
ROBERT WILLIAMS
Conceptual Realism
IN THE SERVICE OF THE HYPOTHETICAL
October 31, 2009 – January 23, 2010
Gotta go see this!
|
|

Ngmoco’s Eliminate Pro shooting game moved to the No. 1 spot on Apple’s app download store after its launch on Monday. The new game uses a new business model made possible by Apple’s recent change in policy allowing purchases of virtual goods to be made from inside free games.
Previously, Apple only allowed such purchase to be made inside paid games. But that didn’t enable the “free to play” business model that has worked so well on Facebook and other social networks. In these games, players start playing the games for free. Then they buy a virtual good such as a weapon for a small price once they need it.
In Eliminate Pro, players can challenge each other in multiplayer shooting matches over Wi-Fi or the 3G phone network. The player winds up paying for time, much like putting in quarters into arcade machines in the past. When you start playing the game, you can join multiplayer combat games. Each time you play, you use a portion of a “power cell.” At some point, to continue playing, you have to purchase more power cells. If you want to play for free, you have to wait a certain time for the power cell to recharge. If you want to skip that wait, you have to shell out some money. The key is that the game can generate recurring revenue, like a service.
“This business model will be transformative for our company,” said Neil Young, chief executive of San Francisco-based Ngmoco, in an interview. “We are now operating a game as an ongoing service.”
The usage-based monetization could prove to be more lucrative than requiring players to pay to download a game. On the AppStore, it’s hard for games to break into the top 100 ranks, since there are more than 100,000 apps available. And those that do make it to No. 1 rarely stay there for more than a couple of weeks. Hence, the revenues associated with even a No. 1 hit on the iPhone don’t add up to much. But if a game is popular enough and players are willing to pay for usage time, then it can generate revenues for an extended time, Young said.
Of course, it’s hard to strike the balance between generating usage revenue and annoying users who don’t want to dish out lots of money. Ngmoco tested Eliminate Pro in the Canadian market and tweaked it to get that balance for the final product. Young said the company switched to the new business model after acquiring the development studio Miraphonic. The company then began retooling its whole product line. Other titles coming soon are Touch Pets and some unannounced games.
Ngmoco also had a hand in the No. 1 free game. Freeverse’s Skee Ball uses Ngmoco’s Plus+ developer platform, which adds cross-promotion, achievements, multiplayer challenges, leaderboards and user socializing to a game. Developers use Ngmoco’s platform to publish games that can be promoted to millions of other users. Full told, Ngmoco’s games have been downloaded more than 20 million times. That means that Plus+ developers can launch games that can reach lots of those users via the cross-promotion capabilities of the Plus+ technology.
Young said that more than 20 games in the AppStore are using the Plus+ platform. And the company announced two new game studios are using it today: Flipside5 and Backflip Studios. Backflip will use Plus+ in upcoming games such as Harbor Havoc 3D. The goal is to build the largest network of social games on the iPhone with Plus+, Young said.
Ngmoco was founded in 2008 and has received funding from Kleiner Perkins, Maples Investments and Norwest Venture Partners. Rivals for the Plus+ platform include Aurora Feint and Scoreloop.
via: venturebeat.
FoodScanner Demo from Andy Smith on Vimeo.



Silicon chips have long been too expensive or heavy to use in devices that are extremely lightweight. The Xerox team solved this fundamental problem with lighter materials, and it plans to sell the new materials to other businesses that could make wearable electronics.
With plastics, you can unroll a sheet and then deposit electronic circuitry on top of it, building it up layer after layer. It helps to have conductive ink. That is, you need something that contains metal but that you can print with or spray on. The Xerox team created what they call a “silver bullet.” It’s a silver ink that melts at 140 degrees celsius.
Normally, metals melt at 1,000 degrees or so. But plastic itself melts at 150 degrees. So an ink laid on top of plastic can’t melt at a higher temperature or it will melt the plastic, said Paul Smith, lab manager at Xerox Research Toronto, Canada.
“This opens a whole new world for electronics,” said Angele Boyd, an analyst at IDC. “With printable electronics, the future of electronics will include plastics and fabric. The Xerox technology opens up opportunities for lower cost applications in traditional electronics and for new applications around plastics and fabric.”
The applications include plastic circuits could be used to build plastic electronic book readers, such as one being built by Plastic Logic, that are flexible enough to bend and can withstand damage. They would also be very lightweight. The plastic circuits could be used to weave a computer into your clothing or make intelligent boxes for pills that could tell you whether they’ve been tampered with during shipping.
Scientists have dreamed of this for a long time, and Xerox has been researching it since 2001. Hewlett-Packard has also been working on plastic electronics for a decade. Xerox says it has now been able to fabricate cheap and lightweight components that are necessary to print circuits on plastic: a semiconductor, a conductor and a dielectric element.
The fabrication plants for these kinds of plastic chips will be cool. The circuits can be printed by printers, just like a document, without the need for an elaborate clean room as is used in current chip factories. Xerox has research samples available now and is in discussions with manufacturers who could use the plastic electronics.
Beyond the applications we’ve mentioned already, Xerox says the printed plastic circuits could be used in low-cost radio frequency identification (RFID) tags, light and flexible signs, sensors, solar cells and novelty fashions.
via: venturebeat.
















Via: contemporist

Via: dezeen

Via: slamxhype