Job Market
The Best and Worst Resume Builder: According to this piece, it's your blog. A well-written blog can be a plus on the "experience" section of a resume, a wank-a-thon can sink you if prospective employees Google your name. Be careful what you put out there, especially with your professional name on it!
Dealing With Job Search Depression: A list of resources designed to help people who can't seem to see the light at the end of the bad-economic-times tunnel.
Video Games
Sony's total second quarter loss is a staggering nearly $400 million, and it's not just their games division that's hurting – they're suffering losses across the board. Hopefully, the company's recently announced strategic moves (like Playstation Network on its laptops) will help them get back on their feet. As Fan to Pro's official Sony Stalker, I have a couple of tips for them: 1) The PSP Phone – GET ON WITH IT. 2) Swallow your pride and cut the PS3 prices already. It's the only way to get the machine back in the game, no pun intended. Come on, you admitted yourself that manufacturing costs of the thing are down 70 percent, there's no reason not to!
Old warhorse Capcom continues to grow, posting a record increase for the first quarter, largely on the strength of its Monster Hunter game. They're definitely worth tossing a resume to, they're a smart company that's proved they can change with the times.
Money for Nothing again: Virtual goods are being purchased by 12 percent of Americans, and that number will grow along with the popularity of online roleplaying games. This is a growing, expanding field that is definitely productive to get into.
Economics/Geekonomics
More signs we may have a hard climb back uphill: Restaurant traffic declined for the 22nd month in June, plus investments continued to slump and the gross domestic product declined 1 percent in the second quarter - although that last number can also be taken as a sound of cautious optimism.
Social Media
MySpace has officially started the rollout of its E-mail service. It will be available to all global users "within the next couple of years" and the company is pledging that it will be spam-free. (We'll see how that works out.) If the service catches on, it may be the shot in the arm MySpace desperately needs.
Technology
A pair of stunning Web success stories to report: Web MD's ad revenues were up 18 percent in the second quarter, and Firefox is approaching one billion downloads. Both are cases of companies that saw a need and went after it – Web MD is the go-to site for all things medical, thanks to strategic marketing and advertising, and Firefox has always presented itself as the less-problematic alternative to Internet Explorer (It's probably no coincidence that when Firefox made its announcement, Microsoft claimed that its latest Internet Explorer version is gaining momentum among consumers). Good strategy and good branding of your product can put you ahead even in a down business climate.
Is an iPhone Nano coming? The company has filed a patent that indicates so. If this smaller, cheaper version hits the market, it may mean more converts to the phone and even more demand for iPhone softwae (not to mention more demand for personnel at AT&T, which will dobtlessly see a subscriber boost – unless Apple ends its exclusivity contract with them). Stay tuned.
The Zune, Microsoft's answer to the iPod, is in deep trouble, to the point where some retailers have stopped carrying it altogether. According to this writer, while Apple continued to evolve its music device, the Zune remained pretty much the same. Lesson here: If you want to take on a titan of a particular field head-on, make sure you offer something different that people can't get anywhere else. (Something tells me their "me, too!" Microsoft stores will get a similar reception).
Anime/Manga
Funimation seems to be at the top of the commercial anime heap nowadays – their sales exceeded expectations for the first quarter, thanks to continually strong (and unkillable by bad live-action movies) properties like Dragonball Z. This raises the interesting possibility that their streaming video ventures may be serving as a promotion for their DVDs, rather than killing DVD sales.
Comics
Graphic novels aimed at U.S. adults suffered an eight percent drop in sales over the past year – not surprising, given the economic climate in general. Meanwhile, at least one American graphic novel publisher, Archaia, is going the digital route, offering content via Kindle. We just wonder when more publishers will follow the lead of U.S. manga companies and start offering content via either readers or online for a fee, which may help boost their bottom line out of sheer novelty.
Publishing
Another loss of weekly papers, the training ground for young journalists: Sun Newspapers will close half its community publications. Hopefully, municipal Web sites with community news will emerge to fill what is a vital void in news reporting.
- Bonnie