Archive | January, 2011
Are Apple’s iPhone E-Reader Rules Changing? Tough to Tell
Back in November, Sony said it would have an iPhone app that would provide access to e-books from its Reader store out by December. That month came and went. So has January. And now Sony is saying that Apple rejected its iPhone app (an Android version did make it onto the Market):
Unfortunately, with little notice, Apple changed the way it enforces its rules and this will prevent the current version of the Reader™ for iPhone® from being available in the app store. We opened a dialog with Apple to see if we can come up with an equitable resolution but reached an impasse at this time. We’re exploring other avenues to bring the Reader experience to Apple mobile devices. We know that many of you are eagerly awaiting the application and we appreciate your continued patience.
US Cable Companies: Still No Plans to Carry Al Jazeera English
31. January 2011
If you haven’t been watching Al Jazeera yet and are following the continuing unrest in Egypt, you should give it a try. The network has arguably done the best job at covering all angles of the crisis, and its commanding presence in the Middle East has given it a leg up on other outlets.
Watching it myself, it feels very BBC: news presented in a intellectually stimulating manner, something often missing in American television journalism today.
The network reports that traffic to its English-language site since the start of the crisis has surged by 2,500%, with 60% of that traffic coming from the US. Many are apparently tuning into the live stream.
Why’s this? Simply put, cable companies have practically all but shut out the network since its debut in 2006. Al Jazeera no doubt got a rap for being a outlet for Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda — the terrorist group sent its videos regularly as “exclusives” in the days after 9/11 — but since then the network has done a lot to polish its image as a legitimate news outlet.
Once Again, Tweets From Egypt
31. January 2011
Google (and SayNow, which it just acquired) and Twitter have a clever and gutsy response to the Egyptian government’s Internet shutoff: a service that lets anyone tweet (and follow tweets) using a telephone. You can listen to tweets from Egypt here; it’s a fascinating, moving experience even if you can’t understand them. (Here’s one in English.)
Activision Allows Website to Relive Sierra Classics, But Not on iPad
31. January 2011
The good news: Sarien.net, a website that hosts free HTML5 ports of classic Sierra adventure games, will continue to operate with the blessing of Activision, which owns the rights to the games.
The bad news: The iPad adaptations of these games, which I wrote about in October, have been removed, along with any sequels to games that are part of a series.
That was the outcome of a back-and-forth between Activision and Sarien.net owner Martin Kool. When Activision got wind of Kool’s operation, the publisher’s lawyers sent a cease-and-desist letter. Then, they offered to authorize Sarien.net as an official publisher of the first game in every Sierra adventure game series. For sequels, Kool will refer players to Steam or other venues where the games are sold as complete series.
Wacky Old Tech Stuff by the Bushel
31. January 2011
Like images of entertainingly archaic technology-related ads, magazine covers, and other bits of the past? If so, you’ll love Technologizer contributor Benj Edwards’ fifth-anniversary celebration of his “Retro Scan of the Week” feature over at his Vintage Computing and Gaming site.
Enter the Notbook
31. January 2011
Here’s a nice piece from Engadget’s Joanna Stern on a class of portable PC–roomier and more powerful than a netbook, but compact and minimalist compared to traditional notebooks–which she calls notbooks. I like ‘em myself–and despite the “not” in her nickname, I wouldn’t be surprised to see them become the dominant form of laptop over the next couple of years.
OS7 Brings Live Tiles to iPhone
31. January 2011
Amazon’s Netflix Rival Returns in Elusive Rumor
31. January 2011
Amazon could be pretty close to offering a subscription streaming video service similar to that of Netflix.
We’ve heard this story before, in a couple of rumors from last year, but over the weekend an Engadget reader reportedly spotted the streaming option while perusing Amazon’s on-demand video library. Amazon has also registered the web domain primeinstantvideos.com and several variants.
According to the tipster, Amazon may tie the streaming service to Amazon Prime, the retail program that provides unlimited two-day shipping for $79 per year. Subscribers would get access to roughly 5,000 videos in 480p resolution with no commercials, at no extra cost. This would undercut Netflix’s streaming plan by $17 per year.
So How Was Macworld This Year?
31. January 2011
I had fun speaking at Macworld about the future of the mobile market last Wednesday. (Below, for no particular reason other than that I like it, is an image from my presentation–making the point that Android is less like Windows and more like Linux–actually, it is Linux under the skin.) I had even more fun listening to the guy who spoke after me–Bill Atkinson, who was one of the principal creators of the Mac in the early 1980s and who’s now (among other things) an iPhone developer. And I enjoyed walking the show floor Thursday morning.
When Apple announced in December of 2008 that it was puling out of Macworld, there were plenty of folks who predicted that the show would be dead within a year or two. And it did go through a great downsizing in 2010–but it may have found a new, more modest equilibrium. The show had 270 exhibitors this year and conference organizer IDG says it went into the event expecting 25,000 attendees; last year’s edition had “over” 250 exhibitors and “more than” 20,000 attendees. (The 2009 show, the last that Apple was present for, had 400 exhibitors and more than 28,000 attendees.)
Google’s Android 3.0 Honeycomb Event Live Coverage
28. January 2011
Next Wednesday, I’ll head to Google headquarters to cover the Android 3.0 “Honeycomb” event–which will put the spotlight on the first version of the company’s mobile operating system designed for tablets. Join me here for live coverage starting at 10am PT. And you can head there now to send yourself an e-mail reminder. See you then, I hope…
The Situation in Egypt, Told in Graph Form
28. January 2011
Akamai has released a revealing–but not surprising–chart showing what’s happened to Internet traffic in Egypt.
HP’s New Plan: No More Worthless Hype
28. January 2011
Broken promises are part of technology’s natural cycle, but Leo Apotheker, HP’s new boss, says that’s not going to happen anymore at his company.
From now on, HP will only announce tech products that are a few weeks away from shipping, Apotheker said in an interview with the BBC. “”HP will stop making announcements for stuff it doesn’t have,” he said. “… That’s a simple management decision, I don’t need to re-engineer the tanker to do that.”
In other words, HP is taking a cue from Apple by announcing only real products instead of lofty ambitions. Apotheker even suggests as much: “I hope one day people will say ‘this is as cool as HP’, not ‘as cool as Apple’,” he said.
How Long Can Microsoft Hemmorhage Money Online?
28. January 2011
While overall Microsoft seems to be doing quite well, there is a sector of its business that continually drags on its bottom line. The company has pushed heavily to promote its online businesses–including Windows Live services, Bing, and more– but so far, it’s not succeeding at making money on the Web.
As pointed out by Silicon Alley Insider yesterday, Microsoft lost a staggering $543 million in its online division in the last calendar quarter of 2010, and its online losses for the year were nearly $2.5 billion. They’re astounding figures.
How to Turn Off the Net
28. January 2011
How did the Egyptian government shut off the Internet? GigaOm’s Bobbie Johnson has some interesting technical information:
Essentially, we’re talking about a system that no longer knows where anything is. Outsiders can’t find Egyptian websites, and insiders can’t find anything at all. It’s as if the postal system suddenly erased every address inside America — and forgot that it was even called America in the first place.
Windows 7 Seems to be Selling Well
28. January 2011
Microsoft announced its quarterly earnings yesterday, and among the news tidbits was the fact that it’s sold 300 million Windows 7 licenses since the operating system launched in October 2009. That seems to be ahead of a 2009 prediction by IDC that forecast that the company would sell 177 millions copies of Windows 7 by the end of 2010. (It’s possible that Microsoft and IDC’s definitions of an instance of Windows sold vary.)
Sony Hedges Bets with Playstation Suite
27. January 2011
While the NGP game console hogged the spotlight at Sony’s press conference in Tokyo on Thursday, the company made another announcement that could prove just as significant.
I’m talking about Playstation Suite, a software framework that will let Android phones run Playstation games. Sony skimped on details, but said Playstation Suite will start with PSOne games when it launches for Android 2.3 phones later this year — that’s “phones” plural, not just the rumored Sony Ericsson Xperia Play, a.k.a. Playstation Phone.
For as long as I’ve been playing video games, no console maker has handed over its ecosystem to other devices in this way. Sony is essentially admitting that it can no longer ignore smartphones, and that selling video games is at least as important as controlling the hardware or the operating system. This is a huge concession.
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31. January 2011
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