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When you talk about video game consoles the first topics are usually the quality of play and the graphics; it’s the fun factor not the technology.  But beneath the surface of shiny plastic cases and glowing LED’s, these remain powerful devices with impressive technical credentials.  The consoles can do a lot more than gaming and their innovations are carrying into entirely unrelated sectors.

•••Wii Warfare•••
Nintendo’s motion activated controller has proven to be a huge hit with consumers.  The simple, but effective interface, has completely changed the nature of video game play.  It’s expanding audiences, increasing accessibility and just simply: fun.   It’s also turning out to be a lot more powerful.

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There may be plenty of buzz about next generation iPhones, or Apple’s efforts to capture the smartphone market, but Research in Motion doesn’t seem fazed.  Wednesday, when the phone maker released Q4 earnings, the numbers were strong.  Even amidst a slowing economy, RIM (Nasdaq: RIMM) easily beat guidance and doubled year over year results.

For the three months ending March 1st, RIM earned $412.5 million (72c a share) on revenue of $1.88 billion.  Both numbers are more than double year ago results when RIM reported earnings of $187.4 million (33c a share) on revenues of $930.4 million.   The Wall Street consensus was for fourth quarter earnings of 70c a share on revenue of $1.86 billion (Thompson).

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Speculation about Apple products is always a popular pastime.  Lately, two questions are dominating the discussion: how close are we to seeing the second generation iPhone? And, When it gets here, what goodies does it have in store?   The answers depend on who you ask but they may be here sooner than largely expected.

When, When, When?
Regarding timing, the widely held consensus is that June will be home to D-day (delivery day).  The theory is Apple will use their popular developer event to reveal a faster (3G), more feature laden phone.  That timing would also match the planned rolled out date for software upgrades.  Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster is among those taking that position.  (He’s also predicting at least three models of iPhones will be sold globally in 2009 and the annual tally for that year could push 45m units sold globally).

Others are pointing to the newly revealed Samsung Instinct, a 3G, Touch-controlled phone with an uncanny resemblance to the iPhone.  It has some of the things the current iPhone is missing like expandable memory and a haptic system that provides tactile feedback to touch.  Apple will beat that phone to market, they say.  They won’t let Samsung get to a 3G touch sensitive phone first.  Accordingly, for these speculators it’s by June at the latest.

Another fork in the rumor path is being fueled by existing phone supplies which are currently dwindling. Click to Read More

In 2006 talent agent and producer Peter Safran left Brillstein-Grey to start his own company.  Now he’s taking the mix of talents and assets to the web.  Like a growing list of Hollywood bigs doing similar, he’s signed a new deal to develop original online video content.   In Safran’s case, however, there’s a catch.  He is not setting out to create the next YouTube viral video sensation; he’s not looking to syndicate widely either.  Instead he’s taking his productions and going Xbox.

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New Media tech writers (Metue included) usually reserve some airtime to cover the freshly funded.  Such newly flush startups are powerful fuel for talking about developing trends or as barometers for the next (or not likely to be next) new thing.  Every now and then though, when the funding size is extravagant or the recipient a peer, the financial press gets buzzing. 

This relatively quiet news Monday, the blog side of tech news buzzed about the Series A financing of press-centric startup Publish2.    Per the company’s own announcement, they closed a $2.75m first round with money from Velocity Group.

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It’s game on for Paramount.  The movie studio has plans to jump into gaming and has formed a division within their interactive department to fund the development (and publication) of gaming titles, according to Variety.

The game studio, about which information remains slight, will be largely run by Matt Candler who previously worked at Grind Games and Activision.  His title will be VP of Interactive Development.

Sandi Isaacs, Paramount’s VP of interactive and mobile content told Variety that the studio will look to invest in all types of games from casual and mobile on up to possible console games.

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How low can it go for traditional print news media?  Pretty low, according to a few recent reports.

The first, from the Newspaper Association of America (NAA), pegged 2007 as the worst downturn in the newspaper print ad business in over 50 years.  Revenue for the industry was down just under 8% to $45.3b.   That’s not a surprise, it’s been long forecast, still a 50 year low is a significant milestone.

The silver lining is the online news machine continues to improve. Click to Read More