Job Market
Ways to Stand Out at Work During The Good Times and Bad Times: Among them, share information you've gained in niche areas with others - which sounds like a good use for your fandom skills.
Social Media
Facebook has retooled its privacy policy to include, among other things, accesibility to people's Facebook pages through search engines like Bing if they set their privacy settings to "everyone." (a likely result of Facebook's recent data-sharing deal with Microsoft). So if you use Facebook, be careful how you set your privacy if you don't want your page to be an open book.
Video Games
Nickelodeon has chosen Playspan as its virtual goods partner for Neopets and two virtual worlds it has in development. Playspan sells gift cards in outlets like 7-11 which can be used online to purchase virtual items and currently offers its services for more than 300 games. This is a very big deal in the virtual goods and online multiplayer community – Nickelodeon is a huge name to get into the "money for nothing" business and this shows how huge "freemium" games have become.
Nintendo suffers first profit loss in six years: The company says there had "been a miscalculation" as to the extent that the bottom would drop out of the games industry. The fact that the Wii seems to have reached its saturation point and the DSi didn't set the world on fire didn't help, we're sure. We're not saying Wii 2.0 is imminent, but it may happen sooner than originally thought.
Sony Suffers 2nd Quarter Loss: The state of the yen is cited as the cause. The good news, however, is that sales of the Playstation 3 were way, way up thanks to the price cut (which must have the execs kicking themselves and wondering why they didn't do it before).
Capcom profits up 58%: Apprently bucking the gaming industry downturn, they rode the Monster Hunter and Resident Evil franchises to continued success. They found something that works and stuck with it, always a smart thing.
Gamasutra's Weekly Job Roundup: You know what to do.
Technology
RealNetworks Turns a Profit: This despite the fact that subscribers are way down for their Rhapsody music service – the gains came mainly from cost cutting and sales of RealPlayer Pro. The company is looking for future growth from the video games it's offering for Facebook and iPhone, but they acknowledge that it's hard to turn a profit from them since these games usually sell cheaply.
Epix, a joint venture of Paramount, Lionsgate and MGM that will include online streaming of movies, as well as a movie channel on Verizon FIOS, has officially launched. So far, only people with the TV channel will have access to the online movie library, so this is a pretty big coup for Verizon, which is, of course, battling both cable and satellite services for eyeballs. Expect more studio-sponsored streaming business like this in the future – would not be surprised to hear an announcement of a competing service on DirectTV within the next week or so.
YouTube U2 Concert Generates 10 Million Streams: It's said to be the biggest event in the company's history, and it will mean more and more major televised events moving online. If you know streaming technology, you will definitely be in luck job-wise.
Android-Based EeePC 'Smartbook' To Arrive Early Next Year: Asus' on-again, off-again project is on again, and this time, there seems to be no mention of it being dual-boot with XP. It's going to have a light price tag, too, about $180. If this succeeds, it'll open the floodgates for Googlebooks, so this is definitely one to keep an eye on, especially if you want to get into making Android apps.
Comics
Comixology is offering a lineup of Marvel Comics titles through its iPhone app, including X-Men and Captain America. Unfortunatley, they're currently available only in the U.S., though that restriction may be lifted in thye future. Comixology had previously offered comics from small publishers, so this Marvel deal is a huge boost for them – and for the cyber comics industry in general.
- Bonnie