Having gone toe-to-toe with Macmillan Publishing over e-book prices last month, only to retreat in the face of a consumer backlash, Amazon is once again talking tough with publishers. This time, however, the stakes are even higher for the Kindle-maker.
According to a New York Times report, Amazon is threatening to remove the “buy” button from major publishers’ e-books if they don’t accede to a detailed list of its demands, including that it not be undersold by other e-book retailers. Although Amazon agreed in principle following the Macmillan dust-up to let publishers set retail prices for their Kindle books while it collects a 30 percent commission, the retailer is apparently keen to maintain its most-favored nation status vs. other e-book sellers, including Apple.
The immediate bone of contention, according to the Times, is Amazon’s demand that publishers sign three-year contracts guaranteeing that no other competitor get lower prices or better terms than it does. Publishers are said to be reluctant to commit to three-year deals when prices and consumer behavior are still in flux.
Amazon’s demand also puts publishers in a tight spot with Apple, which is insisting on most-favored nation status for its iBookstore.
While Amazon may have picked the wrong fight with Macmillan, and then overplayed its hand, the outcome of the latest battle really could be critical to the Kindle-maker’s long-term strategy, not because of what it could mean for retail e-book prices but for what it could mean for the Kindle platform.
Both Amazon and Apple share the same long-term e-book strategy. Each wants its device, the Kindle and iPad, respectively, to emerge as the dominant e-reading platform. As Apple itself demonstrated with the iPod and iTunes — a strategy deliberately aped by Amazon — controlling the distribution platform gives you control of the value chain. By locking both iPod users and the record companies into the iTunes platform, Apple was able to capture the lion’s share of the value from online music (mostly by selling expensive iPods).
March 17, 2010
Mobile Apps Are Hot, But Don’t Forget Emerging Markets
The mobile application economy will be worth $17.5 billion by 2012, according to a report released this morning from analyst Chetan Sharma — surpassing that of the worldwide market for CDs. But while all eyes here in the West are focused on the iPhone and Android devices, much of the expected growth will come from users in emerging markets with less sophisticated handsets.
The 19-page document, which was commissioned by the UK app retailer GetJar, found that Asia was the top worldwide market for overall download share in 2009, while North American users accounted for more than 50 percent of total global mobile app revenues. That will change in the next several years, however, as the region comprised of the Middle East and Africa overtake North America to become the world’s largest market for mobile app revenues by 2012.
But unlike North America, where users with high-end smartphones are happy to plunk down a few dollars for a time-killing casual game, growth in emerging markets will lean more heavily on productivity apps used by consumers who don’t have regular fixed-line Internet service. And app developers and distributors will be tasked with finding ways to monetize their wares beyond simple one-off purchases.
March 15, 2010
Apple to replace iPad batteries with a new iPad
After facing criticism—and lawsuits—in the past over the irreplaceable batteries in its products, Apple appears determined to get in front of the issue with the iPad. Three weeks before shipping its new tablet, the company announced an iPad battery replacement program.
You won’t just get a new battery under Apple’s program—the company says it’ll ship you an entirely new iPad if your iPad’s battery no longer holds a charge. The service costs $99 plus a $7 shipping fee.
The replacement program can be set up over the phone. Apple expects it’ll take about a week for you to receive your new iPad. The support document suggests you can also do this in person at an Apple Store or an authorized reseller, which leads me to wonder whether a store employee just hands you a new iPad immediately if one is in stock; the one-week wait is specifically for phoned-in replacements.
There are limits to the program’s generosity. The terms outlined by Apple say the iPad has to be in good condition—aside from its dead battery, of course. Also, since you won’t be getting your first iPad back, it’s on you to make sure your data is synced to iTunes so you don’t lose anything.
The timing of the program’s announcement is interesting. Not only does it come before the iPad’s April 3 arrival date (though right after the company began taking pre-orders for the tablet), but potentially three years before anyone should start to see battery degradation. That’s how the math works out, assuming the iPad’s battery is good for 400 to 500 recharge cycles and you recharge the device every two or three days.
I also wonder what happens in 2012 or 2013 when people return their 2010 model iPads, should Apple come out with a newer version between now and then. I can’t expect that Apple would keep a stockpile old models purely for the purpose of returns, so this might signal an Apple strategy to sell 2010 iPads at a discount alongside newer models, much as the company already does with the iPhone 3G.
[Hat Tip: Apple Insider
]
Read the rest here:
Apple to replace iPad batteries with a new iPad
March 13, 2010
GDC: Mac gaming talk of town, among winners at award shows
On Saturday, the Game Developers Conference wraps up at San Francisco’s Moscone Center. By all accounts, it’s been a very exciting week for Mac gaming.
Though Nintendo, Sony, and others had physically imposing booths that dominated much of the acreage on the showroom floor, the Steam/Valve section of the floor was by far the most crowded area I saw this week. While many people want to work for the developer that created the Half-Life, Left 4 Dead, and Portal series, there’s another reason for the crowd: As people in line revealed to me, the announcement that Steam is coming to the Mac means the company needs manpower to make it happen. With such a massive undertaking underway, aspiring designers and artists figured this was a great time to apply to work for Valve.
But interest in Steam is only one reason Mac gamers should be excited. As any gaming journalist will tell you, the floor is only part of the experience at GDC. The majority of my meetings with developers took place in the various hotels surrounding the Moscone Center. And while you’ll get plenty of news from these interviews, some of the bigger stories took place in the after hours parties.
Street Fighter IV for the iPhone
Capcom had a swanky party to launch Street Fighter IV for the iPhone. Namco held an event at a pool hall to promote its new cross platform technology and to demonstrate a new game on iMacs and iPod touches. These parties show that developers taking the Mac and iPhone seriously, and they’re investing serious money in these projects. Just a year ago, an iPhone/iPod touch game announcement would garner no more than a quick meeting and a small news item. Now publishers rent out entire nightclubs and have extravagant parties to promote their titles. As a journalist taking advantage of these clubs’ open bars, I support this change.
Nowhere was the Mac platform’s rise more apparent than on Thursday evening at The Independent Games Festival Awards and Games Developer Choice Awards. The two award shows are a nerdier, techno-infused version of the Grammys or Emmys. Instead of musical acts, they have hilarious Mega64 videos. Presenters are big names in the gaming business and though no one wears tuxes, it’s still a very high-profile event if you’re a gaming developer.
The Independent Games Festival Awards stylizes itself after the Sundance Film Festival. The annual awards honor the best in independent and student gaming. Many of these developers operate on a shoestring budget and have a history of offering their games for the Mac. Some, like this year’s Best Mobile Game Award winner, Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor (
), already appear in the App Store.
Shank
That’s the only game recognized by the IGF that I’ve played this year, but I’m hoping as these games are released to the mass public, they’ll come to the Mac or iPhone/iPod touch platform I’m looking at you, Shank—based on the amazing trailer, the game is a bloody adventure/platformer game involving lots of violence (I endorse this). Shank was nominated for Excellence in Visual Art, which turned out to be an especially tough category this year.
Owl Boy was also nominated in the category. Unlike Shank, Owl Boy looks more like a PG-rated platformer the likes you haven’t seen since Duck Tales. It looks old school but remarkably well-envisioned with compelling art and unique gameplay elements.
Owl Boy ended up losing out to Limbo in the Visual Art category. Limbo, by PlayDead, uses light and silhouettes to achieve a unique visual style and sense of quiet fear throughout. I’ve never seen anything quite like it. Not surprisingly, Limbo also won the Technical Excellence award.
Though not a winner, Rocketbirds: Revolution! had the most exciting clip of any game I saw that night. Tasked with defeating the evil penguins, you play as a commando chicken codenamed Hardboiled in this action/stealth game. I’d encourage you to check out the flash demo online.
I also want to give a quick shout out to Enviro Bear 2000. I’ve heard more about this game from my non-gaming friends than any other this week. It looks completely ridiculous (the premise, from what I can tell, involves a bear driving and running over things) and I want to play it very badly.
Limbo
Then there’s Super Meat Boy. To quote the info page: “Super Meat Boy is a tough as nails platformer where you play as an animated cube of meat who’s trying to save his girlfriend (who happens to be made of bandages) from an evil fetus in a jar wearing a tux.” It’s weird, it’s funny, it didn’t win any awards but should have.
Immediately following the IGF Award, the Game Developers Choice Awards recognized the best in gaming for the year. Games that appeared on the Mac and iPhone/iPod touch were surprisingly well represented in the nominations. Even compared to a year ago, Mac users are getting more quality games to play.
Dragon Age: Origins () for Mac was nominated for Best Writing and Best Audio; Plants vs. Zombies () for Mac was nominated for Best Game Design, Best Downloadable Game, and the Innovation Award; Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor was nominated for Best Debut and Best Handheld Game; and Flight Control () was nominated for Best Handheld Game. These were all serious contenders to take home the hardware, and while none of them won any of the Game Developers Choice awards, you could make an argument for each of them they were deserving. Dragon Age: Origins and Plants vs. Zombies, two games that appeared on the Mac within months of their original releases on other platforms, were particularly recognized by their multiple nominations. Yes, sometimes it is an honor to be nominated.
Enviro Bear 2000
Finally, there’s Torchlight. Torchlight is a fantasy RPG that won for Best Debut and is a title that every Mac gamer should pay attention to. As stated in their blog, Runic Games are currently working on a version for Snow Leopard. If there is anything that is going to challenge Dragon Age for the coveted title of “best RPG I’ve played in the last year” it’s probably Torchlight.
[Chris Holt is a Macworld associate editor.]
Original post:
GDC: Mac gaming talk of town, among winners at award shows
Review: Pocket Chef for iPhone
-
3.0 out of 5 mice
Reviewed Mar 13, 2010 Reviewed Version: 1.0.4 (iPhone OS 3.0 Tested) -
36 user reviews
Developer: Gameloft S.A.
Age rating: 12+
Compatibility: Compatible with iPhone and iPod touch.
Requires iPhone OS 2.2.1 or later.
Filed Under: Games
March 12, 2010
Video Debate: Should You Get The iPad Now?
If any of you still have some doubts on whether to hit this big shiny purchase button that will appear next to the iPad on apple.com in a couple hours, then here is something for you. G4TV organised a little debate between Silicon Valley Insider’s Dan Frommer and Gizmodo’s Matt Buchanan on the topic and it’s actually pretty decent.
Check it out:
I’m with Frommer on this one, you?
On the same topic, the NYTimes has a nice little Q&A on which model will be the right one for you.
Related Posts
- Appisode 90: iPad Pre-Sales Start Tomorrow! Multitasking May Be Available Soon, Plus We Have Some New Awesome Accessories
- iPhone 3.2 SDK Hints At Video Chat For iPhone/iPad
- Discover iPad Safari On Video
- Video: Pee-Wee Herman Gets His Very Own iPad
- The iPad In Action : Video
Read the original here:
Video Debate: Should You Get The iPad Now?
March 9, 2010
10 Austin Startups You Should Meet While You’re at SXSW
Since more than 30,000 people are coming here to Austin for South by Southwest, I figured I’d offer up a list of local companies that members of the digerati should take the time to meet while they’re in town. Austin has a ton of startups, but I tried to highlight the ones doing things that Austinites do well (such as enterprise social media efforts and hardware) as well as those I think are about to break out and become bigger.
A note to those folks following the manufactured Foursquare-Gowalla smackdown: Gowalla is not listed because most people have already met with Josh Williams, Gowalla’s founder, and I wanted to save room for some unknown Austinites.
March 1, 2010
The Few, the Brave — the Army iPhone App
If you work for the U.S. Army and spend all your spare time hacking the iPhone and Android or fooling around with HTML5, this is a contest for you: The Army’s Chief Information Office is launching a competition aimed at mobile and web apps, with cash awards totaling $30,000 and the chance to get your application the military seal of approval. The contest is a joint venture with iStrategyLabs, and is based on that company’s successful Apps For Democracy project, which was a joint venture with the Washington, D.C.’s Office of the CTO in 2008.
iStrategyLabs founder and CEO Peter Corbett describes on the company’s blog how the contest will work. It starts with a press conference and media (and blogger) roundtable on March 3 at the Pentagon with Lieutenant General Jeffery Sorenson (the Army’s chief information officer) and runs until May 15th. A total of 100 teams will be selected to compete for one or more of 40 cash awards totaling $30,000. Awards will be announced in June, with public demonstrations. The competition comes with a software repository (forge.mil), a cloud-based development sandbox, a collaboration space designed around an Apps for the Army group on MilBook (the Army’s version of Facebook) and a Twitter hashtag: #apps4army.
Corbett says the idea for the project came from O’Reilly Media founder and CEO Tim O’Reilly, who said on Twitter after announcing the competition that he had hoped to get the rest of the U.S. military involved as well, but wound up only getting the Army on board. The Army has been making some significant strides in the areas of social media over the past year or two, including the launch of CIO Sorenson’s Twitter account, which the lieutenant-general posts to himself (in contrast to many other government departments). It also recently released a surprisingly forward-thinking social media policy.
How AT&T Plans to Keep SxSW From Swamping its Network
Smartphones, including iPhones were all the rage at SxSW in 2009.
Last year, the hordes of South by Southwest-attending geeks toting iPhones blew out the AT&T network around the convention center in Austin, resulting in dropped calls and crappy connections for many attendees. The subsequent news coverage showed off Ma Bell’s network failures for the entire world (or at least the world that cares about such things.) This year, having activated more than 8.7 million more iPhones since last March’s debacle, AT&T is pulling out all the stops to make sure the digerati have the coverage they want during SxSW 2010. Here’s how.
- A Distributed Antenna System (DAS) at the Austin Convention Center: This system provides the equivalent coverage of eight cell sites, with 50 antenna nodes providing coverage throughout the venue. The system was completed in recent weeks.
- Beefing up the Cell sites: Austin isn’t the only city to benefit from this, but AT&T has moved from one radio network “carrier” to three in the city, which essentially enables the carrier to use more of its spectrum. My sources tell me this means AT&T is using about 30 MHz of spectrum for 3G rather than the 10 MHz that one radio network carrier would offer. And speaking of spectrum, the upgrade to the 850 MHz band that was begun in a rush during the last SxSW will also help, as will the upgrade to HSPA that AT&T completed across its network earlier this year.
- Three temporary cell sites: The carrier will deploy two Cells on Wheels (COWS), as well as add a third temporary site on an undisclosed rooftop. Those sites will provide AT&T Wi-Fi as well as 3G service, and are positioned where SxSW organizers and AT&T expect to see large amounts of traffic.
- Better Backhaul: AT&T was scant with details but said via email: “Compared with last year, we have added fiber-optic connections to more than quadruple the backhaul capacity of each of the eight cell sites that serve the event area, and temporary sites will also be served by extensive backhaul.”
AT&T worked with South by Southwest event planners to make sure the system in place will suffice, and it’s not turning its back on the event this year either. Last year, the complaints caught the carrier off guard, but for 2010 a team of AT&T network engineers will monitor the Austin network 24/7 throughout the duration of the event to make sure it stays up.
February 26, 2010
Remainders – The Things We Didn’t Post: Breaking News Edition [Remainders]
In today’s Remainders: news that’s breaking. Boxee Beta is available on Apple TV; Symbian^4 rears its ugly head; analysts analyze things and predict cheaper iPhones; Carly Simon reveals who was so vain; and a nation-sized iceberg breaks free in Antarctica.
Boxee On Your Apple Boxy
According to the Boxee blog, Boxee Beta is now available on Apple TV. If you had the Alpha version installed you can just update the Launcher, but if you’re going in fresh you’ll need to go through the atvusb-creator and then follow these instructions. H.264 playback is improved but still doesn’t have the benefit of hardware acceleration. More bad news: no Crystal HD support, yet, though the forums are already clamoring so there’s always hope for the next update. [Engadget]
IBM Improvements
At the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics conference in Seattle—sounds like a ton of fun, doesn’t it?—IBM announced a new algorithm that allows machines to process data at crazyfast speeds, reportedly reducing the cost of the dealing with gigantic sets of data by an order of two magnitudes. In a test, the new algorithm crunched through 9TB of data—a process that would normally take about a day—in about the time it’d take to watch one episode of Seinfeld sans commercials. Fast! IBM’s being tight-lipped with the details so no one’s quite sure how or where the improvements were made, but they seem pretty darn excited about it in their press release. So fast, so furious. [Seattle Times]
Symbian…Fore!
Symbian^3 isn’t even supposed to show up until sometime in the fall, but today videos showing a development version of Symbian^4 cropped up and they are none too exciting. You get some transition animations, some largely uninspired widgets, a droopy Dali clock and not much else. Don’t worry too much, though—Symbian^4 won’t be cropping up in its final version for another year or so. That leaves plenty of time for improvement. [SlashGear]
So Vain
Today, one of the most enduring questions in all of pop music came to a close. The subject of Carly Simon’s 1972 song “You’re So Vain” has been a topic of intense speculation since the song’s release, and ever since it came to light that Deep Throat was that one dude, there might not have been a higher profile case of mystery identity. Well, in a rerecorded version of the song, Simon answered the riddle…backwards. Playing the new record in reverse reveals the name of the vain individual to be David. As in David Geffen, the rich, bald fellow who headed Simon’s label, Elecktra, back in the early 70s. Apparently Simon felt the need to immortalize Geffen in song because the exec was giving Joni Mitchell, a labelmate, more attention. So anyway now it’s settled, and no one will think the song is about them again. [The Awl]
Burr!
Oh shit. An iceberg the size of Luxembourg, which, for those who don’t have a handle on their European geography, is about a third larger than Rhode Island, broke free of Antarctica and is now floating about on the southern pole of our planet. The thousand square mile ice cube could have all sorts of consequences down the line, depending on how it moves in the open water. One of them involves messing up the habitat of a huge colony of Emperor penguins that live nearby. Penguins are just about the cutest thing Antarctica has going for it and icebergs are probably among the worst, so this development is unsettling, to say the least. [Times Online]
Netvertible
In an announcement that no one was waiting for, Viliv confirmed the price of their S10 Blade netvertible: $699. Not exceptionally cheap for an Atom-powered, folding Windows 7 netbook with a touch screen. Also, you have to ask yourself: do you really want to be carrying around something that’s proudly marketed as a “netvertible?” Like the type of cars it’s styled after, I imagine the Blade will look nice but lack performance when the going gets tough. [Engadget]
Wow
A study commissioned by the Australian government on the risk of crime in virtual games was recently completed. As games like World of Warcraft and Second Life continue to thrive, and as their real world economies continue to grow, the AU Institute of Criminology thought it was about time to start setting up some guidelines for keeping virtual activity lawful. One particular, unusual aspect of the games that was given a close look: virtual rape. Apparently a Second Life rape in 2007 required Belgian police forces to patrol the online world to prevent further incidents, and several other instances have left authorities unsure of how to respond. Welcome to 2010, my friends. [Slashdot]
Analysis
Analysts, who are hardly ever wrong, are saying that come June Apple is going to announce new iPhones that not only have new features but are cheaper, as well. Analysts are traditionally reliable on these sorts of matters and there is plenty of evidence that Apple’s new iPhone will indeed be cheaper, perhaps even free. Oh wait a moment, I had that confused. No, actually, these are just the idle musings of a Morgan Stanley analyst and there is no evidence that these things will come to pass in June. Sorry about that! [Apple Insider]
More:
Remainders – The Things We Didn’t Post: Breaking News Edition [Remainders]
Powered by WordPress