Hasta La Gadget!

It’s been over a month since we last heard from PlayJam on their new GameStick portable gaming console. However, the team definitely hasn’t been sleeping, as they announced today that developer units of the new console will be shipping out later this month. The company also had a few other announcements, including controller production, partnerships, and the SDK.

The developer unit itself is slightly larger than what the normal units will be, mostly because the dev units have a Type A USB slot for keyboard and mouse input that will be necessary for developers. The developer units will also include a few different components from the normal units that will be meant for de-bugging and loading apps.

As for the controller, PlayJam says that it’s “nearing readiness for production now.” The company says that “making this controller almost gave the lead mechanical engineer a heart attack,” noting that the controller has a very intricate design, and PlayJam says that the engineer “has worked wonders to fit everything in to such a small space.”

Furthermore, the company has announced that over 500 developers have signed up for, or are in the process of signing up to make GameStick games, and they also said that they have some partnerships in the pipeline with “major corporations,” hinting that ARM may be one of them. As for the SDK, it will be released to game developers later this week. PlayJam will be at GDC 2013 next week to announce even more news, so be sure to stay tuned!

GameStick developer units shipping later this month is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

This year started off on a sad note with the suicide of the man known as Aaron Swartz, made famous for his development of Reddit and Demand Progress. His death is said to have been due to massive legal pressure put on by the Department of Justice and MIT after it was discovered that he’d hacked into the academic journal system known as JSTOR, releasing documents to the public that otherwise would have been limited to students and academics of all sorts still under the payment plan required by the system. Today it’s been announced that MIT will release until-now locked-down documents related to the case.

It was just this past week that the lawyers working with the Swartz estate requested that the documents at hand be released in full. Though both MIT and the lawyer group agreed that some details would certainly be redacted for the safety of those involved, it would appear that more than just phone and social security numbers will be cut from this release.

The letter released today to the MIT community from MIT president Rafael Reif noted that they remain dedicated to as open a system as possible, but that they’d still have to cut out names and details that would lead back to those involved. The full text of the letter can be found in a PasteBin page – PasteBin being a repository for documents that can be submitted entirely anonymously, if you did not know.

“At MIT, we believe in openness, and we are not afraid to reexamine our own actions; indeed, it was with those values in mind that I asked Professor Hal Abelson to undertake his analysis following Aaron Swartz’s tragic suicide. But I believe that openness must be balanced with reasonable concern for privacy and safety. That is especially true in this situation. In the time since Aaron Swartz’s suicide, we have seen a pattern of harassment and personal threats. In this volatile atmosphere, I have the responsibility to protect the privacy and safety of those members of our community who have become involved in this matter in the course of doing their jobs for MIT, and to ensure a safe environment for all of us who call MIT home.” – Reif

So it’s passwords to systems and the names and phone numbers – and social security numbers, all that sort of stuff – that’s being kept blank. Make sense to you? The exact wording from Reif is as follows:

“Therefore – in the spirit of openness, balanced with responsibility – we will release the requested MIT documents, redacting employee names and identifying information as appropriate to protect their privacy, as well as redacting information about network vulnerabilities.” – Reif

Have a peek at the timeline below to see more information leading up to this moment and be sure to stick with SlashGear for more updates as this case continues. Let us know what you think of the progress that’s being made, and be sure to speak up if you’ve got any details you’d like us to know that we don’t already!

Thanks for the tip, Jack!

[via GigaOM]

MIT Aaron Swartz documents release declared: sans names and details is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

This week at the developer and startup-centric F.ounders conference, Thrillist CEO Ben Lerer has announced that his company’s JackThreads iPhone app is responsible for 45% of their overall revenue. This statistic was part of the CEO’s talk about how a modern mobile-centric strategy for a company such as Thrillist can be – and is – the best way to go. Lerer also mentioned that the company only very recently switched over to a “mobile-first” strategy in the past few months.

The shift Lerer mentions for the company he works with is, as he says, occurring in “real time.” This company stared with a small email newsletter – being email-centric at the start, obviously, and has now quite recently announced that it generates over $40 million USD in revenue a year. Editorial content is now offered by the company through two brands: JackThreads and Thrillist Rewards.

According to Lerer, the JackThreads iPhone app is now king – a surprise hit, as it were. Before very recently, the company leaned more toward “web-first” or “email-first” strategies, but seeing the power of mobile in the JackThreads iPhone app, the company made a push for “mobile-first”, and it’s payed off in a big way.

“Our mobile-first strategy is a reaction to success we were seeing — we didn’t lean into a hot buzzword. We were web-first or email-first or not-mobile-first for a very long time, and over the past several months — and it has been this recent — we’ve seen such a shift in audience behaviors that instead of playing catchup, we decided we should be first movers in mobile.” – Thrillist CEO Ben Lerer

Lerer also mentioned that the Android app version of JackThreads was not quite doing the same business as the iOS iteration, noting that though the Android experience is “not as robust” as the experience they’ve got on iPhone, they’ve never seen the same sort of conversions. The two were not (and still aren’t) comparable to one another, noted Lerer. He did mention, on the other hand, that they’d be delivering an iPad-specific version of JackThreads soon.

So though it’s not universal, working with iOS primarily in this case, the way Thrillist does business has been pushed directly toward the mobile environment primarily – and they’re seeing things take off in a big way.

Let us know if you’ve seen any companies doing heavy business in the mobile environment where they’d previously had good – but not monumental – success elsewhere before. We’ll be watching!

[via VentureBeat]

Thrillist reveals that 45% of its revenue comes from JackThreads iPhone app is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

This morning (less than an hour ago, in fact) the developer conference known as Google I/O 2013 sold its tickets out in what may be record time. According to last year’s record, the big G sold out all of its tickets – regular and academic – in less than 15 minutes, while the year before that it was, once again, “less than an hour.” This year we’ll have to wait for the official clock from Google to get their view on the situation, but by our watch, the event sold out in 45 minutes.

What you’re going to see at this year’s Google I/O is a rather interesting mix of items that – believe it or not – might be a surprise for the most part. Google has over the past year established its ownership of Motorola and may be bringing a Motorola-made Nexus smartphone to the arena. They’ve released two Nexus tablets over the past year, and may by the time of the conference be ready to release upgrades to those tablets – hardware-wise.

Of course by the time the conference pops up (May 15-17th, mind you), we’ll be seeing a new collection of features for Android, likely just a boost to what’s still code-named Jelly Bean. There is a chance, on the other hand, that the next letter in the Android dessert alphabet will be revealed: Key Lime Pie.

Then there’s Google’s Project Glass. Have a peek at our ever-growing Project Glass tag portal for more Glass information than you can handle, and stick around for more as the developer edition of the hardware (aka the Explorer Edition) appears weeks ahead of Google I/O 2013. As the conference has for several years played host to “free” devices for all attendees, we can’t help but cross our fingers for a Glass of our own (even if wishing is hoping against hope.)

Have a peek at our Google I/O tag portal as well and stick to SlashGear like glue until and through then – we’ll be there with bells on!

Google I/O 2013 sells out in under an hour is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

HTC has announced the availability of the HTC One Developer Edition, which tacks both features and dollars onto its lovely smartphone. This version of the handset is aimed specifically towards developers, and offers the features you’d expect to see as a result, including an unlocked bootloader and SIM.

The HTC One Developer Edition features a Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 processor, as well as 2GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage space. The display is full HD 1080p, and the smartphone’s body is made entirely of metal, making this a robust handset both inside and out. As mentioned before, both the SIM and bootloader are unlocked.

In addition, there are speakers on the front of the handset, as well as two dual-membrane microphones. Aside from that, One Developer Edition is compatible with multiple frequencies: LTE 700/850/AWS/1900MHz, GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900, and HSPA/WCDMA 850/1900/2100 MHz.

There are a variety of open APIs, including for infrared and and Bluetooth Low Energy. The Developer Edition is only available in a limited quantity, so developers who want it shouldn’t dally. The handset will only be shipped to customers who have a United States zip code following the release of the HTC One.

[via HTC]

HTC One Developer Edition to roll out for $649 is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.