Apple goes after a company that cheated, No Doubt and Activision go after each other, Sony and Xbox go after Nintendo's motion control market and laid-off Canadians increasingly go after freelancing. Let's pursue the day's news . . .
Job Market
Is the Future of Work Self-Employment?: Canadian economist Larry Smith notes that in his country, the number of individuals running their own businesses went up as the number of conventional jobs went down. Could be a biproduct of the recession, but it's a trend that bears watching.
Are You Looking For Career Happiness In All The Wrong Places?: Includes a series of questions that will help you identify what your true ideal work situation is.
Video Games
We May Have a Name for the PS3 Motion Controller: According to EA CEO John Riccitiello, the Microsoft and Sony motion controllers will be named the Gem and Natal, respectively. These are huge developments that could spell bad news for Nintendo if they don't break out of their current stagnation, as motion control is currently the Wii's biggest advantage over the other two consoles. We'll see if this kicks the House that Mario Built into action; meanwhile, developers should keep in mind that the other two controllers seem to be well on their way. (Riccitiello agrees with the assessment of Nintendo, BTW, saying they must innovate to stay competitive. Meanwhile, Nintendo itself is sounding off on the flop of Grand Theft Auto DS, saying lack of proper marketing on Rockstar's part was to blame.)
No Doubt vs. Activision Blizzard Now Full-Blown Legal Mess: The band had sued the game company, saying they had only authorized their likenesses to be used on their own songs, not throughout the Band Hero game. Now the game company is countersuing, claiming, among other things, breach of contract for failing to promote the game. All this points out that law is definitely a valid, and in-demand, career for both the gaming and entertainment industries – and may be more so in the future, if music games result in more kerfluffles like this.
Aspyr Media Reportedly Lays Off Half of Staff: The Texas-based studio was known for doing PC/Mac ports of console games and worked on Star Wars and Call of Duty titles. This is a bit surprising, since PC gaming is said to be on the rise and there aren't many studios working on Mac titles.
Technology
Apple Boots Company from App Store for Fraud: A Chinese company called Molinker had been filling the app store with copycat knockoffs of existing software, most of which had abnormally high ratings because the company was trading free copies for five-star reviews. (They were caught when photography bloggers noticed poor software getting consistently good ratings, got suspicious and blew the whistle). The amount of apps involved here is huge – about a thousand. If you use phone apps for productivity, be careful, and try to get second opinions on what seem like abnormally high ratings.
AOL Officially Independent from Time Warner: They've also unveiled a new interface for their web portal. They're in an extremely crowded field, however, competing against Yahoo, Google and the like, and their brand doesn't carry the same weight it once did in the early days of the Net, when people used it to take their first baby steps online. They're definitely going to need watching for a long time before they can be considered anywhere near the resume shortlist.
Hearst Provides Video Clip Service for MSN: Between this and Skiff, Hearst seems to be one major publisher that is successfully making the transition to the electronic age. I'd consider them a safe bet for the future.
Vevo Crashes Shortly After Launching: The music supersite recovered from its error quickly, though – they underestimated the demand for it, and they're reported to be running smoothly now. This is one to keep an eye on – the partnership between YouTube and several music labels is being compared to early MTV – in a GOOD way – and may end up being to music what Hulu is to television.
Was the Nook Rushed to Market?: The New York Times claims the device's software is buggy and smacks of having been released before it was ready. We've seen this story plenty of times before (just about every Windows and Mac OS of the last decade, anyone?), but if you're thinking of going Nook, you may want to hold off until the next release.
Samsung Introduces Its Own Smartphone OS: Called bada (yep, with a small b), which is Korean for "ocean," it was designed to be easy to develop apps for, according to the company – which may make it a good choice for those looking to hone their skills before heading for the iPhone. Samsung's entering an increasingly crowded arena, though, so we'll see if they can go toe to toe with Apple and Google.
TMZ Pulls in $25 Million in One Year: And the best news is, the celebrity gossip site is hiring. You know what to do.
Social Media
Friendster Sold to Malaysian Company: The social network claims its biggest popularity is in Asia, which makes this a good match. It's interesting to see any social network that isn't Facebook or Twitter coming up with alternative strategies for success – going after international or niche markets.
QUESTION OF THE DAY: Did Barnes and Noble, indeed, rush the Nook to market, and do such practices ultimately hurt a company? We've seen the majors do this time and time again, but most of them have managed to bounce back – of course, then there's cases like Vista . . .
- Bonnie