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News Update: Best Web Browser for your MAC

2012-04-18T21:03:00.002-07:00

Web browsers
Possibly the most valuable software on your computer is your Web browser because it's your doorway to the Internet. all the browsers here will get you where you require to go, so your choice depends largely on how you need to surf.

Mozilla Firefox
Sure, Safari comes preloaded on your Mac and it is got a lot of ultimate features, but it is not for everybody. The folks at Mozilla have come a long way with the Mac version of Firefox with the intention of creating a flexible browser that plays nice with the elegance of Mac OS X. in addition to Firefox 4's revamped interface, what makes Firefox especially enticing is the ability to pick from a huge library of themes and add-ons.

Unlike Safari, Firefox lets you change the overall look of your browser to fit your style. With add-ons covering a wide range of functions -- from adding iTunes controls to your browser window to the ability to view lists of found photos in 3D -- the sheer number of additional things and customization options you can tinker with in Firefox is staggering.

Opera
Though it is often overlooked with Safari and Firefox stealing most of the spotlight, Opera is an ultimate Mac browser in its own right. Themes and add-ons are easily searched right from within the interface, and Opera might be the fastest when it comes to page-loading times.

The Speed Dial feature lays out your preferred sites in an easy-to-navigate format, letting you get to your most visited sites with the click of your mouse. Its Wand utility makes autofilling forms a breeze. Unlike other browsers for the Mac, Opera also supports torrent downloads. To top it all off, Opera Link makes it possible to transfer your Personal Bar, Bookmarks, Speed Dial, and Notes across multiple computers if you have Opera in several locations.

Though Opera isn't as popular as the other Mac browsers, it has plenty to offer including unique tools everyone can appreciate.

Camino
Not interested in extras and add-ons? If you like the concept of surfing the Web without all the excess baggage, check out Mozilla's other browser for Mac, Camino. Camino is for those not involved in weighing down their Web-surfing experience with added options and just want to get down to the business of exploring the Web.

With basic controls and smartly designed for speed, Camino is the minimalists Web browser. Solid Web standards support means you'll be able to explore all of the web presences you would in other browsers, and the slimmed-down interface might make this option the most agile of the group.

search engine Chrome
Now into its second year, search engine Chrome has begun to mature from a lightweight and fast browsing alternative into an innovative browser on the precipice of a possibilities browsing revolution with the pending ChromeOS. The browser that people can use today, Chrome 8, offers highly competitive features including synchronization, autofill, and maintains search engine's reputation for building one of the quickest browsers available.

Cell Phone Review:

2012-04-18T20:47:00.000-07:00

The good: The HTC One S manages to pack Android ICS, Sense 4, and a feature-filled camera into one of the slimmest phones on the market.

The bad: The One S' svelteness comes at the true value of no SD card expansion slot or removable battery.

Closing Comments: The HTC One S is the best phone you can get on T-mobile (for now), wrapping Android 4.0, 4G data speeds, and a divine 4.3-inch AMOLED screen into one svelte package.

News Update: Oracle-Google patent trial starts today

2012-04-16T07:34:00.002-07:00

Oracle's patent infringement lawsuit against google is finally set to go to trial at the U.S. District Court in San Francisco today, but there are absolutely plenty of questions looming as to where this will end up.
The fact that these two Silicon Valley giants will finally have a trial under way is fairly awesome (and slightly excellent), given how much back-and-forth there has been over the last two years since Oracle from the off filed suit in August 2010.
Since then, there have been numerous delays with potential start dates assigned for October 2011, January 2012, and March 2012. It was only just last month that April 16 was given the green light. That date was solidified once the last-ditch effort for another round of settlement talks fell through.
One of the biggest hurdles for getting this trial under way is that these two associations just can't even seem to agree upon on what they are fighting over.
Yes, it is clear that Oracle is suing google over patent violations involving Android and Java -- patents that used to be owned by Sun Microsystems but now belong to Oracle. search engine has reasserted time and again that Sun was a big supporter of Android, and that the coding language was free to use.
To clarify matters before going into trial, Judge William H. Alsup issued an order on April 6 asking each side to "take a firm yes or no position on whether computer programming languages are copyrightable."
But Oracle has also repeatedly failed to pinpoint and narrow down which patents being violated. Furthermore, it hasn't helped that settlement talks have continuously stalled proceedings. Even dragging in Oracle CEO Larry Ellison and search engine CEO Larry Page didn't do any good.
The big debate going into the trial is what is at stake here for Oracle and search engine. Even more to the point: How much cash is Oracle gonna win, and will it get a cut of Android revenue going forward?
it's all but said and done that Oracle is gonna have some kind of payday. During a court hearing last July, Alsup declared that google is absolutely going to pay up "probably in the millions, perhaps in the billions" at some point.
Last September, Oracle wanted at the very least $1.16 billion in damages from search engine, which is considerably less than the $6.1 billion it was asking for in July. Yet some followers of the cast have said that Oracle would be lucky to extract even $one hundred million in this intellectual property suit.
Likely accepting that some sort of defeat is inevitable, search engine did put one offer on the list a few weeks ago. google offered to pay Oracle up to $2.8 million in damages over two patents in question. Furthermore, search engine also offered a deal of 0.5% from Android revenue for one patent through Christmas 2012 and 0.015 percent on a second patent through April 2018.
However, that bargain would only be offered as a stipulation for damages if (and only if) Oracle prevails on patent infringement. Oracle rebuffed the deal anyway.
Whatever Oracle ends up with (or not), we should know relatively soon, as the trial is only expected to last eight weeks -- an insanely short time when you put all of these other proceedings into state of mind.

News Update: Google's Sergey Brin: Facebook and Apple a threat to Internet freedom

2012-04-16T07:31:00.001-07:00

In an interview with the Guardian, google co-founder Sergey Brin warned that the "open" Internet is in danger from very powerful forces, including Facebook and Apple.
"I am more worried than I have been in the past ... it's scary," he said
Brin identified the significant threats to the open Internet as repressive governments trying to control access to the Internet, entertainment industry crackdowns on piracy and so-called "wall gardens" that maintain more strict control over what can be done on their technology platforms, citing Facebook and Apple.
He said that Facebook and Apple are stifling innovation and risk Balkanizing the Web, and went as far as to say that search engine would never have come into existence if Facebook were dominant.
"you must play by their rules, which are really restrictive. the kind of environment that we collected google in, the reason that we were able to build up a search engine, is the web was so open. Once you get too many rules that will stifle innovation."
Of course, there is some self-interest and sour grapes in Brin's assessment. He would like to make all of the information inside Facebook and Apple apps accessible to search engine's google. A more open Web is certainly rather good for the world but it is also very good for search engine's bottom line. And, search engine's main hard work at social networking, search engine+, has a long way to travel to catch Facebook, which has more that four times the number of users and continues to gain momentum, including its recent purchase of the mobile photograph-sharing application, Instagram. In addition, Apple, which has ridden it is proprietary approach to become the most priceless company in our time, is search engine's main competitor in the smartphone and tablet arena, another area critical to search engine's business acomplishment.
Brin also complained about Facebook making it difficult for users to move their data to other services, presumably search engine+. "Facebook has been sucking down Gmail contacts for multiple years," he said.
Brin's comments on his chief competitors may be the start of an escalating war of words and science as the giant colonizers of the Web continue their competitive quests for dominance. Keep in mind what the Web's inventor Tim Berners-Lee has said:
A related danger is that one social-networking site--or one search engine or one browser--gets so big that it becomes a monopoly, which tends to limit innovation. As has been the case since the Web began, continued grassroots innovation may be the best check and balance against any one company or government that tries to undermine universality.

TECH REVIEW: Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0

2012-04-16T07:29:00.002-07:00

The good: The Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 delivers a mostly pure Ice Cream Sandwich acumen for only $250. The tablet also trumps the Kindle Fire in extras by including dual cameras, expandable memory, and TV remote control functionality.

The bad: The screen doesn't look as pretty as other PLS displays, and its camera performance is lacking compared to other tablets in the line.

CLOSING COMMENTS: The Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 offers an very affordable and a full Android savvy that no other tablet can currently match for the price.
i guess we have Amazon to thank for proving that you don't need a premium tablet to be acomplished. While Samsung tried competing on the premium tablet front for the last year and will continue to do so, it is finding this plans to be more difficult than anticipated.

CAPCOM® REVEALS NEW DETAILS ON UPCOMING TITLES AT ANNUAL CAPTIVATE MEDIA SHOWCASE IN ROME

2012-04-15T17:54:00.002-07:00

Capcom Announces Lost Planet® 3, New October 2 Release Date for Resident Evil® 6, and PlayStation®3 System Cross-Platform Play for the PlayStation®Vita System Version of Street Fighter® X Tekken®
Capcom®, a leading worldwide developer and publisher of video games, today confirmed new information and details on its previously announced game line-up for 2012 stemming from its annual media showcase event, Captivate, which took place in Rome last week. At the event, Capcom officially announced Lost Planet® 3 is in full development and scheduled for release on the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system, the Xbox 360 ® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, and Windows PC in early 2013. In addition, it was announced that the Xbox 360 and PS3™ versions of Resident Evil® 6 will now be released globally on October 2, 2012, with the Windows PC version to follow. Finally, Capcom is pleased to confirm that its forthcoming PlayStation®Vita system title, Street Fighter® X Tekken®, will feature Cross-Platform Play with the PS3™.

The extreme and unpredictable conditions that characterized the Lost Planet® series return, harsher than ever before in Lost Planet 3. Players take on the role of Jim, a utility rig pilot who has left Earth to take on a hazardous but lucrative contract on E.D.N. III. Delivering a diverse range of gameplay, including third-person on-foot battles and intense first-person utility rig action, players will need to brave the uncharted terrain, hostile climate and threat of indigenous Akrid creatures. With a number of multiplayer modes and a compelling single player experience, Lost Planet 3 will delve deeper into the Lost Planet universe, uncovering hidden truths when it releases in early 2013.

Captivate represented the first opportunity for media to see the highly anticipated Resident Evil 6 in action, with the game's development team showcasing one of Leon S. Kennedy's missions. Full of tension, the action has Leon and partner Helena Harper searching for an escape route from the Ivy University campus, the site of the most recent bioterrorist outbreak and the zombies that now stalk its hallways and grounds.

Announced and showcased during Captivate was the Cross-Platform Play for the PS Vita system version of Street Fighter X Tekken which allows owners of the PS Vita system version to compete against owners of the PS3™ version anywhere in the world, via Wi-Fi or 3G. Other features confirmed for the PS Vita system version of Street Fighter X Tekken were the introduction of touch controls, local and Wi-Fi multiplayer plus Near functionality alongside all the content from the home console version.

For the first time since its announcement, Captivate attendees were able to play DmC Devil May Cry® and experience the fast-paced, stylish combat that is the signature of the series. In addition, the game's development team, including members from Capcom Japan and Ninja Theory, presented a brand new level of the game. In this area, set at a carnival near the pier where he lives, Dante faces off with a Hunter Demon that has tracked down the Son of Sparda.

Steel Battalion™ Heavy Armor,acollaboration between Capcom and From Software and an Xbox 360 exclusive,introduced a brand new online four player Cooperative Multiplayer Mode available on the Xbox LIVE® online entertainment network when the title releases on June 19 in North America and from June 22 across Europe. Attending media were invited to work together, using the innovative mix of Kinect™ for Xbox 360 and regular controller play, and defeat the enemy's Vertical Tanks.

Attendees were also able to experience new content for the forthcoming open world action-RPG title, Dragon's Dogma™ and a debut hands on with the recently announced PlayStation®Move enabled Resident Evil®: Chronicles HD Collection.

XBOX 360 GAME REVIEW: The Witcher 2

2012-04-15T12:21:00.000-07:00

The Witcher 2 is not a normal video game, and it is not a normal fantasy. It subverts the old high-fantasy stereotypes even as it employs them. The elves that you'll meet in Temeria aren't charming, ethereal forest-dwellers, they are guerrilla insurgents raining death on humans from the trees. The dwarves, typically cheerful, hard-working sorts, live in a city of worn rock that runs off the fumes of their former industriousness while its current inhabitants drink, joke and fornicate. the many different kingdoms are in the on the precipice of war, led by despotic kings who play their personal vendettas out on the battlefields at the expense of their armies' lives.

Excellent Reviews

And who are you, amongst all this? You're Geralt of Rivia, a stoic and distinctly un-heroic monster hunter with a few memory problems and a faintly inexplicable way with the ladies. Though sworn to impartiality on matters of the state, he is drawn into this advanced political maelstrom by a series of regicides that brand him a criminal and pull him back into his own, forgotten past. The Witcher 2 is a game for adults, and not just because of all the sex and violence. It expects you to be intelligent and interested, to care about the political machinations, racial tensions and complex history of its world. Plenty of games shield you from their lore, afraid that it may scare you off. The Witcher 2 drops you right in the thick of it, and expects you to deal with it.

Since its release on PC in May last year, the Witcher 2 has been drawing envious glances from console owners. The Enhanced Edition for Xbox 360 includes around four hours of new gameplay and an interface redesigned for consoles, with everything else intact. Impressively, CD Projekt RED has managed to port the whole experience over to six-year-old Xbox 360 hardware with only a minimum of technical compromises. If you've got access to a consultant quality PC, it is fairly self-evident that's the version you should plump for, but Xbox 360 owners needn't feel short-changed by this rather competent port.

Underpinning The Witcher 2's ambitious fantasy is a sword- and magic-based combat system that is one of the best around, delivering challenge and flexibility alongside the straightforwardly violent finishing moves and lethal strikes that are the backbone of all good melee combat. Dipping into stylish slow-motion to select spells, bombs and traps from a radial menu, you chip away at groups of enemies through plans and intelligent positioning rather than simply hacking through them with silver or steel. Spells ignite, confuse or trap your foes, where oils and enhancements change the properties of your blades.

Getting used to the layout of these myriad functions on the 360 pad takes a good hour. in the beginning your fingers are forced into unnatural positions when you try to bring up the radial menu and keep your targeting reticule locked onto a dangerous enemy at identical time, but soon such difficulties are behind you. The Witcher 2 has absolutely no control problems on Xbox, but it does still suffer from a lack of clarity in menu-heavy activities like crafting and alchemy. a very detailed in-game journal offers a refresher on everything you could need to know about the characters, locations and recent events, but there are some elements of the actual gameplay that could be better explained.

For one, it is useful to realize that running away is occassionally a better concept than trying to stand and fight. Combat is challenging, and reliant on good preparation; taking the extra time to craft bombs, traps and potions that will help you in specific battles often pays dividends.

The Witcher 2 is full of excellently-designed quests, from the grand machinations of its central plot to side-quests that deal in ghost stories, missing persons and humorous mysteries. Spend time in taverns and get into a fist-fights or gambling debt, and you might find Geralt led into something bigger. Investigating a single murder might uncover a long trail of cause and effect. These well-written diversions mean that Geralt never feels like an errand boy, and the choices that you make – minor and major –affect the course of the narrative in a way that feels natural and organic. You're never told to choose between good and evil, filling some invisible morality meter. Instead it feels like what you're doing in fact means something.

it is in the cities that the contrast between The Witcher 2 and other, cleaner, more aspirational and austere fantasies is most apparent. Games occassionally create places full of marble palaces and gorgeous architecture, wide streets and bustling town centres. These, meanwhile, are ramshackle, grimy places where the tension between humans and non-humans constantly threatens to bubble up into mob violence. As a witcher – a mutated human, essentially – Geralt finds himself somewhere between these two racial camps, and many of the decisions that you make over the course of the game feed into a much bigger racial conflict that goes utterly current monarchs and recent resentments and sometimes feels like it is etched into the very stone that the cities are built from. The Witcher 2's history and lore is built into its world and geography as effectively as it is written into characters' dialogue.

Next to the PC version, one of the most technically accomplished games around, this Xbox version can't aid but look a little compromised, even if it is amongst the best-looking games on the console. The lighting and colours aren't as dynamic, and fog usually encroaches on your view of the brilliant outdoors. there's also occasional stuttering, frame-rate drops and texture pop-in, all of which are greatly improved by installing the game to the Xbox's hard drive. These things don't undermine The Witcher 2, but they do serve as a reminder that PC players are playing a slightly better version of this great game.

CLOSING COMMENTS
In every compelling way, The Witcher 2 on Xbox 360 is identical subversive and note worthy fantasy that it was on the PC. There are some minor technical and graphical blemishes, but they don’t detract from what is one of the best RPGs of recent years, and the extra content adds value. This is an ambitious and absorbing game that’s not just superficially “adult”, but genuinely mature.

Nintendo DS Game Review: Spirit Camera The Cursed Memoir

2012-04-15T12:15:00.000-07:00

Following in the footsteps of Resident Evil Revelations, a new survival horror game has made its way to the Nintendo 3DS. A spinoff of the Fatal Frame series, Spirit Camera: The Cursed Memoir sticks to familiar territory for the franchise - in other words, ghosts, exorcisms and ancient rituals. It follows the story of a young girl named Maya who lost her memory. She's somehow gotten herself trapped in the mysterious Diary of Faces (the 16 page AR manual that comes included with the game), and it is up to you to solve the mystery of the Woman in Black and save both of you from a terrible fate.

The highlight of the game is its innovative use of the 3DS tech. in addition to its AR capabilities, Spirit Camera lets you use the system's gyroscope technology to spin the 3DS around and view the game's spirits in reality. Looking around to find and talk to Maya constitutes the bulk of the experience, as the chilling narrative is largely told by the young chick, as well as by viewing the Diary of Faces with the camera Obscura (your 3DS camera, in other words) and its different lenses. The atmosphere is the best thing the game has going for it, with superb voicework for Maya and haunting sound effects scattered throughout to keep players ill at ease. The story isn't ground-breaking, and can be a tad predictable, but it serves its purpose well.

With such brilliant concepts, Spirit Camera has a lot going for it. Unfortunately, things fall apart when it comes to actual gameplay. The cool concept simply fails to find any satisfying gameplay application, as the premier atmosphere the makers created is barely used. The whole campaign takes only about two or three hours to complete, and there just isn't much for the player to do during the majority of it.

in fact, most of the game comes down to just listening to Maya and observing things that are happening, with a handful of ghost fights in between. The fights themselves don't take rather long and tend to get repetitive. All you do is spin around with your 3DS looking for the violent spirit, then take a picture at just the right moment to inflict damage. it is fun, but lacks enough variety (or frequency) to really matter.

The experience is minutely extended by a few camera and AR-based mini-games (letting you do things like fight ghosts that are "haunting" your friends or take pictures to see what spirits are hiding in them). For the most part these additions feel tacked on, lacking any real depth or appreciable quality. As a result, Spirit Camera feels more like a downloadable title than a full release. it is a shame that such an awesome idea was squandered by such a shallow gameplay experience.

One last hurdle - Spirit Camera is a bit inconvenient to play. you has to be in a well-lit area with ample room to move around and a full range of motion, either sitting in a swivel chair or standing so you can spin around promptly and freely. You also ideally need a tally nearby to lay the Diary of Faces on. In other words, you won't be playing this one in a car, on the couch, or even in a dark room (too bad, because that last one would have helped up the fright factor significantly). it's an unfortunate consequence of the game's reliance on AR and gyroscope technology, but one that makes it harder to play than it should be.

CLOSING COMMENTS
When the 3DS first launched, the included AR games were easily the software highlight, and since then we've been eager to see the concept returned to and expanded upon. Spirit Camera: The Cursed Memoir had the opportunity to do just that. Unfortunately, while the game has brilliant atmosphere and plenty of potential, the three hour campaign lacks any real depth and is rather inconvenient to play. It’s too bad, because with a longer campaign and more content, Spirit Camera could have been a revolutionary experience. As is, it fails to go much farther than Face Raiders did - and that was free.

Playsation 3 Game Review: World Gone Sour Review

2012-04-15T12:03:00.000-07:00

We've all experienced the shamelessness of product crossovers, but not all of them make us slap our foreheads in disbelief and disgust. World Gone Sour is one big advertisement for the candy brand Sour Patch children, and believe it or not, it holds its own as a fairly priced, satisfying side-scrolling platformer. it is absolutely not a fantastic game, and it would be difficult to recommend it over the deluge of apparently wealthy adventures on your console's downloadable service. But World Gone Sour's low monetary barrier to entry makes it a guilt-free -- yet short -- romp that may be worth your time if you have an night to kill and five bucks burning a hole in your pocket.

The whimsy and humor of World Gone Sour will strike you as soon as you begin playing. A well-acted narrator who accompanies you throughout the game provides an interesting premise at the outset: what happens to Sour Patch children that are dropped on the floor, lost between couch cushions or otherwise discarded? By playing through three separate worlds (each consisting of three lengthy stages and a smattering of boss battles), you'll find out.

Gameplay consists of the typical mechanics you may come across in any side-scrolling action-platformer. Your little gummy character can jump and use a selection of special moves. He can also recruit other small 'little people' as he ventures through the quest, which allows him to buff himself out into larger, more robust sizes, thus giving him new, exclusive moves. While the smallest version of the character is spry and agile, he can also be murdered in one hit. Consuming your colleagues when you find them will make you larger, able to withstand more damage, and will empower you to execute special moves, such as smashing through weakened floors or tossing energized candies at armored enemies.

World Gone Sour totes mechanically sound and extremely familiar gameplay, but not all of it works well. Running, jumping and fighting (the latter done in Mario-esque jumping-on-heads fashion) functions fine, but you'll find that some of the minutiae that becomes important later in the game -- especially wall-jumping and to an extent using grappling hooks -- proves to be more fickle and outright non-functioning than you may have preferred. This takes good overall gameplay and drops it down a peg. Just wait until you get to the game's last world, where traps are everywhere and you constantly die while wondering why your character isn't wall-jumping properly even though you're executing on the control side.

Speaking of traps, part of World Gone Sour's charm is its exceptionally dark humor. Both your character and your companions can be killed in any number of ways, and the game in fact encourages it. along with finding point-producing stars, scouring for hidden collectibles and killing enemies, your score can be catapulted into the stratosphere by mutilating your friends. Skewer them, burn them, catapult them; all of that's fair game in World Gone Sour, and at times, sacrifices like these will be certainly integral to your achievement.

The look of World Gone Sour certainly screams LittleBigPlanet, though you shouldn't go in expecting a game even remotely on the level of Media Molecule's highly respected series. Still, treading through human-like environments as a tiny character with a high gloss of fantasy painted over everything certainly seems inspired by LBP, and it is something perhaps four or five people commented on when they watched me play it. Chances are you, too, will notice.

The aforementioned voice acting works ultimate within the confines of World Gone Sour's sardonic, pseudo-morbid delivery, but sound effects can get a bit repetitive and the music isn't all that memorable, either. Still, the game's cutscenes will make you laugh out loud, though you still may be left scratching your head about how such a little, concise downloadable title could have such epic load times. Is World Gone Sour running off of my hard drive, or did someone sneak a disc into my console?
CLOSING COMMENTS
Whether alone or with a friend via local co-op, World Gone Sour can be strangely satisfying. While it’s a game that has its own set of problems, and while those problems hold the overall experience back, we’re talking about a five dollar download here.

If anything, World Gone Sour proves two points: that product crossovers don’t have to suck (right, Yo! Noid?!) and that games on console downloadable services can be both cheap and fun. World Gone Sour won’t bend your mind with what it brings to listing, but it won’t break the bank, either. There’s definitely something to be said about that.

PC Game Review: Blacklight: Retribution Review

2012-04-15T11:50:00.002-07:00

Blacklight: Retribution developer Zombie Studios isn't trying to reinvent the first-person shooter genre. Instead, it is taken familiar modes and combined them with high profile pictures and some of the tightest shooting controls since Call of Duty. But the team smartly realized that even good shooting isn't enough to draw entrenched players away from their favorite games, and made Blacklight even more worth keeping in mind with a free-to-play systems that pairs well with Blacklight's powerful and slick character and weapon customization. The end result: a premier competitive shooter that's funny enough that its flaws are easy to overlook.

While Blacklight is a shooter first and foremost, its robust customization system gives it an almost RPG-like quality. You can customize your character's appearance, changing out their armor to give them more health or faster running speed. Additional equipment slots aid you flesh out your character's capabilities, tailoring them to your particular playstyle. But all of these bits of customization pale in comparison to the star of the show: your weapon. You start with a basic framework like an assault rifle or shotgun, and then change its clip, barrel, stock, sight and more. Every piece you add affects a number of statistics such stamina, how long it takes to scope-in, and your bullet spread, giving you plenty of room to fine tune your loadout to your requirements. it's fun to tinker around with items, and makes the savvy grind more exciting since you're always on the hunt for the next best piece of gear.

Character customization is vital, but giving you and your friends the guns and battlegrounds to kill each other in remains the focus for the Blacklight series, so you won't find any single player campaign here. Instead, you build a free account and hop right into modes taken straight from any number of other games, such as capture the flag, king of the hill and team deathmatch. These modes offer something for everyone: blood thirsty players can slay one another in deathmatch, while support and team-focused players can jump into modes that encourage cooperation. With the exception of king of the hill, Blacklight's modes present good versions on timeless classics. King of the hill suffers due to poor spawning of the control points. Matches end up being a matter of who spawned closest to the random location of the next point very than who has the better team.

Blacklight's game modes may not be all that original at this point, but they are engrossing thanks to the game's ultimate controls. It doesn't matter how good the rest of a FPS is if the shooting isn't just right, but Blacklight succeeds; what's here feels fast and responsive, empowering for a skilled player regardless of whether or not they're spending boatloads of cash on new fancy items.

A few twists like a unique visual mode and refreshing take on killstreak rewards aid Blacklight stand out regardless of its unoriginal modes. Every player in Blacklight has what's called a Hyper Reality Visor, or HRV. This enables you to temporarily see through the entire environment, picking out enemies, allies and their ordinance. It completely changes the pacing, giving you pause before turning a corner or making another head-on assault on an enemy's flag. Now you enable your HRV, assess the predicament and then scheme out your attack. It gives Blacklight a layer of tactics not present in generally any of its competition. And it also feels utterly fair, because while it is basically a game-enabled wall hack, every person is using it and attempting to counter the other side's moves. It also takes time to recharge, and you can't fire while it is on so using it becomes a liability.

The HRV also helps you better scheme what loadout or equipment to use for a given situation. In Blacklight you don't earn killstreak rewards by taking out a number of opponents all in one life (a la Call of Duty), but instead earn points you can spend for doing generally anything that helps your team. The points accumulate across the entire match, enabling even the worst players to afford some of the more expensive items from depots scattered around the map. The set of items you take is customizable; meaning you can tailor your rewards to compliment your playstyle. For instance you might make your affordable ones something like an instant health recharge, while your most expensive one is a mech that smashes down from space. The mech in particular can fully change the direction of a match, since it gives a team a portable heavy weapons platform. Still, like most things in Blacklight, it is easily countered, though it does seem a bit too affordable at this point, resulting in matches that end with several mechs on the field at once. Regardless of the mech price, this method for rewarding player performance across several spawns is refreshing, and gives everyone a chance to earn something cool.

Earning is something you do lots of in Blacklight. Like most free-to-play games, Blacklight awards players with in-game money after each match. With the exception of a couple of things like additional loadout slots -- you get two at no cost whatsoever -- most everything can be picked up just by playing. a lot of it is excessively expensive, though, so expect to either rent it or spend many hours playing to acquire it permanently. Or, of course, you can toss down real money. Real money translates into Zen, which can be used on a host of items and weapons in the store, as well as unlock items earlier than your current level. there is always the concern that this could break the balance, giving paid players a distinct advantage, but Blacklight relies more on skill than gear. Sure, a premier player with a lot of money and the best gear might have a slight advantage, but they die all identical from a new player's headshot.

Blacklight's only been out for a brief time, but it didn't launch without hiccups. Occasional lag issues plagued it during its opening, and annoying bugs such as busted HUDs, disappearing weapons and mechs getting stuck in geometry want to be fleshed out. Also a worrying inconvenience is Blacklight's friend statistic roll, which constantly tells me my buddies are offline when they're not. They aren't egregious enough to make Blacklight unplayable, and it's clear from their forum presence that Zombie staff members are taking the issues seriously, but they are still aggravating.

CLOSING COMMENTS
While not without flaws, Blacklight is a good option for anyone looking for a new competitive shooter. great shooting mechanics and deep customization options make for an addictive combination, and its free-to-play model makes it easy to jump into with no upfront cost.

News Update: Steve Jobs movie starring Kutcher to focus on CEO's early years

2012-04-15T10:04:00.002-07:00

The planned biopic starring Ashton Kutcher as Steve Jobs will cover the Apple co-founder's early years, the film's producer said in an interview.
The independent movie, which has been given the unfortunate working title of "Jobs: Get Inspired," will focus on Jobs' life from 1971 to 2000, Mark Hulme told Neowin glossy publication. The rookie producer said work on the movie's wording note, which is based on widely available information very than a book, began when Jobs announced his retirement last August.
Kutcher was chosen for the role based on this physical resemblance to the late Apple executive during his younger years, Hulme said.
"When Ashton read the script he was immediately attracted to the project," Hulme said. "He is a Steve Jobs and Apple fan, and is technologically experience, as well, so he recognized the historical importance of Steve Jobs and the possibilities of the project."
in addition to Kutcher, the film's producers are trying to cast "some exciting actors" to portray key figures in Jobs' early years (Steve Wozniak, John Scully, Mike Markkula, and Daniel Kottke), although Hulme declined to identify who they might be.
The movie, which was announced on April 1, is scheduled to get going filming in May in Los Angeles, with theatrical release expected in the fourth quarter this year.

News Update: Best Buy releases list of stores to close this year

2012-04-15T10:02:00.004-07:00

Best Buy has released a billing of the stores it will close in the U.S. this year.
The big-box retailer is closing 50 stores and compensating employees based on business partner service after its fiscal fourth-quarter sales fell short of expectations. Like other brick-and-mortar businesses, Best Buy has been feeling the heat from web presence marketing juggernaut Amazon.
Here's Best Buy's statement, followed by the tally of stores:

RICHFIELD, Minn. - April 14, 2012 - Best Buy announced plans March 29, 2012 to close 50 U.S. stores as part of a number of key initiatives for this year. To date, we have closed two stores this year (one in Kansas City, Mo., and one in Scottsdale, Ariz.), plus have notified five Twin Cities stores and one San Antonio store that they will close later this year.

This morning, we have confirmed the remaining 42 store locations that will close. A complete listing of store locations can be found at the end of this statement. Employees of these 42 stores have been notified this morning.

This was not an easy decision to make. We chose these stores carefully, and are working to ensure the impact to our employees will be as minimal as possible, while serving all customers in a convenient and satisfying way. But we also recognize the impact this news has on the people who deserve respect for the contributions they have made to our business.

We will be working to help these employees find other positions inside Best Buy. If they don't find new positions, or if they choose not to work at a alternative location, a transition including severance packages will be available.

Three of these 42 locations remain open today, Saturday; the rest of the affected stores are closed today, and will reopen Sunday, April 15. clients currently doing business with these stores are being contacted today.

We expect most of these stores will permanently close by May 12. Three additional locations are expected to permanently close later this summer. 2

Best Buy continues to have additional retail store locations - big boxes and standalone Best Buy mobile stores - for clients to choose from in these affected locations.

More broadly, our previously announced retail store actions are intended to increase points of presence, while decreasing overall square footage, for increased flexibility - including key store remodels with a new Connected Store format, while continuing to build out the acomplished Best Buy mobile tiny format stores throughout the U.S. We will continue to share details of such actions as the year progresses. We are committed to making it easier for business colleagues to shop with us, whenever and wherever they want.

News Update: The new TV show from WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is set to air April 17

2012-04-15T09:59:00.003-07:00

The new TV show from WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is set to air April 17 on the RT network and be released online identical day, according to WikiLeaks.

"The World tomorrow" will feature Assange interviewing "an eclectic range of guests, who are stamping their mark on the future: politicians, revolutionaries, intellectuals, artists, and visionaries," the document-dump site said in an online announcement at worldtomorrow.wikileaks.org. WikiLeaks said a dozen 26-minute episodes of the program have been completed.

The organization said the programs and transcripts will be made available online and that "arrangements are currently being made with other licensees to publish longer edits of the series." It said "other networks" would eventually offer the show.

RT, formerly Russia Today, is a global multilingual TV news network based in the Russian Federation and funded by the state. The Moscow Times has said of it: "For some, Russia Today is a mouthpiece that spreads Kremlin propaganda around the world. For others, the state-bankrolled channel is a vital voice that offers alternative political viewpoints in an ocean of media monotony." And Slate has called it "Russia's answer to Fox News and MSNBC."

WikiLeaks said RT is the show's first licensee and had nothing to do with its production. The show, it said, is being produced by Assange-founded Quick Roll Productions in partnership with Dartmouth Films, a U.K.-based producer of independent films. it's being distributed by Journeyman pictures.

WikiLeaks incurred the wrath of the U.S. government by posting a vast respository of classified and sensitive documents from military and diplomatic sources. A U.S. soldier, Bradley Manning, has been charged with supplying a large portion of that haul to Assange and WikiLeaks.
Separately, Assange, who has been living in the U.K. under bail, is awaiting extradition to Sweden on charges that he sexually assaulted two women in 2010, charges that he has vehemently denied.

In November, Assange lost an initial appeal to avoid extradition but is now waiting for his case to be heard by the ultimate Court.

Tech Update: Android and Windows phones with gorgeous displays

2012-04-15T09:55:00.003-07:00

Sure, they may drain the battery life, particularly with the light intensity cranked all the way up, but you can't deny the effect of a sexy display. there's nothing like holding a beautiful screen between your paws, and having rich colors, crisp pictures, and deep colors staring back at you.
All these handsets can do the basics, but exceptionally that, these guys take surfing the Web, playing games, and fussing with video (both recording and watching) to the next level with their top-notch displays.

Nokia Lumia 900 (AT&T), April 8, 2012
This phone only came out a few days ago, but we're already going gaga for the screen. We think it is better than the HTC Titan II's (although that has an admirable display too). It has a 4.3-inch AMOLED Gorilla Glass screen that's also equipped with ClearBlack display science, making this Windows Phone device a show-stealer.

LG Spectrum (Verizon), January 19, 2012
This device is very suited to the video buff -- as in it shoots great 1080p video so you can capture solid recordings with crisp images. The fact that it runs HD playback on 4G LTE speeds is another plus. Suddenly, long train rides home don't sound so unbearable anymore.

Samsung Galaxy Nexus (Verizon), winter 15, 2011
Samsung Galaxy Nexus owners already have us going green with envy because they can run Android Ice Cream Sandwich natively. But do they have to add insult to injury with that apparently wealthy 4.65-inch Super AMOLED touch screen too? Its HD display has a resolution of 1,280x720 computer dots and wonderfully flaunts everything in rich, eye-rattling colors.

LG Nitro HD (AT&T), Christmas 4, 2011
Everything's right there in the name -- the LG Nitro HD. It has a "true HD AH-IPS" display that can support 16 million hues and has a pixel density of 329 display dots per inch. But what's really enjoyable about this handset is the camera and photo quality. The images the Nitro took outshine the competition.

HTC Rezound (Verizon), November 14, 2011
Equipped with Beats Audio earbuds, not only does the Rezound produce brilliant audio, but everything looks adorable on it too. Putting aside its bulky build, the device has a 4.3-inch Super LCD display with 720p HD resolution. Browsing the Web, watching videos, and playing games is a real joy.

Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket (AT&T), November 6, 2011
Not only does the GS2 have a striking 4.5-inch Super AMOLED Plus display and run on a 4G LTE network, it is also chock-full of other features, including a 1.5GHz processor and an NFC chip, and can capture 1080p HD video with its effectual 8-megapixel camera. Its Windows Phone counterpart, the Samsung Focus S, lacks a physical flash, but rocks identical ultimate specs as well.

Review: Sharp Elite PRO-60X5FD

2012-04-13T06:15:00.001-07:00

The good: The picture of the Sharp Elite PRO-X5FD LED TV delivers deeper black levels and better contrast than any other LCD or plasma on the market. Unlike other full-array local dimming TVs, it maintains its superior picture from normal viewing angles and blooming artifacts are virtually nonexistent. Color is relatively accurate, shadow detail is fantastic and video processing does everything we expect. The screen maintains black levels well under ambient light. No-nonsense styling, best-ever energy efficiency and a almost-complete feature set, including two pairs of 3D glasses, ice the cake tastefully.

The bad: Even with its great performance, it is impossible to call the gratuitously expensive Elite a good value. Blue/green areas are less accurate than we expect from a TV of this caliber, uniformity and off-angle aren't quite as good as plasma, and its screen creates relatively bright reflections.

The bottom line: The overpriced Sharp Elite LED-based LCD produces the most desireble overall photo quality of any TV we've reviewed since 2008.

Review: HTC TITAN II

2012-04-13T04:58:00.004-07:00

The good: With an arrestingly large 4.7-inch screen, 4G LTE, satisfying performance, and the highest-resolution camera ever on a U.S. smartphone, the HTC Titan II raises the bar for Windows Phone devices.

The bad: While an ultrasharp shooter sounds brilliant, we're not sure about paying an extra $100 for the privilege. The phone's massive size could be an issue for smaller hands and the display wasn't as sharp as we'd like.

The overall summary: The HTC Titan II pushes the limit of just how big and capable a Windows smartphone can be. If it weren't for the lower-priced Nokia Lumia 900, the Titan II would be the greatest Windows Phone 7 handset to walk the earth.

Review: Apple iPhone 4S

2012-04-13T04:56:00.001-07:00

The good: Apple's iPhone 4S has a faster processor and an upgraded camera, all of the benefits of iOS 5, and a useful and immensely entertaining voice assistant. Call quality on the Sprint model is admirable, and the data speeds, while by no means 4G, get the job done.

The bad: it's about time we get a bigger screen.

The bottom line: The iPhone 4S isn't the king of cell phones, but it is included in the royal family nonetheless. Even without 4G and a giant screen, this phone's clever(ass) voice assistant, Siri, the benefits of iOS 5, and its spectacular camera make it a top choice for anybody ready to upgrade.

News Update: Apple's iconic earbuds may be in line for a unibody tweak

2012-04-13T04:53:00.002-07:00

Apple dislikes seams in things. This obsession led it to the point where it spent an estimated $6.6 million on a remodel of its Fifth Avenue store in New York to cut the number of glass layers it was using in its exterior cubic entrance from 90 down to 15.

Now another iconic Apple-made item could be in line for a seamless makeover: the company's earbuds.
In a patent app published today by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and picked up by Apple Insider, Apple has laid out a plan for ultrasonically welded, unibody headphones.
Before jumping to the conclusion that Apple is ditching its iconic white for aluminum, the design involves joining together several pieces of plastic. That's accomplished with ultrasonic welding, a technique that melts together just the contact points to make a firm bond. This is as opposed to using a liquid, or structural adhesive. By comparison, Apple implies that the ultrasonic method would lead to a more "aesthetically pleasing" and "seamless" device.

This is not the first such mention of ultrasonic as a means of bonding materials in a patent application from Apple. One published last month by the USPTO involved bonding plastic to metal, a process that is more advanced than doing plastic to plastic given the difference in melting points between the two materials. Apple's solution in that case was to add texture to the metal, allowing for the plastic to melt in, and bond with the natural grooves.

Since 2008 Apple has made efforts to make its computers and mobile devices using so-called "unibody" construction techniques, a form of manufacturing that takes a single material and cuts away room for circuitry, batteries, and other components. The end result is a structure that can be thinner, lighter, and stronger than some traditional, multi-piece designs. Earlier this week, the company was rumored to be using that technique in the production of its next iPhone, which is expected in the fall.

News Update: Stock split keeps Google's destiny in hands of co-founders

2012-04-13T04:49:00.001-07:00

Since google went public in 2004, co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin have been wedded to the idea that management ought to be able to decide what's right for the company without needing to sacrifice future opportunities to satisfy near-term demands from Wall Street.
That philosophy was on display as search engine disclosed strategy for a 2 for 1 split, which would still preserve their control over the company with the issuance of a new class of non-voting capital stock.
In a note published along with the company's Q2 earnings,Page and Brin returned to that theme, cautioning that were they to fail their voting power, it would undercut their long-term aspirations for search engine.

"We have put our hearts into google and hope to do so for many more years to come," they wrote. "So we need to ensure that our corporate structure can sustain these efforts and our desire to improve the world."

Pointing to projects like Chrome and YouTube, which necessary time and investment to reach fruition, the co-founders said they were able to protect against unnamed "outside pressures," which presumably might have intruded to short-circuit google's longer-range development planning.
google will issue a new class of stock that won't include voting power. Current search engine stockholders will receive one share of new Class C stock for each company share that they already own. But future stock grants to employees will be of the non-voting variety. Ditto for employees of enteprise outfits that google might buy in the future. The net effect will be to ensure that google's existing shareholders -- particularly its founders -- retain their current voting power.

Related Story:

search engine earnings strong for 1st quarter
Larry Page: google+ is the 'social spine'
search engine had 252.7 million shares of Class A stock and 69.5 million shares of Class B stock outstanding as of its March 31, 2011, filing with the Securities and Exchange. Class B shares translate into 10 votes apiece. That's a big benefit for Brin and Page who owned approximately 27 million Class B shares, or about 29 percent of the total voting power at search engine, as of the end of March. Another 9 million Class B shares were held by executive chairman Eric Schmidt, who has about 10 percent of the total voting power.
Will it be enough to entice future investors? Too early to say, but multiple of the initial reviews pointed out the obvious flaw in the argument. Matthew Ingram described the several-voting share structure as "an insult to public investors and the market." Chris Ziegler offered that the "maneuver seeks to grip on search engine's destiny by putting shares without any voting power into the public domain."
The stock split announcement was made in conjunction with the company's first-quarter earnings of $2.89 billion, or $8.75 a share, on revenue of $8.14 billion excluding traffic acquisition costs. Including traffic acquisition costs search engine revenue for the quarter was $10.65 billion. Non-GAAP earnings came in at $10.08 a share. Wall Street expected search engine to report first-quarter earnings of $9.65 a share on revenue of $8.15 billion excluding traffic acquisition costs.

News Update: Barnes & Noble beats Amazon to the punch with lighted e-ink Nook

2012-04-12T16:37:00.003-07:00

What's the No. 1 requested feature people want in an e-ink e-reader?

According to Barnes & Noble, it is an integrated light, which is why the company spent the last 2 years developing the new $139 Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight, available today for preorder and shipping in early May.

I had a chance to play around with the new Nook at a launch event in New York and, when you can see from the visuals, except for the gray border around the edge, it looks identical to the standard $99 Nook Simple Touch, which remains on the market. However, Barnes & Noble says this new model is slightly lighter (6%, to be exact), weighing 6.95 ounces.

"It was really hard to get the lighting just right so it displays uniformly across the display," Barnes & Noble CEO William Lynch told CNET. "We think people are going to be really happy with how it looks."

Lynch said the technology was designed in-house at Barnes & Noble's office in Palo Alto, Calif., and has a patent pending. it is crucial to note that the glow technology isn't a backlight but very a form of front-lighting. You activate the light by holding down the Nook button on the front and shut it off identical way. You can also dim the light to avoid bothering a bed partner who's trying to sleep.

As Jamie Iannone, president of Digital Products at Barnes & Noble, demoed the device, he pointed out that the light in fact fades on -- and also fades off. He said that was something he requested, explaining that he didn't want it to be too jarring when people turned the light on in the dark. (I joked that he had a touch of Steve Jobs in him.)

Tech Update: Best Laptop Deals

2012-04-12T10:52:00.002-07:00

Here are the absolute BEST deals on laptops today, take advantage of these deals now before its too late!

TigerDirect offers the 5.7-lb. Gateway NV57H48u Intel Core i5 Dual-Core 2.4GHz 15.6" LED-Backlit Widescreen handbook in Black, model no. LX.WYY02.030, for $499.97. This $50mail-in rebate cuts it to $449.97. With $9.13 for shipping, that's $50 under our mention from two weeks ago and the worst total price we could find by $94. Features include an Intel Core i5-2430M 2.4GHz dual-core processor, 15.6" 1366x768 LED-backlit LCD display, 4GB RAM, 500GB hard drive, Blu-ray player / dual-layer DVD burner combo drive, 802.11n wireless, webcam, 6-cell battery, and Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit. Rebate ends April 13.

TigerDirect offers the 6-lb. Sony VAIO Intel Core i5 2.5GHz 15.5" LED-Backlit Widescreen notebook in Black, model no. VPCEH3QFX/B, for $579.99. Coupon code IAD58582 drops it to $559.99. With $8.77 for shipping, that's $90 off and the most difficult total price we could find, although we saw it for $10 less last month (since expired). Features include an Intel Core i5-2450M 2.5GHz dual-core Sandy Bridge processor, 15.5" 1366x768 LED-backlit widescreen LCD, 4GB RAM, 320GB hard drive, DVD burner, 802.11n wireless, Gigabit Ethernet, and Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit. Deal ends April 13.

Dell Home & Home Office offers its 4.2-lb. Dell Inspiron 14z Intel Core i3 2.3GHz 14" LED-Backlit Widescreen Notebook in Fire Red for$479.99 with free shipping. That's $95 under our mention from two weeks ago and the lowest total price we've seen for an Inspiron 14z with these specifications. Sales tax is added where applicable. It features an Intel Core i3-2350M 2.3GHz Sandy Bridge dual-core processor, 14" 1366x768 LED-backlit widescreen LCD, 6GB RAM, 750GB 7200 rpm hard drive, DVD burner, 802.11n wireless, Bluetooth, webcam, Adobe Elements 9.0 Photoshop and Premiere Bundle, 6-cell battery, and Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit.

Best Buy offers the Toshiba Satellite C675D-S7109 AMD E-three hundred 1.3GHz 17.3" Widescreen notebook for $329.99 with free shipping. That's $20 under last week's mention and the worst total price we've seen for a 17" Toshiba personal notebook with an AMD E-3000 CPU. Sales tax is added where applicable. Features include an AMD E-Series E-300 1.3GHz dual-core processor, 17.3" 1600x900 LED-backlit widescreen LCD, 4GB RAM, 320GB hard drive, DVD burner, 802.11n wireless, webcam, 6-cell battery, and Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit.

Written By: Shannon Martin, founder of ThisTrailerSucks.Com

NEWS UPDATE: DOJ Most Likely To Lose Suit Against Apple

2012-04-12T08:49:00.002-07:00

The U.S. Justice Department's legal pursuit of Apple for alleged e-book price fixing stretches the boundaries of antitrust law and is promised to end in defeat.
That's what happened in 1982, when an embarrassed Justice Department admitted its antitrust lawsuit against IBM was "without merit" and abandoned the case. And in 2001, a federal appeals court nixed the Justice Department's ambitious attempt to rewrite antitrust law by carving Microsoft into two separate companies.
"it's a harder case against Apple than the publishers," says Geoffrey Manne, who teaches antitrust law at the Lewis and Clark Law School in Oregon and runs the International Center for Law and Economics. (See CNET's list of related articles and an explanation of e-book economics.)
One reason lies in the Justice Department's 36-page complaint, which recounts how publishers met over breakfast in a London hotel and dinners at Manhattan's posh Picholine restaurant, which boasts a "Best of Award of excellence" from Wine Spectator glossy publication. The key point is that Apple wasn't present.
The Department of Justice "has a far better case against the publishers than Apple," says Dominick Armentano, professor emeritus of economics at the college of Hartford and author of Antitrust and Monopoly who's now affiliated with the Independent Institute in Oakland, Calif. "If the CEOs of the many different publishers got together in hotel rooms to discuss prices, they are sunk" and might as well settle, he says.
Richard Epstein, the prolific legal student and professor of law at New York college, goes further. Epstein argues in an essay published yesterday that there are "difficulties" with the Justice Department's case against publishers as well: "It will take some time to hear the whole story, but the betting here is that this lawsuit is a mistake."
During a press conference yesterday in Washington, D.C., Attorney General Eric Holder accused the associations named as defendants of concocting a "conspiracy."
But even Holder's version of events didn't accuse the publishers of agreeing on specific prices. If they agreed on anything, it was on a business model -- namely, that the so-called "agency model" that Apple's iBookstore offered was better than Amazon.com's wholesale model.
Both Apple and the publishers benefit from a series of U.S. superb Court precedents since the 1970s, which the Justice Department would probably like to undo. In the 1979 BMI vs. CBS case, the court ruled that "not all arrangements among actual or possibilities competitors that have an impact on price are per se violations." And in a 2007 case, the court said that manufacturers can enforce minimum retail prices, which is one aspect of what publishers are accused of doing with e-books.
News Corp.'s HarperCollins Publishers, Lagardere SCA's Hachette Book Group, and Simon & Schuster (owned by CBS, which publishes CNET) have agreed to settle the lawsuit. Apple has chosen to litigate, along with Pearson's Penguin Group and Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck's Macmillan Publishers.
DOJ sides with the 'monopoly' e-bookseller
Making the government's pursuit of Apple unusual is that the Cupertino, Calif.-based computer maker doesn't even enjoy a commanding market share in e-books. Amazon.com does.
Amazon remains the world's largest e-book retailer, boasting a market share of as much as 90 percent as of 2010. That market power is what alarmed book publishers, who inked a deal with Apple CEO Steve Jobs to sell their e-books on the new iPad just days before he announced it that January.
"Strengthening a new competitor against an incumbent hardly sounds like a terrible outcome for consumers," says Manne, the antitrust lecturer. The Consumer Electronics Association added in a statement sent to reporters over the last 24 hours: "Our ambiguous antitrust laws are now being used to take on a new market entrant of just over 2 years as if they have the market power to set prices."
Macmillan Chief Executive John Sargent, who did not settle and denies any wrongdoing, said in a letter in the last day or two that he couldn't accept the Justice Department's proposal because it would hand Amazon too much power: "After careful consideration, we came to the conclusion that the terms could have allowed Amazon to recover the monopoly position it had been building before our switch to the agency model."
Scott Turow, president of the Authors Guild, was more critical. He argued in an open letter last month that Amazon's pricing was designed to put traditional bookstores out of business, and said the agency model is helping to reduce Amazon's chokehold on e-books by fostering competition. He wrote:
Amazon was using e-book discounting to destroy bookselling, making it uneconomic for physical bookstores to keep their doors open... 2 years after the agency model came to bookselling, Amazon is losing its chokehold on the e-book market: its share has fallen from about 90% to roughly 60%... Brick-and-mortar bookstores are commencing to compete through their partnership with google, so loyal business friends can buy e-books from them at the same price as they would from Amazon. Direct-selling authors have also benefited, as Amazon more than doubled its royalty rates in the face of competition... The irony bites hard: our government may be on the verge of killing real competition to be sure to save the appearance of competition.
An Amazon spokesman told CNET yesterday: "This is a big win for Kindle owners, and we look forward to being allowed to lower prices on more Kindle books."
There might, of course, be an e-mail equivalent of a smoking gun that eventually surfaces, quite like those quips from Microsoft executives in the 1990s that indelicately referred to cutting off Netscape's "air supply" and were introduced as evidence in the Justice Department's antitrust case.
But that hasn't happened yet. "I'm not saying that Apple can smile and walk away from this," says Joseph Bauer, a professor of law at the university of Notre Dame. "it's just that the government will have to show that Apple had some kind of involvement in the original arrangement."

Written By: Shannon Martin, founder ThisTrailerSucks.Com

News Update: Sony SmartWatch will put Android Power on YOUR Wrist!

2012-04-12T08:45:00.004-07:00

Have you ever wanted a watch that can communicate with your Android phone? Sony sure hopes so.

Sony today launched its SmartWatch, a timepiece for the wrist that allows owners to read text messages, social updates and e-mail, manage calls, and control music. The SmartWatch connects to an Android phone via Bluetooth to be sure to deliver its functionality and capture what Sony calls "Android power."
The SmartWatch might be useful for those who don't want to continuously pull their smartphone out of their pocket, but it certainly won't win a fashion contest. The device's strap is rubber and comes in several hues, including white, pink, mint, and blue. However, the black strap comes standard, while the additional colors must be purchased separately. Sitting atop the strap is the watch's touchscreen OLED display measuring 1.3-inches. To alert users to an event or an inbound call, the timepiece vibrates.

Sony announced the SmartWatch at the Consumer Electronics Show in January. The company said at the time that the watch would work with Android phones from Sony, HTC, Motorola, Samsung, and others. Sony says the handset can run four days on a single charge and is both dust and splash proof.
This isn't Sony's first foray into the watch business. Back in 2010, the company launched LiveView, another watch that interacted with Android phones. Although it floundered after launch, the device is still for sale on Amazon for $54.99.

Sony's SmartWatch is available now for $149.99 on the company's internet market and in its stores. Sony says that it will "soon" announce availability at other retailers

Written By: Shannon Martin, founder of ThisTrailerSucks.Com

NEWS UPDATE: FACE-BOOKS UPCOMING IPO

2012-04-12T08:41:00.003-07:00

It is not supposed to play out this way -- particularly for a company on the verge of one of the biggest IPOs in history.

Yet Mark Zuckerberg, 27, and standing atop the Internet world, has been quietly thumbing his multibillion dollar nose at the Wall Street process every step of the way -- and there is not a thing America's outlay titans can do about it.

First there was the meeting last month for financial analysts in which Zuckerberg was a surprising no show. Instead, he let his top people -- including Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg and Chief Financial Officer David Ebersman -- play host to the suits from New York. Zuckerberg wasn't even asked to fly to NYC on his private jet. The three-hour meeting was held at Facebook's sprawling headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif. He apparently had more important things to do.
Good to be the king. Even better to be emperor.

Next came reports that Zuckderberg up and coming to skip the IPO roadshow entirely. That's the one where the CEO suits up and travels around to big institutional investors to boast about the company. It was bad enough for the bankers that Facebook negotiated a bargain rate -- paying the underwriters 1.1% versus the typical 3% to 7 percent to arrange the IPO -- but now the CEO won't even come along for the ride.

Now we learn that Facebook's $1 billion purchase of the photo-sharing app Instagram came as a "surprise" to its bankers, including the lead advisers at Morgan Stanley. Skipping a boring meeting is perhaps understandable, but you'd think Zuckerberg would want go on the roadshow and give the guys charged with drumming up interest in the stock a heads-up that a $1 billion acquisition is in the works, especially since the stock is expected to initialize trading later this month or in May.
As one longtime Silicon Valley VC remarked to me about Zuckerberg's behavior: "Not if you are emperor."

And as resident emperor (at least in the social network world), Zuckerberg is doing things his way because he can. And why not since no one is suggesting that his attitude will dampen interest in Facebook's offering. Which is obviously why the brass on Wall Street are putting up with it. The deal itself, which still needs clearance from the SEC, is expected to raise as much as $10 billion for Facebook and value the company at around $100 billion.

There has long been a divide between Silicon Valley titans and Wall Street. Steve Jobs grudgingly dealt with Wall Street, although the kingdom he created is now the envy of every public company on the planet. google CEO Larry Page gave investors just a few minutes on his first call when he took over as CEO last year, replacing Eric Schmidt.

In some ways, Zuckerberg is following in that tradition; it's not like he rushed to go public. in fact, Zuckerberg fought it. The move eventually came because Facebook over and over bumped up against an SEC rule -- now rewritten as part of the JOBS Act -- that said any private company with more than five hundred "shareholders of record" must adhere to the same financial discloser requirements as public companies.

Peter Thiel, who was Facebook's first outside investor and currently sits on the board, could even be encouraging Zuckerberg to snub the Street's formalities. Thiel, after all, has derided Wall Street for its inability to comprehend Silicon Valley. "There continues to be a certain antipathy by Wall Street banks toward Silicon Valley businesses where they don't quite believe it's real," he told the Financial Times after LinkedIn's stock doubled on its first day, indicating that the banks did a bad job pricing the deal.
While that perceived disconnect might encourage some tech CEOs to work harder to make sure his bankers comprehend the value of the company, Zuckerberg apparently doesn't have those concerns. Or, more likely, he's comfortable leaving that job up to Sandberg and Ebersman and honestly feels his time is better spent worrying about the product and strategy.

"This is why he hired a COO," said another capitalist venturer. "The problem is the rest of the world expects a CEO to deal with these kinds of issues."

The sheer hype of this deal will likely mean that, barring something exceptionally bizarre, big investors will clamor to get a piece of it. it is hard to imagine many potential investors saying no because they want to talk to Zuckerberg.

Eventually, though, the pressure is on Facebook to perform financially, and that might require some face time with Wall Street. The company is set up in such as way that Zuckerberg retains an strange amount of control. He owns about 28 percent of the stock and 57% of its class B shares, giving him outsized voting power. That also gives him outsized responsibility. Will it also lead to a backlash with pubic investors if and when Facebook stumbles?

We'll learn the answer the first time Facebook has a lousy quarter.

Written By: Shannon Martin, founder ThisTailerSucks.Com

GPS REVIEW: TomTom GO Live 1535M

2012-04-12T08:31:00.006-07:00

The good: The TomTom GO Live 1535M features a suite of destination searching apps from Yelp, Expedia, Trip Advisor, and search engine. Twitter integration allows users to update colleagues and family with ETAs in a manner safer than texting. Other Live services, such as HD Traffic, fuel prices, and weather forecasts, round out the unit's brilliant connectivity service.

The bad: Searching the connected services is clunky and, at times, unintuitive.

The bottom line: The TomTom GO Live 1535M's is a solidly performing GPS device and its application integration for search is a nice first, but that's hardly this PND's strongest feature.

Written By: Shannon Martin, founder ThisTrailerSucks.Com