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• While Sacks Plays Poker, Yammer Burns

  So, as you may have seen yesterday, Yammer founder David Sacks is still alive in the World Series of Poker. In fact, he has to miss our events tomorrow because of it. But you know, there's something that we're missing today — Yammer. The service has been down for a few hours now, with no signs of coming back up. Twitter is abuzz with the failure. So while Sacks is busy playing Poker (okay, he's actually working today, but still), leaving comments on our blog posts, and Twittering, his startup (which we love and use everyday, by the way) is suffering. Hope you win that gold bracelet, David! - 50 minutes ago

• New URL Shortener Is Kind Of Cool, Kind Of Defeats The Point

  A new URL shortening service LinksPreadeR (spelled like that because the URL is l.pr) has just launched in beta with an interesting twist on the shortening craze. It allows you to tack comments onto the end of the short URL, to send messages via the hyperlink. That's kind of cool, but it also obviously makes the short URL a lot longer. The idea is that with the messages in the URL, you won't need to have a separate comment in your tweet or Facebook message. The problem with that is that people the people who like to retweet comments with comments of their own will have much less space to do so. - 82 minutes ago

• Gnip Launches Push API To Create Real-Time Stream Of Business Data

  The Web is speeding up and Gnip wants to help push it along. Today, the API aggregation platform is releasing its own Push API which lets any site patch together its own version of Friendfeed or Twitter-like data stream. Gnip will be speaking at TechCrunch's Real-Time Stream CrunchUp tomorrow on the Real-Time Business panel. Gnip lets data-consuming services like Plaxo that take data from other services (like Twitter, Facebook Friendfeed, Digg, Delicious, etc.) collect data from requested users pushed to them. Data consumers using Gnip’s platform can get public data streams for over 30 social media networks and sites, including Twitter, Digg, Delicious, YouTube, WordPress, Flickr, Six Apart and others without ever visiting those sites or accessing their individual APIs. - 3 hours ago

• TokBox Fires 50% Of Engineering Team, All Founders Gone

  It was only seven months ago that video chat startup TokBox sent a taco truck to meet newly laid-off Yahoo employees in an effort to cheer up and recruit a few of them (the startup was kind enough to send the truck over to our office afterwards to let us in on the action). Now, it sounds like someone should be sending the taco truck in TokBox's direction. We've gotten word that the company just fired six of its twelve engineers, or around 30% of the company's total staff, and that all of the company's founders are now gone. TokBox offers a great product that allows for multi-user video chat from the browser, but it hasn't really managed to take off, much to the chagrin of the company's investors who include Sequoia and Bain Capital (TokBox has raised $14 million to date). That's a lot of money for a video and chat startup, especially when there are a number of similar sites that have begun offering some of the same functionality. - 3 hours ago

• Multi-Platform Media Sync Software DoubleTwist Gains “Hundreds Of Thousands Downloads”, Is Now Available in Japan

  DoubleTwist, a universal media management desktop application for Macs and PCs, not only has a clever marketing team behind it but also seems to be something a lot of people have been waiting for. The free software, which works like a multi-platform version of iTunes with a social networking component, has been downloaded hundreds of thousands of times since it launched in February (exact number aren't disclosed for the time being). Users can share music files, photos or videos across (almost) any device via drag and drop and share the files with others. DoubleTwist's main selling point: It supports hundreds of devices, from cell phones or mobile gaming devices to portable music players. For example, the software can sync all music files you bought on iTunes with your Blackberry, Nokia phone, Kindle or Sony PSP without you having to worry about file format compatibility. Media files can then be uploaded to sites like Flickr, Facebook or YouTube from within doubleTwist. It's safe to say Apple isn't probably a big fan of the software. But doubleTwist co-founders Monique Frantzos and Jon Lech Johansen (better known as DVD Jon) silently enhanced the app in the last few weeks and told me today they have more plans for the future. - 4 hours ago

• Someone At Apple Has A Sense Of Humor

  No one likes limitations. Though Apple has been opening up more and more of their API with each software update, a good chunk of it is still off limits to anyone outside of their own team of developers. Be it because they're unstable, unproven, or just outright blacklisted, a number of methods exist that no one but Apple is supposed to use. Of course, people try to use them anyway. Some (like Google) succeed. Others don't. The practice of playing with verboten methods is heavily frowned upon - but if a newly discovered private method is any indication, Apple's at least got a sense of humor about it. - 4 hours ago

MobileCrunch Headlines

• iTunes on your Blackberry: DoubleTwist seems to be popular so far, now enters Japan’s cell phone market

  DoubleTwist, a universal media management desktop application for Macs and PCs, not only has a clever marketing team behind it but also seems to be something a lot of people have been waiting for. The free software, which works like a multi-platform version of iTunes with a social networking component, has been downloaded hundreds of thousands of times since it launched in February (exact number aren't disclosed for the time being). Users can share music files, photos or videos across (almost) any device via drag and drop and share the files with others. DoubleTwist's main selling point: It supports hundreds of devices, from cell phones or mobile gaming devices to portable music players. For example, the software can sync all music files you bought on iTunes with your Blackberry, Nokia phone, Kindle or Sony PSP without you having to worry about file format compatibility. Media files can then be uploaded to sites like Flickr, Facebook or YouTube from within doubleTwist. - 3 hours ago

• Someone At Apple Has A Sense Of Humor

  No one likes limitations. Though Apple has been opening up more and more of their API with each software update, a good chunk of it is still off limits to anyone outside of their own team of developers. Be it because they're unstable, unproven, or just outright blacklisted, a number of methods exist that no one but Apple is supposed to use. Of course, people try to use them anyway. Some (like Google) succeed. Others don't. The practice of playing with verboten methods is heavily frowned upon - but if a newly discovered private method is any indication, Apple's at least got a sense of humor about it. - 5 hours ago

• Samsung patents crazy pop-out keyboard

  “Because the keypad is arranged at both sides of the touch screen, key input can be easily performed while viewing an image displayed on the touch screen.” You see, kids, there comes a time when you’ll want to operate a touchscreen phone, but need to see the entirety of the touchscreen while you type. Nothing allows [...] - 6 hours ago

• Review: Rolando 2: Quest for the Golden Orchid

  Mario, Sonic, … Rolando?! Gaming purists: DON’T FREAK OUT. I’m not implying that HandCircus’s phenomenal Rolando series is equivalent to the gaming franchise behemoths, Mario or Sonic. But, I will say that Rolando 2 is as compelling a reason to buy an iPhone as Super Mario 64 once was to buy the N64. Rolando 2: [...] - 8 hours ago

• Nokia’s 3720 Classic is ready for a beating

  The way I see it, there are really only 3 types of people who need rugged phones: Army folk Contractors and construction workers People who get angry when they drink Do any of those (#3) sound like you? The new Nokia 3720 Classic might be perfect for you. Launching later this summer at right around $175 bucks (€125), the 3720 [...] - 8 hours ago

• Unboxing: T-Mobile Touch Pro 2 freed of its cardboard cage

  BREAKING NEWS: The Touch Pro 2 is coming to T-Mobile! Oh. Wait. We already knew that? Alright, lets try this again. BREAKING NEWS: The T-Mobile Touch Pro2 will come in a box! Bam. Go ahead - try and find that little detail on any other site. You can’t. For the sake of proving that the Touch Pro2 [...] - 9 hours ago