EA estimates global mobile games market will be worth $3.4 billion this year [TNW Mobile]

Mobile Entertainment has reported on an interesting valuation of the mobile games market by Electronic Arts where its estimates it could be worth as much as $3.4 billlion this year, rising to $4.5 billion in 2013.

EA attributes $1.7 billion of mobile revenues to Asia ? inclusive of all the gaming industry, not specifically EA ? with European sales amounting to $0.7 billion and $1 billion in the US.

Smartphones will play a large part in the rise of mobile gaming revenue with EA estimating that the devices will usher $1 billion of sales, with feature phone revenue amounting to $0.7 billion. In the next three years, EA sees the $1.8 billion of the $2.3 billion of US/European mobile games revenues coming solely from smartphones with only $0.5 billion coming from feature phones.

EA has been busy acquiring social gaming companies, purchasing gaming firm Playfish for $400 million in November. It also moved further into mobile gaming, acquiring Angry Birds publishers (not creators) Chillingo, a sure sign it wants to be there to take a large share of the figures it estimates.

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Source: http://thenextweb.com/mobile/2010/12/02/ea-estimates-global-mobile-games-market-will-be-worth-3-4-billion-this-year/

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HP kills Windows Home Server options, to focus on WebOS

Microsoft has confirmed that Hewlett-Packard's MediaSmart boxes, which run Windows Home Server, are being discontinued at the end of the year. HP has also told Microsoft that it has no intention of developing products that run Windows Home Server 2 (codenamed Vail).

Ever since HP acquired Palm for $1.2 billion, the company seems to becoming more competitive with its various partners. The company apparently has lost interest in selling Windows Home Server boxes. Instead, HP is promising to continue support for its existing MediaSmart products but has already redeployed development teams to focus on WebOS, according to Engadget.

Despite suspicions by many that the company would kill webOS, so far it has done the exact opposite. Two months ago, HP officially introduced webOS 2.0, the most significant update to the platform since its launch in 2009, along with the Palm Pre 2, the first device to sport it. Four more webOS 2.0 devices are slated to arrive in early 2011, and the company also plans to roll it out for current devices. Developers will thus be able to target eight webOS 2.0 devices in total, plus whatever Windows Home Server replacements the company may have under its sleeve.

"Microsoft continues to work on delivering 'Vail' to our customers," a Microsoft spokesperson said in a statement. "We are working very closely with our partners such as Acer, Tranquil and many System Builders to bring the best solution to market. HP and Microsoft have a long-standing strategic relationship across both consumer and commercial markets and will continue to work together moving forward."

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Source: http://www.techspot.com/news/41391-hp-kills-windows-home-server-options-to-focus-on-webos.html

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House Censure: Humbling to Some, but Not All

In the genteel parliamentary history of the House of Representatives there lurk rowdy days of rough-and-tumble brawls, beatings, chokings, fistfights, upended hairpieces, stentorian demands for apologies unheeded and a lot of sneaky conduct and foul-mouth talk. Some did nothing bad, or almost nothing.

But they all wound up where Representative Charles B. Rangel, a Democrat from Harlem, is expected to find himself this week: in the well of the House, facing the shame of formal censure. The choreographed mortification ritual has played out more than a score of times since 1832. Convicted by peers, the transgressor ? all have been men ? stands before the assembled members and a packed gallery of spectators and reporters as the speaker reads the rebuke.

?What it?s saying is you?ve brought disgrace to the House of Representatives, you?ve discredited the institution that you serve in,? said Ilona Nickels, an author and expert on Congressional affairs. ?You have impugned the integrity of our proceedings. You?re a disgraceful person. And you?re going to stand there in the well of the House and we?re going to read these charges against you and we?re going to, in essence, say, ?Shame on you.? It doesn?t really help your résumé, or your obit for that matter.?

It is also a moment of truth, not for the fainthearted.

On Oct. 27, 1921, Representative Thomas L. Blanton, Democrat of Texas, faced it with deep anxiety. He had been convicted of entering in The Congressional Record a letter that was, in a colleague?s words, ?unspeakable, vile, foul, filthy, profane, blasphemous and obscene.? It involved a squabble between union and nonunion printers, and by today?s standards was relatively mild stuff.

As the speaker finished his condemnation, Mr. Blanton turned ashen and fled the chamber. ?In the corridor he fell exhausted, striking his head on the marble floor,? The New York Times reported. ?He rested a few minutes on a couch, refused medical aid and shuffled to his office, tears running down his face as he forced his way between spectators and members who were leaving the session.?

Not all of them cry and carry on. Depending on the offense, its probable fallout and the thickness of a politician?s skin, censured members have shown humility or defiance, perhaps relieved that the practical consequences are only dishonor and a need to face voters at the next election, well short of immediate expulsion, if slightly more humiliating than a slap-on-the-wrist reprimand. (Officially, there have been 22 acts of House censure, but some are debatable because the censures appear to have been politically motivated.)

As censurable violations go, the seriousness of Mr. Rangel?s fall somewhere in the middle. He was convicted by a subcommittee of the House ethics committee of 11 violations, including improper fund-raising, failing to pay taxes on rental income and failing to report income on Congressional financial-disclosure forms ? not of stealing fortunes, battering colleagues or cornering pages in the anterooms.

It was much worse in 1873, when Representatives Oakes Ames, Republican of Massachusetts, and James Brooks, Democrat of New York, were censured for bribery in the Crédit Mobilier scandal, in which millions were skimmed from stock sales during construction of the nation?s first transcontinental railroad, the Union Pacific.

In 1870, three Republican congressmen ? Benjamin F. Whittemore of South Carolina, John T. Deweese of North Carolina and Roderick R. Butler of Tennessee ? were censured for selling appointments to Annapolis and West Point. And in 1979, Representative Charles C. Diggs Jr., Democrat of Michigan, was censured and resigned after being convicted of mail fraud and padding his staff payroll.

Many 19th-century censures were for ?unparliamentary language,? a grab-bag for name-calling, mud-slinging and insults, mostly in Civil War-era debates. But in 1864, Representatives Alexander Long of Ohio and Benjamin G. Harris of Maryland, both Democrats, were cited for ?treasonable utterances? ? backing the Confederacy.

?When you look at the list for all the various reasons people were disciplined, it really is a function of the times,? Ms. Nickels said. ?Every era has its own ethos ? what?s considered horrible and what?s not considered horrible.?

Kerri MacDonald contributed reporting.

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Source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=7fc5f50d9be2268b50046a0f55cb74ee

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Microsoft introduces Xbox Live Rewards program

Microsoft has announced a new program that allows Xbox Live users to earn Microsoft Points by doing certain tasks via Xbox Live Rewards. Gamers can earn points, which the software giant has named as the main currency on the Xbox 360 network, for renewing their Xbox Live Gold memberships, purchasing Xbox Live Marketplace items, using the Netflix app on Xbox, taking surveys, participating in promotions, and so on.

Here's how to get started:

  1. Connect your Xbox 360: think you should be recognized for your time and dedication? We do. Sign up for Xbox Live and start getting back what you put in.
  2. Join Xbox Live Rewards: It's easy, quick, and free. Join now and watch your rewards multiply - just by doing the things you already do on Xbox Live!
  3. Reap the benefits: Memership has privileges. As an Xbox Live Gold member, you get more. So stay Gold, use Xbox Live and reap in the benefits.

Many of the rewards are aimed at new users, meaning Microsoft's goal is get more users to enroll in Xbox Live, though keeping current users hooked is probably still part of the strategy. The biggest payouts come from staying enrolled.

It took Microsoft quite some time to launch the loyalty rewards program. Just last week, the Xbox 360 console turned five years old.

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Source: http://www.techspot.com/news/41389-microsoft-introduces-xbox-live-rewards-program.html

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MSI announces fanless Atom-based SFF motherboard

MSI announces fanless Atom-based SFF motherboard

House Censure: Humbling to Some, but Not All

In the genteel parliamentary history of the House of Representatives there lurk rowdy days of rough-and-tumble brawls, beatings, chokings, fistfights, upended hairpieces, stentorian demands for apologies unheeded and a lot of sneaky conduct and foul-mouth talk. Some did nothing bad, or almost nothing.

But they all wound up where Representative Charles B. Rangel, a Democrat from Harlem, is expected to find himself this week: in the well of the House, facing the shame of formal censure. The choreographed mortification ritual has played out more than a score of times since 1832. Convicted by peers, the transgressor ? all have been men ? stands before the assembled members and a packed gallery of spectators and reporters as the speaker reads the rebuke.

?What it?s saying is you?ve brought disgrace to the House of Representatives, you?ve discredited the institution that you serve in,? said Ilona Nickels, an author and expert on Congressional affairs. ?You have impugned the integrity of our proceedings. You?re a disgraceful person. And you?re going to stand there in the well of the House and we?re going to read these charges against you and we?re going to, in essence, say, ?Shame on you.? It doesn?t really help your résumé, or your obit for that matter.?

It is also a moment of truth, not for the fainthearted.

On Oct. 27, 1921, Representative Thomas L. Blanton, Democrat of Texas, faced it with deep anxiety. He had been convicted of entering in The Congressional Record a letter that was, in a colleague?s words, ?unspeakable, vile, foul, filthy, profane, blasphemous and obscene.? It involved a squabble between union and nonunion printers, and by today?s standards was relatively mild stuff.

As the speaker finished his condemnation, Mr. Blanton turned ashen and fled the chamber. ?In the corridor he fell exhausted, striking his head on the marble floor,? The New York Times reported. ?He rested a few minutes on a couch, refused medical aid and shuffled to his office, tears running down his face as he forced his way between spectators and members who were leaving the session.?

Not all of them cry and carry on. Depending on the offense, its probable fallout and the thickness of a politician?s skin, censured members have shown humility or defiance, perhaps relieved that the practical consequences are only dishonor and a need to face voters at the next election, well short of immediate expulsion, if slightly more humiliating than a slap-on-the-wrist reprimand. (Officially, there have been 22 acts of House censure, but some are debatable because the censures appear to have been politically motivated.)

As censurable violations go, the seriousness of Mr. Rangel?s fall somewhere in the middle. He was convicted by a subcommittee of the House ethics committee of 11 violations, including improper fund-raising, failing to pay taxes on rental income and failing to report income on Congressional financial-disclosure forms ? not of stealing fortunes, battering colleagues or cornering pages in the anterooms.

It was much worse in 1873, when Representatives Oakes Ames, Republican of Massachusetts, and James Brooks, Democrat of New York, were censured for bribery in the Crédit Mobilier scandal, in which millions were skimmed from stock sales during construction of the nation?s first transcontinental railroad, the Union Pacific.

In 1870, three Republican congressmen ? Benjamin F. Whittemore of South Carolina, John T. Deweese of North Carolina and Roderick R. Butler of Tennessee ? were censured for selling appointments to Annapolis and West Point. And in 1979, Representative Charles C. Diggs Jr., Democrat of Michigan, was censured and resigned after being convicted of mail fraud and padding his staff payroll.

Many 19th-century censures were for ?unparliamentary language,? a grab-bag for name-calling, mud-slinging and insults, mostly in Civil War-era debates. But in 1864, Representatives Alexander Long of Ohio and Benjamin G. Harris of Maryland, both Democrats, were cited for ?treasonable utterances? ? backing the Confederacy.

?When you look at the list for all the various reasons people were disciplined, it really is a function of the times,? Ms. Nickels said. ?Every era has its own ethos ? what?s considered horrible and what?s not considered horrible.?

Kerri MacDonald contributed reporting.

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Source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=7fc5f50d9be2268b50046a0f55cb74ee

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83% Of Android Devices Run Android 2.1 Or Above [TNW Mobile]

Google has updated the Platform Versions statistics chart on its Android Developers portal and its analysis shows that Android 2.1 (Eclair) and Android 2.2 (Froyo) now run on 83% of the total Android handsets currently available in the market.

The figure, up 6% from the previous report, demonstrates Google?s efforts to reduce fragmentation of its operating system, often plagued by mobile operators that would delay updates as they sought to include branding, additional software and bug fixes.

From the data collected two weeks previous to December 1 2010, Android 2.2 was operational on 43.4% of Android devices, with Android 2.1 accounting for 39.6%. Android 1.6 can be found on 10.6% of devices and Android 1.5 run on 6.3%, thanks largely to users not knowing they can update their devices or their phones have become obsolete and are no longer supported.

The charts are set to reflect a new firmware when Google releases its next update, although it will be many weeks until devices around the world receive it. The search giant has not given any indication as to when it will release Android 2.3, codenamed Gingerbread, however it is estimated that users will begin to receive it before the end of the year.

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Source: http://thenextweb.com/mobile/2010/12/02/83-of-android-devices-run-android-2-1-or-above/

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Samsung?s South Korean Galaxy S sales reach 2.3 million, Galaxy Tab passes 100k units [TNW Mobile]

The Samsung Galaxy S  smartphone range is continuing to perform well in South Korea after latest sales figures show 2.3 million Galaxy S variants have been sold since its launch five months ago.

In the month of November, Samsung sold a total of 1.89 million handsets, slightly less than its October sales. The Galaxy S helped drive strong October sales with over 820,000 smartphones sold in South Korea during the period, amounting to a 43.2 share of the smartphone market in the country at that time.

In other regions, the Samsung Galaxy S has fared slightly better; in the US, the smartphone has surpassed 3 million sales.

Samsung also announced that it has surpassed 100,000 sales of its Galaxy Tab device, a steady launch but lacking when compared to the reported 60,000 Apple iPad pre-orders, a device that launched on November 30. That said, Samsung has sold over 600,000 of its tablet devices since launch and is well on course to meet its sales target of one million units.

Samsung Hub reports that Samsung?s Corby handset range has recorded sales of 1,600,000 units to date, the SHW-A130 passing 650,000 units and Nori Series just under 450,000 units.

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Source: http://thenextweb.com/mobile/2010/12/02/samsungs-south-korean-galaxy-s-sales-reach-2-3-million-galaxy-tab-passes-100k-units/

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