Author: Jeff Morgan (Page 161 of 168)

      Apple, Google Under Investigation by the FTC

      May 5, 2009 /

      Google and Apple: Match made in hell?The Federal Trade Commission is taking a closer look at the Apple-Google relationship, with particular regard to their board members, to see if the pair is in violation of antitrust laws.

      Google and Apple share board members Eric Schmidt (CEO at Google) and Arthur Levinson (former Genentech CEO). The FTC will attempt to determine whether having both men on both boards hurts competition in the marketplace.

      News like this always cracks me up. We’re talking about two giants here, companies so big that there’s really no way they aren’t limiting a competitive marketplace in some way. Not that the two don’t do any good. I’m a shameless user of the products and services both companies provide, and for the most part I’ve had a solid experience with both. Suggesting that two men sitting two boards does any more to damage the marketplace seems more like a stunt by the FTC, as though they’re saying, “no really, guys, we are paying attention.”

      Source: InformationWeek

      Apple, News

      Apple: Hate Your Parents, Don’t Hate Us

      May 5, 2009 /

      Parental controls keep dead babies out of kids' hands.There’s been much ado about Apple’s iPhone application approval process of late, mostly surrounding the Baby Shaker app and Trent Reznor’s NIN app. Both applications feature “objectionable content,” though one is probably more widely objectionable than the other. It seems like Apple may have learned from iTunes though, and they’re passing the censor scepter to someone else: parents.

      With the iPhone OS 3.0 release comes parental controls, giving adults everywhere the ability to add more you-can’t-tell-me-what-to-dos to their certainly heaping collection. By putting censorship in the hands of the user, Apple can open the app store to more mature content, which, as Gizmodo notes, will be necessary if they want to make a serious push toward gaming. Of course, Apple will probably still avoid apps like Baby Shaker. Corporate associations with dead babies just can’t be good for business.

      Apple, Apps, iPhone, Mobile

      Myst Hits the iPhone

      May 4, 2009 /

      Myst hits the iPhone.Cyan Worlds has reportedly ported their mega-classic mind bender, Myst, to the iPhone. As a long time Myst fan, this is definitely great news. I’m also impressed to see that they pared the thing down to 700mb. That seems like a lot, but Myst felt huge, and running it on new hardware has got to take some serious space.

      As for gameplay, the experience should be fairly flawless. Cyan reworked the controls for a simple touch navigation. They’ve also added auto-saves, bookmarking, and quick access to the game’s hint guide.

      Source: Joystiq

      Apple, Gaming, iPhone, Mobile

      Century’s 3-in-1 USB Dock Expands Netbooks

      May 4, 2009 /

      Century's 3-in-1 USB dock.As netbooks continue to shrink, so does their collective feature list. Hard drives are smaller, batteries can’t last as long, optical drives are completely out of the question. Century hopes to bring back some functionality with their 3-in-1 USB docking station.

      The dock comes with a standard CD/DVD drive built in, along with an internal SATA port for adding a hard drive. The unit also has a 4cm fan for…cooling the netbook? I’m not real sure why they added that last feature. Even if its miniscule, it just means more power being drawn from the netbook’s battery, and isn’t battery life one of the biggest issues?

      There’s definitely a gap between reducing a tech’s scale and maintaining efficiency in that new scale. Until the two merge, I’m sure we’ll continue to see stopgap gadgets like this one.

      Souce: Everything USB

      Computers, Mobile

      The Next Next-Gen Starts in 2013 – Who’s Ready?

      May 3, 2009 /

      The Next Next-Gen War?This spring’s console sales decline has plenty of people (including myself) wondering when the next generation is coming. According to Wedbush Morgan’s Michael Pachter, we’re going to be waiting a while. Pachter thinks we won’t see new hardware until 2013 at the earliest, citing profit margins that have yet to catch up to manufacturer’s expectations.

      The good news is extended console life-cycles mean more time for developers to learn each generation’s ticks and tricks. The bad news? Developers are left guessing just as much as we are. Ubisoft’s CEO is recommending everyone start beefing up, investing in new blood and new toys to handle the next generation now. Nothing pays like preparation, but four years of it? Four years that could be spent making new games? Better games?

      This is the paradox that makes me rub my temples. I still think games could be better, and much better. They could certainly look better, which means better hardware, or possibly more intelligent use of the current hardware. Of course, games could also play better, have more intuitive control schemes, more immersive gameplay, which means more time for developers to learn the hardware and adapt to its possibilities/limitations.

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      Gaming, microsoft, News

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