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TechCrunch Headlines

• Why Google Wave Sucks, And Why You Will Use It Anyway

  This guest post was written by Martin Seibert, a German Internet media consultant. Google Wave is a hot topic at the moment. The ambitious group collaboration and micro-messaging platform started rolling out in beta via an initial batch of 100,000 invitations two months ago. Many people still want invitations. Among those who've tried it, some criticize it, some praise it. For now it has a lot of usability problems that are described below. Yes, you should look at Google Wave. But there is no need to desperately long for an invitation yet. Nevertheless, this post outlines how you'll probably use Google Wave in the future and also gives you advice on how to implement it in your company or your team of coworkers. It also reveals some big usability problems in the current version. Those issues aside, I would like to show you the advantages of the "wave" once again and describe some cool use cases that might make you love it at some point in the future. - 3 hours ago

• Sidebar Delivers Personalized Mobile Apps And Content To Android

  We recently wrote about Sidebar, an app that wants to help smartphone users with the process of finding the perfect apps for their phones. Sidebar is debuting its first app and guess what? It's not an iPhone app-it's an Android app! While Sidebar's Android app is built for all Google-powered Android phones, the app has been configured specially for the newly released Verizon Droid. Android users can download the app here. Sidebar will ask you a series of demographic questions (gender, age, location) and a series of questions to determine your interests and content preferences (i.e. what type of news do you prefer, do you play online games, what types of outdoor activities are you interested in). Once Sidebar figures out a rough sketch of who you are, the app will begin to recommend mobile content to you. Content consists of videos, games, music, apps, ringtones, podcasts, promotions, news articles. The app will load no more than 12 content recommendations per day, which will last for 24 hours until the next batch of recs are sent to you. Recommendations include a short synopsis of the app or content and a screenshot or image. If you like the rec, you can save it and and download or access it later. - 4 hours ago

• Mystery Buyer Coughs Up $1.5 Million For Russia.com

  The domain name russia.com has been purchased by an undisclosed buyer for $1.5 million through marketplace Sedo, reports Yakov Sadchikov over on the Quintura blog. Currently an online guide for travelers who would like to visit the country, Russia.com is an operation of Paley Media, a Seattle, WA-based consultancy firm that runs the show for many a country domain name, including Algeria.com, Scotland.com, Nepal.com and Ukraine.com. - 6 hours ago

• Corel Buys Out Corel

  Apologies for the confusing headline, but I couldn't resist. This morning, long-time software maker Corel Corporation turned over full ownership to Corel Holdings, a limited partnership controlled by an affiliate of Vector Capital, majority investor of the company behind many familiar software programs like WordPerfect, CorelDRAW, WinZip, Paint Shop Pro and WinDVD (most of them obtained through acquisition of smaller software firms). - 7 hours ago

• DFJ-Backed Clixtr Marries Photos With Location, Launches Website

  Clixtr, a startup that first presented itself to a wide audience at this year's TechCrunch50 Conference (our take), kicked off things with a relatively limited offering - a paid iPhone app - but is now upping its game with the launch of an accompanying location-aware photo sharing website. It's also dropping the price of its iPhone application to zero, so if you and the rest of the family will be taking pictures today over Thanksgiving dinner, take notice. - 8 hours ago

• Microsoft’s Dance With Newspapers Continues

  We've been doing some more digging on the definitive moves by Microsoft to woo newspapers over to Bing and away from Google, a story we broke two weeks ago. Since then there have been some follow-up by various media outlets, notably the Financial Times this week which confirmed that Microsoft had had discussions with News Corp to “de-index” its news websites from Google. Who approached who first? The FT said the impetus came from News Corp, although our information is that Microsoft is also talking to a range of newspaper publishers in Europe as well, such as German publishers like Axel Springer. So here is what our sources are coming up with. - 8 hours ago

MobileCrunch Headlines

• Qik to come preloaded on the Samsung Omnia II

  We like to keep an eye on the adoption of mobile video broadcasting applications around these parts. It’s a mighty competitive space, with Qik, Kyte, Flixwagon, Ustream and a number of others all taking a stab at what is essentially the same idea. While the idea as a whole has yet to really take off [...] - 25 hours ago

• 4iThumbs: The craziest way to make your iPhone keyboard slightly more physical

  Remember the iTwinge, that crazy slide-on plastic sheath for the iPhone that would give you a physical keyboard by overlaying real buttons on top of the virtual ones? The 4iThumbs keypad is just like that, except it’s clear, rather than opaque black. Oh, and it requires you to stick a bunch of adhesive crap all [...] - 28 hours ago

• CrunchDeals: EA Mobile celebrates Turkey day by slashing the prices of their iPhone Games [Update: And Gameloft!]

  This week, people are hungry for three things: turkey, stuffing, and holiday sales. It’s a bit unlikely that EA Mobile can deliver either of the first two, but they’ve come through on that last one. From today through 11/29, EA Mobile is dropping the price on around 15 of the iPhone games, with discounts coming [...] - 28 hours ago

• Fring gets Skype video chat support on Nokia devices

  If we were to make a “Amazing ideas” list and a “Things that have totally failed to take off” list, there would be at least one item that you’d find on both: mobile video chat. Blame the carriers for not agreeing on a standard, or blame the consumer populace for not pressing hard enough; either [...] - 2 days ago

• Nokia debuts two entry-level sliders, the 6700 and 7230.

  It’s not all N900s and lollipops in the Nokia kingdom, folks. Nokia has made a big chunk of their piggy bank with the entry level stuff, and they’ve got two new ones for that market today. The grander of the two is the Nokia 6700, which comes in a very iPod-Nano-esque array of colors. For around [...] - 2 days ago

• Does there need to be an app for that? Pet Acoustics, the music app for pets

  It stands to reason that a general purpose mobile computing platform, like the iPhone or iPod Touch, will engender a host of special purpose niche applications. Pet Acoustics is one such application: "Pet Acoustics music has been specifically designed for the hearing sensitivities of your pet, both in frequency, volume and rhythm to calm and soothe your pet anytime, anywhere." This $1.99 app includes music for dogs, cats, and horses, and includes a timer feature for scheduled playback. - 2 days ago