughts of millions of people as they were thinking those thoughts or shortly thereafter? And what if all of these thoughts were immediately available in a database that could be mined easily to tell you what people both individually and in aggregate are thinking right now about any imaginable subject or event? Well, then you’d have a different kind of search engine altogether. A real-time search engine. A what’s-happening-right-now search engine.

In fact, the crude beginnings of this “now” search engine already exists. It is called Twitter, and it is a big reason why new investors poured another $35 million into the two-year-old startup on Friday.

Mining The Thought Stream

Posted in news, social media, technology, twitter | Tagged: , , | 4 Comments »

icahn ready for prime time?

Posted by andreaitis on July 21, 2008

carl icahn just played the tech version of Let’s Make a Deal.    he agreed to end his yahoo proxy fight in exchange for 3 board seats.  techcrunch has the details, of course…. but what struck me even more was that, in this extended silicon valley soap opera, carl icahn sorta looks like blake carrington from dynasty.   of course, icahn’s ego is bigger than linda evans’ shoulder pads.  and his temperament is frostier than joan collins.  but he’s got the cat fight down pat, and…well, see for yourself:

blake carrington (aka john forsythe)

billionaire and corporate raider blake carrington (aka john forsythe) and the dynasty dolls

carl icahn
billionaire and corporate raider carl icahn

Posted in news, pop culture, tech | Tagged: , , , , , | 1 Comment »