News Of The Day 8/9/2011

The economy isn't as bad as we thought? The Smurfs return. Publishing gets a big lawsuit. What a day! What a pile of news!

Economics/Geekonomics:
And stocks bounce back up?. I'm pretty much getting the idea that no one listened to the S&P that much, and that this was due to the EuroCrisis.

Film:
Smurfs gets a sequel. Well there's a successful remake, and who wants to be a revival of the TV series?

Music:
OK, maybe I am wrong about a Walmart ecosystem. Walmart is shutting down it's MP3 music store.

Publishing:
A lawsuit against Apple and several publishers over e-book price fixing is out there. This is one to follow since it's big, public, names a lot of people, is on a hot subject, and it touches lots of industries near and dear to we progeeks.

Security:
Anyonymous to take on Facebook in November? I dunno, but their statement does mention political issues which fits some current trends.

Social Media:
GroupOn-like Bloomspot gets $40 million in VC. $40 million for an imitation in an unsure market? Not sure here, that is a lot of money, but i'm not sure on the business model. Take this more as a reason to keep an eye on the GroupOn-like enthusiasm – it's not gone away.

Technology:
Apple close to being the most valuable public company in the world. Just included because it's noteworthy.

Television:

Syfy, who's goal for years has been to confuse viewers, cancels Eurkea quite quickly and without much chance of resolution. Could this signal another change in their plans? An opening for a new show? Hell if I know, they're confusing me as usual.

Video Games:
Disney is strong, but its Interactive division lags. That division seems to always have trouble, but at least they have a lot of support.  I consider them quite viable as an employer, but would watch the Interactive division.

Uh-oh. THQ closed an Australian studio and eliminated a dev team in Phoenix. May want to be careful applying there for awhile.

QUESTION OF THE DAY: So what the hell is SyFy up to?

Steven Savage