Halo 3 Rakes in $300 Million in First Week
Microsoft said Thursday that its hit game Halo 3 had reached $300 million in sales in the first week of availability. Better yet for the company, the game is also driving console sales, which have more than doubled according to initial reports from retailers. The figures make Halo 3 the fastest selling video game ever, and one of the biggest entertainment launches in history.
"'Halo' is truly a cultural phenomenon, and the launch of 'Halo 3' is an important milestone for Xbox 360 and for video games as entertainment and as an art form," said Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft. The company said 2.7 million, more than a third of the service's customer base, have already played the game through Xbox Live. This amounts to approximately 40 million hours online.
Palm CEO: New OS Delayed Until End of '08
Palm CEO Ed Colligan admitted this week that a new version of its operating system is at least a year and a half away, highlighting the continuing struggles of the PDA maker.
The new OS is intended to allow the company to expand beyond the PDA, however it is now somewhat unclear if the company will pursue such a strategy with the scrapping of the Foleo last month.
Microsoft Makes .NET Framework Source Code Visible Under License
As part of an effort to make debugging code at the granular level more feasible with its new Visual Studio 2008, Microsoft today said it will be making the source code for its .NET Framework available under its royalty-free, "read-only" Reference License.
Why would Microsoft want to reveal the inner workings of .NET without allowing others to contribute to it? The answer may be self-evident to developers who work on a daily basis with the problem of examining program behavior, especially using Visual Studio's common tools like breakpoints and watches (alerts which pop up under certain specified conditions).
Nintendo Offers Coats for Wiimotes
Wii owners may have noticed their consoles glowing blue yesterday, which typically indicates firmware updates and important messages from Nintendo HQ. The message yesterday said that the Wiimote controllers will receive an additional safety upgrade: a silicone covering.
This is part of what has become an ongoing process to minimize potential injury related to the controllers which, in the hands of overzealous gamers, could become quite a safety hazard.
Universal's In-movie Shopping Tries to Tip the Scales for HD DVD
Today, Universal Studios Home Entertainment said it's adding an online shopping feature to one of its popular movie releases - the upcoming Evan Almighty featuring comic Steve Carell - enabling high-def viewers to pause the movie, order something featuring or from the show, and resume.
The capability for HD DVD movies to contain programs that take advantage of Internet-driven Web services was built into that format from the beginning, and a separate-yet-equal capability was built into Blu-ray. But only now have studios begun to try these online-oriented features, now that more second-generation consoles with Internet capability have been sold.
Verizon Claims to Have 'iPhone Killer'
Verizon is adding four new devices to its lineup of phones to be released for the holiday season, headed by the new LG VX10000 Voyager.
Dominated by its 400x240 touch screen, the Voyager outwardly looks like that other phone on the market. "We think it'll be the best phone ... this year. It will kill the iPhone," Verizon Wireless Chief Marketing Officer Mike Lanman said in an interview with Reuters.
Has Bungie Really Left Microsoft?
Nobody's talking yet, but a new rash of reports are beginning to make it seem like the breakup of Bungie and Microsoft may be more than just a silly Internet rumor.
Such a relevation would come as a huge shock not only to Xbox 360 fans, but the industry at large as well. Together, the two companies have created one of the largest game franchises in history, and just came off the biggest entertainment launch ever with Halo 3.
AOL Updates AIM, Adds Streaming Music
AOL pushed a significant interim update to its instant messaging client on Wednesday, adding several new features and giving people the option to stream music to one another.
The new AIM Tunes is probably the most attractive new feature of AIM 6.5. DRM-free music added to a special playlist is streamable when users are online. AOL said the feature requires no separate media player download, and will "respect copyright issues of the music industry."
HTC Has Surprise Hit With Touch
HTC said this week that it had shipped some 800,000 Touch phones since it first went on sale on July 22, almost a month later than the iPhone.
Like the initial reports of the iPhone's one million phones "sold," it is unclear as of yet whether this was shipped to the retail channel or directly to the consumer. A request for clarification from HTC had not been returned as of press time.
Microsoft Plans New Xbox 360 Arcade Console
Product listings on Amazon.com and the Toys 'R' Us Web sites indicate that the Xbox 360 Core system is set to be replaced by a new console that focuses on its arcade game capabilities October 23. If earlier reports provided are correct, the console will come in a darker gray finish (being called a "standard finish") and include a 256MB memory card. An HDMI port will be added, and the device will include one wireless controller, although no headset.
Central to the new SKU is the inclusion of five arcade games, two of which are expected to be UNO and Pac-Man. No other details were immediately available, and Microsoft had yet to publicly confirm the new model's existence as of press time.
Apple Sued Over iPhone Price Cut
Apple is finding itself in the center of yet another skirmish over its $200 USD price cut for the iPhone, although this one has landed it in court.
Dongmei Li, a resident of Queens, NY filed the lawsuit Sept. 24 in federal court in New York. It accuses Apple, Steve Jobs, and AT&T of price discrimination, discrimination in offering rebates versus credits, underselling, and unfair and deceptive practices, among other charges.
Making Sense of Microsoft's Office Live Strategy
On Monday, Microsoft announced it's subdividing its online applications services even further, doling out new features such as storage space for individual Office users, while at the same time offering new e-mail and collaboration hosting features to small businesses. Today, it added some new personal attention services for the small business tier. Could this finally be the strategy that makes Microsoft's lagging online services segment start paying off?
In many of the classic Chuck Jones cartoons, the hero is being chased by one of his over-the-top villains. The action gets so fast that you only see a gust of wind and footprints the hero left behind. Then when he gets to some obstacle, like a boulder in the road or a sign pointing two directions, the footprints split into separate directions, leaving the pursuer comically perplexed.
Microsoft Debuts New Zunes for Holidays
As expected, Microsoft unveiled its second generation Zune players on Tuesday night, including three new sizes, new software, and an updated store. In addition, it gave details of a new community site to launch next month.
The details of the players match information that sources first told BetaNews Monday afternoon. Central to the new players is the Zune Pad, a touch sensitive button for navigation, and wireless sync. The new Zunes be released in mid-November.
More Zune 2 Details Surface Ahead of Launch
UPDATE: As expected, Microsoft has made the official announcement regarding the new Zunes
Although the news won't officially hit until midnight tonight, further details of the Zune players have leaked ahead of Microsoft's secret Tuesday night event for press and bloggers.
After Losing One Appeal, Can Vonage Catch a Break?
With potentially debilitating results hanging over it as a result of losses against both Verizon and Sprint Nextel in patent infringement suits, VoIP services provider Vonage faces the prospect of either or both judges imposing injunctions against the company continuing to provide service.
But a footnote toward the very end of last week's partial remand decision by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, first found by University of Missouri law professor Dennis Crouch, could be interpreted as a little nudge - a suggestion from one court to another that could yet give Vonage a way out of its terrible predicament.
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