Verizon to Offer Apple iPad Starting October 28, 2010

Starting October 28, 2010 you’ll be able to buy an Apple iOS product through Verizon: the Apple iPad. Verizon will be selling the iPad as a standalone product or bundled with its MiFi 2200 mobile hotspot. Here’s more info from the press release:

Verizon Wireless will offer three bundles, all featuring an iPad Wi-Fi model and a Verizon MiFi 2200 Intelligent Mobile Hotspot, for a suggested retail price of $629.99 for iPad Wi-Fi 16GB + MiFi, $729.99 for iPad Wi-Fi 32GB + MiFi and $829.99 for iPad Wi-Fi 64GB + MiFi. Verizon Wireless is offering a monthly access plan to iPad customers of up to 1GB of data for just $20 a month. In addition, Verizon Wireless will also offer all three iPad Wi-Fi models on a stand-alone basis.

The overage charge for the $20 plan is $20 per GB. Additional wireless plans include $35 a month for 3GB with a $10 per GB overage charge and $50 a month for 5GB with a $10 per GB overage charge. Although the prices for the iPad are the same as the AT&T equivalents, the service prices are better than AT&T’s and the MiFi 2200 can be used with other devices.

More importantly, Verizon and Apple are working together. For all of you dreaming about a CDMA iPhone 4 on Verizon in early 2011, this is a great sign.

Any of you tempted to buy an iPad through Verizon? What do you think of Apple and Verizon finally working together? Do you think a Verizon iPhone is a shoe-in or is this partnership more about Apple fending off upcoming Google Android tablets?

Coffee Talk #229: What Kind of Headphones Do You Use?

Whether it’s playing games, listening to music, or watching a movie, a good pair of headphones can drastically alter your experience. Today I’m going to talk about the headphones I use and get some recommendations from you.

Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, Christina Aguilera being single, your ALCS/NLCS predictions, or touchscreen phones having more bacteria than urinal handles, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

Whether it’s playing games, listening to music, or watching a movie, a good pair of headphones can drastically alter your experience. Today I’m going to talk about the headphones I use and get some recommendations from you.

I’ve been using the same headphones for the last eight years and am extremely happy with my gear. At home, I use Grado’s SR125 open-ear cans; they offer incredible sound quality at an incredible price — the SR 125s sound as good or better than cans that cost two to three times as much. On the road, I opt for in-ear headsets with foam tips. The foam tips completely rule at blocking out airplane noise. My Etymotic ER-4Ps offer a perfectly balanced sound, while my Shure E4Gs offer more bass and a sound most people prefer for pop music.

What kind of headphones do you guys and dolls use?

John Sculley Talks Steve Jobs, Microsoft, Sony, and More

Cult of Mac has posted the transcript to a completely fascinating interview with former Apple CEO John Sculley. (Here’s the audio version for download too!) Some of you might remember him as the guy brought in by Steve Jobs and the guy that helped push Jobs out. Some of you will recall the famous line Jobs used to court Sculley who was president of Pepsi at the time: “Do you want to sell sugar water for the rest of your life, or do you want to come with me and change the world?”

Most tech blogs are focusing on Sculley’s admiration for Jobs and the enormous amount of praise he doles out in the interview. I thought it was more interesting to read Sculley talk about Apple’s competitors and influences. Here’s a clip where he discusses Jobs’ admiration for Sony:

The one that Steve admired was Sony. We used to go visit Akio Morita and he had really the same kind of high-end standards that Steve did and respect for beautiful products. I remember Akio Morita gave Steve and me each one of the first Sony Walkmans. None of us had ever seen anything like that before because there had never been a product like that. This is 25 years ago and Steve was fascinated by it. The first thing he did with his was take it apart and he looked at every single part. How the fit and finish was done, how it was built.

I almost forgot what a “premium” company Sony used to be. While it still offers some of the best consumer electronics in the world, the competition has caught up and Sony products don’t have the same mystique they used to. Sculley also discussed what went wrong at Sony:

You can see today the tremendous problem Sony has had for at least the last 15 years as the digital consumer electronics industry has emerged. They have been totally stove-piped in their organization. The software people don’t talk to the hardware people, who don’t talk to the component people, who don’t talk to the design people. They argue between their organizations and they are big and bureaucratic.

Sony should have had the iPod but they didn’t — it was Apple. The iPod is a perfect example of Steve’s methodology of starting with the user and looking at the entire end-to-end system.

To cap things off, here’s a bit where Sculley talks about Jobs’ goal of simplifying complexity. He contrasts it to Microsoft’s approach with the Zune media player:

He’s a minimalist and constantly reducing things to their simplest level. It’s not simplistic. It’s simplified. Steve is a systems designer. He simplifies complexity.

If you are someone who doesn’t care about it, you end up with simplistic results. It’s amazing to me how many companies make that mistake. Take the Microsoft Zune. I remember going to CES when Microsoft launched Zune and it was literally so boring that people didn‘t even go over to look at it… The Zunes were just dead. It was like someone had just put aging vegetables into a supermarket. Nobody wanted to go near it. I’m sure they were very bright people but it’s just built from a different philosophy. The legendary statement about Microsoft, which is mostly true, is that they get it right the third time. Microsoft’s philosophy is to get it out there and fix it later. Steve would never do that. He doesn’t get anything out there until it is perfected.

It’s really a fantastic interview that covers all sorts of topics. I’m completely fascinated with Steve Jobs and it was interesting to see how he’s perceived by a former colleague. Not that I don’t want you to stay here, but please, please, please make some time to read the entire interview.

Source

NPD Console Sales Figures Top 10 Games of September 2010

Here are NPD Group’s top 10 videogame sales figures for September 2010. As some of you know, NPD has scaled back the information it reveals for free. Game sales are no longer broken out by platform. Sadly, hardware numbers are no longer given either. Scientists have predicted that console flame wars will be reduced by 28.8 percent due to NPD Group’s decision. Anyway, here are the numbers:

  1. Halo: Reach (Microsoft, Xbox 360)
  2. Madden NFL 11 (Electronic Arts, 360, PS3, PS2, Wii, PSP)
  3. Dead Rising 2 (Capcom, 360, PS3, PC)
  4. NHL 11 (Electronic Arts, 360, PS3)
  5. FIFA Soccer 11 (Electronic Arts, 360, PS3, PS2, PSP, NDS)
  6. Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep (Square Enix, PSP)
  7. Mafia II (Take-Two 360, PS3, PC)
  8. Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions (Activision Blizzard, PS3, 360, NDS, Wii)
  9. Metroid: Other M (Nintendo, Wii)
  10. Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Activision Blizzard, 360, PS3, PC)

I was pleasantly surprised to see Dead Rising 2 so high on the list. I underestimated its popularity. RPadholic smartguy was surprised to see a PSP game crack the top 10, but that’s just a testament to Kingdom Hearts’ popularity. The new NPD format combined with declining Wii sales makes this list look funny; it’s kind of weird not seeing New Super Mario Bros. and Wii Fit Plus on the list.

Anything in September’s top 10 surprise you? Show everyone that you’re better than Michael Pachter and analyze this (please)!

What Are You Playing This Weekend?

I want to be playing Enslaved and Castlevania: Lords of Shadow this weekend. A bunch of my industry friends are done or nearly done with these games and their reactions are all over the place. I need to see what all the fuss is about.  The bad news is that I’m hitting the road, so no PS3 or Xbox 360 for me. Good thing I’ll have my trusty DS and Pokemon SoulSilver to keep me busy on the airplane. Plus, I want to download a new Mew and start EV training him.

How about you? What’s on your weekend playlist?

T-Mobile G2 Review Center

After spending two weeks with the T-Mobile G2, I have a new favorite Android phone. It beats out the Motorola Droid X as my favorite Android phone of 2010 (by a really slim margin). I love the HSPA+ Internet speeds, form factor, zippy CPU/GPU, and vanilla-ish Android. I love that it will be getting WiFi calling and tethering in the near future. That said, it’s not perfect. I wish it had a bigger screen and noise-canceling microphones. Since I’m a Swype guy, the G2’s quality keyboard is wasted on me. I’d also trade the optical trackpad in favor of larger capacitive buttons. Those complaints aside, the T-Mobile G2 would be my first choice if I were buying an Android phone today.

If you want more details, be sure to check out all three parts of my review.

As always, please let me know if I didn’t cover any aspects of the phone you want more info on. I’ll try to answer your questions in the comments section.

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Tweetdeck and Skype Available For Android (And I’m Not Happy)

In the past, I wrote about how Skype and Tweetdeck for Android would be perfect for me. Today, Tweetdeck went out of beta and is now available in the Android Market. Recently Skype became available on the Android Market too. I should be overjoyed, no? The problem is, the Android versions of these apps aren’t as good as their iOS equivalents.

I love having custom columns in the desktop and iOS versions of Tweetdeck. Even though I only follow 99 people at a given time, sorting through tweets can be arduous in single-column view. Tweetdeck allows me to divide the people I follow into different categories. Unfortunately, I don’t see away to use my custom columns in the Android version (unless I’m missing something).

Skype is similarly gimped. The Android version doesn’t allow you to make calls over 3G or send international text messages. The latter feature is really important to me. The four major wireless carriers in America grossly overcharge for international texts. Skype’s rates are much more reasonable.

*sigh* Hopefully the features I want will get implemented soon. I was hoping for feature parity between Android and iOS apps, but it looks like the Android versions of several major apps will be two steps behind (like that crappy Def Leppard song).

New Splatterhouse Screens Feature Blood and Splattering

Namco Bandai has released a batch of new screens for the upcoming Splatterhouse. A modernization of the classic beat-’em-up arcade game (also popular on TurboGrafx-16), I had fun checking out Splatterhouse for Shacknews at E3 2010. The art is super stylish and the gameplay offers ludicrous violent.

Check out the screens and let me know what you think (please)!

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