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The US and France reportedly reach a deal over 'digital services' tax
The Trump Administration and the French government have supposedly reached a deal that ends a feud over France's tax on tech giants, Bloomberg reports. Earlier this year, French President Emmanuel Macron proposed a three percent tax on revenues earned on digital services in France. President Trump threatened a tariff on French wine if the tax went through, sparking a standoff. Trump and Macron reportedly worked through some of their differences at a G7 summit, and today, Macron told reporters, "We have a deal to overcome the difficulties between us."
White House invites tech companies to discuss violent online extremism
The White House plans to host a meeting with tech companies to discuss the rise of violent online extremism. According to The Washington Post, this is the Trump administration's first major engagement on the issue after the recent mass shooting in Texas left 22 people dead. Trump is scheduled to be at fundraisers in the Hamptons, so he may not attend.
Court puts a stop to Activision Blizzard independence
So here's a short story for the morning told over one act. First, Activision Blizzard announces that it is separating from its parent company Vivendi and going independent, which surprises many people. Then a shareholder sues the company to prevent this from happening, claiming that it's a huge waste meant to cover a power grab. As a result, the separation is now officially on hold by the order of the Delaware Chancery Court, which was probably not the result most people had expected thus far. In order for the separation to continue, either the injunction must be modified on appeal or a majority vote by non-Vivendi stockholders must come down in favor of continuing the process. Activision Blizzard's representatives restated that they were dedicated to this course of action and are exploring options to ensure it still takes place. Vivendi has been trying to divest itself of Activision Blizzard for nearly a year now in hopes of boosting its overall stock price.
CCP's Petursson discusses how big companies get dumb
CCP Games is doing pretty well for itself at this point. EVE Online is going strong, DUST 514 has been promising thus far, and the company has two more projects in the pipeline. But there's still an underlying focus to the company as a whole, and according to CCP CEO Hilmar Petursson that's a necessity. As Petursson puts it, large companies can get very dumb very quickly unless the people in charge make a conscious effort to avoid it. Petursson notes that a larger company has more difficulty coordinating and understanding how small changes can make larger impacts, something that requires careful structure and planning to avoid. He points out that the company's loss of focus led to layoffs back in 2011, something that he feels personally responsible for. If you're interested in seeing how the company is trying to keep fluid by adapting to new markets without rushing into trends, you can take a look at the full interview.
Former president of Square Enix calls corporate merger a disaster
Corporate mergers always create hard feelings. Combining two separate groups of people into a single culture is naturally going to generate some feelings that the companies were better off apart. That's certainly the case for Hisashi Suzuki, the former president of Square Enix who recently called the merger of the two companies a "complete failure" via Twitter, claiming that the company has absolutely no vision for the future. It's undeniable that the studio has seen some titles with poor reception in recent years, with Final Fantasy XIV's launch proving a major misstep for the company at the time (and being the most relevant to the MMO industry). At the same time, Suzuki left the company seven years ago, and the company is in the process of completely revamping Final Fantasy XIV following the mistakes of launch. Whether or not Suzuki is correct or simply a bit bitter after the fact falls to personal interpretation.
British Telecom says it's 'highly likely' to write off OnLive stake
British Telecom has reported that it is "highly likely" to simply write off the 2.6 percent stake it invested in the recently rebooted cloud computing service, OnLive. The issue isn't yet settled, but a BT spokesperson told TechRadar that "the 2.6 percent shareholding in OnLive does not represent a significant investment for BT as a whole. We consider it highly likely that we'll have to write off our investment."HTC also made a $40 million investment in OnLive, and it has already reported to the Taiwanese Stock Exchange that it considers the money written off. With all of OnLive's assets being transferred to form a new company, getting compensated for their investments may be more trouble than it's worth for both HTC and BT.But the book isn't closed just yet – BT says it will "keep a close eye on developments" with OnLive, and that current customers who are able to access the service can continue to do so for the time being.
Apple cracks down on app-ranking manipulation
Apple's facing a growing problem on its App Store platform: ranking manipulation. While a lot of the spotlight areas are curated by humans, the rankings are generally not. Instead, computer-driven algorithms determine where each app falls in the various rankings for the store and each section. Ranking position can often mean the difference between making or losing money for a lot of developers. As a result, there are ways for developers to manipulate those rankings, ranging from the generally acceptable (asking customers to rate the app highly if they like it), to the not-so-much (hiring networks of computers to log in and download or leave ratings for an app). Some of this manipulation is essentially an open secret for developers. In fact, there are even companies devs can hire (again, some more credible than others) that will promise a certain ranking or claim to improve sales. It's been a constant challenge for Apple to crack down on devs who are using unsavory techniques without interfering with those employing acceptable means. More than a few innocent apps have been caught in the crossfire, either by being banned from the App Store for behavior they say they didn't do, or by having their rankings hurt by changes in the algorithm. As this long GamesBeat post says, Apple's methods for determining rankings aren't clear at all, and that fact can hurt developers. There's no easy way out of this one. Apple wants to keep its algorithm hidden, just to try to keep the rankings as objective as possible. But there will always be devs who try to crack it open, and companies ready to prey on the App Store rules to scam a few bucks from hopeful developers. In the end, the best way to climb the rankings is to have a great and popular app. People will always try to dodge that requirement, and Apple will continue to try to stop them, with good and bad results. But for developers with talent and the knowhow to make good, noticeable apps, the hope is that the App Store will always find a way to get them seen (and bought) by consumers.
Smule acquires Khush, two music-making app companies join forces
Here's an interesting acquisition that completely makes sense in hindsight. Smule, the company behind popular iOS apps like Magic Piano and the original Ocarina for iPhone app, has acquired Khush, an iOS developer that also makes musical apps, including LaDiDa and Songify. These two companies were basically meant for each other -- both use music and new interfaces in iOS to make one-of-a-kind experiences for the App Store. Songify, for example, has over 5 million downloads, and Ocarina boasts over 6 million downloads. Together, these two companies know how to make these things work. As you can read in the press release below, Smule will use Khush's assets, and vice versa, to keep producing these types of musical apps and expand the company's "Sonic Network" of social connections and creative sharing. Should be interesting to see what these two come up with working together. Their first work is a video, which uses both companies' apps to make some crazy music. The most interesting part of this merger, however, might be the one thing we don't know: the numbers. Smule has been extremely popular on the App Store, but the fact that it would acquire another company like this shows it's been earning some money to go along with that popularity. This is obviously not just about money -- watching the video above, you can see that these two groups have very similar backgrounds and goals, and having met Smule's Ge Wang myself a few times, I know that Smule's work really is about making these musical experiences come true in a way that almost anyone can experience. That said, these are both for-profit companies, and it'd be interesting to see just how much Khush went for. The iOS developer acquisition game is serious business, and if Smule can acquire another company like this, it shows they have at least a little profit to throw around.
Companies to watch, from the SXSW trade show floor
After a tour of the SXSW trade show floor, here are some of the companies we'll be profiling in the coming weeks. Of course, there's always a mix of companies at SXSW: some film, some music, many web services -- but far fewer social media companies than last year. We've covered RedLaser and LaCie in the past, and while LaCie has new products (more hard drives, surprise!) and RedLaser has gone local, I'm going to focus on a few mobile apps and accessories you might not have heard of yet. On the hardware front, there's a portable second monitor solution called CINQ on display. The CINQ attaches to your laptop screen with a sort of clamp, and it only needs a USB port to get video and power. It supports 1280x720 resolution and weighs a mere 15 oz. For a 10.1" secondary screen, that's not bad. I felt the backlight was a bit weak, but as someone who often enjoys working with two screens, it might be a portable solution for frequent travelers. Then again, at US$249 (and not available until a few months from now), it won't be cheap. Perhaps the most intriguing and useful product I saw was from a company launched a couple of weeks ago. LifeProof enters a shockingly small market of durable, water-and-dirt-proof iPhone cases. Nowhere near as bulky as similar offerings from OtterBox and Griffin, the LifeProof case is shockproof (tested to 2 meters), waterproof down to 6 feet and keeps sand, mud and grit away. Based on the demo units sealed in with various elements, and my examination of the case, I would say this is an excellent "every day" use case for people who work outside. It also looks ideal if you climb, mountain bike or swim regularly. Shipping in a few weeks, the LifeProof case will cost $69.95. I also had a quick chat with one of the three indie developers of TapCity, what looks to be a fun game coming soon available now on the App Store. You're able to "take over" locations, earn "rent" as people check in, or conduct battles for locations -- all with cute cartoon graphics of real places around you. No word on how many cities will be supported at launch, but we'll try to get a look at it soon.
Billboard nominates music app awards
Billboard has announced that it will be giving awards out for iOS music apps (of all things). At the Music App Summit on October 5th, Billboard will choose winning iOS apps in six different categories, from Best Artist App and Best Music Creation App to Best Branded Music App. You can find the full list of nominees after the break, and there are some recognizable names on there, including a Phish touring app, TUAW favorite I am T-Pain, and the now Disney-owned Tap Tap Revenge. Winners will be announced at the summit, and they will be selected by a panel of judges that includes (not kidding about this) MC Hammer and a bunch of CEOs and marketing folks. It seems silly (and let's face it... it is), but Billboard is a big deal in the music industry, and this means that the dinosaur-like recording giants are at least starting to notice the effect that apps have on artist profiles. Plus, it's good to see LaDiDa get a little more attention -- I liked that one.
More concerns over suicides at Foxconn
There was more bad news out of China this week -- manufacturer Foxconn (who makes quite a few parts for Apple devices) has been dealing with a rash of employee suicides, as low pay and long hours on the workers seems to be taking their toll. Yesterday, another worker reportedly tried to take his own life [Ed. note: original 9to5Mac link broken], and there are reports of more than 15 other attempts within the plant. Apple has responded, saying that they're working closely with the company to try and solve the issue. In order to do that, the company claims it's going to raise wages by 20%, although it's not clear yet when or how that plan will be implemented. It also says that some employees will be relocated closer to their homes -- about a fifth of the workforce will be moved to plants closer to their families. Apple isn't alone in helping Foxconn deal with the problem, either -- Sony, Nokia, Nintendo, Dell, and HP all get parts from these factories and are pressuring the company to do better. Finally, John Gruber points out that as bad as this Foxconn story is, it might not be all that remarkable, unfortunately. Even with the reported 13 suicides, Foxconn has over 800,000 workers, which means the company's suicide rate is below the national average in China, and China is number 26 on the worldwide list. But numbers and averages aside, a death is a death, and everything Foxconn can do to help their employees lead better lives should be worth it.
Google calls Apple "valuable partner"
Steve Jobs is trashing Google internally according to rumors, but Google is having none of it. Company reps told the press at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week that Google considers Apple "a very close and valuable partner," and that they believe that the relationship between the two companies "is stable." Of course, they were responding to rumors that Microsoft's Bing search engine would replace Google on the iPhone, and common sense will tell you that it'll be a cold day somewhere very warm before Apple chooses to partner with Microsoft over Google. If push came to shove, Steve would probably create his own search engine before partnering up with anyone in Redmond. But maybe the Google folks are also playing politics a little here -- Steve is not an unreasonable man, and he is known for being direct, especially in personal communication. Jobs can complain all he want in an internal meeting, but in public, it's probably best that Google takes the high road. Apple and Google may eventually have to show down over cell phones, but until they absolutely have to, it's probably better if they both play as nice as possible. [via Ars]
Laptop Mag's tech support showdown strikes once again
Laptop Magazine's once again done us all a really good turn by running a pretty exhaustive -- yet totally reasonable -- test of the tech support for ten popular companies that produce laptops. Essentially, they placed two call to each outfit's support -- one during peak, one during off-peak hours, and asked them some really basic questions such as "How can I make changes to my notebook's power settings?" Then, they tried to find answers to the same questions via the company's various web-based resources. So, what's the skinny? Well, only Apple got an "A," while Acer, Dell and HP hold the bottom spots with a "C-" score, while everybody else falls somewhere in the middle. The report, is, however, a really fascinating read with far more information than mere letter grades, so please -- click the read link to read the entire, epic tome.
The Daily Grind: Who would you like to see make an MMO?
Many gaming companies are beginning to become interested in the online arena, especially when it comes to MMOs. World of Warcraft turned many heads when it came out and proved that a video game can work extremely well as a service, to the tune of millions of subscriptions per month in constant revenue. We've just seen Bioware enter the fray, offering up Star Wars: The Old Republic up as their first MMO title.What we want to know is what game company would you like to see step up to the plate? Who do you think could enter the MMO genre and provide us with another killer app?You've got an opinion and we would love to hear it. Drop your thoughts into the white comment box after the break, and share what you have to say with the rest of the Massively loyal.
NetEase to buy all new servers for Chinese WoW
Yes, as you may have noticed in the update on our post the other day, it's confirmed: NetEase will be taking over operating the World of Warcraft in China as of June -- their new homebase over there can be found at wow.163.com. And while we originally reported that The9 would be turning over their software, hardware, and staff to run the game, apparently that's not completely true. IDG News Service is reporting that NetEase will be setting up their own network of servers to run the game. That's a big undertaking -- it likely means that things will be bumpy for the first few days of the transition (though Blizzard is clearly confident that NetEase can handle it, having run a few other games in the market before). And it also means that some of the supercomputers we've reported on before that are owned by The9 will go to... well, we're not sure what.Not that there aren't plenty of things to use them for -- despite their stock dropping on news of the WoW license loss, The9 also runs a number of other games over there, including Guild Wars, Ragnarok Online, and a few more popular Eastern MMOs (not to mention that EA has a nice stake in them). And at the very least, there's got to be a market for supercomputers with other companies and educational institutions, right? It's unlikely that all that hardware will just sit dark.But more importantly, it'll be interesting to see how NetEase handles the transition -- we've had a few inventory and other issues here on the Western side of the world, but we've never had a major loss of character information (cue all of the Blizzard engineers knocking on wood). We're sure there are countless backups in place, but if something goes majorly wrong in the transition between hosts, it could be devastating for the WoW audience in China.
World of Warcraft, and lack of it, at E3
I was lucky enough to go to E3 this year with the Joystiq crew last week, and while I had planned to cover some stories about WoW for you guys, the biggest story I came back with was: that there was no story. I didn't hear or see World of Warcraft mentioned once. When Blizzard said they were not showing at E3, they meant it -- I didn't even hear a competitor mention their name.There was one mention of Blizzard at the Activision press conference on Tuesday. Mike Griffith name-dropped Blizzard once just to say the merger had happened, but there was nothing at all about World of Warcraft or any of Blizzard's properties. And I had planned to try out the Novint Falcon controller with WoW. I did try it out, and it is an interesting, if expensive, PC game controller, but Novint told me they didn't have it working in a form they wanted to show off with World of Warcraft yet.Kind of strange that the biggest game in the world didn't get a single mention at the biggest game show in the world, but then again, it's not that weird when you consider that E3 has scaled way down by magnitudes from past years. Companies aren't as interested in the event when there are many, many other ways to market and show off their games to journalists, and considering that Blizzard has invested heavily in not one but two giant events of their own this year, it's no wonder they don't want to spend any money at E3. Shame that we couldn't bring you more WoW coverage from LA last week, but we'll be back there in October, and there'll be plenty of news to report then.
The Economist on Apple's journey as a lesson to other companies
The Economist has published an article that explores some of the lessons other companies can learn from Apple's journey through the industry, as well as it's unique practices towards product design and customer relations. Specifically, the article outlines four lessons other companies should take notes on, including the fact that some of Apple's innovation comes both from without and within, highlighting the fact that some of its strongest products like Mac OS X and the iPod are either built on the foundation from open source (Mac OS X's BSD Unix core), or originally conceived by an outside consultant (like the iPod). Another great lesson the article mentions is an ability to not listen to customers or the market when one's instincts say otherwise. Both the iPod and Nintendo's Wii are cited here: while the iPod was originally criticized for being too expensive of a gadget, the market has clearly spoken otherwise. In the case of Nintendo's wildly successful Wii, the company was criticized for betting on a portion of the market that was more or less completely ignored by the other video game manufacturers: non-gamers who haven't picked up a console yet.It's a good read that takes a realistic approach while spotlighting some of the lessons that companies can learn from Apple's wild success in recent years.Thanks Adam
EA an awful place to work. Awful great!
var digg_url = 'http://www.joystiq.com/2007/05/16/ea-an-awful-place-to-work-awful-great/'; Remember when the online buzz about Electronic Arts was all about overworked staff and unpaid overtime? That's so two years ago. The new buzz, apparently, is that EA is the second best place for new graduates to work, according to a Fortune Magazine list.They make a decent enough case -- EA employees get five to ten free games per year, heavy discounts on games and systems, plus amenities like an on-site gym, a DVD library and stock options. Still, given the past complaints, we can't help but gape at Fortune's statement that EA employees "might not have time to spend any of the $60,000 starting salary that's offered to the average entry-level worker." They had to understand the irony dripping from that line when they wrote it. Didn't they?[Thanks Keavin]
