Nintendo has made it official, Wii U games will be on a proprietary disc that is not Blu-ray or DVD.
The confirmation comes via Nintendo president Satoru Iwata following a week of confusion and speculation as to exactly what Wii U games would be published on.
In explaining the move, Iwata says:
We feel that enough people already have devices that are capable of playing DVDs and Blu-ray, such that it didn’t warrant the cost involved to build that functionality into the Wii U console because of the patents related to those technologies.
Furthermore, the Wii U will go “social,” says Iwata (via TR):
After examining the penetration and adoption rate of social networking services like Facebook, etc, we’ve come to the conclusion that we are no longer in a period where we cannot have any connection at all with social networking services.
Rather, I think we’ve come to an era where it’s important to consider how the social graph of the social networking services can work in conjunction with something like a video game platform.
Result for: functionality
HTC has announced their first Android ‘world phone,’ the Merge.
The slider CDMA phone will go on sale in the U.S. during the “spring,” and will likely be available on Sprint and Verizon.
Featuring a 3.8-inch multi-touch display, HTC did not say what the resolution of the Merge will be.
For the QWWERTY slide-out, it is unclear whether the phone will feature a four or five row keyboard.
As standard for other HTC smartphones, the Merge will run on Android 2.2 Froyo, include a 5MP camera with autofocus and flash, GPS, Wi-Fi, 720p video and Microsoft Exchange. There doesn’t look to be a front-side camera.
Says HTC (via PCM):
HTC prides itself on creating unique solutions that meet the needs of different customers, and with features like a full keyboard and global 3G roaming, the HTC Merge smartphone is the perfect example of this commitment. Combining the functionality of Android with the HTC Sense experience, the HTC Merge is the perfect device for those customers who are looking for a reliable mobile experience with the features and functionality of a smartphone, whether it’s at home or travelling around the world.
Result for: functionality
Mozilla has released their 2009 earnings statement this week, which shows explosive revenue growth for the company.
In 2008, Mozilla had $78 million in revenue, with sales surging to $104 million last year.
It is still unclear how exactly sales jumped so much, but the statement says “a majority of Mozilla revenue continues to be generated from the search functionality included in Mozilla’s Firefox product from organizations such as Google, Yahoo, Yandex, Amazon, eBay and a handful of others.”
One such example is how Google gives Mozilla a tiny piece of its search ad revenue as long as Mozilla makes Google the default search engine in the popular Firefox browser.
That deal will last through the end of 2011.
Expenses increased to $61 million in 2009.
140 million users worldwide actively use the Firefox browser.
