Nissan’s new charging technology will juice your EV in ten minutes, ten years from now originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 11 Oct 2011 09:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The iPad gaming community is big and getting bigger, according to a new report from market research firm Interpret. Total iPad gamers number 8 million out of 11.4 million iPad owners in the U.S. alone, according to Interpret. It’s a growing community in terms of both straight numbers and also in terms of percentage of the overall iPad owner pool, according to the firm, but at least one game maker seems firmly committed to ignoring the opportunity inherent in that growth.

Nintendo President Satoru Iwata reiterated Thursday that his company is not interested in making software for iPads or iPhones. He told Japanese news site Nikkei (via The Loop) that in fact, such a plan “is absolutely not under consideration,” because in doing so, “Nintendo would cease to be Nintendo.”

Yet preserving what it means to be Nintendo may be giving up a key position in the future of gaming. “Collectively, iPad gamers are showing slightly decreased involvement with gaming on home consoles, mobile phones, and Nintendo handheld consoles,” said Interpret analyst Jason Preston in a press release. “These facts imply that iPad game developers and publishers can definitely reach a new audience on the iPad.”

The iPad’s appeal extends not only to traditional console gamers, but also to a growing portion of people new to digital gaming, says Interpret. People who use their iPads for gaming are increasingly older, with 40 percent falling into the 35-to-65 age group category during its second quarter 2011 survey vs. just 31 percent from its first survey period last year. Many more women are playing, too. Interpret found that the share of female iPad gamers was up to 48 percent during its most recent poll, vs. just 40 percent in 2010.

iPad gamers who are also console gamers also represents a shrinking percentage of the overall group.

It’s understandable sentiment that Iwata would want to preserve Nintendo as-is, as he’s been Nintendo’s president since 2002 and saw it through the flush years of the Wii and DS, both of which were massive successes for the Japanese-based game-maker. Nintendo has also been in the gaming hardware business since 1977, so it has a long history of making both systems and games.

But there are a number of sound business reasons why Nintendo should consider making software for Apple, including flagging sales of its own hardware, a shaky future for new and upcoming devices like the 3DS and Wii U, and the successful example of other companies who’ve followed the same path in the past, like one-time rival Sega.

Nintendo wants a comeback, and I’d like to see it get one, but with the release of 3DS peripherals that correct obvious oversights in the original design, and reports that the Wii U is facing serious technical problems, Iwata’s outright refusal to even consider iOS development seems like yet another backwards step.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user Vincent Diamante

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• Connected Consumer Q2: Digital music meets the cloud; e-book growth explodes
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Aside from with a handful of stateside early adopters (and a few million others in Japan) eager to embrace any new technology, Sony’s rather extensive line of MiniDisc Walkmans never had a chance to dominate the portable audio market. But for one reason or another, the company kept up production of the optical player / recorder combos for nearly 20 years, after the first Sony MZ1 launched in Japan in September of ’92. With a countless selection of more affordable solid-state alternatives available today, however, it’s certainly not shocking to see good ole MD go the way of the laserdisc and the cassette. Now, only one question remains: How long until we see the compact disc suffer a similar fate?

Continue reading Sony MiniDisc Walkman to stop spinning in September (video)

Sony MiniDisc Walkman to stop spinning in September (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 08 Jul 2011 22:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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(AFX UK Focus) 2010-06-08 00:52 Nikkei to try downside, tech shares likely to drag
TOKYO, June 8 (Reuters) – Japan’s Nikkei average may test a six-month low on Tuesday after falling nearly 4 percent the day before, with tech firms likely to follow their U.S. peers lower after the S&P 500 hit its lowest close in seven months.
Read more on Interactive Investor

Permitting Tech Louisiana Job #861
Cenergy International Services is a global staffing solutions firm that provides professional and technical human capital to the energy industry. We strive to help our clients achieve business success by attracting talented individuals and providing responsive customer service.
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Tech’s anxiety
The possibility of radical athletic conference realignment – marked strikingly this week by reports citing the Pacific-10 Conference’s desire to poach six universities from the Big 12 – has stressed out high-placed university officials in recent weeks.
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Japan loves Apple, there’s no doubt about it. The brand is one of the most popular tech brands in the country. iPods, Macs and even the iPhone are selling like hot cakes. But apparently, big A, or at least its Japanese subsidiary, is getting a bit arrogant in the process. According to The Nikkei (“Japan’s Wall Street Journal”), Apple Japan today ordered a number of major online retailers to stop offering all of their products online.

And Apple seems to have so much clout in Japan that their products vanished from almost every retailer’s website in the last few hours (reportedly, Apple told them to take down its products without delay). The resellers in question include the “Best Buys of Japan”, for example Yodobashi Camera, Joshin Denki, BicCamera, or Kojima.

What reportedly bothered Apple were the discounts these retailers gave to their customers. The background is that Japanese buyers usually expect discounts of at least 5% whenever they buy consumer electronics or computers – online or offline (some devices can even drop up to 20% and more in price). In most cases, the discounts are being granted in the form of “points” that can be redeemed when it’s time for the next purchase.

I just tried and could still put the iPod touch 32GB into my shopping cart on the Yodobashi site, for example. But as you can see on the screengrab on top of this post, Yodobashi says I have to go pick up the device [JP] in one of their brick and mortar shops and call a number for more information. The 5% discount (as bonus points) is still being displayed.

The only online store I could find that seemed to have received special treatment was Amazon (see screengrab of my shopping cart above).

Remember back during the days of Netscape when folks tried to use Javascript to prevent you from copying their images? You’d get a little window that says “YOU ARE A THIEF! HOME HOTLINKING IS KILLING THE MUSIC INDUSTRY!” and then you’d view source, grab the image tag, and be on your way? Well Nikkei just pulled out its Learn HTML 1.0 in 48 Hours book and is now preventing links to its articles and severely limiting right clicking on its exciting home page.

According to the NYT, Nikkei not only stops right clicking but now requires a written application to link to its news, citing issues with the free vs. paid model that has essentially destroyed American news-gathering as well as concerns that its precious news will end up in pump and dump scams.

Obviously any self-respecting pump-and-dumper will figure out how to bypass these scripting tricks but it’s interesting to see other news organizations in other countries essentially flipping out as they watch the bloodbath that we are currently facing. In all honestly, however, this won’t work. What publishers will have to do is convince the next generation to pay for digital content and, thanks to a number of factors, I think they will succeed. For all the lip-service paid to the “rise of the amateur” and the magic of curated content, the world will be a dull and sad-eyed place without a certain number of savvy media producers. Although most local papers add little of interest to their readers day – my hometown paper, the Columbus Dispatch, is basically a collection of AP stories and fluff and is now as thick as a pamphlet – folks like WSJ and the New York Times, while dinosaurs, are highly-evolved dinosaurs with a full set of skills, resources, and sources at their disposal.

So let Nikkei build up walls. We’ll work around them.