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  • Court Tells Pirate Bay Founders They Can No Longer Work On The Pirate Bay

    You can’t say the entertainment industry isn’t persistent in their attempts to shut down The Pirate Bay (though, a portion of the site’s popularity can be attributed to their neverending campaign against the site). While the industry won its lawsuit against four of The Pirate Bay’s founders earlier this year, the ongoing appeals process is taking too long for the industry — and the court had not issued an injunction against the site, so it’s still running (though, plenty of users have since bailed out due to concern about the failed attempt to sell the site). Still, the entertainment industry has been trying a bunch of different ways to shut down the site in the meantime. Initially it got an ISP serving the site to stop, which caused a brief downtime. However, the latest, as pointed out by brokep, is that the industry appears to have convinced the court to bar two of the defendants — Gottfried Svartholm-Warg and Fredrik Neij — from doing any work on the site (Google translation from the original, so would appreciate any detail corrections if the translation isn’t accurate).

    It’s difficult to see what this accomplishes. Brokep points out that the two aren’t involved with the site in the first place, and don’t live in Sweden any more as well, so it’s not clear what this does. On top of that, even if they were involved, it’s not like others wouldn’t quickly take their place anyway. The whole crusade continues to be a massive waste of time and resources by the entertainment industry for no clear gain.

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  • CrunchDeals: Stalker – Shadow of Chernobyl for $5.00

    stalkerHeads up FPS fans. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl is on sale this weekend on Valve’s Steam store for a fiver. That’s quite the discount off the already quite reasonable price of $20.

    While S:SoC never reached the heights of popularity of Half-Life, it was quite the interesting game in itself. Released in 2007, it combines a fairly straight forward FPS with some interesting survival horror elements. And hey, for $5.00, why the heck not?


  • Apple Closing in on RIM in U.S. Market Share

    changewave_chartA new survey by research firm ChangeWave has Apple’s iPhone on course to eventually best BlackBerry as the U.S. device of choice when it comes to smartphone options. It also reflects good news for the smartphone industry in general, since overall ownership of the data-hungry cellular devices is up to 39 percent of respondents, which represents a jump of more than 200 percent from the same time two years ago.

    ChangeWave’s last survey took place in June of this year, and since then, Apple’s stock has jumped 5 percent. The last time there was a big jump in Apple sales, the iPhone 3G was introduced, and it lasted six months before the rise started to plateau, though it always showed positive growth. If that trend is any indication, the iPhone 3GS should continue to inflate sales until the new year at least, which could put Apple in a position to overtake RIM.

    RIM fell one percentage point from the last survey period in June 2009, from 41 percent to 40 percent. The BlackBerry has been steadily falling since January of 2008. The smartphone maker does have the Storm 2’s release on the horizon, but competing against major, new devices like the Palm Pre and the 3GS will be tough.

    Speaking of the Pre, Palm is also included in the survey, and remains behind in third place with only 7 percent market share. When ChangeWave started conducting its survey in June of 2006, Palm owned 36 percent of the market, topping RIM, its only close competitor, which had 30 percent. Worth noting is that this is the first survey in nearly two years where Palm didn’t lose some of its share.

    Aside from being the only company to show positive growth between surveys, Apple is also the leader going forward in terms of planned purchases by respondents. Thirty-six percent of those surveyed who plan on making a smartphone purchase in the next three months are planning on choosing an iPhone. RIM follows with 27 percent choosing BlackBerry devices.

    Apple also leads in another very important category: customer satisfaction. A whopping 74 percent of respondents say they are “Very Satisfied” with their iPhones, while only 43 percent of RIM customers say the same about their BlackBerry devices, the next closest cell phone on the survey. It’s a telling gap, and one which explains why Apple could overtake its perennial rival in the U.S. sometime in the next six months. A new product launch in June could seal the deal.


    In Q3, NewNet focus turns to business models and search. Read the, “NewNet Q3 Wrap-up.”

  • Google Says Search Ads Boost Brand Awareness

    Google conducted a joint test with Levi’s and found that paid search ads raised consumer awareness of the Levi’s brand, regardless of whether or not they were clicked. In the test, 53% of "in-market" consumers named Levi’s when asked which brand of jeans came to mind when a Levi’s search ad was in the top sponsored position.

    That seems pretty likely anyway, but only 30% named Levi’s when there was no Levi’s search ad on the page. You can’t deny that 23% is a pretty significant increase.

    "Better yet, when Levi’s ‘non-customers’ (people who hadn’t bought Levi’s jeans in the past 6 months) were asked the same question, 45% named Levi’s when the ad was in the top sponsored position, versus 23% who named Levi’s when there was no ad in the search results," says Sara Kleinberg of Google’s Retail team.

    Brand Awareness from Search

    Brand Awareness from Search

    "With search being central to the consumer shopping cycle, search should be part of your strategy to not only drives sales, but also build your brand awareness as consumers are considering what gifts to buy for the holidays," says Kleinberg.

    An interesting article from Mike Shaw of comScore earlier this week talked about the dwindling importance of the click, and how the view-through impact of online display ads can have the same impact on sales as what has traditionally been ascribed to TV ads.

    Perhaps the view-through metric is should not only inspire thoughts of display advertising. Search ads are technically displayed too.

    Related Articles:

    > Google Gives Advertisers More Tracking Options

    > More "Ads by Google" Across the Web

  • New “Avatar” trailer continues to not impress


    I had high hopes for Avatar. I’ve seen James Cameron talking about it twice, and interviewed one of the motion capture artists, Reuben Langdon. But what I’m seeing in this trailer is a jumble of cliches and unconvincing, at least on the small screen, CG effects. Why they picked electric blue cat-people instead of some truly alien species is a mystery to me; with a less humanoid critter, suspension of disbelief is much easier. But our brains are tuned to detect the problems with these almost-human special effects, and the whole thing is going to look fake as a result.

    And really now. “You’re not in Kansas”? Really?

    [via EW]


  • Ezio shows his moves, Patrice Desilets shows his vocabulary

    Patrice Desil ts recently spoke with Gametrailers for some very welcome Assassin’s Creed II (PS3, Xbox 360, PC) talk. This was supposed to be just yo…

  • National Anthem Day Celebrations on September 14 Carried Music Education’s Message Across United States

    MENC sponsors National Anthem Day each year and urges music educators and others to celebrate with school observances on September 14, the anniversary of the penning of the lyrics to "The Star-Spangled Banner." Schools responded with celebrations of all types. Some were large, some were small. All were inspiring.

    Teacher Susan Rudnicki’s students celebrated National Anthem Day
    at Barton Elementary School in Patchogue, New York by learning about
    the history of the anthem, reading all verses of the text, and singing.

    In Sultana, California, teacher Mary Pauls led Monson-Sultana School
    in their 5th National Anthem Day event. The 6-8th graders led the student
    body in the singing of "The Star-Spangled Banner," and afterward, the
    students gathered outside to form the letters “USA” on the blacktop.
    Aerial photo by Regier Aviation.
     

    This year Shannon Glenn, music teacher at Chipeta Elementary School in Colorado Springs, Colorado, was among the music educators nationwide who created a National Anthem Day celebration. 

    Glenn said, “In conjunction with our school district’s Constitution Day, [our school] celebrated National Anthem Day and created a living flag on our front driveway.” (See the second thumbnail photo below.)

    She said the flag “included all students from pre-school to fifth grade, all staff, all volunteers and any parents who wished to join us. We were over 500 bodies strong.”

    An MENC member, Glenn also told a local television station that covered her event, “It makes [students] feel a part of something bigger, it makes them a part of the community, not just their own family and not just their own school, but our city and our state and our nation.”
    Observances like these present an opportunity to educate students about the national anthem and to demonstrate to the community the important role music teachers play in passing on America’s cultural heritage.

    Sumter (South Carolina) School District Two Celebrated National Anthem Day in Grand Style
     

    Another large National Anthem Day celebration took place in Sumter, South Carolina. Linda Beck, the choral director at Furman Middle School in Sumter, shared details of the National Anthem Day Celebration she helped orchestrate. (See thumbnail photo 7 below.) 

     

    “What a grand celebration Sumter School District Two had on Sept. 14, 2009 for National Anthem Day! We had 400 students from our district, grades 5-12 singing "A Salute to the Armed Forces" and ended our event with both high school ROTC’s presenting the colors as we sang “The Star- Spangled Banner.”

    "Deborah Horton, choral director at Crestwood High, conducted. She is an incredible conductor! Two television stations, WIS and WLTX, covered the event as well as the ITEM, Sumter’s newspaper. Our audience was the biggest this year. Mayor Joe McElveen made the City Proclamation and Vivian Fleming McGhaney made the County Proclamation proclaiming September 14 as National Anthem Day in Sumter, SC.

    "This was the first year that we included the 5th grade. What a great recruitment opportunity! You should have seen their eyes when all 400 voices (especially hearing the middle and high schools singing the harmony parts of “The Star- Spangled Banner.” What a thrill to the students as well as the teachers!

    "Our school board chairman gave the welcome. My Mom drove from North Carolina, as she does each year (even though she has a 2 strokes) to support this project and this year gave the Invocation.

    "We had many veterans in the audience. Brig. Gen. Richard A. Shook Jr., Maj. Gen. Thomas R. Olsen spoke, as did Maj. Gen. Joseph S. Bleymaier, all from Shaw Air Force Base near Sumter. These men have been all over the world serving our country. Their speeches brought tears to many.

    "We also received a letter from MENC President Barbra Greer, which was addressed to the students of Sumter School District Two. It was greeted with much applause!
     

    "Thank you for all that you do for musicians, teachers and our students!” — Linda Beck, Sumter National Anthem Coordinator

    Click on the thumbnails below to view more photos and stories from MENC’s National Anthem Day celebrations.

    The MENC National Anthem Day Map lists schools throughout the United States that participated.

     —Roz Fehr, October 29, 2009. © MENC: The National Association for Music Education

  • Republicans Assail ‘Freight Train of More Mandates’ In House Health Bill

    Republicans criticized the House health overhaul bill, released by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, for its size, scope and cost.

    ABC News reports: “Republicans, as expected, assailed the Pelosi bill, saying its 1,990 pages don’t reflect any change. House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, billed it as a ‘government takeover of the health care system.’ The Democrats’ legislation has ‘over 50 new mandates, bureaucracies, tax hikes, commissions — All of this is going to require tens of thousands of new federal employees, which is fairly designed for a government takeover of our health care system,’ Boehner, with a printout of the entire bill in front of him, told reporters. ‘How are we going to fix out health care system with 1,990 pages of bureaucracy?’” (Khan and Karl, 10/29). 

    The National Review Online reports that Boehner said that “the House bill is no different than the Senate’s in terms of it’s expansiveness. … Rep. Eric Cantor asks, ‘Do the American people really believe that this nearly 2000 page bill won’t explode the Federal deficit?’ Rep. Mike Pence observes that the Pelosi legislation is ‘a freight train of more mandates, more bureaucracy and more taxes.’ … House GOP whip Roy Blunt hammered Speaker Pelosi for procedural chicanery and shutting Republicans out of process crafting legislation. Blunt noted that even as they scramble to figure out what’s in the 1,990 page bill it’s ‘highly likely’ that an ‘800 page amendment will be offered the moment it hits the floor. … Nobody will know what’s in this bill 72 hours from now’” (Hemingway, 10/29).

    The National Journal Blog reports that Republicans are seeking more transparency in Congress, especially on the health care legislation, with a bill introduced Wednesday by Rep. Dave Reichert, D-Wash., “that would require each of the 21 standing committees in the House to record votes on their Web sites within 48 hours. Rep. Charlie Dent, R-Pa., sponsored a resolution last week calling for cameras to be installed in the House Rules Committee hearing room and freshman Rep. Lynn Jenkins, R-Kan., recently sponsored a measure to require committees to post the text of adopted bills and amendments online within 24 hours.”

    In a press release, Reichert said, “When we’re debating a trillion-dollar health overhaul, constituents deserve to know how legislation takes shape — throughout the entire process”  (Noyes, 10/29).

    Insurers immediately reacted to the House bill, saying that it will cause costs to skyrocket. The New York Times reports: “Karen Ignagni, president and chief executive of America’s Health Insurance Plans,… painted a dire picture of the consequences of a government-run insurance plan, or public option, which is designed to compete with private insurers. She said it would ‘bankrupt hospitals, dismantle employer coverage, exacerbate cost-shifting from Medicare and Medicaid, and ultimately increase the federal deficit.’”

    The Times includes a full statement from AHIP, which states: “While this legislation recognizes the key linkage of market reforms and a personal coverage requirement, more needs to be done to ensure coverage is affordable and our health care system is sustainable. As the process progresses, health plans will continue to work to advance bipartisan legislation this year that will cover all Americans, make coverage more affordable, and improve quality” (Seelye, 10/29).

  • AppleTV firmware 3.0 just launched

    500x_appletvui
    The new Apple TV firmware just dropped with Genius Mixes, iTunes LP data, and iTunes Extras. As you see this is a quite a departure from the original firmware. I’ll stick it on and report back how it feels.

    Interestingly, since I hacked 2.x, I don’t really want to do this update. If you guys try it, let me know. I may give it a go this afternoon.

    Apple Introduces Apple TV 3.0 Software With Redesigned User Interface

    Enjoy iTunes Extras, iTunes LP & Genius Mixes on Your HD TV

    CUPERTINO, Calif., Oct. 29 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Apple® today introduced new Apple TV® 3.0 software featuring a redesigned main menu that makes navigating your favorite content simpler and faster, and makes enjoying the largest selection of on-demand HD movie rentals and purchases, HD TV shows, music and podcasts from the iTunes® Store even better on your TV. You can now enjoy iTunes Extras and iTunes LP in stunning fullscreen with your Apple TV, as well as listen to Genius Mixes and Internet radio through your home theater system. The new Apple TV software is available immediately free of charge to existing Apple TV owners, and Apple TV with 160GB capacity is available for just $229.

    “The new software for Apple TV features a simpler and faster interface that gives you instant access to your favorite content,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of Internet Services. “HD movies and HD TV shows from iTunes have been a huge hit with Apple TV customers, and with Apple TV 3.0 they get great new features including iTunes Extras, Genius Mixes and Internet radio.”

    The redesigned main menu on Apple TV gives you instant access to your favorite content. Recently rented or purchased movies, as well as other content including TV shows, music, podcasts, photos and YouTube, are accessible directly from the new main menu. The new software also allows Apple TV users to enjoy stunning fullscreen iTunes Extras and iTunes LP, including great new movie titles such as “Star Trek” or classics like “The Wizard of Oz” and albums such as Taylor Swift’s “Fearless (Platinum Edition)” and Jack Johnson’s “En Concert.” iTunes Extras gives movie fans great additional content such as deleted scenes, interviews and interactive galleries. iTunes LP is the next evolution of the music album, delivering a rich, immersive experience for select albums on the iTunes Store by combining beautiful design with expanded visual features like live performance videos, lyrics, artwork, liner notes, interviews, photos, album credits and more.

    Now Apple TV users can enjoy Genius Mixes through their home theater system and listen to up to 12 endless mixes of songs that go great together, automatically generated from their iTunes library. Customers can also enjoy Internet radio, allowing them to browse and listen to thousands of Internet radio stations, as well as tag favorite stations to listen to later. Apple TV’s support of HD photos is enhanced with iPhoto Events, which simplifies finding your favorite photos on Apple TV, as well as iPhoto® Faces, which gives access to photos organized by people identified in iPhoto.

    Apple TV users have direct access to a catalog of over 8,000 Hollywood films on iTunes including over 2,000 in stunning HD video available for rent or purchase. Users can also choose from a selection of 11 million songs, 10,000 music videos and over 50,000 TV episodes to purchase directly from their Apple TV or browse and enjoy the iTunes Store podcast directory of over 175,000 free video and audio podcasts. Purchases downloaded to Apple TV are automatically synced back to iTunes on the user’s computer for enjoyment on their Mac® or PC or all current generation iPods or iPhones.* iPod touch® or iPhone® users can download the free Remote app from the App Store to control their Apple TV with a simple tap or flick of the finger.

    via Giz


  • StumbleUpon Goes Search with New Incarnation

    Update: Starting today, all StumbleUpon users can access the new interface, according to the company.

    Original Article:     StubmleUpon launched a big redesign today. The new version of the site comes with a variety of new features, which the company says are designed to make it simpler, searchable, and more social.

    "Our vision for StumbleUpon was simple–create a site where you could click a button and discover interesting, personalized and highly relevant websites," said Garrett Camp, StumbleUpon CEO. "We are now combining the power of discovery with search–and offering another way for people to access over 35 million user-endorsed websites."

    With the new version of StumbleUpon, anyone can receive personalized recommendations directly from the StumbleUpon homepage, from any computer, without any registration or installation. The company says the new design makes it easier for new users to discover interesting content.

    StumbleUpon Screenshot

    The  company says the personal preferences and collaborative human opinions that go into making "stumbles" personalized applies to search as well.. The result is personalized and relevant search results, according to StumbleUpon. Search is available from every StumbleUpon page, so users can search through their favorites, others’ favorites, or just through friends’ favorites.

    There is also a new and improved friend search feature, making it easier for users to find people they know and meet others with similar interests. In addition, users can see recommendations from people they know highlighted in search results, and easily stumble or search within their favorite sites.

    "It’s great to see the original founders’ vision reflected in this release, StumbleUpon’s first major product release since its independence from eBay," said Ram Shriram, StumbleUpon investor and board member.

    StumbleUpon can provide a tremendous source of traffic. Read this for information on how to get that.

    Related Articles: 

    > StumbleUpon Makes Big Improvements to Toolbar

    > StumbleUpon Can Get You Big Traffic and Lots of Links

    > StumbleUpon Jumps on the URL-Shortener Bandwagon

     

  • IngBoo Gets Seeded

    IngBoo, a Sunnyvale, Calif.-based online marketplace for information updates, has raised $800,000 in seed funding. Backers include Elis Nemes and Saeed Amidi of Amidzad Partners, Doug Tsui of Horizon Ventures and Allen Miner of Sunbridge Partners.

    PRESS RELEASE

    IngBoo (www.ingboo.com), the best free online service for consumers to organize their Web activities in one place, today announced that it has raised $800,000 in seed funding led by Elis Nemes and Saeed Amidi of Amidzad Partners, Doug Tsui of Horizon Ventures and Allen Miner of Sunbridge Partners.

    The company also announced the official launch of R3, its online publisher program. R3, which stands for Reach, Revisits and Revenue, offers a new revenue generating opportunity for all online content publishers. It is the only program of its kind to offer advertising revenue to publishers for content previews. To date, more than 50 publishers and advertisers have signed on.

    “Over the last several years, we have had the opportunity to evaluate hundreds of innovative startups from around the World,” said Saeed Amidi, founder and CEO of Amidzad Partners. “We believe that IngBoo is a category-defining startup, perfectly positioned to facilitate and accelerate the growth in users who organize their Web activities by subscribing to content previews.”

    “IngBoo’s R3 program has enabled us to deepen the relationship with our audience,” said Randa Clay, owner of freestuff4kids.net. “The one-click subscription model with content preview increases visitation to our site and has created incremental revenue opportunity for us.”

    “That we were able to raise this amount of seed capital in today’s challenging economic times and secure more than 50 publishers speaks volumes about our technology and business model,” said Rikard Kjellberg, CEO and co-founder of IngBoo. “And even more than giving publishers a new and free way to earn money from their content, IngBoo helps end users save time and money by giving them a free resource to organize all of their Web activities from a single page.”

    About IngBoo, Inc.
    Headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, IngBoo launched its service in April, 2009. An online marketplace for information updates, the “IngBoo list” delivers users the most relevant and timely information from any source on the Internet; organizing it in a clutter-free user experience. IngBoo returns control of Web-based information to the consumer, separating relevant information from spam and organizing content in a relevant fashion (patents pending).

    ShareThis


  • November Issue of Teaching Music Offers Bountiful Harvest of Tips, Inspiration

    With the school year well under way, the November ’09 issue of Teaching Music gives music educators a cornucopia of useful tips for the classroom and beyond. The features include:

    • Six Things They May Not Have Taught You in College
    • Making a Small Band Sound Big
    • Climbing the National Board Certifcation Ladder
    • A New View of String Instruction

    In UpBeat, the news pages include need-to-know stories about MENC projects and events. Among them:

     

    —Roz Fehr, October 29, 2009. © MENC: The National Association for Music Education

  • CrunchGear meetup in Columbus, OH: Monday, November 9

    V for Vendetta

    Remember, remember, the 9th of November!
    Gadgets, technology, and beer.
    I see no reason why gadgets and tech
    should ever bring little cheer.

    Last year’s Columbus meetup was a huge success, and folks have been asking me when we’ll do it again. Well mark your calendars for Monday, November 9, and join us for a friendly evening of networking and libations at the Surly Girl Saloon, my favorite cowgirl/pirate themed bar! We’ll be in the party room in the back around 6:30 PM. The Surly Girl has a terrific menu, and a great selection of beers, so tastes of all types can be satisfied. John Biggs will be there, so you can ask him in person all those burning questions you have about Japanese sex jars!


  • Data Robotics Raises $10 Million

    Data Robotics Inc., a Santa Clara, Calif.-based developer of automated data storage products, has raised $9.97 million in new VC funding, according to a regulatory filing.  It had previously raised $43 million since 2005. www.drobo.com

    ShareThis


  • F. Scott Fitzgerald Made $8,397 On Great Gatsby; His Daughter Gets $500,000 Per Year From It

    There have been an increasing number of questions raised about both the length of copyright and the fact that it passes on to heirs after the original creator passes on. The original purpose of copyright had nothing to do with creating a welfare system for the children of content creators, no matter how much some content creators would like it to work that way. Economist Greg Mankiw points out a “factoid” that drives home the oddity that comes from such long copyrights:


    Royalties from The Great Gatsby totaled only $8,397 during Fitzgerald’s lifetime. Today Gatsby is read in nearly every high school and college and regularly produces $500,000 a year in [F. Scott Fitzgerald’s daughter] Scottie’s trust for her children.

    The article this comes from goes into great detail into F. Scott Fitzgelald’s earnings over his lifetime, and what’s striking is that with a different sort of copyright system in place, he barely seems to rely on copyright royalties at all to make money. Instead — like most jobs — he recognizes he needs to keep producing new works to earn money, selling stories to various publications, along with working for Hollywood studios in addition to his novels. How much things have changed.

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  • Bayonetta’s US and Euro release dates confirmed

    Action game fans now have another thing to look forward to for the New Year. Sega has penciled in an early January release for Bayonetta (PS3, Xbox 36…

  • Can Speech Recognition Find Its Voice in Computing?

    Microsoft once again is touting its speech-recognition technology, predicting on its site this week that “talking to a computer may soon be as natural as using a mouse.” But while voice is a natural fit for mobile phones and some other platforms, when it comes to traditional computing — using a laptop, desktop or even a netbook — the use-case scenarios for speech recognition are more limited. It will take quite an effort to convince users to talk to their laptops instead of typing on them.

    The mouse has nearly become an extra appendage for many of us; touchpads and touchscreens are simple and intuitive; and larger screens minimize the need to drill down through menus. The use of voice as a navigational tool will increase as smartphone usage continues to ramp up, and it will likely be used in specific situations on smaller devices like netbooks — when a user’s hands are otherwise occupied, for instance, or in rare on-the-go scenarios. For traditional computers and laptops, though, I don’t see it gaining much traction among mainstream consumers.

    Don’t get me wrong: Speech-recognition software has come a long way in the last few years. Once prohibitively error-prone and inconsistent, the technology now is the foundation of impressive offerings from players such as MacSpeech, Nuance and Vlingo. Microsoft seems especially well-positioned in the space. The company picked up startup Tellme in a 2007 deal reportedly worth more than $800 million, and it is wisely using cloud-based technology to build a system that leverages an enormous amount of data to determine what users are saying.

    Picture 3

    For $79, get this report and more from GigaOM Pro. Subscribe today!

    The Redmond gang has helped push speech recognition into the mainstream with Ford Sync, the in-dash recognition and search system it powers. And Microsoft is aggressively rolling out voice functionality across its offerings including Bing for Mobile, Exchange Server 2010, Windows 7 and Windows Mobile.

    Voice is a natural fit for drivers whose hands are busy and whose eyes are on the road. It also will be absolutely crucial in mobile (GigaOM Pro, sub. required), where small keypads and screens make touch navigation difficult — or, if you’re behind the wheel, dangerous. And consumers are likely to love features like Microsoft’s Voice Mail Preview, which uses speech-to-text to deliver voicemail information to a user’s inbox.

    Use of speech-recognition offerings should ramp up in the next few years as phones continue to grow more sophisticated. When it comes to usage on desktops and laptops, though, any real uptake is a long way off — if it happens at all.

  • Nintendo makes DSi screens bigger than competitors

    By Tim Conneally, Betanews

    Nintendo DSi LLThis morning, Nintendo announced the third upgrade to the DS family, the DSi LL (or DSi XL), will be released in Japan on November 21, one year after the DSi debuted, for ¥20,000 (approx. $220). The LL’s main improvement is the size of its screens, which have been increased from 3.25″ to 4.2″ with a moderate increase to the size of the chassis. The device also includes a much bigger stylus, which looks to be the size of a ballpoint pen, and battery life has reportedly been increased to five hours at maximum screen brightness.

    Handheld gaming has been a strong suit for Nintendo since the early ’80s, and it has consistently led the category despite the constant string of capable competitors touting higher quality or more innovative portable gaming platforms. Of Atari, Sega, NEC, Tiger, Bandai, SNK, and a handful of other notables, few video game and toy companies have been able to engage the handheld market for more than a single generation.

    Nintendo, meanwhile, has managed to work its way through seven consecutive generations of handhelds. It has done this by working on an extremely predictable and regimented upgrade path, incrementally refreshing its handhelds and slowly phasing out prior generations while retaining backward compatibility. This means each generation is made up of families of systems rather than single units.

    The seventh generation Nintendo DS (dual screen) family of consoles debuted in 2004 and has since been upgraded twice: from DS to DS Lite in 2006, and then to DSi in late 2008.

    Despite the availability of the new DSi, Nintendo’s handheld sales dropped nearly 20% in 2009. This, paired with unfavorable exchange rates, brought Nintendo’s profits down 61% in mid-summer. Today, the company reported a 52% decrease in quarterly profit and cut its annual forecast by about 25%. Things are looking pretty stale six years into the DS series, but bigger screens address a couple of potential audiences and use-cases.

    The improved visibility and more comfortable stylus could appeal to older gamers or those who simply don’t care for small screen gaming. The 4.2″ screen is respectably larger than the new PSP Go’s (3.8″), the iPhone 3G S’ (3.5″) and even those of smaller-form MIDs like the now-delayed Nokia N900 (also 3.5″).

    As Apple is wont to remind us, the public has embraced downloadable touch-based gaming, and the iPhone/iPod Touch platform has more than 21,000 games available. Nintendo DS and Sony PSP have barely 5,000 combined. However, iPhone screen visibility remains a major issue. The iPhone’s lack of buttons forces developers to integrate touch or motion control into their games, and the execution is oftentimes poor. Touching the screen always interrupts the gamer’s field of vision, and it proves to be detrimental in games where the developer hasn’t fully taken this into account. Furthermore, tilting, shaking, or waving the iPhone as some games demand is simply “counter-immersive” — if such an adjective exists.

    Though the DS family still lacks motion sensors, it has plenty of interfaces that developers can tap into to let the user’s view of on-screen action remain continuous. The touch screen’s view may be interrupted, but the upper screen’s view remains. And failing that, there is always the option to rely on the D-pad, buttons, microphone, and in the DSi’s case, two cameras.

    The point of this upgrade is that it falls in line with Nintendo’s past handheld upgrades, where displays get upgraded as the technology becomes affordable and energy efficient. With improved screens typically comes an improved user experience and a more engaged audience.

    Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2009



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  • Sports Ratings Records and what it tells us about the internet

    have you seen sports ratings lately ? Just this week:

    The NBA on TNT had its highest ratings in TWENTY SIX YEARS .  Versus had its highest rated regular season NHL game EVER.  The first game of the World Series was the highest rated in 5 years.  The NFL was setting records on cable and achieving viewing levels not seen in TWENTY YEARS !. College Football ratings are killing it as well.

    But wait there is more.  TV viewing is up considerably in each of the last several years. We can even look at the box office for movies and the fact that the industry is seeing a theatrical revival.

    The question is simple. Whats going on ?

    The answer is simple as well.

    The internet has trained us.

    It has trained us to assign two distinct values to content that is available to us, regardless of media.    The 1st variable is participation value. The 2nd variable is shelf life.  The two variables go hand in hand.

    Every type of content has some quotient of participation value. At the bottom of the spectrum are games/shows/movies/events that you watch or attend by yourself, and you have no interest in telling anyone about.  Those shows have zero participation value.  They could be Perry Mason reruns (happened to catch one while I was working out on the road) or shows you watch when you have nothing better to do.

    At the top of the scale are games/shows/movies/events that potential viewers have predicted to have high participation value.  These are events that we look forward to not only watching or attending, but that we plan in advance how we are going to extend our participation.  We may plan on tweeting about it or posting a facebook update because we know our friends are there and we are bragging to each other, while at the same time showing off to friends who cant be there. Think going to the opening of Cowboys stadium, or going to a concert or opening night of a movie, or watching the big game.

    Or we may plan on going online and participating in discussion forums or chats. Or we may be planning on posting comments on our favorite websites where others have shared interests.  For others it may be some version of gaming, ala fantasy sports.

    Sports of course have high affinity engagement, and because of the internet, they have increasing participation opportunities.  You may watch a Magic game just to be able to tweet to Dwight Howard what you saw while watching the game.  You may watch the Giants Eagles game because your fantasy teams are stacked with players from those teams and your league allows first come changes. Or you may just want to see how your guys did so you can text your friends in the league and give them a hard time, or take a hard time. Its very, very common for fans of MMA (mixed martial arts) to stay up to the wee hours to watch our Dream Fights from Japan on HDNet , all the while online discussing the fight and then arguing over the outcome with others doing the exact same thing.

    The higher the participation value, the shorter the shelf life.  The role of the internet for high participation games/shows/events is not to show them, its to enable the participation. The explosion of Social Networking and social networking enabled games and applications has strengthened this as the internet’s role. Its improving TV ratings of shows with high participation value.

    While some may think that combining the presentation of events/shows/etc and the participation into a single webpage makes sense. It doesn’t.  The internet has also trained us that if it can be shown on the internet, its probably not going to have a high participation value. Why ? Because the expectation is that if its on the internet, you can get to it any time you want it.  Its out there waiting for you to stream or download at your pleasure. There is a long perceived shelf life.  So there is no rush.

    The latest U2 concert on Youtube is a perfect example.  I thought that when I went to Akamai’s status page the number of concurrent users would be in the millions. As you can see from this link, it was about 1.15mm. Nothing to sneeze at, but that is for ALL of the streaming Akamai was doing at the time and its not dramatically more than a normal night for Akamai (as I write this, the total on the akamai visualization page is 1.3mm, more than during the concert) .  I shouldn’t have been surprised.  There was no reason to rush to watch it. Its available now and probably forever more on the net.

    Compare this to live, competitive reality tv.  THe opportunity to watch a train wreck or to catch a spectacular performance, live , can easily trigger a high participation event.  Think watching me on Dancing with the Stars hoping or expecting me to wipe out.  You go in knowing and hoping and ready to let all your friends who werent watching know about it, and to talk about it with all your friends who are watching.  So while the ratings may have fallen off some for these shows, one episode comparable to Marie Osmond fainting, which led to a huge surge in viewing on my DWTS season, or a Brett Favre last second touchdown or interception return, or even a movie that is a hugely positive surprise like Paranormal Activity, all have short shelf lives while creating the expectation among viewers that they are or could be high participation events.

    Which brings us to our conclusion. THe longer the shelf life, the more likely that there is a lower perceived participation value. Sure you may want to talk about your favorite TV show with others, but there is no rush.  You can get to it when you get to it. More importantly, networks and production companies should work a lot harder at creating realtime  participation around their content. If you can increase the value of participation, you increase the value of the show and the desire to watch the show at the same time as others.  Which is exactly what is happening with sports in record numbers.

    You cant stop people from recording shows on their DVRs, and you shouldnt try. But you should try to give them as many reasons as possible to take advantage of the increased entertainment value of participating  with others. High participation  equals high viewership. That is exactly what record ratings for sports are telling us.

     

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  • Google Ranked World’s Most Attractive Employer

    It’s a good bet that mailmen (and/or mail servers) are still delivering huge numbers of applications and resumes to Google.  A very large survey has confirmed that university students regard the search giant as the world’s most attractive employer.

    Universum contacted almost 120,000 students from Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Russia, Spain, the UK, and the US regarding which companies they’d most like to work for.  The result: Google won in both the business and engineering categories.

    Not many of the other corporations we usually cover made either list; you’ll find PricewaterhouseCoopers, Goldman Sachs, and Ernst & Young on the one side, and IBM, BMW, and Intel on the other.  But Microsoft scored quite well, at least, coming in at number three on the business side of things and number two in terms of the engineering rankings.

    So both Google and Microsoft will probably continue to employ people of the highest caliber for the foreseeable future.  It just looks like Google might maintain a bit of an edge, perhaps getting kids who are in the top 0.5 percent of their class instead of the more pedestrian top 1.0 percent or so.

    Hat tip goes to Barry Schwartz.

    > Matt Cutts Extends Offer To Yahoo Engineers

    > Google Aims To Make Finding Music Easier

    > Google Launches Social Search Experiment