AT&T Upload Speeds Bottom Out

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The AT&T network has long been maligned, especially for its spotty service with the iPhone. Now, reports are that upload speeds on the network have slowed to a crawl.

Degraded upload speeds were first reported over the weekend, with many prominent bloggers reporting upload speeds of less than 100 Kbps continuing into the week. It is currently unknown whether the new situation is a cap on upload speeds or a network problem, though AT&T says that they will clarify the situation soon.

Source: Wired

Coke Zero Gets Rabbids

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Ubisoft is continuing their cross promotion of the Rabbids with branding on Coke Zero in France. The specially branded cans feature images of the raving Rabbids (or “Lapins Cretins” as they are known in France) with costumes reflecting other Ubisoft franchises, including Splinter Cell, Assassin’s Creed and Prince of Persia.

Source: Kotaku

‘Write The Future’ Unprophetic

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Nike’s Write the Future ad was a huge hit on the internet, with the three-minute spot breaking 7.8 million views in just one week. However, the star-studded piece of advertising had a fatal flaw in that all of the stars involved had poor performances and none reached the semi-finals.

Indeed, studies show that Adidas achieved more buzz with their Star Wars Cantina ad mash up and the official Jabulani ball. While Nike still sponsors the Netherlands and may ultimately claim some sort of victory in the end, it’s still a cautionary tale for marketers.

What the campaign is more indicative of is that American advertisers still don’t fully understand the nature of the World Cup. The agency that produced the spot, Oregon-based Wieden + Kennedy, has found plenty of success in hyping up the likes of Rooney and Ronaldo, but the World Cup is a far different brand of beast than your typical bout of idol worship, writes Douglas Haddow. If this year’s tournament has proved anything, it’s that the efforts of the most publicized players are futile when they come up against a team that can play with a bit of cohesion. By producing an advert that focused solely on the actions of a few celebs, Nike tempted fate and is being accordingly punished.

Rather than a storybook ending for any one of Nike’s heroes, what we have here is a case study of what happens when hype goes terribly awry. It’s a cautionary tale for anyone who wants to capitalize on star power during the World Cup, proving that Adidas was correct to pick Snoop Dogg and Han Solo for spokesmen, as they have absolutely no chance of mucking it up and disappointing prospective cleat consumers, concludes Haddow.

Source: Slate

Once Upon A Pixel: Prinny

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The Prinnies are some of the most popular cult video game characters after their appearance in Disgaea. In this funny pseudo-PSA, a Prinny warns kids not to be bad.

Rabbids Bring Madness To Renault

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The Rabbids are well known for their wacky hijinks the world over. In this commercial, they’re pimping for the features of the Renault Scenic in their own unique way.

 

Cybercrime Embodied In Dokken Vs. Chicken

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It’s difficult to portray things like cyber-security in a way that isn’t dry and boring. Norton does an excellent job, however, with this interactive video: Dokken vs. Chicken.

LG Announces Optimus Smartphones, Tablets

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LG Electronics has unveiled its LG Optimus Series. These smartphones and tablet computers will come packaged with Google’s Android Platform 2.2, aka Froyo.

“The LG Optimus Series is aimed at challenging the notion that one device can meet the needs of many,” said Dr. Skott Ahn, President and CEO of LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company. “At LG, we believe in providing people with many different choices because our customers are not all alike. We want to provide devices that suit all needs and simplify people’s lives.”

10 new smart devices are planned worldwide in the second half of this year under the LG Optimus label.

Netflix Signs Deal With Relativity

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Netflix announced recently that it has signed a deal to stream Relativity-produced movies on its website. This will give subscribers the chance to stream Relativity produced projects soon after the DVD release window and sooner than most Netflix streaming content deals.

“Traditionally, these films have flowed through Relativity’s studio releasing partners to output deals with premium TV channels,” the parties noted. “The deal marks a continued shift in the distribution of major motion pictures in the U.S. Under the agreement, an increasing amount of popular contemporary movies previously encumbered by pay TV agreements with premium channels such as HBO, Showtime and Starz will become available to be streamed from Netflix months — and not years — after their release on DVD. It will be the first time that studio-quality theatrical feature films will be streamed via subscription by Netflix instead of being broadcast by the traditional pay providers.”

Movies in the deal include Paramount’s boxing drama The Fighter and Universal’s dramatic thriller Skyline.

“Our continued goal is to expand the breadth and timeliness of films and TV shows available to stream on Netflix,” said Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos.

“We have always been about finding new ways to grow and monetize our business,” Relativity chief Ryan Kavanaugh said. “This clearly is a natural step in the evolution of the movie business and opens up a whole new world of revenue and marketing opportunities.”

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

Sony WWS Collaborating On Future PlayStation

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The PS3 early on had an infamous reputation for being hard to develop for. While developers have gotten a better handle on the exotic hardware, Sony is not looking to repeat the experience with their next console.

When Ken Kutaragi moved on and Kaz Harai became the president of SCE, the first thing Kaz said was, get World Wide Studios in on hardware development,’ said Sony Worldwide Studios (WWS) chief executive Shuhei Yoshida. So he wanted developers in meetings at the very beginning of conceptualizing new hardware, and he demanded SCE people talk to us [developers].

When asked whether this will affect future software releases, Yoshida gave the tantalizing response: Yes, we are undergoing many activities that we haven’t yet been talking about in public. Some future platform related activities.

The first fruit of this new studio-collaborative philosophy was the PlayStation Move. I’m spending more time on the hardware platform, connecting hardware guys to developers, Yoshida added, That’s my major role now, and Move is one of those new ways of developing platforms.

Source: Develop

Sega Won’t Be Doing Alpha Protocol 2

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Alpha Protocol was given to mixed reviews upon its release, some praising the impact that player choices could have on the story, others criticizing the numerous bugs, flawed shooting elements and suspect AI. While the concept of a spy RPG is certainly an intriguing one, it will not be something that Sega will revisit.

“Let’s speak very commercially; the game hasn’t sold what we’ve expected, therefore we won’t be doing a sequel,” said Sega West president Mike Hayes. “The concept was brilliant, though. You know this whole thing with Metacritic where you have to be in the high 70s to mid-80s minimum [to have any success] – well, with RPGs you have got to be in the late 80s.

The development time of Alpha Protocol topping off at nearly four years and a release after the acclaimed and much more polished Mass Effect 2 likely doomed the Obsidian game.

“Whilst we had a good game, I don’t think we had a game that had enough to get us to that upper echelon and I think that was the issue, added Hayes. Again, the amount you need to invest to get there is so large because RPGs are naturally big projects. We’ve decided we won’t do a sequel.”

Source: CVG