Jordan Crook studied English Literature at New York University before entering the tech space. Prior to joining TechCrunch, Crook dabbled in mobile marketing and mobile apps as well as doing device reviews for MobileMarketer and MobileBurn. Crook is fascinated with alternative energy production and greentech.
She is now a writer for CrunchGear.
Hello
If you own a Wii, you were probably a little bummed out to hear that Amazon would be serving up Instant Video to the Wii U and not to your older console.
But fret no longer, as Amazon has just announced that its library of streaming video content is now available to Wii owners.
Amazon’s Instant Video library is home to over 145,000 titles, and if you’re a Prime member you have automatic… → Read More
“I wish you could play this game in real life.”
Those words have been muttered by almost everyone who’s ever played the game Mario Kart — and if you’ve played games at all in the past couple decades, chances are you’ve encountered this classic title.
Well, the folks from National Instruments at Waterloo Labs have just answered the prayers of two generations worth of racing… → Read More
Gifs are better than pictures and less invasive and time-consuming than movies. This is why Cinemgram exists, and why the app is blowing up of late. But there’s a new kid in town looking to let mobile users share and enjoy gifs. It’s called GifStory, and it essentially lets you cut together short clips of video and add a filter.
I know what you’re going to say. A video with a filter is… → Read More
CES has come and gone, but the memory of this year’s show will live on forever. Not necessarily because the 15-20 TechCrunch staffers who attended will remember it — chances are the night-time debauchery has wiped away all recollection of the past week — but because this post exists.
We met a bunch of celebrities. We discovered a phone with an e-ink display on the back, a giant… → Read More
Lazy-Hands is the epitome of one of those self-made, little-guy CES gems that we love so much. Armed with little more than velcro, a humble booth, and a dash of ingenuity, they managed to catch our eye amongst thousands of competitors who were twice their size and nth as loud. → Read More
CES covers over 1.9 million square feet of the Las Vegas desert, and walking up and down the various lanes of gadget goodness can be hard on the old dogs. Luckily, we discovered this massive mechanical spider walking machine that does all the work for you.
After all, it does have eight legs to my two. → Read More
Big guys like Samsung, Sony and LG use the Consumer Electronics Show to simply show off to one another, whereas the little guys (including case makers) are actually trying to conduct business — attract buyers, ink deals, and grow their company.
This makes the iLounge of CES a double-edged sword. We can only get so excited about a phone or tablet case. At the same time, it gives me the… → Read More
With their new Crusher headphones, Skullcandy promises something that many a headphone company has promised to do before: to physically rattle your head as a subwoofer might. Unlike the past attempts we’ve seen, these ones actually seem to do it. We sat down with Skullcandy Acoustics Engineer Sam Noertker at our big ol’ CES broadcast booth to chat about how it all works. → Read More
Sphero had a big 2012, but it’s clear that 2013 will be even bigger for the company. This week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the makers of a phone-friendly robotic ball launched a handful of augmented reality games, expanding the breadth of the little sphere’s functionality.
The first game is inspired by possibly the best meme of 2011, Nyan Cat. Nyan Cat Space Party lets you… → Read More
LG and CES are made for each other. The company may not make the best smartphones (with the exception of Google’s Nexus 4), or get the most attention all year round, but when they whip out the big screen TVs at their massive CES booth, it’s easy to get on the “Life’s Good” bandwagon.
Unfortunately, TechCrunch is one of the few attendees at the show that isn’t all that interested in television… → Read More
Aereo is quite possibly the most disruptive company to come out of New York since Kickstarter. The startup, founded by serial founder Chet Kanojia, brings live and recorded TV content direct to your Internet-connected devices for as low as $8 per month.
In a world where retrieving free over-the-air signals with rabbit ears is an extinct idea, Aereo has shrunken the rabbit ears down to the size… → Read More
If you haven’t yet experienced the world of light field photography, it’s time to step into the Lytro. (See what I did there?)
The Lytro camera is a brand new form of photographic technology that produces what the company calls a “living photo.” This means that the user has the ability to change the focus from the foreground to background, shift perspective, and add cool color filters to the… → Read More
Two days down, two days to go.
We’ve seen Samsung, Sony and LG. We’ve hit up Huawei, Parrot, and Verizon.
We even met a few different celebrities like Xzibit, Nick Cannon, and Run of Run-DMC. It’s been an eventful, hilarious, and overwhelming experience, and we’re only halfway through. → Read More
Samsung is known around these here parts as the Fifth Horseman. The company has risen from a boring mega-conglomerate to Apple’s biggest competitor, the world leader in TVs, and one of the most crucial manufacturers in the world. The proof of this is in the pudding, or rather the $1 million booth the company has set up to dominate CES.
This booth is rivaled only by Sony’s, and I’d venture to… → Read More
It’s a brand new day and the sun is high.
So ready yourself for yet another eight hours of TechCrunch live streaming coverage from the CES showroom floor. Yesterday was exciting, especially visiting the massive booths of Samsung, Sony, and LG. But it’s impossible that you’re satisfied.
I’m not. → Read More
With Microsoft pulling out of the Consumer Electronics Show and Apple nowhere to be seen, the show has become a huge opportunity for other companies to have their major onstage moment. With more than 150,000 people in attendance and millions of people watching remotely, it’s the opportunity of the year for a company that isn’t known for its press conference prowess.
You know. Like Verizon. → Read More
The CES showroom floor is full of surprises, but none were quite as exciting as the plethora of celebrities we bumped into on Day 1. Much of that is in great thanks to Monster, who is focused on new partnerships with brands and celebrities alike, including Diesel Jeans, Nick Cannon, and Xzibit. With a little luck and the help of some nice PR folks, we managed to get video interviews with male… → Read More
And so it begins. Another year of CES madness, obsession, and viral infection has rolled around yet again, and today marks the beginning of a very exciting week.
Our coverage is deep and wide like the fountain of youth, but topping it all off like a deliciously juicy cherry is our live streaming coverage of the showroom floors. And it’s all for you, so feel free to chat with us, ask questions… → Read More
Samsung just announced that its Galaxy Note 10.1 is headed to Verizon with 4G LTE connectivity. And if that weren’t enough, the S-Pen-enabled tablet will ship with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean.
If you are unfamiliar with the GalNote 10.1, it brings the screen real estate of a tablet to the creative power afforded by the Galaxy Note smartphone. By including support for the Wacom-esque S-Pen stylus… → Read More
Samsung is more than just a fifth horseman in tech — the company is a straight-up powerhouse with the breadth to run your entire digital lifestyle. Last year, the focus was on ecosystem, with smart TV’s, phones and tablets that interact with each other. This year, Samsung wants your technology to go further than inter-connectivity. The company wants technology to “know you.”… → Read More
Intel is ready to chip away at Qualcomm’s dominance in the smartphone arena. Today at the company’s CES Press conference, the company introduced the Atom Z2420 mobile processor, codenamed Lexington, which is aimed at the emerging market demographics including India, Latin America, and Africa.
The chip has been leaked before, but it’s finally coming to market and will be available in… → Read More
Lego is back with another generation of MindStorms, the company’s consumer robotics line aimed at introducing application programming to a younger generation. Kids these days grow up with so much focus on the virtual self, but MindStorms works as a bridge to connect software programming with real-world, physical actions.
The new kit includes directions for up to 17 different robots, most of… → Read More
If ever there was a consumer product suited for monthly subscriptions, it would be tampons. It only takes one midnight trip to the pharmacy for you to agree with me.
That’s where Le Parcel comes in. It’s a new startup that lets you choose which brand of feminine hygiene products you’d like to have shipped to you monthly, along with some chocolate of course. → Read More
A brand new year is upon us, and it’s time to start thinking about the changes you want to make. But it can be difficult to follow through on New Year’s Resolutions, especially without any help or support.
But nine times out of ten, there’s an app for that. We pulled seven of Time Magazine’s list of the top ten most broken New Years Resolutions, and determined which apps would be best to help… → Read More
The gift-giving has ended as we head into the new year, but many of us still need to pick up a few things. For example, if you happen to be a new owner of the Galaxy S III or Galaxy Note II, you probably need a few extra NFC-powered TecTiles and perhaps a brand new flip cover.
Samsung has announced that it will give away free six TecTiles and a flip cover for every customer that registers… → Read More
There are only two excuses for using the term “amazeballs!“: you’re Zooey Deschanel and you star in the hit TV sitcom New Girl, or you’ve just witnessed the Cycloramic app in action.
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak is even fascinated with the app, which takes a 360-degree video on its own, without the help or support of a tripod, special case or accessory of any kind. → Read More
According to Chinese gadget news site Tech.163, Apple may be in the process of developing its own smart watch that connects to your Apple devices via Bluetooth. Based on the report, Intel will be working with Apple to create the smart watch, with a 1.5-inch PMOLED display made by RiTDisplay with ITO-coated glass.
Apple has long had a small hold on the watch market thanks to its iPod nano, which… → Read More
It started with an assumption, really. Snapchat, a photo-sharing application that auto-destroys images seconds after being opened, launched in September 2011 with zero media coverage. A homegrown product, built by two Stanford guys, grew to now see over 50 million snaps per day today. In fact, Facebook launched a clone of the app just Friday.
It wasn’t until the company made its first… → Read More
The first ever musical recording in space (that we know of anyway) was performed just a few days ago on the International Space Station by Col. Chris Hadfield, commander of the International Space Station. The song, which is already climbing up Reddit’s r/Music page, is an original Christmas Carol called Jewel in the Night.
Based on the commander’s Facebook and Twitter pages, he and his crew… → Read More
The DC44 from Dyson is truly an Animal. It’s as good as it gets in the land of vacuum cleaners, with a wireless base, multiple lightweight attachments, and a sleek design. Sure, it’s on the expensive end of the spectrum, but when storing and using your vacuum cleaner is this easy, you realize it’s well worth it.
Plus, it does a damn good job of keeping the house clean. → Read More
The 6th Annual Crunchies Awards
San Francisco
New York City
