BlackBerry in trouble: five reasons why

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By Tom Chivers

BlackBerry’s latest offering, the PlayBook tablet, is being slammed by critics; its parent company, RIM, is crashing on the stock market. But where has it all gone wrong? We take a look.

For a while, BlackBerry had the world at its feet. Every City buffoon who thought that Gordon Gekko was some sort of role model had to have at least two. Students wrote badly punctuated essays on them. An infinitely serious future of people tapping away on tiny keyboards loomed. But in recent months it’s all gone a bit wrong for BlackBerry, as its share prices tumble and its latest hardware is panned by reviewers. So what were BlackBerry’s biggest mistakes?
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Iconic Atari turns 40, tries to stay relevant

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By BARBARA ORTUTAY

NEW YORK (AP) — A scruffy, young Steve Jobs worked at Atari before he founded Apple. “Pong,” one of the world’s first video games, was born there, as was “Centipede,” a classic from the era of quarter-guzzling arcade machines. “Call of Duty” creator Activision was started by four of Atari’s former game developers.

The iconic video game company turns 40 years old this week, much slimmer these days as it tries to stay relevant in the age of “Angry Birds” and “Words With Friends.”

But Atari’s influence on today’s video games is pervasive.
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Windows 8 fear and uncertainty kicks in

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Is Windows 8 really the makings of a fiasco? True or not, get ready to hear this more and more as the Windows 8 general release approaches.

by Brooke Crothers
Windows 8 FUD is starting to hit the fan.

That would be fear, uncertainty, and doubt. As in, “I think that Windows 8 is kind of a catastrophe for everybody in the PC space.”

That was said yesterday by Gabe Newell, a former Microsoft employee and managing director of Valve Software, which makes games such as Half-Life and created the Steam gaming platform for Windows and Apple’s OS X.

Newell’s company is now moving Steam to Linux. Thus the comment, “we’re trying to make sure that Linux thrives” from Newell (in the same story linked above) before his Windows 8 critique.
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Facebook stock has highest close since May 21

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NEW YORK (AP) — Facebook closes at one of its highest prices since its initial public offering.

The stock rose $1.21, or 3.8 percent, to finish Friday at $33.05. It hasn’t closed above that price since May 21, the second day of trading.

The stock finished the week up 10 percent, the second straight week of increase.

Facebook is still 14 percent below its IPO price of $38 a share.

Facebook’s IPO has had a rocky ride. Its debut was delayed by trading glitches on the Nasdaq.

Investors have been concerned about its ability to increase revenue and make money from its growing mobile audience, though many analysts hold positive long-term opinions.

Facebook, along with investment banks that led the IPO, is the subject of dozens of shareholder lawsuits.

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‘Dark Knight Rises’ Producer: Nolan Will Never Direct Batman Again

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by Ethan Anderton

It’s pretty bold to say that something will never happen whether you’re talking about something as simple as eating meat or making a movie. But in the case of The Dark Knight Rises producer Emma Thomas, who is also the wife of Christopher Nolan, we’re inclined to believe her statement that the filmmaker will never be in the director’s chair of another Batman film following the conclusion of his trilogy. In an interview with SFX Magzine (via Movies.com), Thomas was asked of the possibility of Nolan returning to the universe of the Caped Crusader and she definitively said, “No, never. No, that’s truly a never.”

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Macbook Pro with Retina Display review

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Apple ports Retina Display technology from iOS to the Mac, and the results are nothing short of spectacular

by J.R. Bookwalter

Apple again cemented its reputation as manufacturer of lust-worthy electronics with the introduction of a new 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display before 5,000 jubilant developers at this year’s WWDC keynote. But is the latest model worth the extra dough, especially with several key features missing in action that pro users depend upon?

The answer depends on how deep your pockets are, with the sleek new model starting at $2199 and topping out at $3749 (before tax) including build-to-order options (faster processor, more memory, higher capacity storage). However, if you rely on CD or DVD media, Gigabit Ethernet or FireWire 800, you’ll want to budget $137 on top of that to replace features lost as a result of slimming down the notebook by 25 percent.
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E3 2012: New Samsung Cloud Gaming Smart TVs to Compete with Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo Consoles

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by John Gaudiosi

The company enters the video game business with a product that offers hundreds of streaming games through Gaikai cloud service.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., is showcasing its cloud-based gaming service, Samsung Cloud Gaming, at E3 2012. Samsung Cloud Gaming, developed in partnership with Gaikai, a leading cloud-based video game platform provider, will stream a mix of family-friendly and AAA video games directly to owners of 2012 Samsung LED 7000 series and up Smart TVs in the U.S. Within 12 months over 40 million TVs are expected to be able to stream console-quality hit games without needing any console or upgrades.
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