Pr Stunt Archive

  • Is IBM splitting hairs with open source?

    Is IBM splitting hairs with open source?

    Posted on April 8, 2010 | No Comments
    It's no secret that I'm a big Free Software fan. It's no secret that IBM is a giant company with more money than I can possibly imagine. So I was pretty happy in 2005 when IBM, in an obvious PR stunt to get buddy-buddy with the open source community, made its Statement of Non-Assertion of Named Patents Against OSS, ostensibly saying that it would permit open source projects to use any of the items covered by those patents without risk of penalty or lawsuit. Yay! Finally, a BigCo getting it and doing the right thing! But five years is a long time, people come and go, and promises can be forgotten. IBM has lately threatened to sue someone for infringement of a lot of IBM patents, including at least two that were included in the Non-Assertion statement.

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  • Jason Calacanis (absolutely does not) spoil Apple tablet event, drops no major details (update: not)

    Jason Calacanis (absolutely does not) spoil Apple tablet event, drops no major details (update: not)

    Posted on January 27, 2010 | No Comments
    Jason Calacanis isn't a a nobody. He's a serial web entrepreneur, founder of Weblogs, Inc., co-founder of TechCrunch50 and CEO of search engine Mahalo (amongst others). And just a few minutes ago, via his Twitter account, he (possibly) dropped some major hints on the Apple tablet that's going to be presented tomorrow. Calacanis claims he has been given a tablet by Apple ten days ago, adding "For background: apple asked me to do press tomorrow on cnbc, cnn, etc.". If he isn't pulling a major PR stunt (I think he isn't), Calacanis is stoked. Here's the gist of what he says about the device. I know many of you are sick of hearing about it, and this may turn out to be totally false info tomorrow - but what he said seemed just too interesting. Editor's Note - Serkan has been beaten. There is nothing to see here.

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  • Giant Gundam statue to make a comeback next year

    Giant Gundam statue to make a comeback next year

    Posted on December 23, 2009 | No Comments
    He'll be back: The awesome 1/1 scale Gundam statue that was erected on Tokyo's artificial island Odaiba in June and that was deconstructed in September this year, will be seen again in its full glory. We reported several times about the statue, which stands 60 feet tall and shows some cool special effects (see video below).

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  • Japanese department store offers robots that look like their buyers

    Japanese department store offers robots that look like their buyers

    Posted on December 14, 2009 | No Comments
    We all knew this day would come and we all knew this would happen first in Japan. And local department store chain operator Sogo & Seibu is ready to make it possible: You can soon buy robots who look exactly like you. Right, life-size humanoids. The company isn't that sure about its idea though as it plans to offer just two robots for the time being. Sogo & Seibu says they'll start accepting orders in all of their department stores in Japan as soon as early next month. But if there are three or more people interested in getting a robotic doppelgänger, buyers will be chosen by lot.

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