Hybrid ThinkPad is more of a lapbook
In Personal Technology in the Business Life section of the FT this week, we look at the Lenovo ThinkPad x100e and its rivals:
“The Lenovo ThinkPad x100e looks like a netbook, weighs about the same as a netbook and at $450 (£423 in the UK) is priced (almost) like a netbook. However, in terms of performance, its speed, screen resolution and keyboard outperform netbooks. This may be why the manufacturer classifies it as a laptop, albeit a small one.” Read more
Final Fantasy XIII has dream US start
Square Enix’s big US marketing push for Final Fantasy XIII appears to have paid off, with the Japanese publisher announcing on Friday that the title is the fastest selling in the franchise’s history.
Square Enix said it sold 1m units in the US in its first five days, following its big launch event for FFXIII in San Francisco on the eve of the Game Developers Conference last week, with Yoichi Wada, chief executive, in attendance. We spoke to Mr Wada at the launch – his thoughts on FFXIII and the parlous state of the industry after the jump. Read more
Checking-out from SXSW
As anticipated, location-sharing services were the talk of the town in Austin as engineers and entrepreneurs convened for the South by Southwest Interactive festival.
“Location, location location,” Playfish chief operating officer Sebastien de Halleux told me when I caught up with him. “It’s a big theme for the web at this stage.”
That may be true. But despite the genuine promise of location-based services, and all the hype around the budding rivalry between Foursquare and Gowalla — rival applications that let users “check-in” and share their location with friends — this stuff is still a long way from being mainstream. Read more
YouTube emails are a plaintiff’s best friend
The latest round in the heavyweight Viacom v YouTube slugfest has clearly gone to Viacom.
Google fought to keep evidence filed in Viacom’s copyright infringement case sealed, but failed. The full gory details were on display on Thursday. This is Viacom’s application for summary judgment in the case, and this is Google’s version of events.
The result is death by a thousand quotes – the inevitable result of selective quotation from stacks of YouTube emails unearthed during legal discovery (all the email written by co-founder Chad Hurley was said to have been lost, but his replies to his associates are on record). My colleague Ken Li has been combing through the documents. Some highlights after the jump. Read more
| About this blog | Blog guide |
Richard Waters has headed the FT's San Francisco bureau since 2002 and covers Google and Microsoft, among other things. A former New York bureau chief for the FT, he is intrigued by Silicon Valley's unique financial and business culture, and is looking forward to covering his second Tech Bust.
Chris Nuttall has been online and messing around with computers for more than 20 years and since 2004 has reported from the FT's San Francisco bureau on semiconductors, video games, consumer electronics and all things interwebby.
Maija Palmer has been writing about technology for the FT since 1999 and is fascinated by cybercrime, privacy and all the other issues of the information society. Based in London, she covers European tech companies and hopes that they won't all get acquired by American rivals.
Robin Kwong is the FT's technology, media and telecoms page editor in London. Formerly he was the Taipei correspondent and wrote about the companies that manufacture the vast majority of the world's computers and gadgets. He is interested in the intricacies of the technology supply chain and how China is increasingly changing the tech landscape.
Tim Bradshaw is the FT's digital media correspondent, and has just moved from London to join our team in San Francisco. He has covered start-ups such as Twitter and Spotify, as well as the online ambitions of more established media companies, such as the BBC iPlayer. He also covers the advertising, marketing and video-game industries. Tim has been writing about technology, business and finance since 2003.
