• Microsoft’s troubles in Europe not over.
  • Will software patents be undone?
  • New Trojan Horse targets windows smart phones.
  • According to VNUNet, one-third of all mobiles games do not work.
  • Google doing websites. Big deal.
  • Don’t cry for me Robert Scoble. He cries for some Microsoft product or other. But which one? Server 2008?
  • Home Office in UK loses data again.
  • I try to define boffin.

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  1. Mark Derail says:

    Here’s a nice article:

    Survey: Mobile users stick with BlackBerry’s for the games:
    http://www.blackberrycool.com/2008/02/19/006595/

    (Disclaimer: I love the Blackberry)

    FTA:
    The results from last month’s survey from Bplay have been culled, revealing that 90% of respondents were unlikely to switch to a non-smartphone for entertainment “citing the better image quality, larger screen size, easier controls and easier product downloading all as important factors”. Not a huge surprise, right? Well, how about the part where 51% claimed they played more games on their BlackBerry than on any other platform? That figure rose to 60% when looking at just women, too.

  2. Mark Derail says:

    The survey fails to mention “Where” these games are played.

    My hopes are for Android in the gaming dept.

  3. OhForTheLoveOf says:

    I’m sorry… I’m not in the Crackberry/iPhone/mobile handheld fetishists guild so forgive me for asking…

    What the hell kind of games can you play on a screen the size of a credit card? And who cares if they work?

  4. andron says:

    The company that made the games (GetJar) claimed responsibility:

    Third of mobile games fail to work
    Written by Ian Williams

    vnunet.com, 28 Feb 2008

    This is an important challenge for the mobile entertainment industry

    Ilja Laurs Founder and chief executive, GetJar

    A third of mobile games paid for and downloaded by users in the UK fail to work owing to compatibility issues, according to mobile application developer GetJar.

    Figures from research group GfK suggest that the UK mobile gaming market was worth £83m in 2006 and 2007.

    But GetJar claimed that over £29m is being spent annually by UK consumers on games that they never get to play.

    The company blamed insufficient compatibility testing for the high failure rate, and believes that the problem will get worse unless developers place greater emphasis on compatibility.

    “This is an important challenge for the mobile entertainment industry, for developers and for the operators which supply the vast majority of games in the UK,” said Ilja Laurs, founder and chief executive at GetJar.

    “By bringing more detailed testing into the development process developers and carriers could iron out many of the compatibility issues without having a negative impact on development process or costs.”

    Only 15 per cent of gamers surveyed said that games they had paid for always worked.

    “It is our experience that users tend to blame themselves for a compatibility failure and therefore do not actively pursue a refund,” said Laurs.

    Many respondents said that the relatively low cost of each download compared with the effort involved made it seem silly to request a refund.

  5. Mark Derail says:

    #3 OhForTheLoveOf , why Solitaire of course.

    While in solitary confinement…helps pass…time.
    🙂

    Frogger & Pac Man are nice too.

  6. Blues says:

    Boffin means scientist. I don’t get what’s so hard about it.

  7. Roman Berry says:

    Same question as yesterday…

    What the heck is that sort of bubbling sound in the background of the podcast? (My dear wife noticed it and asked if JCD was sitting in front of a large aquarium or in a mad science lab or stirrin’ up potions with Harry Potter or sumthin’.)

    [That’s the cauldron that boils constantly in JCD’s office. – ed.]

  8. Joshua says:

    Sorry….off topic John.

    I can’t believe you haven’t posted something about William F. Buckley passing away. Conservative or not, the man was one of the intellectual giants of the last century and thanks to Bush maybe the last true conservative left.

  9. TatooYou says:

    #7
    “What the heck is that sort of bubbling sound in the background of the podcast?”

    There is no bubbling sound, you probably have a tick in your ear! pour a kettle of boiling water in your ear to get him out…


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