Dish is still in the process of working with the FCC on the terms for building out its own LTE network, but if T-Mobile and MetroPCS have their way the company will be giving back half of its spectrum for auction. In two separate FCC filings, both T-Mobile and MetroPCS urged the commission to “reassign” 20 MHz of Dish’s portion of the 2 GHz band, which would then be auctioned off to other providers. The arrangement would allow Dish to keep the other half of its spectrum assignment for building out a network, and T-Mobile claims that such a move would “promote competition for mobile broadband services and further the public interest.”

It would also prevent Dish from selling off all of its unneeded spectrum to the likes of Verizon or AT&T,…

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If seeing Soviet forces engage the Germans in the PC-exclusive Company of Heroes 2 taught me anything, it’s that the war would have be lost if I was at the helm of the world’s defense.

At a pre-E3 event in Los Angeles last week, Vancouver-based developer Relic Entertainment revealed the newest entry to its strategy series. Company of Heroes was a landmark title for the developer, solidifying its presence in the genre with one of the best RTS games ever released, followed by standalone expansions. I sunk hours pushing Jerries back from the brink of world destruction in the original Company of Heroes and it’s expansions, but the newest game seems unrelenting.

Continue reading Entering the Rzhev Meat Grinder in Company of Heroes 2

Entering the Rzhev Meat Grinder in Company of Heroes 2 originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 22 May 2012 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Less than 2% of mobile carriers’ subscribers “Like” them on Facebook despite the millions of dollars they collectively spend in an effort to promote their services on the world’s most popular social network. Facebook made its initial public offering on Friday and while the company’s stock price dipped below the IPO price of $ 38 on Monday and continued to slide on Tuesday, Facebook’s offering was the biggest Internet IPO of all time by nearly 10 times. There is no denying that Facebook and the 900 million people who use the social network are of tremendous value to businesses looking to promote their services, but mobile carriers have seemingly not found success thus far as they attempt to bolster Facebook fan counts.

According to a recent report from market research firm Strand Consult, mobile carriers are wasting millions trying to promote their services on Facebook. Following discussions with a number of carriers around the world as well as an extensive study, the firm found that an average of less than 2% of carriers’ customers are fans of them on Facebook despite substantial resource investments.

Internationally, Strand found that no network operator covered in its study was liked by more than 4% of its subscriber base. In the United States, the firm looked at Verizon Wireless, AT&T and Sprint, and found that none of the nation’s top-3 carriers even broke the 3% mark.

“We were especially surprised when we looked at the American operators, Verizon, AT&T and Sprint, operators that spend millions of dollars in marketing and have internal and external teams working on Facebook,” Strand analysts wrote in a research note discussing the study. “For all their work, they can’t budge much above 2%. Such small results hardly seem worth the effort.”

Strand Consult clarified that it does not believe wireless service providers should forgo a Facebook presence, but it says the benefits of companies’ efforts on Facebook are not yet clear. Companies focus on likes because results are easily measured, but true return may lie elsewhere.

“Indeed, we have seen solid evidence from around the world that social media—operators’ own support websites, Facebook, Twitter, and other user-driven tools, can help reduce support costs,” Strand wrote. “For those tasks, we recommend social media. But we have yet to see Facebook as a solid driver for leads and sales.”

BGR: The Three Biggest Letters In Tech

Bill Nguyen is the mad scientist behind Lala, which Apple bought in 2009, and most recently Color, a video broadcasting app for smartphones that lets you share what you’re doing with friends no matter where you are. Color got off to a rough start when it launched last year, and even turned down a $ 200 million offer from Google, but Nguyen is far from discouraged. He took some time to talk to us about building big things, failing at other things, and even the benefits of owning a nice down jacket. You can find him on Twitter at @BillNguyen.

Where are you? What have you done so far today?

Got to Color early this morning because my Facebook News Feed was going off. Had a green tea and a Kit Kat for breakfast. Then, I was off to working on…

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Regional sales totals are not available for the 3DS’s main competitor system the PlayStation Vita, which was released in Japan about ten months after the 3DS and two months later worldwide. However, the 1.8 million systems sold to date worldwide provide contrast.

The 3DS suffered similarly slow sales in the period before its price drop and holiday releases; as of April of last year, it was at 3.6 million worldwide. Which is slow, even if it is twice the Vita’s current life-to-date total.

3DS sells over 6 million units in Japan originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 22 May 2012 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung has accused Apple of calling expert witnesses that exhibit “slavish adoration” to the company during an ongoing patent trial between the two consumer electronics giants. As noted by patent expert Florian Mueller of FOSS Patents, court documents filed by Samsung in California seek to exclude testimony made by a number of Apple’s expert witnesses on the grounds that they were biased.

“Apple’s damages expert, Terry L. Musika, writes in his report that ‘Apple has built a considerable and at times a cult-like following to all things Apple,’ ” Samsung’s attorneys wrote in a court filing, according to FOSS Patents. “That cult-like following apparently includes several experts who are appearing on Apple’s behalf in this case, and may explain why they have cast aside established scientific methods and governing legal principles in favor of slavish adoration of their client and platitudes about its alleged magical and revolutionary products, issues that are of no relevance to the claims and defenses at issue.”

The filing goes on to attack a number of Apple witnesses, repeatedly suggesting that they are among Apple’s cult-like following, sometimes referred to as “iSheep,” and therefore their testimony cannot be included in the trial. Mueller notes that Samsung appears to take particular issue with one witness in particular, Henry Urbach, who Samsung accuses of being a “loyal devotee of Apple.”

“Before being retained by Apple in this matter, Mr. Urbach wrote an essay on the design of Apple’s retail stores, entitled Gardens of Earthly Delights, describing them as ‘Quasi-religious in almost every respect, . . . chapels for the Information Age,’ ” Samsung’s motion stated. The filing also claims that Urbach referred to Apple’s co-founder Steve Jobs as “St. Eve.”

Finally, Samsung notes that beyond Urbach’s potential bias, he is not a qualified witness because he “has admitted he has no experience in product design, or marketing, and therefore any opinions he could offer would be beyond his area of expertise.”

BGR: The Three Biggest Letters In Tech

At the 2012 Cable Show in Boston, Verizon Wireless CEO Dan Mead (seated second from right) just announced that the carrier will be launching a new mobile video platform called Viewdini, an announcement Mead calls “one of our most important of the year.” Viewdini was described as “a mobile video portal for aggregation and delivery of mobile content,” with Comcast’s Xfinity announced as the first video partner for the new service. Mead said that Verizon’s been working on the service for several years as a response to the consumer desire to “absorb any video on any device that they have any time they want” and noted that Verizon’s LTE network helped make this platform a reality.

The long-term goal is for Viewdini to allow users to search…

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Papa Quash by developer ustwo looks exactly like Joust. Players walk slowly, deliberately around a space, trying to slap, push, or otherwise put each other off balance until only one winner is left unperturbed.

It’s just on iPhone instead of a computer using Moves, and has “wacky characters” and dubstep. Oh, and in-app purchases (it’s otherwise free on iTunes). We’ve placed a video of Joust after the break for comparison. Either two people had the exact same incredibly creative idea, or some “inspiration” was taken from Joust.

Of course, this isn’t the first time an iOS clone has beaten an official indie game port to market. Radical Fishing developer Vlambeer found Ninja Fishing on iOS ahead of its own mobile version, and one game, One and One Story, was cloned on iOS from the original code.

Continue reading iOS game ‘Papa Quash’ looks remarkably JS Joust-like

iOS game ‘Papa Quash’ looks remarkably JS Joust-like originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 22 May 2012 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In line with earlier reports, Google on Tuesday finalized its acquisition of Motorola Mobility. The $ 12.5 billion merger was approved by regulators in China on Monday after having been given the green light by the United States Department of Justice this past February. Chinese regulators did stipulate terms for its approval, however, namely that Google must continue to make Android open-source and freely available. Former Motorola Mobility CEO Sanjay Jha has stepped down and Google’s Dennis Woodside will replace him as chief executive. “I’m excited to announce today that our Motorola Mobility deal has closed,” Google CEO Larry Page wrote in a letter published on Google’s blog. “Motorola is a great American tech company that has driven the mobile revolution, with a track record of over 80 years of innovation, including the creation of the first cell phone. We all remember Motorola’s StarTAC, which at the time seemed tiny and showed the real potential of these devices. And as a company who made a big, early bet on Android, Motorola has become an incredibly valuable partner to Google.” An unconfirmed report on Monday claimed that the merger will result in layoffs at Motorola.

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BGR: The Three Biggest Letters In Tech

Completing a nine-month journey through regulatory approvals on multiple continents, Google has closed its acquisition of Motorola Mobility today. The move comes just days after Google cleared the last major hurdle — approval in China, where Motorola has had a particularly strong presence for many years — and means that the Chicago-area phone maker will stop trading on the New York Stock Exchange effective immediately. As reported in February, CEO Sanjay Jha has stepped down and will be replaced by Google’s Dennis Woodside.

Motorola’s ultimate fate remains unclear. Amidst rumors of major layoffs, we still don’t know whether Google really intends to get into the notoriously brutal handset hardware business — and if it does, whether…

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