Nintendo has launched a portable system that lets people view games in 3D, without the need for special glasses. The 3DS comes with a 3.5-inch top screen and a 3-inch bottom touch screen. It has three cameras, one inner and two outer, to deliver the 3D effect and take 3D pictures. It also includes a motion sensor, a gyro sensor and a Slide Pad that allows 360 degree analogue input.
Handset maker invests in music-based social media site driving faster CPUs
Motorola, through its strategic investment arm, Motorola Ventures, has led the second round of funding for TuneWiki, a provider of next-generation social media music players that is planning to enter the mobile games market.
TuneWiki has the largest legally-licensed lyrics database in the world and combines subtitled lyrics with music and music videos, lyrics translations into over 45 languages, real-time mapping, geographical charting and social networking. The proprietary technology combines lyrics with the music you play whether from your locally stored library or a streaming Internet source. It also allows the TuneWiki community to contribute to and update lyrics and translations. Founded in 2007, the company is headquartered in the British Virgin Islands and has offices in Los Angeles, Ohio and Tel Aviv, Israel.
Motorola acted as lead investor and was joined by new investors Intellect Capital Ventures, a venture fund initiative of TeliaSonera, the leading Nordic Telecommunications operator, managed by Intellect Partners, as well as HillsVen Capital, LLC and Novel TMT. TuneWiki's previous venture capital investor, Benchmark Israel, also participated in the round.
TuneWiki will use the investment to expand and enhance its product offerings for leading mobile platforms and the Internet. The company's upcoming releases will take further advantage of platform capabilities and new features found in recently released smartphones, including stronger CPUs, always-connected capabilities, larger displays and high-resolution screens. TuneWiki will continue to focus on the use of song lyrics in new and exciting ways that connect music fans around the world with new products, including an upcoming mobile game.
"Music is rapidly emerging as a key feature for smartphones, and TuneWiki is changing the experience of listening to music from a solitary experience to a social one," said Reese Schroeder, managing director of Motorola Ventures. "We believe that TuneWiki has developed an innovative interactive social media player that can dramatically change the way people will listen to and interact with music."
"Teaming up with a global company like Motorola is very exciting for us," said Rani Cohen, CEO of TuneWiki. "We are passionate about connecting people through music, and having our applications running in many countries with different languages will allow our users to explore the world of music and better understand its meaning as part of a vibrant and engaged community."
New mobile games platforms for smartphone devices will boost the mobile games industry which has shown signs of slowing, says a new report from Screen Digest. Growth in the operator distributed mobile games market, which peaked at over 50 per cent in 2004 and 2005, will drop to just 7 per cent in 2009. New platforms such as iPhone, N-Gage and Android will help grow the market for mobile games outside operators’ portals. In total, games for new platforms accounted for no more than 15 per cent of mobile games revenues in the major North American and European markets in 2008. This is a driver for more sophisticated video and graphics hardware within the smartphones to ensure a common capability for software and apps developers to write to, rather than targetting a specific platform or writing for the lowest common specification. Apple retains its lead, as iPhone games account for 10 per cent of North American mobile games market. Whilst Nokia’s N-Gage games platform and Google’s application store Android Market also have the potential to grow the market for mobile games outside operators’ portals, it is Apple that has the key elements to retain its position at the head of the market. A range of mobile players, including operators, device manufacturers, platform providers and third party retailers have all launched their own stores; but Screen Digest research suggests that games for Apple’s iPhone accounted for over $100m in revenues in the second half of 2008, taking more than 10 per cent of the North American mobile games market. It is Apple’s combination of high-end appealing hardware, a large developer community, and easy to use retail environment – for which it had already built a strong billing relationship with consumers – that has enabled Apple to maintain its lead. Java market still the largest While new platforms and sales channels will grow the market for mobile games outside operators’ portals, the market for games from operators will, in the short to medium term, remain the largest. Screen Digest believes that the trend for new platforms and application stores which offer developers a greater share of revenues, a more receptive audience, and a wider array of content, will see smaller publishers reduce or abandon development of games for release through existing operator-run portals. With their operator deals already in place, this trend will present the big publishers with the opportunity to consolidate their lead at the top of the largest market for mobile games. The App Store effect For the big publishers the greatest impact of the iPhone and App Store may not be in the extra revenues derived from selling games through the store but in the effect of the App Store’s business model on the wider mobile games market. Awareness of mobile games has increased and the success of the business model has already persuaded some network operators to lower their revenue shares and move towards their own application stores. The 70 per cent share of revenues offered to developers by Apple is now practically the default minimum that new store owners offer to developers and publishers.
"At the moment Apple is out in front – in terms of user experience, range of content and in generating consumer and developer interest in mobile games for its devices. While the market for mobile games on the App Store is strong, iPhone users still only account for a tiny proportion of the market. In Q4 2008, iPhone shipments made up less than 2 per cent of total handset shipments. Handset manufacturers and network operators currently adopt a ‘one store for all’ approach although platform-specific and on-device stores stand the best chance of success, as far as mobile games are concerned,” said Jack Kent, Research Analyst at Screen Digest.
The idea behind this Blog is that small multimedia devices will eventually overtake the laptop computer as the dominant computing platform, which is a fundamental shift in the industry. This requires key changes in the technology and development, from battery life, chipsets, displays and applications,as well as the high speed, always on, always available, network connections. This means bringing together IP vendors, chipset designers, equipment makers, screen providers, battery companies, middleware, operating system, application software and network operators. No other publication does this, as they are each focussed on a particular area. This is is not a gadget site. With the Portable Multimedia Blog, the factors influencing the chipset design are available to the network operator to plan the next generation of services, while the operator requirements are clear to the operating system and chipset supplier.
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Motorola, through its strategic investment arm, Motorola Ventures, has led the second round of funding for TuneWiki, a provider of next-generation social media music players that is planning to enter the mobile games market. ![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_uj99rXL19c2p_uWbR_PleDFnpTb9cbLV4XYU7zc49N45Z1x2XNFJytBG0OOSMjQQU14UJPjfBi2GlOialwpsZ6-otEoiq4E3GfUsloK3Ace08W5e2sKcTdWDb8s-GzViH7y9Nop1xoMWkADroufQcl=s0-d)
