Cody Taylor

CNet is running an article that looks at the growing parallels between the major movie studios and some of the most successful game publishers, which have gradually turned into the juggernauts of the industry as they’ve absorbed a variety of smaller developers in recent years. “If we consider Hollywood — the model to which the video game industry is always compared — it doesn’t take long before we realize that it’s dominated by a handful of studios that effectively control a large percentage of the industry, while the independent studios are left trying to defy the percentages and get their innovative and artistic films to the masses. Since most fail, it’s the big studios that enjoy profits as the independents try to find some way to stay alive.” Gamasutra has a related piece suggesting the opposite trend: “Smaller, less expensive games made by smaller, more agile teams seem like a very logical step, now that the industry structure is better able to support it, with no less than three venues on which to distribute content as a small team. These are downloadable console, direct to consumer PC downloads via Steam-like services, portals, or direct sale, and iPhone and potentially DSi downloads.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Palm investor Roger McNamee recently stated that when the phone contracts of the initial iPhone owners expire this summer, they’ll all be jumping ship for the Palm Pre – which should be shipping by then. That’s not too likely to happen and here’s why.

Renegade stores are popping up online selling unauthorized software for the iPhone, threatening Apple’s lucrative App Store. The developer behind some popular iPhone software on Friday plans to open a service called Cydia Store that could potentially sell hundreds of iPhone applications that are not available through Apple’s official store.

A video of The Mentalists performing MGMT’s ‘Kids’ on iPhones and iPods is proving an online hit.

First the bad news: In multiple ways, Amazon’s new Kindle reader for the iPhone falls short of being the ultimate iPhone e-book application. It fails to replicate all the major features of a 9 Kindle device. But despite that, it’s a delight to have Kindle on the iPhone. What makes Kindle Kindle isn’t software but content –244,000 books’ worth.

CWmike writes “Nvidia is considering developing an integrated chip based on the x86 architecture for use in devices such as netbooks and mobile Internet devices, said Michael Hara, vice president of investor relations at Nvidia during a speech that was webcast from the Morgan Stanley Technology Conference this week. Nvidia has already developed an integrated chip called Tegra, which combines an Arm processor, a GeForce graphics core and other components on a single chip. The chips are aimed at small devices such as smartphones and MIDs, and will start shipping in the second half of this year. ‘Tegra, by any definition, is a complete computer-on-chip, and the requirements of that market are such that you have to be very low power and very small but highly efficient,’ Hara said. ‘Someday, it’s going to make sense to take the same approach in the x86 market as well.'”

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These are the applications that offer clues as to how mobile users are likely to use their smartphones — whether it’s an iPhone or one of the iPhone’s rivals — in the months and years to come.

eldavojohn writes “There’s no lack of news surrounding the settlement of Google’s controversial move to digitize books — but how do you even start this endeavor? A New York Times story reveals the obstacles they face just to get the word out that they want to settle with publishers and authors everywhere. They turned to a world-wide ad campaign to start the 5 million settlement process and they’re spending million to million in paper print ads and telephone hot-lines (handling 80+ languages) to reach as many people as possible. From the article: ‘We looked at how many books were published in various areas and we knew from the plaintiffs and Google that 30 percent were published in the U.S., 30 percent in industrialized countries. The rest of the world is the rest.’ That’s quite the herculean task! Hopefully Google’s efforts in digitizing books will breathe new life and revenue into authors and publishers the world over.”

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Mullah Abdul Salaam Zaeef is a former Taliban ambassador to Pakistan. He spent almost four years in Guantanamo. He wears a black turban, has a thick beard, and is never without his Apple iPhone… said he has always been interested in technology despite his militant links. He used a laptop and satellite phone to access the Internet

palmsolo writes “The Amazon Kindle 2 just started shipping last week, but Amazon surprised everyone late on March 3rd by placing the Amazon Kindle software for the iPhone in the Apple App Store. With the Whispersync technology you can now keep your Kindle and iPhone ebooks in sync and read everywhere you go. Readers on the iPhone also now get access to over 200,000 ebook titles on the Amazon Kindle storefront. Check out the hands-on image gallery and video of the Amazon Kindle software on the iPhone and Kindle 2.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.