Modern News

By John Gaudiosi
LIVERPOOL, England (Reuters) – Blatant disregard for oncoming traffic and speed limits will get you into serious trouble on the road, but drivers seeking similar thrills can indulge in a fleet of new racing video games due out soon.
Sony Computer Entertainment’s (Sony) “Gran Turismo 5″ from Polyphony Digital, Activision Blizzard’s “Blur” and Disney Interactive Studios’ “Split/Second” are heading to stores from game-makers around the globe, boosting a genre that inevitably has players coming back for more.
John Taylor, videogame analyst, Arcadia Research, said that in 2004 racing games accounted for approximately 9 percent of U.S. videogame sales, a figure which has now more than doubled.
He said the racing genre still has strong franchises such as Nintendo’s “Mario Kart Wii,” Microsoft’s “FORZA Motorsport” and Sony’s “Gran Turismo,” with this year’s offerings set to add to a niche that, according to analyst Anita Frazier, netted sales worth $548 million in 2009.
“Today, more than 20 percent of U.S. gamers play action or sports racing games with the demographics skewing to younger males,” said Michael Cai, vice president of research at media and technology research firm Interpret.
Liverpool-based game studio Bizarre Creations has made the jump to action racing with “Blur.” The studio’s last racing franchise, Microsoft’s “Project Gotham Racing,” has sold over 7 million copies on Xbox 360, including 2.9 million units in the United States, according to The NPD Group.
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By Gabriel Madway
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Sony Corp has unveiled its new motion-controlled video game system, pitching it to both casual and hard-core gamers alike, as the company looks to ride one of the hottest trends in gaming.
The new system will help Sony keep pace with rivals Nintendo Co Ltd, which pioneered gesture-based gaming, and Microsoft Corp, which is launching its system later this year.
Sony’s new PlayStation “Move” controller is used with its Eye gaming webcam, translating users’ motions into actions within games on the PlaySation 3 (PS3) console.
Move, which resembles a TV remote with a colorful ball stuck on the end, will be available as part of a package this fall for less than $100, Sony said at a media event on Wednesday.
The company said 36 third-party developers and publishers are supporting the Move platform. In fiscal 2010, Sony will release more than 20 games that are dedicated to or supported by the system.
Nintendo’s Wii kicked off the craze for motion-controlled gaming, making the console and active games such as “Wii Fit” and “Wii Sports Resort” into huge hits with casual gamers.
Microsoft has already unveiled the Natal body-gesturing gaming system for its Xbox 360 console, which the company plans to have in stores for the holidays.
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NEW YORK (Reuters) – Motorola Inc has reached a deal with Microsoft Corp that will put Bing search and mapping services on its phones that use Google’s Android operating system.
Motorola said the partnership with Microsoft means that a Bing bookmark and search widget will be loaded on cell phones, starting in the coming weeks with phones in China.
The move follows shortly after Motorola struck a similar deal to let consumers in China use Baidu Inc, among others, as the default Web search instead of Google on Android based phones.
The partnerships come against a backdrop of Google’s dispute with China over censorship, which, if it leads to Google withdrawing from the country, could cause big headaches for Motorola.
That’s because Motorola is banking on its ties to Google’s Android and its sales in China to help in a big turnaround effort. Having search alternatives on the Android phones should lessen Motorola’s dependence on Google, in China or elsewhere, analysts have said.
(Reporting by Paul Thomasch; editing by Carol Bishopric)

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By Dhanya Skariachan
NEW YORK (Reuters) – While James Cameron’s 3D sci-fi epic “Avatar” took the box office by storm instantly, the road to success will be much longer for Best Buy Co Inc, which is making a big bet on 3D televisions this year.
The top U.S. electronics retailer unveiled a line of 3D TVs made by Japan’s Panasonic in New York City on Wednesday, as it joins a host of companies hoping to cash in on the new technology.
While many expect 3D TVs to draw curious shoppers to Best Buy stores, helped by blockbuster 3D films like “Avatar” and the new “Alice in Wonderland,” they do not see the higher-priced products acting as a big sales catalyst or a quick-fix for weak margins in 2010.
“3D TV is a nice to have. Certainly not a must-have. To me, it is kind of like a cherry on a sundae,” BB&T Capital Markets analyst Anthony Chukumba said.
“I don’t necessarily think that 3D TV is going to move the needle a ton for Best Buy in 2010,” he said.
Barclays analyst Michael Lasser estimated the margin on a 3D TV to be “meaningfully higher” than what Best Buy earns on an HDTV of a comparable size, but added demand for the products was uncertain at the moment.
“I don’t think 3D TV will be decisive for margins,” Goldman Sachs’ Matthew Fassler said, adding, “It is not reasonable to expect consumers to pay a premium for technology without sufficient associated content.”
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TORONTO (Reuters) – Internet retailer Amazon.com has smashed up against Canadian pride in its efforts to open a distribution center in Canada, as booksellers grumble that it can’t understand the role of Canadian culture.
“Individual Canadian booksellers have traditionally played a key role in ensuring the promotion of Canadian authors and Canadian culture,” Stephen Page, president of the Canadian Booksellers’ Association, said in an angry statement that calls on the government to block the plan.
“These are values that no American dot.com retailer could ever purport to understand or promote.”
Seattle-based Amazon, the world’s largest online retailer, already sells books, electronics, music and consumer goods through the Canadian website http://www.amazon.ca.
It was not available to comment on Wednesday, but it’s not clear how much would change under the distribution center plan. The retailer has said the center would allow it to pass along huge savings to its Canadian customers.
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By Gabriel Madway
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – OnLive is set to launch its “cloud-based” video game service in June, as the closely watched start-up looks to challenge home console heavyweights with the promise of on-demand gaming.
OnLive will roll out to PC and Mac users in the United States on June 17, charging customers $14.95 a month for instant access to games from publishers including Electronic Arts Inc, Ubisoft Entertainment SA and THQ Inc.
Users will pay to rent or buy titles through OnLive, but game prices were not announced. A packaged new release generally costs around $60.

OnLive Chief Executive Steve Perlman said the service was going to be “disruptive” to the game industry in general and to home console makers Nintendo Co Ltd, Microsoft Corp and Sony Corp in particular.
He said OnLive will help publishers by combating software piracy, reducing sales of used titles and improving margins, which are lower on packaged software than they are for titles distributed digitally.
“You’re able to deliver games directly from the publisher now to the consumer,” Perlman said at the Game Developers Conference on Wednesday. “People have no patience; they want something now.”
“OnLive will deliver games run from the so-called “cloud,” meaning they are stored remotely on servers, rather than locally on a PC or a console. It promises lag-free access to games that can be played on nearly any personal computer or television.
OnLive was under stealth development for seven years, and was formally introduced a year ago to much fanfare. Although some question whether the technology will work as promised, if it does, analysts said the service could indeed pose a challenge to console makers.
OnLive has data centers around the U.S. filled with servers to handle user demand. Perlman declined to say when the service might roll out to other markets such as Europe.
Perlman is well-known in Silicon Valley. He helped launch WebTV, which Microsoft bought in 1997.
OnLive’s financial backers include AT&T Inc Media Holdings Inc, Lauder Partners, Time Warner Inc unit Warner Bros, Autodesk Inc and Maverick Capital.
(Reporting by Gabriel Madway, editing by Gerald E. McCormick)

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It’s not as if Uncle Sam isn’t trying to spend his way out of recession. February’s $221 billion deficit tally turned out to be a blockbuster , easily surpassing the previous record of $194 billion in February 2009.

The government also estimates that the total 2010 deficit will actually surpass 2009’s, coming in at $1.56 trillion compared to $1.42 trillion.

What does a $1.5 trillion deficit mean? Here’s a simplistic illustration. Current short term borrowing rates are extremely low, with the three month T-Bill yielding .15%. If the government financed this year’s deficit via this instrument, the interest tab would be $2.25 billion.

Should the T-Bill rate recover to more normal levels, say 3%, that amount climbs to $45 billion. And since we would have to finance last year’s deficit as well, the tab for both years would be roughly $90 billion. Or, in other words, something that exceeds the famous $87 billion Iraq war spending bill that worried the Democrats so, and which John Kerry voted for before voting against it.

Well, that’s change of a sort. But not much hope for a future.

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By Tarmo Virki, European technology correspondent

HELSINKI (Reuters) – IBM has started a two-year research program that aims to make cellphones easier to use for groups including the elderly and the illiterate.

As growth in developed markets such as Europe, Japan and United States has stalled, the wireless industry is looking especially toward the elderly who have so far thought they could do without a cellphone, or who can’t use the one they have.

IBM said on Wednesday software developed in the program, which also involves the National Institute of Design of India and Tokyo University, will be made available on an open source basis, and other materials developed will also be made publicly available for governments and businesses.

Telecom industry watchers said the IBM program addressed a genuine need.
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SHANGHAI (Reuters) – More than 100 Chinese consumers have filed an official complaint against Hewlett-Packard Co over faulty laptop computers, leaving the door open for a lawsuit against the U.S. technology company, a lawyer for the group said on Wednesday.

Jiang Suhua, a lawyer at Yingke Law Firm in Beijing, told Reuters the complaint centered on video cards which overheated and caused the laptop to malfunction.

He said that around 170 Chinese sent the complaint on Friday to the country’s quality control watchdog agency, General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine.
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By Alexei Oreskovic

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – With shrinking audiences, deep layoffs and two management shake-ups, MySpace, the one-time leader in Internet social networking, has had a rocky year.

Mike Jones, who took over as co-president last month with Jason Hirschhorn, said that even within MySpace some employees have lost the will to keep fighting.

“We are at the point now where we need believers,” said Jones, noting that the News Corp unit has encouraged various individuals not fully committed to the cause to leave and has hired new talent.
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