» Ah, there’s that other shoe
Surprising no one, Microsoft has announced that it will acquire Nokia’s devices business. There, that should fix everything.
» ‘Apple should have its own game studio’
Peter Cohen makes a pretty good case that Apple should make its own games. However, it’s just the Mac that suffers a relative paucity of premium games. iOS doesn’t and iOS is where the action is right now.
If Apple announced an SDK for the Apple TV, I don’t think anyone doubts there’d be a wave of developers pledging to bring titles to the platform. I just don’t think Apple thinks Mac gaming is an important enough problem to solve.
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» ‘Nintendo Vs. Apple Pundits’
Federico Viticci:
Saying that Nintendo should shut everything down, go home, and start making games for iOS is an easy but flawed solution that just isn’t supported by the facts.
It’s not exactly the same as saying back in the 1990s that Apple should have licensed the Mac OS but it’s pretty similar.
» ‘The Anatomy of an Iconic CEO Firing’
There is very little doubt in my mind that Ballmer was asked to go. Patrick Moorhead lays out pretty much all the reasons why.
» How to remove apps from the Apple TV home screen
This tip from David Chartier could prove useful today as Apple’s announced more channels for the Apple TV.
Open always loses
Wired’s Roberto Baldwin notes the not-surprising-if-you-were-paying-attention changes in Google’s philosophy:
With new changes to the official Play Store app policy and tighter control over Chromecast, Google’s era of openness may be coming to an end. That may seem like a bummer for developers, but it could be a new way of doing business that’s ultimately good for everyone.
Hillel Fuld had a similar take last night when the news of the Play Store changes broke.
Remember how Android is all about openness and how anyone can do anything to your device? Yea, well it turns out, that is not always the best thing for anyone.
I think it’s kind of amusing how quickly the narrative has changed from “Yay, open!” to “I, for one, welcome our closed overlords.”
» elementary OS
This Linux distribution looks oddly familiar.
(Via Lessien.)
» Q&A with Steve Ballmer
Mary Jo Foley chats with the world’s sweatiest CEO.
I was never completely sold on getting rid of Ballmer because there are so many ways to do worse, but at some point charts like this just can’t be ignored.
» Blackbar
Blackbar is a new game from my pal Neven Mrgan.
Blackbar is a text game: a sci-fi story of a dystopian future told through the medium of word puzzles.
Messages are presented and you must complete the missing words to move on. It’s simple and clever. And “flat”, so I guess it’s iOS 7-ready.