Game designer Will Wright leaves Electronic Arts
Will Wright, the legendary game designer behind the wildly popular franchises SimCity and The Sims, as well as the slightly less-successful Spore, is leaving video game giant Electronic Arts to lead his own “entertainment think tank,” The Stupid Fun Club. At the same time, EA is investing… Continue Reading
Yes, there are cheats for SimCity on the iPhone
When I first wrote about SimCity coming to the iPhone back in November, the first question someone asked me was if the cheat codes would work. Managing a city can be rough — some people just want to build stuff and see what happens without… Continue Reading
MG’s 10 favorite iPhone games of 2008
Yesterday, I wrote up my 10 favorite iPhone apps of 2008 with a note that I wasn’t including any games on the list because there were far too many good ones and they should probably get their own list. Today, I bring you that list.
This… Continue Reading
SimCity for the iPhone is here — but there are some bugs
The wait is over — SimCity, EA’s hit city-building franchise, has been released for the iPhone and iPod touch. Since for many of you, that’s all you need to hear, I’ll just say that it’s $9.99 and you can download it here. But be warned,… Continue Reading
A slight tweak in the App Store promotes paid apps
Apple has a problem with the App Store — but it’s a problem many companies would love to have: It’s growing too quickly. What worked when there were only 500 applications doesn’t work as well when there are more than 10,000. Amid growing criticism that… Continue Reading
EA to preview games in select Apple stores (yes, SimCity)
When I wrote last month that I had seen and played an early build of EA’s SimCity for the iPhone, many of you seemed excited (to say the least). Well, now you can have a chance to preview the game as well — in an… Continue Reading
Monopoly passes Go, comes to the iPhone
I’m going to assume that everyone reading this post was once a child. And with that assumption, I will make another one: That you’ve played the board game Monopoly at some point in your life. If that’s the case, you probably have fond memories of… Continue Reading
The revenge of the $9.99 iPhone apps
When Apple’s App Store first launched back in July there was a wide range of prices for individual applications. While many were free, quite a few of the early games were $5 or $10. But as time has passed, there’s definitely been a trend of… Continue Reading
Roundup: Job report hurts stocks, BlackBerry reviews surface and more
Here’s the latest action:
Increase in joblessness spurs stock decline — After the Labor Department reported that applications for jobless benefits exceeded expectations, the Dow fell more than 80 points.
Reviews surface on BlackBerry Storm — CNET’s verdict: The touchscreen is nice, but corporate users are better served by… Continue Reading
SimCity for the iPhone may ruin my life (in a good way)
No game captured my imagination when I was growing up like SimCity. Certainly, a part of it was my God complex, but more it was the open-ended nature of a game with few rules that let you build a city. I spent countless hours on… Continue Reading
Roundup: Google goes deeper into TV ads, CNN uses Facebook Connect, Flickr’s new homepage and more
Here’s the latest action:
Google starting to catch on to this TV ad thing? –It’s been almost two years since the search advertising giant made its first foray into television advertising. In order to grow, it’s going to need more time slots (inventory) to sell. It took… Continue Reading
Roundup: Amazon vs eBay, YouTube search ads, and more
Here’s the latest action:
Amazon is like Apple, eBay is like Microsoft — Or at least that’s the tech-industry analogy that comes to mind when reading this piece about the increasingly competitive battle between the two e-commerce giants.
“Black” silicon is a better light receiver — A silicon variation… Continue Reading
Roundup: The financial crisis explained, land line usage still dropping, and more
Still don’t understand the financial crisis? — Neither does anybody else, it seems, but The New York Times has a good write-up of various issues, in brief question-and-answer format.
Telephone land lines continue to get unplugged — More people are switching to just using cell phones. See screenshot.
Conservative… Continue Reading
Roundup: Crisis speculation, another marketing-firm VC, and more
How will the current crisis on Wall Street affect Silicon Valley? – “I don’t think it will have much of an impact on Silicon Valley as an operating entity,” banker Bill Hambrecht tells Om Malik. Watch the video for more.
Meanwhile, how will online advertising be affected by… Continue Reading
Roundup: Digg sending more traffic to print media, rogue SF IT admin holds city computers hostage, and more
Hitwise: Digg has been sending more traffic to mainstream media web sites lately — Take a look at the graph below, and read what the web research company has to say, here. Allen Stern at CenterNetworks recently published his own report anecdotally noticing the changes; he… Continue Reading
iGame on: EA brings Scrabble, Sudoku and Tetris to the iPhone App Store
When I think of addictive games, three at the top of my list have to be Scrabble, Sudoku and Tetris. I can pretty much play all three for hours on end without taking a break. This problem could get a whole lot worse when all… Continue Reading
Roundup: AP inserts foot in mouth, Tesla looks for another $100M, Zawodny lands at Craigslist and more
Here’s the latest action:
The AP tries to set a new standard, doesn’t follow it — The Associated Press wants bloggers to pay it for quoting excerpts of its stories, and is threatening to sue if they don’t. Of course, that position is kind of hard to… Continue Reading
Roundup: Icahn may go proxy on Yahoo, Craigslist countersues eBay, and more
Here’s the latest action:
Icahn considers his own proxy war for Yahoo — Billionaire investor Carl Icahn began buying massive amounts of Yahoo stock last week — up to 50 million shares — and now is thinking about using that influence. He is considering replacing some of… Continue Reading
Roundup: Another Google exec leaves for Facebook, Mosso adds more storage to the cloud, and more
Here’s the latest action:
Another Google exec heads to Facebook – Elliot Schrage, Google’s vice president of global communications and public affairs will become the vice president of communications and public policy at Facebook, BoomTown’s Kara Swisher has learned. “This is a really important role for… Continue Reading