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The Wall Street Journal catches on to HD DVD grey market imports
Hard core HD DVD fans have known for sometime that they can obtain otherwise exclusive Blu-ray titles via overseas websites like Amazon.co.uk; but we were still surprised to see the Wall Street Journal pick up on it. It's not that we don't think people are doing this, but we wonder how many. Sure, early adopter types won't have any problem ordering a title online and paying a bit more for it, but in the grand scheme of the format war, how big of deal is it? The WSJ doesn't know either, but does a great job of describing the reason (distribution rights) for the loop hole and some of the more popular ways (xploitedcinema.com) to do it. Meanwhile, we'll just keep our count to the titles available the average consumer at his local retailer.
The Wall Street Journal talks format war
We've talked the HD DVD / Blu-ray format war to death, using everything from officious study group findings to our own gorilla guerilla tactics. But you know that a topic has reached a mainstream public level when it shows up in the Wall Street Journal. Let's face it -- to the mass of consumers that will decide which format (if either) wins this war, the WSJ carries a lot more weight than enthusiast-oriented media. There's nothing new in the link for regular readers of EHD, but it does a good job of summarizing the quagmire that is the format war. HDTV sales are up, so you know consumers want HD, but people aren't picking up HD players. There are lots of issues at play, but the end result is that consumers aren't getting what they want. Take a deep breath and check out the link to see how this mess is portrayed to the pulic-at-large.
Sony's video download cards revealed?
The Wall Street Journal -- citing "people familiar with the situation" -- claims that Sony is poised to enter video-downloading services whole-hog. Think Go!PSP, only extended with new "products and services to let users download television shows and movies" to Sony's sweet, suite of PS3s, PSPs, and Bravia televisions "similar to the way" people use the Apple ecosystem. Go!PS3, Go!Bravia, Go!Rolly? Sure, why not. Unfortunately, the WSJ piece doesn't provide any dates or any real details to speak of. Regardless, none of this comes as a surprise what with PS3s doubling as DVRs in Europe, video-capable Walkmans finally released in the US, and the looming shutdown of Sony's ATRAC-based Connect music services. Hell, Stringer already ceded portable music dominance to Apple back at the June shareholders meeting in Tokyo where he noted that Sony has "worked very hard to catch up so that in the age of video we will not suffer as much as we did in audio." We'll see. Hey Howie (sorry, Sir Howie), we hear NBC could use a new on-line storefront soon. You know, quick-wins and all.[Via GigaOM]
Bill Gates on the future of computer interaction
In a very rare joint interview with Apple co-founder Steve Jobs on stage at last week's D 2007, Microsoft founder Bill Gates told hosts Walter Mossberg and Kara Swisher, both of the Wallstreet Journal, of his vision for the future of interaction with technology, and therefore gaming, and inadvertently used the Nintendo Wii as a stepping stone."Imagine a game machine where you can just pick up a bat and swing it or the tennis racket," said Gates, to which Mossberg noted that one exists, referencing Wii Sports."No, no, that's not it," said Gates, "you can't pick up your tennis racket and swing it, ['Oh, I see what you mean,' said Mossberg] you can't sit there with your friends and do those natural things. That's a 3D positional device, this is video recognition, this is a camera seeing what's going on ... the camera will be ubiquitous."
Wall Street Journal has an eye for Wiimote hacks
The Wall Street Journal has finally jumped on the Wii hack bandwagon, featuring a piece revolving around the hacks people are performing on the Wiimote. Of course, if they had their finger anywhere near the pulse of Wii hacking and modding news, they'd have already seen the things that can be done. Check past the break for their video.[Thanks, Jake!]
Weekly Webcomic Wrapup: mainstream edition
Instead of trying to fill this part with meaningless dribble (at which we rock), we've decided to take a look at the comic world through two articles from this week's stream of mainstream media.Our first article is a blurb from the Wall Street Journal's Career Journal, which recently highlighted what it would entail to choose comic-book artist as a career. Two suggestions: (1) be sure to attend conventions and network with publishers, show off your work and (2) make sure your work doesn't suck.The other piece comes from Time magazine that discusses the proliferation of webcomics. It even includes complimentary blurbs about Penny Arcade and PvP Online, credited with being one of the first webcomics. Congratulations guys!Now here are some of our picks for the week's best game-related webcomics, be sure to vote for your favorite!* Rejected Wii channels Check. It. Out. Convincing rebuttal Spectrobes, original IP Like watching paint dry Our old tricks How awesome? So awesome. Games have weird premises Living achievements vicariously * and gripe about the choices in the comments below. We know you will, we know you want to, we just hope you also suggest some of the gems we missed.
iPhone video and Greg Joswiak interview from WSJ
Rex Crumb from MarketWatch and the Wall Street Journal snagged an interview with Apple's Vice President of iPod marketing, Greg Joswiak. Greg talked about the iPhone and its awesomeness, of course, and Rex gets some rare hands-on video, too!Although some of the footage is stock from the Keynote, there's also some real-live, hot hand-on-iPhone action. It's hard not to notice that while they are talking, Greg never lets the iPhone out of his own hands, whereas you'd normally expect to see the interviewer at least get to hold the thing. Clearly there are some pretty strict rules in place about who gets to touch one of the few demo units. Even Uncle Walt only got to handle it for a few minutes - but there's no video proof of that, so we'll have to take his word for it.Thanks, Steve!
WSJ asks: Will the iPhone be a hit or a flop?
I thought online polls where strictly blog territory, but it seems that august publications like the Wall Street Journal are getting in on the poll fun. The WSJ has a poll up right now that asks, 'Will the iPhone be a hit like the iPod or a flop like the Newton?' At the right you see how it stands at 5am EST. 83% of people think Apple has a hit on its hands (my one vote is in that category) whilst 17% said, 'Didn't Steve kill the Newton when he returned to Apple? What's up with Newton 2.0?'What do you think? Will Apple score big with the iPhone or is it destined to become a footnote in Apple, Inc's history?
Wall Street Journal's Mossberg picks Wii over PS3 [update 1]
Wall Street Journal columnist Walt Mossberg (pictured) is possibly the most influential technology writer in the country. So when Mossberg compares the Wii and the PS3 by saying Nintendo's system is "the more exciting, fun and satisfying of the two new game machines," it shouldn't be taken lightly.Mossberg and a group of four 20-something volunteer testers were duly impressed with the PS3's graphics and multimedia functions, but no so much so that they thought it was worth the extra price over the Xbox 360. The testers were much more excited about the Wii's motion-sensitive controls and the way they made games easier to get into. One of the female testers, a college athlete and non-gamer, said the Wii was the first time she ever felt successful playing a video game.Mossberg's reputation doesn't mean he's infallible -- the column erroneously suggests gamers will need to spend $100 on HDMI cables for the PS3 and that a classic controller is required for all Wii classic downloads. Outside of the factual errors, though, the opinions expressed by Mossberg and his testers might be more than a little worrying to Sony and its supporters.[Update: Changed Read link below to a version that requires no registration. Thanks Clay.]
Hard-hitting news: WSJ warns of Wii-related injuries
So, we've all had a good laugh when it comes to the "Wii injuries" meme -- retailers worried about flailing arms during demos, websites publishing tongue-in-cheek guides to potential hazards, and a few folks breaking TVs, beer mugs, and the like -- but it must be a pretty slow news day if an esteemed publication like the Wall Street Journal has space to print a completely serious, anecdote-driven piece on the supposed physical dangers inherent to the Wii experience. In a nutshell, author Jamin Warren interviewed a handful of people and, based on their tales of aches and pains following heavy Wii usage, concluded that a dangerous epidemic of sprained wrists and sore muscles is about to strike the world of gaming. Unfortunately for his thesis, almost everyone quoted in the story -- a 12-year-old girl, computer programmer, and a weightlifter -- come across as out-of-shape in the first place (even the lifter eschews cardiovascular exercise), so is it any wonder that this rare physical exertion caused some aches and pains? Or, as Nintendo's Perrin Kaplin so aptly puts it, "[Wii] was not meant to be a Jenny Craig supplement; if people are finding themselves sore, they may need to exercise more." Kaplin also points out that while it may be fun to swing the Wiimote around like a maniac, all of the games can be played perfectly adequately with small movements while sitting on the couch. So should everyone who pulls a muscle or smacks their cat while Wii bowling band together and slap Nintendo with a class action lawsuit? Hardly; this seems like a classic example of the media trying to pull a story out of thin air, and while there may be a few cases of temporary injuries resulting from getting one's Wii on, well, maybe that will cause some people to actually turn off the TV, drop the controller, and pick up a real tennis racket or golf club to condition themselves for next time.[Image courtesy of 1up]
Viva Piata featured in WSJ (wha?)
Nintendo may have created the first generation of (pocket) monster controlled mindslaves, but Microsoft is hoping to snare the next generation with piñatas. And it looks like they just might hit the big time. That's right, Viva Piñata has been featured in the money-grubbingest of all publications, the Wall Street Journal. A subscription is required to read the article, and we certainly don't make WSJ caliber money around here. Lucky for us, the fine folks of Gamerscoreblog have picked out a tasty snippet, "And in the New York showroom of Playmates Toys Inc. on Wednesday, 70 or so tradable Viva Piñata figurines and a hand-held electronic game -- made by Playmates -- will be unveiled. The toys offer more avenues for marketing partnerships that would connect Viva Piñata with kids when they step away from their TVs and are designed to link the components of a piñata universe that has been carefully concocted to boost the videogame."It just drips with the trappings of a master plan, doesn't it? Any of you planning on picking up Viva Piñata for the kids? For yourselves?
Suck at gaming? Get a tutor (seriously) [update 2]
The Wall Street Journal reports on some gamers who're using their 1337 skillz to actually pay the billz. And they're not trotting out the same old story about professional gamers (we get it, they play games!), they're talking about gaming tutors. The logic behind these enterprises is brilliant though. Aging gamers have no time to hone their skills through trial and error while high school dropouts, like Gaming-lessons.com's Tom Taylor, have nothing but time, so the arrangement works like this: you pay Taylor $45 clams an hour, he turns your pasty, corpulent game playing attempts into 100% chiseled, Master Chief-approved fragging skillz.We know what you're thinking. If 8 year old Lil Poison is scraping in $25 an hour teaching grown men to play Halo 2, then you've made some serious miscalculations in your life plan. We're wondering why, if these guys are so good, they aren't playing professionally. Does the old adage, "Those who can't do, teach," apply to the curriculum of video games as well? We were wondering why they didn't play professionally until we learned (thanks, guys!) that Tom Taylor is in fact T Squared (Tom Taylor, duh!), the very same professional gamer who just signed a fat $250,000 contract. See, high school dropout isn't always a pejorative.[Thanks, Leshrac][Update: corrected professional gaming errors and decidedly un-1337 spelling of 1337.]
Boeing looking to sell/scrap Connexion?
After several years of unsuccessfully attempting to coax people into surfing the Internet for a fee instead of sleeping during their international flights, it looks like Boeing has finally given up and started seeking buyers for its Connexion service, according to sources cited by the Wall Street Journal (subscription required, as usual). While the company had high hopes for the pricey offering (it costs $27 to stay connected for a full flight) when it was announced in April 2000, the lack of adoption by US carriers -- only a handful of foreign airlines such as Lufthansa, Air China, and El Al have installed the necessary equipment -- combined with the lukewarm reception from passengers have convinced Boeing to ditch the service at all costs. The Journal reports that three satellite firms are negotiating to either buy the division outright or become major partners, but if the parties involved are unable to come to an agreement, Boeing is apparently willing to simply dump the service altogether, according to someone familiar with the talks. Still, even if Boeing does decide to drop the ax, this certainly won't be the last you'll hear about in-flight broadband, as airlines have shown that they'll do whatever they can to squeeze a few more bucks out of you after you've already shelled out for your ticket. Headphone rental fee, anyone?[Via MobileRead]
Stringer: The Xbox 360 is an "obsession"
Well, you know what they say about what to do when you have nothing nice to say ... erm, say that the competing gaming platform (in this case, the 360) is an "obsession"?That's exactly what Sony CEO Howard Stringer had to offer in an interview with Walt Mossberg of The Wall Street Journal recently. While sharing how The Da Vinci Code from Sony beat up on "X-Men 3" (aka The Last Stand) over in Europe, he seemed to mistakenly throw in "Xbox 3" in the stead of Fox's great summer blockbuster hope. Following Mossberg's correction, Stringer is reported to have retorted, laughing, "There's an obsession!"We don't know if he's referring to the media's obsession with the corporate gaming rivalry, his own obsession with the console that would dethrone the PlayStation, or some combination of the two (irony really doesn't help here), but he does seem to at least outwardly admire Bill Gates' salesmanship (as well as his hypocrisy in delaying Windows Vista while lambasting the PS3 delay). Of course, a lot of supposed compliments could go both ways, so we've provided a few handy links below to check out what other "nice" things hardware execs have had to say about their competitors lately. We're sure it's all in good fun.[Thanks, JC & SickNic; also via GameDaily BIZ]See also: Nice words -- "Thanks," "flattered," and "flattering." Not-so-nice words -- "Plagiarism," "no need for PC," "not mainstream for most games," and "same old experiences with new graphics."
South Park Republican defends video games in WSJ op-ed
"South Park Republicans" is a term coined to reflect the often libertarian viewpoint represented on the television show of the same name. The term's become so popular there's even a book named after it. Based on those beliefs, it should come as no surprise that the author of that book, Brian C. Anderson, wrote an impassioned defense of video games that ran in the Wall Street Journal's op-ed page today.Anderson repeats many of the arguments we've come to rely on while exposing much of the hypocrisy and double standards employed by would-be critics of gaming. He ends with as level headed a suggestion as we've read in the mainstream media: "Video games are popular culture at its best. Critics would do better to drop the hysterical laments and pick up a joystick." Considering most critics haven't rolled a level 60 character in World of Warcraft, we're inclined to agree.This isn't the first major conservative outlet to come to the defense of video games. In April, the influential National Review Online ran a (very) similar piece defending video games and our right to play them. With such notable conservative outlets carrying a common message, while popular liberal politicians like Hillary Clinton continue to vilify gaming, has the debate over gaming become a mirror of today's polarized political landscape?[Thanks, DMark]
Wright rocks out with the mainstream media
Will Wright has had a very busy month thanks to his upcoming game, Spore. Everyone that saw the gameplay video from GDC '05 knew that the real highlight of this May's E3 would be Wright's presentation. Although his presentation at E3 didn't reveal too much that we didn't already know about Spore, the slightly more mainstream appeal of E3 has resulted in some well deserved coverage from the mainstream media. The positive endorsement by Robin "Sniper" Williams can't have hurt either.The two most notable examples of MSM picking up this story are featured in the Wall Street Journal (subscription required) and the BBC. The Beeb covered Spore and Wright from an angle of user generated content, comparing it to current and past titles that have popularized the concept (e.g. Second Life, The Sims and the popularity of mods like Counter-Strike). The quirky video interview with Wright that runs alongside the article also gives a good idea of how much Wright values user generated content (i.e. a lot). The WSJ picked up the story from a more general "profile of Wright" viewpoint, although it was displayed very prominently. If you picked up last Saturday's edition of the paper it's possibly the first article you would have seen, it being on the front page and all. One of the world's most recognizable and respected business publications profiling a game developer on the front page: they've finally wised up!Read - BBC video interview with WrightRead - Wall Street Journal Spore article
WSJ: Xbox 360 is home of hacker hoedown
The illustrious Wall Street Journal sullied its white gloves while getting down and dirty with the Xbox 360 hacking scene yesterday. They profiled superstar hacker Bunnie Huang (he wrote Hacking the Xbox: An Introduction to Reverse Engineering) and his desire to duplicate his earlier success on the 360.When Microsoft bragged about how hack-proof their console was, we wrote, "Going out of your way to boast about how hack-proof your next product is going to be is probably the only surefire way to get an army of hackers on your ass." Turns out we were right. Huang says of his motivation, "It's about overcoming the challenge Microsoft has set out there ... They've bragged about the security for the Xbox 360, so now it's like: Well, let's see."While Huang hasn't had many successes himself, another 360 hacker (who goes by the hacker alias "Acid Burn" "The Specialist") has had a couple, exploiting the console's DVD-drive's firmware. Huang rightfully doesn't consider it a full decoding of the system, but acknowledges he might not be the one to do it either. "Things are different from a few years ago ... The stakes are higher for Microsoft and the hacking community has intensified its efforts."
Apple Stores buck the trend
I assure you that this post is not just an excuse to use the Wall Street Journal's cool picture of Steve Jobs. No, Nick Wingfield's article about the success of the Apple's retail strategy is well worth the read. Back when Apple first started opening stores I had my doubts. This was the time when Gateway was closing stores left and right, what the heck was Apple doing?Turns out they were doing the right thing, though not everyone is happy. Third party Apple resellers are miffed because they feel Apple ships new products to its stores first (which it probably does) and they are seeing a decline in business as people flock to the Mothership's outpost in their town.This article is free at the moment, but it might go behind the Wall Street Journal's paywall at any moment.
WSJ sez Nokia 770 followup to feature Google Talk
We've known since February that Nokia was working on a QWERTY-sportin' followup to the 770 Internet tablet, and now the Wall Street Journal has confirmed that the included VoIP app will indeed be, as we anticipated, Google Talk. Unfortunately this means that the device will still be unable to call regular phone numbers out of the box, although G Talk members will at least be able to chat among themselves for free. The WSJ is also reporting (only to its subscribers, not to us) that sources close to Nokia have said that the new device will be officially unveiled on Tuesday, and sell for around $390 when it hits stores.
Why doesn't your cable provider offer more features?
Across the country people have cable envy, as someone in Hawaii who might even have the same provider can get an extra HDTV channel or VOD selection they can't. Prices vary, rollouts are staggered, capacity is limited etc. etc. etc. This WSJ article does a bit more delving into the wheres and whys of cable feature offering and prices.Among our HD Beat readers, are you generally satisfied with the selection (everybody needs more high definition channels) and features your cable company offers, or are you waiting to/have already switched to satellite or IPTV offering for more capabilities?
