Author Archive | Jared Newman

Hey Microsoft, There’s Nothing Wrong With “Windows”

Posted by Jared Newman on July 14, 2011 at 4:35 pm

Microsoft laid out some lofty goals at its Worldwide Partner Conference this week. As Nilay Patel reports, Microsoft envisions a future in which all of its devices — phones, tablets, PCs and even the Xbox — draw from the same software ecosystem.

Sounds interesting. But being weirdly obsessed with tech nomenclature, I’m fixated on a side note in Patel’s report: Microsoft has considered throwing out the Windows name once all this unification is complete. It’s a longshot, and probably won’t happen as long as Steve Ballmer is in charge — he loves the name — but the option is at least on the table. I think that’s a mistake.

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EA Buys PopCap, is Dead Serious About Mobile and Social Gaming

Posted by Jared Newman on July 13, 2011 at 3:33 pm

While most major video game publishers continue to treat mobile and social gaming with caution, Electronic Arts is doubling down.

EA will buy Popcap Games, creator of the popular Bejeweled and Plants vs. Zombies, for $650 million plus $100 million in common stock. That’s the second-largest sum that EA has ever spent on an acquisition. The largest was a $775 purchase of a holding company that owned Bioware and the now-defunct Pandemic Studios.

It’s hard to say exactly what EA plans to do with Popcap, but we’ll likely see its hit games expand to new platforms (many PopCap games aren’t available on Android) at a faster pace. EA CEO John Riccitiello also told All Things Digital that his company wants to take on Zynga, developer of Farmville, in social gaming.

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StumbleUpon’s New iPad App is Neat, But Can We Skip the Social?

Posted by Jared Newman on July 12, 2011 at 9:59 am

StumbleUpon has always been one of my favorite iPad apps, an endless time-waster that with the press of a button sends you to seemingly random corners of the Internet. Now, it’s received a facelift.

The new app includes sorting options for photos, videos and news, along with a category view that makes it easier to find pages based on your topics of interest. StumbleUpon’s iPad app has also gained a couple of swipe-based gestures, allowing you to move forward and backward by dragging a finger across the screen.

So far, so good. But there’s one feature I could do without, and would like the option to disable: Every time you stumble to a new page, a message on top of the screen lists the username of a stranger who liked what he or she saw. Tapping the name takes you to that user’s profile, which lists age, gender and recent activity, and provides options for following that user.

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Gamer Group Sounds Alarm on “Anti-Streaming” Bill

Posted by Jared Newman on July 11, 2011 at 6:07 pm

A bill that targets unauthorized streaming of movies and TV shows could have a detrimental effect on a vibrant part of video game culture.

Under U.S. Senate Bill S.978, streaming copyrighted material before audiences of 10 or more would become a felony punishable by up to 5 years in prison. The Entertainment Consumers Association warns that the bill inadvertently targets people who stream playthroughs or walkthroughs of video games.

To get a sense of gaming’s video playthough culture, run a search for “Let’s Play” on YouTube. At present, there are more than 500,000 results. A search for “video game walkthrough” returns more than 600,000 results. A search for “speed run” returns more than 250,000 results. The Senate bill would leave all the users who posted those videos open to prosecution. The ECA calls the measure “draconian” and is helping gamers write letters of opposition to their senators.

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Lenovo’s IdeaPad U1 PC-Tablet Hybrid: It Lives

Posted by Jared Newman on July 11, 2011 at 1:57 pm

The Lenovo IdeaPad U1, which combines a Windows laptop and an Android tablet into one device, was one of the most intriguing products I saw at CES 2010. It was also one of the most intriguing products I saw a year later at CES 2011.

Indeed, the U1’s path to a U.S. launch has been long and slightly vaporous, but now, it’s nearly here. According to Engadget, the U1 has arrived at the FCC for approval — a decent indication that it might graduate from trade shows to retail shelves.

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Bungie Waves Goodbye to Halo

Posted by Jared Newman on July 8, 2011 at 5:16 pm

Bungie’s been finished making Halo games for nearly a year, but now the developer is cutting its final ties with the franchise and ceding control of multiplayer to another developer.

Although the changeover won’t actually happen until August 2, Bungie is saying its goodbyes now, having celebrated its 20th anniversary by playing Halo: Reach with fans. Soon, the developers will drop off the radar as they work in secrecy on a new project, as part of a 10-year publishing agreement with Activision, 1UP reports.

“Halo is yours now,” the company wrote. “In many ways, it always has been. Its new caretakers will strive, just as we did, to be worthy stewards but you have the package. Hold these characters and stories and worlds to the same unflinching standards you did while we were at the helm, but allow them all to blossom and change and grow in the ways that they must.”

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Mozilla Gives Web Apps Some Purpose

Posted by Jared Newman on July 8, 2011 at 2:39 pm

Slowly but surely, Mozilla’s laid back approach to web apps is blossoming into something with a lot of potential.

The latest web apps update from Mozilla Labs, available as an add-on for Firefox, gives the experimental project a new look and helps individual apps communicate with one another.

Web apps now appear in a tray at the bottom of the browser window. Once opened, they become pinned tabs with no URL bar, giving them a more app-like feel. Mozilla also wants to aid app discovery by letting web developers notify visitors when an app is available — kind of like the App Store link that appears when you visit Yelp’s mobile website.

The bigger improvement in this release is “Web Activities.” This is basically a calling service for web apps to pass data back and forth. So for instance, if you’re using an online photo editor such as Pixlr and want to import an image from Dropbox, neither service would have to support the other specifically. The Web Activities calling service would handle the file transfer.

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Hey, Off-Contract Smartphones Are Getting Cheaper!

Posted by Jared Newman on July 7, 2011 at 5:00 pm

As I looked over Verizon’s announcement of the Motorola Droid 3 today, one thing in particular caught my eye: Without a two-year contract, the phone costs $460.

That may look expensive next to the Droid 3’s two-year agreement price of $200, but it’s a lot cheaper than what high-end, off-contract smartphones used to cost. Last year, for example, the Droid 2 debuted for $599 without a contract. At the time, that was pretty much the standard price.

So I figured the Droid 3 was cracking the mold, until I looked around. Right now, Verizon’s Droid X2 sells for $450 without a contract, and the Droid Incredible 2 sells for $440. Over on AT&T, you can get a contract-free Motorola Atrix 4G for $450. These are all high-end phones, with dual-core processors and screens of 4 inches or higher, but you might not know it from their off-contract prices.

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6 Questions About Spotify’s U.S. Launch

Posted by Jared Newman on July 6, 2011 at 3:31 pm

Subscription music service Spotify has announced that it will finally be launching in the United States — at some point. The company, which is known overseas for streaming millions of ad-supported songs on demand at no charge, provided hardly any details on its U.S. plans. Spotify simply confirmed the news and started a sign-up process for invites.

Naturally, that leaves a lot of unanswered questions. Here’s what I’d most like to know about Spotify’s U.S. launch:

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