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E3

Submission + - Did E3 just gasp its last breath? (thestandard.com)

Submitted by
Ian Lamont
Ian Lamont writes: "This year's E3 is over, and there's already talk that this could be the last one. Even before the conference started, a slew of studios announced they wouldn't be taking part, citing high costs and other 'business reasons.' At the conference itself, 'there were no huge game announcements, and Microsoft didn't even bother having Bungie show up to talk about the next Halo release, claiming that the company wanted to "shorten the presentation."' Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello said he 'hated' E3's new format, adding 'either we need to go back to the old E3, or we'll have to have our own private events.' Crave also noted there are no solid plans for next year's show. On the other hand, people have predicted E3's demise in previous years, and they turned out to be wrong."
Security

Submission + - Flaws in a BSA software piracy report? (thestandard.com)

Submitted by
Ian Lamont
Ian Lamont writes: "The Business Software alliance has just released its state piracy study (full PDF here). The BSA says that one in five pieces of software in use in the United States is unlicensed, and notes that piracy rates are highest in Ohio (27%). However, as noted by the Industry Standard, there are problems with the state study, and the way the BSA is presenting the data: the study only includes eight states, and it is making some questionable connections, including the claim that lost state and local tax revenue from piracy would have been enough to 'hire nearly 25,000 experienced police officers.'"
Microsoft

Submission + - A Microsoft/AOL merger? (thestandard.com)

Submitted by
Ian Lamont
Ian Lamont writes: "Microsoft executives are reportedly meeting with their AOL counterparts to discuss combining the two companies' online divisions. No one from either side is willing to comment, nor has the structure of the supposed deal been worked out. The original unconfirmed report comes from the Wall Street Journal (password-protected). A few months ago there was talk about AOL teaming up with Yahoo, but that never materialized."
Portables (Games)

Submission + - Will the iPhone kill Java-based cellphone games? (thestandard.com)

Submitted by
Ian Lamont
Ian Lamont writes: "In the runup to Apple's WWDC 2008, Chris Tompkins thinks that the iPhone's gaming potential 'might finally put the lackluster Java-based cell phone gaming market to death.' He cites the iPhone's use of Core Animation adapted for ARM processors, which he says allows for the advanced effects of OS X and now OpenGL-accelerated 3D games, as well as the importance of an on-demand store and Internet connection. Tompkins says that while certain genres lend themselves to the iPhone's touch controls, such as real-time strategy games (think StarCraft) the lack of physical controls will force developers to creatively approach the multitouch and accelerometer on the iPhone. His advice to Apple — make a compelling overture to independent game designers, and treat them like rock stars:

'Once they've created a few Apple branded games which show off the truly impressive abilities of gaming on a multi-touch platform, open up a set of tools for the thousands of other independent game designers and see what happens. We don't want Grand Theft Auto IV, just something a little more engaging and colorful than Peggle, with a creative flair, to play while we rock out to our tunes on the subway ride home.
Tompkins, incidentally, is one of several people who have recently pointed to Apple's mobile gaming potential."
Microsoft

Submission + - Gates' last MS speech cites "mega" data ce (thestandard.com)

Submitted by
Ian Lamont
Ian Lamont writes: "Bill Gates, in an address to the TechEd Developers conference, talked about Microsoft's plans for hosted services, and revealed that the company is planning data centers on 'a scale that we haven't thought of before' that will apparently enable the company to offer all of its server-based products over the Internet. The talk did not include details in terms of capacity or scale. This was Gates' final publicly scheduled speech as a full-time Microsoft employee, and he acknowledged that Microsoft's success is 'due to our relationship with developers.' On July 1, he will start spending most of his time at The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation."
Businesses

Submission + - Dot-coms from the '90s bubble: Where are they now? (thestandard.com)

Submitted by
Anonymous Coward
Anonymous Coward writes: "The Industry Standard has put together a list of 10 dot-com stars from the Internet bubble of the late 1990s, and tracked down what happened to the services and their founders. A lot of the services are still around, albeit under new ownership, including eToys, Garden.com, and DrKoop.com. Others have been completely reinvented — Boo.com, an online clothing retailer that burned through $125 million in funding in the late 1990s, is now an online travel community. Of the founders, many were able to cash out early and/or achieve later online success. Excite's Joe Kraus and Graham Spencer later started JotSpot, which was bought by Google, and Kraus now directs work on Google's OpenSocial initiative. Others did not fare as well, such as two of the co-founders of Garden.com, who declined to cash out at the height of the bubble, and are currently 'between business ventures.' The insiders' post-mortems of the failed dot-coms are interesting — several suggest the concepts were good but too early for their time, while others identify specific factors that led to the failures — ranging from a lack of advertising to 'intense' greed."
Movies

Submission + - Philip K. Dick's novel Ubik to be filmed (sffmedia.com)

Submitted by
bowman9991
bowman9991 writes: "Could this be the new Blade Runner? SFFMedia reports that Celluloid Dreams has obtained the movie rights to Philip K. Dick's science fiction masterpiece "Ubik". First published in 1969, Ubik's central character is Joe Chip, a technician for a telepathic organisation that employs people with the ability to block certain psychic powers so they can secure other people's privacy. In the novel the dead are kept in "half-life", a form of cryogenic suspension, with limited consciousness and communication ability, while a mystical substance called Ubik, available in spray can form, is the only thing stopping reality from disintegrating before Joe's eyes. It'll be hard to film, but fantastic if they get it right!"
Yahoo!

Submission + - Microsoft circles back to Yahoo with new offer (thestandard.com) 1

Submitted by
Ian Lamont
Ian Lamont writes: "Microsoft has come back to Yahoo with a new offer that would involve it buying part of Yahoo. No details have been released, but sources told the Wall Street Journal that part of the arrangement would involve Microsoft selling display ads next to Yahoo search results. No word yet on how this will impact Carl Icahn's proxy war with Yahoo's board."
Google

Submission + - Google's Street View meets resistance in France (thestandard.com)

Submitted by
Ian Lamont
Ian Lamont writes: "Google has begun to scan the streets of Paris as part of its Street View service, but the company may be hindered from publishing them unedited. The reason? French privacy laws:

... In France, citizens have a "droit à l'image," the right to their own image: pictures identifying them as they go about their private business may not be published without their permission. That could put the brakes on Google's deployment of Street View in France, unless the camera-cars are accompanied by an army of clipboard-wielding legal assistants asking bystanders to sign release forms as they sip their coffee.
The article says Google may be forced to blur faces or use low-resolution versions of the photographs. The Embassy of France in the U.S. has a page devoted to French privacy laws, that says the laws are needed to "avoid infringing the individual's right to privacy and right to his or her picture (photograph or drawing), both of them rights of personality.""
Portables (Apple)

Submission + - The next big Apple push: Gaming, take II? (thestandard.com)

Submitted by
Ian Lamont
Ian Lamont writes: "Terrence Russell has outlined an interesting theory about what industry Apple intends to break into next. He points to games. Forget Pippin II, or an iMac gaming rig — he thinks the mobile realm is where Apple will make a big product push. It's not the first bit of speculation about Apple's renewed interest in gaming, but Russell's theory may have more legs, considering Apple's invitation to develop games on the iPhone SDK, its strong mobile product line, and a Apple trademark extension filed three months ago."
The Internet

Submission + - Google nervous about Verizon's open access (thestandard.com)

Submitted by
Ian Lamont
Ian Lamont writes: "Google is so worried about Verizon Wireless' commitment to open access using the 700Mhz spectrum, that it's asked the FCC to get a pledge from Verizon that it will honor the FCC's open-access conditions before it sells the band to the carrier. Verizon won the auction for the nationwide C block of the 700MHz spectrum, but Google points to Verizon's alleged attempts to abandon the conditions, including a filing with the FCC that said the the commission 'could not force the C block winner to allow all applications on the network.' Could this be another expanding front in the Net Neutrality battle, or is time for the carriers to accept the fact that Net Neutrality is essentially a done deal, and carriers need to prepare for the next battle — developing software and services to run on open networks?"
The Almighty Buck

Submission + - MySpace treads carefully with "HyperTargeting& (thestandard.com)

Submitted by
Ian Lamont
Ian Lamont writes: "MySpace is preparing to boost its advertising systems, by launching a targeted ad platform called HyperTargeting and creating a Web-based system that lets vendors purchase ads without dealing with human sales teams. HyperTargeting will 'look at a person's interests listed on their public profile and then classify the user into particular interest-specific categories.' MySpace claims that early tests resulted in a 300 percent increase in the number of ad click-throughs. The company apparently learned a lot from Facebook's earlier experiences with Beacon — MySpace members will be able to opt out of HyperTargeting, according to the company."
Google

Submission + - The real problem with Blogger: Google's neglect (thestandard.com) 2

Submitted by
Ian Lamont
Ian Lamont writes: "For years, I've been frustrated by Blogger's relatively limited functionality and other problems. For instance, we've heard about Blogger's security flaws since the beginning of this decade. Blogger's latest problem, which lets bots bypass CAPTCHAs in order to set up spam blogs, is not just a sign of Google's disregard for security. It's symptomatic of Google's neglect of its Blogger service. For instance, Blogger is just now rolling out a feature that lets writers publish in the future, years after similar functionality was released in Wordpress and Moveable Type. When will Google devote serious resources to cleaning up and improving Blogger — or is it destined to be a sideshow as long as Google keeps acquiring and building more high-profile services, such as Google Maps and YouTube?"

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