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Wednesday, January 29, 2014
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I hate to say I-told-you-so…


Who am I kidding? I love to say that. But while I’m happy about being correct, I’m sad for Nintendo. I love Nintendo. I really do. And so it pains me to see them in such a state.


But I come bearing gifts. Rather than being the millionth person to advise them to move their games to smartphones, I thought I’d offer another alternative. It’s one I’ve laid out previously, and the response to it seemed positive enough that I thought it was worth elaborating upon. Because again, I want Nintendo to survive. And thrive.


What Nintendo needs to do right now is create another console. They can continue support for the Wii U through their current roadmap of games, but then it’s time to call a spade a spade and put all their resources behind this new system.


Here’s what I’m thinking: a $99 box built from the ground up to play retro Nintendo games. Mario. Zelda. Icarus. Donkey Kong. Pokemon. You name it. Have a bunch of titles ready to go at launch to ensure a blow-out. Release more as time goes on. But not in stores, entirely online.


This device would not have any physical media. No cartridges. No optical drives. Only a hard drive and an online store. Games would be $5 to $15 depending on the title. Hundreds of titles would be available within months of launch. Thousands within the year. Stagger them.


And that’s just step one.


Step two of my strategy would involve updating old classics to run with updated HD graphics and new levels. New Mario. New Zelda. New Icarus. New Donkey Kong. New Pokemon. Same idea. Updated graphics. New levels. These games would be $15 to $25 depending on the game. Stagger them.


There’s more: step three.


Strike deals with other “retro” game makers such as Atari and Sega to license their old games and give them the same treatment. Updated graphics, new levels. Sell the games through your online store at $15 to $25 a pop. Watch the money roll in.


Does anyone in their right mind doubt that such a box would be an immediate best seller? It would be massive. It would blow all the other consoles out of the water. $99!


Nintendo’s strength is in nostalgia. They should be playing to that rather than trying to compete with the likes of Sony and Microsoft. I gaurantee you that if Nintendo made such a move, those companies would have another “Wii moment” and drop everything to emulate Nintendo’s strategy. Except they wouldn’t be able to without Nintendo’s IP.


And in the moment when the competition is dizzied, that’s when the upper-cut comes.


Announce that this new Nintendo box is opening up its SDK to all developers. Both the bigger game studios and independent game makers. They will all be treated equally as long as they’re willing to create fun, simple games for the new Nintendo box. Such titles will sell anywhere from $5 to $25. Nintendo will take a 30 percent cut, the developers will get 70 percent.


I almost feel silly writing all of this. Of course this is what Nintendo should do. They probably won’t — instead, they’ll dick around with lame smartphone marketing apps and licensing characters for fitness something or whatever. But they should do this. How do they not see it?


It’s because they’re proud. And that’s too bad. Because the end game if they do continue down the current route is to be a maker of smartphone games. They can still be a successful company doing that — but they’d be a shadow of their former selves. Atari. Sega.


My $99 Nintendo box in an era of $500 consoles is a clear winner. ARM chips are good enough now. Have you seen recent iOS games? Nintendo needs but make a great controller. A really great controller. They can do it.


And once that box is a huge success, you release a mobile device that can play all the same games. Cheap. Easy. Fun. Don’t worry about beating the iPhone or Android. Play to your strengths.


And that’s the key. Nintendo is not Sony or Microsoft or Apple or Google. They are a gaming company with the best gaming IP in the business. They’re losing an arms race right now because they’ve tried to enter it. They’ve created a box in an attempt to compete with the Xbox or Playstation with a controller to compete with the iPad. They’ve failed in both regards.


It’s time to try something different. It’s time to use what others perceive to be a weakness and turn it into a strength. The Wii gave a glimpse of how this should be done. It’s time for a new Nintendo box to drive the point home.


Take this, Nintendo. It’s dangerous to go alone.





10:10 PM

I hate to say I-told-you-so… Who am I kidding? I love to say that. But while I’m happy about being correct, I’m sad for Nintendo. I love Ni...

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Lenovo’s ThinkPad is the brand of choice when it comes to enterprise notebooks – Dell has a strong footing still, to be sure, but Lenovo dominated the PC market in 2013, followed by HP and then Dell. The acquisition of Motorola Mobility today gives them a chance to parlay that success in the traditional computing world into the booming enterprise hotspot of mobile tech.


In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Lenovo Chief Executive Yang Yuanqing and CFO Wong Wai Ming explained that the purpose behind the purchase was to help Lenovo enter the U.S. smartphone market and make the company a worldwide player in the smartphone market. But we’ve also learned that Lenovo has been conducting research about what customers might be looking for in a ThinkPad-style smartphone, particularly at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show.


Lenovo asking prospective buyers what they might expect in a ThinkPad phone doesn’t necessarily equate to a major mobile enterprise push, but there are more pieces to the puzzle to consider, too. One important one is that Lenovo made a bid for at least portions of BlackBerry, but the deal was ultimately nixed by the Canadian government since BlackBerry was so important a part of the Canadian telecommunications infrastructure.


It’s true that the company already sells Android phones abroad, and that these aren’t necessarily enterprise-focused. But the ongoing demise of BlackBerry leaves a gaping hole in the industry in terms of secure devices, and so far the only company really making a concerted effort to capture the attention of that market is Samsung, which has been touting its Knox security software for Android a lot in the past few months. But Knox isn’t without its detractors, and Samsung hardly has the brand cachet that does Lenovo when it comes to building enterprise hardware.


Lenovo says it will keep its Motorola brand separate in the same way it has done with ThinkPad, but that doesn’t mean it’ll keep the focus solely on consumer devices. Lenovo is clearly interested in that side of things too, as proven by its existing line of mobile hardware, but the growth opportunity in the U.S. is ironically replacing BlackBerry at the moment, so I think we’ll see an attempt by Lenovo to use Motorola to build on its strengths and give business users the phones they’ve been looking for.





8:56 PM

Lenovo’s ThinkPad is the brand of choice when it comes to enterprise notebooks – Dell has a strong footing still, to be sure, but Lenovo dom...

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Today, with more product information and data on consumer goods living on the Web than ever before, Consumr launched in 2011 to give average Joes like you and me a better way to make sense of that data and find the best products. In an effort to become the Rotten Tomatoes or Yelp of consumer products, Consumr has been building a platform and mobile apps that allow users to create and peruse reviews on any product — written by other buyers — while strolling down the aisle in their local supermarket.


The startup’s app allows users to both search and browse its crowdsourced data on products by way of keyword search or actually scan barcodes with their phone to view customer reviews. Founded by the former head of mobile at Zagat, Ryan Charles, and CTO Noah Zitsman, the app’s clean design and clear use case were recognized in the mobile category at the 2013 Webby Awards and have managed a 4.5-star rating on the App Store.


Over the last year, however, Consumr has been focused on expanding its potential use case and developing a more personalized recommendation system and user experienced. In the first case, on Black Friday 2012, Charles says, he was lured into buying a laptop that seemed like a great deal. However, it turned out that it was a lemon, and was slower than the laptop he had replaced.


In these cases, it would make perfect sense for users to be able to turn to Consumr for electronics reviews, but the startup was initially focused exclusively on packaged goods. With the long-term goal of building a better shopping guide for all products, Consumr has since expanded from the world of impulse buys into more considered purchases, including appliances and electronics. For those categories that don’t yet have enough reviews, Consumr offers reviews from outlets like Best Buy to fill in the blanks.


Consumr_ProdMore recently, the startup has begun to add more personalization features to its platform and app, surfacing categories users are likely to be interested in based on their tastes and habits. If you’re a male and don’t want to be shown makeup products, then presto, Consumr analyzes your taste profile and prioritizes its recommendations accordingly. Users can specify the categories they’re interested in, as well, so that new parents can customize their experience so that baby, toys and grocery products are the only categories to appear in their feed.


The startup has also developed its own proprietary measurement technology, Charles said, which allows it to provide better insight into the quality of ratings — and those behind the ratings. Initially called RateScore, Consumr is able to, over time, assign a score to each user based on a variety of factors, including how many ratings they provide, how helpful those reviews are, and so on. The goal, the founder says, is to help shoppers better understand the historical quality of a rater’s content to ultimately provide them with better (and more trustworthy) recommendations.


For review platforms like Consumr and Yelp, the key in the early going is coverage. The more product reviews, the more utility it provides, and the more stickiness it has as a result. Charles tells us that the platform recently reached one million product ratings through its mobile app and has been doubled its ratings in the past six months. Furthermore, there are now more than 3.3 million products in its database.


As the platform and its coverage grow, the key to a review platform maintaining its upward trajectory shifts to limiting the noise (and increasing the value of its product information), and monetizing its data. In relation to the growing potential for noise pollution, that’s why Consumr has been building its “RateScore” feature.


Consumr_BabyWhile the Consumr founders believe they’ve made progress on the big question they set out to answer — “what’s the best product?” — the next logical questions from most users are, “where can I buy it?” and “Where can I find the best price?” To begin providing answers and improve the discover experience, Consumr recently added a price comparison feature so that it now shows local and online prices for over one million products.


It’s tools like these that have begun to put Consumr on the radar of some familiar names. Case in point: Consumer Reports has recently been bidding to purchase the word “Consumr” within Google AdWords presumably so it can advertise against searches for the company, the founder tells us. On the one hand, it’s frustrating because the young company isn’t in a position to get into a bidding war with Consumer Reports, but on the other hand it’s a point of validation, considering that one of the biggest names in the space is willing to put money down on people searching for the company — or people misspelling consumer, either way.


As to what’s next? Charles tells us that the team is looking to refine its natural language processing in an effort to provide better search, automated extraction and scoring of particular product features. The idea is to allow people to see how high a particular razor scores in terms of “durability” or view ratings on the “sound quality” of a TV, for example. Look for this functionality to start rolling out soon.


Users can also potentially look for Consumr to build out some sort of integration or app to leverage the wave of interest in wearable technology, although the founders aren’t ready to share details as of yet.


Consumr has raised $550K to date from Lerer Ventures, IA Ventures and MESA+ and will be looking to add more coin to its coffers in the coming months.


For more, find Consumr here.





7:55 PM

Today, with more product information and data on consumer goods living on the Web than ever before, Consumr launched in 2011 to give averag...

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Good or bad, useful or not, implementation of the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface and Microsoft's Secure Boot extension might well foul the fuel driving consumer migration to the Linux desktop. I have extensive practice with installing various Linux distros on older and new computers. However, it was not until I attempted to do a Linux installation on a new Gateway Series DX desktop with Windows 8 installed that I stared that UEFI monster down.


6:25 PM

Good or bad, useful or not, implementation of the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface and Microsoft's Secure Boot extension might we...

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So much for Intel’s bid to get hip with our app-filled times: the company is shutting down AppUp, its app store for Windows-based PC apps. “The world’s largest app store that nobody’s ever heard of,” in the words of AppUp boss Peter Biddle, that description in hindsight may have been tempting fate, with obscurity perhaps ultimately the reason for its undoing.


The service will be closed for good on March 11, with the apps from the store that communicated with the AppUp client no longer working by May 15 — or earlier if you uninstall the store client. (The large, full list of affected apps is here.) Other apps that did not communicate with the client should still work, Intel says, although they will have to be launched separately.


Intel doesn’t provide much of an explanation for the closure. “At Intel, we’re always thinking about the future, which often means making changes today. That’s why, on March 11th, 2014, Intel AppUp® center will come to a close as we focus on developing new and exciting PC innovations that will continue to shape your world,” Intel writes on the landing page for AppUp.


Intel has sent out a note to AppUp users describing the shut down and detailing refunds:



Dear valued Intel AppUp® user,


At Intel, we’re always thinking about tomorrow, which sometimes means making changes today. That’s why we’ll be closing Intel AppUp on March 11th, 2014 to focus on other groundbreaking platform innovations. As part of this closure your AppUp Center Customer Account Registration Agreement also will terminate effective March 11th, 2014.


Some apps you have downloaded may stop working on May 15th 2015, or earlier if you uninstall the store client, and you can confirm if any of your apps are affected here. You can claim a full refund of $4.99 through our AppUp refund program, for the amount you paid for apps. Your transaction history appears at the bottom of this email.


Closing Intel AppUp was a tough decision and we understand how important the service has become to our users so we’ve provided a detailed FAQ section with links to guided support to answer your questions as the program comes to a close.


Of course, Intel AppUp would not have been possible without loyal users like you. Thank you for participating in the experience. It’s been a fun ride.



Back in 2010, taking a leaf from the app explosion on mobile devices, Intel saw an opportunity to leverage its brand recognition with Windows device users, and build out its ecosystem of developers, by building out a store specifically for netbooks but later for all PCs. In doing so, it preceded Apple announcing a Mac App Store by some 10 months.


But whether it’s because Windows users were simply not as keen to use Intel’s AppUp, or whether it’s because Microsoft has stolen a march in this space with its own store, it’s not clear that AppUp ever really took off in terms of traffic and downloads.


Intel had been aiming for as global a reach as possible, with the store working in over 60 countries, with paid transactions in 45 countries and five languages. A year after launch, it announced a $100 million AppUp fund to encourage developers to create apps for the store and businesses that might encourage the wider ecosystem.


But geographical reach and paying money to encourage developers doesn’t equal loyal users. “Intel has put itself out of its own misery by shutting down the ill-fated “AppUp” app store,” is how one tipster described it to us.


We’re reaching out to Intel for further comment.


(H/T Apu Kumar)





5:54 PM

So much for Intel’s bid to get hip with our app-filled times: the company is shutting down AppUp , its app store for Windows-based PC apps. ...

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LARPers rejoice! A new Kickstarter project, called Sabertron, will allow you and your fellow followers of the great goddess of the Whispering Eye to fight to the death using wirelessly connected foam swords. The swords, which cost $99 for a two-weapon set, have rings of colored lights around the hilt that note when you’ve been hit by other players. Once the lights go out, you become one of the the Eaten Ones, forced to roam the World of the Undead in the Nevermere for all eternity until the kiss of Princess Mooncake brings you back to life or you just have to sit out the round and drink a Capri Sun over by the backpacks.


Created in Austin by a team of three former AMD engineers, the group is looking for $195,000 to complete the swords, which contain an accelerometer and NFC system to tell if two swords hit or they hit a player. They are also working on a special LARPing mode with a bright, bold chest plate that displays your current health. One of founders, Tim Reichard, said “LARPing refers to Live Action Role Playing and is mostly associated with medieval renaissance enactments… think of guys and gals in the park or woods doing sword fights and medieval activities.”


“Kind of geeky, I know,” he added. “Nowadays, LARPers create Boffers (home made wooden swords) to use. Our product isn’t only for LARPers, it is also for anybody who wants to play sword fight and have a detection system that lets the participants know who won. Our Sabertron is also littered with LEDs and has some impressive sound.”


“I came up with this idea when playing in the back yard with my kids about five years ago,” said CEO David Lynch. “I created a few swords from PVC pipe and foam, and it was a lot of fun, but the kids lost interest because it wasn’t interactive. I am a computer engineer and I can do anything I set my mind to do. I finally set my mind to do this and built this system to allow the swords keep score electronically.”


The swords have an on-board display that shows stats and allows you to set game play modes including “One Hit To Win It” and “Eternal Struggle” in which “each hit depletes one to three bars of health, depending on the strength of the hit and the sensitivity setting in the options menu. Ranges from two hard hits, to six small glancing blows will win the game.”


So slash away, Paladins Of The Ancient Order Of The Three-Eyed Sloth! Your LARPing will be improved tenfold by these exciting swords and as you wade through the marshes of Darkwood, on the hunt for the evil Surgoron, keep your weapon at the ready and your wits about you for, as you know, Paul from your wargaming group likes to bop you in the nards.





4:24 PM

LARPers rejoice! A new Kickstarter project, called Sabertron , will allow you and your fellow followers of the great goddess of the Whisper...

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In the first earnings call since Evan Spiegel rejected Zuck’s $3 billion offer to buy Snapchat, the Facebook CEO sent a very clear signal to competitors.


“Our vision is to create a set of products that let our users share with any audience they want,” said Zuck. “Not everyone wants to share with all of their friends at once. A lot of the new growth we see is from giving people power to share with different, separate groups of people.”


Three products, in particular, help Facebook fight off Snapchat: Messenger, Instagram, and Groups.


Zuckerberg announced that Facebook Messenger, which was revamped in November to be much faster, has grown by 70 percent in the past three months. Meanwhile, Facebook Groups have grown to 500 million users, with Zuck calling them a “core product.”


And then there’s Instagram, Facebook’s golden ticket. The photo-sharing service introduced Instagram Direct in December to give photo-sharers control of the audience for any picture they’d like.


All of this, obviously, is a push against the market and mindshare controlled by Snapchat, which is growing at a rapid clip. Users send more than 400 million snaps per day on the service, which has raised more than $123 million in funding since launching in 2011.


The app lets users share disappearing photos with individual friends or multiple users. Not only does the content disappear (freeing them from any concern that Mom will see what was said on the internet), but it gives users total control over who sees what they share, on a case by case basis.


Instagram Direct tried to mimic this behavior, though it seemingly hasn’t gotten the same traction.


Even if growth isn’t a threat (yet), Snapchat’s stubborn CEO certainly is.


evan


He’s the first young, driven wunderkind since Zuckerberg himself. Almost 25 and fresh out of Stanford, Spiegel even has his own frat-boy drama lawsuit on his hands, with a scorned founder suing Snapchat for a third of the business. If Zuck’s throne has a usurper, it could very well be Evan.


Snapchat is one of very few (successful) social apps that isn’t reliant on Facebook in any way. Snapchatters find their friends through the Contacts app in the phone. There is no Facebook Connect. No Facebook Friends. No sharing to Facebook. Inside Snapchat, there is no Facebook.


The shift has been a relatively slow one, but over the course of the past few years, Facebook has lost its swagger with teens and younger demographics. Even Obama knows it. No one going through puberty wants to share the internet with their parents. Snapchat, entirely independent of Facebook, has given teens a playground.


And Facebook has failed, thus far, to seal that leak.


By the time Snapchat caught Facebook’s attention, it was too late. The December 2012 launch of Facebook Poke (a shameless Snapchat clone) was a total flop.


And once Facebook was vulnerable, reportedly offering $3 billion for the service, Spiegel said no.


Today Zuck has responded, albeit somewhat subtly. The stats around Messenger alone show that Facebook is ready to fight for the kids, whether the social network needs them or not.


After all, 1.2 billion monthly active users certainly isn’t worrisome. Snapchat is still, very much, a David to Facebok’s Goliath.


Going forward, Zuck plans on separating Messenger and Groups even more from the central Facebook app.


“If you think about the overall space of sharing in communication, there isn’t just one thing that people are doing,” said Zuck. “People want to share any type of content with any audience they want. Facebook has always had a mission of helping people share with any audience, and historically that has always been through a single app.”


“Messenger used to feel like a feature of Facebook, but we’re making it more of a standalone app,” he added. “We’ve even taken it out of the main app, giving it room to breathe as its own experience. We’re now focused on making that really good and adding to it.”


In other words, “here’s Facebook minus your parents.”


What say you, Snapchat? It’s your move.





3:54 PM

In the first earnings call since Evan Spiegel rejected Zuck’s $3 billion offer to buy Snapchat , the Facebook CEO sent a very clear signal ...

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