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According to the CEO of Electronic Arts, the biggest videogame maker, Sony only delivered about 200,000 PlayStation 3 consoles to the US during its first weekend on sale. That's half the number Sony was supposed to provide. The result was a sizable shortfall in sales of EA games for the PS 3
...is that not all that many people want to listen to them. And even if they do listen, most will only tune in once.
Why am I not surprised? Besides, there's another drawback to podcasting: Life's too bloody short. Who's got time to listen to various know-it-alls nattering on for half an hour? Blogging is better because you can skim a blog in a minute or so, get the gist, and move on. With a podcast, you actually have to pay attention for an extended period to get any benefit. It's like a step backward to the age of oral tradition. What's the point?
In theory, anyway. But that's bad enough.
Looks like the Beatles are finally going digital. And about time too...
Check out this impressive new gadget shopping site that puts everything you need on a single page. Quite cool it is.
...and ready for action!
Twenty-three years from now, a giant asteroid will pass within 20,000 miles of Earth. Or maybe even closer...
NASA is considering a manned mission to an asteroid. Hopefully not one heading for a deadly collision with Earth...
I've got not one, not two, but THREE big stories in today's Boston Globe!
First, check out the Cambridge company that's putting free international calling on your cell phone!
Next, thrill to the rise of Internet freedom, as China stops blocking its citizens' access to the world's favorite online encyclopedia!
And then, just in time for Thanksgiving, discover a new device that can automatically detect spoiled turkey. It could...save your life!
...according to research firm iSuppli, which tore down one of the machines to estimate how much it costs Sony to build it. Answer: About $840. The PS3 sells at retail for a maximum of $600--if you can find one. So all in all, the lucky few who score a PS3 will be getting their money's worth.
As I note in this Boston Globe story, Sony won't make any money off its new videogame machine unless they can keep selling it for a long, long time...
Believe it or not, 10 super-spammers create about 80 percent of all the world's spam. And here they are!
Try to resist the urge to tear them limb from limb, okay?
Laptop computers are getting cheaper. Lots cheaper.
Does the new Christian computer game Left Behind sacrifice its moral values in a welter of blood and slaughter?
...especially in Singapore, where you can do hard time for using someone else's hotspot.
First iPod took over our pockets and belt loops, then our cars. Now Apple is trying to extend its iPod empire to the world's commercial air carriers.
Remember that study that the US Justice Department was doing to prove the need for a law to protect children from porn on the Internet? They had the devil of a time getting Google to turn over search data for the study.
Lo and behold, the government needn't have bothered. Their own hand-picked expert concluded that porn makes up only about 1 percent of Internet content.
This isn't a defense of porn; it's a criticism of an unnecessary law. Parents should use filtering software to protect their kids; a federal law isn't needed.
Wanna watch a movie with a few of your friends? With Lycos Cinema, you don't even have to be in the same room. Just open your browsers and watch the same movie wherever you are, with keyboard chat that lets you swap insults and complaints about the acting.
All you need is an Internet-connected computer, a Microsoft Web browser--and really bad taste in movies.
Just because a video game is good doesn't mean it'll become a monster hit. Here's a Globe's-eye view of some lost classics.
Massachusetts is a leader in the "small science" of nanotechnology. But are we doing enough to stay on top?
Scientists at the University of Pennsylvania study the brains of people who speak in tongues. Turns out there's some really interesting stuff going on in there...
David Pogue is less than impressed with Microsoft's upcoming iPod killer.
What with all the election stuff, has anybody noticed that Microsoft has at last unleashed its new operating system upon an unsuspecting world?
The guy who conceived the Sony Walkman retires from the company at age 80.
The music industry says it's losing $361 million a year in Australia due to music piracy. But a confidential analysis by the Aussie government says the numbers can't be trusted.
And if the music guys are wrong about their losses in Australia, could they be exaggerating them for the rest of the world as well? Hmmm...
Forget the impending shootout between HD-DVD and Blu-Ray for supremacy in the hi-def DVD market. Companies are planning to roll out machines that'll play either kind of disk.
Makes sense. But it would have made even more sense if these companies had reached a sensible compromise on a single standard. Oh well. Never mind.
Blind people are suing retailer Target for making a website that's difficult for blind people to use.
How the heck can you make websites for the blind? Actually, it's not that hard, if you try. And companies that want to avoid lawsuits and bad publicity ought to start trying.
The Globe's own Peter Howe reports that MIT and a university in The Other Cambridge are designing a new kind of jet aircraft that'll make no more noise than today's cars.
Somehow, it just won't be as cool. I always loved the sound of jets taking off, myself...
Don't panic. The Macarena virus that attacks Macintosh computers isn't much of a threat. But it proves that the Mac can be infected with malware, despite the overconfidence of some Mac users.
Time to buy some antivirus software, guys.
Check out my stories on...
Microsoft's embrace of Novell and SUSE Linux
The new wave of political websites, and how they plan to make money at it
How MIT and a British university are going to school on the World Wide Web
and how some search engines are so hungry for traffic, they'll pay you to use them.
And one more thing...my piece on how the History Channel and Kuma Games have teamed up to create military mini-games based on the TV documentary series Shootout.
Yep, I been busy...
Yes, the company is laying off workers to squeeze more efficiencies from all the companies it's been acquiring.
But look at the bright side--none of the layoffs will happen in Australia or New Zealand.
So all right, so I haven't been posting so much lately. I been busy. But I shall reform...
A $100 laptop too much for you? Microsoft's getting ready for the $15 cell phone. Coming to a Third World country near you, in 2008.;
The Big Ditch is due to get even bigger, to handle a new generation of super-sized cargo ships. Popular Mechanics has the low-down.
it belongs to the US intelligence community. It's where spies discuss the latest info and tactics. So whatever you do, don't read this!