Consumer Reports Can’t Recommend the iPhone 4

Consumer Reports thinks that the iPhone 4 has the sharpest display and best camera it’s ever seen in a smartphone. It’s impressed by the phone’s battery life, and likes the front-facing camera and gyroscope. But CR doesn’t recommend Apple’s newest phone–because it says that that its testing proves that the 4 can indeed suffer from degraded reception if you touch the lower left-hand corner. In areas with weak AT&T coverage, in fact, touching the phone can cause it to lose signal altogether.

CR’s refusal to recommend the iPhone 4 represents something of a turnaround from its initial impressions: At first, it said that the reception issues weren’t unique and might not be a major problem. Now they’re serious enough to outweigh the numerous things the publication likes about the phone. Which leaves me wondering whether Apple will be forced to reengineer this phone or otherwise address concerns before the next-generation iPhone shows up in a year or so.

Google’s Gaming Plans May Involve Zynga

We’ve seen growing evidence of Google’s plans to take gaming seriously, but the latest rumor from TechCrunch is a whopper: Google has reportedly invested between $100 million and $200 million in Zynga, maker of popular Facebook games Farmville and Mafia Wars.

Later this year, Google will launch Google Games, anchored by Zynga’s addictive brand of social gaming, TechCrunch’s multiple unnamed sources said. The investment by Google — not Google Ventures — is reportedly part of a larger strategic partnership between the two companies.

This wouldn’t be an exclusive arrangement. Zynga already has a deal with Yahoo that will see Farmville and other games scattered across Yahoo’s network later this year, and Farmville landed on MSN Games in February.

The benefit for Zynga — aside from truckloads of cash — would be another potential escape from Facebook. The two companies quarreled in May over Facebook Credits, a virtual currency system of which Facebook takes a 30 percent cut, but made amends by agreeing to work together for five years. I still think Zynga’s survival depends on whether it can tap into Facebook’s existing social network, but other heavy hitters like Google and Yahoo will a least provide new opportunities.

For Google, a strong gaming platform featuring Zynga would fit nicely into several other Google developments involving Flash, on which Zynga’s games are built. First, there’s Flash for Android 2.2, which is already available for the Nexus One and coming to other phones later this year. Google TV will also feature Flash as a way to watch video and play games. Finally there’s the recent integration of Flash into Chrome, which keeps the platform secure and up to date. It’s certainly possible for a Google gaming service to exist across PCs, mobile phones and televisions.

I’m no Farmville addict, but I think good games are essential to all those platforms. I hope Google’s gaming plans are as ambitious as this rumor suggests.

Windows 7 Slate PCs On Their Way. Still!

Android Gets a Build-Your-Own-App App

Got an idea for a smartphone app? If you’ve got an Android phone you might be able to build it yourself, thanks to App Inventor for Android, a new Google Labs program for Windows, OS X, and Linux that’s designed to make building Android programs as easy as piecing blocks together.

Steve Lohr’s story in the New York Times makes it sound sensational; here’s a video from Google showing a lady creating her first App Inventor app:

App Inventor is in closed beta at the moment, and Google says it’ll let folks in “soon”–you can sign up here. As you’ll see if you fill out the sign-up form, Google sees the program as an educational tool of particular interest to teachers and students.

It’s an exciting idea that’s more than slightly reminiscent of HyperCard, the brilliant visual programming tool that was a big deal on the Mac more than twenty years ago, and which is missed to this day. HyperCard or something similar would be a boon on the iPhone–even Steve Jobs has says he thinks so, although Apple apparently doesn’t have any interest in building such an application itself, and new restrictions in the iOS developer agreement prevent apps developed with the HyperCard-like RunRev from being distributed on the App Store.

(More and more, I think that the surface similarities between Android and iOS are less interesting than the fundamental differences in emphasis and philosophy–and the more different the two OSes get, the more interesting they’ll be.)

I still have a cranky-old-man rant about PCs getting boring when they stopped coming with BASIC and normal people therefore stopped learning how to write their own software. I can’t wait to get my hands on App Inventor–and to see whether it’s capable of creating programs which anyone other than their inventors will want to use…

Senators Question the National Broadband Plan

Ars Technica’s Nate Anderson reports on questions to the FCC from US Senators who wonder if our National Broadband Plan involves a willingness to be a decade behind the most progressive countries when it comes to fast, affordable, universal Internet access.

Goodbye iPhone, Hello Android

Louis Gray on why he dumped his iPhone and AT&T for an EVO 4G phone running Android and Sprint.

Four Lessons From Blizzard’s Real ID Snafu

Blizzard became the target of its own flame war after deeming that its forums would soon require the use of real life names. The Battle.net community backlash forced Blizzard to backpedal, removing the Real ID requirement in forums for World of Warcraft and Starcraft II. However, Blizzard head Mike Morhaime’s language (“we’ve decided at this time”) leaves the idea on the table. Here are some things Blizzard should keep in mind if it wants to try Real ID in its forums ever again:

Anonymous doesn’t always mean “troll”

Maybe Blizzard didn’t consider the legitimate reasons a person might choose to remain anonymous: Teachers may want to escape from their students during leisure time, government officials might not want to be stigmatized as avid World of Warcraft players and some people just aren’t comfortable being identified online. I likened Blizzard’s Real ID push to Facebook because both services have a desire for their users to embrace a single identity, whether it’s online or in real life. But right now, that’s not the way things are.

The forums are important, warts and all

In announcing the Battle.net forums’ switch to Real ID, Blizzard’s attitude seemed to be “don’t use it if you don’t like it.” The problem is that Battle.net forums serve as a kind of instant customer service, where people can reach out to the community and to Blizzard itself.  Changing the conditions on which that service is offered made people feel cheated. Which brings me to the next point:

Incentive works better than force

If Blizzard wants to shift people towards Real ID, it should take a page from Amazon, whose “Real Name Attribution” system for user reviews is not mandatory, but allows writers to collect badges for their work. Wouldn’t a reward system like that translate nicely to game built entirely on collecting loot?

Don’t test an angry mob

To prove a point, Blizzard forum moderator Bashiok revealed himself to be Micah Whipple, and outraged gamers immediately got to digging up as much embarrassing or otherwise personal information on him that they could. Whether the information is accurate or not is beside the point; this incident showed an ugly side to the Battle.net community that Blizzard was wise to pacify.

Report: Twitter May Promote User Accounts For a Fee

Looking to get a few extra Twitter followers quick (I always am, follow me at @edoswald), but don’t mind paying for them? You’re in luck: Twitter is apparently considering a promotional offering where users would pay to have their accounts promoted on the website. It’s not exactly clear how it would work, and  whether the user would pay per added follower or a base rate akin to ad impressions.

All Things Digital’s Peter Kafka reports that the move is only in the discussion phase, and Twitter is refusing to to confirm it even exists, saying “We will eventually have full suites of both promoted and commercial products.”

Traditionally Twitter has frowned upon efforts to boost follower counts other than by traditional methods. Even so, there are several companies out there charging tweeters to get them more followers. With Twitter needing ways to make money, the site may see this as one way to do it. But as Mr. Kafka asks, “What, exactly, is the value of a Twitter follower?”

What Next for Firefox?

If you care about the future of Firefox–and browsers in general–Matt Buchanan’s interview at Gizmodo with Mozilla Director of Developer Relations Christopher Blizzard is a great read.

Tangible Proof of a Facebook Backlash?

The recent Facebook privacy flap has given the world’s biggest social network its most sustained run of bad press to date. Lots of folks said they were so disgruntled that they intended to opt out of Facebook, period–like the 31 percent of respondents to a survey we did here who said they’d left the service or planned to do so. But is unhappiness with Facebook impacting the service in a tangible way?

Maybe so. Over at Inside Facebook, Chris Morrison has some fascinating factoids that show new Facebook signups collapsing from 7.7 million in May–that’s more than a quarter-million new members a day–to a total of 320,800 in June, or a little over ten thousand a day. That doesn’t represent a decline in membership, of course; it’s just a decline in new memberships. But it’s a striking one.

Continue reading this story…

Google Can Still Do Business in China

Google’s China gambit is working, at least for the moment: It says that the government there has renewed the company’s license to operate its Web site, which provides a variety of non-search services, plus a link to its uncensored Hong Kong search engine.

Why I Said No to Free, Off-the-Air HDTV

No doubt, watching a TV show or mobile in high definition is miraculous. The picture is sharper than sharp (so much so that like it or not, you can see the pores on an actor’s face).

I’m a DirecTV subscriber, but I’m too cheap to pay their extra fee for high definition service, so I decided to try an HDTV indoor antenna.

Continue reading this story…

Imagining a Future for 3G Handheld Game Consoles

In theory, a handheld gaming device with 3G connectivity seems like a great idea, which is probably why Japanese wireless carrier NTT DoCoMo is pitching the concept to console makers. In practice, it’s a stretch.

NTT DoCoMo won’t say which companies are part of the conversation, but Nintendo and Sony seem like obvious participants. Maybe Microsoft or some lesser-known party is involved. In any case, NTT DoCoMo hopes game console makers will embed 3G capabilities in their devices, or at least offer Mi-Fi-like routers to create local wireless connections, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The report mentions how Amazon struck a deal (with Sprint, and then AT&T) to build data coverage into e-reader price tags, yet I’m surprised that neither NTT DoCoMo nor the story itself mention how much more data a 3G game console would require.  An e-book contains text. A downloadable game contains audio and video as well. Online, multiplayer gaming would be demanding. My knowledge of the wireless market in Japan is slim to none, but in the United States, no carrier would agree to serve 3G coverage to game consoles without a monthly charge or a huge up-front price.

Therein lies the dilemma for future game consoles. As gaming becomes more popular on multi-purpose devices — not just phones, but 3G-enabled tablets — dedicated consoles will look outdated without constant online connectivity. Still, it’ll be tough for people to justify another monthly bill just for portable gaming.

For the sake of not being a total naysayer, here’s one way out: I’m dreaming of a day when you can buy a whole mess of data and apply it to a range of devices, from phones to tablets to — yup — game consoles. Carriers are still stuck on a per-device mentality, but maybe that’ll change as they move away from unlimited data. If that happens, I really do hope handheld game devices can be part of the shift.

Hacker Breaks Into The Pirate Bay to Prove a Point

If you’re using The Pirate Bay, the news that a Argentine hacker was able to easily hack into the site and get the contact information of four million users should be a little unsettling. Hacker CH Russo with two partners were able to exploit vulnerabilities in the SQL database software the site uses to compile the data.

Will they sell the data to the MPAA or RIAA? Nope. According statements posted to Russo’s blog and elsewhere, it was done to prove a point. “The community caused problems to huge companies and corporations which turned into threats between [those] companies and them. What we have done, we did not do it with anger, or for commercial value,” he wrote.

I’m pretty confident that the entertainment industry wouldn’t be able to use this data anyway even if it was sold, due to the somewhat-less-than-legal method in which it was obtained. I’m sure a judge would look down on data obtained through a hack when it was used as evidence.

Russo has said that the hack was done to show users of The Pirate Bay that they may not be as anonymous as they think. The data includes usernames, e-mail addresses, and IP address — the latter of which has been used in the past by prosecutors to identify pirates.

Technologizer readers, would this make you any less likely to use The Pirate Bay or other similar sites?

Facebook Buys, Shutters NextStop

NextStop, a cool site that let folks share information about local things to do–and which had a particularly slick HTML5 interface–has been bought by Facebook. As is often the case when big Web companies buy little Web companies, the news isn’t great for fans of the little company. Facebook wanted NextStop’s talent, not its creation:  The site is now open only to registered members, and will close altogether on September 1st.  At least NextStop isn’t whitewashing the situation–and it’s letting users export content they’ve created and is releasing everything under a Creative Commons license in hopes that it doesn’t disappear altogether.

MapQuest: It Lives!

I’m not the only person out there who used MapQuest incessantly for years, but stopped cold the moment Google Maps came along, right? Well, it’s time to revisit the mapping pioneer–it recently relaunched MapQuest.com, and has a new version of its free iPhone navigation app that does spoken turn-by-turn directions and can run in the background.