Amazon has announced its new GameCircle feature for the Kindle Fire that offers gaming leaderboards and achievements.
“GameCircle allows you to track your in-game awards, view leaderboards, and save your game progress online,” reports PCWorld.
It is currently available for developers and is expected to launch with Kindle Fire games in the coming weeks.
“GameCircle has echoes of OpenFeint and Apple’s Game Center, but Amazon’s feature doesn’t appear to have the same social features as the other platforms,” notes the article. “Amazon didn’t mention anything about a social component where you can connect with friends to share games and view a friends-only leaderboard similar to Game Center.”
A centralized gaming feature has become a must-have for mobile platforms. Amazon’s rollout may be an indicator that it plans to launch its own smartphone and expand its mobile offerings.
Microsoft has filed a patent application that suggests the company “may be looking to release its next Xbox in multiple configurations, each with varying hardware power and capabilities,” according to Ars Technica.
The patent is for “Scalable Multimedia Computer System Architecture With QOS [Quality Of Service] Guarantees,” and describes a design for a system capable of “allowing platform services to scale over time.”
“Those ‘platform services’ include pretty much everything the hardware does besides directly running games — everything from maintaining the basic operating system, handling network traffic, and interpreting inputs to potentially streaming content to nearby tablets or recording TV shows,” explains the article.
The company is calling this a new “communication fabric” framework that “would let the system allocate computing resources more flexibly between platform and application tasks concurrently, while also ensuring that the game-playing portion doesn’t dip below a certain quality threshold,” notes Ars Technica.
This would allow Microsoft to develop multiple hardware configurations of the same basic system, that allow for additional platform features.
Additional platform services might help convert the game console into a general purpose computer capable of running an operating system like Windows, accessing the Internet via a browser, and offering audiovisual applications, word processing and more.
OUYA is a $99 Android-powered game console designed to plug into televisions. The project went live via Kickstarter this week and in its first day attracted more than $2.5 million in funding.
“We get it — smartphones and tablets are getting all the new titles — they’re ‘what’s hot,'” explains the OUYA Kickstarter page. “The console market is pushing developers away. We’ve seen a brain drain: some of the best, most creative gamemakers are focused on mobile and social games because those platforms are more developer-friendly.”
“It’s time we brought back innovation, experimentation, and creativity to the big screen,” adds the site. “Let’s make the games less expensive to make, and less expensive to buy. With all our technological advancements, shouldn’t costs be going down? Gaming could be cheaper!”
“In addition to running Android applications, OUYA is going to carry a ton of games that you can play for free,” reports Business Insider. “Developers, by default, have to make part of their games free to play.”
Its original goal was to raise $950,000 as a Kickstarter project. By this morning, it had raised more than $4.3 million.
In a related post, Penny Arcade is skeptical of the hype surrounding OUYA: “There is almost no information about the state of production hardware, and in fact nearly everything about the system seems to be in flux. The Kickstarter page contradicts itself on some points, and many of the images and statements seem to be intentionally misleading.”
The Apertus Project, which seeks to build an open source digital cinema camera, was introduced at the Libre Software Meeting in Geneva this week. This will become a Kickstarter-funded project to create both the hardware and software.
The “Axiom” camera will have 4K resolution, a Super 35mm sensor, global shutter, up to 15 F-stops of dynamic range, high speed capture at full resolution, Cinema DNG raw recording and a target price of $10,000.
The project seeks to build a community of artists, engineers, filmmakers and programmers from around the world to work together in the development.
Work has already begun on various components and software elements. Take a look at the video which provides an overview.
There are discussions underway to create an Apertus Foundation, a non-profit organization.
The group already has a partnership with Dynamic Perception which is funding part of the development. The Apertus camera will work seamlessly with Dynamic Perception motion control systems.
Movie recommendation engines from Netflix and Amazon assume a solitary movie viewing experience, but start-up Foundd allows up to five friends to combine their movie preferences to find common viewing ground across multiple catalogs.
Users rate movies during a short “getting to know you” quiz and then connect to friends via Facebook or Twitter.
“Netflix has put a lot of effort into predicting how much I’ll like every one of their movies,” says Foundd CEO Lasse Clausen. “But as a user, I don’t really care whether I’ll dislike a movie with 2.3 or with 2.35 stars, that doesn’t help me find a good movie. Foundd focuses on giving more accurate predictions over a smaller number of movies and those that the user will really like.”
“A ton of companies are working on recommendations around video and movies,” notes TechCrunch. “But the idea to match up personalized recommendations within a small group is still somewhat novel. And handy.”
Clausen hopes that in the future Foundd’s algorithm will include games, books, Internet video and apps. Multiple platforms would allow for a more nuanced and complete rating and recommendation system.
Successful retargeting platform AdRoll — currently used by more than 4,000 brands — received $15 million in new funding this week, which the company plans to use for expansion in the U.S. and overseas. AdRoll also plans a bigger push in events and entertainment.
According to the AdRoll site: “Generally 2 percent of shoppers convert on the first visit to an online store. Retargeting brings back the other 98 percent. Retargeting works by keeping track of people who visit your site and displaying your retargeting ads to them as they visit other sites online.”
The platform works by placing a “JavaScript tag in the footer of your website. This code creates a list of people that visit your site by placing anonymous retargeting ‘cookies’ in their browser. This list allows AdRoll (or other retargeting vendors) to display retargeting ads to your potential customers as they visit other sites.”
Aaron Bell, the company’s CEO, explains that while the industry has emphasized retail, he sees opportunities for movies, gaming, sporting events and business-to-business marketing.
“In entertainment, he said, gaming companies are leading the pack by targeting ads for new titles to people who have purchased other games,” reports GigaOM. “But he said he expects activity to pick up among other traditional entertainment verticals, like movie studios.”
“If a person watches a trailer of movie at one point in time, the studio could target them again later when the movie has hit the theaters to prompt them to buy tickets,” adds the post.
ETCentric staffer Phil Lelyveld notes that this company’s business echoes one piece of the ETC’s Hyper-Personalized Entertainment Offer project plan (formerly Big Data/Metadata).
In an effort to offer its guests the latest in amenities, a boutique hotel in downtown Vancouver is replacing its obsolete room phones with Apple’s iPhone.
“The Opus Hotel in Vancouver’s trendy Yaletown neighborhood is in the process of making the switch to iPhones, figuring that guests — especially those from the USA — will know how to use them and appreciate having a Canadian phone to eliminate international roaming fees on their personal phones,” reports USA Today.
Guests are free to take their room’s iPhone with them for Internet and phone connectivity as they roam Vancouver.
“The phone will also keep them connected to the hotel, since each iPhone is programmed with one-touch contacts for each of the hotel’s departments, whether the concierge, housekeeping or room service,” notes the article. “Local calls are complimentary.”
In March, Opus Vancouver became the first hotel in Canada to provide its guests with an iPad 2 (available in each room, programmed with an iPad Virtual Concierge). Since the hotel opted for the 3G version, guests don’t have to worry about Wi-Fi hotspots when they take their iPad around the city.
Opus Vancouver was voted Trendiest Hotel in Canada and fifth in the world by TripAdvisor’s Travelers Choice Awards 2012. It also earned Best of Business Travel 2011 in the Conde Nast Traveler World Business Poll.
In addition to iPhones and iPads, the rooms feature Herman Miller ergonomic chairs and Aquos LCD TVs. Guests also have access to complimentary bicycles.
Twitter’s profound impact on journalism not only increases the pace of the news cycle, but can influence how writers decide to deliver their stories. For example, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst once chose his lead based on the robust response to a tweet.
While only 15 percent of adults who are active online use Twitter, 31 percent of Internet users ages 18-24 use the network. This has led to ESPN identifying Twitter as an important tool for the future.
The condensed news cycle means writers have little to no time to craft a story. Sometimes, reporters even write their stories directly on Twitter, 140 characters at a time.
“It can make you look like you’re vacillating or changing your mind, when in fact you’re reporting” explains ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
Twitter causes some uneasy relationships between employees and employers, as personalities who build large followings sometimes focus more on their individual brand rather than promoting the company.
For example, Bill Simmons built his 1.75 million Twitter followers thanks in part to his prominent position at ESPN, but his Twitter home page does not mention any affiliation with ESPN. Rather, Simmons enjoys having his own brand.
A new Bravo reality show about Silicon Valley is currently in production and scheduled for a winter release, thus far to mixed reactions from those working in the tech hub.
When details first leaked, many were concerned the show might trivialize the important work being done in the tech community. “Yuck, please stay in LA,” tweeted Kevin Rose, an entrepreneur and venture capitalist, to his million-plus followers.
“The valley may be even more upset when it sees how well the final product captures the raucous reality of the tech industry in 2012,” reports The New York Times.
The series “shows hard-partying youngsters vying to start companies in a frenzy reminiscent of the dot-com peak of 2000,” where instant riches seem the goal, suggests the article.
The show’s idea came from, in part, the successful 2010 film “The Social Network” about Facebook’s founding and subsequent challenges and triumphs.
Some Silicon Valley executives and employees are offended by the notion that the area and industry are all about partying rich kids, claiming that it can often take much more than that to put it all on the line to start a company and harvest a good idea. There is often significant risk before the potential reward.
Arianna Huffington’s popular Huffington Post will launch HuffPost Live, its full-day online video network, on August 13.
“The new network, whose launch comes shortly after Huffington Post started a digital magazine, is the most ambitious expansion by the website since it was acquired by AOL Inc. last year,” reports the Wall Street Journal. “HuffPost Live, whose main studio will be in New York, will run 12 hours every weekday, with highlights after hours and on weekends.”
Huffington has hired 100 staffers, including veterans from networks such as ABC, CNN and al-Jazeera English.
Rather than including traditional commercial breaks, the network plans to introduce new models for advertising. “Up to five sponsors will be able to have their brand woven into the fabric of the HuffPost Live broadcast itself, by doing things like naming elements of the programming,” explains WSJ.
“So if the brand is about speed and efficiency, they might be part of a speed debate round on HuffPost Live,” says Janet Balis, publisher of Huffington Post Media Group. “There is no programming that we will create that we would not have had as part of the show without the advertiser.”
Cadillac has signed as the program’s first launch partner. The company will promote its new, small ATS model with the aim of attracting “a type of market segment that would seem to have a good connection with new digital media ideas,” according to spokesman David Caldwell.
The network will also earn money by selling display advertising on the network’s main page.
HuffPost Live plans to focus on commentary. “We’re not trying to report the news,” explains Roy Sekoff, a founding editor of Huffington Post and head of the network. “We are trying to have conversations that the news inspires.”
CNET reviews the Acer Aspire S5, which it describes as “an incredibly thin and light ultrabook that hides its ports, including Thunderbolt, behind a clever motorized door.”
The S5 is thinner and lighter than the 13-inch MacBook Air. The ultrabook is a mere 15mm thick and weighs only 2.6 pounds, while touting an Intel Core i7 CPU.
The review notes that if the mechanical door ever malfunctions, users would be left with a limited laptop. Another concern is that the keyboard is not backlit. Also, the laptop only has a 1,366×768 pixel resolution, which is a bit low for a $1,399 laptop.
The review additionally notes that the battery life could be better. The S5 ran for 4 hours and 37 minutes during a CNET video-playback battery test.
Despite its flaws, the Acer Aspire S5’s strikingly slim frame and weight make it worth a purchase for many mobile users, according to the review.
“What I’d love to see is a version of the S5 that stays as thin and light, but skips the gimmicky motorized flap, perhaps adding a millimeter or two to fit in the USB and HDMI ports,” reports CNET. “The MagicFlip can’t be an inexpensive part to include. Dropping it might allow Acer to bring the price down closer to $1,000, where it would be much harder to resist.”
Unable to agree on terms for a new contract, more than a dozen Viacom channels were pulled from DirecTV on Wednesday.
DirecTV customers lost access to Comedy Central, BET, Nickelodeon, MTV, VH1, Comedy Central and other cable channels owned by Viacom.
Viacom claims it is seeking “only a couple pennies per day, per subscriber,” while DirecTV has countered that Viacom is pushing for “customers to pay more than a 30 percent increase, which equates to an extra $1 billion.”
“On DirecTV’s side, it’s claiming it sent proposals but never heard anything back and as such was forced to pull the channels,” reports Engadget. “Viacom has been running ads and notices all day to make sure kids big and little call DirecTV to apply pressure about missing their television shows.”
“The two companies blamed each other for the blackout, which began around midnight as a result of a dispute over a new carriage contract for the Viacom-owned channels,” reports The New York Times. “About 20 million households are affected, representing one-fifth of all the nation’s subscribers to cable or satellite television service.”
DirecTV is suggesting that customers access Viacom content online and via services such as Amazon Prime or Netflix until the situation can be resolved.
“Viacom took action to make that more difficult Wednesday afternoon — not just for DirecTV customers, but for all Internet users,” according to NYT. “The company took episodes of ‘The Daily Show,’ ‘The Colbert Report’ and some other popular shows off its Web sites.”
In an effort to rally public support, Viacom posted an image of Nickelodeon’s SpongeBob SquarePants on Facebook with the accompanying quote, “Who lives in a pineapple under the sea? I don’t know. I have DirecTV.” However, initial public complaints seem to be directed at both companies.
The European Commission aims to reform music licensing revenue collection with standardized methods of collection across European borders.
The Commission’s press release explains “new digital technologies are opening up great opportunities for creators, consumers and businesses alike,” but notes that many European nations currently employ inadequate licensing laws.
All 27 European Union member states have iTunes, but the Apple service only accounts for 19 percent of music revenue sales in Europe. Comparatively, iTunes “generates almost half of equivalent revenue in the U.S., according to figures from the IFPI industry body,” reports The Verge.
“The proposed changes would force collecting societies to comply with strict new standards, including a requirement to publish an annual transparency report,” notes the post. “The ultimate aim is to prevent situations where societies are too disorganized or ill-equipped to engage in international revenue collection, choosing to simply restrict distribution instead of offering suitable licenses.”
“All collecting societies should ensure that creators are rewarded more quickly for their work and must operate with full transparency,” says Michel Barnier, commissioner for Internal Market and Services. “This is paramount to sustaining investment in creativity and innovation which will in turn lead to additional growth and increased competitiveness.”
“The U.S. judge who tossed out one of the biggest court cases in Apple Inc’s smartphone technology battle is questioning whether patents should cover software or most other industries at all,” reports Reuters.
“Richard Posner, a prolific jurist who sits on the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago, told Reuters this week that the technology industry’s high profits and volatility made patent litigation attractive for companies looking to wound competitors.”
Posner effectively ended Apple’s lawsuit against Google’s Motorola Mobility last month. “He canceled a closely anticipated trial between the two and rejected the iPhone maker’s request for an injunction barring the sale of Motorola products using Apple’s patented technology,” explains the article.
Posner suggests that the proliferation of patents in the software realm is a problem. “It’s not clear that we really need patents in most industries,” he says.
However, he notes that some industries, such as pharmaceuticals, “had a better claim to intellectual property protection because of the enormous investment it takes to create a successful drug,” reports Reuters.
In canceling the Apple-Motorola trial, “Posner said an injunction barring the sale of Motorola phones would harm consumers. He also rejected the idea of trying to ban an entire phone based on patents that cover individual features like the smooth operation of streaming video,” according to the report.
Posner wrote that Apple’s patent “is not a claim to a monopoly of streaming video!”
Not all judges share Posner’s view of the patent wars. Last week, for example, U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in California granted Apple two pretrial injunctions against Samsung regarding the Galaxy Tab and Galaxy Nexus phone, specifically citing Apple’s patent for the Siri search feature. Samsung is appealing the injunctions.
According to a Reuters report: “Congress is considering whether companies that hold patents essential to a standard, such as a digital movie format, should be forbidden from asking that infringing products be banned from the U.S. market.”
The Senate Judiciary Committee will discuss the antitrust impact of sales bans this week, and will hear testimony from members of the Federal Trade Commission and Justice Department.
As is standard now, the companies holding these essential patents are expected to license them, even to competitors, on fair terms. “The expectation is they will make less on each license, but will license the technology so broadly that the patent will still be extremely lucrative,” details Reuters.
But as lawsuits and competition related to smartphones have increased in number and intensity, Motorola Mobility (recently purchased by Google) has even asked for sales bans on products that infringe on some of these essential patents.
“The FTC, in recent comments to the International Trade Commission, which can ban infringing products from the U.S. market, warned that the owners of standard essential patents can sometimes demand too much for licensing fees and use the considerable threat of an injunction to win unreasonable rates. It urged the ITC to refrain from barring infringing products from the U.S. market if the patent in question is essential to an industry standard,” according to the article.
But Motorola Mobility argues that such bans will help to prevent rivals and competition from refusing to pay licensing fees.
