Bad news for those Android users who were hoping to get the same level of game access as exists on the iPhone.  It doesn't look like it is happening.  Gameloft and companies like them have started to scale back their Android investments, according to someone who should know, Gameloft finance director Alexandre de Rochefor (Bolds are ours):

"We have significantly cut our investment in Android platform, just like ... many others," Gameloft finance director Alexandre de Rochefort said at an investor conference. Rochefort said the company has cut back on investment mostly due to weaknesses of Android's application store. "It is not as neatly done as on the iPhone. Google has not been very good to entice customers to actually buy products. On Android nobody is making significant revenue," Rochefort said. Games for iPhone generated 13 percent of Gameloft's revenue in the last quarter. "We are selling 400 times more games on iPhone than on Android," Rochefort said.

400 to one isn't a good ratio for Android no matter how big a lead the iPhone has had.

You might be able to find a refurbished iPhone for $49 off...but only if if it is refurbished.  Even chain discounter Walmart only takes $2 off the price of the iPhone and there are never sales.  Apple simply doesn't discount it, ever (we'll see about Black Friday). 

Verizon/Motorola have taken a different approach with their top handset.  Merely a week after launch, the Droid has already lost $80 in value over at Dell who are selling it for $120 with plan.  This follows news that the Palm Pre is selling for $79.99 at Amazon (Pixie is $24.99 - not even enough to qualify for free shipping - zoikes).

Why are Verizon and Motorola so quick to discount the Droid when apparently it has been flying off of shelves?

Sony plans to launch its own music, movies and gaming service, based on its existing PlayStation Network (PSN), which already has 33 million users.

The new store, which enhances Sony’s competitiveness with Apple’s iTunes service and associated digital media products, is also expected to sell eBooks and mobile apps. The store may be called Sony Online Service (SOS?), but the company isn’t yet prepared to commit to a name or launch date.

In addition to selling digital content, the store will allow consumers to use their online accounts to save, upload and share digital content. “Sony will have a one-to-one relationship with customers to offer subscription services, cloud storage of personal content, as well as unique entertainment,” said Howard Stringer, chairman, CEO and president at an investor meeting in Tokyo.

The company plans to have consumers register for the service the moment they pull a TV or music player out of the box, Sony’s Kazuo Hirai told BusinessWeek.

“It’s not just access content, stream it, and enjoy,” he said. “What are your friends watching right now? There’s a screen that says all the programming that’s available. It highlights all the things that your friends are watching, for example. It’s a community experience.”

PSN offers more than 450 games, 4,000 add-ons, 2,417 movies and 15,042 TV episodes. It is expected to raise up to $500 million this year, MusicAlly reports.

Sony is still figuring out the mechanics of the service - it hasn’t yet decided how many devices will work with media purchased and downloaded by users, for example.

Microsoft executives faced a barrage of Apple-related questions during that company’s annual shareholder’s meeting last night, while disappointed Dell revealed net income decline of 54 percent, year-on-year.

Dell announced $12.9 billion in revenue (down 15 percent y-on-y) for net income of $337 million. The company blamed its results on poor public sector sales and a consumer move to favour cheaper Dell PCs. All told, disappointing results for Dell.

Dell Chairman and CEO, Michael Dell, noted his expectation that his company may profit from the long-awaited PC replacement cycle on the release of Windows 7, saying, “I think there is an aging installed base for sure. You just have an accumulation of new technologies at the hardware, software, virtualized client and these IT managers really know they cannot extend the life of these client assets forever. While I don’t think it is all going to occur at once, I think it will be a rolling refresh that occurs over perhaps 18 months, I can’t remember a time when a very high percentage of them skipped an entire operating system. So what we remind them, and they know this, Windows XP is eight years old.”

But will Windows XP users move to Mac?

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer doesn't believe they will, even though he acknowledges Apple’s picked up some market share.

He had little answer to one shareholder who accused Microsoft of having a poor rep in contrast to Apple in the key segments of student and younger computer users. "I'm just wondering why your marketing group can't do something to try to rein in this next generation, because you've got a real bad image out there," the shareholder said.

Ballmer’s answer? "There's certainly always opportunities for improvement," he said.

Microsoft’s boss remains bullish. "You take any country, including this one, and you say, how are we doing?" he continued. "The truth of the matter is, we do quite well. Even among college students, we do quite well. Do we have an opportunity for improvement? We do. Some of that is marketing some of that is phase of life. It is important to remember that 96 times out of 100 worldwide, people choose a PC with Windows, that's a good thing. Even in the toughest market, which would be the high end of the consumer market here in the US, 83 times out of 100 people choose a Windows PC over a Mac."

On Windows 7, Ballmer said, “Windows 7 I think gives us a real opportunity to come back again at some audiences that have been tougher for us. Frankly, the economy is good for us, because people do understand that Macintoshes are quite a bit more expensive for essentially the same computer…but we have opportunities to improve among exactly the constituency that you identify."

Analyst Charles Wolf in September noted that Apple’s share of the home computer market had more than tripled in the past five years.

Illustration: This image is of a closed invite-only meeting hosted by Microsoft at its campus every year. Spot the PC versus Mac laptop mix. Via: WindowsPhoneThoughts and Daring Fireball.

Always nice to welcome a new high-end application to Apple's computing platforms, and this one’s going to be highly useful to video and broadcast pros - Autodesk is bringing its high-end finishing product, Smoke 2010, to the Mac for the first time.

Autodesk is this week previewed the Mac OS X version its Smoke finishing and editing system (c.$15,000) to professionals in film and video attending Japan’s InterBEE exhibition this week. It is understood that beta testers had been aware of the newly-revealed Mac support for some time, but had been sworn to secrecy under non-disclosure agreements.

Smoke finishing effects software is a comprehensive creative editorial system. It delivers the visual effects capabilities and high performance.

Additional key features include:

A powerful 64-bit architecture
Superior tools for conforming, editing, audio, paint, character generation, graphic design, and visual effects creation
Leverages Autodesk Modular Keyer, Master Keyer, and Colour Warper technologies
Batch procedural compositing environment enables logical, more efficient workflows (available in Smoke Advanced)

Available below is a video clip detailing some of the features of the new software, unfortunately it is in Japanese.

SEGA has announced Super Monkey Ball 2 for the iPhone (video above), with the games development company stressing it has many more games in development for the Apple mobile platform, a platform expected to account for 24 percent of portable game sales by 2014. Read on...

That’s serendipitous to an extent, as a recent Research and Markets survey suggests the iPhone will drive future growth in the mobile gaming market. Analyst, David Cole, says. “Dedicated portable game systems from companies like Nintendo and Sony are still expected to lead the market, but it appears growth for these devices has peaked. The platforms from Apple are expected to be responsible for the bulk of market growth over the next few years.”

Oceanhouse Media Development Director Greg Uhler said: “With the iPhone and iPod touch, Apple has finally delivered mobile developers a platform with an attractive business model and a rapidly growing installed base of active consumers.”

By 2014, sales for games on the iPhone/iPod Touch are expected to account for about 24 percent of total portable game software sales, Research and Markets say.

SEGA exec Ethan Einhorn told IGN that the iPhone has, “reached out to a huge cross section of the community that is not buying a device just for games. So when you have something that's this powerful - that's easily competitive with the other handsets that are on the market - and you can put games on it that have full 3D graphics, you're able to satisfy the gamer audience that we know is there but also reach out to a totally new audience."

The company intends following up Super Monkey Ball 2 with a number of other games for Apple’s platform, most of which have not yet been announced. “SEGA is very seriously committed to making great iPhone games.”

The executive also promised more titles developed specifically for the iPhone, developed to fully exploit the platform’s potential.

In related news, Apple is expected to see iPhone sales gains in Europe as it moves to abandon exclusive deals, with analysts predicting UK sales could grow as much as 40 percent now the device is available through multiple operators.

MobileMe keeps your mail, contacts, and calendar information in the "cloud" and uses push technology to keep everything in sync across your iPhone, Mac, PC, and the web automatically.

Amazon is offering family and individual MobileMe subscriptions at less than you’ll pay at Apple - you can pick up an individual sub now for $72.99, rather than the $99.99 normal price.

The discount on family memberships is $45.05 - you can pick one of these up for $103.95 from the giant retailer. A Family Pack subscription includes one Individual account with 20GB of combined email and file storage, plus four Family Member accounts, each with its own email address and 5GB of storage.

If you own an iPhone, MobileMe’s pretty useful, not least for its ability to find your iPhone if you lose it, with a feature that lets you remotely wipe data held on the device to protect your privacy.

Amazon is also currently offering Final Cut Express 4 at a 20 percent discount on normal price - $159.99, rather than $199.

Many more attractive deals in 9to5Mac's Toys section.

Apple has updated its Boot Camp drivers, software which enables Intel Macs to boot up into Windows XP and Vista.

Boot Camp users must source their own copy of Microsoft Windows to employ within Boot Camp.

The 23.87MB update doesn’t introduce support for Windows 7, which Apple has promised will be made available to users in a future release. Instead, according to tech notes accompanying the release:

“This update addresses issues with the Apple trackpad and turns off the red digital audio port LED on laptop computers when it is not being used. It also includes support for the Apple Magic mouse and wireless keyboard. It is intended only for use with Microsoft Windows XP and Microsoft Windows Vista running on a Mac computer using Boot Camp.”

Requirements

• Boot Camp 2.1 must be installed prior to running this update.
• For Windows Vista, Windows Vista Service Pack 2 must be installed before running this update.

In related news, Apple has also introduced updated Server Admin Tools (10.6.2). This update is recommended for the remote administration of Snow Leopard Server. It includes the latest versions of iCal Server Utility, Podcast Composer, Server Admin, Server Monitor, Server Preferences, System Image Utility, Workgroup Manager, and Xgrid Admin.

From the Toys section:

Today only, Tanga.com offers a MacLife 1-Year Subscription for $34.99. Add coupon code "0761" to your cart to slice it to $4.99. That's a buck under our September mention and the lowest total price we could find by $4.

For our international readers: Sorry, this is only for the Yanks.

From they Toys section:

Amazon.com offers the Sennheiser HD-201 Circumaural Closed Back Headphones for $17.39. Pad your order to $25 for free shipping. Plus, you'll get a free $5 credit valid for MP3 downloads from Amazon MP3 Store when your order ships. These headphones feature circumaural earpads, 3.5mm and 6.3mm connectors, and 21Hz to 18kHz frequency response.

Short Version: Apple's lawyers contacted the little App factory to change the name of its iPodRip product that pulls music and video off of CDs and DVDS.  Because it has 'iPod' in its name, it is a violation of an Apple trademark.  iPodRip's developer wrote a diatribe to Steve Jobs on why this was unfair. 

Jobs used his iPhone to respond:

Change your apps name. Not that big of a deal.

Steve

Sent from my iPhone

The little App factory changed the name to 'iRip'.  Apple could save some time and lawyer bills using this tactic in the future.

Yep, we knew this would happen.  Apple, for whatever reason (they didn't test it and don't care or they are trying to prevent Hackintosh) killed support for Atom in their latest 10.6.2 build.  

All of you cheap bastard Hackintoshers can rest easy though.  A Russian hacker was able to slap an old Atom-supporting OSX Kernel on the newer Mac OS 10.6.2 build and get it running on his little Atom netbook.  Depending on how much Apple cares, we'll probably see this shut down in 10.6.3.  Rinse. Repeat.

A video demo of Google's Chrome OS from TechChrunch. 

Google today released information on its ChromeOS.  Some fun facts:

• Released 2H2010 (Just like Apple's tablet?)
• Will boot only from SSD, in 7 seconds
• Runs on ARM or x86
• Will only work on new Netbooks, not your current POS Netbook
• Is basically just an Internet Thin client -Just a HTML 5 Browser - Chrome
• Open Source so other browser makers could use it as well, and Microsoft already has an online version of Excel ready for it.

This is so slimmed down that it will run on extremely small laptops.  That might give Apple's tablet some competition.  Feel free to comment below.

Fresh from MacRumors comes news of Apple’s latest patent filing - a system which will allow (third-party?) remote controls to offer users the same graphical user interface (GUI) as they expect to find on an iPod, iPhone or other Apple device.

The patent was filed in May 2008 and published today. The inventors include William Bull, former iPod User Interface manager at Apple and currently Senior Director of Mobile User Experience at Yahoo as well as former Apple executive Tony Fadell, known as the "father of the iPod".

The patent explains that while various accessories do exist for Apple devices, they tend to be controlled by remotes with different interfaces and features than those offered by Cupertino. This means some features just don’t work.

Under the invention, the GUI will be pushed out from the device to supporting remotes. “The portable media device can provide the accessory with an image to be displayed on the video screen; the image can include various user interface elements that can resemble or replicate a "native" GUI provided directly on the portable media device.”

Additional Apple patents published today include those for:

USER INTERFACES FOR EDITING VIDEO CLIPS
INTEGRATED SENSORS FOR TRACKING PERFORMANCE METRICS
Location Determination
INTERLEAVING CHARGE PUMPS FOR PROGRAMMABLE MEMORIES
THERMAL MANAGEMENT OF GRAPHICS PROCESSING UNITS
CURSOR MOTION BLURRING
Flex Circuit with Single Sided Routing and Double Sided Attach

More at MacRumors.

This looks like a nice avant-garde backyard for an Apple exec. Fortunately, that's just what it is - it belongs to Apple executive (Mobile Mac Systems), art collector Jeff Dauber, and was built for him by Berkeley-based architect Thom Faulders. By the way, despite what your eyes are telling you, the backyard is actually flat. It doesn’t stop there - Faulders designed the exec’s whole house. We think it looks pretty cool.

(Dauber, incidentally, is not your “standard-issue Silicon Valley techie; he’s covered in tattoos and owns an impressive, challenging collection of contemporary art (including a mosque made out of gun parts, by the sculptor Al Farrow),” so says Metropolis.

Take a look at this rather amazing motion portrait of the art-collecting Apple exec here, it is interesting.

Via: Fast Company

Here’s an app that’s raising some attention at the moment - Star Wars: Trench Run ($4.99).

The game, developed by the Infrared5 studio working with Lucasfilm, offers simple motion controls and realistic game play to enable players to recreate that compelling sequence from Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope.

The first of many games to come, development has the people behind the title sufficiently excited to praise the platform and promise new games in future. Adam Comiskey, vice president, THQ Wireless, says, “The iPhone is an excellent gaming platform and Star Wars: Trench Run is a great example of the quality line-up of games we plan to release on the iPhone over the coming months.”

"We've really pushed the capabilities of Apple's mobile devices with Star Wars™: Trench Run,” said Chris Allen, CEO of Infrared5. “The graphics are like a console game, and the controls are so responsive it really feels like you are Luke Skywalker flying an X-wing, attempting to take down the Death Star single-handedly. I can't tell you how excited we are to see it go live, and get feedback on what other Star Wars fans think of the game."

The mission’s simple enough: Destroy the Death Star before it destroys you. You get: dogfights with TIE fighters, obstacles, you get to navigate laser attacks all the while attempting to get into position to plant those bombs and destroy the evil spaceship. There’s mission and arcade gameplay modes and multiple difficulty levels.

Features include:

• Force Power: Slow down time and increase agility to bring TIE fighters into shooting range, and to dodge obstacles while flying down the trench.
• Breathtaking 3D Experience : 3D graphics based on the original Star Wars movie.
• Hidden Features: Players are just going to have to find out what these are.
• Amazing Special Effects: Including lighting, advanced shaders, explosions and incredible lifelike models.
• Original Music and Sound Effects: Combined with real movie footage for complete immersion into the Star Wars universe.
• True-Life Flight : Accelerometer controls with life-like physics.
• Multiple Points of View: Featuring both chase cam and cockpit modes.

Available now at the iTunes Store.

We’re unhappy to report the latest Apple tablet rumour, which claims the as-yet unannounced but already industry-changing device won’t now ship until later next year.

“Apple reportedly plans to postpone the launch of its tablet PC from an original March launch schedule to the second half of 2010, as the vendor has decided to switch some components and plans to launch a model using a 9.7-inch OLED panel from LG Display, according to sources from component makers,” reports Digitimes.

Seems that everybody and their brother’s involved in making the new device: Foxconn/Hon Hai; Quanta and Pegatron technology are all thought to be manufacturing partners for the two models of tablet Apple’s got planned.

One tablet will have a 10.6-inch TFT LCD panel while the other will have a 9.7-inch OLED panel, the report claims. LG Display currently makes OLED panels and has an existing $500 million panel purchasing contract with Apple.

Apple's 9.7-inch OLED tablet PC is expected to have a cost of about $1,500-1,700, the report explains, adding that OLED panels are pretty expensive and suggesting prices should only fall in time.

“The sources estimate that Apple's tablet PC cost will drop to around US$1,200-1,500 by the second half of 2010 with the retail price reaching about US$2,000. The price could be more flexible if bundled with telecom providers' 3G services. Meanwhile, the 10.6-inch LCD panel-based Apple tablet PC is expected to priced in the US$800-1,000 range.”

Perhaps signal that sales are slowing, Amazon has slashed the price of the Palm Pre to $79.99 with a two-year service plan from Sprint and now include free activation of the phone in the box.

Amazon is also offering the Palm Pixi for just $24.99 (with free activation). In contrast, Sprint currently sells the Pre for $149.99 and the Pixi for $99.99.

Palm shipped an update to the Palm Pre’s webOS (1.3.1) two days ago - this at last dispensed with the company’s hack to get iTunes sync working and added a few bug fixes and features.

However, the Pre has suffered mixed reviews and hasn’t transpired to be the iPhone killer the company had hoped. Facing intensified competition from Apple’s iPhone, the much-hyped Droid and BlackBerry 9700, Pre’s fortunes reflect the increasingly competitive landscape of the smartphone industry.

As recently reported, Palm’s slice of the smartphone market remains slight, with Apple, Research In Motion and Android speeding up the charts, mainly at the expense of Windows Mobile and Nokia.

Who put the iPhone in accessiblity? Dynamic Controls did. The company has integrated an iPhone into its power wheelchair electronics, enabling powered wheelchair users to use them as normal while also gaining access to detailed information and control system access of their chair using the device.

The solution connects a user’s iPhone or iPod touch to the wheelchair system to display chair information in real time as well as speed in kph or mph and a compass heading. A cradle is available to mount the iPhone or iPod touch onto the wheelchair.

Benefits also include the on-chair charging for the iPhone and a ‘chair doctor’ wheelchair diagnostics feature that interprets problems with the wheelchair.

Charlotte Walshe, Dynamic Controls CEO said, “We recognised the iPhone has revolutionised the way people communicate and saw the opportunity to develop this solution for wheelchair users, taking full advantage of Apple's ‘Works with iPod / Made for iPhone’ developer program.”

Lee Kwok, a wheel chair user in Christchurch says it will be fantastic to be able to buy an off the shelf product that has so many features for powered wheelchair users. “Having access to mainstream technology via a wheelchair is a huge advantage," says Lee Kwok.

Additional connectivity features include displaying the status of wheelchair, through to computer mouse control, IR and WiFi appliance control, on-chair connected devices as well as direct access to Dynamic Controls’ website with content of interest to wheelchair users.

Dynamic Controls unveiled its latest technology at REHACARE in Germany, the world's top trade fair for those with special needs and requiring care.

The new technology operates with an iPhone 3G, 3GS, iPod touch V2.0 and 3.0. It can easily be fitted to any new or existing Dynamic Controls DX2, DX or Shark wheelchair control systems without reprogramming the wheelchair.

According to Peter Kafka, Condé Nast Publications is readying its Wired publication for the Apple tablet....if one ever exists.  According to his report, Wired is somehow working with Apple, though Apple won't acknowledge that the hardware exists for the project they are working on. 

So who’s going to make those gadgets? Condé Nast CEO Chuck Townsend says his company is working closely with Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) and that it has also been communicating its plans to Apple. But Townsend made a point of saying that Apple executives themselves refuse to acknowledge that they’re actually planning a tablet: “They’re not talking to anybody openly,” he says.

Although we'd love to see Wired on an Apple tablet, there is one other problem with Condé Nast's plans. The tablet solution they are working on is being built on Adobe's Air platform. Apple is far, far, far from guaranteed to allow Air applications to run on its tablet platform...if one even exists.  Adobe's has been trying unsuccessfully to get Flash on the iPhone for over two years.