More iPhone 4 Verizon Musings + AT&T Exclusivity Ending Soon?

The iPhone 4 rumor mongers have been having a ball with Steve Cheney’s blog post on TechCrunch. While he started out strong by saying, “I am going to go on record to say Verizon will be selling an iPhone this coming January,” he kind of pussies out at the end by adding, “I can’t say with 100% accuracy that an iPhone will hit Verizon store shelves in January.” (Pussies out is a technical term, btw.)

Perhaps the more interesting news is that AT&T addressed the possibility of losing iPhone exclusivity in the near future. The company seems to be prepping investors for the loss of some kind of exclusivity…and I’m betting Wall Street doesn’t care much about the BlackBerry Torch. The Wall Street Journal reported:

AT&T Inc. said Friday it doesn’t expect to suffer a “material negative impact” from the end of its exclusive arrangements to carry handsets, including its lucrative deal for Apple Inc.’s iPhone.

“We do not expect any such terminations to have a material negative impact on our wireless segment income, consolidated operating margin or our cash from operations,” AT&T said in the filing with regulators on Friday.

So there’s lots of interesting information floating around that points to a CDMA carrier — most are thinking Verizon, but Sprint isn’t out of the question — getting the iPhone 4 in January 2011. What do you think of the latest info? Are you still hoping that the excellent iPhone 4 gets paired with a superior network? Or are you tired of all the talk?

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Scott Pilgrim Set to Take Over Movies and PlayStation Network

So many of my friends are super psyched for the Scott Pilgrim vs. the World movie. I have high hopes for it too, but I’m actually more interested in the game coming out on PlayStation Network. Check out the video above and let me know what you think. It appears to be awesome 2D side-scrolling beat-’em’up action. Any of you going to give it a go?

Coffee Talk #196: Who’s Your Favorite Superhero?

My friend and I were talking about comics last week (this is not unusual) and the topic of our favorite heroes came up. Most of my comic-book reading friends are straight up DC/Marvel fans. They’re favorite characters are almost always Batman or Spider-Man. My choice is a little bit different — Nightwing.

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, if Lance Armstrong is a cheater, your thoughts on the Summer Slam 2010 card, or the chances of Brett Favre unretiring (again), Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

My friend and I were talking about comics last week (this is not unusual) and the topic of our favorite heroes came up. Most of my comic-book reading friends are straight up DC/Marvel fans. They’re favorite characters are almost always Batman or Spider-Man. My choice is a little bit different — Nightwing.

I like that I got to grow up with Dick Grayson. From his days as the original Robin to hanging out with the Teen Titans to establishing his own identity as Nightwing, his progression has been just a few steps ahead of mine. I like that he’s no longer the sidekick and (until recently) not quite the adult. In a lot of ways it’s why I enjoyed Friends — it’s that terribly interesting stage of life where you’ve left your family but haven’t started your own. It’s just a magical time.

Now it’s your turn! Who’s your favorite superhero?

Future Apple Products to Use LiquidMetal’s Amorphous Material

I was super excited yesterday when I learned that Apple acquired exclusive rights to LiquidMetal’s technologies. Part of it was that I immediately envisioned using a Terminator T-1000 for this story and part of it was because it gives Apple new trails to blaze.

While most people notice that Apple’s industrial design is miles ahead of most of its competitors, less people realize that its use of materials is also more advanced. Several companies offer aluminum laptops, but the unibody construction of the MacBook Pro is fairly unique and executed better than anyone else. The iPhone 4 is another example; how many other mobile phones are glass sandwiches?

LiquidMetal’s technology should lead to lighter and stronger Apple products in the future. Anyone care to guess what they could be? Do you expect the tech to be used in future generations of MacBook and iPhone products? Or will the LiquidMetal lead to the return of the eMac? Or maybe something new, like the T-1000, is on the horizon.

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Why You Want Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood’s Special Edition

Ubisoft has announced the goodies that come with the American special edition of Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood. A lot of you will want to consider buying the $100 special edition. I’ll tell you why in a few seconds. Check out the laundry list of bonuses first:

  • Harlequin-in-a-box (GameStop exclusive) or doctor-in-a-box toy
  • Book on the game’s art
  • Map of Rome
  • Two additional single-player maps
  • Bonus disc with “making of” feature, soundtrack, and comic-book preview

There’s a strong rumor going around that one of the writers of the outstanding WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2011 has spent the last few weeks producing the “making of” video for Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood. I will see what other info I can find on this “super secret project”. *snicker*

Anyone else terrified of the toys that come with Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood? Which one do you think is scarier? The harlequin or the doctor?

This Week’s Videogame Releases (Hint: Madden NFL 11)

There’s sweet FA coming out this week…except for Madden NFL 11. Anyone picking it up (or any oldies) this week? Any of you interested in starting an online league? I probably wouldn’t be able to practice and participate due to travel, but who knows what can happen if enough of you are interested. The power is yours!

Coffee Talk #195: What’s the Worst Console You Ever Bought?

RPadholic smartguy brought up a fantastic idea for Coffee Talk, so let’s use it today! What’s the worst console you’ve purchased? Surely some of you have been burned by the likes of Nintendo’s Virtual Boy, Nokia’s N-Gage, or Tiger Telematics’ Gizmondo. Now’s the time to let your frustrations out and totally trash the one gaming system you wish you never spent money on! It’ll be cathartic. Give it a go.

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, Intelligentsia’s Itzamna Guatemala Finca La Maravilla, Tiger Woods’ game going to hell, or Chael Sonnen taking it to Anderson Silva, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

RPadholic smartguy brought up a fantastic idea for Coffee Talk, so let’s use it today! What’s the worst console you’ve purchased? Surely some of you have been burned by the likes of Nintendo’s Virtual Boy, Nokia’s N-Gage, or Tiger Telematics’ Gizmondo. Now’s the time to let your frustrations out and totally trash the one gaming system you wish you never spent money on! It’ll be cathartic. Give it a go.

As for me, I can’t really think of any console that I hated. I didn’t have every system growing up, so I dodged a lot of bullets. I also try to find something good about everything, so it’s hard for me to get angry at inanimate objects. If I try real hard, I think I’d be disappointed in Sega CD. It was expensive and most of the games weren’t that good. Then again it also had Hideo Kojima’s Snatcher, which is pretty damn cool.

Okay, I suck at this. Why don’t you guys and gals give it a shot? Go off on the worst console you ever bought (please)!

Analyst Believes Wii 1.5 on the Way

With Nintendo sales cooling off (but still slaughtering the competition), could the company be prepping a modestly upgraded version of the Wii to boost sales? At least one analyst believes that’s the case. According to Industry Gamers, Screen Digest analyst Piers Harding-Rolls said:

Our forecast actually incorporates the idea that there will be an upgraded version of the Wii available. There is potentially significant movement to come from Wii pricing in the future. If you look at the handheld strategy they’ve got the DSi and the 3DS, so I think they’ve got room to have to this iterative version before a 2012 or 2013 release.

On one hand, his argument makes a lot of sense and it seems like sound strategy to give the Wii a boost with PlayStation Move and Xbox Kinect coming. On the other hand, dude’s an analyst. They’re right about 33 percent of the time. That’s great for baseball, but for industry analysis…not so much.

Seriously though, I’ve never heard of this particular analyst and I’m probably thinking less of his comments due to the inaccuracies of other analysts. He could be spot on. What do you think? Is Wii 1.5 on the way? What would you like to see in such a console?

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Michael Pachter Says Activision is Teh Doomed!!!

Your favorite gaming industry analyst, Wedbush Morgan’s Michael Pachter, believes that tough times are ahead for Activision. After posting extremely impressive financial results during a (long) stretch of time where most publishers were struggling, Activision’s Q2 financials weren’t the best. According to Industry Gamers, Pachter said:

The Q2 results reinforce Activision’s dependence on a handful of franchises, and calls into question whether its future franchises will contribute meaningfully to the bottom line as performance of additional IP seems uncertain at best.

We fear that after so many years of near-flawless execution, Activision has begun to slip a bit, perhaps in the process becoming overly reliant on the parts of the business that are phenomenally successful.

Do you agree with Pachter’s assessment? Is Activision on the decline? Or is his analysis along the lines of his awesome estimate where he allowed himself a two-million unit margin of error?

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Emma Watson Cuts Off Her Hair — Why?!?

Harry Potter actress Emma Watson (Hermione Granger) has lopped off all her hair in favor of a pixie haircut. This is majorly depressing. Hermione has developed into quite the hottie. The pixie look…doesn’t quite work for her. People has posted a photo of her with the new haircut. Check it out.

Why Emma, why?!? You were so sexy before! Now you look like…an angry high-school student that’s questioning her sexuality. *sigh* Here’s a picture of Emma in bathtub. That should cheer me you up.

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