What Skills Do Entrepreneurs Really Need?

A great idea and the necessary resources to start a business are no guarantee of success. So many have had a sound idea and have executed it passionately and into the right market, but still found themselves as one of the nine out of ten small businesses that fail. What could have gone wrong?

In most cases, organisations go out of business when they fail to achieve sufficient profit, which requires selling enough products or services to cover costs. As much as this is the most obvious cause of business failure, there are many other factors that can cause a business to fail, and a lack of entrepreneurial skills is one of the most pervasive of these, especially in SA. 

According to David Mashamba, chief executive officer of Business Skills South Africa (BSSA), the lack of practical business management skills in SA truly is a huge problem – especially when it relates to previously disadvantaged individuals.

“There is no way someone can succeed in the world of business without the relevant business management skills,”explains Mashamba, pointing out that entrepreneurs  should also have marketing skills if they want to build successful enterprises that can stand the test of time.

With the advent of social media the business world has become even more competitive, which means that as an entrepreneur you really need the right skills set, both generally and also relating to the type of business you decide to venture into.

There are five skills that experienced senior writer, Lyve Alexis Pleshette, at PowerHomeBiz.com stresses as non-negotiable to entrepreneurial success: 

• Sales and marketing skills: A business is nothing if it has no customers. You may have technical savvy and the fanciest computer with the latest graphics software, but if no one is knocking at your door to hire you as a graphic designer, then you better rethink why you are in business in the first place.

• Financial know-how: You are in business to make money. Therefore, the most important skill you must have is the ability to handle money well. This includes knowing how to stretch the limited start-up capital that you have, spending only when needed and making do with the equipment and supplies that you currently have. You also need to identify the best pricing structure for your business in order to get the best return for your products or services.

• Master the art of negotiations: The ability to negotiate effectively is unquestionably a skill that every home business owner must make every effort to master. It’s perhaps second in importance only to asking for the sale in terms of small business musts. In business, negotiation skills are used daily. Always remember that mastering the art of negotiation means that your skills are so finely tuned that you can always orchestrate a win-win situation. These win-win arrangements mean that everyone involved feels they have won, which is really the basis for building long-term and profitable business relationships.

• Time management skills: The ability to plan your day and manage time is particularly important for an entrepreneur. When you wake up in the morning, you must have a clear idea of the things you must do for the day. Especially if you are running a one-person operation, you must have the ability to multi-task – ­ be the secretary at the start of the day, typing all correspondences and emails, become the marketing man writing press releases before noon, make sales call in the afternoon, and become a bookkeeper before your closing hours….no wonder most entrepreneurs have no life!

• Administration Skills: In addition to the tasks of managing, marketing and planning your business, you also need to possess a fair amount of administration skills until such time as you can employ someone to do this for you. You need to file your receipts so tax time will not be a trip to Hades. You need to do all the work in terms of billing, printing invoices, collecting payments, and managing your receivables.

Luckily, in South Africa there are a number of business development and support organizations ready to assist emerging entrepreneurs to develop their skills, and some innovative products out there that make the administrative and financial side far easier to manage.

I work for an organisation called Fetola, which is a specialist Enterprise Development, Corporate Social Investment and Skills Training organization with a focus on supporting SMMEs and emerging entrepreneurs (see www.fetola.co.za). Many of our programmes are designed to help entrepreneurs gain skills without having to spend too much time away from their businesses, which is crucial when one is stretched in terms of resources.

Another great tool is SMEasy, an online financial management system that helps keep track of all income and expenses in a very user-friendly way and at minimal cost – see www.smeasy.co.za.

Starting a business is never easy, even if you have all the passion and determination in the world. However these basic skills listed above, at least, will give you a greater chance of seeing your business grow and prosper into the one out of ten that survive the first three years. What happens after that is up to you!

Find out more about some of the important skills entrepreneurs should have via the following links: http://www.wahm.com/articles/7-useful-business-skills-a-new-entrepreneur-should-have.html , http://www.blogtrepreneur.com/2010/09/17/5-essential-skills-for-entrepreneurial-survival/ http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/200730 

This is a Guest Contribution by Abram Molelemane, a third year Journalism student at the Tshwane University of Technology. He has written for various publications such as Wealthwise magazine and Reckord newspaper. In 2011 he was nominated for the Reckord print journalist of the year award. He is currently a junior media officer at Fetola.

No tags for this post.
Source : techtalkafrica[dot]com

Google launches ARM-based $249 Chromebook

Google may not have had tremendous success with their ambitious Chromebook project but they don’t plan on hanging up their gloves any time soon. The newest product in the Chromebook like is a 11.6-inch model manufactured by Samsung and will be selling for just $249.

What really makes this Chromebook different from others is that this is the first to run on an ARM-based processor. Inside, the new Chromebook has a dual-core Exynos 5 Dual 5250 processor, which if you remember, is the world’s first Cortex A15 based SoC.

Other than that it has a 1,366 x 768 resolution display, 2GB of RAM, 16GB built-in flash memory + 100GB on Google Drive, 1 x USB 3.0 port, 1 x USB 2.0 port, HDMI-out, SD card slot, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. The Chromebook has a battery life of over 6 hours, which is surprisingly less for something running on such frugal hardware.

The new Chromebook is available for pre-order online from Amazon, Best Buy, PC World and other retailers and will be available on the Play Store next week onwards. You can also buy them at over 500 Best Buy stores across the U.S and over 30 PC World and Currys stores in the U.K.

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com

Lenovo to build on PC success with international smartphone release, leaves HP in its dust

Research indicates Lenovo has become the world's number one PC manufacturer, as the company announces plans to expand its smartphone range.

Lenovo is riding a wave of success at the moment, after announcing some exciting Windows 8 tablets, and now it appears the company has become the world’s number one PC manufacturer, and is preparing to release its smartphone range internationally too.

Research firm Gartner has released data that shows Lenovo has pushed past Hewlett-Packard to take the number one spot, and the figures read like this: HP can claim a 15.5-percent global market share, with 13.55 million units shipped, while Lenovo has a 15.7-percent market share with 13.77 million units heading out the door this quarter.

Perhaps more importantly, Gartner shows HP’s sales as down 16.4-percent on last year, while Lenovo is up by just under 10-percent. If you had to choose a direction as a company, you’d want to be the one going up.

According to Reuters, researchers from IDC still put Lenovo ahead of HP, with market shares of 15.7 and 15.9-percent respectively. HP told them that IDC’s report was “more expansive,” but then, they would say that. Almost regardless of who’s right today, the trend certainly indicates the position swap will happen soon.

HP’s CEO Meg Whitman has been quoted as saying the company is in the first year of a five-year restructuring plan, but despite the much-publicized downturn in PC sales — IDC says global sales have dropped by 8.6-percent since July — it still hasn’t made up its mind about re-entering the smartphone and tablet market. Recent reports seem to indicate confusion regarding this market segment within HP.

Lenovo to enter international smartphone market

Lenovo feels rather differently. It already produces smartphones for a variety of Eastern markets and in June this year, overtook both Nokia and Huawei to take second place in the Chinese market. Perhaps most tellingly — and a point HP needs to hear — is that its phone sales surpassed that of its PC sales for the first time there too.

It’s not just low-end hardware the company produces either, as it introduced the LePhone K860 in August, which has a 5-inch display with a 720p resolution, a quad-core processor (actually Samsung’s Exynos 4 Quad, also seen in the Galaxy S3), Android 4.0 and an 8-megapixel camera. It’s destined for Japan sometime later this year.

The momentum is there for Lenovo, and it’s already producing some interesting hardware, so it’s no surprise to see the following message posted on its Facebook page: “We won’t stop at laptops and tablets. For the first time, Lenovo is making plans to sell smartphones outside China.”

Introducing new hardware into the already massively competitive US and European markets isn’t going to be easy, but Lenovo knows it has little choice. Besides, it can always look at the lucrative African, Russian and South American markets initially, before hitting the rest of Europe and the US with devices such as the K860.

Lenovo hasn’t provided any further details, and we’d be surprised to see any releases this year, but it’s still a very positive step from a highly motivated company. Whether HP will respond remains to be seen.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Why smart consumers make dumb decisions on smartphones

Are you lining up for the iPhone 5 because it’s tailored to your needs better than any other phone, or because it’s the new iPhone?

Given the massive success of the iPhone despite a number of problems (Wi-Fi, maps), tech pundits have been writing stories this week about the death of Android and suggesting it become more like iOS. This is ironic, considering Apple still maintains that Android was essentially a stolen product.

Microsoft isn’t even in the discussion, because the few of us who have Windows phones are just thankful that we aren’t in lines, that we have more hardware choices than the iPhone buyers have, and have fewer malware problems than the Google folks have. Because everyone else is on the other two platforms, in our minds, we Microsoft users are the new elite geeks. In everyone else’s heads, we’re just geeks.

However, underneath all of the buying activity is an unfortunate trend: Consumers are thinking about what they need and want less and less. Did those in line waiting for the iPhone first sit down and think through what they liked and didn’t like about their existing phones? Did they consider what features were worth their money? Did they eventually come to a well-thought-through conclusion, or did they just go rabid when the words “new iPhone” came from Apple?

Despite the massive amounts of information on the Web that should help us make better decisions, we increasingly focus on stuff that agrees with a decision we’ve already made. That is foolish, and it even could be dangerous.

Ultrabook example

Because passion surrounds anything Apple, and I don’t want to get buried in hate mail for suggesting another phone might be better for you, let me use a different platform as an example. I was recently asked, if I to buy an Ultrabook today, which I would choose.

Currently I’m using a Samsung Slate running Windows 8, so the thought of returning to a laptop configuration forced me to sit down and think through the decision. The number one priority for me is battery life. I’m always forgetting where I’ve left my laptop and forgetting to keep it charged. But as I thought some more, I realized battery life really wasn’t what I needed. What I need is the ability to fast-charge the device, because I generally have 30 minutes to an hour to get ready. But even a 20-hour battery will be dead if it has been sitting for a few weeks. (Unless you completely turn off a laptop, it will slowly drain its battery in suspend.)

So I decided what I really wanted was a fast-charging battery with decent life. This led me to the Lenovo Carbon X-1, which also has the best keyboard, one of the best touchpads, and a decent set of ports. The Carbon X-1 is also is sturdy (semi-hardened). But I would have traded all of these things (well, maybe not all) for that eight-hour battery that can charge to 80 percent in 35 minutes. The sexiest notebook does me no good if the battery is dead. Most of the events I attend have many analysts, and typically only three or four plugs, most of which the A\V guys use. So I regularly need a good battery.

Despite not being the most popular Ultrabook, the ThinkPad Carbon X-1 is a perfect fit to my particular needs and situation.

Why I ‘ve avoided the iPhone 5

The feature most important to me on a smartphone is a keyboard, because I’m often writing long answers to long questions. Usually I’m carrying something in one hand, which means I need a single-handed phone experience. Yes, I can and have lived off a screen phone, but I’m far slower typing on it single handedly. I prefer a portrait keyboard. That’s why I keep returning to my old, obsolete, 3G Dell smartphone. I have no doubt that eventually I’ll have to give it up, but I’m not going to do it easily. I can get around the 3G to 4G thing with a Verizon 4G hotspot (which works just fine with my tablets and notebook computer).

If I need a bigger screen, my 7-inch Kindle Fire HD is far better than even the biggest super smartphones, and all my data flows fast through that Verizon hotspot. When I travel, the hotspot stays home, forcing me onto Wi-Fi and keeping my data charges from nosebleed range. (If you want an impressive cell phone bill – as in four digits – let your kid use his or her iPhone on roaming while on vacation.)

The iPhone 5 lacks my needed keyboard, its Wi-Fi is having problems, and its navigation is totally broken. Until those last two things are fixed, I’d be very unhappy with the iPhone 5. (I actually use phone navigation a lot.)

Based on the things I do with a phone, the Windows platform is the best one for me. Maybe I’m unique, but I’m OK with that – I’ve never liked looking like everyone else.

Pick what you want

The point of this piece isn’t to slam the iPhone 5, but to point out a practice that likely causes too many folks to buy a phone that doesn’t meet their needs. People who need and use phone navigation and Wi-Fi should buy a different phone, or at least wait until Apple fixes the iPhone issues. (The Wi-Fi issue may be fixed by the time you read this; the mapping issue likely will take far longer.)

A smartphone will cost you around $1,000 a year. Everyone should think through what they need before spending that kind of money. You may discover that your existing phone — or a phone other than the one folks are lining up for — better fits your needs. Because you have to live with a phone for about two years, taking time to make a good decision makes sense. And if more of us planned before we purchased, we’d likely find more phones tailored to our unique needs, and be less likely to stand in line for hours to get a phone that almost everyone else has.

Guest contributor Rob Enderle is the founder and principal analyst for the Enderle Group, and one of the most frequently quoted tech pundits in the world. Opinion pieces denote the opinions of the author, and do not necessarily represent the views of Digital Trends.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Ouya: ‘Over a thousand’ developers want to make Ouya games

Alongside announcements of personnel acquisitions, the creators of the Android-based Ouya console have revealed massive developer support.

Even after the relatively cheap, Android-based Ouya console proved a massive success on Kickstarter (the console was able to pull in nearly $8.6 million from investors despite having an initial goal of only $960,000), pundits and prospective owners of the new gaming machine loudly wondered how well it would be able to attract developers who would otherwise be making games for the Xbox 360, iPhone or PC. Assuming you believe official statements made by the people behind the Ouya console, there is nothing to worry about on that front.

“Over a thousand” developers have contacted the Ouya creators since the end of their Kickstarter campaign, according to a statement published as part of a recent announcement on who will be filling out the company’s leadership roles now that it is properly established. Likewise, the statement claims that “more than 50″ companies “from all around the world” have approached the people behind Ouya to distribute the console once it is ready for its consumer debut at some as-yet-undetermined point in 2013.

While this is undoubtedly good news for anyone who’s been crossing their fingers, hoping that the Ouya can make inroads into the normally insular world of console gaming, it should be noted that while these thousand-plus developers may have attempted to reach the Ouya’s creators, the company offers no solid figures on how many of them are officially committed to bringing games to the platform. That “over a thousand” figure means little if every last developer examined the terms of developing for the Ouya and quickly declined the opportunity in favor of more lucrative options. We have no official information on how these developer conversations actually went, so until we hear a more official assessment of how many gaming firms are solidly pledging support to the Ouya platform, we’ll continue to harbor a bit of cynicism over how successful this machine might possibly be.

As for the aforementioned personnel acquisitions, though they’re less impressive than the possibility that thousands of firms are already tentatively working on games for the Ouya, they should offer a bit more hope that the company making the console will remain stable, guided by people intimately familiar with the gaming biz. According to the announcement, Ouya has attracted former IGN president (and the first investor in the Ouya project) Roy Bahat to serve as chairman of the Ouya board. Additionally, the company has enlisted former EA development director and senior development director for Trion Worlds’ MMO Rift, Steve Chamberlin, to serve as the company’s head of engineering. Finally, Raffi Bagdasarian, former vice president of product development and operations at Sony Pictures Television has been tapped to lead Ouya’s platform service and software product development division. Though you may be unfamiliar with these three men, trust that they’ve all proven their chops as leaders in their respective gaming-centric fields.

Expect to hear more solid information on the Ouya and its games line up as we inch closer to its nebulous 2013 release. Hopefully for the system’s numerous potential buyers, that quip about the massive developer interest the console has attracted proves more tangible than not.

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

Wii U Deluxe pre-orders sell out. Will Nintendo’s console see the same launch success as Wii?

Electronics retailers have sold out of pre-orders for the $350 Nintendo Wii U Deluxe Set, but will the console see Wii-like success?

Nintendo’s Wii made such a powerful connection with people when it came out in 2006 that Nintendo wasn’t able to satisfy demand for years. It wasn’t until the end of 2008, a full year before Wii sales peaked, that Nintendo was able to manufacture enough devices to properly meet demand. That’s an intimidating legacy for the Wii U to live up to, especially for a machine that’s so confused the public to date.

There is promise for Nintendo’s Wii U: Pre-orders for the device have sold out at GameStop.

Polygon reported on Saturday that myriad GameStop stores around the US had already sold through their expected allocations for the Wii U’s Nov. 18 release. Reservations for the Wii U Deluxe Set, the $350 model that comes packed in with a copy of NintendoLand as well as free access to Nintendo Network Premium, were half-filled within hours of the console’s price announcement on Thursday. By the end of Friday, all Deluxe sets were sold out including online.

The Wii U Basic Set, the $300 edition of the console that comes with just the machine, controller, and 8GB of flash memory, is still available for pre-order at GameStop’s website as well as in many stores.

Nintendo is discovering what Microsoft proved with the Xbox 360 in 2005: When you offer multiple models of a console, people will ignore the cheaper model unless it offers real value. The Xbox 360 Arcade, a hard drive-less version of the machine sold at launch, was roundly ignored by consumers until it was re-released in 2010 as a $200 package with 4GB of internal flash memory.

The Xbox 360 is the device responsible for GameStop and other retailers’ policy of limiting the number of pre-orders taken for new consoles. In 2005, far more Xbox 360 pre-orders were sold than systems that were actually available on day one. As a result, devices had to be trickled out to customers over the course of months.

As of right now, there are still other outlets taking pre-orders for Wii U Deluxe. Walmart is taking preorders online but require you purchase it as part of a $450 bundle along with New Super Mario Bros. U. Others like Best Buy have sold through this initial round of pre-orders. Other outlets however haven’t started accepting pre-orders at all. Amazon.com’s product pages for Wii U don’t allow you to pre-order yet and Toys R Us simple has a placeholder page that says pre-orders will be accepted soon.

Wii U’s success is far from guaranteed. There’s interest, yes, but nothing resembling the furor of Wii’s 2006 release. At least, not yet.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Loose lips sink ships: Why has Tim Cook’s Apple sprung a leak?

The success of this year's iPhone 5 rumor mill proves one thing: Tim Cook no longer has control of Apple's secrets. Why is that?

Welp, the iPhone 5 is here. And, as feared, not a thing about the device was a surprise. Not the screen size. Not the processor. Not the design. Not the name. Not the release date. Not even the freakin’ headphones. We saw all of these details before, in the months leading up to today’s big announcement. In other words, everything about the iPhone 5 leaked, snatching away Apple’s long-held ability to control the message about its own products — a skillful secrecy that has defined the company for the past decade and helped make it such an astounding success.

None of this is to say that the iPhone 5 is a disappointment, nor lacking in any way. If you like the Apple ecosystem, then the iPhone 5 is great, probably the best phone on the market. Nor do I mean that Apple needs to blow our minds with every product — that’s just not how technological innovation works. Yes, the iPhone was groundbreaking in 2007. And the iPad set fire to the tablet form factor, which wallowed in obscurity and uselessness for a decade before receiving an incendiary dose of the Apple magic.

No — what I’m talking about here is the value of secrecy, and what it means to no longer have the ability or will to keep a secret.

At the D10 Conference in May, Apple CEO Tim Cook famously stated that Apple would “double down on secrecy on products.” But if this year’s iPhone rumor season is anything more than a fluke, it would appear that Cook has either decided to scrap that plan altogether, or fundamentally failed the mission.

It is entirely possible that, with the late Steve Jobs no longer in control, Cook decided to lift the iron curtain that has long surrounded Apple for strategic purposes. Some have suggested that, because the new iPhone now has an entirely different dock connector, Apple decided to leak the information in the press as a thinly veiled heads up to third-party accessory makers whose business would be monumentally impacted by the change. But why not simply share this information directly, and demand the same level of secrecy as Apple has historically required? Hasn’t Tim Cook ever heard of a non-disclosure agreement?

The more viable conclusion is that Apple has lost its ability to keep a secret. Why is that?

One theory is that Tim Cook is simply not as feared by Apple’s suppliers as Jobs was. Jobs is infamous for his brutal inflexibility, with employees and business partners alike. Cook, by contrast, is reportedly not nearly as frightening a leader. His wrath not as wrathful. His iron fist a bit rubbery.

Of course, it may simply be that Apple has grown too large for secrecy to remain a viable option. As of 2011, Apple listed (pdf) more than 150 companies in its supply chain. Perhaps this year it reached a breaking point: the list simply grew too long to stay in one solid piece. And out of the cracks flowed the company’s secrets.

Maybe. But I find it difficult to dismiss Cook’s role in it. For whatever reason, Apple’s relationship with its suppliers has drastically changed during his tenure. Leaks of iPhone 5 components were constant and nearly systematic. Nearly every week, for months on end, new tidbits about the device made their way onto the Web. Not just blurry shots of nearly unrecognizable prototypes as we occasionally saw during Jobs’ reign, but full videos of people showing off what we now know to be authentic iPhone 5 components.

Have Foxconn leaders sensed Apple’s new, less-dangerous demeanor, and allowed the many iPhone components to make their to leak into the public for their own purposes? Or perhaps it was LG Display, or Japan Display, where the iPhone 5 screens are made, which saw the weakness and let down its guard?

It’s impossible for me to say where exactly the leaks came from, or whether there was a single source or many. What I can say, however, is that if this is Tim Cook doubling down on Apple’s secrecy, then he just lost that hand.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

That hypothetical fourth Avatar movie is now in doubt

Despite previous reports, it seems that James Cameron won't be filming Avatar 4 any time soon.

In June we brought you word that following the massive $2.5+ billion success of Avatar, director James Cameron would be filming Avatar 2, 3 and 4 back to back. This news emerged from an interview conducted with Avatar actress and celebrated extraterrestrial killer Sigourney Weaver which stated that “she films Avatar 2, 3, and 4 with James Cameron” immediately following a theatrical run in a Christopher Durang play at New York City’s Lincoln Center.

At the time we had no reason to doubt Weaver’s claims. Avatar made huge amounts of cash, and since Cameron had already put so much work into the special technology used to film the movie, it seemed perfectly likely that the man would want to get a jump on as many Avatar sequels as possible. Thanks to a new interview with Avatar co-producer Jon Landau however, that plan is now in doubt.

Landau was recently asked to comment on Weaver’s claims by New Jersey’s Courier Post newspaper, and according to him that earlier interview wasn’t entirely correct. “We doing two [Avatar sequels] back-to-back, but not a third,” Landau stated simply. Though this does contradict Weaver’s claims that a fourth Avatar movie is already in pre-production, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the fourth movie will never materialize. Landau would certainly know what he’s talking about in this instance, but knowing how devoted James Cameron is to this Avatar universe we’d be genuinely surprised if that first Avatar flick only spawned a trilogy. 

Unfortunately, it seems that Landau had nothing else to say about the future of Avatar. That’s understandable as the Courier Post interview was mostly focused on the relatively recently re-released 3D version of Cameron’s Titanic (Landau also co-produced Titanic), but leaves Avatar fans wondering what direction this series will take. Normally we’d be pushing for rampant speculation on this fourth Avatar flick, but honestly that would be getting way, way ahead of ourselves.

Assuming Landau is correct (and, again, we have no reason to doubt him), we’ve still got Avatar 2 and Avatar 3 coming in the next few years. Given that neither has entered full production, and James Cameron’s lengthy, perfectionist filming process, we probably won’t see Avatar 2 until at least the summer of 2014. The third movie could possibly see theaters the very next year, but we’re more inclined to believe that it will debut in 2016. So that’s what? The next four years of James Cameron’s life mapped out? Add another Avatar sequel and Mr. Cameron would have to devote six years to this single property. Given Cameron’s love of ocean exploration, and his eternally-in-production live-action adaptation of the Battle Angel Alita manga we’d have to assume that the man would want to take some time over the next half-decade to explore his non-Avatar interests. Cameron is devoted to his creations, but he’s not psychotically obsessed with them.

In the end, Landau’s claims generate more questions than answers. From here on out can we all agree to just ignore any bit of Avatar news that doesn’t come directly from James Cameron? Otherwise we’re going to waste at least the next two years offering up meaningless predictions for the future, and frankly we’d rather spend our days keeping our readers pleasantly entertained with bizarre pop culture ephemera.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Chitika: OS X Mountain Lion continues to gain share

Ad network Chitika says Apple's OS X Mountain Lion now accounts for 10 percent of impressions from desktop Macs across its network.

One of the measures of the success of a computer operating system is how quickly users embrace it — that’s why Windows Vista was generally considered a bit of a flop and why Microsoft’s Windows 7 follow-up is viewed as a stronger success. When Apple launched OS X Mountain Lion last month, the company did everything it could to encourage users to jump on board, making the update available to a wide range of recent Macs as a downloadable update that only cost $20.

Ad network Chitika initially reported very strong adoption of OS X Mountain Lion, finding that 3.2 percent of traffic from Mac desktops across its ad network was from Mountain Lion systems just 48 hours after launch. Now that Mountain Lion has been out a month, however, the OS’s adoption rate seems to have calmed down a bit — but it’s still way ahead of its predecessor, Mac OS X 10.7 “Lion.” According to Chitika, as of August 27, Mountain Lion accounted for 10.3 percent of all the hits it was seeing from desktop Macs across its ad network. In contrast, Chitika count Lion took more than three months to represent 14 percent of total Mac OS X traffic.

Chitika’s figures are derived from impressions across its “extensive” advertising network, which the company claims spans more than 200,000 sites and serves up more than 4 billion ads a month. They do not represent official Mountain Lion adoption figures from Apple. The only official word from Apple on Mountain Lion sales is that the operating system sold more than three million copies in its first four days of availability.

Although Mountain Lion has generally received positive reviews, it has also been criticized for adopting too many elements from Apple’s iOS — although it’s important to note that Apple has many millions more customers using iOS than Mac OS X, at this point. Chitika speculates that the rapid adoption of Mountain Lion may have more to do with the low price point and the easy online distribution model Apple has adopted for the release. Ultimately, quick adoption of Mountain Lion and desktop operating systems means Apple can innovate the Macintosh more quickly with less concern about long-term support for legacy systems.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

PopCap announces upcoming Plants Vs Zombies sequel

After the success of Plants Vs Zombies, a sequel seemed inevitable. PopCap's announcement of said sequel this morning proves as much.

The zombies are coming … again.

This morning, PopCap Games announced that it has begun work on a sequel to its critically beloved blockbuster casual strategy game Plants Vs Zombies. Courtesy the official press release:

The sequel to Plants vs. Zombies is expected to launch by late spring 2013, and will include a bevy of new features, settings, and situations, designed to delight the franchise’s tens of millions of fans around the world. No other details of the highly anticipated new installment in the franchise are available at this time, beyond the following comments from some of the game’s denizens.

So, we’ve got a vague “spring 2013″ release date, promises that the Plants Vs Zombies sequel will expand on its predecessor and not much else. With many developers we’d be concerned that this lack of concrete details indicates delays in the game’s production process, but the firm still has at least half a year to put this thing together, and let’s be honest, when it comes to the company responsible for Peggle, Bejeweled and a number of other games our mothers are unable to delete from their iPhones, we’re willing to extend the benefit of the doubt.

Perhaps realizing that the official announcement was a bit light on useful information, the PopCap PR team opted to fill its remaining space with entertaining, subject-appropriate quotes from some of the biggest stars to emerge from the Plants Vs Zombies franchise. To wit:

“Spring is crullest curlie ungood time, and plantz grow dull roots,” noted an unidentified spokesperson. “So, we are meating you for brainz at yore house. No worry to skedule schedlue plan… we’re freee anytime. We’ll find you.” 

“There was a time we relished a bracing, hearty blend of zombies, in the morning,” said Sonny F. Lower, a representative of the Flora Forever Foundation. “But first, a brisk shower and some strategic pruning are required. Tomorrow is near!”

Now, granted, taken by itself the above chunk of text is baffling gibberish, but it should serve to reassure fans that Plants Vs Zombies 2 — or whatever PopCap eventually ends up titling this thing — will exhibit the same wacky sense of humor as its predecessor. Yes, the tight, well-balanced strategy gameplay of Plants Vs Zombies and its surprisingly large offering of playable content have always been the key selling points for the game, but it wouldn’t really be a Plants Vs Zombies title without the undead scrawling borderline-legible notes to players in an effort to get just a bit closer to their delicious brains, now would it?

Oh, and while we’re on the topic, expect to see Plants Vs Zombies 2 on basically every gaming platform in existence. We have no official word on what platforms PopCap hopes to support, but since it’s nearly impossible to find a modern computing device of any kind that doesn’t offer a Plants Vs Zombies port, we’d be stunned if the company didn’t also attempt to maximize the potential exposure of its new Plants Vs Zombies sequel.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Will Windows 8 be the next Vista?

Microsoft only seems to get a solid hit with every other Windows release. After Windows 7's success, is Windows 8 destined for ignobility?

Windows users know the old saying: Microsoft only gets the Windows operating system right with every other release. It’s never been a black-and-white thing: for every person who rails against the inadequacies of a particular version of Windows, there’s usually another who likes the same version — or at least finds it workable. But think about it: where Windows 98 was generally well received, Windows ME was not. Where Windows XP essentially set the standard for desktop operating systems for a decade, Windows Vista was…found wanting. And where Windows 7 has been a solid success for Microsoft, Windows 8 — well, Windows 8 represents perhaps the most radical paradigm shift for the company since Windows 95.

Could Windows 8 turn into Microsoft’s next Vista — a new operating system with the seeds of technology that will only be refined and embraced further down the road? Or will Windows 8 be a smash hit right out of the gate, like Microsoft is telling consumers, corporations, and investors will surely be the case?

Can’t touch this

The first strike against Windows 8 for current Windows users is that while the interface-formerly-known-as-Metro is designed for touch screens, the vast (vast) majority of existing Windows systems do not have touchscreen displays. Regardless, Microsoft is emphatic on the point, telling developers making apps for the new interface that their “first and foremost” design consideration should be that touch is their app’s primary interface.

Yes, most of Windows 8′s interface elements can be used with a traditional mouse or other pointing device, and right-clicking has taken on even more significance as a way to access some functionality that’s otherwise confined to gestures. But the simple fact is that Windows 8′s new interface is not designed for the keyboard-and-mouse or keyboard-and-trackpad combination most Windows users have. Where sweeping gestures ranging from one side of the screen to the other make sense on comparatively small touchscreen displays found in mobile phones and tablets, they don’t make much sense when scaled up to a 21, 23, or 30-inch display and a mouse pointer.

Although PC makers have been pushing touchscreen-equipped all-in-one PCs as home and student solutions for some time, the idea of a touch interface on a large PC screen has generally failed to resonate with consumers. Sure, that may be because touch support in Windows 7 is hit-and-miss, and the touch-enabled shells and apps offered by the likes of HP, Acer, and other OEMs were…well, let’s just say they’ve had varying utility. Maybe the Windows 8-style UI will address those concerns — at least for all-in-ones with touch hardware that supports Windows 8′s full range of gestures and touch features. But more problematic is that many people just don’t like waving their arms around to manage apps, messages, and documents. Move their wrists, maybe even reach a few inches for a pointing device? Sure. But reaching out to physically touch a screen? Particularly one which, for ergonomic reasons, will be just beyond comfortable reach for many people? Not going to happen.

Of course, all-in-ones aren’t the only traditional Windows computers with touchscreen displays: convertible tablets have had them for years (and never been a hit outside specialized organizations and corporate environments), and some rare consumer notebooks have touchscreen displays. These features, however, add to the cost of PCs and so have never been popular with mainstream users or even corporate buyers, who usually look to get the greatest number of machines as inexpensively as possible. Maybe Windows 8 will help touchscreen notebooks take off — OEMs are also working on notebooks with larger trackpads that better support Windows 8 style gesture input. But these hardware features add to the cost of Windows notebooks, which means price-sensitive Windows users won’t be getting them anyway. For these folks — not to mention the millions of people who already have PCs without touch capabilities — Windows 8′s dependence on touch is a near non-starter.

Nowhere to hide

Microsoft has built ways for traditional users to both use and avoid the new interface. Perhaps most importantly, apps can be launched from the keyboard (press the Windows key, type the first few letters of an app’s name, and press Enter), effectively making the new UI a giant Start menu. Windows+D switches to the traditional desktop…but hitting the Windows key on its own flips back to the new interface.

Nonetheless, the simple fact is that Windows 8′s new interface is built around a touch-centric framework that many of its users won’t be able to touch — and that includes millions upon millions of corporations and institutions. If Windows 8 users — including corporations and institutions — want to avoid the new interface altogether in favor of a traditional desktop, it looks like that’s not going to happen either. One of the last changes Microsoft apparently made to Windows 8 before releasing it to manufacturing was to disable the ability to boot directly to the desktop. If you run Windows 8, the new interface is unavoidable.

For Microsoft’s biggest customers — enterprise and corporations — this shift can represent a tremendous cost. Savvy computer users will be able to navigate their way through Windows 8′s new UI to the desktop lickety-split, but large installations are looking at significant training and support costs to bring their personnel up to speed on the new system. Support staff worldwide will likely be inundated with calls asking where the Start menu has gone. (There’s a hotspot in the corner of the screen, and it’s accessible on the charms menu — which is itself difficult to explain.)

Windows RT & Office

Of course, a significant portion of Microsoft’s push with Windows 8 eschews the traditional desktop altogether, with Windows RT being aimed solely at ARM-based tablet devices. Windows RT represents Microsoft’s effort to take on both the Apple iPad and Android tablets, and (together with Windows Phone 8) present a unified ecosystem across both tablets and smartphones — markets that have exploded in the last few years. 

Microsoft has done two things that may make Windows RT a non-starter for both consumers and businesses. First, it decided to get into the hardware business with its own ARM-based Surface tablets. Microsoft is still vague about what the final specs on the devices will be, but they more-or-less aim to combine an iPad-like tablet with a netbook-like PC: sure, they have a touchscreen, but they’ll have a kickstand and a keyboard (of sorts) integrated with the cover. The idea is that if people want a tablet experience, they can have it — but if they want to do text-entry with something other than an on-screen keyboard, they can do that too. However, they won’t run apps for the desktop version of Windows: only new apps created for Windows RT that are available through Microsoft’s curated online store.

The appeal of Microsoft’s “toasterfridge” approach with the Surface tablets is that they can theoretically support both media consumption and productivity applications. Users will be able to play games, stream video, and do video conferencing, but also work on email and Office documents.

Windows RT and Surface thus presents two fundamental problems for Microsoft. First, getting into the hardware business will alienate some of Microsoft’s OEM partners — and we’re already seeing cracks in the facade of Microsoft’s OEM ecosystem. Microsoft may find few OEMs embracing Windows RT, since they’d be competing at a disadvantage against Microsoft. Windows RT could find itself an “also-ran” in the broader world of Windows. At best, the Windows RT ecosystem will get off to a slow start; at worst, it will fizzle.

Second, although Microsoft will offer a version of Office 13 for Windows RT, they’ve already made it clear it will not be a full and complete version of Office: for instance, Office 13 will omit support for VBA and even macros. On one hand, this makes Office for Windows RT more secure: both VBA and macros are historically a vector for malware. But it also means Office 13 is suitable only for undemanding Office users who don’t go a lot farther than writing memos, making a chart or two, checking email, and maybe playing a presentation. Users or organizations that rely on customizations and add-ons to Office may be out of luck on Windows RT — making it a non-starter.

…but Windows 7 did so well!

Another impediment to Windows 8 adoption might well be the success of Windows 7. When Microsoft introduced Windows Vista, it also introduced new hardware requirements that left many users out in the cold. (Microsoft was also sued over a allegations its “Vista-capable” campaign was misleading.) As a result, many consumers and businesses decided to hold off on upgrading to a new version of Windows until they got a new PC.

Thanks to a recession and a a worldwide economic slowdown (and, potentially, poor release timing), that meant many Windows users skipped Windows Vista and jumped directly to Windows 7 — which Microsoft released a scant year and a half after Vista. Often, those Windows 7 upgrades came in the form of new PCs — and, for most Windows 7 users, those PCs are less than two years old. Although Microsoft has taken great pains to make the Windows 8 upgrade process as smooth as possible, the fact remains that many Windows users only upgrade to a new operating system when they buy a new PC. For many everyday users — and particularly businesses, corporations, and institutions — it’s too soon to consider replacing their still-new PCs.

…but Windows 8 will be awesome!

Make no mistake: Windows 8 brings many new features. To my jaded eyes, its vastly improved multi-monitor support alone will be worth the $40 upgrade price — but I have trouble living on fewer than three screens. Other key features include substantially improved boot times and boot security, Xbox Live integration, new ribbon toolbars, a complete revamped Task Manager that will please many power users, an improved Windows Defender, Storage Spaces (handy for backup and mirroring), new Reset and Restore recovery functions, native USB 3.09 support, and Hyper-V virtualization (previously restricted to Windows Server).

Certainly, for many users, Windows 8 will represent both a substantial value and a major leap forward — but the same thing was true for Windows Vista and Windows ME. However, if Microsoft can’t break its every-other-Windows success cycle, it may take another two years before the company is positioned to make a real move into the mobile and tablet market—and it might not be able to wait that long.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com