Wednesday, November 24, 2004

 

more evidence of a flash based ipod

this report can only lead to further proof that apple is indeed planning a q1 2005 release of a flash based ipod to complete with sub $150 competitive units.

it appears that sigmaTel a leading manufacturer of flash memory oriented controller chips, has upped its q4 sales forecast by an addition $5-$10 million. this upgrade could be attributed to stronger than anticipated holiday demand for portable digital music devices, but such a large increase can only endorse the speculation that they have a new customer that expects high demand for its product...

 

ipods encourage switching

Here's a great article from The Register about how ipods have become the closing tool to encourage switchers from the wintel platform over to the mac. there is also speculation that apple may ship over 4 million ipods in the current quarter - this is very interesting considering that total portable digital music player shipments were estimated to be 10 million in total in 2004.

in a report issued yesterday, PJ analyst Gene Munster noted that 13 per cent of iPod users he spoke to claimed to be ex-PC users, with just under half of them having deserted to the Mac platform and the rest planning to do so within the next 12 months. What persuaded them to move? Their positive experience with the iPod.

Thursday, November 18, 2004

 

more absurdity..but i like this one

to coincide with the upcoming nintendo gamecube release of "resident evil 4," game publisher capcom is teaming with nubytech to release a specialized game controller modeled after a chainsaw. apparently, the new videogame prominently features chainsaw based combat.

the past year has brought us a variety of new peripherals to open up the area of pbg (peripheral based gamings) which was always dominated by dance dance revolution and the dance mat peripheral. however, the recent surge in popularity for sony's "eyetoy" camera peripheral is leading developers into believing the gamers want new specialized hardware to enhance the game experience. some of these peripherals are great (such as the eyetoy), but others remains questionable like capcom's samarui sword controller (dubbed the "soul controller") launched earler this year with onimusha 3.

Wednesday, November 17, 2004

 

3d displays for mobile phones

enter samsung into the race to develop the first full featured 3d display for mobile phones. samsung claims to have developed an all-angle display that gives it a headstart over the competition. the race for 3d displays in phones is big becuase of the lucrative mobile gaming market that is projected to explode over the next 3 years.

 

just plain stupid

im always willing to give new mobile phone accessories a chance, but this is possibly the stupidest thing i have seen.

thank you for coping with my childish moment :)

 

hurry up and wait to play half life 2

for those of you are living in a cave, valve released half life 2 on tuesday. the long anticipated sequal of one on the best selling first person shooters (for a pc) requires an online authentication check-in in order to unlock the game and allow the user to play. regardless of whether or not you bought the game at retail or through streaming delivery, the game must phone-home to confirm your serial number. while this process is supported by the industry, its turning into a hassle for gamers who want to break open the box and play..if the server is down, or is overloaded, users must hurry up and wait for the server to recognize them and unlock their game.

in mho, why should a great game be any diffferent than a reliable and essential suite of software. perhaps the music industry can learn something from this.

Wednesday, November 10, 2004

 

is ea feeling the heat?

once can count on ea to drop the prices of their leading sports titles after the conclusion of each of their respective league seasons, but starting today, ea dropped certain ea sports titles to $29.95.

the price drop represents a $20 decrease in price, but the titles still remain $10 more than the price established by sega/espn videogames.

is ea feeling the heat from sega?

titles that will be affected by the price drop include: madden, nba live, and nhl..all suspiciously competitive to sega's line-up...

 

first love child from vonage & linksys

earlier this week linksys and vonage announced the first product from the alliance that they announced earlier this year. linksys has officially made available their 802.11g wireless broadband router that includes two deidcated VoIP ports intended for vonage service.

what does it mean? customers get complete internet based communications in one box: wired ethernet ports for computers, tivos, or videogame consoles, wireless ethernet (wi-fi), and ports that can accomodate standard telephone equipment to be linked to vonage's VoIP service. no need for separate equipment, especially the adapter unit that connects traditional phone equipment to a customer's broadband connection.

the router will also be made available without 802.11g capability. radioshack, bestbuy, and staples are some of the leading retailers who will offer the product.

the product names are WRT54GP2 for the wireless version and the RT31P2 for the sans-wireless unit

 

ds date has been moved up

according to reports, customers who have pre-ordered the nintendo ds from gamestop are receiving notices that the release date has been moved up 7 days. in addition, other resources are confirming that nintendo warehouses in the US have been filling up all week with inventory. ign.com received a full retail package yesterday for review so all signs point to the DS reaching US shelves next week. there is no confirmation of a change in the december release date for japan.

Tuesday, November 02, 2004

 

mud slinging of another variety..

a great piece on ign about battling quotes between nintendo and sony in regards to the ds vs. the psp.

the best part:

Bloomberg quoted Nintendo's head of public relations Yashiro Minigawa on the PSP. "That's not a game machine. [Sony] showed it at the [Tokyo] Game Show without any games, and you can tell that it's not finished."The business trade then sought Sony's reaction to Nintendo's statement. PSP head Ken Kutaragi replied: "People who want to play with Pikachu will need Nintendo's DS , but those who want to play Gran Turismo 4 will need a PSP."

the story can be found here.

 

Pornography in the privacy of your own phone

according to the yankee group, the global marketplace for wireless/mobile handset pornography will grow to $1 billion worldwide this year. In the US alone, the marketplace will come in around $90 million.

funny, its a marketplace that you rarely hear about (unless you follow this sort of news), yet its a $1 billion industry. just think of what it could be if the carriers decided to get behind it.

and of course, child protection is the primary concern of carriers and handset manufacturers.


 

mobile gaming to break $1 billion

the apac marketplace continues to generate revenue for mobile handset gaming and trend watchers in the mobile space are predicting $1 billion in total 2004 revenue for downloadable games for mobile phone handsets.

according to gamesindustry.biz, the mobile phone marketplace will generate $1 billion in revenue by the end of 2004. a majority of this revenue will come from japan and korea which already out "download" the north america marketplace by about 4-1. analysts predict big things from the US marketplace because the available libraries for download will be much bigger than the network offerings in other markets including asia/pacific.

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?