OnLive Cloud Gaming System Coming to Your TV
Remember Web TV? Yeah, me neither, but founder Steve Perlman has moved on to bigger and better things. His startup OnLive Inc. has an online game service that will be available for your TV for the holidays. OnLive will be selling a tiny device called a “micro-console” that hooks up to your TV. It’s tiny because the games are stored remotely and run directly from OnLive’s servers. The controllers look like anything else you might find on an Xbox 360 or PS3 and the system will run you $99 for the holidays.
Anyone who has played games online knows that even a tiny delay can ruin a gaming experience. With the games being stored remotely and the processing done on remote servers, it seems like this service might be even more prone to lag. The concept of a gaming system without having to worry about physical games sounds cool, but it will be interesting to see if this will take off.
AOL Mail Gets an Update
This past Sunday, at 12pm Eastern, AOL posted a press release detailing new features for AOL Mail. Who knows why they chose such an odd time for a launch, but they could have been trying to get ahead of the Facebook Social Inbox launch. Why? Because it looks like they’ve launched something similar:
Quick Bar – makes it easy to quickly send emails, instant or text messages and even update Facebook and Twitter via Lifestream directly from the inbox. Smart View – prominently displays important information like maps, attached photos and files, and conversation threads on the right hand side of the inbox so users can see relevant details and files before they even open a message. Email aggregation – makes it is easy to receive and send messages from almost any provider, including GMail, Yahoo! Mail, and Hotmail, right inside your AOL inbox.
Tumblr and 4Chan Go At It
I can only imagine how Tumblr and 4Chan started beefin’ but, on the 14th and 15th of November, they went in on each other. 4Chan’s attack was scheduled for the 14th and Tumblr was scheduled to retaliate on the 15th, but moved it up to counteract the 4Chan attack. Neither site really went down, but there were reports of intermittent outages. As one commentator put it, ” it’s like a drunken slapfight with novelty foam hands.”
via TechCrunch
Apple’s Big iTunes Announcement
After posting a teaser on their website, Apple eventually announced the availability of the Beatles catalog in the iTunes Store. For many, this was a huge let-down. Not because nobody likes the Beatles, but because most people who would have been interested in MP3′s of their music have probably already bought the CD’s and digitized them. The real importance of the announcement really has nothing to do with the music itself, though. Here is why you should care:
Being that the Beatles MP3 holdout is emblematic of the recording industry’s resistance against modern distribution methods, the way in which the Beatles discography will be made available should be telling. Here was a situation in which the labels and distributors have millions of sales at stake, and though to be fair Beatles records have been selling just fine without the benefit of legal downloads over the last decade. The powers that be must know that by agreeing to MP3 distribution, they are shifting the fulcrum. But how far?
The last barriers between old and new distribution are beginning to be dissolved, and the staunchest objectors (in this case, those in charge of the Beatles discography) are being forced to act.
via CrunchGear
Need a Job? Google is Hiring
After just giving every employee a raise, Google is now looking for over 2,000 new employees. This comes after 20 acquisitions which have brought Google up to around 23,000 employees. About half of the positions are in the US and most seem to be full-time positions. They are listed on Google’s website.
The world’s largest Internet search engine, whose finance chief told investors in September that the Internet industry was waging a “war for talent,” has job openings listed for 2,076 positions on its website, according to a Reuters tally on Thursday.
via Reuters