apple

The video game industry is a hotly contested space that's currently being dominated by three major companies: Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo. And although companies like Sega and others have tried to solidify their brands in the console space, they've failed in the face of those three giants.

But just because the past is littered with companies that have failed miserably at trying to capture a place in the world of hardware, does that mean that no company ever will do it again? Microsoft is a late entrant into the space and Sony came on the scene in a big way when columns were being written about the same basic premise: companies can't break into the console war.

Sorry, but I just don't buy the logic.

That said, I don't think any company can break into the console space. In fact, I would say that only one company can do it. Not because it has worked in the video game business for such a long time or that it's uniquely positioned to break in. No, the real reason why I believe this company could make a splash in the video game business (and why it possibly will) is because it commands the kind of hype and respect that no other company in the space does.

If you ask me, Apple could (and should) release a video game console. And not just because it'll be a success, but because it's the only company that could make a dent in the market.… Read more

Andy Rubin, Google's director of mobile platforms, reveals a great deal about Google's mobile strategy in a recent Reuters interview. One thing, in particular, caught my eye and suggests that Google's Android may succeed, and yet fail at the same time:

Rather than launch the new operating system with a range of devices from several handset makers and phone carriers, Rubin said Google chose to "put our blinders on" and make sure the first phones impress consumers....

Google has worked almost exclusively with Taiwan's High Tech Computer Corp and T-Mobile for the first Android phone, he said. "Google wanted to make sure that we had enough control over the hardware to make sure the software worked."...

This control - so important to Apple's iPhone in ensuring a seamless hardware-plus-software experience, may well mean that Android will work as advertised.

It does, however, also mean that Android's would-be open-source developers have far less flexibility than they might otherwise wish to exercise.… Read more

Having bumped into each other at Shoe Circus, the two protagonists decide to walk the tightrope and make a road movie.

Whisper it very softly, but they just might pull this trick off.

Take a look at the 4.5-minute version of Gates and Seinfeld's "Road to Somewhere 2." In the first installment, the Kafkasesque "Shoe Circus," Jerry Seinfeld looked as if he had really forgotten how not to act, but in this second installment, it's hard not to warm to his buddy act with a new thespian who is clearly holding his own, … Read more

With rumor and speculation whirling around the launch of MySpace's music service--expected to launch this week--it's nice to finally get some hard news.

The company is expected to announce Monday that McDonald's, Toyota, and State Farm Insurance have agreed to advertise on MySpace Music, the new music store backed by billionaire Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. and three out of the four largest music labels. Advertising will be a major component for the new start-up, MySpace executives said. That makes sense as that's what Murdoch's troops understand. Selling music is a new area … Read more

With little clarity on what constitutes "duplicate functionality", Apple rejected the iPhone podcast client Podcaster on the grounds that "since Podcaster assists in the distribution of podcasts, it duplicates the functionality of the Podcast section of iTunes".

No one should expect Apple to include competitive applications in it's walled garden. That would be the equivalent to Salesforce.com putting other CRM apps on the AppExchange. It's bad business for them. And it's just not realistic.

Nonetheless, this calls into question just how you can have a "platform" when the platfrom vendor … Read more

news analysis The digital films and TV shows available to consumers now are shackled by numerous DRM schemes. A new consortium of entertainment, software, and retail companies wants to enable consumers to download any digital media from any Web store and enjoy it on any player.

Members include Warner Bros. Entertainment, Best Buy, Toshiba, Sony, Comcast, Intel, Cisco, Microsoft, NBC Universal, and Paramount Pictures. The group, called the Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem (DECE), says its mission is to combat piracy by making the act of buying media so easy that people won't be tempted to steal.

To do that, … Read more

Didn't have time to stay glued to Crave all week long? No worries. It's that time again: a quick roundup of some of the biggest stuff on Crave this week.

• Steve Jobs was in town--and he brought some new stuff with him.

• Samsung noticed it was the only one not making a Netbook. So it fixed that.

• The DTV transition has begun, and CNET's John Falcone has some suggestions about how it could go a bit more smoothly.

• Nintendo says it's adding a storage solution, but is being mysterious about exactly what that will be.

• And … Read more

Amazon.com really knows how to treat its customers.

Although I've read a few dozen books on my Kindle by now, my use of it is erratic. I use it heavily for days or weeks at a time, then set it aside for a while to address the stack of paper books by my nightstand. (When Montalvo Systems shut down, I had two 2.5-foot stacks of unread books. After a long summer of unemployment, the unread stack is down to a mere five titles.)

Last Tuesday, I found an e-book I wanted to read, so I got out the Kindle and saw it was dead. (The battery lasts only a few days even if I'm not using it, which really isn't good enough.) I charged it overnight and moved the book onto the Kindle on Wednesday. Later that day when I wanted to read the book, I found the Kindle was out of juice already.

I charged it overnight again (with the radio off in case it was having some kind of issue), forgot about it Thursday and remembered it this morning. But it was dead again. I started it charging again before going out to a lunch interview. When I returned, I turned the unit on and just sort of kept an eye on it, pressing buttons occasionally to keep it mostly awake while doing some other work on my computer.

The battery ran down in less than two hours.

… Read more

A year after being surprised by upstart budget brands like Vizio and Olevia, the big names in TV have fought back. Samsung showed it too could play their game, and developed its own line of budget model TVs, which have helped it return to dominance in the mid-size LCD market in North America. But what's next for Vizio? CNET home theater expert John Falcone joins us to talk TVs and holiday shopping prices.

Also in Friday's podcast, Apple releases the much needed software update for the iPhone, hackers find their way into one of the computers at CERN … Read more