Wired Top Stories

Wired Top Stories

It’s only right that the creative individuals behind a multi-billion dollar industry should have access to their own professional body, but for some reason the idea has yet to take hold. That could change at CES, when Jon Potter — formerly of the Digital Media Association — will start selling membership to a new outfit called the Application Developers Alliance. His pitch will open with the concept that “there’s an interesting space in the application developer community that isn’t really organized” and then move on to offer services like an online collaborative network, shared product-testing facilities, discount training schemes and cloud services, and even government lobbying over issues like privacy and IP. Who knows? That sort of thinking could ultimately lead to a fully-fledged union movement to stand up to fat-cat platform owners and let them know who’s boss, but first things first eh?

App developers unite! Or at least organize yourselves a bit better originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 04 Jan 2012 09:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple Senior VP Jonathan (or Jony) Ive has been credited with fueling the company’s resurgence alongside Steve Jobs with products like the iMac, iPhone and iPad, and for these successes has been made a Knight Commander of the British Empire as a part of the New Year’s Honour’s List. Aside from having a much better NYE celebration than yours, he’ll be tapped on the shoulders by the Queen’s sword (we’ll see if he can make it through the ceremony without suggesting some tweaks for better balance and usability — you can see his passion above as he eats an invisible sandwich pontificates about new iMacs) and that will forever be Sir Jony to you, commoner. It’s a bump up from his previous title of Commander of the British Empire, and a full circle, as he noted benefiting from a “wonderful tradition in the UK of designing and making” in a statement.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Apple lead designer Jonathan Ive knighted for the New Year, how’s your 2012 looking? originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 31 Dec 2011 01:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Gizmodo

Following the Department of Justice’s suit against the proposed AT&T/T-Mobile deal, Sprint is following their lead by filing a related federal lawsuit of their own, stating that the “proposed transaction is illegal.” More »

Gizmodo

Looking for a DIY project with a bit more danger than an Arduino-powered TV muter, but don’t have the resources to start building a fusion reactor in your garage? Well, challenge yourself with this electron accelerator project that requires little more than a wine bottle, a vacuum pump, a neon sign transformer and a diode from a microwave oven. OK, so that’s not exactly a list of components you’re likely to have laying around, but they’re not terribly difficult to come by and at the end of the day you’ll have your very own, home-made cathode ray tube. That’s right, just like the one inside that TV you finally junked last week. You won’t be able to create your own old-school display with it, but you will be able to observe interesting effects like sputtering (a ring of metal ion deposits) and magnetic deflection. Check out the instructions at the source and the video after the break.

Continue reading DIY CRT is fun, slightly dangerous, won’t lead to a home-made TV

DIY CRT is fun, slightly dangerous, won’t lead to a home-made TV originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 22 Aug 2011 19:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Why is LTE equipment being installed in an Apple Store? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Aug 2011 13:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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1. Nintendo fans are passionate. Really, really passionate.

2. Saying any forthcoming product from a company with a 10-million-man army of fans could be in trouble will result in people calling you lots of names. Lots and lots of names.

Still, I’m glad I wrote it, because I tend to think that, with this week’s news of the device’s price dropping from 9 to 9, I was largely right. My thinking went as follows: The 3DS was built with the same business model that the DS and the Game Boy employed before them, centered on dedicated hardware and the sales of expensive game titles. It’s a model that, with the arrival of smartphones, tablets, app marketplaces and multiscreen gaming, has become a bit antiquated.

Now, don’t get me wrong: There are tens of millions of people who will buy the 3DS. There are probably that many core Nintendo fans. But what we’re seeing more and more of is that the casual fan — who drove the DS into the 150 million unit territory — is increasingly spending his or her discretionary dollars on other devices.

The biggest vulnerability is with young kids, who are increasingly putting tablets, smartphones and other multitouch, multipurpose devices on their shopping lists. While it’s too early to say how many have tablets, smartphone ownership is already at 33 percent for the 15–24 age group in the U.S. That number will only grow.

But it’s not just kids. The gaming industry itself sees a tablet-filled future. EA, which just acquired multiscreen casual-gaming giant PopCap, has said its biggest growth is coming from the iPad and that tablets are where it sees the future.

Is the 3DS the device to lead Nintendo into another decade of growth and profitability?  As I said before, probably not. What will? It’s unclear, but if Nintendo wants to repeat the success of the DS, it will need to once again completely reinvent handheld gaming, offering a leap forward as big as it did with its dual-screen, touchscreen gaming device. It will also need to acknowedge the new reality where tablets and smartphones are evolving at rates faster than anticipated even a few years ago. Gaming on these devices will only grow.

I’m looking forward to whatever that new innovation or breakthrough is beyond the 3DS, because Nintendo has reinvented itself many times in its life and will almost certainly at some point lead the gaming innovation cycle once again.

For more on the future of handheld gaming, see my weekly update at GigaOM Pro (subscription required).

Image courtesy of flickr user redoxcun

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• The last generation? Why the 3DS may be the last of its kind
• 5 Connected Consumer Companies That Ruled 2010
• Connected Consumer 2011: Rise of the Virtual Video Operator

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iTunes leak suggests ‘Automatic Download’ over-the-air updates are coming in iOS 5 originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 04 Jun 2011 13:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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