Just got these fresh from the media preview organised by Toshiba (with a fair bit of help from our own Qualcomm PR team). The verdict on the device? It's actually nicer to hold and play with than the iPhone - honest! However, the handsets were not running the final OS, so hard to tell if Windows Mobile is really going to do the gorgeous design justice.

The official launch is at MWC.

 

Amazing data out from ComScore shows that the iPhone accounted for more than 14% of all game downloads in the US in November. That's from a handset that has an installed base of less than 1% in the US.

Even more significant is that over 30% of iPhone users said they downloaded a game - that's against a US consumer average for all subscribers of below 4%, which in itself has been stagnant at that level for the past 2-3 years.

I've spoken to a few contacts in the mobile games industry, and the iPhone seems like a ray of light at the end of a very bleak tunnel. No porting, no fragmentation, no operator egos or hoops to jump through. But also, very fickle and already very very crowded with free or very low cost games. As with anything to do with mobiles, high volumes are only good if people are paying decent money. Pocketgamer.biz has run some stories about supposed $20 price points for games on the app store, and also some scary stats about games piracy on the iPhone. So it's far from all good news. But it's going to be interesting to see how the big 3 of EA, Glu and Gameloft react to this, having poured millions into Java games on wafer-thing margins.

Following on from Filltr, I wanted to show you the wonderful world of Ning.Ning is a name that has been banded about for a while, gaining quite a bit of interest in the US business press. But what exactly is Ning? Just like its blogging predecessors, Ning allows user’s to create, design and manage their very own social community on anything they like. And by paying a small fee you can use your own URL or even manage the advertising.

The benefits of Ning?
Creating your own social network allows you to communicate on a direct level to your target audience.
It brings like minded people together to discuss the topics that really interest them.
It allows you to control the user generated content and get them talking about the things you want them to
Ning can also be used as a testing ground for micro-sites or networking sites you may want to create before making large investments.

It could prove to be a very useful tool to have access to.

Filttr, like Ronseal, does exactly what it says on the tin - filters your tweets and only shows you what you’re interested in.  

Seems like a lot of people are trying to jump on the Twitter bandwagon, but worth checking it out and could be a solution to twitter spam. https://filttr.com/

... company business meant that the Libergraph wasn't blogged on Monday and Tuesday. Happily, normal service has now been resumed :-)

As well as plenty of media coverage about Twitter in recent months, it's something that more and more of our clients are looking at as a communications tool. Good timing then, that over at twitip they've just posted 7 ways to get more followers on Twitter. Nothing earth shattering there for sure, but some good, sensible advice for people still getting comfortable with what Twitter does and doesn't do well.

Strand Consulting have just published some thoughts on the landscape of the telecoms industry vs the EU. Tucked away in the article is the mention that it was the (overpriced) 3G license auction that pushed the industry into recession in 2000.

I think that's the first time I've heard that put forward as the primary reason for the blood letting in 2000, instead of just lumping it into the dot-com bubble bursting (that sorted out the wider tech industry).  Not sure I totally agree, but there's certainly truth to it.

Strand Reports

Slightly after Christmas I know, but for any buddging eggheads out there, the Guardian has created a technology quiz that's a bit of a brain teaser. Can you beat our less-than-special score of 22?

Guardian technology quiz

Thanks for the brilliant music blog No Rock and Roll Fun for spotting this story in the New York Times:

The Day the Microsoft Zunes Stood Still
By Jenna Wortham

Sure, gadgets sometimes break. But they don’t usually break all at once.

That is what happened on Wednesday to a particular model of the Zune, the portable media player that is Microsoft’s answer to the Apple iPod. Reports flooded Zune support Web sites and fan forums describing devices that stopped working early Wednesday morning. Zune owners say the devices are frozen on the startup screen.

One posting on the Zune.net forum read: “My Zune has managed to freeze itself with the Zune Logo and the loading bar on the screen and none of the buttons are responding, rebooting isn’t responding, plugging it into the computer isn’t responding, nothing is working.”

On Wednesday evening, Microsoft said it had traced the problem to a software bug “related to the way the device handles a leap year.” Apparently the Zune expected 2008 to have 365 days, not 366.

Only models of the Zune with 30 gigabytes of storage were affected by the glitch. North American sales of all Zune devices surpassed three million units in November, but Microsoft would not say how many of those were 30-gigabyte models.

The company said the internal clock on the players should automatically reset by noon Greenwich Mean Time on Thursday (7 a.m. Eastern time). Microsoft is advising Zune owners to allow the player’s battery to fully drain and then turn the devices back on on Thursday.

 A lot of money and effort was expended my Microsoft on creating the Zune and building out a new digital content strategy, yet the market share the Zune captured is tiny compared to Apple. Perhaps this story illustrates just how complicated it is to make something simple and robust. It'll be interesting to see if this will turn Zune owners off the device: companies like Creative and Sansa must be hoping so.