Steve Jobs Resigns, Tim Cook Named New Apple CEO

Huge news out of Cuppertino: the legendary Steve Jobs has resigned as Apple CEO and former COO Tim Cook has been named as his replacement. Jobs will still serve Apple as chairman of the board. As many of you know, Jobs has been suffering from numerous health issues over the last few years. Many believed that Cook would be his successor. Despite the inevitability of it all, it still feels a bit shocking. Apple without Steve Jobs steering the ship seems…not right. Before I get to some analysis and explanation, here’s a clip from the press release:

Apple’s Board of Directors today announced that Steve Jobs has resigned as Chief Executive Officer, and the Board has named Tim Cook, previously Apple’s Chief Operating Officer, as the company’s new CEO. Jobs has been elected Chairman of the Board and Cook will join the Board, effective immediately.

For those of you not familiar with Cook, he is one of the biggest reasons that Apple enjoys the profit margins that it does. The man knows how to work supply chains, setting up favorable deals for components needed in Apple products years in advance. For example, Cook set up deals for high-quality LCD displays years before the iPad and iPhone took off. This helped Apple secure relatively cheap prices for these goods. A nifty side effect, particularly on the tablet side, is that Apple’s competitors have had a tough (and comparatively expensive) time getting LCD screens for its products.

The reaction from the stock market has been a completely expected overreaction. According to Wired, Apple shares closed at $376.18, but dipped to $357.10 in after-hours trading. I understand that people are jumpy on someone other than Steve Jobs leading Apple, but there’s no need to panic (yet). Jobs is still around and working for Apple. More importantly, Apple plans things out so far in advance that an immediate stock dip seems a bit stupid to me. I would be shocked if there were drastic changes to how Apple does business over the next five years (at least).

What are your thoughts on Steve Jobs resignation and the future of Apple? Is it a sign of an inevitable fall? Or is it simply due to health issues? At the very least, Tim Cook will do a better job taking over Apple then Steve Ballmer did taking over Microsoft, right? Is going with an “operations” guy instead of a “vision” guy the best thing for Apple’s future?

Coffee Talk #388: Make Your Own Videogame Convention

With Halo Fest taking place this weekend and Call of Duty XP in a few weeks followed by Blizzcon a bit later, I was wondering what the videogame convention of your dreams would be like. Would you want a convention…

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, your favorite shot of alcohol, Klatch’s Panama Carmen Estate 1750 Reserve, or Derek Jeter rocking it the second half of the season, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

Today’s Coffee Talk is a quickie as I’ll be flying back to California by the time you’re reading this. With Halo Fest taking place this weekend and Call of Duty XP in a few weeks followed by Blizzcon a bit later, I was wondering what the videogame convention of your dreams would be like. Would you want a convention centered around a certain developer or publisher? Or would you want a convention all about your favorite gaming franchise?

This is never going to happen, but I’m going to dream about Matsuno Mania 3000. It’s a three-day convention that celebrates the games created by Yasumi Matsuno and his team. It’s full of Tactics Ogre and Final Fantasy Tactics panels. Matsuno is a known Queen mark, so the surviving members of the band would be the musical guests (Brian May rules!). This sounds like the best event ever (in my head)!!!

What’s the videogame convention of your dreams like? Name it, describe it, and share it (please)!

iPhone 5 Coming to Sprint?

According to The Wall Street Journal, Sprint will be the third American carrier to get Apple’s iPhone. According to the newspaper’s sources, “Sprint Nextel Corp. will begin selling the iPhone 5 in mid-October, people familiar with the matter said, closing a huge hole in the No. 3 U.S. carrier’s lineup and giving Apple Inc. another channel for selling its popular phone.” Another source mentioned that Sprint would be getting the iPhone 4 as well.

This would be tremendous for Sprint, which is a distant number-three in the U.S. market. Verizon is huge. AT&T is huge, especially if the company’s merger with T-Mobile goes through. The gap between the top two carriers and the third is only getting bigger. An iPhone on Sprint would help matters.

One thing to keep in mind is that Sprint’s iPhone will probably not be a “4G” phone. Sprint currently uses WiMax for its 4G network. It’s an uncommon technology and I sincerely doubt Apple would make a specialized model just for Sprint. The rumor right now is that the next iPhone will have both CDMA and GSM radios, allowing Apple to have one model that will work for most of the world’s carriers.

On the plus side, Sprint is the only American carrier offering true unlimited plans. Its competitors are either using data caps or data throttling. If you use a lot of data and can live with relatively slow CDMA data speeds then a Sprint iPhone is worth a look.

Any of you guys and gals interested in an iPhone 5 on Sprint’s network?

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PlayStation Home Getting Massive Overhaul: Do You Care?

Sony Computer Entertainment America has announced that PlayStation Home will be getting a massive redesign later this year. The new PlayStation Home will feature “an all-new hub that integrates games, quests, community events and user-generated content, while providing players with additional navigation, shopping, socialization and entertainment options.” Here’s the rundown of Home’s “new core experience” from today’s press release:

  • The Hub: The new, futuristic Hub brings games directly to players with a featured game front-and-center upon login, the Activity Board where players can engage in quests and community activities, and a direct path to free games via the teleporter.
  • Action District: A gathering place for the hardcore demographic, the Action District has a gritty, urban feel reminiscent of a first-person shooter level and provides a direct travel point to action and horror games.
  • Sportswalk: The Sportswalk has an exciting outside-the-stadium feel with instant major league sports scores, headlines and highlights, ample space for sports-themed games and provides direct travel points to sports-related games.
  • Adventure District: The Adventure District drops you in a lush island jungle with an air of mystery, hidden treasure and discovery, where players will be able to launch directly into adventure-themed games.
  • Pier Park: A waterfront boardwalk leads players to carnival, puzzle, outdoor and arcade games. Take a ride on the Pier Park Ferris wheel or visit the arcade for some bright entertainment.

I really wanted to like PlayStation Home when I first learned about it. Unfortunately, the project I learned about was nothing like the product that launched. Dueling ideologies transformed Home into something I was looking forward to into something I find extremely boring. Don’t get me wrong, I fully understand that Home is very popular. I just don’t understand why people are digging it. Perhaps the new PlayStation Home will be more to my liking.

How about you? Are you looking forward to the new PlayStation Home? Or does it still seem boring?

Serah Kicks Ass in the Latest Final Fantasy XIII-2 Screens

The latest batch of Final Fantasy XIII-2 screens shows Serah Farron in action. As you can tell from the images, she’s no longer Lightning’s little sister that needs protection. She kicks all sorts of ass with a bow and sword. With the way that many Asian people switch R’s and L’s, I’m calling her Serah Fallon…which makes her related to Jimmy Fallon.

Anyway, check out the screens and let me know what you think (please)!

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Deus Ex: Human Revolution — The Clothing Line

Square Enix, Eidos Montreal, and musterbrand have teamed up for a clothing line inspired by Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Aimed to be a cut above the standard videogame t-shirts, this premium clothing line includes a trench coat, jeans, and a bandanna in addition to t-shirts. Here’s more from musterbrand CEO Knut Jochen Bergel:

Standard logoed T-shirts, sweatshirts, and hats are the norm. musterbrand’s clothing lines are designed by top stylists, woven from the highest quality material, and cut so sharply they should come with a warning. Deus Ex: Human Revolution is already drawing praise for its unique design and playability — we’re aiming to replicate the game’s popularity with our clothing line too.

These Deus Ex: Human Revolution threads look really cool…but are probably too cool for me. I’m more of a sports coat and jeans guy. I don’t think I’m ready for clothes that are “cut so sharply they should come with a warning”. That could be dangerous.

How about you? Any interest in Deus Ex: Human Revolution clothing by musterbrand?

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Are You a Nintendo 3DS Ambassador?

As many of you know, in addition to slicing the price of its 3DS portable gaming console, Nintendo will be rewarding early adopters with its Nintendo 3DS Ambassador Program. Ambassadors get to fly around the world and represent Nintendo to participating governments. Ambassadors will be rewarded with 20 free downloadable games for the 3DS, including 10 that are exclusive to the program.

Some retailers were selling the 3DS at a discounted price several days before the official price drop on August 12, 2011. This allowed savvy gamers to snatch up a cheaper 3DS and enjoy the benefits of the 3DS Ambassador Program.

Did any of you take advantage of this deal? Are any of you 3DS Ambassadors?

John Carmack Talks Licensing, Mobile, Tools, and More

Gamasutra has a must-read interview with id Software’s John Carmack. The brilliant programmer covers a wide variety of topics in this four-page interview, including Rage, frame rate, the decision to stop licensing id Tech, the benefits of being acquired by ZeniMax, the true power of mobile devices, and more. I highly recommend reading the whole thing. You’ll be a smarter gamer for it. Here are some highlights:

Why the company stopped licensing its id Tech engine:

It’s interesting when you look back at our technology licensing — it was never really a business that I wanted to be in. In the very early days, people would pester us, and we would just throw out some ridiculous terms, and we were surprised that people were taking us up on it.

I didn’t want to be in the process of supporting a lot of outside teams — because we feel beholden to not make radical changes, and pull the rug out from underneath lots of other people. If it’s your own team, you can make the sensible decision of “It’s going to be worth it. It’s going to suck for a while, but we can make our way through it.” But you don’t want to do that to other people.

Why Microsoft gives its Xbox 360 developers expensive tools for free:

Microsoft has got some pretty good static analysis tools, and normally they make you buy, like an $8,000 professional edition of Visual Studio, but they give it for free to all Xbox developers — which I think says an interesting thing about this stuff. Where Microsoft figures that, well, nobody blames them for crappy software on Windows, but they do blame Microsoft a bit for crappy software on 360, so it’s in their best interest to put more static analysis tools available there.

One of the biggest problems with PC game development:

It’s pretty sad, the fact that we have these PCs that are sometimes 10 times as powerful, and we have more trouble holding 60 frames per second on the PCs because of drive and OS unoptimalities. And there are reasons for all of them. I’ve done enough driver work on OpenGL to understand why things wind up the way they are.

And sure, on the PC, you can go ahead and you’re running two megapixels. You can turn on anti-aliasing, and you can have much bigger page tables for the virtual textures, and all this stuff. But still, if you want it to get done in like 16 milliseconds, the graphics drivers are a huge hindrance right there.

As I said before, it’s a fantastic interview. Carmack is awesome. I guarantee you’ll learn at least four things from this story. Now go read it!

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Die Text Messaging, Die!!!

I can’t wait for text messaging charges to die. (In America) The costs for traditional text messaging (SMS) are stupid and overpriced. While U.S. carriers are getting dinged for their lame data prices and practices, the charges for text messaging are just as bad, but fly under the radar. Thankfully, there are a number of alternatives that have made or will make text messaging obsolete (for smartphone users).

Before I get to those, I wanted to point out that AT&T sees that the death is near for traditional text messaging. According to Engadget, the company will only be offering one text messaging option starting August 21, 2011: the $20 unlimited package. I see this as one last cash grab before traditional text messaging kicks the bucket.

As I mentioned earlier, there are a number of alternatives to traditional text messaging. BlackBerry fans have been enjoying the excellent BlackBerry Messenger for years. Google Voice users have been enjoying free text messaging to the U.S. and Canada since launch. Facebook recently launched a standalone Facebook Messenger app for Android and iOS. The upcoming Apple iOS 5 includes iMessage, which is like a better and more elegant version of BlackBerry Messenger. A few of you have joined me in group messaging sessions through Google+. Those are just some of the great alternatives to traditional SMS.

Of course these solutions won’t work for everyone. Some people are still on “dumb” phones, others rely heavily on MMS, and international solutions can be a problem. I send a lot of international texts and resort to a stupid system because Google Voice doesn’t have an international option. To use the same number I have for calls, I receive international texts on Google Voice and send them through Skype, which displays my GV number as the caller ID. Until Google gets off its ass and officially enables international texting, I have to rely on this MacGyver solution.

What do you ladies and gents think of the future of text messaging? Do you think it’s on its way out? Will iMessage and the popularity of the iPhone help quicken the demise of SMS? Do you use any of the solutions I mentioned above? Or maybe you use an app from a smaller company, like Handcent of ChompSMS? Leave a comment and let me know (please)!

Matt Hardy Arrested for DWI, Fired From TNA

Guess who you won’t be seeing on Impact Wrestling anymore? Matt Hardy, that’s who! After being arrested for suspicion of driving while intoxicated, TNA announced that it has released Hardy. The wrestler was arrested on Sunday after wrapping his Corvette around a tree, an uncommon activity for sober people driving around on a summer afternoon. At the very least, his mug shot (courtesy of TMZ) makes him look like he was on something.

If Hardy is found to have been driving while intoxicated then he is one of the dumbest people in the history of North Carolina. Has he learned nothing from his friends and family?!? Most of you know that his brother, Jeff Hardy, has had numerous substance issues and is an accused drug trafficker. His best friend, Shane Helms (The Hurricane, Gregory Helms), was recently in a horrific motorcycle accident and is also being investigated for driving under the influence.

I’ve always liked Matt Hardy and I’m bummed to see what a wreck his life has become. What the hell is he doing?!? Perhaps he’s trying to outdo Jeff??? How do you guys and dolls feel about this incident?

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