Ajax Girl

A German Magazine is reporting that Apple and Mercedes Benz have signed a deal whereby Apple will design an in-car maintenance, communication and navigation system for inclusion in Mercedes Benz vehicles from 2009.

Mercedes will have exclusive rights to the new Apple in-car system for 6 months. The article speculated as to whether the Apple system will rely on Google Maps as the iPhone does, however no firmer details were available.

Given the small form factor of the Mini Mac, it’s not a stretch to imagine a similar sized OS X powered unit being built into vehicles. Despite Microsoft’s move into coffee tables and the kitchen there has been no serious effort so far to deliver Windows into vehicles, giving Apple a relatively competitor free marketplace.

(in part via FourSprung)

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

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/125691365/

WeFi is aiming to deliver a better outside internet experience by making WiFi as easy to use as a cell phone.

WeFi was founded 18 months ago by Yossi Vardi, (formerly with ICQ), Arnon Kohavi and Shimon Scherzer. The company is headquartered in Mountain View, with an R&D center in Tel Aviv, Israel and has funding of $7.35million from Lightspeed Ventures, Pitango and Gemini.

The concept is simple: to offer a true internet experience outside the house, people need WiFi. However finding free WiFi can be difficult, which is where WeFi wants to step in.

The WeFi client replaces the Windows connection manager and finds and connects to free WiFi hotspots. The location of free hotspots is displayed on a map that also shows the location of other WeFi users. The maps are regularly updated as users discover and connect to WiFi. This is delivered without changing or modifying access points, delivering a complementary service to other WiFi sharing initiatives such as fon.

The mapping function is initially user generated. Users are encouraged to mark their location on a map and add spots to the map. WeFi can then ascertain the location of that user based on the known location of one of the hotspots that the WeFi client sees, without the need to be connected to it.

It’s a solid concept that will have a strong appeal in the United States, the land of the free WiFi hotspot. The idea of presence based social networking seems like an unnecessary distraction, but in the age of Lifestreaming and Twitter it will appeal to some.

The service is currently in private beta and will be opened to the public Wednesday. The following week, WeFi will announce Twitter support that will allow WeFi users to automatically notify their friends via Twitter the location and name of the network they are connected to.

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

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/125677771/

Last month I received an anonymous email from a tipster warning me that there was “a scandal about to pop” about an Arizona credit protection startup called LifeLock. The email made a number of serious allegations around CEO Todd Davis, co-founder Robert Maynard and investor Howard Lindzon - basically accusing them all of fraud, perjury or other crimes. The email also suggested that investors Bessemer and Kleiner Perkins didn’t bother to check out the company’s founders before putting money in: “Did anyone there bother to even do a Google search on the founder’s name?”

The story was juicy. Maynard in particular has a history of questionable actions. In 1997 the FTC ordered him not to engage in any business related to credit improvement services after accusing him of fraud:

The Complaint seeks permanent injunctive relief against defendant Maynard for alleged unfair or deceptive acts or practices by the defendants in connection with the sale of credit improvement services advertised in an infomercial and the collection of fees by depositing drafts drawn on consumers’ checking accounts…Defendant Maynard, without admitting the allegations set forth in the Complaint, agrees to entry of this final Order under Section 13(b) of the FTC Act.

Given that his new business was consumer credit protection, the irony was ripe.

I haven’t shied away from writing stories about founders with checkered pasts - see my posts on Rivals and Statsaholic, for example.

But something wasn’t quite right with the email. It wasn’t just a tip. It had eight PDF attachments with carefuly organized background materials. A fifteen page “dossier” went into excruciating detail on the personal and business histories of Davis and Maynard. Facts were mixed with lots of speculation. This wasn’t a tip, it was a hit job.

(more…)

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

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/125507900/

Legal action by two women from Yale aimed at college discussion board AutoAdmit could pose a threat to anonymous trolling.

Reuters reports that the suit lodged June 8 in the U.S. District Court in New Haven, Connecticut includes subpoenas for 28 anonymous users of AutoAdmit, all of whom had defamed the women and subsequently are alleged to have cost an internship.

Although the case may well turn into an argument in relation to free speech online, it’s difficult to sympathize with the trolls. Free speech does need to be defended but it must be respected; with any power comes responsibility. Slandering people anonymously, particularly where that slander has direct consequences is a step too far. It’s amazing how many people seem to have a disconnect between the online world and offline world, one where perfectly sane and normal people who would never so much as say boo about anyone offline become the direct opposite online. The quicker everyone realizes that there are real people at the other end of online attacks, the better the overall online community will be.

(photo credit: Richard Dawkins)

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

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/125489706/

Web IM service eBuddy launched a new version this week that delivers an improved user experience.

The company, which competes head on with Meebo, has completely overhauled its web based IM platform with the three separate AOL, Yahoo and MSN clients being now integrated in to a multi network Ajax based platform.

A new mobile J2ME client that supports the top 300 phones worldwide provides a quick and easy to use mobile experience.

Amsterdam based eBuddy took funding of €5million in funding from Lowland Capital Partners in October 2006 and competes directly with the Sequoia backed Meebo. The service currently has in excess of 25 million registered users and 6 million mobile users.

New features coming later this year include support for more networks (including Icq and gTalk) and an improved feature set with support for drag and drop contact management, group chat and custom emoticons.

Previous TechCrunch coverage here.

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

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/125486124/