Twitter takes best startup of 2010

This year’s fourth annual Crunchies Awards have just concluded, and we’re happy to say that it was an overwhelming success. For those who weren’t at the event or watching our livestream, we’ve included the list of nominees and winners below. Our most sincere congratulations to the winners and to all of the nominees as well. It was an incredibly tight race for many of the categories, and it’s safe to say that everyone on this list is at the top of their field.

We’d like to take a moment to point out Twitter’s win for “Best Overall Startup Or Product”, the first time the company has won a Crunchie in this category. Twitter has become an indispensable part of social communication and a key ingredient in the fabric of the web. And congratulations to Groupon’s Andrew Mason, who won for CEO of the Year; Mark Pincus, who took Best Founder of the Year, and Quora, which took Best New Startup in 2010.

An aaple ipad

We’ve given one away before, and we are doing it again.

Earlier in the month we asked ourFacebook fans a question we were curious about. We asked, “Choosing from all of the cool gadgets we write about, if you had the chance to win one, which one would you want?” We had hundreds of fans chime in and the number one thing people wanted was an Apple iPad. We thought since Apple had such a tremendous quarter, an iPad is the number one thing our fans want, and the iPad just won a 2010 Crunchies Award for Best Device, why not give one away?

We will be giving an iPad to one lucky reader at random. At a retail value of $499, this is one giveaway you surely don’t want to miss.

If you want a chance at getting your hands on an iPad, just follow these steps to enter

Facebook to make facebookcredit mandatory

Facebook is about to ruffle some feathers. We’re hearing from one source that the social network is reaching out to game developers to inform them that it is making its own, official Facebook Credits currency mandatory. Our understanding is that it will be the exclusive currency as well.

Update: Facebook has confirmed that it is indeed making Facebook Credits mandatory for Games, with the rule going into effect on July 1 2011. Facebook says that Credits will be the exclusive way for users to get their ‘real money’ into a game, but developers are still allowed to keep their own in-game currencies (FarmBucks, FishPoints, whatever). For example, Zynga can charge you 90 Facebook Credits for 75 CityCash in CityVille.

However, there will be incentives for developers to sell goods in terms of Facebook Credits instead of their own proprietary currencies: items that are sold in terms of Credits can be promoted on Facebook’s Games dashboard, and will be eligible for more targeted ad programs.

Facebook’s Deborah Liu says that it has been testing Credits in a beta program with 150 developers across a range of games. The company acknowledges that some developers may not be pleased with the news, explaining this is why it is announcing the news five months in advance, so it can “have an open conversation with developers”. The rule only applies to Canvas games (games that use Facebook Connect aren’t affected), and while it’s games only at this part, Facebook says that it eventually would like to see all apps using Facebook Credits.

It’s a move that’s been a long time coming — there has been speculation that Facebook would do this for a year now, spurring plenty of angst in the developer community. But Facebook has taken things slowly.

Despite telling the community that it was still early for the Credits platform and that it was considering various options, Facebook also spent the last year working out deals with the biggest developers — like Zynga, Playdom, Playfish, and CrowdStar — to make sure they were on board with its Credits system. Now that the developers with serious leverage are taken care of, it’s time for everyone else to make the change.

Facebook’s argument is that Credits are good for users and developers alike. There’s a higher barrier to entry if a user has to pull out their wallet to buy a different currency every time they play a new game — using the same currency lowers this bar. It also means there’s less of a lock-in factor, and Facebook can do its part to educate and promote the use of Credits to get everyone used to paying real money for virtual goods.

Of course, Facebook gets something out of it: they take an industry-standard 30% cut whenever users purchase anything with Facebook Credits. That can add up to a lot of money — we’ve heard elsewhere that Zynga is paying Facebook around $30 million a month for its Credits tax.

This is about more than purple cows and gold coins, too — in the long run, Facebook has a strong incentive to maximize the number of users who are signed up for Credits. Right now the vast majority of Credits are spent on gaming, but it’s very likely that Facebook will eventually begin allowing third-party websites to offer a ‘Pay With Facebook’ option, and that may include everything from digital content to physical goods. The more credit cards Facebook has in its system, the more appealing this option will become, and the more publishers and retailers will be willing to pay that 30% fee.

Yoy tube life in a day

On July 24, 2010, YouTube decided to do a little experiment: it invited its millions of users around the world to record video footage of their day, and then to submit that footage for a chance to be part of a special documentary called Life In A Day. The film was directed by Kevin Macdonald (who previously did The Last King Of Scotland), edited by Joe Walker and has Ridley Scott as its executive producer, so it has the potential to be quite compelling.

And now it sounds like a lot of people will get a chance to see it.

YouTube has just announced that National Geographic has acquired the rights to distribute the film in the United States, and that it will be coming to movie theaters this summer on July 24, 2011 (one year to the day after the footage in the movie was shot). At this point it isn’t clear how broad the release will be, but fear not — you’ll be able to watch the film very soon on your computer, free of charge.

That’s because YouTube is also streaming the film to mark its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival this week. There will be a live stream at http://www.youtube.com/lifeinaday that kicks off at 6:00pm MT Jan. 27, which will be followed by a live Q&A from Sundance. And yes, this is another example of YouTube dabbling with live video, which it’s been using increasingly over the last year (and is starting to offer to content partners).

YouTube says that the movie was compiled from 80,000 movie submissions from 192 countries, which encompassed 4,500 hours of footage.

Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc subjected to a thorough video preview

Cellphones, Mobile Handsets

Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc subjected to a thorough video preview

By Vlad Savov posted Jan 24th 2011 6:22AM

This won't be the first (or by any means last) video you'll see the Xperia Arc starring in, but it is the most comprehensive look we've had so far at this finely crafted Android Gingerbread handset. The guys over at HDBlog.it have somehow sourced both the silver and black variants of Sony Ericsson's upcoming 4.2-incher and they've given the pair a nice and thorough video overview. They happily report that Timescape and Mediascape, Sony Ericsson's pervasive features in the earlier X10, have been scaled down to mere widgets, making them "far less intrusive" and resulting in the rest of the UI being "faster and easier to use." Make the leap past the break to get the full dish on SE's latest and greatest.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsvSvXsWS-k&feature=player_embedded 

Skype plugin for firefox

Skype plug-in for Firefox blocked by Mozilla due to crashes, epic slowdowns

by Lee Mathews on January 21, 2011 at 08:00 AM

FILED UNDER: apps
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We're not very big fans of browser toolbars to begin with, and today's news from Mozilla is a perfect example of why. The Mozilla team has decided to block the Skype plug-in, citing serious stability and performance issues. Skype will be added to Mozilla's plug-in blocklist, though users will be prompted and given the option to re-enable it if they wish.

As Stephen Shankland points out over at CNET, the Skype plug-in has had a lengthy run as the #1 or 2 cause of crashes in Firefox 3.6.X. Right now, the total tally is running at about 40,000 crashes per week -- a number that Mozilla just isn't OK with. They also call out Skype's phone number detection and linking feature as a major problem, causing big-time slowdowns when Firefox tries to render a Web page.

If you're concerned this might break Skype on your system, it won't. The Skype program itself will continue to work as it has, you'll just be missing the toolbar in Firefox and the clickable phone numbers on Web pages -- and we don't know many people who will miss those.

testing flight

TestFlight simplifies iPhone app testing with over-the-air distribution

by Jay Hathaway on January 21, 2011 at 04:00 PM

FILED UNDER: apps, web, iphone
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TestFlight is a new service that aims to fix a lot of the problems with iPhone app testing. If you've ever developed an iPhone app or served as a tester for an unreleased one, you know how much of a pain it is: collecting the UDIDs for the testers' phones, distributing .ipa files, and then distributing new .ipa files every time something changes ... yuck! TestFlight streamlines the process, keeping track of all your testers and pushing app updates over the air.

With TestFlight, you can say goodbye to emailing out updated .ipa files and asking testers to manually sync them via iTunes. Instead, you get over-the-air distribution to your whole list of testers -- grouped, if you want, so you can test multiple versions of your app at the same time! -- and an easy-as-pie version manager. No wonder the makers of apps like Tweetie, The Incident, and Posterous all gave gushing testimonials for the TestFlight website.

If you want to demo TestFlight, you can (no joke) drag your .ipa to a box on testflghtapp.com, enter some email addresses, and hit submit. Then, just watch the counter tick up as your testers install the app. That's why they call it "magical." TestFlight is free for developers, and enterprise accounts are available if you email the devs.