Where are all the great Android games? The answer is simpler than we think

by John Biggs - techcrunch.com I was Tweeting with Michael Gartenberg last night about all the great Android games. After all, the Android Marketplace has so many great titles like Civilization Revolution, Canabalt, iShoot, and… oh… wait… All kidding aside, the reason there is such a dearth of great games has to do with some programming choices in Android itself and it’s a problem that can – and should – be fixed before the Droid comes to market this November. The real culprit b...

Google Tackles Mortgage Market With New Comparison Ads

Google has just debuted a new form of advertising called AdWords Comparison Ads — a special kind of ad that will prompt users to view a list of sponsored products in a structured format. To get started, Google is running the ads for queries related to the mortgage market, though it has plans to eventually expand beyond that. The ads are in a limited rollout for now, with only some users in some states seeing them. Here’s how Google describes the new ad type: AdWords uses a host of targeting ...

Live From Google’s Music Roundtable In Hollywood

Google has just launched into a surprise roundtable at its music event in Hollywood, where a number of top music executives and artists are discussing the news and the music industry. I’m live blogging my notes below (everything paraphrased). Guests: Mos Def Wendy Nussbaum (UMG) Steve Savoca (Domino Recording) Syd Schwartz (EMI) Mike Shinoda (Linkin Park) Ryan Tedder (OneRepublic) Mike Shinoda: We used to be called Hybrid Theory. We settled on Lincoln Park, we went online to see if...

It’s Almost Here: Exclusive Video Of Lala’s Upcoming iPhone App

Last March I wrote a preview post showing off Lala’s upcoming iPhone app, which gives users the ability to stream their entire music collection from the cloud, without having to worry about syncing their files. At the time Lala wasn’t ready to give a release date for the app, but our impression was that it was due out fairly soon. Obviously that wasn’t the case. But now we’ve gotten our hands on the latest version of Lala for the iPhone, which was just submitted to Apple for approval. And it’s s...

Full Circle In Sight As Inventor Of The World Wide Web Signs Up For Twitter

Sir Timothy John “Tim” Berners-Lee, credited for inventing this little thing called the World Wide Web, has signed up for Twitter in a move that could potentially rip a hole in the time/space continuum. The British computer scientist, engineer and MIT professor apparently got on Twitter yesterday just before he entered into a conversation with Tim O’Reilly on stage at the Web 2.0 Summit. The man uses Tweetie and thinks either the app or the Twitter website has a confusing user interface. S...

Video hilarity: Windows 7 launched on a MacBook Pro on NBC’s The Today Show

Oh, dear. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer was on The Today Show (international viewers: The Today Show is a morning news and entertainment program that airs on NBC, a big TV network here) to unveil Windows 7. Call me crazy, but isn’t that a first-gen MacBook Pro in the background? Good job, NBC! I’ve embedded the video from Hulu for our U.S. readers, and for international readers here’s a few screencaps: Once again, bravo, NBC, for a job well done! (And people call us sloppy, with ...

Opera Mini Now Serving Over 500 Million Pageviews Per Day

You hear that rumbling? That’s the sound of mobile internet usage exploding. Sometime tomorrow, Opera will be releasing a couple of interesting usage statistics for what is one of the (if not the number one) most popular browsers in the world, Opera Mini. They were nice enough to fill us in on the details a bit early, and to give us a green light to share them with you tonight. For those unfamiliar with the application, Opera Mini is a popular internet browser for mobile phones. Being that...

Red Bull Stashes Free Energy Shots In Your City, And It’s Up To You To find Them

Red Bull is thanking its Facebook fans for pushing the brand past the 1 million followers mark by hiding free packages of Red Bull Energy Shots across the country and offering them up in a nationwide scavenger hunt. The result appears to be more fans:  Red Bull’s fan page currently has 1.4 million followers, and it’s gaining daily at a steady clip of at least a few thousand new fans a day. Facebook users can enter their respective zip codes into the Red Bull Stash application on the R...

Lufthansa’s MySkyStatus Updates Facebook, Twitter For You While You Fly

Facebook and Twitter users now have a way to keep followers updated when flying the friendly skies with a new service from Lufthansa called MySkyStatus, announced earlier this week. It sends status updates to Facebook and Twitter while travelers are in the air; messages include altitude, location and departure and arrival times to keep followers on the ground in the know. The service is offered exclusively through Lufthansa, but works for any airline. While there are more and more air...

A Conversation With Sergey Brin And Eric Schmidt

Google co-founder Sergey Brin and CEO Eric Schmidt are holding an audience this morning with a roomful of journalists in New York City. They talk about the Google Books settlement, antitrust scrutiny, Android, Chrome, innovations in search and the “evil room.” Below are my live notes (I’ve bolded parts for emphasis). Sergey Brin: We have had a number of interesting activities. A bunch of you saw the verizon announcement, android, software platform, more enhancements in terms of faster softwa...