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Hugo Barra leaves Xiaomi and will return to Silicon Valley
VP Hugo Barra announced on Facebook that he'll be leaving Xiaomi and returning to Silicon Valley. Barra, who became a popular figure in the company both at home in Beijing and abroad, was a star at Google's Android division prior to his tenure at Xiaomi. He called his time in Beijing "the greatest and most challenging adventure of my life," and said he feels he's leaving Xiaomi in a "good place on its global expansion path." At the same time, he said that "living in such a singular environment has taken a huge toll on my life and started affecting my health."
HTC's COO Matthew Costello joins revolving door of departing execs
One of HTC's top execs, Chief Operating Officer Matthew Costello, will depart after three years on the job, according to a report from Bloomberg. He'll join recent departees like Asia CEO Lennard Hoornik and others in leaving the company, which has seen unprecedented turnover of late amid its falling fortunes. His position will be filled for now by engineering president Fred Liu, who told employees via email that Costello would move to Europe and stay on as an executive adviser. Ironically, the latest departure comes in the wake of very good news for HTC, which just reported $970 million in May revenue -- nearly double what it took in last month and just shy of May 2012 figures. That can likely be chalked up to sales of the One, which is now being churned out at full speed (and soon in a stock Android version) but whether the fortunes of HTC's star handset can halt the brain-drain remains to be seen.
The Soapbox: The best complaint is an empty seat
Disclaimer: The Soapbox column is entirely the opinion of this week's writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of Massively as a whole. If you're afraid of opinions other than your own, you might want to skip this column. This is a public service announcement for you. Yes, you, with the post open for the message board and your finger hovering over the "post" button. I can't see what you've got written there, but I'm willing to bet some form of "turning the game into World of Warcraft" is there if you're posting about another game. Or possibly FarmVille. Hopefully I'm getting warm. Look, the point is that I now you're about to post this hateful diatribe about threatening to leave. But I've got a better suggestion for you. How about you delete that post, unsubscribe, and then head outside for a walk with some friends. Play a different game, maybe an offline one, for a couple of days. Don't whine and just leave.
The Daily Grind: What tells you it's time to quit?
Sometimes it's an encounter that just rubs you the wrong way. Sometimes it's the breakup of a guild, and sometimes it's just one or two friends who leave. And sometimes it's just a matter of realizing after a week-long break that you no longer look forward to logging into the game. From Lord of the Rings Online to Champions Online to EVE Online, whatever your game of choice or playstyle, there comes a point when you know that it's time to stop playing. Maybe not forever, but at least for now. In all likelihood, you're not playing the same game now that you started with. It's quite possible you've started and stopped many different games by this point. So what convinces you that it's time to stop with a game for at least the moment? Losing friends? Endgame structures? Or do you just plan to head off for another game when it launches, with the expectation that you'll return if your new haunts don't hold up? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
TUAW's Daily App: FlightBoard
I can't say I'm a huge traveler -- even though I've hit up quite a few conventions this year for work, I haven't been flying so much that I need to keep tabs on what's going on at the airport. But I like the idea of FlightBoard anyway. It's an app that will automatically create a departing flights board for any airport in the country, so you can see flight numbers, gate arrivals, and departure times for all the flights in the airport. Like I said, I personally don't fly enough that I'd necessarily need an app just for this, but if you find yourself running off to the airport a lot for a certain reason, this app seems like it would be very helpful. Even beyond the specific function, I like the idea and design of FlightBoard -- it's modeled after the flight board at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, and it is terrific example of how an app can successfully use an interface metaphor. In the real world, flight boards are often just a standard LED display (or, more recently, a series of monitors). But in this case, the app represents the idea of a flight board, so it recreates the LED display, and it makes the information more familiar to the user. We've all seen and used a flight board, and this app benefits from that previous experience in its interface. In any case, that's just some interesting UI design insight. If nothing else, this app will tell you when and where planes are leaving at whatever airport you choose. FlightBoard is on the App Store right now for US$3.99.
Electronic Arts CFO Warren Jenson departs
The head shuffling continues at Electronic Arts, as one week after naming a new chief operating officer and president of global publishing, the company this morning announced that chief financial officer Warren Jenson has left the company after holding down the position since 2002. EA notes that Jenson will hang around to help close the books on the fiscal year-end reporting and help transition the role to someone else, a name that the company adds that it will announce shortly. While the reason behind Jenson's departure remains unclear -- the one-time exec stating only in a press release that "it's time for me to write the next chapter" in his career -- we can't help but wonder who will count up EA's coffers in his wake.
