FROM GAMERTELL - Seven45’s forthcoming PS3 and Xbox 360 game, Power Gig: Rise of the SixString, will actually use a six-string electric guitar as a controller. MORE »
Amazon affiliates in Colorado were informed yesterday that they were no longer welcome in the e-tailing giants program, which paid them a small fee for referring customers. Why? Blame the states new law which demands Amazon charge sales tax on every purchase made by a Colorado resident. Previously online retailers were only required to collect sales taxes in states they had a physical, brick and mortar presence in, but that has been changing rapidly. 16 states have considered instating internet sales taxes, and 4 have already signed them into law.
“I see this as a trend moving along—a lot of states are considering doing it,” said Joseph Henchman, director of state projects at the non-partisan Tax Foundation in Washington, D.C. But, Henchman says, the laws “won’t solve short-term budget problems, they signal business-unfriendliness, and they’re probably unconstitutional.”
The states that have put these sales tax laws in place insist they are being unfairly deprived of revenue and that online businesses have an unfair advantage over local businesses that collect sales taxes. A 1992 Supreme Court ruling however says that retailers can't be forced to collect such taxes unless they have an office in those states.
New York, Rhode Island, and North Carolina's laws say that if a retailer affiliate program it's enough to required tax collection, hence the reason such programs have been shut down in those states by Amazon and others.
California, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, New Mexico, Vermont, and Virginia have internet sales tax bills under consideration. Amazon is currently involved in a lawsuit against the state of New York saying an affiliate program does not and should not be considered a presence in the state. It lost and is appealing.
While New York, Rhode Island, and North Carolina's laws are attempting to force Amazon to collect taxes directly, Colorado's bill had the affiliate clause removed, prompting the Governor to tell angry residents who were dropped as associates that he is not to blame, Amazon is for attempting to "avoid compliance".
An emergency repeal measure has been introduced but is not likely to pass.
FROM GAMERTELL - Promethium Marketing and GrinLock Limited’s Tweet Defense, a tower defense game where you defeat zombies using your Twitter account stats, is now up at the iTunes store. MORE »
FROM APPLETELL - Apple’s iPad ad offers some real information about the iBookstore, how documents may be stored on the iPhone, and a little more about the rumor that just won’t die, a front facing camera. MORE »
FROM GAMERTELL - Tim Burton and Disney’s latest adaptation of Alice in Wonderland is a delight. It leaves a definite impression on viewers, with strong characters and an engaging story that stumbles only once. It leaves you wanting more. MORE »
Adobe has come out swinging in support of the HP Slate, that other tablet we’ve been seeing since January. The HP Slate runs Windows 7 and handles Flash, a common slag against Apple’s tablet, the iPad. In a new video by Adobe, the HP Slate is shown off doing some cooling things, all the time stressing that you’re getting the whole web, not a closed off, hacked together, 2-bit version of what one company (and an army of loyal fans) want you to get. Adobe is eager to lift up the HP Slate as a worthy competitor.
Adobe uses some quick stats: 85% of Alexa top 100 sites run Flash and 75% of all video on the web is Flash, to drive their message home. Emphasizing Flash and Adobe Air as the platform developers bring you their vision, Adobe makes the case for developers to keep on using Flash and how Adobe is going to help power the open innovation that these devices will bring. The future, Adobe suggests, is not closed.
For its part, the Slate looks very slick in the demos. Check out the two videos below.
A few months back we saw the movie poster, a screenshot and brief synopsis released for Tron Legacy and while that was fun to look at we now have something a little better—the movie trailer—in HD. Of course, in reality what we have is 2 minutes and 21 seconds of a tease, because in the end we still have to wait until December 17, 2010 to see the full movie.
Another netbook coming courtesy of MSI is now available, this time its the Wind U160 and it can be found with Amazon and Newegg as well as many other online retailers.
First things first, spec wise the MSI Wind U160 features a 10.1-inch (1024 x 600 resolution) glossy display, a 1.66GHz Intel Atom N450 processor, 1GB of RAM, a 250GB hard drive and is running Window 7 Starter. Other features include Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth, a built-in card reader, a built-in 1.3-megapixel webcam and a 6-cell battery that is said to offer up to 15 hours of battery life.
Moving on, in terms of price Newegg is selling the U160 netbook for $379.99 with an extra $4.99 for standard shipping. As far as Amazon, they also have it priced at $379.99, however it is still being listed as a pre-order at the moment.
What the heck is a “weblication?” The answer is in Riverturn’s new Google Voice web application that looks more like a native app, in fact, it fooled everyone I showed it to. The new app brings the Google Voice experience to your iPhone, allowing you to place calls, send and recieve SMS, and even browse recent calls. Even better, Riverturn did it by working around the App Store and its oft illogical approval process. Take that Apple.
In fact, the whole effort is very impressive. The app is actually running in Safari, but most users won’t realize it (I had to keep reminding myself). Voice Central, Riverturns name for the service, has the look of a great app but, according to Riverturn, runs faster thanks to the data running through their servers. Finger swiping delete calls, little icons on the bottom provide good-looking navigation, to contact details with the stock wallpaper background, Riverturn managed to make the Google Voice web app look like child’s play next to Voice Central Black Swan.
User simply navigate to the Riverturn website and the weblication loads in and users add the link to the home screen.
There are some limits to a weblication. For starters, Safari (which is running Voice Central) can’t access your contacts. Instead, Voice Central suggests syncing your data with Google Voice’s contacts to get around this inconvenience. Apple prevents this so websites don’t have access to your contacts. Another limit is a confirmation box pops up when you initialize calls, again set up by Apple to protect users from websites initiating calls without users consent. And finally, voice mails are played through the speaker, not the earphone. Little issues but something to be aware of.
Users can now download the program and register for free. A premium version is available that brings contact images through, allows a setting change for Do Not Disturb, unlimited history, inbox searches and product support (free version is supported via forums only). Premium is a whopping $6/year, on sale from $10/year.
Gmail has long had the ability to add (and check) other POP3 email accounts, which is nice because it allows you to check/send/receive email from multiple accounts in one place. Of course, with that convenience, the ability to check other POP3 email accounts is not perfect. One of the reasons why is due to the lack of ability to pre-configure a interval to check those accounts. Simply put, they run on Google’s schedule and if you wanted to manually update an account you had to go to Settings, Accounts and Import and then hit the Check mail now link. It was there, but it took a few steps. Now thanks to a new feature in Labs, you can check all of your added POP3 email accounts with a single click. The new Labs feature is called “Refresh POP accounts” and can be enabled by going to Settings -> Labs and then clicking Enable next to the Refresh POP accounts feature. And after that is done, dont forget to hit the Save Changes button at the bottom. Once that is done, just head back to your Inbox and you will now have a “Refresh” link next to your More actions button. Now if we could just get a Labs feature that would just allow us to set time intervals to check those added POP3 accounts.
AT&T has made their first foray into the Android smartphone market, and it looks to be rather depressing. The first phone is the Motorola Backflip, which itself is nothing special aside from the different design. However, from the looks of it as of now, AT&T doesn’t seem understand the full draw of Android to some users.
Part of the draw to Android is the fact that apps can easily be installed outside of the Market, unlike the iPhone which only allows apps from the App Store. This allows users to install apps that may not appear in the Market for a variety of reasons. The AT&T Backflip, however, seems to lack this functionality. This means there’s no chance of Backflip owners trying the beta of Swype right now, among other apps.
This might not make a huge difference to some users, surely not everyone with an Android smartphone is going to care about installing apps from anyplace but the Market. It does mean, however that there are some who would just as easily pass on AT&T Android phones if it continues. Surely this could be fixed with a firmware upgrade, so it might not be a huge issue after a while, but until it is fixed it gives users let another reason to not use AT&T. It if does continue, it makes the rumors of the HTC Desire going to AT&T even more depressing.
FROM GAMERTELL - Activision is teaming up with Anchor Bay Entertainment to create 10 Minute Solution for the Wii, a fitness game based on Anchor Bay’s line of 10 Minute Solution DVDs. MORE »
Adobe has come out swinging in support of the HP Slate, that other tablet we’ve been seeing since January. The HP Slate runs Windows 7 and handles Flash, a common slag against Apple’s tablet, the iPad. In a new video by Adobe, the HP Slate is shown off doing some cooling things, all the time stressing that you’re getting the whole web, not a closed off, hacked together, 2-bit version of what one company (and an army of loyal fans) want you to get. Adobe is eager to lift up the HP Slate as a worthy competitor.
What the heck is a “weblication?” The answer is in Riverturn’s new Google Voice web application that looks more like a native app, in fact, it fooled everyone I showed it to. The new app brings the Google Voice experience to your iPhone, allowing you to place calls, send and recieve SMS, and even browse recent calls. Even better, Riverturn did it by working around the App Store and its oft illogical approval process. Take that Apple.
AT&T has made their first foray into the Android smartphone market, and it looks to be rather depressing. The first phone is the Motorola Backflip, which itself is nothing special aside from the different design. However, from the looks of it as of now, AT&T doesn’t seem understand the full draw of Android to some users.
No comments:
Post a Comment