Google Chrome for Mac beta, which was first released in December, has updated today to version 5.0.307, adding extensions and bookmark sync among other features.
There are currently over 2200 extensions available in the Chrome gallery.
Users with multiple computers can now sync bookmarks as well, no matter if you have a PC, Linux or Mac machine.
2010 started off very poorly for the video game industry, with overall revenue dropping year-on-year by 13 percent, to $1.17 billion USD.
Hardware sales dropped an astounding 21 percent year-on-year, to $353.7 million and software sales were not too much better, dropping 12 percent year-on-year to $597.9 million. Accessories were the lone bright spot, seeing growth of 2 percent to $217 million.
The Wii was the top console seller, as usual, and the Xbox 360 somewhat surprisingly took back second place from the PlayStation 3. The DS/DSi crushed the PSP in the handheld market.
Overall numbers, via GS:
US VIDEO GAMES INDUSTRY - JANUARY 2010
Hardware: $353.7 million (-21%)
Software: $597.9 million (-12%)
Accessories: $217 million (2%)
Total Games: $1.17 billion (-13%)
Microsoft is expected to unveil Windows Mobile 7 on Monday at the Mobile World Congress in Spain, in a final attempt to stop the crushing Windows Mobile market share has taken in the past few years to the iPhone, BlackBerry and Android.
"They seem to have lost the world's attention in smart phones," notes analyst Dan Hays, of the consulting firm PRTM.
Although less likely, Microsoft could possibly reveal a Zune HD-based phone, a long-hyped device that could be the best music playing phone on the market. "If that thing had a phone in it ... that would be a pretty darn good device," added Charles Golvin, analyst with Forrester Research, speaking of the Zune HD. "But my own judgment is that this is kind of their last chance. If Windows Mobile doesn't get it right this time around, they're probably toast."
Windows Mobile phones accounted for only 9 percent of smartphone sales in 2009, down from 13.2 in 2008, and down from over 15 percent in 2007.
Veoh, the "revolutionary online video service that gives users the power to easily discover, watch, and personalize their entertainment viewing experience," has announced today that they will be laying off most of their staff as they head in Chapter 7 bankruptcy in the upcoming months.
The site has yet to find a business model that has worked, and has used all $70 million they received in funding from venture capitalists and large investors such as Time Warner and Goldman Sachs.
CEO and Founder Dmitry Shapiro has been actively looking to sell the company, but Veoh had been embroiled in a lawsuit over copyright with Universal Music Group which had all but killed a possible sale. The funny part was that they won the lawsuit, which ruled the site was protected under the DMCA.
Google has announced the acquisition of Aardvark, the Internet search and social networking started by former Google employees. Neither company would release the financials of the deal, but it appears to be at least $50 million.
The move should help Google compete better with Twitter, and the move comes just one day after Buzz was released, adding social networking features to Google Gmail accounts.
Reuters says Aardvark "has pioneered a new type of Internet search dubbed "social search." Instead of looking at Web pages to find answers to search queries, Aardvark's service taps a person's network of social contacts."
The acquisition is Google's sixth purchase since September, but one of its smallest.
The Financial Times is reporting today that Apple has negotiated with content providers to sell standard definition TV shows for $1 an episode, 50 percent cheaper than usual, when the iPad launches.
High definition media will likely remain the same price, although that is still unclear.
It is also unclear what shows will cost $1, and how widespread the availability of the episodes are.
Additionally, the same report is saying that Apple has so far not given up on the idea of an iTunes subscription model, which would cost $30-a-month for unlimited TV episodes.
OpenOffice.org, the powerful, free productivity suite, has updated today to version 3.2, adding a plethora of new features, and fixes.
Although I will not go into all the new features, OpenOffice has a bountiful page with all the updates. You can view that here: OpenOffice.org 3.2 New Features.
To download OpenOffice for the first time, or to update, please download it here: OpenOffice.org v3.2.0 at AfterDawn
The video game rental service GameFly has filed an IPO today, becoming a publicly traded company and raising $50 million USD. The company will trade on the NASDAQ under the ticker GFLY.
The company has 334,000 subscribers and had revenue of $46.4 million for the six months ended September 30th, 2009. Net profit was $3 million, a drop year-on-year.
Additionally, GameFly is also in control of a network of gaming-related sites that bring in about 4.4 million unique users per month.
The company says it will use the IPO money for future growth.
Sony has revealed the company's first two 3D Blu-ray players today, the BDP-S470 and S570 which will be available within a month, and will retail for the relatively cheap $200 USD and $250 USD, respectively.
Both players can be controlled via an iPhone or iPod Touch with a new BD Remote App, which will also show off more content related to the movie right from the device.
The more expensive device has Wi-Fi built-in while the cheaper player has a Wi-Fi dongle available separately.
Full specs:
BDP-S570 Blu-ray Disc Player
Available in February for about $250
* Full HD 1080p single-disc Blu-ray Disc, DVD, CD, SA-CD player
* Blu-ray 3D ready (with firmware update available this summer)
* BRAVIA Monolithic Design
* BRAVIA Internet Video and BD-LIVE™
* IP Content Noise Reduction
* Built-in Wi-Fi® Wireless (802.11) with Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS)
* Entertainment Database Browser with Gracenote technology
* BD Remote (iPhone/iPod touch remote control – free app.)
* Photo/music/video playback via USB and DLNA® (with firmware update)
* DVD upscaling to 1080p with Precision Cinema HD Upscaling
* Dolby® TrueHD and dts®-HD Master Audio™ decoding
* Built-in 1GB Memory
Facebook has announced that Facebook Chat is now available through multiple IM clients, allowing you to chat with Facebook friends without needing to open the site in your browser.
Says the blog post:
We believe you should be able to connect with your Facebook friends everywhere. We're happy to announce that now you can with Facebook Chat. Starting today, the more than two billion chat messages sent on the site every day can be sent from your favorite desktop instant messaging client.
By integrating Facebook Chat with your preferred instant messenger, you'll never miss a message when you have to navigate away from Facebook and you'll be in control of how and where you chat with your Facebook friends. Simply connect your Facebook account with the instant messaging client of your choice and start chatting. You will not need to stay logged in to Facebook.com to continue to access your Facebook friends.
If you don't want all of your online friends to appear, you can adjust which Friend Lists show up in chat by adjusting them on Facebook. To go offline, you can either close your instant messaging client or click "go offline" in your Facebook Chat options. As always, your conversations will remain completely private and only between you and your Facebook friends.
Adjusting Friend Lists that appear in Chat.
Sony's John Koller has confirmed today that the PlayStation 3 will be receiving 3D support over the summer, via multiple firmware updates.
Says Koller, via Pocket-Lint: "3D is a major part of our initiatives in 2010 and we're currently developing 3D stereoscopic games to come in conjunction with the launch of Sony's 3D compatible BRAVIA LCD TV in summer 2010. The amazing thing about the PS3's technology is that all PS3 units that exist in homes and markets will be able to play 3D stereoscopic games as well as 3D BD movies through separate firmware upgrades - something that other platforms are unable to do. We'll be announcing actual game titles separately later, but we think that 3D stereoscopic gaming has a ton of potential, particularly in placing consumers within the actual experience."
3D Blu-ray support will likely be activated first, with 3D gaming made available through the second update. The releases coincide with the release of Sony Bravia 3D HDTVs.
Warner Music Group CEO Edgar Bronfman Jr recently told analysts the company will not be entering into any new licensing deals for ad-supported music.
"Free streaming services are clearly not net positive for the industry, and as far as Warner Music is concerned will not be licensed." said Bronfman during a conference call. He indicated that giving away music with the goal of enticing customers to pay was a losing business strategy.
Bronfman cited the growth of subscription-based services offered by mobile phone providers as the way of the future. These involve device-dependent, DRM-laden files which require a monthly subscription just so music you've already downloaded will continue to play.
The problem is an apparent lack of recognition by Bronfman of how his company grew to the size it is today. Record labels have always used free music to drive sales. The best known of these free services is terrestrial radio.
According to a new blog post, Twitter is set to begin using BitTorrent on the backend as a way to more efficiently deploy files.
Reads the post:
Anyone who has the battle scars that come from managing a large operational set of computers, like a large popular web site, knows all too well the challenge of deploying a new image site-wide. Often times, this needs to happen fast (think emergency patch) and as with so many other applications on the network, the traditional client-server model breaks down at scale in the face of this challenge.
But now there is an interesting open source project from Twitter that might bring some relief to this particular problem. The project uses BitTorrent technology and is called Murder (per the project page, a “murder” allegedly describes a flock of crows, not some lesser crime than the accusations too-often leveled against the hard-working engineers at BitTorrent, Inc). The distributed nature of BitTorrent means an operation that once took many dozens of minutes, now happens in less than a dozen seconds. These efficiencies will reduce maintenance windows, site downtime and exposure to security vulnerabilities.
YouTube has announced today that they will be adding parental controls, letting parents filter certain videos and block their kids from watching them.
Some of the videos that can now be flagged inappropriate and filtered are those that show off violence or sexual content.
Scott Rubin, head of child safety policy for YouTube says the filtering will remain a challenge: "With 20 hours of video uploaded every minute to YouTube, we really count on our community members … to know our community guidelines, those rules of the road, to flag videos they think violate the rules."
The new parental controls are dubbed "Safety Mode," and it will limit videos flagged as containing nudity, narcotics, graphic violence and news containing violence. All comments are collapsed on open, and if the kids choose to view them, all comments with profanity are filtered. Safety Mode remains locked at all times, even if the user is logged out.
Safety Mode is browser-specific and must be turned on for all browsers that are used on the computer. The controls are also account-specific, and must be turned on for those accounts.
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