08 October, 2011

obs family has quiet funeral; no public service planned



Posted: 07 Oct 2011 06:48 PM PDT
The family of Steve Jobs apparently held a quiet funeral service for the co-founder of Apple today. No public service is planned, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Time Cook, Apple chief executive, told company employees on Wednesday that Apple is planning a “celebration of Steve’s extraordinary life,” for staff but didn’t say when. Meanwhile, fans are still leaving tributes to Jobs at Apple stores.
No further details of the “small private gathering” funeral service were available.

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Posted: 07 Oct 2011 05:00 PM PDT
Oracle has paid out in excess of $199.5 million to settle a case with the U.S. government.
The case, which was brought to light by former Oracle senior director of contract services Paul Frascella in 2007 and was pursued by the Justice Department, claimed that Oracle had overcharged the U.S. government for nine years while giving steep discounts to corporate entities.
Claims included the allegation that Oracle had discounted goods and services by up to 92 percent for businesses while giving various United States government agencies around 25 percent to 40 percent discounts, all the while not telling the government what its pricing policies actually were, as it was contractually obliged to do.
Specific allegations included breach of contract, constructive fraud, fraud by omission, payment by mistake and unjust enrichment. The suit said these practices had been going on since at least May 2001.
Oracle maintains that it adhered to pricing as laid out in its contracts, and a spokesperson said the company only settled because “many of the witnesses are no longer available or do not clearly recall these events,” and pursuing litigation would be more costly than the $200 million settlement.
In a statement, General Services Administration Inspector General Brian Miller said, "It's more important now than ever before to make sure that taxpayer dollars are not wasted on higher prices. We will not let contractors victimize the taxpayers by hiding their best prices."

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Posted: 07 Oct 2011 04:16 PM PDT
Activision Blizzard released a trailer for the single-player version of the Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 game today. The preview shows the title is going to be as movie-like as ever, with shocking imagery such as the destruction of the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
The game debuts on Nov. 8, but by releasing the trailers early, Activision Blizzard can stir buzz and presumably keep gamers from spending all of their money on the rival game, Battlefield 3, from Electronic Arts. These two games will be slugging it out for billions of dollars in retail spending during the fall holiday season. Both are on our list of the best games of the fall.
The video trailer, dubbed Redemption, reveals a lot of interesting details about the game’s single-player campaign. The villain of the game, Makarov, seems to be plotting the destruction of cities on a huge scale.
The characters from previous games — Price, Soap, and Nikolai — appear in the game and seem to be in a big rush to stop the conflagration before it consumes everybody. You can see scenes that indicate massive battles, as well as a gun battle aboard a plane in mid-air that has lost its hull integrity and everyone is being sucked out. That’s a ridiculous scene, but very much typical of a Call of Duty game.
“You think I am mad, but soon you shall see that every move, every strike, was meant to bring us to this,” the voice over (from the Makarov character) says in the trailer.
It’s downright chilling. Clearly, the video shows mastery of the fine art of making a trailer. And the game series is as riveting as ever in terms of its ability to create game combat scenes that are every bit as dramatic as a Hollywood action movie. But we’ll see how well this goes over. You’ll likely see this trailer playing all over the place as part of the estimated $100 million marketing campaign associated with the game.
Now you can expect a big battle of the trailers to begin. Earlier this week, EA said it would create an exclusive reality show with GTTV focused on simulating battle scenes from Battlefield 3 in real life. In the show, Battlefield 3 Operation Gridion, pro football players Drew Brees, Clay Matthews, Larry Fitzgerald and Jared Allen will participate in simulated combat scenes that highlight scenes from the game. EA also released some new single-player campaign screen shots today, such as the one on the left.

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Posted: 07 Oct 2011 03:50 PM PDT
Dalai LamaIn what’s probably the biggest piece of publicity yet for Google’s young social network, the Dalai Lama, leader of Tibetan Buddhism, announced today that he’ll be doing a live Google+ Hangout with Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
Google has been pushing to get more celebrities on Google+ to boost its presence in the public eye. But unlike other instances of famous people on the social network (like Wil.i.Am), the Dalai Lama’s purpose for doing a video Hangout is much more practical than publicity.
For the second time this year, the South African government has refused to issue the Dalia Lama a visa application, which is necessary for him to attend the upcoming Inaugural Desmond Tutu Peace Lecture in the South African city of Cape Town. So, a Google+ Hangout is the next best thing.
"His Holiness the Dalai Lama will have a conversation with Archbishop Desmond Tutu by live video over a Hangout as part of the Inaugural Desmond Tutu Peace Lecture in Cape Town, South Africa, on October 8, 2011, starting at 10:30am South African time (GMT+2.00). A link to the Google+ Hangout will be available approximately 20-30 minutes before the event begins," the office of the Dalai Lama wrote in a note on Google+.
The chat between these two peace activists is definitely a testament to the usefulness and potential of Google+’s video chat Hangout feature.

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Posted: 07 Oct 2011 02:49 PM PDT
Uncharted Golden Abyss is one of the most impressive games on the upcoming PlayStation Vita, the new portable gaming system from Sony that will debut next year. We got another close-up peek at the title recently, and it is looking more and more like a high-quality console video game.
That says a lot, since portable games have historically looked significantly worse than console games. But the PlayStation Vita is clearly going to have a lot of horsepower. And if this horsepower and high-end content is enough to distinguish the device, then Sony could hold off market share losses to the likes of Apple and Android smartphones and tablets.
Based on the Uncharted game series on the PlayStation 3, this game takes place before the first game, and features hero Nathan Drake in a brand new adventure through an ancient ruin. At the Tokyo Game Show, Sony showed how you can traverse through the game by sliding a finger across the touchscreen to guide the Drake character across the walls.
When Drake walks across a balance beam, you tilt the PlayStation Vita back and forth and the gyroscope sensors in the device determine whether Drake falls off the beam or stays balanced. Much like the console games, this title has a lot of cinematics, or movie-like videos, where characters talk with each other.
In most portable games, the communication is limited to scrolling through text conversations. Here, Drake has a conversation with the companion character Chase, and he has to make sure he protects her, since she won’t pick up a weapon. Chase is very useful for navigating and telling Drake where to go next in the 3D environment.
As you can see in the explosions and fires in the game scene, the graphics and sound are outstanding. When Drake gets close to the fire, he holds his arm over his face to ward off the heat. That’s simply polished game development.
The screen has four times the resolution of its predecessor, the PlayStation Portable. It has a 5-inch organic light-emitting diode screen with true blacks and high contrast. An earlier game, Resistance Retribution for the PSP, had 50,000 polygons per frame that could be rendered for the environment. But Golden Abyss uses more than 260,000 polygons per frame. Retribution might have ten megabytes of textures, while Abyss has 60 megabytes of textures. That means much better graphics.
Joe Castagno, assistant producer on the game, said the developers at the Sony Bend studio (makers of Syphon Filter) have been working on the Uncharted game for two years, ever since they completed Resistance Retribution.
There are some things Uncharted does, like real-time lighting, that can't be done on any other portable platform. When Nathan Drake, the main character, is climbing up a wall and needs to go sideways, you can just tilt the PlayStation Vita in the right direction to make him reach out and grab a ledge. You can also tap the screen in a certain spot to make Drake move in that direction.
Here’s a video of one of the levels of the game, narrated by Castogno.

Filed under: games, mobile



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Posted: 07 Oct 2011 02:00 PM PDT
An unauthorized shipment of TouchPads running the Android operating system has HP scrambling for leads, and open source advocates up in arms.
The TouchPads in question were supposed to ship with webOS, HP’s beleaguered mobile operating system. Instead, some users found that their TouchPads were actually running Android 2.2, a.k.a. Froyo.
As you can see in the video below, the user, who says he bought the TouchPad at Best Buy, demonstrates what he assumes is a test device from Qualcomm.
“I cannot find a way to get the Android Market or download any Android applications onto the device,” he writes.

“As for the TouchPad units that have been allegedly purchased with a version of Android on them, we have begun an internal investigation on this within HP,” writes Philip Robb of HP’s Open Source Program Office to cmtouchapd, a group attempting to develop a legitimate Android port for the TouchPad.
“We have confirmed that HP never authorized the distribution of any version of Android on the HP TouchPad,” Robb continued.
But the most interesting part of Robb’s email is a statement that HP never did, even accidentally, ship Android-running TouchPads.
“In addition, from a review of our manufacturing process, we believe that all TouchPad units have been shipped out of manufacturing with the webOS operating system only and that no TouchPad units were shipped with Android, even by mistake,” he wrote.
Robb noted that the unauthorized Android TouchPads were seen internally as detrimental to HP’s relationship with the open-source community, and it asked the community to provide information that might help the company track down the source of these rogue units.
HP thinks an unknown person or group must have diverted the Android TouchPads “strictly against the policy and authorization of HP.”
More than one hacker group is also working on bringing Android to the TouchPad. Earlier this fall, we told you about the Touchdroid project, a group working on developing a port of Android 2.3 Gingerbread.
Robb noted for the developers working on Android ports for the TouchPad, “We applaud your efforts… It is your device, and you can do with it what you want.”

Filed under: mobile, VentureBeat



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Posted: 07 Oct 2011 01:52 PM PDT
Apple’s iPhone 4S will still have network limitations, even when you pay extra to buy the unlocked version.
The company revealed today that it will offer an unlocked version of the iPhone 4S — meaning it’s not tied to a specific carrier — for $649 starting in November. But the unlocked iPhone 4S will only work on GSM networks, such as AT&T’s in the U.S., even though the phone also has the ability to work on CDMA networks (like Verizon and Sprint).
Apple began accepting pre-orders for the iPhone 4S early Friday morning. When it was announced on Tuesday, Apple described the 4S as a “world phone”, since it works across both major 3G cellular standards. Now that description seems a bit false, since even an unlocked iPhone 4S isn’t free to work across all networks.
Still, for plenty of users the unlocked iPhone 4S will be immensely useful. It will allow them to travel across the world and swap out their SIM card so that they’re only paying local rates for voice and data service. It was likely too difficult for Apple to open up the iPhone 4S to all CDMA networks, since those networks typically don’t rely on easily removable SIM cards.
In addition to the $649 16 gigabyte unlocked iPhone 4S, Apple is also offering 32GB and 64GB versions for $749 and $849, respectively.

Filed under: mobile, VentureBeat



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Posted: 07 Oct 2011 01:32 PM PDT
The cockpit controls for U.S. Predator and Reaper military drones have been hacked by a computer virus. But don’t worry about hijacked drones raining from the skies — there are no reports of classified information being lost or leaked, and pilots still have control over the remote aircraft.
This infection does show that even the military’s most valuable weapons systems are vulnerable to virus attacks. The virus was first detected two weeks ago by the U.S. military’s Host-Based Security System, according to Wired.com. It logs pilots’ keystrokes as they fly Predator and Reaper drone missions in Afghanistan and other regions.
The virus hasn’t prevented pilots at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada from controlling their drones on overseas missions. However, Wired says the virus has been resistant to removal attempts.
The virus has a typical “keylogger” payload, where it records everything typed into a computer. It’s not clear yet if the keylogger made its way to the computers through a typical infection or if it was specifically created to target the drone computer control system.
Drones are often used to spy on and attach targets in distant lands without putting a human soldier at risk. Central Intelligence Agency-directed drones have hit targets in Pakistan more than 230 times, killing more than 2,000 suspected militants as well as civilians, according to the Washington Post.
The drones have known security flaws, and they don’t encrypt videos that they send back to operators or troops on the ground. The virus is believed to have spread through removable hard drives. The U.S. Air Force declined to comment on the matter.
[Picture credit: Defense update]

Filed under: security, VentureBeat



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Posted: 07 Oct 2011 01:01 PM PDT
Sony Ericsson, the decade-long joint venture between electronics giant Sony and Swedish telecom company Ericsson, may soon be no more. Sony is reportedly in talks to buy out Ericsson’s share in the venture, according to reports from the Wall Street Journal and Reuters.
By doing so, Sony will be able to better integrate its phones into its lineup of tablets and portable game systems. Having full control over its mobile fate could help Sony immensely, as it has yet to develop a modern smartphone that has taken off with consumers.
The world’s sixth largest cellular phone manufacturer, Sony Ericsson is currently a 50:50 joint venture between the companies. The venture was responsible for some innovative cellphones, such as Walkmen-branded music phones and Cybershot camera phones. But, as Reuters points out, Nokia ended up dominating the market for lower-end phones, and Apple quickly made the iPhone the standard for all high-end smartphones.
Analysts estimate that it could cost Sony between $1.3 billion and $1.7 billion to snap up Ericsson’s share of the venture.
Sony’s obvious target in this deal is Apple, but it’s likely also seeking to wrest smartphone market share from Samsung and HTC, both of which found success as premiere Android phone makers (and which are also dabbling in Windows Phone). Sony Ericsson has already released several Android phones, including the recent gaming Xperia Play phone, but none of them have been a smashing success.

Filed under: mobile, VentureBeat



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Posted: 07 Oct 2011 12:11 PM PDT
Hoping to extend a social game franchise, 6waves Lolapps is launching its new Ravenskye City game today.
The game is an expansion of the existing Raven series of games that have been a major hit for 6waves Lolapps. If it takes off, then 6waves Lolapps will have a more predictable way of maintaining its audience via franchise sequels. That’s very similar to the way console game companies extend the audiences for their games.
The expansion, which will be available for users today on Facebook, shows that the social game industry is evolving and becoming more mature. Other social game companies such as Zynga have followed the same tactic. By pursuing this strategy, Lolapps has been able to raise more money, double the size of its development team, and attract some key talent from traditional video game companies.
6waves Lolapps has more than 17 million monthly active users, according to market analyst Appdata. Its top game, Ravenwood Fair, has more than 4.5 million monthly active users. That’s down from its all-time high of 11.9 million monthly active users, so it’s time to give the game a shot in the arm.
Back in April, the company launched its Ravenstone Mine expansion for the original game. But Kavin Stewart, co-founder (pictured at top on the right) said in an interview that the development team is trying to make some big improvements in the game play for the new title. With the older games, you spend a lot of time “grinding,” or doing repetitive tasks to level up, such as chopping down 300 trees.
“We punched up the storytelling,” said Constantine Hantzopoulos, vice president of content at Lolapps, in an interview. “That’s one of the things we learned from Ravenwood Fair.”
In Ravenskye City, there’s more real storytelling and quests. You happen upon a floating city that is abandoned and overgrown with weeds. You have to clear the brush and restore the city to its former glory.
For the past four months, the Lolapps team in San Francisco has been working on the title. It is using the Fliso flash game engine, which speeds the performance of Adobe’s Flash software dramatically and allows for prettier graphics such as floating clouds and rain. Another game, Ravenshire Castle, is also in the works.
“We call this the Raven world brand,” Stewart said. “It is the overarching intellectual property and we can craft different game experiences under it.”
At its core, the title is an exploration and building game. Users undertake quests to unlock and restore various buildings in the city. The game is targeted at older female gamers and, in general, a mass market audience on Facebook. The characters are all bird-like, and some of them even look a little like Angry Birds characters.
The game has a lot of humor, with a chicken-like statue dubbed Poyo Loco. There are tornado storms that spin through the city and rainclouds that drop rain. The game is fast-paced. It has plenty of decorations and room for personalization. If you run out of energy, you can pay real money to buy some more.
Stewart said the team plans to release new content on a regular basis for at least six months after the game launches. 6waves Lolapps will cross-promote the game in hopes of snagging a lot of users. Overall, 6waves Lolapps has more than 150 people. A team of veterans from Sega, LucasArts, Bethesda Softworks, Blue Fang Games, Pixar and elsewhere built the game. Hantzopoulos himself was previously a studio director at Sega of America and before that a senior producer at Atari.
The company has offices in San Francisco, Hong Kong and elsewhere. It was formed by the merger of Hong Kong’s 6waves and San Francisco’s Lolapps. The aim of the Lolapps internal development team is to make increasingly addictive titles, so that you’ll always want to play one more game session before you go back to work or to bed, Hantzopoulos said.
Check out the trailer for the game below.



Filed under: games, VentureBeat



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Posted: 07 Oct 2011 12:01 PM PDT
For many people, a simple “Happy Birthday” on a friend’s Facebook wall is enough. But a startup called Giftiki is launching a new group gift-giving tool Monday to make a birthdays a bigger deal using Facebook.
The idea behind the company is to allow friends to chip in together to buy a friend a combined gift. Giftiki connects friends on Facebook to have them give a small monetary gift. After more and more friends leave small amounts of money, the birthday boy or girl can use it to buy the one gift they really want.
I should note that gift giving isn’t just for birthdays, users could also leave gifts for weddings, honeymoons, graduations and more.
Users can give anywhere from $1 to $10. Each gift is accompanied by a message and icon, like a birthday cake, cupcake or banana. The gift is posted to the recipient’s Facebook wall, where he or she can open it and be taken to Giftiki to sign up and redeem the gift. The company also has what it calls a Gift-O-Meter (pictured), which shows users the total amount gifted to date.
The service doesn’t let you redeem a gift for actual cash. You can redeem it for an American Express gift card or with online retailers like Amazon, Macy’s, Starbucks or Sports Authority. Giftiki doesn’t charge users or gift recipients but makes its money by buying the redeemable gift cards from the various online retailers at a discount. For example, a $50 gift card you redeem for Amazon only costs Giftiki $40. (This is only an example of the profit Giftiki makes, the company didn’t share actual percentages.)
Giftiki also notes that it has secured a partnership with American Express and its Serve mobile payments process (available soon). As VentureBeat writer Jolie O’Dell noted in previous coverage, Serve combines mobile, online and offline payment features and targets users who rely heavily on their mobile phones, whether they are young, tech-savvy users or users in developing areas, where people are more likely to have a phone than a computer. Serve accounts can be funded from a bank account, from a debit or credit card, or by receiving money from another Serve account.
“Giftiki is pioneering a new space in collaborative commerce that allows a new form of trade to occur,” said investor Tim Draper. “I expect this business to spread like the wind. My friends can expect to see a giftiki from me soon.”
Giftiki isn’t the only one looking to give groups a way to gift together. The space appears to be relatively crowded with sites like eDivvy.com, LetsGift.it, Wrapp and The Gifts Project, which was recently acquired by eBay.
The San Francisco-based company, founded in 2010, recently secured a first round of funding for $1 million led by investor Tim Draper and included GoldHill Capital, Crosslink Capital and Transmedia Capital.

Filed under: social, VentureBeat



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Posted: 07 Oct 2011 11:52 AM PDT
PixarDisney chief executive Robert Iger announced today he will be stepping down from his position in 2015.
The Wall Street Journal reports he will become Disney’s executive chairman in March 2012, when current chairman John Pepper retires. Iger will hold this position until he retires in 2016.
“I want to thank [Pepper] for his many contributions, and his support of our people and our strategy including two of the company’s most significant acquisitions in recent years, Pixar and Marvel,” Iger said in a statement.
Iger became chief executive of Disney in 2005, a year before the company bought digital animation studio Pixar for $7.4 billion. The studio, which has produced classic movies such as Toy Story, Monsters Inc. and more recently Up, was brought to life by Steve Jobs when he purchased it from Lucasfilm in 1986. According to the New York Times, Iger visited Jobs soon before his death Tuesday. In fact, Jobs’ shares in Disney, which were valued $4.4 billion, nearly doubled his $2.1 billion in Apple — his own company.
Iger’s contract was originally slated to end his term in January 2013, but the extension and new executive chairman position allows him to retire at 65. Currently, no replacement has been identified for the chief executive position.
Disney will pay Iger $2.5 million annual base salary, under the new contract, which will not change when he takes the sole position of executive chairman.
[Photo courtesy of Joeydz/Flickr]

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