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PlayStation exec Adam Boyes says he's leaving Sony
Lately, Sony's gaming platforms have enjoyed a ton of support from third party developers big and small, but now one of the people in charge of those relationships is leaving the company. Adam Boyes announced in a series of tweets (and on the PlayStation Blogcast) that he's going back "to the world of game development" that he left in 2012 to become the PlayStation brand's VP of Publisher & Developer Relations. Recently his job as involved bringing game experiences to PlayStation VR, but Boyes has also connected projects like the Grim Fandango remaster and No Man's Sky.
Senior VP Bob Mansfield removed from Apple's leadership page (updated)
It could mean nothing, but it could mean everything. As of this morning, Bob Mansfield was still a senior vice president at one of the world's most iconic technology firms. As of now, his leadership bio is nowhere to be found on Apple's official web presence. If you'll recall, Mansfield has had an interesting couple of years at Apple. In June of 2012, he abruptly announced that he was retiring. A couple of weeks later, he publicly addressed mounting criticism regarding Apple's computers and their relationship with EPEAT, seemingly putting the kibosh on said retirement. A few weeks following that, Mansfield actually got a promotion, with his responsibilities growing once again during the executive shakeup of October 2012. It's unclear if someone accidentally deleted the profile of one of Apple's most important figureheads (read: unlikely), or if Mr. Mansfield truly has stepped aside, but we'll be reaching out to Apple in hopes of clarifying things. Update: Reuters' Poornima Gupta is reporting that Mansfield is "no longer with Apple's executive team, but will remain at Apple working on special projects reporting to Tim Cook."
CCP's Sean Decker and Hilmar Petursson on the future of EVE, DUST 514, EVE-VR, and mobile gaming
Earlier today, CCP Games announced that industry veteran Sean Decker is coming on board as Senior Vice President of Product Development. Sean's laundry-list of industry experience includes a recent 12-year stint at EA, where he headed up the Play4Free division. This has naturally led to some trepidation within the EVE Online community, which has been extremely wary of free-to-play and microtransaction-based business practices since the Monoclegate scandal in 2011. I caught up with Sean Decker and CCP CEO Hilmar Petursson last night to get the low-down on Sean's role, how he will influence EVE and CCP's other products, and what the future has in store for DUST 514 and EVE-VR. Sean is to be the head of product development across all of CCP's games, not just the free-to-play titles, but I wouldn't worry about EVE going free to play any time soon. "I don't think [free-to-play] is the be all and end all business model," Sean told me, adding that he understands that the subscription model better fits some games. Read on for more information on the future of EVE Online, DUST 514, EVE-VR, and CCP's first foray into mobile gaming.
The VP debate on Xbox Live: Who won the battle for our hearts
The vice presidential debate, featuring democrat and current VP Joe Biden and republican Paul Ryan, hit US airwaves on October 11, streaming online, airing on television and playing through Xbox Live for Gold subscribers. More than 800,000 individuals answered the polling questions posed by the Xbox Live team, with more than 30,000 responses to each one. Questions considered subjects such as religion's role in government, who is better prepared to be vice president, how truthful Biden and Paul appeared, and of course, who won the debate.For religion, 70.1 percent of Xbox Live Gold respondents do not consider a candidate's religion when voting, Major Nelson reports. Biden is viewed as better prepared to step in as VP, grabbing the nod from 53.7 percent of undecided voters, compared with Ryan's 21 percent. Swing voters also found Biden more truthful, with 72.2 percent of the vote. Biden "won" the debate, according to undecided Gold members, with 44.1 percent, compared with Ryan's 22.9 percent.Xbox Live has two new Election 2012 partnerships in the works, with BBC and Comedy Central, bringing clips from The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, because those comedy shows are where we all get our news from anyway. The next Xbox Live Election 2012 event is the presidential town hall debate on Tuesday, October 16.Now let's all cool off with a little songified VP debate.
Encrypted Text: Mists of Pandaria guide to a raid-ready rogue
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Encrypted Text for assassination, combat and subtlety rogues. Chase Christian will be your guide to the world of shadows every Wednesday. Feel free to email me with any questions or article suggestions you'd like to see covered here. I'm not a fan of gearing up. I hate watching my gear fade into obsolescence. I hate swapping out my legendary Fangs of the Father for a set of blue weapons that were given to me after I washed a few yaks and played the role of a pre-employment drug screener for some amped-up goats. Bill Gates infamously picks lazy people to do difficult jobs, because they'll find the easiest way to do it. I am that lazy person. I am always looking for the quickest way to get my rogue into raid-ready shape. The quicker that my rogue is geared up, the quicker I can get back to Eviscerating leveling players of the opposing faction. With a couple of weeks of grinding daily quests and some heroic dungeons mixed in, your rogue can be ready for the first tier of MoP raiding.
Apple promotes pair of execs to Senior VP level, Bob Mansfield to hang around after all
It's a day of upheaval in the boardroom at Apple -- in the good sense. Remember how Hardware Engineering Senior VP Bob Mansfield said he would retire in June? He's had a change of heart and will keep working on future products. Meanwhile, two of the vice presidents who've been mainstays of Apple's recent plans, Mac Software Engineering VP Craig Federighi and Hardware Engineering VP Dan Riccio, have been promoted to Senior VP. All three will report directly to CEO Tim Cook, and both Federighi as well as Riccio will get their first turns at Apple's executive management team. While the shift isn't going to signal a dramatic change in strategy, it's notable that Riccio's role is expanding: he's moving from his earlier iPad focus to overseeing all the hardware Apple makes. We can only guess at what the ultimate goals might be for the new assignments, although we can imagine Apple jumping through hoops to keep a hardware executive as skilled as Mansfield on its side.
Both US presidential candidates pushing iPhone apps
It's an election year, iOS devices are almost everywhere, and that's why both US Presidential candidates this year are already pushing iPhone apps. Governor Mitt Romney, the presumptive Republican nominee, has released an app called Mitt's VP -- he plans to announce his choice for Vice President from that app first, and there's other sharing and notification features coming in the app as well. President Barack Obama has made a lot of waves for using digital media in his campaigns, and so of course there's an official Obama for America app. That app also shares news and allows for social sharing about the Obama campaign, and allows users to sign up to volunteer at campaign events, or help get out the vote in other ways. Apple's platform consists of a huge audience of well-connected people, so it's no surprise that the presidential election is reflected in the App Store. As we get closer and closer to November's election here in America, it'll be interesting to see how the candidates use these apps to reach out to their voter base. #next_pages_container { width: 5px; hight: 5px; position: absolute; top: -100px; left: -100px; z-index: 2147483647 !important; }
Apple Senior VP of Hardware Engineering Bob Mansfield to retire, be replaced by Dan Riccio
Apple has announced that its Senior VP of Hardware Engineering, Bob Mansfield, will retire and over the course of the next few months transfer his role to Dan Riccio. Mansfield is credited with leading the Mac engineering team since 2005 and took on a more visible role as an exec during the reshuffling in 2008. He's also mentioned as leading iPhone and iPod engineering since 2010 (when he took over the role from Mark Papermaster in a move curiously timed around those antenna troubles) and the iPad since it began. He'd been with Apple since 1999 when it acquired his previous employer, Raycer Graphics, and most recently popped up on our radar earlier this year while integrating another acquisition, flash memory maker Anobit. If you'd like to get familiar with his replacement, Dan Riccio is currently vice president of iPad hardware engineering. Check the press release after the break for a few more details on both individuals, there's no word on Mansfield's post-retirement plans.
John Browett added to Apple's executive profiles web page
John Browett took over for Ron Johnson as Apple's chief of retail sales last year and, now, after 13 months on the job, the former Dixon's CEO has a profile on Apple's executive webpage. According to his bio, Browett "oversees Apple's retail strategy and the continued expansion of Apple retail stores around the world." You can read Browett's full bio on Apple's website.
Kevin Butler is DLC in LittleBigPlanet Karting
At least a few pre-orders of LittleBigPlanet Karting will include a free DLC pack featuring Kevin Butler, the fictional VP from Sony's promotional campaigns. The pre-order deal is live through Amazon and GameStop and it includes the Kevin Butler Sackboy costume and executive golf cart.Next step for Sony advertising: The VP: Kevin Butler, King of Shadowfighting: The Game: The Marketing Campaign.
The Engadget Interview: RIM VP of Enterprise Alan Panezic at MWC 2012 (video)
This week at Mobile World Congress we had the opportunity to talk with Alan Panezic, VP of Enterprise at RIM about what the company is doing to keep existing business customers (and possibly even lure new CIOs) in the warm and secure embrace of its enterprise services while still giving users personal freedom to fully enjoy their devices. RIM's secret weapon? BlackBerry Balance on the PlayBook running OS 2.0 (of course) and BlackBerry Mobile Fusion on the server side. Take look at our video and remember -- that corporate PlayBook of yours may still lack BBM integration but IT professionals are people too, so be gentle with them!
The Engadget Interview: Nokia VP of Industrial Design Stefan Pannenbecker at MWC 2012 (video)
Today at Mobile World Congress we spent a few minutes talking with Stefan Pannenbecker, VP of Industrial Design at Nokia about Espoo's past, present and future handsets -- including the just announced 808 PureView, Lumia 610 and Asha 302 / 203 / 202, as well as the Lumia 900 we played with at CES. He shared his insights on Nokia's design language and philosophy and some interesting details such as the clearcoat finish used on the Lumia 800 / 900 and N9. Enjoy the video.
Apple brings in former Adobe VP to help out iAd
Apple's iAd service hasn't been as successful as the company hoped. While Apple has been able to keep iAd "premium" by keeping up ad costs and only bringing in high profile clients interested in putting out high quality advertisements, it hasn't actually made much money with the service, either for itself or developers who are trying run the ads. Hopefully that will change now that Apple is bringing in a former Adobe VP named Todd Teresi to reinvigorate the iAd service and turn it back into the premiere ad and money generator that Steve Jobs hoped it would be. Teresi formerly oversaw Adobe's media solutions division, and he may either tweak the system so it's a little more appetizing for advertisers or bring more and bigger accounts on board so these ads can be served to developers. As for the developers we've talked to, they're more than happy to keep serving iAds as long as they can also serve ads from other services. Competing ad services may not pay as much to developers, but at least they pay something -- many iAds never get shown simply because advertisers aren't willing to pay for them. Hopefully Teresi can fix that and get iAd back up to where Jobs originally wanted it to be.
Patch 4.3: Zarhym clarifies tier 13 drop methods
One of the most intriguing non-story tidbits to come out of the recent flood of patch 4.3 news is the fact that tier 13 will not be purchasable with valor points. If you want your tier 13 set, you will have to raid for it. Zarhym has clarified how this will all work in a forum post. Here's the juicy stuff: All pieces will drop from multi-class set tokens. Ten-man raids will see a slight buff to drop rates to compensate for the lack of purchasable tier pieces. Valor point gear will feature a wider array of gear for a wider array of slots, meant both for people who are having trouble with token drops and for people who don't raid at all. There will be three tier 13 sets for each class: Looking For Raid level, normal level, and heroic level. Each will have a different item level, but you'll be able to mix and match pieces from all three sets for your set bonuses as needed. For the complete text of Zarhym's post, check after the break.
Kevin Butler quits Sony via Twitter, Sony says to 'keep following his tweets'
Kevin Butler would be a wonderful Sony VP if he actually existed, and we would be upset to hear of his resignation if it were real. This makes us very emotionally confused about Sony's latest marketing ploy, which has @TheKevinButler tweeting that he's quit Sony to be president of the family flooring business. How do we react when a fake person fake-quits his fake position at a real company? We're not sure, but so far we've been eating a lot of chocolate and manically watching Desperate Housewives. @TheKevinButler posted two tweets today about the job switch and his profile now reads, "President, Economy Flooring. I'm a man of the people and the people need help. Carpets worn? Hardwoods warped? Linoleum non-linear? Rest Easy, KB's here to help." As legit as this may seem, Sony has hinted at a Twitter-tease, telling Industry Gamers to "stay tuned. We'll have more info on KB's new upstart career shortly. In the meantime, keep following his tweets."
Lichborne: Buy your death knight some patch 4.2 valor gear
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Lichborne for blood, frost, and unholy death knights. In the post-Cataclysm era, death knights are no longer the new kids on the block. Let's show the other classes how a hero class gets things done. Now that patch 4.2 has been out a few weeks, if you've been faithfully raiding or queuing up for your random dungeons, you should have a pretty good chunk of valor points ready for use. That means it's time to start thinking seriously about what you should buy. This week, we'll be taking a look at the new valor point gear from patch 4.2 and figuring out what each brings to the table for you.
Tier 11 normal mode raid bosses to give valor points again
Good news for everyone tired of all those trolls: Tier 11 normal modes will once again give valor points. According to Community Manager Daxxarri, raids will receive 35 valor points on 10-man bosses and 45 valor points on 25-man bosses. This hotfix should be live within the next few hours. For the full text of the announcement, check after the break.
Valor point awards for tier 12 bosses increased
There's terrific news this morning for those planning on raiding The Firelands when patch 4.2 launches: Blizzard has quietly increased the amount of Valor Points earned from downing tier 12 bosses and Occu'thar, the new boss in Baradin Hold. Patch 4.2 Public Test Realm Guide - [Updated 6/14] Valor & Justice Points The number of Valor Points awarded for killing a boss in the Firelands is 70 120 in 10-player mode, and 90 140 in 25-player mode. The number of Valor Points awarded for killing Occu'thar in Baradin Hold is 35 120 in 10-player mode, and 45 140 in 25-player mode. source The previous, lower values caused a lot of hand wringing on the official forums. As people rightly complained, they did not allow raiders to reach the weekly cap simply by running the new tier 12 content. Players would have to choose between five-man heroics and stale tier 11 content to cap their VP, something many considered a time-consuming tedium. The new values allow ten-man raiders to (almost) reach the new 960 980 point VP cap with a full clear of all new tier 12 content; 25-man raiders can reach the cap by beating any seven of the eight. The news is already rolling out for the upcoming WoW Patch 4.2! Preview the new Firelands raid, marvel at the new legendary staff, and get the inside scoop on new quest hubs -- plus new Tier 12 armor!
Former Atari VP moves to Trion Worlds
Trion Worlds has a new star quarterback for its European branch today, as former Atari general manager John Burns joined the team. Burns is now senior vice president and general manager of Trion's European branch. Trion's David Reid feels that Burns is a major catch for the company: "John joins Trion with almost two decades of gaming experience with him, and will be essential in our continued success throughout Europe. With the launch of RIFT earlier this year, we began laying the groundwork for a strong presence in Europe, which will grow as we bring premium, connected games to gamers around the world." Burns has a lengthy track record in the industry, boasting over 20 years of experience at various companies. Prior to Atari, John Burns worked at Electronic Arts, Bandai, Acclaim and Sega.
Google VP lays down mobile stats, boasts 150 million Maps users
Care for a cup of Google data, anyone? At SXSW, the vice president of location services, Marissa Mayer, stated some interesting facts about the state of all things mobile at the Goog. Most notably, the company provides its map service to 150 million users. Just to give you an idea of how many peeps that is -- it's about half the number of individuals in America. Crazy, we know. What's more, Mayer claimed that Google Maps guided users 12 billion miles per year and that its latest build of the app saves people an average of two days worth of travel time each year. Another bit worth noting is how the company feels about Google Maps for iPhone. "We like being the default provider, but we'd like to get some of these updates out to a broader audience. That's still a debate / question we're considering." Updates? An actual Google Maps application that works as a GPS on an iPhone? Wake us up when iOS 5 is previewed, or we can just keep dreaming.
