The name less traveled by: Sony to stick with 4K while the industry turns to Ultra High Definition

Is Sony being stubborn by refusing to conform to the industry standard and use the Ultra High Definition denomination?

Just after news broke that the CEA had standardized the “Ultra High Definition” moniker for the products formerly known as 4K TVs, so too did the news that Sony would be sticking with the 4K title. It would be easy to dismiss this as Sony being obstinate, and to argue that 4K is now a misnomer, but many are sympathizing with the company’s position, which is that it doesn’t want to confuse its customers with the switcheroo.

Its not difficult to understand how Sony’s competitors could be worried about the prospect of their own customers improperly drawing a distinction between Ultra High Definition TVs and 4K TVs. Analysts, however, have also pointed out that, with 8K technology in the pipeline, the industry shouldn’t be using penultimate sobriquets for technologies that could eventually be usurped. It’s also clear that Sony has simply attached the 4K term to more products than virtually anyone else, and consequently, has more to lose by its being phased out. It has created 4K camera’s, a studio that delivers 4K movies, and a 4K-based post-production process, this in addition to a TV and projector that are labeled 4K. All-in-all, it’s clear the whole UHD decision presents a problem for Sony that an industrial-sized bottle of whiteout simply won’t fix.

Despite Sony’s uncomfortable position – rock on one side, hard place on the other – sometimes in business, you’re forced to bite the bullet. Microsoft’s Xbox made an enormous investment in HD-DVDs, as did its consumers - but Blu-Ray won out. A name change just isn’t that devastating to brand like Sony, and you have to wonder if it’s worth bad PR, or creating a lingering issue out of news story that should  have been one news-cycle long. Still, though the move may annoy those who initially called for the standardization, Sony says it must do what’s best for Sony; after all, you don’t become an industry leader by being afraid to go rogue once in awhile. For now, they will continue to market their existing products as 4K and they plan to attach the 4K UHD label to all future releases.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

‘Ultra High Definition’ officially replaces ’4K’ as name for next-gen TV standard

A board of industry leaders recently convened for a meeting in which it was decided that "Ultra High Definition" will replace "4K" as the name for the emerging, next-generation TV and projector technology. The decision was motivated not only by a need for a catchy, recognizable name, but also by the need to avoid potential legal issues.

If you thought the term “4K” referred to some sort of distance race, you aren’t alone. Though more and more TVs and projectors have started adopting the high-res format, most folks still had no idea that 4K was the name that had been adopted to describe what industry experts assert is the next stage in high-definition television. To end that confusion — and tackle legal and marketing issues as well — the consumer electronics industry has settled on a new name: Ultra High Definition.

On Wednesday, during a CEA-sponsored industry forum in San Francisco, a board of industry leaders convened to discuss and vote on a new name for what has been consistently referred to as “4K TV,” officially arriving at Ultra High Definition. 

You can read an in-depth report about the technology here, but here’s the crash course version: 4K refers to a television display capable of producing more than 8 million pixels of resolution. It is doubles 1080p “Full HD” resolution in width and height, with at least 3,480 pixels running horizontally and at least 2,160 pixels running vertically. It could have been called a number of things. We could call it 2160p (1080p, doubled) or we could call it QFHD (an actual term for resolution, though it lacks a certain…zing) but, 4K has never been an accurate descriptor.

 But there are marketing concerns as well. 4K doesn’t mean anything to most people, and QFHD, what the heck is that? If the industry wants to make this new technology recognizable and understandable on its name alone, it needs its name to resonate with the public at large. If HD is good, then Ultra HD, that must be better, right?Why? The term 4K infers the number 4,000. And if you’re still awake after all those numbers we just threw down, then you may have noticed that 4,000 wasn’t among them. While this may seem trivial, it isn’t. Manufacturers have taken a lot of heat and some big financial hits via class-action lawsuits over misrepresenting the size of their screens. Some TV’s advertised as “40-inches” were actually measuring as little as 38.5-inches. That works out to almost 49 square inches of missing screen real estate. The last thing TV makers need is another reason to get sued. 

Also, this decision needed to take place now — in the technology’s infancy — and swiftly, too. The last thing we need is another Blu-ray vs. HD DVD kerfuffle.  Granted, that industry nightmare involved two different types of technology, not just a name. Still, the amount of confusion it generated among consumers and their resulting reluctance to jump on board resulted in a slowed adoption of high-definition disc-based media that has resulted in a rough road for Blu-ray.

It is the industry’s hope that a clear naming convention will lead to greater mind-share and, therefore, more rapid adoption of Ultra High Definition as the technology becomes more available and, eventually, more affordable. Of course, there’s plenty more work to do to make that happen. A delivery system for Ultra High Definition content needs to be settled on and then there’s the matter of creating content in Ultra HD as well. This is just the beginning, but Ultra High Definition is on the way and we can expect to see plenty of it at CES 2013. 

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Does the RIAA even want Pandora’s golden eggs?

The same services that have helped the recording industry stamp out piracy are on the brink of starvation and death… because of the recording industry.

Streaming music services are dying.

I know, I know: By almost any metric you use, the streaming music business is actually booming. Let’s just look at the two biggest examples. Over 150 million people have signed up to hear tunes through Pandora, while another 33 million folks sing in the shower with the help of Spotify. Spotify alone sucked down over a quarter of a billion dollars — that’s billion with a “B — in revenue in 2011. Pandora’s revenues topped $100 million last quarter alone.

That’s a ton of ears and even more moolah, and those numbers should only increase as more and more people move to using mobile devices with limited storage space and free-roaming Internet abilities.

Even still, the streaming music services are dying. That’s because the one metric that matters most just so happens to be the one metric that both companies fail miserably at: actually making money. Despite those millions of customers and hundreds of millions of dollars in revenues, you see, neither Pandora nor Spotify have yet to make a single dollar’s worth of profit. And it’s not their fault.

The streaming music services are dying, choked slowly into oblivion by the overwhelming greed of the music industry.

Looking a gift horse in the mouth

By almost any metric you use, the RIAA and the rest of the American music industry should be swooning over the meteoric rise in streaming music popularity. The streaming music revenue model monetizes listeners who used to download albums off of BitTorrent and LimeWire, converting their once-illegal habits into actual income through the royalties paid by the services themselves. In a nutshell, streaming music services turn nothing into something for the RIAA and co.

Study after study has shown that having free or low-cost legal music options stamps out piracy much more efficiently than dragging illicit downloaders into court ever did. Spotify found raging success in the Scandinavian countries, for example, and those countries have seen music piracy rates drop between 25 and 50 percent since the service launched. The number of pirates continues to dwindle as time goes on.

Given that the U.S. boasts more music pirates than any other country in the world, you’d think the music industry would want to nurture the blossoming streaming music industry into maturity. And it does: In a 2012 industry report (PDF), the IFPI — International Recording Industry Association — calls streaming music “a fast-expanding business model” and notes one big potential upside. “In the à-la-carte environment, an album or track is downloaded once and paid for. In the streaming environment, a track or album may be listened to hundreds of times, each triggering a payment to rights holders.”

Streaming music is a cow that will never run out of milk. Unless, of course, the cow itself winds up dead. The music industry’s greed could very well end up doing that.

Why aren’t streaming music services making money?

It’s simple: they pay too much money out in royalties.

Pandora differs from most streaming music services in that it’s more accurately called an Internet radio station: It plays whatever music it wants, then gives the artist a royalty payment in line with what’s mandated by a government statutory license, which also imposes limits on on-demand listening and the number of times a song can be played in a set time period. The license fee works out to the greater of $0.02 per listener per hour or 25 percent of the company’s revenues.

It’s that “whichever’s greater” part that’s killing Pandora. That line forces Pandora to pay out over half its revenue in royalties, a completely unsustainable long-term business model.

Because of that, the company is lobbying hard for Congress to pass the Internet Radio Fairness Act, a bill that would allow Internet radio royalty rates to be set by a panel of judges who adjust royalties based on their commercial value, similar to what’s done for traditional cable and satellite radio. The move could drop Pandora’s royalties down to 8 to 16 percent of total revenues, a much more sustainable amount. Our Geoff Duncan already tackled the complex subject in-depth.

Conversely, the music industry backs a competing bill called the Interim FIRST ACT (PDF) that would force traditional broadcasters to pay the same high royalty rate as Internet radio stations.

Spotify and the other on-demand music streaming services handle things a bit differently. They’ve negotiated individual licensing deals with the music labels that have the services paying agreed-upon rates for streaming music. The exact amounts haven’t been disclosed, but they’re definitely steep: Spotify CEO Daniel Ek has said that 70 percent of revenues go “back into the industry,” but a recent leak of the company’s 2011 financials suggest royalty-related costs could consume a whopping 97 percent of the company’s revenue.

Streaming music: Shining brightly, but destined to fade?

No company can survive those kinds of content costs. Even more incredulously, several artists have complained that services like Spotify still don’t pay them enough, although TechDirt’s Mike Masnick — a noted intellectual property journalist — says that when a royalty collection agency studied the numbers, it found that Spotify pays a much higher royalty rate per-listen than iTunes or traditional radio.

Some analysts have suggested that running more ads would reduce the royalty burden and increase revenues for streaming music services, but as anyone who’s ever listened to the free version of Spotify can tell you, the service runs an abundance of ads — and it’s still losing money hand over fist.

It’s a complicated subject, to be sure, and it’s similar to the struggles other content providers are facing in an Internet-connected world where most digital content inevitably moves towards no cost for the end user. But here’s the rub: The music industry has already been there. Piracy ran rampant in the previous decade in the form of file-sharing, and that specter still looms large over the U.S. music scene.

Low-cost streaming music services offer artists salvation, having already proven that they can turn today’s bleak piracy-filled landscape into a profitable revenue stream for the future. But if the music industry can’t check its greed and hash out a royalty scheme that works for artists and streaming services alike, it could very well snuff out the golden egg-laying goose for good. If the two brightest streaming music stars can’t sustain, none of the services can.

But hey, look on the bright side! If Spotify and Pandora go down, there’s always BitTorrent.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

How iOS 6 is elbowing in Google and Facebook’s turf

While iOS 6 has inspired plenty of user backlash, Apple's ability to undermine and intrude on the smartphone industry should look like a threat to Google and Facebook, both of which need to make their stamp on the mobile market.

In case you were hiding under a rock, Apple recently came under some heavy criticism for replacing Google’s Map app with its own competing client, effectively wiping all things native and Google away with the iOS 6 upgrade. While Apple removed native Google products, it did just the opposite for Facebook and also integrated the social media behemoth into iTunes as well as natively into iOS 6. But despite the seemingly different approaches Apple is taking in regards these two platforms, the iOS 6 upgrade could actually pose a threat to both.

Apple’s brand remains strong

The backlash from the Maps fiasco has been palpable—users have been complaining about inaccurate addresses, missing landmarks, and a lack of public transportation information on Apple’s version of Maps. But while the premature release of Maps likely tarnished a brand synonymous with perfection, it’s also showed us how badly Apple can mess up and still see high adoption rates. It’s those numbers that, despite any user outrage, should make Google Maps — and for that matter, Facebook and its photos application (we’ll get to that shortly) — a little nervous. Apple has released so-so competitor products, and even though they might not be better and they might not be gaining a lot of early love, the iOS reputation might be enough for the brand to coast on.

Google Maps has more ground to lose

For all the flak Apple is (deservedly) getting for replacing Google Maps before it could perfect its own application, Google will likely be hit harder than Apple. Ever hear about losing the battle but winning the war? iPhone users are unlikely to give up their Apple devices and switch to an Android device simply because of an inferior map application. Instead, they will turn to other increasingly popular apps like Waze or MapQuest, and the longer it takes for Google to come out with its updated iOS app, the more comfortable users will get with the alternatives. Clearly, Google has more to lose here.

Google is reportedly planning on releasing its new iOS Maps app—despite Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt’s earlier announcement that the company hadn’t made any moves to do so. When asked about whether or not Google had immediate plans for an updated iOS 6 version, Nate Tyler, a representative at Google, says, “We believe Google Maps are the most comprehensive, accurate and easy-to-use maps in the world. Our goal is to make Google Maps available to everyone who wants to use it, regardless of device, browser, or operating system.” Tyler didn’t expand on a timeline for the new App, but a recent article in The New York Times reported that Google has plans to have its iOS 6 Maps app finished by the end of the year — and it would be wise to do so, as quickly as possible, before consumers either become comfortable with a third-party alternative or succumb to the Apple replacement. 

A Facebook photo challenger?

Much attention has been given to the iTunes integration with Facebook — which lets users see if any of their friends Like apps, music, or books they’re considering buying — as well as iOS 6’s native integration with Facebook. But the social media site is also seeing some quiet competition from Apple’s new photo-sharing and commenting feature, Photo Stream.

It hasn’t received much attention yet, but this new mechanism allows users to easily create and share multiple albums through the cloud so that photos instantly appear in a user’s photo stream without having to manually send them. Users can share photos and simultaneously add and edit albums with select individuals or groups without having to deal with privacy issues that worry many Facebook users.

Like Facebook, iOS 6 allows users to comment on and Like photos within shared albums—making engagement with this content, overall, far quicker and more seamless. Users can even create simple slideshows out of shared photos and set background music from their iTunes accounts, a touch Facebook obviously doesn’t provide.

At this stage, and with Photo Stream still somewhat under the radar, it doesn’t yet pose a real threat to the photo-sharing tools Facebook offers. Commenting on whether or not Apple’s Photo Stream could be a competitor to Facebook, Ian Broyles, developer of Versagram, says, “[It’s] not a threat to Facebook in its current form. People know how to share a photo on Facebook easily but I would guess most iOS 6 users don’t know iOS 6 even has shared Photo Stream. Also, the requirement to have an iCloud account is a big barrier to sharing photos that ‘Grandma’ can easily view.”

But it often takes time for new native apps to capture mass attention—and with 100 million iOS 6 users already, and more than 150 million iCloud users—Photo Stream has a pretty solid number of potential consumers. For now at least, Apple users have an interesting—and more personal—alternative to group photo-sharing and commenting.

Slow and steady might just win the race… again

Half-finished and unpromoted products are anything but synonymous with Apple’s brand — many even questioned whether Apple would have prematurely put out its own mapping app if Steve Jobs had still been CEO. It’s clear from Apple CEO Tim Cook’s public apology regarding the Maps fiasco and its hush-hush treatment with iCloud and Photo Streams that iOS 6 may not have been totally ready for its users.

Regardless, it’s here — and also regardless, we’re using it: 60 percent of iPhones are running iOS 6 now. With all the new iPhone 5s consumers are pocketing — five million iPhone 5s were sold within the first three days of its release — that number is only going to go up. Like always, Apple can do no wrong; or rather, it can do a lot of wrong, and we’re going to put up with it and adopt what it throws our way, and that’s something that should serve as a bit of a warning for Google Maps and Facebook Photos. Apple’s new products might not be shining now and they certainly aren’t beloved, but they will undoubtedly get used — and those are that numbers that matter in the end.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Microsoft demands the return of Xbox dev kits from the 38 Studios liquidation sale

Debtors of Curt Schilling's 38 Studios hope a liquidation auction will help them retrieve their money. Microsoft however, wants its hardware back.

If you’ve been following the gaming industry over the past year, you’ll likely recognize the name “38 Studios.” The games developer, formerly known as “Green Monster Games,” was initially notable for being founded by former Major League Baseball star Curt Schilling (seen in the image above at right), but stumbled on more recent fame due to its spectacular public collapse. While we still await the results of official investigations launched into the firm by the state of Rhode Island and the FBI (the Rhode Island attorney general’s office recently announced that it would not pursue criminal charges against 38 Studios or its founders), the company’s assets are being sent to the auction block in an effort to raise money to pay off the $75 million loan the company received from the good people of Rhode Island.

According to this listing on the website of industrial liquidation specialist SJ Corio Company, the vast majority of hardware used in 38 Studios’ day to day operations, as well as its games development plans, will be available for purchase. This will be carried out over the course of two sales (one on October 16 in Timonium, MD, and one on October 23 in Providence, RI), and prospective buyers will be given access to huge lots of office equipment, computer accessories and, most crucially for this story, an unspecified number of “Xbox 360 XDK consoles.”

Though little information is publicly available on these items, intelligent speculation holds that these were the same Xbox 360 development kits used by 38 Studios in the creation of 2012′s Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, and possibly any unannounced projects that 38 Studios may have had in the development pipeline. If you’re an average gamer, you might never have seen one of these development kits, as Microsoft tends to closely guard this technology. After all, owning one of these things means that a person is able to run unsigned code on the machine, thus opening up all kinds of opportunities for piracy or the creation of Xbox 360 software that makes the console behave in ways that Microsoft would really rather it didn’t. Thus, when news broke that these kits would be going on sale to what is effectively the general public, Microsoft jumped into action to retrieve the machines.

“Xbox 360 Development Kits (XDK) are the property of Microsoft and are only licensed to authorized studios and may not be assigned or sold to any third party without the written consent of Microsoft,” reads Microsoft’s official statement on the situation. ”We will be contacting the appropriate parties involved in the auction of 38 Studios’ assets to remove the XDK units from the auction listing and to secure the return of the consoles to Microsoft.”

Whether or not Microsoft has legal recourse to retrieve the kits is currently up in the air, but it seems quite likely that due to the trade secrecy of the information inherently contained within an Xbox 360 development kit, that the company could claim, in court, that the sale of such a machine to an unknown third party could theoretically impugn the company’s ability to continue doing business as it has been since the console’s launch. Of course, that’s for the lawyers to hash out, and regardless of the outcome, those of you living in Maryland or Rhode Island suddenly have a chance to score some cut-rate office equipment that was once used by a famous pitcher. Good luck.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Mr. Internet goes to Washington: How Web lobbying affects you

The Internet's increased lobbying presence in Washington is sure to be good for business — but could it be good for Web users, too?

In a sure sign that the Internet industry is growing up, two new Washington Internet-centric lobbying groups have launched in the past month alone. This means more money, expertise, and other resources will be funneled toward the goal of making Internet-related issues important in Congress. 

First up, we have the Internet Infrastructure Coalition (i2Coalition), a consortium of companies “who build the nuts and bolts of the Internet,” as the group describes itself. Next, The Internet Association — an interest group powerhouse fueled by a list of Internet titans, including Google, Amazon, Facebook, Yahoo, and eBay, among others.

So Internet businesses are rallying together to have a concerted voice in Washington. But what does that mean for you and me, the people who use and rely upon the Internet every day? Let’s take a closer look at who these groups are, what they aim to accomplish, and what their actions could mean for the future of the Web.

i2Coalition

Leadership: Co-founder and Chairman Christian Dawson, COO of ServInt

Members: Officially launched on September 17, the i2Coalition is currently made up of 42 infrastructure-related companies — the companies that own and operate the more technical side of the Internet, like data centers, cloud computing companies, and domain registrars. This includes companies like cPanel, Rackspace, Softlayer, and Endurance International Group. At the moment, the companies involved in i2Coalition are lesser-known, at least when compared to companies like AT&T or Verizon, both of which fall into the Internet infrastructure category.

See the full list of members here.

Goal: To better educate lawmakers about the workings of the Internet, and push for policies that “encourage the growth and development of the Internet infrastructure industry,” according to the official policy statement. Specifically, i2Coalition will push back against further government regulation, fight taxes related to Internet activity, and promote awareness of Internet issues in the media.

It will also fight against “any new laws…related to Internet copyright and/or intellectual property protection” that might erode current “safe harbor” provisions for Internet companies. And it will “opposes legislation enabling law enforcement organizations to search, seize or otherwise interrupt communication without Court-approval and probable cause or in a manner inconsistent with the U.S. Constitution.”

The group maintains that human rights like “freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and the protection of personal privacy,” are “essential” to “Internet advancement” and the preservation of “a free and open Internet.”

Read i2Coalition’s full policy statement here.

The Internet Association

Leadership: President and CEO Michael Beckerman, former Deputy Staff Director for the House Energy and Commerce Committee

Members: While we’ve known about The Internet Association since the end of July, the group didn’t officially launch until September 19. Unlike the i2Coaltion, members of The Internet Association couldn’t be more high-profile. The 14 members companies are: Amazon.com, AOL, eBay, Expedia, Facebook, Google, IAC, LinkedIn, Monster Worldwide, Rackspace, Salesforce, TripAdvisor, Yahoo, and Zynga.

Goal: According to The Internet Association’s mission statement (PDF), the group seeks to “protect and preserve the free, innovative, and decentralized architecture of the Internet.” This objective is broken into three parts:

• Protecting Internet freedom: From government censorship, interference, taxes, regulation, and other controls.
• Fostering innovation and growth: By maintaining the “low-to-nonexistent barriers to entry” for Internet-reliant small businesses.
• Empowering users: By supporting policies that allow users to take full advantage of innovations, like cloud computing and storage, as well as supporting a diverse range of business models employed by Internet companies (think user-generated content on Twitter, Facebook, or Reddit).

Common causes

To sum up, the purpose of i2Coalition and The Internet Association is to promote policies that are good for the various businesses interests they represent. And both groups have pointed out the involvement of their members in the fight against SOPA and PIPA. But as we have seen with other industries, what’s good for business is not always good for consumers. So will the Internet’s new lobbying bodies fight for you, or just for their stock holders and bottom lines?

To answer this question, I reached out to Leslie Harris, president and CEO of the Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT), a key organization in the fight for Internet freedom that focuses on the rights of Web users. According to Harris, the efforts of these groups should help Web users in a number of important ways.

Jobs

The i2Coalition cites estimates from Tier1 Research that the U.S. Internet infrastructure industry generated $46 billion in direct and indirect revenue in 2010, with an expected growth of 20 percent by 2013. Further, The Internet Association’s Beckerman says that Internet businesses contributed “a full 15 percent of U.S. GDP growth in the past five years.” These groups will both push to boost these numbers even higher through beneficial legislation — something Harris believes will help create jobs around the U.S.

“I think there’s going to be a strong focus in a very traditional political way on educating Members about how the Internet provides economic value in individual districts,” says Harris. “There’s this view, somehow, that [Internet jobs are only] in Silicon Valley. I think the average Member sees it as separate from their own constituency, rather than understanding the percentage of their constituents that may in fact run businesses off the Internet.”

Smarter policy, open Internet

Second, says Harris, we will likely see fewer bills come out of Washington that fail to take into consideration the technical workings of the Internet and the Web.

“Hopefully, this will raise the level of awareness about how the Internet actually works among policy makers [in Washington, D.C.],” says Harris. “If that is the case, you will see fewer SOPAs, and more nuanced policy which does not pose a threat to the Internet itself and to users.”

“I believe that The Internet Association is really going to be focused on Internet openness and freedom,” adds Harris. “So, in some ways, they are going to be delivering a message about the importance of keeping the Internet open, the importance of looking at policies through the freedoms of users. And in that regard, they could have a very important impact on the everyday users of the Internet.”

Better services

In addition to the creation jobs, i2Coalition’s Dawson says that his organization will also help deliver better Internet service all around, including faster service that reaches more Americans, especially those in rural areas.

“The average Web user may not understand the ‘nuts and bolts’ that go into bringing them their websites on a daily basis — they just want them to be fast, reliable and always available,” Dawson told me in an email. “Our formation will help ensure that a Web user’s Internet experience keeps getting better, safer, and more open.”

Discord

As good as this sounds, there will almost certainly be areas where business and user interests divide. According to Harris, issues like user privacy, and certain consumer protections will likely be areas of contention. However, says Harris, “I do think that there are a lot of issues where what’s good for Internet users is good for Internet companies. And on those issues, you’ll see common cause.”

“There have been lots of other loud voices, whether they are copyright voices or children’s safety voices, lots that have valid interests,” she adds. “But this will be the first time where corporate interests share the kinds of values that organizations like mine work towards.”

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Borderlands 2 dev explains the art and science of ‘distilling fun’

We spoke with Matt Charles, Gearbox producer for Borderlands 2 about the recently released game, the future of the industry, and the merits of the Super Mario Bros. movie.

Last week 2K Games and Gearbox’s Borderland 2 arrived with a bang. Most people suspected that it would be a hit thanks to the pre-orders as well as the general popularity of the franchise, but we didn’t know that it would also be one of the best games of the year. We hoped it would be, but we had no way of telling until the copies were released from the protective clutches of the developer.

If you need more proof that the game is a hit (beyond our review), just jump on PSN, Steam, or Xbox Live at any given time and check out how many friends you have playing it right now. If the answer is none, consider investing in some new online friends.

Now that the years of work have concluded and the game has shipped, there is a slight lull in the game’s development cycle before the work on the DLC begins (as well as a probable sequel, although Gearbox will probably defend that secret bitterly until it is ready to announce one). So what does a Borderlands 2 producer do with himself in that time? And what was the development like? And while we’re at it, can we expect a Borderlands movie, and if so is there any way to make it not suck? We ask Gearbox producer Matt Charles these questions and more.

How long have you been working on Borderlands 2?

The full history: Borderlands 1 came out, did great. We turned a small team to focus on the DLC efforts – the add-on content. Once those finished, we started work on Borderlands 2. So it’s a gray area, it doesn’t happen overnight. But it’s about 2 ½ years.

Did you expect Borderlands 1 to do as well as it did, or did its success surprise you?

Well we certainly hoped so. I’d say we were pleasantly surprised. We’d been working on that game for a long time. Brand new IP, brand new genre — we felt it was a new idea, blending the best of first person shooter and RPG and turning it into what we called the RPS. It was very much our baby.

When you have a game coming out with lofty expectations, how do you deal with the stress leading up to the launch day?

It’s interesting. It’s a dash of nerve wracking; it’s a dash of calm before the storm. It feels like a shuttle launch, like everything is done already, and we just have to wait and see what happens.

After a game is done and released, not counting the DLC, do you have to go through a cool down period, or are you eager to get back to work?

There’s a nice break in the work flow, naturally caused by the certification process with first parties, such as Microsoft and Sony. We do continue to work on the PC version, bug fixing for patches during that time, but that’s generally less intense than preparing for that period when everything’s got to be done and flawless and perfect and ready to be printed on disc. So that’s a great time for people to take some time off.

We also then immediately come back and hit the ground running with DLC, so it’s a short break.

What DLC for Borderlands 2 can you talk about?

There will, in fact, be a season pass. I look forward to seeing what we do there… [laughter].

I can also talk about the Mechromancer. She’s really interesting. At PAX East we announced that we had this idea, we had this beautiful little nugget of a word called “mechromancer,” that was really catchy to us, and she would come with Deathtrap, and that idea was really interesting to us as well — the polar opposite of Claptrap, essentially. Where he’s cracking wise, Deathtrap is about death and destruction, but obviously the friendly protector of the mechromancer.

How big is Gearbox now, including the other teams, like those working on Aliens: Colonial Marines?

Between 150 and 200 people.

Do you enjoy working in that type of larger environment, or is it more stressful?

I think we have a great organization. We’re obviously a multi-project studio, so there are teams within Gearbox, so no single person necessarily has to be worried about 200 other people. We have our own organizations within Gearbox. I really like the project cycles that we have at Gearbox as well, because it can go from a smaller, pre-production team to a very large team, and then back down a bit smaller team, as we don’t need to full force of the company behind it.

So it’s nice. I feel like I get to experience all parts of it.

In your opinion, what is it about Borderlands that makes it resonate with players?

It’s pure fun. It is distilled fun in every corner. That was actually the goal. “Ok, just make everything fun. We’ll figure out what that means as we start designing systems, features, and characters,” but that was always the goal. And I think that really touches everything in the game. When you start with that goal of “let’s make sure everything is fun, avoid frustration” it’s going to come through in a lot of ways.

Were there any technical limitations you hit?

It was interesting going from Borderlands 1 to Borderlands 2. We’re still releasing on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and the PC. Of course PC has evolved, but with consoles the entire point is that you know what hardware is going to be there. But our ambitions never stopped growing, especially with the sequel to a hugely successful game. So it was interesting balancing what can we do on certain hardware versus what we want to do, what we can dream up.

So are you excited for the next generation of consoles, or are you happy with what we have now?

I still have to wait and see. I’m still waiting for more concrete info, so I’m going to reserve my judgment for now.

Where do you see the industry going five or ten years down the road?

That’s an interesting question, and I think we’ve seen unarguably a large push towards mobile gaming, and a focus on that recently. I’m really curious to see new console hardware — how that impacts the future as well. I think that we’re getting more social as an industry and as game players as well. I like the fact that games are taking advantage of that in the sense that it’s easy for me to hop on a game and see what my friends are doing. I love that aspect of it. So if we’re going more mobile, but also more connected, we’re going to have this wide mesh of the world with gamers playing against each other, and I think that’s really cool. I hope it goes more in that direction.

How do you see the gaming industry’s growth compared to other entertainment industries like film?

So…. I gotta make sure to get this right or my film teachers are gonna wack me upside the head… We’re able to look back at the film industry and see how that evolved. And I’m very glad that we have that example because in a lot of ways it is very similar to ours, and we’re able to look at that and plot our own relatively brief history of the video game industry, and sort of chart where we are, relatively speaking.

There are a lot of differences, and I think we’ve figured out some of the variables that make us different, and why we’re not exactly following in film’s footsteps, so to speak in terms of industry growth. But at the same time we’re almost on the cutting edge of technology anyway, so I don’t know, I think we may sort of diverge. It’s hard for me to predict whether we will see explosive growth like film did, or whether it’ll be a steadier pace, or what’s going to happen. I don’t see it decline.

As games get bigger and more complex, are they getting more difficult to create, or do the improving tools make it easier?

Film is obviously still huge, but their models have changed and their delivery method, and everyone is still experimenting with the viewing experience. 3D is the obvious example. That’s the technology that could go wide and we could see more 3D games; Nintendo 3DS being a great example of that. I think it’ll be driven by technology and what’s cutting edge.

Honestly, it’s kind of both. Because as technology comes out, as new hardware comes out, our creative minds go wild and our ambitions totally soar. And then we have to build the tools that let us chip away at what we have in our head that’s possible with this new tech. And then over time those tools get better and better and better, and then it becomes much easier on a relatively small scale to do those things.

For example, I’m going to segue a bit and tie this into something we did for Borderlands 2. In Borderlands 1, everything was data driven, for example our weapons. 17 million guns, and that was all a combination of parts system, but it was very manual entry. The same was true for creating an enemy, or managing a player’s skills behind the scenes. In Borderlands 2 we doubled down and made this tool called “constructs” internally for ourselves that turns all that data entry into a much more visual tool. So you can say with this block over here, let’s tie it to this other thing and it should interact in that way. So we can actually see it; it was almost like a blue print for what we wanted to see happen in a game. So in that sense, that’s one of the things that helped us. We scraped all the old guns from the first game in order to make new ones, all the while offering a lot more creature type and variety. We wouldn’t have been able to do that had we not invested in a new tool set.

Yes it does get faster. At the same time, our production team is also bigger this time around because our tools help us do things faster, but our ambitions are always growing.

It was recently announced that there is going to be a four-part Borderlands comic mini-series due out later this year. Any plans to further explore the Borderlands universe in other mediums? Maybe an animated movie like EA’s Dead Space?

That would be really interesting. I’d be very interested to explore all parts of the Borderlands universe, it’s huge. I think it would be great to see other mediums try to explore it.

Could Borderlands work as a movie?

[Laughter] That’s interesting.

Maybe a better question would be could any game really work as a movie?

Well I liked Super Mario Bros. [Laughter].

That’s a bold claim.

I say that while smiling very heavily.

You may be the first person ever to say those exact words in that order.

I think I was 3 when I saw it, so my opinion may have changed since then.

Do you think there will be a day when gaming movies can get it together and reach the heights of comic book movies?

I think so. This is certainly just my opinion… The video game industry is still relatively new and the film industry has been around for a long time, and the comics industry has been around longer than video games as well. So I think comics and film have learned how to work together. I think we’re still trying to figure that out, the relationship – rather the translation between film and video games. But I think once we do understand the sorts of things we can do that translate very well and the things that don’t, we’ll start to see more of those.

With the Borderlands series, what is the single thing you are most proud of?

As a producer, shipping on time [laughter].

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Google study: User searches can predict 84% of video game sales

A new Google study analyzing search data related to best-selling games shows that user searches can predict a game's financial success.

 

Add video game industry sales analyst to the list of professions that Google’s ubiquitous search engine might wipe off the map. Like travel agents and record store clerks before them, the search data compiled by Google’s pervasive tools—used in everything from your web browser to your television—offers the same predicative and analytic insights as a market analyst. According to a new study compiled by Google, searches in its engine can predict 84 percent of video game sales.

“Understanding the Modern Gamer” compiled and analyzed “hundreds of millions” of searches related to the top 20 best-selling video games throughout 2010 and 2011. These searches came from both web browsers as well as mobile devices. The marquee finding in the study is that searches related to games in the ten months surrounding their release—through the online promotion cycle of trailers, previews, advertisements, and post-release promotion through DLC and further advertising—can predict 84 percent of those games’ sales.

“[Our] data demonstrates that 84 percent of sales can be predicted by all clicks during the 10 month launch cycle,” reads the passage relating AdWords clicks to individual game sales, “We used the regression coefficient from our analysis to create a predictive model and found that is a game accrues 250,000 clicks in the 10 months around launch, it will likely sell between 2 and 4 million units in the first four months after release.”

“The ever present relationship between gamer and game may be digital, but it has implications for real-world sales. There is a quantifiable link between what people search for and what they buy that enables us to predict game sales.”

It’s no great insight to discover that something that is popular by consumer interest is likely to sell well. What’s impressive about Google’s data is its accuracy. The study does acknowledge that other mitigating factors—namely television advertising, word of mouth, and the actual quality of the game—that need to be taken into consideration in the next round of study to improve the predictive quality of its data, but 84 percent based on searches alone is impressive.

There’s other interesting data to be found in the study, particularly the fact that mobile searches still account for the minority of interest surrounding a game. Just 1 in 5 buy searches—that is searches that include language related to actually purchasing the game—are made via mobile, meaning that PCs are still user’s primary tools for gathering info and shopping online. “Our data validates the belief that gamers, similar to all users, leverage mobile devices as secondary screens.”

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Fujifilm to end production of movie film as digital dominates

As the movie industry further embraces digital technology, Fujifilm has it announced it will soon stop making movie film for shooting and projection.

Perhaps the biggest surprise about Fujifilm’s announcement that from March 2013 it will no longer make film for motion pictures is that it didn’t come earlier. With movie makers and theaters turning increasingly to digital-based products, the Japanese manufacturer said it had no choice but to exit the market.

One of the big players in the business, Fujifilm has been making film for shooting and projection since it was founded in 1934. However, in a statement issued Thursday, the company said a dramatic fall in demand had led to spiraling costs, forcing it to make the decision to end production. It also pointed out that it will continue to make film for still photography.

“Digital cinema camera shooting has been gaining momentum, and digital editing that heavily uses CG composition and VFX processing has now become common in motion picture production,” Fujifilm explained in its statement. It added that the number of movie theaters abandoning film projectors in favor of digital projection has increased significantly in recent years, pushed by the increase in 3D motion pictures.

The company said that instead it intends to focus on other areas of the film industry, providing products and services designed for the digital workflow of movie production and projection.

Digital detractors

While digital-based movie making is undoubtedly gaining ground, there are still a number of high-profile Hollywood directors who don’t want to see celluloid die.

Christopher Nolan, director of blockbusters such as The Dark Knight Rises, which, incidentally, was shot on film, thinks celluloid still produces a better picture, and that the switch to digital production is being made purely to reduce costs.

At the recent Produced By Conference in California, Nolan said going digital risked “devaluing what we do as filmmakers.”

The filmmaker acknowledged that the quality of digital images has improved greatly in recent years, but that it will be some time before it equals that of film.

Nolan added that while he uses digital technology for editing and special effects, he wants to shoot and show his movies on film. He envisages a day when digital will be comparable to film, but insists it’s not there yet.

No doubt Nolan’s eye is better trained than your average movie goer, but I’ve never heard anyone coming out of a theater saying, “The image quality of that movie was terrible. Ah, I see, it was digital.”

Fujifilm is sensibly doing what it believes is best for the future of its company, abandoning a part of its business that no longer makes any money and instead turning to digital products. One wonders how long will it be before the entire movie industry goes digital, pulling the curtain down on celluloid forever.

[Image: K. Jakubowska / Shutterstock]

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Nintendo announces the Wii U price and release date

The wait is finally over, and details of the Wii U have been released.

When Nintendo first unveiled the Wii U at E3 2011, the industry sat up and took notice. Nintendo showed just enough to get our blood pumping, but withheld some of the most important details. It wasn’t surprising, but it generated what has arguably been the most asked question in gaming over the last 15 months: When will the Wii U be released, and how much will it cost?

Fast forward a year and change. Today Nintendo finally pulled back the curtain and answered those questions.

The Wii U will be released in North America on Sunday, November 18.

Nintendo will offer two versions of the system. The first will be called the “Basic Set,” and will contain the Wii U, Wii U gamepad, an AC adapter, and HDMI, and Wii U Sensor bar. The console in this package will be white, and it will cost $299.

A “Deluxe Set” will also be released, and along with all of the items in the Basic Set, the Deluxe version will include more memory, a gamepad cradle, and the game Nintendoland. The console itself will be black, and Nintendo President and COO, Reggie Fils-Amie, announced that players who purchase the Deluxe package will receive points for each digital download that can be later used to purchase items from the Nintendo e-shop. More details on that will be coming soon. The Deluxe Set will cost $349.

Fils-Amie also confirmed that the Wii U will be able to use the standard Wii remote controls and nunchucks, as well as most of the games and peripherals. Wii U branded devices will be available shortly, but it won’t require additional purchases for Wii users.

Check back with us all day for more news on the Wii U, including news of the apps the Wii U will support, launch titles, and more. But for now circle November 18 on the calendar, and prepare for the next stage of the console battles to begin.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Watch yesterday’s Apple keynote right here

The new iPhone announcement is certainly an exciting industry events. As usual, Apple didn’t allow any live video streaming, so if you want to appreciate the whole demo on stage in its original glamor, please, join in.

I’ve certainly seen better quality clips from past year keynotes, but perhaps it’s just my connection to blame. See for yourselves.

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com

EDITORIAL: Why did the iPhone 5 skimp on true innovation?

Today’s announcement was one of the most hotly anticipated industry events. I waited and waited, ready to be wowed. But now that it’s over, I have bad taste in my mouth (and it’s not the Chinese I had for dinner).

These few past months I followed the iPhone leaks as closely as possible and during all this time I just hoped there will be more to the new iPhone than they suggested. Well, unfortunately, that was it. Even Samsung made a better job of keeping their Galaxy S III under wraps before it was ready for announcement.

The upgrades are easy to spot. The new iPhone is impressively slim and light and it comes with Apple’s next gen A6 processor, which is up to 2 times faster. The iPhone 5 has a single radio chip supplying GSM, HSDPA, CDMA and LTE communication while going easy on the battery. At 4 inches, the screen is certainly bigger and has a more movie-friendly aspect ratio. I’m not going to get into all the iOS6 specific features since those are coming to the iPhone 4S anyway.

On the negative side, the iPhone 5 screen is only 4 inches big, and not only this, but only height was added. The camera is mostly the same as on the 4S, and LTE connectivity in Europe is still as scarce as water in the Sahara to be really worth it. Finally, the new sleeker connectivity jack renders all previous docking accessories obsolete.

Honestly, I’m already tired of hearing Apple’s stale remarks how the new iPhone or the new iPod was Apple’s best thing so far. What I wanted to see today on stage was pure innovation, something that would again open new doors and make other manufacturers lose their breath in trying to catch up.

Instead, what I got was a predictable phone with unexciting specs; a phone that I would hardly call cutting edge, top-of-the-line, and all those labels that usually go hand in hand with Apple’s latest. After all, the iPhone has always been the most expensive SIM-free smartphone on the market.

Sure, people will probably continue to buy it in millions, since once it’s out, it would be the most sensible buy, if you are after an iPhone. But I still have that bad taste in my mouth. The iPhone 5 failed to meet my expectations. I didn’t have a feature wishlist, except perhaps a seriously bigger screen. But most of all, I expected to be surprised. Well, none of these two things happened. And I wonder, who’s to blame? Is it me, or is it Apple that’s changing into a conservative phone maker, who likes to play it safe like Nokia used to before it became clear it’s not getting them anywhere.

I’m more than sure that somebody in South Korea is having a big party right now. More than anything, it feels like this year’s iPhone is Apple skipping a turn a second year in a row all the while Android and Windows Phone have been seriously upping their game moves.

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com

Portland Digital eXperience: Startups take on the finance industry and all its red tape

The digital and money markets collide as new startups like Simple and Chirpify take on the ancient finance industry.

A hot topic at Portland Digital eXperience has been traditional industry disruption — and what old market doesn’t fit the bill better than payments? The finance industry is chock-full of regulation, governmental bodies, and ancient attitudes. Suffice it to say there are hurdles.

The CEO’s of Simple, a banking solution, and Chirpify, a Twitter payment client (you read that right) were on hand to talk about the evolution of digital finance, and how they’re helping to change it.

“On Wall Street there’s so much innovation, but so little of it helps real people,” Simple founder and CEO Josh Reich, a Wall Street vet, said. “Our real motivation was to make a financial application that would help people’s lives.”

The idea behind Simple: It’s a fully digital banking card and account, that includes a physical debit card accepted everywhere Visa is accepted. Simple believes its customer service and attention to detail, along with its mobile-friendly tracking and payments system, are its biggest assets.

Chirpify’s stab at uncomplicating how we pay for things is less calculated, although it’s had a huge early impact. The concept: Connect your Twitter and Paypal accounts using Chirpify, and then use the integrated service to @ pay connections. Shocked people would do that? You’re not the only one. “The first surprise with Chirpify was that people wanted to use it at all… to pay for something with a tweet online,” said founder Chris Teso.

But clearly, the masses approve. During this past SXSW, Chirpify got its API wrapped and ready for a tweet-a-beer promotion, where Chirpify users could buy a beer for their Twitter contacts at certain locations in Austin. And the viral nature of online — very, very public — payments has only helped Chirpify’s usage spread.

“There’s a pretty high conversion rate when you get a tweet saying ‘someone sent you money, come here and sign up to claim,” said Teso.

All the viral usage and word-of-mouth in world isn’t enough to topple what is arguably the oldest, most institutionalized industry though. For every brilliant idea, there is a mountain of red tape to deal with and work-around. “It’s hard because engineers want to work fast,” says Reich. “And banks work slow. You have to manage your product process carefully.”

For its part, Chirpify hasn’t had to go its own road — yet. For now, the service piggybacks off of Twitter and Paypal, the latter of which being a service which Teso mentions gets and deserves plenty of user ire. Not for long, though; he says that Chirpify plans to go it alone, launching its own payment service within the application and cutting out the middle man.

“We are platform agnostic, but the one friction point for us is Paypal,” he says. “People don’t like it. There’s no mobile flow. So we’re working on owning the entire payment platform. So in the next year, we’re going to do that and handle it ourselves.”

For its part, Simple would like to add business banking support (it’s focused on individual usage at the moment)  – something that will require a great many hoops to jump through, regulation-wise.

Combining tech and money is a tough sell, and the road ahead is paved with plenty of potholes. But the outlook is bright: Both Simple and Chirpify have launched alternative payment platforms that five years ago would have sounded impossible — and people are buying into it quickly. Blame it on distrust or frustration or trust in tech… whatever is happening, it’s clear users are increasingly comfortable with new and innovative solutions when it comes to handling their money.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Portland Digital eXperience: Spotify, Shazam, and the toppling of traditional music consumption

At Portland Digital eXperience, new-wave music products Spotify and Shazam defend their services against an aging industry.

Given its scheduling along side MusicfestNW, one of Portland Digital eXperience’s most anticipated keynotes was the Dave Allen-moderated discussion on the science of music discovery with Shazam and Spotify. And given that nature of the very indie-friendly music festival and Portland’s inarguably hipster, screw-the-man spirit, you can assume the discussion erred toward the tense side.

As a bit of background, Allen is a musician, formerly worked as director of Consumer Digital Audio Services for Intel, and now runs independent record label Pampelmoose. So suffice it to say he takes some issue with how the current state of mainstream music discovery and consumption is working.

Right after panel introductions – which consisted of Allen, Peter Szabo from Shazam and Jason LaCarruba from Spotify, the tough questions started — mostly targeted at Spotify.

First up, Allen had to ask Spotify where those 50 million users it told the Wall Street Journal it planned to get way back during its stateside launch. “I think we’re doing really well getting those users. We’re always trying to launch new features to do that,” LaCarruba said, mentioning the relatively new Radio feature, which he works on (and says will be getting better).  

That said, he admitted that Spotify definitely has not hit the 50M mark; it has 15 million globally, four million of which are paying customers.
Which prompted this comment from Allen: “Your valued at $4 billion. How can that be?”

Shazam, which wasn’t hit quite as hard with the “how dare you!”s, had some impressive numbers to report. The app currently has 35 million users and is adding two million a week. “It’s one of those apps when people first get a smartphone, they download,” Szabo reasoned.

Of course, Shazam has been around longer than Spotify and is a more diverse service.

Piracy and artists’ rights couldn’t go untouched, either. For all their inherent problems, one thing the streaming services — and arguably products like Shazam — bring to the table is that they fight illegal downloading. Both Szabo and LaCarruba generalized a bit here, but reasoned that by cutting down on piracy so largely, it’s paving the way for a better future for artists’ pockets.

As you can assume, Allen had a lot to say about this. Of course, he’s not the only one: Since Spotify’s launch, indie labels and artists — and even The Black Keys — have called out Spotify for hurting musician’s bottom lines. “My last check was $17. Thats not funny,” Allen told the crowd. “I make no money from streaming.”

The defense? Basically, that at least it’s progress against piracy, and that the more people who decide to pay for streaming services like Spotify, the more money will come in. That there’s fun and experimentation in this new music technology and that it’s going to find a sweet spot at some point. And to Shazam’s credit, nine percent of mobile listens lead to a purchase — so there is a proven correlation between discovery and buying there.

Allen’s response? Not good enough.

For starters, he reiterated that streaming platforms can’t honestly think of themselves as a viable way for musicians to make money — and the conversation quickly took a turn into the current generation of music discovery and curation disrupting the old. There were plenty of references about how people used to buy albums and not just singles, about vinyl, about the lost human influence of the DJ — it became fairly clear that instead of a discussion about the science of finding and listening to music, we were watching a tug-of-war between the old and the new.

Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of problems with our current state of content consumption, but I feel more comfortable placing that blame on the labels and rights holders versus outlets connecting users to music. And it’s because they don’t want to change, they want things to continue as they have been — and that’s something consumers simply won’t settle for anymore.

“My friend doesn’t have to make a mixtape and bring it to me to introduce me to new music — it’s so much more immediate,” says Szabo; to which Allen replied: “I liked the old way.”

Complaining about this “inhuman” experience is warranted, sure, but then you’re tackling a much bigger beast, and that’s the digitalization of nearly all our interactions. It’s not just music — it’s talking to people, buying food, the work office; all of these things have been transitioned thanks to technology.

Jury’s still out on how well the new music models will find compromise for users, artists, and labels; it’s a lot to attempt. And there are no shortage of imperfections along the way — but there’s simply no going backward from here.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

How Online Games Affect Brain Development

Ever since the video game industry has become a multi-million dollar industry, it’s been targeted as a source of negativity. When they were off the radar, video games were just a simple form of entertainment, or a means of pushing technology to the next level, but once large amounts of money become involved, the world of gaming evolving into an industry just like any other. With all the negative attention, scientist have devoted studies to understanding the effect that video games can have on a person’s brain.

Online Games can have a Positive Influence 

Recent studies show that video games can affect a persons attitude in a positive manner, while influencing their behavior as well. These studies have created interest in what is known as serious games or games intended to affect the players health. Results have led researchers to believe that the understanding of the engaging elements of video games, might increase the chances of developers creating gaming experiences that influences positive and healthy behavior.

Many research results believe that the active participation in video games develop positive motivation in ways that looking and listening to information doesn’t. In turn this participation can affect various behavioral activities in the non-virtual world.

Online Games can teach Teamwork 

Online games that call for teamwork can help people to develop their communication skills for real world situations, which is obviously useful in busy work environments. The games that have social content in which players assist each other non-violently also affect a persons attitude when dealing with people.

Simply put, video games have an affect on the brain, depending on what games you choose to play. For people that indulge in a lot of violent video games, showing little emotion to violence can become a habit.

Creative Thinking and Problem-Solving 

Many video games, even violent ones, have players think of various ways to get out of certain situations efficiently. With almost every game out today, a person’s timing is enhanced, and in shooting games, the hand to eye coordination, and awareness of an area are also improved. Shooting games are also used for realistic military training, in order to learn procedures and strategic planning. Just like guns, this could be used for positive, safe military training.

Playing online video games has trained people to take in information quickly and use it to respond quickly in tense situations. This is noticeable in really elaborate and intense online role playing games that requires players to remember various locations, multiple actions and combinations in order to be successful in the game.

Social Responsibility

Some news that parents may appreciate is that a majority of the gaming industry has recognized the responsibility they have for the results that their work has on gamers. A lot video games now offer more challenging objectives and higher quality graphics to keep a players interest that helps to avoid focusing on any violence in the game. These type of games communicate valuable lessons about organizing, strategizing and taking responsibility, while providing an immersive form of entertainment.

Bio:  Marcela De Vivo writes about internet technology for ParkingGames, an online game that people can use to develop their parking skills.  She also loves meditation, hot yoga, and digital photography.

Tags: Gaming Online, Internet games, Online Games

Source : techtalkafrica[dot]com

Top 7 Content Writing Services For Your Website

Like the wider web they assiduously chart, search engines are changing rapidly as industry giants such as Google move to penalize propagators of useless, repetitive or spam-ridden content—in short, anything web users don’t want to see in their SERPs.

The antidote to being caught thusly in Google’s crosshairs is nothing new. Just keep in mind that Content is King—specifically, unique, high-quality content that engages readers and provides accurate answers to their questions.

So what is the best way to meet Google’s post-Panda standards while preserving your valuable time? Hire a unique content writer.

Here’s a round-up of seven of the best sites for solid, unique content, customizable to yours and search bots’ needs.

Textbroker

This website is a refuge from content mills that have earned sketchy reputations. To ensure you get great, targeted content, make sure to post your job for level 4 writers. The great majority of level 4 writers are capable of following your directions and executing the task to your satisfaction in a short amount of time.

Content Row

In contrast to Textbroker’s Open Orders, Content Row provides a ready-access model. Choose from pre-written articles and discover content ideas you hadn’t thought of. Finding the material that suits you is fairly simple. You may search by keyword or category, and search results can be filtered by word count, price range and recency.

Writer Access

Another effective content marketplace is Writer Access, where you may create orders to your specifications, post assignments to all writers with a desired skill set, and build up your own pool of writers whose work you love. This works by gathering writers on your personal “Love List.” Pay only for the work that you love.

Content Authority

The Content Authority is similar to Textbroker in structure. The material produced by writers is generally good, especially if what is needed is a good rewrite of an existing article. The Content Authority is perceived by some as a less expensive alternative to Textbroker, particularly for marketers managing websites in bulk.

Elance

Elance’s writers are from around the globe, so assignments for audiences outside the U.S. may be better filled here. With thousands of writers whose profiles and specialties are searchable via the client interface, Elance is an established, high-rated content marketplace.

Freelancer

One of the world’s largest outsourcing marketplace, it is easy to find workers for just about any content you could imagine at Freelancer.com. Whether your needs be graphic design, programming, article writing, grant writing or classifieds, you’ll have the greatest range of motion at Freelancer, allowing you to distribute interactive content across devices, media and business sectors.

Guru

Guru is one of the most reliable writer-client matchmaking services on the web. The software allows you to pair your projects with freelancers qualified to get the work done in style. Sift through “gurus” based on the percentage of jobs awarded per bid, repeat business and freelancer earnings. Guru’s out-of-the-box labor market empowers clients to vet writers with valuable author statistics.

Tags: Content Generation, Content Marketing, Content Publishing, Content Writing

Source : techtalkafrica[dot]com

Ben & Jerry’s goes to court over ‘Ben & Cherry’s’ porn movies

Not wishing to have its name associated with the porn industry, Ben & Jerry's has decided to sue a production company for marketing porn DVDs with titles inspired by its popular ice cream offerings.

When Vermont-based ice cream maker Ben & Jerry’s heard about the existence of a 10-DVD set of porn movies cheekily entitled Ben & Cherry’s, the company was having none of it.

The set comprised movie titles based on the name of its ice cream offerings, prompting lawyers for the ice cream company to sue for trademark violation.

Though it’s possible the movie titles raised a smile or two with company executives – with names like Boston Cream Thighs (Boston Cream Pie), Chocolate Fudge Babes (Chocolate Fudge Brownie), and Peanut Butter D-Cups (Peanut Butter Cup), how could they not? – they nevertheless instructed their lawyers to take up the matter with the production company, California-based Rodax Distributors, with the aim of getting the porn producer to remove the titles from the market, or at least change the names to something else.

The jackets of the DVDs were reportedly also an issue, as they resembled the packaging of various products made by the ice cream company, with the familiar fluffy white clouds and grazing cows set alongside images of men and women in their birthday suits.

In its complaint, reported by Bloomberg, Ben & Jerry’s said: “The hardcore and exploitive pornographic infringing ‘Ben & Cherry’s’ DVDs” are likely to confuse consumers by “creating an association of the Ben & Jerry’s family of marks and the Ben & Jerry’s trade dress with pornography.”

Precisely how many consumers would get confused between a milk- and sugar-based dessert and a porn movie is open to debate, but one can understand Ben & Jerry’s annoyance at having its firmly established logos and images used by other companies to sell its own products.

The case was filed by Ben & Jerry’s in a Manhattan federal court on Wednesday. The dessert maker is also seeking monetary damages.

The company (Ben & Jerry’s, that is), set up by friends Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, started out in a Vermont gas station in 1978. Its large range of ice creams now sold in 26 countries across the world.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

West coast, best coast: The startup scene hits the Northwest this week for Portland Digital eXperience

This week, Portland debuts its startup festival, Portland Digital eXperience, to showcase local innovation and offer a platform for industry discussion.

SXSW has come to epitomized startup culture. For all its faults – which generally run along the lines of launch overhype and an overwhelming amount of events and parties (to be filed under “First World Problems”) – the Austin-based festival has firmly made its name as the place where the worlds of digital, social, and startups collide.

Now, Portland, Oregon, is ready to give the similarly-spirited Austin a run for its money. This week marks the opening of Portland Digital eXperience, a startup and social festival that will run alongside MusicfestNW.

Though smaller and admittedly wetter than Austin (with the exception of this past SXSW, which I can vouch for being engulfed in a nearly permanent torrential downpour), Portland has become synonymous with innovation, creative talent, and ingenuity – and yes, hipsters and PBR. But don’t forget that this is where legacy names like Intel, Nike, and Wieden + Kennedy are headquartered. And a slew of new and notable startups have begun to follow in those prestigious footsteps: Urban Airship, Geoloqi, Lensbaby, Trapit, Vizify, and Grove all call Portland home.

And thus, Portland Digital eXperience is rising out of the short-lived North by Northwest festival’s ashes to focus in on the growing energy in the city. There will be speakers from Flipboard, Tumblr, Spotify, as well as more local names from outlets including Chirpify, Grove, and Cloudability, all on hand to cover both the intensely unique Portland spirit as well as larger industry trends. Events include a Startup Crawl through Portland’s Pearl District and Old Town neighborhoods, as well as a music hackathon to round out the festival.

The mix of big names with promising startups harkens back to some of SXSW’s earlier days, before mass chaos made attending more than a handful of events a near impossibility – a pain point many of us are more than willing to tolerate for what the show has to offer. That said, spreading this wealth can only mean more exposure for startups and more access for the rest of us.

Portland Digital eXperience starts tomorrow, September 5, and runs through September 8. You can still pick up passes here, which are also good for access to MusicfestNW shows. We’ll be attending Portland Digital eXperience and bringing you startup, social, music news, and everything that’s sure to fall in between this week. 

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

10 Hot Up-and-Coming SEO Blogs

10 Up-and-Coming SEO Blogs

SEO is an ever-changing landscape. That’s why it’s imperative to stay on top of the latest trends in the industry. Magazines and books are a bit too slow for this line of work – to keep your finger on the pulse of search marketing you must follow SEO blogs religiously.

Any SEO worth his salt knows all the greats: SEOmoz, Search Engine Land, forums such as Webmaster World and Digital Point, and (of course) Google’s official Webmaster community beat. But what about the lesser known blogs? The ones run by people who know what’s happening and – more importantly – what’s working right now in the world of search?

This post is dedicated to the up-and-comers. We’ve complied the ultimate list of SEO blogs and resources that show the greatest promise, potential, and most of all – innovation – in search engine marketing.

SEO Skeptic

Aaron Bradley runs SEO Skeptic, and he’s a crackerjack Internet marketer who specializes in enterprise-level organic SEO. His blog proclaims to offer up “fact, fiction, and opinion in the world of search engine optimization” and it does not disappoint. The witty posts examine all the SEO topics de jour – Twitter marketing, keyword research, you name it – but they also provide a fresh new twist that keeps readers coming back for more.

Follow SEO Skeptic - @aaranged

Bryson Meunier

Bryson Meunier’s blog is dedicated to natural search and mobile SEO. The world is rapidly going mobile, and his blog helps SEO buffs keep up with the latest buzz in mobile marketing as it happens.

This guy is one of the first to understand and interpret the ways in which mobility alters search engine optimization, and he’s quickly achieved cult status as a recognized expert in mobile SEO. He’s been a speaker at big-name SEO conferences like SMX Advanced and SMX Local & Mobile – suffice it to say the blog has the info you need to break into mobile SEO with confidence.

Follow Bryson Meunier – @brysonmeunier

PortalFront Hosting

PortalFront Hosting is a killer hosted SharePoint provider. The company offers webmasters a seamless cloud presence, and the PortalFront blog gives users a SharePoint blueprint and some great ideas for prepping a website in anticipation of a launch. The blog is a must-read for SEOs who are serious about their sites.

Follow PortalFront – @HostSharePoint

Commerce Kitchen

This is a blog for ecommerce SEO info, and it definitely has a distinctive spin. The blog takes a unique, tongue-in-cheek approach to SEO, and the killer tips are coupled with tight, highly entertaining writing. If you prefer a side of entertainment with your SEO, you definitely need to stop by the Commerce Kitchen. They serve up hilarious (and insanely useful) search marketing advice piping hot all night long.

Follow Commerce Kitchen – @CommerceKitchen

Blind Five Year Old

A.J. Kohn’s underground SEO blog fuses his deep knowledge of search marketing with his vigor for product strategy and development. He’s all about UX and stats, but he’s got a creative wild hair, too.

His blog is a witty, fast-paced read and his rough-around-the-edges images fuse with his ridiculous understanding of the industry to create pure poetry. The detail he provides about how to accomplish SEO tasks is unparalleled, and I’m honestly sure that his blog will be a top one in the SEO world in coming years.

Follow Blind Five Year Old – @ajkohn

Shooting at Bubbles

Even the biggest SEO newbies are aware that social media has become an integral part of search marketing. The algorithm has adjusted to give more weight to social signals, although no one knows exactly how heavy it’s become. Shooting at Bubbles pokes fun at social media marketing, but it provides some awesome tips and tricks along the way.

Follow Shooting at Bubbles – @stevenhodson

Site-Reference

Site Reference has been around for ages, and the blog has volumes of information about ranking in the search engines and increasing traffic. The focus of this blog is great content creation as the core of any successful SEO strategy, which is evidenced by the superb, in-depth writing and community involvement on the site.

Mike Fruchter

By day, Mike Fruchter works as the Director of Digital Strategy at Pierson Grant Public Relations. By night, he blogs about social media and SEO. His professional experience enables him to approach SEO from a PR standpoint, and this is a very good thing given the move toward branding and social as the most valuable ranking signals. His posts tackle topics such as sharing versus self-promotion, how to market on the social web, and unorthodox tips for ranking in the search engines.

Follow Mike Fruchter – @fruchter

Dragon Search

The Dragon Search online marketing blog is a PPC marketer’s dream. The blog has countless posts that tackle tough topics such as maximizing your AdWords ROI, branding issues, and social media woes. The blog boasts a whole team of writers, and each one brings a unique SEO specialty to the table. This produces a well-rounded batch of stellar articles with tips you can implement with confidence.

Dragon Search on Facebook – DragonSearch

SEO Sudo

SEO Sudo is a blog for the corresponding SEO agency. The blog houses great info about all the technical goodies that make SEO experts geek out – keyword talk, anchor text chat, dishing about titles and descriptions, and much more. The blog is a great place to visit when you want to get down to the nitty gritty with your search marketing plan.

Whle SEO is an ever changing game it is always best to keep a close eye on the up and comers.  Watching and learning from creative minds is a part of the SEO and marketing biz, and we should all look forward to the gems that these guys will have for us in the future.

Tags: SEO, SEOmoz, Social Media

Source : techtalkafrica[dot]com