traditional

Sony names gaming chief Kazuo Hirai CEO

Sony has tapped Kazuo Hirai to replace chief executive Howard Stringer when he steps down from on 1 April. Mr Hirai has long been considered the heir-apparent for the CEO position – as a savvy gaming executive; he has been credited with turning things around at the company’s unprofitable PlayStation business and was promoted to head of consumer products last March. He takes the helm just as Sony is predicting its fourth year of net losses for the fiscal year ending 31 March 2012. The company is likely to announce its third quarter results tomorrow and provide more information on the company’s management shake-up.

Read the rest here: 
Sony names gaming chief Kazuo Hirai CEO

traditional

Angry Birds boss doesn’t see Piracy as a bad thing

Rovio boss Mikel Hed has said he doesn’t necessarily see piracy as a bad thing when it comes to Angry Birds. Speaking at the Midem conference in Cannes, the Angry Birds maker explained the company sees efforts to pursue pirates in the court system as ‘futile’ – so long as pirated products are not harmful to the brand or ripping off fans. “We could learn a lot from the music industry, and the rather terrible ways the music industry has tried to combat piracy. “We have some issues with piracy, not only in apps, but also especially in the consumer products,” he said. “There is tons of merchandise out there, especially in Asia, which is not officially licensed products.” Hed also explained he believes there is a lesson to be learned from the music industry – namely, approaching customers as fans, rather than users. “We took something from the music industry, which was to stop treating the customers as users, and start treating them as fans. We do that today: we talk about how many fans we have,” he said.

Here is the original:
Angry Birds boss doesn’t see Piracy as a bad thing

traditional

Kodak Gallery app makes for snap-happy users

Snap-happy users can now create their own temporary social networks to share photos. The newly launched Kodak Gallery app allows users to create ad-hoc networks to share their photos with others. “It’s the temporary social network that we’re trying to solve for,” said Mark Cook, vice president of products at Kodak Gallery. For example, when parents want to share photos of their child’s school play they can create a network on the spot to share with the other parents also snapping photos. Users can send invitations to let others join specific networks, giving them an opportunity to upload their photos as well. And, they won’t have access to other albums or networks without permission – offering a user a new method for sharing photos with acquaintances without adding them to their social network permanently. Kodak Gallery hopes this will help address the growing issue of people oversharing information on social network sites. Photos can be manually added to the network via the Internet, and Kodak Gallery users can set up as many networks as they like free of charge. Currently the app is only available to iPhone users, but an Android version is coming soon.

View post: 
Kodak Gallery app makes for snap-happy users

traditional

Renaming Wi-Fi networks stops Google snooping

Users who want their Wi-Fi hotspot locations ignored by Google now have that option. Google recently announced a way for owners of Wi-Fi networks to be removed from Google’s crowdsourced geolocation database. To opt out, users must visit their access point’s settings and change the wireless network name (or SSID) so that it ends with “_nomap.” For example, if the SSID is “HeyGetOffMyNetwork,” it would need to be changed to “HeyGetOffMyNetwork_nomap.” “As we explored different approaches for opting-out access points from the Google Location Server, we found that a method based on wireless network names provides the right balance of simplicity as well as protection against abuse,” Peter Fleischer, Google’s global privacy counsel, wrote on the Google blog . “Specifically, this approach helps protect against others opting out your access point without your permission.” The opt-out scheme is meant to address privacy issues raised by Google’s location tracking as part of their Street View services. When Google’s camera-cars were sent out to take photographs they also logged the location of every Wi-Fi hotspot they passed. That data was used as part of the search company’s location-based services for mobile devices. The controversial program that didn’t just map Wi-Fi networks, however, but also gathered personal information transmitted over those networks. Since the practice was made known, Google has faced mounting pressure, particularly from European officials, to either kill the mapping service or let people opt out.

More here:
Renaming Wi-Fi networks stops Google snooping

traditional

‘Read. Watch. Listen.’ at Facebook’s f8

Facebook has announced that ‘Read. Watch. Listen’ will be its official motto at this year’s f8 conference, which takes place Thursday in San Francisco. It has been reported that the focus of the annual conference will be content and Facebook plans to unveil a significant new initiative to socialise the internet. Liz Gannes reported on All Thing Digital that “Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s f8 keynote will include a huge package of wide-ranging news, video and music partnerships, and a structure for sharing content activity inside and outside of Facebook.” Social gaming platforms, such as Zynga, may have inspired the coming changes, and future content initiatives may aim to emulate the success of such models. A source close to the matter suggested to All Things Digital that content-sharing tools used by gaming applications. Also likely on the horizon are live-updating sidebar content feeds to disseminate some information from the traditional news feed area.

View original post here:
‘Read. Watch. Listen.’ at Facebook’s f8