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Slate's 'Game Club' kicks off third year
Out of the handful of mainstream media outlets that handle video games in a capacity beyond when controversy strikes or the occasional blockbuster's release, Slate.com's "Game Club" annually gets together for a critical discussion on the year in games. This year's crew includes Chris Suellentrop, Leigh Alexander, Mitch Krpata and Jamin Brophy-Warren, and covers everything from the beauty and simplicity of Canabalt to the "shocking and meaningless" Modern Warfare 2 airport scene (their words). Rather than present a top 10 list list like some mainstream publications choose (we're looking at you, Time Magazine!), the group discusses various themes that pervaded their favorite (and less than favorite) games of 2009. You might call it "game criticism," but we just call it "an interesting read."
Steve Jobs up for Time's 'Person of the Year'
Time magazine has revealed its final seven candidates for Person of the Year, and one Mr. Steven P. Jobs has made the list. Though the editors of Time have already chosen the winner (to be announced on The Today Show on Wednesday morning), MSNBC.com wants to know who us average folk would vote for. At the risk of our audience being slightly biased, I'm going to release the same poll here. So vote below, and don't feel bad if you don't think Steve should get it. He's already won another little award this year. %Poll-38564% UPDATE: TIME's Person of the Year 2009 is Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke.
TIME declares Modern Warfare 2 top game of 2009
Opening its rationalization with the arguable statement that Infinity Ward's Modern Warfare 2 has "something intelligent to say about contemporary military conflicts," Time Magazine's "Top 10 Games" of 2009 list recently declared the title its "Game of the Year." MW2 was closely followed by Batman: Arkham Asylum and DJ Hero, while the recent Uncharted 2 and Assassin's Creed 2 landed on the bottom of the list. The seemingly annual Flash/iPhone game choice this year turned out to be Geo Defense Swarm, while Link's latest adventure sat out the ubiquitous DS spot -- a spot filled by Scribblenauts, it would seem. As always, Joystiq will have our own Game of the Year awards going live just after the new year, so be sure to keep it locked!
Time picks Natal as one of 2009's best inventions
Sitting on Time Magazine's 50 Best Inventions of 2009 amongst notables like the world's first AIDS vaccine (still in trials) and meat farms seems like an awkward place for Microsoft's Project Natal. But that's exactly where it resides, paired with glowing praise for its boundary-breaking implications. "Since time immemorial ... one barrier that has stood between gamers and total Tron-like immersion in their video games has been the controller," the piece posits, going on to say that Natal will break that barrier by allowing the player one-to-one access between the game and the game's controls. "You move your hand, and the Master Chief (or whoever) moves his hand. It's that simple. And that cool." Though we're excited for the many prospects Project Natal seems to offer, we're a bit more intrigued by teleportation. And yes, that's seriously on the list.
First Look: TIME Mobile, a slick magazine for your iPhone / iPod touch
Instead of sifting through the piles of TIME magazines at your doctor's office, where you don't know who's healthy or unhealthy hands have touched the pages, you now have another option to browse through TIME content on your iPhone. The recently launched TIME Mobile [iTunes link] app provides a better browsing experience and more content than the mobile version of magazine's website. In addition, the app brings with it support for video, which is lacking on the mobile version of TIME's site and not supported for the iPhone on the full version of the site because the videos are encoded in Flash. TIME Mobile also brings a new approach for browsing articles. Like Cover Flow view in the iPhone and iTunes, TIME Mobile's "Image Flow" provides some eye candy in front of the meat and potatoes of the article content. One thing absent in the app is support for offline reading, a useful feature for situations where data connectivity is lacking, such as on an airplane. The USA Today app [iTunes link], which is in the same app genre as TIME Mobile, supports offline reading by tapping on the update button on each section. Perhaps such a feature could be added to TIME Mobile as a paid-for feature, or as for free to those who subscribe to the paper version of the magazine. Update: TIME's app team tells us that offline reading is built-in as part of the app, but for some reason I could not get it to work consistently; we're following up with them to figure out why it's wonky. Powered by Polar, a mobile publishing provider that also powers BusinessWeek [iTunes link] and CNNMoney [iTunes link] iPhone apps as well as a host of other apps on a variety of mobile platforms, TIME Mobile is available as a free download in the App Store.
Time editorial (sort of) explains why video games are a good economic indicator
Time Magazine thinks that video games are a good economic indicator -- as in, if the gaming industry is doing poorly (it's not), that speaks volumes about the national economic situation. And Time's reasoning is sound, more or less: "When people cannot spend $300 on a console or $50 on a game which can be used for hours and played over and over again, the money for discretionary spending has dried up." The piece references declines in sales of the Nintendo Wii (selling "only" 340k units in April) as well as the recent loss report by Sony on its PlayStation division. Problem is, it makes no mention whatsoever of the repeated analyst reports citing year-over-year declines being forced by AAA-games being released in the traditionally dormant late-Winter/early-Spring months, during 2008. And furthermore, the author worries about the sales of the PS3 in April, not making any mention of the relatively robust PS2 and PSP sales during the same time period. Then again, the Time website has Jim Cramer divvying out economic tips just three inches to the right of this piece, so, ya know, there's that trustworthy source of financial information.
iPhone is #3 on Time's gadgets list
Apple has long been a darling of Time Magazine's tech writers. Just take a look at the history The iPhone is 2007's Gadget of the Year The iPhone is 2007's Invention of the Year The MacBook Pro was Gadget of the Week back in 2006 Several appearances on the cover Heck, even the Nike+ iPod kit was nominated for Gadget of the Year in 2006. This year, the iPhone is listed at number 3 on Time's year-end list, "The Top 10 Everything." I guess it was due for a slip (not that 3rd place on a list counting "everything" is bad!). Second place went to the Mitsubishi LaserVue 65-inch HDTV, while the Optoma Pico PK-101 sits at the top spot.The Pico, a pocket-sized projector for the iPod, first caught our attention in November. Optoma has priced it at $399US and suggested a shipping date of early next year.So what accounted for the iPhone's slip? Time claims an email experience inferior to that on a Blackberry as well as average performance as a cell phone. [Via MacNN]
Peek's email device tops voting for Time's gadget of the year, not that it matters
We're not going to jump up on our "new media" pedestal and claim that Time Magazine is irrelevant or anything, but man, stick to what you know. Time's gadget of the year list includes some commendable choices to be certain -- but seriously, not a single industry re-defining netbook, multi-million selling iPhone 3G, or 1080p-capable EOS 5D Mark II DSLR in a top 10 list of 2008 gadgets? Puhlease. Seems that voting is still open -- while you can't change the list you can certainly have your say as to whether Peek's eMail-only handheld should be voted above T-Mobile's Android-powered G1 (by a margin of more than 5 to 1) as the best gadget of 2008.[Thanks, Horatio]
Spore honored in Time's 50 Best Inventions of 2008
Despite receiving a few complaints from critics concerning gameplay shortcomings, Will Wright's latest brain child, Spore, was recently chosen as one of Time Magazine's 50 Best Inventions of 2008. Finishing in 20th place, and credited as "The Everything Game", Time remarked on the ambitious nature of the title, labeling it as "blasphemy, brilliance or both."Other "inventions" listed include "The Direct-to-Web Supervillain Musical", Hulu.com, and 23andMe's home DNA test, which garnered top honors. The Large Hadron Collider, the "world's most expensive science experiment", made an unremarkable 5th place finish -- Time cited the machine's failure to follow through on its promise to destroy humanity as the reason for its disappointing placement on the list.[Via Big Download]
TIME magazine anoints iPhone best gadget of the year
No big surprise here, but TIME magazine has anointed the iPhone as their best gadget of 2007. Their blurb seems just about exactly right: the "iPhone changed the way we think about how mobile media devices should look, feel and perform." And their only complaint? Again, no surprise, it's AT&T. I suspect this is only the beginning of the iPhone's reign across the top of best of 2007 lists.
Blogger offers iPhone "Invention of the Year" perspective
In a year that gave us the prosthetic X-Finger for amputees, the pollution-reducing Diesel Exhaust Purification System, and hurricane-safety ImpactShield, is the iPhone really worthy of its Time magazine Invention of the Year honors? That's the question raised by iPhone Matter's Gregory Ng. Ng points out that although the iPhone is pretty and we love it to pieces, that other extremely worthy advances were overlooked by Time. His post raises a good question although I think of Time's "of the year" awards more as an entertainment/ lifestyle feature than as real news.
iPhone is "Invention of the Year": Time
Time Magazine's love affair with Apple is very well documented. This week, they named the iPhone the "Invention of the Year." The winning combination: The industrial design, touchscreen, the effect on the market overall, the introduction of Mac OS X on a mobile platform and the future, according to writer Lev Grossman:"Look at the iPod of six years ago...It looks like something a caveman whittled from a piece of flint using another piece of flint. Now imagine something that's going to make the iPhone look that primitive. You'll have one in a few years..."All of these factors point to Apple's single greatest asset: Patience. Users clamored for an Apple-branded phone long before a hint of such a thing even existed. All the while, Apple quietly refined the design, the interface and OS X; the deal with AT&T and the iPhone's roadmap. The iPhone wasn't the first mobile phone to the market, of course. Nor was the iPod the first digital music player. The technology market is populated with companies determined to be first. Apple is content to show up late to the party, but with a killer gift.[Via Electronista]
Jobs, Ive nominated for Time's "most influential"
Steve Jobs and Jonathan Ive have been identified as candidates for the next Time 100 Poll, which is a list of the nation's most influential business people. Both Steve and Jonathan have appeared in Time before (Steve made the cover five times), and Steve has made previous Time 100 lists. Magazine covers, national recognition, a billion-dollar company...just another day at the office.[Via MacNN]
Time Magazine 'Person of the Year' cover redux, courtesy of that iSight trick
As you may know, Time Magazine recently declared you as the person of the year. While this is a mighty nice gesture on their part, Dan Wood has created a redux of the cover for iSight-enabled Mac users that truly resembles you as Time's award-winning person of the year. He's using that slick iSight trick that can turn on your iSight camera and place its feed on a web page, but remember: it isn't a security flaw, it's an actual feature. The trick doesn't send any video from your iSight over the web, it simply plays that video back through your web browser locally.As a side note: do any Mac users out there have a non-iSight webcam they can try this trick with? It would be interesting to see if it works only with Apple's camera or if everyone else can play along. That way, users with some kind of webcam have an easier way of adding themselves to Flickr's personoftheyear tag.[via Ranchero's blog]
God is a Mac user
This week's TIME Magazine features an interesting Essay on page 103. Evan Eisenberg checks God's email. If you click the pic above you can see the full-sized image I scanned in, which offers even more insight into God's computing habits. I knew the big guy was a Mac user!God uses Mail.app, obviously, to stay in touch. He listens to iTunes for inspiration, and keeps Google Earth open to keep an eye on his Creation. Safari is God's browser of choice and he's apparently a football fan (Go Saints!). Looking at the exposed areas of God's desktop we see that he digs George Burns (but Windows Media Player??) and keeps tabs on election results. We're not sure about the rest of God's hardware, but his display is Apple Cinema all the way. What surprises me most is that God uses Quark! As Erica said, when we got the tip, "This would certainly explain why the demographic skewed 'old' in that survey." Indeed!Thanks, Keenan!
DS taking Time's Gadget of the Year race by storm
In the spirit of races today, we were surprised to see our favorite system included in a long list of fancy gizmos featured in Time Magazine's Gadget of the Year contest. The DS has some pretty tough competition -- Apple MacBook Pro, Palm Trio 700w. Last we checked, the DS was winning with a whopping 59% with the next in line only carrying 27% of the votes. So, we encourage you to vote for your favorite gadget (meaning the DS of course). Wouldn't want the Nintendo mafia knocking on your door .... [Via Joystiq]
DS Lite leading in Time's Gadget of the Year race
You cast your vote today? 'Cause DS Lite could really use your support. Or at least, that's what we thought.The lil' guy appeared out of its league in Time's Gadget of the Year race, but [at the time of this writing] DS Lite is leading the online ballot with 44% of the vote -- 27 percentage points ahead of Apple's MacBook Pro. What looked to be a kindly nod at the Nintendo folks for shaking up the industry, has turned into a virtual landslide. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't vote -- each one counts. So gets to clickin'!
Time bestows "gadget" status upon DS Lite
Time Magazine recently gave the DS Lite its oh-so-coveted "Gadget of the Week" award, lauding the iPod-like design and Touch Generations series of games. Time Magazine seems to be the premier mainstream-gaming press outlet of late, also lauding the Wii in recent weeks as well.It's a bit silly, reading an article like this as a well-informed, knowledgable gamer, but pieces like this do wonders for a system's appeal outside of the established market. Before you know it, you might just be getting your backside handed to you by sweet ol' grandma in a game of Metroid Prime: Hunters.[via Joystiq]
Time Magazine's love affair with Apple continues
There are some serious Mac-heads at Time Magazine. The MacBook is their current "Gadget of the Week," and author Wilson Rothman had this to say in his article:"You get a computer that runs both Mac OS X and Windows XP today, and even appears to meet the minimum requirements for Vista once it gets here. Dell and HP should be very worried indeed."For those of you who complain about the integrated video ram, remember: This is the entry level machine, and will do the things most people are after (internet, mail, music, photos, etc.) very well. It should be a big seller.
TIME gets hands-on with the Nintendo Wii
We knew we should have taken that call from Miyamoto the other day, but our loss was TIME magazine's gain, because the Mario and Zelda creator was looking for someone to, wouldn't you know it, take the upcoming Wii for a little spin. TIME's five page article is so full of interesting deets that we barely have room to scratch the surface here, but suffice it to say that Lev Grossman not only reports on his hands-on experiences with a number of games, he's also able to get inside Nintendo's head, if you will, and tease out a bit of the methodology behind what some hardcore gamers perceive as the company's madness (Wii? those controllers? Nintendogs?). As for the actual gaming, Grossman got to play some tennis (the sensors even allow you to add spin), slay some dragons (brandishing the controller like a sword in Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess), and bring those wacky Warioware minigames into the third dimension (think: fishing, weight lifting, cooking, etc.). Geez, this thing sounds like so much fun that we may just skip the Sony keynote this afternoon and see if the folks from Nintendo will let us play with their goodies.
