Sony apologizes for dead goat prop
April 30, 2007
Reuters - Sony Corp. (6758.T) on
Monday issued an apology for using a freshly slaughtered goat
as a prop at its "God of War II" video game launch party in
Athens, a publicity stunt that has outraged animal rights
activists.
Supreme Court favors Microsoft in AT&T case
April 30, 2007
InfoWorld - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Monday that Microsoft is not liable for using patented AT&T technology in copies of Windows running on computers outside the United States.
Videogames Really Are Linked to Violence
April 30, 2007
ahoehn writes “Amanda Schaffer has written a refreshingly balanced piece about the connection between video games and violence. Instead of regurgitating the typical reactionary voices in this debate, she looks at what scientific studies suggest about the issue. From the article: ‘Pathological acts of course have multiple, complex causes and are terribly hard to predict. And clearly, millions of people play Counter-Strike, Halo, and Doom and never commit crimes. But the subtler question is whether exposure to video-game violence is one risk factor for increased aggression: Is it associated with shifts in attitudes or responses that may predispose kids to act out? A large body of evidence suggests that this may be so … Given this, it makes sense to be specific about which games may be linked to harmful effects and which to neutral or good ones. Better research is also needed to understand whether some kids are more vulnerable to video-game violence, and how exposure interacts with other risk factors for aggression like poverty, psychological disorders, and a history of abuse.’”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Yahoo to acquire online advertiser Right Media
April 30, 2007
AFP - Yahoo said Monday it is buying online advertising exchange Right Media in a move to counter Google's move to acquire the DoubleClick Internet ad-targeting firm.
Court favors Microsoft in patent fight
April 30, 2007
AP - The Supreme Court sided with Microsoft Corp. on Monday, finding that U.S. patent law doesn’t apply to software sent to foreign countries.
The PSP - Sony’s Missed Opportunity
April 30, 2007
C|Net passes on the words of Forrester analyst James McQuivey, who lambasts Sony for failing to live up to the opportunity the PSP presented. Though the handheld has certainly been doing better of late, it’s hard not to point out that the PlayStation Portable’s sales numbers flag in the face of the DS’s incredible popularity. McQuivey also makes a point of stating how well the system could have done at taking a slice of Apple’s death-grip on the downloadable media market. “‘The thing is, Sony could have been all this,’ McQuivey said. ‘The Sony PSP is one of the best portable entertainment media devices that anyone has come up with in years. It has a relatively big screen, plays video beautifully, has good storage and audio. It could have been the first big mobile carrier for TV shows and movies.’ Instead, the mobile-video play of one of the world’s largest electronics companies is straggling behind Apple, has shaken the confidence of supporters–especially in Hollywood–and added to the woes of CEO Howard Stringer.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Samsung Begins Production Of 16Gb NAND Flash Memory
April 30, 2007
Samsung has announced that they are beginning volume production of higher-density flash memory.
Samsung claims to be the first to accomplish the feat of mass-producing 16 gigabit NAND flash memory, which is being manufactured at 51 nm,…
Comcast, Yahoo reach Internet advertising deal
April 30, 2007
Reuters - Comcast Corp, the cable company, and
Yahoo Inc on Monday said they had agreed to a multi-year
partnership for online display and video advertising.
Nokia expands security appliance line
April 30, 2007
InfoWorld - Nokia introduced two new network security appliances on April 30, adding high- and low-end models that aim to help companies filter out malware traffic before it penetrates their IT systems.
Denis Dyack’s Quest For A New Game Biz
April 30, 2007
Just weeks after Too Human producer Denis Dyack confronted the folks at 1up, he’s now talking to Gamasutra about many of the same topics, and seems to be pining for a very different games industry. Specifically, Dyack takes exception to the whole concept of incomplete games being seen by the press, the large and now-deceased glitz and glamour version of E3, and the enthusiast press in general. His big complaint seems to be that enthusiast press folks want things to be good. “I guess I’m really against the whole notion of the enthusiast press. Being so enthusiastic that they want things to be good. I think if our medium is going to become mainstream, and we’re going to be considered an art form, we need true critics like the movie industry or even the music industry where people go up and literally critique something, and it’s a profession to critique it. In order to critique something, it has to be done.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
