Shock and awe. Sony Xperia smartphones now double as an entry-level game console. VIDEO.

via TechCrunch

KEY MOBILE TRENDS: mobile-home convergence, games.
EVENT HORIZON: two years.

As a followup to my April 3 entry entitled "Game of Phones" in which I explore the possibility of the smartphone converging with the living-room game console, here we already have a signal of things moving exactly in that direction.

For the past decade, Sony and Sony Ericsson talked about leveraging Sony's content library of movies, music, and games to give it a unique advantage in the mobile industry. It never really worked out that way. But here's an interesting new development: Sony has just released software enabling a wirless PlayStation DualShock controller to work with Sony Xperia smartphones. Hook up the handset to a television set and you have a near game console experience from a little phone.

I'm just thinking out loud here for a second, but I'm starting to wonder what will become of Nintendo and its library of characters. Might Samsung or Apple be interested? It could make a nice Fit.

Pretty cool. Apple, Microsoft|Nokia, Samsung, others... it's your move:

^Tweet

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For those looking to network with Chinese mobile players and understand the market: the kind producers of the Global Mobile Internet Conference 2013 and the extended "G-Trip" contacted me to share a 25% discount code with any readers who might wish to attend. You can register your attendance at http://beijing.thegmic.com/register/ and paste in the following code into the "discount code" section: GMIC-VQ9596MT

GWIC 2013. Be there. And see Tiananmen Square.

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Game of Phones. The smartphone converges with the game console? There's Steam behind such a scenario. And soon the graphics power too says NVIDIA.

BGR STORY >>

KEY MOBILE TRENDS: games, developers, app stores, mobile home/living room convergence


Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft, EA, Nokia, Samsung, Apple: here's a SWOT exercise for you to do. Picture the game console becoming another victim of the smartphone black hole event horizon: an industry that gets sucked in and merges with the smartphone singularity. There is no chance of escape, so go with the flow.

For most types of family gaming, the pieces are coming together for this scenario. There's the computing power in the latest flagships. There's the living-room connectivity such as Mobile High-Definition Link to support full high def video and 7.1s sound output. There are the software players such as Valve which is enabling Steam on mobile platforms. And, now, according to NVIDIA, mobile graphics power will soon outperform the current generation of game consoles, namely PS3 and Xbox 360.

For the smartphone players, it's time to think about the opportunities for developers and app stores in this scenario. The opportunities for accessories and co-branding. And the partnerships to bring it all home.

Tony Tamasi, NVIDIA Senior VP of Content & Technology: “The PS3 and Xbox 360 are barely more powerful than mobile devices... The next click of mobile phones will outperform [them].”

Power, up. Mobile graphics power grows at an amazing pace.

graph from NVIDIA via tweakpc.de

Mobile Steam. For Valve, mobile doesn't fall on deaf ears.

Tweet

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For those looking to network with Chinese mobile players and understand the market: the kind producers of the Global Mobile Internet Conference 2013 and the extended "G-Trip" contacted me to share a 25% discount code with any readers who might wish to attend. You can register your attendance at http://beijing.thegmic.com/register/ and paste in the following code into the "discount code" section: GMIC-VQ9596MT

GWIC 2013. Be there. And see Tiananmen Square.

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Microsoft's IllumiRoom project. More super cool stuff from Microsoft we'll probably never see.

Here's another nice research project from Microsoft, the IllumiRoom Project creates an Immersive Gaming Experience. Not much detail is given which usually means smoke and mirrors. But it looks like a great idea:

Follow the components: PrimeSense's Capri 1.25. The technology behind Microsoft's Kinect is going mobile.

PC WORLD STORY >>

COMPANY PRESS RELEASE >>

Smartphone vendors, you had better move it!

What's after touch? Non-touch of course. Gesture and voice and other forms of natural user interfaces are coming our way to complement ubiquitous touch.

Here's some interesting news from Israeli-based PrimeSense, the company that makes the 3D sensing technology behind Microsoft's Kinect, the one exciting device on the otherwise boring CE market. PrimeSense announced that it is introducing similar 3D input technology to market in a "revolutionary small form factor and low cost." This could mean Kinect-like interactions and gaming built into in smartphones, tablets, laptops, and other small places.

From experience, I know that it takes a few years between the introduction of new component technologies like this and their real-world implementation. But the journey to change is starting soon.

With technologies like (and also from companies such as Leap), are we heading towards a hands-off experience?

Coming soon to a phone near you?


Kinect the dots: PrimeSense's technology goes out on a limb:

Moodvertising. Microsoft’s idea of serving mood-customized ads.

via PSFK >>

Interesting idea if they can make it fly.

So, companies are really getting to know us know. What we search for. Who we write. Where we are. And now, it appears, how we feel. Put this altogether and it creates an interesting formula for targeted advertising.

Microsoft has patented the idea of serving up mood-related ads to users. By combining information about historic online activities together the user’s current attitude, presumably based on data gathered from sensors such as Microsoft’s Kinect or a smartphone’s microphone, in theory advertisers can address very immediate needs.

Whether this sort of behavior fusion collection is a positive or simply creepy is a matter of opinion. But the fact is it can be done.

For game makers or broadcasters, the potential to target advertisements down to specific individual moods could feel rather satisfying.

Perfect time for a Frosted Flakes ad?

Even more thinkput. Pong with your mind. Pong, you've come a long way baby!

via The New York TIMES >>

BRAIN PONG >>


Gestures, voice, eyeput, thinkput. Is touch about to get company.

Yes, the head games keep on coming. Here are some more cool examples of the potential of brain-computer interface.

For those of you in the audience old enough to do so, think back to the days when you first saw Pong and think how far computer games have come. Now let's think ahead 30 years or so and wonder how far mind-controlled input can go. Imagine how it can help the disabled. Prevent auto accidents. Exercise the mind.

If you haven't had a chance to try any BCI devices, please do so. It will make your head spin.

Brain Wave Pong by Cornell students, via ENGADGET

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYQfdA2tXbc

Brain Pong in New York. Photo via Figment Project

The multi-screen strategy. The Nintendo Wii U. Good news and bad for Nintendo with this one.

GUARDIAN STORY WITH LONG VIDEO >>

First, the bad news: Nintendo's efforts to make the most nauseating preview video of all time (please see the emedded video below) falls far short of the world-class work done by Microsoft back in 2009 with the amazing "Windows 7 launch party" video. But clearly Nintendo and their PR firms gave it their all. So kudos guys.

But the good news for Nintendo is that the new "Wii U GamePad" looks like a rather swift, albeit bulky, addition to Wii family. I suspect the demographics of the bobbleheads-styled Nintendo sports games are a bit different than that shown in the video and most 20-something men have moved onto more significant developments in their lives than playing Wii games, like having their first children or playing Xbox games.

All in all, this is a rather nice multi-screen play from Nintendo. The use of NFC in the U GamePad deserves extra credit. The company still has significant gaps and challenges in front of it, but this could be a fairly happy holiday season for Nintendo.

Question 1: Is this the goofiest product preview video ever?
Question 2: could this be the same guy in both videos who doesn't know how to button a shirt?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvd8zv18QHU

NOPE! Sorry Nintendo, Microsoft still has you beat by a mile with this classic from 2009:
WARNING: This video will make you sick.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cX4t5-YpHQ

The multi-screen strategy: don't leave home without it. Microsoft's SmartGlass bridges the gaps.

Home, mobile, and all things in between.

Sure, these happy-perfect-people videos get a bit annoying. But the general idea here is something mobile device vendors have pursued for the past 15 years: a smooth connection between this and that. The lines between home and away are blurring. So take yours to go.

Device vendors: get your multi-screen house in order. There's no more time to play around: tt's finally time to get going for real.

Is an eye phone in your future? What effect will eye-put have on UI, games and other apps?

SENSEYETECH >>

Are we now near to eye input?

Eye tracking has been used as a form of input for military projects for years. But now the hardware and software enablers are in place to scale the concept down from multi-billion dollar fighter jet contracts to mid-level consumer handsets.

Here's one interesting implementation eye-put by a Danish stat-up called SenseyeTech. The companies eye-control software, called Senseye, uses the device's front-facing camera to track the user's eye movement. API's would allow developers to use eye focus for input such as unlocking the device, answering the phone, scrolling through web pages, and even for gaming input.

Touch input has dominated the smartphone market for the past three years, and while voice input is beginning to allow some supplemental interactions, the market has botten rather boring. Will eye-put offer device manufacturers some opportunity to offer a touch of wow in what has become one of the world's dullest markets? I'd say the eyes have it.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVCpUmLinXM

The right snuff? Nokia & Burton (snowboards) partner "to turn all of the world's mountains into playgrounds." Push Snowboarding.

Coolerific!

More on wearable computing.

Make a snow run a social entry with "Push Snowboarding." An app that runs on the boarder's smartphone works together with sensors to track such things as speed and heart rate. I like.

Is Kinect, the future of business? The future of research. The future of TV? The future of WOW?

via Microsoft’s Blog >>

There hasn’t been very much WOW around these days. Perhaps Siri, but we’ve really seen that before in various forms. Look at the smartphone market and it’s a game of follow the leader in which each vendor tries to create a more rectangular, blacker, touchscreen device. Nope. Tech vendors talk about the pursuit of WOW. And they bring us more of the same.

Oh, other than this: Microsoft’s Kinect. If senses, it listens, it looks, it responds. And it’s only one year old.

But even at that young age, Microsoft sees that Kinect is ready to grow in all directions. With a new commercial SDK for Windows, Kinect might soon be sitting at the adults’ table: it could be a solid prototyping tool, an involved teaching aid, an enabler of the immobile, and the future of the future living room.

Get Kinected.

Tongue in cheek: Rovio reaches new heights as it grows by leaps and bounds. Don’t try boxing them in. This is for real.

O Rovio, Rovio! wherefore art thou Rovio?

Where art they? Where art they not? They art u-beak-uitous.

No, Helsinki has no fury like a she-bird scorned.

So, how about those Angry Birds -- they are breaking out, and breaking free. There’s no holding them down now. It looks like the sky’s the limit for Finland-based Rovio.

It’s an amazing success story of a company that found the ability to fly high because they refused to be boxed in. They aren’t just a game maker: Rovio has created a parallel world of crime and punishment. A world full of bitter-sweet revenge. They catapulted themselves onto the world stage by challenging the audience with beautiful simplicity. We can all learn something from Rovio.

So, here’s to the smashing success that is Rovio. It must be music to their ears. Let the party begin... and roll the tape:

Rovio is reaching new levels.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzIBZQkj6SY