February 1, 2012

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 now.

Crunchie

TechCrunch:

This year’s fifth annual Crunchies Awards has just finished up at the classy Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco, and it was a smashing success. We poked fun #humblebraggers, got cussed at by Siri, honored former TechCrunch CEO Heather Harde, and gave wild monkey trophies to tech’s greatest innovators. Check out the full list of nominees and winners.

Apple took a Crunchie for Siri in the “Best Technology Achievement” category and was nominated for “Best Tablet Application” (Garageband) and “Best New Device” (iPad 2) but lost out to Fotopedia and Nest respectively.

Tony Hart:

Tony,I talked to many people and John was the best by far. I think you will be as pleased as I am. His role isn’t to bring Dixons to Apple, [it’s] to bring Apple to an even higher level of customer service and satisfaction.Tim

If nothing else, Cook’s emails to customers are longer than Jobs’ ever were.

DesignModo:

The role of minimalism is very strong in web design with the help of companies like Apple. Apple has helped expose minimalism in to the 20th century by the way their website, branding and devices were stripped down to show only its necessary elements, the less is more statement has never been so popular.

Clearly I’m a big fan of minimalist designs, but I like functionality and coolness too.

David Boles:

I was having such a good day today. Then Apple threatened me in a nasty email.

The question is, are those footers we see in some emails – the ones like “This transmission may be privileged and may contain confidential information intended only for the person(s) named above” – legally binding and/or actionable? Many of us have always assumed they are put there just to satisfy some corporate weenie and can be safely ignored.

In 1970, at the height of his career, Cash needed a personal limousine. He turned to Rolls-Royce where he acquired a long-wheelbase Silver Shadow Saloon. At the time the Crewe factory did not produce a limousine, so Cash turned to a local Nashville coachbuilder, gave them his specifications and this is the final product. Cash used this limousine up through 1977 when it was sold to another private owner prior to coming to the Burdick collection.

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I expect this will be quite popular.

Dexigner:

Nestle is the first food and beverage company to adopt this method following its partnership with the university in 2009. Inclusive Design is a process which seeks to develop product design to meet the needs of more people. Companies can use a number of specialist Inclusive Design tools to determine how they can make products easier to use.

Interesting article on how product design is helping people with arthritis and other physical problems.

Love this.

BGR:

I’m tired of reading nonsense and of interacting with people that solely troll this site just to get a rise out of other commenters and start a holy war in the comments section. I’m tired of having to delete crap and I’m tired of people complaining that a few thousand people ruin it for millions. Maybe I’m just tired of you.

Another site turns off story comments. BGR is one of the biggest in recent months to do it though.

January 31, 2012
There are a handful of musicians that really push the boundaries. For anyone that knows Jordan Rudess, it will come as no surprise that he is one of them! In this exclusive interview with MPVHub Jordan reveals the inspiration behind his popular iOS apps, talks candidly about Dream Theater’s creative process, and explores how music technology has changed the way he approaches the music making process.

I’ve known Jordan for a number of years and have a tremendous amount of respect for him.

BGR:

The European Commission has opened a formal investigation to assess whether Samsung Electronics has abusively, and in contravention of a commitment it gave to the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), used certain of its standard essential patent rights to distort competition in European mobile device markets, in breach of EU antitrust rules.

If you click the “view demo” button, you can see how they will look. I like the cutout style.

Good to see the new RIM CEO isn’t wasting his time on things that won’t make a difference.

Dave Caolo:

This got me thinking of “profiles” for the app, or how individuals might set the app up, based on occupation or interest. Launch Center does not offer a profiles feature, but it doesn’t really have to. Instead, a person’s interests or occupation naturally creates a certain list of of tasks.

Tools for increasing productivity are getting better, but a lot times it’s how we use them that make the apps truly great.

If you plan on giving that special someone an Apple gift for Valentine’s Day, you can now check to see when it needs to be ordered.

CNN:

Jobs was personally involved in the high-def initiative, speaking directly to Young about it, the 66-year-old musician recalled. Improving the quality of digital music is a personal mission for Young, who has evangelized for it before.“Steve Jobs was a pioneer of digital music,” Young said. “But when he went home, he listened to vinyl.”

Larry Dignan, ZDNET:

Amazon’s fourth quarter sales missed projections, but earnings were ahead. The big wild card was Kindle device sales, which tripled over the holidays.The e-commerce giant reported earnings of $177 million in the fourth quarter, or 38 cents a share, on revenue of $17.43 billion, up 35 percent from a year ago. Wall Street was expecting earnings of 17 cents a share on revenue of $18.25 billion.

Larry says “Kindle sales surged” and “Kindle sales tripled over the holidays.” But then Larry points out that “As per Amazon custom, no hard numbers were disclosed.” So how do you know sales have surged and tripled?

Sony releases stupid piece of shit that doesn’t fucking work

Clearly this is not safe for work or kids. The Onion is just priceless and even though this video is a couple of years old, it still applies.

Adam Davidson, The Atlantic:

In the 10 years ending in 2009, factories shed workers so fast that they erased almost all the gains of the previous 70 years; roughly one out of every three manufacturing jobs—about 6 million in total—disappeared. About as many people work in manufacturing now as did at the end of the Depression, even though the American population is more than twice as large today.I came here to find answers to questions that arise from the data. How, exactly, have some American manufacturers continued to survive, and even thrive, as global competition has intensified? What, if anything, should be done to halt the collapse of manufacturing employment? And what does the disappearance of factory work mean for the rest of us?

In light of the discussion about Apple and overseas jobs, this is an interesting article about manufacturing in America.

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I had no idea that they did Web hosting.

IDG News Service:

Apple has appealed a Chinese court ruling last December that rejected its ownership of the iPad trademark in the country, and could expose the company to trademark infringement lawsuits from a local company.The maker of the iconic iPad filed the appeal on Jan. 5 with the Higher People’s Court of Guangdong Province, according to a statement from Proview International, a little known Chinese display monitor company that claims control over the iPad trademark in mainland China.

If Apple loses their appeal, the company may be forced to pay out huge licensing fees or perhaps even change the name of the iPad in China.

Jamie Keene, The Verge:

A new electric scooter concept was on show for the first time at the Portland Auto Show last week, and it’s unlike any motorbike we’ve seen before. The Boxx stands at a meter tall and less than 30cm wide, making it easy to store inside your apartment, though the 120lb (about 55kg) weight might make getting it up the stairs a challenge.While the Boxx website is currently taking orders for $3,995 apiece, there’s no shipping date given.

Have you ever wanted to jump on your Mac Pro tower and ride it around town? This moped looks kinda like that.

From The Verge

Chris Chang, M.I.C. Gadget:

Yesterday, thousands of hopefuls stood for hours outside a labor agency located in the Chinese city of Zhengzhou, the largest city of Henan province in north-central China.The lines stretched more than 200 meters along the road, and the people who were waiting in line with their applications just hope to get a job at Foxconn, as the electronics contracting giant ramps up its iPhone production at Zhengzhou plant.

Bobbie Johnson, GigaOM:

Immediate reaction to the news was intriguing, because it was split down the middle. On one side were those who read Browett’s credentials and the PR puffs. To them, it looks as if Apple has just hired a man who has succeeded at most things he’s tried, and spent the last five years steering a large retail business with more than 1,200 stores through a difficult period for the economy.On the other hand, for those who know Dixons as it exists in the real world, the reaction was somewhat different: the most common refrain I saw was “Has Tim Cook ever been in a Dixons store?”

Samsung ad boasts phone’s voice recognition

It’s a good thing Apple did Siri or Samsung would have run out of ideas.

Macworld | iWorld attendance holds steady at 25,000 attendees

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 products.”

In addition to a three-day expo with a show floor populated by exhibitors, the event featured after-hours parties, musical performances and DJ battles, films, visual art programs, tech talks, workshops and more.

IDG said that 40 percent of this year’s attendees were first-timers.

No way in hell I would ever do that.

Tyler Herman:

Don’t just go with the easiest one to configure without taking in some other considerations. A one-click install is nice, but should not be a deciding factor.

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