(* Source : Leigh Alexander *)

Launches The Sims on Stage Beta

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(* Digital Urban Blogspot.com *)

Smithee says :

Methods of travel within virtual worlds differ according to distance and the rules imposed by the system. The most common method to move large distances is the teleport - allowing new locations to be reached according to a Cartesian co-ordinate system. Teleports are common place within environments such as Second Life and ActiveWorlds with teleportation achieved through either selecting a location on a map or clicking on an object which has been setup with a teleportation script.

As an example, in the panoramic sphere below the small red triangle is a teleport object taking the user back to the main section of our work on Second Nature Island within Second Life.

The same is true of ActiveWorlds with teleports being a key feature of the ability to jump between servers and chosen locations. However, the ability to teleport was not always part of the original ActiveWorlds systems which evolved through the influence of Neal Stephenson's seminal science fiction novel Snow Crash.

In Snow Crash, the ability to teleport was blocked:

You can't just materialise anywhere in the Metaverse... this would be confusing and irritating to the people around you. It would break the metaphor (Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash, 1996, page 42).

Pressure from users resulted in teleportation stations being introduced at select points around the central section of ActiveWorlds original environment known as AlphaWorld, but it caused concern amoung the developers. The New World Times, a virtual newspaper, reported in 1998 that 'there is still some concern that teleportation will ruin the simulation of reality in AlphaWorld'.

Teleportation was subsequently introduced throughout the ActiveWorlds system and it is now central to the majority of virtual environments. Indeed within Second Life teleportation is integral to moving around the world. Pictured below is a map of teleports in our own ActiveWorld circa 1999 (click for a larger version):

In 1998 the developers of ActiveWorlds were worried that teleporting would ruin the simulation, by 2007 the expanse of virtual environments has meant that teleportation is the only option.

In Second Life you can materialise anywhere in the Metaverse, it is not confusing or irritating to the people around you and indeed perhaps even enhances the metaphor...

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(* Source : Worlds in Motion *)

Hong Kong-based developer Linking People has let us know about a new flash-based strategy and RPG MMO slated for release in early 2008, and it's described as "MySims meets Habbo Hotel meets the Settlers." It's called Coobico, and it casts players in the role of settlers on a deserted island, tasking them with building up the neighborhood and competing with other settlers to become the island's most influential resident -- the experience "blends features like city-building, roleplaying and social networking in a casual game-experience," Linking People tells us.

It'll be isometric 2D, to boot -- looks like a lot of companies are realizing that high-powered graphics aren't always necessary, especially when appealing to a casual audience. Elaborates the Coobico site: "To put a good face on the matter: it’s a lightweight strategy-game with no retail box to purchase, no cumbersome client software to download and install and no nasty DRM. Just click and you’re in. Maybe you are, just like us, a sucker for stuff like World of Warcraft, but you just don’t have enough time for it. What’s more, we won’t require you to take a summercamp on how to play and navigate around on Qubus’ Island."

The company was founded in 2006 by three German Web developers, Wetzel, Martin and Winter, who prior to founding Linking People, built commercial and promo sites for international customers (they list Land Rover and Bayer as past clients). They're now focused on developing new social networking games and apps for the Asian and European markets, aiming for a "casual blend" of chat, social networks, Web 2.0 and multiplayer games.

But they're not targeting the "sweet spot" tweens-and-teens -- rather, Linking People's gunning for the market pegged as the "core" of casual gaming and the broader market, those aged 30 to 44.

As co-founder Winter explains: "We see this as a huge, financially strong and yet mostly untapped market -- current games and networks are completely focusing on pre-teens, teens and young adults. We see a large opportunity for games targeted at a more mature audience: people who grew up with videogames, who still like them, but nowadays neither have the time to spend hours of gameplay in traditional multiplayer-games, nor like to play casual titles like Match-3-puzzles."

Coobico is Linking People's attempt to address this market; while it's still in development, it should be interesting to see how it turns out!

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(* Source : Worlds in Motion *)

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(* Source : Worlds in Motion *)

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(* Source : Leigh Alexander *)

eopets Announces Massive Retail Toy Initiative

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(* Source : Matthias Weber *)

Twinity is a 3D Online World currently in production by Metaversum Berlin. Apparently there is not too much information about Twinity available at the moment. Instead of creating a fantasy world Twinity will be more a replication of the real world with avatars as a look-a-like of real life people. A team of more than 60 is working on the closed beta. Twinity will include a virtual asset and economy system aswell as in game advertisement. As soon as more details are available we'll update the post!

Imagine a virtual world that brings the dream of “virtual reality” back to life – a place bursting with real people and real experiences. Twinity is not an exercise in digital escapism. Instead, think of it as the virtual extension of your life. Even your avatar will look pretty familiar…

http://www.twinity.de

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(* Source : Reuters *)

Starbucks on Monday said it will give away millions of songs via downloads starting next month, as it launches a wireless music service with Apple. From October 2 to November 7 at more than 10,000 U.S. Starbucks locations, customers can receive "Song of the Day" cards redeemable on Apple's iTunes store for a complimentary song hand-selected by Starbucks Entertainment, the company said.

Starbucks said it will give away 1.5 million downloads per day for a total of more than 50 million free songs. Customers will have until the end of the year to redeem the song on iTunes. Earlier this month, Apple and Starbucks said they had reached a deal to allow people to buy songs wirelessly from Apple's iTunes music store in Starbucks coffee shops without paying Wi-Fi connection fees. The service is to debut at more than 600 Starbucks stores in New York and Seattle on October 2, and will be expanded to other major U.S. cities later this year and next.

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(* Source : Wired *)

David Kravets says :

Amazon's Tuesday launch of a DRM-free music store with some 2 million tracks represents the music industry's clearest repudiation yet of the elaborate copy-protection schemes it once staked its future on. And though it may not be obvious at first, it's Apple we have to thank.

Along with thousands of independent labels, major music producers Universal Music Group and EMI have signed on to sell songs on Amazon's new service, representing half of the "Big Four" music publishers. True, both Universal and EMI had already experimented with DRM-free downloads, but there are signs that the rest of the industry will soon follow.

Edgar Bronfman, Jr., the Warner Music Group chairman, told Goldman Sachs investors in New York last week he was considering removing DRM from Warner's music downloads -- this just months after suggesting Warner would never abandon DRM. He blamed Apple for the apparent change of heart.

"We need some online competition" for Apple's iTunes Music Store, Bronfman said. He conceded the iPod is "the default device" and iTunes the "download model."

DRM -- digital rights management -- allows downloads to expire, or to be shared and played only a limited number of times or on certain devices.

The self-created headache for the industry is that the highly popular iPod and new iPhone only play music protected by Apple's proprietary FairPlay DRM solution or music that isn't protected at all. And Apple chairman Steve Jobs has repeatedly balked at licensing FairPlay for use on competing download services or devices.

That meant music companies had to choose between using iTunes or going DRM-free. The industry stood by and allowed most of its music-download sales to come from Apple. Recognizing opportunities lost to Apple's dominance, the music industry is moving toward throwing DRM overboard in a bid to open up new retail markets and promotional opportunities.

"As a consumer, when you buy a slice of bread you want to know you could put it in any toaster," said Jeanne Meyer, a vice president at EMI, in an interview ahead of the Amazon announcement.

Phil Leigh, an analyst with Inside Digital Media, put the industry's predicament in layman's terms.

"As long as the iPod is dominant, they're going to have to reconcile themselves with dealing with what the consumer wants: something that will play on the iPod," Leigh said. "The smartest thing they can do is sell music without DRM. It's not as though DRM is stopping pirating in other ways, anyway."

The irony of the industry's predicament was not lost on Steve Jobs, Apple's chairman. Jobs described the industry's sagging business model as self-created by EMI, Sony BMG, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group, the so-called "Big Four" leaders of sales and label ownership, with control of 70 percent of the world's music distribution market.

More here 

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(* Source : Adam Headstrow *)

Imeem, the service that offers a widget for sharing your music playlist, has reached a deal with Sony BMG to legally offer their music to users. In exchange for allowing Imeem users stream Sony BMG music in their widgets, the record label will get a cut of the advertising revenue. Imeem previously signed a similar deal with Warner Music, after the record company first tried to sue them.

Additionally, the company is reportedly in talks with Universal Music Group and EMI Group about similar content deals.

[via Forbes]

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(* Source : Techcrunch*)

Roi Carthy says :

Zlango

For those of you unfamiliar with Zlango, the company created a new language based on slightly over 200 icons in categories such as People, Actions, Places and Feelings. The Zlango offering was originally aimed at injecting life and excitement into the ever popular but boring SMS, however, the company’s jump into the Web space indicates an understanding that engaging users requires Zlango to extend itself beyond a pure mobile play.

Today’s launch kicks off Zlango’s roll out of a number of social-oriented features. Two of the most notable features available today are:

• Zlango Composer – A Flash driven composer featuring an on-the-fly “Text to Zlango” translator (see screenshot), making it a snap to create fun messages. Messages can be shared, emailed or embedded across a number of social sites (thanks to integration with Gigya).
• zMess – Zlango’s version of a micro-blog. This is an area for users to view public messages, or private ones with groups of friends. Unfortunately, support for threaded comments is not included.

On the business front, the most notable achievement of the year is a partnership with Nokia to preload the Zlango into handsets. Zlango is now also deployed at all three Israeli operators, and has inked deals with operators in the Philippines, Ukraine, Malaysia, Finland, and Indonesia.

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(* Source : Duncan Riley *)

According to Google Operating System, ASU students have the opportunity to test a new product “that will be publicly launched later this year” by “a major Internet company” that is related to social networking, 3D modeling and video games. The questionnaire attached to the application process asks would be testers if they have a Gmail account, and if not would they be willing to get one. The product’s name is shown as “My World.”

Google’s Sketchup service already provides the tech to do 3D modeling and could also be used to create avatars.

We know for certain now that Google has big plans for social networking, from SocialStream to Google’s planned November 5 launch of the mother of all open social networking platforms. Whether the planned service will be a true Second Life competitor is still to be seen, however I suspect that if Google is prepping a virtual world it will be closer to IBM’s Virtual World chat platform than Second Life. To deliver a full UGC world is a not an easy step where a basic 3D world which builds on Google Earth, SketchUp, and existing Google social networking platforms including Orkut would seem more likely.

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(* Source : Reuters *)

Michele Gershberg says :

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Young girls waiting to grow into full-time fashionistas will get a chance to experiment with couture as designer Donna Karan and cosmetics chain Sephora open shop in the virtual play-dress world of Stardoll.

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(* Source : Michael Estrin *)

Now that fashion designer Giorgio Armani has opened a store in Second Life, there really is no excuse for a poorly dressed avatar.

According to a Reuters report, Armani's Second Life store will allow residents to purchase virtual clothing using the site's Linden Dollar currency. Second Life residents also can purchase real clothing with U.S. dollars by going from Armani's virtual store to his website.

Armani, who will attend his store's virtual opening by sending a well-dressed avatar, joins a slew of companies that have embraced Second Life as a marketing tool. Most recently IBM opened up a customer service center in the virtual world, while HBO has mined the site for content by optioning a Second Life film.

With growing interest in virtual worlds coming from brands, Google has taken notice. Early this week, rumors surfaced that Google may be working on its on virtual world to rival Second Life.

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(* Source : IMediaconnections.com *)

Britanny Lawson says :

Get the lowdown on the five most popular Facebook widgets and what this trend means for brands and marketers.

Facebook has upped the ante in its latest effort to gain supremacy over the social network scene. The website's creators opened up the applications setting on May 25, 2007 for users and companies alike to upload widgets that can be embedded in any user's profile. Currently there are over 3,400 applications available to users, ranging from slideshows to horoscopes to personal aquariums.

The widgets are designed to engage users for longer periods of time on the Facebook website by creating activities for people with similar interests. Essentially, Facebook's profiles have changed from a place where you just read about someone to a place where people can engage in activities. This change is effective in generating traffic for Facebook, as well as for the companies creating user apps, and has been termed the Facebook Effect.  

The Facebook Effect is seen in the dramatic increase in web traffic to the top five company applications:

1.) Slide, Inc. has capitalized on the cornerstone of the social network sites -- picture sharing. With over 2.7 million active users daily, the company's Top Friends slideshow application is Facebook's most popular. Their widget, which is exceedingly simple, is available on every social network site, and reaches over 65 percent of all widget-users. Facebook is by far their largest patron and since the end of May has seen an increase of over 265 percent in daily unique visitors, according to Quantcast.

2.) Video by Facebook is the second most active application on the network. This tool comes on the heels of the success of YouTube and allows users to upload their own video content. Video has just below one million active users daily. Facebook's creators have seen the success of social media sites that employ user-generated video and harnessed this technology to generate more user activity on their site.

3.+4.) FunWall! and My Questions? are also in the top five, with a quarter of a million users daily. At a glance, they appear to be created by independent Facebook users. However, this application is funded by Slide, Inc.. The FunWall is a take on the basic wall feature in which users could post comments on each others' pages. It has replaced the basic wall because users can write graffiti and post movies or pictures, which has been a theme throughout social network sites. My Questions? allows users to ask all of their friends a generic question and see the responses on their page. Slide, Inc. has established that it is a heavyweight in the widget marketing platform by creating three out of the top five widgets.  

5.) iLike, Inc. allows users to upload their favorite music and has seen its traffic double since the end of May. This reveals another possibility for the widget platform -- the diversification of the point of sale for companies. Record labels such as SNOCAP have made it possible to sell music anywhere that HTML can be embedded into a web page. This could spell success for artists and music companies. 

The question, then, is how Facebook and companies such as Slide, Inc, and iLike plan to turn this popularity into financial success. As sites such as Nielsen have changed the way in which they rate websites by placing more emphasis on time spent on a website than on clicks, this could translate into ad success for Facebook. These applications keep users active on creators' respective pages as they take quizzes about their friends or play video games that are out of distribution. This will increase Facebook's rating on the Nielsen sale, and in turn increase the appeal for click advertisers. 

At the end of April 2007 Facebook had 20 million users; since then they have increased their user base by more than 50 percent to over 31 million in less than six months. Their daily uniques have doubled as well. This is in stark contrast to MySpace, which still has the lead over Facebook, but has remained relatively stable in the amount of unique clicks it receives each day. Is Facebook's rapid growth a result of its application platform? Perhaps. Regardless, Facebook's growth is putting the pressure on MySpace.

More here 

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(* Source : Emarketer.com *)

It's a virtual, virtual world after all.

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(* Source : Michael Arrington *)

Social network Piczo has released a new feature into private beta: Piczo Zone. It’s being tested by a small group of users now and will be released generally in a few weeks.

What is it? Product Evangelist Keith Crowell says its a way for users to decorate their profile pages in much the same way as teenagers decorate their rooms - with posters, music, etc. Users take (or create) images, videos, style sheets or just about anything else and then add it to their profile. Each content item also includes descriptive data and tags. When someone creates something (say an image showing a band or artist name), any other user can add it to their profile as well. All of the “stuff” created in the Piczo Zone will then spread virally as the more popular items gets added by more and more users.

Users like this stuff - they can see what the popular kids (however defined) put on their profiles and then add the same things to their own. For now users can’t add stuff that they see directly from their friends’ profiles, but software engineer Devon Boyle says they’ll add that functionality shortly.

Users Love This Stuff. But So Do Advertisers

But there’s another reason this is important: user profiling for advertising. As users add artists/bands, popular movies and well known brands (nike, whatever) to their profiles they build an extremely detailed demographic and psychographic profile of themselves that can be used for far more targeted advertising. As an example, a music label could focus advertising around a new album release to users who’s added certain similar bands and artists to their profile. It’s highly likely that the advertising will be aimed at people who are likely to buy, and ad rates increase dramatically.

The content can also be used to predict new trends far before traditional methods. Users will create their own images for a popular local indie band, for example. As more and more users add the image, someone with access to aggregate data will be able to see what’s going to become mainstream well before it actually does. Since Piczo’s users, mostly teenagers, are the trendsetters, it’s a particularly powerful tool.

Piczo isn’t the first social network to experiment with something like this. In July we wrote about a similar product called HotLists released by HotOrNot. HotLists are made up only of images, but like Piczo users create them themselves and they spread virally as users add them from the profiles of people they view. Users immediately took to the idea, adding brands, movies, artists and other things that they identified with to build out their profile. And HotNorNot now has much deeper user information to aim advertisement at. Everyone wins.

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 (*Source : Kristina Knight *)

The most recent report from online metrics firm Nielsen//Netratings indicates that marketers may have more luck targeting users who visit more than one social networking hub.

The report also found that the 12-17 demographic increased their use of the social networks more than 120% in August.

According to the report, users between the ages of 12 - 17 who visit both MySpace and Facebook, spend more time on both sites than users who visit only one or the other of the social networks. Here is the break down: in the 12-17 demographic, users who visited both sites spent 20% more time on MySpace than users who only visited MySpace. Facebook saw an even great increase (26%) from users who frequented both sites than from users who were exclusive visitors to Facebook.

"[Teens] are venturing onto multiple networks to experience new features and broaden their connections,” said Jason Lee, media analyst, Nielsen//NetRatings. “This demographic is typically drawn to what’s new, and since they are growing up online, they are not afraid of learning the latest Web technologies.”

Though the report focuses on teen users, the trend is one that marketers should watch because the use of social networks in all age groups is growing at astonishing rates. With so many new users signing on and experienced users looking for new networks to try, it makes sense to keep a steady flow of campaigns going into the social space.

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(* Source : Press release Hasbro*)

Fastest Growing Girl Toy Brand Launches "The Cuddliest Pets on the Net"

PAWTUCKET, R.I.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Hasbro, Inc. (NYSE: HAS - News), announces the launch of LITTLEST PET SHOP VIPs (Virtual Interactive Pets), a line of five cuddly, plush pets that bear secret codes on their collars to unlock a virtual world where tween girls can interact with the digital counterparts of their plush pals and explore a fun online VIPs destination jam packed with exciting games, activities, and community events. LITTLEST PET SHOP VIPs will be unleashed in the New York Metro market and online in mid-October 2007 followed by a global retail launch in early 2008. Each LITTLEST PET SHOP VIPs plush pet will carry an approximate retail price of $14.99 and includes exclusive access to the VIPs virtual world which will continuously evolve with new and exciting elements.

The initial LITTLEST PET SHOP VIPs line will include a dog, cat, turtle, penguin and panda. Upon getting home with their new cuddly plush pet, girls with parental permission will plug in the secret code found on the collar at www.littlestpetshop.com, receive a VIPs Adoption Certificate and watch their pet come to life online. The fun really begins as they begin to customize their pets and environments, earn "Kibble" points to keep pets happy and healthy, play mini-games and engage in fun individual or community based activities.

"This is a very exciting time for the LITTLEST PET SHOP brand," said Valerie Jurries, vice president of marketing for Hasbro's girls brands. "We wanted to take this incredibly popular property and do something truly spectacular for the millions of girls who have come to adore the LITTLEST PET SHOP line over the years. Creating an engaging and meaningful online connection between girls and their LITTLEST PET SHOP pets was an instinctive next step. VIPs delivers a rich, immersive online world where girls and their pets can have endless hours of fun exploring, playing and bonding."

Blending Traditional LITTLEST PET SHOP Play with Online Fun

Just as they do with their real world LITTLEST PET SHOP pets, VIPs will allow girls to customize homes for their pets as well as personalize the pets with the latest apparel and accessories purchased at virtual stores and boutiques with VIPs currency called Kibble. Kibble points are earned based on keeping pets happy and healthy by completing activities such as going for a check-up at the "Get Better Center", going to the playground for some exercise and fun, playing mini-games or simply exploring the environment for hidden surprises.

 More here

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(* Source: Virtual News.com *)

CVSherman says :

This week Utherverse announced that it would be opening a currency exchange system for its Rays to be bought and sold by users. It's also moving toward the October opening of Virtual Vancouver, a more music-oriented virtual world. With 650,000 registered users, 155,000 active users, and a growth rate of over 10,000 users per day—all in the year-long alpha—Shuster paints Utherverse and RedLightCenter as "direct competitors" to Second Life. And, of course, there's the sex, which Shuster calls the most advanced in the industry.

All the animations, including all the adult animations, are either done through motion capture or professional animators," said Shuster. "It's all very life-like and realistic."

He's quick to point out, though, that the world isn't necessarily non-family friendly—or, really, any more adult than the rest of the worlds, virtual or otherwise.

More here 

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(* Source : Virtual World News *)

CVSherman says : 

 When we spoke with Kaneva CEO Christopher Klaus back in August, he hinted that the game-oriented virtual world would be rolling out a series of casual games in its fourth quarter. The first, Dance Party 3D, launches tomorrow with prepaid cards for access and bonus items, in $10 and $25 varieties, appearing in Target by October 1. What sets Dance Party apart from a business point is that it's being marketed as a standalone game instead of just a value-add for existing Kaneva users. "There are lot of people who want to go into virtual worlds, but there are a lot of people who don't understand the concept, but they want to go dancing," said Klaus. "Instead of saying, 'There's a world and we have a dance game,' we want to go out and say, 'Imagine the world is our theatre, and here's the movie we just produced.' We want to make this a packaged game similar to traditional games and talk about it that way, and then say, 'By the way, one of the major features is that you end up in a virtual world.'"

"It's kind of flip-flopping it for the virtual world industry. While I think virtual worlds are important, to go out there and reach a broader segment, say people who are into music or the club scene or dance games, you just say, 'Here's a full-on game for you.' I think we're going to find members who join the game just to play the game. I think we'll also find members who join for the game and then realize that they can decorate their homes. As we add more games, it becomes like a themepark where you can run around to all the different rides. You advertise the new rides, not just the theme park."

Klaus does say the virtual world creates a different atmosphere than a standard dance game would. For one thing, it draws on the fact that Kaneva already encourages its users to stream media into the world and create their own spaces. Every club can have all of YouTube's library as its DJ's archive, letting users dance along to any video they can find.

Maybe more importantly, Dance Party 3D is still meant to be a social game. If you play Dance Dance Revolution against two or three other users, you're there to compete in the game. If you're dancing in a club with 50 other people and then happen to start a competition, you're already tied into the social experience.

More here 

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(* Source: Larry Gentille *)

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(* Source : BBC News *)

Jonathan Fieldes says :

The tool could be embedded in blogs as well as used in gaming Metaplace demo

Users of Metaplace, as it is known, can build 3D online worlds for PCs or even a mobile phone without any knowledge of complex computer languages.

The web-based program is the brainchild of Raph Koster, one of the developers of massively multiplayer online games such as Ultima Online.

Users make the virtual spaces from simple building blocks.

The results, which could be used for gaming, socialising or e-commerce, can be embedded in a webpage, facebook profile or blog.

"We are out to democratise virtual worlds and bring them to absolutely anybody," said Mr Koster, founder of Areae, the company behind Metaplace.

"You can come to the site, press a button and have a functioning virtual world that supports multiple users in about 30 seconds."

Web puzzle

Second Life is one of the most popular virtual worlds

There are already a number of popular virtual worlds such as Second Life, There and Entropia Universe. In addition there are games worlds such as World of Warcraft (WOW).

Most of these require a person to download specialist software or buy a game and there are no links between the different universes.

"They're all walled gardens," said Mr Koster.

In contrast, Metaplace is entirely web based and connections can be made between all of the different worlds.

"We modelled this on the web," said Mr Koster. "You can think about each world being a webpage and every object within in it is a link."

Users can create the worlds using different methods.

People with no programming background can use the graphical interface and choose worlds from a number of templates, such as a shop or a puzzle game.

They can also clone worlds developed by other Metaplace users.

More competent visitors to the site can build a world from scratch using the tool's own programming language known as metamarkup.

The language is "platform agnostic", according to Mr Koster, which means that it can be used to create worlds which can run on anything from a powerful PC to a mobile handset.

User control

We want to see 10,000 virtual worlds so that lots of wild and crazy stuff gets made because that is the only way it will advance as a medium Raph Koster, founder, Areae

"Others may want to make a book club that is integrated with Amazon where people can get together and chat every Thursday night about a book but they can actually see the pictures of the books on the wall, click on them and buy them," said Mr Koster.

"The applications are pretty open."

When complete, each world is given its own page on the Metaplace website.

 More here

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(* Source : Nextgreatthing.com*)

Sherrie Hui says : 

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(* Source : Duncan Riley *)

Virtual world goods seller PlaySpan has received $6.5 million Series A in a round led by Easton Capital, Menlo Ventures, STIC and Novel TMT Ventures.

PlaySpan hasn’t launched yet, but is promising a product that will attempt to be an official commerce provider for multiple MMOGs. According to PlaySpan, the company has already signed up seven MMOG partners

The interesting side of PlaySpan is with the background story: PlaySpan was founded by Arjun Mehta (pictured) , a 6th grader from Silicon Valley who founded the company from money earned selling online game items won from quests he fought while attending 5th grade at Challenger School in San Jose.

No word on when PlaySpan will be launching.

(via Metaversed)

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(* Source: Mashable *)

ReverbNation has launched another new widget for bands and artists to promote themselves. Named TuneWidget, his widget nearly acts as a mini website in itself, offering all the necessary information for the band, including upcoming shows, song and video previews, and marked locations on a Yahoo map. The widget also displays band and information, like the band’s genre, location, label, and how many times the widget’s been played.

One unique and helpful feature the ReverbNation widget has is a “recommended band” display at the bottom of the widget. This lets artists cross-promote each other. Visitors can sign up for the mailing list from the widget, an grab the embed code to place it on their blogs or social networking profiles. Choose your network from the grab-it options the widget has for sites including Xanga, MySpace, and many more.

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(* Source: AFP *)

MAKUHARI, Japan (AFP) - Sony said Thursday it was delaying until next year the launch of an online virtual universe for the PlayStation 3 where users will be able to socialise, shop and even go to the movies.

Sony had planned to launch "Home" this year but PS3 owners will now have to wait until early 2008, the head of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc, Kazuo Hirai, revealed at the Tokyo Game Show.

The delay is another setback to Sony, which has much riding on the success of the PS3 but faces fierce competition from Microsoft's XBox 360 and Nintendo's Wii.

Sony said in March the free service would allow PS3 users to set up an apartment for life-like virtual characters, or avatars, which can invite friends over, share pictures and videos, and play online games.

Users can personalise their virtual home with furniture, art and other items and chat through audio or video links.

The service is seen as a cross between social community website MySpace and Linden Lab's Second Life, which allows "residents" to build homes, create vehicles, nightclubs and stores, and to communicate with instant messaging.

Posted by brian tiong at 02:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source : John Conroy *)

The "Halo" legacy is one that in many ways represents the state of the video game industry as a whole. Top titles are more than just games; they are entertainment properties on the level of blockbuster movies, spawning sequels, spin-offs, soundtracks and collectible merchandise. The current development process for a major video game title bears more in common with the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy than "Pong." Because of the confluence of modern-day multimedia entertainment opportunities, games require equally broad marketing campaigns in order to catch the consumer eye. As a game developer, you aren't just competing with other game titles, you're competing with movies, television, YouTube and MySpace.

When it comes to sequels, video games do have one unique quality, however. They are almost always better than the original. So when the third installment of the legendary "Halo" franchise was announced, its marketing campaign pretty much hit the ground running without having to do anything. The first game in the series, "Halo: Combat Evolved" single-handedly "made" Microsoft's Xbox in 2001. It is considered by many to be the most influential first-person shooter game ever made for a console. "Halo: Combat Evolved" and "Halo 2" have since created a global cultural phenomenon, selling more than 14.8 million units (equivalent to roughly $600 million) and logging nearly 1 billion hours of multiplayer time on Xbox LIVE.

The franchise's reach has also expanded into other games, books, graphic novels and toys. Its legion of fans -- known as the "Halo Nation" -- range from everyday gamers to Oscar-winning filmmaker Peter Jackson, who is producing a new interactive game set in the "Halo" universe and may produce a feature film, as well. To put its popularity into perspective for non-gamers: when "Halo 2" was launched in 2004, its official strategy guide was second only to "My Life" by Bill Clinton on the best-seller list.

So how do you execute a compelling marketing campaign when you're already starting off with one of the biggest worldwide entertainment properties in history? We talked to Microsoft to find out how the company was stoking the flames for an already hotly-anticipated product, and discovered that some interactive elements of its marketing campaign might, much like "Halo" itself, change the way we think about the medium.

More here 

Posted by brian tiong at 02:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source : Michael Estrin *)

Not all in-game ad strategies are created equally. While this emerging platform promises stellar returns, only the savvy will survive.

Ask a few marketers how they plan to reach gamers -- an increasingly hot demographic group -- and you'll get more than a few responses.

Should you serve ads inside the game just as the player is about to make a full house? Does sponsorship of a first-person shooter tournament provide brand lift? Do gamers appreciate pre-roll ads before zapping aliens or hitting the links with Tiger Woods? Or, are the best ads the ones that are served after the user has stopped playing?

While marketing strategies vary wildly, most marketers agree on one thing: Gamers aren't who you think they are. That's important, because who you believe gamers to be invariably dictates your approach.

Say the word "gamer" to a colleague and you're likely to conjure up images of pale, overweight boys hunkered down in their parent's basement subsisting on a steady diet of Mountain Dew, Snickers bars and the latest video game title peppered with ad copy familiar only to those fully conversant in the language of geek. While there certainly are gamers like that, Greg Johnson, CMO of GGL, isn't so sure gamers can really be profiled.

"One of the challenges we have is that we can't create a profile of a gamer," says Johnson, a self-described member of the gaming community. "It's a widely variant [group]."

Johnson's assessment jibes with statistics compiled by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), a trade group for the video game industry. According to the ESA, the average gamer is 33 years old. Most gamers are men, a stat that holds true to the stereotype, but increasingly women are getting in on the action, accounting for 38 percent of the community. And while games are fun for those who play, they also represent a significant time commitment, with 49 percent of gamers reporting at least one hour per week spent on gaming.

Remember, that's at least one hour spent in a highly engaging medium where distractions are not an option because they make for a less successful gamer.

Play in the game?
With all that gaming action, it is little wonder that many view games as a winning platform for delivering ads. In a recent Parks Associates study, spending on in-game ads is expected to mushroom from $370 million in 2006 to more than $2 billion in 2012.

More here 

Posted by brian tiong at 02:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source : Adam Ostrow *)

Donnerwood Media, the parent company of the Meez virtual avatar service, has raised $500,000 from Battery Ventures. Meez allows users to create custom avatars that can then be shared in IM and on most social networks.

Earlier this week the company announced a partnership with Vringo to create avatar ringtones. Meez previously raised $4.3 million, and we profiled the company last August.

[via]

Posted by brian tiong at 02:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Mashable *)

Sean P. Aune says :

Is your music collection getting a bit stale? Have you run out of places where you can get fresh info about new artists, releases and concert dates? If so, you’re in luck, because we’ve assembled a list of 50 sites which will keep you up to speed with what’s happening in the world of music.

Music Discovery Sites

Audiobaba.com - Enter a song or artist and get recommendations based on acoustic similarity.

AudioLunchbox.com - Over 2 million licensed and DRM free song downloads, featuring a large selection of smaller and local acts.

Babulous.com - A community of underground, independent musicians for you to explore and discover all kinds of unsigned music.

bandBUZZ.com - A site for bands to upload their music and be discovered by thousands. Users can vote and comment on the music and share it with their friends.

ChartU.com - Another site for bands to upload their music and let people listen. Tracks play right in the browser and continue to play even as you navigate the pages.

Contrastream.com - A way to find new independent artists quickly using a Digg-like system of voting.

Epitonic.com - Explore cutting-edge music, create playlists, and download some full tracks.

Finetune.com - Start with just a couple of artists and the system will build you a playlist of similar artists; alternatively, you can start with a list built by another user.

Haystack.com - Create, share, and explore playlists from your friends and others.

Hypster.com - Allows you to upload your music, create a playlist and share it with others, even on social networking sites. Let people see & hear the bands they may be missing out on.

iJigg.com - You can discover new music, vote on it, and new artists can upload their music to reach a new audience.

iLike.com - Share your iTunes playlists and get suggestions for new music for you to try.

Last.fm - One of the best known sites for searching and finding new music.

Magnatune.com - Listen to over 500 complete albums from independent acts; if you like them, download them for as little as $5.00.

Musiclovr.com - Get suggestions based on what you’re listening to and what similar users play related to that. Also get all the latest news on the artists you love.

Musicmesh.net - Start with one CD, see six similar selections, click on one of them to see six more related and so on. While playing a CD, a track list of YouTube videos come up for you to sample.

Musicmobs.com - Trade and browse playlists to see what other people are listening to.

MusicNation.com - A site specializing in independent and unsigned artists, check out new bands, even participate in contests.

Musicovery.com - Tell the site what your mood is and get music that fits you.

OneLlama.com - Start with just one song, or a whole playlist, and see what other “llamas” suggest you might like.

Owlmusicsearch.com - Have the site open an MP3 file, it compares it to other songs and then gives you a recommendation for other tunes you might enjoy.

Pandora.com - Type in the name of an artist you like, Pandora will create a “radio station” for you featuring that artist and similar acts.

ProjectOpus.com - A site focusing on spreading the word of local acts from countries all over the world.

Purevolume.com - Explore genres of music for bands you’ve never heard of and listen to full length tracks for free.

SessionSound.com - A site focused mostly on indie music. A great place for artists to promote themselves.

Soundflavor.com - Find songs and artists you like and use that as a jumping off point to discover music you may be unaware of.

Stage.FM - Enter a major name act you enjoy and receive a list of independent acts with a similar sound.

SoundPedia.com - Upload your existing playlists or create new ones to help you find like minded lists that aid you in discovering new music.

Twones.com - Share your playlists and match them to users with similar tastes so you can locate artists you didn’t know about.

UpTo11.net - Their search engine allows you to enter up to four bands at once and get a recommendation of a group that sounds like that combination.

ZuKool.com - Choose individual songs, or create a playlist from their library of 600,000+ songs, and receive recommendations of others. Rate those to get even more suggestions.

Music News

AOL Music - The latest headlines and what’s being discussed music wise around the blogosphere.

ArtistDirect.com - The latest music headlines from album releases to tour news.

BBC Music News - Music news from the mainstay of the news world, the BBC.

Billboard.com - The online counterpart to one of the premiere music industry publications.

CMT News - A news site dedicated to the country music genre.

DigitalMusicNews.com - Not only music news, but also showcases information on the technology you use it with.

Mi2N.com - A news site focusing more on the business side of the music industry.

MTV News - No list of music news sites without the MTV news site.

Music-News.com - Based in th UK music scene, see the latest big stories, album reviews, see what the editors are listening to.

MusicNewsNashville.com - Music news from around Nashville, TN, the heart of the country music scene.

MusicPortl.com - Aggregates music news from multiple sites around the web.

Noisetap.com - A Digg-style site for music news, complete with voting options.

Pitchforkmedia.com - News, reviews, features and just about everything you could ever want to know about the state of music today.

Rolling Stone Rock & Roll Daily - The daily blog of the venerable old school music magazine, covering the day’s latest story.

Shoutmouth.com - Publishes over 500 posts a week about bands from all genres to make a one-stop-shop for all of your music related news.

SoundsLikeNow.org - Type in a band name and receive results of bands that sound like them.

Starpulse Music News - Bringing you music news from all around the music industry.

The Phoenix - From the Boston Phoenix, it’s music category focuses on the greater New England area and what’s happening in and around it’s music scene.

Topix Music News - A news aggregator of music news from all over the net.

Village Voice Music News - A site that focuses on the New York City independent music scene.

Yahoo Music News - Yahoo’s news service for music news from all over the world.

Posted by brian tiong at 01:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source : Adam Ostrow *)

MTV is launching a new social networking site later today, Think MTV. While most notable for being the first major initiative launched by Viacom using Flux (the platform technology the company acquired from TagWorld), the network itself will feature tools for users to rally behind major causes, such as improving education and AIDS research.

Currently, the MTV Think site features a variety of content for different causes such as top ten ways to help and public service announcement videos from celebrities. MTV has partnered with high-profile non-profits like the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Case Foundation, and will be enlisting the help of charitable celebrities like Bono and Leonardo DiCaprio to help promote the network.

Posted by brian tiong at 01:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Duncan Riley *)

FlowPlay

FlowPlay is a virtual world community built around browser-based casual games. Users play casual games as their own created anime-like avatar, earning virtual goods for their character including clothing, refrigerators and other virtual store items. The site wants to provide the option to play casual games or interact with people in the virtual world (or both).

Animation virtual world product, anime style 2.5D visuals

strong privacy features to protect the kiddies

similar to Hobbo Hotel, Cyworld, Club Penguin, but with casual games emphasis.

Pitched a girls…well it appears to be, you can win dresses and stuff.

Unfortunately the time was used to show a demo video, not the best use of their time on stage. Will appeal to kids.

Metaplace

Areae’s Metaplace platform aims to revolutionize the virtual worlds space with a platform that will provide an open, easy-to-use interface which will allow users to create virtual worlds that can run anywhere. Metaplace-created virtual worlds will allow user to play games, socialize, create content and conduct commerce. Metaplace-created virtual worlds can be embedded into external sites, including Facebook, MySpace or a blog. Virtual worlds in the Metaplace network can be easily linked together.

Virtual world product, market still growing.

Virtual worlds are like AOL in 94, walled gardens etc, not a good thing according to them.

Has Facebook, MySpace widget, blog widgets, 30k embed.

Generic virtual world platform, can have Sim’s style games, shooters, even an Amazon store front.

Virtual world can also import XML: content, services etc can be imported.

Users can set up their own world from scratch, each world communicates with each other.

“virtual worlds for everyone”

Woome

WooMe brings speed dating online and extends it to let users meet new people live in speed sessions that are “fast, fun and free.” WooMe doesn’t require long forms or lengthy profile descriptions, users simply find a session that interests them and meet five people in five minutes. Users can also create their own session based on their interests and can invite people they want to get a know or friends.

Speed dating product.

Good presentation, talk to people quickly via webcam, both parties must agree to hookup

Zivity

Zivity offers a social networking platform focused on “sexy models and beautiful photography.” With a $10 subscription, members receive five votes that they can cast for models and photography they find appealing, with 80c out of every $1 vote cast being distributed to the model and photographer. There is no limit on the amount of money that a photographer or model can make; as long as a photo remains popular, models and photographers will share in ongoing royalties whilst retaining full ownership of the pictures.

Lots of warnings prior to this demo about it including porn…so far all we have is clothed model…false advertising perhaps?

User gen content makers aren’t making money, Zivity wants to change this…well at least for “sexy pics.”

Demo has PG rating…seriously, complete with the PG on the screen.

Ahhh…breasts. PG obviously different in the US to Australia

Kaltura

Kaltura is a collaborative Media startup that allows groups of users to do with video, audio, and animation what wiki platforms enable them to do with text. Think of it as YouTube meets Wikipedia. See our full post here.

Posted by brian tiong at 04:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Duncan Riley *)

XRT3D

XTR3D develops software that lets users interact with computers and gaming consoles using 3D human motions. Their real-time software analyzes 3D human motions using only one simple web cam. It will allow users to play games and interact in virtual worlds using natural human motions instead of keyboards, mouses and joysticks. They refer to their technology as a “3D Human Machine Interface”

mouse movements in the air via a web cam…pretty damn cool.

Demo includes moving around Google Earth by hand movements.

As can be used for virtual worlds, games.

Demo includes boxing, works well. Definitely one of the best product/ presentations of the conference.

More at CrunchGear here.

BroadClipBroadClip’sMediaCatcher for Facebook offers a way to search and listen to DRM-free music that is optimized to deliver music to portable media players such as iPods and cell phones. All users have to do is “clip” streaming music and they can transfer the recording to their portable media player in a legal way similar to other “time-shifting” technologies like TiVo, VCRs and tape recorders.Bizarre Star Wars demo…WTF? one line was this is very bad…he’s right, a shame thoough, I like the idea, even if the copyright side is a big question mark…they claim it’s legal yet the RIAA was demanding that webcasters put stream rip blocking software into place as part of the royalty negotiations…Broadclip is a easy to use stream ripping service.No one on stage…some sort of streamed presentation, not sure if they are even in the building. Sorry to be negative, but it’s not a good effect.

mEgomEgo lets users create personalized avatars that carry their online network aggregation profiles and can be integrated into users’ blogs, social networks, websites, and IM clients. The online profiles display user-picked content like profile details, videos, photos, feeds, and widgets.

A couple of giggling chicks…Jason Calacanis notes that it’s great to have someone on the stage presenting.

Tag team with the presentation which works well.

Interactive widget, sample is shown in Facebook.

Lots of features, provides social aggregation including pulling in RSS, Twitter etc.. can be any size as is vector based.

Wixi

Wixi is a media focused social network where users interact with each other by privately watching, posting, and sharing content of all media types, including photos, audio, and video. The site offers a unique interface whereby media can be managed in the same way files are organized on a computer desktop, creating a true “drag and drop” and “click and play” experience.

Looks like a Web OS, smells like a Web OS…but it’s a “media sharing platform”

visit main.wixi.com use code tech40access for free unlimited storage.

Zat waz ok..I think.

BeFunky

BeFunky provides users with online tools for creating digital online representations of themselves for use on their blogs, websites, and social networks like MySpace. Their online tools Uvatar and Cartoonizer enable users to turn themselves into an avatar, cartoon, digital painting or comic.

I hate the name, but political correctness means I can say what I think about it.

It’s a pic to cartoon/ avatar tool. Not bad, demo worked well.

Can also manipulate pics, they demoed it on a picture of Michael Arrington and took “20 pounds off him”

Also does video, demonstrated on a scene from Matrix. Impressive…very impressive.

Avator package creates cartoon like avatars, free at first, $5 a pop later.

More here 

Posted by brian tiong at 04:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(*Source: Adam Ostrow *)

Starting today, US consumers will be able to listen to all the tracks on James Blunt’s new CD on the artist’s MySpace profile for free. They can then opt to purchase the entire album for $9.99, which will allow them to play the album on an iPod and also send the user the CD through snail mail.

The new Blunt album, “All the Lost Souls,” will be sold through a widget on Blunt’s page that is powered by LaLa.com. With nearly 250,000 “friends,” Blunt is a fairly significant artist with whom to try the new sales approach. Currently, the artist has a SNOCAP widget on his page featuring a la carte songs from his previous album.

While Warner has previously tried selling music through MySpace, the copyright protection on it made it incompatible with the iPod, making it a tough sell with most consumers.

Posted by brian tiong at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

 (*Source : Adam Ostrow *)

Too many social networks for your real life? Koinup is launching the first social network designed for your virtual one. The site features the ability to create profiles, share multimedia, and publish stories relating to your experience in Second Life, World of Warcraft, IMVU, The Sims 2, and other virtual worlds.

Aside from its unique focus, Koinup offers a fairly standard set of social networking features. All content is tagged, allowing you to browse photos, videos, and story boards relating to your virtual world of choice. There is also the ability to comment on user profiles and content, as well as a friends feature for connecting with others.

With millions of people now participating in virtual worlds and expressing themselves through avatars and other creations, a social network that aggregates that content and provides a way to share it makes some sense.

Koinup is based in Italy and founded Pierluigi Casolari (CEO) and Edoardo Turelli (CTO).

Posted by brian tiong at 11:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(*Source : Kristen Nicole *)

Mixaloo is a site that lets you create a digital “mix tape.” Currently in private beta, I got to try it out for myself.

With this tool, you not only create mix tapes, but promote and sell them via widgets, earning you extra cash. With a library of about 3 million songs to choose from, Mixaloo is starting out with a hefty amount of music. And it’s not all indie. You’ll find most of your favorite artists, and depending on the record label, it looks like more artists have more songs available for resale through your widget.

Once you find an artist you’re looking for, you can then select the album, and then the songs. Searching for artists is easy enough: once you type in the first few letters of an artist’s name, Mixaloo will show a list of artists that match your query as you type. You’ll need at least 10 songs in order to create a mix for resale, and 15 will max out your mix tape. For each song you come across, you can listen to a sample of songs, see the album cover art, and see the runtime for each song. You can also name your mix tape, add cover art, choose from one of three widget designs, and edit things like text font, color and size for your cover art, and the widget color.

The widget itself is rather interactive, giving options to hear sample tracks, buy the entire mix, send it to a friend, or gift it to a friend. In order to buy or gift the mix tape, the buyer will need to create a Mixaloo account. Mixaloo keeps track of all the mixes you’ve created to sell, and those you’ve purchased. For promotional purposes, others can also grab the widget to place on their blogs or social networking profiles. As it’s powered by ClearSpring, there are easy, one-click options for the widget to be added to the various networks including LiveJournal, Blogger, MySpace, Facebook and more.

In some senses, Mixaloo can be used as a way to discover new music, especially as an artist you can submit your content to be sold through Mixaloo. In other ways, it’s limited, as you don’t really interact with songs on an individual basis, and there’s no social networking involved for deeper sharing options.

Posted by brian tiong at 10:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source : Techcrunch *)

Nick Gonzales says :

IAC’s Zwinky has been carefully growing their pre-teen social networking service. It started out as an online avatar creation tool. They later created a virtual world where those avatars could socialize. Usage of the service has been growing, under heavy advertising, as well. They currently have over 9.5 million registered users with 4.6 million active users per month that spend an average of 64 minutes a day in their virtual world, Zwinktopia.

Zwinky is now expanding the service to their users pocketbooks, or rather those of their parents. The site is now letting users purchase batches of “Zbucks”, their virtual curency, instead of having to earn them. They join a growing group of other tween sites with paid virtual economies as well (Club Penguin, Habbo Hotel, Gaia). Users can purchase them using PayPal or credit card at a rate of about $10 for 2,000 Zbucks. With the Zbucks, users will be able to purchase their own avatar accessories or furnish their virtual rooms in Zwinktopia. Zwinky is not only making money from the Zbucks, but also through sponsorships and sales made through the virtual goods.

So far users have spent over 500 million free “Zbucks” on the site since launch on April. There’s no telling how strong the uptake of the new paid currency will be, but other services have shown a clear market for virtual goods. The passion around World of Warcraft drove a black market for virtual gold. Secondlife has had a similar success. While virtual goods seem hokey for outsiders, startups that create a meaningful environment find their customers willing to pay to save time earning currency or get at exclusive items.

Posted by brian tiong at 05:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(*Source : Chris Kohler *)

Night has fallen in West Hollywood, and it's the rocking hour at the Troubadour, the legendary club that helped launch the careers of Pearl Jam and Guns N' Roses. A band on the tiny stage is crunching out a surprisingly faithful rendition of the Hives' "Main Offender." The drummer, a skinny hipster with fuzzy sideburns, is as steady as a metronome. The lead singer, a blonde in a low-cut, lacy black top, caterwauls into the mic, a red bandanna wrapped around her wrist.

It's the first night of E3, the yearly trade show for the videogame industry, and this concert is crawling with game developers, executives, journalists, and retailers. They were lured here by the promise of hearing metal bands Queens of the Stone Age and Eagles of Death Metal, but the audience loves this amateur opening act.

The guy on bass, overdressed in dark slacks and a button-down, is Peter Moore, a Microsoft vice president and the public face of the Xbox 360 console. On drums, lead guitar, and vocals are staffers from a Boston-area game developer called Harmonix. They all play and sing with abandon. But they aren't playing music, exactly. They're playing a videogame.

The instruments are plastic facsimiles festooned with brightly colored buttons. These faux instruments, as well as the microphone, are all plugged into an Xbox 360. The more accurately the players follow the rhythm, the more points they score and the better the music from the game console sounds.

This concert is a coming-out party for Harmonix and its new game, the aptly named Rock Band, which will be released for Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3 console by the end of the year. The company had a surprise success with its previous franchise, Guitar Hero, and was recently bought by Viacom, the latest in a string of acquisitions that the media conglomerate hopes will rejuvenate its MTV brand. MTV has partnered with industry juggernaut Electronic Arts to help distribute Rock Band, which along with its four peripherals will retail for $200, four times as much as a typical game. EA and MTV are betting that it will be a multiplatinum hit that attracts consumers who never even thought of themselves as gamers.

More here 

Posted by brian tiong at 03:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source : Susan Arendt *)

But one of the things I would say to that, is that I'm very concerned about the quality of the music games that are coming out and will come out, because again, I do feel as though it's kind of a special genre that requires specific knowledge of music and what makes music fun. Hopefully, the games that come out that are in that genre can take advantage of all that and do all those things right, and make sure that it's a really fun experience so that the genre itself can stay strong and not have a lot of bad clutter in it.

Yano also revealed that iNiS is working on a 360 title, though he wouldn't go into any detail about it.

Posted by brian tiong at 02:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source : Ronald Groover *)

The social networking Web site will distribute videos from big-time producers in an effort to counter rival Facebook .

Herskovitz directs a scene from quarterlife, a show that will debut on MySpace

Tired of watching skateboarding dogs and exploding diet cola bottles? MySpace.com, in a race to keep users from sampling such consumer-generated videos on YouTube (GOOG) and other sites, is going Hollywood. The online social network owned by News Corp. (NWS) has been taking meetings, holding power lunches, and returning calls from well-placed agents to lengthen a growing lineup of professionally produced videos for its large (and increasingly over-30) audience.

The most recent case in point comes Sept. 13, when MySpace will announce it has signed with Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick, producers of the Leonardo DiCaprio film Blood Diamond and the 1980s TV show thirtysomething, to distribute via MySpace a series of 8-minute videos called quarterlife.

The series, which tells the story of twentysomething writers, actresses, and dancers trying to break into show business, is being trumpeted as the first "network quality" show to be produced specifically for the Web. By that, the producers mean it won't be cheap to make—far more than the estimated $5,000 a pop it cost to produce Michael Eisner's Prom Queen, itself considered higher in quality than much online fare (BusinessWeek, 4/9/07).

High Production Values

How much more? The production tab will probably run higher than $80,000 an installment, based on Herskovitz' estimate that each 48-minute episode will cost somewhere north of $500,000. Each episode will then be divided into six installments to be distributed online.

The quarterlife deal comes two days after MySpace's agreement to team up with newly launched independent Web producer My Damn Channel, which has signed on well-known talent like sitcom writer and comedian Harry Shearer and Rolling Stones music producer Don Was to create their own videos.

MySpace has also inked other high-end content deals lately, including getting short "minisode" versions of classic TV shows such as The Jeffersons from Sony (SNE) and programming from sports leagues like the National Basketball Association. In July, the social network also signed Dark Horse Comics to create its own channel of online comic books.

More here 

Posted by brian tiong at 11:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Mark Ward *)

Artificial environments could be great places for AI's to learn

Researchers at US firm Novamente have created software that learns by controlling avatars in virtual worlds.

Initially the AIs will be embodied in pets that will get smarter by interacting with the avatars controlled by their human owners.

Novamente said it eventually aimed to create more sophisticated avatars such as talking parrots and even babies.

Virtual adoption

"The virtual world provides the body," said Dr Ben Goertzel, founder and head of Novamente.

He said the company had developed a "Cognition Engine" that acted as the thinking part of the artificial intelligences it wanted to create.

This engine had some partially scripted behaviours and goals for the avatar under its control but was also capable of reasoning to work out novel ways to achieve its aims.

Dr Goertzel said business and research reasons drew Novamente towards using virtual worlds for its AI development.

There was likely to be a ready market for smart virtual pets in worlds such as Second Life and many others, he said.

"There are a lot of virtual pets out there and none of them have much intelligence," he said.

"We have a pretty fully functioning animal brain right now and we are hooking it up to the different virtual worlds," said Dr Goertzel. "There's not much doubt that we can make really cool artificial animals.

"They could be ambient animals that go around and try to achieve their own goals, or pets that you can give people so they teach them."

Initially Novamente would focus on pets such as dogs or monkeys but aimed to branch out afterwards.

"I'd really like to do virtual talking parrots," he said, "and then virtual babies. You would get one and it would be yours for the next 18 years."

It's a lot more practical to control virtual robots in simulated worlds than real robots Dr Ben Goertzel

"The gaming industry has been one of the few places where AI has not been a dirty word," he said.

Posted by brian tiong at 10:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Businessweek *)

Christopher Palmeri says: 

With the help of consumer focus groups, the gamemaker has produced such hits as Call of Duty and Guitar Hero, and is expected to nearly double its earnings.

Call it a lesson from the Battlezone. In 1998, video game maker Activision (ATVI) launched a version of the popular arcade game featuring a tank battle between the U.S. and the Soviet Union on other planets. It was one of several mid-'90s games—including Heavy Gear and Dark Reign—that turned into expensive flops for the company. The common theme? "They were well-produced and highly rated," says Activision Chairman and Chief Executive Robert Kotick. "And they had no audience."

The experience prompted Kotick to change the way he managed video game development. Rather than rely on programmers to formulate game ideas, Kotick started commissioning focus groups to gauge what customers wanted. Even as he introduced a more top-down approach for ideas, he gave game developers more responsibility for the profitability of their creations. Now they compete for corporate resources and look for ways to reduce costs. Before, Kotick notes, the average programmer "didn't know the difference between a balance sheet and a bedsheet."

The results have validated Kotick's strategy. Activision's stock returned 182% over the past five years, vs. 76% for the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index and 63% for the company's longtime rival Electronic Arts (ERTS). Earlier this year, Activision shot its way past EA to become the top independent video game maker in North America. EA's hefty international sales keep it twice as big overall, $3.1 billion in sales for the fiscal year that ended Mar. 31, vs. $1.5 billion for Activision. But Activision, based in Santa Monica, Calif., is expected to have another strong year thanks to the many game franchises the company has built. "We're more bullish than ever on Activision," says Michael Pachter, an analyst at Wedbush Morgan Securities who follows the company.

Studio Stable

It's been a remarkable ride for Activision, which was the first independent video game producer, making games for the Atari system back in 1979. In 1990, Kotick, a high-tech entrepreneur, bought control of the then-bankrupt company for $440,000. Today, Activision has a stock market value of $5.5 billion. Analyst Pachter expects the company to earn $165 million on sales of $1.8 billion this year, nearly twice what it earned in fiscal 2007.

Kotick's strategy involved separating the company into a dozen small studios focusing on particular games. There's one that develops the games licensed from Marvel Entertainment (MVL), including Spider-Man and X-Men. Another for those from DreamWorks Animation (DWA), namely Shrek the Third and the upcoming Bee Movie. Under the new business model, studio employees get bonuses for meeting or exceeding profit targets set for their units. Kotick says the strategy has turned employees into brand managers, planning years ahead and keeping several versions of their games under development at the same time. That allows them to stagger releases so the company can produce more consistent sales.

More here 

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(* Source: Wired *)

Susan Arendt says:

More than 650,000 Guitar Hero II song packs have been downloaded from Xbox Live over the past five months. At three songs a pack, that means that...carry the one, add two...more than two million songs have been added to 360 owners' hard drives.

The latest song pack to be released, from My Chemical Romance, was downloaded more than 50,000 times in its first week of release. Have you ever seen a gold mine up close and personal? RedOctane's head of publishing, Dusty Welch, has:

Cha-ching!

Posted by brian tiong at 11:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Techcrunch *)

Michael Arrington says:

We’ve been tracking emerging mobile-only social networks such as ZYB and Mocospace and Mig33. All have unique selling points (Mocospace is dead simple to use, ZYB has a rich set of potential users from their address book backup service, and Mig33 has a VOIP tool that has attracted over seven million users), but there’s one solid gold feature that none yet have: physical presence detection and information exchange with other users.

This is the Holy Grail of mobile social networking, and one of the main reasons for taking the networks off the desktop/laptop environment in the first place. Imagine walking into a meeting, classroom, party, bar, subway station, airplane, etc. and seeing profile information about other people in the area, depending on privacy settings. Picture, name, dating status, resume information, etc. The information that is available would be relevant to the setting - quick LinkedIn type information for a business meeting v. Facebook dating status for a bar.

Knowing when your friends are around, and having the ability to meet new people who share your interests (even if it’s just that you are both single), will drive massive usage of networks. But, as with many new services, a chicken and egg problem looms. Until everyone is using this, there is no real reason for anyone to use it. Meetro, an instant messaging service that finds friends based on location, has struggled to gain users over the last couple of years for this reason.

Technical barriers aren’t an issue - cell phone tower triangulation and bluetooth solve a lot of the problems of locating users and transmitting information between phones. What’s harder is just plain getting a critical mass of users.

The Failures

There is a trail of failed attempts at getting this right. Nokia released Nokia Sensor nearly three years ago. It broadcasts information about yourself to others via bluetooth. Never heard of it? Neither has anyone else, although it is still available for download. Google’s Dodgeball is another example that’s fallen flat - it tells friends (and friends of friends) who are within 10 blocks of you where you are and what you are doing.

The New Experiments

A bunch of new startups are giving this a shot, too. In a post yesterday TechCrunch UK mentions Germany’s Aka-Aki, Paris-based Mobiluck and MeetMoi (the lone U.S. startup). Another startup is Copenhagen-based Imity. It’s not surprising that most of the innovation is occurring in Europe. The current approach is to get java-based software on the phone - very few U.S. carriers and handsets allow user-based installs of java apps.

More here 

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(* Source: Techcrunch *) 

Mike says... 

Heard of ModelsHotel? Its a hot new social network that you have absolutely no chance of joining. That’s because the site, founded by Jesper Lannung, is for the models only - enabling “models to stay in touch through a gated community.”

To get in you have to be a professional model and invited by the site or by other members. Once you’re in, you can do standard social networking stuff - post pictures, videos and profile information, and find romantic matches so you can have beautiful little photogenic spawn together.

They’re a year old but have been off our radar until this evening when the Wall Street Journal did a profile on them. A choice quote:

Models spend a lot of time in isolation, traveling from casting to casting, often in cities where they don’t know anyone else. But like Shannon Rusbuldt, a 22-year-old model with Elite Models, many fear exposing themselves to unwelcome solicitations from wannabe photographers, agents and suitors. Mr. Lannung, who is represented by Ms. Rusbuldt’s former agency, persuaded her to join by assuring her that his site is similar to other social networks, “but without the creepy people.”

Poor models. It’s good that they have a place to hide from the creepy people (i.e., the rest of the population).

The site may actually be a bit too selective though. 2,000 people have tried to join over the last year, says Lannung, but he’s rejected half of them. That makes for a pretty thinly populated social network. MySpace, by comparison, adds well over 100,000 members daily. Still, high end advertisers are said to be targeting the site to get access to those 1,000 trendsetters. The company is now trying to raise $1.5 million in venture capital, which I honestly hope they raise so that I can continue to make fun of them (and their VCs) before eventually depositing them in the Deadpool.

If you’re hot but not quite model material, check out Darwin Dating, another obnoxious site that is focused on matching up beautiful people on dates. Their tagline? Online Dating Minus Ugly People.

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(* Source: Rough Type *) 

Nick says...

"Compared to Club Penguin, Second Life, the much-hyped virtual world aimed at adults, is something of a ghost town. It's managed to attract only about 95,000 paid subscribers so far, a fraction of Club Penguin’s 700,000. In fact, all of the most popular virtual worlds are geared to kids and teenagers. The venerable Habbo Hotel, originally launched in Finland in 2000, attracts 7 million visitors a month, Sweden’s Stardoll attracts 5 million, Webkinz and Neopets attract 4 million each, and Gaia Online reports nearly 3 million monthly visitors ... Clearly, there are big commercial rewards to be had by enticing children to spend a lot of time exploring virtual worlds. What’s less clear, though, is the long-term effect on the kids themselves."

 

More here 

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(* Source: Mike Arrington *) 

A new class of startups is emerging that is part blogging, part genealogy and part something unique. They are focused on the very long term - getting and then keeping customers for decades, and encouraging friends and especially family members to join, too. Once they’re hooked, they’ve spent so much time building content that they are very unlikely to ever leave.

The four startups we’re tracking in this space are Our Story, Story Of My Life, dandelife and My Family. And while these sites are not purely genealogy/family tree focused, they overlap extensively with other startups we cover regularly such as Geni and My Heritage which focus first on building out the family tree first and adding content second.

If you are thinking of building out a family site, any of the four will be a suitable choice. Our Story, led by CEO Andy Halliday, has raised $6 million in venture capital. They are focused on your life’s timeline - you add simple (or elaborate) stories and pictures and place them on a timeline, which can then be embedded into another website via a widget, printed in a book or turned into a DVD. Timeline stories can be milestone based (such as when you graduated from college or got married), or question based. An easy way to get started is by answering some of the hundreds of questions the site presents to you. The important thing is to date everything properly so it appears on your life timeline in the right place.

Story Of My Life is a relative newcomer and is still in beta. The company is self funded and has done a lot with very little capital. Of the four it’s my favorite because it defocuses on your life’s timeline and instead encourages you to just create a profile and then write stories about yourself, either in journal (blogging) format or around chapters such as “my college years.” There’s less of a feeling that you aren’t “done” until the entire timeline is filled out. SOML also allows you to upload audio and video files in addition to photos.

Two feature about SOML that are useful - the “vault” is where your media is stored, which can the be pulled into individual stories. They also have top ten lists about each user, which is a quick way to get to know a person. SOML actually has more of a social network feel than the others, too.

SOML still has a few bugs to work through, though, as it moves towards full launch.

My Family is the largest and oldest of the four and affiliated with genealogy giant Ancestry.com. The site had an extensive redesign in 2006. It’s focused on the family before the individual. Even though it’s the largest, it lacks the timeline feature of Our Story and the usability of SOML (no video for example, although you can add record audio files over the phone and add it to slideshows or as a comment to other content). It also lacks the blogging/journal features of SOML. If you’re looking for a quick and easy family site to keep everyone up to date on what’s going on, it may be for you, but the family tree approach of Geni and My Heritage is a better way, in my opinion, to keep things organized.

If you are aware of other emerging startups focusing on this space, let us know. We’re keeping an eye on this space.

Posted by brian tiong at 01:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: online.wsj.com *)

Peter Sanders says :

For the first time, Bugs Bunny and dozens of his animated companions at Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Bros. unit will be housed together on a single interactive Internet portal.

The new Web site, dubbed T-Works, for "Toon Works," is scheduled to go live in April. Warner Bros.' stable of animation divisions includes Looney Tunes, Hanna-Barbera and DC Comics. It will feature all the studio's key animated characters -- from the famous bunny, Sylvester the Cat, Scooby Doo and the Flintstones to comic-book heroes, such as Batman, from the DC Comics division.

It is the latest effort by a major Hollywood studio to control distribution of its content while simultaneously playing catch-up to established social-networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook and virtual worlds like Second Life.

"T-Works fits perfectly with our overall digital strategy of creating original content online, as well as developing compelling consumer destinations," Bruce Rosenblum, president of Warner Bros.' Television Group, said in a statement.

The ad-supported site will be free to consumers. Users will be able to watch classic cartoons and original animated programming designed specifically for distribution on the site; create virtual worlds using cartoon characters as their online identities, or avatars; and customize their online identities on their own computers and on social-networking sites. They can also digitally alter cartoon characters to their liking and play online games based on the animated characters.

The site is Warner Bros.' latest effort to put elements of its vast catalog of content onto the Web. Officials of the Burbank, Calif., studio say T-Works will compete directly with Walt Disney Co. and Club Penguin, a social-networking site aimed at children that Disney bought last month.

Last year, in partnership with sister Time Warner unit AOL, Warner Bros. provided classic TV shows on the new In2TV site. That site has since largely been eclipsed by the major television networks, which now offer newer programming through various online sites. Rival studio Sony Pictures Entertainment, a unit of Sony Corp., earlier this summer revamped Crackle, its video-sharing Web site.

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(* Source: IMediaconnection.com *)

Krisserin Canary says:

Coca-Cola has embraced social networking, expanding its online strategy with a new Cherry Coke MySpace campaign. Shane Steele, Coca-Cola's director of emerging media and online advertising, discusses the company's new approach to Web 2.0.

Shane Steele is Coca-Cola's director of emerging media and online advertising.

Krisserin Canary: The new Cherry Coke campaign  is indicative of a move towards more interactive and involved MySpace campaigns. How did you approach creating this campaign? What were your priorities?

Shane Steele: Our main priority was to generate awareness and excitement with the relaunch of Cherry Coke and launch of Cherry Coke Zero amongst today's multicultural youth. Social networks offer an amazing opportunity to engage our target audience and communicate with them on their own terms. We needed to break-through the clutter and contemporize the brand by speaking to our consumers in a relevant and meaningful way. We understood the influence of the MySpace community and we wanted to give one lucky teen the chance to own it. We wanted to empower self-expression, inspire creativity and enable teens to showcase their passion for the Cherry Coke brand.

More here

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(* Source: Duncan Riley *) 

Ohio based BidSL launched Friday with a product that offers eBay style auctions in Second Life

BidSL allows any Second Life resident to put an item up for auction by renting an available auction device. The user can choose the number of days that the auction will run, and set a minimum bid as well. Items offered can be both virtual items (Second Life goods) or real world items.

The cost of running an auction is charged at a set rate usually around L$1-5, and sellers do not pay a percentage of the sale.

To place a bid on the item, a bidder right-clicks and pays the auction device the amount they wish to bid. If the person is outbid, the amount paid for the earlier bid is instantly refunded.

BidSL also offers a franchise program that offers the franchisee the “full use of the BidSL resources, benefit of our advertising/marketing campaigns, and complete technical assistance and advice.” The franchisee is given a capable auction unit, logo and advertising materials, and even a copy of the BidSL building if they desire. BidSL in return asks for 5% (or a minimum of L$1) of the rent received from the auction units.

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(* Source Duncan Riley *) 

In a wide ranging keynote address at the 2007 Influence Forum, ICANN CEO Paul Twomey told the audience that virtual worlds are the future of global commerce.

Twomey used The Sims Online as an example of the sort of interface all companies in the future will be using, in fields including retail, client services, B2B and advertising. Twomey cited the interface behind Google Earth as another example of a “game-like interface” that has been put to real world use. Twomey said that geolocation services would also play an important role in the virtual internet, suggesting that the way we will interact within next generation virtual internet services would have a strong geographical focus.

It’s interesting that the head of the body that controls the internet believes that the world of tomorrow is virtual; Twomey didn’t suggest that it may happen, he stated that it would be as a fact. Virtual worlds such as Second Life may not be the exact model used in the future, but there is little doubt that if Twomey is correct they are certainly heading in the right direction.

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(* Source: Mashable *)

Kristen Nicole says:

Habbo, the online virtual world, is holding its first worldwide Habbowood Digital Movie Awards. Using the MovieMaker tool, filmmakers are encouraged to create animated movies. The top film in Habbo.com will be entered into the “worldwide” competition where it will go up against the top films from 18 other Habbo communities. The winner gets a trip for two to Hollywood.

With the MovieMaker tool, you can edit your film and use a provided set of sets, props, special effects, music, etc. to create sets for virtual avatars to act out your movie. This editing tool supports up to ten different scenes to create a film that’s 5 minutes in length. The Habbo community will choose the ten finalists, based on page views and ratings. Editors will choose a winner from the top ten, and there will be awards handed out for Best Director, Best Writer, Best Actor and Best Actress as well. These awards will be presented live at a virtual gala in Habbowood.

Clearly the virtual “movie” world is heating up. Origin Digital now offers on-demand streaming media to be used in virtual worlds, while the rights for a documentary filmed in Second Life have been acquired by HBO.

 Check Youtubevideo

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(* Source: Gigaom *)

Wagner James Au says : 

Zhong Guan Village, Beijing - Last year, a mysterious YouTube video purported to demo a “Chinese Second Life” called HiPiHi (pronounced “high-pee-high”) stormed the virtual world blogosphere. But with little English language commentary to go on, metaverse experts like Raph Koster were left to wildly speculate.

Was it Asian vaporeware attempting to cash in on a Western fad? Or something bigger than that? And if it really was a user-created world like Second Life, how could it succeed in the land of The Great Firewall? To get those answers, I did the only sensible thing: I flew to Beijing to see it for myself.

Actually, it was a touch less dramatic than that. I’m already in China, in part, to speak about Second Life at the excellent multi-city Get It Louder arts festival. As it turned out, Xu Hui, HiPiHi’s founder and CEO, was on a follow-up panel. Afterward, he invited me to stop by the office, located in Beijing’s high-tech district (Microsoft’s campus is visible through the haze from the main office windows), for a look. We were joined by Zhang Anding, Hipihi’s young policy director. What follows are my notes from that meeting (with some details quite possibly lost or gained in the translation.)

Dare to Compare

For a Second Life user, the most striking thing about HiPiHi is how similar its interface is – reverse-engineered is probably the more accurate term. (This despite the fact that Second Life’s confusing user interface is easily its weakest selling point.) Xu said he conceived of the basic idea before even knowing about Second Life, but it’s abundantly clear he and his team have modeled a lot of HiPiHi on it. Like Second Life, content is streamed from the networked HiPiHi servers — which comprise the world — to users’ computers.

Residents can shape their environment with a library of prefab, customizable artifacts (furniture, homes, etc.), or for the more ambitious, in an atomistic creation system that very much resembles Second Life’s tool chest. (Albeit without a scripting system, though Xu’s team promised one will be available in October, when HiPiHi is slated to be launched) The 16,000 or so beta users/testers are drawn from the Chinese regions, but Xu said English and Japanese versions will launch later this year.

At the same time, some of the graphic elements in the demo I saw are already superior to Second Life, such as dynamic water reflection, and a considerably more lush and varied environment. The singular feature that distinguishes Second Life from all other MMOs so far is that subscribers retain the underlying IP rights to their creations — and here, too, HiPiHi will compete.

More here 

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(* Source: Gigaom *)

Wagner James Au says :

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(* Source: Techcrunch *)

Mark Hendrickson says:

The avatars roaming many online virtual communities may be cartoonish and their activities inconsequential, but the recent sale of Club Penguin to Disney for $350 million (with $350 million in earn out) demonstrates that the business of casual immersive worlds, or virtual hangouts, is not entirely child’s play.

Virtual hangouts are where people can engage each other using imaginary characters in imaginary environments. They have been around and popular in Europe and Asia for years. However, they appear to be gaining traction in the United States as of late. Some commentators even believe that the type of experience provided by these destinations could very well become integral to the forthcoming Web 3.0 era.

The newly released MultiVerse platform, which is designed for the creation of online 3D worlds, certainly anticipates a future in which developers demand the tools necessary to build niche virtual communities because such communities have gone mainstream.

Currently, virtual hangouts differentiate themselves by targeting particular audiences and providing certain types of immersive experiences.

Destinations such as Club Penguin and Barbie Girls cater to children and pre-teenagers with their simple user interfaces, basic games, and cartoon graphics. Other immersive worlds such as Second Life and Habbo Hotel shoot for a broader audience by providing more advanced chat capabilities, more realistic simulations of reality, and tools to design objects and surroundings. Then there is Red Light Center (NSFW), which targets mature adults to give them an altogether more explicit breed of entertainment.

The worlds meant for children are designed with a concern for the safety and security of their users. Webkinz, for example, only lets users chat with a preselected assortment of phrases so no one can say anything inappropriate or share personal information. The services meant for general audiences lack such restrictions and theoretically can be enjoyed by all types of people, although this freedom often translates into behavior that would be utterly inappropriate for children. Second Life, for example, does not explicitly promote adult behavior but has become notorious for it nonetheless. Embracing the more voluptuous side of human behavior, services like Red Light Center are professedly all adult, all the time and encourage users to participate in explicit behavior.

Virtual hangouts range not only in the audiences they target but also in the level of immersion they provide. Some, such as Second Life and Active Worlds, put you in 3D-rendered environments with first person points of view in an attempt to approximate virtual reality. Others, such as Gaia (“the world’s fastest growing online world hangout for teens”) and Barbie Girls, use sprites (two-dimensional pre-rendered figures) to provide a bird’s-eye view of characters moving around in largely static settings. Even further down the immersion scale, the “worlds” of certain services such as Cyworld and Neopets are produced simply using HTML images and Flash animations.

More here 

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(* Source: Ellen Lee *)

Some add a little sparkle. Others showcase photographs from a family trip. Still more entertain with music and video clips.

Widgets are flooding the Web's social-networking and blogging sites, adding texture and personality to once-static pages. Think of them as the modern equivalent of decorating a locker door or bedroom wall.

Widgets are programs like photo slide shows that sit on top of another site. Created by companies such as San Francisco's Slide and RockYou, they can be added to a social-networking profile or blog to decorate the page.

Want to let people know about a favorite song? Install a widget from iLike that plays the tune.

Widgets are adding a dimension to the social-networking phenomenon. More than 69.6 million people logged onto MySpace in July, according to comScore Media Metrix, and 30.6 million checked into Facebook, using the sites to stay in touch with friends and meet new ones.

Widgets are helping make sure these members keep coming back.

More here

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(* Source : The Guardian *)

28 Weeks Later

Richard Wray says:

Next week's DVD release of the zombie-flick 28 Weeks Later will bring a revolutionary marketing widget, widely used in Japan, to the UK for the first time.

The film poster contains a square box full of black and white dots known as a QR - quick response - code. It contains information that can be decoded by the camera on a mobile phone with the right software installed. A huge poster showing nothing but a QR code has already gone up in London's Shoreditch to advertise the DVD.

These "bar codes" are widely used in Japan to store everything from web addresses and phone numbers to product details. Rather than laboriously typing in a person's phone number or an internet address into a phone, these codes give one-touch access to a wealth of information that can then be stored on a phone.

Japan's immigration service even stamps passports with codes detailing passenger's names and visa status. The 28 Weeks Later codes include details of the DVD's release and links to other material on the internet.

While many top-of-the-range phones such as the Nokia N93 already contain readers, anyone with a camera phone can install software that reads QR codes from companies such as i-nigma and Kaywa. They can even create their own codes.

For the mobile industry QR codes are both a way of making it easier for customers to get to their favourite websites using their mobile and a possible way of generating mobile advertising revenues.

Industry experts believe the time is right for QR codes in the UK. Over half the UK's mobile users have one while 95% of new phones sold include a camera. The first generation of QR codes in this country, however, are likely to be significantly larger than the 1cm x 1cm found in Japan, because most British camera phones have a lower resolution than in Asia.

Philip Makinson, consultant at industry experts Greenwich Consulting, said QR codes are likely to be little more than a bit of fun in the short term but could attract consumers to do more than just make calls and send texts.

"QR codes could help drive not only the take-up of high-end camera phones but make more people aware of the mobile internet and more conscious of the potential their phone has to store information about products and services," he said.

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(* Source: Mashable *)

Kristen Nicole says :

Me.dium is holding a music festival online called RockMe, in conjunction with Rose Hill Drive.

This five-day online music festival kicks off on September 18, and goes to the 22nd. Featuring five bands, including Rose Hill Drive, The Fiery Furnaces, Jeffrey Lewis, Gosling and The Willowz, fans will get a chance to better engage with these musicians. Ustream will power the live music, and there will also be live tours, discussions with fans, and behind the scenes stuff that concerts are made of. As the Me.dium player is required to enjoy this online fest, I’m sure Me.dium is hoping to get some new members as well.

This isn’t the only live event Me.dium is sinking its teeth into. The site recently launched an interactive version of the Tiki Bar TV Show.

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(* Source: Mark Hefflinger *)

Dublin, Ireland - About one-quarter of white collar workers say they play casual games at work, with a further 35% of senior executives admitting the practice, according to a survey conducted by Information Solutions Group on behalf of casual games distributor PopCap Games.

While 61% said they play during lunch or other official break periods, 52% said they play during the work day, when they need a short break, and one in seven (14%) said they had played casual games during a business meeting or conference call.

Benefits cited from casual game play at work included stress relief and relaxation (91%), mental workouts (69%) and memory strengthening (54%); 84% of those surveyed said they felt more relaxed after playing casual games.

Many employers even encouraged casual games play, with 79% of those surveyed who hold supervisory roles reporting that they encouraged their staff to take brief mental breaks during the workday.

Posted by brian tiong at 11:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Mashable *)

Kristen Nicole says:

Bonus.com is relaunching its site as an online hub for parents and children to interact around games and activities in this web-based community.

The new features that have been added to Bonus.com in order to enhance this multi-faceted community start with The Multiplex. This lets site visitors to watch video clips, movie trailers, and more from television shows, games, and music with a customized way to expand information on individual pages. The Bonster Avatars are for users to personalize their Bonus.com experience, choosing bodies, and dressing its with clothes and accessories.

There’s also a new comic book creator that lets kids start their own stories. The editing tools available for this comic book creator are designed to offer more creativity outlets for kids. The Fridge is tne new messaging hub for Bonus.com where players can exchange messages with other players regarding comics, games, and other site activity as a sort of bulletin board system. New games include Battlefield 2, which is an MMPOG, and Acronom, which operates around collecting cards and features the Paramormals characters.

Other developments with online networks slanted towards kids is the acquisition of Club Penguin by Disney, and the launching of Scratch, a programming language for kids.

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(* Source: Reuters *)

N. Evan van Zelfden says:

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - Double Fusion, a private company that connects advertisers and video game publishers, rolls out new technology on Tuesday to allow advertisers to mount last-minute ad campaigns in games the same way they use spot TV ads.

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(* Source: Marketingcharts.com *)

Nearly a third (31%) of adults surveyed indicated they had children or grandchildren under 18 who played family-friendly “casual” computer/video games - puzzle, word and simple action games - in their home, according to what PopCap Games said was the largest survey of players of casual computer/video games conducted (via NextGeneration).

Of those 2,298 “family gamers,” 80% said they played casual games with their children or grandchildren. Since conservative estimates peg the casual games market at more than 200 million people, the survey would indicate that more than 50 million casual gamers are “family gamers” who enjoy experiencing the games in the company of younger family members, PopCap said.

Survey firm Information Solutions Group contacted 7,487 consumers and identified 2,298 as “family gamers.” Some 79% of those “family gamers” were female and 95% were age 30 or older - figures that closely reflect the overall casual gamer audience, according to PopCap.

As many as 44% of survey respondents identified themselves as mothers of children who play casual games, and 36% said they were grandmothers. Among males, 16% and 6% of respondents identified themselves as fathers and grandfathers, respectively.

 More findings from the PopCap casual games study

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Unfortunately, for traditional radio operators, someone is touching that dial.

Posted by brian tiong at 03:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Sean P. Aune *)

Spike Lee, noted filmmaker of such films as Do The Right Thing and Malcolm X, is lending his name and talents to Babelgum’s online film festival. Starting today, and running through February 15th, 2008, filmmaker’s can submit their works to Babelgum. After the 15th, the films will be viewable by the public, who will do the first round of voting. After the top 10 films have been picked in each category, the films will move on to a panel of industry judges to determine the final winners.

The rules are fairly simple: the films must have screened at an international film festival between Jan. 2007 and Feb. 2008 and run for 45 minutes or less. The six categories you can submit for include Babelgum Looking for Genius Award, Babelgum Short Film Award, Babelgum Documentary Award, Babelgum Animation Award, Babelgum Social/Environment Award, and Babelgum Spot/Advertising Award.

Babelgum uses a form of peer-to-peer technology to assist in it’s sharing of high resolution videos, much the same as Joost. Users can create their own channels consisting of professional video material that ranges from mainstream to niche content.

Posted by brian tiong at 01:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Mashable *)

Kristen Nicole says : 

BlipBack is a new site that lets you offer video comments on your website, blog or social networking profile page.

This service integrates with your webcam to enable video comments. The widget player is very similar to what you’ll see with most video widgets from YouTube and other video-sharing networks, though there are thumbnails for you to view the upcoming comments from others, along with the number of views and the rating for each comment. Your sorting options are to view from oldest to newest or vice versa, or view from highest to lowest rated or vice versa. You can also sort comments by most viewed, and an option to subscribe to video comments via RSS feeds.

In order to add your own comment, you’ll need a webcam, though there is an option to take a video with your camera phone and send it in to the address provided for each widget. This way groups can have a remote way to create collaborative video streams on a website, similar to Cellblock or Pickle.

The other option offered is a BlipBomb, which is a comments widget you can insert in comments threads across various social networks and blogging platforms. Having an automatic play option to view all the comments in the widget as a streaming channel would be a good feature for this service.

Posted by brian tiong at 01:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)