Okay, here’s the deal, if you are a startup unveiling a new location-based service in a market saturated with location-based services please tell us what is unique about you vs. the 800 or so other services out there and please please whatever you do don’t copy the RULE.fm pitch, which we liked the first time around. WhereMark “We are ..read more

We just got a chance to mess around with ViewSonic’s upcoming ViewPad 7 (one of possibly four tablets they plan to release this year), and while it is indeed a plastic rebadge me-too Android tablet, we mean that in the best sense. Let’s take these one by one: Plastic: Ot looks and feels enough like metal / glass that ..read more

BoomTown has never set foot in the dusty dustfest in the desert that is Burning Man, due to the lack of a Four Seasons in the vicinity. Thank goodness then, for the live stream of the annual event, direct from Black Rock City, which runs from August 30 to September 6. You can see it below on and also ..read more

Perhaps you’ve heard: Apple is having an event tomorrow . Normally, this means that a sea of tech bloggers descends upon the Bay Area to cover it live for those sitting by their computers at home. But this time things are a bit different: Apple is actually streaming the event live — something they haven’t done in a very, ..read more

Today, prepaid cellular provider MetroPCS launched a new add-on to its cellular plans titled Mas Mexico. Mas Mexico provides “unlimited voice and text messaging plan to connect MetroPCS customers with friends and family in Mexico for $5 per month—taxes and regulatory fees included.” The new feature applies to landlines only, but it still is a pretty good deal. Hit the bounce ..read more

Man, the broadcasting industry is on a device mandate rampage these days. For weeks, we’ve been covering the National Association of Broadcasters call for Congress to require all smartphones to include FM receivers. This requirement is apparently what would make passage of the Performance Rights Act acceptable to the NAB—the bill would require radio broadcasters to pay royalties to ..read more

Controversial social news site Digg has hired Amazon.com’s Matt Williams to be its new CEO, according to a scoop by TechCrunch this morning. Williams has more than a decade of experience in online eCommerce and small business services, but little discoverable social media participation. He’ll take the helm of a site that was groundbreaking just a few short years ..read more

For all the hype and attention location-based services are getting these days, only 1 in 25 Americans have ever tried one, and only 1 out of 100 use them weekly, according to a recent survey by Forrester Research. What’s the  problem? Some people wring their hands about privacy. Others suggest a generation gap is at play. But could the real ..read more

Yes, Google Wave is dead — but it won’t fully flatline until some time in 2011, Google confirmed in a post today. Well actually, their words were that wave.google.com (the front-end product) “ will be available at least through the end of the year .” But yes, you can probably expect them to shut it down sometime in 2011. ..read more

Can’t say this is a surprise, but Motorola posted a note on its support forums today warning users Droid X users against upgrading to that leaked Android 2.2 build or any of those custom ROMS that’re out there — they’ll be cut off from the official upgrade when it hits in early September and potentially “stuck on the leaked ..read more

You got your Android in my Bing–no, you got your Bing in my Android. If you can’t beat them, well, you know…. That’s now the official policy of Microsoft (MSFT), it seems, as its Bing search engine offers an app for Google (GOOG) Android for Verizon (VZ) customers. The “Bing for Mobile Android” app will include a daily image, ..read more

As I was writing this, news of the HP / Dell bidding war for 3PAR broke on the front page of Yahoo. This made me laugh, as it typified just how crazy this story has become—few things outside of a bidding war will make a storage acquisition sexy enough to make mainstream news. At $30, HP’s current offer is ..read more

You’ve been extremely helpful, so bugger off: What started out as a routine study of group behavior ended up turning a bit surreal. According to the authors of a new paper, they started out trying to find out how long a group would tolerate members that abused the common good. In the process, they found that members who put ..read more

We’re starting to think Samsung has given up the pretense of keeping the Galaxy Tab ’s details secret and is letting them all out now. Accessories for its upcoming 7-inch Android tablet have been spotted on one of Sammy’s many online portals, complete with pricing. The headline act here will be that “table charging station” on the top left, ..read more