Give the gift of gaming
The video game industry is adding accessories rather than reducing prices this holiday season to try to extend the life and appeal of home consoles.
In part two of the annual gift guide in the Personal Technology column of the FT’s Business Life section, we highlight the best games on each platform as well as add-ons that make them more lifelike and easy to play than ever before. Read more
Google lends a hand to “authorised” content
Google has been trying for much of this year to win music industry support to launch its own streaming music service – so far without success. But its latest moves to make copyrighted material easier to find through its search engine (while at the same time suppressing pirated content) already show signs of winning it more friends and can only help to steer things in the right direction.
Most intriguing of the steps Google outlined in a blog post on Thursday was an offer to give “authorised preview content” more prominence in its search results. Read more
Yahoo Japan gets clearance to lean on Google
Japan’s antitrust authorities have cleared Yahoo Japan’s plan to rely on Google for algorithmic search results, rejecting complaints from Microsoft and others that the combined service would field as much as 90 per cent of the nation’s search queries.
Japan Fair Trade Commission officials told wire services that they would not block the deal announced in July but would continue to monitor it for any harm to the market. 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.
