| About | Blog | Bookstore | Library | Submit Story | Hire |
 News Feed
|
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Fan-To-Pro/2009/06/07/Fan-To-Pro-Weekly-Show-662009
Looks like my phone wasn't to hot, so you'll need to turn up your volume, but here's our first show! We discuss the news of the week and E3!
- Steven Savage
This is going to be our last week in review done in text format - instead we're going to be doing weekly shows every Saturday reviewing the geeky career news and discussing progeek issues at Fan To Pro on BlogTalkRadio! We haven't set an exact time, but we plan to shortly.
So, let's get to reviewing the news of the week for career geeks!
Lots of Google news. Google makes it easier on people to use special widgets on the web, further cementing their presence and mindshare. Big news however was their mega-collboration-communication tool in the works, Google Wave, which has open source elements, and a Twitter integrator. I'm guessing this is google's big push post-android to shore up web presence and, as I mentioned, dilute the chance for others to dominate in various areas.
Facebook got a huge $200 million investment. That's a lot of money, but really only a 2% ownership of the company. Still that's a giant amount of cash to get, and good for Facebook. As a side note, it seems we've got more Russian investment in social media (remember Livejournal?). Interestingly Facebook may have peaked among users 55 and older. Facebook is facing a number of challenges and advantages.
(Also, don't forget the advice you have a social media backup plan).
Hulu took on Boxee, launching it's own desktop (and I suspect making a play for X-box installation). Boxee of course offers to work with them. Hulu, for all it's dominance, seems surprisingly insecure, and i want to watch what they do - it could be something self-defeating.
For gaming, the sad note high reviews are no guarantee of sales.
My big takes this week are Hulu, Google, and Facebook. Hulu seems to be wanting to expand fast and furious, Google already is (and let's face it, a clash involving YouTube is coming. Again), and Facebook is working to expand. Those are the 3 to keep an eye on this week.
- Steven Savage
Facebook is still the word on the street nowadays, it seems. They're everywhere, they're influencing everything and everybody wants to be them.
The producers of Watchmen are putting a Facebook synch feature on the Blu Ray version of the film, allowing members to live-chat about it while they watch it together. The Linux Foundation's new Web site has a definite Facebook flavor. And Facebook itself announced a new virtual currency system to make paying for goods easier, thus making gaming within the site an even more attractive prospect.
News was hot elsewhere in social media, too. Social networking gaming company Zygna surpassed ten million daily active users.. BlogHer, a network for woman bloggers, nabbed $7 million in new funding. Two gaming executives and a former HBO honcho launched a new social media gaming company called Monkey Gods. All this did not stop the Wall Street Journal from taking a negative view of social media, mistakenly viewing it as a threat and not a useful tool.
Also big in the last week was something on a small scale - handheld gaming. The iPhone is heading into this arena big-time with reports of increased multiplayer capabilities in the device's next OS. The DSI raised total DS sales for April by 175 percent over the same month last year, and Electronic Arts announced plans to take Spore to the DS, as well as the Wii.
Speaking of the Wii, Xbox will be taking over the motion-sensor champion head-to-head with a motion sensing camera, which will capture a player's body motions and transfer them to the character on-screen. That's tthe biggest development for Micosoft's gaming platform since the price cut that put it on the map, and it's worth keeping an eye on. Sony, meanwhile, publicly said it has no PS3 redesign plans, which led some analysts to speculate that they definitely do.
Not all the news from the gaming world was upbeat, however. Factor 5 closed down and the long and sad saga of Midway continued to march on, with creditors of the company suing its majority owner. Midway's story is a cautionary tale for anyone who wants to get into gaming - no matter how huge you get, an equally huge fall may be inevitable. However, LucasArts, once written off as dead, proved they are not dead yet with a lineup of new games.
And elsewhere in the electronic world, there was plenty about Amazon and e-books. There was the rather odd announcement that they were creating blog subscriptions for Kindle, which seems a rather pointless and unprofitable move. The company launched its own imprint, AmazonEncore, which will focus on out-of-print titles - perhaps a direct move to compete with GoogleBooks? And a number of writers expressed fear of increased e-book piracy in the age of the Kindle (which indicates that Kindle security software may be very in-demand in the future!)
Electronic publishing was very much in the mind of traditional news companies, which struggled to play catch-up and "get with the program." The New York Times rolled out the Twitter-like NewsWire amid rumors that media mogul David Geffen is buying the company and MediaNews Group said it would move away from free online content. Since it's still debatable whether the public is willing to pay for cyberpapers, what happens with their venture may be the test case for the entire struggling industry.
Finally, we may have our ultimate sign that anime is as mainstrem as baseball and apple pie in America now - Macy's in New York City hosted a Fruits Basket cosplay event as part of Pacific Heritage Month celebrations. Does this mean cosplay departments are on their way to all-American department stores? Hey, anything that opens up more geek jobs . . .
- Bonnie
Our big story was Hulu, which got some new video deals. One piece of news with huge implications in video - I'd say Hulu is firmly cementing itself in the lead of online videotech.
This was the week of the Big Screen Kindle - and you can get some info on it here. It seems nice, but pricey. Also don't go counting on the newspapers going to this because Amazon apparently wants a 70% price cut. I'm not sure the big Kindle is going to go over that well between the size and the price - and those prices suggest that we're not going to be using them as newspaper readers. The big Kindle is in no way the end of the book battle, and I'm still not confident enough that the Kindle is a permanent fixture in the market or a savior of the news.
A lot of people are piggybacking onto social media - there's the huge amount of 'Twitter Riders', but the big news is that Ning, a social-media building tool is adding apps. Social Media is quickly developing a "middleware" that's pretty prominent, but I'm not sure there's any place (except perhaps Ning) that is a guaranteed career. This piggybacking/middleware trend probably isn't going away however as everyone wants social media.
FInally, a weird week for Apple rumors and news.
- Steve Savage
Wanted to let you know we're moving Week In Review to Saturday and making Sunday a day with no analysis (we will post other things as we choose). Saturdays are slow anyway, and it will let us experiment a bit more with some new ideas . . .
Things were great for Hulu: Strong growth and a Facebook interface, and of course their deal with Disney (which some argue is bad for YouTube). I'm going to go only slightly on a limb here and say that Hulu is going to come out of the video wars doing fantastic to reasonably well - and declare them worth sending resumes to. They've got too much going on so fast that I don't think they can fail badly.
Beyond the video wars, Barnes and Noble got into the audibook scene rather quickly. Watch this one, the battle for text has a lot of potential twists and turns. Of course Amazon is looking to acquire the iPhone reader, Stanza. Meanwhile Apple's new mediapad might kill the Kindle - but Amazon may not care . . . I expect the "book wars" to rage on for awhile - and am very curious about how this could intersect with "audio wars"
We had some movement in gaming that was intriguing:Ubisoft was doing well and preparing for the future of technology. Trion is teaming up with Petroglyph for an MMO - but we don't have much news on their other plans, so I'm not sure whats up with them. In Eidos news, Square Enix wanted them to retain a separate identity, but has very high expectations for them - and may be looking to buy another comany. Ubi seems to have a good strategy, but I'm not sure what SquareEnix's plans are - my suspicion is they want to diversify and speed delivery (as per the Emergent deal), but I'm really not sure.
Twitter may be big, but 60% of it's users quit in the first month. How accurate this is i'm not sure - are they listening, using other tools, etc.?
IBM's developer site went social network - which is also interesting is their model is Fan To Pro Crush Object Linkedin.Com. This begs the question of how many easily classifiable methods of social media arrangements there are, and if anyone can communicate these to companies seeking to do more in social media - and if a job could come of that . . .
Remember our discussion of hyper-local media? It seems to be becoming a reality fast. If you're making a move to local media, you're gaining successful cases to study or use in business proposals.
Weekly Advice round-up:
And that's it for the week!
- Steve Savage
Economically things were still mixed: signs of a home sale revival were hinted at - while other places saw homes being razed. Your humble blogger simple states DO NOT BUY A HOME RIGHT NOW and suggests you wait. Also, there's a useful map of job losses we found.
In social media, the big news was the changes at MySpace: Co-Founder Chris DeWolfe is out. This may sound traumatic, but MySpace has a shot at getting out of its slump and its not going to go away. Facebook is also moving, with a potential ad network and one of its big app builders came out of Stealth mode. I'd take DeWolfe's as an opening salvo in a new round . . . and of course this could lead to opportunites at these and other social networking companies.
If there was rumbling in the Social Media area it was a complete storm on all fronts in gaming - including the news game funding may be drying up (career thought - how much of this cash is going to social media?). There was good news: Wii had its video service channel, EA's online sports is doing very well, and Sega's doing some strategic rethinking. Meanwhile the PSP is looking worse all the time. No pattern per se this week, just lots and lots of stuff in gaming.
In video our big news was "what's up with Joost": is it shopping itself to Time-Warner? Or is it rallying for battle? I wouldn't go sending a resume there, but I don't think they're gone - in fact whoever buys them may have plans. We have seen video is NOT going away as a major area of interest - PBS is getting in on it.
We also saw a Google Android Notebook hit the market from China. I'm sure this is seen as a way to be more independent of American products, we'll keep an eye on this one. Android, if you haven't seen us say it the past few hundred times, is something to know about in any tech career - even if you don't code.
Finally Geocities, a piece of internet history, is going away.
And a roudup of our advice and analysis:
- Steve
Video-game wise we had a lot of odd or bad news: Nintendo sales were down, GTA Chinatown wars didn't do well despite rave reviews, GameStop slammed the PS2 price cuts, and Midway was surrendering to the inevitability of being sold. Most interesting to me is the Nintendo news - I've been wondering if Nintendo has gotten to pigeonholed and that can (and will) eventually hurt it. I'm not betting on it yet, but I'm watching it - Nintendo problems occuring before an economic recovery could make people even more cautious in the game industry.
Technology-wise, eBay was shedding Skype and StumbleUpon. Neither impressed me as particuarly helpful to eBay, so I can't say its a bad or unexpected move - and may be good for them. I am curious about the possibility that Skype going free could help make online audio a new battlefield - witness online radio newcomer Goom.
Also worth keeping an eye on is omni-mentioned semi-crush object Android, which has a good shot at Asia.
Video remained big with Google: which was seeking to bring pay-per-view to Youtube, and sign Sony for content. Video is a huge battleground,. so these are doubtless some of many moves, but as they ARE Google keep an eye on it. However I'd be concerned Google may be juggling a bit much here.
Anime AND Video-wise of course, crush object Crunchyroll was at it in force: adding live-action J-horror, all of the new Code Geas, and adding a new affiliate program. Beyond our usual praise, I also think Crunchyroll needs to be studied from a pure business perspective of what to do and what to do right.
Social Media was big as ever, people are noticing it. Local businesses are using it, as is the State Department. It's apparently big for Marketers. If you're in marketing, you CAN'T avoid Social Media. You probably can't avoid it anyway, but still.
And finally, Pirate Bay members recieved actual jail sentences. This is going to have all sorts of repercussions I'm sure. What they ARE is in question.
- Steve
The news took on something of an international flavor this holiday week. In addition to the usual goings-on in the U.S. and Japan, we learned that Bollywood has become so insurgent that Warner Bros. fears copyright infringement from it, Europe is experiencing a surge of creative Web startups, online gaming is huge in China and the Middle East may become the next fertile ground for the Twilight phenomenon. It all goes to show that geekery of all sorts is a truly global phenomenon in this wired age, and we all should be thinking globally when we get our big ideas.
Closer to home, the surge of streaming video - Crunchyroll, in particular, was all over the place - might be killing off traditional video outlets. It turns out that Blockbuster is in serious trouble. Given that Blockbuster is pretty much the last of the old-school rental stores, since they drove countless mom and pops out of business, this means the end of an era in video. Probably not coincidentally, Boxee announced new development options, CBS announced big numbers for its streaming of March Madness, speculation arose that YouTube might show full length movies and Netflix expanded its streaming lineup.
On the tech front, the Sun Microsystems-IBM deal crashed with a thud big enough to have an effect on the stock market. What's next for Sun is unclear - I don't think anyone in the industry wants the venerable company, which was once synonymous with high-tech itself, to go under. Time Warner announced it may spin off another old warhorse, AOL, leaving doubts about its future as well. (The key to AOL's survival is going to be shedding its old image as The Internet for Dummies and reinventing itself as a content provider for the new era).
in a sequel to an old soap opera, it was reported that Yahoo and Microsoft may be in talks about a search and advertising partnership, bringing to an end the saga of the failed takeover bid. Microsoft could use the extra leverage against Google, as they're currently battling them for a Twitter advertising deal.
Meanwhile, there was an interesting new development on the netbook scene - speculation arose that Nokia may be the next company to enter the small-and-cheap arena. This, coupled with the previous news that netbooks running Android may be in our future, brings netbooks and smart phones into closer and closer synergy - there may not be much different between the two in the future (except you usually don't talk into a netbook!)
On the video game front, Sony came out swinging at the DSi, saying Nintendo's new handheld doesn't offer much new and lacks the third party support of the PSP. Given how far behind its own handheld runs in sales in this country, they'd better be prepared to put their money where their mouth is when the next revision of the PSP comes along. EA's Will Wright left the company for an electronic think tank. The Midway saga got uglier as the Mortal Kombat team announced they weren't paid bonuses and news emerged that the company might be out of cash by June .
And, in much lighter news, the industry decided that if two monster franchises could sell a bazillion games alone, putting them together would send sales into the stratosphere. Voila, Lego Rock Band.
In publishing, even in the face of the E-book wars, it appeared there was still some interest in bound books and brick-and-mortar stores. Author Solutions bought brick-and-mortar retailer Trafford and romance novels were flying off the shelves - a good thing in light of the fact that romances are an excellent training ground for aspiring authors looking to get into all fields.
Finally, if you are thinking of developing the ultimate geeky media property, take note that it's already out there. Anime News Network carried a story this week about a manga based on a Linux variant . Manga plus Linux? I can't see how anything could possibly be geekier than that.
At the start of the week, Sony promised a big announcement that had people speculating if the long-awaited Playstation 3 price cut had finally arrived. Instead, they announced they were cutting the price of the Playstation 2 to $99, and the wagging tongues gave way to scratching heads. Was it an early April Fool's joke before the announcement of the real thing? (No announcement of a PS3 price cut has come yet, so the answer to that was, nope).
We've had quite a week this week - lots of news, lots of action, and a few future battles heating up in the technology sector for the Geekosphere. I will also, if possible, attempt to throw in a Watchmen reference if not more.
We know video is a growing area of interest, but a lot of events came into play this week. Dailymotion added Hulu content to it's service, ,there's an attempt between YouTube and Universal to create a premium music video site, and Boxee sort of got Hulu content back. Meanwhile no one is sure what's going on with Blockbuster. Among all of the existing battles, Zillion TV came onto the scene strong with it's broadband ideas, but is facing a lot of challenges - which doesn't seem to faze the young company. Right now I'd expect that video services and technology is going to be big because people want it, the new services can provide what people want cheaper, and it has been evolving for some time - but be careful if this impacts your career. We know what people want, but aren't sure how they'll watch, man.
(OK, lame, but see at least ONE reference!)
Next up, more mobile tech news. Research is pointing towards the iPhone being the big mobile web winner, with Google as the winner on search - a picture I expect is more complicated because the iPhone's penetration is only a small percentage of the phone that are owned by sixty percent of the world population. One Palm investor seems to think the new Pre will crush the iPhone - which is smack talk, but who knows these days - after all there's a huge market there. AT&T even wants to get in on mobile gaming. Between netbooks and increased interest in laptops, and successful mobile and portable devices, this is pretty much an inevitble market.
(I could commen't we can't be 100% sure of this and it's like a Rorsach blot at times, but that'd be lame - and also untrue considering we can be all but certain of a lot of smackdown and a big interest in this. So no direct Watchmen reference.)
Finally in technology, we also saw some increasing interest in mobile reading and publishing. We got to see a Kindle for iPhone, bringing the power of Amazon and Apple together. Barnes and Noble also purchased e-book publisher Fictionwise. Kindle has a lot of presence, but as noted here they're limited to the US, leaving a large world market available. This is going to be a ower-level battle than the other three (video and handheld) I'd expect, but it can easily shape up into one - especially with an increasing move of content to online. I'd say career-wise, people in the area of technology and publishing may want to stay on top of this because its so tame - it has the chance to alter quickly and surprise people - and to plan on national versus international ambitions.
(And will we see a Watchmen online? OK look I'll stop the references.)
Videogame wise, Amazon got into the used game market (along with everyone else apparently). The CEO of GameStop says this will fail, but he's not exactly going to say it'll work and destroy his company either. As I expect DLC is going to slowly replace content, I figure GameStop has a lot more to loose anyway. This issue will not be very relevant a decade from now unless things change radically in current trends. No physical games, no game reselling. Note that Blockbuster is more dependent on game rentals, and DLC will change that too . . , not that they don't have enough trouble as it is.
Also big in game news, the Midway story: it's burning through cash at an alarming rate, not helped by the fact that now insider trader claims are flying resulting in court actions. Supposedly they wish to avoid a sale of Mortal Kombat, but I think that's unavoidable. I consider us on death watch for the company still - that kind of scandal, that cash burn rate, it's just a matter of time until they're gone. However I expect little impact on the market as many companies are hurting - in fact, if they keep selling off properties we might get a nice burst of games in a year or two - and there may be room as the market is scaling back.
Anime-wise we return to video, but not my lame jokes, where Funimation is putting more online and anime-themed online community Gaia is showing anime as well. The latter is a perfect match - and could herald some competition with Crunchyroll. As I've noted probably more times than I should, established communities are fantastic places for video companies to make distribution deals with, and this sounds like a good case of synergy.
Now, Watchmen jokes aside, movie attendance is up in this economy, something that surprised me until I read the deeper analysis. Movies are a bargain compared to many other entertainments, and it's gotten people's attention. If this trend continues I think is a matter of the economy - if it keeps getting worse, movies will seem to be less of a bargain.
And that's it for the week - we've got three "bubbles" heating up in mobile, video, and text, which I suspect will be very big as time progresses.
- Steve
Recent Comments