iTunes already has nearly a hundred video game apps already on sale. Many of them are HD versions of existing iPhone games that come with a steeper price point than the $2.99 we're used to paying. Only a handful are totally original games designed just for the iPad.
The video games industry is in flux. After a tough couple of economic years, companies like EA, Ubisoft, and Sony all announced strategy changes using old methods of moneymaking - like annual sequels, while exploring new areas of delivering content digitally via Facebook, browsers -- and, yes, mobile devices like the iPad.
The iPad is a symptom of change in the games industry -- not the cause. The Internet as the thing that's changing the way games are made and distributed. While everybody sees downloadable games in the future, the iPad might not be as disruptive to video games as it is to the home laptop market. The iPad may have a secondary impact on home console games, but only if gamers find a reason to swap their console for the iPad. Christian Svensson, Vice President of Strategic Planning and Business Development at Capcom, said it best during an MI6 session titled Game Distribution 2015: "I'm not seeing where the iPad fits into my life versus what I already have that's better."
Read more at PC World.
Saturday, April 3
Friday, April 2
The 117 Words We Cannot Say on TV
A top executive at Tribune Broadcasting banned 117 phrases in newscasts. Larry Mendte, who’s now doing commentary for Tribune, offered this story- using all the words at one time.
Summing Up the Ipad
If people see the iPad mainly as an extra device to carry around, it will likely have limited appeal. If, however, they see it as a way to replace heavier, bulkier computers much of the time—for Web surfing, email, social-networking, video- and photo-viewing, gaming, music and even some light content creation—it could be a game changer the way Apple's iPhone has been.
If you're mainly a Web surfer, note-taker, social-networker and emailer, and a consumer of photos, videos, books, periodicals and music—this could be for you. If you need to create or edit giant spreadsheets or long documents, or you have elaborate systems for organizing email, or need to perform video chats, the iPad isn't going to cut it as your go-to device.
Those comments come from Walt Mossberg in the Wall Street Journal.
Here is my own summary of the iPad's pros and cons.
negatives:
no physical keyboard, no Webcam, no USB ports, no multitasking, expensive, won't play flash videos, heavier than the Kindle, will need two hands to read, can't enter notes on books, fewer books available than on Kindle, no mouse, difficult to type on when upright, only can use one app at a time, no DVD drive.
positives:
touch-screen, excellent e-book reader, runs iPhone apps, thin, great battery life, very fast processor, calendar and contacts apps will sinc with Google and Apple, strong image resolution, magazines are being designed for use on it, TV networks are adopting their shows for play in the device, rotation-lock switch (to prevent switching angles).
If you're mainly a Web surfer, note-taker, social-networker and emailer, and a consumer of photos, videos, books, periodicals and music—this could be for you. If you need to create or edit giant spreadsheets or long documents, or you have elaborate systems for organizing email, or need to perform video chats, the iPad isn't going to cut it as your go-to device.
Those comments come from Walt Mossberg in the Wall Street Journal.
Here is my own summary of the iPad's pros and cons.
negatives:
no physical keyboard, no Webcam, no USB ports, no multitasking, expensive, won't play flash videos, heavier than the Kindle, will need two hands to read, can't enter notes on books, fewer books available than on Kindle, no mouse, difficult to type on when upright, only can use one app at a time, no DVD drive.
positives:
touch-screen, excellent e-book reader, runs iPhone apps, thin, great battery life, very fast processor, calendar and contacts apps will sinc with Google and Apple, strong image resolution, magazines are being designed for use on it, TV networks are adopting their shows for play in the device, rotation-lock switch (to prevent switching angles).
Developer enthusiasm for iPad slackens as Android surges
Developer enthusiasm for Apple Inc.'s iPad has cooled somewhat because the tablet lacks multitasking and a camera, a company that makes cross-platform development tools said today. Appcelerator Inc. surveyed more than 1,000 developers. Scott Schwarzhoff, vice president of marketing at the Mountain View, Calif.-based company says "Like consumers, developers are trying to wrap their arms around the iPad... There's no way that the iPad can not do well." What amazed Appcelerator was the very strong showing of Android. Google's platform nearly caught up with the iPhone in the two months since the January survey. "It's pretty clear that developers believe that Android is a must-have platform," Schwarzhoff said. "If I'm going to do one [platform], I'll pick the iPhone, but if I have the resources, I'll also do Android."
Read more at Computerworld.
Read more at Computerworld.
Thursday, April 1
Saving CNN
A dozen or so prominent media watchers say CNN’s 40% decline in prime-time viewers since 2009 can only be stopped by getting more personality on the air and no longer being as one media critic called it — “the view from nowhere.”
Davidson Goldin, the former editorial director of MSNBC say “CNN needs to find an identity and own that identity… A news channel trying to build a brand by saying they cover news is like a restaurant trying to become popular by saying it cooks food.” He says that CNN is “wedded to just regurgitating the facts.”
Michael Wolff, founder of Newser.com and a Vanity Fair contributing editor says “CNN has to figure out how to make the news either more efficient or more entertaining.”
Read more at Politico
Davidson Goldin, the former editorial director of MSNBC say “CNN needs to find an identity and own that identity… A news channel trying to build a brand by saying they cover news is like a restaurant trying to become popular by saying it cooks food.” He says that CNN is “wedded to just regurgitating the facts.”
Michael Wolff, founder of Newser.com and a Vanity Fair contributing editor says “CNN has to figure out how to make the news either more efficient or more entertaining.”
Read more at Politico
Grant Program for Studies of Google Digitized Books
Google is creating a research program to explore the digital humanities using the Google Books library. The company has digitized more than 12 million books in over 300 languages. In 2005, the Authors Guild filed a lawsuit accusing Google of "massive copyright infringement." A proposed settlement of that suit, which has drawn criticism from the Justice department, awaits court approval. .
Read more at The Chronicle of Higher Education.
Read more at The Chronicle of Higher Education.
The Rising Stars of Gossip Blogs
No longer is blogging something that marginalized editorial wannabes do from home, in a bathrobe, because they haven’t found a “real” job. Blogging now is a career path in its own right, offering visibility, influence and an actual paycheck.
Read more at the New York Times.
Read more at the New York Times.
Wednesday, March 31
7 Ways to Use Social Media to Create Buzz Worthy Events
1. Engage
Get your potential attendees interacting with you early on by enabling some measure of feedback or crowd sourcing on the conference programming. South by Southwest has always led in this area, with its “panel picker” process that turns over 30% of the programming selection to potential attendees.
An easier way to do this would be to utilize something like Crowd Campaign, which gives participants a way to suggest content, and for others to vote on it. Or, you could go even simpler, and use Tweetpoll or PollDaddy (As I did when I asked you for feedback on potential new designs for this blog).
2. Intrigue
Almost all events have an official Web site. But very few (except for the geek events) take full advantage of all the free event listing and event management opportunities. At a minimum, you should create event pages on:
- Facebook Events
- Eventbrite (where you can also sell tickets, if you’re so inclined)
- Upcoming
- Linkedin (if it’s a business event)
Read more at Jay Baer's Blog.
Get your potential attendees interacting with you early on by enabling some measure of feedback or crowd sourcing on the conference programming. South by Southwest has always led in this area, with its “panel picker” process that turns over 30% of the programming selection to potential attendees.
An easier way to do this would be to utilize something like Crowd Campaign, which gives participants a way to suggest content, and for others to vote on it. Or, you could go even simpler, and use Tweetpoll or PollDaddy (As I did when I asked you for feedback on potential new designs for this blog).
2. Intrigue
Almost all events have an official Web site. But very few (except for the geek events) take full advantage of all the free event listing and event management opportunities. At a minimum, you should create event pages on:
- Facebook Events
- Eventbrite (where you can also sell tickets, if you’re so inclined)
- Upcoming
- Linkedin (if it’s a business event)
Read more at Jay Baer's Blog.
More Will Buy iPad Than Kindle In Next Year
A new survey predicts demand for the iPad as an e-book reader will outpace Amazon's category-leading Kindle over the next year. The study by comparison-shopping site PriceGrabber found an obvious advantage of the iPad is that it's more than a single-use device like the Kindle. Only 13% of 1,631 people interviewed by PriceGrabber in February said they would use the iPad primarily as an e-reader. Twenty percent would use it mainly as another "mobile productivity device," 19% as a replacement for a laptop or a netbook, and 10% as an entertainment device.Read more at Media Post.
You Can’t Tell a Book by its Cover if it Doesn’t Have One
You can’t tell a book by its cover if it doesn’t have one. If you notice the jackets on the books people are reading on a plane or in the park, you might decide to check out “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” or “The Help,” too. Some readers expect makers of electronic devices to add functions that allow users to broadcast what they’re reading.
“Before, you might see three people reading ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ on the subway,” said Clare Ferraro, president of Viking and Plume, imprints of Penguin Group USA. “Now you’re going to log onto Facebook and see that three of your friends are reading ‘Eat, Pray, Love.’ ”
Some digital publishers suspect that one of the reasons romance and erotica titles are so popular in electronic editions is because e-readers are discreet.
In the bookstore, where a majority of sales still take place, covers play a crucial role. A good jacket is unlikely to save a bad book, of course. But in a crowded market, a striking cover is one advantage all authors and publishers want. To get a sense of the odds, in a random analysis of 1,000 business books released last year, Codex Group, a publishing consultant, found that only 62 sold more than 5,000 copies.
“We often get requests to make the type bigger,” said Mario J. Pulice, creative director for the adult trade division of Little, Brown & Company. “Because when it’s on Amazon, you can’t read the author’s name.”
Read more at the New York Times.
“Before, you might see three people reading ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ on the subway,” said Clare Ferraro, president of Viking and Plume, imprints of Penguin Group USA. “Now you’re going to log onto Facebook and see that three of your friends are reading ‘Eat, Pray, Love.’ ”
Some digital publishers suspect that one of the reasons romance and erotica titles are so popular in electronic editions is because e-readers are discreet.
In the bookstore, where a majority of sales still take place, covers play a crucial role. A good jacket is unlikely to save a bad book, of course. But in a crowded market, a striking cover is one advantage all authors and publishers want. To get a sense of the odds, in a random analysis of 1,000 business books released last year, Codex Group, a publishing consultant, found that only 62 sold more than 5,000 copies.
“We often get requests to make the type bigger,” said Mario J. Pulice, creative director for the adult trade division of Little, Brown & Company. “Because when it’s on Amazon, you can’t read the author’s name.”
Read more at the New York Times.
Tuesday, March 30
Using Mobile Phones To Broadcast News
Voice of the Village is a rural news bulletin in India which uses a mobile phone as the broadcast medium. The news is generated by the villagers and broadcast in their local dialect by native journalists, something which was previously not possible because of widespread illiteracy, rendering newspapers and SMS alerts ineffective. It focuses on hyperlocal news reported by local citizen journalists. Below is a video showing the tribal citizens using cell phones to produce local news.
Twitter Rises in Venezuela
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's opponents have jumped on the use of Twitter and other social networking sites. The closing down of a popular private television network triggered street protests rallied by #freevenezuela messages that became the fourth most commented "trending topic" on Twitter worldwide for February.
The microblogging site has seen an explosive rise in usage in Venezuela to more than 200,000 active accounts. With growth of over 1,000 percent in 2009, Venezuela now has one of the highest rates per capita of Twitter users in Latin America.
When Chavez came to power in 1999, Internet access was a privilege of the rich and only 5.8 percent of Venezuelans used it. But thanks in part to the government's own efforts -- it launched thousands of free Internet centers in the country's poorest and most remote shantytowns -- access has shot up.
Read more at Reuters.
The microblogging site has seen an explosive rise in usage in Venezuela to more than 200,000 active accounts. With growth of over 1,000 percent in 2009, Venezuela now has one of the highest rates per capita of Twitter users in Latin America.
When Chavez came to power in 1999, Internet access was a privilege of the rich and only 5.8 percent of Venezuelans used it. But thanks in part to the government's own efforts -- it launched thousands of free Internet centers in the country's poorest and most remote shantytowns -- access has shot up.
Read more at Reuters.
Algorithms Reporting the News
Algorithms producing journalism? What might sound like a futuristic setting is already becoming reality. Last week the sports statistics website StatSheet announced a plan to produce completely automated sports content as of this summer. And in a partnership with the Medill school of journalism, the Intelligent Information Laboratory of the McCormick School of Engineering at Northwestern University has developed an algorithm called StatsMonkey that publishes game stories.
The Laboratory is also interested in programming algorithms to cover local stories. As the local news outlets are struggling to stay alive, they might have better chances if they can expand their news coverage.
There are a lot of topics on the table. Should it be made transparent if a text is written by a human or an algorithm? Who controls what the algorithms finds? Is an algorithm more or less open to influence than a journalist? And as the algorithm partly uses what was already written, what happens with copyright? And last but not least, assumed the programming is getting better: do algorithms steal the work of journalists - or help them to cope with information overload?
Read more at The Guardian or watch this video of virtual news put together by researchers at Northwestern' McCormick School of Engineering.
The Laboratory is also interested in programming algorithms to cover local stories. As the local news outlets are struggling to stay alive, they might have better chances if they can expand their news coverage.
There are a lot of topics on the table. Should it be made transparent if a text is written by a human or an algorithm? Who controls what the algorithms finds? Is an algorithm more or less open to influence than a journalist? And as the algorithm partly uses what was already written, what happens with copyright? And last but not least, assumed the programming is getting better: do algorithms steal the work of journalists - or help them to cope with information overload?
Read more at The Guardian or watch this video of virtual news put together by researchers at Northwestern' McCormick School of Engineering.
3-D at Home
Television makers now are racing to bring multidimensional viewing to the living room. There are forecasts that consumers will buy 3.5 million to 4 million such sets, or about 10 percent of all US television sales, this year. But that may be optimistic. Different and incompatible technologies mean that one maker’s glasses, for example, cannot be used on another’s television model. The glasses go for around $150. The high-definition TVs can be switched from 2-D to 3-D with the push of a button.
Read more at the New York Times.
Read more at the New York Times.
Monday, March 29
Slight Uptick In Radio, Newspapers Slide
Radio and newspapers will see their fortunes diverge in 2010, according to analysts. They have muted optimism for the near-term prospects of broadcast radio, but warned of a fresh round of declines for newspapers.
BIA/Kelsey predicts that radio ad revenues will increase about 1.5% from $13.7 billion in 2009 to $13.9 billion this year. However, this doesn't come close to offsetting the 18.4% drop noted by BIA/Kelsey in 2008-2009, when revenues tumbled $3.1 billion from $16.8 billion. On the more positive side, the same forecast sees an annual growth rate of 2% to 4% over the following years, and a 16.5% average annual growth rate for online ad revenues beginning this year.
Newspapers face another grim year according to J.P. Morgan, which predicts an 8% decline in newspaper ad revenues in 2010 compared to 2009 -- making this the fifth straight year of declines for the newspaper business. The loss will be driven by a modest decline in retail ad revenues paired with another 10% drop in classifieds. J.P. Morgan forecasts a total revenue decline of 8.4% at McClatchy.
Figures released by The Newspaper Association of America show in just four years, total newspaper ad revenues have declined from a peak of $49.43 billion in 2005 to $27.6 billion in 2009 -- a decline of almost $22 billion, or 44.1%.
Read More at Media Daily News.
BIA/Kelsey predicts that radio ad revenues will increase about 1.5% from $13.7 billion in 2009 to $13.9 billion this year. However, this doesn't come close to offsetting the 18.4% drop noted by BIA/Kelsey in 2008-2009, when revenues tumbled $3.1 billion from $16.8 billion. On the more positive side, the same forecast sees an annual growth rate of 2% to 4% over the following years, and a 16.5% average annual growth rate for online ad revenues beginning this year.
Newspapers face another grim year according to J.P. Morgan, which predicts an 8% decline in newspaper ad revenues in 2010 compared to 2009 -- making this the fifth straight year of declines for the newspaper business. The loss will be driven by a modest decline in retail ad revenues paired with another 10% drop in classifieds. J.P. Morgan forecasts a total revenue decline of 8.4% at McClatchy.
Figures released by The Newspaper Association of America show in just four years, total newspaper ad revenues have declined from a peak of $49.43 billion in 2005 to $27.6 billion in 2009 -- a decline of almost $22 billion, or 44.1%.
Read More at Media Daily News.
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