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Nokia Q&A reveals more MeeGo details and tablet plans -- says Android 'risk of commodification was very high'
The Steve show just ended with both Elop and Ballmer hosting a very informative media Q&A following the reveal of Nokia's plan to use Windows Phone 7 as its "primary smartphone platform." Here are the highlights: No specific announcement for when we'll see the first Nokia Windows Phone. Ballmer mentioned that the engineering teams have spent a lot of time together already. Elop also confirmed that Nokia is a Finnish company and always will be -- they will not be moving to Silicon Valley or anywhere else. Ballmer said that the partnership is "not exclusive" but some things that Microsoft is doing with Nokia are "unique" allowing Nokia to differentiate itself in the market. Elop added that it's important for the Windows Phone 7 ecosystem to thrive, which means that multiple vendors must succeed. Elop didn't believe that Nokia could create a new ecosystem around MeeGo fast enough. Nokia will "substantially reduce" R&D expenditures while increasing R&D productivity moving forward. Nokia did talk with Google about adopting Android but decided that it "would have difficulty differentiating within that ecosystem" and the "commoditization risk was very high -- prices, profits, everything being pushed down, value being moved out to Google which was concerning to us." Microsoft presented the best option for Nokia to resume the fight in the high end smartphone segment. Elop clarified that MeeGo will ship this year but "not as part of another broad smarpthone platform strategy, but as an opportunity to learn." Something that sounds very similar to position Nokia took with its so-called "experimental" Maemo-based N900 last year. After the first (and apparently, only) MeeGo device ships this year, the MeeGo team will then "change their focus into an exploration of future platforms, future devices, future user experiences." Trying to determine the "next disruption" in smartphones. Responding to "hope for a broad MeeGo-based ecosystem," Elop said that Nokia simply wasn't moving fast enough to effectively win and compete against Apple and Google. Windows Phone makes it a "three-horse race," something that Elop says is pleasing to the carriers he's been speaking with. Nokia has different options for its tablet strategy including using something from Microsoft or something that Nokia has developed internally.
Shocker! Nintendo 3DS will have shorter battery life than DS
Who'd have thought that adding extra grunt under the hood, a glasses-free 3D display up top, a wireless "tag mode," and automatic wireless updates to the 3DS would serve to degrade battery life? Certainly not our naive souls. The same Q&A that informed us about Nintendo's Spot Pass plans for the 3DS has been found to also contain some commentary on battery endurance from Satoru Iwata himself. The company chief says "it is inevitable that Nintendo 3DS will be a device which requires more frequent recharging than Nintendo DS" and notes that as a major reason why a charging cradle will be bundled into the new console's retail package. With tongue firmly wedged in cheek, Iwata suggests that perhaps Nintendo ought to advise users to deposit the 3DS into its cradle as soon as they get home, but the overall point is as clear as it is obvious: your more powerful handheld will require more power.
Answering your #1 question, as fast as we can
Earlier today, we asked you (via Twitter and @ask_tuaw) for your top inquiries about the product everyone's talking about. While we can't give you first-person photos and video -- yet -- we can give you an answer, straight from the lab and the lap, to the most popular question: Can you read iBooks in direct sunlight? The answer, surprisingly enough: Yes, you can. Even in bright sun, the high-contrast black type on a white page background was clearly legible, says our experimenter. In fact, the display looks quite a bit like the Kindle's e-ink screen under those lighting conditions. What does not look good in bright sun: video playback. The dark screen doesn't pump out quite enough candlepower to make TV shows or movies easily visible. However, that's a failing of most portable video devices, so you can't ding the iPad for it. Much. As many have inquired, the screen does hold fingerprints and you can see them most annoyingly in the sun -- but the oleophobic coating means a quick sleeve swipe fixes that. Our question-answering squad wasn't in a situation to deal with iTunes and networking details, unfortunately, but we'll try to get more on that for you all soon.
DDO Q&A: Mod 7, the Monk and more
Kate Paiz, senior producer of Dungeons and Dragons Online, sat down with players today at Connect08 to demonstrate the new Monk class -- upcoming in Module 7 -- and answer a number of questions about future plans for the game.Photography wasn't permitted so we just managed to grab this quick snap of the character creation screen (above), showing a new armor design to accompany the new class. There's another month of development time left before the module goes into alpha, so expect more polish further down the line.During the demo of the Monk we saw the basic character animations -- they're very much in a martial-arts style (apparently inspired by Shaolin monks) with kicks, punches and even a backflip. The movement is graceful and smooth, and unarmed combat feels natural.
J Allard talks failure, hope, convergence of Zune and Xbox services
J Allard, the mysterious, bedreadlocked, Lex Luthor-ish cat behind the Xbox, Zune and Zune 2 (amongst others) sat down for a Q and A with the New York Times and revealed some deep feelings -- as well as future plans. Mainly, Mr. Allard talks about the hardships of dealing with record labels, the failure of the first Zune to penetrate the market, his hopes for the current generation of Redmond-anointed media players to kill, kill, kill, and the fact that a "Zune Phone" isn't anywhere close right now (though doesn't seem to be off the table). On the flip side, he hints at a future of merged Microsoft services, where you'll be able to order up music, games, and videos on demand -- all in one, centralized package. Says J, "Today we have Xbox live for $50 a year. We have Zune Pass at $15 a month. We don't have a rationalized premium version yet. Fast forward a little bit, and you can image a menu like DirecTV. There is basic, there is enhanced, there is movie pack and NFL Sunday ticket." Of course, right now it's just a crazy tripped-out dream floating around the mind of J Allard... let's hope it floats onto our screens soon.Read - J Allard: Microsoft's Plan to Be King of All MediaRead - J Allard: The Failures of the Zune and the Record LabelsRead - J Allard: Dancing Around the Cellphone Question
Ask TUAW: Call for Questions
Attention TUAW readers! This week we'll be starting a a Questions and Answers help column as a weekly feature. But of course to do this well we need some good questions. We'll take questions from anyone, but we hope to be especially useful for all the switchers and other new Mac users out there. Please submit your question via the comments page (put Ask TUAW in the subject), or just by leaving a comment to this post. Each week we'll choose several questions of general interest to answer in the column. Although we will try to be as helpful as possible, we may not be able to answer all questions. And naturally we invite our other readers to pitch in with suggestions as well. So get to asking!
