News and Analysis

China slows down, Zynga gears up, and more in Geek news!

Economics/Geekonomics:

A look at the expense of America’s declining transportation infrastructure. On the other hand, a good guide as to why infrastructure investment may be a good idea – if it happens, keep it in mind for a career opportunity. It may sound dull, but trust me, it’s not.

Has the Chinese economy hit a wall? Yves Smith notes some people are concerned, and we need to pay attention to this in case it impacts the world economy more.

Comics:

I missed this when it happened, but Barnes and Noble pulled DC comics from their shelves after DC made an exclusive classic comic deal with Amazon for the Kindle Fire. You can order them at the website, but not get them in the store. So what’s next here – will DC apologize, will they side further with Amazon, more exclusive deals . . . things could get very interesting. As always, the indies and smaller-press people need to make sure not to get stepped on.

Mobile:

Xyologic looks at Mobile Apps – though the tagline is how Android downloads will shortly top iPhone, there’s a ton of good stuff here.

RIM still has problems. How many times can I suggest, frankly, getting out?

Video:

HBO is coming onto Roku later this month. Roku keeps going despite a lack of news presence.

Video Games:

Now this got interesting: Zynga has its own gaming site, though you log on via Facebook (so far). Good strategy as they branch out – now a thing to watch out for is if they try and move onto other devices. There’s still a few confusing reports on how far this goes, so we hopefully will have an update tomorrow.

QUESTION OF THE DAY: Will Zynga create a full app portal and/or move to consoles?

– Steven Savage

More earth-shaking news in the Geekonomy. Stay tuned . . .

Netflix:
And . . . Netflix drops the whole Qwickster idea. I've got mixed feelings here – one, a reversal is pretty good, but two I kind of wonder if this went too far. Let's see if it helps Netflix out – and what it means for geographic shifts of talent as well.

If anything, I imagine some of the employees have to be a bit annoyed at the confusion here. I'm still bullish on Netflix in the long-term, but this has gotta smart.

As an interesting side note to this, this is both an advantage and disadvantage for Netflix. The reversal looks bad, and people may see them as manipulable – but also the company can pivot quickly, which bodes well.

Apple:
iPhone Pre-Orders? Try one million in the first 24 hours. Is anyone surprised? Hello? Bueller? No, no one is surprised.

Though this is mostly a broad Jobs tribute, the title is intriguing it seems he left a 4 year vision. Considering who's at the helm, Tim Cook, who's known for being an intelligent, wonkish guy, that may be an ideal combination. Though letting this be known may be a good way of achieving market confidence . . .

Economics/Geekonomics:
Just as a note, as it grows, it's apparent that the Occupy Wall Street movement will be something to follow Geekonomically, politically, technically, and media-wise. We haven't covered it as, frankly, we weren't sure it fit into our coverage – now it's big enough, and savvy enough, we should be. When economic fancrush Yves Smith weighs in, we need to up our game.

Geek Law:
And lawsuits against the Kindle Fire over patents. About on schedule I'd say – though this makes me wonder, if between Google's actions and Apple's pocketbooks, if a strike back against patent litigation could be brewing.

Outages and Outrages:
BlackBerry service goes down. Noted since RIM is having a lot go wrong lately.

Publishing:
Interesting speculation: Will eBooks kill Footnotes?

Amazon is also looking to be your centerpoint of print magazine control. Hmmm, wonder if this'll extend to comics – and if this is going to be the inevitable incident we're waiting for to be told Amazon is "too big." On the other hand, this may turn out to be useful for small publishers.

QUESTION OF THE DAY: How do you think Amazon will handle the new patent lawsuits?

– Steven Savage

We lead with the passing of Steve Jobs. We hope to have more analysis in the days to come.

Right now, I don't even know what to say.

Economics/Geekonomics:
I'm sure we'll have more news on the Eurozone soon. Meanwhile we have this to depress you . . .

1/3 of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck. Literally 1/3 of people would be homeless if they lost their job.

Remakes:
Robert Downey Junior and his wife are working to bring a period 1930's Perry Mason film to life. I've got mixed feelings on this – this classic detective series could provide lots of interesting material, the idea of a period piece is interesting, but still . . . we've got a lot of adaptions and such going on now.

This also intrigues me as I've been wondering about a possible "retrofest" occurring (especially in science-fiction) due to the sheer amount of material out there. We're seeing John Carter, we could see Skylark, Lensman, and more. What else is out there – and could this actually be good culturally as we appreciate our past?

Media:
Content is King again? Something to think about here – in an age of distribution and devices, content, oddly, may be in control.

Technology:
Yes, there is a supercheap Tablet from India – though it's $60 (not the $35 or so reported) and its very light. You've probably seen this making the rounds, but it's worth tracking because this could set a "bottom level" for tablets.

Video Games:
Game expenditures are up 1% this year.

Team Bondai to close. It sounds like it had a lot of pathologies, and I'm not surprised.

There is no Question Of The Day Today

– Steven Savage