I’ve said it time and again on these pages: I’m a gaming fanatic. I’ve been playing video games my entire life, and have enjoyed everything from the arcade to console titles to handheld games. But we’re living in a different world now. And one of my favorite gaming exploits — handheld — seems to be succumbing to a slow and agonizing death.
Microsoft got credit for ripping up Windows Mobile 6.5 and hitting the reset button: unfortunately it seems to be trying to do the same with Windows Phone 8, leaving early-adopters behind. The news from the Windows Phone Summit today that existing handsets won’t get WP8 but will, instead, get a partial upgrade called Windows Phone 7.8 with the new Metro Start Screen but not much else means everyone who has supported Microsoft and its OEM partners so far can’t expect much in the way of software longevity.
The Kraken awakes. Microsoft’s Surface tablets turned out to be a surprisingly direct attack on the iPad, rather than the segment-tweaking workarounds that had been predicted: not a gaming-focused Xbox slate, or a pared-back multimedia and ebook device, but an all-out assault on the market that, in the past few years, Apple has made its own. With two variants of Surface, however, Microsoft has hedged its bets a little. Is the stylus still relevant, has the finger taken over, or is the keyboard simply refusing to be dislodged?
There was a time, not long ago, that Vizio was the talk of the tech town. The company was delivering low-priced televisions, its market share was soaring, and by all accounts, it was well on its way to becoming one of the most prominent firms in the marketplace. Vizio’s success was so strong that its business model was being celebrated by nearly everyone.
Mention Psion among geeks of a certain age and you’re likely to trigger a lengthy conversation about how they had – or coveted – one of the company’s iconic Series 3 or Series 5 PDAs in the 90s. Known for their innovative QWERTY keyboard design and futuristic – for the time – functionality, you arguably couldn’t call yourself a proper mobile enthusiast if you didn’t own one at some point. So, you’d be forgiven for the briefest, misty-eyed reminiscimoment at the news today that Motorola Solutions is buying up the company in a $200m deal. Problem is, the wrong Motorola bought Psion.
Prior to the Worldwide Developers Conference keynote Apple hosted on Monday, there were several reports that surfaced saying the company would launch a software development kit for the Apple TV. The reports reasoned that Apple is trying to extend the usability of its Apple TV, and can use that with help from third-party apps.
The madness has been and gone: Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference 2012 begins in earnest today, but the opening keynote has already seen Apple show one of its key strengths in the industry. WWDC is a very different scene from the other high profile events we’ve come to expect on Apple’s calendar. Unlike the iPod, iPhone and iPad launches, and the impromptu Mac revelations, the keynote isn’t a stand-alone moment but the gateway to a week of what Apple arguably does best: blend hardware and software together.
Apple‘s annual developer event may kick off in just a few hours time but the rumor machine has been busy for months, churning out delicious chunks of speculation and hype. A new line of slinky MacBook Pro notebooks, blistering Mac Pro desktops, great swathes of iOS 6 and even a fresh iPhone have all been tipped for the opening WWDC 2012 keynote, each with their retinue of rumor and counter-rumor. As Tim Cook’s moment on stage approaches, though, it’s looking more and more possible that we’ve built ourselves up for more disappointment.
Rumors ahead of Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference 2012 (WWDC 2012) are flying thick and fast, with speculation, leaks and rumors all mounting as to what Tim Cook & Co. will reveal in the opening keynote. Apple puts on a good show, that’s for certain, but it’s sometimes more interesting to look at what doesn’t make it to the stage than what products and services get their moment under the spotlight. Could this be the inflexion point for some old favorites, and how do the pre-show whispers fit in?
E3 is an interesting event – it’s a cross between CES and Comicon. Technically, it is an “industry” event not open to the public, but apparently if you work at a Gamestop you qualify as “industry.” Were people dressed up in costume? Yep. Were there scantily clad booth babes? Lots. One company just outside the convention center had women in bikinis posing for photos as a tie-in with their… no, it was entirely gratuitous. Did people stand in line for hours to get cheap SWAG? Absolutely. In fact, the lines were far longer to get free Oswald Rabbit ear hats in the Disney booth than to play games on the Wii U in Nintendo’s booth. That sort of blew my mind: you get the chance to go hands on with unreleased hardware and software and instead you wait for a silly hat? And yet E3 is not a gaming festival – there was plenty of actual news at the show.
LinkedIn, eHarmony and Last.fm: three sites with little in common beyond, this week, the painful and embarrassing task of telling users that their personal information may well have been compromised. It’s an increasingly widespread chore, too, as we drop our details into just about any new service that catches our eye. It’s about time for a new attitude toward online history: a digital scorched-earth policy, as it were. Try, certainly, but then destroy.
Nintendo earlier this week held a keynote address at the E3 gaming expo. And although the company showed off a new Super Mario Bros. game, some 3DS titles, and a new Wii Fit, the big story out of the event was that the Wii U is in deep, deep trouble.
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