Gadgets and Video Games

Right before hitting the ol’ dusty trail for Playdom , now ex-EA COO John Pleasants sat down with Reuters for an interview all about the future of EA. In it, he speaks to the multifaceted future of EA (especially with regards to business models), as well as the importance of EA’s current “investor mode,” saying the company will announce new deals with various social networking services “some time in the near future.” Though we’re not sure if the recent change in guard from Pleasants to Microsoft alum John Schappert will alter what the ex-COO said to Reuters, things like the recently announced Tiger Woods PGA Tour Online point to “not likely.” This isn’t exactly a dramatic change from statements that Pleasants has made in the past regarding the company’s business strategy, so it remains to be seen whether or not Schappert will steer the EA ship in another direction or stay the course.

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Former EA COO says EA is in ‘investment mode,’ focusing on digital distribution

Tags: betting-on-jedi, business-models, for-developers, investor-mode, john-pleasants, Microsoft, tiger-woods, video-standards

So, the long and short of it is this: Sega of America president and CEO Simon Jeffery is leaving Sega, a longstanding name in the video game industry that has created hits in both hardware and software, for ngmoco , a company known for its iPhone titles, namely Rolando . If that doesn’t tell you something about the state of the game industry (or at least the state of Sega ), we’re not sure what will. According to Gamasutra , Jeffery — a longtime proponent of the iPhone as a gaming platform — is leaving in order to run ngmoco’s new publishing arm, Plus Publishing. The new group will offer support to developers in areas like marketing and technology, while also allowing them to implement its Plus Network, a social networking service for iPhone games. Says ngmoco co-founder Joe Keene, “Building a community of gamers in these kinds of experience is really core to our future strategy, and one of the things that will be leveraged highly in the work that Simon will be doing.” Jeffery says of Plus Publishing that it will have a “fairly open-door policy,” adding that he would like to talk to “pretty much anyone” about publishing possibilities, including small independent studios and larger publishers.

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Sega of America president leaves for ngmoco

Tags: a-president-and, a-thrilling-way, capcom-unity, game, iPhone, Media, Networking, ngmoco, work, your-opponent

Green Day will have something Rock Band -related out this year, according to statements made by lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong during a KROQ appearance . An audience member asked the band if they were planning on putting songs out for the game, and Armstrong revealed that something was in the works. “Yeah, we’re doing a whole Green Day Rock Band , uh …” Armstrong responded, unable to finish his sentence due to a swell of applause.

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Green Day coming to Rock Band in some capacity

Tags: asked-the-band, away-briefly, entry, friend-via, game, games-on-the, green-day, Media, Networking, putting-songs, rock-band, social-networking, songs-out-for, vanillaware

The most important technology news, developments and trends with insightful analysis and commentary.

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Technology News: GPS: GAO-Predicted GPS Failure Could Have Drastic …

Tags: about-altitude, and-failures, except-for, GPS, includes-hardware, Networking, personal-technology, Software, speed-with, technology-from, technology-news, the-first, wireless-computing, with-insightful

I just got word from Seagate that they have upgraded hard drive capacities on certain models of their storage solutions, including one product we recently reviewed; the Maxtor One Touch 4 Mini, read the review. In that review one of the down sides to the unit was the low capacity (we reviewed the 80 gig unit). Here is what Seagate had to say:

Due to an explosion of digital content, IDC says demand for storage capacity continues to grow at a rate of nearly 60% per year. In response to this growing need, Seagate and Maxtor continue to deliver solutions that help customers effectively store, manage and share their most precious files (music, photos, video, documents, etc.). The company most recently introduced the following high-capacity products:

- Seagate FreeAgent Pro with Mac compatibility – 1TB capacity
- Maxtor OneTouch 4 Plus – 1TB capacity
- Maxtor OneTouch 4 Mini – 250GB capacity

We’ll have updated reviews on some of these products shortly.

Tags: capacity, hardware, Maxtor, portable storage, Seagate, Storage, usb, usb hard drives

D-Link has always had a good name in networking, but more recently they have been moving to tackle the gamers by releasing a special line of gaming routers. I reviewed their previous gaming router at Xbox Solution (click that link for the review), the router was so exceptional we were compelled to give it the XBS Editor’s Choice Award.

Now, with the announcement of the DGL-4500, an N technology Gaming Router, we’ll have to see if D-Link is still on track with their promise to make gaming as lag free as possible. One thing that does indeed give me hope is how they have supported the previous 4300 via firmware updates, making some fairly major enhancements to the device post-purchase. (continue reading…)

Tags: d-link, hardware, Internet, Networking, routers, Video Games