When Apple added a video camera to the iPhone last summer, the digerati declared that Flip, Cisco’s cheap digital video camera line, was dead. When Apple added a video camera to its cheap and tiny Nano iPod last week, the digerati heaped dirt on the camcorder’s grave.
You know what? I think the conventional wisdom is right on this one. Take a look at this clever side-by-side test.
Big, beautiful high-def TVs are so plentiful and so cheap that nearly everyone who wants one has one. So what can TV manufacturers do to goose sales? Add new features and hope consumers clamor for them.
Hence, Sony’s announcement that it’s making a big bet on…3-D TVs. CEO Howard Stringer is using the IFA Technology Show in Berlin to announce that Sony will make 3-D Bravia sets.
And 3-D Vaio laptops. And 3-D PlayStation3s. And 3-D Blu-ray DVD players.
Want to play your favorite Beatles song in a videogame? If you want to do it with the official Fab Four-endorsed version of Rock Band, you’re going to have to wait until Sept. 9 and pay up to $250 for the privilege. Or you can head to JamLegend and play along with any song you like, for free.
When videogame sales tank, what happens to sales at the world’s biggest videogame retailer? The answer shouldn’t be a surprise, but somehow the performance that Gamestop put in this morning managed to catch Wall Street off guard anyway.
Remember how the rascals at file-sharing site The Pirate Bay, chastened by the Swedish courts, were going to straighten up and go legit? Going to have to keep waiting on that one. Here’s the latest reminder: Yet another thumb in the eye to the big music labels.
Videogame players are spending more time playing videogames than ever. But that won’t do the videogame business much good unless those players actually start buying new games again.
Web start-ups that plan to make money from advertising are having a rough time raising money. But Web start-ups that say they’ll do it by charging customers something? Still possible.
Today’s example: OMGPOP, the casual gaming site formerly known as iminlikewithyou, which has raised a $5 million in a round led by Bessemer Venture Partners.
Last spring, RealNetworks announced plans to spin off its fast-growing casual games business into a separate company. That’s not going to happen in the midst of a meltdown, and today the company formally acknowledged the reality. But keep an eye on Real, which has a pile of cash and may be in an acquiring mood at some point this year.
Turns out videogames aren’t immune to the miserable economy, after all. But Take-Two Interactive does have some good news: It has signed the team behind its ultraviolent, ultrasuccessful Grand Theft Auto franchise to a new contract.
Peter Kafka has been covering media and technology since 1997, when he joined the staff of Forbes magazine. Most recently, he has been the managing editor of the tech and media Web site, Silicon Alley Insider. Read more »
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