Sony Introduces Wireless 3D High Definition Visor

by MegaGames, Posted Oct 10th 2013 9:30AM

Sony today introduced its next-generation Personal 3D head-mounted display, the (HMZ-T3W).

HMZ-T3W is available for preorder at Sony Stores and select retailers nationwide right now for $999.

The third generation personal 3D viewer from Sony is lighter than its predecessors, easy-to-wear and equipped with simple connections for gaming consoles, PCs, home theater components, tablets and smartphones.

The 3D visor supports WirelessHD, allpwing its users to enjoy entertainment anywhere in the room with uncompressed, lag-free HD video and digital 7.1 surround sound.

Tags: 3D, 3d tv, 3dTv, gaming, hd, hdtv, headset, headset for xbox one for gaming, headsets, next generation, next-gen, NextGen, NextGeneration, NextGenerationHomeProducts, NextGenerationIon, NextGenerationPortable, SONY, Sony-Computer-Entertainment, Sony-Computer-Entertainment-America, Sony-Online-Entertainment, wireless, WirelessHd, WirelessHdtv

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Facebook introduces universal gift card that friends can reload for different retailers

Facebook today announced the Facebook Card, a resusable gift card that can be loaded with balances for different retailers when a user’s friends buy them gifts through Facebook.

The social network has added a number of new partners to its Gifts platform, including Target, Jamba Juice, Olive Garden and Sephora, who will offer gift cards to be purchased on Facebook. But instead of sending individual gift cards for each restaurant or retailer, or sending multiple gift cards for the same business, Facebook will send users one card that can maintain balances for several outlets.

For example, someone might receive a $50 gift card to Target. They’ll receive a Facebook Card in the mail. When another friend gifts them $10 to Jamba Juice, that amount will be automatically added to the same Facebook Card. Users will be able to view their different balances on Facebook.com and within the mobile app. Facebook says this option will roll out to U.S. users beginning today. Because Gifts are not available internationally, Facebook Card is also limited to the U.S. for now.

This seems to be a way for Facebook to bring in new options for its Gifts product without having to mail users a number of gift cards. However, this might not be intuitive for people who are used to throwing out gift cards once they’ve been used. It may also be confusing for people to understand that they have separate balances for each business, and that the Facebook Card does not offer a total balance that can be spent anywhere.

If Facebook Card does catch on among users, it gives Facebook new information about spending habits, though gift card spending might not be representative of users’ typical purchases. Still, being able to direct ads to users who have spent money — even if it was a gift — is valuable. Facebook did not share any details about its arrangement with Facebook Card partners, but the idea of using this information for ad targeting one day could have been a draw. Facebook could also expand the capability beyond gift redemption and allow the Facebook Card to be used more like a universal wallet, becoming much more of a competitor in the payments space. Interestingly, Facebook decided to begin with a physical card rather than mobile payments, which are a growing area but still require a smartphone and can be complicated for users.

Discover is the payment processing vendor for Facebook Card. The card seems to only apply to in-store purchases, not online. Starbucks, which sells digital gift cards through Facebook Gifts, is not a partner for the Facebook Card.

In 2010, Facebook got into the gift card business selling its own virtual currency Credits via gift cards at Target, Best Buy and other stores. Credits could be used toward virtual goods in games and other in-app purchases. Last year Facebook decided to phase out Credits in favor of a user’s local currency — dollars, pounds or yen, for example. This gives developers more flexibility and cleared the way for new products like Gifts, user promoted posts and paid messages, which can be bought with actual currency rather than the more complicated Credits system. Facebook continues to sell gift cards for games on its site, both in-stores and as a digital gift in its Gifts platform.

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Adobe allies with Unity for Flash Player 11.2 release, introduces premium APIs

Adobe announced Flash Player 11.2 and AIR 3.2 versions today along with a set of premium APIs for PC and mobile games. The software giant is also collaborating with Unity to create a unified workflow that can deliver Unity games via Flash.

The premium APIs are a combination of the GPU accelerated Stage3D APIs Adobe first announced with Flash Player 11 last fall and fast memory op codes. On mobile via Adobe AIR, developers can use the APIs for free — but on Flash Player 11, the software company takes a 9 percent cut of revenues after the first $50,000. These terms go into effect August 1, 2012, giving developers between now and then to determine if the APIs are suitable for their games. Adobe acknowledges that the majority of gaming content currently created in Flash probably won’t need to use the premium features. Developers do not have to pay royalties on each of the APIs if used alone or on software rendering of Stage3D with or without the op codes.

The Unity collaboration is born of Unity’s own efforts to tap into the Flash audience without players needing to download a plugin. In September of last year, Unity announced that it would support Flash in future versions — which is what prompted Adobe to reach out and work with the company to create a unified workflow that better serves developers. The Unity 3.5 Flash export functionality is currently in preview mode, but beyond that release, Adobe says it’s also working on integrating future Adobe gaming services into Unity. At some point, we may see Adobe partner with other engine creators on similar projects — in October last year, we saw Epic Games’ Unreal Engine running Unreal Tournament on Flash.

Both moves seem like solid ones for Adobe. By introducing APIs as a service, rather than giving them away with a one-time purchases of its authoring software, the company can take a slice of the virtual goods revenues social and mobile game developers enjoy. At the same time, Adobe is also building bridges to console video game developers, providing a way for non-Flash developers to tap into Flash’s broad reach on PCs in the social and casual games space. The Unity collaboration reinforces the approach, and Adobe tells us it’s working with a number of 3rd party frameworks to help developers to reach 2D or 3D content markets.

Interestingly, Adobe is pushing a monetization angle in Flash Player 11.2 and AIR 3.2. By creating a unified platform for desktop and mobile, it hopes to reduce fragmentation in those markets. Adobe also plans to offer analytics and revenue optimization features as part of its game services in the near future — not unlike what we see from Kontagent or Flurry.

While Unity isn’t that common in social games, it definitely has traction in mobile games. CEO and co-founder David Helgason told Inside Mobile Apps earlier this month that mobile developers account for over half of the company’s total business. On Facebook, the healthiest Unity game we’ve seen so far is CMUNE’s UberStrike, which requires a plugin.

You can find out more about the premium APIs and the Unity collaboration on the just-launched Adobe gaming blog.

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Facebook introduces Reach Generator packaged advertising solution to boost page posts

At today’s fMC event in New York City, Facebook announced Reach Generator, a new premium advertising solution for large clients seeking to reach a higher percentage of fans via sponsored activity.

Reach Generator allows advertisers to pay Facebook on an ongoing basis, as opposed to a CPC or CPM basis, to sponsor one page post every day, and guarantee a 75 percent reach of the page’s fanbase over a month-long period. The company said that test partners, including Ben & Jerry’s, were able to reach 98 percent of their page’s fans using Reach Generator, a massive increase over the 16 percent of fans that Pages reach without ads or Sponsored Stories.

Reach Generator was outlined briefly on Facebook’s mobile site for the event, and then hidden from view. Below is the text from Facebook’s description of Reach Generator:

This “always on” packaged solution makes it easy for you to regularly reach and engage 75% of your fans with meaningful content from your Page. You focus on creating engaging content on your newly designed Page, while we ensure that your fans see the stories you are telling.

Reach Generator is easy and simple to use.You post great, relevant content on your Page, and Facebook will automatically distribute it to your fans.We guarantee you will reach a majority of your fans and see great results.

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Facebook introduces ‘listen with friends’ for real-time music sharing

Facebook today announced the “Listen With” button, which will allow users to listen to the same song simultaneously. The feature will roll out over the next few weeks, starting with Spotify, then adding other Open Graph music services.

From the chat sidebar, users can see which friends are currently listening to music. Clicking “Listen With” will open the music player and begin the song at the same point the person’s friend is now at. It also launches a new chat window so friends can comment about the songs they share. Listening to music with friends in this way will publish a News Feed story about the activity, according to Techcrunch. Facebook has never shared chat activity with a users’ friends before, but this is similar to how Google+ shares stories when users video chat with each other.

One problem with Listen With is that users will have to use the same app. If someone is using Spotify, friends can’t click to listen to the song in Rdio. According to AppData, Spotify is by far the leading Open Graph music player with 4.6 million daily active users to MOG’s 10,000 DAU and  Rdio’s 7,000 DAU. The Listen With feature is likely to only increase this disparity and make Spotify the defacto music service of Facebook.

The new feature is similar to Turntable.fm and Google+ Hangouts, which facilitate synchronous listening or viewing experiences. Turntable.fm has users choose avatars and join virtual rooms where people take turns playing DJ. The service is more about discovering music through strangers with similar tastes than sharing with friends. Google+ lets users join video chats called “Hangouts” and share YouTube videos that friends can watch at the same time.

If Listen With takes off, Facebook could add a similar option for video streaming services. We could also imagine Listen With activity becoming an option for Sponsored Stories in the future. Promoting a shared listening experience could be quite meaningful for artists.

If Facebook ever made Chat available between users and subscribers, rather than just between friends, Listen With could be an interesting way for fans and artists to interact. Turntable.fm has seen activity spike when popular artists like Diplo, Sir Mix-a-Lot and Talib Kweli joined rooms. However, since opening Chat to users with asynchronous relationships might be tricky for Facebook, celebrity partnerships could end up being Turntable.fm’s way to survive after the launch of Listen With.

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Following Problems with Profile to Business Page Migrations, Facebook Introduces Appeals Process

Last week, Facebook released a tool allowing users who had created a personal profile for a business venture to convert that profile into a Page and change their friends into fans. However, some users didn’t fully understand the consequences of conversion while others had their profile deleted but no new Page created due to a technical issue. To help repair the damages from these issues, Facebook has created a Profile to Business Page Migration Appeal that users can fill out to apply to have the conversion reversed and their profile restored.

This quick answer to complaints and horror stories should help Facebook mitigate the backlash stemming from its troubled attempt to provide the conversion tool users had requested for years.

Text on the appeal page explains:

“Profile to business Page migrations are meant for profiles that do not represent a person. If you have accidentally migrated your profile to a Page, you can submit your request for a reversal. Please keep in mind that we will remove your business Page if your profile is restored. We may reject any appeals that we deem to be inappropriate. Further, we may not reply to all submitted appeals.”

Though this says the appeals process is for accidental conversions, users whose conversions were interrupted and never finished, possibly due a severe strain on the Facebook API at the time, may also be eligible for a conversion reversal. Facebook temporarily disabled the feature over the weekend while the API issue was being fixed

While Facebook clearly explained how the process worked in a warning on the tool and a series of Help Center article, we received reports of people assuming they could reverse the conversion themselves, or that their new business account would have the same capabilities as a standard profile. Some other unforseen issues, such as the inability to re-register with any email addresses or mobile phone numbers connected to a user’s old profile, may have led some users to wish they could reverse the conversion.

Facebook has been working to erase any perception that it doesn’t care about users — a sentiment that developed during several crises around changes to its privacy controls and before that Beacon, which syndicated user behavior offsite to the news feed. It has since become more receptive to concerns, adding a requested unmerge option to merged Pages/Places, returning the Most Recent reverse-chronological feed to Page walls, and suspending the ability of applications to request user phone numbers and home addresses.

The Profile to Business Page Migration Appeal process is another example of Facebook’s efforts to keep users, and especially Page admins who buy ads purchases, happy with the social network. Rather than stifle innovation, Facebook has chosen a riskier but ultimately more progressive stance of iterating quickly and occasionally making mistakes, but hurrying to fix them when necessary.

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