2012
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Hyperspace Beacon: A 2012 SWTOR reflection
To say that this year has been interesting for Star Wars: The Old Republic would be a major understatement. I think it's safe to say that in the course of this year this game has gone from being one of the most loved games to one of the most hated. Maybe I just like rooting for the underdog, but I still love the game. (There are other reasons, of course.) Love the game or hate it, 2012 has been a wild ride for the game and this column. As this is the last Hyperspace Beacon of the year year, I'd like to take a moment to reflect on some of the past opinions and predictions I held, then test them against my current stance or the truth behind what happened. Before I get into the meat of this column, I want to make mention of an event. The Imperials of The Ebon Hawk server are holding a gala in the name of Darth Nox, commemorating the one-year anniversary of her ascension to the Dark Council. Players are invited to come ready to roleplay and participate in in-character games. Nox will conduct a scavenger hunt, items will be up for raffle and auction, and every participant should walk away with something. If you were looking for an opportunity to get into roleplay or just have some fun, be sure to visit the market area of Dromund Kaas (instance 1, coordinates: 20, 200) at 6:00 p.m. EST on Saturday, January 5th, 2013.
Distro Issue 71 arrives with a look back at the year in tech
We have survived the dreaded apocalypse for the time being, but the year's end is right around the corner. As CES looms on the horizon, it's nearly time to look ahead to an entirely fresh slate of new gadgetry. To usher in 2013 in proper fashion, our weekly takes a look back at the major happenings of 2012 along with insight from a few of our editors. But that's not all. We also count down the top 10 CrapGadgets of the year and compile the best CE-Oh No He Didn't mudslingin' of the last 365 days. Eyes-On visually fondles the MakerBot Replicator 2, Recommended Reading gets Netflixed, and director / photographer Timothy Saccenti stops over for the Q&A. Jump down below to grab a copy of your very own, as a truckload of reminiscing is but a few clicks away. Distro Issue 71 PDF Distro in the iTunes App Store Distro in the Google Play Store Distro APK (for sideloading) Like Distro on Facebook Follow Distro on Twitter
Massively's Best of 2012 Awards
When game obituaries and studio layoffs start to pile up in the news, Massively can seem like a herald of doom, but the reality is that the MMO industry is stronger and richer than ever. We've got more features to try, more business models to play with, more studios (and indie Kickstarters) to vie for our favor, and more titles to play than most of us could possibly sample in our lifetimes. Today, Massively's staff honors the best of the best for the year 2012. We asked each writer and streamer to vote in each category with an anything-goes nomination process. No MMO, company, or headline was off the table. Enjoy our picks for the best MMOs, expansions, studios, stories, and innovations of 2012... and our most-anticipated for 2013.
2012's games: the movie
In a world ... where a bunch of games came out, one man had the courage to cut a bunch of scenes from them together. This winter, the games of 2012 unite to learn the true meaning of friendship.
Apple announces the Mac App Store's Best of 2012
Just as they did for the iOS App Store, Apple has announced the best Mac apps of 2012 in the Mac App Store. The App of the Year award went to Day One (US$9.99), the popular simplified journaling app. The first-person role playing game, Deus Ex: Human Revolution - Ultimate Edition ($39.99) took home top honors for Game of the Year. The runner up Mac App of the Year went to CameraBag 2 ($14.99), the desktop photo editing app with numerous filters, tools and controls. The runner up Mac Game of the Year went to Splice : Tree of Life ($9.99), the artistic puzzler that finds users splicing different microbial strands to see how they react with one another. Apple also lists the next top 20 Mac apps and games of 2012. Keep an eye out for "Best of" lists of 2012 throughout December from TUAW writers.
Four apps to help you prepare for The End Of The World
Hey, you! Yeah, you. The guy everyone laughs at for knowing the truth. Sure, the majority of the "sane" people out there think you need psychiatric help because you spent your life savings building that end-of-the-world bunker at an undisclosed location in the Rocky Mountains, but you and I know better, don't we? We both know you aren't crazy and -- just like the Mayans predicted all those hundreds of years ago -- the world is really going to end on December 21, 2012. Sure, the US government, NASA and the Vatican are telling the world that nothing is going to happen on 12/21/12. But you know who else is telling their people that? The Russians. And who are you going to trust? Just yourself. And me, as I'm clearly as sane as you are. With that in mind, I've compiled a list of the four apps you'll need to get ready of the end of the world. 1. Amazon Mobile Look, there's only a week left until it all ends. Download this app and buy whatever you want. Why? Because who's going to be sending you that credit card bill come January? That's right: NO ONE. So go ahead and splurge on that tank you're gonna need for driving around the total wasteland formerly known as "the Earth." I just recommend you use Amazon Prime so you get all your goods before the impending demise of everyone and everything you've ever loved. 2. Countdown 12/21/12 Sure, you can probably tell anyone the exact number of seconds left until The End at the drop of a hat, but it's always nice to have a little back up reminder. This app even takes time zones into account. Just be sure to enable the "Death Clock" theme, because, let's face it, the end of the world ain't gonna be pretty. 3. iRegret Yeah, I know, it's the other people who are going to regret not listening as you preached about the wisdom of the Mayan calendar for the last 20 years. But still, I'm sure you have some regrets, right? Maybe you regret not going out and being part of the world instead of just preparing for its end. Maybe you regret learning how to turn dried goat intestines into a bota bag instead of following your dreams of becoming a novelist? Whatever your regrets are now, get them off your chest with this app. You can also see feeds of other people's regrets -- and let me tell you, come December 21 those feeds are just gonna be full of regrets saying, "I should have listened to YOU!" 4. Survival Guide We both know you're a master strategist who's stronger than Rambo, more thrifty than MacGyver and that with your firearm skills any gun battle you get into will be just like a choreographed fight scene from The Matrix. But still, extra pointers never hurt. The Survival Guide app is based on the US Military Survival Manual FM 21-76. It covers psychological survival training, medicine, shelter, water and supply procurement and more. You might as well read up on your survival technique while your iPhone still has power. So there you have it, brother. I'd list more apps, but there's not much time left. I've still got a hundred kilos of squirrel meat to dry into jerky and then need to begin the trek to my retrofitted missile silo. I wish you the best of luck. And just know that if Apple were to still exist after The End, you'd definitely be in their next Here's To The Crazy One's commercial.
The year on Twitter: from the ocean floor to Mars, tragedy to triumph
At the end of every year, Twitter loves to compile highlights from the previous 12 months. Its army of engineers and analysts look at the trends, the most popular retweets and new tweeters with an impact. Then all that info is packaged up in an easy to navigate standalone site that presents the world through a hashtag-tinted lens. 2012 had plenty of interesting moments, punctuated by status updates from the bottom of the sea and the surface of the red planet. We were given an unprecedented birds-eye view of a tragic storm and an intimate glimpse at a president celebrating the successful conclusion of a hard-fought election with his wife. If you'd like to tour the Year on Twitter, hit up the source links.
Apple products top Bing's 2012 top search list
Microsoft has just revealed Bing's top search terms for 2012, and while the company's own products only make a couple of appearances, Apple dominates the list with five of the top 10 keywords. Unsurprisingly, iPhone 5 tops the list, followed closely by iPad in second place. The "iPad 3" pops up in the number five spot, followed by the iPod touch and then the iPhone 4S in the number nine slot. Microsoft's own Xbox ranks number seven, with Windows 8 clinging to the top 10 list in the very last spot. You can check out the full list of Bing's 2012 top consumer electronics search terms below. iPhone 5 iPad Samsung Galaxy S III Kindle iPad 3 iPod Touch Xbox PlayStation 3 iPhone 4S Windows 8 Interestingly, the iPhone 5 also makes an appearance in the news topic section as well. The iPhone 5 announcement ranks as the top searched news story of the year, beating out the 2012 Elections, 2012 Olympics, Facebook IPO and even Hurricane Sandy. [Via: VentureBeat]
RuneScape's oracle predicts through 2013
With the clock running down on 2012, one might be forgiven for overlooking the rest of the year in favor of what the next will bring. That's a mistake with RuneScape, as the devs have promised that they've saved the best for last with a couple of sizable updates to the game. On tap for the remainder of the year is the addition of a super-tough Grandmaster-level quest, player-owned ports, and a very lonely dog that will need help come Christmas-time. Looking ahead to 2013, Jagex revealed its ambitious plans for a variety of content as well as something called RuneScape Next Gen. The description of the latter is quite intriguing: "Featuring our innovative new browser-based technology and with big investments in graphics and gameplay, RuneScape is set to take a monumental leap forward in 2013. Higher visual and audio fidelity, improved camera mechanics and a much more customizable interface system are but a taste of what you can expect."
T-Mobile USA Q3 2012 earnings: Revenue drops 6 percent to $4.9 billion, profit down 15 percent
T-Mobile USA just announced its Q3 2012 financials, and its balance sheet is sagging over last year: the company collected $4.9 billion, 6.4 percent less than Q3 2011, and earned $1.2 billion, a decline of 15.2 percent. The mobile operator said while it earned more from equipment sales, it wasn't enough to offset an 8.7 percent drop in service revenue caused by a loss of 492,000 lucrative postpaid clients. Despite the gloomy tidings, the telecom said it added 160,000 new users (net) over last quarter thanks in part to the iPhone 5 launch, including 365k branded prepaid customers -- and improved "churn" (clients switching carriers) by 30 basis points to 2.3 percent. The company also feels its MetroPCS merger will also start to pay off soon, figuring it'll soon have "LTE deployment in 90 percent of the top 25 US markets." Whether the cheery talk will assuage investors remains to be seen -- check the PR after the break to see for yourself. [Image credit: Wikimedia Commons]
US Cellular takes hit on LTE devices, profits halved to $35.5 million in Q3 2012
US Cellular's latest figures show that while the network saw its revenues remain constant, net profits fell by nearly half compared to the same period last year. It coined $35.5 million in net profit this quarter, down from the $62.1 million it made in Q3 2011 despite bringing in $1.04 billion in turnover both times. The cause of this reduced profitability is said to be down to higher subsidies on LTE devices, which represented a full 50 percent of the company's smartphone sales in the quarter. While the carrier has reversed the trend of losing customers, it only managed to add a rather measly 9,000 new customers in the three-month period. That could be part of the motivation behind US Cellular selling off a big chunk of its Midwestern operations to the now cash-rich Sprint -- so it can concentrate on areas where business is stronger.
Toshiba Q2 results: profit of $722 million, whole-year forecast cut by $500 million
Toshiba has managed to pick itself up this quarter, recording $17.8 billion in sales, making for an operating profit of $722 million over the past three months. The "social infrastructure" segments recorded a healthy profit ($518 million), while income from digital products, home appliances and electronic devices fell due lower than expected demand. Forecasts for the year have been cut for the full year by approximately $500 million to $3.26 billion, as Toshiba expects lowers sales and operating profits due to the uncertain global economic situation. Individual segments are expected to continue their distinct trends, with the social infrastructure business pulling in more while its other arms bear the brunt of the economic slowdown. [Image credit: Wikimedia Commons]
Clearwire sees wholesale revenues dip, LTE delays as it posts a $41.3 million net loss in Q3
Clearwire's figures show that the network it isn't cool to love will be making placating faces at its bank manager for yet another quarter. It pulled in revenues of $313.9 million for the three month period, but with business costs (and depreciation) clocking in at $646.7 million, the company posted an operating loss of $332 million and a net loss of $41.3 million. If that wasn't bad enough, it's also hacked back a target to add TD-LTE to 5,000 sites before mid-2013 to just 2,000. A similar problem has occurred over at newly-minted majority owner Sprint, which has found itself a quarter behind its own LTE timetable thanks to parts shortages -- so let's hope the folks over at Softbank can help both companies improve their estimating skills.
IDC: Samsung and Apple still kings of the smartphone market, Nokia loses top five spot to RIM
IDC's third quarter figures are in, complete with a few unexpected shake-ups. The entire cellphone market grew 2.4% over the same time last year, but smartphones drove the majority of that, showing growth of 45.3% and beating the analysts' expectations. Of the 179.7 million smartphones shipped, Samsung and Apple devices accounted for almost half of them, with the companies retaining their number one and two positions in the market, respectively. IDC notes that iPhone shipments didn't increase, but this is somewhat expected given the latest iteration was released only a short time before the end of the quarter. What we find particularly interesting is that Nokia was ousted from the top five smartphone players and replaced by RIM. Whether Nokia's upcoming Windows Phone 8 devices will put it back in contention remains to be seen, as does the effect BB10 and RIM's new handsets will have on the market. ZTE finished fourth in the list thanks to increased sales in North America, with HTC rounding up the top five vendors with continued uptake of its power devices. With a bunch of new handsets coming to the table and the holiday season fast approaching, look out for even more surprises in the fourth quarter numbers, due early next year.
Amazon Q3 2012 earnings: $13.18 billion revenue, net loss of $274 million
Amazon has just released its earnings for the third quarter of the year and it looks like it's slightly off analysts' expectations. The company reported $13.18 billion in revenue (a growth of 27 percent) and an operating loss of $28 million, with net income standing at a loss of $274 million. As Amazon notes, though, a chunk of that, some $169 million, comes from losses resulting from its investment in LivingSocial -- it says the figure is "primarily attributable to its impairment charge of certain assets, including goodwill." Expectedly, the company still isn't offering any specific numbers for device sales, noting only that the Kindle Fire HD is the number one selling product across Amazon worldwide, and that the next two bestselling products worldwide are the Kindle Paperwhite and the $69 Kindle. As for its outlook for the next quarter, the company is expecting net sales of between $20.25 billion and $22.75 billion, and operating income of anywhere from a loss of $490 million to a profit of $310 million. You can find the company's full breakdown of all the numbers at the link below.
Sprint sells 1.5 million iPhones, 1 million other smartphones, but makes a net loss of $767 million
Sprint's latest financials show that while the network is slowly stemming the flow of cash from its veins, it's not quite there in terms of turning a profit. The country's third biggest carrier suffered a $767 million net loss and an operating loss of $231 million -- much less than the $629 million operating loss it had in Q2, but on-par with the $208 million lost in the same period last year. The business did manage to bring in total revenues of $8.8 billion, but had to take a hit on a $397 million write-down on costs related to Network Vision and the continued pain of the Nextel shutdown. On the customer size, it added a further 900,000 users, sold 1.5 million iPhones and a further 1 million "LTE smartphones" in the quarter. Those with long memories will know that the company sold the same number of Apple handsets in the last two quarters, with around 40 percent going to new customers then as now. However, churn, the deadly enemy of all carriers, increased to 1.88 percent, up from 1.69 percent in Q2. The network did manage to coax 59 percent of former Nextel customers to stay tied up with Big Yellow, which may account for it selling nearly 1.2 million Direct Connect devices. While it's hardly a rosy estimation of Sprint's financial health, this report doesn't take into account Softbank's $20.1 billion buy-out or the regained controlling stake in Clearwire -- so we're expecting the next financial announcement to contain some more exciting news. Update: During the conference call, Dan Hesse was asked about adopting a shared data plan to rival Verizon and AT&T, but unlike the last call, he was dismissive of the idea.
TSMC's 28-nanometer process pays off as it rakes in $1.68 billion profit in Q3
Everything is relative, so when a chip foundry like TSMC (which produces gear for the likes of NVIDIA) has a bad quarter, that means it only made a $1 billion in profit. Today's numbers reveal that the company has managed to rescue its halting fortunes after turning over $4.8 billion and making a tidy $1.68 billion in profit. The cause of this upswing was that orders for its coveted 28-nanometer process doubled in the period -- repaying some of the $8.5 billion spent developing it and keeping profits just a little over that of its close pal, Qualcomm.
Nintendo reports continued first-half losses for 2012, is waiting on the Wii U
Nintendo's reported its financial results for the first of half of the year, and things are still a little rocky. Net sales in the last six months have decreased 6.8 percent compared to the same point last year, while net income continues to drop, this time by 27,996 million yen. As of September 2012, Nintendo has now sold over 22 million 3DS units (three million more since last quarter), while the Wii remains just shy of the 100 million milestone, settling at 97.2 million units sold. Nintendo looks to be in a similar position to last year, with customers still waiting for the company's next big console to appear -- and the gamesmaker hoping they will. Laying blame at the strong yen, the company has dramatically cut its forecast for the rest of the year, down from 20 billion ($250 million) to 6 billion yen ($75 million), pinning its hopes on 3DS sales ahead of the Wii U's global launch later this year.
Netflix Q3 2012 earnings: 2 million more streaming subscribers worldwide, $8 million net income
Netflix saw a return to profitability and more than half a million new US subscribers in the second quarter of this year, and it's now announced that it's added a full two million more streaming members worldwide for the third quarter. That brings the company's global base of streaming subscribers to 29 million, 25.1 million of which are in the US. It's also announced another bump in profits to $8 million in net income, with global revenue of $905 million. It's unsurprisingly a different story when it comes to DVD subscriptions in the US, however, with the company reporting a drop from 9.24 million total subscribers in Q2 to 8.61 million in Q3. In terms of usage, Netflix says that its streaming members have now consumed over three billion hours of content, and that TV shows now account for about two thirds of that viewing activity. The company has also reiterated its commitment to original programming in its letter to shareholders, although it notes that commitment comes with some front-loaded expenses that will result in negative free cash flow for the next "several quarters" beginning with Q4. The company further adds that it believes "investment in originals is wise, and we will evaluate the performance of the slate next year to determine at what level we should fund additional original." You can find the full letter and all the numbers at the source link below.
ARM posts healthy Q3 profits: up 22 percent thanks to smart TVs and other growing markets
British chip designer ARM has just revealed its accounts for Q3 2012 and they show a familiar pattern: namely, a double-digit rise in both revenue (up 20 percent to £144.6 million, or around $230 million) and pre-tax earnings (up 22 percent to £68.1 million). According to Reuters, the company is attributing its latest bout of success to making "further inroads" into growing markets like smart TVs and microcontrollers. Of course, all of this is stands in stark contrast to the traditional x86 PC world, where giants like Intel and AMD have been struggling with weak demand.
