Author Archive | Jared Newman

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

Posted by Jared Newman on September 14, 2010 at 9:22 am

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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Pandora Open-Source Gaming Handheld is Alive and in Demand

Posted by Jared Newman on September 13, 2010 at 3:33 pm

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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Massive Dual-Touch Screen Acer Laptop is All Kinds of Wrong

Posted by Jared Newman on September 13, 2010 at 11:39 am

Over the weekend, TechReviewSource scored some photos of what is allegedly an Acer laptop with dual touch screens.

I’m not familiar with the website, which doesn’t name its single source that provided the photos, so take these details with a grain of salt, but the 15-inch laptop reportedly packs a 2.67 GHz Intel Core i5 processor and Windows 7. The goal is to release the laptop in fall 2011 — it’s still slow and buggy right now, says the source.

A lot can change in a year — my gut says this is a prototype that will never see the light of day — but for now I’m wondering if any PC makers really think the dual-touch screen Windows laptop is a great idea to begin with.

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Sony Playstation Turns 15

Posted by Jared Newman on September 9, 2010 at 11:31 am

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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iOS Game Center is a Lifeless App Out of the Gate

Posted by Jared Newman on September 8, 2010 at 2:42 pm

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.

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Sony Cheers for Buttons Ahead of Playstation Move Launch

Posted by Jared Newman on September 8, 2010 at 9:19 am

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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Intellivision Collection Deemed Unfit for Gamestop [Update]

Posted by Jared Newman on September 7, 2010 at 5:08 pm

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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My6sense Now Predicts What Android Users Like

Posted by Jared Newman on September 7, 2010 at 9:49 am

Last week, I wrote a story for PC World about Gmail’s priority inbox feature, which flags unread messages as important depending on previous interactions and other cues. My hope was that the same idea — algorithmic sifting of the web’s information overload — would find its way to other services like social networking and RSS feeds.

Turns out, there’s a free app for that. It’s called My6sense, and it launched today for Android phones, though it’s been available in the iPhone App Store since last year.

My6sense connects with Twitter, Facebook, Google Buzz (in Android only, for now) and RSS feeds, and tries to display the most interesting content on top. At first, the selection is a crapshoot, picking out stories and status updates that are getting a lot of responses. Over time, the app digs through everything you click on to determine your favorite publications, authors, keywords and topics. It also considers how long you spend reading a particular story, separating skimmed articles from ones that hold your attention.

I haven’t used My6sense enough to get past the initial stages of randomness, but already I can tell that the app is throwing away some insubstantial news articles and Tweets about breakfast. Even when you command My6sense to include status updates that don’t have links, it still puts a heavy emphasis on link Tweets.

This is clearly a consumption tool; you can share stories, but can’t post any original content to Facebook or Twitter from the app. In that regard, I see My6sense as part of the new breed of apps and services that distill social networking into pure content curation. But while Flipboard and paper.li rely on other people to pick the best stories, My6sense trusts the process to a computer algorithm. Which system works better is, fortunately, still left for humans to decide.

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Yep, Duke Nukem Forever is Happening

Posted by Jared Newman on September 3, 2010 at 2:54 pm

As rumored, 2K Games is reviving Duke Nukem Forever, the first-person shooter that was canned when original developer 3D Realms shut down last year.

2K, which says it has the publishing rights, has turned development over to Gearbox Software, best known for its recent work on Borderlands. If you don’t count the 16-month hiatus, Duke Nukem Forever is now in its 12th year of development, and if it’s actually released next year for Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC, as planned, it will no longer be video gaming’s greatest example of vaporware, but rather an impressive feat of deposition.

I’ve already grumbled about how a completed Duke Nukem Forever just doesn’t seem right. I liked it better as an example of video gaming’s relentless technical improvements, and one developer’s futile attempts to keep up, than an actual product you can play. But unless you believe in curses, the game is going to be made, so now I’ve got a bunch of questions in light of all the time that’s passed.

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Want Avatar on 3D Blu-ray? First, You'll Need a Panasonic TV

Posted by Jared Newman on September 3, 2010 at 8:58 am

Nine months after Avatar’s theatrical release, it’s still regarded as the pinnacle of 3D entertainment. So it’s too bad that only buyers of Panasonic 3D televisions will get the movie when it’s released on 3D Blu-ray in December.

For an undisclosed period of time, Avatar will be bundled with Panasonic’s 3D televisions, and won’t be sold through any other means, Twice reports. Panasonic wants to make the movie available to people who have already purchased a Panasonic 3D TV, but is still working out the details. Avatar could be bundled with Panasonic 3D Blu-ray players and home theaters as well, but the company  wouldn’t confirm whether this is going to happen.

Avatar isn’t the first 3-D movie to be given exclusively to a single television brand — Samsung bundles Monsters vs. Aliens, and Panasonic has offered Coraline and Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs. TV makers lock down these deals to convey the idea that 3D content actually exists, and Hollywood studios like the deals because they provide a guaranteed return on the 3D investment.

But as CNet points out, Avatar will likely be the first live-action 3-D Blu-ray movie available in the United States. It’s a big deal, and locking it down to one TV maker is a short-sighted move by Panasonic and 20th Century Fox, one that puts their own interests ahead of 3D’s greater well-being. The exclusive Avatar deal might boost Panasonic’s sales this holiday season, but when prospective buyers learn that almost every other 3D Blu-ray disc is also tied down to specific televisions, at the expense of having lots of movies on store shelves, they might sour on the idea of 3D TV altogether.

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