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Skype CEO Tony Bates confirms 250m monthly users, talks Microsoft partnership and future plans
Skype CEO Tony Bates just took the stage here on the final day of D10, and he got right into the news delivery mindset: as of now, there are 250 million monthly connected users. Said Bates, "When we closed [the Microsoft deal], we had 170 million monthly users, so haven't skipped a beat in terms of momentum." Continuing on when asked from Kara Swisher about integration with Microsoft, Bates said: "I'm not going to talk about future products, but I'll steal a line from Tim Cook. We're going to double-down on integration with Windows 8, and we're doing to double-down on secrecy." Specifically, he mentioned that there'd be some "great integration points" with Windows 8, noting that Skype is viewed as an "experience, with most folks viewing it as a Swiss army knife, regardless of where and how it's used." Kara followed up with a question on Kinect, and Bates did his best to dodge the bullet by re-referencing intent on Windows 8 and Windows Phone -- there wasn't a peep mentioned in either direction on if it'd end up there. Kara asked what his most important smartphone platform was, and Bates said: "I wouldn't classify it as one most important. As far as download numbers, it's absolutely iPhone, but Android is gaining momentum. Our top priority is mobile; we made two acquisitions in that space. The Android marketplace -- as many know -- is quite fragmented, and this was a big challenge for us from an engineering standpoint. This team in the Qik acquisition really helped us there. I'm very hopeful -- Windows Phone is very exciting for me because of that people-centric nature." Kara pushed to see if Windows Phone would get a "special" version of Skype, and Bates simply said that he "hopes they can add value." Given that both Windows Phone and Skype now live under the same roof, though, we're guessing that he's underselling things in the effort of "doubling-down on secrecy."
Spotify director Sean Parker: Apple tried to keep Spotify out of the United States
Daniel Ek (co-founder of Spotify) and Sean Parker (Director at Spotify) just took the stage here at D10, with Walt Mossberg asking the two about the company's impact in America, negotiations with record labels and -- perhaps surprisingly -- its links with Apple. Outside of confirming that there's still around 10 million Spotify users worldwide (with around three million of those being of the paid variety), the duo also confirmed that it's working daily to improve the catalog. Said Ek: "We're up to 18 million songs, growing at 10,000 or 20,000 songs per day -- it's very much a growing catalog." Walt was curious as to why iTunes had upwards of 30 million tracks, and why all of the services simply don't have the same library, but both players were quick to brush off the topic and pivot directly to the importance of playlists. Ek stated: "If you look at iTunes, the vast majority of songs haven't been purchased by anyone -- it's driven by hits. We see 80 percent of our whole catalog listened to." Following that, Parker contributed: "The playlist is now the CD. It used to be a few songs were wanted by the consumer, and the rest of it was garbage. It's the new mixtape, but accelerated on a massive scale." As it turns out, Spotify actually sells "bundles" (which are glorified playlists) as pay products in Europe, and when Walt asked why these weren't available in America, Parker obliged: "We just haven't released it yet." In other words, they're coming soon.
Aaron Sorkin talks about future Steve Jobs movie, impact of technology on his writing
You don't have to look far to get a grasp on who Aaron Sorkin is -- he wrote A Few Good Men, The American President, The West Wing, Moneyball and The Social Network, for starters -- and he showed up at D10 to talk creative media, how the digital age impacts his writing and his impending movie about late Apple CEO Steve Jobs. While not involving hard technology news, the interview was exceedingly refreshing, and it delved deep into the world of tech as it impacts his upcoming show about a fictional newsroom (The Newsroom on HBO). The highlights included a frank quote that whoever ends up playing Jobs in his movie -- not to be confused with the one already in production with Ashton Kutcher -- will have to be "good, and intelligent." He also confessed to being fully engaged in the "three screens" movement, but wasn't too prideful to admit that he taps into the brain of his 11-year old daughter for lots of technological help. Pretty wild for a guy that many would label "genius." For more from the interview, head on past the break.
Intellectual Ventures' Nathan Myhrvold defends patent trolling, calls tech industry immature
Intellectual Ventures' CEO and founder Nathan Myhrvold, who previously spent some 14 years at Microsoft Research, took the stage here at D10, and as predicted, his interview with Walt Mossberg was quite the invigorating one. You may know the man and his company for its vicious patent trolling -- or, what appears to be patent trolling. In essence, a lot of its business comes from acquiring patent portfolios, and then licensing and / or suing companies to "enforce" them. Naturally, Nathan has a radically different perspective than most sane individuals on the matter, insisting that the system isn't necessarily broken, and that "making money from enforcing patents is no more wrong than investing in preferred stock." The talk centered predominantly around how Intellectual Ventures operates, what it does, and if its CEO feels that the "rat's nest of lawsuits" -- as Walt put it -- was getting out of control. Despite saying that his company has hundreds of people working on new inventions to help deliver medicines in Africa (in response to a question from the crowd on whether his outfit was truly helping people), he confessed that suing to enforce patents was simply another method of capitalism working. Care to take a ride on the crazy train? Head on past the break for a few choice quotes from the interview.
Zynga CEO Mark Pincus says 'no thanks' to console gaming, isn't worried about a life detached from Facebook
Zynga CEO and founder Mark Pincus just took the stage here at D10, and in a wide-ranging interview with Kara Swisher, he sidestepped conversation about Words With Friends and Farmville long enough to touch on the murky world of console gaming. In a bid to quell any potential surprises at E3 next month, Mark said outrightly that his company is not interested in getting into the console world. "We're aiming for you," he said while pointing at Swisher. "We're going after the mainstream market. There's too much friction [in the console world]." He also made clear that he tries to not look too far ahead of where the world really is. When talking about the undeniable shift to mobile, he made clear that there's still a huge amount of desktop traffic on Zynga's games -- "lots of people play while bored on conference calls at work," he quipped. It's an interesting viewpoint in a world where PSN and Xbox Live Arcade has given independent developers all new distribution platforms to reach users, but it also highlights the outfit's intrinsic attachment to Facebook in particular.
AllThingsD, Macworld recap Tim Cook at D10
If you missed the D10 interview with Tim Cook on Tuesday night, then you should check out the roundup from AllThingsD. The lengthy post, which is an archive of the live blog, is filled with quotes and high-quality pictures from the event. You can also head over to Macworld which has an informative summary of the interview that's organized by topic.
Apple CEO Tim Cook interview at D10: the liveblog
We had quite the time here at the 2011 edition of D, and if you're fully caught up with last year's shenanigans, it's time to get to work. And by "work," we mean listening in to the opening keynote of DX. The 2012 conference is kicking off in earnest on May 29th, and it'll be Apple CEO Tim Cook taking the stage alongside hosts Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher. By our calculations, this looks to be his first offsite interview outside of the financial realm, and we'll be liveblogging the whole of it from the Terranea Resort in Rancho Palos Verdes, California. The action's scheduled to kick off around 6:15PM PT (that's 9:15PM for you folks on the right coast; 3:15PM in Tahiti), and you can follow along just past the break. As to what'll be discussed? Just guessing here, but in no particular order: Samsung, intellectual property, Foxconn, iOS, earnings, lawsuits, iPad, acquisitions and cold, hard cash.
Tim Cook's D10 conference keynote won't be streamed live
Apple CEO Tim Cook is scheduled to kick off AllThingsD'S D10 conference tonight at 6 pm PT and only a select few are being invited to view the opening keynote. According to a Fortune 2.0 report, 500 attendees are invited to attend the keynote, which won't be streamed live. Apple fans who want to follow the keynote will have to find a live blog or a Twitter feed that's covering the keynote as it happens. [Via Fortune 2.0]
Hack in the Box conference features iPhone Dev Team
Turns out there are awesome conferences all over the world, and the hotness of mobile has only increased the number of quality get-togethers out there. Case in point: Hack in the Box, currently underway in Amsterdam. Learn more about the conference here or check out the agenda here. Friday May 25 is a presentation by the Dream Team, but today was a presentation by MuscleNerd about the evolution of the iPhone baseband and unlocks. Cool stuff if you're into security or the mechanisms behind unlocking an iPhone.
Didn't get in to WWDC? Try some other awesome developer conferences
Nothing beats WWDC's access to Apple engineers, and the confluence of global (well, provided you were awake in time in certain parts of the globe) attendees. If you didn't get a ticket to WWDC, however, there are still plenty of other great developer conferences for Mac and iOS developers. Here are just a few, but feel free to share more in the comments. MacTech Conference - There's a developer track here, although MacTech's forte has always been IT. They put on a fantastic event, however, with great sessions, after-hours events that are not to be missed, and camaraderie in spades. Plus, there's a series of IT-focused events around the country now. (Full disclosure: TUAW is a media partner with MacTech.) 360MacDev and 360iDev - Held in Denver, both 360 conferences are developer-specific and crammed with useful sessions led by renowned developers from around the world. I've been to a 360 conference, and I can tell you that what you'll learn after hours is almost as good as what you learn in the sessions. Sometimes a conference benefits from being smaller and more focused. (TUAW is also a media partner with the 360 folks.) Voices That Matter - Pearson Education has put on the VTM conferences, covering web development, iOS and Android among other topics. There's nothing on the 2012 schedule at the moment, but keep an eye on their site. SXSW Interactive - OK, this is the least focused of all, but there are usually good lessons to be learned here from seasoned developers, not to mention business people and other industry wonks. Of course, the after hours meetups and interactions are priceless. This is one you can unconference with great results. Game Developer Conference - This is a game-focused conference for developers and publishers, and has become a great place to meet and learn if you're in the game business. It's not Apple-specific, but is a great place to meet developers and others who can help you build amazing games. Unite - The explosive growth of the game platform Unity has made their conference a must-attend if you use Unity to make games on iOS. Of course, Unity is a cross-platform tool as well, so expect to rub elbows with web and "other" OS devs as well. Appsterdam - Not a conference itself, but the European developer collective is a rallying point for a number of meetups and other events in Amsterdam and elsewhere in the EU. There's also the option of going to San Francisco during WWDC without tickets -- but I'd only recommend that if you have friends who are going. Other conferences: CocoaConf - "CocoaConf is a focused two day, three track conference for iOS and OS X developers, with an optional pre-conference iOS tutorial." One More Thing Conference - "One More Thing isn't a traditional programming conference. It's a meeting for iOS developers, designers and those who just want to come along for the ride." SwipeConference, in Australia. (Thanks to Mark Aufflick) Objective-Cologne - An international Cocoa/Objective-C conference in Cologne, Germany. (Thanks to @StuFFmc) mdevcon - A mobile developer's conference in Amsterdam. (Thanks to Mike Lee & Appsterdam)
Tim Cook to open D10 conference
AllThingsD announced today that Tim Cook will be the opening night speaker at the D10 conference in late May. It will be Cook's first appearance at a non-Apple or investor event since he took over as CEO of the company last year. D10 will be held May 29-31, 2012 at the Terranea Resort in Rancho Palos Verdes, CA
Apple CEO Tim Cook to open D10 conference: yes, we'll be liveblogging
The All Things D conference has a long history of wrangling an impressive speaker list, and this year's gala is no different. The outlet has just confirmed that Apple CEO Tim Cook will be the keynote speaker for D10's opening night, just two years after the late Steve Jobs last sat down on those very red chairs in a keynote interview of his own. In fact, Cook's sit-down will come five years after the historic Jobs + Gates discussion from D5, and we're told that this will be Cook's first onstage event that isn't run by Apple or for an investor group as the company's head honcho. As ever, we'll be on site liveblogging the back-and-forth, and we'll be hanging around to hear from NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, FCC chairman Jon Leibowitz and a whole host of others. Cook's appearance will kick things off on the evening of May 29th from Rancho Palos Verdes, California.
GDC 2012: The Secret World's crafting, combat (and cutscenes) revealed
Funcom's hush-hush demo at last week's Game Developer's Conference was quite a bit of fun, even if the opening few minutes treaded perilously close to wince-inducing. The Secret World creative director Ragnar Tornquist kicked things off with a brief introduction, which was followed by a look at the game's character creation as experienced by a female Dragon-faction avatar. Once that was complete, we got an eyeful of some opening cinematics, and I do mean an eyeful. If you've never watched a lesbian makeout scene alongside a half dozen sweaty male game journos (and a couple of pretty PR girls), well, let's just say that it's hilarious to think about now and fairly awkward to actually experience.
Wizard101 creators to present the Digital Kids Conference opening keynote
Wizard101 creators Todd Coleman and Josef Hall will be opening the upcoming sixth annual Digital Kids Conference with a keynote address about their experience with engaging the youth market. The KingsIsle Entertainment duo will talk about their transition from hardcore gaming to creating a critically and commercially successful family-friendly game and (one can hope) the secrets of their genius. Wizard101 launched back in 2008 and has since grown in popularity to the tune of 25 million players spread throughout the Western hemisphere (with plans for near-future expansion into China). It is that recognized success that's made Coleman and Hall ideal candidates for the keynote, with the hopes that they'll spur others to greater heights. The conference (formerly the Engage! Conference and Expo) will feature speakers from as disparate venues as the NFL, Cartoon Network, and Ubisoft, all focusing on interactive content to connect with kids in the digital world. The Digital Kids Conference covers the use of mobile apps, social games, social media, and virtual worlds to better understand creating and promoting products and content for a younger audience. [Source: KingsIsle press release]
GDC 2012: RIFT's Adam Gershowitz talks raiding, mentoring, and housing
Last week's GDC came at a perfect time for Trion. The conference overlaps perfectly with RIFT's one-year anniversary, and Producer Adam Gershowitz took us through some highlights of the past year as well as the current Carnival of the Ascended content. But he also gave a peek at what's planned for the future, not only showing off the new raid zone Infernal Dawn but also talking about the team's plans for some fan-favorites like the leaderboards, mentoring, and housing.%Gallery-150682%
GDC 2012: A look at Fighters Club Online
There may be no Brad Pitt and bars of soap, but Fighters Club, an upcoming MMO from KOG Studios, has plenty of pugilistic power to make Jack a happy man. At GDC last week, Massively had a chance to see some of the action and talk to the team about its plans for beta and launch. If you're curious about Fighters Club, then tape up those knuckles, slip into some kick-boxing shoes, and let's get ready to rumble!%Gallery-150625%
GDC 2012: gPotato showcases Allods, Aika, Sevencore, and Eternal Blade
If you're wondering what gPotato has been up to lately, the answer is, lots! At GDC, gPotato reps showed off not one but four titles, two of which are brand-new and on their way to beta. For Allods and Aika fans, there was plenty of news about the new game updates. Meanwhile, gPotato put on demos for Sevencore and Eternal Blade, which are both in production and are being prepped for release sometime later this year. Read on for a hands-on look at each of these titles!%Gallery-150628%
The Daily Grind: What was your favorite GDC 2012 reveal?
Another Game Developer's Conference has come and gone, and Massively was there to bring you the most complete MMO-related coverage to be found on the 'net. There was a little something for everyone, and whether your taste runs to AAA MMOFPS titles or smaller indie sandbox affairs, the annual trade show featured tons of MMO news and views. In addition to the demos and interviews, Massively also sat in on a couple of developer panels, and we managed to take a breather each morning to collect our thoughts via some impromptu podcast sessions. We also enjoyed some hands-on time with Funcom's hush hush The Secret World title, but unfortunately we can't tell you about that until March 15th. Today's Daily Grind is all about last week's convention, and the traditional question goes something like this: Which bit of GDC news was your favorite? 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!
GDC 2012: Frogster shows off Eligium: The Chosen One
At GDC, there is much to see and do. And one of the best things to do (besides try to win a really cool fuzzy hat) is to actually experience a game through a demonstration or even some hands-on play. I had the opportunity to do just that with one of Frogster's upcoming games. No, not that one; the other one. Ellen-Jane Austin, Country Manager UK, and Marco Neubert, Director Product PR, took me on a brief tour of Eligium: The Chosen One. Although this game from Shanda Games Ltd. is pretty similar to other games in many respects, there are a few features that give it a unique flair, especially the virtue system, mounts, and my personal favorite, an ability to shape-change into a two-headed dragon!
GDC 2012: Publishing heavies weigh in on F2P conversions
Like it or not, free-to-play is rapidly coming to dominate every corner of the gaming industry. While that's good on the surface, it also blurs the line between business and design, and it creates a lot of tension for both consumers and developers who are increasingly faced with the challenges inherent in separating monetary decisions from gameplay decisions. One of the more interesting GDC 2012 round-tables featured Sony Online Entertainment executive producer Dave Georgeson, NCSoft publishing director Steve Levy, Perfect World VP John Young, GamersFirst monetization director Joe Willmon, and Digi-Capital Limited managing director Tim Merel, all of whom convened for a mind-meld on successfully migrating subscription games to F2P. As you would expect, the panel was heavy on business-speak, but it also featured plenty of insight into the pricing phenomenon that has become the rule rather than the exception.
