Good Signs for Google Voice on iPhone?

TechCrunch’s Jason Kincaid reports on some potential great news: Apple’s new App Store acceptance guide may help Google Voice (or at least third-party Google Voice apps) get into the store.

Best Buy to Sell Kindle

It’s hard to judge an e-reader without seeing and touching it in person. And Best Buy may be the best place to do that-with the news that it’s going to sell Amazon’s Kindle, it now stocks nearly every major contender.

Apple’s Encouraging/Discouraging iPhone App Policy Revisions

Apple’s iPhone App Store acceptance process–at its worst, anyhow–has always reminded me of dealing with the great and powerful Wizard of Oz. For developers, it can feel scary, mysterious, and arbitrary. And even though companies that sell software through the App Store are in business with Apple, that hasn’t meant that they’ve had much clarity into what was going on, and why.

But today, Apple is opening the curtain, at least a little. It’s instituting some changes and clarifications to App Store approval policies and amending the documentation it provides to developers. Engadget’s Nilay Patel has a good summary.

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Sony Playstation Turns 15

Sony’s Playstation is making me feel pretty old today, the 15th anniversary of its North American launch. The original Playstation console was released stateside on September 9, 1995. I remember getting one shortly before summer camp, and not wanting to be yanked away.

The milestone comes at a time in the Playstation 3′s console cycle — four years deep — that we usually start hearing about the next generation. But Sony, like its rival Microsoft, is keeping mum, and digging in for the long haul with new technology for the PS3.

One big push for Sony will be 3D, a source of excitement for the electronics industry, but also one of skepticism. The Playstation 3 is moving ahead with 3D gaming as Microsoft carefully waits for 3D adoption to grow (red-blue glasses experiments on the Xbox 360 aside), and Nintendo focuses on the glasses-free 3DS handheld.

Then, there’s motion control. The Playstation Move wand, however more accurate and capable than Nintendo’s Wii, is unquestionably “me-too” technology, and Sony’s goal of bringing motion control to enthusiast gamers is a risky undertaking. As I’ve said several times before, the starting lineup of games for Move and Microsoft’s Kinect aren’t miles ahead of what Nintendo has already done, despite the fancier technology behind them.

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Your Instant Analysis of Google Instant

What’s the consensus on Google’s new results-as-you-type Google Instant interface? I’m not sure if there is one. When I asked my pals on Twitter (where I’m @harrymccracken) for their initial take, I got lots of feedback–but it included raves, rants, and acknowledgements that it’ll take time to form a solid opinion.

After the jump, what folks had to say.

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Google Instant: Quick, Quick, Quick–But Not Psychic

When Google CEO Eric Schmidt gave a keynote address at the IFA show in Berlin yesterday, he talked about “a new definition of Google.” As I watched the Webcast, I was struck by the phrase–how often does an enterprise as vast and successful as Google want to redefine itself?–and listened closely to what that new definition involved.

“We’re trying very hard to get you something fast,” Schmidt said. “Never underestimate the power of fast. Quick, quick, quick–we want to help you right now.” Later in the speech, he also spoke of Google understanding what users want before they’ve even asked for it, in almost psychic-like fashion: “We can understand things like what you really meant.”

Okay, I got the idea, and assumed that we’d see the emphasis on speed and prediction expressed in Google developments in the months and years to come. But I didn’t realize that Schmidt was teasingly previewing the major announcement that the company would make a day later in San Francisco.

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iOS Game Center is a Lifeless App Out of the Gate

When the iOS 4.1 update went live a couple hours ago, I fully intended to tinker with Game Center and to post some impressions here. But so far, my only impression of the social gaming hub for iPhone and iPod Touch is that it wasn’t fully-baked at launch.

Since installing Game Center before lunch, I’ve accumulated a few friends, and we’re all wondering the same thing: Now what? Aside from adding friends and altering a status message, there isn’t anything to do in Game Center. The app doesn’t tell you what games are supported or provide links to the App Store. A button for “Find Game Center Games” boots the player out Apple’s Game Center web page, which is basically an advertisement with no resources for people who are already using the service. Apparently, Ms. Pac-Man is one of the first games to support Game Center, but there’s no way to figure that out from within the app.

I’ve had high hopes for Game Center since Apple announced it alongside iOS 4 in April. The concept is a lot like Xbox Live — you can invite friends to games, rack up achievements and get paired with strangers of similar skill in multiplayer  – but it’s still a novel idea for smartphones and handheld game consoles. This was a clever move by Apple, adding a social layer to its App Store games to keep people hooked.

So I was thinking today’s launch would be a grand occasion, with iPhone and iPod Touch gamers — there are apparently so many of them — buzzing about with challenges and friend requests. Instead, Game Center’s launch day is a bust. As soon as Apple adds some actual things to do, I’ll post some real impressions. In the meantime, look for me under the nickname ThePimpOfSound.

Sony Cheers for Buttons Ahead of Playstation Move Launch

The Playstation Move, Sony’s answer to the Wii, launches in nine days, and the marketing is getting predictably louder.

As PC World’s Matt Peckham points out, Sony has created a few websites to convince people that they need a Playstation Move, including a skewed product comparison chart and a silly video creation tool. But my favorite of these efforts is Yaybuttons.com, which, as the name suggests, defends the virtue of buttons against a faceless foe.

It’s clearly a takedown of Microsoft’s Kinect for Xbox 360, which uses only a camera to track real-world motion, and no actual controllers to hold. “It turns out that buttons are pretty important,” says a dialog box that appears when you click an image of the Move controller. “Not like ‘save the whales’ important. More like ‘not play games that suck’ important.”

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Live Google Event Coverage Today

Quick reminder: At 9:30am PT this morning, I’ll be liveblogging Google’s search event. I have no idea what it’ll involve, but the rumors are out there.

Needed: Office for iPad

The Business Insider’s Dan Frommer says it’s in Microsoft’s own best interest to release a version of Office for the iPad. I agree. It would also be in the spirit of the company’s enthusiastic, early support for the Mac.

Norton and Trend Micro Promise Less Stressful Security

One of the biggest burdens of being a Windows user is the responsibility of protecting yourself against viruses, spyware, and other threats–attacks which increasingly aim to steal personal information and money rather than just annoy you. And one of the biggest burdens of protecting yourself from these attacks has been the degree to which security software can be problematic itself. Symantec and Trend Micro are both announcing new versions of their software today with a focus on providing security that you can welcome onto your computer–and, better yet, largely ignore once it’s there–rather than stress over.

Symantec’s Norton products once had particularly bad reputations for being a resource-sapping, in-your-face hogs. The company has spent the past couple of years paying penance by reducing the load that new versions put on your system and the demands they place on your attention. It says that its 2011 editions are faster than both their predecessors and its competition, and that it’s reduced the number of alerts they’ll bother you with. They also snitch on other programs, via System Insight, a feature that monitors running applications and identifies ones which may be bogging you down.

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The Only Safe Prediction About the Future of Phones: It’s Unpredictable

Bad news, Apple: The iPhone’s market share is poised to take a tumble over the next few years. Between now and 2014, in fact, iOS devices will fall from 14.7 percent of phones sold to 10.9 percent, a 25.9 percent drop. Android phones, meanwhile, will boom, going from 16.3 percent market share to 24.6 percent, a 51.2 percent bump. RIM’s BlackBerry OS will dip slightly, from 17.9 percent to 17.3 percent; Windows Mobile will go from 6.8 percent to 9.8 percent. And even though handsets based on Nokia’s Symbian will fall from 40.1 percent share to 32.9 percent, they’ll still outsell every other mobile OS.

That, at least, is the truth as predicted by research firm IDC. The company has released those numbers as part of its sales forecasts for “converged mobile device operating systems.” They certainly sound plausible. But I’m struck by how precise these 2014 numbers are. IDC’s phone experts clearly think they can extrapolate a great deal from the current trajectories of major phone operating systems.

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Justin Bieber Using 3% of Twitter’s Capacity?

4Chan users are about to have a virtual coronary. In a tweet Monday, blogger and web designer Dustin Curtis said that at any given time, pop star Justin Bieber is using about three percent of Twitter’s total capacity. Given that Mr. Bieber has over five million followers, we shouldn’t be too surprised by this.

Curtis followed up his tweet with another Tuesday that quantified that first one — that his Twitter source said that many of the most followed users have their own dedicated servers. So before everybody starts bemoaning the fact that meaningless (to some) pop drivel is overrunning the microblogging service, Justin’s not the only one.

The president? He’s definitely got a few. Oprah? She’s probably got her own rack. Ashton Kutcher too.

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Willow Garage’s PR2: The $400,000 Cyberman

When I wrote about my misadventures with Anybots’ QB remote-presence robot recently, I mentioned Willow Garage’s similar Texai. The company doesn’t have plans to sell Texais anytime soon, but it’s announcing that it’s accepting orders for its primary bot, PR2.

Unlike QB and Texai–which are basically remote-controllable Webcams on wheels–PR2 is autonomous, uses 3D machine vision to see the world around it, and has the arms it needs to manipulate objects. Which means it can be taught to engage in all sorts of useful activities which QB and Texai can’t.

Such as playing pool:

And fetching beer:

How much would you pay for a PR2 of your own? Well, the list price is $400,000, but Willow Garage says it wants to reward organizations that are serious about open-source development. So it’s going to give selected buyers who can document their open-source bona fides a discounted price of $280,000. It says it expects early purchasers to be academic labs, industrial research facilities, and other outfits involved in exploration of the future of personal robotics.

I won’t be plunking down my money, but I look forward to seeing what PR2′s owners teach it to do.

Dell to Stop Preinstalling XP in September

Like Dell? Like Windows XP? Better buy a new PC this month.

Intellivision Collection Deemed Unfit for Gamestop [Update]

Update: The makers of Intellivision Lives! have erased the Facebook note referenced in this post, and Gamestop now lists the game on its website. A new statement from the makers apologizes “for jumping the gun” by talking about who will and will not be carrying the game, and promises to “shut up till [publisher Virtual Play Gamse] releases official info.” Thanks to commenter Mike Dougherty for pointing this out. Original story continues below.

Classic video game compilations strike me as easy money makers, created on the cheap and sold on pure nostalgia. But for Intellivision Lives!, Gamestop wants no part of that formula.

In a news posting on Facebook, the makers of Intellivision Lives! for Nintendo DS said Gamestop declined to sell the game. “They say that the 30-somethings that shop there ‘may find it appealing’ but apparently they don’t feel it is for their target (younger) clientele,” the news post said.

As Gamertell points out, Gamestop isn’t categorically opposed to classic game compilations. The retailer already sells Retro Atari Classics and Namco Museum DS for the Nintendo DS, in addition to countless other compilations for other game consoles. And according to the Entertainment Software Association, the most frequent buyers of video games are 40 years old on average, so there goes the theory about pandering to younger clientele. I suspect that Gamestop’s decision has more to do with Intellivision than it does with a refusal to accommodate 30-somethings or nostalgia.

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