News and Analysis

Pottermore. Nuff said.

Economics/Geekonomics:
An interesting look at how people use their leisure times by demographics.

OK try and follow this. The CEO of Netflix, who sits on the board of Microsoft, is now on the board of Facebook. Some potential alliances brewing perhaps?

Geek Law:
OK they may have botched it by accident, but The Netherlands is the second country to have a Net Neutrality law after Chilie. A trend yet?

Here comes the Google Antitrust Investigation.

Comics:
G4 will run the 'Iron Man' and 'Wolverine' anime. We reported this awhile ago, I just want to see how it goes over.

Publishing:
Here you go. There is a Pottermore website. It appears to be a place to get Harry Potter Ebooks, and has some social and gaming aspects plans, but no MMO (which I think would be IMPOSSIBLE to conceal, trust me on this). It sounds like a brand/book extenuation that may be interesting and revive interest (note the timing with the last film), and may be worth watching to see what they try (and duplicate it). Heck it might be worth applying to job-wise depending.

Also note? This is basically her self-publishing.

(Note – the development with Sony? NOT gonna encourage people security-wise)

And here is a far more sane look at the problem of eBook Spam/Content Farms. There's a lot to chew on here, and it suggests controls for such things will need to evolve in the ebook space. I sure hope so.

Video Games:
Rumors persist that EA may buy Popcap. That would be huge as they'd get a profitable company (at a high price) that recently adsorbed other companies, and that has a deal with Amazon.

QUESTION OF THE DAY:So Pottermore.  How big do you think it'll get?

– Steven Savage

Yahulu?  RIM off the edge?  Wow, things are wacky today!

Economics/Geekonomics:
Some news analysis that economics are now too pessimistic. I can't say I'm sure.

One of my geekonomic crush objects, Barry Ritholz, discusses how he'd jumpstart the economy, and a few of his choices surprise me deeply – thus I'm pimping the article since it may make you think. It's actually a pretty radical deficit-raiser, but . . . wow.

Back to the dark side: Are financial institutions trying to get as much capital as they can before finding other 'hosts'?. Of course if this is true, they don't have much farther to run . . .

MUST READ: Why we're in a bubble and what it means. It's a balanced, intelligent take that's easy to read. Worth your time – but I do agree with him we'll get a burst at some point.

Geek Law:
It takes a special kind of dumb to accidentally pass an exception to net neutrality, but the Dutch Legislature did. Another warning on net neutrality and net freedom – never ignore the possibility of stupid.

Mobile:
Why RIM is done. It's a good case – what stands out for me is the fact that their audience (in many ways) has just moved on.

Publishing:
A light but interesting article on successful e-publishers.

The Guardian is heading digital first, and that means job cuts. It also means watching them to see what happens, though I suspect more will jump on the bandwagon before they see where said bandwagon is going.

Some thoughts and a video on the life of online content. Worth taking a look at.

Tablets:
Yeah, we know, Amazon Tablets coming. This is still bouncing around in the news, though now it might be as early as August.

Technology:
Adobe isn't doing too hot, with surprisingly low European sales. I'm wondering if they're getting nibbled to death, between competitors, too-high-prices, and the looming possibility of HTML 5, and their own complacency.

Video:
Did Yahoo offer to buy out Hulu? There have been rumors of a Hulu sale, and this makes a kind of perverse sense – Yahoo could glom onto Hulu, rework itself as a kind of media company, and their location gives them access to tons of talent. It could save what's left of both companies – and might mean some opportunities down the road.

Video Games:
Mindjolt is profitable, and added a mobile tech veteran to its upper echelons. Sounds like you might want to send them a resume.

The new "Pottermore" site is apparently a game of some kind. Maybe. I dunno. Keep watching this space (and if it is a big game, man someone had tight security until now).

If you hadn't heard, City of Heroes moved to multiple payment models, including free. That may energize an old property.

Lego Universe is also going to free-to-play. That makes it more tempting because, seriously, I hear it's great. This seems to becoming a trend now.

Is Google eyeing games? I say 'duh,' because it seems an obvious space to move to and follows some of their past activities. Sounds like it may bring opportunities – and working at Google is a pretty sweet gig.

Sounds like Dragon Quest X will be on the Wii U one way or another which could go a long way to help the platform.

QUESTION OF THE DAY:So do you think Yahulu is viable?

– Steven Savage