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Nintendo to retire Wii network services in Japan, including the Weather Channel
No one disputes that the Wii is old, but old enough to retire? It seems so, at least in the case of a number of its internet services, which Nintendo has scheduled for closure on June 28th. An End of Life notice to Japanese customers reveals that a total of six channels will be put out to pasture, including News and Weather, as will the the ability for Wii Friends to exchange data over Wii Connect24. It's not clear whether these terminations will apply globally, and in any case Nintendo explicitly says that other key services will continue for the time being, such as the Wii Shop Channel. Nevertheless, the latest iteration of the Wii -- the Wii Mini -- wasn't able to connect to any internet services from the outset, so it certainly seems like the game company wants to shift its focus to the future -- and maybe that isn't such a bad idea. The source link has further details along with the obligatory "sorry to everyone" message.
ARM CEO Warren East will retire in July, president Simon Segars to take over
Warren East has overseen a sharp rise in the fortunes of ARM Holdings plc over the last few years, but tonight the company announced he will step down effective July 1st. Stepping into the lead role is current president Simon Segars, who has been with the company in a number of positions since 1991. East has been successful in expanding ARM's business from one product line when he took over in 2001 to a technology offering used by over 300 chip customers to make 9 billion chips last year, according to chairman John Buchanan. He's also had a reputation for interesting quotes and predictions, with some (Windows on ARM) working out better than others (netbooks taking over the market.) We interviewed Segars both at CES and MWC earlier this year, you can check out the videos embedded after the break.
Sony Chairman Howard Stringer to retire in June
After handing over the CEO reins of Sony to Kaz Hirai last year, current chairman Sir Howard Stringer is set to retire from his post this June at the firm's shareholder meeting, reports the Financial Times. According to the outlet, Stringer mentioned at a Japan Society lecture that the transition will let him pursue "new opportunities I've been presented with lately." Stringer didn't divulge what those opportunities are, but we're sure he'll have more time on his hands to play with a certain game console.
Boxee desktop app being removed from servers tonight, get it while you can
We knew that the Boxee desktop app's days were numbered, we just didn't realize how numbered. It was only the day after Christmas that we learned version 1.5 would be the last to ship for Linux, Windows and OS X. Now, with January coming to a close, its life is officially being snuffed out. Tonight, as you flip the calendar to February, Boxee will be busy purging its servers of the installable media center software. What that means, in case you hadn't figured it out, is that this is your last chance to download the official app for your desktop OS of choice as the company shifts focus to the Boxee Box and other streaming appliances. Of course, we're sure someone will pick up the torch and update the program, but as far as Boxee is concerned it has no desktop son.
Boxee 1.5 nears release, will be final desktop version
We have some good news and bad news. The good news is: Boxee 1.5 will be entering public beta soon, with a proper release scheduled for January alongside Live TV. The update will finally bring the desktop software up-to-date and deliver the more streamlined UI found on the Boxee Box to your Windows, Mac or Linux computer. The bad news is: this will be the final version of the HTPCsoftware. Going forward Boxee plans to focus all of its efforts on streaming appliances, like its namesake Box and connected Blu-ray players and TVs. The software will also lack access to premium apps like Netflix, thanks to the tangled web of DRM woven by content providers. When CEO Avner Ronen said that the downloadable app would, "most likely lag behind the versions of Boxee for devices," we didn't realize just how far behind he meant. On the plus side, you will be getting that open source release.
Waaaghon Ho!: Warhammer Online merging servers following free transfers
Saddle up, rough riders: It's time to head to more fertile lands! Starting next week, select Warhammer Online players will be given the option to transfer between servers for free. The decision is Mythic's attempt to merge underpopulated servers, and the company hopes that this move will drive up the action in RvR for previously quiet locations. Players on the Gorfang (North America) and Karak Azgal (Europe) will be able to move house to Badlands and Karak Norn, respectively, starting December 14th. Once this happens, Gorfang and Karak Azgal will be marked as "Legacy" servers, keeping new players from rolling on them, and then after three weeks, the two servers will be shut down completely. Any characters left on those servers will not be playable until they transfer to their new homes. Mythic is also paving the way for guilds to move wholesale to new servers, with more information about this coming next week.
ARM's Mali-T658 GPU aims to beat the world in 2013; president Tudor Brown steps down
Here's an ARM duo to digest this fine morning -- ARM's president (and co-founder) Tudor Brown has announced that he'll be retiring in May after serving a bit over a score with the company. His final day will be May 3rd of next year, with Chairman Doug Dunn confessing that Brown had played "an important role in the creation and successful development of ARM over the past 21 years and has made an immense contribution in a wide range of positions." Oddly enough, a company spokesperson has stated that ARM has "no plans at this stage to replace Mr. Brown," though we suspect that could change as the date draws closer. In more product-related news, the company's forthcoming (and by "forthcoming," we mean "perhaps by the end of 2013") Mali-T658 GPU should provide a 10x improvement in performance over the existing Mali-400. According to a slide hosted up over at AnandTech, it'll offer double the shader cores per GPU, twice the arithmetic pipes per shader core and "extensive" API support. For those unaware, the Mali-400 MP4 is a real barnburner for the Android platform, and given that the T658 can scale to eight cores, we're guessing you may have just made your mind up about timing on your next smartphone purchase. Hit the links below to dig in deeper, but remember -- 2013 is about an eternity from now. Depressing, we know.
River of News' real money returns
Developer Dylan Ginsburg has noticed that a lot of iPhone companies (including most of the folks I spoke with at GDC last week) don't like to talk about exactly how much money they've made on the App Store. But he has no such compunctions, so he's written up a nice post on his blog about how much his River of News RSS app for the iPad has made so far. The short answer? About $20,600 since the app was released on August 19th. The app, which peaked in the top 30 (good, but not outstanding), has sold about 9,500 copies so far, and has made about $5500 of that total in the past month, which Ginsburg says seems like a pretty standard period. I can tell you from my own knowledge that Ginsburg could be making more -- it sounds like he hasn't even started exploring advertising or in-app purchases in his app, and I've heard from many developers that those can be very helpful in the right places. But more important, Ginsburg says the satisfaction he's getting from working on the App Store is better than any monetary gain -- he just recently stepped away from a corporate job, and plans to make a go at creating apps for a full-time living. It's cool to hear a straight story from one developer on the App Store about just how viable creating apps is. Of course, one thing Ginsburg doesn't talk about is how much work and training went into making his app -- that $20k in sales didn't just appear out of thin air. And not all developers see even his level of modest success, since there are so many apps on the store that don't even make it into the top lists. But Ginsburg is as good an example as any of the kinds of opportunities Apple has created with its App Store platform.
Miyamoto on retirement and the Wii's innovation
At age 57, you might think Shigeru Miyamoto would be taking it easy -- maybe plunking a few coins into his 401k, or taking to the garden to plant a few Fire Flowers. But not Shiggy, who tells gamesTM that retirement isn't an option quite yet. While Nintendo "has to retire me some time," he says, "I look around and see how aged cartoonists continue to work on their manga and how movie directors create new movies all the time, I understand that they would never retire. And by the same token, I guess I will still be making games somehow." Miyamoto also mentions Super Mario Galaxy 2, and says that the first numbered sequel in years was supposed to be version 1.5, but "we noticed that there were too many new experiences for it to be merely an incremental update." He gracefully refuses to comment on others' work, but affirms that Nintendo goal is "to provide fun and surprise" in video games, not merely to see "who can come up with the most violent depictions." Miyamoto says that the motion control mania going on with other consoles proves that Wii is "the de facto standard of the industry's control mechanisms," and new innovations, like the upcoming Vitality Sensor, are announced "only after being able to confirm internally that it is something that the general public will be able to appreciate." First we need to see just what the heck it does before we can start talking appreciation! And while almost every game developer out there has been influenced by Shigeru Miyamoto, who's impressed him? "Mr. Will Wright," he admits, "is a very unique person and someone very special." Maybe Miyamoto's taking notes on Wright's retirement, too: He's still having Stupid Fun after leaving the corporate life. [Via Industry Gamers]
Retiring from Flight Control
I just uninstalled it from my iPhone, and am officially retiring from Flight Control (iTunes link). It was a great four month career, I tell ya. I wanted to go out at the top of my game, and on my own terms. Despite its minimal $4.99 price tag (I think that was the price when it first came out), it has cost me much more in terms of lost bets against friends (~$20), sleepless nights, hour long stops to the restroom, and lost productivity.
TVTonic service "retired" due to tough economy
No amount of economic bailouts will apparently be enough to save Wavexpress' TVTonic portal, as President Michael Sprague announced today that the service is coming down so the company can restructure. If you're currently using it to subscribe to video podcast RSS feeds to their PC / media center, don't worry, thing will continue to function but everyone else can go ahead and punch the uninstall button because it's gone, man. Goodbye TVTonic, we'll always have Beijing.
Chris Forsythe retires from Adium project
According to a recent post over at the Adium blog, Chris Forsythe, the lead project manager, has decided to say goodbye after 3 years in that position with the Adium project. According to the post, Chris managed the Adium website, support network, and forum.Eric Richie, another member of the Adium team, volunteered for the new position. In the past, Eric wrote the in-application help for Adium and maintains the Adium TicketTaskForce.Chris is involved with some of the best applications on the Mac, a sampling of them: Growl, Perian, and Saltatory. We at TUAW wish Chris the best of luck in the future!Thanks Chris!
Intel issues product discontinuance notice for seven Merom chips
Oh, Merom. It felt like just yesterday that we were shaking our heads in disappointment after reading lackluster reviews and wondering when you'd finally make an appearance in Apple's MacBook Pro. Thankfully, times change, and with Intel's mobile Penryn stealing all the limelight of late, we 'spose it's about time the Merom lineup cashed out its 401(k) and sailed off to Maui. According to a PCN (product change notification) from the chip maker, the Core 2 Duo T7200, T7600, T5500, T5600 and LV L7200 are being flagged for discontinuation along with the less potent Celeron M 520 and 530. Granted, the whole family will still be available to ship until sometime in 2009, but for us, it's on to bigger smaller and faster things. [Warning: PDF read link][Via TGDaily, image courtesy of Gutenberg]
Nintendo's Perrin Kaplan leaving at year's end
No shocker here: Nintendo's Vice President of Marketing, Perrin Kaplan, will be joining George Harrison and Beth Llewelyn at the end of this year by not continuing to work for the Big N. After being employed by Nintendo for some 15 years, Kaplan has now announced that she "will be leaving the outfit at the end of the year," but noted that until that day, she will remain "focused on getting a great transition team in place and handling all of her normal responsibilities as well." As with Ms. Llewelyn, no replacement has been named just yet, but we can't imagine the firm wasting any time finding a sufficient successor.[Via GamesIndustry]
Kutaragi officially retires from Sony
We've known about it for months but today it becomes official -- Ken Kutaragi, the father of the PlayStation, is stepping down as chairman and chief executive of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. He will still have an advisory post at the gaming unit but his days of crazy press statements as one of the public faces of Sony are over.The storied engineer's long career at Sony hit some stumbling blocks with the PS3 launch, leading Kutaragi to be relieved of his day to day duties as president of the company late last year. Some say he was squeezed out to make room for new blood, but officially Kutaragi "has been considering this decision for some time" and considered today's shareholder meeting "the ideal timing to pass on the torch to the new generation of management."Next for Kutaragi is a post at Sony/Namco/Bandai partnership Cellius, which will focus on content designed for the PS3's Cell chip. We wish him all the best, and personally hope that the train of public gaffes doesn't stop running.
Let's face it: Steve will have to step down sooner or later, too
With Gates' bombshell announcement last week that he will be stepping down from his full-time role at Microsoft in 2008 to spend more time with his Gates and Melinda Foundation charity org, I finally came to wonder: how much longer does Steve have at Apple? Both companies were started around the same time and have helped shape the industry as we see it today. That has to be exhausting work, especially for someone like Jobs whose design and management obsessions are now the stuff of legends. Steve already stepped down from his other company, Pixar, so he could spend more time at Apple - but I'm wondering how long that's going to last, and what it means for Apple's future.Plenty of articles are analyzing the impact of Gates leaving Microsoft, as it's a slightly different situation. Bill is their Senior Software Architect, not the CEO - that's Ballmer, and he'll apparently be staying on and doing the same, shall we say, 'bang-up job' he's been doing since he took that throne. But Steve Jobs is Apple's CEO, and famous for the amount of control he exacts over bringing his the company's visions to life. So what would a two-week's notice from Steve mean to Apple and its burgeoning market?Honestly, I don't know, and since I am but a lowly blogger, I'll leave it up to those six-figure analysts who 'are people who know people' to pen those pieces. But before those analysts start earning their keep, TUAW wants to hear your thoughts, dear readers: what do you think it will mean for the future of Apple and their products when Steve needs to call it a day?
Rubinstein retained as Apple consultant
Back in March, John Rubinstein resigned from his position as senior vice president of Apple's iPod division - but it appears that one does not quit Apple so easily. John has apparently been retained as an Apple consultant, cutting a deal to work the equivalent of one business day per week until April 16th of 2007. For his services, Macsimum News is reporting he will be compensated "a non-material flat fee."
