Austin360 blogs > Digital Savant > Archives > 2009 > February
February 2009
‘Rock Band’ adds Stevie Ray album, plans for SXSW
Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble’s legendary “Texas Flood” album is coming to “Rock Band” and the publisher of the game will be hosting a South by Southwest music showcase.
All 10 songs from “Texas Flood” will be available Tuesday on the Live Marketplace for Xbox 360 and Thursday on the PlayStation Network for the PlayStation 3. No release date has been set for the Nintendo Wii version of the game.
The songs will cost $1.99 each or $15.99 for the complete album.
MTV Games, the publisher of “Rock Band” also announced Thursday an official South by Southwest showcase, March 18 at Vice on Sixth Street. MTV Games will also host a Rock Band Lounge March 19 to March 21 behind the Marriott/Residence Inn.
“Texas Flood” joins other downloadable albums on the Rock Band Store including Foo Fighters’ “The Colour and the Shape,” Rush’s “Moving Pictures” and The Pixies’ “Doolittle.”
Edited to add: The Wii console will also get the songs Tuesday. Each will cost 200 Wii points ($2 each).
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Review: ‘Flower’ for PlayStation 3
“Flower” is a poem of a game, a brief, expertly constructed thing of beauty.
At first blush, the $10 downloadable game seems to harness the power of the PlayStation 3 to do nothing more than allow you to float around fields of budding flowers.
At it’s heart, that’s “Flower.” You could call it “Petal Flight Simulator.” in the game, you pilot a single petal from a blooming flower in a gorgeously rendered field. Using the motion controls of the PS3 controller, you tilt and rotate around, using any button to zoom and propel yourself in the sky.
Each new flower is a new petal and soon, you’re a floating swarm of airborne flower parts. Your flower power, as you might call it, enables you to spread greenery to parched areas of the land. On subsequent stages of the game, you bring eco-beauty to dark landscapes, help start up windmills and engage in the War Against Bad Architecture.
At its core, “Flower” is more artistic experience than video game. Somber images of urban decay are mixed with the lovely landscapes. Although some in the gaming press have made much of plot twists that exist the game, they amount to little more than a message that flowers are pretty and ugly dark buildings are not.
But the game is simply beautiful to behold. Blades of grass bend and quiver impressively. The controls are spot-on, giving a nice sense of flow without fight. As the game progresses, it feels less like a floaty diversion and more like a racing game on the order of “Wipeout HD.”
And although the game is only a few hours long, it’s only $10 and worth experiencing once.
It has much in common with other artsy indie-spirited downloadable games like “Braid” and “fl0w” that have graced the PS3 and Xbox Live Marketplace stores.
If nothing else, it’s worth seeing the lovely playable ending credits, where the names of those who worked on the game float and fly, the letters like so many dandelion seeds.
“Flower”
$10, for PlayStation 3, downloadable on the PlayStation Network store
Rated E for Everyone
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The Linkdown for Wednesday, Feb. 25
If you are in colder climates, you should be very jealous that The Linkdown is wearing flip-flops and a Hawaiian shirt in this 85-degree Austin weather.
Yes, I know The Linkdown is not a person, but if it were a person, I imagine it would look like Magnum, P.I. today.
The links:
- The Association for Women in Technology Austin is holding the 2009 Women’s Business Conference on Friday. Check out the lineup here.
- Nintendo is launching its tweaked successor to the phenomenally popular DS portable system on April 5, the Nintendo DSi. It includes two digital cameras, a way to do voice recording and, presumably, a stronger emphasis on downloadable games. It goes on sale April 5 (my birthday, wink wink) and will sell for $170.
- In a poll of its views, the kid-friendly Web browser site KidZui asked which Academy Award nominee for Best Animated Picture should win. They picked “Bolt,” which shows you how wrong kids can be.
- Dallas-based Ensemble Games, the makers of “Halo Wars” and the “Age of Empires” games has sadly folded. But many of its workers are moving on to Bonfire Studios.
- Tonic, a new fancy site devoted to shopping and charity has just launched. How fancy is it? Donna Karan is on the Board of Directors.
- Remember all that weight you lost on the Atkins diet? Well, me neither. But those who did will want to check out the Atkins Community, which is powered, appropriately, by Austin’s Powered Inc.
- Read about Austin’s Baby Ike. Some in the blog community are rallying to help this family.
- Interested in going to a Snuggie-related Austin event? You’re in luck.
- This week’s NPR “All Tech Considered” segment was about how to really erase a hard drive (on purpose).
- (Long sigh.) Our buds down the road at the San Antonio Express-News are hitting a rough patch.
- Austin’s HeliOS project does more good.
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Apple releases Safari 4 into the wild; yay?
Like a cheetah sneaking into the tent of… a… er, puma? Stealthily? Wow, that’s really early in a blog post for a metaphor to completely break down.
What I’m trying to say: this morning, Apple sneakily released “Safari 4 (beta),” a downloadable release of its Web browser software, for both Macs and Windows PCs. Apple is promising a faster, sleeker Web experience and, indeed, it’s quite a facelift for the application. While I wasn’t sold on the first PC release of Safari, it’s improved quite a bit. Nevertheless, it’s an also-ran for me in Windows behind Google’s Chrome browser and Firefox. (I can’t even remember the last time I used Internet Explorer on purpose.)
I downloaded the Mac version on my Macbook and the PC version on my Windows XP machine and both do seem speedier than previous Safari versions, but I’m not sure if it’s enough for me to give up the plug-ins I use in Firefox on the Macbook or the speed and stability I’ve come to expect from Chrome in Windows.
Apple has moved its tabs to the top of the browser Window, which looks interesting on a Mac if you like REALLY long tabs. In Windows, the tabs blend into the application bar and are tough to spot the first time you boot it up. I also found Safari 4 to be a little laggy in Windows, especially when it’s trying to download previews of bookmarked pages, which now appear in Cover Flow style.
Besides the interface changes (which make it almost indistinguishable on a PC from Chrome), the biggest thing you’ll notice is that opening a new tab brings up a “Top Sites” interface, filled with a mix of popular sites like CNN and, from what I can gather, deritus from your browser history. If you look at the image below, you’ll see a jarring photo of G.I. Joe character Destro, who came up in a Web image search weeks ago. Why is he in my “Top Sites?” No idea, man, but it’s FREAKIN’ ME OUT!
Safari on the Mac, meanwhile, seems slicker and faster. If Chrome wasn’t so fast, I’d probably switch from Firefox in Windows. I’ll need more time to play with both versions to see if it’s a game-changer, but so far, I’ve seen nothing that’s convincing me to use Safari as my primary browser on Mac or on PC.
(Pre-emptive disclaimer: I know the Opera Web browser exists, I just don’t use it. I have been told they were doing the tabs-on-top thing long before Chrome. Cool. Good for them. If you’d like to sing the praises of Opera, feel free to do so in the comments.)
Screenshots below:
Chrome and Safari: switched at birth?
Do not look directly at Destro.
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The selfish Internet
It started to happen increasingly over e-mail, but lately I’ve noticed it happening more often on Facebook, over direct messages on Twitter, via Linked In and other social networks: the increasingly laborious Internet favor.
Have you ever had someone ask in a short e-mail for you to do something for them? It might just be a quick restaurant recommendation for someone visiting your city or, if you’re technically inclined, some shopping tips for a new HDTV or computer.
Lately, though, I’ve noticed an increase in people asking me for information that’s not readily available to me. Last week, someone who works at a local company asked me to send them a list of tech-savvy people I know in the Austin area. As if I have time to compile such a list for someone I’ve never met and to whom I owe nothing.
In my case, some of the questions are benign enough that I take them on despite my shortness of time because I feel I have to. Many of the articles I write for the Statesman and segments I do for NPR are about ways to figure out technology — inevitably, some listeners or readers will have further questions and I’m happy to help resolve them. After all, there’s no way to cover everything in a three-minute radio segment or 25-inch newspaper article.
Last week, I fielded several calls from elderly readers who wanted to know how to access the information on the restaurant delivery Web site WhoDelivers.com without a computer. I tried to explain that the site features 350 restaurants and that it would be impossible for me to read off all the restaurants over the phone. So I gave them phone numbers for local delivery services that might be able to help.
Though time consuming, that feels a lot different to me than the e-mail, Facebook and Linked In queries that take absolutely no effort on the part of the sender, but which put the burden of information gathering and research on me.
I now regularly get inquiries asking me to send lists of all my sources or from PR and local marketing people asking me to distribute information for them on Twitter or to connect them with potential clients.
Via Linked In, I get queries from headhunters asking me to send them ideas for job candidates for a position that’s open or to help graduating college students get placed in our newsroom somehow. Sometimes these are direct inquiries, other times I’m just one of dozens of people who’ve received the same message. I have to wonder how many people ignore those messages and how many really throw themselves into trying to help. I’ve taken both approaches.
Employment has become a recurring theme recently. A few months ago, a friend e-mailed me asking if I could help a struggling journalist in a nearby market find a new job as layoffs at their publication were imminent. For days, I stressed out, wondering where I should look and who I should contact on behalf of this person until it dawned on me that I didn’t even know this person and I felt I was being tasked with coordinating a full-blown job search.
When I contacted the journalist, they assured me that wasn’t the intent; they just wanted to make a contact in Austin and were happy just to have a lead or two if I happened to hear of something.
As someone who tends to over-commit and spread myself too thin already, I’ve had to become a bit more cynical about these requests. A few lines of e-mail text from someone has, in the past, sent me scrambling through my e-mail research archive or committed to a speaking engagement that ends up taking up half of a work day.
Am I being curmudgeonly? Is it a kind of hoarding of information not to share what I know with those who ask? Isn’t my job to inform the public?
More and more I’m realizing that I’m not the problem. People who have forgotten how to Google and who expect others to do their work for them are the problem. I think we all need to look at the demands we make on others, the kind of time it takes for others to do the things we ask of them and for us to step back and see if we’re being selfish. The ease of sending a quick e-mail or a Tweet can mean hours of work for somebody else.
The only way to get back all the time you might lose chasing these requests is to refuse. I’ve learned that a one-line e-mail response, a polite “No” can save me minutes or hours of stress later. And the quicker I respond to such e-mails instead of letting them sit in my inbox, the better.
The alternative is to comply and grow increasingly bitter and stretched thin. Over the weekend, I had visions of time vampires, sucking all my energy and work time away. I decided I would do my best to drive a stake through their heart, to simply refuse.
We’ll see how it goes. How do you deal with those who make disproportionate demands on your time?
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Games I only wish I was playing
A long time ago, I used to play video games every single day. It was my evening pursuit, something I did right before bed, a way to wind down (and power up at the same time) before hitting the sack.
Now I have a wife, a kid, a Twitter account, two DVRs, freelance assignments and no time whatsoever. I played quite a few games over the holidays, but have found myself unable to play much since then.
Here’s what I’d be playing if I had much more free time:
- “Street Fighter IV”: It hit the streets this week for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 and is by most accounts a game that brings fighting games a step forward while retaining the best parts of this long-time series. I haven’t received a copy yet from Capcom (hey, Capcom! Over here!), but even if I did, I’d be sad not to have time to check it out.
- “Mirror’s Edge” for PC: I wrote a fairly lukewarm review of the console version of this game, but the PC version promises better physics and the possibility of community mods to enhance the very cool, stylized game world. It’s actually on my list to check out and I have a loaner video graphics card that should take advantage of the game’s new physics engine.
- “Flower”: This downloadable game for the PS3 sounds pretty great (and short; I like short). It looks beautiful.
- “Fallout 3”: I started this over the holidays and didn’t get very far before I had to put it aside. I loved what I saw so much that I can’t wait to get back to it, but it sounds like such a huge game world that I’m intimidated to return to it at the same time.
What are you folks out there playing? Post a comment and make me jealous.
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Statesman announces Texas Social Media Award winners
At midnight last night, the results of the first-ever Texas Social Media Awards were posted. Of more than 100 nominees from the public, 25 were chosen. I was one of the judges, along with food writer Addie Broyles and TSMA mastermind (and Statesman Twitter wrangler) Rob Quigley.
At a Statesman event on March 15, an overall winner will be announced. There will be drinks.
Without getting too deep into the mysterious dark arts that went into the actual judging (all right, the scoop: we used lots of dry ice and a crystal ball), I can say that there was no shortage of amazing people on the list and the most difficult part was whittling it to a mere 25.
You can see the complete list of winners and judges’ comments on this page.
I’ve been lucky enough on my beat to get to know many of the 25 on this list (and many more who were on the list of nominees) and it was gratifying to read comments from supporters that confirmed much of what I’ve thought and written about some of them. We have some pretty amazing people doing some fascinating things with their blogs, Twitter feeds, with video, out in the community, and in thousands of personal interactions with others.
This award was about those who are most affecting change using these tools. I’m pleased we were able to highlight some of their tireless work.
The only disappointment for me, personally, is that my nickname for the awards, the “T’SMAckies” (silent T, remember) doesn’t seem to be taking off. Come on, people! If you really want to impress me, you’ll use social media to make “T’SMAckies” a reality. Don’t let it be 2009’s version of “Fetch.” (See “Mean Girls” for reference.)
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: Austin, Internet, SXSW 2009
Does gender matter on Twitter?
It’s a question that’s been nagging at the back of mind for the last few months as Twitter has become increasingly mainstream. It’s not uncommon to see the social networking site mentioned on the front page of the New York Times or in stories about celebrities reaching out to their public using the service.
As Twitter has expanded, so has the number of people I follow and who follow me. One of my daily rituals now is to go look at the profiles for the people who have added me to their Twitter stream, to get a sense of who they are and whether I’d want to follow them back. Like I explained in a previous post, it’s a largely unscientific process, about 80 percent gut reaction. Are their posts interesting? Are they geographically close to me?
These snap judgments don’t always happen in a snap: I sometimes have 20 or 30 e-mails in my Gmail box on which I can’t quite make a decision.
Maybe it’s a kind of navel gazing, but I’ve started to wonder recently whether my criteria for selecting whom to follow might be faulty. It’s certainly happened that I passed someone over only to later meet them in “Real life” and wonder why I wasn’t following them on Twitter in the first place.
And I’ve also begun to wonder if I might be predisposed to follow people who have nice profile pictures or who have somehow buttered me up by retweeting something I wrote or regularly responding to @omarg.
And even further in the back of my mind is a voice that wonders whether I’ve chosen to follow some people on the basis of gender. Is that a bad idea? Can you help how you react to a person’s profile photo? If you’re, say, a 33-year-old guy, would you rather be following an attractive woman on Twitter or a weary-looking, bearded techie? (Frankly, someone who looks a lot like me. [Shudder.])
This is a part of the biases that we deal with every day on Twitter. They come into play here, I think, because it feels like such a personal space. Much more so than blogs, Twitter can feel like a personal, stream-of-consciousness experience, at least among those I have chosen to follow. How do we decide whom we’re comfortable with when we know we might get such an intimate pass into their headspace?
What other biases might we have when we’re deciding on the occupants of our virtual Twitter carpool, the ones we’ll be listening to, day-in, day-out? It’s not something I see a lot being written about out there.
This is just one aspect of what’s been on my mind lately about gender on Twitter. You could widen the discussion to include whether men and women post differently (or whether they have different habits when it comes to retweeting or replying to posts). You could consider whether gender matters in the very act of engaging in social networking; are women more predisposed to use these tools?
My gut and experiences on Twitter tells me that these are lesser issues: I folllow, I think, a good cross section of men and women. I haven’t seen any real patterns that aren’t based solidly on the personalities of the individuals posting. But maybe that’s just an indication that I’ve sought out people who don’t conform to a kind of “Type” of posting.
Last week, I decided to ask the experts: other uses on Twitter. I simply asked, “Does gender matter on Twitter?” I got a few messages asking me to clarify my question, but I left it open-ended.
This is where my wisdom (or lack of it) ends and I let the crowd take over. Here were the responses I received. I think these replies are much more interesting than my inconclusive analysis.
The replies:
- no. race does though. [I feel I should note that the person who wrote this is called @iluvblackwomen.]
- clarification, please. “Matter” in what way? To me? With respect to those I follow? Or generally? With respect to the twitterverse. (link)
- It always matters. Doesn’t necessarily limit, hinder or detract - but it always matters. (link)
- No, ma’am. (link)
- Gender never doesn’t matter. (link)
- Really interesting question - I definitely think gender matters on twitter - amazed what % of my followers are male. (link)
- I think the only thing that matters is your ability to be entertaining or informative. Only thing that denotes gender is your photo (link)
- I’ve been mistaken about the gender of several people I follow. Was a little odd when I realized, but ultimately it didn’t matter. And I still don’t know what made me think one way or another. (link)
- Instinct says no, content matters more. But, it may be naive to say perceptions regarding gender do not surface at all here. (link)
- my only twitter prejudices are against marketdroids and people with “guru” in their bio. (link)
- I don’t automatically follow everyone who follows me, but I’d probably be much more likely to do so for a woman than a man. …but a glance at my ‘following’ list shows: 42 total - 16 companies / characters; 17 men; 10 women. Most I’ve at least emailed. (link)
- I feel like gender is more of an issue on digg than on Twitter (if that answers yr ?) (link)
- It would be a mistake to think just because a tool doesn’t recognize gender, we forget gender when using that tool—esp, our own. (link)
- of course it does. Shouldn’t, tho. (link)
- gender doesn’t affect who I follow, read, or find interesting on twitter. (link)
- My inclination is to say gender matters, but in what sense do you mean it? It’s a good question; I think about this stuff a lot. I think it matters to about the same degree that it matters in most internet spaces. People can use it in a gendered way or not. (link)
- gender always matters. (link)
- I don’t know if gender *matters* on Twitter but I do know that more of my girl Twits annoy me with crying Tweets. For instance: “Just saw Milk. Crying.” “Watching Obama’s speech. Can’t. Stop. Crying.” “Watching Oakland riots. Crying over my city.”
I’d love to hear more and get your thoughts on whether you think gender plays a role in how we post and whom we choose to engage with on Twitter.
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The Linkdown for Monday, Feb. 16
These links did not receive flowers, candy or even a card for Valentine’s Day, so they might need a little extra love today. A click or two will do:
- Photos from last week’s Austin Twestival have been posted on our site!
- Austin’s Steel Penny Games has released a downloadable game for the Wii called “Bruiser & Scratch.” It’s not really my think: I’m terrible at puzzle games and could barely make it through the first level when I tried it over the weekend, but if you like cute brainteasers, you’ll love this game.
- Speaking of video games: if you’re a fan of “The Sims,” you might like to know that “The Sims 3” launches for PC on June.
- And one last game link: the English duo Wallace & Gromit are coming to the Xbox 360 and PC in a series of episodic games. Splendid!
- A column I wrote about overclocking and AMD’s record breaking “The Experiment.” You can still see the video of my interview for this piece.
- Got a BlackBerry Storm phone? The Slacker music app for that phone is free to download.
- Dell works partners with Susan G. Komen for the Cure to fight breast cancer.
- More Dell news: this tiny “Wasabi” printer is CUTE! It’s a $99 mobile printer that uses no ink. Nice!
- Interested in “Getting Things Done?” There’ll be an entire conference in San Francisco devoted to GTD in March called the GTD Summit. Put it on your to-do list.
- Take a look at the Austin contributions for Nerdabout, a Science Channel online video series.
- The lack of a Linkdown last week meant I missed Abraham Lincoln’s birthday, but you should still check out this amazing set of photos on Flickr of him via the Library of Congress.
- Southwest Airlines is working on in-flight WiFi service. It’ll be here someday.
- Bad Valentine’s Day? The Geek Squad has tech breakup tips. Protect your data!
- Austin’s Marlo Adelle of Marlo Adelle Accessories was one of six who won a TCU Texas Youth Entrepreneur of the Year Award. Congrats!
- Bear with me on a few more self-promoting links: this month’s Masters of their Domains was about food-delivery info site WhoDelivers.com.
- Lastly, the NPR All Tech Considered segment I did last Monday was about places online where employees can vent. (Sound familiar?) Today’s is about how to curtain energy consumption on our home gadgets. (In two parts.)
- Today we posted the first of several videos with Hugh Forrest and Shawn O’ Keefe of South by Southwest Interactive. Today, they talk about how the economy is affecting the fest. It’s embedded below:
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Alert: South by Southwest panel schedules are up
Panel schedules for Interactive, Music Talks, film screenings and and music festival showcases are now up at the SXSW.com Web site.
Hoping we’ll see these go up on Sched.org soon, too.
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Predictions for the new Microsoft-branded stores
Apple has shown how to sell consumer products in a stylish, inviting way at retail. Sony… not so much. (Don’t even get me started on Circuit City.)
Word is out that Microsoft is looking to expand on its recent touchy-feely ad campaign to reach out in a more significant way to customers; it will open Microsoft stores. No word yet on how many or where, but based on years of experience using Microsoft products, I have a few guesses of what the in-store experience might be like:
- Even at closing time, the Microsoft Store will sometimes refuse to shut down completely.
- Customers will be leery of shopping in the most recently added department of the store.
- Every time you touch something, a security guards asks you if you really want to be doing that.
- Display merchandise will be obscured by Aero-brand glass.
- You may not be able to see it by looking at the aisles, but dozens of unnecessary activities are happening just out of view, all the time.
- You will have the option of shopping at six different kinds of Microsoft Stores, from the Home store to the Ultimate Professional Store. They will all have different prices.
- You may need to buy all new clothes to shop at the Microsoft Store.
- Children can be dropped off and terrified at Clippy’s Playpen.
- Games for Windows department has map to GameStop’s Xbox 360 section.
- Music and movies you buy at Microsoft Store may stop working for you at home should the Microsoft Store go through a major renovation in the future.
- New clerks employed at Microsoft Store may seem more sluggish or lethargic than ones you’ve dealt with in the past, especially if you try to play a game with one of them.
- The Microsoft Store has much more merchandise in it than you will ever want or need.
- Free Zune with every purchase.
- Free Zune with every free Zune.
(With help from the ever-helpful Glark.)
Got more predictions? Post them in the comments.
Permalink | Comments (6) | Post your comment Categories: Applications, Computers, Shopping
Tomorrow night: Austin gets Twestival’d
Like everyone else attending South by Southwest Interactive, I am quivering beyond words at the just-released party schedule. Monday night looks to be an absolute party disaster of epic proportions.
I mean that in a good way. Too many parties is a great problem to have.
On the way to SXSW, however, we’ve got some pretty great lead-up events like tomorrow night’s Austin Twestival (or as I’m calling it, “Like Water for Charity.”) The event, which costs $5-$15 depending on what you’d like to give, is raising money for “charity: water,” a group that brings wells for clean water to poor areas.
More than 175 cities are expected to participate in the worldwide fest.
Austin Twestival is being organized by Michelle Greer, a social media powerhouse whose specialty of late seems to be getting people off their heinies and into action for good causes. Good on her.
Austin Twestival will feature music by T-Bird and the Breaks as well as sumo suit wrestling, tech giveaways and lots of Twitter talk. It’ll be at 8 p.m., Aces Lounge, 222 E. Sixth St.
I’ll definitely be there for as long as I can — come say hi and help the world.
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More Interactive updates: SXSW Web Award, Screenburn nominees
More updates from South by Southwest Interactive, which is only a month away! (Start catching up on sleep NOW, attendees.)
The 12th Annual South by Southwest Interactive Web Award finalists have been announced for 18 categories including “Art,” “Blog” and “Mobile” (plus “Best of Show” and “People’s Choice”). Go check ‘em out. The awards will be presented Sunday, March 15 and hosted by Baratunde Thurston, an Onion editor who specializes in political commentary.
I’m still bitter about missing Eugene Mirman, one of my favorite comics, at last year’s ceremony. But duty called and I… called in for duty. The good news is that Mirman will be in down Feb. 17 at BookPeople to promote his new book, “The Will to Whatevs.” And he’ll be back in Austin in May to open the Flight of the Conchords show. I WILL NOT MISS MIRMAN THIS TIME!
In other SXSWi news, finalists for the Screeburn game design competition have been announced as well. Screenburn is one of SXSW’s best-kept secrets, a free game festival open to the public. It grows every year and if you’re not able to register for the festival itself, it’s a great way to get a taste of Interactive.
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Unapologetic nom nom nom
I don’t do this too often these days given that there’s always more stuff to blog about around here than there are hours in my workweek, but what the heck. I’m feeling caught up today.
So, funny cats are a big deal on the Internet, we have established. So are things that are so cute they overload your senses. And then there’s the whole “Nom nom nom” meme, the supposed sound creatures make as they chow down.
What if all three were combined in one mind-blowing true-to-life video, the cuteness of which could blow your circuits?
Witness: the cat who actually says “Nom nom nom” when kitteh eats (via my friend Glark):
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SXSWi brings numbers whiz Silver; Amazon Kindle 2 introduced
On Friday evening I posted on Twitter that South by Southwest Interactive has finally announced its Sunday keynote speaker. It’s a doozy. (“Doozy” is still a thing, right?)
Nate Silver, the numbers whiz at fivethirtyeight.com, will be filling the Sunday Interactive keynote hole. Interviewing him will be BusinessWeek reporter Stephen Baker, whom we hope will do a better job keeping the audience satisfied than his colleague Sarah Lacy did last year in the same slot. Silver made headlines last year with his tight science, using his skills at baseball predictions to make eerily accurate projections of last year’s election.
He joins artist James Powderly (interviewed by Virginia Heffernan of the New York Times), tech guru and Apple vet Guy Kawasaki (interviewed by Wired chief Chris Anderson) on the keynote schedule. Tony Hsieh of shoe seller Zappos will deliver the opening remarks on March 14.
After our speculation on who the Sunday keynoter should be, I’m pleased; Silver seems like the perfect choice.
Also announced recently: B.J. Novak, a producer and star of “The Office” will be on a comedy-on-the-Web panel. Can’t wait.
I have a novelist friend who e-mailed me a few weeks ago asking if I’d heard anything about a revamped version of Amazon’s Kindle e-book device. Well, the company has answered his prayers: today, it announced Kindle 2, a sleeker version of its clunky beige device. The new Kindle is only 1/3rd of an inch thick, has a longer battery life and more storage than the original Kindle. It costs $359 and is available for pre-order for release on Feb. 24th.
Like the original Kindle, it can download content over a nationwide high-speed wireless network without monthly fees. It also purports to have an improved display in 16 shades of gray.
Most intriguing is a new text-to-speech feature; it will read, out loud, any content it downloads, from books to newspapers and blogs.
Amazon is also introducing a $2.99 bonus for Kindle buyers: a new story by Stephen King called “UR,” written exclusively for the device.
Amazon introduced the original Kindle in late 2007 and despite lots of skepticism about it, they may have sold as many as a half million of the e-book readers, according to some analyst reports.
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Visiting AMD, talking chips
As I mentioned in the previous entry, I made a visit to AMD’s southwest Austin campus today as part of the AMD Unprocessed online video series.
You can still see the full video by clicking on “Turn Me On” and then clicking the “On Demand” button at the bottom. The whole video is about 30 minutes and features me talking to Simon Solotko about AMD’s Dragon platform, how some modders overclocked a Phenom II processor to an astounding 6.5 Gigahertz using liquid helium and some of the company’s new software for tweaking, organizing your PC’s media and getting rid of all the Windows Vista overhead to get the most gaming performance.
Except for the part at the very beginning where my ginormous forehead almost shorted out the feed, I thought it went well. I’m always leery of walking into a situation that might be seen as promoting a specific company, but the ground rules were that I could ask any questions I liked related to the topic of the video session. And since I hadn’t had an opportunity to visit the AMD campus since it moved to the Southwest Parkway, it was a chance for me to see what the company, which employs about 2,300-2,400 in the area, is up to. And the truth is, like almost any other longtime PC gamer, I’ve used used both Intel and AMD products in my system builds, and both Nvidia and ATI graphics cards. I’m incredibly price-sensitive and voracious in reading reviews when I’m upgrading a part of my computer, so I’ve always been entertained by the arms race in graphics cards and processors. My current computer us a mix of ATI graphics, Intel CPU and a hodgepodge of other parts.
What I came away with is that AMD is pushing on the advantages of having an all-AMD system, via its Dragon platform. The company is making Crossfire, it’s multi-graphics card standard, easier to use across varying graphics cards. And its software is attempting to give gamers, PC hardware enthusiasts and those interested in faster digital media playing more tools to play with.
As far as the AMD campus itself, it’s nothing short of gorgeous. Built to be extremely green-friendly, the buildings bring in a lot of natural light and overlooks a particularly nice stretch of land out in the Silicon Hills.
A showroom for AMD partners like HP and Lenovo features consumer products, workstations and even a play room for an Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii, all attractively displayed and ready to try out.
In this tough economic time, it’s rare that I get to see a facility that’s fresh and new and feels so full of potential. It’s lucky for AMD that they got the campus finished before the economy might have made it much tougher to pull off such a nice location.
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Chatting live with AMD at 11 a.m.
I’ll be doing a live video interview with AMD’s Simon Solotko today to talk about the company’s PC graphics technology, including its recent record-breaking overclocking efforts at the Consumer Electronics Show. We’ll also be talking about PC graphics in general and AMD’s Dragon platform.
You should be able to check it out starting at 11 a.m. CST via the video below. If for some reason it’s not working (I’ll be out of pocket and won’t be able to check), you can access it directly here.
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The Linkdown for Wednesday, Feb. 4
Consider this your Internet viewing stimulus package for the week:
- Fan of “Friday Night Lights?” Austin-born Nieko Mann, who played Smash’s sister Noannie Williams on the show, is now appearing on a Web show called “Diary of a Single Mom.” You can find it at Pic.tv, a new public service video site.
- Nokia’s “Calling All Innovators” challenges has selected its semifinalists. The goal was to create mobile apps that would improve the quality of life on the planet. As opposed to making Earth worse.
- Hey, nice Orb speaker stands! They were just released yesterday.
- Austin’s Frank T. Herrera is determined to document on video the ongoing rivalry you didn’t even know existed: the one between bikers and geeks (video). Go geeks! (But please don’t hurt me, bikers!) If you like it, there’s a second video on YouTube.
- Sad news to report on something I wrote about earlier: the long-awaited Austin coworking space, Launchpad Coworking, has run into some trouble on its way to opening. Read Julie Gomoll’s blog entry updating its status.
- How much money did the computer and video game industry make last year? $22 billion.
- Speaking of which, yesterday was Texas Entertainment Software Day, as proclaimed by Governor Rick Perry.
- Mainstay Mac software “Stuffit” is turning 20. The company that makes is having a contest for its loyal users.
- Got a startup company and looking for mentoring and an investment? You have until March 30 to apply for the Capital Factory incubator program.
- Onedegree tosses its hat toward the University of Texas in the increasingly crowded social networking space. This one’s aimed at students and alumni.
- Want to get rid of your paper bills and statements? PayItGreen would like to help you do that.
- Verizon is introducing The Hub, a connected home phone that can also do Web browsing and play video. It costs $200 and four Web shows from Austin’s ON Networks will be featured on the device: “Budget Health Nut,” “Golf Tips,” “Food Science” and “Zen Living.”
- A company has introduced Headup a semantic Web browser plug-in that feeds information to you from places like Amazon and Facebook. Have any of you tried it? If so, let me know in the comments.
- Austin’s Judlyne Lilly-Gibson was just named 2008 Audiocaster of the Year by Associated Content. Congrats!
- Austin’s Aspyr Media has two big things happening: later this month it will launch “Puzzle Quest: Galactrix,” a sequel to the much-beloved “Puzzle Quest.” They’re also publishing a Spring ‘09 B-movie-style shooter set in WWI (but with zombies!) called “NecroVisioN.”
- More game stuff: Amazon has just launched its own digital distribution service. It features games under $10 and free 30-minute demos.
- Use Gmail? You might have noticed some new buttons and features. I’m trying to learn some of the keyboard shortcuts. So far I’ve only memorized “#” to delete a message.
- A new version of Skype, 4.0, has launched for Windows. You can download it here.
- I’m currently in love with PlayOn, which allows you to view Netflix, Hulu, CBS, YouTube and other kinds of online video via your Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3. You can try a 14-day free trial, which I’m doing right now. It’s Windows-only, though. A Mac version is in the works, though.
Until next week!
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Post-Palm Pre launch camp for developers set, has Austin ties
Some people not sold on the iPhone, the BlackBerry Storm or the Google Android as the touch-screen phone of their dreams have started to pin their hopes on Palm’s upcoming phone, the Pre, which so far has earned raves from those who got to check out the device at the January Consumer Electronics Show.
And now there’s another reason to get excited: Austin’s William “Whurley” Hurley is one of the organizers of “preDevCamp,” a 60-city event scheduled to take place one week after the phone is released in the U.S. (whenever that might be; there’s been no date yet set). Along with partners-in-crime Dan Rumney and Giovanni Gallucci, Whurley is already posting cities that will be participating (live in Croatia? You’re in luck!) on the preDevCamp site.
Like a previous iPhone development camp held long before Apple’s App Store launched, it will be a place for people who want to develop apps for the Pre to gather and get started making the applications that Pre users will eventually download.
I hope to get to play with a Pre at some point, so all you developers out there, get cracking. I want great apps and a phone to recommend other than the iPhone.
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SXSW Interactive site gets more interactive; full schedule pre-released
Late this afternoon, the South by Southwest Interactive Web site began shifting into high gear with new features and an updated conference schedule, available only to registered attendees. The full schedule won’t be available to the public in final form until mid-February.
The new feature is a Web site platform is called “my.SXSW” and it’s an application that allows attendees to create a profile, make a calendar, find others who are attending the festival and share their personal schedule. You’ll also be able to get notifications on schedule changes and the site promises to integrate with Twitter, Flickr and Facebook.
As of this moment, I’m not able to log in to the site to tell you more about it, but I’ll keep updating when I make it in. If you’re able to access the site, let me know and tell me your thoughts.
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