By Paul Thomson :: 9:52 PM
Yesterday, we posted the story of Microsoft Creative Director Adam Orth, and the negative reactions he drew from Twitter and the gaming community after he ranted on Twitter about complaints regarding always-on requirements for gaming consoles like Microsoft’s Xbox.
After being the target of much hate and scorn on gaming sites, and around the Internet on places like Reddit, Twitter and Facebook, Microsoft today has issued a statement regarding the situation.
“We apologize for the inappropriate comments made by an employee on Twitter yesterday. This person is not a spokesperson for Microsoft, and his personal views do not reflect the customer centric approach we take to our products or how we would communicate directly with our loyal consumers. We are very sorry if this offended anyone, however we have not made any announcements about our product roadmap, and have no further comment on this matter.”
Orth himself has not publicly commented about the incident, and his Twitter account is still locked. He locked it yesterday evening after news reports started to circulated about his unpopular posts. Microsoft did not comment on Orth’s employment status, or if any action would be taken against him.
“Sorry, I don’t get the drama over having an ‘always on’ console,” is one of the Tweets Orth sent yesterday. It has been long rumored that Microsoft’s next console, the Xbox 720, will require a constant connection to the Internet in order for users to play games.
By Cynthia Herbert :: 9:11 PM
Up until now, most people who listened to music online at their desks or through their PCs did so through a music streaming service like Pandora or Spotify, not through Apple’s iTunes, which requires users to pay for and download each song they want into their iTunes account. That may change soon.
In a report published by CNET earlier today, Apple may be very close to closing some deals on the rights to stream music directly out of iTunes. Sources say that the company is very close to deals with two major music labels, Warner Music Group, and Universal Music Group, and that deals could be inked as early as next week, if talks continue to progress well.
Apple’s proposed service would not be a play-on-demand type, as Spotify’s is, but will most likely be closer to the type of streaming done by Pandora, where users can select stations or genres of the types of music they want to listen to, but cannot select a specific song to play at a specific point in time.
With the next major Apple tech event, its Worldwide Developers Conference, set for just a few months from now, in June, these contract negotiations are coming at a critical time. If Apple succeeds in lining up the right music industry players, it might be able to unveil a new iTunes-based streaming service to coincide with its conference.
By Gilbert Falso :: 8:32 PM
Google’s high-speed Internet service, Google Fiber is currently available in Kansas City, KS, and soon coming to Olathe, KS. Now, sources close to Google and the city of Austin, TX, report that the superfast Internet speeds of Google Fiber may soon be announced for Austin.
Both Google and the city have sent out invitations to a press conference next week in Austin. Although the invites do not describe the nature of the press conference, many believe that it will be an announcement of the selection of Austin as the next city to receive Google Fiber service.
Austin is a likely candidate for the gigabit Internet service due to the high concentration of tech companies that have settled in the city, as well as its yearly hosting of the SXSW Interactive conference, a mecca for all things tech and Internet-related.
The city also participated in the competition to be the test city for Google to roll out the service to first, but that title eventually went to Kansas City, instead.
Below is the full text of the joint Austin/Google invitation:
On Tuesday, April 9, at 11 a.m., the City of Austin and Google will make a very important announcement that will have a positive impact on Austinites and the future of the city. We anticipate more than 100 community leaders and elected officials to be in attendance to celebrate this announcement. The event invitation is attached for your convenience. Although we cannot share the details of the announcement with you in advance, we know readers will want to learn more, so we encourage you to join us on Tuesday.
By Paul Thomson :: 12:51 AM
The creative head of Microsoft’s gaming business, Adam Orth, managed to anger a large swath of the Internet late yesterday evening with comments he made about the nature of always-on Internet connections and gaming consoles.
Orth made a series of comments on his Twitter account about not understanding why the gaming community was upset regarding the growing trend of games and gaming consoles that require a constant Internet connection to function. Recent examples like the issues that the new SimCity game encountered show a strong example of the problems gamers have with Internet-connected games.
In his role at Microsoft, Orth is the Creative Director and Designer at Microsoft Studios. He has held the position since February 2012, according to his LinkedIn profile.
His Twitter comments were captured in a screenshot and posted to Reddit, where they quickly climbed to the number one slot on the front page of the site. Redditors, in general, were unhappy with Orth’s view on always-on gaming systems, and many believed that his remarks on Twitter were insensitive to the gaming community. Some Redditors also think that Orth’s comments foretell the nature of Microsoft’s next generation Xbox console, the Xbox 720.
Although Orth has switched his Twitter account to private in the wake of the backlash against him, a number of his Tweets are shown below, from before his account became blocked.
By Gilbert Falso :: 4:33 PM
The website of the Chicago Sun-Times, the newspaper that film critic Roger Ebert worked for, is suffering outage issues this afternoon in the wake of the news that Ebert passed away earlier this afternoon.
Ebert passed away at 70, after spending over 45 years reviewing movies for the Sun-Times. His blog site on the Sun-Times website is completely inaccessible this afternoon, and the paper’s main website is very slow to respond.
His death also quickly rocketed to the top of trending topics on Twitter, with the terms “R.I.P.” and “R.I.P. Roger Ebert” topping the list of the social network’s trends shortly after his death was announced, around 2:30 PM Eastern.
After losing his voice to cancer in 2006, Ebert found other ways to communicate, including Twitter. In a Sun-Times column, Ebert reflected on the way Twitter allowed him to continue having a voice. “There’s something seductive about it: The stream, the flow, the chatter, the sudden bursts of news, the snark, the gossip, time itself tweet-tweet-tweeting away,†he wrote.