General Gaming Article

General Gaming Article

Jon Rubinstein Leaves HP and webOS Behind

Posted: 27 Jan 2012 03:14 PM PST

rubensteinFormer Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein has officially left HP, effective today. Rubinstein became CEO of Palm in 2009 and led the company's push with webOS, eventually selling the company to HP in 2010. When asked if he had any immediate plans, Rubinstein said he was going to take a well-deserved rest after working on webOS for the last few years. And what a last few years they have been.

Rubinstein's first big hit came when he worked at Apple where he created the iPod. In 2009, he wowed CES with the Palm Pre. However, a series of bad business decisions left Palm in dire straights. HP bought the failing company when under the command of Mark Hurd. Rubinstein opted to stay on with a 12-24 month contract, which he has now completed. Hurd's successor, Leo Apotheker tried to kill webOS entirely, but current CEO Meg Whitman has decided to open source the platform instead.

Near the end, Rubinstein was assigned to the Personal System Group at HP, and a new manager took over webOS. That made it pretty clear he was working on an exit strategy. Where do you think Jon Rubinstein will show up next?

UP Patent Office Invalidates Major Rambus Patent

Posted: 27 Jan 2012 02:57 PM PST

rambusBefore smartphone patents took over the spotlight, everyone's favorite patent troll was Rambus. The technology licensing firm has been using the so-called Barth patents for years to sue tech companies and extract licensing fees as a settlement. After invalidating two of the three Barth patents earlier this year, the U.S. Patent Office has now invalidated the third as well. 

It was the Barth patents that Rambus used to win lawsuits against Nvidia, HP, and more. The technologies described in these patents pertained mostly to memory chip design, and were considered to be Rambus' most valuable IP. Rambus pulled in $312.4 million in revenue last year on the strength of its patent portfolio. That amount is likely to drop in 2012.

Rambus can appeal the latest blow to its business, but a Patent Office examiner is unlikely to disagree with the appeals board that invalidated it. The company has other patents to throw around, but none can pull in the kind of fees the Barth patents did. Do you think it's time for Rambus to ride off into the sunset?

WSJ: Facebook IPO Filing Coming Next Week

Posted: 27 Jan 2012 02:34 PM PST

fbInvestors have been salivating over the possibilities for years, and according to the Wall Street Journal, the wait is nearly over. Facebook is going to file for its IPO next week with a company valuation of between $75 an $100 billion. Not only will the IPO let people own a piece of Facebook, but this will finally let employees cash out those stock options.

Facebook is looking to raise about $10 billion on that $100 billion valuation, so most of the company will remain privately owned. Shares of Facebook have been sold privately for several years, and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has been cautioning the company against taking on too many investors lest it be forced to divulge financial data to the public before an IPO.

If a $100 billion valuation happens, that would make Facebook worth about half as much as Google, and the same as McDonald's. One thing's for sure, though. Facebook is about to transform its employees into the newest round of Silicon Valley millionaires.

Your Next Laptop Might Have a Kinect Inside

Posted: 27 Jan 2012 11:09 AM PST

The thinking heads at Redmond envision laptop users shaking their rumps and gyrating in front of their notebooks in the not-too-distant future. Imagine being able to raise your hand and manipulate tiles in Windows 8 or moving around documents (insert inevitable comparison to Minority Report). That's the path we're on as Microsoft flirts with the idea of integrating Kinect motion sensors into laptops.

Actually, it's more than just an idea. According to The Daily, prototypes already exist. TD actually got to play with one recently.

"The devices, which at first glance appear to be Asus netbooks running Windows 8, feature an array of small sensors stretching over the top of the screen where the webcam would normally be," TD explains. "At the bottom of the display is a set of what appear to be LEDs."

TD says a source at Microsoft confirmed that the devices it played with are official prototypes. The question is, what practical use is a Kinect-enabled laptop? That will be up to developers to decide. Gaming is an obvious application of motion control, but might be of limited appeal on a laptop or netbook. According to TD, Microsoft probably isn't going to develop its own laptops and will instead license the technology to hardware manufacturers, so they will be the ones who ultimately decide what to do with the technology.

Does a Kinect-enabled laptop interest you?

Politicians Lash Out, Wear Guy Fawkes Masks After EU Signs SOPA's Big Brother

Posted: 27 Jan 2012 11:06 AM PST

With all the headlines about SOPA and PIPA, it's easy to forget that President Obama already signed the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement way back in October. ACTA bypassed the World Trade Organization, the World Intellectual Property Organization and the United to create a new, multinational governing body that can crack down on intellectual property concerns. Like SOPA and PIPA, ACTA is full of loose language and privacy concerns, and it's caused a lot of hand-wringing in Europe. Yesterday, the EU and 22 of its members signed ACTA, prompting several backlashes; the EU's ACTA investigator quit in outrage, and Polish politicians donned Guy Fawkes masks.

Kader Arif was appointed by the European Union to investigate and scrutinize ACTA, which was drafted behind closed doors with the help of the MPAA, RIAA, BSA and other industry organizations. He quit the position and lashed out at the EU after it signed the treaty yesterday, saying the process was basically rigged.

TechSpot quotes Arif as saying he "faced unprecedented maneuvers from the right wing of Parliament to impose an accelerated schedule to pass the agreement as soon as possible before the public is alerted, thereby depriving Parliament of its right of expression and the tools at its disposal to carry the legitimate demands of citizens." According to the BBC, Arif says the process had "no consultation of the civil society" and a "lack of transparency since the beginning of negotiations."

Meanwhile, Poland has been rocked by massive protests against ACTA -- and the country still signed the agreement yesterday. Several Polish politicians members appeared in Parliament holding Guy Fawkes masks in front of their faces to protest the move. TechDirt, which reported the story and provided the picture above, points out that the homemade paper masks are "counterfeit" copies of the actual masks Time Warner holds rights to -- thereby giving the protest a deeper level of delicious irony.

Thoughts?

McAfee, Symantec Squabble Over Market Share Numbers

Posted: 27 Jan 2012 10:47 AM PST

The hardest part about watching a nerd fight is knowing which side to root for. Such is the position we find ourselves in as two security giants squabble over claims the other is making. What started the whole thing was Symantec telling Reuters in an interview earlier this week that it was snatching up antivirus market share from competitor McAfee.

Symantec Chief Financial Officer James Beer made the claim on Wednesday, telling Reuters that several large accounts at McAfee had switched over. McAfee, which is now owned by Intel, says that's a bunch of hogwash.

"We are not aware of any major account that we lost to Symantec during the quarter," Edwared Hayden, McAfee Senior Vice President for Finance and Accounting, told Reuters.

Not only does McAfee refute Symantec's claim, the security firm points out it conducted a record level of business during its December quarter, during which time it secured its biggest deal ever and added more sales exceeding $1 million than it had in any other quarter to date.

Nvidia’s Kepler Architecture May Land in Ivy Bridge Ultrabooks

Posted: 27 Jan 2012 10:27 AM PST

Nvidia may give Ultrabooks a major shot in the arm. The GPU maker is reportedly working on a version of Kepler designed specifically for Intel's new form factor for notebooks, which is great news if integrated graphics tend to make you sad. Details are fairly scarce, but the idea of a discrete next-generation GPU nestled inside a slim Ultrabook is certainly an intriguing proposition.

Asus and Acer are already on board, sources tell Fudzilla, though nothing has been officially confirmed.

"However, we stand tall by the new that Kepler gets to Ultrabooks this year," Fudzilla says. "This was confirmed by several industry sources."

There's a lot of buzz surrounding Nvidia's upcoming Kepler architecture. Early reports suggest Nvidia has a winner on its hands, though how a Kepler derivative would fare in an Ultrabook form factor with more demanding thermal requirements and expectations of above average battery life remains to be seen.

First "Super Wi-Fi" White Space Spectrum Network Deployed In North Carolina

Posted: 27 Jan 2012 10:20 AM PST

After years of hemming, hawing and waiting for televisions to make the jump to digital, the very first "Super Wi-Fi" network went live in Wilmington, North Carolina yesterday. Now, Super Wi-Fi is a bit of a misnomer: the technology isn't really Wi-Fi at all -- it utilizes unused "white space" spectrum in the analog T.V. bands, instead -- and it's waaaaay slower than normal Wi-Fi to boot, with speeds up to 22 Mbps. So why is Super Wi-Fi's launch such a big deal?

Advocates hope Super Wi-Fi (or IEEE standard 802.22) will be a way to bring broadband to rural areas that currently have few Internet connectivity options. (Some places in the U.S. still only have DSL or even *shudder* dial-up connections available.) While Super Wi-Fi is slower than traditional Wi-Fi, it's able to transmit over much, much, much longer distances thanks to its lower frequency -- just over 62 miles, in fact. Super Wi-Fi can also beam through physical objects like trees and walls, which gives normal Wi-Fi fits.

Critics used to worry that the signal could interfere with T.V. signals, but between the death of analog T.V. and thorough testing and specifications, that isn't much of a concern any longer. These initial tests will help engineers roll out any kinks in the technology.

Wilmington was chosen as a test bed because it was also a test bed for making the switch to digital T.V. signals -- so it's analog bands are clean, sparse and eagerly awaiting to be used to find pr0n and LOLcatz. This initial experiment will be providing wireless connectivity in two local parks as well as power four wireless cameras in the parks. Forbes' Elizabeth Woyke says the next step of roll-out will allow the city to "remotely manage creek and river water sensors, water quality monitors, flood valves and public lighting."

Do you think Super Wi-Fi will catch on?

Google Tries Setting the Record Straight on Privacy Policy Changes

Posted: 27 Jan 2012 09:28 AM PST

Google on Tuesday announced some changes to its privacy policies and Terms of Service that essentially boils down to sharing more data by combining information you've provided from one service with information from other services. The goal is to "treat you as a single user across all our products, which will mean a simpler, more intuitive Google experience." Google's unification of data from 60 Web services hasn't been sitting well with some folks, so Google Policy Manager Betsy Masiello hammered out a blog post in an attempt to clarify any misconceptions people may have.

"We're making things simpler and we're trying to be upfront about it," Masiello wrote. "Period."

She explains that users still have choice and control, that Google isn't collecting any more data than it previously was, and that you can use as much as or as little as Google as you see fit, so if you're into Gmail but aren't feeling the whole Google+ scene, you can use one and not the other.

"You don't need to log in to use many of our services, including Search, Maps, and YouTube," Masiello explains. "If you are logged in, you can still edit or turn off your Search history, switch Gmail chat to 'off the record,' control the way Google tailors ads to your interests, use Incognito mode on Chrome, or use any of the other privacy tools we offer."

Privacy advocates in Congress aren't necessarily convinced and plan to investigate what effect Google's revised privacy policy changes will have on consumers. Others, including our own contributor Ryan Whitwam, don't see what all the fuss is about.

"I don't understand the huff over Google's new privacy policy mostly because I assumed they already did most of that stuff," Whitwam posted on his Google+ account. "If they weren't, fine. If they want to now, also fine. It doesn't bother me. If people are upset, they can delete their Google accounts. I'll keep mine until a self-driving Google car starts following me around for additional market research. That, or when my phone starts syncing with my brain to target ads in my dreams. That might freak me out a little."

Do you agree with Whitwam or are you outraged over the policy changes?

Motorola Shipped a Measly 1 Million Tablets in 2011

Posted: 27 Jan 2012 09:06 AM PST

Big things might be in store for Motorola Mobility if Google's acquisition is able to proceed unabated, but for the fourth quarter of 2011, the mobile device maker posted a net loss of $80 million, albeit that figure is largely the result of write-off costs related to the proposed takeover. Still, it's a complete reversal of fortunes compared to the fourth quarter of 2010 when Motorola Mobility posted an $80 million profit.

Net revenue totaled $3.4 billion in Q4 2011, falling flat compared to one year prior, and $13.1 billion for the full year, up 14 percent compared to 2010. Motorola's mobile device sales didn't exactly light up the charts. The company shipped 5.3 million smartphones in Q4 2011 and 18.7 million for the full year, and just 200,000 tablets during the quarter and 1 million throughout 2011.

Things could change in a hurry. Motorola said it "received very positive consumer response" to its Razr device, and the Google acquisition is expected to close in early 2012, which would give the company an obvious shot in the arm.
Posted by Shri Krishna

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