The New York Times’ Brad Stone is reporting that Google is rolling out a new version of its search results with a left-hand sidebar today and tomorrow. It’s the final version of a design it’s been experimenting with for a long time, and bears a general conceptual resemblance to the sidebar at Bing, although the execution is quite different. I’m not getting it as my default yet, but wrote about a test version I stumbled across in March.
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Ellen Teases Apple, Apologizes
What, Apple can’t take a (mild) joke?
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The Problem With PlayOn's Subscription Model
When someone I know buys a video game console, sooner or later I ask if they’ve tried PlayOn. The Windows software essentially tricks the Playstation 3, Xbox 360 or Wii into thinking that Web video content is stored on your local network, letting you watch Hulu, ABC.com and more on the big screen while your computer quietly handles the streaming.
One of the main reasons I’ve advocated PlayOn to fellow Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 owners is that you only pay $40 for the software once, and then you can use it forever. That’s about to change on May 20, when PlayOn moves to a subscription model: $40 for year one, and $20 per year after that.
PlayOn swears that the money will be put to good use by funding “continued development and support.” The subscription product will be dubbed “PlayOn Premium,” and will include a couple more sources for online video, a “Gold” version of Wii support and a promise that PlayOn will add more features over time. But do you feel comfortable paying for a promise?
The problem is that PlayOn subscribers aren’t paying for the delivery of content, or even the content itself. They’re only paying for the continued right to use software, which would technically still function even if PlayOn’s owner, MediaMall, folded tomorrow. This would be like Microsoft demanding yearly payments from Windows users to fund updates and future versions. It just doesn’t work that way when software isn’t tied to a tangible, recurring service.
I’m glad PlayOn will let existing owners continue to get basic functionality for free, including Hulu. PlayOn’s even offering one year of premium service to existing users for $5 instead of $40. But it would make a lot more sense for PlayOn to build the new features first, then charge users a la carte to add each one — kind of like an app store. It beats paying PlayOn a yearly allowance and hoping it’s spent wisely.
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Seagate's FreeAgent GoFlex Drives: The News is in the Cable
(Full disclosure: As I blogged last week, Technologizer is throwing a party called SpringThing tonight in San Francisco. Our sponsor is Seagate, who will be demoing the products I discuss here.)
External hard disks are one of the most universally useful gadgets known to techkind. And they’re all pretty similar: For the most part, differences involve the quantity of gigabytes you get for your money, the industrial design of the case, and maybe the software the manufacturer bundles. But Seagate has come up with an interesting twist for FreeAgent GoFlex, a new update to all the products in its FreeAgent Go line of portable external drives–it’s making the interface part of the cable, rather than part of the drive.
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Twitter Makes Republishing Tweets Easy (in Theory)
Twitter has launched Blackbird Pie, a neat tool for creating static versions of tweets you can paste into other sites. It solves a problem I’ve had for a long time (and which I’ve solved via various methods–this and this). I’d show it to you right here, except…I can’t get it to work. (It involves pasting HTML and CSS code into your site, and WordPress, which I use, is sometimes unhappy with raw code.) It’s still a great idea, and maybe I’ll figure out a workaround.
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An Even Faster Chrome
This just in from Google: It’s released new Chrome betas which it says are 35% faster on the SunSpider benchmark and 30% faster on the V8 benchmark than the ones they replace. (Google tends to be shy about explicit comparisons with rivals, so I’m not sure how the new versions compare to the other two fastest-browser-on-the-planet contenders, Opera and Safari.)
And here’s a photo showing Google having fun testing Chrome’s speed:
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Ning Shares (Some) Details on Its Future
This morning, I received a cheery e-mail from Ning CEO Jason Rosenthal with more information on the build-your-own-social-network’ service’s decision to end free networks in favor of focusing on ones whose organizers pay a fee to Ning.
(Maybe a tad too cheery–he refers to “new and exciting changes.” The prices look reasonable if you were already paying Ning or were inclined to start doing so, and the company says it’s going to add a bunch of new features, such as HD support. But an acknowledgment that most of the people currently operating free networks won’t be instantly thrilled with the idea of losing them might have been in order.)
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Real's GameHouse Builds a Social-Gaming Platform
GameHouse–the casual gaming arm of RealNetworks that’s been around under one name or another for a decade–is trying to respond in a big way to the rise of social games, virtual gifts, the Facebook platform, and other trends reflected in wildly popular games such as FarmVille. At the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco, it’s launching a platform of its own it calls GameHouse Fusion–a set of services designed to help game developers bake social features into their products. They include everything from simple social stuff like leaderboards to special trophies gamers can create themselves; virtual goods; hosting and ad-sales services; and more. And they’re designed for browser-based games (including ones built for both the Facebook and OpenSocial platforms), downloadable ones, and ones for the iPhone and other mobile phones.
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Iomega Network Storage Goes Way High End
Back in 2008, enterprise storage titan EMC bought Iomega, the venerable consumer/small-business storage provider best known for the once-ubiquitous Zip drive. Iomega still makes plenty of low-priced consumery products, but it’s been interesting to watch the EMC-owned Iomega emphasize more business-oriented network products. And never more than today: The company is announcing the StorCenter ix12-300r, a rack-mounted network storage unit with twelve bays, giving it the ability to hold up to 24TB of storage.
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Black Wii With MotionPlus: Vital Steps for Nintendo
Do not be fooled by the slick black veneer of Nintendo’s latest Wii model. The most important part of this game console facelift is that it includes Wii MotionPlus for not a penny more than the existing white Wii.
Nintendo announced that the black Wii will be sold for $200 starting May 9. It still includes one Wii remote, one Nunchuk attachment and a copy of the iconic Wii Sports, but Nintendo will also throw in the MotionPlus, which attaches to the remote and greatly improves the accuracy of motion controls in games that support it. A copy of Wii Sports Resort, another mini-game collection that showcases the MotionPlus, is included as well.
The extra hardware is necessary as Microsoft and Sony prepare to show off their own motion controllers to the world. E3, gaming’s biggest trade show, falls in mid-June, and it’ll probably be packed with waving arms, flailing legs and jiggling bodies trying out the new technology. The Playstation Move is like a more sophisticated Wii remote, able to sense not only motion, but positioning in the real world. The Xbox 360’s contraption, codenamed Project Natal, does away with controllers and tracks the entire body in three-dimensional space. Both motion controllers should be available by the holidays.
Even with MotionPlus, the Wii is technologically inferior, but Nintendo has a huge base of customers that it could wow with one really solid app. For instance, the next Legend of Zelda game is confirmed to support MotionPlus, and is tentatively scheduled for this year. Bundling MotionPlus means Nintendo can develop games like Zelda while building the number of people who can play them.
And for potential customers, you can’t beat a $200 console with two games included. To compete, Microsoft and Sony will need motion-controlled games that blow the mind, because Nintendo’s got the “good enough” market cornered.