A slew of top-notch titles are slated for release this season, writes Seth Schiesel in New York
There is no way to sugarcoat it: the 2009 holiday season appears to have the weakest lineup of bigbudget titles in the last several years.
But that is not necessarily a bad thing.In recent years many game publishers have been far too enamoured of the idea that a big game can succeed only if released after Labor Day. The problem has been that so many major games were being released within weeks of one another that excellent games sometimes went unnoticed.
Now publishers are wising up, realising that a top game can generate wordof-mouth buzz and sustainable sales over many months, if not years. That makes the holiday season a bit less important, which is why publishers have been content to let a raft of major titles originally slated for late 2009 slip into 2010. And besides, it is going to be difficult for any game this holiday season to compete in popularity with the commercial monster known as The Beatles:Rock Band .(By the way, the scheduled lineup for next year, beginning in January, is stellar, and 2010 may well go down as the best year ever in gaming.)
That said, dozens of top-notch games are scheduled for release this fall, with titles aimed at children, adults and players of all skill levels. They range from casual diversions to ultraimmersion virtual realities that can easily occupy hundreds or thousands of hours.
Here, then, in alphabetical order, are 10 games to watch for this fall.
Aion
World of Warcraft has been dominant in online role-playing for so many years (coming up on five) that it may be difficult to imagine that another game could steal a significant number of Warcraft players. Certainly the contenders have come and, mostly, gone.Aion has the best chance yet; its fantasy environments look far better than Warcraft 's, and the gameplay is solid.
Released September 22 by NCsoft for Microsoft Windows.
Assassin's Creed II
The first Assassin's Creed set the player as a killer in the Middle East during the Crusades. The sequel is set in Renaissance Italy. Entire cities, including Venice and Florence, will be at players' disposal to explore and exploit as they wish,hiding and sneaking before striking from the shadows.
To be released Nov.17 by Ubisoft for PS3, Windows and 360.
Borderlands
It can be hard to trust a game that goes through a major redesign midway through its development, as Borderlands did. But I'm a sucker for any postapocalyptic combat simulation that gives me millions of possible gun configurations to play with. To be released Oct.20 by 2K Games for Sony's PlayStation 3, Windows and Microsoft's Xbox 360.
Brutal Legend
The Beatles are nice, but sometimes you want to rock out to something a bit harder.Brutal Legend is the story of a heavy-metal roadie (voiced by Jack Black) who winds up in a hair-band fantasy land. Unlike Rock Band or Guitar Hero , this is not actually a music game but an action-adventure romp with a hard-rock theme (including more than 100 heavy-metal songs in the soundtrack).
To be released Oct.13 by Electronic Arts for PS3 and 360.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Without question the most anticipated title of the fall for core gamers,Modern Warfare 2 is expected to succeed its predecessor as the most sophisticated and intense yet accessible digital rendition of today's battlefields. Of course it's still a game, but Modern Warfare 2 ,set largely in Central Asia, is meant to get players as close to the action as possible without actually strapping on a flak jacket.
To be released Nov.10 by Activision for PS3, Windows and 360.
Dead Space: Extraction
This prequel to last year's gory, bileinducing survival-horror hit Dead Space is coming only to Nintendo's usually family-oriented Wii console. That is a bold, impressive choice for Electronic Arts, the game's publisher; the Wii needs more games for adults, and Extraction is quite welcome in that vein, so to speak.
To be released Sept.29.
DJ Hero
With all the attention being paid to The Beatles: Rock Band ,DJ Hero is set to hit store shelves under the radar. It won't stay there for long. There are millions of music fans out there who happen to prefer hip-hop and dance music to classic guitar rock. Activision has brought in big-time talent like Eminem, Jay-Z and DJ AM, who died last month, to consult on the game,which features a mock turntable controller.
To be released Oct.27 for PlayStation 2, PS3, Wii and 360.
Dragon Age: Origins
There aren't a lot of old-school singleplayer fantasy role-playing games around anymore. Anyone who hankers for the days of Ultima Bard's Tale Might & Magic and Baldur's Gate will almost certainly have to play Dragon Age , which is being developed by the role-playing royalty at BioWare .Get ready to hack, slash and start throwing magical fireballs around.
To be released by Electronic Arts on Nov.3 for Windows and 360 and later that month for PS3.
New Super Mario Bros. WII
Few games require less introduction than Super Mario Bros . This version,however, will be the first to allow multiple players at the same time. That alone should make the game worth buying.After all, how could you own a Wii and ignore Mario ?To be released sometime between October and year's end by Nintendo for the Wii.
Professor Layton and The Diabolical Box
Perhaps the most cerebral game on this list, the new Professor Layton is the sequel to one of last year's sleeper hits,Professor Layton and the Curious Village .At their core the games are simply a collection of dozens of brainteasers,riddles and puzzles. But their charm stems from their woodblock-style art direction and quirky storytelling.
Released last month for the Nintendo DS hand-held console.
Friday, September 25, 2009
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Magnificent seven
In the most important, most revered event since the invention of the brontosaurus trap,Microsoft shipped the most incredibly fabulous operating system ever made; the release of Windows 7 also spurred a new generation of personal computers of all sizes at prices well below last month's offers.The top reason Windows 7 does not suck: There is no registered website called Windows7Sucks.com
Kindle e-book reader maker Amazon.com and new Nook e-book reader vendor Barnes and Noble got it on; B&N got great reviews for the "Kindle killer"Nook, with dual screens and touch controls so you can "turn" pages, plays MP3s and allows many non-B&N book formats, although not the Kindle one;Amazon then killed the US version of its Kindle in favour of the international one, reduced its price to $260(8,700 baht), same as the Nook; it's not yet clear what you can get in Thailand with a Nook, but you sure can't (yet) get much, relatively speaking, with a Kindle;but here's the biggest difference so far,which Amazon.com has ignored: the Nook lets you lend e-books to any other Nook owner, just as if they were paper books; the borrowed books expire on the borrower's Nook in two weeks.
Phone maker Nokia of Finland announced it is suing iPhone maker Apple of America for being a copycat; lawyers said they figure Nokia can get at least one, probably two per cent (retail) for every iPhone sold by Steve "President for Life" Jobs and crew via the lawsuit,which sure beats working for it -$6 (200 baht) to $12(400 baht) on 30 million phones sold so far, works out to $400 million or 25 percent of the whole Apple empire profits during the last quarter;there were 10 patent thefts, the Finnish executives said, on everything from moving data to security and encryption.
Nokia of Finland announced that it is one month behind on shipping its new flagship N900 phone, the first to run on Linux software; delay of the $750(25,000 baht) phone had absolutely no part in making Nokia so short that it had to sue Apple, slap yourself for such a thought.
Tim Berners-Lee, who created the World Wide Web, said he had one regret:the double slash that follows the "http:"in standard web addresses; he estimated that 14.2 gazillion users have wasted 48.72 bazillion hours typing those two keystrokes, and he's sorry; of course there's no reason to ever type that, since your browser does it for you when you type "www.bangkokpost.com" but Tim needs to admit he made one error in his lifetime.
The International Telecommunication Union of the United Nations, which doesn't sell any phones or services, announced that there should be a mobile phone charger that will work with any phone; now who would ever have thought of that, without a UN body to wind up a major study on the subject?;the GSM Association estimates that 51,000 tonnes of chargers are made each year in order to keep companies able to have their own unique ones.
The Well, Doh Award of the Week was presented at arm's length to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development; the group's deputy secretary-general Petko Draganov said that developing countries will miss some of the stuff available on the Internet if they don't install more broadband infrastructure; a report that used your tax baht to compile said that quite a few people use mobile phones but companies are more likely to invest in countries with excellent broadband connections; no one ever had thought of this before, right?
Sun Microsystems , as a result of the Oracle takeover, said it will allow 3,000 current workers never to bother coming to work again; Sun referred to the losses as "jobs," not people; now the fourth largest server maker in the world, Sun said it lost $2.2 billion in its last fiscal year; European regulators are holding up approval of the Oracle purchase in the hope of getting some money in exchange for not involving Oracle in court cases.
The multi-gazillionaire and very annoying investor Carl Icahn resigned from the board at Yahoo ; he spun it as a vote of confidence, saying current directors are taking the formerly threatened company seriously; Yahoo reported increased profits but smaller revenues in the third quarter.
The US House of Representatives voted to censure Vietnam for jailing bloggers; the non-binding resolution sponsored by southern California congresswoman Loretta Sanchez said the Internet is "a crucial tool for the citizens of Vietnam to be able to exercise their freedom of expression and association;"Hanoi has recently jailed at least nine activists for up to six years apiece for holding pro-democracy banners. Iran jailed blogger Hossein "Hoder" Derakshan for 10 months - in solitary confinement.
Kindle e-book reader maker Amazon.com and new Nook e-book reader vendor Barnes and Noble got it on; B&N got great reviews for the "Kindle killer"Nook, with dual screens and touch controls so you can "turn" pages, plays MP3s and allows many non-B&N book formats, although not the Kindle one;Amazon then killed the US version of its Kindle in favour of the international one, reduced its price to $260(8,700 baht), same as the Nook; it's not yet clear what you can get in Thailand with a Nook, but you sure can't (yet) get much, relatively speaking, with a Kindle;but here's the biggest difference so far,which Amazon.com has ignored: the Nook lets you lend e-books to any other Nook owner, just as if they were paper books; the borrowed books expire on the borrower's Nook in two weeks.
Phone maker Nokia of Finland announced it is suing iPhone maker Apple of America for being a copycat; lawyers said they figure Nokia can get at least one, probably two per cent (retail) for every iPhone sold by Steve "President for Life" Jobs and crew via the lawsuit,which sure beats working for it -$6 (200 baht) to $12(400 baht) on 30 million phones sold so far, works out to $400 million or 25 percent of the whole Apple empire profits during the last quarter;there were 10 patent thefts, the Finnish executives said, on everything from moving data to security and encryption.
Nokia of Finland announced that it is one month behind on shipping its new flagship N900 phone, the first to run on Linux software; delay of the $750(25,000 baht) phone had absolutely no part in making Nokia so short that it had to sue Apple, slap yourself for such a thought.
Tim Berners-Lee, who created the World Wide Web, said he had one regret:the double slash that follows the "http:"in standard web addresses; he estimated that 14.2 gazillion users have wasted 48.72 bazillion hours typing those two keystrokes, and he's sorry; of course there's no reason to ever type that, since your browser does it for you when you type "www.bangkokpost.com" but Tim needs to admit he made one error in his lifetime.
The International Telecommunication Union of the United Nations, which doesn't sell any phones or services, announced that there should be a mobile phone charger that will work with any phone; now who would ever have thought of that, without a UN body to wind up a major study on the subject?;the GSM Association estimates that 51,000 tonnes of chargers are made each year in order to keep companies able to have their own unique ones.
The Well, Doh Award of the Week was presented at arm's length to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development; the group's deputy secretary-general Petko Draganov said that developing countries will miss some of the stuff available on the Internet if they don't install more broadband infrastructure; a report that used your tax baht to compile said that quite a few people use mobile phones but companies are more likely to invest in countries with excellent broadband connections; no one ever had thought of this before, right?
Sun Microsystems , as a result of the Oracle takeover, said it will allow 3,000 current workers never to bother coming to work again; Sun referred to the losses as "jobs," not people; now the fourth largest server maker in the world, Sun said it lost $2.2 billion in its last fiscal year; European regulators are holding up approval of the Oracle purchase in the hope of getting some money in exchange for not involving Oracle in court cases.
The multi-gazillionaire and very annoying investor Carl Icahn resigned from the board at Yahoo ; he spun it as a vote of confidence, saying current directors are taking the formerly threatened company seriously; Yahoo reported increased profits but smaller revenues in the third quarter.
The US House of Representatives voted to censure Vietnam for jailing bloggers; the non-binding resolution sponsored by southern California congresswoman Loretta Sanchez said the Internet is "a crucial tool for the citizens of Vietnam to be able to exercise their freedom of expression and association;"Hanoi has recently jailed at least nine activists for up to six years apiece for holding pro-democracy banners. Iran jailed blogger Hossein "Hoder" Derakshan for 10 months - in solitary confinement.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
"Gone in 60 seconds" takes on a whole new meaning
Ihave been using Excel and Access 2007 recently and there are some good points and bad points about these products, especially for those who want to delve a bit deeper into things.
The first thing I discovered that really annoyed me was that you can't use any of the usual SQL comments in Access SQL queries, as the Jet Database Engine doesn't support this. Some other SQL that would work just fine under, say,SQLServer also does not run. No prizes for guessing that is a deliberate ploy to get people to upgrade to SQLServer from Access.
That being said, I really like the power of Microsoft Queries and how you can turn these into reports within Excel. You will have to learn a bit about conditional formatting and =IF() statements, but with a bit of work you can turn your data in Access into a fairly decent report under Excel.
Pivot Tables are really powerful in Excel 2007 and a lot easier to use. Moving both Microsoft Queries and Pivot Tables between Excel 2003 and Excel 2007 can be a bit of a pain as well. Also do not point to an empty Access table with a Microsoft Query or you may have to reboot to get out of it. You would think that they would have considered that as a possibility, but not so.
I am still frustrated by the rearrangement of where things are under the new Ribbon implementation but that is a matter of practice. Sometimes things are not in the places you would expect to find them.
Industry news
If you think that your wireless network is safe, think again. Some networking nerds say they can break the Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) encryption within 60 seconds. So "gone in 60 seconds" can take on a whole new meaning here. How they do it is a little technical but the old record was somewhere between 10-15 minutes.Shortening the time is a great boost to hackers but not so good for users.
The good news is that the technique will not work for WPA 2, the AES-based successor to WPA. The bad news is that this system is not yet widely available.
With more good news comes the announcement that someone has released the source code for a Windows Trojan that can record Skype calls as MP3 files. Not so good for your VoIP privacy. The individual concerned said that it was released so that malware protection could be created as quickly as possible.
There are the usual conspiracy theories that a government or two wanted this capability to be able to eavesdrop on Skype calls. Germany has been quite vocal on the issue and law enforcement agencies in Europe and the US have also been looking for this capability. As with any malware, you have to be infected first. If you take the regular precautions,you will not be subject to such an attack.
So I was scanning though Engadget looking at all the new toys and I saw that Sony is brining out a motion-based controller. The unit is being compared to Microsoft's Natal project.
I admit to being impressed with the Sony demo. It uses a camera, called an "eye", to track the unit in the hand. The motion tracking is also one-to-one so that as the controller is moved it tracks on the screen with whatever is being represented, be it a racket, a weapon or just about anything you can think of.
Compared to the Microsoft demo, I don't see them being competitive. Of course this is just an extension of the already popular Nintendo technology and I suspect that they will have something similar out, perhaps before Sony delivers their product. Microsoft's product will be for the more casual user.
It can't help Microsoft that their Xbox has been rated as the least reliable console, with a nearly 24 percent failure rate after two years compared to 10 percent for Sony's PS3 and under 3 percent for Nintendo. You can find the full report here www.squaretrade.com.
Researchers at Sentrigo have discovered a security vulnerability in SQL Server 2000,2005 and 2008.As an Administrator you can change passwords but not see them. The hole allows Administrators to see the passwords and possibly use them without the user being aware, like they would be if the password was changed. Microsoft says administrators have lots of control anyway so this is not an issue they are going to address. This gives me the usual warm, fuzzy feeling of security.
On the subject of security a survey by PC tools has found that women are better than men at using passwords, in the UK at least. I guess it has something to do with creativity,attention to detail and being better at wanting to hide things. It reported however that men are better at knowing what the risks are when using the Internet and applications such as Facebook.
Toshiba claims that it is winning in the 2.5" hard drive area with a 640GB drive but Seagate had already released one before them without the fanfare.Like all things in the computer market this will not stand for very long as Western Digital and Toshiba have already announced 1TB drives. Let's see who wins this one, and for how short a time they will wear the crown.
In Apple news you can now edit Microsoft Office 2007 documents with your iPhone. The first question that comes to mind when you have no keyboard is why? Quickoffice was rolled out with support for .docx and .xlsx files,which is somewhat brave since the Word legal challenge has not been resolved as yet.
This means that iPhone users can now edit the latest file formats for Office 2008 for the Mac and Office 2007. The Office Open XML files, a Microsoft standard that was rushed through the approval process, are supported to write
along with read for .PDF and PowerPoint files. It costs $14.99(510 baht) and at the time of writing this was the best-selling app in the business - but you can't use it for business - section of the Apple iStore.
In Linux news, administrators at the Apache Software Foundation faced a recent hacker attack that briefly closed down their site a week and a bit back,
It had something to do with Secure Shell keys facilitating the attack. None of the coderepositories were touched.The issue has been addressed by generating 4096 bit keys, which at this point in the security evolution are not crackable without a very powerful set of computers working for a very, very long time. They also implemented some other changes.
What makes this attack so interesting is that the foundation made public the whole process from front to back and also pointed out how quickly they not only recovered from the attack but immediately implemented changes to stop any further attempts.They also were very candid about their mistakes in the matter something other large organisations could learn from.Apple will never discuss security breaches with the public no matter how obvious they may have been and Microsoft will often take quite a while to address an issue.
The first thing I discovered that really annoyed me was that you can't use any of the usual SQL comments in Access SQL queries, as the Jet Database Engine doesn't support this. Some other SQL that would work just fine under, say,SQLServer also does not run. No prizes for guessing that is a deliberate ploy to get people to upgrade to SQLServer from Access.
That being said, I really like the power of Microsoft Queries and how you can turn these into reports within Excel. You will have to learn a bit about conditional formatting and =IF() statements, but with a bit of work you can turn your data in Access into a fairly decent report under Excel.
Pivot Tables are really powerful in Excel 2007 and a lot easier to use. Moving both Microsoft Queries and Pivot Tables between Excel 2003 and Excel 2007 can be a bit of a pain as well. Also do not point to an empty Access table with a Microsoft Query or you may have to reboot to get out of it. You would think that they would have considered that as a possibility, but not so.
I am still frustrated by the rearrangement of where things are under the new Ribbon implementation but that is a matter of practice. Sometimes things are not in the places you would expect to find them.
Industry news
If you think that your wireless network is safe, think again. Some networking nerds say they can break the Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) encryption within 60 seconds. So "gone in 60 seconds" can take on a whole new meaning here. How they do it is a little technical but the old record was somewhere between 10-15 minutes.Shortening the time is a great boost to hackers but not so good for users.
The good news is that the technique will not work for WPA 2, the AES-based successor to WPA. The bad news is that this system is not yet widely available.
With more good news comes the announcement that someone has released the source code for a Windows Trojan that can record Skype calls as MP3 files. Not so good for your VoIP privacy. The individual concerned said that it was released so that malware protection could be created as quickly as possible.
There are the usual conspiracy theories that a government or two wanted this capability to be able to eavesdrop on Skype calls. Germany has been quite vocal on the issue and law enforcement agencies in Europe and the US have also been looking for this capability. As with any malware, you have to be infected first. If you take the regular precautions,you will not be subject to such an attack.
So I was scanning though Engadget looking at all the new toys and I saw that Sony is brining out a motion-based controller. The unit is being compared to Microsoft's Natal project.
I admit to being impressed with the Sony demo. It uses a camera, called an "eye", to track the unit in the hand. The motion tracking is also one-to-one so that as the controller is moved it tracks on the screen with whatever is being represented, be it a racket, a weapon or just about anything you can think of.
Compared to the Microsoft demo, I don't see them being competitive. Of course this is just an extension of the already popular Nintendo technology and I suspect that they will have something similar out, perhaps before Sony delivers their product. Microsoft's product will be for the more casual user.
It can't help Microsoft that their Xbox has been rated as the least reliable console, with a nearly 24 percent failure rate after two years compared to 10 percent for Sony's PS3 and under 3 percent for Nintendo. You can find the full report here www.squaretrade.com.
Researchers at Sentrigo have discovered a security vulnerability in SQL Server 2000,2005 and 2008.As an Administrator you can change passwords but not see them. The hole allows Administrators to see the passwords and possibly use them without the user being aware, like they would be if the password was changed. Microsoft says administrators have lots of control anyway so this is not an issue they are going to address. This gives me the usual warm, fuzzy feeling of security.
On the subject of security a survey by PC tools has found that women are better than men at using passwords, in the UK at least. I guess it has something to do with creativity,attention to detail and being better at wanting to hide things. It reported however that men are better at knowing what the risks are when using the Internet and applications such as Facebook.
Toshiba claims that it is winning in the 2.5" hard drive area with a 640GB drive but Seagate had already released one before them without the fanfare.Like all things in the computer market this will not stand for very long as Western Digital and Toshiba have already announced 1TB drives. Let's see who wins this one, and for how short a time they will wear the crown.
In Apple news you can now edit Microsoft Office 2007 documents with your iPhone. The first question that comes to mind when you have no keyboard is why? Quickoffice was rolled out with support for .docx and .xlsx files,which is somewhat brave since the Word legal challenge has not been resolved as yet.
This means that iPhone users can now edit the latest file formats for Office 2008 for the Mac and Office 2007. The Office Open XML files, a Microsoft standard that was rushed through the approval process, are supported to write
along with read for .PDF and PowerPoint files. It costs $14.99(510 baht) and at the time of writing this was the best-selling app in the business - but you can't use it for business - section of the Apple iStore.
In Linux news, administrators at the Apache Software Foundation faced a recent hacker attack that briefly closed down their site a week and a bit back,
It had something to do with Secure Shell keys facilitating the attack. None of the coderepositories were touched.The issue has been addressed by generating 4096 bit keys, which at this point in the security evolution are not crackable without a very powerful set of computers working for a very, very long time. They also implemented some other changes.
What makes this attack so interesting is that the foundation made public the whole process from front to back and also pointed out how quickly they not only recovered from the attack but immediately implemented changes to stop any further attempts.They also were very candid about their mistakes in the matter something other large organisations could learn from.Apple will never discuss security breaches with the public no matter how obvious they may have been and Microsoft will often take quite a while to address an issue.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Buzz grows ahead of Apple media event
Will it be upgraded iPods? The Beatles finally coming to iTunes? A tablet computer? An appearance by Steve Jobs?
Apple is holding an event for the media today and rumours and speculation about its plans have reached their usual fever pitch.
The California-based company invited journalists to the event - to be held at 10.00 am Pacific time at a downtown San Francisco theatre - but with its usual air of mystery did not reveal what it would be about.
The invitation featured a picture of a woman in silhouette dancing with an iPod in her hand and a single line from a Rolling Stones song:"It's only rock and roll, but we like it."
The company co-founded by Jobs and Steve Wozniak more than 30 years ago is traditionally secretive about its projects,revealing them only at launch and guarding zealously against leaks.
Despite the Rolling Stones reference in the invitation, the buzz on Silicon Valley technology blogs and fan sites has been that Apple may finally announce the availability of the Beatles on iTunes,its online music store.
A digitally remastered catalogue of the music of the "Fab Four" is scheduled for release the same day, as is the video game "The Beatles: Rock Band," which is expected to be a smash hit worldwide.
Backing up the Beatles connection is the scheduling of the Apple event for September 9,2009 or 09/09/09.
"Number nine, number nine, number nine," as fans of George Harrison, John Lennon, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr know, is the phrase chanted repeatedly on the White Album.
"Getting the Beatles in iTunes is some-thing that's been expected for some time," said technology analyst Rob Enderle of Silicon Valley's Enderle Group."This may be when they finally do it."
Enderle said he did not think it likely Apple would use the event to unveil a long-rumoured touch-screen tablet-sized computer that can surf the Internet and also serve as an electronic book reader like Amazon's Kindle.
"There's been a lot of expectation that they may launch the iPad but I just don't think Steve's had enough time since his return to look at it," he said.
Apple chief executive Jobs returned to work in June from a nearly six-month medical leave of absence during which he received a liver transplant.
Enderle said upgraded iPods might be on display at the event.
"We may see enhancements to the iPod line to get people putting them back on their Christmas list again," he said.
"The iPod touch might get a camera,which would a natural for that device."
As for an appearance by the 54-yearold Jobs, who hasn't been seen in public since October of last year, Enderle said "I would be very surprised if they didn't have him there in some shape or form,maybe video conference him in.
"If it were me that's the way I'd do it," he said.
Apple may shy away from putting Jobs physically on stage "because he looks so incredibly emaciated", Enderle said.
"That would put the focus on how bad he looks and not on the products."
In the absence of Jobs, Apple vice president of marketing Phil Schiller has presided over the rollout of new products,taking the stage at a Macworld conference in San Francisco in January and unveiling the iPhone 3GS in June.
Apple is holding an event for the media today and rumours and speculation about its plans have reached their usual fever pitch.
The California-based company invited journalists to the event - to be held at 10.00 am Pacific time at a downtown San Francisco theatre - but with its usual air of mystery did not reveal what it would be about.
The invitation featured a picture of a woman in silhouette dancing with an iPod in her hand and a single line from a Rolling Stones song:"It's only rock and roll, but we like it."
The company co-founded by Jobs and Steve Wozniak more than 30 years ago is traditionally secretive about its projects,revealing them only at launch and guarding zealously against leaks.
Despite the Rolling Stones reference in the invitation, the buzz on Silicon Valley technology blogs and fan sites has been that Apple may finally announce the availability of the Beatles on iTunes,its online music store.
A digitally remastered catalogue of the music of the "Fab Four" is scheduled for release the same day, as is the video game "The Beatles: Rock Band," which is expected to be a smash hit worldwide.
Backing up the Beatles connection is the scheduling of the Apple event for September 9,2009 or 09/09/09.
"Number nine, number nine, number nine," as fans of George Harrison, John Lennon, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr know, is the phrase chanted repeatedly on the White Album.
"Getting the Beatles in iTunes is some-thing that's been expected for some time," said technology analyst Rob Enderle of Silicon Valley's Enderle Group."This may be when they finally do it."
Enderle said he did not think it likely Apple would use the event to unveil a long-rumoured touch-screen tablet-sized computer that can surf the Internet and also serve as an electronic book reader like Amazon's Kindle.
"There's been a lot of expectation that they may launch the iPad but I just don't think Steve's had enough time since his return to look at it," he said.
Apple chief executive Jobs returned to work in June from a nearly six-month medical leave of absence during which he received a liver transplant.
Enderle said upgraded iPods might be on display at the event.
"We may see enhancements to the iPod line to get people putting them back on their Christmas list again," he said.
"The iPod touch might get a camera,which would a natural for that device."
As for an appearance by the 54-yearold Jobs, who hasn't been seen in public since October of last year, Enderle said "I would be very surprised if they didn't have him there in some shape or form,maybe video conference him in.
"If it were me that's the way I'd do it," he said.
Apple may shy away from putting Jobs physically on stage "because he looks so incredibly emaciated", Enderle said.
"That would put the focus on how bad he looks and not on the products."
In the absence of Jobs, Apple vice president of marketing Phil Schiller has presided over the rollout of new products,taking the stage at a Macworld conference in San Francisco in January and unveiling the iPhone 3GS in June.
Friday, September 11, 2009
Beatles fans line up for CDs, video game
Fans of the Beatles queued yesterday to buy the band's collected works on a new set of discs and get their hands on an animated video game featuring some of the Fab Four's greatest hits .
The Beatles collection, launched worldwide on 09/09/09, is expected to dominate the charts in markets like the United States and Britain, bringing a windfall to the group's label EMI Music and the Beatles' own Apple Corps Ltd.
While the re-mastered catalogue, its first overhaul since 1987, is seen appealing mainly to Beatles' fans who would appreciate subtle variations and improvements that technology has brought, most excitement surrounded MTV's video game,"The Beatles: Rock Band".
"I'm buying the game, I'm not really a big Beatles fan, I prefer much stronger music like Metallica, I just want to try the game and see how it is going to work," said Stefan Krupicki, 32, who queued for an hour at the launch at the HMV store in central London.
Developed by Harmonix Music Systems, published by Viacom Inc's MTV Games and distributed by Electronic Arts Inc, the game could sell two million units in the first month alone, according to analysts' estimates.
ware had allowed his team to improve the quality and sound of the Beatles'catalogue, including through removing bad edits, electrical clicks and sibilance.
The game offers 45 songs from the band's catalogue, each member is animated in detail and real crowd noise from Beatles' performances is used.
With video game sales falling sharply in the United States, the makers of The Beatles: Rock Band are aiming to appeal to older consumers who have not yet experimented with the format but may be attracted by their love of the music.
However, Jeff Howells, a 36-year-old civil servant, said he was at the launch to get the discs.
"I'm not interested in the game, quite a few people are not I suspect. I think most people will be interested in the music. The game is just a nice little fad,I don't think it will last."
The Beatles collection, launched worldwide on 09/09/09, is expected to dominate the charts in markets like the United States and Britain, bringing a windfall to the group's label EMI Music and the Beatles' own Apple Corps Ltd.
While the re-mastered catalogue, its first overhaul since 1987, is seen appealing mainly to Beatles' fans who would appreciate subtle variations and improvements that technology has brought, most excitement surrounded MTV's video game,"The Beatles: Rock Band".
"I'm buying the game, I'm not really a big Beatles fan, I prefer much stronger music like Metallica, I just want to try the game and see how it is going to work," said Stefan Krupicki, 32, who queued for an hour at the launch at the HMV store in central London.
Developed by Harmonix Music Systems, published by Viacom Inc's MTV Games and distributed by Electronic Arts Inc, the game could sell two million units in the first month alone, according to analysts' estimates.
ware had allowed his team to improve the quality and sound of the Beatles'catalogue, including through removing bad edits, electrical clicks and sibilance.
The game offers 45 songs from the band's catalogue, each member is animated in detail and real crowd noise from Beatles' performances is used.
With video game sales falling sharply in the United States, the makers of The Beatles: Rock Band are aiming to appeal to older consumers who have not yet experimented with the format but may be attracted by their love of the music.
However, Jeff Howells, a 36-year-old civil servant, said he was at the launch to get the discs.
"I'm not interested in the game, quite a few people are not I suspect. I think most people will be interested in the music. The game is just a nice little fad,I don't think it will last."
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
$100 Xbox price cut
Microsoft Corp is slashing the price of its high-end Xbox 360 model by $100(3,400 baht) in the United States and 50 euros (2,440 baht) in Europe, upping the stakes in the game console fight this Christmas.
Microsoft will drop the price of the Xbox 360 Elite to $299.99(10,200 baht),it said recently, just days after Sony cut the rival PlayStation 3 to $299.
The price on the entry-level Xbox Arcade model will stay at $199.99(6,820 baht), and Microsoft will phase out its mid-range Pro console, leaving it with two models. The Pro will sell for $249.99 (8,500 baht) until supplies run out. The global price cut is effective Friday.
The Xbox is the No.2 console in the United States, behind Nintendo's Wii,which sells for $249. But Xbox sales have showed strength this year, up 17 percent - the only console to enjoy growth.
Chris Lewis, head of Xbox Europe,said the cut would help Microsoft match or beat its 2008 performance, when it increased unit sales of Xboxes by more than 80 percent in Europe.
"We expect them to be at least as good if not better," he said."I do believe there will be a higher level of economic confidence than was the case last year."
Microsoft spokesman David Dennis said the price cut has been in the works for some time, and was not a response to Sony's move last week.
Rather, he said, the company hoped the price reduction would attract new buyers and simplify its product mix.
"It makes the decision for consumers a lot easier. They're either price conscious and they gravitate to the Arcade, or want the full Xbox experience."
Microsoft will drop the price of the Xbox 360 Elite to $299.99(10,200 baht),it said recently, just days after Sony cut the rival PlayStation 3 to $299.
The price on the entry-level Xbox Arcade model will stay at $199.99(6,820 baht), and Microsoft will phase out its mid-range Pro console, leaving it with two models. The Pro will sell for $249.99 (8,500 baht) until supplies run out. The global price cut is effective Friday.
The Xbox is the No.2 console in the United States, behind Nintendo's Wii,which sells for $249. But Xbox sales have showed strength this year, up 17 percent - the only console to enjoy growth.
Chris Lewis, head of Xbox Europe,said the cut would help Microsoft match or beat its 2008 performance, when it increased unit sales of Xboxes by more than 80 percent in Europe.
"We expect them to be at least as good if not better," he said."I do believe there will be a higher level of economic confidence than was the case last year."
Microsoft spokesman David Dennis said the price cut has been in the works for some time, and was not a response to Sony's move last week.
Rather, he said, the company hoped the price reduction would attract new buyers and simplify its product mix.
"It makes the decision for consumers a lot easier. They're either price conscious and they gravitate to the Arcade, or want the full Xbox experience."
Sunday, September 6, 2009
SONY'S NEW ERA OF 3-D ENTERTAINMENT EXPERIENCE
Sony set the stage for a new battle this wek with the unveiling of a 3-D-television, hoping to get a technology currently confined to a few cinermas into living rooms next year.
The Bravia LCD TV, presented at the IFA consumer electionics fair, will not only enable people to watch programmes in three dimensions, it will be the "centrepiece of Sony's 3-D entertainment experience", Sony promises.
Users will also be able to plug in their PlayStation games consoles, allowing them to play games in 3-D, as well as Blue-Ray disc players and computers, the Japanese firm says.
To back up what it hopes whtat will soon become a major cash cow, Sony also makes the equipement needed to make movies and television programmes to play on the TV, which can also be used for regular, two-dimensional viewing.
"It is the perfect moment for an announcement like this, even if its plans are ambitious," said RalfTanger, an expert on 3-D technology at the Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz research institute.
3-D movies have been around for several decades, with the Lamiere broters' "L'arrivee dud train" filmed back in 1903, according to sensio, one of the many firms looking to get a piece of the future 3-D pie.
In 1946, the Soviet Union made "Robinzon Cruzo", the world's first talkie in colour and
3-D, and in the 1950s there were more than 60 others ncluding Alfred Hitchcock's "Dial M for Murder" before studios put 3-D on the back burner.
In the 1970s and early 1980s studios tried with offerings like "Jaws 3D" and "Friday the 13th, Part3," with cinemas issuing cardboard glasses, but it was not until the 1986 invention of the IMAX format that 3-D came into its own. The Cannes film festival kicked off this year with a gala opening ceremony that saw goofy spectacles foisted on tuxedo-clad celebrities for Disney-Pixar's 3-D cartoon comedy "UP".
This year sees the eagerly awaited release in December of "Avatar" by James Cameron, the director of "Titanic". German director Wim Wenders is working on a film about choreographer Pina Bausch, who died earlier this year.
It is in the cinema that 3-D has stayed, but Sony and its rival are hoping that it will soon break out and one day replace 2-D as a new standard.
"Now the target is the living room," Tanger said.
This is helped by the fact that some firms are considering launching channels that will show 3-D programmes.
"At the moment the big handicapis that we are lacking in material," said Joern Ostermann, head of the Laboratory at Leipniz University in the northern German city of Hanover.
The Bravia LCD TV, presented at the IFA consumer electionics fair, will not only enable people to watch programmes in three dimensions, it will be the "centrepiece of Sony's 3-D entertainment experience", Sony promises.
Users will also be able to plug in their PlayStation games consoles, allowing them to play games in 3-D, as well as Blue-Ray disc players and computers, the Japanese firm says.
To back up what it hopes whtat will soon become a major cash cow, Sony also makes the equipement needed to make movies and television programmes to play on the TV, which can also be used for regular, two-dimensional viewing.
"It is the perfect moment for an announcement like this, even if its plans are ambitious," said RalfTanger, an expert on 3-D technology at the Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz research institute.
3-D movies have been around for several decades, with the Lamiere broters' "L'arrivee dud train" filmed back in 1903, according to sensio, one of the many firms looking to get a piece of the future 3-D pie.
In 1946, the Soviet Union made "Robinzon Cruzo", the world's first talkie in colour and
3-D, and in the 1950s there were more than 60 others ncluding Alfred Hitchcock's "Dial M for Murder" before studios put 3-D on the back burner.
In the 1970s and early 1980s studios tried with offerings like "Jaws 3D" and "Friday the 13th, Part3," with cinemas issuing cardboard glasses, but it was not until the 1986 invention of the IMAX format that 3-D came into its own. The Cannes film festival kicked off this year with a gala opening ceremony that saw goofy spectacles foisted on tuxedo-clad celebrities for Disney-Pixar's 3-D cartoon comedy "UP".
This year sees the eagerly awaited release in December of "Avatar" by James Cameron, the director of "Titanic". German director Wim Wenders is working on a film about choreographer Pina Bausch, who died earlier this year.
It is in the cinema that 3-D has stayed, but Sony and its rival are hoping that it will soon break out and one day replace 2-D as a new standard.
"Now the target is the living room," Tanger said.
This is helped by the fact that some firms are considering launching channels that will show 3-D programmes.
"At the moment the big handicapis that we are lacking in material," said Joern Ostermann, head of the Laboratory at Leipniz University in the northern German city of Hanover.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Stealing the show
Prosecutors in Miami arrested 28-year-old Albert Gonzales and charged him and two unnamed Russians with leading a gang that stole,oh, roughly 130 million credit- and debit-card account details; debit cards,which are roughly ATM cards which can be used like credit cards, take cash directly out of the owner's account;the worst identity theft case in US history came about because firms like 7-Eleven stood around while hackers walked through their alleged "security" to steal the card information; Gonzales, when arrested, was in prison in New Jersey for stealing information on credit cards from other firms that lied to customers that their information was safe.
Google wants to archive every book in the world and make it available in digital form; a rich, high-flying, hardhitting coalition led by Microsoft, Amazon and Yahoo do not; with amazing chutzpah, the anti-Google crowd called itself the Internet Archive, and claimed that Google could be guilty of "massive copyright infringement" with its initial plans to digitise works in the New York Public Library and the libraries at Stanford and Harvard universities; Google, of course, will show adverts to anyone who wants to read its digitised works, but Amazon and others stand to lose a lot by having them available for free instead of for certain amounts of baht and readable only on devices like the Kindle ebook reader.
So who is outsourcing in China?;take a step forward,Infosys Technologies of India, the country most people think of when they hear the word "outsourcing"; India's second largest technology firm thinks that if it gives some jobs to its China office, it can start tapping the world's second biggest market, which is kosher; but the irony is that Infosys is the second largest outsourcing company in India.
The White House s-l-o-w-l-y admitted spamming millions of Americans over President Barack Obama's health insurance reform plan; it even used taxpaper money to hire a company,Govdelivery , to send the partisan, political spam to a still-secret list of people it will eventually have to make public,probably embarrassingly; originally, the White House lied that it did not sent any such email, and then, caught in the act, bragged that it had stopped doing it, blaming strong Obama supporters for signing up friends (and enemies) for the email; the revelation came after the White House opened an illegal "snitch email line" to collect information on opponents to the insurance plan, and then bragged that it had closed it down; thanks to the aptly named Can-Spam Act passed by the US Congress several years ago, the proObama spam was perfectly legal.
The US justice department said that Oracle can acquire Sun Micrososystems , no (anti-trust) sweat.The big news from Sony Corp ofJapan was little PlayStation 3 Slim, due for release worldwide right now; and Sony is also finally updating the Playstation Network (PSN) to go back on the Internet and serve the teensy PSP Go, also known as a Mini; Sony is hoping that moving down in size will result in moving up in the list, where it trails both Microsoft (XBox) and Nintendo (Wii) for the set-top console market;there will be 15 games available for download immediately - but you are much too foreign for that, only Europeans qualify.
Post offices in India, Korea, Malaysia and Singapore joined a 21-nation consortium to see if RFID chips can speed up moving stuff, including mail; the five-month experiment, monitored from Japan by the Universal Postal Union, will see volunteers mail 24,000 test letters from 38 countries, each with a 10-baht chip in the envelope; the chips may be utilised to help express mail reach higher and more reliable standards by eliminating the need for tracking by hand.
American media mogul Rupert Murdoch decided to buy the iLike social music network to hook up with his slowly dying MySpace social network;iLike folks got a lot less than they hoped,just $20 million of Mr Murdoch's money, and it is unclear what Facebook will do about iLike.
Google wants to archive every book in the world and make it available in digital form; a rich, high-flying, hardhitting coalition led by Microsoft, Amazon and Yahoo do not; with amazing chutzpah, the anti-Google crowd called itself the Internet Archive, and claimed that Google could be guilty of "massive copyright infringement" with its initial plans to digitise works in the New York Public Library and the libraries at Stanford and Harvard universities; Google, of course, will show adverts to anyone who wants to read its digitised works, but Amazon and others stand to lose a lot by having them available for free instead of for certain amounts of baht and readable only on devices like the Kindle ebook reader.
So who is outsourcing in China?;take a step forward,Infosys Technologies of India, the country most people think of when they hear the word "outsourcing"; India's second largest technology firm thinks that if it gives some jobs to its China office, it can start tapping the world's second biggest market, which is kosher; but the irony is that Infosys is the second largest outsourcing company in India.
The White House s-l-o-w-l-y admitted spamming millions of Americans over President Barack Obama's health insurance reform plan; it even used taxpaper money to hire a company,Govdelivery , to send the partisan, political spam to a still-secret list of people it will eventually have to make public,probably embarrassingly; originally, the White House lied that it did not sent any such email, and then, caught in the act, bragged that it had stopped doing it, blaming strong Obama supporters for signing up friends (and enemies) for the email; the revelation came after the White House opened an illegal "snitch email line" to collect information on opponents to the insurance plan, and then bragged that it had closed it down; thanks to the aptly named Can-Spam Act passed by the US Congress several years ago, the proObama spam was perfectly legal.
The US justice department said that Oracle can acquire Sun Micrososystems , no (anti-trust) sweat.The big news from Sony Corp ofJapan was little PlayStation 3 Slim, due for release worldwide right now; and Sony is also finally updating the Playstation Network (PSN) to go back on the Internet and serve the teensy PSP Go, also known as a Mini; Sony is hoping that moving down in size will result in moving up in the list, where it trails both Microsoft (XBox) and Nintendo (Wii) for the set-top console market;there will be 15 games available for download immediately - but you are much too foreign for that, only Europeans qualify.
Post offices in India, Korea, Malaysia and Singapore joined a 21-nation consortium to see if RFID chips can speed up moving stuff, including mail; the five-month experiment, monitored from Japan by the Universal Postal Union, will see volunteers mail 24,000 test letters from 38 countries, each with a 10-baht chip in the envelope; the chips may be utilised to help express mail reach higher and more reliable standards by eliminating the need for tracking by hand.
American media mogul Rupert Murdoch decided to buy the iLike social music network to hook up with his slowly dying MySpace social network;iLike folks got a lot less than they hoped,just $20 million of Mr Murdoch's money, and it is unclear what Facebook will do about iLike.
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