Microsoft’s WorldWide Telescope Released

TechCrunch icon From TechCrunch, popular since 2 months

Microsoft has released its highly anticipated Worldwide Telescope software, which can be used by astronomers and non-astronomers alike to explore the heavens with a desktop client akin to Google Earth. We’ll have a detailed review up shortly. Until then, head over the site and download your copy for free (Windows only).See our previous coverage here.Crunch Go to site

» Popular articles from TechCrunch

Other popular stories on TechCrunch

» The Problem With Identi.ca Is That It Is Not Twitter
The launch of Twitter clone Identi.ca earlier this week caused a bit of a blogstorm because it appears to have a solution to Twitter’s all-too-regular downtime. (That problem has reached comical proportions, with the familiar Twitter Fail Whale now appearing on T-shirts and kitschy art). Identi.ca’s answer to Twitter’s scaling issues is by
» How To Build A Web App in Four Days For $10,000 (Say Hello To Matt)
In this post, guest author Ryan Carson goes through some of the lessons learned from building a Web app in four days. Carson is the co-founder of Carsonified, a web shop in Bath, UK. They’ve built four web apps, created ThinkVitamin.com and run events like Future of Web Apps. If you’re bored you can
» Normal-sized business cards at last from Moo
Just as The Governator tries to pursue green policies, like keeping Tesla’s electric production car local, you’ll now also be able to hand out full-sized “green” business cards with Flickr images, courtesy of the same guys who brought us those cool little mini-cards, Moo.com. They are launching full-sized business cards with a new partner, LinkedIn,
» Flowgram Reinvents The Screencast (1,000 Beta Invites)
What you see above is not a video or a slide show, it is a Flowgram. If you click on it, you will be taken to a full-screen player with what appears to be a screencast with a voiceover. Except that you can control the pages by scrolling up and down, watching any
» No XMPP: What Is Twitter Protecting?
It turns out the battle for control of Twitter rests almost exclusively in the unique value proposition of XMPP-served track. As Twitter strips away various features of its service to rebuild a scalable fail-whale -proof version, the one remaining hurdle is restoration of a fully-functional Track over IM. For the last two weeks, a one-way
» Angry Businesses Organize Anti-Yelp Websites. This Is A Sure Sign Of Their Success.
Yelp, a user-generated database of customer reviews of local businesses, first launched in October 2004. Users rate and leave reviews for local businesses, participate in forums, and can generally get social around local businesses.Yelp almost immediately caught on organically in San Francisco, but founders Jeremy Stoppelman and Russel Simmons ran into some early criticism. Rumors
» Poking Holes In The Long Tail Theory
Just because the Internet makes it possible to offer a near-infinite inventory of goods for sale does not mean that consumers will start wanting more obscure items in any great numbers. That is the conclusion Harvard Business School associate professor Anita Elberse comes to in a recent article in the Harvard Business Review that
» Ballmer on Yahoo Deal: The Bankers “screwed everything up.”
Interesting and surprisingly detailed story in the Wall Street Journal tonight about the ongoing (never ending) Microsoft/Yahoo deal. The headline is that Microsoft, apparently not happy with simply destroying Yahoo’s credibility, is now hoping to rip it apart and divide up the pieces.Microsoft Corp., positioning itself for a new run for Yahoo Inc.’s search business,
» Apple Confirms: No Online iPhone 3G Sales, In-Store Activation Only
Reader Steve has been chatting with Apple.com CSRs today - he’s already talked to two - and they’ve both confirmed my worst fears: you will not be able to order the IP3G online and it will only be available in stores and it will be activated in-store, provided you wish to purchase it at contract
» AppLoop Tracks iPhone Users, Advertises Accordingly
With the launch of the new competitively-priced 3G iPhone just around the corner, there has been a lot of speculation about the effect it will have on the mobile market. Since the iPhone has released its SDK, and added GPS capability, it is an opportune time for third-party companies and developers to take advantage of
» Ballmer on Yahoo Deal: The Bankers “screwed everything up.”
Interesting and surprisingly detailed story in the Wall Street Journal tonight about the ongoing (never ending) Microsoft/Yahoo deal. The headline is that Microsoft, apparently not happy with simply destroying Yahoo’s credibility, is now hoping to rip it apart and divide up the pieces.Microsoft Corp., positioning itself for a new run for Yahoo Inc.’s search business,
» Y Combinator’s Anyvite Takes On Evite, Keeps Things Simple
It’s no secret that Evite sucks. It’s cluttered, it unnecessarily withholds information from email messages in order to drive page hits, and it looks like it hasn’t seen a facelift in about a decade.The latest company to take on the much-maligned site is Anyvite, a Y Combinator-funded startup that launches today. Anyvite has taken
» Gnip Launches To Ease The Strain On Web Services
MyBlogLog founder Eric Marcoullier sold his company to Yahoo in January 2007 for an estimated $10 million. He left Yahoo in July 2007 with the seed of a new idea germinating in his head - “Make data portability suck less.”The result of that thinking is Gnip, a new service we first mentioned in March 2008
» The “Crisis” In Venture Capital
There were no venture-backed IPOs in the second quarter, and M&A deals are down. The last time there were no VC-backed IPOs in a quarter was in 1978. The liquidity drought for venture-backed startups is so bleak that the National Venture Capital Association is calling it a “crisis.” Last quarter there
» AT&T iPhone 3G Pricing Revealed
AT&T retail stores will be open at 8AM local time on July 11th, so be “iReady!” Existing customers who don’t qualify for an upgrade will have to shell out $399 and $499 for the corresponding iP3G model. Customers who don’t want to extend their current contract will pay $599 for the 8GB and $699 for
» Once Nearly Invisible To Search Engines, Flash Files Can Now Be Found And Indexed
For most people on the Web, if Google or Yahoo cannot find something, it doesn’t exist. That has been one of the biggest drawbacks to creating a Website or application that displays itself as a Flash (SWF) file. Search engines could see the file, but they could not see what was in it.
» Update: Digg Recommendation Engine Confirmed For This Week
Digg has released some materials around their new Recommendation Engine, which we wrote about last night, and say that it will be released this week. Two overview videos are below, including an interview with Digg Lead Scientist Anton Kast. We’ve also included the text of a white paper on the Recommendation Engine.Digg Recommendation Engine from
» Google Launches Affiliate Advertising Network, Courtesy of DoubleClick
Amazon, watch out. Earlier today, Google launched an affiliate ad network. Or, rather, it rebranded Performics, the affiliate ad network that came along with its purchase of DoubleClick, as the “Google Affiliate Network.” As with other affiliate networks such as Amazon’s, participating Website publishers get paid a fee for each referral that
» Leaked Screen Shots Of Mythical Digg Recommendation Engine
Digg has been talking up a new Recommendation Engine that intelligently suggests new stories to users for almost a year. Well, a source says that the company will launch it soon, probably this week. We have some details and a couple of leaked screen shots, which may or may not be real (I’m betting on
» Grou.ps Pulls In $1.1 Million, Opens Up Code To Take On Ning
Grou.ps, a startup based in San Francisco, has secured a $1.1 Million Series A financing round in a deal led by Golden Horn Ventures. Grou.ps will also now be open-sourcing a restricted version of its code, with a view to spreading its collaboration tools. This move is based around the idea of commoditizing the