June 20, 2011
∞ A history of RIM infographic
With everything that’s been happening with RIM in the past little while, I thought this infographic was kind of cool. It was put together by the folks at Geekaphone and used with permission. (more…)
∞ Former Sony boss: 'Apple will be the games industry'
Phil Harrison, the man who launched the original Sony PlayStation console and later because president of Sony Computer Entertainment’s Worldwide Studios, recently offered his vision of the future of gaming to Edge Magazine. And Harrison sees Apple as ground zero of future game industry growth.
At this trajectory, if you extrapolate the market-share gains that they are making, forward for ten years – if they carry on unrestrained in their growth, then there’s a pretty good chance that Apple will be the games industry.
Asked to explain, Harrison says his prediction is based on Apple’s understanding of “the end-to-end shopping experience:” devices, visibility of games on the platform, and ease of acquiring and loading those games through the App Store. He says that it “has been so elegantly built by Apple and they will continue to refine it.”
Phil Harrison on the future | Edge Magazine
∞ RIM pressuring carriers to approve bug-ridden BlackBerrys
If you’ve noticed more problems with BlackBerrys than usual, there may be a very simple explanation — RIM is forcing carriers to overlook major issues with the devices. (more…)
∞ Apple, Samsung executives in talks to end patent lawsuits
Lawyers for Apple and Samsung are in talks to end lawsuits from both companies claiming patent infringement by the other. (more…)
∞ Check your blood pressure with your iOS device
Withings on Monday announced the U.S. availability of its Connected Blood Pressure Monitor for iOS devices, including iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. It costs $129. (more…)
∞ Boston Bruins celebrate Stanley Cup with 1 million fans in Boston
An estimated crowd of 1 million showed up to help the Boston Bruins celebrate their first Stanley Cup in almost 40 years. (more…)
∞ Sega has 1.3 million customer records hacked
First it was Sony, and now Sega has its online customer database hacked. I guess if there is a positive side to this breach it’s that no credit card information was stolen when the accounts were hacked. According to Sega, payment information was stored with external service providers.
Information taken includes names, birth dates, e-mail addresses and passwords, according to e-mails sent by Sega to affected customers. The information taken was part of Sega’s “Sega Pass” system, a registered account system Sega maintains for customers interested in newsletters and other information, and used for registering some Sega games with online components.
Sega: 1.3 million customer records hacked, LulzSec promises retribution [ZDNet Gamification]
June 18, 2011
∞ Dolby sues RIM for patent infringement
Dolby Laboratories filed a patent infringement lawsuit against RIM late in the week, adding to RIM’s already bad week. (more…)
∞ New York Post Web site blocks iPad users
The New York Post has gone from showing iPad users visiting its Web site an ad promoting its iPad app to blocking access altogether. (more…)
∞ Apple to bid for Nortel patents
Apple will join Intel, Ericsson and Google in bidding for the patents being sold by bankrupt Canadian company Nortel. The patent sale will be held on June 27, 2011. There are reportedly about 6,000 patents and patent applications on the auction block.
The patents include intelligence on wireless Internet technology and social networking. Nortel, which filed for bankruptcy in January 2009, has already sold most of its physical assets.
∞ Apple debuts 'Now' iPad 2 commercial
Apple’s commercials are special. They make you think, understand, and connect with their devices like no other company can do. The newest television ad is no different. Dubbed “Now,” the new ad talks about all of the things that we can do now that the iPad 2 has arrived. (more…)
∞ Analysts downgrade RIM, shareholders dissatisfied with co-CEOs
After reporting disappointing results for its fiscal first quarter, four analysts downgraded the company. One analyst said “it appears RIM has slipped into eroding mismanagement.” Large shareholders of the company’s stock are also demanding RIM split the CEO and chairman roles, which are currently shared between Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie.
Northwest & Ethical Investments LP has called for RIM to separate the roles of chairman and CEO, and shareholders will vote on that question at the company’s shareholder meeting July 12, according to a RIM proxy statement last week. Separating the two posts does put the board in a better position “to ask the CEO the kind of hard questions they have to ask from time to time,” Robert Walker, vice president of ethical funds at Northwest & Ethical, said in an interview last week.
RIM Shareholder Ups Pressure as Stock Plunges [Bloomberg]
∞ Vancouver riot kissing couple interviewed
On of the most famous pictures from the Vancouver riots is a couple lying on the ground kissing with rioters and police around them. Now, the couple tell their story. (more…)
∞ Oracle says Google owes $1.4-$6.1 billion in damages
Nobody really knew the scale of Oracle’s patent lawsuit against Google, but this week the numbers came out, and they are huge. According to Oracle, damages it suffered due to the patent infringement by Google range between $1.4 billion to $6.1 billion.
Google’s letter complains about “an unprecedented fifty percent royalty rate” (on a certain base). Since a recent Oracle filing denies that claim, I hope that future filings by Oracle and/or Google will shed light on that particular question.
Oracle expert says Google owes between 1.4 and 6.1 billion dollars [FOSS Patents]
June 17, 2011
∞ FTC approves Microsoft's purchase of Skype
The Federal Trade Commission on Friday gave the thumbs-up to Microsoft’s bid to purchase Skype. The two companies announced the $8.5 billion cash sale in May. Microsoft said that Skype will support Microsoft devices including Xbox and Kinect, Windows Phone and others, and Microsoft will connect Skype with Linc, Outlook, Xbox Live and other communities.
Microsoft’s interest in the money-losing, but popular service highlights a need to gain new customers for its Windows and Office software. Skype has 145 million users on average each month and has gained favor among small businesses.
∞ Apple patent could prevent you from filming in some venues
I use my iPhone camera and video camera quite a bit, but if a newly discovered Apple patent is any indication, you may not be doing it at some venues for long. (more…)
∞ Billings Pro update brings Marketcircle Cloud
Here’s something that I completely missed, but is certainly worth a mention — Marketcircle has updated Billings Pro and Billings Pro Touch adding support for Marketcircle Cloud. (more…)
∞ Apple adds more Samsung devices to lawsuit
Apple amended its complaint against Samsung, adding new devices it contends are infringing on its patents. Apple called Samsung’s attempt to get access to unreleased iOS devices as an “attempt to harass” and said those devices were irrelevant to this case.
In addition to the original 15 Samsung models cited in Apple’s lawsuit, the following models have been added: Droid Charge, Exhibit 4G, Galaxy Ace, Galaxy Prevail, Galaxy S (i9000), Gravity, Infuse 4G, Nexus S 4G, Replenish, Sidekick, Galaxy Tab 10.1, and Galaxy S II. Apple has also tweaked some of the patent claims included in the lawsuit, removing a few assertions and adding other patents to the mix.
Apple Adds New Samsung Products to Infringement Lawsuit, Strengthens Assertions [Mac Rumors]
∞ Gruber, Arment and honesty in publishing
Daring Fireball’s John Gruber and Instapaper founder Marco Arment took two prominent Web sites to task for recent articles they wrote. My interpretation of their critiques come down to one thing — honesty in publishing. Having a difference of opinion is fine and expected, but not being honest with your readers to make a company happy is not right.
Gruber on David Pogue’s New York Times piece suggesting we should “praise Google for its noble experiment” with the Samsung Chromebook:
Really? Why? Would everyone have praised Apple for its “noble experiment” if the $500 iPad had been too big and heavy, felt like it was worth only $180, and was “a 3.3-pound paperweight” when offline?
Marco Arment on Ars Technica’s review of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1:
Translation: Android tablets have managed to copy the iPad’s hardware well enough — the easy part — but have failed to provide good software and significant third-party app choice — the hard part.So, with similar hardware with similar capabilities selling at similar prices, why should someone choose an Android tablet over an iPad?
Update: Marco as posted an apology and explanation for his comments “An apology and clarification on ‘softball’ reviews“
∞ RIM co-CEOs praise themselves as the company burns around them
It’s hard to tell how executives will react after delivering poor quarterly results, but praising themselves probably isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. (more…)
June 16, 2011
∞ RIM needs to shut up and get a new CEO
It is a sad day for many employees of RIM. During the company’s disastrous first quarter results, they learned some workers would be laid off. But it’s not the workers that are responsible for this mess. (more…)
∞ RIM implodes: announces layoffs, 500,000 PlayBooks shipped
RIM’s first quarter results are in and things don’t look good. (more…)
∞ Apple sued for violating iBooks trademark
Apple is being sued for violating another “i” trademark — this time its for iBooks. (more…)
∞ Colin McRae: DiRT2 racing game coming to Mac on July 21st
Feral Interactive announced Thursday plans to release a Macintosh conversion of the popular rally racing game Colin McRae: DiRT2 on July 21, 2011. The game will cost $39.9 and will be available in retail stores and for online download. (more…)
∞ Trainz Simulator for Mac available as download
N3V Games’ Trainz Simulator is now available for download from Macgamestore.com. It costs $49.95. (more…)
∞ Apple Back to School promo features $100 gift card instead of iPod
Apple has offered up details for this year’s Back to School promotion for students interested in buying a new computer. (more…)
June 15, 2011
∞ Boston Bruins win the Stanley Cup
I honestly didn’t think I’d be saying this, but the Boston Bruins have won the 2011 Stanley Cup. (more…)
∞ Negative Duke Nukem reviews bring threats from PR firm
The PR firm responsible for Duke Nukem got itself in hot water today as it made veiled threats to Web sites who delivered poor reviews of the game. (From what I’ve seen, that would be all of them). It got so bad that 2K Games fired the PR firm this afternoon.
That is, until the Redner Group’s official Twitter account posted something you almost never see: an open threat stating that outlets who reviewed Duke Nukem Forever poorly may not receive review copies of games in the future. Anyone who has done this job for any amount of time has suffered through a dry spell after giving a publisher a bad review, but this is the first time the threat of a blacklist has been made public.
Duke Nukem’s PR threatens to punish sites that run negative reviews [Ars Technica]
∞ Deathsmiles iPhone game conversion adds new content
Japanese game developer Cave is known for making frentically-paced and gorgeous-looking “bullet hell” shooters. Nowhere is this more evident than in Deathsmiles, a “Gothic Lolita”-themed shooter that’s headed to the iPhone. The forthcoming iPhone version will get a new character and some unique additional content not found in the previously-released Xbox 360 version. (more…)
∞ iOS ahead in mobile ad revenue, but there's more
A new report from Millennial Media on Tuesday shows that Apple is doing very well in mobile ad revenue — in fact, it’s leading all manufacturers. (more…)