Anime/Manga
Studio Gonzo parent company GDH has asked 50 employees to voluntarily retire and plans to sell off its GDH Capital Funding subsidiary. Worth noting because troubles on the Japanese side of the industry have inevitable fallout on the American side.
Japanese modern artist Takashi Murikami plans to open an animation studio in Los Angeles, in addition to his studios in Tokyo and New York. The new office will host about 30 employees, so animators, you know what to do with your resumes.
Video Games
Nokia seems to be joining the parade of cell phone manufacturers that are considering their devices to be the future of gaming, as it's currently looking to hire a director of engineering for games.
Technology
Linux is suddenly hot, it seems: The demo for Left 4 Dead contains Linux Steam libraries and the Linux 2.6 kernel has been ported to the iPhone. Interesting to see the Windows alternative get so much attention after so many years of being an also-ran; programmers may want to step up their Linux knowledge.
Two booming technologies come together with Joost's new iPhone app. The new technology allows users to view streaming movies, music videos and TV shows, although initial reports indicate it's got some technological problems to iron out.
Social Networking
Are businesses ready to embrace Facebook and MySpace? Some of them have apparently been rather skittish, and go-between businesses have sprung up trying to get the two sides to join hands. Makes an interesting reality check, plus the go-between businesses might prove a good opportunity for some people.
Economics/Geekonomics
Personal consumption spending experienced its biggest drop since 1980 in the third quarter, and analysts think things are only going to get worse. Another sobering reminder that we have to continue to be cautious, we're not going to be out of the woods with this for awhile.
Publishing
The downward trend in print continues, as the Daily Tribune, a Detroit suburban area paper, has cut back to four days a week. Suburban papers, again, seem to be taking the biggest hit from the economic downturn – employees at these types of publications definitely should be aware of what could happen.
– Bonnie