2007

Baidu Loses CFO, Wins Piracy Case

11:12 pm PST • December 31, 2007

Chinese search giant Baidu has lost its CFO under mysterious circumstances, but has won a major piracy case. In a statement, Baidu said that CFO Shawn Wang had died in…

While this isn’t as sexy as the HTC Touch interface — dig the cube, man — this new piece of software from PointUi mimics some iPhone functionality while hiding the…

So it’s the end of the year and I seem to be on a bit of a retro gaming kick, so I was stoked to find the AtGames Mega Drive…

Data privacy is a startup opportunity, alas

4:58 pm PST • December 31, 2007

While TechCrunch reports that Australia has plans to censor the Internet for its citizens, the UK is keeping up its fight for freedom and justice by being ranked as the…

If you drive across the country to rape a 15-year old girl and her sister whom you’ve met playing Xbox Live, it’s likely not a good idea to text message…

How come I don’t find things like this before Xmas? This is the Gen-X Dual station, likely the weirdest console I’ve ever met. It’s an NES and a Sega Genesis…

A new piece of software by Pointui launched this afternoon that makes Windows Mobile devices a little bit more iPhone-like. The CrunchGear team isn’t answering emails or phone calls (It’s…

Hooja raises $1.5m from Facebook investor

4:00 pm PST • December 31, 2007

Israeli search technology start-up Hooja has raised $1.5 million from some well known-investors, including Peter Thiel, one of the founders of PayPal, and an early investor in Facebook. Hooja, currently…

Bill's predictions for 2008

3:48 pm PST • December 31, 2007

Bill Thompson, independent journalist and regular commentator on the BBC World Service programme Digital Planet, has spread out his predictions for the Internet. Given that Bill helped to create one…

Hardware

Holiday sales down 20 percent

3:31 pm PST • December 31, 2007

According to holiday numbers released by Neilsen Soundscan, physical album sales were down 21.4 percent from last year. The drop is the latest indication of the spectacular decline of the…

Hardware

HD DVD and Blu-ray at a stalemate

3:08 pm PST • December 31, 2007

The NY Times today has a piece reporting on the general state of high def DVDs. The report concludes that with about a million players in circulation (both formats combined),…

Hardware

Happy New Year

3:00 pm PST • December 31, 2007

It’s been a great year for everyone at CrunchGear and we’re glad you’ve been here to enjoy it with us. Just a reminder that we’ll be in Vegas from the…

It’s the end of the year, and we’ve covered a lot of ground in the last 12 months, much of it with snarky reviews. Let’s look back, shall we, at…

Hardware

The year 2007 according to TechCrunch

1:00 pm PST • December 31, 2007

Big Daddy is rounding up the year with, what else, lists documenting the most popular articles, heavy hitting stories and those who entered the dreaded deadpool in the past year.…

Hardware

OLPC 'Give One Get One' ends today

12:56 pm PST • December 31, 2007

If you’ve been putting donating an OLPC, today is your last day to participate in the Give One Get One program. So after today, if you buy one, you only…

Hardware

The Wii, DS pwn everyone and their mother

12:30 pm PST • December 31, 2007

Yes, we all know the Wii is still an elusive bugger and the DS is hot stuff (it’s outselling the PSP), but the novelty of both have warn off. I…

Hardware

LG Rumor has problems, big problems

12:00 pm PST • December 31, 2007

The LG Rumor for Sprint appears to have major issues. Big time problems. A debugging menu has been found on the device that triggers a complete wipe of the phone…

Who Is The Openest Of Them All?

11:56 am PST • December 31, 2007

If there is one thing I noticed this past year, it is that companies seem to be tripping over themselves more than ever before to claim the mantle of openness.…

Hardware

CrunchGear virus false alarm in IE

11:49 am PST • December 31, 2007

It appears some anti-virus software is pinging mootools — a Javascript script that is running on this site now — as a SNZ.A virus. I discovered that this has been…

I don’t do well under pressure so I can’t think of anything off the top of my head. Maybe I need some coffee. My only gripes are HTML e-mail and…

Hardware

Sprint updates drivers for Mac OS X

11:02 am PST • December 31, 2007

I sure hope this works because I haven’t been able to use one of my Sprint dongles for months. Sprint has updated their drivers for Novatel EV-DO Rev. A devices…

Hardware

Asus Eee PC gets bedazzled

10:30 am PST • December 31, 2007

Not really bedazzled, but I was just listening to Dane Cook and he was talking about his sisters bedazzling his jean jackets when he was a kid. Umm. Ok. Awkward.…

From TechCrunch UK: Israeli search technology start-up Hooja has raised $1.5 million from some well known-investors, including Peter Thiel, one of the founders of PayPal, and an early investor in…

Verizon customers are expected to send over 300 million text, picture and video messages this New Year’s Eve between the hours of 12 p.m. and 4a.m. ET New Year’s Day.…

Hardware

XBL crapping out

10:00 am PST • December 31, 2007

I haven’t been playing much in the last week or so, but I know there were some issues and everything seemed to have been resolved over the weeekend. I remember…

Hardware

LG.Philips announces multiple LCDs ahead of CES

9:36 am PST • December 31, 2007

I’m not really looking forward to CES next week, but LG.Philips has me frothing with the announcement of multiple LCDs ranging from 32- to 84-inches with multi-touch interfaces, handwriting recognition…

Hardware

BlackBerry 9000 revealed, major disappointment?

9:21 am PST • December 31, 2007

It appears the rumored touchscreen BB is just a myth if you believe what first time poster Cooper over at BB Forums has to say. This photo was purportedly taken…

New Blackberry 9000 in iPhone Black?

8:01 am PST • December 31, 2007

A picture of what may or may not be the next-generation Blackberry 9000 popped up in an online forum. The device does not appear to have a touchscreen, but it…

Media & Entertainment

Vonage Settles with Nortel

7:42 am PST • December 31, 2007

Internet calling company Vonage announced today that is has settled three patent disputes with telecommunications equipment manufacturer, Nortel. The settlement involves a limited cross license to three Nortel and three…

Most Bookmarked TechCrunch Posts of 2007

7:37 am PST • December 31, 2007

Okay, final list for 2007. Here are the top-25 bookmarked or shared posts from the year, as determined by people who used the “Add This” bookmark button at the bottom…