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Switched On: The "phonetastic four" versus Windows Mobile
Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology. Barring any disruptive portfolio shifts prior to its introduction, the Palm Pre will complete a new competitive handset dynamic that began with the introduction of the iPhone. Each of the four major U.S. mobile operators will be emphasizing a capacitive touchscreen smartphone. Curiously, none come from any of the top five global phone manufacturers. And even more curiously, each will be powered by a different operating system as the Pre at Sprint jockeys with the iPhone at AT&T, the BlackBerry Storm at Verizon Wireless, and the T-Mobile G1. These signature handsets go beyond exclusives or even strong identification with the service provider. They bear the burden of attracting consumers looking for the coolest phone experience or at least minimizing the impact of the other signature handsets. In return, carriers lavish marketing dollars on them. Their role exemplifies a transformation of the market from the days when the RAZR was every carrier's "it" phone and operators competed on their particular shade of pink . The carriers' selection of their signature handsets must be disappointing to Microsoft, which cannot claim a Windows Mobile device among them. Indeed, the single mobile operator Microsoft highlighted at Mobile World Congress as being an exceptional partner was France's Orange. It's not as if an operating system must be exclusive to the device as there are other BlackBerrys out there (although, as Verizon Wireless tirelessly notes, the Storm is the first touchscreen BlackBerry). And it is only an accident in time that has made the G1 the exclusive Android handset. It certainly isn't about application support as incredibly all of the current signature handsets will have debuted without extensive third-party programs available. Regardless, though, and despite efforts by HTC, Sony Ericsson and Samsung to skin Windows Mobile as well as Microsoft's own improvements in Windows Mobile 6.1, there is a perceived cachet to these four signature phones that the best Windows Mobile devices are not yet delivering.
Editorial: Ten reasons why Windows Mobile 6.5 misses the mark
The talk this week at Mobile World Congress has been largely positive about Microsoft's latest iteration of its smartphone UI, Windows Mobile 6.5. Still, some of us at Engadget (well, one of us, at least), feel like the folks in Redmond missed the mark by a longshot. Instead of demonstrating its technical prowess and vast resources, Microsoft limped out a half-hearted rehash of an OS we've seen all too much of, and managed to blind most onlookers with a storm of big time partnerships and bloated PR. While their major competitors (and even some allies) in the mobile space seem bent on changing ideas about how we interact with our portable devices, the company proved once again that it's content to rest on its laurels and learn little from its mistakes.To give you another side of the story -- a side which I think Microsoft has done an immaculate job of hiding this week -- here's ten reasons why Windows Mobile 6.5 disappoints.
Switched On: Walls for a "Life Without Walls"
Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology. In October of 2006, I wrote a Switched On column entitled "Rebooting Retail in Redmond" in which I noted how much Microsoft's consumer business had changed since the days of the original microsoftSF store in Sony's Metreon. This was a world before Windows XP, before Zune, before rich touch interfaces on Windows Mobile devices, before Media Center, and before the original Xbox. I concluded that column by noting: Microsoft's consumer lineup today is far more compelling, sophisticated, media-rich and, with a growing group of hardware products, tactile than it was back in the 20th Century. The marketing strategy of Windows Vista -- with its various usage scenarios -- presents a nearly perfect foundation from which to structure showcase environments. The entertainment products that Microsoft wants to bring into the consumer's home would benefit from a home of their own. That argument will be even more relevant in 2010 as Windows 7 begins to roll out and Microsoft takes its "Life Without Walls" campaign to the next level by highlighting the integration of the desktop, the mobile phone and the Web. We are already seeing a sneak peek at this via the MyPhone service that Microsoft is rolling out for Windows Mobile. Microsoft stores will be in a unique position versus nearly every other physical direct technology channel. For while Microsoft certainly has its own consumer products such as Zune, Xbox 360, keyboards, mice and boxed copies of Windows and other software, a key charge of these establishments will be to highlight the promise of the digital lifestyle as powered by Microsoft in products produced by its partners or developers..
Switched On: Verizon Hub is a handset homecoming
Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology. After years of providing the devices on which we spoke, Verizon is finally providing the Hub. The Verizon Hub is not the first VoIP product to use that moniker -- with pay upfront for lifetime long distance startup Ooma having used the "hub" name for its primary home phone adapter -- but the telco's take on the screenphone represents a turning point in the evolution of consumer telecommunications. For much of its existence, the cell phone had long played second-fiddle to the home phone as the wireless wonders implied expensive plans and inferior voice quality. Increasingly, though, consumers are finding connections to data services as critical as voice connections, and despite attempts that have ranged from the Cidco iPhone (yes, there was one years before iPhones by Cisco and Apple) and more recently the RSS-savvy GE InfoLink (now abandoned by Thomson's exit from the cordless handset business), the home phone has begun to lag far behind its portable cousin as an Internet resource. Enter our nation's two largest telecom providers. Triple-play aspirant Verizon Wireless has joined rival AT&T in offering a touch-screen, Internet-savvy home phone system heavy on information delivery and communications functionality while working with up to four DECT expansion handsets. Unlike the questionably named Samsung HomeManager offered by AT&T, the screen on the Verizon Hub cannot be carried conveniently about the house like a tablet display. The Verizon Hub also uses IP for its voice and data communications whereas HomeManager uses broadband for data and a traditional circuit-switched connection for voice calls. Why would Verizon blithely bypass its own copper?
Switched On: With Pre, Palm breaks from the Storm
Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology. In a recent interview with Elevation Partners' Roger McNamee, the Palm investor explained that Palm knew it had to step up its game after RIM launched the BlackBerry Pearl, which he described as "the first real consumer electronics product in the smartphone category." The Pearl launch served as the coming out party for the BlackBerry brand among consumers as RIM began stepping up its advertising, and the product's narrower hardware design was a noticeable break with the staid stylings of previous BlackBerry devices. Indeed, back in November of 2006 as Palm rolled out the somewhat consumer-focused Treo 680, I wrote a Switched On column noting that the Pearl broke with the evolutionary path that RIM had been on and served as an example for the kind of hardware shift Palm needed to make. Palm finally answered the Pearl with the Centro, a compact, inexpensive, and successful smartphone that has apparently served as the final resting place of the original Palm OS architecture. However, between the release of those two devices, the entry and subsequent SDK of Apple's iPhone proved a far more significant turning point in the evolution of consumer smartphones. The iPhone's resonance and popularity have provoked responses from many competitors, but there is a particular contrast in the flagship CDMA touchscreen handsets released by RIM and Palm --- the other two smartphone developers that grow their own operating systems -- since then.
Switched On: The 2008 Switchies
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology. The fourth annual Saluting Wares Improving Technology's Contribution to Humanity's awards were not held in the opulent imaginary venue of previous galas due to the subprime lending crisis of 2008. Rather, they were hastily distributed behind the Engadget trailer at CES 2009. Also, due to budget cuts and with the imaginary gold for the statuettes at record highs, we've had to consolidate the portable and home awards into a single ceremony. Last year's Product of the Year was the Apple iPhone, which became the reference point for other touchscreen smartphones after its release. While Apple added important improvements and unleased thousands of applications with the iPhone SDK, the 2008 Switchie for Product of the Year goes to the T-Mobile G1. While its body may be a little out of shape, the first Android phone sports a wide keyboard, strong browsing and mapping capabilities, and an open development environment should enable a wide array of follow-on handset models to deliver a stronger consumer experience than they do today. There is also much potential for Android to creep into other kinds of devices, as was shown by the Movit Mini at CES 2009. Honorable mentions in the cell phone category are awarded to the sleek Nokia N73, the solid Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1, and the integrated Samsung Instinct.
Time for a Mac App Store?
Way back in June of 2007, I wrote this post, a list of five things Apple could do to bring gamers back to the Mac. I said that Apple should put more games on iTunes, break out the gaming hardware, go casual, and make the experience worth it, from buying to download to playing. Now, a year and a half later, Apple has basically done just that -- with the App Store. There are casual games aplenty, the iPhone works great as a gaming device, and the App Store itself makes it relatively easy to find new games to buy. There are kinks, of course, that need to be worked out, but no one can say the App Store isn't a gigantic success.And so, Dennis Sellers of MacsimumNews asks, is it time for a Mac App Store? We have an App Store for your Mac already -- it's called the Internet, where you can see reviews, download software, and even get updates for the programs on your Mac. In fact, Apple already has a downloads page that looks very much like the App Store's front page, though there's no place there were you can easily see what apps you currently have installed, or what apps you have that need updating. It would work like a Software Update, but for every app you've got.There are lots of benefits, too, the first being that more apps would be sold. Of course, the usual Internet channels would remain open; Apple would just offer a service very similar to the App Store, in that you'd have a program on your computer that would easily add and/or update all the apps you have installed. But would a Mac App Store experience the same price issues that the iPhone's App Store has? It is an interesting idea, though -- the App Store has done very well for both Apple and developers so far, and it might be helpful to look at what works there and how it might be able to come back to the Mac platform at large.[via MacBytes]
Switched On: When hardware startups zagged
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology. In 2008, a year in which some of the most-used American political buzzwords were "change" and "maverick", many technology companies bucked conventional wisdom. With rising penetration across a broad range of mainstream consumer technology categories, it has become more difficult than ever to compete in the device space if you're not bringing something different to the party. The year did not start out auspiciously for those going against the grain, as CES 2008 brought news of Warner Brothers' decision to exclusively support Blu-ray as opposed to underdog HD DVD. The move set off a swift collapse of the HD-DVD partnership and Toshiba officially threw in the towel a few months later. Meanwhile, in San Francisco, Steve Jobs used part of what is slated to go down as his final Macworld Expo keynote to announce something that wasn't very surprising -- shifting the focus of Apple TV from a PC-centric content shifter to a broadband video store. But two open-source efforts have stepped in to shake up the home video space – Boxee, which can run on Apple TV hardware, and NeurosLink, the open-source hardware developer's foray into a set-top box optimized for streaming video from the Internet. Neuros currently has a list of bounties posted, offering dollars for developers who can bridge gaps in its software's functionality.
Editorial: All I wanted this year was the best smartphone ever
This year, all I really wanted for the holidays was the perfect smartphone. Not too much to ask for, right? You'd think, but all I ended up with was constant swapping between 3 (or more) devices, hoping to find some balance of features that worked for me. Instead of one "go to" phone, I juggled the iPhone 3G, T-Mobile G1, and BlackBerry Bold for the last few months, desperately wishing I could merge them into one perfect device. I shall now break down my hopes for the upcoming year, with a prayer in my little old heart that manufacturers are listening.
The New York Times logs back in to World of Warcraft
The online gaming industry -- actually, the world -- has been changed by World of Warcraft. The game has become a cultural phenomenon played by 11 million people, so it's gotten quite a bit of mainstream media attention -- that is to say, it's not just a geek thing.The New York Times has often dedicated a word or two to MMOs like WoW and EVE Online, but it seems that NY Times writer Seth Schiesel was away from the former nearly a year. Like just about everyone else, though, he's been lured back into the world of Azeroth by the recently released Wrath of the Lich King expansion. He wrote a touching piece about the all his feelings when he returned, nothing the expansion's relatively casual design and describing the experience of connecting with old friends after a year of change. He went into it with trepidation, but it ended up being a homecoming.But perhaps we can read something else into his return. You might look at it as a sign that the appeal for these games will never fade. Everyone can get hooked on the social experience World of Warcraft and games like it provide, and Wrath's success might be evidence that this young form of entertainment has its best years ahead of it.
Opinion: Why I can't go beyond the first 5 mins of Call of Duty: World At War
I've been avoiding Call of Duty: World At War. Not because its developer, Treyarch, has yet to inspire me. Not because it's another World War II shooter. I've been avoiding World At War because the featured enemy is the Japanese Empire. Let me explain: While not the first game to portray the Pacific-side of WWII, World At War is the most prominent. One could argue for Medal of Honor's pair of entries, but those came as the franchise was dwindling (not to mention, before and during Joystiq's infancy). World At War follows the overwhelming reception of Call of Duty 4 and benefits from a massive marketing campaign from its publisher, Activision. In short, it's in my face and on my mind.
WoW vs. LotRO: The future of MMOs
The comparison is always made between any fantasy-based MMO and World of Warcraft. It's just the nature of the beast these days. In a recent editorial over at Warcry, they compare Lord of the Rings Online with WoW, mainly for the fact that they both have expansions releasing later this year. For WoW, this will be their second in 4 years, while LotRO will be turning out their first in the 1.5 years they've been around.The article brings up some good points when it comes to how similar the two games are, and goes on to proclaim that the future of MMOs lies in innovation and daring to be different from WoW. While the failure of some recent MMO releases would contradict this theory, it's more of a focus on long-term, while "staying [in the] comfortable WoW nest where it's warm and safe" is more of a short-term solution for competitors.
The Economist on games and profit
Newsmagazine The Economist ran an article titled "Playing for profit" about using video game technology to increase productivity in the workplace. The article -- which was a sort of book report on "Changing the Game: How Video Games Are Transforming the Future of Business" by David Edery and Ethan Mollick -- looked to trends such as game mods and web-based-games-as-marketing-tools for inspiration, but special emphasis was placed on MMOs, including World of Warcaft and EVE Online. Believe it or not, the WoW feature that was heralded by the writer was the soul-crushing grind! Or rather, the grind was compared to the sorts of tasks that your average office worker has to sit through each day. WoW provides a context -- the leveling system and other rewards -- that (supposedly) makes the grind worth the trouble. Companies should emulate that, the article says.EVE, on the other hand, was used to demonstrate what not to do. That's pretty ironic, since The Economist's editorial stance is all about economic and societal openness! Regardless, the author pointed to the famous incident in which a CCP employee provided inside help to a corporation at war, using it as an example of the dangers of game-playing in a business environment.
How Blizzard mishandled the BlizzCon ticket situation
As you may or may not know, we here at WoW Insider are not an official Blizzard fansite. There are a few different reasons for that, but one of them is that within the Fansite Program Code of Conduct, there is a clause that states, "fansites should present content that is supportive of World of Warcraft and Blizzard Entertainment." We don't disagree with that clause -- fansites are run by fans, and they should support Blizzard. But our status as an unofficial site leaves us completely free to talk indepth about situations where Blizzard has messed up big time. And as many players already know, the BlizzCon ticket sales process that took place earlier this week is definitely one of those situations.Blizzard is, of course, a game company. No one expects them to put on events like WWI and BlizzCon -- they do so to serve the community that's grown up around their games (and, let's be fair, market and advertise their products to the core of their fanbase). And the community loves those events, both hearing about and attending them. Which is why it was a surprise to no one (except maybe Blizzard themselves) that when the ticket sales kicked off Monday morning, it was a nightmare -- the site was hammered by fans trying desperately to buy tickets, the Failoc was a familiar sight, and within a few hours, even Blizzard.com's main site was down.Everyone could have predicted that there'd be problems like that -- when a fanbase of 11 million tries to buy 12,000 tickets, of course you're going to have technical problems. But Blizzard's mishandling of the situation didn't happen on Monday morning -- anyone can suffer from server outages. It happened over the next two days, days full of frustration, endless page refreshing, and a lack of useful communication from Blizzard about just what was happening.
Ten Ton Hammer takes a closer look at EVE Online
Ten Ton Hammer's Managing Editor, Cody 'Micajah' Bye writes about EVE Online in his latest editorial, 'The Temptations of a Unique MMOG.' The piece -- the first of many to come -- is an exploration of a game where that standard MMO skillset, employed in virtually all of the industry's dominant fantasy titles, no longer applies. Bye cites a few aspects of EVE that drew him to the game: depth, no level caps, no class restrictions, skills not determined by grinding time, and open gameplay. He also notes that EVE is becoming a game where players can (slowly) begin to change the rules and systems of the world. In these respects, EVE is largely free of many of the limitations found in other MMOs. However, he notes what many people on the outside looking in lament: EVE can be a very complex game.
Editorial compares gaming to heroin, teen pregnancy
Giles Whittell hates video games. But more than that, the parent and writer for The Times of London says in an editorial today he hates being told that he should first try to understand video games and immerse himself in their world before judging them. Why? Because "it feels like being told to immerse myself in smack and teenage pregnancy before passing judgment on them." Smack and teenage pregnancy.Look, we're all for balance, and we understand Mr. Whittell's larger argument that time-sucking games can cause children to miss out on the wonders of the real world (though we tend to think Outside is overrated). But creating an equivalence by saying that "video games and heroin and teenage pregnancy are a colossal waste of time," is putting a little too fine a point on things.Kids on heroin tend to grow up to be junkies. Teenagers who get pregnant tend to become unfit parents, unprepared for the rigors of raising a child of their own. The millions of children who play video games, for the most part, end up becoming well-adjusted adults (Whittell even admits that the risk that violent video game will create a murderer is "statistically low-risk"). Just because they could all technically be called "wastes of time" doesn't mean they're equally bad, and even implying that they are strikes us as extremely irresponsible.
Practical Marketing: Keeping your PR out of the trash
There's a lot of marketing, media and PR going on in virtual worlds, particularly in Second Life. You've probably noticed. We've talked a lot about differentiation, approach, engagement and a whole lot of other factors. Now it is time to talk about actually getting your message out. Your presence in Second Life isn't worth a dime if nobody knows you're there. This entails a tricky process called talking to the media. Sure, you used to do this, but the media changed a couple decades ago. No really, it did, and the last thing you want is the media ignoring you. At Massively, we get lots of media and PR contact as you'd rather expect. We've got a more than a few words of advice for flacks who need to get their message to the media outlets.
Common Sense on cell phone MMOs
The Common Sense Gamer published a reality checking rant on the coming wave of mobile MMOs. The author of the editorial pointed out that limitations in the technology and a lack of platform standards in the industry will only lead to mediocre if projects. He also suggested that users who aren't near wi-fi hotspots won't be able to get much done.He probably hasn't used a 3G phone yet; 3G networks are plenty fast. But for the most part, the rant was insightful -- especially on the issue of standards. All these cell phones use totally different platforms for running games, and they vary widely in performance and power. Is it feasible to develop for a dozen different platforms at once? Most game developers have enough trouble as it is with three!So maybe the best we can hope for is a Snake MMO. Actually, that could be kind of cool.
Why Second Life belongs at Massively
Or: Why gamers and virtual worlders should care about each other. We're shy of a month in to Massively's existence, and one of the more persistent bits of feedback we continue to receive regards the inclusion of Second Life content on a site about MMOs. There are really two questions to answer here: Does Second Life coverage belong on Massively at all? Is the amount of Second Life content disproportionate to its mindshare? I will herein state a claim for a definitive yes on point 1, and readily admit that point 2 is arguably a matter of taste. Maintaining editorial balance surrounding all of the many, varied games we cover is an ongoing process, and we've selected a suite of "core games" based on many factors including subscriber/member numbers, overall buzz and mindshare in the industry, and input from a secret algorithm I would love to call "interestingness" if it weren't already taken. We are proud to offer in-depth Second Life coverage as one of those core current titles. Overall, we're taking a broad definition of the concept of MMO here at Massively. While the majority of our coverage concerns traditionally "gamer"-oriented titles like City of Heroes, Tabula Rasa, Lord of the Rings Online et al, we're also providing both news and feature content surrounding more casual, often browser-based titles like Dofus, Runescape, and Flyff. Despite popular perception as niche titles, some of these games are rivaling the big dogs in terms of membership and hours played. In an industry toying with the idea of whether or not Facebook is an MMO and witnessing Google almost surely building one, we see projects like MetaPlace further blurring the lines between web-based social networking and Gaming with a capital G. In the middle of those two trends -- hardcore and casual games getting mashed up, and MMOs and the web getting mashed up -- sits Massively; and we're excited to be covering it all as it happens.
Halo's Arms Race, or when live-action is more dead than CGI
In an obvious move, Peter Moore concluded Microsoft's E3 keynote with a trifecta of Halo data. But what we're still a bit befuddled by, is the 1 minute, 52 seconds of quasi-live-action footage, presented as a collaboration between Bungie, director Neill Blomkamp, and WETA.Moore introduced the footage as "a chance to see what they've been working on, and a new chance to believe." It's a fuzzy statement, to be sure, and one that was not clarified once the live-action spot, and the keynote, ended. Admittedly, we were perplexed. Was this an indication that the Halo movie was back on track? Or something else?
