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Choose My Adventure: You can never have enough orc warlocks
Choose the adventures of the WoW.com staff as we level our characters in <It came from the Blog> on US Zangarmarsh-H. So. What's with you people and orc warlocks? You voted that both Michael Sacco and Gregg Reece roll orc warlocks for their adventurers. Last week we had no WoW.com staff playing warlocks or orcs in our guild, and now we have two. When the polls go up on Friday for Christian Belt's character, you may want to be more creative. That's right -- Archmage Pants will be joining Choose My Adventure, because you demanded it. In other news, we'll be questing in Stonetalon Peak this week, when not crawling dungeons. And we have more polls today because Foxlight turned 10 on Friday and wants you to choose his talent tree and professions. But first, this week's schedule: Elizabeth Harper as Faience, the troll shaman, and Robin Torres as Robinemia, the undead mage: Monday and Wednesday, 11 p.m. to midnight EDT Michael Gray as Grayfields, the tauren hunter, will be making appearances as he can this week. Amy Schley as Patent, the troll rogue will also be making appearances as she can. Matthew Rossi as Andrenorton, his new troll mage: some time Saturday. Adam Holisky as Adammentat, the tauren druid, will be making appearances as he can. Anne Stickney as Annephora, the troll warrior, will be on Tuesday at 1 a.m. EDT (which is Monday at 11 p.m. Zangarmarsh time). Fox Van Allen as Foxlight, the blood elf paladin: Friday, 8 p.m. EDT. Michael Sacco as Sahko, the orc warlock: Wednesday, 7 p.m. EDT. Gregg Reece, the orc warlock, will be making appearances as he can. Turn the page to vote on the shirtless paladin's polls.
Choose My Adventure: Week 5 schedule
Choose the adventures of the WoW.com staff as we level our characters in <It came from the Blog> on US Zangarmarsh-H. I have a confession to make. I did some extra leveling on Robinemia this weekend, leaving my fellow adventurers behind. It's not my fault! (It's totally my fault.) I couldn't resist the call of the sparkle pony. Also, a mage really isn't a mage without ports, right? /rationalize Anyway, the poll results are in: Fox Van Allen will be playing a blood elf paladin, with promises of RP. Grayfields, Michael Gray's tauren hunter, will use a spider pet for PvP. Anne Stickney's troll warrior will level as protection and take up blacksmithing and mining as professions. Matthew Rossi will level as a frost mage, but I still think he should reroll something he has fun with. And our schedule for this week is: Elizabeth Harper as Faience, the troll shaman, and Robin Torres as Robinemia, the undead mage: Monday and Wednesday, 11 p.m. to midnight EDT Michael Gray as Grayfields, the tauren hunter, will be making appearances as he can this week. Amy Schley as Patent, the troll rogue will also be making appearances as she can. Matthew Rossi as Andrenorton, his new troll mage: some time Saturday. Adam Holisky as Adammentat, the tauren druid, will be making appearances as he can. Anne Stickney as Annephora, the troll warrior, will be on Tuesday at 1 a.m. EDT (which is Monday at 11 p.m. Zangarmarsh time). Fox Van Allen, blood elf paladin: TBA %Gallery-89597% If you want to join in on the fun of Choose My Adventure, please join us on US Zangarmarsh-H in <It came from the Blog>. Ask Robiness, Robinemia or any member online for an invite. Guild ranks of Lurker or above have the ability to invite. You are all welcome as long as you play by our simple rules, that can be summed up with "Don't be a Funsucker!" Also, please see the guild FAQ for the most common questions.
Choose My Adventure: Schedule for week 4
Choose the adventures of the WoW.com staff as we level our characters in <It came from the Blog> on US Zangarmarsh-H. Well there was no suspense about the vote for the last polls. Silverpine Forest and the Dungeon Finder were both ahead early and stayed that way the entire weekend. Robinemia has promised to stop whining, but keep in mind that she is Forsaken and therefore bad at both keeping promises and not being emo. Here is this week's schedule: Elizabeth Harper as Faience, the troll shaman, and Robin Torres as Robinemia, the undead mage: Monday and Thursday, 11 p.m. to midnight EDT Michael Gray as Grayfields, the tauren hunter, will be making appearances as he can this week. Amy Schley as Patent, the troll rogue: Thursday, 10-11 p.m. EDT Matthew Rossi as Andrenorton, his new troll mage: Saturday, 3-4 p.m. EDT Adam Holisky as Adammentat, the tauren druid, will be making appearances as he can. Robinemia is already at The Sepulcher in her latest outfit. See you tonight! %Gallery-89597% If you want to join in on the fun of Choose My Adventure, please join us on US Zangarmarsh-H in <It came from the Blog>. Ask Robiness, Robinemia or any member online for an invite. Guild ranks of Lurker or above have the ability to invite. You are all welcome as long as you play by our simple rules, that can be summed up with "Don't be a Funsucker!" Also, please see the guild FAQ for the most common questions.
Choose My Adventure: Schedule for week 3
Choose the adventures of the WoW.com staff as we level our characters in <It came from the Blog> on US Zangarmarsh-H. The results are in and it was a nailbiter for Patent's professions. Here is how it ended up: Warsong Gulch Yes Patent's professions Engineering/Mining (by one point over Leatherworking/Skinning) Matthew Rossi's race and class troll mage WoW.com prom queen Christian Belt This week's schedule is: Elizabeth Harper as Faience, the troll shaman, and Robin Torres as Robinemia, the undead mage: Monday and Thursday, 11pm to midnight EDT Michael Gray as Grayfields, the tauren hunter: Tuesday, 7:30pm to 9pm EDT and Thursday, 8:30pm to 10pm EDT Amy Schley as Patent, the troll rogue: Thursday, 10pm to 11pm EDT Matthew Rossi as Andrenorton, his new troll mage: Saturday, 2pm to 4pm EDT Adam Holisky as Adammentat, the tauren druid, will be making appearances as he can. Hopefully we'll be able to get some premades together for our WSG excursions. See you tonight! If you want to join in on the fun of Choose My Adventure, please join us on US Zangarmarsh-H in <It came from the Blog>. Ask Robiness, Robinemia or any member online for an invite. Guild ranks of Lurker or above have the ability to invite. You are all welcome as long as you play by our simple rules, that can be summed up with "Don't be a Funsucker!" Also, please see the guild FAQ for the most common questions.
Choose My Adventure: Week 2 schedule
Choose the adventures of the WoW.com staff as we level our characters in <It came from the Blog> on US Zangarmarsh-H. The polls are closed and here are the results: Pre-level 10 questing: Durotar Level 10 to 15 questing: Barrens Faience's talent tree: Enhancement Robinemia's talent tree: Frost Grayfields's first hunter pet: a turtle from Eversong So, now that we have our marching orders, here is this week's schedule: Elizabeth Harper as Faience, the troll shaman, and Robin Torres as Robinemia, the undead mage: Monday and Thursday, 11pm to midnight EDT Michael Gray as Grayfields, the tauren hunter: Tuesday, 7:30pm to 9pm EDT and Thursday, 8:30pm to 10pm EDT Amy Schley will be joining us for the first time this week on Patent, the troll rogue: Tuesday, 9pm to 10pm EDT Adam Holisky as Adammentat, the tauren druid will be making appearances as he can. All are invited to join us on US Zangarmarsh-H. If you are not yet in <It came from the Blog>, please send a tell to Robiness, Robinemia or any member online. Anyone in guild who is ranked Lurker or above can invite. Our FAQ should answer any questions that you have. Otherwise, I will do my best to answer any questions you have in the comments. We hope you'll join us!
Choose My Adventure: Who, when and where
You, the readers, have spoken and now our fates are sealed. Elizabeth Harper will be playing a troll shaman and I will be playing an undead mage. Because only blood elves can do their own first set of quests and because neither of us were chosen to be blood elves, we will all be starting in Mulgore, where the tauren begin their journeys. I have a question which I don't think anyone can really answer: why did such a huge percentage of you choose shaman for our Editor in Chief? I am just fascinated by how many of you chose that class without seeing the results first. Really, I can't wrap my brain around it. Also, I would like to thank you voters for keeping it exciting for me all weekend. Mage and rogue were neck and neck at all times, with mage only winning by a few votes by the time the polls closed. And then a technical error allowed votes to be tallied after the polls closed and rogue got more votes overnight. I'm too emotionally invested in Robinemia, the level 1 undead mage to change her to Robinasty the level 1 undead rogue due to some technical shenanigans. Besides, I think we're going to need a taxi later. Our schedule and how to join us is after the break.
NPD: Xbox 360 wins US sales war in a downbeat February
The cosmos must clearly have approved of Microsoft's actions over this past month, as today we're hearing the Xbox 360 broke out of its competitive sales funk to claim the title of "month's best-selling console" ... for the first time in two years. Redmond's own Aaron Greenberg describes it as the best February in the console's history, with 422,000 units sold outshining the consistently popular Wii (397,900) and the resurgent PS3 (360,100 consoles shifted, which was a 30 percent improvement year-on-year). In spite of the happy campers in Redmond and Tokyo, the overall numbers for the games industry were down 15 percent on 2009's revenues, indicating our collective gaming appetite is starting to dry up. Good thing we've got all those motion-sensing accessories coming up to reignite our fire.
Nokia grows profits and smartphone share in Q4
Pretty good news for Nokia today as it announces its Q4 results. Net income jumped 65% to €948 million (on €12 billion in sales) or 26 eurocents per share, from €576 million euros, or 15 eurocents a share, earned in Q4 2008. That handily beat the consensus forecast of 19 eurocents per share. Importantly, Nokia grew its smartphone (or "converged devices" in Nokia parlance) marketshare to a healthy 40%, up from 35% just last quarter. Looking forward, Nokia cautioned that it expects its adjusted operating margin in Devices & Services in Q1 2010 will be at the low end of its 12% to 14% target. At the time of this posting, Nokia stock has jumped about 9% in recognition of these good times.
Verizon lost $653 million last quarter in spite of increasing revenues
91.2 million total customers, 2.2 million of whom joined in Q4, $27.1 billion operating revenue in the quarter, and you still make a loss? Well, in fact Verizon made a tidy profit, which may be considered comparable to Google and Intel's latest results, but its culling of jobs at the end of last year cost it a whopping $3 billion (presumably in redundancy settlements). Still, the company looks buoyant with that quarterly revenue number growing by 9.9 percent year-on-year, and CEO Ivan Seidenberg noting that significant costs were incurred in setting up for a 4G network deployment in 2010. Our favorite nugget of info? The "cash expense per customer" per month number: $27.62, which presumably includes Droid subsidies and the like. How does that compare to what you're giving VZW each month? [Thanks, Josta]
Intel profits recover to $2.3 billion in Q4 2009, company describes it as 875 percent jump
Yo Intel, when your 2008 fourth quarter was one of the worst you ever recorded, it's slightly, just slightly, facetious to go trumpeting an 875 percent improvement in your 2009 fortunes. The self-appointed chipmaking rock star has clocked up $10.6 billion in revenues for the last quarter, which filters down to $2.3 billion in pure, unadulterated, mother-loving profit. That's good and indeed technically nearly nine times what the company achieved in the same period the previous year -- we'd just appreciate this to be represented as the recovery it is, rather than some major leap forward in the face of a global financial meltdown. Either way, the Santa Clara checkbook is now well and truly balanced, even if it would've looked fatter still but for the small matter of a $1.25 billion settlement reflected in last quarter's results.
Estimates emerge of Apple's Q1 iPhone, Mac sales
Apple typically reports their 1st quarter financial results in late January, so we'll have to wait a few more weeks for the official word. However, the analysts have begun to share their estimates and the numbers are very impressive. Brian Marshall at Broadpoint.AmTech has estimated that Apple sold 3.3 million Macs during the last quarter, according to MacNN. Here's a little perspective: Apple's all-time sales record for Macs, set during the previous quarter, is 3.05 million. That record was a 17 percent jump from the 2.6 million it sold in the same quarter a year ago. Marshall also suggests that laptop sales could be up as much as 19 percent year-over-year at 865,000 units. Meanwhile, Philip Elmer-DeWitt has begun gathering estimates of iPhone sales and posting them at Brainstorm Tech. They range from 11.30 units sold (Brian Marshall at Broadpoint AmTech) to 8.17 units (Mark Moskowitz, J.P. Morgan). The interesting thing is that the low estimate, 8.17 million iPhones sold, would represent a 10.8% increase from the last September's record of 7.37 million if true. Despite would could have been a rocky year for Apple -- Steve Jobs was out for serious health reasons and a lousy US economy -- they did very well. Are you optimistic for 2010 or waiting for the other shoe to drop?
BlackBerry shipments break record in Q3, RIM profits jump 59 percent
RIM being a thriving and profitable company is hardly a new story -- as confirmed by third quarter earnings of $628 million off the back of a record-breaking 10 million units sold -- but the way it's making its money seems to be changing. More than 80 percent of new BlackBerry subscribers in the quarter were private customers, marking a distinct shift -- maybe not away from the corporate arena, but definitely toward embracing the consumer market. In an effort to further consolidate its global empire, RIM has also announced a partnership with China Telecom to go along with its earlier China Mobile deal. Oh, and there's the small matter of the 75 millionth BlackBerry being sold, but we're sure the cool cats up in BB HQ aren't counting handsets, they're probably too busy rolling around in piles of money.
Palm loses $85.4 million in latest reported quarter -- hey, it's an improvement
We don't know just how quickly Palm (or Elevation Partners, for that matter) thought it'd become profitable following the release of webOS, but it's not there quite yet -- the company is in the process of outing its earnings for the second quarter of fiscal year 2010 right now, and in a word, they're still in the red. The good news is that it's a marked improvement from last quarter -- they've gone from a $164.5M GAAP net loss to an $85.4M one this time around. On a non-GAAP gross basis, they actually made $5.5M, which is up from $2.8M a quarter earlier. They've got $590 million in cash and other "short-term investments" on the book right now, which seems like it should be enough to keep the company going without a profit or additional cash infusion for at least a few additional quarters, but then again, burn rate is going to vary with just how much hardware and software R&D they're doing and the kinds of carrier deals they're scoring. We bet they're looking forward to this Verizon business going down, eh? Update: Palm's specifically saying that they're looking to grow carrier and geographic coverage right now -- a good plan, if we say so ourselves. Update 2: They've sold 784,000 phones in the quarter, which compares to 823,000 in the last -- a 5 percent drop. That's up 41 percent from the same quarter a year ago... but yeah, of course it's going to be way up from the pre-webOS days. Update 3: Over 800 apps in the catalog so far, once they graduate from the Early Access Program exclusivity, Palm foresees a "flood" of apps. No plans right now to change SDK strategy to a more native development environment.
TiVo's 3Q results reveal Virgin Media UI deal, new remotes on the way -- but no new boxes
Besides linking up with Google, TiVo has some other big news coming out of its third quarter results, first that it lost less money than expected, a mere $6.7 million instead of the $8-10 predicted. Bigger than that for UK denizens, TiVo has cut a long-term deal with Virgin Media to put its software and UI on the cable company's next gen set-top boxes, including access to online features, due in 2010. On this side of the Atlantic, besides resuming marketing in New England, the company's work with Comcast will continue, including a tru2way mention, while Cox and RCN also deploy boxes throughout next year. The future for TiVo? Expect Best Buy's digital video delivery store to find its way on the box soon, while the company also expands beyond just DVRs expecting to create "some very interesting product opportunities for our next generation TiVo products and services." All that online content means the old peanut isn't long for this world, with development of a new "keyboard remote control" under way, we just can't wait to see if it's beaming commands to any new DVRs at CES.
Microsoft first-quarter income down 18 percent, still beats expectations
Microsoft just turned in its first quarter financial report card, and while the good vibes around Windows 7 launch haven't yet begun to fade, the numbers here aren't exactly cheery: revenue is down 14 percent from last year at $12.92b, operating income is down 25 percent at $4.48b, net income is down 18 percent at $3.57b, and earnings per share are down 17 percent at $0.40. Not wonderful, but it's better than analysts were expecting, and the stock is actually way up on the news. Adding in the deferred revenue from early sales of Windows 7 makes things look a little better still, with only a four percent decline in revenue and an eight percent increase in earnings per share, and the Entertainment and Devices Division -- home of the Xbox 360 and Zune HD -- is also a bright spot, increasing income from $159m to $312m on essentially unchanged revenue. Of course, the big test will actually be next quarter, after Windows 7 has really had a chance to make an impact -- we'll see if all these warm fuzzies translate into cold hard cash.
Gartner and IDC agree: 3rd quarter Mac sales are up
Amidst the ongoing macroeconomic malaise (is it over yet? Can we come out from under the covers?), the PC industry's sales have been suffering as big corporations and cash-strapped consumers postpone those discretionary purchases of shiny new gear. The expectation, based on 2008's results, was that this quarter would be tough sledding. Results from analysts Gartner and IDC, however, both show an uptick in unit sales across the PC market year-over-year (2.3% higher globally per IDC, 0.5% higher per Gartner). Any pickup in sales comes as a surprise to Gartner, which had predicted a 5.6% decline in unit shipments. For Apple specifically, the news is also good: both firms predict a boost in unit sales and share percentage for Apple's CPU shipments, with US numbers up from 8.6% to 8.8% share (Gartner) or a blazing 9.4% share (IDC). For the unvarnished results, you can tune in this coming Monday, 10/19 at 2pm PT to hear Apple's quarterly earnings call. [via BrainstormTech]
Sprint loses $384m, 257k subscribers in first quarter of Pre availability
The Pre might have slowed the drain at Sprint but it hasn't managed to turn things around completely -- America's number three carrier posted a second-quarter loss of $384m as it lost another 257,000 subscribers. That just continues Sprint's trend of bleeding customers to the competition, and we doubt this balance sheet will turn around anytime soon -- not only will next quarter reflect the $483m purchase of Virgin Mobile USA, it's pretty clear that Verizon will get the Pre and AT&T will carry another webOS handset, leaving Mr. Hesse and crew without their shiny halo device to lure new subs to the fold. We'll see what Sprint does to turn this all around -- did someone say they need a Hero?
Oh, by the way: July 26, 2009
Here's some of the other stuff that happened in the wide world of mobile for the weekend of Saturday, July 25th, 2009: A small Chinese firm by the name of Beyond Radio Technology is working on an Android phone that they claim to have had in the labs for 18 months now. Problem is, they've posted screen shots, and they're clearly QVGA -- an instant fail. [Via Cloned In China] Sony Ericsson's PlayNow Arena app store is now accepting apps from developers. Paid apps must cost at least €3 (about $4.25), though freebies will also be allowed; free apps with ad support, however, will require some other form of agreement with Sony Ericsson. There are no submission fees or annual charges for devs, which is nice -- and interestingly, apps that are rejected will have a plan B in the form of official partner GetJar. Java and Symbian are being supported initially, with other platforms (ahem, Android) coming in the future. [Via mocoNews] All of the intel in the field is now pointing toward an August 5 launch for the BlackBerry 8520 "Gemini" on T-Mobile, which confirms earlier suggestions. Speaking of T-Mobile, the Samsung t659 -- codenamed "Scarlet" -- has been spotted in the wild. Unless you have a thing for 2 megapixel cameras, we wouldn't get too excited, but the presence of AWS 3G is always welcome. The global number two manufacturer, Samsung, released its Q2 results -- and they're looking pretty solid. The company managed to push some 52.3 million handsets in the three-month period and said that it'll make good on previous guidance (and then some) of hitting 200 million shipments for the year. [Via mocoNews] A poster over at the ever-trusty xda-developers has somehow managed to stumble upon themes for AT&T's upcoming Warhawk -- the carrier's version of the HTC Touch Diamond2 -- and they're looking mighty Windows Mobile 6.5-ish. [Via wmpoweruser.com and Fuze Mobility]
iPhone nabs 59% of smartphone 'net traffic, 43% of mobile web traffic
Fortune has the results of an AdMob survey up, and they're pretty surprising -- Apple has apparently taken over 59% of smartphone traffic on the Internet, and in the mobile category in general, they've got a giant 43% of 'net traffic surveyed. But there's another side here: the report doesn't just point out that Apple accounts for the lion's share of mobile 'net traffic, but it states that smartphone traffic, and specifically the iPhone in general, hugely overshadows the actual sales numbers. The iPhone has 8% global market share, but accounts for 65% of HTML traffic. And smartphones in general overshadow their sales to a lesser degree: smartphones represent about 12% of mobile device sales, but AdMob calculates them at around 35% of their traffic last month.What does this mean? AdMob suggests it's a phase -- right now, because we're so early in the development stages of this platform, mobile web makes up the main chunk of traffic. But in the future, we may go through applications to get data, or use push notifications, and/or come up with other, more streamlined ways to get information out to mobile devices. But for now, iPhone and iPod touch users are still browsing the web, and as a result, they are accounting for way more traffic than their sales hint at.
DisplaySearch finds some positive news in big screen LCD shipments
As with most industry sectors, there hasn't been an awful lot of incredibly great news flowing from LCD makers. Thankfully, that's changing this month, as a new DisplaySearch release shows the first increase in unit shipments and revenues since September of last year. By the numbers, we're looking at month-over-month growth of 23 percent, with large-area TLT LCD revenues reaching $2.96 billion. Of course, laptop PC and monitor panels still outsold panels for TVs, but not by a huge margin. As for the company breakdown in terms of overall LCD revenue, Samsung was predictably atop the pile with a 30.2 percent market share, while LG Display followed with 26.8 percent. For the rest of the figures, just give that read link a tap.
