Greece burns, Pandora burns bright, Green Latern flickers, and a PR agency gets burnt. Can I come up with more metaphors? No, I'm burnt out on them. So on with the Progeek News Roundup!
Economics:
In the last year, the average pay of bank chiefs in the US and Europe rose 36%. Yeah, I' sure it was earned. Let's see if this story has legs and gets people's attention.
The Greek government has been reshuffled and this is amidst protests over austerity measures. Frankly, I think Greece is screwed for a generation – and considering the rampant corruption I'm not surprised – the question is now how well the damage can be contained.
Pandora's stock surges by 63%, an insane amount. Look, they're nice, sure, and they do some neat stuff, but this is way overvalued for a company that makes no profit. I'm going to say it – I think this is going to raise bubble fears, and I think we're going to see a kind of mini-bubble. Read some of my opinion here, where I'm quoted before these insane numbers came out.
Geek Law:
France continues to lead the way in first-world internet-crunching behavior with broad laws to give the government huge amount of censorship powers. I'm gonna mention again I really don't like where this is going and in general don't trust Sarkozky – he seems to want to be a big dog in controlling the internet to judge from this and his little summit awhile ago.
Oh come on. Dolby sues RIM for violating its audio patents. I guess these issues are common, but I find the timing a bit suspicious – RIM is down, and I wonder if Dolby sees them as vulnerable. Either way not good for RIM.
Comics:
Mini-story developing, so far the reviews of 'Green Lantern' don't seem to be too good. As of this posting it's 23% fresh at Rotten Tomatoes..
Music:
Sony is bringing it's music service, Qriocity, to Android. This competes with Google's own music service. And maybe HP's service if it happens. Meanwhile both compete with Apple, and . . . you get the idea. Between this and Pandora, have I missed something? Are music services still not so widespread we need more?
Anyway if this is a trend, you might find some viable career options in music tech. I just don't know how long it'll last.
Publishing:
A library is lending Kindles. Each loaded, each focusing on a different genre. Fascinating, and I sense some new business model may be coming into being here . . .
Security:
Really? LulzSec versus Anonymous? This sounds interesting – and hey, a business idea would be hack reports to cover, well, things like this.
In less amusing hack news, Google is removing a lot of spyware-tainted apps from the Android Market. Man it is Mac versus Windows again – with Android in the role of Windows. This is why I'm pretty careful with my apps, but this is just sad. Google and others will need to be careful with PR, and you'll need to make sure any App you put out has a good rep.
Bitcoin may not be so secure, as this heist shows. I always had the gut feeling Bitcoin was too good to be true. Let's see what happens, because though I can see this working, I see too many options for failure without careful navigation.
Social Media:
Ning is going to allow people to charge for access to the social networks they run. Sound like a bad idea? I disagree – allowing people to create and monetized a valued social network may be a great business plan. Imagine a specific, selective, social network focused, say, on one profession or theme – I could see people ponying up money for access.
Technology:
The Chrome books are available. Yes, I'm tempted.
Video:
Warner launches an on-demand video service in China? I didn't see that coming. Sounds like Warner is getting a jump on foreign markets (other companies may need to pay attention). Might be a market to look into for your work.
Video Games:
The PR Firm handling Duke Nukem threatens to punish sites running negative reviews. I don't know how many there are running POSITIVE reviews. Anyway this flashed across Twitter as well last night and the company in question, The Redner Group, was pretty humiliated, and rightfully so. A good reminder to hire the right PR firm – and I have the feeling Redner may not be doing to hot in the future.
There's a bit of confused news, but EA seems to be ready to throw down with Steam with their new distribution system. The confusion is who pulled Crysis from Steam – it appears to be Valve. Also people may not like some of their policies.
Suda 51 is making an Evangelion Rhythm Game. I got nothing.
STORY OF THE DAY: Are we in the midst of a tech bubble? Again?