Author: Serkadis

The founders of Sofa.com, Pat Reeves and Rohan Blacker, have launched a new startup that should be particularly useful for anyone who has ever had trouble finding things to do in their community, or while on vacation. With Ooh.com, they’re offering a place for activity providers to sell their services with as little fuss as possible — much like eBay did in the late nineties for used and collector goods, but without the auction aspect.

At the site activity providers can post their events (pretty much anything “time-bookable”) for free, and allow customers to check out via Paypal or Google Checkout. Activity providers can incorporate Flickr and Youtube into their listings, and also promote events to Facebook and Twitter from within the site. It doesn’t look like the site has any place for free events — but given that there are so many other online venues for finding free activities, it’s probably better for Ooh.com to stick within the paid event niche.

Ooh.com competes with the likes of Craigslist and Eventbrite, but its all-in-one solution for activity providers is fairly unique. It’s simpler than Craigslist because the activity provider doesn’t have to worry about tracking incoming payments via a third-party service, and it  caters to individuals and smaller activities better than Eventbrite.

The UK-based service already boasts some 1,000 activities from North America, Europe, Africa, Australia and New Zealand. According to their press release, the variety of courses and activities listed so far include:

[A] jam and chutney making course in Hampshire, paragliding with hawks in Nepal, a holiday cottage in Dorset, medieval jousting lessons in California, film screenings in London, financial crisis tours in New York with a former bond trader, ski lessons in Japan, lindy hop lessons in Belfast, hip hop tours in Harlem and bushcraft days in Missouri.

While there are many similar options available, Ooh.com’s simplicity may be an appealing option to activity providers and users just looking for something fun to do.

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Mike Isikoff and Dan Klaidman put up a post about an hour ago letting the first blood for the Obama Administration’s intentional tanking of the OPR (Office of Professional Responsibility) Report. In light of Obama’s focused determination to sweep the acts of the Bush Administration, no matter how malevolent, under the rug and “move forward” the report is not unexpected. However, digesting the first leak in what would appear to be a staged rollout is painful:

…an upcoming Justice Department report from its ethics-watchdog unit, the Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR), clears the Bush administration lawyers who authored the “torture” memos of professional-misconduct allegations.

While the probe is sharply critical of the legal reasoning used to justify waterboarding and other “enhanced” interrogation techniques, NEWSWEEK has learned that a senior Justice official who did the final review of the report softened an earlier OPR finding. Previously, the report concluded that two key authors—Jay Bybee, now a federal appellate court judge, and John Yoo, now a law professor—violated their professional obligations as lawyers when they crafted a crucial 2002 memo approving the use of harsh tactics, say two Justice sources who asked for anonymity discussing an internal matter. But the reviewer, career veteran David Margolis, downgraded that assessment to say they showed “poor judgment,” say the sources. (Under department rules, poor judgment does not constitute professional misconduct.) The shift is significant: the original finding would have triggered a referral to state bar associations for potential disciplinary action—which, in Bybee’s case, could have led to an impeachment inquiry.

The news broken in the Newsweek Declassified post is huge, assuming it is accurate, and the sense is that it is. In spite of the weight of the report, the report tucks the substantive content behind the deceptively benign title “Holder Under Fire”. The subject matter is far too significant though for it to have been casually thrown out. Consider this description of the OPR finding on the nature and quality of the critical August 1, 2002 Torture Memo:

The report, which is still going through declassification, will provide many new details about how waterboarding was adopted and the role that top White House officials played in the process, say two sources who have read the report but asked for anonymity to describe a sensitive document. Two of the most controversial sections of the 2002 memo—including one contending that the president, as commander in chief, can override a federal law banning torture—were not in the original draft of the memo, say the sources. But when Michael Chertoff, then-chief of Justice’s criminal division, refused the CIA’s request for a blanket pledge not to prosecute its officers for torture, Yoo met at the White House with David Addington, Dick Cheney’s chief counsel, and then–White House counsel Alberto Gonzales. After that, Yoo inserted a section about the commander in chief’s wartime powers and another saying that agency officers accused of torturing Qaeda suspects could claim they were acting in “self-defense” to prevent future terror attacks, the sources say. Both legal claims have long since been rejected by Justice officials as overly broad and unsupported by legal precedent.

Hard to figure how this finding and conclusion could be determined by David Margolis to warrant the “softening” of the original finding of direct misconduct. Margolis is nearly 70 years old and has a long career at DOJ and is fairly well though of. Margolis was tasked by Jim Comey to shepherd Pat Fitzgerald’s Libby investigation. In short, the man has some bona fides.

Margolis is, however, also tied to the DOJ and its culture for over forty years, not to mention his service in upper management as Associate Attorney General during the Bush Administration when the overt acts of torture and justification by Margolis’ contemporaries and friends were committed. For one such filter to redraw the findings and conclusions of such a critical investigation in order to exculpate his colleagues is unimaginable.

One thing is for sure, with a leak like this being floated out on a late Friday night, the release of the full OPR Report, at least that which the Obama Administration will deem fit for the common public to see, is at hand. Mike Isikoff and Dan Klaidman have made sure the torturers and their enablers can have a comfortable weekend though. So we got that going for us.

Lady Gaga is being tapped to judge on the US version of The X Factor.

After inking a $60 million deal earlier this month, Simon Cowell announced that he will leave American Idol at the end of the current season to launch The X Factor America.

Gaga impressed the producer-and-judge when she performed in a giant bathtub on the UK version of the TV talent show last year and Cowell is itching to bring the 23-year-old
“Bad Romance” sensation to the small screen.

“Simon thinks Lady Gaga is great and really likes her energy. Conversations have been happening between Cowell’s US team and her people about what kind of role she could have on the show,” an insider told Britain’s Daily Mirror Thursday.

While Gaga is reportedly weighing the offer, the singer’s relentless touring schedule may make judging The X Factor impossible. Other stars up for a position on the judging panel include former Spice Girl Mel B, record exec Tommy Mottola, Paula Abdul, and Cheryl Cole.

It seems so elementary to all of us around CrunchGear’s HQ that the iPad should have had three simple features: a camera, SD card slot, and external battery indicator. I mean, the iPad missed the mark by a lot in many areas, but it’s just silly that Apple didn’t included those items. I won’t bother with another rant about the iPad because we already vented our frustration here.

Reader Martin heard our cries all the way over in Germany and made this mock up that meets our approval. See, Apple, how hard is that? Just a front facing camera, SD card slot and battery meter would make the iPad so much more useful while not taking away from the device’s aesthetics  at all.

Thanks, Martin. Wonderful job.

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You’re never too old to turn over a new leaf: The Real Housewives of New Jersey’s Danielle Staub, 45, is officially a born-again virgin…..

That’s rich coming from a woman who recorded a sex tape with a guy she bedded halfway through their first date.

Staub, a twice-divorced mother of two, has sworn off sex until she makes a third trip down the aisle.

“I’m abstinent now,” she told PEOPLE today. “I realized that with abstinence, if you really, really believe in yourself like I do, you discover your own self-worth. Abstinence means you refrain from any sex — thinking about it, doing it — even to yourself! I’m a born-again virgin.”

Danielle claims its been more than a year since she’s been intimate.

“I am saving myself for marriage. I didn’t do it the first two times but I learned from my mistakes. So now, it’s okay to wait.”

The socialite from Franklin Lakes, NJ emerged as a controversial figure on the first season of the Bravo reality soap when her past as an ex-con hooker was exposed by an out-of-date book about her work as a confidential informant.

“We don’t know how to build a $500 computer that’s not a piece of junk.”

“Netbooks aren’t better at anything.”

Those two quotes are both from Apple CEO Steve Jobs. The first was during an earnings call in late 2008 when Jobs fielded a question about why Apple wasn’t cutting prices amid the rising success of netbooks. The second came on Wednesday as Jobs was unveiling the iPad.

Apple has made it clear all along that they had no plans to build a netbook. And true to their word, they haven’t. But that doesn’t mean that Apple didn’t feel there was a need for a device that resided in between a full laptop and a mobile phone — in fact, that’s squarely where Apple is positioning the iPad. With it, they feel that they’ve created a $500 (for the baseline version) device that is superior to every netbook out there.

Meanwhile, Google has decided to target the market in between the laptop and the mobile phone as well. But whereas Apple is anti-netbook, Google is very pro-netbook — they just want to make them better. That’s the reason behind Google OS, as Google clearly laid out during its unveiling event late last year.

And so yes, we once again have Google and Apple on a collision course.

Now, it remains to be seen if people who buy an iPad will do so instead of buying a netbook. At first, I’m not so sure that will be the case. But it stands to reason that eventually, this will happen. And as Jobs’ comments on stage on Wednesday made abundantly clear, that’s Apple’s idea too. In their eyes, you shouldn’t buy a cheap, underpowered PC, you should buy an iPad, their anti-netbook.

Google, which plans to release its first Chrome OS-based netbooks in time for the holiday season next year, can’t like that plan too much. They have promised that netbooks that run Chrome OS will be better than current netbooks because they’re dictating certain minimum requirements (such as big keyboards) to manufacturing partners. But Chrome OS netbooks won’t be able match the sex appeal of the iPad’s multi-touch screen. However, what they can offer is a familiar experience (much more like a traditional laptop then an iPad), and that will be appealing to a lot of people.

And what’s interesting is that for either of the two to be massive hits, they both will need consumers to continue to feel comfortable moving away from traditional software applications such as Microsoft Office. But their plans to get consumers to do that are very different. Google wants everyone to move towards doing everything on their apps in the cloud. Apple, as they made clear with their overly-long iWork for iPad demo on Wednesday, wants everyone to move towards using iPhone OS-based apps.

And that’s why this battle coming at the end of this year will be interesting to watch. Both Apple and Google are very popular with consumers, but their offerings are very different — while aiming for the same market. And as two companies that were once as close as could be, it’s also interesting to watch the tension and awkwardness as they now compete in an ever-growing number of areas.

If this market between laptops and smartphones proves big enough, perhaps the two frenemies can once again find a common ground and band together to defeat their common enemy: Microsoft. But the obvious strategy for this used to be that Google would attack Microsoft from the bottom with its Chrome OS netbooks, while Apple attacked from the top with their premium computers, leaving Microsoft squeezed in the middle. With the iPad now clearly aimed at netbooks thanks to its pricing and Apple’s positioning, everything is different.

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Filed under: Motorsports, Videos, Dodge, Lamborghini, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Pontiac, Saab, Misc. Auto Shows, Peugeot, Canada, Skoda

This week’s bag of news is all about cars, cars and cars. Was anyone else aware that the Canadians know a thing or two about tuning Lamborghinis? That’s a new one on us. Peugeot and Dodge have new logos, and the Pugs have a new, Ratatouille-esque commercial that involves a blender, a bicycle and a three-wheeled car. The as-yet-unveiled Nissan Patrol Safari gets caught with its doors open, and a bespoke Ferrari, the P450 Superfast Aperta, gets introduced in Florida. It’s a little odd. And when some Mercedes engineers get a prototype SL Coupe stuck in the snow and it takes two other Mercedes’ to rescue it, let’s just say a good time was had by all. Except the Mercedes engineers. Finally, back to those Canadians, while those first lads will get crazy money for their wares, another Canuck wants crazy money for a 1975 Pontiac. Must be the weather. Follow the jump for the feast.

Continue reading The Autoblog Weekender: Motley Fools edition

The Autoblog Weekender: Motley Fools edition originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 29 Jan 2010 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The iPad may not have a camera in its current incarnation, but Apple’s at least laying the foundation for one: we just confirmed with extremely trusted sources that iPhone OS 3.2 contains rudimentary support for video calling, which could explain that mysterious space at the top of the device in our leaked pics. We’re told that there are hooks to accept and decline a video conference, flip a video feed (which suggests a front-facing camera) and — most importantly — run the video call in either full screen mode or in just a portion of the screen. That means you’ll be able to chat and do other things at the same time, which could mean there’s at least some type of multitasking going on here.

We can also confirm that iPhone OS 3.2 supports file downloads and local storage in the browser, which means you’ll be able to pull files off the web and use them in other apps, and there’s at least the beginnings of SMS support buried within the code — a fact we were able to verify with noted iPhone jailbreakers chpwn and rpetrich, who sent in the above screenshot from a hacked-up copy of the iPad simulator. (The simulator always says “iPhone simulator” in the menu bar, but that’s the iPad.) chpwn and rpetrich also tell us they’ve found some inklings of actual phone support, there’s a spellchecker, and that both the new landscape orientation for the homescreen and keyboard support appear to be destined for the iPhone itself when 3.2 comes out.

We’re not sure what any of this means at this point, or if any of it will ever be implemented, but we’re definitely starting to get the impression that Apple didn’t tell us everything there is to know about the iPad on Wednesday — and we’re even more curious to find out what iPhone OS 4.0 will look like when it arrives.

P.S.- chpwn and repetrich were also able to port iPhone multitasking hacks ProSwitcher and Backgrounder to the iPad simulator, which is certainly going to be useful if an iPad jailbreak exploit is eventually discovered. Check out a shot of it going in the gallery below, along with some other settings panels the boys dug up.

Confirmed: iPhone OS 3.2 has support for video calling, file downloads, and SMS originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 Jan 2010 20:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve been suspicious of whether or not “driving while yakking” laws actually do any good. There are already laws against reckless driving, and picking out specific driving distractions doesn’t seem likely to change things, since people just switch to other distractions. A study back in 2006 found that driving while yakking laws don’t make the roads any safer, and a brand new study has apparently surprised researchers in showing no impact whatsoever on crash data even as studies show that fewer people are holding phones to their ears while driving (thanks Chirag). Now, there could be plenty of reasons for this — such as that people are just switching to ear pieces which can be just as dangerous. Or it could be that common claims about driving while yakking leading to more accidents are wrong. Or it could be more complex, with other variables having an impact, but which is hidden in the data. Either way, it certainly seems worth investigating more seriously. If the goal is better road safety, then we should make sure that the laws actually lead to that result. If they don’t, then it’s important to understand why not.

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Yesterday, on Microsoft’s earnings call, CFO Peter Klein briefly mentioned that Microsoft’s “next mobile operating system” would be announced “in a few weeks.” Conveniently, just a few weeks from now, the Mobile World Congress convention will be taking place — beginning February 15th — in Barcelona, Spain. This latest development seems to be consistent with previous reports that also put WinMo 7’s premier at MWC. We’re not sure about you, but we’re pretty excited to see Apple, Google, RIM, Nokia, and Microsoft all seriously contending for mobile device market share.

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Apisphere, a company that makes several business applications that use location data, has raised $4.6 million in funding.

As others have noted, the Berkeley, Calif. company’s funding is particularly noteworthy since most of the high-profile location-based startups to-date, such as Loopt and Foursquare, have focused on social capabilities rather than business. Apisphere’s apps, on the other hand, include tools for location-based mobile advertising campaigns and a plugin that delivers alerts to Microsof’s email and calendar program Outlook.

The funding was disclosed in a regulatory filing, which doesn’t mention any investors. I’ve emailed Apisphere for comment and will update if I hear back.

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Big news for late on a Friday afternoon: Tesla Motors, the darling of the burgeoning electric car market, has filed for an initial public offering worth $100 million. If it pulls it off, electric vehicles will have officially gone mainstream.

Tesla was one of several companies in the cleantech sector named as likely IPO candidates at the start of the year, along with Silver Spring Networks in the Smart Grid space. With solar system maker Solyndra also filing in December, it looks like green might be one of the most active areas for public exits in 2010 — just as the Cleantech Group predicted.

But this isn’t your average public sale. Eyes have been fixed on the company’s success since its inception, both because of its sexy product and its notorious CEO, Elon Musk — who has been pushing toward this IPO for years. For this reason, its success could boost business for the whole electric car market, including competitors like Fisker Automotive, Th!nk North America, Coda Automotive and even General Motors with its Chevy Volt. However, if the filing languishes, or it doesn’t exceed $100 million, it could dampen excitement for the next generation of advanced vehicles.

It’s hard to imagine Tesla failing at this juncture. The company saw a series of wins in 2009. Not only did it achieve profitability in July due to sales of its hot $109,000 Roadster, but it swept the country with new showrooms in major cities, landed $82.5 million in new financing, even more from Daimler, and built up hype for its forthcoming sedan, the Model S. This more practical model, starting at $50,000 before rebates, should open up new sales channels for Tesla.

The company has also been shrinking its losses. It reported a loss of $31.5 million for the third quarter of 2009, down from $57.3 million the year previous. Its revenue also skyrocketed from a mere $580,000 to $93.4 million. This is an amazing turnaround for a company that was rumored to have $9 million left in the bank in the fall of 2008 when the downturn hit.

That said, Tesla still is losing money. This highlights a broader issue with cleantech companies looking to go public. A123Systems, which broke the seal on public sales in the sector last September, is still in the red. Solyndra also is a long way from profitability. Clearly, losses have no bearing on how big a sale can be — A123’s exceeded expectations by almost 50 percent– but will shareholders be willing to stick with stock that may not break even for months? Years?

Tesla could be an excellent case study. Its executive team has already admitted that it will probably continue to lose money until the launch of the Model S in 2012.

Investors include Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, The Westly Group, Aabar Investments, Daimler, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, DraperValor Equity Partners, Technology Partners and Compass Venture Partners. The IPO’s underwriters include Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan and Deutsche Bank Securities.

This will be the first IPO filed by an automaker in the U.S. since Henry Ford’s Ford Motor Company went public in 1956.

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Go to Amazon.com. Search for any publication by Macmillan, one of the world’s largest publishing firms. The Prince of Silicon Valley, perhaps, or Sarah’s Key. Or last year’s huge #1 bestseller The Gathering Storm.

Gone, mysteriously gone. We found Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother, but his new novel Makers and his popular debut, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, have been removed. Robert Jordan’s entire Wheel of Time series of fantasy novels is gone, except for 2005’s The Knife of Dreams.

You get links to other sellers. But Amazon has stopped carrying them.

Science fiction author John Scalzi, whose books are carried by Macmillan imprint Tor, tweeted that his books are gone from both Amazon’s book and Kindle sections, but doesn’t seem to have an explanation. “Folks noticing Amazon not directly carrying my books: It seems many Tor books are affected which makes me suspect a glitch.”

Neither Amazon nor Macmillan have replied, but I’ll update with more info as we get it. I’m guessing the titles you can still find were somehow missed in the removal process.

Macmillan is one of Apple’s announced partners for the iPad, heavily hyped as a Kindle killer. But we’re not sure that’s the connection. Please email us with any tips.

Commenter Atul Arora points out that the books are still listed on Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.ca.

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The Getty Lamp, designed by Marcus Tremento and made from electroluminescent wire and perspex, is clearly the lighting fixture of choice for the Twilight Zone. Limited edition of 10, at least in this dimension. [Generate Design via Nerd Approved]

Good news, everyone! Firefox is officially available for Maemo devices, like the Nokia N900!

What’s that you say? Firefox has been available for Maemo for a while now? Sure, but now it’s official.

Read the rest at MobileCrunch >>

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While many large communities continue to chase ad revenue and subscription models, I can’t help thinking the real money is in virtual currency and goods. Yesterday we featured an article about Beijing and the fact that TenCent (one of the country’s most successful social networks) makes 90% of its revenue from virtual goods. With China alone representing a $4 billion dollar market, many are looking to gaming and virtual goods as the next emerging space.

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Few investors know the gaming space as well as Benchmark Capital’s General Partner Mitch Lasky. In addition to sitting on the board of Riot Games, Lasky’s firm invested in both Gaia and Linden Lab. Linden in particular has built an incredibly lucrative economy. The company’s in-world currency trades at about $250 Lindens to the US dollar with 2009’s revenue estimated to be $100 million dollars. With last Spring’s rumors that Facebook was considering a virtual currency, we asked Lasky to imagine what a Facebook dollar would do to casual gaming.

He explains, “I actually think Facebook could be good for Zynga and other casual gaming groups. Having the Facebook brand behind this type of monetization could help dispel any Scamville-related issues and create some certification of quality. There would likely be some attacks, but rallying behind a central currency could definitely be beneficial.”

While a Facebook dollar feels like a far off dream, how can startups profit from the emergence of new virtual economies? Let us know your ideas in the comments below.

Discuss

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A Florida child advocacy group has sent out leaflets ahead of the Super Bowl Halftime performance of Pete Townshend — legendary British rocker and registered sex offender.

The group is outraged that the 64-year-old guitarist will perform with his band The Who at the NFL’s championship game in Miami Feb. 7, The New York Post reported on Thursday.

In 2003, Townshed was placed on Britain’s sex offender registry for five years after admitting to using his credit card to access child pornography on the Internet.

Last month, the group lobbied federal authorities and Florida’s attorney general, requesting that Townshend’s visa be rejected.

A lot of people use Twitter as a primary way of getting information quickly these days. Accounts such as BreakingNews are hugely popular because they offer up stories to their 1.6 million followers (and even more through retweets) instantaneously. Topicfire, a realtime news aggregator we covered in December is now trying to extend that concept to all different topics.

While there are no shortage of services attempting to leverage Twitter to distill information for different topics, Topicfire’s streams seem pretty solid thanks to the use of their HeatRank technology, which is the same thing that powers Topicfire itself. While there are a few factors that go into HeatRank, the main driving force behind it are comments on stories. If they’re coming in fast enough, the HeatRank will get pushed to 10.

If a story hits 10, it will then get tweeted out automatically to its specific Twitter account with a link to the original story as well as the story’s page on Topicfire. This method of curation ensures that followers won’t get overwhelmed by stories that perhaps aren’t that important.

You can see the full list of the 24 Topicfire accounts here. As you can see, they range from Apple news, to design news, to skiing news, to surfing news (though ski and surf don’t have a ton of news items).

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Filed under: Recalls, Safety, Toyota

We’re all gearheads here at Autoblog, with varying degrees of mechanical competence. But when the time comes to get technical – really technical – we inevitably hit up our own Sam Abuelsamid to get into the nitty gritty of modern automobiles.

Sam spent the better part of two decades working on anti-lock brake, traction and stability control systems, which means he brings a particularly keen insight to the recent Toyota recall. So Mr. A sat down with AOL Autos‘ Reilly Brennan and the accelerator pedal from a 2009 Toyota Camry for an impromptu deep-dive into what’s causing the unintended acceleration issue and what owners of the affected models can do if their throttle pedal is pinned to the floor. Check it out after the jump and be sure to share it with anyone you know who’s manning one of the eight recalled vehicles.

Continue reading Video: In-depth look at Toyota’s sticky accelerator

Video: In-depth look at Toyota’s sticky accelerator originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 29 Jan 2010 20:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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