Ajax Girl

The victim of an alleged rape that made worldwide headlines after footage was posted to YouTube, has been arrested on suspicion of underage sex and perverting the course of justice after it was discovered that the rape was fake.

According to The Register, the 24-year-old mother was arrested on March 28 and released on bail. The alleged rapists, aged 14 and 16, are now unlikely to face charges.

The video led to calls for YouTube to manually check all videos being uploaded to the site, with British MPs targeting YouTube over the incident. Adam Price MP said following the initial outrage that the video “surely shows [YouTube’s] system is completely inadequate.” The fake rape video had 600 views before being pulled by Google.

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Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/262417864/

A few weeks ago YouTube released a more powerful set of APIs that allow web developers to create services that upload, watch, search, and comment on videos remotely.

Magnify, the video channel service recently focused on social networking, has been hustling to be the first to implement these APIs. What they’ve come up with is a widget called VidyUp (like gitty up, get it?).

Site owners can place the VidyUp widget on their pages to solicit videos from visitors. For example, we could use it here on TechCrunch if we wanted to hold a video contest. Instead of telling everyone to upload their videos directly to YouTube then send us the links via email, we could just embed a VidyUp widget and all videos uploaded through it would be handled in the appropriate manner (emailed to us, added to a particular page, etc).

All in all, it’s actually a decent little widget, although I’m sure just being the first to build something with the APIs was Magnify’s primary goal. The company says it won’t try to monetize the widget, but if site owners get a lot of use out of it, they will be able to turn their visitors’ uploaded videos into a full-fledged Magnify channel.

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Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/262396282/

Something big is brewing between Google and Ebay’s Skype, we’ve heard from multiple sources. Actually, for weeks now there have been low level rumors of the two companies talking, but nailing down any details was difficult. New information, however, suggests that they are in current talks and that a partnership or outright acquisition may be announced in the near future.

Skype, acquired in late 2005 for $3.1 billion, has been a financial albatross around Ebay’s neck. eBay removed Skype co-founder and CEO Niklas Zennstrom in October 2007, reportedly due to frustration at the financial performance of Skype. Ebay also negotiated down the huge earnout due to Skype stockholders and took a $936 million one-time loss around the transaction.

It’s clear that eBay wants to either unload Skype, or significantly drive performance.

Google, by contrast, is just beginning to think about how to dominate the voice space. They have a VOIP service through GTalk, a free 411 service and GrandCentral, a telephone management service they acquired last year for $50 million.

All of these products reside under VP Product Management Salar Kamangar and his new right hand guy, Bradley Horowitz. Other key players in the group are Wesley Chen, the product manager who championed the GrandCentral acquisition, and GrandCentral founders Craig Walker and Vincent Paquet.

That core team should be at the CTIA Wireless Conference in Las Vegas, but we’ve heard that they either aren’t there or at the very least aren’t showing up for scheduled meetings (if anyone at the event sees them, let me know). That doesn’t mean the team is busy working on a partnership or acquisition of Skype instead of attending the conference. But given that we’ve heard from sources close to the deal that something is happening between the companies, it’s not a stretch, either.

What does Skype bring to the table? Scalable technology and a proven platform in the VOIP, VOIP2POTS and P2P Video, to start - 100 billion VOIP minutes have been logged on Skype to date. At any given time there are 10 million simultaneous users on Skype. Skype is the glue that can pull all the nascent Google products together.

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Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/262321960/

An interesting end to the Craigslist hoax story over the weekend that left an Oregon man minus his stuff: A couple named Brandon and Amber Herbert apparently placed the ad as a cover to a planned theft of two horse saddles. They placed the ad on Craigslist, which said that all the belongings were free for the taking at an abandoned house. They then joined in the mob that showed up for the goods.

Their IP address was tracked by police through information supplied by Craigslist.

It’s funny how few people understand how easy it is to track activity via IP address. For example, the startup CEOs who leave comments here under their real name, and then suddenly go trolling under an anonymous name, all under the same IP.

Photo via The Raw Feed.

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Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/262305797/

Rasba, a new social shopping site founded by a 16-year-old Silicon Valley entrepreneur, recognizes that money and friends are powerful tools of persuasion.

The idea behind Rasba isn’t entirely new; others such as Kaboodle, ThisNext, StyleHive, and Wists have sought to bring a personal touch to online shopping. But whereas these other sites provide places for people to recommend goods sold elsewhere, Rasba serves as a storefront for retailers in addition to a social network for shoppers.

If you’re a consumer, you can create an account on Rasba, fill out your profile, and make friends. When you buy goods, they’ll go onto your profile alongside the retailers you’ve favorited. If your friends (or anyone else) happens to buy something after finding it on your page, you get a commission. This commission starts at 2% and goes up depending on how great an incentive a retailer wants to provide.

Conversely, if you want to sell merchandise online, you can create a retailer account on Rasba and set up your online storefront in a minimal number of steps. In this regard, Rasba can be compared to Etsy, which specializes in the sale of handmade goods. Rasba, on the other hand, provides mostly fashion but intends to branch out into all types of goods, such as electronics and toys.

There are a handful of useful goodies for both shoppers and retailers. Shoppers can make wishlists of things that they want their friends to buy for them. And retailers can track the activity on their store using a comprehensive analytics tool. Anybody who favorites these retailers will also show up on their pages as fans.

Miriam Brafman, the young founder of Rasba, didn’t have any programming knowledge when she came up with the idea for it. So she sought out developers through LinkedIn and other means. She now has a full-time Yahoo employee working on the site for her, presumably in his off hours. She spends most of her time these days traveling to meet with retailers who might want to set up shop on Rasba.

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

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/262286018/

Okay, last Google April Fool’s joke coverage (maybe). This one is my favorite, along with the paper airplane option in Google Docs. The picture says it all: AdSense for Conversations. Excerpt from the Inside AdSense blog:

Now, in just a few simple steps, you can begin displaying ads that are relevant to the topics you’re discussing — in an unobtrusive screen above your head.

Anyone taking part in the conversation can hit the ad with their hand to immediately take advantage of the product or service being offered. With our new Teleportation Technology(TM), you’ll be transported directly to the site where the service is available, or have the product appear instantaneously in your hands.

How do I add Google ads to my conversations?
Once you sign up . . . , we’ll send you an adjustable screen and special AdSense headgear to attach it to.

Why are my ads not targeted to my conversation?
If you’re not seeing targeted ads, it may be that you haven’t discussed a particular topic long enough for our system to determine the meaning of your conversation. We recommend rambling and repeating yourself to help our system pick relevant ads to display. Also, you may wish to try our voice targeting feature — you can speak more loudly to emphasize certain phrases. However, these activities may result in socially awkward situations, so please proceed with caution.

More Google April Fools Craziness:

Build Your Very Own Google Airplane
• Google And Virgin Team For Human Settlement On Mars
• Google Wake Up Kit
• YouTube RickRolls Users
• Gmail April Fools Not Very Funny. On the Upside, They Started A Wikipedia War
• Google Launches Future Search
• 2007
• 2006

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Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/262283182/

As a digital photographer, I am always looking for a great photo editing tool. Despite the wonderful praises given to Adobe Photoshop, I just could not drag myself to pay that outrageous price. Thankfully, Adobe got a little smarter and noticed that I wasn’t the only one hesitant about purchasing their software. They have finally released a free online version.

After a couple of days of using it, I noticed that it has wonderful potential. Although there are a few bugs in the system, my overall impression of it was a positive one. Adjusting colors, exposure, and adding special effects is extremely easy to do. Boring photos can be instantly transformed into interesting ones. The Flash based interface rarely slows down while switching between multiple features. Adobe Photoshop Express has a winning combination of features that actually work well.

The five year old Creative Commons nonprofit organization announced a new CEO this afternoon as founding CEO Lawrence Lessig steps down: Joi Ito.

The organization is devoted to expanding the range of creative works available for others to legally build upon and share by creating consensus driven copyright license forms. Users can set terms for copyright usage without complex negotiations using CC approved licenses. These licenses restrict only certain rights (or none at all) of the work. The initial set of Creative Commons licenses was published on December 16, 2002.

In 2007 Lessig announced that he would be defocusing his attention on copyright law, and announced Change Congress, an organization to build support for government reform.

Joi Ito, who was born in Kyoto, Japan, is a well known investor and Creative Commons board member. Founding board member and Duke law professor James Boyle will become chair of the board, replacing Ito.

The full press release is below.

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Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/262260059/

You can just imagine the conversation. The Sprint executive screaming to the Samsung rep: “I don’t care how shitty you have to make it, just give me an iPhone knock-off in three months!!”.

And Samsung, who otherwise makes nice stuff (I loved the P-300), caved and delivered the Instinct:

Terrible, just terrible. More pictures on Gizmodo.

Source: Signal vs. Noise
Original Article: http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/949-the-sprintsamsung-iphone-knock-off

Google VP Engineering Douglas Merrill has resigned, a source says, and will be joining UK and NY-based big music label EMI Group as President.

I have no idea why someone would jump ship from the do no evil company into one of the most despised industries in the world, but I look forward to reading the sterilized quotes in the press release, which is coming in the next few days.

Merrill joined Google in 2003 as Senior Director of Information Systems. In the position he just left, he held direct line responsibility for all internal engineering and support worldwide. He was previously an SVP at Charles Schwab and Co.

One thing’s for certain - he finally found a place for that rock star haircut he’s sporting in his Google press picture.

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Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/262238351/