Archive for: October 2009

Want to be the head of Barnesandnoble.com’s international business? Because they’re definitely hiring a whole team, and they’re starting at the top. Recruiting firm Russell Reynolds Associates is representing Barnes & Noble in a search for the “head of their international business,” according to a source who was contacted about the position. The job entails building the international business for BN.com from scratch, hiring the team and “building the infrastructure outside the U.S.” They prefer the executive live in New York, but Europe is ok, too. Global ecommerce experience is preferred. Barnes & Noble is no Amazon, but it is a billion dollar company and they have an upcoming ebook reader that kicks the Kindle’s butt (it’s so easy to love unlaunched products, isn’t it?). Crunch Network : CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

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Barnes & Noble Planning International Expansion

If hype were to be believed, the Motorola DROID is the pièce de résistance of the mobile world; the conclusive creation sent down by the Great Smartphone in the sky to rid us of our woes. It would prepare your breakfast promptly each morning, tuck you in at night, and, maybe — just maybe — knock the iPhone down a notch or two. Beginning about a week before its launch (largely due to Verizon’s incredibly intense marketing campaign) I began getting calls and tweets from friends and colleagues asking about the Droid. They always had two questions: the first would be something like “What do you think of the Droid?”, followed by “Would you recommend it over the iPhone?” Same questions, each.. and.. every.. time. I’ve been using the Droid as my primary phone for a few days now, and I think I’m finally ready to answer them.

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Smartphone Showdown: iPhone 3GS vs Motorola Droid

Those keen to try out Mozilla’s latest browser–and its new process to update the software more frequently –now can try Firefox 3.6 beta 1 . Among the features in the new version, according to Mike Beltzner, Mozilla’s director of Firefox, and Mozilla evangelist Chris Blizzard: • Personas, which lets people customize the browser appearance. Personas has been available as an add-on, so there are plenty of Personas skins to choose from. • Faster execution of Web-based JavaScript programs, better browser responsiveness, and faster startup time. Mozilla has been working on JavaScript performance for many months, but the urgency of that and other performance improvements increased with the arrival of Google’s Chrome browser. • The ability to drag and drop files from the computer to the browser. This is useful for uploading files to Web sites, as will a feature not in the beta but planned for the final version, support for the multiple-file input tag so more than one file can be added in Web forms. • Expanded support for geolocation technology so it can provide a Web site with an approximate physical address of the user, not just latitude-longitude coordinates. • The ability to detect the computer’s orientation for machines that offer accelerometer support. • Video built into Web pages with the HTML5 “video” tag now can be viewed full-screen. Mozilla also released a full list of Firefox changes developers should know about with more details. Firefox is at the vanguard of the second generation of browser wars. Although it competes with Google’s Chrome, Apple’s Safari, and Opera, all those browsers are also allied in a way against Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, which though dominant is relatively slow at some tasks and only now complying more fully with Web page standards of yesteryear. The rivals, meanwhile, are pushing ahead ...

If you’re a fan of comic books, you should also be a fan of the iPhone. Apple’s smartphone is home to several neat comic-book apps designed specifically for those who want to enjoy harrowing stories of their favorite heroes in the Digital Age. I’ve sifted through the many apps related to comic books and found a handful that you’ll want to try out. Whether you’re a DC Comics fan or you’re partial to Marvel, I think you’ll like what you find in these apps. Get your comic on Clickwheel Comic Reader if you plan to A Gadget Zonecomic books on your iPhone, the Clickwheel Comic Reader will be able to satisfy that desire. When you start using Clickwheel Comic Reader, you’ll be able to sift through comic books and find one you want to read. The app doesn’t have many of the classics like those you would find from an app like Comics or iVerse Comics (see below), but it does have some comic books you might care about. Either way, the app displays all your favorite content in full color on your iPhone. And since it’s free, it’s probably worth trying out if you don’t mind reading a relatively small collection of books. If you want to A Gadget Zonesome comic books, Clickwheel might be your choice. (Credit: Clickwheel) Comic Envi If you’re more into comic strips than comic books, we have you covered too. With the help of Comic Envi, you can check out some of your favorite comic strips. You can check out old, well-known comic strips, Web-only offerings, and more. You have the option of viewing them in a slideshow or by moving them with your fingers. You can also check out the daily updated strips or some of the titles in the archive. It’s ...

Jed Stremel , Facebook’s Director of Mobile who has been with the company for four years, has resigned, according to a post on his Facebook profile. Stremel was charged with leading the company’s mobile strategy, and was previously involved in Business Development at Facebook. Below is Stremel’s bio, taken from last year’s MobileBeat conference page. Jed Stremel oversees Facebook’s mobile strategy transforming how individuals find and express information relevant to their life. Prior to Facebook, Jed played key partnership, business operations, and strategic roles at high-growth businesses. He spearheaded mobile initiatives for Yahoo! building the company’s efforts to empower seamless communications across SMS, WAP, Java, BREW, and other mobile technologies. At Tellme Jed managed distribution, promotion, and licensing relationships with leading online and telecommunications partners. Jed holds a law degree from Santa Clara University and a bachelor’s degree in economics and public policy from Duke University. Other recent departures from Facebook include Josh Elman , who was Facebook’s Platform Program Manager and was deeply involved in the launch of Facebook Connect. Elman joined Twitter earlier this week as a product manager. We’ve reached out to Facebook for comment. Crunch Network : CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors

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Facebook Director of Mobile Jed Stremel Resigns

Bing's touch-friendly mobile interface lets you browse movies with your finger. (Credit: CNET) Microsoft on Friday released a refreshed version of its mobile search site ( m.bing.com ) that’s optimized for touch-screen devices. The new page includes finger-friendly buttons that are easier to both identify and to press, as well as a movie finder that lets users browse by what’s near them by time and theater. So far, the only devices that work with it are the iPhone/iPod Touch, T-Mobile G1, Samsung Omnia, Verizon Imagio, and the Zune HD. Microsoft says support for other phones and portables is coming. In the meantime, phones that can’t access the touch-friendly interface get defaulted to a simpler version. Also worth noting is that the touch interface is only available to users in the U.S. for the time being. Along with touch, Microsoft also added two new search query types that pull from near real-time data sources. This includes a way for users to check on NFL football scores and flight status. Users looking to get an updated score or player stats just need type in the team or player name. As for flights, you’ll need the airline and flight number and it will cull the most recent information about arrivals, departures, or delays. Now how about fitting some of that neato visual search action on the mobile site too? Originally posted at Web Crawler

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Bing’s new mobile site wants to be touched

Wait! Before you head off to that weekend costume party, snap yourself in your Halloween costume and enter our First Annual(TM) Halloween Costume Contest. We’re offering one Xbox 360 Modern Warfare 2 Limited Edition Console to the winner of our First Annual CrunchGear Halloween Costume Contest. Here’s how to enter.

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Don’t Forget to Enter CrunchGear’s Spooky Halloween Contest

YouTube has just posted a series of videos highlighting one the more impressive feats of Mother Nature: the colorful transition from summer to fall. It may sound a bit lame, but if you’ve ever enjoyed the changing colors of autumn leaves or the charming landscape of a local pumpkin patch, the videos are well worth a look (they remind me a bit of the Planet Earth series that came out a few years ago). You can find the four videos featured at the top of YouTube’s homepage , or you can check out the ones we’ve embedded below. Videos include one called “Autumn on the Blue Ridge”: And here’s one of a local pumpkin patch: Image by Micky Crunch Network : MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.

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YouTube Spotlights The Colorful Wonders Of Fall’s Foliage

Twitter tweeted out a message today about a special Halloween feature if you Tweet “#trick” or “#treat.” It was difficult to figure out at first, but if you tweet either from your Twitter home page (this is key, you can’t enable the feature when you are on a client), your home page background will go “ghoulish” and the avatars on the Tweets on your page will turn into zombies and ghouls. The way to trigger it is by tweeting ONLY “#trick” OR “#treat” with nothing else. #Treat is the top trending topic on Twitter so it looks like the masses haven’t figured it out. If you only post #trick or #treat, it doesn’t actually Tweet it out (if you post from Twitter’s site). Happy Halloween! There are a few variations of backgrounds that Twitter is featuring in the trick. Here are the ones we found. Thanks @orli! Crunch Network : MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.

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Twitter Tricks And Treats For Halloween

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.

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Don’t Be A Featured Loser: Facebook Helps Out The Unpopular

Twitter Lists is live.

"Lists [is] now is available to all users. I hope you guys find it useful already. But this is just the start of great things to come," according to a Friday Tweet from Nick Kallen, project lead for Lists at Twitter.

Lists, which Twitter announced in late September, allows you to group friends into different lists. Those lists can then be kept private or be made public so that other Twitter users can follow them. Twitter started rolling out a beta version of the service to select users earlier this month, and has now expanded that site-wide.

"We've been taking our time rolling out the lists feature to make sure things go smoothly and developers have a chance to begin experimenting with our Lists API," Twitter co-founder Biz Stone wrote in a blog post. "For example, TLISTS will provide tools to efficiently build, measure and distribute Lists, while Listorious hosts a directory of 'awesome lists' on Twitter."

To start up a list, click "new list" in the sidebar on your account.

Check out our hands on for more details.

The Internet's governing body has approved a new domain name process that will allow for non-Latin characters.

The Fast Track Process will launch on November 16, and will allow countries and territories to apply for domain names in their native language with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). If ICANN approves the application, those countries will then be able to start approving registrations.

"The coming introduction of non-Latin characters represents the biggest technical change to the Internet since it was created four decades ago," ICANN chairman Peter Dengate Thrush said in a statement. "Right now Internet address endings are limited to Latin characters - A to Z. But the Fast Track Process is the first step in bringing the 100,000 characters of the languages of the world online for domain names."

Rod Beckstrom, ICANN's President and CEO, speculated that the move could bring billions of more people online - people who have never used Roman characters in their daily lives, he said.

The effort has been in the works for years, ICANN said, but organizers had to get around technical issues, policy development, and global cooperation.

"Our work on IDNs [internationalized domain names] has gone through numerous drafts, dozens of tests, and an incredible amount of development by volunteers since we started this project," said Tina Dam, ICANN's Senior Director for IDNs. "The launch of the Fast Track Process will be an amazing change to make the Internet an even more valuable tool, and for even more people around the globe."

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