Author: Duncan Geere
Guitar Hero III has made more money than any other videogame ever
$1,000,000,000.
That’s how much money has been spent, since its release on October 28th 2007, on Guitar Hero III. That’s enough money to buy 1.3 million 16GB pay-as-you-go iPhones, 18 million Thrustmaster T.16000M joysticks, or 50,000 blinged-up Macbook Airs.
Of course, the whole thing is helped by the fact that the game cost about $90 when it was released, almost twice the price of a normal game, due to its plastic guitar peripheral. Expect sales of Guitar Hero World Tour and Rock Band, however, to eclipse this figure once again, due to their massive full-band instrument packs.
XKCD Guitar Hero (via Kotaku)
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Nintendo issues sniffy response to Greenpeace's environmental criticism
Every year or so, eco-terrorists Greenpeace compile a report on which technology companies are friendliest to the environment and which really aren’t. Nintendo and Apple routinely score very low, and Nokia routinely scores well, but this year, Nintendo has issued a wonderfully haughty response:
“Nintendo has not been badly rated by Greenpeace. Greenpeace chose to conduct a survey which graded companies based on the voluntary submission of information. Nintendo decided not to take part in the survey and were therefore ‘ungraded’.
“Nintendo provides detailed information regarding its compliance to environmental laws and directives via the Consumer Information section of the Nintendo website and therefore felt it unnecessary to take part in the Greenpeace survey.”
So there you go. Nintendo isn’t environmentally unfriendly, it just doesn’t want to play nice with Greenpeace. In all honesty, I’m not sure I blame them.
Greenpeace Report (via TechRadar)
Related posts: New MacBooks to contain LED backlit screens, boost Greenpeace’s opinion on Apple | Greenpeace accuses Nintendo of not playing eco-friendly ball, in Greener Guide to Electronics report
Universal digital chief: Android's selling bucketloads of Amazon MP3s, litigation is not a long-term fix to piracy
I haven’t exactly hidden my contempt in the past for Doug Morris, CEO of Universal Music Group. For many years, UMG has ridden the coattails of the other record labels, particularly the trailblazing EMI, when it came to digital music. It was with mild trepidation, therefore, that I began to read Cnet’s interview with UMG’s Digital Music head honcho, Rio Caraeff.
There are a number of interesting nuggets of info in the interview – that Android’s driving “a ton” of sales for Amazon MP3, that litigation is not “a definitive or long-term fix” for piracy, and another confirmation of the “tens of millions of dollars” that Rio had previously claimed the label was getting from YouTube.
Most interesting of all, though, is the way that Rio sounds like a guy who’s really got his head screwed on. He speaks very knowledgably about digital music, but the most telling statement is when he says “We’re trying new things constantly. There is nothing we won’t try.” Trying new stuff was one of the central themes of my Six Tenets series about how the next generation of music companies will work. Good to hear someone so high up in the ‘traditional’ industry echo those sentiments.
Cnet’s Rio Caraeff Interview
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Google changes favicon again – much nicer than the lowercase purple g
It seems like only yesterday that Google shifted its favicon from an uppercase G to a purple lowercase g. Well, although the little purple g is still in place, on my computer at least, at the moment, a post on the Official Google Blog suggests that it’s about to change again, to the icon over to the right.
The new icon is a reinterpretation of a submission sent in by a user, one André Resende – a computer science undergraduate student at the University of Campinas in Brazil. The lucky chap, along with the rest of us, get to see a modified version of his creation (left) twenty thousand times a day as we destroy the planet. What do you think of the new logo? I’m quite a fan…
Related posts: Google changes its favicon from uppercase white ‘G’ to lowercase purple ‘G’ – thoughts? | Google searches causing global warming? Err… no.
Microsoft extends availability of Windows 7 beta
Did you have trouble picking up the Windows 7 beta over the weekend? I sure did. I didn’t manage to get my hands on it till last night, when I finally got it burnt to DVD and installed on a spare laptop.
In light of the massive demand, Microsoft has wisely decided to drop the 2.5 million downloads limit, and is instead letting you download it as many times as you want within the next two weeks – until the 24th January. Every time you download, you’ll be given a CD key.
As a result of not getting my hands on the OS till last night, I’m still formulating my first thoughts. So far, though, I like what I’ve seen very much. It’s very responsive, and usable. It seems to fix almost everything people didn’t like about Vista and improve a bunch of other features, too. Full thoughts later in the week.
Get Windows 7 (via Lifehacker)
Related posts: Windows 7 public beta available NOW | Windows 7 hits public beta on Friday – here’s how to give it a try
CES 2009: iRiver's space-age product lineup
After Dan covered the Wave-Home multimedia communicator the other day, I did a little more digging, and found a bunch of other matching products that iRiver unveiled at CES.
I’ve always quietly been a fan of iRiver’s design work. Their latest MP3 players look incredible, and these sleek new gadgets wouldn’t be out of place in a documentary called “The home of 2100”. Click the Wave-Home below to view the gallery.
iRiver (via Akihabaranews)
Finger scissors – concept design lets you cut with a gesture
These finger scissors are the work of Effrat Gommeh at Yanko Design. Slip these on, then make the rock-paper-scissors snipping gesture, and you’ll be able to cut paper like it was… er… paper. Brilliant.
Also brilliant on the Yanko Design site: a laptop mousetrap for those with prying roommates, a beautiful and elegant transparent iron, and the customizable peel-off light. I think I’ve found a new favourite group of designers…
Yanko Design (via Gizmodo)
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Google searches causing global warming? Err… no.
Yesterday, the Sunday Times published an article saying that making two Google searches generates as much carbon dioxide as boiling a kettle – an act long associated with energy inefficiency. This outlandish claim comes from a Harvard University physicist working on the environmental impact of computing.
Far be it for me to try to debunk a Harvard physicist, but this is mostly rubbish. Google is a company that cares considerably more for the environment than many. Although it’s true that datacentres are remarkably inefficient creations, and the IT industry has a carbon footprint like any other industry, Google pales into nothing when compared to cars, fossil fuel power stations and the aviation industry.
I suspect that the real reason for this jab at one of the world’s biggest IT companies is simply a desire for more research funding, particularly since the article inexplicably ends with an utterly unrelated jab at celebrity Twitterers. Google’s Senior VP of Operations, Urs Hölzle, clears things up on the Official Google Blog.
“Revealed: the environmental impact of Google searches” (via Techmeme)
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Windows 7 public beta available NOW
Thought you might like a heads-up that the Windows 7 beta is available for download right now. I’m pleasantly surprised, I was expecting more like sometime this evening. Of course, you can’t get near the download page right now, because it’s so busy. Don’t worry, within an hour, it’ll be all over Bittorrent.
A quick recap, for those of you who didn’t see this post. Windows 7 is Microsoft’s new OS, and they’re looking at a release somewhere in the second half of this year. This is a public beta, which means that it’s unsupported. If it screws up your PC, then you’ve got to fix it, so unless you’re happy mucking about with PC innards, don’t install it.
Download Windows 7 Beta (via Ars Technica)
Related posts: CES 2009: Windows 7 hits public beta on Friday – here’s how to give it a try | Merry Christmas extremely bored men – Windows 7 beta hits the torrent sites
CES 2009: Victorinox presents the Presentation Pro Swiss Army Knife
Many of the companies exhibiting at CES have been going for years, but one company is making its first trip – Switzerland’s Victorinox. The makers of the original Swiss Army Knife are exhibiting this – the “Presentation Pro”, which comes with a flip-out 32GB USB drive.
Your data will be protected by a fingerprint scanner, and there’s a laser pointer and bluetooth remote, as well as the standard knife, scissors and nail file. It’ll be shipping in May in the US, and it’ll cost $330 (£216). Just don’t take it on business trips abroad.
Victorinox (via Engadget)
For more CES coverage, you want to look at our mega-index-post.
