← Previous Next →

We go hands on with the new 7-inch Nook HD and 9-inch Nook HD+. Our full impressions.

Today Barnes & Noble has unveiled the Nook Tablet HD (7-inch) and Nook Tablet HD+ (9-inch), two completely new tablets. If there’s one thing I learned from B&N representatives when I spent some time with the new Nooks yesterday, it’s that the Amazon Kindle Fire HDs are inferior to the new Nooks in every way. While companies are typically shy of their competition, Barnes & Noble is not quiet about its competitors. According to the traditional book retailer turned digital seller, its new Nook tablets are faster, lighter, more feature rich, and easier to hold than any Kindle Fire. But is it true or is it a clever marketing gimmick? Judging from my first experiences with the new Nook HD and HD+, B&N may have good reason to go on the offense.

Lighter, faster, and easier to hold

The first device I held was the Nook HD, a new 7-inch tablet. From the moment I picked it up, I was impressed by how comfortable and easy to grip it was. Instead of going with an entirely flat glass front screen like almost every tablet these days, Barnes & Noble has surrounded its screen with a pleasantly grippy plastic, which is supposed to make it easier to hold and cut down on unwanted fingerprints. The grippy plastic curves right around to the back of the tablet, which now resembles the Nook E Ink e-readers more than the old Nook Color. The new tablet is not only easier to grip, it’s much nicer on your arms, weighing only 11.1 ounces (315 grams), much lighter than the Nexus 7 and Kindle Fire HD. The Nook HD also beats its competitors in pixel count with an impressive 1440 x 900 pixel screen, exceeding the 1280×800 pixel norm.

The Nook HD+ is a larger tablet, but also feels very lightweight and more comfortable to hold than a typical tablet, an important point for Barnes & Noble, which still says these devices are made for reading, when push comes to shove. The HD+ takes on the iPad and Kindle Fire HD 8.9 with a unique 9-inch screen with an impressive 1920×1280 pixel resolution. Placed vertically atop an iPad, it seems to be about the same thickness (maybe a hair more) and height, but because it employs a 3:2 aspect ratio, it’s much narrower. This aspect ratio, again, makes it resemble and feel more like a book. In fact, B&N believes the HD+ is also well suited for magazine viewing, video, and comic books. So well suited that Barnes & Noble has opened up a new video store and expanded its magazine offerings to be more interactive and robust. You can now create scrapbooks out of your downloaded magazines. A new HDMI peripheral even lets you stream 1080p movies to your HDTV.

Neither tablet will blow your britches away in the spec department, but they hold their own against Amazon’s offerings (maybe not the Nexus 7, however). Both Nook HDs have microSD slots, 8-32GB of internal flash memory storage, and dual-core OMAP 4470 processors (1.3/1.5GHz) with 1GB of RAM, which B&N points out is faster than the Kindle Fire HD’s OMAP 4460 processors. Both devices also run on a heavily modified version of Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich), which I’m told has helped B&N’s ability to court developers and improved the quality of apps available. Its store now carriers more than 10,000 apps.

Did I mention the battery life? Amazon estimates that the HD will get 10.5 hours of reading and the HD+ will manage 10 hours. Not bad, especially considering that the batteries have not grown in size since the Nook Tablet. Somehow B&N has been able to improve all of its specs, even the screen and improve battery life without increasing the size of its batteries.

Multiple logins for the family

One of the coolest new ideas B&N showed off is the idea of having profile accounts for everyone who uses a tablet anyone, with a family twist. No Android tablet has gotten multiple logins right, but Barnes & Noble seems to have figured it out. Families can create profiles for everyone complete with separate email, apps, and content. If you’re a parent, you can even restrict your kids to certain books or features and secure your login with a passcode. Finally, no one will have to know how many times you read Fifty Shades of Gray on your HD Nook.

Nook Channels

Another of my favorite new features is Nook Channels. Barnes & Noble has been selling books for many decades and this feature takes advantage of that expertise. Instead of simply recommending new e-books based on genre or what other, similar, customers purchased, B&N is using real humans to create and curate ‘channels’ of content specially tailored to you based on the books you read. In a sense, it’s like a simplified version of Pandora, which also uses actual music experts to categorize songs. 

Slow interface

Unfortunately, it’s not all roses for the new Nook HD and HD+. I’m hoping that what I saw were developer units, but the interface featured looked a bit cartoony and animation lagged significantly. Sadly, it reminded me of the one thing that would make a B&N executive cry: the Kindle Fire. Amazon’s first tablet (and the Nook Color, if we’re going to be fair) was underpowered and felt slow compared to higher-end tablets. Judging from the specs, there really isn’t a reason why these tablets were so slow. Hopefully it is a software issue that’s already been fixed. I’m also hoping that a bit more work goes into the design of the interface. While completely serviceable, it doesn’t match the sleekness of the Kindle Fire HD or Nexus 7 user interfaces, though the bubbly, brightly colored interface may appeal more to moms and families, who B&N is obviously pining for. Still, even moms don’t want laggy tablets.

Good pricing

I’m hoping Barnes & Noble doesn’t launch a line of laggy tablets. Assuming these issues are fixed before the new tablets launch in late October, the Nook HD and Nook HD+ are two extremely capable and competitive consumption devices. The Nook HD will retail starting at $200 for 8GB of storage. The Nook HD+ will start at $270 for the 16GB model and $300 for the 32GB model. At about half the price of an iPad, the 9-inch version should be especially compelling. Overall, I’m excited to try out the new Nook models. It’s easy to forget that Barnes & Noble is a player in the tablet space, but it showed today that it’s not going anywhere. Amazon, watch out! You can pre-order the Nook tablets at Nook.com and check them out at Barnes & Noble and some other select retailers around the U.S. and UK. 

Has Research In Motion finally lost the plot? Or is it merely showing everyone it has a sense of humor? A new music video starring company executives thanks BlackBerry developers for sticking with its mobile platform, promising better days ahead.

Research In Motion (RIM) may be experiencing the toughest time in its 28-year history, but it hasn’t forgotten how to have bit of fun.

At its BlackBerry Jam developer conference in San Jose on Tuesday, the mobile company decided to entertain its attendees – or possibly horrify a few of them – with a slickly-produced music video featuring three RIM executives singing a developer-focused version of the classic REO Speedwagon hit, Keep on Loving You.

The video is apparently RIM’s way of expressing its appreciation for developers that have stuck with the BlackBerry platform.

“This video is a thank you to all developers supporting the BlackBerry platform. Your Developer Relations, Alliance and Developer Tools teams appreciate your enthusiasm and loyalty! We’re Going To Keep On Loving You,” reads the accompanying blurb on YouTube.

The three-and-a-half-minute production kicks off with the lyrics:

We’ve all seen these are challenging times, baby,

‘Cuz we’re in transition.

A whole new mobile computing platform may be

one tough proposition.

So don’t be misled,

The launch is just ahead,

We’ll have BlackBerry 10 both in full touch and QWERTY editions.

In a message to BlackBerry developers, vocalist Alec Saunders – RIM’s VP of developer relations and ecosystem – sings, “We’re gonna keep on loving you,” at the same time reassuring them that “our updated SDK is really cool.”

Check it out at the end of this piece and let us know: epic fail or good laugh?

Besides serenading the developers, RIM is also hoping to hold on to existing ones, or even attract new ones, by offering $10,000 per BB10 app submitted to its app store, provided it meets certain quality requirements.

The video was screened on the same day that RIM boss Thorsten Heins announced some better news for the Ontario-based company. Against expectations, BlackBerry subscriber numbers rose to 80 million for the quarter ending September, an increase of two million from earlier this year.

RIM’s future rests heavily on its next mobile operating system, BB10, which is set to launch early next year, together with a number of new handsets. Hopefully the Keep On Loving You video released on Tuesday won’t have scared off too many developers, and the phones can come to market with plenty of BB10 apps to choose from.

We spoke with Matt Charles, Gearbox producer for Borderlands 2 about the recently released game, the future of the industry, and the merits of the Super Mario Bros. movie.

Last week 2K Games and Gearbox’s Borderland 2 arrived with a bang. Most people suspected that it would be a hit thanks to the pre-orders as well as the general popularity of the franchise, but we didn’t know that it would also be one of the best games of the year. We hoped it would be, but we had no way of telling until the copies were released from the protective clutches of the developer.

If you need more proof that the game is a hit (beyond our review), just jump on PSN, Steam, or Xbox Live at any given time and check out how many friends you have playing it right now. If the answer is none, consider investing in some new online friends.

Now that the years of work have concluded and the game has shipped, there is a slight lull in the game’s development cycle before the work on the DLC begins (as well as a probable sequel, although Gearbox will probably defend that secret bitterly until it is ready to announce one). So what does a Borderlands 2 producer do with himself in that time? And what was the development like? And while we’re at it, can we expect a Borderlands movie, and if so is there any way to make it not suck? We ask Gearbox producer Matt Charles these questions and more.

How long have you been working on Borderlands 2?

The full history: Borderlands 1 came out, did great. We turned a small team to focus on the DLC efforts – the add-on content. Once those finished, we started work on Borderlands 2. So it’s a gray area, it doesn’t happen overnight. But it’s about 2 ½ years.

Did you expect Borderlands 1 to do as well as it did, or did its success surprise you?

Well we certainly hoped so. I’d say we were pleasantly surprised. We’d been working on that game for a long time. Brand new IP, brand new genre — we felt it was a new idea, blending the best of first person shooter and RPG and turning it into what we called the RPS. It was very much our baby.

When you have a game coming out with lofty expectations, how do you deal with the stress leading up to the launch day?

It’s interesting. It’s a dash of nerve wracking; it’s a dash of calm before the storm. It feels like a shuttle launch, like everything is done already, and we just have to wait and see what happens.

After a game is done and released, not counting the DLC, do you have to go through a cool down period, or are you eager to get back to work?

There’s a nice break in the work flow, naturally caused by the certification process with first parties, such as Microsoft and Sony. We do continue to work on the PC version, bug fixing for patches during that time, but that’s generally less intense than preparing for that period when everything’s got to be done and flawless and perfect and ready to be printed on disc. So that’s a great time for people to take some time off.

We also then immediately come back and hit the ground running with DLC, so it’s a short break.

What DLC for Borderlands 2 can you talk about?

There will, in fact, be a season pass. I look forward to seeing what we do there… [laughter].

I can also talk about the Mechromancer. She’s really interesting. At PAX East we announced that we had this idea, we had this beautiful little nugget of a word called “mechromancer,” that was really catchy to us, and she would come with Deathtrap, and that idea was really interesting to us as well — the polar opposite of Claptrap, essentially. Where he’s cracking wise, Deathtrap is about death and destruction, but obviously the friendly protector of the mechromancer.

How big is Gearbox now, including the other teams, like those working on Aliens: Colonial Marines?

Between 150 and 200 people.

Do you enjoy working in that type of larger environment, or is it more stressful?

I think we have a great organization. We’re obviously a multi-project studio, so there are teams within Gearbox, so no single person necessarily has to be worried about 200 other people. We have our own organizations within Gearbox. I really like the project cycles that we have at Gearbox as well, because it can go from a smaller, pre-production team to a very large team, and then back down a bit smaller team, as we don’t need to full force of the company behind it.

So it’s nice. I feel like I get to experience all parts of it.

In your opinion, what is it about Borderlands that makes it resonate with players?

It’s pure fun. It is distilled fun in every corner. That was actually the goal. “Ok, just make everything fun. We’ll figure out what that means as we start designing systems, features, and characters,” but that was always the goal. And I think that really touches everything in the game. When you start with that goal of “let’s make sure everything is fun, avoid frustration” it’s going to come through in a lot of ways.

Were there any technical limitations you hit?

It was interesting going from Borderlands 1 to Borderlands 2. We’re still releasing on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and the PC. Of course PC has evolved, but with consoles the entire point is that you know what hardware is going to be there. But our ambitions never stopped growing, especially with the sequel to a hugely successful game. So it was interesting balancing what can we do on certain hardware versus what we want to do, what we can dream up.

So are you excited for the next generation of consoles, or are you happy with what we have now?

I still have to wait and see. I’m still waiting for more concrete info, so I’m going to reserve my judgment for now.

Where do you see the industry going five or ten years down the road?

That’s an interesting question, and I think we’ve seen unarguably a large push towards mobile gaming, and a focus on that recently. I’m really curious to see new console hardware — how that impacts the future as well. I think that we’re getting more social as an industry and as game players as well. I like the fact that games are taking advantage of that in the sense that it’s easy for me to hop on a game and see what my friends are doing. I love that aspect of it. So if we’re going more mobile, but also more connected, we’re going to have this wide mesh of the world with gamers playing against each other, and I think that’s really cool. I hope it goes more in that direction.

How do you see the gaming industry’s growth compared to other entertainment industries like film?

So…. I gotta make sure to get this right or my film teachers are gonna wack me upside the head… We’re able to look back at the film industry and see how that evolved. And I’m very glad that we have that example because in a lot of ways it is very similar to ours, and we’re able to look at that and plot our own relatively brief history of the video game industry, and sort of chart where we are, relatively speaking.

There are a lot of differences, and I think we’ve figured out some of the variables that make us different, and why we’re not exactly following in film’s footsteps, so to speak in terms of industry growth. But at the same time we’re almost on the cutting edge of technology anyway, so I don’t know, I think we may sort of diverge. It’s hard for me to predict whether we will see explosive growth like film did, or whether it’ll be a steadier pace, or what’s going to happen. I don’t see it decline.

As games get bigger and more complex, are they getting more difficult to create, or do the improving tools make it easier?

Film is obviously still huge, but their models have changed and their delivery method, and everyone is still experimenting with the viewing experience. 3D is the obvious example. That’s the technology that could go wide and we could see more 3D games; Nintendo 3DS being a great example of that. I think it’ll be driven by technology and what’s cutting edge.

Honestly, it’s kind of both. Because as technology comes out, as new hardware comes out, our creative minds go wild and our ambitions totally soar. And then we have to build the tools that let us chip away at what we have in our head that’s possible with this new tech. And then over time those tools get better and better and better, and then it becomes much easier on a relatively small scale to do those things.

For example, I’m going to segue a bit and tie this into something we did for Borderlands 2. In Borderlands 1, everything was data driven, for example our weapons. 17 million guns, and that was all a combination of parts system, but it was very manual entry. The same was true for creating an enemy, or managing a player’s skills behind the scenes. In Borderlands 2 we doubled down and made this tool called “constructs” internally for ourselves that turns all that data entry into a much more visual tool. So you can say with this block over here, let’s tie it to this other thing and it should interact in that way. So we can actually see it; it was almost like a blue print for what we wanted to see happen in a game. So in that sense, that’s one of the things that helped us. We scraped all the old guns from the first game in order to make new ones, all the while offering a lot more creature type and variety. We wouldn’t have been able to do that had we not invested in a new tool set.

Yes it does get faster. At the same time, our production team is also bigger this time around because our tools help us do things faster, but our ambitions are always growing.

It was recently announced that there is going to be a four-part Borderlands comic mini-series due out later this year. Any plans to further explore the Borderlands universe in other mediums? Maybe an animated movie like EA’s Dead Space?

That would be really interesting. I’d be very interested to explore all parts of the Borderlands universe, it’s huge. I think it would be great to see other mediums try to explore it.

Could Borderlands work as a movie?

[Laughter] That’s interesting.

Maybe a better question would be could any game really work as a movie?

Well I liked Super Mario Bros. [Laughter].

That’s a bold claim.

I say that while smiling very heavily.

You may be the first person ever to say those exact words in that order.

I think I was 3 when I saw it, so my opinion may have changed since then.

Do you think there will be a day when gaming movies can get it together and reach the heights of comic book movies?

I think so. This is certainly just my opinion… The video game industry is still relatively new and the film industry has been around for a long time, and the comics industry has been around longer than video games as well. So I think comics and film have learned how to work together. I think we’re still trying to figure that out, the relationship – rather the translation between film and video games. But I think once we do understand the sorts of things we can do that translate very well and the things that don’t, we’ll start to see more of those.

With the Borderlands series, what is the single thing you are most proud of?

As a producer, shipping on time [laughter].

We’ve seen plenty of Bluetooth controllers for mobile devices, but none are quite as tiny as the iMpulse. Don’t let that small size fool you, because this miniscule controller looks like it could be really big on fun.

Yes, it’s small enough to fit on your keychain and the iMpulse Bluetooth game controller is compatible with both iOS and Android devices. You get an analog thumbstick on the one side and four face buttons on the other side, making it suitable for a wide range of games. You can even flip it the other way for lefties, making this an ambidextrous controller.

Gaming on the go is just better with physical controls, but the developers wanted it to do more. For starters, it also works as a key locator. Using the corresponding app on your mobile device, you can get the iMpulse (which is naturally attached to your keychain) to beep. It can also function as a remote shutter for the camera app and a remote control for your mobile media player app too. That’s pretty useful if you ask me.

Head on over to the Kickstarter page and make a pledge. They’re almost at their $49,999 goal with just a little over a month to go. Pledge a minimum of $30 to get your hands on the tiny controller when it ships next February. They had some limited edition metal plated versions too, but those sold out.

Apple's iPhone 5 launch is the biggest in the company's history, but it's being chalked up as a "disappointment." Why?

Apple’s iPhone 5 is thinner, lighter, and packs a high-performance Apple-designed processor, a taller display, and 4G LTE connectivity. Unsurprisingly, it’s also racking up monstrous sales. After tallying 2 million pre-orders in 24 hours, Apple managed to sell 5 million iPhone 5′s in its first weekend of sales.

The figures represent Apple’s strongest iPhone launch to date. And yet the technology and financial press are painting these initial sales figures as a disappointment and a sign that the shine may be wearing off Apple’s stellar growth and profitability. How can selling more phones in its first weekend than ever before — and more phones in the first weekend than any of its competitors have dreamed — be a sign Apple is in trouble?

The launch numbers

Apple is well-known for reporting sales figures for its iPhone and iPad product lines during its financial results each quarter, along with sales figures from it’s iPod and Mac lines. Apple only calls out extraordinary sales milestones separately, such as when the iTunes App Store hits a sales milestone (like 25 billion) — and, before that, when the iTunes Music Store hit a major figure.

Since the launch of the iPhone 3G, Apple has devoted special announcements to iPhone sales — and the iPhone 5 was no exception. CEO Tim Cook announced that the company had sold 5 million iPhone 5s during the first weekend of sales in nine countries — internationally, that’s the broadest iPhone launch Apple has ever attempted.

How does that compare to previous iPhones? The iPhone 4S sold 4 million units during its first weekend, while back in 2010 the iPhone 4 sold 1.7 million units during its first weekend. Previously, the iPhone 3GS sold more than 1 million units its first weekend, and the iPhone 3G sold a million its first weekend before that.

What’s really remarkable about these first-weekend sales figures is the leap between the initial sales of the iPhone 4 and the iPhone 4S. The difference between selling 1.7 million units in an opening weekend and 4 million is 135 percent. In comparison, the opening weekends for the iPhone 3G and 3GS were relatively flat, and the iPhone 4 was 70 percent higher than the iPhone 3GS. In contrast, Apple’s 5 million-unit weekend for the iPhone 5 represents only a 25 percent increase over the iPhone 4.

Apple CEO Tim Cook essentially apologized for not having enough iPhone 5s for everyone who wanted one at launch, noting the company is working as quickly as it can to make more and stores continue to receive iPhone 5 shipments. Nonetheless, current iPhone 5 orders now carry shipping estimates in October as Apple tries to work through the backlog. The company will be facing more waves of launch demand as it brings the iPhone 5 to 22 more markets this week, and 100 additional countries by the end of the year.

The analyst numbers

Researchers working for market analysis firms had generally estimated first-weekend sales for the iPhone 5 at substantially higher levels. Many estimates were in the 6- to 6.5 million-unit range, with Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster leading the pack with a range of 6 to 10 million units for the first weekend, characterizing 6 million units as a “worst-case scenario.”

Looking at the chart above, it’s easy to see where these analysts came up with their figures. If you take the iPhone 4 as an infection point and the iPhone 4S as representative of Apple’s market trend, then in a perfect linear universe, Apple’s iPhone 5 sales ought to have about 200 percent higher than the iPhone 4S, or about 12 million units sold during the first weekend. However, most analysts will admit there are many factors in play, including Apple’s ability to manufacture and source components for the new devices, as well as logistical hurdles getting the devices to retailers, carrier partners, and customers. So no analysts actually thought Apple would be able to sell 12 million iPhones the first weekend. That’s a feat that (to my knowledge) has never been achieved in the history of consumer electronics, let alone mobile phones. So analysts did some curve-fitting and came up with figures between 6 and 7 million units.

How Apple counts sales

So here’s the funny part: The analysts looking for between 6 and 7 million iPhone 5′s sold during the first weekend might not have been that far off. Apple differs from almost all of the technology and consumer electronics industry in that it only considers a unit to be “sold” when it’s in a customer’s hands.

Apple’s definition of “sold” seems pretty straightforward, but most of the rest of the electronics industry considers a unit “sold” when it leaves the factory. This is the source of the distinction between units sold and units shipped that have gotten many companies — including Samsung — into trouble over the years.

In business circles, units shipped from a factory are sometimes described as a product’s “sell-in” — units into the retail channel — where products in consumers’ hands represent “sell-out” — out of the retail channel. Both numbers are valuable in looking at a product’s success. For a new product, sell-in figures often represent retailers’ and partners’ confidence in a product. The more units they’re willing to commit to carrying up front, the more potential they think the product has. So sell-in can be an early indicator of a product’s potential success. Sell-in units also represent a bit of a risk to a manufacturer: In many industries, they have to agree to buy back any unsold inventory.

Of course, sell-out is the better arbiter of a product’s sales success, especially when combined with product returns. That figure loosely represents how many consumers bought the product and actually kept it.

Ideally, the ratio of a product’s sell-in to sell-out should one one to one. Companies want to sell as many units of a product as they can make, have no unsold products sitting in retailers’ inventories, and (of course) have no products returned due to defects or customer dissatisfaction. A product with a sell-in disproportionate to its sell-out — like, say, the Logitech Revue — can represent a significant misstep.

In Apple’s case, nearly every analyst forecasting iPhone 5 sales was forecasting sell-in figures — including online orders that have not yet been fulfilled. Conversely, Apple’s reported figure of 5 million iPhone 5′s sold represents a sell-out figure: Devices that are actually in customers’ hands.

Although Apple admits demand for the iPhone 5 exceeded the initial supply of the device, more iPhone 5′s have left the factory than Apple considers sold. Apple indicates retailers will continue to receive shipments “regularly” and the company is gearing up to launch the iPhone 5 in 22 more markets this week. Apple has made far more than 5 million iPhone 5′s — although we don’t know how many more. But the company is only counting 5 million as “sold” on the first weekend.

Demand is still unknown

What do these figure mean for the launch of the iPhone 5?

At a basic level, just as with the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S, Apple was essentially able to sell every iPhone 5 it had available on launch day. On some levels, this is an almost ideal situation: there’s no inventory sitting around waiting to be sold, and Apple generates revenue from every product it builds very quickly. With the launch of the iPhone 5, those initial sales will do nice things for the company’s bottom line. Apple’s current fiscal quarter ends on September 30, and all those 5 million iPhone 5′s — and all the iPhone 5′s it sells between now and the end of the month — will go directly into the company’s next financial results.

On the other hand, it does mean Apple is failing to meet demand for the iPhone 5 — and business common-sense is that frustrated customers will take their business elsewhere. It’s possible that some customers who want an iPhone 5 are simply unwilling to jump through hoops — like immediately jumping on online ordering or waiting in line outside an Apple Store — to get one quickly, so they’re opting for devices like the Samsung Galaxy S III because, frankly, they’re really easy to get.

What would Apple have to do to meet initial demand for a new iPhone? Nobody knows. Apple has radically increased its capacity to build and deliver new iPhones to customers — nobody does mobile phone launches that compare in scale to the iPhone 5 launch. And yet Apple was still unable to meet initial demand. The true market demand for new iPhone is still unknown: it might be just a smidgen larger than what Apple can handle…or it might be double the current demand. That means Apple still has room to grow its iPhone business — and there’s still no ceiling in sight.

Leaving money on the table

The market’s disappointment with Apple selling a mere 5 million iPhone 5′s during its first weekend boils down to two factors.

First, it represents only a 25 percent increase over first-weekend sales of the iPhone 4S, which strongly suggests Apple is reaching the peak of how many iPhones it can sell at launch. That’s not because consumers don’t want more iPhones, but because Apple isn’t currently able to deliver them the first weekend. Despite Apple’s famous logistical and supply-chain efficiency, the company may be starting to hit the limits of what’s possible with a mobile-device launch. That, in turn, will constrain the revenue Apple can generate with a new device launch — and investors hate any restraint on revenue, since it means lower short-term gains. Apple may pull a rabbit out of its hat, but it’s possible most of the gains Cook and company can wring from the iPhone supply and manufacturing process were realized between the iPhone 4 and 4S.

Second, investors are upset that failing to meet initial demand for the iPhone 5 — or any iPhone, for that matter — means Apple is leaving money on the table. Consumers are literally camping out overnight with money in their pockets to set hands on Apple’s latest and greatest, and Apple is not able to meet that demand. Although the iPhone generates massive profits for Apple, investors see that it could be making even more money for Apple — and hence, more money for them. So, in a way, they feel ripped off.

What’s next?

Apple is going to stick to its guns: The company will continue to report on the number of units sold (not shipped), and in October will report substantial revenues boosted by the launch of the iPhone 5. Apple’s forecast for the final quarter of the calendar year will be a little conservative, but given the end-of-year holidays, Apple can be expected to post record sales numbers in January.

In the meantime, Apple is almost certainly looking at ways to have a huge supply of new products on hand when it announces a new device — like the rumored iPad mini.

Duke Nukem Forever developer 3D Realms hopes that fans will pony up the cash necessary to develop Earth No More.

What’s left to say about 3D Realms that hasn’t already been angrily punched out in CAPSLOCK across a hundred different online forums? The company is most famous for creating Duke Nukem Forever, a game that was in development for nearly 15 years before being mercifully dumped during what, at the time, looked like the studio’s utter collapse. Being almost complete, the game was picked up by Gearbox and polished up for release, but even the developers responsible for notably excellent shooters like the recent Borderlands 2 couldn’t save the hodgepodge abomination Duke Nukem Forever had become. On release it was utterly savaged by critics; people didn’t just dislike the game, they actively hated it, both as a result of the pent up anticipation of hearing about this title for most of their adult lives, and also because it was objectively terrible.

Anyway, time has passed, Duke Nukem Forever has been relegated to an ominous tale that game developers tell around the campfire to spook one another, and 3D Realms is moving on to bigger and better things. Or, at least, other things. The company’s latest scheme involves a game called Earth No More and a website called Gambitious. Like Kickstarter, Gambitious allows fans of an upcoming game to directly pledge monetary support to a development studio. Unlike Kickstarter however, Gambitious allows prospective fans to purchase equity in their chosen game, effectively becoming a shareholder in the finished project. That becomes important in just a moment, but for now let’s discuss Earth No More.

If that name sounds vaguely familiar, it’s because this is not a new title. 3D Realms initially announced Earth No More via the July 2007 issue of Game Informer magazine. At the time the company optimistically planned to release the post-apocalyptic adventure on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Windows PC platforms at some point during 2009, but obviously that never came to pass. Following that initial announcement, the game took a backseat to the aforementioned Duke Nukem Forever, but it seems that 3D Realms never quite gave up on the title and would like your help in getting its development off the ground. Though the Gambitious project currently lacks a few crucial details (such as how much money the developer hopes to raise), Earth No More is indeed among its “Upcoming Projects.” Thus, those of you interested in backing the game can sign up for a Gambitious account, then click on the title’s “Follow” button to receive all pertinent updates on the project’s progress as they become available.

It would be easy to glibly point out all the reasons why you probably shouldn’t plan to drop money toward Earth No More’s development, but as you’ll notice from literally any other site covering this news, that’s been done to death. Thus, we’ll simply state that despite a lengthy search of the Gambitious website, we are unable to determine what happens with money pledged toward a project if the developer fails to deliver on its fully-funded, planned game. Caveat emptor, dear reader.

Sony's latest plan allows gamers to save money by never leaving the couch.

When Assassin’s Creed III hits the PlayStation 3 on October 30, prospective virtual murderers will be able to download the game directly through the PlayStation Network Store. That’s nothing terribly new — digital releases of big-name titles are becoming increasingly common — but thanks to a new plan from Sony you’ll actually be able to save money by not driving to your nearest Gamestop.

Dubbed “PSN Day 1 Digital,” the scheme is designed to offer players an incentive for downloading their games directly from Sony. However, there is one big caveat that users should be aware of: To be eligible for the program’s 10% game discount (which, it should be said, is only available on select AAA games for the first week after their release), you must be a PlayStation Plus subscriber.

Assuming you meet that criteria though, the eight titles Sony is using to promote its nascent program throughout the month of October are quite tempting. Have a look, courtesy the official PlayStation.blog:

Resident Evil 6

(Available for download on October 2nd – $59.99)

NBA 2K13

(Available for download on October 2nd – $59.99/$53.99 for PS Plus members, with pre-order)*

Dishonored

(Available for download on October 9th – $59.99/$53.99 for PS Plus members, with pre-order)*

DOOM 3: BFG Edition

(Available for download on October 16th – $39.99/$35.99 for PS Plus members, with pre-order)*

007: Legends

(Available for download on October 16th – $59.99)+

Medal Of Honor: Warfighter

(Available for download on October 23rd – $59.99)

Need For Speed: Most Wanted

(Available for download on October 30th – $59.99/$53.99 for PS Plus members, with pre-order)*

Assassin’s Creed III

(Available for download on October 30th – $59.99)*

Though the announcement ends without detailing the company’s future plans, it seems quite likely that Sony will opt to shift more and more games toward the PSN Day 1 Digital program as time goes on. The PlayStation.blog claims the motivation for this new purchasing scheme is as simple as keeping misanthropic gamers from having to brave the horrors of the outside world, but it seems to us that Sony may have ulterior motives here.

Say you purchase a physical copy of a game. Your $60 goes toward the game’s publisher, Sony, the store you bought it from and a number of other entities who aren’t really crucial to this argument. Point being: The people responsible for your entertainment are getting your money. However, if you purchase a physical copy of a game, get bored of it and trade it in to Gamestop, when someone else eventually purchases that used title (at a depressingly meager $5-$10 discount), all of the money from that resale goes directly to Gamestop’s corporate coffers. Publishers and developers have long railed against this practice, and while they can’t outlaw the sale of used games in this fashion, they can make it much more difficult for Gamestop to keep their used game shelves stocked. Purchase Assassin’s Creed III from the PSN Day 1 Digital program and Gamestop instantly loses its key source of revenue. Normally we hate taking sides in corporate conflicts like this, but in this instance it seems that Sony has realized the only way to pre-emptively cut Gamestop off at the knees is to offer consumers a tangible, monetary incentive for staying away from the gaming mega-retailer, and who are we to argue with cheaper games?

Will this put Gamestop out of business? Probably not, but it does herald a rather grim future for the store, particularly if Sony’s program is a success and other companies adopt similar discount buying schemes. 

Spark Unlimited loves sword-wielding zombies apparently, as new rumors suggest the Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z dev is working on a new Onimusha.

Spark Unlimted is having what might be the best year of its decade-long existence. After the crippling failure of 2008’s Legendary: The Box, the studio’s bounced back with some high profile work on established franchises.  Last week, it announced that it was working alongside Keiji Inafune and Team Ninja on spinoff Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z. Earlier this year, Spark took over one of Inafune’s last big publisher franchises at Capcom with the promising Lost Planet 3. Now rumors suggest that Spark’s been entrusted with another of Inafune’s Capcom series, though this one’s been dormant for years.

According to PSM3 (via NeoGAF), Spark will make a new  Onimusha, Capcom’s long-silent samurai series.

If it is working on a sequel to the old samurai horror series, then it’s a recent development. As of the beginning of the year, Spark was only hiring for two games, Lost Planet 3 and an unannounced horror action game that was ultimately revealed as Yaiba. Spark did recently form an iOS development team, but it seems doubtful that Capcom would leverage use a franchise that’s been dormant for so long to boost mobile sales.

Conceived as a third survival horror franchise for the original PlayStation that would stand alongside Resident Evil and Dino Crisis, Onimusha’s samurai adventures were a staple on the PlayStation 2, with three sequels and two spinoffs released inside of five years. The series has been dead since Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams was released in 2006.

A number of players are reporting a Borderlands 2 glitch that wipes out their hard earned Badass Rank. Gearbox says its investigating.

One of the many marvelously user-friendly features in Gearbox’s Borderlands 2 is the Badass Rank. Slowly unlocked perks separate from your character’s level and skillset, the Badass Rank is an elegant version of the New Game+. Borderlands 2 is a lengthy, involved game, but you’re going to want to start new characters depending on who you’re playing with, and the Badass Rank ties to any character you create, giving you a base level of improving stats that make revisiting the game from different angles accessible without making it too easy and boring. Smart stuff. Too bad there’s a bug in the game that will wipe out your Badass Rank.

A number of users in Gearbox’s official forums have reported a problem where their Badass Rank is set back to zero and all the associated bonuses, including the stat boosts and unlocked character customization options, are wiped away. Compounding the problem is the fact that the challenges that raise the Badass Rank (e.g. shoot this many enemies, collect this many guns, etc.) aren’t reset alongside the rank itself so affected players can’t simply rebuild what’s been lost.

While the initial report about the problem was from a player on the Xbox 360 version, others playing the PC and PlayStation 3 versions of the game have also reported the same problem.

Gearbox community manager Chris Faylor said that the studio is working fast to fix the problem. “Our engineers are looking into this, and the information you’ve provided has proven to be a great resource while we investigate,” said Faylor, “At the moment, it seems to be a fairly rare issue and we’ll keep you updated on when we resolve it.”

The original Borderlands was no stranger to glitches like this when it released in 2009. At least the Borderlands 2 glitch only erases the Badass Rank and its associated perks. The Borderlands glitch erased everything. When players would leave a multiplayer game on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, or PC they would lose all their weapons proficiencies and skill points, and though the proficiencies could be rebuilt, the skill points were erased forever meaning that they needed to restart the entire game.

Gearbox fixed that problem eventually though, and this new glitch will definitely be addressed. Players affected by the Borderlands 2 glitch should take comfort in the fact that their lost Badass Rank might even be salvageable since the challenges that earn the rank aren’t reset.