Sony’s Playstation 2 Backwards Compatibility Patent: Don’t Count On It

From the wild world of Sony video game patents comes a little adapter box that can supposedly run Playstation 2 games when attached to a Playstation 3.

According to Eurogamer, the patent application calls for a device with its own DVD decoder and emulator, CPU, GPU, sound processor and memory. The adapter would read information from Playstation 2 discs, inserted into the PS3, and perform all the legwork, possibly sending compressed audio and video back to the PS3 via ethernet connection. This would allow PS2 support without the Emotion Engine, a processor Sony included in early PS3 models specifically for playing last-generation games.

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iOS App Store: Still Oppressive

Parts of Apple’s new App Store policy may be encouraging, others not so much. But Kyle Orland picked through the policy and found some very disturbing declarations. (For example, “If you want to criticize a religion, write a book.”)

Twitter’s Great Leap Forward is…Great

I can’t remember many–any?–examples of a popular service or piece of software changing so much all at once as Twitter is doing with its new redesign. (If you don’t have it yet, hold on: The company says it’ll be a few weeks until it completely replaces Old Twitter.) It brings elements other than words onto Twitter for the first time–photos, videos, and maps. It fundamentally changes the service’s interface, with a roomy, context-sensitive right panel that reminds me of Twitter for iPad. It displays threaded conversations. It includes a bunch of subtleties, like keyboard shortcuts. (TechCrunch’s MG Siegler has a good roundup of some of the revamping’s less obvious improvements.)

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All-New Twitter.com

Twitter’s big news turned out to be big news indeed: It’s launching a completely new user interface that embeds media from third-party services such as Flickr, Ustream, JustinTV, and YouTube. (Only a small percentage of users will see it right away.) I wrote a bit about it at Techland–more thoughts here after I’ve explored it more.

After Reach, Halo Needs a Revolution

Of all the people playing Halo: Reach today, I’m most envious of the folks who’ve never experienced a Halo game before.

Surely, there are some players who never witnessed how Halo: Combat Evolved defined console first-person shooters in 2001. Maybe some people didn’t play Halo 2, with its industry-changing embrace of online multiplayer. Perhaps some Xbox 360 owners missed Halo 3, which dipped the series in next-generation polish, and skipped Halo 3: ODST altogether. These people, who now see Halo with fresh eyes, and not as another revision of a battle-worn formula, are the lucky ones.

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Live From Twitter’s Press Event

I’m at Twitter HQ in a lobby full of tech reporters. Live coverage of the company’s news event is happening here–join me…

Bing Surpasses Yahoo in Search Share, But Does it Matter?

Microsoft’s Bing has finally managed to overtake Yahoo in search share according to Nielsen. In August, Bing had a 13.9 percent share, up about .3 percent, while Yahoo dropped 1.5 percent to 13.1 percent during the same period. While its certainly a milestone for the company, in the end does it matter?

Yahoo’s search engine is now powered by Bing, so essentially the two sites are now one in the same. So in other words, Bing’s got 27 percent of the market now. Now add July’s numbers together, and you can see that together they’ve actually lost share.

So where did this share go? Some of it has gone to Google: the company saw its share rise .8 percent to 65 percent of the market, meaning that the much ballyhooed Yahoo+Bing deal isn’t doing quite what it should. Is it cause to worry for Yahoo and Microsoft? I’d argue at this point no, but the companies better hope that things turn around.

“Bing is on an unequivocal roll. It’s no longer a question of whether or not Bing will continue to grow share but one of where will future growth come from,” my colleague Joe Wilcox writes over at Betanews. “Microsoft loses by taking share from Yahoo. The gains that matter must come from Google.”

I agree with Joe — Bing cannot really celebrate these numbers because they aren’t all that positive at face value. Certainly, Bing has upward momentum, but at the same time it almost has to cheer for its competitor to at least tread water because in the end its Google that’s in its sights in the battle for search engine dominance.

BitBop Bops onto Android Phones

A few months ago, I wrote about Bitbop, a paid all-you-can watch TV service for smartphones with major network shows and high-quality downloads. At the time it ran only on BlackBerries. But here at the DEMO conference in Santa Clara, the company just unveiled an Android version. No news about an iPhone version, but with the somewhat similar Hulu Plus on the way for Apple devices, that’s not a huge loss. (Bitbop is from Fox, which is also part owner of Hulu.)

University to Students: No Facebook, Twitter for A Week

The provost of Harrisburg University of Science and Technology is taking an unusual step to teach his students a lesson on how social media is impacting their lives: he has banned both Facebook and Twitter on campus for an entire week. Provost Eric Darr doesn’t look like he’s anti-technology, rather he believes that students may take these technologies for granted.

“Often, there are behaviors or habits, ways that we use technology that we may ourselves not even be able to articulate because we’re not aware of them,” he told the NPR in an interview. “If someone feels the need to borrow their friend’s phone to go check Facebook, it’ll be interesting to ask the question at the end of the week: Why did you feel the need to do that? What compelled you to do that?”

Students off campus would still be able to access these sites as the ban only is for the on-campus network. Those with smart phones would still be able to access these social networking sites while at the school. But again, Darr wants students to try to live without it. Could be a good idea — do today’s kids rely on social networking too much?

Verizon’s Own Android App Store: Good for Google?

Over at Gizmodo, Kyle VanHemert has a unique spin on a report that Verizon Wireless will open its own V-Cast app store for Android: Despite the appearance of competition with the proper Android Market, Google may ultimately be happy with the move.

VanHemert quotes an interview last May with Android boss Andy Rubin, who said the platform is “a numbers game.” Essentially, the more products running Android, the better, so if Verizon finds success with the V-Cast app store, it’ll mean more Verizon phones running Android in the future. And that’s ultimately good for Google (even if Verizon occasionally flirts with Bing for search).

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Livemocha: Language Learning on the Web

Confession time: If there’s such a thing as a language-learning gene, I lack it. Some of my closest relatives have taught foreign languages, but I’ve always considered myself a hopeless case. In school, I took multiple years of French, German, and Latin; I was mediocre at the time, and almost everything I did learn long ago departed my noggin.

Strangely enough, I haven’t given up hope. So I’m intrigued by Livemocha, a language-learning service that’s launching some online courses in the U.S. today after mostly doing business in other countries until now. The company is going up against Rosetta Stone–the 800-pound gorille of computer-assisted language learning. Unlike the CD-ROM-based Rosetta, though, Livemocha is a Web-based service. And it has cool community features: You can chat with native speakers and record lessons for their feedback.

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Gartenberg on the N8

My friend Michael Gartenberg has been using Nokia’s new N8 flagship smartphone, which I wrote about here. Over at Slashgear, he says it would have been a great device–in 2008.

The Rise and Fall and Rise and Fall and Rise and Fall of RSS

RSS isn’t dead. RSS isn’t alive. RSS is just plumbing.

Technologizer on TIME.com

I mentioned a month ago that I’d be writing a weekly column for TIME.com starting in September. Well, here we are: My first column is live, and new ones will show up each Tuesday. I’ll give you a heads up as they appear.

Column #1 is about how tough it’s going to be for the result of the industry to build iPad competitors that are, indeed, competitive. It’s called “Will the First Real iPad Rivals Please Show Up?“

Pandora Open-Source Gaming Handheld is Alive and in Demand

Not to be confused with the music service, Pandora the Linux-based gaming handheld is off to a solid start, according to The Register.

Pandora’s small team in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, has shipped 1,000 devices since they became available in May. Of course, that’s nothing compared to the Nintendo DS or Sony PSP, but it’s enough for the team to claim that they’re all sold out. Pandora devices are now being sold on pre-order, and the makers hope to ship another 3,000 units by the holidays.

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Consumer Reports: Fix Your Phone, Apple

Apple has concluded that the iPhone 4 antenna problem is not much of a problem at all, so it’s discontinuing its automatic free-case option as of the end of the month. Consumer Reports isn’t pleased.