Welcome back to another edition of the Noisecast Roundup. I apologize for missing the roundup yesterday but will make this one a little longer to make up for it. Tonight we have a Windows Phone “Mango” rundown. Barnes & Noble releases a new Nook that goes back to basics, but does so elegantly. Apple is no longer pretending that malware is an issue, but it’s still your fault. Zynga could be making an IPO shortly, chorus of “Bubble!” begins to circle. I disagree with that shrill fear. Google could be revealing NFC capabilities with Sprint on the 26th. The only thing shorter than Sarkozy, the French president, is my patience for his current shenanigans and how much I care about his opinion. Merde. peep the rest of the round up after the jump.
Windows Phone “Mango” Rundown and Demo.
This was a doozie. They didn’t quite introduce everything they wanted to due to time, but what they showed was huge. The basic rundown is that they created a far more intelligent and connected device. Simplicity, networking, and ‘peoplecentricity’ are the words of the day. No new phones were announced, but partners were hinted at. One worthy note is that apparently, they already have a running Nokia Windows Phone in the lab so we may see a new Nokia device before the end of the year.
Barnes & Noble unveils the new Nook with touchscreen display.
This was the other big release today that got overlooked by the Mango update. B&N went back to basics on this one. It is a simple black and white e reader with a touch screen. They removed the keyboard that the Kindle has and replaced it with an on-screen keyboard. It holds 2GB but expandable to 32GB with microSDHC. For all intents and purposes, it’s better than the kindle 3 at the moment. Smaller, lighter, same screen real estate, touch screen, access to B&N which allegedly has more books than Amazon, etc. Will it stick? Who knows. They currently have 25% of the market. No one is certain, but everyone feels that pales in comparison to Amazon’s market share. All in all, a good new device. I still prefer the Nook color. The new Nook retails for $139 and will be available at Best Buy, Walmart, B&N and online.
Apples gets with the program: How to avoid or remove Mac Defender malware.
Having determined that burying your head in the sand and pretending a problem doesn’t exist doesn’t actually vanish the problem, it looks like Apple is finally addressing this malware fiasco. Indication is that an update will appear shortly that will automatically track it and remove it. For now, there are instructions.
Windows 8 could make its public debut next week. (rumor)
This hasn’t been confirmed, it’s conjecture. Windows chief Steven Sinofsky has been confirmed as a speaker at D9, where Surface was unveiled. it’s possible that we may get a demo of Windows 8 so far, or get to see or hear more about it. The system is growing to be an extraordinary piece of software. Assuming lessons were learned from what went right with Windows 7 and what went wrong with Vista, this may be one hell of a ride.
Microsoft reveals HTML5 overhaul of Windows Live Skydrive.
No biggie here. Cool beans and all that. I’m not sure I know anyone who actually uses Skydrive. I’ve found no use for it yet (that isn’t handled by other things). Now if Microsoft would bring us Kin Studios, we’d be gravy.
Aw yeah. This lookes good. i can already hear the talk of bubbles again. Zynga is already valued at $10 billion and could be reasonably expected to double in valuation when it goes public. Hold on there cowboy. You can’t start throwing bubble around without thinking. The dot com bomb had companies with no customers or revenue going public. Zynga has 250 million active users, a fraction of the total Facebook user base, yet it had higher revenue until recently. Zynga made $800+ million in revenue and $400+ million in profit. Zynga is a juggernaut and is quickly becoming bigger than the big players like EA and Activision. It’s revenue is starting to catch up to and surpass those big players… all on the backs of games like Farmville. Props where props are due.
Microsoft loses last of Xbox founders, Otto Berkes.
Otto Berkes is apparently getting a job with a company outside Silicon Valley. People are saying this is a huge loss for Microsoft. i’m not so sure. He was one of the founders of the Xbox business in Microsoft, but was more recently working on ultra-portable devices, specifically the Courier concept. The department wasn’t one man, I wouldn’t say the Xbox or any other Microsoft business is dead with his departure. Honestly, how many of you even knew who he was when I named him?
Amazon knocks $25 off Kindle 3G if you’ll accept ads.
Following suit with the wifi only Kindle 9and just in time for the new Nook), Amazon has reduced the price by $25 in exchange for a few ads. Sounds like a good deal. The truth is, I’m more interested in news about tablets.
Google said to plan mobile-payment service unveiling on May 26.
Just as Square is seeing it’s day in the light, Google is rumored to be about to release its entry into the mobile payments game. It will apparently be available on Sprint-Nextel devices. This is of course the NFC technology often mentioned. The technology is already available in the Nexus S. I’m just afraid of a future where I can be quietly and wirelessly robbed. Where’s the fun in theft if you no longer need to pick-pocket? :D
‘Hurt Locker’ studio to file lawsuit against record-breaking 24,583 BitTorrent users.
Good luck with that. That movie sucked. That would be like being sued for stealing Starship Troopers 2 or The Room. Okay, maybe not that bad, but it still sucks. Perhaps the hurt locker should have tried not sucking. I’m fairly certain it didn’t make much money because while the insider critics loved it, no one else did. The theater numbers weren’t bad because people were at home downloading it. A quick check of upload dates in the most common torrent sites shows that a watchable copy wasn’t available until it was already off screens. Also, it wasn’t as heavily downloaded (not even close) as movies that actually made unspeakable sums of money. So what’s their excuse besides just plain sucking. Protect your stuff, but don’t make this what it isn’t.
France attempts to civilize the internet. Shut the fuck up, Sarkozy.
The title says it all. Seriously, shut up. You must be this high *holds hand up* for me to give a damn what you say, shorty. This is so obviously a corporate shill job. Just look at the companies that paid for it, listen to what was said. Every sentence was dripping with censorship and jackassery. Sarkozy already passed the most draconian 3 strikes law in Europe. I’m not against protecting IP. I’m just more for Liberté, égalité, vie privée, l’innovation, et le président peu à rester en dehors de ma merde. Ou la prochaine fois, peut-être nous allons tout simplement pas vous sauver la prochaine fois que vous êtes envahis.
Here’s a look at the Windows Phone 7 Mango update demo by Joe Belfiore.
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