News and Analysis

It's an onslaught of unoriginality in films, some new pricing challenges in books, and Acer is charging on! Let's check the news!

Economics/Geekonomics:
How are things in the Eurozone? Not good. High Greek unemployment, and Ireland still flailing.

Geek Law:
The EU's new cookie-tracking law may mess with startups. Imagine having to give consent for cookies on sites. Now imagine having to rewrite your sites. Now imagine the US and other companies not worrying about this law. You get the idea.

Media:
Al-Jazeera is in the news a lot because of it's coverage of Egypt and Middle East uprisings, and even Secretary of State Clinton's statements about the network and others trumping US News and this impacting US mindshare. Well Al-Jazeera isn't stopping, with a Children's channel and, seriously, a revolution tracking twitter dashboard.

Beyond Al-Jazeera's ambitions, this is also a point of consideration for the US News – has the more opinion-oriented, inflammatory style limited interest to the US (and limited it period)? Could other media competition be around the corner?

Movies:
PLEASE. JUST. STOP. Universal is considering a 3D Reboot of the Doom film. Are we this out of ideas? Is risk avoidance this high? I dunno. Sadly I think the 'Doom' film's biggest flaw was trying too hard, but I don't think an attempt to redeem it is in order. I'm wondering if we're going to get near "critical remake" in Hollywood where it just because ridiculous and crashes film prospects.

Universal's wrangling is also part of the reason the Del Toro take on 'At The Mountains Of Madness' is on hold. It sounds like it could have been an 'Avatar of Horror' but now . . . not so much because of budget and rating concerns. And considering the Shoggoths are some of the scariest stuff in horror, it's hard to see it being toned down. More playing it safe it appears . . . and missing the chance to make a classic with the right man for the job.

As a breath of fresh air from unoriginality, there's Fandor, a kind of netflix for indie and other unusual films. This sounds pretty intriguing, though it's still beta. At a reasonable subscription fee, with likely cheap licensing, and a good fanbase I see this as a survivable model. I might even get a subscription myself. Smart move, good example of nicheing, watch this space for future developments (ranging from their demise at the hands of Netflix to success).

Publishing:
How John Locke sold tons of books at 99 cents. No, not the guy from Lost, the author. Some good advice and speculation here, and the big note – JUST GO FOR IT. I mean, seriously, with some basic knowledge you can get your book out. So do it.

Technology:
Wow, food delivery service Grub Hub raises $20 million. It's an interest model, mixing mobile and web tech, restaurant-based commissions, different levels of restaurant involvement, and white label marketing. This sounds great at first blush, I may need to check it out – and you may want to send these guys a resume.

Acer's tablet orders are larger than expected, and they hope to overtake apple in 2 to 3 years. OK, not betting on the latter, but they make good stuff.

Video Games:
Sony is going to provide cloud storage for your saved games. Well, for certain subscribers, but think of what this does – removes the fear of loss and gives them a new revenue stream. Not a bad call, and probably a trend we'll see continue in cloudville.

Cryptic's new COO is co-founder Jack Emmert. I think it's a good move – I often feel Cryptic isn't fully living up to it's potential, and this could help them get over that. Maybe time to check job positions there?

So, Nitendo basically took a break from Wii support? Apparently. I mean things aren't bad for Nintendo, but it seems they're losing mindshare and are a bit behind despite some innovations and good stuff (some downloads are quite good. I think Nintendo has been pulled in many directions – and has some painful decisions coming up.

QUESTION OF THE DAY: So do you think Grub Hub can make it as a business?

– Steven Savage

Marvel and Sprints next moves revealed?  HTML5 enshrined?  Lots to chew over today, so open wide – and have an embarassing energy drink with it!

Celebrety:
In an age of outsourceable, fast, web-enabled technology, it's quite easy to take Charlie Sheen's meltdown and create an energy drink inspired by it.

Demographics/Geekographics:
The Creative Class playing roles in the Egyptian revolution? Richard Florida looks at this possibility. I'd note that it seems a fusion of creative class and labor stood together, which might give you an idea of future trends in other countries.

Comics:
A slight hint that Marvel's next big thing is the Inhumans, or as I affectionately call it New Gods For Marvel. It's a very over-the-top property, but I agree with the article that if Thor works, it might as well (though the proposal sounds toned down). Is Marvel going super-cosmic in their comic ventures?

For Thor. Most. Awesome. Standee. Ever.. Look I'm not sure it's career-relevant, but it's awesome – and it's the kind of standee that just begs to have people pose with it, get pictures taken, and post them on the internet – thus creating a viral phenomena.

Mobile:
Sprint in talks to buy T-Mobile? The article notes that despite our opinions that this might be good, that the companies technologies and strategies are totally incompatible. Note that this might just be a spectrum sale.

Movies:
Looks like Lionsgate wants to keep milking Cube, my guess probably because it's a kind of psychological/SAW-like franchise in potential. Though as every film past the first seems incoherent, I don't know what more they can do with it.

We may get a Tomb Raider film reboot as well, which would sort of fit what's going on in the games. By now I don't care, and the day I don't care about a sexy globetrotting British archeologist in shorts it is a sad day. I'm not sure Tomb Raider has the draw it once had.

Publishing:
Kobo gets new funding. Remember despite the trouble with Borders they are their own company.

Technology:
MUST READ: Adobe is working on Wallaby, a Flash-to-HTML 5 converter. Seems like HTML5 is getting more and more attention – and if it proves viable, it could mean a shift back to the browser for games and software. Also shows Adobe isn't going to quite get caught with their pants down here. Learn HTML 5 folks . . .

Video:
I didn't see this coming: Warner Brothers is looking to offer movies directly on Facebook, as an experiment. That hit Netflix's stock unsurprisingly. As this is an experiment I'm not sure what it means for anyone – it's just an experiment. The most I can see theater owners worried this'll move up timeline-of-film wise.

A side note on this – I think if Facebook becomes a video delivery platform, it could well spawn groups trying to undermine it. Facebook is gobbling up everything in site and I think video could be an area where people would say "enough" and look for ways to subtly take them on.

Video Games:
Trip Hawkins of EA says the Browser is the Future of gaming. I'm starting to agree with him based on the rush to HTML 5 we're seeing. He also has some other interesting thoughts.

One Million copies of Pokemon Black and White sold in the first day. Anyone surprised? No? Good. I'm watching this one closely as it's a kind of reboot/retooling – with all new pokemon, some graphic and setting differences, and soforth. It feels like it's something for old and new fans, so I want to see how sales go (did it get new fans in, drive off old, etc.). This is an amazing long-running media franchise, perhaps THE franchise that introduced the US to Japanese-style synergy, so it's next steps – and stumbles – are worth watching and learning from. Oddly, there's no real COMPETITOR to Pokemon, which is odd if you think of it . . .

Nexon is putting a version of Maple Story on Facebook, so you can play it while watching "Dark Knight" probably. Nexon appears to be diversifying – and they're a company I'd put on your resume-worthy list. I just would like a Mac version of Dungeon Fighter, thank you . . .

QUESTION OF THE DAY: Is HTML5 pretty much guaranteed as a major dev language of the future with all the backing we've seen?

– Steven Savage