News and Analysis

Apple takes on HTC, Adobe takes over Facebook's advertising, Virgin takes HTML 5 over Flash, and Tivo takes on anyone doing tv media devices! It's the Everything Wars a-go-go today in your must-know news for career-minded fanboys, fangirls, fanmen, and fanwomen!

Career:
The importance of leaps of faith in life and career. Nice bit of advice I think dovetails nicely with my post yesterday.

Geek Law:
Why Apple filed their suit against HTC with the International Trade Comission instead of courts. – Basically a chance for more agressive action. However the ITC also has been used by foreign companies against American companies, so Apple might be opening the doors a little too widely here. Some more detail here, which suggests to me that Apple felt HTC was an easier target.

Anime and Manga:
Crunchyroll recognized by Japan's Association of Media in Digital – Along with nine other winners of their award. Great news for Crunchyroll. Now come on, Crunchyguys, start hiring all the waiting geeks and fans out there . . .

Media:
ABC sees the future of news, and it's more digital. What stands out for me is the idea digital leads to more independence. Though I have issues with the 'personality driven news' we see too often, it does allow for independence as well. Mixed bag in the end I suppose.

Publishing:
The Wall Street Journal will be on iPad and more devices. Now to see who follows – or tries to come up with alternative models.

Social Media:
Adobe's Omniture to handle Facebook ad sales? Interesting: Adobe needs the money, Facebook can wash their hands of the complex ad issues. This is part of many Facebook changes going on, so clearly they're trying to evolve into something with long-term potential.

Technology:
Virgin America ditches Flash for HTML 5 on it's website as it can run on iPhone. Why is this big? Because it's part of the slowly brewing Adobe/HTML 5 war, where you have Flash versus an HTML standard that, when implemented in browsers, allows websites to function . .. well, like Flash. Some good analysis here that makes the point that right now Flash is a bit of a bottleneck to say the least.

Video:
Wow. The new Tivo handles Blockbuster, Netflix, Amazon, and more. Tivo seems to be squarely aiming to be an entertainment center device – which they're doing, but puts them in conflict with many other sources, including game consoles and Boxee. Except for a few oddities, this is a pretty slick deployment, and a good move for Tivo. I think it also cements the Media Box Thingy as a big battleground for companies – and in short, the Everything Wars.

Video Games:
Playdom acquired Facebook game developer Offebeat Creations. Playdom continue's its growth and expansion – might be worth sending them a resume?

A fund for indie game developers? Go take a look!

A bit of layoff news: EA cuts some Boom Blox developers and Square Enix cut some of their sound team.

Take Two games extends partnership with Lego to 2016. They've got a good thing going with the lego games (which are often quite fun, I've sound), there's a Lego MMo coming out . . . the partnership makes sense. Maybe we'll see more property development in the future . . .

EA's Wii Sports line is doing pretty well. They do seem to do well with sports don't they?

QUESTION OF THE DAY: Has Apple damaged their reputation taking on HTC?

– Steven Savage

PS3’s sieze up among other weird naming news, video is all ago, and publishing is a mixed bag!  Nerds assemble, it’s the must-know geek career news of the day!

Career:
Have career/resume information overload? A few tips on how to keep from overdoing it. Some good advice here.

Economics/Geekonomics:
A look at disposable income over the years for some econogeeks

Anime and Manga:
Crunchyroll’s iPhone app will do Simulcasts – And as usual, I welcome our new Crunchylords. The iPhone app almost seemed to come in under radar, but now with the iPad, Crunchyroll is even more firmly established.

Geek Law:
You may not remember the bizarre legal wranglings of SCO or Darl McBride (short summary; lawsuits involving Linux and IP, much humiliation and anger). Some or all of SCO’s remnants may be sold to Darl McBride who was part of the earlier mess. I’m guessing more lawsuits will result from this.

Germany suspends controversial data retention law – But only for six months. Remember laws like thsi vary from country to country – but can affect your plans.

Apple sues HTC for patent infringement – And so it begins. My guess is this is a swipe at Android.

Publishing:
Kodansha reports 2009 loss – Two years in a row, and sales have been dropping for awhile. Though I think Kodansha has ambitions in North America, this kind of economic hit can’t be helping them be realized – though it may drive them as well.

Penguin Publishing is doing well overall – Seems to be due to a mix of factors. Seeing them do well gives me hope that publishing has survived and may recover from all the hits its faced.

Social Media:
How your Social Media Data gets used – Food for thought. Greasy, disturbing food for thought.

Technology:
A useful look at how Google and Apple became enemies – Some history for those that haven’t followed this soap opera.

Asus comes out swinging with it’s new netbooks and more info on their e-reader. Very nice stuff – not overly innovative, but Asus’ big focus is What Works.

Video:
Russia has it’s own Hulu – For those of you keeping track of video site ambitions.

Netflix mulling an iPhone app – To which I say go for it (and go Android too). I think though the iPhone is a big deal, the iPad has increased awareness of video utilities. Of course this is just apparently “mulling” which to me says “going to be done.” More here.

Video Games:
February 28th people found some of their ‘fat’ PS3’s not working. Now it appears the issue sort of fixed itself. It appears to be a clock issue, with a mis-interpreted leap year (in 2010, yes). It seems to have been forgiven by the public, but let’s see. This also makes me wonder if this’ll happen again.

Sony Acquires Media Molecule, makers of Little Big Planet – A good move for them as, questions on sales aside, Little Big Planet was impressive.

Scandal and weirdness between Infinity Ward and Activision. Looks like Call of Duty is in Infinity Ward’s hands.

Hi5’s API is going to work with Facebook

QUESTION OF THE DAY: Did Sony handle the PS3 meltdown issue appropriately?

-Steven Savage