Anne: the world's richest woman

Anne Getrude Wilson, the great great grandaughter, of the late President of the United States, Woodrow Wilson, is the "unknown" richest woman in the world. She was born in the United States in the year 1965. But since 1974, Anne has lived in Malaysia; she did came back to her original country, the United States of America, in the years 1986-1987, as well as 1994....but since then she has never travelled back to the USA.

The "secret" of Anne's wealth is related to the "secret" will of the richest man of the 19th. Century, Andrew Carnegie. This will of Andrew Carnegie is rather obscure, and known only to its "keepers". I myself first knew of this will of Andrew Carnegie after meeting Anne' s parents, who are named as "Papa Hasan" and "Mama Mary (Wilson)" in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, sometime in 1974.

Mama Mary is a former "academician", and has a PhD in Arab political history from Oxford University. She told me that the will of Andrew Carnegie could be found in the "archives" of Princeton University, New Jersey. Prof. Mary Wilson had formerly taught "Middle Eastern Studies: studies and methods" at New York University, New York City, USA, when I had studied there in 1986-1987, as a post-graduate student at the Hagop Kevorkian Center of Middle Eastern Studies, at NYU.

"Papa Hasan" is a rather "mysterious" dad of Anne Wilson. He told me back in 1987 at NYU, that he was an "American expatriate" working and living in Malaysia....he was unsure whether to live in America or Malaysia, but I got him convinced to "emigrate" to Malaysia.

I only had "more in depth" knowledge regarding the "secret will of Andrew Carnegie" during Anne's meeting with the famous "richest man in the world" , that is "Bill Gates" of Microsoft in the year 1994, at a bulilding in Virginia, USA. Anne had met Bill Gates in 1987 at NYU, and again in 1994 at Virginia, USA. I learnt from both Bill Gates and Anne, that Andrew Carnegie had an "adopted daughter", but this "daughter" of his died before he did. Anne told me that Andrew Carnegie was an "impotent" and that he had no children of his own, except that "adopted daughter" of his.Because of this he had a "secret will" written regarding his inherited wealth. He willed that the man to whom his inheritance will be inherited must be a person who fully understood the "Laws of Success' written by his (now) famous student and writer of "motivational books" by the name of Napoleon Hill. Napoleon Hill had interviewed Andrew Carnegie, as well as other materially sucessful people in the USA during his time, and figured out his now famous "laws of success"....Now, Andrew Carnegie made this full understanding of Napoleon Hill's writings as a pre-condition for the one person to whom his inheritance will be inherited...such as the principles of the "master-mind" as well as the rather "mysterious" concept of "telepathy".

But there was also another "very important " condition outlined by Andrew Carnegie's will....that the future inheritor of his inheritance upon his death must be a "Muslim man married to his Christian spouse"....now this leaves us a question, was Andrew Carnegie a Muslim upon his death....nothing is known regarding this matter, and all biographical sketches of him as can found in the "internet" showed that he had lived as a Christian, and most probably died also as a Christian....but it is interesting that he made the above as a precondition for the couple who would inherit his wealth, upon his death...as if he knew the Quranic teaching allowing a "Muslim man" to marry a "Christian girl"....

The conditions prescribed by Andrew Carnegie was not fulfilled by anyone until sometime in the 1970s. All this while, his wealth was managed by a group of people closely related to the ideas of Napoleon Hill.....Bill Gates told me that one of those person responsible of taking charge "of the secret wealth" of the inheritance of Andrew Carnegie, was his own mother.....but the matter is now closed, and it is now just a matter of "business history" only, because the couple fitting in the description "conditioned" by Andrew Carnegie's will, had already been found, and thus the "will of Andrew Carnegie" had been fulfiulled.....the Christian lady mentioned in Andrew Carnegie's will is "Anne Getrude Wilson" who got married to me in an Islamic marriage in the village of Tal Tujuh, in the state of Kelantan in the then "developing" nation of Malaysia in 1979.

So since the middle 1970s, Anne has been the "unknown" keeper of the wealth of the inheritance of Andrew Carnegie, and had lived most of her life in Malaysia. Anne continued to be its keeper, as agreed in the meeting of this "unknown business empire" at NYU, New York City in 1987....

So it was Anne and her father Papa Hasan who was responsible for the magnificient leaps of "economic development" that Malaysia had experianced espescially since 1977 till now. Anne too is the "unknown" majority share-holder of the Coca-cola stocks which she had bought through an Islamic mutual fund called the Amana Trust Fund, in the year 1987, when the "Black Monday" of October 1987, struck the NYSE to its greatest fall, since the Great Depression happened in the United States in the early 1930s.

Anne also has personal business contacts with Bill Gates's "Microsoft" agreeing to invest in that company, in their meeting in 1994, in Virginia, somewhere in a building related to "Napoleon Hill" and Coca-Cola. Since 1994, Bill Gates became a house-hold name all over the world, as the "richest man in the world"; but not much is known that it was Anne who had agreed to Bill Gates being the entrepreneur, by which the "money and stocks" she is entrusted with, will be invested in Bill Gates's "Microsoft". But since Anne as well as her parents now live in Malaysia, the person taking care of those investments of hers in the United States of America, is her also "unknown brother" named Peter......

Dr. Azlan Khalili Shamsuddin

Samsung and its rivals show off the future of TVs

Edward C. Baig
January 7, 2013
http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/columnist/baig/2013/01/07/baig-samsung-ces-2013/1813595

Tech titans Amazon, Apple, Google and Facebook rarely come out of hiding at the annual International CES. And after years on center stage, Microsoft has pretty much applied for the CES equivalent of the witness protection program.

So with apologies to a formidable list of consumer electronics show stalwarts that includes LG, Panasonic, Sharp, Sony and Toshiba, Samsung is arguably the biggest of the Big Cheese consumer electronics mainstays left exhibiting at these proceedings.

Above all else, CES is still about televisions. Samsung, as much as any of its rivals, serves as a proxy for where the industry hopes to take you. The path leads to Ultra High-Definition models that boast four times the pixel count of today's 1080p HDTVs. Gee, it was only a few years ago that you cozied up to the thin — and yes, affordable — HDTV that now graces your living room.

Make no mistake, Samsung's upcoming 85-inch flagship UN85S9 UHD TV takes your breath away. It's just that you may have to take out a small mortgage to own this stunning TV, not that you can even buy it yet. Samsung isn't saying what it will cost or when precisely it will go on sale, but says the model will ship this year. I should also point out that there's precious little content out there to take advantage of all those extra pixels — a familiar chicken and egg scenario that slowed the launch of early HDTVs.

The splashy cutting-edge sets are expected to fetch in the $20,000 range, says tech and media analyst Gary Arlen, president of Arlen Communications. Still, if UHDs go the way of HDTVs — and myriad other consumer electronics categories before them — prices might drop sooner than may now seem likely, though I wouldn't bet a lot on the prospect. (I am in Vegas, after all.)

Samsung executive Joe Stinziano calls the TV a "statement piece" -- to my mind, code-language for, "if you have to ask what it costs, you can't afford it". He says the pixel density of the panels in the set is very expensive to manufacture.

Fortunately, the new TV flaunts other features that will be available on less-expensive 2013 models, notably a newly designed Smart Hub interface. Through the early years of Smart TVs, the various TV makers have done a generally mediocre job when it comes to screen interfaces, perhaps one reason behind all the talk of an eventual Apple-branded television.

My initial impression of Samsung's new Smart Hub is positive, though, as always, you can't really judge these things until you use it outside the boundaries of a trade show.

Samsung's Smart Hub consists of five panels: The "On TV" panel shows the channel you're watching now in a window that's adjacent to a half-dozen smaller windows representing other shows airing at the same time. Below are thumbnails revealing shows that are coming up. The visible content is based on Samsung recommendations generated from your viewing habits.

A "Movie & TV" panel, also based on your viewing history, reveals on-demand flicks, movies available to you as a subscriber to certain services, and material you may have purchased.

Other panels cover your personal "Photos, Videos and Movies," "Apps" (where you'll find Netflix, Hulu Plus, Spotify, Pandora, etc.) and "Social" (feeds and videos from Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and so on).

You can manipulate the Smart Hub with a new remote that has a touch panel, as well as left-right, up-down slide bar controls.

Samsung also says the voice interaction in its latest TVs — advancing the state of the art from last year — has improved to the point where the TV understands complete sentences. You'll be able to say "I want to watch CSI" and the TV will serve up all the likely matches. Or you might say, "go to South Park," or, "go to ESPN," since the TV can distinguish the name of a show from a channel.

Inside the UHD TV (and other new models) is a quad-core processor that Samsung claims is 3.6 times faster than last year's dual-core models. No you won't change the channels any faster. But you can speed up the time when you stop watching a stream from one content provider and start searching on

It's fair to say that all the consumer electronics companies with a diverse portfolio of products at this show want you to keep it in the family. So it goes with Samsung. If you have Samsung phones, tablets or home appliances, for example, you can take advantage of "AllShare" features that tie the TV to compatible devices. Via an onscreen TV app, you might be able to monitor the wash cycle of your Samsung washer-dryer or change the temperature of the air conditioner without having to pause the TV content. Samsung will let you stream from the TV to one of its mobile phones.

Moreover, Samsung will soon start selling the Smart Evolution kits it announced at last year's CES, which will enable folks to upgrade certain 2012 (but not older) models to the quadcore generation. You get the new remote control as part of the kit, and can add the latest Smart Hub interface. The kit is likely to cost between $200 and $500, Samsung says.

Not that there's anything wrong with your current HDTV, which you'll be able to safely enjoy watching for quite some time. Samsung expects it to take several years before UHDs begin to overtake today's popular HDTVs. But UHD does reveal a lot about where Samsung, and its industry counterparts who are pushing the same or similar technologies, are directing the near and longer-term future of television.

The top 12 tech stories of 2012

Heather Kelly
Fri December 28, 2012
http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/27/tech/web/top-tech-stories-2012/

Facebook struggled with its new life as a publicly traded company, and Instagram, the photo-sharing network it acquired in April, was dragged along for the ride.

There were inspiring stories, such as the Internet coming together to protest anti-piracy legislation. And there was darker news, like the Israeli military live-tweeting its strikes against Gaza.

And as always, the world's dominant and most closely watched tech company was all over the news. Apple did a little bit of everything in 2012, from hit new products (the iPad Mini) to high-profile failures (Apple Maps) to some old-fashioned courtroom drama in its patent war with Samsung.

Here are our picks for the top 12 tech stories of 2012. What did we leave out? Let us know in the comment section below.

Microsoft's big push

This was the year Microsoft took a big, bold and surprisingly fun step with a new version of Windows, an updated mobile operating system and its very own iPad rival.

The company, best known for its efficient but stodgy desktop software, needed to do something fresh to get customers' attention in 2012 and started with its flagship product. Windows 8 is a complete overhaul of the Windows operating system. Microsoft nixed the Start button and mixed a playful touchscreen interface with a more traditional desktop experience that runs on tablets, traditional computers, and hybrid machines.

The company also made a leap into the hardware market, releasing its first tablet, the Microsoft Surface, which ran a truncated version of the new Windows 8 operating system. And finally, there was Windows Phone 8, a major revamp of its smartphone operating system, which Microsoft hopes can compete with Apple's iOS and Google's Android.

It's still too soon to judge any of the new releases as successes or failures, but give Microsoft credit for taking chances.

SOPA backlash

In January, a pair of anti-piracy bills united the Internet in outrage. The proposed legislation, the Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA, and the Protect IP Act, or PIPA, would have restricted access to sites associated with pirated content, including the search engines and ad networks that do business with them.

The Internet cried censorship, and on January 18 some of the most popular sites blacked out their pages in protest. Reddit, Craigslist, Boing Boing, The Oatmeal, the English-language version of Wikipedia and thousands of other sites went dark. Even Google put a black censorship box over its logo. There were also petitions and organized boycotts of companies that supported the bills.

The protests worked, as both SOPA and PIPA were shelved. It was an impressive demonstration of the power of an organized Internet community.

Live-tweeting war

Violence and war have long been documented on Twitter and other social networks -- typically by journalists and by regular people on the ground (notably the Pakistani witness to the 2011 raid that killed Osama bin Laden).

But in November, the Israeli military took this concept to a new level. During its conflict with Palestinian forces in Gaza, the Israel Defense Force tweeted updates, including the news it had "eliminated" Hamas leader Ahmed Jabari. The military arm of Hamas responded on Twitter with its own provocations.

The back-and-forth between the warring sides signaled a jarring evolution in how war is broadcast in real time.

iPhone 5 and Apple Maps stumble

Every Apple hardware release is a big news story, starting with rumors months in advance and peaking with a well-oiled Apple press event, followed by usually glowing reviews and huge sales numbers. But in 2012, Apple made a major misstep when it released the iPhone 5 and its new operating system, iOS 6.

The company dropped the Google-powered maps that had come pre-installed on every iPhone since 2007. In its place, Apple introduced its own mapping app. Apple Maps looked stunning, with 3-D graphics and neat features like Flyover and turn-by-turn directions. All it was missing was transit directions and accuracy -- the maps were riddled with mistaken locations and outdated information.

The resulting criticism inspired an apology from CEO Tim Cook and led to an executive shakeup at Apple. Customers turned to third-party map apps until Google finally released an iOS version of its popular maps in December.

Apple vs. Samsung

It was the biggest tech trial of the year. Two of the top phone and tablet manufacturers went to war when Apple accused Samsung of infringing on its iPad and iPhone patents for a variety of tablets and smartphones. The drama culminated in a federal jury trial over the summer that offered a rare peek into how notoriously secretive Apple operates.

The story became huge because of the large amount of money at stake and the implications that its verdict would have on Samsung's business and the Android platform.

The jury decided in Apple's favor, awarding the company just over $1 billion in damages. But the case is far from over. Lawyers for both sides will continue bickering over potential appeals for months and possibly years to come.

Facebook's botched IPO

It was the most anticipated IPO of the year, and one of the largest ever for a tech company. Social-media darling Facebook looked primed for a big public opening: The company was valued at $104 billion, snapped up popular photo-sharing app Instagram and was still growing.

But then an array of problems and misjudgments led to a botched IPO in May, and the company's stock plummeted. The initial offer price of $38 was too high, too many shares were issued, its opening day was marred by Nasdaq's technical glitches, and underwriter Morgan Stanley was fined for improperly influencing share sales.

The stock price dropped significantly, hitting a low of $17.55 on September 4. Facebook is still struggling to recover some of its early-2012 luster.

The Instagram boom

Instagram started out scrappy two years ago as a fun little app for sharing sepia-shaded photos with friends. But when its user base skyrocketed, Facebook bought it for $1 billion in cash and shares of Facebook stock. That amount later dropped to $735 million as the value of Facebook shares plummeted.

By September, Instagram had more than 100 million users. The app capped off its big year with a rite of passage for social networks: a bungled update to its terms of service that sparked user outrage and led to a hasty backtrack by founder Kevin Systrom.

Instagram's challenge for 2013 is to figure out how to grow its free service into a business that makes money so that Facebook can begin to get its money's worth.

Megaupload and Kim Dotcom

The Megaupload case would have been mildly interesting on its own. A popular file-sharing company and its various sites were shut down by the F.B.I for piracy. But when Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom was arrested in January at his lavish New Zealand estate, he went from unknown entrepreneur to a flamboyantly rich cult hero.

Dotcom (he legally changed his last name from Schmitz in 2005) did what any self-respecting boy video-game nerd would do with millions of dollars. He bought a yacht, helicopter, luxury cars and motorcycles. He lived with his model wife in a $24 million rented mansion in New Zealand where he spent hours playing "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3," earning a spot as the top-ranked player in the world.

But after Dotcom was jailed and his assets were seized, he slowly emerged as a leader for Internet freedom activists who thought he was unfairly targeted. He's still fighting the charges and using his newfound fame to launch new projects. His current plans include a new file-sharing site that encrypts all its files, and a streaming music service called Megabox.

Mid-sized tablets take off

It was the rare case of Apple following a trend instead of setting it. Apple introduced its 7.9-inch iPad Mini in October to take on its new rivals in the tablet market: cheaper 7-inch devices from Google and Amazon. While the Kindle Fire and Nexus 7 were only selling modestly compared to the iPad, Apple quickly recognized the growing demand for a smaller, more portable device.

The iPad Mini proved especially notable because Apple's late CEO, Steve Jobs, famously stated a 7-inch tablet would never make it in the market because it was "too big to compete with a smartphone; too small to compete with an iPad." This may have been one of those rare cases in which Jobs was wrong.

Nintendo launches Wii U

In November, Nintendo released a new version of its popular Wii game console, which while groundbreaking when launched in 2006 was badly in need of a refresh.

The Wii U's most novel feature is a touchscreen tablet controller called a GamePad, which communicates with the main console. Inside the tablet are motion control sensors, speakers, a camera, buttons and other bells and whistles -- all of which the gamer uses to interact with what's happening on the larger screen.

It's a bold move for the company and brings a new perspective to console gaming, although the Wii U has received mixed reviews so far.

Yahoo hires Marissa Mayer

Aging Internet giant Yahoo was facing slumping revenues and internal strife in July when it hired Google exec Marissa Mayer as its new chief executive. The hire made headlines for many reasons: Mayer was a bold choice that showed Yahoo was serious about shaking things up. She was also young, a Silicon Valley power player, and a woman who was expecting her first child.

There was much media hand-wringing over her pregnancy, with some pundits wondering aloud whether Mayer could juggle a newborn baby and a demanding new job. Many saw her as a role model for working mothers.

But when the news settled, the real question returned: Could Mayer save the floundering Yahoo? So far she has shaken up Yahoo's executive team, given employee morale a much-needed boost and begun to improve the company's mobile offerings, including a stunning new Flickr app.

It will take a while to properly gauge her impact, but investors seem optimistic. Yahoo's stock price has risen $4 a share since her hiring was announced.

Tech's role in the presidential election

Technology issues such as net neutrality weren't discussed much during the 2012 presidential election, but tech played a huge role in rallying supporters and getting out the vote. President Obama, arguably the most tech-savvy of U.S. presidents, went on Google Plus and Reddit to take questions from voters.

And both his campaign and that of his GOP challenger, Mitt Romney, sent social media messages almost daily in attempts to sway media reports and public opinion.

But the most impressive use of tech took place behind the scenes, where both sides used new and powerful computer databases to target voters. The Romney campaign's get-out-the-vote program, called Orca, suffered technical glitches on Election Day and was perceived to have been outflanked by Obama campaign software which compiled massive amounts of data on voters and dispatched volunteers to pinpoint locations across the country.

Xbox 720 to offer Kinect 2.0 and Blu-ray drive

Xbox 720 to offer Kinect 2.0 and Blu-ray drive, says Xbox World
The next-gen console will come with beefier hardware and a slew of other enhancements, says the magazine.
Lance Whitney  November 19, 2012
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-57551679-75/xbox-720-to-offer-kinect-2.0-and-blu-ray-drive-says-xbox-world

Microsoft's Xbox 720 will unveil a new version of Kinect, a Blu-ray drive, and an A/V port for watching and recording broadcast TV, at least according to details leaked by Xbox World.

Promising "next-gen secrets inside," the latest issue of the U.K.-based magazine dug up several reported specs on Microsoft's next console.

First off, the Xbox 720 will introduce Kinect 2.0.

Microsoft has been as publicly mum about the next version of Kinect as it has about all details concerning the new Xbox. But a company document leaked in June touted a higher level of accuracy, stereo imaging, better voice recognition, and the ability to track four players at once.

A Blu-ray drive will also be part of the package, a rumor that's been around for a few years now.

Other features will include directional audio, an input and output for watching and recording TV shows, and an "innovative controller," noted gaming news site ComputerAndVideoGames.com (CVG). Last February, Xbox World said that the redesigned controller would come with a built-in HD touch screen.

Microsoft is also eyeing AR (augmented reality) glasses for the 720 at some future stage.

Codenamed Durango, the new Xbox would be powered by a CPU with "four hardware cores, each divided into four logical cores" and 8GB of RAM.

Dan Dawkins, Xbox World's editor in chief, told CVG that "Xbox World has been at the cutting edge of Durango coverage for over 12 months. Unless something really dramatic changes, everything...will be revealed long before E3 in June."

Why console gaming is dying

By Blake Snow, Special to CNN
11-9-2012
http://www.cnn.com/2012/11/09/tech/gaming-gadgets/console-gaming-dead/index.html

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Dedicated gaming sales, including traditional consoles, are in a four-year tailspin
Rise of casual and social gaming and waning consumer interest are affecting consoles
Despite this, Nintendo will release its new Wii U console later this month

(CNN) -- If console gaming were a first-person shooter, it would be taking heavy fire right now. A red hue would envelop the viewable screen from all sides, an ominous sign of spilled blood.

Or worse, near-death.

Despite this, Nintendo will release its new Wii U console on November 18, ushering in the eighth and possibly last generation of traditional home consoles as we know them.

Consider this: Dedicated gaming sales — including living-room consoles and handhelds — are in the midst of a four-year tailspin. You might say that's because of a bad economy, but then you'd have to explain why movie revenue and cable TV subscriptions have largely stayed the same.

Or why music sales, gutted by online streaming and piracy, have held up better than slumping sales of console games. Or why the popularity of social, mobile and PC games have skyrocketed to unthinkable heights.

The problem seems to be isolated to dedicated video games. Video game industry sales in the United States, including game discs, consoles and accessories, were down 24% in September when compared with the same period last year. Many experts believe these decreases in profits, the rise of casual and social gaming and waning consumer interest are affecting makers of the three big living-room consoles: Microsoft's Xbox 360, Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii.

So is this it then? Is the death of dedicated gaming upon us? In a word, no.

"I bristle when people suggest as much," says Adrian Crook, a game design consultant. "Consoles will grow again and will never go away."

But today's dedicated gaming business is arguably in its most tumultuous period since the 1983 gaming collapse. It's nowhere near ruin yet, thanks to big franchises like "Call of Duty," "Madden," and a select few mainstream console games. But the console's influence is waning, and there's uncertainty about its future.

Here's where the shots at console gaming are coming from, and how the industry might dodge and counter them.

Trojan horses

Since the '80s, console makers have dreamed of using their "dedicated gaming machines" as Trojan horses to further control the living room with a single, proprietary device.

That time has come. Gaming consoles have transformed into entertainment hubs for people to stream movies or YouTube videos. So much, in fact, that gaming consoles no longer are being used primarily for gaming. In fact, "40% of all Xbox activity now is non-game," Microsoft boasts. Amazon and Netflix streaming accounts for most of that, as they do for Wii and PS3.

Combined, game consoles account for half of all Netflix users. This is great news for the movie industry. Not so great for console gaming's bottom line, especially since the industry largely subsidizes consoles now.

In other words, a console isn't helping the gaming industry if it's mainly being used to stream Netflix movies.

Not only that, but gamers' tastes have evolved to include quick, bite-size gaming sessions -- something consoles have never been good at. (Gamers must go to the living room, wait for the console to power on, load the game from the main menu, wait for it to boot.) It's much slower than tapping an icon on the smartphone you already carry in your pocket.

"Most people who liked console games in the past still do today," says Alex Hutchinson, creative director of Ubisoft, "but they're also looking for a wider spread of experiences. I want some games I can play quickly after work or while the kids are asleep and have a short satisfying experience."

As the number of gaming scenarios has increased, so, too, has the number of diehard gamers, says market researcher DFC Intelligence.

"Gamers have not only increased in number, but they are playing on multiple platforms now," says analyst David Cole. "Fewer enthusiasts describe themselves in a single camp such as 'I love Nintendo and hate Sony and Microsoft' or vice versa."

If enthusiasm for a single dedicated machine has waned, however — or at least has been spread thin — then the machine that demands the most attention will invariably suffer. That machine is the console — the one you hold dear to your heart, but probably reach for less than you used to, whether you like to admit it or not.

Creative stagnation?

When it's not taking a backseat to more convenient app gaming, some say the console has stagnated creatively.

"You would think that XBLA (Xbox Live Arcade), PSN (PlayStation Network), and the rise of 'free to play' would have opened a door to smaller games that can take more risks creatively, but right now they're just cut-down versions of box-product games, or retreads of games I played on the SNES (Super Nintendo Entertainment System)," says Hutchinson, referring to the online gaming networks offered by Microsoft and Sony.

"I don't honestly think that someone who didn't want a 2-D platformer 20 years ago is going to wake up today and buy it on XBLA."

In addition, even big-box games have lost some of their visual allure in recent years. What were once graphical leaps in previous generations have now become bunny hops, at least to the average eye.

"People aren't as motivated by cutting-edge graphics as they once were," says Paul Neurath, creative director at Zynga, makers of "FarmVille," "Mafia Wars" and other social games on Facebook.

"Gamers that care intensely about graphics will continue to do so, but I think there are fewer now than there were in the past," he says. "Big leaps in graphics no longer exist. Unless there's some futuristic holographic display or direct brain implement we don't know about, it's hard to get a lot better."

Cole, the gaming analyst, agrees.

"Cutting-edge graphics in the past amounted to nothing more than killer CGI videos that added nothing to gameplay," he said. "That's a problem for an industry that up until recently prided itself on "buy this console because the games look a lot better than the ones you currently own.'"

In that sense, next-generation is no longer "next." We've arrived. Looking back, NES was certainly a step above Atari and imprecise joysticks. SNES and Genesis offered a huge leap in affordable home graphics. PlayStation and N64 immersed players into 3-D worlds replete with camera control. PlayStation 2 and Xbox overcame polygons in favor of rounded and non-jaggy looks. All of these were improvements upon previous generations of gaming systems.

But this current generation of consoles? With the exception of the early Wii years, they've largely offered better-looking versions of games we've already played. There have been a lot of great games to be sure, but fewer must-haves — the kind that truly take the medium into uncharted territory.

Rise of cheap, social gaming

On the other hand, cheap, bite-size games such as "Angry Birds" and "Plants vs. Zombies" have thrived in recent years, ensnaring new players with novel gameplay.

"Virtually all of my clients are in social and mobile sectors, which have totally exploded in the last few years and continue unabated today," says Crook, who previously worked as a console designer.

As such, the demand for games has grown. "It's not so much that gamer interests have changed since the last generation, but that a whole group of new players have started playing games," says Zynga's Neurath. "These people would never have played last-generation console games. They're more into it for the social aspect."

Console makers so far have been ill-equipped to meet this demand, given their lucrative, 30-year-old model of selling games for $50-$60.

The Wii U's handheld controller displays a game during a presentation by developers Ubisoft.

This partly explains why Nintendo, after five years of phenomenal Wii growth, is slumping. Industry experts say they're not in a position to meet the demands of most new social gamers.

We'll soon find out whether the Wii U can revive Nintendo's fortunes. The console's big new feature is a 6.2-inch touchscreen GamePad controller that interacts in creative new ways with the gamers' TV. Wii U players can play together, with one person using a TV screen and the other using the GamePad. A single player also can access additional content on the GamePad that enhances the game on the big screen.

Nintendo declined to comment for this story.

In a struggling economy, consoles also have fallen victim to the cut-rate pricing of games -- something consumers are exceedingly demanding but consoles have yet to offer.

In what has become a successful business model, many developers give away their games for free, then charge players later for status upgrades or gameplay perks.

"Say what you want about freemium, 'nickel and diming' of players, but I'd sooner pay nothing up front and $5 to $10 later than plunk down $60 on a game and hope I like it," says Crook.

Ubisoft's Hutchinson refers to it as a rising "fear" among console gamers. With so many deals to be had elsewhere, a lot of console gamers are making fewer full-price purchases than before.

"The free-to-play model has certainly impacted the industry," agrees Zynga's Neurath.

On top of that, 99¢ iPhone and iPad games are also taking a toll on the perceived value of dedicated gaming systems. Even PC games go on sale for as little as $5-$20 on occasion, a trend that has breathed new life into PC gaming and changed how some of the most ardent gamers value games.

"The business model for a five-year life cycle isn't working for Sony and Microsoft," says Cole. "They spend billions to R&D and market these new systems, they sell them at a loss for the first few years and then they don't really have the software business to make up the cost. They are better getting out of the business entirely rather than go after a five-year life cycle."

How console makers can fight back

In wake of all these changes, what's a console maker to do? What might reinvigorate interest in living-room and dedicated handheld gaming?

A first step would be fresher consoles themselves. The Xbox 360 is 7 years old, while the Wii and the PlayStation 3 are both 6.

Newer motion-controlled gaming systems such as Microsoft's Kinect and Sony's Move, which let players control in-game avatars by moving their arms and legs, have helped sustain interest. But experts say more upgrades are needed.

"New consoles would help, and the rumblings have already started at Microsoft and Sony," Hutchinson says. As if reminded by the lackluster sales of the handheld 3DS and PS Vita gaming systems, he adds, "But I don't know that we really need a new hardware cycle at this point from a creative standpoint."

Zynga's Neurath, who's worked with consoles and PCs since the 8-bit days, says console makers would do well to act more like nontraditional platforms. A new console dubbed Ouya will launch next year with free-to-play games and a $99 launch price, but keep the focus on what its manufacturer calls "TV gaming."

Crook believes there is still plenty of time for traditional console makers to correct their downward trend.

"There will always be a big market for core game systems," he says. "It all comes down to how consoles can get back to taking creative risks again, and what the platforms can do to broaden their markets and offer innovative means of interaction."

Ubisoft's Hutchinson wants console games to deliver more meaningful experiences.

"Games need to explain to players why they made certain artistic decisions, what mood they're setting with their lighting and color choices, and less about the technical features," he says. "We need to offer more experiences that are understandable to people's real lives, either in terms of mechanics or narrative, and attract people who don't read fantasy novels or watch the SyFy channel. Our mechanics are often not the barrier, but our content sometimes is."

The good news for the industry, and for gamers, is that video games in their broadest sense are most definitely here to stay. It's just that the way we access, control and define them has rapidly evolved. Despite the weakening sales of consoles and console games, the growth of mobile, social and PC-based games means that total spending on gaming is actually on the rise.

"Inviting more people to the fun and wonderment of games isn't just good for social games, it's good for the entire industry," says Neurath.

It will likely take at least one more console cycle to gauge the long-term sustainability of dedicated gaming devices, experts say. Their ultimate survival all depends on how well console makers adapt to evolving business models and changing consumer tastes.

Explorer Dips Under 50 Percent

From ArsTechnica.com:
A couple of interesting things happened in the world of Web browser usage during October. The more significant one is that Internet Explorer's share of global browser usage dropped below 50 percent for the first time in more than a decade. Less significant, but also notable, is that Chrome for the first time overtook Firefox here at Ars, making it the technologist's browser of choice.

Internet Explorer still retains a majority of the desktop browser market share, at 52.63 percent, a substantial 1.76 point drop from September. However, desktop browsing makes up only about 94 percent of Web traffic; the rest comes from phones and tablets, both markets in which Internet Explorer is all but unrepresented. As a share of the whole browser market, Internet Explorer has only 49.58 percent of users. Microsoft's browser first achieved a majority share in—depending on which numbers you look at—1998 or 1999. It reached its peak of about 95 percent share in 2004, and has been declining ever since.

Where has that market share gone? In the early days, it all went Firefox's way. These days, it's Chrome that's the main beneficiary of Internet Explorer's decline, and October was no exception. Chrome is up 1.42 points to 17.62 percent of the desktop browser share. Firefox is basically unchanged, up 0.03 points to 22.51 percent. Safari grew 0.41 points to 5.43. Opera has been consistently falling over the last few months, and it dropped again in October, down 0.11 points to 1.56 percent...

The browser usage here at Ars Technica continues to be unusual, with Firefox and Chrome over-represented on the desktop, and Android showing a much stronger performance among mobile user than is seen on the wider Web.

A compelling case can be made that the causes for these two phenomena — Internet Explorer's decline, and Chrome's growth — are closely related. They represent the influence of the computer geek.

Ars Technica's unusual usage figures are not surprising when considering its audience: visitors to the site tend to be technologists and early adopters: Ars readers were among the first to switch to using Firefox as their browser of choice, and similarly they're leading the way with Chrome. While Internet Explorer's decline, Firefox's flatlining, and Chrome's growth have happened faster at Ars than the broader Web, the underlying trends are the same..

The end of an era: Internet Explorer drops below 50% of Web usage
Peter Bright
11-2-11
http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2011/11/the-end-of-an-era-internet-explorer-drops-below-50-percent-of-web-usage.ars

Is Amazon interested in buying WebOS from Hewlett-Packard?

September 30, 2011
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2011/09/amazon-is-latest-rumored-to-be-interested-in-buying-webos-from-hp-1.html

Amazon.com's Kindle Fire is a jump into the growing tablet market and a clear challenge to Apple's blockbuster ability to integrate hardware and software so seamlessly.

But what will Amazon's post-Fire moves look like as it seeks to build a major business in tablets, something only Apple has so far been able to pull off?

According to both VentureBeat and the New York Times site Deal Book, Amazon is considering buying the WebOS mobile operating system from the struggling Hewlett-Packard in a move to nab an OS of its own and to gain some mobile tech patents as well. Amazon officials were unavailable for comment on the rumors Friday.

Unlike Apple, Amazon doesn't own the software that will run on its tablet. Android is owned by Google, though Google shares its Android with the world at no cost and the version of Android that will run on the Fire is a build unique to Amazon.

But while Google doesn't charge for Android, others do. Microsoft, for example, is collecting royalties from Samsung for its use of Android and has agreements with other Android users, such as HTC, that pay Microsoft and/or call for shared patent portfolio licenses.

Google, known for its weak patent portfolio, is attempting to buy Motorola Mobility in both a move to help shore up its IP and get into the hardware business in a limited way.

HP bought Palm in April 2010 for $1.2 billion, mainly for WebOS, but in August the company gave up on making hardware for the operating system.

As pointed out by VentureBeat, HP has been eyeing Amazon as a possible partner for WebOS as far back as July, Jon Rubinstein, who was then leading HP's WebOS division, said in an interview with the website ThisIsMyNext. This was due to Amazon's potential to match WebOS with an ecosystem of content -- books, music, TV shows and movies.

Videogame Next Gen: Coming 2012

Microsoft and Sony were hoping to wait until 2014, but Nintendo has forced them to change their plans. With the Wii U coming out next year, the Xbox 720 and the PlayStation 4 (at least what they're being referred to by Yahoo News) will be released in 2012 as well...
Wii U is pushing the Xbox 720 and PS4 to debut sooner, says Ubisoft CEO
Jeffrey Van Camp
Tue, Jul 19, 2011
http://news.yahoo.com/wii-u-pushing-xbox-720-ps4-debut-sooner-154348071.html

Lion Warnings

Last week, we warned you that **YOU SHOULD NOT UPGRADE** to Lion (Mac OS X 10.7) at this time.

This week, we wanted to emphasize Lion's incompatibility problems with newly updated information for you:

- Microsoft Office 2008, Microsoft Office 2004, and Microsoft Office X will never run under Lion.
- Microsoft Office 2011 has multiple problems with Lion, and we are waiting for an update from Microsoft.
- QuickBooks (any version earlier than version 2011) will never run under Lion.
- QuickBooks 2011 has multiple problems with Lion, and we are waiting for an update from Intuit.
- Quicken will never run under Lion -- you will need to switch to a completely different finance program.
- iCal/BusyCal calendar syncing via MobileMe: We are unsure at this time if this will continue to work under Lion.
- FileMaker Pro and FileMaker Server (any version earlier than version 11) will never run under Lion.
- FileMaker Pro 11 has multiple problems with Lion, and we are waiting for an update from FileMaker.
- FileMaker Server 11 will not currently run under Lion, and we are waiting for an update from FileMaker.
- Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign (any version earlier than CS5) will never run under Lion.
- Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign CS5 have multiple problems with Lion, and we are waiting for an update from Adobe.
- Canon ImageRunner printers and photocopiers and scanners will not currently work with Lion, and we are waiting for an update from Canon.
- 1Password has some problems with Lion, and we are waiting for an update from the developer.
- Other software, hardware, and printers may not work under Lion, until updates are released.

If you are thinking about buying a new Mac, please buy one now so you can still get a Mac that runs Snow Leopard (Mac OS X 10.6). Apple will soon release Macs that are Lion-only Macs, and you do not want to get one of those Macs at this point in time.

Scott Rose
(323) 954-1978

President, ScottWorld
Mac • iPhone • iPad
Consulting, Support, Programming
http://www.scottworld.com/

Hi-Tech Team: Nokia & Microsoft

Nokia may be the biggest cellphone maker (with 31 percent share of the market in the last quarter of 2010) its chunk of the market is dropping. Even more important, it only has 3 percent of the all important smart phone market in North America.
So its plan to team up with Microsoft may be a brilliant move. Or maybe it's just two dying leaders clinging together in desperation. Either way, it's worth taking notice. Nokia will use Windows 7 in its smart phones, in hopes to compete with Apple's iPhone, the Blackberry and industry leader Google's Android...

Nokia, Microsoft in pact to take on Apple, Google
MATTI HUUHTANEN
Friday, Feb 11, 2011
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2011/02/11/nokia_microsoft_iphone_android_google/index.html

Kinect sex is here, game company says

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13772_3-20025804-52.html

December 15, 2010
Kinect sex is here, game company says
Daniel Terdiman

The Kinect, from Microsoft, has been out for less than two months, and already, an adult game company has produced a demo using the motion controller in a 3D sex game.

Kinect sex has arrived, and it took the adult gaming community less than two months to get there.

Just more than two weeks ago, one of the world's leading experts on sex and video games said that while there were not yet working adult games using Microsoft's Kinect motion controller, the potential was there. That barrier has been broken, as one game company illustrates in a demo for a new game.

The demo (a NSFW YouTube video) comes from ThriXXX software, a maker of 3D role-playing sex simulation games, which said in a statement today that "the open-sourcing of device drivers for Kinect have enabled the...device to be used directly from connected PCs operating on Windows 7...The Kinect interface provides another exciting interface option for users of the sex simulation software to control the experience in extraordinary new ways. Controller-free is the next generation of game user interfaces, allowing users to use gestures, spoken commands, or objects to control in-game action that creates a completely new sex game activity and magical experience."

The demo shows that the Kinect is suitable for fairly well controlled hand gestures and that those gestures can be incorporated into a sex game. Without being too graphic, it's clear that the game makers imagine that players will be using the Kinect to interact directly with women (for now) in the game.

And Kyle Machulis, who is considered one of the world's experts on sex and digital toys and games, said he's impressed with how quickly the Kinect community has taken the new device and advanced it for adult purposes.

"The Kinect is obviously a natural technology for this kind of usage, since the 'hands-free' approach means that the user's hands are available for other actions, be it manipulating the game, or themselves--or, in this case, possibly both at the same time," Machulis told CNET. "I'm impressed with the quick development turnaround for getting new controls into their engine like this, especially using resources from the open-source community."

However, Machulis said he wasn't sure about whether ThriXXX's Kinect implementation would be kosher under the Kinect's license agreement. "There's been some question about whether you can use the Kinect in commercial projects," he said. "I don't quite understand it myself, since I'm not sure you can [control, through end-user license agreements,] hardware like that, but it's something that needs a nice lawyer response."

Microsoft did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Machulis also pointed out that OpenNI, "an industry-led, not-for-profit organization formed to certify and promote the compatibility and interoperability of natural interaction (NI) devices, applications and middleware," has begun offering its own motion controller (see video below) with open-source drivers. The $199 camera comes, in part, from PrimeSense, which Machulis explained is behind the depth-sensing technology in the Kinect camera.

"The advent of the PrimeSense reference kit could completely assuage fears about using the Kinect for further adult development," Machulis said.

ThriXXX admitted that it doesn't have a green light from Microsoft to move ahead with its Kinect implementation.

"We do not have permission from anyone on any of this stuff, and have been using stuff from the hacker community to do a working prototype, following what [is] going on in that world," Brad Abram, ThriXXX's vice president of business development, said in an e-mail to CNET. And with the OpenNI drivers, we "don't know how [Microsoft] can contain the current activity worldwide. We have no idea how [Microsoft] will react...but we think the genie is out of the bottle, so to speak.

"In regards to commercial games, we do not sell at retail, do not have a need for [game ratings], and everything is done offshore in Europe, where [Microsoft] is being lambasted by the courts for [anticompetitive] behavior. If we have to, maybe we would give it away for free as part of the open-source community efforts, but we don't know yet where any of this will lead."

For his part, Machulis is pleased that the ThiXXX met one of his general goals for the Kinect and sex.

"Note that this [happened] 10 full days before Christmas," Machulis wrote on his blog, "which was my deadline for when we'd see our first public usage of the Kinect in porn."

Daniel Terdiman is a staff writer at CNET News covering games, Net culture, and everything in between.

Wii2 – For and Against

http://wii.ign.com/articles/113/1136075p1.html
Wii2 – For and Against
Nintendo's next console – are we really ready for it? Choose your side.
Australia, November 28, 2010
Patrick Kolan

Nintendo must lead the charge into the next generation of gaming consoles – this much is certain. While Microsoft and Sony place bets on different forms of motion control styles, Nintendo is surely looking at advancing the market even further – looking for the 'next big thing' that will take concepts established by the Wii and put Nintendo even farther ahead of the competition.

With this in mind, we've weighed up strong arguments for and against the release of Wii2 in the near future. Will the Big N carry on in the face of Move and Kinect? Or are we going to see a new paradigm shift just around the bend?

For:

Dated Hardware

The Wii has not aged gracefully – from a strictly visual standpoint – but that is, in many ways, very much intentional on Nintendo's part. The company has always maintained that it was backing away from the constant hardware/graphics treadmill that has plagued and underpinned gaming since day one. That said, further refinements in the areas of social interaction, motion control and even efficient rendering and processing power has made the Wii something of a hidey-hole for cheap and nasty ports, rush-job games and poor franchised titles.

More Direct Competitors

Sony now has Move and Microsoft just launched Kinect – not to mention Apple's touch interface platforms. Clearly the market has embraced the motion control and direct-feedback paradigm in a big way – and all of these competitors are slowly chipping away at Nintendo's mighty empire. Each time a direct competitor emerges, a little more shine is stripped from the Wii, and the platform looks less and less enticing in the eyes of Joe Consumer. The Wii2 might reset the standard and bring the focus back to Nintendo again in the living room.

Third-Party Pressure

The Wii has never traditionally been the lead platform of choice for many developers and, despite Nintendo's insistence, the system still isn't the cash-cow developers hoped it would be. Third party games still rarely sell as well as Nintendo's own franchised titles. While the situation isn't dire, a new console might stimulate development activity and bring the quality of the games back in line with its competitors – perhaps undoing some of the damage done by the glut of shovelware the currently plagues the Wii's library.

Nintendo Favours Half-steps

The Wii2 might well be a half-step forward, rather than another revolution in gameplay. By coupling in HD output, Wii MotionPlus and media streaming services, Nintendo might well do what the DSi did for the ageing DS hardware – refining a proven concept and bringing it more in line with changing market demands.

Nintendo Decides The Next Generation Debut

If the Wii2 is coming, it might well be an entirely new way of approaching games. Nintendo decided to upset the gaming industry with the Wii and DS, and it's through this disruptive approach that Nintendo technically declared a new generation of gaming consoles. The Wii2 might herald the true start of the next generation race – leaving Microsoft and Sony to play catch-up once again. It's a smart approach to take; the goalposts keep moving just as the competition gets its head around your previous efforts.

Against:

3DS

Nintendo has a new trump-card piece of hardware in the Nintendo 3DS handheld. Already garnering major press globally and terrific buzz from within the core gaming community, 3DS itself is a very valid reason for Nintendo to hold back the Wii2. Why dilute interest in 3DS by having to compete with another major Nintendo platform retail within the first year or so of its life?

The Hardware is Still Selling Well

Why rush out the next-generation replacement if the current generation is still doing solid bank? That's the fundamental argument behind this point. The Wii, despite more technically powerful competitors and advancements in the same space, has continued to power forward off the back of a few strong first-party game releases each year. Like DS, Nintendo knows better than to rush out a replacement and risk dampening sales. In fact, if the Wii2 is announced, like the 3DS, we'd expect a tight turnaround between announcement and shelf-date.

With the 3DS and MotionPlus, has Nintendo delayed the launch of the Wii2 indefinitely?

Is the Market Ready?

Motion control has taken the market by storm – and it's taken a few years to really cement itself as a genuine alternative to traditional game controls. Essentially, changing market perception was always going to be a gradual process –but the market's resistance to further change might take years to overcome. Wii2 might not be on the agenda simply because the market might not be as willing to embrace further gameplay refinements and revolutions.

Is Nintendo R&D Ready?

It's entirely possible that Nintendo's internal research and development team are toiling away on new technology and control advancements –and this takes time. If Nintendo isn't entirely confident about next steps forward, or if a suitably worthwhile jump isn't on the cards, it's possible that Nintendo itself might be sitting on Wii2 for the foreseeable future.

No Price Drop ...Yet

Off the back of a recent report from a Nintendo shareholder meeting in Japan, Nintendo has no plans to drop the price of the Wii at retail... yet. That is a strong indicator that Nintendo has no short-term plans to introduce new hardware, simply because it has confidence in the ongoing retail viability of the platform. If and when the price does drop, that might be the best possible indicator that the platform is slowing and Nintendo is gearing up for a new hardware announcement. On that note, IGN'll keep you in the loop as news comes to hand!

The PC's Death By A Thousand Cuts: Tablets Today, Thin Clients Tomorrow

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2010/11/29/businessinsider-business-pc-market-strong-today-but-watch-out-2010-11.DTL
The PC's Death By A Thousand Cuts: Tablets Today, Thin Clients Tomorrow
Matt Rosoff
November 29, 2010

Today's Gartner forecast of PC sales focused primarily on the consumer market, which is already being impacted by media tablets such as the iPad.

But there was more bad news for PC makers buried near the end: businesses are showing increasing interest in hosted virtual desktops (HVDs). That means that instead of of buying new PCs every three to seven years to support the latest OS and applications, companies can use inexpensive terminals or stick with old refurbished PCs.

With virtual desktops, the desktop operating system is actually running in a virtual machine on a back-end server. Cheaper hardware isn't the only benefit for companies: IT departments no longer have to touch thousands of desktops every time they want to deploy an app or patch the OS. But to employees, it looks and feels more or less like using a regular PC.

According to Gartner's predictions, HVDs won't start impacting the PC market until 2012 or later. But when this happens, it's another knife cut to the old PC industry.

Citrix and VMWare are leaders in this space today and stand to gain. Microsoft will probably be OK--a lot of virtual PCs will still use Office, and Microsoft has reluctantly started offering a licensing model that makes it easier for companies to buy Windows this way instead of on new PCs (as 85% of Windows sales are today).

The losers in this switch will be big business PC providers like HP and Dell, whose last quarter was saved by strong business sales. They'll make it up somewhat in sales of new servers and services, but upgrade cycles for servers tend to be longer and the number of units per sale is typically much lower.

Activision: 'Black Ops' grossed $650M in 5 days

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9JINPQG4.htm
November 18, 2010
Activision: 'Black Ops' grossed $650M in 5 days

Activision Blizzard Inc. said Thursday its blockbuster shooter "Call of Duty: Black Ops" made $650 million in revenue in its first five days on sale, breaking the $550 million record set by its predecessor this time last year.

The video game publisher also said, citing figures from Microsoft Corp., that more than 2.6 million gamers played "Black Ops" on Nov. 9, the day it went on sale, on the Xbox 360.

Sony, meanwhile, said the game is driving "unprecedented traffic" to the PlayStation's online networks as well. "Call of Duty" is also available on PCs, and Activision said last week the game sold about 5.6 million copies in its first 24 hours on sale in North America and the U.K.

Shares of Activision climbed 20 cents to $11.82 in early afternoon trading.

Why You'll Fall in Love With the Xbox Kinect

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/11/06/fall-love-microsoft-xbox-kinect

Holiday Gift Guide
Why You'll Fall in Love With the Xbox Kinect
By Clayton Morris
November 05, 2010 | FoxNews.com

I just lost 100 calories playing a video game!

Microsoft's brand-new, much-hyped Kinect for Xbox is finally out -- in all of its motion-controlled glory. Forget the Nintendo Wii. Kinect is sure to be the biggest family-fun hit of the holiday season.

When Microsoft unveiled Kinect two years ago, I wondered to myself: Could a system really abandon the joystick controller and rely on the movement of our bodies to play games? The answer is a resounding yes!

I've been testing Kinect -- or should I say, kickboxing, dancing, and rafting Kinect -- for about a week now, and I'm more than impressed. Remember how cool it was when you first used Nintendo's Wii controllers? Multiply that impression by a factor of 10 and you come close to the experience of Kinect.

Kinect isn't a new system. It's an add-on to the existing Microsoft Xbox gaming console, one which plugs into any of the systems. It uses four microphones and three video lenses to locate your body. The setup is fairly simple. Once it scans your body to identify your height and facial features, you're off and running ... or jumping.

Kinect uses microphones to recognize your voice, letting you speak commands and navigate menus. Microsoft is really proud of this feature; I am not impressed. It sounds like a great idea but it's too clunky. Even in a small room Kinect had difficulty recognizing commands such as "Xbox: Play Kinect Adventures" or "Xbox: Sign In." Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. I ended up getting frustrated and often gave up, going back to using my arms in midair to navigate menu settings.

Nintendo hit a home run by including Wii Sports in the box with the Wii console. Microsoft took a page from Nintendo's playbook, including a copy of Kinect Adventures -- a series of five incredibly addictive games that are fun for the whole family.

Rally Ball is a lot like dodgeball, Reflex Ridge is an Indiana Jones-styled obstacle course, and Space Pop forces you to pop bubbles in midair. In 20,000 Leaks, you try to keep fish away from your undersea boat; in the amazing River Rush, multiple players control a white water raft through wild river rapids.

But my favorite game for Kinect is from MTV and Harmonix: Dance Central. It tracks your body's movement while you attempt to dance alongside professional dancers to some of today's hottest songs. Notice I said attempt to dance. The way I play this game can only loosely be interpreted as dancing -- let's just say I made sure the shades in my house were drawn before I started.

If you want to lose weight, Microsoft Kinect has you covered too. Your Shape includes workouts created by Men's Health and Women's Health. I've been doing cardio kickboxing, yoga, and tai chi. While you're exercising you receive feedback from a personal trainer on the screen. And because Kinect is tracking all of your movements, it'll know whether or not you're doing the exercise correctly.

Beware, however, if you're thinking of getting one: Your existing layout may no longer work. You may need to mount your Kinect sensor bar on top of the television for best results. But for many people that's not an option, thanks to modern thin televisions that the sensor bar simply won't sit on.

My television was too thin for the sensor bar, for example. I had to put it underneath the TV, and that's a problem because Kinect requires about 6 feet of space from the television to where you're standing in order to scan your body from head to toe. I live in a New York City apartment -- it's as small as you've heard such places are -- so the backs of my legs kept hitting my couch.

I imagine this would be a problem for college kids in a dorm room, as well. My advice is to put your Kinect console in an area where you have plenty of space to move around.

But ignore those few annoyances. Kinect is a major advancement in gaming technology and one that's sure to be on millions of kids' Christmas lists this season. And adults' lists too!

Clayton Morris is a Fox and Friends host and the tech godfather behind the Gadgets and Games show.

Microsoft is a dying consumer brand

http://money.cnn.com/2010/10/27/technology/microsoft_pdc
Microsoft is a dying consumer brand
Steve Ballmer, and the company he leads, are struggling with "the vision thing."
David Goldman, staff writer
October 27, 2010

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Consumers have turned their backs on Microsoft. A company that once symbolized the future is now living in the past.

Microsoft has been late to the game in crucial modern technologies like mobile, search, media, gaming and tablets. It has even fallen behind in Web browsing, a market it once ruled with an iron fist.

Outgoing Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie called out Microsoft's lost ground in a blog post over the weekend.

"Our early and clear vision notwithstanding, [competitors'] execution has surpassed our own in mobile experiences, in the seamless fusion of hardware & software & services, and in social networking & myriad new forms of internet-centric social interaction," he said.

It's not like Microsoft didn't foresee the changes ahead. With a staff of almost 90,000, the company has many of the tech world's smartest minds on its payroll, and has incubated projects in a wide range of fields that later took off. Experiments like Courier (tablets), HailStorm/Passport (digital identity), and Windows Media Center (content in the cloud) show the company was ahead of the game in many areas -- but then it either failed to bring those products to market, or didn't execute.

"In this age, the race really is to the swift. You cannot afford to be an hour late or a dollar short," says Laura DiDio, principal analyst at ITIC. "Now the biggest question is: Can they make it in the 21st century and compete with Google and Apple?"

Some influential analysts think not. Several have downgraded Microsoft's (MSFT, Fortune 500) stock in recent weeks, as PC sales continue to slow and Microsoft struggles with its tablet strategy. The company's stock is down more than 17% this year.

What's wrong with Microsoft

A rundown of Microsoft's major consumer projects finds trouble in almost all of them.

Internet Explorer's popularity has been waning for years, and one recent study showed that for the first time in more than a decade, more people are using alternative browsers. The browser is becoming the single most critical piece of software on a device -- potentially eclipsing the operating system -- but all of the major innovations of the past few years, like tabbed browsing and add-on extensions, came from outside Microsoft.

Windows Phone 7 has promise, but Microsoft dug itself an enormous hole with the subpar Windows Mobile platform. With its market share currently sitting below 5%, developers are taking a "wait and see" approach.

Microsoft's media platform Zune was dead on arrival.

Bing is growing, but substantially all of that growth has come at the expense of its business partner, Yahoo -- not its archrival Google.

Microsoft's attempts to build a social network through Windows Live have failed to gain traction. It has no real answer to Facebook.

Six months after Apple's release of the iPad, Microsoft still has virtually no presence in the tablet market. And its strategy for taking on Apple -- Windows 7 on a tablet, rather than a tablet-specific operating system -- is leaving potential partners cold. Lenovo's technology director recently told PC Mag that his company won't be building around the platform: "The challenge with Windows 7 is that it's based on the same paradigm as 1985 -- it's really an interface that's optimized for a mouse and keyboard."

With Xbox, Microsoft succeeded at innovating: It created a competitive video game brand for hardcore gamers. But even Xbox was outdueled by Nintendo with the Wii, which outsold Xbox by appealing to casual gamers.

Then there's the epicenter of the Microsoft universe: Windows. Microsoft likes to point out that its operating system is its biggest consumer brand and Windows 7 has been selling rapidly. Its new version has sold 240 million licenses in a year, making it the fastest-selling OS in Microsoft's history.

But Windows' momentum isn't from consumers. In fact, consumers are a worry for the Windows division, because they have dramatically slowed their purchases of PCs in recent months.

Rather, the fast sales are coming from businesses, which significantly delayed their purchases of new Windows licenses because Windows Vista was bug-ridden mess. Then the recession hit. A years-overdue corporate PC refresh cycle is now happening all at once.

Meanwhile, Microsoft's executive suite is in turmoil. CFO Chris Liddel, entertainment unit head Robbie Bach, device design leader J Allard and business division chief Stephen Elop have left within the past year. Ray Ozzie joined the exit parade last week.

Consumers matter

Microsoft has a lot of questions to answer, and it will have an opportunity to do so at its Professional Developers Conference in Seattle, which kicks off Thursday.

But PDC, which used to be one of Microsoft's most important and widely attended conferences, is going to be relatively small this year, with only a few thousand people making the trip, analysts say. PDC's hottest news this year is about cloud computing -- vital to enterprises, but not exactly sexy stuff.

So is this Microsoft's Waterloo? Will it become the next IBM (IBM, Fortune 500) -- crucially important to businesses but an afterthought for consumers?

"Microsoft is at a transition point, and there is a risk of that happening," says Al Hilwa, analyst at IDC. "But Microsoft cares much more about consumers than IBM ever did. It's in its DNA, and it understands that it is necessary to stay relevant. I don't see Microsoft ever abandoning consumers."

As Apple has proven, success in consumer products can fuel explosive growth. Apple surpassed Microsoft's market value earlier this year, and is on pace to eclipse the company in sales for 2010.

And if Microsoft cedes consumer ground, it risks its enterprise stronghold. Businesses are becoming more willing to allow employees to use their personal devices for work purposes, and a growing number of those gizmos are Macs, iPads, iPhones and Android smartphones.

So it's up to Microsoft to turn that around by being a leader, rather than a follower, in the consumer market.

Windows Phone 7 is a good start. Internet Explorer 9 has some exciting new features that other browsers lack. And Xbox's controllerless Kinect -- the first of its kind -- is coming this holiday season.

Microsoft just has to hope it's not too late.

Apple may surpass Exxon as most valuable company

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jVBkp_DhGmQ3dSOv71f7y5e0240QD9IKD31G0

Apple may surpass Exxon as most valuable company
DAVID K. RANDALL
10-3-10

NEW YORK — Here's something to think about the next time you pick up a call on your iPhone: the device you're holding may soon be the signature product of the most valuable company in the world.

Thanks to its line of gadgets that combine the ability to make calls, send email, read books, watch movies and listen to music, Apple Inc. is on a path to overtake Exxon Mobil Corp. as the largest company by market capitalization.

While Apple CEO Steve Jobs will no doubt be happy about his new perch atop the business world, there's more at stake here than mere bragging rights. As soon as the total value of the company's shares edges above Exxon's, Apple will take over the top spot in the Standard and Poor's 500, the market index used by most professional money managers.

That means that billions of dollars invested in funds that track the index will have to shift their holdings to reflect Apple's new weighting. Exxon, meanwhile, may see its share price fall from the same effect. That slide could be accelerated by hedge funds and technical traders who make bets based on the rebalancing of major indexes and would be primed to short the shares of Exxon.

Just as important as the day-to-day flow of dollars among investors, the move will also reflect how the market, and the overall economy, continues to evolve. The list of companies that have sat atop the S&P 500 is short. For years, the top spot rotated among stalwart industrials like General Electric Co., General Motors, and AT&T Inc., before that company was broken up as a result of an antitrust suit in 1984. Twenty years ago, IBM Corp. held the No. 1 position, narrowly beating out Exxon.

Apple's move to the top would be a strong signal that the market is no longer placing as high a value on industrial companies that depend on traditional manufacturing, business spending or natural resources for revenue. Instead, investors are now expecting growth to be driven by spending from average consumers on technology and entertainment.

If Apple becomes more valuable than Exxon, it will be only the second time that a growing technology company which doesn't pay dividends will make up the greatest share of the S&P 500. The first, Microsoft Corp., held the position for two years in the late 1990s during the boom that made personal computers a staple in households around the world.

Today, Apple dominates the business of putting the Internet in your pocket. That's quite a feat for a company that was worth only $7 dollars a share 10 years ago. It closed Friday at $282.52.

Apple still has some catching up to do before it takes the lead, of course. As of now, there is a $60 billion difference in the two companies' market capitalization. If the price of Exxon stays flat, Apple's stock will need to rise 12 percent to move ahead of the oil giant, according to Brian Marshall, an analyst at Gleacher & Company. Exxon doesn't seem likely to surge ahead in value anytime soon, according to research by Morgan Stanley analyst Evan Calio. Exxon "will likely lag in a continued recovery, particularly one driven by oil rather than gas," Calio recently wrote in a note to clients.

For most companies, a 12 percent jump in a year would be fantastic, let alone in a few months. But Apple has proven that it's not a normal company. In May, it leapfrogged ahead of Microsoft to take the No. 2 spot on the S&P 500 list. Gleacher's Marshall expects Apple to pull off a similar feat with Exxon not long after it reports its earnings on Oct. 18.

What sets Apple apart? For one thing, it's one of the few gigantic companies that is still growing like a startup. Its revenue is expected to jump 50 percent by the end of this year and an additional 20 percent next year, Marshall says. Much of that comes from its line of iPads and iPhones, which account for half of its revenue.

The fact that all of this growth comes in the midst of an economy that, until recently, was thought to be toeing the line of another recession is all the more impressive. While consumers have been putting off big-ticket items like new cars or homes and downsizing their vacations, they seem to have convinced themselves that they may as well buy devices to make all that time spent at home more exciting.

That helps Apple in another way, too. Because users of iPads and iPhones are tapped into Apple's iTunes store, where the company rents and sells movies and television shows, you could easily consider Apple a cable company as well. If you look at it that way, its base of 200 million customers makes it five times larger than Comcast Corp., the largest cable company in the United States.

Sales through iTunes now account for 8 percent of Apple's revenue, but will likely increase as the company gets a bigger share of the consumer's living room with its updated Apple TV device that streams entertainment to television sets. Any small increase in iTunes sales pumps up the company's bottom line, considering that it gets 30 cents for every dollar spent on a song or book purchased through its online store.

The company is also poised to expand its share of the global personal computer market, which accounts for 300 million units sold each year. "As people buy the iPad and get accustomed to it, it may become their primary PC device," said Toan Tran, an analyst at Morningstar.

For lay investors, Apple's move to the top of the S&P 500 won't bring drastic changes. Even though Apple doesn't pay a dividend like Exxon, its new positioning wouldn't affect the yield of the index, said Howard Silverblatt, a senior index analyst at Standard and Poor's.

And Apple shareholders will still have something to complain about: the approximately $50 billion in cash sitting on the company's balance sheet.

"Apple needs to do something with all of that capital," Tran said. "I could understand wanting to have something in reserve, but $50 billion is such a ridiculous number that they should seriously consider returning some of it to shareholders in the form of share buybacks."

Forbes 400: The super-rich get richer

http://money.cnn.com/2010/09/22/news/companies/forbes_400/

Forbes 400: The super-rich get richer
Julianne Pepitone, staff reporter
September 22, 2010

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The super-rich got even wealthier this year, despite the stumbling economy.

Forbes magazine released its annual list of the 400 richest Americans on Wednesday, and their combined net worth climbed 8% this year, to $1.37 trillion. Wealth rose for 217 members of the list, while 85 saw a decline.

Bill Gates is yet again the richest man in America. The founder of Microsoft, the world's largest software maker, is first on the Forbes list with an estimated fortune of $54 billion, up from $50 billion in 2009. He's followed by billionaire investor Warren Buffett, who is worth $45 billion.

Larry Ellison, chief executive of Oracle, stood at No. 3 with $27 billion.

Christy Walton took the No. 4 spot, while members of her family -- whose fortune comes from Wal-Mart -- took spots 7 through 9.

Charles and David Koch, of private energy conglomerate Koch Industries, tied for No. 5 at $21.5 billion each. Both men saw their wealth skyrocket by $5.5 billion from 2009.

Michael Bloomberg, the mayor of New York City, rounded out the list at No. 10 with $18 billion.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, who clocked in at No. 35 on the list, saw his wealth rise 245% over the year -- the largest percentage increase on the list.

Forbes said 16 new members joined the list this year, including Facebook's Dustin Moskovitz and Eduardo Saverin. At 26 -- 8 days younger than Zuckerberg -- Saverin is the new youngest on the list.

By contrast, 34 people fell off the list this year. One notable drop-off is Raj Rajaratnam, founder of the Galleon Group hedge fund, who is facing 185 years in prison,

Despite the recession, finance and investment industries continued to dominate the list; 55 members are from the finance industry, while 54 are from the investments sector.

GMO no, not again

http://www.grist.org/article/gates-foundation-ignores-reality-hypes-latest-gmo-vaporware-instead/

GMO no, not again
Gates Foundation ignores reality, hypes latest GMO ‘vaporware’ instead
Tom Laskawy
19 Feb 2010

Another day, another misguided announcement from the Bill Gates Foundation. This time, it's hyping a new GMO press release project from DuPont's biotechnology arm, Pioneer Hi-Bred (via the Des Moines Register):

Pioneer Hi-Bred is joining with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to help scientists in Africa develop genetically engineered corn varieties that would allow poor farmers increase their yields with less fertilizer.

The aim of the project is to increase corn yields by 50 percent over the average now reached by African varieties, said Paul Schickler, president of Pioneer, a Johnston-based unit of DuPont.

... Pioneer's arch-rival Monsanto Co. is two years into a similar project with the Gates foundation to develop drought-tolerant corn that is to be made available to small-scale farmers in eastern and southern Africa.

Both Pioneer and Monsanto have agreed to make the seeds available royalty-free to small-scale farmers.


Wow, that sounds great! Those magic seeds should be getting into the hands of farmers any day now. Or not:

Monsanto hopes to have its drought-tolerant seeds to small-scale farmers in Africa by 2016, four years after the projected release of a commercial variety in the United States.


As for Pioneer, they will first use advanced conventional breeding techniques to improve yields, and then add their genetically engineered genes later. The conventional version should be ready by 2014. The transgenic version? Eventually.

From his years as CEO of Microsoft, Bill Gates knows well the name for this kind of product: vaporware. It's hard not to think that Monsanto, Dupont and their ilk are turning into the Bernie Madoff of agriculture. Convince gullible foundations along with the federal government to send billions in research dollars their way based on a promise of magically awesome results. Sometime down the road, of course.

Meanwhile, if African farmers want improved seeds, they should look in their own backyard. Because they already exist (from Science Daily):

Maize production in West and Central Africa is set to get a much-needed boost with the release of improved varieties by the Nigeria National Variety Release Committee. The improved varieties address many of the major constraints to maize production such as drought, low soil fertility, pests, diseases, and parasitic weeds.

Researchers developed the varieties through conventional plant breeding by tapping naturally-available traits.


This is not a coincidence. Even Pioneer and Monsanto admit that much of the yield improvement of their own seeds will come through traditional techniques. But sex sells and right now, sex in ag-speak is spelled G-M-O.

If only Bill Gates, not to mention USDA Chief Tom Vilsack or Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, would spend some of their money getting those Nigerian seeds into farmers' hands today. Instead, they'd prefer to funnel billions of dollars to biotech giants because, well, 2016 isn't really so long to wait. Dupont and Monsanto promise that the payoff will be worth the wait. And here in America, corporations never, ever lie.

Apple topples Microsoft's throne

http://money.cnn.com/2010/05/26/technology/apple_microsoft/index.htm
Apple topples Microsoft's throne
Apple's soaring stock price has enabled the tech giant to eclipse Microsoft's $219.2 billion market cap.
Blake Ellis, staff reporter
May 27, 2010

NEW YORK (http://www.cnnmoney.com/) -- Microsoft's dominance as the tech industry's most valuable player has ended.

On Wednesday, Apple's market capitalization edged past its longtime rival's as investors made official what consumers have long suggested: Microsoft is no longer the industry's alpha dog.

Just last month, Microsoft's market cap exceeded Apple's by about $25 billion, but now Apple is in the lead by nearly $3 billion.

Microsoft's consumer products business is struggling to compete as Apple's hot new items like iPad and iPhone capture the attention of customers.

Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500) fell 4% to close at $25.01 on Wednesday, while Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500) lost 0.45%, closing at $244.11.

Shares of Microsoft have dipped more than 15% in the past couple weeks, while Apple's stock is down just over 6%, despite recent market volatility.

"What this really means is that Wall Street has more confidence in Apple's growth prospects than it does in Microsoft's growth prospects," said Matt Rosoff, lead analyst at Directions on Microsoft, an independent firm.

"Apple is showing high growth, with the launch of its iPad and its new iPhone coming out, and while Windows is a great competitor versus the Mac, Microsoft just hasn't come up with new areas of growth."

Microsoft's reputation as a market leader took another hit Tuesday when the company announced that it plans to shake up its management structure.

Amid the shuffle, Robbie Bach, who was in charge of years-long effort to turn Microsoft into more of a threat to Apple by heading the entertainment and devices group and overseeing innovative consumer products like Xbox and Zune, will retire from Microsoft in the fall.

"This just means those efforts didn't work out," said Roger Kay, president of analyst firm Endpoint Technologies. "It's sort of like Japanese samurai ethic, which says you need to fall on your sword to maintain your honor."

Toe the line or keep up with the Joneses?

Part of Microsoft's problem is that, instead of finding its own audience, it has fallen into a game of catch-up and is focusing too much energy on finding products to directly rival Apple's, said Kay.

"I don't know if they have to compete," he said. "What seems to be working for Microsoft is its serious applications for businesses, education institutions and other enterprises, and if they stay focused on their commercial business that gives them a lot."

While Microsoft's first quarter earnings were boosted by the success of its new operating system, Windows 7, Apple's record profit and revenue in the first quarter was driven by iPhone sales.

And many of Microsoft's efforts to branch out have been met with little success. For example, the company's Zune music player, meant to rival the iPod, has failed to create the same buzz as Apple's device, with sales dropping significantly in 2009.

Microsoft even looked into creating a tablet computer that would have competed directly with the iPad, which Apple introduced at the beginning of April, selling more than 1 million in the first 28 days of release. But Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer ended up pulling the plug on the project before the tablet ever made it to market.

"Zune hasn't gone anywhere, their tablet is dead, their phones are having trouble establishing a market position -- but consumers still use Office and Windows," said Kay.

Other experts say that Microsoft shouldn't stop at its core business, and that it simply needs to innovate more -- and faster -- in order to stay competitive.

"They have to continue to try to find other businesses, otherwise growth is always going to be bound by the PC market," said Rosoff.

Until Microsoft develops a clear direction and finds new ways to innovate, Apple will continue to push ahead, he said.

"Wall Street believes in Apple because Apple continues to put out new products that capture the imaginations of the press and tech pundits," said Rosoff. "Microsoft just hasn't been able to come up with a new multi billion dollar business like Apple."