The Loop » Peter Cohen

∞ Marketing Missteps: Pawngo, the Pats and Butterfingers

Peter Cohen — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 18:33:03 +0000

Online pawn shop Pawngo really stuck its foot in it this week when it tried to make fun of the New England Patriots’ performance in the Super Bowl, and is paying for it – literally and figuratively.

∞ Corel completes Roxio acquisition

Peter Cohen — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 22:38:47 +0000

Corel Corp. announced Tuesday that it has completed the acquisition of Roxio from Rovi. The two companies initially announced the transition in January. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Roxio is a maker of media conversion software for Mac OS X and Windows. The company’s portfolio includes the popular Toast software, which enables Mac users to burn audio and video CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray Discs.

Shawn Cadeau, Senior Vice President,

Honeywell vs. Nest: ‘this is about killing the competition’

Peter Cohen — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 17:13:04 +0000

Matt Burns at TechCrunch examine’s Honeywell’s patents, which it says Nest Labs is infringing upon with its learning thermostat.

∞ Permalink

NERF Lazer Tag guns coming to your iPhone, iPod touch

Peter Cohen — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 16:55:17 +0000

NERF is resurrecting Lazer Tag this summer with an iOS twist.

∞ Permalink

∞ Apple to developers: don’t juice App Store rankings or you’re out

Peter Cohen — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 16:41:18 +0000

Apple warns iOS app makers not to use ranking services, or risk losing their developer license.

∞ Twelve South HoverBar lets you hang iPad 2 from desk or display

Peter Cohen — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 16:18:01 +0000

Twelve South’s new Hoverbar lets you hang an iPad on your desk, iMac or Apple Display.

Remember, when it comes to Facebook, you’re the product

Peter Cohen — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 15:50:04 +0000

New York Times:

But unlike other big-ticket corporations, it doesn’t have an inventory of widgets or gadgets, cars or phones. Facebook’s inventory consists of personal data — yours and mine.

Facebook makes money by selling ad space to companies that want to reach us. Advertisers choose key words or details — like relationship status, location, activities, favorite books and employment — and then Facebook runs the ads for the targeted subset of its 845 million

∞ Permalink

Taiwanese gamer lies dead for hours before anyone notices

Peter Cohen — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 17:29:38 +0000

A gamer lay dead for several hours before anyone noticed at an Internet cafe in Taiwan.

∞ Permalink

Honeywell sues Nest Labs for patent infringement

Peter Cohen — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 17:03:41 +0000

TechCrunch:

Conglomerate Honeywell, which develops thermostats, has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Nest Labs, the developer of the innovative smart thermostat. The lawsuit, which was filed United States District Court for the District of Minnesota, alleges infringement of seven Honeywell patents related to its thermostat technology.

Nest Labs makes the “learning thermostat.” You may remember them as the brainchild of Tony Fadell, who was formerly

∞ Permalink

Apple clamps down on iOS game clones – from one developer, anyway

Peter Cohen — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 12:12:38 +0000

Gamasutra:

Apple struck a blow against video game clones today by removing several offending apps from one rather prolific independent developer.

Among the removed games are apps such as Plant vs. Zombie, Angry Ninja Birds, and Temple Jump, each of which (as you might guess from their titles) had more than a little in common with with major titles such as Plants vs. Zombies, Angry Birds, and Temple Run, respectively.

Obviously the problem is from more than one

∞ Permalink

∞ Study: Apple surpasses LG as world’s third-biggest mobile phone maker

Peter Cohen — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 19:31:13 +0000

Market research firm IDC reported this week that Apple has surpassed LG Electronics to become the third largest mobile phone maker, behind Nokia and Samsung.

Neither Nokia nor Samsung have anything to fear from Apple for the moment – they’re both way out in front, with 27 and 21.3 percent of the market, respectively, while Apple has carved out a 6 percent share for itself. Apple’s year-over-year growth is

∞ Id Software’s RAGE game comes to the Mac

Peter Cohen — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 18:04:17 +0000

Aspyr Media on Thursday announced the release of RAGE: Campaign Edition, a Mac version of the game released for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Windows late in 2011. The game costs $39.99 and is available through the Mac App Store and other download services, including Aspyr’s own GameAgent.com.

Apple taps Xbox exec for App Store marketing

Peter Cohen — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 16:48:37 +0000

TheNextWeb: Apple has named former Microsoft Product Marketing chief Robin Burrowes as the head of App Store Marketing for iTunes Europe, becoming the latest games executive to join Apple’s ranks. Apple’s previously hired executives from Nintendo and and Activision for … Continued

∞ Permalink

∞ Apple releases Mac OS X 10.7.3

Peter Cohen — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 02:26:22 +0000

Get your Software Update system preference warmed up because Apple released Mac OS X 10.7.3 on Wednesday evening. The update is recommended for all Lion users.

The update fixes problems with smart cards used to log on to OS X; authentication with directory services; address compatibility issues with Windows file sharing; and improvements to stability, compatibility and security.

Language support has also been added for Catalan, Croatian, Greek, Hebrew, Romanian, Slovak, Thai, and

Bungie.net to end Halo services in March

Peter Cohen — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 19:06:09 +0000

GameInformer.com:

At the end of March, Bungie will no longer handle player data for Halo games. The studio issued a statement today saying the transition process between it and 343 Industries, Microsoft’s new internal Halo studio, will be completed March 31. After then, all live Halo data will be managed by 343.

Bungie’s been ready to move on from Halo for some time. The company went private again in 2008 after being part of Microsoft following its acquisition in

∞ Permalink

Kaz Hirai to be Sony CEO and president in April

Peter Cohen — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 18:54:31 +0000

Gamesindustry.biz:

Sony has named Kaz Hirai as the successor to Howard Stringer’s roles as both president and CEO, effective April 1, 2012.

Stringer, who has lead the company in the joint role for seven years, will take up the position of chairman of the board, whilst current chairman Yotaro Kobayashi will retire.

Hirai oversees Sony’s PlayStation operations. He’s been the most public face of Sony for gamers for a number of years

∞ Permalink

∞ Macworld | iWorld attendance holds steady at 25,000 attendees

Peter Cohen — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 19:17:04 +0000

IDG World Expo announced Tuesday that approximately 25,000 people made their way to this year’s Macworld | iWorld event, which took place last week in San Francisco, Calif.

That’s about the same attendance reported in 2011, when the event was called simply Macworld. This year’s focus was different, however: IDG World Expo billed Macworld | iWorld as “the world’s ultimate fan event for those who use, create, and love Apple

China predicted to grab 40M iPhones in 2012

Peter Cohen — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 17:15:41 +0000

Josh Ong for AppleInsider:

Investment bank Morgan Stanley believes Apple will partner up with both China Telecom and China Mobile “over the next year” to make its iPhone available on all three Chinese carriers, a move that could bring incremental sales of as many as 40 million units next calendar year.

This is predicated on Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty’s assumption that the next-generation iPhone will work on the TD-LTE network favored by China Mobile. But

∞ Permalink

What’s Apple to do about the China problem?

Peter Cohen — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 18:36:05 +0000

Mike Elgan for Cult of Mac:

So that’s what Apple needs to do … Chip away at the problem, iteratively investigating, auditing and fixing. But also pay a little more to suppliers in order to meet these stringent requirements.

Apple gets more blame than it deserves for worker abuses in China, and doesn’t get enough credit for the enormous effort the company has expended in raising work standards in China.

I agree with Elgan up to a point, but the danger of

∞ Permalink

Cook responds to Apple contractor factory worker reports

Peter Cohen — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 14:26:44 +0000

Mark Gurman for 9to5Mac, quoting from Tim Cook:

“As a company and as individuals, we are defined by our values. Unfortunately some people are questioning Apple’s values today, and I’d like to address this with you directly. We care about every worker in our worldwide supply chain.”

Apple PR hasn’t responded publicly to the New York Times’ recent allegations about Foxconn working conditions, and I don’t expect they will. I do believe that Cook and Apple PR knew

∞ Permalink