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DirecTV and TNS partner up to analyze "second-by-second" viewing habits
Listen up, DirecTV users -- select TiVo customers aren't the only ones having their viewing habits inspected with a microscope. Apparently, your satellite provider has just teamed up with TNS Media Research to find a willing audience (read: opt-in participants only) of 100,000 folks that will allow the two to closely analyze exactly what they do when camped in front of the tube. More specifically, TNS is hoping to launch DIRECTView later this year, which will measure "the total viewing [of the aforementioned group], including the live and time-shifted (DVR) viewing of programs and commercials at a second-by-second interval." According to Eric Shanks, EVP of DirecTV Entertainment, the goal here "is to develop a panel capability that will provide important insights across its advertising platform," which will "in turn provide its advertisers and programming partners [with] an unparalleled level of measurement accuracy and accountability." It's also pretty creepy, but unfortunately, not at all surprising.
Currys, Dixons to stop selling analog TVs in Europe
DSG International, the parent company to Currys, Dixons and PC World stores across Europe, has announced that it will no longer be stocking analog sets (sound familiar?). Granted, only 10-percent of the remaining TVs it sold were of the analog flavor, but it looks as if even those units will soon be gone. Reportedly, the chains are looking to further promote units with integrated digital Freeview tuners, and considering that some parts of Europe have already begun the analog-to-digital switchover, we suppose that follows logic precisely. Also of note, these same retailers will halt sales of DVD recorders with only analog tuners within, but on the real, we can't say we'll miss 'em.[Image courtesy of Waltondale, thanks CMC]
Grant's Appliances reportedly ditching HD DVD
We wouldn't call this one definite just yet, but according to "sources" cited by TGDaily, a Chicagoland retailer is shedding its purple skin in favor of Blu. Reportedly, it has "stopped ordering new HD DVD supply" entirely, and while it's said that existing inventory has been depleted, we reckon you may be able to score a real deal should you find a locale with one last HD-A3 just begging for an owner. 'Course, whether or not you should plunk down any coin whatsoever on HD DVD -- considering the state of things and all -- is another matter entirely.[Thanks, Dave]
Should selling raid spots be allowed?
A guild called Invictus on Alextrasza has posted a sort of advertisement on their realm forum, offering to sell raiding gear to anyone willing to cough up enough gold. There are all sorts of responses, from "Hey, those prices are cheap!" to "This is cheating!" One poster said that players should go through these instances on their own, through teamwork and patience -- but a member of Invictus replied, quite eloquently, that players all over their realm are more than welcome to work their way through The Burning Crusade content on their own, Invictus isn't stopping that; rather they are just providing a service for people who might genuinely be in need. Suppose, for instance, that your guild is in the middle of progressing through difficult content and a key player, such as a main tank, has to stop playing WoW due to real life difficulties. The next best tank you have in your guild is nowhere near as well-geared, and finding another outside person to fill such a crucial role could be difficult in the extreme. Invictus, they say, allows your whole guild to chip in and get your next best tank to pick up a couple pieces of gear from the highest raid instances in the game, thereby allowing him or her to catch up and start helping out much faster. It seems like a legitimate service to me.Then again, this is clearly a different situation from some rogue who just wants some epic weapons so he can do tons of damage in PvP -- especially if he didn't earn this gold he's spending through legitimate means within the game itself. Is Invictus doing the right thing by opening the doors to all kinds of players? Should they be very careful in who they sell too? What's your opinion on the matter?[Thanks, James!]
Preparing for 2.3: Pre-patch farming, part 2
The other day I listed the items that will be used in new recipes after the patch. I did miss a few things, but with your helpful comments, I've updated the original article to be more complete. I'll mention again that it's difficult to make predictions on what will sell the best, but nonetheless I've decided to list some of my thoughts on the subject below.
Insider Trader: Death of a salesman
Insider Trader is your weekly inside line on making, selling, buying and using player-made products.Forget the endless debate over "hardcore" versus "casual" – there's another moniker that we here at Insider Trader hold dear: "salesman." What's that? You don't know any salesmen in WoW these days? You're not alone. Times have changed since craftspeople toiled to build reputations as the go-to traders on their servers ... when Ironforge was the hub of civilization, where a few elite enchanters held court over the entire server with coveted formulae from such exotic locales as Stratholme and Scholomance.It's a brave new world in today's Outland. Most enchanters don't enchant for the general public at all, unless you provide mats and a tip. And in any profession, with so many other players on the servers who have the same patterns (even rare patterns are generally available from more than one player) and so many easy ways to make money (hello, daily quests!), there's little reason to hang around town to build a regular clientele. Components provided or created by other professions are readily available on the Auction House – there's no need to seek out and nurture relationships with another player from a complementary profession.Have the conveniences Blizzard has developed for today's crafters meant the death of the salesman?
Inside the accounting files of NPCs
I've already said a few times that I'd love to see Blizzard's population figures, but a query (from an MVP, strangely enough) brings up another set of figures that I wouldn't mind a look at: NPC vendor sales numbers. Crepe wants to know how many items Griftah has sold (and how many hula dolls he sells post 2.3), but unfortunately, Nethaera deflects the question and leaves us with nothing. Additionally, I'd like to know how many heroic badges G'eras is going through on any given night-- maybe the fact that he's not selling many of his Heroic items is the reason why Blizzard is going to start dropping Badges in both Karazhan and Zul'Aman next week.Blizzard has given us peeks at a few numbers behind the game, but they haven't updated that page since it went up (and with all the exceptions on those lists, it's not much help anyway). There is a whole new world of statistics to be had in Outland, and it'd be nice for Blizzard to let us at just a few of the most interesting ones.
TiVo looks to serve up demographic data to marketers
Don't you dare criticize TiVo's ad collecting / disseminating department for slacking off, as just months after it launched StopWatch to offer up second-by-second viewing data, the company is planning to also hand over demographic information about its customers. The move is certainly likely to shift TiVo into Big Brother's list of most highly-regarded outfits, as the information that will soon be shared with advertisers (we're hearing it may be opt-in only, however) includes "age, income, marital status and ethnicity." There's no telling how much coinage TiVo will be raking in for such detailed data, but at least willing users can now watch intently knowing full well that they're letting it all (and we mean all) hang out. Update: Turns out this is indeed an opt-in program. Thanks, Jake! [Via Reuters]
Sony disclaims reports of chip operations sale
While quite a few reports seemed pretty confident that Sony was indeed looking to sell its PS3 chip production facilities to Toshiba, Sony has now hit back with denials. Reportedly, the firm stated that it was "looking at ways to improve its chip operations but had reached no decision on whether to sell it," and just in case you needed a bit of proof from the other side, a spokesman for Toshiba "also said that no deal had been decided." According to Sony spokesman Tomio Takizawa, "nothing concrete has been decided," so until we hear otherwise, we'll take his word for it.
iSale updates bring Safari 3 compatibility and over 200 templates
Whether you make a living from buying and selling on eBay or you merely sell off your basement junk when it gets too crowded down there, iSale is a fantastic eBay client that merges the wonders of Mac OS X with the world's leading online marketplace. Offering beautiful tempaltes, WYSIWYG auction composing, integration with iCal, Address Book and iSight, a Dashboard widget for monitoring auctions, Google Maps and worlds more, iSale has everything you need to get your eBay on. Like so many other web-integrated Mac OS X apps, however, iSale was hit with compatibility issues if users installed the Safari 3 beta. Fortunately, a couple of recent updates have fixed those issues and added over 30 new templates to bring the grand total to more than 200 different auction templates, organized by category. With a wide variety of template styles, imagery and layouts, you'll be hard pressed to not find something that'll fit just about anything you post for auction. This most recent v4.2 of iSale is a free upgrade for registered 4.x users, and a demo is available. A single user license costs $39.95, while family packs start at $49.95 and go up from there.
Wii outselling PlayStation 3 'six to one'
Considering that some retail locales in America are still having trouble keeping a fresh supply of Wii consoles in stock (whilst the PlayStation 3 units tend collect thin layers of dust), it's no surprise to see such dramatic sales figures surface. Sure enough, Enterbrain's latest report demonstrates that Nintendo's darling moved into 270,974 new households in June, while only 41,628 PS3s were sold in the same timeframe; just to compare, the even older Xbox 360 was able to sell 17,616 units. That brings the overall sales figures to date for Nintendo to nearly 2.76 million, while Sony has yet to break the magical one million in units sold. But don't count Sony out just yet -- it's coming back, remember?
Wii Warm Up: What are ye buyin'? or What are ye sellin'?
When you're out waggle-stabbin' some pseudo-zombies, how do you handle your business affairs? Do you prefer to gear up, or cash in?
Selling arena titles for fun and profit
Death and Taxes has made WoW headlines for many things, mostly due to their raiding achievements. But today on the forums another aspect of the guild's performance made heads turn: their PvP arena teams. In the PvP arena 3v3 bracket Death and Taxes guild members have been using the current rule system to their benefit. What exactly does this entail? Well, to be specific, members of the top ranked teams are sharing their skill with lower ranked PvP players in order to raise their standings and get them the coveted Armored Netherdrake and an easy title. Seeing the success of one D&T arena team after another is frustrating their opponents, and therefore the vocal forum protest. Members of D&T have naturally spoken up in their own defense, and fairly eloquently I might add. One of the accusations leveled at the guild was that they are using top crafted items to gain an edge in PvP, essentially using their power as a PvE guild to dominate the PvP domain.
Auction House Updates in 2.1
I love the Auction house. I've got a mule parked there just specifically so I can log over periodically, scan, and then snap up any bargains and either stash them for tradeskills, send them to an alt, or resell them if it's an item that has been severely under priced. (I can't tell you how many copies of the Savory Deviate Delight recipe I've bought from the AH for 40s that I resold for at least 5g.) But I have to admit, I've never thought that the search interface was too terribly good. Then I saw a blue reply to a forum request for changes to the auction house that made me a happy panda. According to Eyonix:...We're also working to improve our user-interface, which includes the auction house. Below are some of the changes slated to be implemented for the next patch. The Auction House now has a reset button that will reset all fields you have entered to allow you to quickly try a different search. When items are being put up for sale on the Auction House, if the item you are putting up for bid is the same item and quantity as the previous item you put up for bid, it will automatically fill in the price and buyout for you with your previous price. Gems are now searchable in the Auction House under the heading of Gem with the gems then broken up by color so you can search for all gems of a specific color. I just wonder if the end version of automatic fill they implement will remember prices from when you were logged in before like Auctioneer does? Or will the auction house "forget" things as soon as I log out -- or perhaps even as soon as I close the auction house interface? It's not enough of a change to replace Auctioneer for me, but it's a step in the right direction at least. And I lest I forget -- Hooray searchable gems by color in case you missed it in the previous patch notes![via the General forum]
Sell on iTunes with TuneCore
Have you ever considered selling your own music on iTunes? A service called TuneCore makes that possible. You pay a small charge to deliver your album to iTunes plus a yearly fee. If people start buying your tunes, you earn $0.70 per track. So let's say you create an album with 8 tracks. You pay $0.99 per track upload plus another $0.99 for the album listing, and $9.98 for the first year album fee. That works out to--scratches head--8 x $0.99 + 1 x $0.99 + $9.98 = $18.89 to upload and store that 8-track album. After the first year, you continue to pay $9.98 per year per album. That album would start earning money for you after the first 26-or-so sales, if I did the math right which is always questionable. So what does selling through iTunes get you? First of all, nearly anyone who doesn't use Linux can use iTunes to buy your tracks, so your product is pretty accessible. Second, I'm guessing that TuneCore takes care of a lot of the accounting issues, so you just upload and you're done until you start earning money--if you start earning money. Obviously, you'd have to take care of your own marketing, but this would make a great way to distribute material for non-profits like schools for audio-only material. This of course, assumes, that TuneCore ends up being reliable and trustworthy. TuneCore offers a complete FAQ of their service here.
Sony's PlayStation 3 selling faster at release than Xbox 360?
We've seen oodles of showdowns (regarding sales or otherwise) between the current consoles, and it always seems that the financial numbers games prove the most interesting (or downright incorrect). While we'd already heard that the Xbox 360 didn't fare so well compared to its predecessor, now we're hearing that Microsoft's latest has actually lost the first-four-month battle to Sony's PlayStation 3 -- at least in America. According to a spokesperson from NPD, "figures show that the PS3 is selling slightly faster in the US than the Xbox 360 did at the same stage in its release," which comes after the somewhat disappointing (but unsurprising) European release. Unfortunately, the charts, graphs, and nitty gritty that never seems to follow such bold claims are expectedly missing in this instance as well, but we're sure a counter report of some kind isn't too far behind.[Via GigaGamez]
Best Buy to stop carrying Sony's 20GB PlayStation 3?
You may have noticed that nearly four months after both the Wii and PlayStation 3 hit the market, Nintendo's console is generally still more difficult to locate than Sony's counterpart -- especially the widely unwanted 20GB flavor. While rumors galore have been floating around, it looks like one of the largest PS3 retailers are pulling the plug on the (so to speak) cheapo version, leaving Best Buy consumers with exactly two options, either cough up the $600 required to cop the 60GB edition, or look elsewhere for their gaming satisfaction. According to Joystiq, they have checked with numerous Best Buy locales and have confirmed the "Discontinued" status that was recently printed out from a BB computer system, which means that the flow of 20GB units into Best Buy stores should all but stop here in the very near future. No word on whether the creators of the 20GB PS3 sauce will be drying up their production as well, however.
Microsoft copied the only iPod they could
John Gruber has penned an interesting observation of how Microsoft might very well have missed the mark from the get-go when they made the strange decision to take on the iPod and iTunes. Since the player's initial wiz-bang sales period is essentially over (as in: it more or less set a decent sales barometer, at least for now), John wrangles some interesting statistics from Amazon's charts on exactly where the Zune stands in comparison to Apple's players (including year-old models), as well as its ranking in the overall electronics category. To spoil the surprise: the Zune isn't doing so well. We've looked at Amazon's charts before, but as of this writing, a record player is beating out the best selling Zune on the electronics list, while iPods - specifically the small, flash-based nano and shuffle - dominate most of the top 10 spots.John then uses this data and good ol' fashioned people watching to conclude that Microsoft shouldn't have taken what could be their only swing at the plate in producing a hard drive-based iPod; they should have cranked out a flash memory model to go head-on with the nano - inarguably the home run slugger in Apple's lineup. While I tend to agree with John, I also see a problem with going down this road: Microsoft would likely have had even less room to maneuver, and even fewer things to market ('Beam your tunes') and invent lame, dead-end lingo for - they actually refer to sharing your music wirelessly as 'squirting'. Who wants to bet how excited Steve Ballmer's kids are to 'squirt' at school?Sure, when you look at what you're up against in the DAP market, Apple's iPod nano and SanDisk's respectable 2GB Sansa player (expandable via an SD slot, and at #11 on Amazon as of this writing) are the top dogs to beat - but what could they have offered? I highly doubt they could have fit their DRM-crippled and arguably worthless (though admittedly buzz-worthy) Wi-Fi sharing feature into a nano-sized player, even if they made it slightly larger and uglier like the Zune is to its 30GB iPod rival. A 'Zune nano' with nothing unique to offer would dry up on its own in a market already dominated by Apple, SanDisk and Creative, and Microsoft's exclusive, 3rd party bitch-slap of a music store would have even less of a leg to stand on.In summary: I think John's right - Microsoft made a bad move in copying the 30GB hard drive-based iPod, but it was the only move they had. In this light, it kinda makes you wonder why they bothered in the first place.
