HighEndBuzz

JAMDAT sells to EA for $680 million

I just caught this over at mobiletracker.net, one of my favorite sites:

Mobile phone game maker Jamdat Mobile will be acquired by game giant Electronic Arts for $680 million. That is a 19% premium over the last closing price for shares of Jamdat. Some of Jamdat's more popular titles include: Tetris, Bejeweled, and Jamdat Bowling and Need for Speed. EA plans to bring some of its flagship titles to phone, such as its Madded football game.

Madden to the phone, eh, I see an issue with screen size...

Motorola RAZR V3c

You have to wonder if the RAZR is still "cool" enough to be called a flagship product.  Yes, it's now available through Verizon and obviously fits into the CDMA box.  What I'm not seeing from Motorola is new innovation.  Phones have a shelf-life of about 6 months.  After that, you'd better have something else to talk about.  It would have been nice for them to one-up themselves when building the latest CDMA product and cash in on Verizon customers envy when the Cingular product came out.

Why not come up with an innovative design for the CDMA market first, before launching the RAZR to Verizon customers. 

Nokia 1...Motorola 0 this round...

Cingular or AT&T

There's an ongoing debate that will surely work itself out in the near future.  I'm in the business of helping companies understand the value of their brand, message and product offering so I'll chime in. 

Cingular has a strong brand in respect to the new economy.  AT&T's brand is somewhat damaged.  It's seen as an old telco player, your grandmothers phone company.  Keep the Cingular name, bury the AT&T brand unless you're going after the boomer market....  FYI, kids spend more on ring-tones, talking and accessing the new media than the boomers.  Go with the Cingular brand!

Las Vegas

I just got back from the IP4IT convention in Las Vegas where I spoke on collaborative technologies, specifically Wiki's.  It was a pretty good show and the first of it's kind put on by Pulver Media.  The exhibition hall was a bit slow, but over the next few years I see them fixing that issue.  The only complaint some of the attendees had was lack of understanding the central theme of the show.  I couldn't put my finger on it either, but I'm not the typical audience.  They did a great job for the first time out.  Hopefully I'll get another invite next year.

My session was on the last day of the event...at 2:00pm.  In Vegas, this is a huge risk.  Fortunately I had a decent, not great, turnout and nobody was cock-tailing nor were there any hookers in the audience.  There were a few questions and I collected some cards.  Overall a good time.

The event was held at the Rio.  I'm still unsure about that experience.  I've stayed at the Paris Hotel and the Bellagio. The Rio is about 2 blocks off the strip and didn't have the typical casino design.  The Voodoo Lounge was very cool, although I can do without my bartender flipping bottles...pour the drink already!  The view of the entire strip from the top of the Rio (outdoors) was great and the gambling was awesome.  I only say that because I actually won quite a bit this time.  The suites at the Rio were pretty nice as well, but didn't have that Vegas flair.  On the ride over the driver told me not to expect anyone to kiss my ass at the Rio, "it's not that kind of casino"....he was right, they run it by the numbers...I can actually appreciate that.

TomTom and the Soccer Moms

We've all seen the commercials...are we there yet DougDoug?  No, the product is TomTom and the marketing is genius.  The Dutch company has demystified the crowded GPS market by simplifying it.  Soccer moms are out in droves buying this product.  Who cares about the technical aspects of a GPS, market simplicity and you'll sell a lot.

I should say you'll sell a butt-load!  Q3 results are in and compared with Q3 04' revenue is up 374%, 319% increase YTD.  They've shipped 1,292,342 units so far this year.  They did just over 444,000 all of last year.  I recently went to 2 Best Buy stores only to find they're sold out.  More advanced units are due out soon in the US (pictured), this could be the hottest product for the soccer mom market this holiday season.

Vertu Ascent

Other than some of the one of a kind or tricked out with bling phone some celebrities carry, the Vertu (A subsidiary of Nokia)line of mobile phones have to be about as high as you can go when it comes to price or quality.  I havn't had a chance to test the phone yet and would love to hear from anyone that actually owns one of these marvels. At $4900 (I didn't forget the decimal), that's four thousand, nine hundred dollars, it requires real F-you money to have the stones to actually purchase one of these.  At this point we're not talking about disposable income, it's wipe your ass with extra $20's lying around when you run out of TP.

It is a really nice phone though.  Encased in Liquidmetal alloy (whatever that is) and some leather its construction seems more Lambrogini as opposed to Ford (hand made vs. assembly line for you in Grand Forks).  This unit is definately not for everyone, even I can't justify having one and I'm a high end gadget freak.  A great feature of this phone is 24/7 concierge service (I don't know if there's a fee for this service) anywhere in the world.

I don't know anyone that has one and again would love to hear from someone that made this purchase.

Motorola ROKR

All I can say is OUCH!  I personally don't have this phone, nor do I know anyone that's made the purchase (maybe someone out there can chime in), but from what I'm reading at Mobile Tracker (a must add to your links) and the November issue of Wired, it really sucks.

Motorola is making a great comeback, I now think they're getting a bit ambitious.  Let's see if the Nokia phones fair any better in this space.

Razr3 Review

Ok, I'll be the first to review this product here.  I got the Motorola Razr3 a few weeks ago when the battery on my smart phone gave up.  I wasn't to happy with Verizon anyway so I changed my plan to Cingular and basically got the phone free.  Everyone has been raving about how this phone is the greatest thing since sliced bread; I'm not a convert.  While it's very stylish and has a very high "cool" factor, the reception is something that's less that perfect.  I purchased the Bluetooth headset with it (also a Motorola product) that isn't bad at all.  A bonus of the phone is that it comes with an IM function (AIM in this case).  But typing with the keypad leave a lot to be desired and will lead to frustration on both your part as well as the recipient of your IM.  Bottom Line- Save your cash

Overall Rating: 6
Value: 4 (Mine was free but price tag is pretty big if you buy)
Display: 6 (Very nice)
Sound: 6 (speaker phone is nice)
Reception: 5
Cool Factor: 9 (very cool phone)

Step Two: Moving right along

Review a Game:

Since computer gaming is a huge part of pop culture, the "review a game" link is active in our survey area.  If you feel the need to rant and rave about a particular title, now's your chance.  Don't forget to include your blog link so we can give you the proper credit for the review once we post it.

Over the next week we will continue to develop additional surveys for you to complete.  Music Devices, Digital Cameras, Movies, Eateries, TV, Music....someone emailed me "Single Malt Scotch"..ok, we'll put that up. 

Step One: New Format

OK, so I've updated the new style sheet for the site.  I've opted to move to a cleaner look so it's easier to manage.  Let us know what you think.  I'm still working on the banner and changed the domain name to http://www.highendbuzz.com

We're still soliciting help if you're interested.  We're looking for writers that wish to review products and services in High Tech, Media and Gaming.  Let me know if you're interested (email link works), or complete the survey we've posted below to review your favorite product.  We'll make you famous...

Survey Link

But seriously, we're looking for people that want to step up their creative streak and share their opinions with us here.  As stated earlier, we'll give you all the credit you want and provide a link back to your site in the article and as a typelist.

We're putting together a program to reward contributors (a couple of months) so put your name in the hat now.

We look forward to hearing from you (you know who you are)!