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Brazil wants to build South American broadband network, says it will bring down costs
A pan-South American broadband network: It sounds rather ambitious, but that's exactly what Brazil proposed yesterday, during a meeting of the continent's communications ministers. In an address to his colleagues, Brazil's Paulo Bernardo called for the creation of "a ring of South American fiber optic networks" encompassing the entire continent. This "South American solution," he added, would lower the costs of internet and mobile access across the region, benefiting consumers and ISPs alike. "Connection costs for South American users represent on average between 35 and 40 percent of the total price of the service," the minister explained. "An Internet provider in South America pays, in the best of cases, three times more for the connection than in the United States. This situation must change urgently." Bernardo estimates that the initiative would cost about $60 million and could be completed within two years, though it'll likely have to jump through a few more hoops before nearing reality.
Wings Over Atreia: TORn away
*suits up in full firefighters gear* Alrighty, now I am ready! The topic for this week's Wings Over Atreia presented itself when I logged into Aion at prime-time on Thursday night and found the very odd occurrence of both an empty legion list and an empty friends list. Considering how full the latter is (plug for larger lists here), I've never seen both be completely empty simultaneously, even when I pop in during my odd super-late hours. While I saw some life over the rest of the weekend, overall numbers stayed pretty low, even during the hours of the new arena instances. To what do I attribute this? In some cases it was the usual attack of the Real Life (tm) that got ahold of people, but two extra factors contributed to the population insta-decline: the release of Skyrim and more weekend beta invites from Star Wars: The Old Republic. Now in the case of Skyrim, it can't be helped (but maybe we can have a little spacing between the release of so many games?!). We know that once the game is played through, people will wander back to their MMOs. TOR, however, is another matter: Besides the shininess of of a new game and the fact that it is both Star Wars-based and made by BioWare, does Aion have a future of vast, empty lands to look forward to at the release of the latest OMG-it's-the-second-coming-of-games title? Some are certainly screaming doom-and-gloom, but we hear that from dissenters about nearly every little thing. Is it possible that there is room enough for both games to survive after the initial hype has passed? *checks and readjusts all gear again* Come on and join me past the cut for some thoughts on the matter.
The Daily Grind: Are we cheating studios by not paying for free-to-play?
Here's an odd question that I've been chewing on lately: Is there something wrong if we extensively enjoy a free-to-play title that we do not, and are determined to never, pay for? I mean, sampling a F2P title is kind of like participating in a trial, but what about playing a F2P MMO for months or even years without paying? Is there something ethically or perhaps morally wrong about that, particularly since our playtime is funded by both the studio and the paying members out there? On one hand, we're invited to do so. Studios use F2P to lure us in on the chance that we'll become so invested that we'll be tempted to spend money to either support it or gain a better play experience for ourselves. The studios set the rules for free-to-play, and we operate within them. But on the other hand, I wonder if there comes a point when one can take so much advantage of a "free" service at someone else's expense that it gets tacky or just plain wrong. Do we become the unwelcome house guest who mooches but never gives back -- and never leaves? What do you think? Should we feel obligated to pay at least something if we've played a F2P MMO for a good length of time? Or am I totally off my rocker here? 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!
Kickstarter hits a million backers, impoverished design students rejoice
Despite these shaky economic times, people still have the time -- and money -- for modded Arduino kits, iPhone lens and air guitar mods. Kickstarter users have now pledged over $100 million to projects, with the number of backers leaping from around 250,000 in September last year to over one million. The crowd-funding site is marking the occasion with visualizations of its vital statistics, showing, among other things, that one-time backers make up the bulk of investment. With over 13,000 projects green-lighted so far, projects still vying for our investment dollars include a caterpillar-tracked smartphone robot, a bike light that attaches to your spokes generating an 8-bit light show and an energy recovery unit that picks up on heat from a dryer exhaust. If the idea of heat exchanges gets you all hot under the collar, check out Kickstarter to help give the creators a fiscal foothold.
GDC Online 2011: BioWare's Damion Schubert takes a wrecking ball to the casual vs. hardcore model
"I'm trying to finish a product, Star Wars: The Old Republic, which I am not going to talk about today." Thus began BioWare's Damion Schubert's seminar, Double Coding: Making Online Games for Both the Casual and the Hardcore, at this year's GDC Online. "This is more of a weary man, sort of stream-of-consciousness design theory talk." Schubert wanted to call the talk "Moving Beyond Double Coding," which is a term that comes from cartoons, of all places. Double coding is content that reaches two different groups of people at the same time. Looney Tunes, for example, would entertain both adults and kids because the writers and animators designed it so. With MMOs, Schubert says that devs are often trying to double code the games for both casual and hardcore players. This is where the well-known slogan "easy to play, hard to master" originates. He held up Blizzard as a primary example of this model. Blizzard's "donut," as Schubert calls it, has a casual outer ring and a hardcore center for both types of players. By double coding, Blizzard ensures that casual players can invite their hardcore friends to experience the game and vice-versa. However, this model is faltering, and Schubert pinpoints why after the jump!
Google to build a trio of data centers in Asia, earmarks $200 million for expansion
IT specialists in Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong better start polishing their resumes, because Google is rolling into town. Yesterday, Big G announced plans to build a brand new data center in each of the three Asian locales, as part of an expansion slated to cost at least $200 million. When completed, these complexes will represent the company's first fully owned and operated data centers in the burgeoning Asia-Pacific region -- where, according to Asia policy communications manager Taj Meadows, Google is "seeing large numbers of new users coming online every day". The facilities in Hong Kong and Taiwan are expected to cost around $100 million each, though the price tag for the Singapore branch remains a mystery. Big G hopes to finish construction in one to two years, though it didn't say when it would begin -- nor, for that matter, whether seawater tunnels would be involved.
Report: Foxconn's Brazil factory ready for business, will begin shipping iPads in December
It appears that Apple is about to expand its manufacturing operations to Brazil, where a new Foxconn factory is already in place and ready to churn out iPads, according to a report from national media outlet UOL. Aolizio Mercadante, the country's minister of science and technology, confirmed the news this week during a hearing held by the Commission of Economic Affairs. "At first many doubted, but it will be the first time that [Apple] will produce iPads outside Chinese territory," Mercadente said. "We are taking a big step for digital inclusion in the country." Located in Jundiaí, the new facility was constructed under a joint venture between Foxconn and the Brazilian government, with the former reportedly contributing $12 million to the initiative. Rumors of a South American expansion began circulating earlier this year, with many expecting Foxconn's Brazil-based operations to get underway during Q1 of 2012, according to DigiTimes. Construction, however, appears to have wrapped up ahead of schedule, with Mercadante claiming that iPad shipments will begin in December. Apple, for its part, has not commented on the report.
3M makes Mary Lou Jepsen's dreams come true, showers Pixel Qi with cash
Chances are you've heard plenty about Pixel Qi's super-efficient, transreflective displays. The odds are equally as high that you've never touched one before, either. Well, 3M aims to change all of that and make good on founder Mary Lou Jepsen's continued promises to get those screens out into the consumer wild. Infusing the LCD company with an undisclosed amount of cash, 3M's New Ventures investment arm is betting the combo of its Optical Systems Division's LCD film technology expertise and funding will not only ramp up production of the sunlight-readable color screens, but also innovate uses for it across "...consumer markets as well as digital signage and touch applications." It's a nice shot of confidence for the display maker's much-touted, albeit scarce tech, and could be the financial boost necessary to take Jepsen from underdog to industry heavyweight. We'll keep a close eye out for how this develops. In the meantime, you can jump past the break to read the hyperbolic PR for yourself.
Shareholder calls for RIM to sell itself or its patents, in critical open letter
Things just keep getting bleaker for RIM. With its revenues stagnating and smartphone market share dwindling, the BlackBerry maker is now facing new financial pressure from Jaguar Financial Group -- a Canadian merchant bank and RIM shareholder that's calling upon the company to do one of two rather unpleasant things: sell itself, or sell its patent portfolio. In an open letter to RIM's board of directors, Jaguar CEO Vic Alboni criticized the manufacturer for failing to "inspire consumer enthusiasm" for its products, and for bringing its devices to market too late. And, as share prices continue to drop, Alboni thinks it's time to make a change: The status quo is not acceptable, the company cannot sit still. It is time for transformational change. The directors need to seize the reins to maximize shareholder value before more market value is lost. Jaguar didn't specify the size of its RIM stake, but claimed to be calling for upheaval on behalf of "other supportive shareholders" who, in total, hold less than five percent of the company. The Ontario-based firm is hoping that a new line of QNX-based smartphones will curtail its slump, but Alboni doesn't sound so optimistic. "You cannot put all your eggs in one basket," he told Bloomberg. "The board should be saying, 'What if these products don't pan out?' You don't want RIM to turn into another Nortel." A RIM spokeswoman, meanwhile, declined to comment on the letter. Hit up the source link below to read it for yourself.
Occipital announces investment, new hires
Occipital, the company behind the popular iPhone and iPad app 360 Panorama, announced on Wednesday that it received US$7 million in venture funding. 360 Panorama lets you take panorama pictures by shooting a series of pictures at one and stitching them on the phone before saving them to your camera roll. Besides a healthy infusion of cash, Occipital is also expanding beyond its iOS application to create a computer vision platform that other developers can use. Occipital will create the backbone and developers will use their creative skills to produce innovative apps with advanced imaging and camera features like eye tracking. Occipital has also added four new members to its board of directors including Jason Mendelson and Brad Feld of a venture capital firm Foundry Group, Manu Kumar of venture capital firm K9 Ventures and Gary Bradski, the creator of OpenCV, an open source computer vision library.
Apple stock helping the Alaska Permanent Fund more than oil
The Alaska Permanent Fund sets aside a portion of oil revenue and gives some of that money back to Alaska citizens each year. This pool of money is also used to invest in the stock market, a practice that has proved to be quite lucrative. A recent quarterly report from the company that manages the Fund reveals Apple and not oil revenue is the reason the Fund is growing. The Fund holds over 617,000 shares in Apple which were bought when Apple's stock was much lower than its current US$391 per share. It's initial $73 million investment is now worth $207 million. This jump has helped propel the Fund to a healthy $40.1 billion, its highest level ever. The Fund also owns stock in IBM, EMC, Cisco, GE and others, but Apple is its largest single holding and its best performer. [Via Fortune Apple 2.0]
Qualcomm CEO confirms death of 5.7-inch Mirasol e-reader display, looks forward to 'next version'
Remember that Mirasol e-reader display Qualcomm was hoping to release this year? Yeah, it's not happening. Speaking at a press briefing in San Diego yesterday, Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs confirmed that the 5.7-inch panel has been abandoned after failing to meet expectations. Instead, the company will devote its attention to the "next version" of the technology, which has Jacobs feeling optimistic: "We have a really interesting roadmap -- we're starting out on e-readers because we figured having E Ink as a competing technology was a good way to get started. But if you think about the power consumption of the screens that are out now [on tablets], they're very bright OLED screens that use up a lot of the power of the battery. We don't today have as vibrant color as an OLED display - but we have a roadmap that gets us to a much brighter color." Presumably, this roadmap would include that low-power "converged e-reader" we heard about a few weeks ago, slated for release by the end of the year. Jacobs also mentioned that Qualcomm is planning to invest a billion dollars in its Taiwan Mirasol plant, which might help produce the kind of volume that, say, Amazon would demand for its Kindle displays. It's all speculation, of course, but Qualcomm certainly seems to have some big plans in store for the rest of the year.
Google backs Alta Wind Energy Center, boasts $400 million clean energy milestone
Google announced today that it's throwing $55 million dollars to the wind... energy, that is. A post to the official Google blog said the company has invested the aforementioned amount in the Alta Wind Energy Center, which is set to generate 1,550 megawatts of energy -- enough to reportedly power 450,000 homes -- from a batch of turbines in the Mojave Dessert. Developed by Terra-Gen Power, the operation will carry the resulting energy via transmission lines to "major population centers." The ever-humble internet giant pointed out that this particular injection of funds marks a total investment of $400 million in the clean energy sector. In fact, El Goog signed a deal last year to power several of its data centers with wind power, and most recently announced the opening of a seawater-cooled data center in Finland.
Square gets financial backing from Visa, asks to see some ID
Everything's coming up Jack Dorsey these days. Last week Apple started stocking Square's iPhone credit card readers in its 235 US retail locations, and now, according to Reuters, Visa has put its plastic where its mouth is. The credit card giant has invested in the personal payments startup, scoring itself a spot on Square's advisory board in the process. No word on how much Visa is actually dropping on the company, but one thing stands to reason: it probably didn't make the deposit via Verifone. If you would like to invest in a Square reader, it'll cost you a lot less -- the company is still offering smartphone plug-ins for free on its site.
Warren Buffett hesitant on Apple, tech companies
Multi-billionaire investor Warren Buffett says he still has no plans to invest in technology companies, including Apple, preferring to stick with companies like Coca-Cola because it is "very easy for me to come to a conclusion as to what it will look like economically in five or 10 years, and it's not easy for me to come to a conclusion about Apple." Buffett's latest comments came at the opening of a new cutting tools factory in Daegu, South Korea, in which his investment company Berkshire Hathaway Inc. has a share. Even though he's a long-time friend of Microsoft founder Bill Gates -- the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation receives around $1.5 billion a year from Buffett -- the 80-year-old investor has never been comfortable with technology companies. He says that, although recent events in Japan mean that technology stocks are depressed and therefore a good buy at the moment, he's sticking with what he knows. In fact, it's only within about the past five years that Apple stocks have out-performed those of Coca-Cola. Hindsight shows that a switch to Apple from Coke five years ago would have made Buffett a much richer man, but with around $50 billion to his name, his foresight seems to work pretty well. While Apple's stock has gone up like a rocket in the past five years, Coca-Cola's has remained fairly stable -- and in the previous five years, Apple's stock was in the doldrums in comparison, and Buffett's choice looked wise. And now, it turns out, even Bill Gates is investing in Coca-Cola via its Mexican bottler Femsa. [Via Electronista]
Fusion-io IPO filing discloses list of prestigious clients, led by Facebook
Before last week, we'd gone well over a year without discussing solid state storage purveyors Fusion-io -- and their extremely expensive and expeditious flash drives -- but things seem to have been ticking along just fine behind the scenes. While the company's unlikely to have sold many ioDrives to good old Joe Consumer, its upcoming IPO application features an impressive list of corporate clients, highlighted by Facebook, its biggest customer, IBM, HP, and Credit Suisse -- the latter using Fusion-io technology to speed up the mathematical alchemy of making money where there was none before. Taken together with strategic investments from Samsung and Dell, these deals paint a rosy outlook for the Woz-employing startup, however it's worth noting that profitability is still a decent way away. Fusion-io's rapid growth is costing it more than it's making at the moment, which is most likely to have catalyzed its current decision to go public and collect its biggest round of investments yet. Let's hope the investor prospectus includes a forecast for when things like the ioXtreme might actually become affordable to non-millionaires, eh?
Intel to spend $5 billion on new 14nm fab in Arizona, create 4,000 new jobs this year
When Paul Otellini isn't too busy talking about being jilted by Nokia, he spends his time hosting presidents and splashing billions of dollars on new manufacturing facilities. Intel's CEO is wrapping his tumultuous week on a high note, having welcomed Barack Obama to Chipzilla's Oregon facility and treated the president to the happy news that Intel will invest $5 billion back into the US economy by building its most advanced fab yet -- which will introduce an impossibly small 14nm production process -- in Arizona, to begin operation in 2013. Construction starts in the middle of this year and is expected to create "thousands" of jobs, both temporary and permanent. Aside from that, Otellini has disclosed Intel's intention to create 4,000 new jobs in the US, mostly in R&D and product development. Music to Obama's ears, we're sure.
Zynga valuations place company at nearly $10 billion
Earlier this week, casual gaming juggernaut Zynga received yet another outside investment of an undisclosed sum of money. A number of news outlets speculated on the aforementioned sum and what it's done to the company's bottom line -- for instance, the Wall Street Journal (via Develop) reported that the investment was worth $250 million, valuing the company at somewhere between $7 billion and $10 billion. All Things Digital says the investment was for $500 million, and claimed (alongside the New York Times) that the company is worth "nearly $10 billion." Meanwhile, Joystiq.com's gaming industry luminaries have valued the new investment at "many, many millions," placing Zynga's net worth at "the largest number anyone's ever seen or written." Feel free to use those valuations as well, business guys.
HTC investing $40M in OnLive for smartphone gaming
"Yes, OnLive works on cell phones, too," the company's enterprising CEO Steve Perlman assured us all ... fifteen months ago. Did you forget? 'Cause HTC sure didn't. The smartphone manufacturing giant has unannounced plans to buy 5.3 million OnLive shares at $7.50 each -- that's about a $40 million stake in the cloud-based technology outfit -- to better position itself in the gaming segment of the smartphone market, reports The Wall Street Journal. Currently, HTC designs smartphones for both the Android and Windows Phone 7 platforms. HTC's investment would follow the reported $60 million raised by OnLive in 2010 through investments by British Telecommunications and Belgacom Group. During CES last month, OnLive also unveiled a partnership with Vizio to bring its games-on-demand service to a suite of products, including TVs and Blu-ray players.
Aptera: no production vehicles until we get funding, from the government or elsewhere
Ah, funding. So necessary, yet so tedious to get. Aptera -- an automotive startup that has warmed our hearts with its eco-friendly, three-wheeled prototypes -- has been seeking government funding to take things "next level" ever since 2008. After being laughed out of the building at first, the company reapplied and managed to get its 2e certified as a "car" by the US Department of Energy. Unfortunately, miles (and miles) or red tape have held Aptera back ever since, and even today, they're still waiting to see if Uncle Sam will be shelling out to further their initiatives. Rather than putting its head down and realizing it's no GM, the company has pushed out a newsletter explaining the current situation. Essentially, it's dead-set on holding out for more funding -- be it from the DoE's coffers or elsewhere -- in order to maintain quality and keep the per-unit costs down to a reasonable level. According to Aptera: "We would obviously love to accelerate the process, but the government has to make sure they complete their comprehensive evaluation and we have to let the process run its course." Bummer.
