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Microsoft goes on a hiring spree for new Xbox hardware devs, staffing up for next console push?
Before you go leaping to any conclusions, do remember that Microsoft plans on keeping the Xbox 360 going until at least 2015 so we're not really talking imminent changes here. Nonetheless, the software giant has listed a plethora of new job openings, with the most interesting ones being at its Mountain View research campus, where a team responsible for "defining and delivering next generation console architectures" is looking for fresh blood. A graphics hardware architect is sought to ensure that the next Xbox strikes the optimal balance between the awesome and affordable, while a design verification engineer and a few others will be hired to test and help develop prototypes. This bolstering of numbers seems to indicate Microsoft is starting to ramp up research and development on its next-gen home entertainment linchpin, and while nothing's likely to emerge from those Mountain View labs in the short term, the mere sound of clanking tools and buzzing electrons is getting us excited already.
Emblaze First Else UX engineer embraced by HP / Palm, magic ensues
Remember that day when Emblaze wowed the world with its First Else "death of main menu" smartphone? What a shame, eh? While it's unlikely that said Linux handset will ever be resurrected, there's a small chance that bits of its legacy will be passed onto other products. For instance, a recent LinkedIn newsletter led us to Itai Vonshak, who was one of the main engineers behind the architecture that powered the First Else's brilliant, mesmerizing UI. Now, according to his profile, our man has recently moved into HP / Palm's comfy little house to do UX strategy. Whether this means webOS will get a slice of that Minority Report action, we don't know; but it'll be interesting to see what Vonshak will surprise us with at the HP / Palm event next month. For now, there's a hands-on video of the First Else after the break for old time's sake.
Nokia's former MeeGo chief confirms new role as Senior VP of webOS at HP
Ari Jaaksi, the former head of MeeGo Devices at Nokia, has confirmed reports from last month identifying HP as his new employer. According to the latest update to his LinkedIn profile, Ari is now enjoying the mild temperatures of the San Francisco Bay Area and does indeed hold the title of Senior Vice President at Hewlett-Packard. That in itself doesn't necessarily mean he's the new head honcho for webOS and Palm devices, but clicking on his "Company Website" link takes you to Palm.com, which should dispel any lingering doubts. So now that we know he'll be helping steer the HPalm ship, can we start sending Ari our mockups for the Pre 3 or what?
First Look: A totally Unsocial app
Sometimes it seems like the last thing we need is another social networking app, but how about being Unsocial? Unsocial (free) is a new iPhone app described as the unholy spawn of LinkedIn and Foursquare. In other words, it's oriented towards business networking, like LinkedIn, and location-specific networking, like Foursquare. The new app and service came out this morning, and according to the developers, it's focused more on the people you don't currently know, but should. The launch today is a beta, and it's currently only available to folks in the San Francisco Bay Area. The eventual idea is that when you're at conferences or just wandering around a city business center, you can have Unsocial search for people nearby who you might want to connect with -- people who meet certain search criteria based on smart tags and user profiles. For example, when I'm at Macworld Expo 2011 in San Francisco in a few months, I might only want to meet with Mac developers who meet a specific criteria. I'll set up Unsocial, which then alerts me when those people are nearby, and I can use built-in messaging to say "Hi" and specify a place to meet. Conferences can also supply Unsocial with agenda information, speaker profiles, and official twitter feeds, making the app much more useful to conference-goers who use the app. Unsocial is an interesting concept, and one that I look forward to trying out.
Apple hires NFC expert to manage mobile commerce, prepare to pay with your iPhone
Don't look now, but things may be getting real on the pay-with-your-cell-phone front, as Cupertino's hired a man with years of experience in enabling just that to finally get 'er done. According to his LinkedIn profile, Benjamin Vigier is Apple's new Product Manager of Mobile Commerce, immediately following his handiwork on PayPal Mobile, Sprint MyMoneyManager and the iPhone-based Starbucks Card. Before that, he spent two years heading SanDisk's mobile commerce and near-field communication efforts and over a year doing NFC for Bouygues Telecom, so it's not much of a stretch to imagine the futuristic concert tickets depicted in Apple's recent patent applications might become reality before long. Either that, or he'll wind up on a completely unrelated project, only to leave under mysterious circumstances later on.
Attractive, non-existent woman on internet easily makes inroads in military, intel, and hacker circles
Thomas Ryan of Provide Security's making it public knowledge that social networking sites aren't just annoying: they're also potentially major security threats. Ryan set up a fake Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter account for "Robin Sage," a person who doesn't exist and never has -- but we can assure you she's really, really hot. Robin billed herself as a graduate of MIT and a prestigious New Hampshire prep school, and quickly made hundreds of connections across all three sites, without ever offering any proof of her existence or the connections she espoused. Even more stunning, "Robin" was befriending military, government and intel people on Facebook and Linked In (where she dubbed herself a "hacker"), and hackers on Twitter. Ryan's findings state that the military and intel "friends" Robin made freely share information and documents with her, as well as inviting her to various conferences. Interestingly, it turns out the only group that was in anyway resistant to Robin were the MIT-associated people... but we knew they were all whip-smart already. Moral? Next time you accept the request of a beautiful, intelligent hacker who wants to come over and view your secret dossiers, you should probably think twice.
Respawn picks up four more Infinity Ward vets
Out of the four ex-Infinity Ward employees discovered today to be taking up positions at Respawn Entertainment, the new home of former IW heads Jason West and Vince Zampella, two held senior positions and all four are currently members of the "Infinity Ward Employee Group" suing Activision for millions of dollars. Preston Glenn ("designer"), Chad Grenier ("senior designer"), Sean Slayback ("game designer"), and Zied Rieke ("lead designer) have all confirmed on LinkedIn to have made the quick switch from their former bosses' studio to their new, EA-backed startup. According to G4's report, the tally of Infinity Ward employees that have joined West and Zampella's still nascent studio is up to 16 as of today. The studio has seen a flood of employee vacancies in the wake the co-founders' firings early last month, and a not-so-surprising recent rush of ex-IW developers jumping on to Respawn's staff. West and Zampella's new dev house has yet to announce any projects but, well, all those employees have gotta be up to something.
Killspace Entertainment pulling from ex-Pandemic, EALA; working on two unannounced games
Ever heard of Killspace Entertainment? Yeah, neither had we until Supererogatory spotted the unannounced development studio's website (replete with strange video). In a Digital Development Management brochure (warning: PDF link), the studio is advertised as having one "Original IP with major publisher" in development and one "Licensed IP -- TBA," though it's said to be working on games for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC, iPhone, and Facebook. A quick search on LinkedIn shows that the dev house has been picking up employees from the likes of Obsidian Entertainment, Pandemic Studios, Red 5, and EALA, and will be focusing on "3rd and 1st person character action" titles. It also appears that some employees have been with the studio for over a year, meaning it's not exactly a brand new venture. Odder still, it appears that one Douglas Markland of Killspace Entertainment is down as the contact on a WHOIS of both ApocalypseNowGame.com and WarIsNotAGame.net (though both sites are still devoid of content as of this writing). We've reached out to the studio for information on any of this and will update this post if we hear more.
Rumor: Infinity Ward loses two development leads
According to an unnamed source "close to the studio" who spoke with Kotaku, lead designer Todd Alderman and lead software engineer Francesco ("Frank") Gigliotti recently resigned from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 development house Infinity Ward. Alderman's LinkedIn profile (seen after the break) corroborates that April was apparently his last month of employment with the studio, though Gigliotti's LinkedIn account appears to be unavailable at this point in time (Kotaku has an alleged screengrab of Gigliotti's profile that appears to legitimize the claim). This report comes just weeks after studio co-heads Vince Zampella and Jason West vacated their positions at Infinity Ward, filed a lawsuit against Activision, and headed for the Creative Artists Agency in Hollywood. We've asked Activision and Infinity Ward for an official response and will let you know if we hear anything back.
LinkedIn app releases version 3.0 for the iPhone
LinkedIn has always seemed like the "me too" of social networks, in my mind. They started out as a site more about careers and job networking, but with the big growth of Facebook the last two years, it seems like they're working as hard as they can just to keep up with what's going on over there. And that seems to be the case with their updated iPhone app as well, just released on the App Store [iTunes link, free]. There's a lot of new features, but as TechCrunch's MG Siegler points out, they're very similar to what's already in the great Facebook app: a revamped UI, the ability to comment on status updates, share pictures, and so on. The power of LinkedIn, if you ask me, is in its demographic -- Facebook is where I share with my family and friends, and LinkedIn seems to be where I have connected with coworkers and colleagues. And they hint at that a little bit in this release: there's a feature where you can share contacts across Bluetooth, which seems like a good idea for the upcoming convention season (sounds like the same kind of functionality as Bump). But most of this stuff is just more "me, too." Instead of sharing photos and status updates with my work acquaintances, how about some more functionality exclusive to just them? Of course, even more than demographics, the thing that matters most about social networks is how many contacts you actually have on them. If you're a big LinkedIn fan and have a huge network in there, you'll definitely want to get this update right away.
LinkedIn profiles reveal Windows Mobile 7 clues, folks with really great people skills
Much to Ballmer's chagrin, Windows Mobile 7 is still a rather nebulous thing, but it's getting a wee bit clearer thanks to some bits and bytes extracted from the LinkedIn profiles of current and former Microsofties and Motorolites, the latter group indicating the company that brought you the Droid is also rather committed to Microsoft's theoretical new hotness. Various experience line-items reveal that the OS will support Silverlight (natch), will have a new navigation app, and will include much better game support along with some sort of Zune integration -- finally. Now, any guesses on how many people will lose their jobs for being so open about what those positions entail?
Mortal Kombat team sheds Midway skin for 'WB Games Chicago'
Picked up by Warner Bros. in the auctioning off of Midway Games' assets, the development studio behind the Mortal Kombat franchise has seemingly been re-branded by its new corporate overlords. Superannuation spotted the info in the LinkedIn profile of Connie Gabelein, a human resources employee currently with Warner Bros. and formerly with Midway (and apparently never part of the management that was recently let go from the failed publisher). Ms. Gabelein lists her position as a "recruiter/HR generalist for the WB Game family of studios, which includes Monolith Productions, Surreal Software, Snowblind Studios and WB Games Chicago."Furthermore, former Midway CTO/now "head of WB Games Chicago" Michael Weilbacher's LinkedIn profile seems to corroborate our suspicions. We've contacted Warner Bros. and Midway for comment and will update this post with more information as we get it. Source 1 - SuperannuationSource 2 - LinkedIn Profile of Connie GabeleinSource 3 - LinkedIn Profile of Michael Weilbacher
The ONE person that created the XMB
Did you know there's only ONE person that created the UI for both the PS3 and PSP? Well, just look at Yasuhiro Yamanaka's LinkedIn profile. According to the profile, Yamanaka has "designed PSP and PS3 User Interface all by myself." Wow. Not even a little bit of help?He's not only in charge of making the UI for PlayStation owners. "I am also in charge of localization of the on-screen messages." So next time you get a PSN message, or you unlock a Trophy, remember that Yamanaka is the guy responsible for what they say.[Via superannuation]
Ready At Dawn's next game is an 'Xbox 360 / PS3 original title' [Update: Didier responds!]
John Enricco, a lighting artist at Ready At Dawn, has updated his LinkedIn profile to reflect the fact that the company is now working on an original title for the Xbox 360 and PS3. Yeah, multiplatform. Many were expecting Ready At Dawn's first current-generation title to be a PS3 exclusive, considering its relationship with Sony during PSP development. According to Ready At Dawn's website, this is just one of two projects currently being worked on.The fact that it's an "original title" also indicates that this is a new IP, marking the first time the studio has designed its own game from scratch. Judging from the quality of Ready At Dawn's PSP titles (Daxter, God of War: Chains of Olympus), we're expecting technically great things from this new project. As for whether the game's premise is any good, we have nothing to base our expectations on. One thing's for sure, though; we can't wait to sink our teeth into more details.[Update: We reached out to Didier Malenfant, co-founder of Ready At Dawn, who told us: "We are working on two projects at this time, codenamed R6 and R8, but haven't officially announced platforms, genres or publishers for that matter. The third version of our engine is up and running on all current-gen platforms and looks awesome while version 2.0 is still arguably the best tech around on PSP so we've got all our bases covered. Oh and by the way, we're hiring :) ][Thanks David, Via PlayStationLifestyle.net]
PA Semi team creating new ARM-based iPhone CPU
Apple Senior Manager Wei-han Lien let slip that teams acquired with the purchase of PA Semi are working on an ARM-based processor for the iPhone, and possibly other devices, according to The New York Times. While not a huge surprise, as Steve himself said that's what the former PA Semi staff was working on, the question was still "what kind of processor?" ARM variants can be customized to meet the needs of very specific devices, including supporting the multi-touch screen, or QuickTime playback. Electronista suggests that this supports earlier hints that Apple licensed the architecture from ARM under a secretive arrangement in late June. Lien updated a section of his LinkedIn profile to describe what he was working on. (The NYT has a screenshot.) Oops. The profile, as you might expect, has been changed.
iPhone-optimized versions of LinkedIn, TalkShoe now up
We don't post about every website that comes up with an iPhone/iPod touch-optimized version -- if we did, we wouldn't have time for eating or sleeping -- but every now and then a couple of sites newly built for Mobile Safari rise above the pack. Today's launches for everyone's favorite "internet in your pants" browser include pro-social business networking site LinkedIn and collaborative calling tool TalkShoe.LinkedIn's new iPhone beta version (at m.linkedin.com) allows you to view a list of your recent network updates, see your own profile (lest you forget your vital details) and search through your contact list. No editing options and no click-to-call or click-to-send buttons in this early version, but having the streamlined view is quite nice.Meanwhile, over at TalkShoe (host site for the weekly TUAW live podcast) the team has released an iPhone version of the Talkshoe site at iphone.talkshoe.com. It does a nice job integrating the telephony component of the service with call selection and management. Using the new iPhone UI, you can quickly search for ongoing or upcoming calls, then single-click to call in and chat about your topic of choice. Naturally we have some suggestions. There'll be a TalkShoe call tonight at 8 pm ET featuring our friends Victor Cajiao of the Typical Mac User podcast and Adam Christianson of the Maccast to discuss the new iPhone-optimized site. Should be fun.via Macworld & iPhone Matters
GDC08: Why are goal structures important to MMOs and VWs?
The following is a quite excellent session from the Worlds in Motion GDC track given by Erik Bethke, CEO of GoPets. The takeaway message is about what virtual worlds can learn from MMOs in terms of providing intelligent goal structures. Erik: How do we apply MMO goal structures to virtual worlds (and to almost everything)? Virtual worlders tend to hate games like WoW because they're not "erudite" enough but look at this screenshot (shows slide of a UI from a raid) and look at how complicated the user interface is. With 10 million people playing, is it hardcore or is it casual? I get really frustrated with arguments about UI: the raid screenshot proves that even this level of complexity can break through to a larger audience. Shows slide of quest-giver goblin in WoW: "virtual worlds are missing the little guys with exclamation points above their heads." Looking at other examples of goal structures: look at how successful Puzzle Quest got by combining Bejeweled with RPG elements. Look at Chore Wars -- suddenly I get excited about walking the dog (laughter). Even something like the LinkedIn registration process -- I logged in one day and saw that my "progress bar" was only at 40% and how can I live with that?! I had to level up in LinkedIn. I found out I needed to get testimonials from my contacts to get higher -- it was a group quest! I got pissed that I couldn't solo LinkedIn (lots of laughter).
Now you can wear your social networks
In a world of Web 2.0, it can be a little intimidating trying to find others on the social network that you love. Doubly so if you're looking for a real life friend that shares your interests. Why wear your heart on your sleeve when you can wear your web presence on your shirt?Aram Bartholl compiled a list of the best known social networks, including their icons and coloring, and put them on a shirt with checkboxes. There are the obvious ones, such as Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn, but there's also a box for Second Life! In my vision of a perfect world, I hope to run across at least a few people wearing these shirts with the SL box checked while I'm out and about. Get yours today and help me live my dream![Via Gizmodo]
