Internet

Next PS3 firmware one more reason to buy console as Blu-Ray player

Update: This story now reflects NPD data showing improved PlayStation 3 performance in the first two months of the year.

For many people, Sony's oft-maligned PlayStation 3 video game console had one no-doubt-about-it selling point: when it launched, it was by far the cheapest Blu-ray player on the market.

That's no longer true, what with plenty of low-cost players flooding the market now that Blu-ray has effectively vanquished HD DVD as the next-generation playback standard.

But with its announcement of a forthcoming PS3 firmware upgrade, Sony has once again given consumers a reason to buy the console for … Read more

Interactive game mixes classic novels with Web 2.0 mashups

The alternate-reality game genre has a new friend, and a new format, thanks to Penguin Books, the famous British publishing house.

On Tuesday, Penguin and startup Six to Start launched their new ARG, We Tell Stories, a new-style game that its creators say is a hybrid of traditional story-telling, Web 2.0-style mashups, interactive games and classic novels.

We Tell Stories is actually a seven-part adventure, said Jeremy Ettinghausen, the digital publisher for Penguin. It will begin with six weekly installments, each of which is based on a classic novel--and written by a different Penguin author--and which tasks participants with … Read more

Top Chinese university weighs a ban on swearing online

Beijing University, one of China's top academic institutions, is considering a rule to ban its students form using obscenity or spreading rumors online, Xinhua reports. Rules may also affect faculty.

It's not clear if the enforcement would include any online speech by students or if it would be limited to university forums.

News of the possible regulations comes a few months after a popular student bulletin board--a physical board, not the campus BBS--was taken down by university authorities. Xinhua writes:

The university, concerned about abusive comments and rumors on Internet forums, is considering amending its "Student Rules,&… Read more

'Silicon Dragon': Why China might dominate the tech world

Journalist Rebecca Fannin argues in her new book, Silicon Dragon, that China will gradually emerge as the world's center of innovation, supplanting Silicon Valley for venture capital and exciting technology.

Forbes.com asked her to explain her ideas in an interview:

You argue that China is "winning the tech race." But it seems like the more mature companies in China have followed American business models, and this innovative generation of companies is still very young. In what sense is China "winning?"

Well, you have to consider the time frame. It's going to be years … Read more

SXSWi: Learning the lessons of 'people-powered' companies

AUSTIN, Texas--Why invent the wheel by yourself if you can turn instead to a group of peers and solve it together?

That was the premise of a gathering here of executives from most of the leading companies in what might be called the "people-powered" industry.

These are companies like CafePress, Moo, Etsy, and 8020 Publishing whose business is manufacturing physical products designed by customers. CafePress, for example, makes T-shirts, coffee mugs, hats, and many other products emblazoned with logos and designs uploaded by users. Moo makes business and greeting cards adorned with users' own photos and images, and 8020 publishes photo and travel magazines full of readers' work.

But each of these outfits has until now had to solve a set of problems unique to this nascent industry--legal issues, community management processes, and even questions of nomenclature.

So as many of the people behind these companies prepared to go to Austin for this year's South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) festival, Moo CEO Richard Moross decided that maybe this would be a good time and place to get everyone together and discuss whether a cooperative investigation and search for solutions to common problems would be a good thing for everyone involved.

After all, there's strength in numbers, right?

Jane McGonigal at SXSWi: Game developers can induce happiness

AUSTIN, Texas--Game designers may be the professionals best suited to help humans find happiness in the future.

That was the thesis of world-famous alternate-reality game designer Jane McGonigal's Tuesday keynote address at South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) here.

McGonigal began her talk by looking at the idea that happiness is something scientists and sociologists are increasingly studying and that embedded in the mechanics of games may be the very things that people need to be happy. And quality of life will likely be a key consideration of many interactive media projects.

"Because positive psychology will be a principal, … Read more

At SXSWi, Jane McGonigal talks about 'The Lost Ring'

AUSTIN, Texas--To players of alternate reality games (ARGs) like I Love Bees, Tombstone Hold 'em, A World without Oil and others, Jane McGonigal is a household name.

If the people at the International Olympics Committee, McDonald's, and worldwide brand experience firm AKQA have anything to say about it, the list of people who know McGonigal and her work will soon expand geometrically.

That's because she's the lead designer on The Lost Ring, a new ARG that launched earlier this month that is tied to this summer's Beijing Olympics and which McDonald's, AKQA and the IOC … Read more

At SXSWi, the new Twitter is...Twitter

AUSTIN, Texas--After last year's explosive arrival on the geek scene at South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) of Twitter, a lot of people wondered what technology might take the conference by storm this year.

Well, after three-and-a-half days of SXSWi, I'd say we have an uncontested winner.

Announcing the technology that more than anything else has governed how the thousands of attendees here are organizing themselves, finding out what their friends are up to, weighing in on the merits of keynote address interviewers and so much more.

Drum roll please.

It's Twitter. Again.

I have never seen anything … Read more

PostSecret's Frank Warren brings tears to SXSWi crowd

AUSTIN, Texas--Here's my secret: I cried during Frank Warren's keynote speech.

Of course, I wasn't alone. All around the ballroom where Warren, the founder of the PostSecret project, was giving Monday's South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) keynote address, people were misty-eyed. And for me, things he said throughout his talk had tears rolling down my face.

It's not surprising, though. For those unfamiliar with PostSecret, it's the project Warren has been doing for several years where he encourages the public to send him anonymous postcards with some sort of personal secret. Over the years, … Read more

SXSWi: Zuckerberg may get a do-over (update)

AUSTIN, Texas--According to Robert Scoble, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg decided to do an open Q-and-A this afternoon at South by Southwest Interactive.

This, of course, would be a follow-up to his Sunday keynote here, which went awry when the audience turned on his interviewer, journalist Sarah Lacy.

I don't have a lot of details, and apparently the open Q-and-A may be going on right now, though Scoble Twittered that he thought it would be at 4:30 p.m. local time.

But for Zuckerberg to make this move would surely go over huge here at SXSWi, where the talk … Read more