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WSJ: Tablet confirmed, Apple to reinvent old media
All of their information is centered on the alleged mystery device that will allegedly be announced at a now official event next week. Here are some of the juicier tidbits they passed on from those mysterious people "familiar with" what's happening on Inifinite Loop: Always partial to the education market, one thing this device might be used for is e-textbooks, presumably including the sort of multimedia content that goes beyond the printed page. Textbook publishers aren't the only publishers Apple has been talking to. They're chatting up Conde Nast, Harper Collins, The New York Times, and even CBS, Walt Disney Co, and Electronic Arts (for games). A "Best of TV" service is possible, with a subscription to a set of on demand programs chosen by the consumer. Those same people are also reporting there is a revamp of iTunes coming, which would separate the purchase of iTunes content from the iTunes application. The device will have a 10 or 11 inch screen, a virtual keyboard, and "sharing" is mentioned -- two ideas being thrown around are the ability to leave sticky notes on the device or even have the camera recognize faces of those using it. Price is expected to be around $1000, and they'll be selling it to people who already have iPhones and laptops as well. Of course the piece itself doesn't have a full confirmation from Jobs, so we'll have to wait until next Wednesday for that: Apple's invitation to the media event on January 27th is titled "Come see our latest creation", and is generally considered to be the public debut of a tablet-style device. But when the Wall Street Journal says there's a tablet coming, there's very likely a tablet coming, and if everything they're saying about this device is true (which would make sense -- we've heard most of it before in rumor form), look out world.
Smedley talks "MMO Reinvention" with MSNBC
John Smedley and the rest of Sony Online Entertainment want you to focus on reinventing the MMO. With games on their list like The Agency and Free Realms, what else would they want you to think?While sitting down with MSNBC's Kristin Kalning, Smedley talked about the old days of MMOs, when EverQuest was the pinnacle of MMO game design, and how that has changed in recent years with the advent of World of Warcraft. But what is to be taken away from this interview is how SOE wishes to take the genre into a new direction, targeting shooter fans with The Agency and the 12-year-old crowd with Free Realms.Appealing to both genders and creating new objectives that aren't just "kill stuff" are top priorities in how Smedley wishes to see MMOs change. He points out that it's clear that the market can expand, especially when RuneScape has more players than World of Warcraft, and how different methods can be used to capture that market.It's clear that SOE is very interested in taking back their MMO crown, and even more clear that they're going into untouched waters to do it. However, the MSNBC article proves very insightful, and we all know that MMOs can use a little bit of a change up every now and then.
