Sticking around: Apple design chief Jony Ive buys $17 million home in SF

Jony Ive, Apple's vice president of industrial design, appears to have put to bed rumors of a move back to his native Britain with the purchase of a luxury home in San Francsico for $17 million.

Apple design chief Jony Ive has reportedly just bought a property in San Francisco’s exclusive ‘Gold Coast’ neighborhood  for $17 million. The is likely to end speculation suggesting Ive wanted to move himself and his family back to his native Britain.

The house, which was built in 1927 and has six bedrooms and eight bathrooms, went on the market back in February for $25 million, people familiar with the deal told the Wall Street Journal. Apple’s vice president of industrial design will be able to enjoy sweeping views across the San Francisco Bay from the back of his 7,274-square-foot property.

Located close to Alta Plaza Park, the house also has an oak-paneled library and six wood-burning fireplaces. According to the WSJ, one of its upstairs bedrooms has “cathedral ceilings with exposed beams.”

Ive is the man widely credited for the design of some of the Cupertino company’s most iconic products, including the iPod, iPhone and iPad as well as its range of computers, such as the MacBook Air.

He started working for Apple in 1992, though, according to Walter Isaacson’s Steve Jobs biography, was on the verge of quitting five years later, concerned that profit was taking precedence over product design. Jobs persuaded him to stay.

“Ive and Jobs would soon forge a bond that would lead to the greatest industrial design collaboration of their era,” Isaacson wrote.

 In May, 45-year-old Ive made a trip to the UK to receive a special honour from the Queen for services to design and enterprise.

Early last year, rumors were circulating that Ive was considering a move back to his native Britain because he wanted his children to attend school there. However, Apple execs reportedly said that if he returned, he wouldn’t be able to keep his position within the company.

The move to the new place in San Francisco indicates that Ive is in with the tech giant for the long term, a prospect that is sure to please Apple fans everywhere.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Reborn adventure series Broken Sword: The Serpent’s Curse seeks $400K on Kickstarter

Charles Cecil's much-loved 2D mystery series Broken Sword is back with The Serpent's Curse.

Back in June, we reported that Britain’s Revolution Software and adventure gaming auteur Charles Cecil were gearing up to make a new game in their Broken Sword series. Turns out those rumors were true: Revolution opened a Kickstarter campaign on Thursday raising funds for the development of Broken Sword: The Serpent’s Curse, the first entry in the series since 2006’s Broken Sword: The Angel of Death.

Unlike Angel of Death, Broken Sword 5 will return to the rich 2D animation of the earlier games in the series. Artists that have worked with Nickelodeon, Disney, Dreamworks, Sony and others are going to provide the visuals for Broken Sword’s first original HD outing. Veteran voice actors, including Rolf Saxon who voices lead George, will return for the new game.

Speaking of George, he and his constant companion Nico are once again caught up in a Parisian mystery in Serpent’s Curse. It all starts with a stolen painting but the adventure becomes a “race against time as dark forces from Europe’s turbulent past are woken from their slumber.” Sounds like Templar trouble to me.

Like Brian Fargo’s InXile Entertainment and its new RPG Wasteland 2, Revolution turned to Kickstarter due to trouble finding adequate funding in the traditional video game publishing world. Unlike InXile though, the issue hasn’t been finding publishers willing to pay for the game, but finding publishers willing to share the profits. “Revolution adventures have had considerable success—but the traditional publishing model has prevented us receiving the required royalties to fund future games. With limited financial reserves we have been unable to fund our own titles and so we have not benefitted from their success.”

Revolution is aiming to raise $400,000. As of this writing, the campaign hasn’t been open for 24 hours and it’s already raised nearly $110,000.

Broken Sword: The Serpent’s Curse is just the latest point-and-click adventure success story on Kickstarter. Al Lowe’s Leisure Suit Larry rebirth raised $650,000 in April. Gabriel Knight creator Jane Jensen raised $435,000 in May, funding three games including Moebius in the process.

It’s great to see Broken Sword back in action, especially hand animated rather than as a polygonal game like Angel of Death. Something from Revolution’s world is lost when rendered in the third-dimension.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com