Google phone rumors put damper on Droid buzz
By Matthew Shaer | 11.18.09
As if we weren’t already buried in Android buzz.
A week after Verizon Wireless rolled out the Droid, a smartphone manufactured by Motorola and powered by Google’s Android operating system, one blogger is reporting that Google is prepping its very own Android handset. According to the estimable Michael Arrington at TechCrunch, the Google phone could hit shelves as early as the first months of 2010, just in time to mop up the post-holiday traffic.
Here’s Arrington on the Google phone, which will reportedly be sold directly through retailers:
They were long planning to have the phone be available by the holidays, but it has now slipped to early 2010. The phone will be produced by a major phone manufacturer but will only have Google branding (Microsoft did the same thing with their first Zunes, which were built by Toshiba). There won’t be any negotiation or compromise over the phone’s design of features – Google is dictating every last piece of it. No splintering of the Android OS that makes some applications unusable. Like the iPhone for Apple, this phone will be Google’s pure vision of what a phone should be.
This is potentially ground-breaking news, and it didn’t take long before the blogosphere was bandying around Google phone rumors at a terrifying velocity. But let’s take a step back. What would a Google phone really mean? Well, for one, it would be a major buzz kill for Verizon Wireless.
According to media tracking firm Flurry, more than 250,000 people picked up a Droid handset last week – a major-league kick-off, no matter which way you slice it. And early tests of the Droid have been pretty positive, with reviewers praising the Droid’s navigation capabilities, its full QWERTY keyboard, and its suite of web applications.
A Google phone, presumably, would run roughshod all over Verizon’s plans for world domination. It would also add to the congestion in an already crowded market. Palm is busy pushing its Pixi and its Pre, while Apple is rumored to be rolling out a cheaper iPhone. Then there’s the BlackBerry Storm, to say nothing of phones such as the Motorola Cliq.
Still, the Google phone, which Arrington says could be manufactured by LG or Samsung, would have enough cachet to cut through the noise. The bigger question is whether Google wants to get into the hardware game. In a much-discussed interview with the New York Times, Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein suggested that a good smartphone is product of synergy – something Google can certainly provide.
“The companies that will deliver the best products are the ones that integrate the whole experience — the hardware, the software and the services — and aren’t getting one piece from here and one piece from there and trying to bolt it all together,” Rubinstein said.
Of course, it’s possible that the Google phone is only a big, fat rumor. Over at PC World, JR Raphael cautions readers to have some patience. “Here’s the truth: Google may very well have something like this in the works,” Raphael writes. “It strikes many in the tech industry as unlikely – but hey, anything’s possible. The point, however, is that contrary to what many reports are implying, we simply don’t know.”
Drop us a line here, or on Twitter, @CSMHorizonsBlog.
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Modern Warfare 2 grosses $550 million in first five days
By Matthew Shaer | 11.18.09
Last week, Activision announced that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 had broken the record for most successful entertainment launch of all time.
The numbers were monumental: 4.7 million copies sold in the first 24 hours alone, and an earning report that topped $310 million. And that was only counting the Modern Warfare 2 blitz in North America and the UK.
So what about worldwide sales? Today, we have the answer. According to Activision, Modern Warfare 2 grossed $550 million since last week’s launch – another entertainment industry record. The Los Angeles Times, citing a source at Activision, reports that 8 million copies of the game have been sold; analysts expect that at least another 10 million games will be eventually be unloaded.
“The title’s success redefines entertainment as millions of consumers have chosen to play Modern Warfare 2 at unprecedented levels rather than engage in other forms of media,” Activision CEO Bobby Kotick said in a statement.
Still, that success hasn’t come without some controversy. Several British politicians have spoken out against Modern Warfare 2, and in Russia, Activision is releasing a censored version of the game. The Russian edition leaves out a scene called “No Russian,” which allowed the user the opportunity to shoot at – or otherwise injury – innocent civilians in a Moscow airport.
“Other countries have formal ratings boards that we regularly work with. However, Russia does not have a formal ratings entity,” Activision said in a recent statement. “As a result, we chose to block the scene after seeking the advice of local counsel.”
Have you had a chance to play Modern Warfare 2? Drop a line in the comments section, or find us on Twitter.
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Why Web widgets will invade your TV
By Gregory M. Lamb | 11.17.09
The Internet revolution may finally be televised.
Innocuous little software applications, popularly known as “widgets,” may turn out to be the back door to your TV screen that Internet companies have been waiting for.
For more than a decade, businesses have been trying to make the Internet available on the largest screen in most homes. In 1996, Time Warner offered WebTV, which failed to find an audience and folded. Even today, projects like Hewlett Packard’s MediaSmart (2006) and Apple TV (2007) have yet to win over large numbers of viewers, hampered by complicated setups or limited programming choices.
Widgets promise to bring the perks of the Internet to TV screens, using a familiar remote control instead of a computer mouse.
All indications are that widgets are going to “move very quickly to a great many of the TVs being sold in the next few years – if not all of them,” says Kurt Scherf, vice president and principal analyst at Parks Associates, a market research firm in Dallas that specializes in emerging consumer technologies.
What’s changed? Unlike a decade ago, most households now have broadband Internet service, meaning people already have the ability to stream high-quality Internet data, including video, to their computers. In many cases, these broadband connections are provided by the same company that pipes cable television into homes.
At the same time, more and more consumers are becoming familiar with downloading and using “apps,” or widgets, on their cellphones or laptops. Apple’s iPhone alone offers thousands of apps that add useful or fun functions to that mobile phone.
TV widgets – small, useful programs and icons that appear along the bottom or side of a television screen – perform similar functions. They might give information about news, weather, sports, or stocks – or link to popular social-networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, or the photo-sharing website Flickr.
TV manufacturers seem bullish on the idea. Sony, Samsung, and LG already offer TV sets capable of displaying widgets and linking to the Internet. Vizio, a low-cost HDTV brand, will follow shortly, and set a new standard by offering a small pullout keyboard inside its remote. Vizio will also build in Wi-Fi capability, meaning no wiring will be needed to connect the TV to the Internet.
About 400,000 TVs sold in the US this year will be Web-enabled. But by 2013, about 13.8 million TV sets in US households will be Web-enabled, says a study from Parks Associates.
“We think it’s exciting. We think it’s real,” says Howard Bass, a partner at Ernst & Young’s Global Media & Entertainment Center. Last month, Ernst & Young released a report on TV widgets predicting that they “could be the catalyst to widespread adoption of Web-enabled TV.”
Widgets won’t try to duplicate a computer screen on TVs. That’s not what TV viewers are looking for, analysts say. Instead, widgets offer a simple point-and-click experience using the existing TV remote control.
“All they need to know is left, right, up, down, and OK,” says Russ Schafer, senior director for Connected TV at Yahoo. The company announced earlier this year that it had teamed with chipmaker Intel to promote development of widgets for TVs.
Yahoo has tested TV widgets with people from 18-year-olds to those in their 60s and universally found them easy to use, Mr. Schafer says.
The coming months should be “the big blowout year for connected TVs,” Schafer predicts about 2010.
Among the widget connections Yahoo is offering now, or will be shortly, are USA Today’s sports news; YouTube; and casual games, such as Sudoku. Yahoo provides about 20 widgets now but has potentially thousands more in the pipeline, Schafer says, some of which will show up by early 2010.
Another major player in TV widgets, Verizon FiOS, continues to expand its network of digital television and broadband Internet services over its US fiber-optic lines.
Verizon FiOS and Internet customers in the New York City area now can get video of local traffic conditions via a TV widget called “NYC 311.” Live cameras, operated by the City of New York, show conditions on roads in all five boroughs of the city. Viewers can zoom in for a closer look at a particular road and set “favorites” to go immediately to the routes they use to commute each day.
The ESPN Fantasy Football Widget, available to viewers who’ve signed up for ESPN’s fantasy football leagues, displays personalized football statistics, such as box scores, league rankings, and information on players.
In the Yahoo-Intel Widget Gallery, the eBay widget permits users to receive real-time updates on their accounts, place bids, and monitor favorite items. Users can view photos or search for and compare prices of items. A New York Times widget lets viewers see headlines, photos, and stories, and forward them to their mobile phone.
TV watchers are undergoing a significant shift, says Maitreyi Krishnaswami, director of interactive video services for Verizon. Many are no longer passive viewers. “Now it’s really about interactive TV and social TV,” she says. People are already checking on their fantasy sports teams or commenting on the reality TV show they’re watching using a mobile phone or computer.
Verizon’s “Widget Bazaar” is accessed through a “Widget” button provided on Verizon remote controls, Ms. Krishnaswami says. No special Web-enabled TV is needed, nor do viewers need a high-definition TV set or a digital video recorder (DVR). Right now, they’ll find 10 or 12 widgets, with many more coming in the months ahead, she says.
Last summer, Verizon introduced widgets that allow access to the viewer’s Twitter and Facebook accounts, using the TV remote and an onscreen keyboard. Viewers can watch a split-screen mode in which the TV program runs on one side and “tweets,” short comments about the program from people using Twitter, run next to it.
One of the most popular uses of Facebook on Verizon is to access people’s online photo albums and display them on the TV. “What you see are really high-quality images on the television that you can share with your family,” Krishnaswami says.
The Ernst & Young report on TV widgets does include some cautions. Who will pay for them, and how, isn’t clear. If widgets include advertising content, they might conflict with advertising being shown on the TV program itself. What if Car Company A is running an ad on TV while Car Company B’s ad is being displayed on a widget?
And unless Web-enabled TVs include Wi-Fi, viewers will have to link their TV to the Internet through a wired Ethernet connection. Getting that wire to the TV could be a home-networking hassle if the computer and TV are in different rooms.
What will really be interesting in the future, Mr. Scherf says, is if a content provider such as ESPN designs its own widgets to customize and enhance its TV programs. Viewers might be able to decide which sports scores or other information they want displayed in the widget, for example.
While Scherf doesn’t envision people reading e-mail on a TV, the kind of “snackable sharing” represented by Facebook or Twitter “seems to be a fit,” he says.
Today’s early widgets mostly offer a distraction from TV content, such as news or weather. Eventually, “smart widgets” may automatically enhance TV viewing, says James McQuivey, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research in Cambridge, Mass., in a paper from earlier this year. Smart widgets could “listen” to the audio track of the show being watched and offer more information about it – or even suggest a new widget you might like to download based on your interests. TV programs already carry hidden digital information identifying them.
“When all the dust settles, the entire landscape of how we watch TV will be altered,” Mr. McQuivey writes, referring to widgets. “Advertisers will have more active ways to engage TV viewers … [and] consumers will have more ways to watch the shows they love most.”
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Modern Warfare 2 apparently nixed by Russian authorities
By Matthew Shaer | 11.16.09
Update: Activision says the game was not banned in Russia.
In Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, the new, best-selling video game by Infinity Ward, a fictional nationalist organization tricks the Russian government into attacking the United States. Gushingly and rosily pro-Russian, this game ain’t.
And now, the real Russian government has reportedly banned sales of Modern Warfare 2 for the Microsoft Xbox 360 and the Sony PlayStation 3, even as Infinity Ward works to roll out a censored version of the eagerly-anticipated first-person shooter.
On Friday, the fan site Hellforge reported that all copies of Modern Warfare 2 had been pulled from store shelves in Russia:
Pending validation from the Russian government, the censored console versions of the game are expected to be released within less than a month, with the mission removed. The game’s content has raised the ire of the Russian gaming public as well as a number of politicians who object to its portrayal of Russia’s armed forces as terrorists who invade the United States and subsequently erect statues of dead terrorists in Washington D.C.
At issue is a level called “No Russian,” where the player is given the option to fire on a crowd of innocent civilians in a Moscow airport. There is a certain irony to Russia’s objection – but we don’t want to start drifting into spoilers.
As we noted recently, Modern Warfare 2 publisher Activision has already issued a statement explaining the scene’s importance to the plot:
Infinity Ward’s Modern Warfare 2 features a deep and gripping storyline in which players face off against a terrorist threat dedicated to bringing the world to the brink of collapse. The game includes a plot involving a mission carried out by a Russian villain who wants to trigger a global war. In order to defeat him, the player infiltrates his inner circle. The scene is designed to evoke the atrocities of terrorism.
Still, the scene was apparently enough to rankle the folks over in Russia. Talk to us – should Activision and Infinity Ward be prepping a censored version of the game? Have you had a chance to play the scene in question? Drop a line in the comments section, or find us on Twitter.
Update: Activision says the game was not banned in Russia.
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Should you buy refurbished electronics?
By Gregory M. Lamb | 11.12.09
In these tight-budget times, is a “refurbished” laptop, TV, or Blu-ray player a smart choice for cost-conscious consumers? The answer, unfortunately, is like the picture on your old cathode-ray tube TV set: less than crystal clear.
If you don’t insist on having the latest gadget with the newest bells and whistles – and you consider yourself a careful, savvy shopper – you could save real money, perhaps hundreds of dollars.
What are “refurbished” electronics? The name can mean many things: Sometimes the original buyer opens the box, feels “buyer’s remorse,” and simply decides to return it. They may not have even used it yet. A reputable seller will take the item, then send it to the manufacturer to be checked for defects. Once it’s determined to be operating normally, it will be sold as refurbished.
In other cases, the original buyer may have had a legitimate problem with the gadget. Manufacturers then repair the product and put it back on shelves as refurbished. Sometimes manufacturers also take back older models of a product from store shelves to replace them with newer versions. The older version may be sold at a discount as refurbished.
“You really have no idea” why the product has been designated as refurbished, says Paul Eng, Web editor for electronics for ConsumerReports.org.
Refurbished products can be a great deal in certain situations. Sometimes a new model of a camera, phone, or TV isn’t rated higher by reviewers than the model it replaces. Or the new features (say a camera now offers “smile detection” or “blink detection”) may not be important to you.
On the other hand, sometimes the new model represents a real advancement. For example, buying an older-model PC this fall may not be a good idea, says Roger Kay, president of Endpoint Technologies in Wayland, Mass., a consumer electronics consultancy. That’s because Microsoft just introduced Windows 7, an operating system that’s been winning rave reviews in comparison with the troubled Vista system found on most recent PCs.
Other factors to consider when buying refurbished electronics include:
• Make sure the item has a valid warranty and that you have the right to return it for a refund if you aren’t satisfied. Beware of buying refurbished items “as is.”
• Deal with established online sellers such as Amazon, Best Buy, Buy.com, or NewEgg, or buy
directly from the manufacturers’ own websites.
• Read online reviews of the product. Make sure it rates highly, has the features you want, and that the price represents a true bargain compared with the cost of buying new. Check to make sure you’re comparing apples to apples – the model number should be exactly the same as the product you’re reading about. If the item is discontinued, it may be for a good reason.
Refurbished bargains are out there, Mr. Eng says. But make sure the potential savings outweigh the potential hassles. “It’s tempting to say I can save $500 on this TV,” but it won’t be worth it if you have a bad experience later, he says.
A Consumer Reports’ website offers advice on buying refurbished electronics, including links to some manufacturers who sell online (tinyurl.com/CSMrefurbished). The page is from 2008, but the information is still up to date, Eng says.
