By Andrew Liszewski So it turns out that ’speculation’ about a newer, larger screened DSi was bang on, as Nintendo officially announced a new version of their dual-screened console this morning. The DSi LL will be available in Japan on November 21st for about $220, and will later be renamed the DSi XL for the Europe [...]

By Andrew Liszewski

So it turns out that ’speculation’ about a newer, larger screened DSi was bang on, as Nintendo officially announced a new version of their dual-screened console this morning. The DSi LL will be available in Japan on November 21st for about $220, and will later be renamed the DSi XL for the Europe market when it’s available there in Q1 of 2010. As for availability in North America? Currently unknown.

The biggest improvement on the LL/XL is the 4.2 inch screens, a full inch larger than the ones the DSi sports. It’s also claimed to have about 1 to 3 hours more battery life than the DSi depending on screen brightness, but since the new model is considerably larger and about 50% heavier than the DSi, there’s plenty of space for a larger battery. And in addition to the standard DS stylus, the DSi LL/XL also appears to come with a larger “touch pen” that’s 4cm longer and considerably more ergonomic than the built-in one.

[ Nintendo DSi LL/XL ] VIA [ GoNintendo ]

Via [Ohgizmo]

By Chris Scott Barr If you’ve ever purchased something at an Apple store, you’ve probably noticed those handy little devices they use to ring you up. If you’re using plastic, they just scan your purchase, swipe your card and send you on your way without stepping behind a register. If you’re observant, you’ll also notice that [...]

By Chris Scott Barr

If you’ve ever purchased something at an Apple store, you’ve probably noticed those handy little devices they use to ring you up. If you’re using plastic, they just scan your purchase, swipe your card and send you on your way without stepping behind a register. If you’re observant, you’ll also notice that the handheld device is a Windows-based PDA. How embarrassing. At least they are taking steps to eliminate these handhelds from their stores.

Apple has decided to start rolling out a new system which has similar functionality, but instead is built around the iPod Touch. They will simply be hooking up a barcode scanner and credit card reader to iPods running their special POS software. They’ve started rolling this out at one of their stores in California, and should have them at all of their stores for the holiday season.

VIA [ AppleInsider ]

Via [Ohgizmo]

Nobody wants to be the kid who only gets invited to birthday parties because his mom calls up the other mom and asks. Everyone knows that only succeeds in making you even more unpopular. Our guess is a fair number of the geeky employees at Facebook were exactly that kid. Which is why I’m sort of surprised that they’d think asking people to help out Facebook friends who don’t have a lot of Wall activity, or even many other friends. These people get mocked. Obviously. We’ve all seen the messages under Suggestions on the Facebook home page. So and so only has two friends on Facebook, suggest friends for him? Others are urged to write on the Wall of unpopular users. A reader writes to us today with a screenshot:

Nobody wants to be the kid who only gets invited to birthday parties because his mom calls up the other mom and asks. Everyone knows that only succeeds in making you even more unpopular.

Our guess is a fair number of the geeky employees at Facebook were exactly that kid. Which is why I’m sort of surprised that they’d think asking people to help out Facebook friends who don’t have a lot of Wall activity, or even many other friends. These people get mocked. Obviously.

We’ve all seen the messages under Suggestions on the Facebook home page. So and so only has two friends on Facebook, suggest friends for him? Others are urged to write on the Wall of unpopular users.

A reader writes to us today with a screenshot:

So, apparently facebook is now suggesting you write on a friend’s wall to “make facebook better for them” or “reconnect with them” if they are not getting many wall posts. It’s nice to know that if I’m a facebook loser my virtual mom will call up the other kids and ask if they’ll come play with me. Because that sure worked in the real world when I was 10.

Who knows what levels Facebook will go to to ensure that your unpopularity turns into a mocking sideshow like the one above. Don’t be that guy. Find some friends and convince them to leave a wall post every week or two. The last thing you want is to be a Featured Loser

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

Via [TechCrunch]

The mobile version of Bing launched alongside the regular site this past summer worked well but lacked some of the bells and whistles that rivals like Google offer in their mobile experience. And with the mobile web becoming increasingly important, a focus on this area is crucial for a fledgling search engine. So today Bing has unveiled a new version of its mobile experience. The main change is that Bing has been completely revamped for touchscreen smartphones and devices. Currently, this means the G1, the Verizon Imagio, the Samsung Omnia, the Zune HD, and yes, the iPhone. In its blog post, Bing even uses a picture to highlight how nice Bing Mobile looks on the Apple device.

The mobile version of Bing launched alongside the regular site this past summer worked well but lacked some of the bells and whistles that rivals like Google offer in their mobile experience. And with the mobile web becoming increasingly important, a focus on this area is crucial for a fledgling search engine. So today Bing has unveiled a new version of its mobile experience.

The main change is that Bing has been completely revamped for touchscreen smartphones and devices. Currently, this means the G1, the Verizon Imagio, the Samsung Omnia, the Zune HD, and yes, the iPhone. In its blog post, Bing even uses a picture to highlight how nice Bing Mobile looks on the Apple device.

The new interface is easy to navigate, offering tabs for different types of searches, and an easy way to clear old searches and start fresh. It also offers a nice, visual way of looking up movies. Visual search is one of the key things Bing has been focusing on to differentiate itself from Google.

For those users without these touch devices, Bing Mobile has some new features you can use as well. An easy-to-use flight status checker is nice, but the key new feature is the NFL search results. Now, with Bing Mobile, if you do a search for “Tom Brady,” you’ll get a player card at the top of the results with his picture, season stats, and previous and upcoming games this season. This is a nice feature for football season, and could actually drive some usage of Bing Mobile on Sundays.

Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.

Via [TechCrunch]

British stealth startup Zkatter is launching a real-time microblogging service in the next few months that could be a hit. Similar in theory to Twitter, Zkatter asks users “What do you see now?” vs. Twitter’s “What are you doing?” The service, which has been in development since 2008, will allow anybody to broadcast and archive ‘live moments’ comprising location, media (image, video and text) to ‘friends only’ or ‘the public’ which can then be discovered instantly via search and friends time-lines. Zkatter’s focus is towards capturing information that you physically see live which offers a interesting addition to the real-time space.

British stealth startup Zkatter is launching a real-time microblogging service in the next few months that could be a hit. Similar in theory to Twitter, Zkatter asks users “What do you see now?” vs. Twitter’s “What are you doing?”

The service, which has been in development since 2008, will allow anybody to broadcast and archive ‘live moments’ comprising location, media (image, video and text) to ‘friends only’ or ‘the public’ which can then be discovered instantly via search and friends time-lines. Zkatter’s focus is towards capturing information that you physically see live which offers a interesting addition to the real-time space.

Zkatter, which has received $1.5 million in Series A funding, is also developing iPhone and Android apps to work in conjunction with the standalone site, with the platform updated in real-time across all devices. So if you post an update on your iPhone, it will automatically show on the site. And Zkatter will be integrated with Facebook and Twitter, so you can publish you updates to both social networks as well. There are additional features to the site but this is the general idea of what the Zkatter will be able to do.

We took a little test run of the site, and it’s impressive. Not only is the user-interface easy to use, but the seamless real-time integration between mobile and the web. But Zkatter will still face competition from Twitter and the plethora of content-sharing Twitter applications, like TwitPic or TwitVid, which also let you broadcast “live moments.” The site is also similar to DailyBooth.

Zkatter’s founder Matt Hagger tells me that there is still a good amount of development that needs to be done for the site but he’s confident that Zkatter will find a place in the real-time space. There’s no doubt that the rise of real-time streams is fundamentally altering the way we communicate and interact with one another, which is why we are holding our second RealTime CrunchUp on November 20th. You can buy tickets for the event here. Startups will be launching their latest real-time products and we are bringing together a host of notable panelists to share their thoughts on the realtime stream.

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

Via [TechCrunch]

The wait is over. Twitter’s new Lists feature is now available to all users, project lead Nick Kallen has just confirmed through a tweet. The functionality has been in testing for weeks now with a select group of users, and a couple of weeks ago, opened to a wider audience. As recently as yesterday, only 50% of Twitter had access to Lists, but after an unrelated bug forced Twitter to briefly remove the feature, they were able to roll it out to everyone else quickly. This means that not only can all users now finally make their own lists, but perhaps more importantly, you can now see which lists you have been included on. The latter is quickly becoming a new metric for measuring popularity on the service (which users seem divided about if that’s a good or bad thing). And everyone will now have access to the third party sites already starting to pop up around the Lists API, such as Listorious, a Lists directory.

The wait is over. Twitter’s new Lists feature is now available to all users, project lead Nick Kallen has just confirmed through a tweet. The functionality has been in testing for weeks now with a select group of users, and a couple of weeks ago, opened to a wider audience. As recently as yesterday, only 50% of Twitter had access to Lists, but after an unrelated bug forced Twitter to briefly remove the feature, they were able to roll it out to everyone else quickly.

This means that not only can all users now finally make their own lists, but perhaps more importantly, you can now see which lists you have been included on. The latter is quickly becoming a new metric for measuring popularity on the service (which users seem divided about if that’s a good or bad thing). And everyone will now have access to the third party sites already starting to pop up around the Lists API, such as Listorious, a Lists directory.

So, now that everyone can see them, be sure to check out our TechCrunch team list. Later today, we’ll also share some other interesting lists that we’ve been working on.

Update: As a side note, List descriptions should be coming in the next week or so, Twitter’s Vitor Lourenco confirms. This will definitely help users tell what the list is supposed to be, rather than simply relying on the list name.

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

Via [TechCrunch]

Facebook’s VP of Communications and Public Policy Elliot Schrage has posted an update to the site’s blog outlining a major rewrite Facebook is proposing for its Privacy Policy. Schrage writes that the new version eliminates the legalese of the privacy policy the company has used up until now, spelling out what the site is doing with user data in more explicit terms. You can find the proposed document here and the current privacy policy here. The new terms are certainly easier to read, and they also contain some significant changes (including a couple Schrage doesn’t point out). One of these seems to indicate that Facebook may well be releasing location-related features soon (this is the first time any language related to location has appeared in any of Facebook’s policy documents, Facebook has confirmed) :

“Location Information. When you share your location with others or add a location to something you post, we treat that like any other content you post (for example, it is subject to your privacy settings). If we offer a service that supports this type of location sharing we will present you with an opt-in choice of whether you want to participate.”

Facebook’s VP of Communications and Public Policy Elliot Schrage has posted an update to the site’s blog outlining a major rewrite Facebook is proposing for its Privacy Policy. Schrage writes that the new version eliminates the legalese of the privacy policy the company has used up until now, spelling out what the site is doing with user data in more explicit terms. You can find the proposed document here and the current privacy policy here.

The new terms are certainly easier to read, and they also contain some significant changes (including a couple Schrage doesn’t point out). One of these seems to indicate that Facebook may well be releasing location-related features soon (this is the first time any language related to location has appeared in any of Facebook’s policy documents, Facebook has confirmed) :

“Location Information. When you share your location with others or add a location to something you post, we treat that like any other content you post (for example, it is subject to your privacy settings). If we offer a service that supports this type of location sharing we will present you with an opt-in choice of whether you want to participate.”

This is obviously a big step for Facebook, and one that many people have been expected for a long time. Twitter is moving into geolocation, and Facebook doesn’t want to be late to the game. Still, with all of Facebook’s privacy settings this will be a tricky dance for the world’s largest social network.

Also important to note is the section on the ‘Everyone’ setting, which talks about what happens when you share something that gets indexed by a search engine (you can’t remove it).

“Everyone” Privacy Setting. Information set to “everyone” is publicly available information, may be accessed by everyone on the Internet (including people not logged into Facebook), is subject to indexing by third party search engines, may be associated with you outside of Facebook (such as when you visit other sites on the internet), and may be imported and exported by us and others without privacy limitations. The default privacy setting for certain types of information you post on Facebook is set to “everyone.” You can review and change the default settings in your privacy settings. If you delete “everyone” content that you posted on Facebook, we will remove it from your Facebook profile, but have no control over its use outside of Facebook.

Schrage also writes that the revision fulfills the company’s committment to Canada’s Privacy Commissioner, who has been investigating Facebook’s privacy policies and practices.

This brings the privacy policy in line with Facebook’s other core documents, which the site began revamping last February after a user uproar over some changes made to its Terms of Service. Facebook’s ‘governance’ system now invites users to submit their comments and vote on documents before they’re finalized.

Other documents that have been written and edited in this fashion include Facebook’s Statement of Rights and Responsibilities, Principles, and Payment Terms.

Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.

Via [TechCrunch]

Finnish startup Fruugo fascinates me to no end. Founded in late 2006, the company set out to build a massive pan-European social e-commerce service, which it finally launched in closed beta at the beginning of this year. Their mission statement? To make Fruugo the equivalent of Google in search when it comes to social commerce on the Web. The company reportedly raised dozens of millions of euros, at one point flirted with an employee headcount of 150 to 160 people (including contractors) and boasted a rock star board of directors that included people like former Nokia CEO and current Chairman of Shell Jorma Ollila as well as F-Secure Founder/Chairman Risto Siilasmaa. In 2008, they burned through about 14.5 million euros before they even put the closed beta product live and were ultimately forced to lay off almost half of its workforce as a result.

Finnish startup Fruugo fascinates me to no end. Founded in late 2006, the company set out to build a massive pan-European social e-commerce service, which it finally launched in closed beta at the beginning of this year. Their mission statement? To make Fruugo the equivalent of Google in search when it comes to social commerce on the Web. The company reportedly raised dozens of millions of euros, at one point flirted with an employee headcount of 150 to 160 people (including contractors) and boasted a rock star board of directors that included people like former Nokia CEO and current Chairman of Shell Jorma Ollila as well as F-Secure Founder/Chairman Risto Siilasmaa. In 2008, they burned through about 14.5 million euros before they even put the closed beta product live and were ultimately forced to lay off almost half of its workforce as a result.

Via [TechCrunch]

This post is syndicated with permission from GamerFront.net When building a gaming computer, each component is important in its own way. Most people focus on their motherboard, CPU, RAM and video card. However, things like your case, hard drive and power supply also play a vital role in things. We’ve covered cases and hard drives, [...]

This post is syndicated with permission from GamerFront.net

When building a gaming computer, each component is important in its own way. Most people focus on their motherboard, CPU, RAM and video card. However, things like your case, hard drive and power supply also play a vital role in things. We’ve covered cases and hard drives, but haven’t really touched on power supplies. These are rather tricky to properly review without specialized equipment. We currently have an Ultra X4 850W Modular Power Supply, and I thought I’d share at least my initial thoughts with you.

Modular power supplies are nothing new, but they are something I would recommend to anyone building a new system (or just replacing their old PSU). I’m very picky about cable management, and having a lot of extra unneeded wires lying around drives me insane. Of course making the inside of your case look better is only one of the benefits, it also helps to maximize airflow thus keeping your components cooler.

The X4 has more cables than most people will ever have a need for. Here’s a breakdown of total connecters:

• 1x 24-Pin Motherboard Power Connector
• 1x 8-Pin Motherboard Power Connector
• 1x 4-Pin Motherboard Power Connector
• 9x 4-Pin Molex Power Connector
• 2x 4-Pin Floppy Power Connector
• 11x SATA Power Connector
• 6x 6-Pin PCI-E Power Connector
• 3x 8-Pin PCI-E Power Connector
• 2x Case Fan Power Connector

Other accessories include a silicone vibration dampener and a carrying case to store all of your unneeded cables. You’ll also find thumbscrews and Velcro ties to make the installation process that much easier.

In addition to providing your gaming rig with the power it needs, the X4 also promises to protect your other components. One of the easiest ways for your computer to get damaged is from a power surge. The X4 actually has integrated short circuit protection which will keep your parts safe in the event of a power surge or brownout. It can also sense dangerous temperatures and cut off power to prevent your computer from overheating. Lastly, the included lifetime warranty means that no matter what happens, you’re going to have an awesome power supply that works.

I’ll admit, this isn’t my most in-depth review, and we are currently working on a new method for testing power supplies in the future. I’ve been using this particular unit in our primary gaming rig for several weeks now, without any issues. With the built-in surge and thermal overload protection, I do feel a little better knowing that I’ve got one more line of defense when it comes to my PC’s safety. At $249 you are going to be able to find other 850W power supplies, but the peace of mind is worth the money.

[ Ultra Products ] VIA [ GamerFront ]

Via [Ohgizmo]

Last March I wrote a preview post showing off Lala’s upcoming iPhone app, which gives users the ability to stream their entire music collection from the cloud, without having to worry about syncing their files. At the time Lala wasn’t ready to give a release date for the app, but our impression was that it was due out fairly soon. Obviously that wasn’t the case. But now we’ve gotten our hands on the latest version of Lala for the iPhone, which was just submitted to Apple for approval. And it’s safe to say that it was worth the wait. For those that haven’t used Lala before, here’s a quick overview of the service: Lala revolves around the concept of the ‘web song’ — you’re allowed to listen to any song you want totally free exactly once. If you like it, you can then pay 10 cents for the right to stream it as many times as you’d like from then on. This means that you can ‘purchase’ and entire album for around a dollar. You can also use Lala’s Music Mover tool to upload your entire library of MP3s to the cloud free of charge. This is all built on top of a very slick interface, but so far it has come with one downside: because all of the songs are streamed, users didn’t have a way to access them when they weren’t at a computer. Lala’s iPhone app changes that.

Last March I wrote a preview post showing off Lala’s upcoming iPhone app, which gives users the ability to stream their entire music collection from the cloud, without having to worry about syncing their files. At the time Lala wasn’t ready to give a release date for the app, but our impression was that it was due out fairly soon. Obviously that wasn’t the case. But now we’ve gotten our hands on the latest version of Lala for the iPhone, which was just submitted to Apple for approval. And it’s safe to say that it was worth the wait.

For those that haven’t used Lala before, here’s a quick overview of the service: Lala revolves around the concept of the ‘web song’ — you’re allowed to listen to any song you want totally free exactly once. If you like it, you can then pay 10 cents for the right to stream it as many times as you’d like from then on. This means that you can ‘purchase’ and entire album for around a dollar. You can also use Lala’s Music Mover tool to upload your entire library of MP3s to the cloud free of charge. This is all built on top of a very slick interface, but so far it has come with one downside: because all of the songs are streamed, users didn’t have a way to access them when they weren’t at a computer. Lala’s iPhone app changes that.

The app will be familiar to anyone who has used the iPhone’s native iPod app. The big difference is that all of your songs are streamed from the cloud, so you don’t have to worry about syncing your songs. The app is also better for music discovery than the normal music app, because you don’t have to wait for songs to download — you can instantly add an album to your music library in one click. And it’s significantly cheaper.

Of course, streaming has its own problems. Normally if you’re disconnected from a streaming music service, your music goes dead. Fortunately the Lala app uses caching to store hundreds of songs from your library, which it has waiting in case your connection dies. Lala wouldn’t say exactly how many songs are saved, but they say that the app uses some intelligence to determine what gets cached (e.g. it will generally save songs you’ve most recently added to your library).

So what was the reason for the delay? Lala CEO Geoff Ralston says that “basically everything” had issues, from dealing with licensing from content owners to tweaking the app itself. Suffice to say, it works very well now, and is sure to be a hit among Lala users. It has good timing too: Lala just launched as one of the partners powering Google’s music search service, which is sure to drive a lot of traffic to the site.

Other music streaming apps coming for the iPhone include Spotify, though that isn’t out in the US.

Check out a video walkthrough of the app below.

Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.

Via [TechCrunch]