Nintendo's Miitomo Smartphone 'Game' Fails to Charm Investors

Nintendo shares fell 9 percent on Thursday, and partner DeNA's stock dropped 15 percent after Nintendo announced that it would wade into the mobile waters next year with social mobile app Miitomo.

Based on the Mii digital avatars made popular by the Wii, Miitomo will seek to connect players through trivia, Nintendo President Tatsumi Kimishima said in an investors conference call, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The app, due to launch next March, will be a free-to-play game that will include add-ons that people can buy. Players will engage in social trivia with friends and new acquaintances

Sony Talks VR and 2016 Games in Paris

While Microsoft has been driving home the potential hits it has for the holidays, Sony has sat silent. That changed this week at Paris Games Week, when Sony set the tone for the next year or so by touting 21 games, mostly exclusives, poised to redefine the PlayStation 4 experience.

It's what PlayStation fans have been waiting for -- a listing of completely new games. Sony had been focusing on minting indies and HD remasters.

At its first-ever appearance at Paris Games Week, the company put on a console-selling show that evidenced the potential of the latest PlayStation and the upcoming PlayStation VR headset.

Sony provided updates on previously announced games Street Fighter V(PS4/PC), Uncharted 4 (PS4), Wild (PS4), Star Wars: Battlefront (all consoles and PC) and others. There was even a commitment to release procedurally generated space explorer No Man's Sky (PS4/PC) -- that'd be June 2016.





The Highs

The company also announced several new games, two of which Mike Schramm, head of the qualitative analyst team at EEDAR, found especially compelling. That's the pair of Gran Turismo Sport games, the next entry in the hallmark series, and Quantic Dream's Detroit: Become Human.

Gran Turismo Sport will tie in several special events with real-world honors from the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile. Detroit: Become Human is a sci-fi saga with androids from the studio that developed Beyond: Two Soulsand Heavy Rain.






"Sony also featured some impressive gameplay from Wild and Horizon Zero Dawn, two games that were previously announced. Both gameplay sessions featured some new and interesting details, from Wild's different shamanic powers in its vast, open world to Horizon: Zero Dawn's trapping gadgets and its item and crafting systems," Schramm told TechNewsWorld.






Some of the biggest news wasn't released in a singular announcement: PlayStation VR, previously code-named "Morpheus," is a serious contender in next year's virtual reality war, and Sony has the software to see the VR headset succeed, according to Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group.

SXSW May Put Online Harassment in the Spotlight

ManageEngine OpManager, a powerful NMS for monitoring your network, physical & virtual (VMware/ HyperV) servers & other IT devices. Deploy and start monitoring in less than an hour. Trusted by over a million admins world-wide. Try it for free.


SXSW Interactive might include a daylong event on combating online harassment, Re/code reported Tuesday.

The news followed SXSW's cancellation of two planned panels that were expected to focus on opposite ends of the Gamergate debate.

Threats of on-site violence spurred the decision to cancel both panels, according to SXSW officials.

Caroline Sinders of IBM Watson, Katherine Cross of the CUNY Graduate Center, and Randi Harper, founder of the Online Abuse Prevention Initiative, were slated to speak at SXSW in March during a session titled "Level Up: Overcoming Harassment in Games."

Even if the event organizers should reinstate "Level Up," the participants have not decided whether they would speak at SXSW, Harper told Re/code.

The other cancelled session, "SavePoint: A Discussion on the Gaming Community," was sponsored by the Open Gaming Society.

In the week following the announcement of the two sessions, "SXSW has received numerous threats of on-site violence related to this programming," said Hugh Forrest, the director of SXSW Interactive, in explaining the cancellation decision.

SXSW takes pride in offering a place for diverse ideas and people, but preserving the "sanctity of the big tent" requires keeping the dialogue "civil and respectful," he said.

"If people cannot agree, disagree and embrace new ways of thinking in a safe and secure place that is free of online and offline harassment, then this marketplace of ideas is inevitably compromised," said Forrest.

Walmart Catches the Drone Delivery Bug

ManageEngine OpManager, a powerful NMS for monitoring your network, physical & virtual (VMware/ HyperV) servers & other IT devices. Deploy and start monitoring in less than an hour. Trusted by over a million admins world-wide. Try it for free.


Walmart on Monday filed a request with the Federal Aviation Administration to begin deploying commercial drones to transport goods from outside vendors to its distribution centers, as well as to customers' homes.

The company, which has been testing drones in indoor flights, wanted an exemption in order to deploy small unmanned aircraft systems, wrote Shekar Natarajan, Walmart vice president, logistics strategy, in a letter to FAA Administrator Michael Huerta. Its goal was to create a more efficient delivery system to move merchandise.

"With this application, Walmart seeks to continue its role in not only making the present distribution system more efficient, but also to conduct research and development to support the future extension of that distribution directly to customers by using UAS for deliveries to customers at Walmart facilities, as well as to consumer homes," explained Natarajan.

Using Tech to Fix the Horrid US Political Debates

I Watched with interest last week's Republican debate and realized very quickly that whatever that was on my TV, it sure as hell wasn't an actual debate. The idea is for us to be able to compare the qualifications and positions of a variety of candidates and then make a more informed choice -- but if every candidate is asked a different question, then how do we compare the answers?

Also, wouldn't the best debate require having all of the candidates on stage? It often seems that the candidates are all debating folks from the other party who aren't in the same room they are.

Seriously, wouldn't this work better if it were more like a good job interview? First you have a set of focused events, during which you ask pointed questions about individual backgrounds. Then you put the folks who survive that process on stage, and ask about how they'd apply their skills to real problems. From that group, you choose the best.

It seems strange that Americans likely put more rigor into hiring a gardener than in selecting the next leader of the free world. Tech could fix that.

I'll close with my product of the week: the TiVo Bolt, which is clearly the best DVR ever built -- and it has to be to compete with the cord-cutter solutions

Gadget Ogling: Smarter Smartphone Gaming, Modular Watches, and Vampiric Charging Cables

Welcome, one and all, to another edition of Gadget Dreams and Nightmares, the column that somehow musters the energy to scour the latest in gadget announcements for those that deserve our praise or scorn, while still full of turkey from this week's Canadian Thanksgiving.

In our post-poultry bliss, we look at a smartphone with a focus on encryption, a modular smartwatch, a game controller for mobile devices, and a cable to power your own device with someone else's.

Salesforce's Message to Europe

SAlesforce last week said it would invest US$100 million in emerging sales force partners in Europe. The company previously announced a similar program for the Americas, and it hopes to discover valuable new companies and business solutions.



Paul Greenberg and the team at CRM Idol (of which I have been a part) have been doing the same thing -- trying to discover interesting emerging companies in the CRM space for several years now, minus the money.

Even without millions of bucks at stake, the casting call always brings in some cool ideas from around the world, so I have no doubt there are plenty of companies in Europe that will vie for a chance at an investment.

PRM's Next Act

Partner relationship management, or PRM, has seen its ups and downs over the first part of this century.



Running an indirect channel is vitally important to any vendor trying to extend its reach without incurring the high costs of building up a sales team and all that supports it. Many vendors figure it's more economical to pay partners for performance than to endure the corporate buildout, and they have a good point.

That said, it's important to understand that the indirect channel isn't for every business. Some need to field large sales teams to ensure that their messages are delivered accurately. This is especially true where a vendor continuously has to bring to market new products that need to be sold rather than purchased.

One great example is pharmaceuticals, where patents give the inventor a set number of years to exploit a new drug. After the patent expires, the secondary market can make and distribute very similar products. Doctors and allied healthcare professionals really need the continuous education that pharmaceutical reps provide.

That's not the case with a wide variety of products and services that may not be on any particular patent and that approach commodity status except that they have specific attributes that might be key to assemblies of larger offerings -- for instance, electric motors.

No, they're not all the same and specific applications call for very specific types. If you're in such a market, selling through an indirect channel makes a great deal of sense.

Sony Shears PS4's Price

Sony last week knocked US$50 off the price of the PlayStation 4, putting the console on par with the $349 Xbox from rival Microsoft.

A cost cut also went into effect in Canada, where the price dropped from Sony's recommended price point of CA$449.99 to $429.99.

Touting upcoming multiplatform games Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 and Star Wars: Battlefront, Sony Computer Entertainment America CEO Shawn Layden asserted that there never has been a better time to pick up the PS4.

Sony is delivering on its commitment to make the PS4 the "best place to play," he said, by cutting its MSRP and putting the console within reach of more consumers heading into the holidays.

The highly anticipated PS4 exclusive, Uncharted 4: A Thief's End was still "on the horizon" after being delayed a while back, Layden noted.

That delay left Sony touting exclusive content on multiplatform games, such as timed exclusivity on Black Ops 3 DLC, noted George T. Chronis, director of qualitative analysis at DFC Intelligence.

Another Day, Another Billion Android Users at Risk

ManageEngine OpManager, a powerful NMS for monitoring your network, physical & virtual (VMware/ HyperV) servers & other IT devices. Deploy and start monitoring in less than an hour. Trusted by over a million admins world-wide. Try it for free.


Google on Monday released an over-the-air update for Nexus devices, which includes patches for the latest Stagefright vulnerabilities and other flaws.

Android's Stagefright media processing feature, which recently imperiled 1 billion devices around the world, was once again putting them at risk, Zimperium revealed last week.

Zimperium found two new vulnerabilities that manifest when Android's Stagefright media playback engine handles specially crafted MP3 audio or MP video files.

The first vulnerability, which Google named "CVE-2015-6602," is in libutils. It exists in "all versions of Android since the very first AOSP (Android Open Source Project) code push," said Zuk Avraham, Zimperium's CTO.

The second vulnerability, in libstagefright, impacts only devices running Android 5.0 and higher, he told LinuxInsider.

It has been named "CVE-2015-3876," Google spokesperson Elizabeth Markman said.

Google will post its latest patches to AOSP as well as on its Android Security Updates forum, Markman told LinuxInsider.

No exploit has been found in the wild for either vulnerability, Avraham said.

Apple TV Reviews: Kinda Buggy, Kinda Great

ManageEngine OpManager, a powerful NMS for monitoring your network, physical & virtual (VMware/ HyperV) servers & other IT devices. Deploy and start monitoring in less than an hour. Trusted by over a million admins world-wide. Try it for free.


The latest version of Apple's streaming media set-top box, expected to hit U.S. retail stores on Friday, has gathered a bundle of mixed early reviews.

Some reviewers saw great potential in the US$149 diminutive black box designed to pump movies, TV shows, games and apps from the Internet to a television set. Others found plenty to criticize

ONOS Project Gets Linux Foundation Bump

e Linux Foundation on Wednesday announced a strategic partnership withON.Lab and its ONOS project community to develop open source network services.



They will build infrastructure for software-defined networking and network function virtualization technology. The foundation will provide its global reach, experience and infrastructure to seed ONOS' growing community.

This latest LF-sponsored collaborative project will help ONOS, or Open Network Operating System, better monetize its open source networking platforms for service providers. It also will help vendors and service providers invent new business models, according to the Linux Foundation.

"It is a natural evolution for the ONOS Project. We are at a point where we are scaling to the next level with partners, use cases, [proof of concept], trials and community," said William Snow, vice president of engineering for ON.Lab, the Open Networking Lab.

Google's Nexus 6P and 5X Win Some Love

The reviews are out for Google's Nexus 6P and 5X, unveiled late last month, and they can be summed up in two words: Love them!

They're described as "the best Nexus devices ever produced" and "Google's answer to Apple's iPhones," but those tired phrases are rolled out with every new Nexus or flagship Android smartphone, so what else is new?

The camera, for one. The phones' cameras apparently are a big improvement over previous Nexus cameras.

Speed and the improved security offered by the fingerprint sensor are other plus points.

Google and its partners -- Huawei for the 6P and LG for the 5X -- finally havenailed the camera and battery life -- two of the features that traditionally have been weak in Nexus devices, wrote Ron Amadeo for Ars Technica.

TWC's New Virtual Assistant Curries Customer Favor

The new Ask TWC Virtual Assistant lets customers use a mobile device or computer to type a question in their own words, or choose from a list of common questions to get immediate assistance.

The type and volume of inquiries and their resolutions will let TWC constantly learn, the company said.

Customers in all TWC service areas can access the tool, said TWC spokesperson Judy Barbao.

The virtual assistant may direct customers to a specific location on the TWS website for an answer to their question, or it may offer the option to connect directly with an agent for an online, real-time chat, she told CRM Buyer.

"We continue to offer customers a variety of options for TWC support and assistance, including phone and online support as well as through our free My TWC app," Barbao said.

HP, Hewlett Packard Enterprise Go Separate Ways

The long-awaited split of HP's personal computer and enterprise operations has taken place, and CEO Meg Whitman, who oversaw the transition of the massive, listing ship, clearly faces the most challenging crisis of her career -- trying to save a legacy business from being buried by the sands of time and progress.

HP, which struggled for more than 15 years to compete in a modern age of mobile computing and cloud services, on Monday began its first official business day as a house divided into two brand new US$50 billion enterprises.

Whitman is now president and chief executive of Hewlett Packard Enterprise, which offers cloud services and data center infrastructure to the HP corporate customer base.

The New York Times May Get Technical With Ad Blockers

The New York Times Company last week indicated would take steps to circumvent ad-blocking tools.

"As you know, the Times' digital subscription revenue stream means that we are less exposed than most publishers to the impact of ad-blockers," said NYT Company CEO Mark Thompson during an earnings call. "Nonetheless, let me make it clear that we oppose ad blocking."

Creating "quality news content is expensive," he noted, and online advertising is an important means through with media outlets fund news gathering.

"We are exploring a number of options -- including, but not limited to, technical solutions -- to mitigate the impact of ad blockers should the threat increase," Thompson said.

When asked to elaborate on what he meant by "technical solutions" to mitigate the problem, NYT spokesperson Eileen Murphy circled back to the CEO's statements.

Thompson's prepared remarks on ad blocking during the earnings call represent the company's public comment on the matter, she told the E-Commerce Times.

Google Migrates Project Loon to Indonesia

project Loon, part of Google's parent company, Alphabet, on Wednesday announced that it has signed agreements with three mobile network operators in Indonesia -- Indosat, Telkomse, and XL Axiata -- to begin tests of its balloon-powered Internet service in 2016.

Only about one in three of Indonesia's 250 million residents is connected to the Internet. Project Loon will transmit signals from areas connected to an Internet ground station across several balloons in the stratosphere and back down to areas without access.

The project so far has wirelessly transferred data between balloons more than 100 km apart. Its long-range plan is to provide a continuous ring of connectivity around the globe in partnership with mobile network operators.

Each balloon supports a gondola carrying solar-powered electronics. It establishes a radio link from a telecom network on the ground and beams down LTE Internet access to areas without coverage.

Tesla's Autopilot Drifts Toward Driverless Cars

Tesla Motors on Wednesday introduced an autopilot system featuring Tesla version 7.0 software that could aid drivers in finding parking spots making lane changes, and watching for blind spots on the road.

The system is not designed to do the driving just yet, but it could help relieve drivers in the most tedious and thus potentially dangerous aspects of road travel.

The autopilot system is available in Tesla Model S vehicles. The hardware included in those models since last year allows for the gradual introduction of self-driving technology, including forward radar, a forward-looking camera, 12 long-range ultrasonic sensors situated to sense 16 feet around the vehicle in all directions at all speeds, and a high-precision, digitally controlled electric-assist braking system, according to Tesla.

The autopilot technology can search for parking spaces and aid in parallel parking. On the road, it can help the driver change lanes when activated by a simple tap on the turn signal.

This could be a significant leap forward from the semiautonomous systems used in vehicles by Audi, Mercedes-Benz and Volvo. Those systems can maintain a vehicle's position in the lane as well as its distance behind another automobile.

Chrome OS Is Dead, Long Live Chrome OS?

Google is two years into a plan to consolidate the Chrome operating system -- which it uses as the platform for a series of stripped down, low-cost computers -- and the Android mobile OS, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.
" "
Google officials quickly pushed back against the WSJ report, which claims that the company, now a subsidiary of the newly formed Alphabet conglomerate, plans to roll out a combined OS in 2017.

Chromebooks running the Chrome OS -- Acer's C910 is pictured above -- have gained adoption as entry-level computers for students and as a low-cost option for a growing number of corporate customers.

Shortly after the WSJ report appeared, Hiroshi Lockheimer, senior vice president at Google, tweeted a response:

Google Fine-Tunes Self-Driving Cars' Kid Perception

Google last week announced that it has developed technology for its self-driving vehicles that would be able to detect people in costumes -- presumably children dressed for Halloween.

The company is teaching its cars to drive more cautiously around children and thus be ready to adapt to sudden and even erratic movement, it said.

Google's engineers are striving to help the cars react, especially as children's behavior can be unpredictable. The vehicles are designed to scan for those in costumes or other garb that might make them not immediately recognizable as a person.

Marine Corps' new helicopter completes its first flight

CH-53K King Stallion (Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation).


King Stallion, the U.S. Marine Corps’ brand spanking new helicopter, completed its first flight Tuesday.


The Marines’ new helo is incredibly advanced - it will be able to lift a whopping three times more weight than its predecessor.


Made by Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation, the CH-53K King Stallion prototype is also known by the less catchy name Engineering Development Model-1 (EDM-1).

King Stallion will be the Marine Corps’ next-gen heavy lift helicopter and the goal is to give them the best heavy lift helo in the world. Ultimately, the Corps plans to have eight active duty squadrons, one training squadron, and one reserve squadron.

What’s cool?

King Stallion will have a cruise speed of 141 knots and a range of about 530 miles.

Related: Navy taps Raytheon for sophisticated 'last chance' gun system

The CH-53K King Stallion will have similar physical dimensions as its predecessor, the CH-53E Super Stallion. It will also be powered by three engines, but with the upgraded engine power of the T408-GE-400s.

It has fourth-generation composite main rotor blades with anhedral tips and advanced airfoils. There’s also a new tail rotor head and blades.

And there are a lot of innovations designed to improve crew and passenger protection. In addition to cutting-edge self-defense weapons, advanced lightweight armor is incorporated as well as enhanced ballistic protection. The troop seats and retracting landing gear are also engineered to be crashworthy.

This new helo will be capable of carrying 27,000 pounds –nearly three times the amount of its predecessor. It will be able to carry these massive loads over 110 nautical miles under challenging "hot and high" conditions.

YouTube Just Divulged the Details of 'Dance Camp,' Its First Feature-Length Film

As rival platforms make a foreboding play for the $13.8 billion online video ad industry, YouTube is ramping up investment in its own creator ecosphere like never before.

Case in point: after rolling out on Tuesday its latest television, print and outdoor marketing campaign spotlighting beloved creators Tyler Oakleyand Lilly Singh, the Google-owned platform has just divulged the details of its first feature film.

In rare appearance, Larry Page discusses new Alphabet structure

left1 of 3
right

In a rare public appearance, Google co-founder and Alphabet Inc CEO Larry Page explained why he was spurred to create a whole new structure for the company he created with Sergey Brin almost two decades ago.

"I want to push the envelope for what's possible for an innovative company with large resources," he said during a Q&A session with Fortune editor Alan Murray at the magazine's Global Forum 2015 in San Francisco.

He said the new company would operate a little bit like a venture capital firm, a little bit like Berkshire Hathaway Inc, the conglomerate controlled by billionaire investor Warren Buffett, whom Page admires.

There are "aspects of Berkshire to Alphabet," he said, but it's too early to tell how the new company would function.

Whimsically addressing how the name came about, he credited Brin with it. "It's only fair since I chose Google."

He also tackled a question on Google's efforts in China, saying "we've always had operations in China," and adding "we'd like to do more." He said he had "delegated this question to Sundar," referring to Sundar Pichai, the new CEO of Google Inc, Alphabet's search engine unit.

It was a rare public appearance for Page, who co-founded the Mountain View, California-based company with Stanford classmate Brin in 1998. Since then, Google has grown from a popular search engine to Alphabet, a far-reaching conglomerate employing more than 40,000 employees worldwide.

He has also taken a step back from being the face of the company, largely due to a chronic medical condition affecting his vocal cords. He has appeared at only a handful of events over the last few years.

Page is known for his enthusiasm for some of the company's more far-fetched efforts, such as driverless cars and other so-called "moonshots".

At Monday's event he touted Project Loon, an effort to deliver Internet service from connected air balloons. Google announced last week Loon will begin tests of its service in Indonesia as early as next year.

"Think about how cell phones have changed everyone's life. Think about how having your cell phone work anywhere in the world can change your life," he said.

Aside from Google, Alphabet's other businesses include Google X, connected home products maker Nest, venture capital arm Google Ventures and Google Capital, which invests in larger tech companies.

YouTube Is Seeing 'Red' With Brand New $10 Monthly Ad-Free Subscription Service

Following months of anticipation, YouTube has finally taken the lid off its ad-free, subscription service that the company has dubbed YouTube Red.

Launching October 28 for $9.99 per month on Android devices (and $12.99 on iOS,) YouTube Red enables viewers to watch videos uninterrupted by ads. On mobile, the service also lets users play videos in the background while using other apps, as well as save videos offline for future viewing.

The service will launch with a month-long free trial. Available exclusively in the U.S., it will roll out globally in 2016.

YouTube Red is a membership tier that spans across all of YouTube’s apps, including its Gaming vertical, as well as YouTube Music -- a service that had been in beta but will be available soon, according to the company.

YouTube Music will also be available as a free, ad-supported app, but a YouTube Red subscription will disable ads and enable background and offline viewing features.

Watchmaker Citizen harnesses space technology

Watchmaker Citizen is harnessing the power of space technology with its new Satellite Wave F900 watch, which was launched earlier this month.

The device connects to a satellite to update its time and date in as little as three seconds. Citizen says that the watch’s satellite GPS timekeeping technology with synchronized time adjustment is available in 40 time zones. The company is also touting the F900, at 13.1 mm, as the world’s thinnest satellite GPS watch.

Related: North Korea turns back clocks to create new time zone

Some 1,700 limited edition versions of the watch, built using lightweight and strong Super Titanium, are being sold for $2,400. The F900’s debut came hot on the heels of the launch of Citizen’s Satellite Wave World Time GPS watch, which can also connect to a satellite in as little as three seconds. Unlike the Super Titanium F900, however, the World Time GPS is built from stainless steel, and is priced at $1,150.

Jay Spring, Citizen’s vice president of customer relations, sees a market for the watches among serious gadget enthusiasts. “Technology people would buy them, people that are interested in being cutting edge,” he told FoxNews.com, during the F900 launch event in New York City on Oct. 20. “Any watch will tell you the time.”