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ReQuest threatens to enable DVD piracy on its media streamers, announces one sans DVD
Enjoy copying DVDs onto $5,000 boutique home servers? If you've got the dough, ReQuest has got you covered -- CEO Peter Cholnoky says that even if California courts make the practice illegal, his firm isn't afraid to push back. When CE Pro asked whether he was concerned about the fallout from the Kaleidescape lawsuit, he said, "Nope, should I be?" adding that ReQuest could convert existing equipment to use third-party DVD-copying software "in two seconds" should the courts try to shut him down. Given that the company's new $1,200 MediaPlayer (above) doesn't have the requisite DVD drive for ripping discs anyhow, that sounds an awful lot like braggadocio, but we have to say we love Peter's stick-it-to-the-man tone. Oh, and in case you're wondering, that MediaPlayer is slated to ship in June; you'll find a full spec sheet at our source link.
CE-Oh no he didn't!: Sony's Sir Howard says 'when you beat Apple, you're dominating'
Sony CEO Sir Howard Stringer has always been delightfully direct, and he didn't hold back at Google's I/O conference: talking about Sony Ericsson with Eric Schmidt during the Google TV launch, Sir Howard noted that the Xperia X10 is the best-selling handset in Japan, and that "when you beat Apple, you're dominating -- it's the new definition." Strong words from a gadget titan -- we'll leave it to you to debate their veracity.
CE-Oh no he didn't!: Nokia's Anssi Vanjoki thinks cameraphones are about to make SLRs obsolete
From what we know of Anssi Vanjoki, he's a great guy and one that isn't afraid of admitting his company's mistakes. Alas, now we can also add to that dossier the ignominious fact that the fella doesn't seem to know how professional cameras work. Talking about the rapid improvement in cameraphone technology during a speech in Helsinki yesterday, Vanjoki said that very soon "there will be no need to carry around those heavy lenses." He's really enthusiastic about HD video coming to phones, which he predicts will be here within 12 months (if you ask Sony Ericsson, it's here already), but we just can't let that spectacular line about lenses slide. The glass you shoot through is, for a lot of people, the most important piece of photographic equipment and there are genuine reasons why said lenses are heavy, elongated, and typically unfriendly to pockets. Then again, this dude also thought the N-Gage was gonna be a success, so don't start selling off that glass stockpile just yet.
CE-oh no he didn't!: Reggie Fils-Aime says the iPhone OS isn't a 'viable profit platform for game development'
We can't say we'd expect Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime to lavish praise on iPhone OS gaming and the abilities of the iPad, but we figured everyone had to at least acknowledge the effect of Apple's handhelds on the market and the potential of its tablet, you know? Nope -- ol' Reg just told Kotaku that Apple "is not having an impact on Nintendo when you look at our business, our volume, our hardware, our software," and that "clearly it doesn't look like their platform is a viable profit platform for game development because so many of the games are free versus paid downloads." Snap -- although we'd bet plenty of top-tier iPhone game devs like ngmoco would argue that their "freemium" model is working plenty okay. That's not all, though, as Reggie also had some choice words about depth: "If our games represent a range between snacks of entertainment and full meals depending on the type of game, (Apple's) aren't even a mouthful, in terms of the gaming experience you get." Double snap -- we'll leave it to you to argue that one out.
CE-Oh no he didn't!: Katzenberg says 'beautifully styled' 3D glasses won't make you look like a dweeb
Another day, another CEO with more lip gloss than brain matter. Jeffrey Katzenberg has been talking to USA Today on what seems to be his favorite topic these days, 3D, and telling us that the glasses ain't no big deal. After all, "many many many people" wear glasses -- that's three lots of many for those keeping count at home -- and the new and improved 3D appendages are so "beautifully styled" that he expects them to start popping up at your local optometrist right next to the sunglasses and designer eyewear isles. In fact, this dude's sipping the corporate firewater so hard, we half-expect him to tell us that 3D offers "very high value" for money or ... wait, he said that too? Alright, we give up.
CE-Oh no he didn't! Part LXVIII: Only Apple and dope smokers claim to know the future of tablets, says Dell VP
What we'd normally brush off as pretty standard mainstream tech piece became comedy gold thanks to the acerbic wit of Dell's John Thode. The VP of mobile devices was discussing its companies entry into the tablet industry (all the while promoting the Mini 5, of course) and seemed to downplay Apple's iPad momentum. "It's really hard to kind of do the same thing over again twice or three times... [Apple] is going to have more competition here." A rational statement, but here's where it gets interesting: "If anybody tells you they know exactly what's going to happen here, they're either Apple, or they're smoking dope." Don't tell John, but we hear Gartner just hired the entire cast and crew of Dazed and Confused for a special analytics department.
CE-Oh no he didn't? Part LXVII: Steve Jobs lashes out at Google, calls Adobe 'lazy'
According to a report in Wired (and a source whom the publication says "could not be named"), Steve Jobs spoke to an audience of Apple employees at a town hall in Cupertino and... pulled zero punches. If you believe what you read, Jobs tackled a handful of major issues that have been buzzing the company lately, namely its run-ins with Google on a number of topics, and the lack of Flash support in its mobile devices (most notably in the upcoming iPad). On Google, Jobs had this to say: "We did not enter the search business. They entered the phone business. Make no mistake they want to kill the iPhone. We won't let them." According to the attendee, another topic was brought up but Steve wouldn't let the Google issue go, stating his thoughts on the company's famous 'Don't be evil' line. In Steve's words? "It's bullshit." Furthermore Jobs had a handful of choice words for Adobe, calling the company "lazy" and claiming that "Apple does not support Flash because it is so buggy. Whenever a Mac crashes more often than not it's because of Flash. No one will be using Flash. The world is moving to HTML5." Of course, these amazing nuggets of wisdom come from a source which Engadget cannot verify, so it's possible there are misquotes or items taken out of context, though from the sounds of things, this kind of talk falls right in line with what we'd expect from the man who said Microsoft "had no taste" and makes "really third-rate products." We eagerly await Eric Schmidt's response.
CE-Oh no he didn't! Part LXVI: Acer founder predicts extinction of US PC makers within 20 years
Oh, this is as tasty as it is salacious. Acer founder and former chairman (now retired) Stan Shih has come out with the bold prediction that US computer brands are on the way out -- if they do not adjust to the new reality of a PC market focused on low cost. When asked how he foresees Acer and ASUS establishing their brand credentials in the USA when they're engaged in constant price wars, Shih resolutely stated that lowering costs and prices is the way to do it. Drawing an analogy to the fate of US television brands (pow!), Shih pointed out his belief that American vendors aren't capable (slap!) of delivering the sort of affordability that the market is set to permanently demand. As harsh as his words may be, let's not forget Acer recently jumped Dell for the number two spot in volume of global sales, so let's not ignore what may in fact be prophecy rather than mere prattle.
CE-Oh no he didn't! Part XLV: Symbian's Lee Williams rips into Android, implies Google is evil (video)
Strap yourselves in, folks, we're about to launch the Mudslinger 3000 again and figure out if any of it sticks. Lee Williams of Symbian starts off with a few attack volleys relating to Google's "fragmentation" of UI elements, and the resultant closed APIs being a nightmare to code for. With so many divergent UI elements and styles, he argues, developers would suffer, and the consequence would be a less vibrant app ecosystem. His major gripe with Google's mobile OS, though, has to do with the pervasive "cookie-ing" of customers, which raises the specter of privacy concerns. When asked directly by our buddy Om Malik whether he considers Android "more evil" than Apple's iPhone OS, Williams replied: "I don't view Apple as evil, they're just greedy... Google, come on! When you have to say in your motto that we're not evil, right away the first question in my mind is, 'why do you have to tell me that?'" All this must be tempered by the knowledge that Android is set to overtake large swathes of the mobile OS space, and some retaliatory trash talking is probably to be expected from the incumbent smartphone leader. Om does ask another sage question, in querying why Williams thinks companies are making such large investments into Android, and you'll find the answer to that and much more in the video past the break. [Via MobileTechWorld; Thanks, fido] Read - Lee Williams interview with GigaOM Read - New York Times: 'Big Cellphone Makers Shifting to Android System' Read - PCWorld: 'Android, Symbian Will Own Smartphones in 2012'
CE-Oh no he didn't! Part LXIV: Microsoft's Greenberg says Xbox will outsell PS3 for 'entire generation'
Didn't think Microsoft exec Aaron Greenberg could top himself after saying that Hulu on 360 was like "asking out a really hot chick on a date?" Well, think again, 'cause Greenberg recently sat down with GameInformer for a fairly wide ranging interview, and he took the opportunity to toss a few bombs in Sony's direction. The biggest of those is that he's "confident" that the Xbox 360 will "not only outsell PS3 for the full calendar year, but for this entire generation" -- adding that it's "similar to a game of baseball, it is not about just winning one inning, but instead being able to win the game by consistently delivering across all nine innings." Greenberg also went on to say that Sony's expected good showing in the September sales numbers is merely a "short term bump," and that "it is not a real concern to us." Hit up the link below for the complete interview, which also includes talk of the Zune HD, Xbox Live, and Microsoft's plans for the holiday season.[Via PC World]
CE-Oh no he didn't! Part LXIII: Bobby Kotick says Guitar Hero going plug-and-play, developers kept in state of 'skepticism, pessimism, and fear'
You know those Atari controllers that let you play Atari games without actually having an Atari? That, it seems, is the future of the Guitar Hero franchise, with Activision CEO Bobby Kotick indicating that new titles from the company will be playable "independent of a console." It's perhaps a natural step, as the franchise's developers must surely spend half their time frantically porting games from PS3 to Xbox 360 to Nintendo DS to graphic calculator to... well, you get the picture. Kotick also said some wondrous things that will make those Activision coders slouch even further into their chairs, developers who already were surely fearing for their jobs, indicating that they live within a corporate environment of "skepticism, pessimism, and fear" with the hope of "keeping people focused on the deep depression," and that he wants to take "all the fun out of making video games." So, then, that My Chemical Romance edition of the series should be announced any time now. [Via Joystiq]
CE-Oh no he didn't! Part LXII: Steve Ballmer publicly ridicules Microsoft employee with iPhone, threatens to smash it
Not every man was born with common sense. And anyone who's ever seen Steve Ballmer take a stage knows that you don't want to get in the way of the emotionally-charged big man when the curtain opens. So we're not terribly surprised to learn that Steve grabbed an iPhone he saw during his big entrance to a private Microsoft company meeting held at Seattle's Safeco Field. Apparently, the hapless employee (allegedly from the Windows group) was trying to snap a photo of his boss when Ballmer grabbed the device and made some "funny comments" met by boos and jeers from Microsoft's employees. Steve then set it on the ground and pretended to stomp on it before walking away -- later teasing the employee during his presentation by noting that he hadn't forgotten him. Good times, we're sure, and nothing rallies the troops like a common enemy... except perhaps the camaraderie that comes in knowing that you've created a game-changing device. We even have a photograph from the actual iPhone supposedly snapped while Steve Ballmer was brandishing it overhead. We can't say for sure if it's real, in fact, that could be the guy from Lost. See it after the break.
CE-Oh no he didn't! Part LX: NVIDIA calls Intel's single-chip Atom pricing "pretty unfair"
Now that Intel's been slapped with a record $1.45b antitrust fine in Europe, it seems like the claws are coming out -- AMD just put up that "Break Free" site, and today we've got NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang calling Chipzilla's Atom pricing "unfair." It seems that Intel sells the standard Atom chip for $45 on its own, but bundles the diminutive CPU into the oh-so-familiar netbook configuration for just $25, meaning NVIDIA's Ion chipset isn't price-competitive. Of course, this is just another twist in the endless argument about Ion, but despite the denials, this isn't the first time we've heard whispers that Intel pretty much forces manufacturers to buy complete Atom chipsets -- the dearth of Ion-powered netbooks in the market is fairly suspicious considering the GeForce 9400M at the heart of the platform is a well-known quantity. On the other hand, we've also heard this is all going to change and change dramatically at Computex next month, so we'll see -- either way, things are bound to get interesting.[Via TrustedReviews]
CE-Oh no he didn't! Part LIX: Elevation's McNamee predicts death to iPhone on June 29
Roger McNamee, founding partner of the Palm-rescuing investment firm Elevation Partners, has had some interesting things to say about what to expect from the Pre. Now, though, he's really out done himself with what he has to say about the iPhone. In an interview with Bloomberg, McNamee (aka "Chubby Wombat Moonalice" when playing bass) predicted that the Pre will bring the downfall of Apple's wunder-handset, saying:June 29, 2009, is the two-year anniversary of the first shipment of the iPhone. Not one of those people will still be using an iPhone a month later. Think about it -- if you bought the first iPhone, you bought it because you wanted the coolest product on the market. Your two-year contract has just expired. Look around. Tell me what they're going to buy.We don't know the future, but we can sure tell you what we're not buying right now. And besides, we don't know too many early adopter types that could resist the siren call of 3G halfway through their existing iPhone contract, thereby re-upping their contract for another few millenia. That should be plenty enough time for Apple to whip up something new... or at least for Roger to get a haircut. [Via Daring Fireball]
CE-Oh no he didn't! Part LVIII: NVIDIA CEO doesn't know what Larrabee is, doesn't care
NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang just can't resist throwing more jabs at Intel, distracting the inaugural NVISION crowd from Battlestar Galactica star Tricia Helfer with the claim that "Larrabee hasn't shipped so you don't know what it is and I don't know what it is." The fact that we do know what it is -- a next-gen hybrid CPU / GPU -- shouldn't be a concern according to Huang, because "By the time it does ship, Nvidia's technology will be so far advanced it won't matter." Besides stuffing Usain Bolt-type speed into a GPU the company will keep busy working on its WinMo smartphone hardware, and software for the not-exactly-Atom-killing VIA Nano, but forget about that rumored x86-compatible hardware 'cuz, as Jen-Hsun reminds us, "the Internet doesn't run on x86." For a company that lacks innovation, is "a joke," and at least four years behind, Intel must be doing something right, because the competition can't keep its name out of their mouths.
CE-Oh no he didn't! Part LVII: Howard Stringer says the Wii is not 'a competitor'
Further confirming his utter disconnect from reality, Sony head Howard Stringer referred to Nintendo's market-dominating Wii as an "expensive niche game device." Previous to making that statement, Stringer bafflingly said, "I've played a Nintendo Wii, I don't see it as a competitor." Now look -- we're not saying you're in some kind of CEO super-denial, but all signs point to the possibility that you should probably consider the Wii a competitor (since it is... well... a competing system and platform), and perhaps recognize that "niche" is typically not synonymous with "best selling." Of course, you're the guy running Sony, we're just watching the crackup from the sidelines.[Via Nintendo Wii Fanboy]
CE-Oh no he didn't! Part LVI: Dell states, for the record, he could take Jobs in a fight
Michael Dell's been up on stage here at D for a solid 45 minutes and has yet to say anything particularly interesting (unless you consider rattling off numbers about unit growth, margins, etc. fascinating), but the man got his chance during the audience Q&A. Someone asked if he could take Steve Jobs in a fight, and Dell flatly replied, "Yeah, I could take him." Now there's a fight we'd pay good money to see.[Thanks Seenew for Jobs' Mii]
CE-Oh no he didn't! Part LV: NVIDIA boss says "We're going to open a can of whoop-ass" on Intel
Looks like Intel's plans to enter the graphics space in a big way with its Nehalem and Larrabee lines strike NVIDIA CEO Jen Hsun-Huang as being rather foolish -- in a conference call with analysts today, Huang said Intel's integrated graphics offerings were "a joke," and that even a tenfold increase in performance would put them behind NVIDIA's current products. Huang didn't stop there, saying that NVIDIA was "going to open a can of whoop-ass," and that while Intel's graphics chips were fine for running Office, they would never cut it for gamers and other demanding users. Huang kept going, responding to questions about all those driver-related Vista crashes by saying that NVIDIA had to support new games weekly while Intel's chips aren't ever put to the test. Actually, that's toning it down a bit -- what Huang actually said was "You already have the right machine to run Excel. You bought it four years ago... How much faster can you render the blue screen of death?" Yeah, them's fightin' words -- you going to sit there and take it, Intel? [Thanks, Mike A.]
CE-Oh no he didn't! Part XLVII: NBC Universal chief says Apple "destroyed" music pricing
NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker clearly did not get enough raisins in his cereal this morning, because dude was not holding anything back during that speech he gave at Syracuse's Newhouse School of Communications -- in addition to saying NBC had made only $15M in iTunes video sales despite being the number one producer of content, he flat-out said that Apple and iTunes had "destroyed the music business" in terms of pricing and that video was next unless "we take control." Of course, seeing as consumers can access Universal's entire music catalog with various subscription services for under $10 a month ($36 a year, in the case of Yahoo Music) and entire NBC shows for free on the web, but still choose to buy songs and shows straight-up on iTunes anyway, it might be fair to say that NBC Universal is still figuring out how to monetize its content effectively, but really, where's the fun in that? Round 7, fight!
