Hasta La Gadget!

These days OnLive is probably known as much for its unexpected meltdown as it is for its promise to deliver streaming video games to the masses, but ever since the company reformed it seems to have returned to business as usual.

To wit: the folks behind the cloud gaming service have made good on an old promise to integrate OnLive with the Korean company’s new line of Google-friendly G2 Smart TVs.

If you happen to be a G2 TV owner, you may already have been nagged to install the necessary update, and the OnLive app will be pre-installed on all LG G2s going forward. Of course, there is a catch here — those current and future can’t actually start playing the games in OnLive’s catalog until they purchase one of the company’s (rather odd looking) wireless controllers first.

This little move has been a long time coming — OnLive first started talking up its LG partnership back in June at E3. Then the company’s future got considerably dicier just a few months later when it effectively cleaned house and sold itself to, well, another version of itself. OnLive seems eager to move past that unpleasantness (though it wouldn’t surprise me if some of the people they let go still bore a grudge), and getting the fruits of this particular deal into the wild is a sign that things may be evening out on their end.

Frankly speaking, the partnership is quite a feather in LG’s cap too. There’s something equally puzzling and great about the prospect of firing up a brand new television and jumping directly into a romp through the world of Saints Row: The Third with a minimum of setup. That said, I think it’s safe to assume that OnLive isn’t going to stop pursuing partnerships with other TV manufacturers now that LG is onboard. Changes are afoot in the living room, and OnLive would be silly not to strive for tighter integration with new hardware.

Even though weeks have passed since that well-documented OnLive kerfuffle took place, where unfortunate layoffs and the formation of a “new company” were at the forefront of it all, previously unknown details are still coming out of the woodwork. According to Mercury News, the once-promising cloud gaming outfit was purchased by a venture capital group for a mere $4.8 million, which appears to be a relatively small amount of cash for an outfit once valued upwards of $1.8 billion — not to mention when compared to, say, rival Gaikai’s $380 million sale to Sony. Still, this is said to have been due to the bad shape OnLive was in at the time, with the Palo Alto-based company reportedly owing more than $18 million in debt, leaving it with no choice but to take “the best that it could get.”

Filed under: Gaming, Internet

OnLive was reportedly sold for roughly $5 million to venture capital firm originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 10 Oct 2012 21:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Welcome to Tuesday evening, folks. A number of Samsung devices are threatened by Apple’s motion to ban their sale, but Samsung assured today that it will “take all necessary measures to ensure the availability” of those targeted devices in the US. Jury foreman Velvin Hogan spoke to Bloomberg about the Apple-Samsung trial today, discussing the difficulties the group ran into while trying to decide a winner in the case and the process of determining which company was in the right. It’s an interesting interview, so be sure to give it a watch.

On the same day that the NPD says that good tech service is the reason why Apple has so many repeat customers, a supposed Apple Genius training manual leaks, giving us a rare look at how Apple trains its employees. The T-Mobile Galaxy S II has been updated with support for NFC and Isis, and T-Mobile has some big plans for NFC. Speaking of T-Mobile, it looks like the company has a new plan to sell against the next iPhone when it (hopefully) launches next month. MetroPCS is offering a new phone to go along with its 4G LTE push, and Samsung has released a new Galaxy S III app aimed at making things easier for those who use their phone while driving.

The Nexus 7 has snuck onto the Google homepage, and the Google Election Hub is up and running today, offering coverage from the Republican and Democratic National Conventions. Nokia users worldwide were treated to Nokia Belle Refresh today, and it appears that Motorola and Apple are close to striking a licensing deal in Germany. It seems that the iPhone 5 won’t be getting NFC capabilities as originally rumored, Steve Perlman actually isn’t staying on as CEO of OnLive following the asset acquisition by a silent investor, and Google has a new patent for an object recognition system that could be huge. Hopefully you’re ready to play the role of homeowner, because in Skyrim‘s new DLC, you’ll be doing just that.

The Samsung Galaxy S III is getting a handful of new color variations – we’re partial to the grey, to be honest – while the company also gave us some more details about its incoming Series 5 all-in-one PC. Curiosity has beamed back some new images of Mars, which is always exciting, and Garmin detailed its new Forerunner 10 smart watch with GPS. Radio Shack’s wireless rates for no contract phone plans leaked today, and same-day delivery service Shutl has received a significant investment from the folks at UPS.

Finally tonight, we have a review of the Acer Aspire V5 from Cory Gunther for you to check out. Enjoy the rest of your Tuesday evening everyone!

SlashGear Evening Wrap-Up: August 28, 2012 is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

There were a lot of gamers out there who were worried when big changes came to OnLive a few months ago. The company was having significant financial problems and laid off a huge portion of its staff. After laying off a lot of its staff, the company announced a restructuring plan. As of last week, OnLive founder and CEO Steve Perlman was going to remain with the company.

I thought at the time it was rather odd that with the company experiencing such significant financial problems the CEO in charge during those problems would remain. Often when a company is forced to lay off workers and restructure the executives in charge of running the company end up tossed out. Reports indicate that as of this week, Perlman is no longer the CEO of the company.

This is rather odd considering that it has only been days since OnLive said Perlman would be staying on board. The official statement from OnLive on Perlman leaving is that he is “departing to work on his myriad of other projects.” Perlman likely took his own financial beating with OnLive having to restructure.

The Verge reports that while Perlman was the majority shareholder in OnLive originally; all his stock was apparently wiped out when the company went insolvent. The company used something called an Assignment for the Benefit of Creditors, and reportedly, all stock in the company was wiped out. Reports from insiders claim that the reason Perlman left was that employees asked for his permanent resignation before they would consider working for the new company.

[via The Verge]

Steve Perlman out at OnLive after all is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Friday is here once again folks, and what a Friday it was. What started out as a relatively slow news day became very exciting later on, as the jury deciding the Apple and Samsung case delivered their verdict after only three days of deliberation. The verdict? Let’s just say that Apple’s lawyers will be having a celebration tonight. Samsung was found guilty of multiple patent infringements, and a lot of that patent infringement was found willful by the jury. To make matters worse for Samsung, the jury found that it wasn’t owed any damages by Apple. Needless to say, we think there will be an appeal.

This verdict comes on the same day that Tim Cook wraps up his first year as Apple CEO, and elsewhere in the world, a similar lawsuit between Apple and Samsung ended with both companies facing bans in South Korea. Ouch. After a bit of a shake up at the OnLive headquarters, things seem to have calmed down a bit, and Steve Perlman will be staying on as OnLive CEO. LG has teased an incoming smartphone with an S4 quad-core processor, and Google’s legendary I’m Feeling Lucky button has been given a pretty major update. It isn’t the same I’m Feeling Lucky button it once was, of course, but we think it’ll begin to grow on you after awhile.

The presidential campaigns will soon begin receiving donations through text messages, and the Nikon D600 full-frame DSLR camera may be getting a release in September. Speaking of cameras, beleaguered Kodak has come up with a new way to raise some quick cash after patent auctions left something to be desired. The much-rumored iPad Mini has apparently popped up in some photos for a pre-fab case, and it seems that Samsung has a new smartphone called the Galaxy Stellar coming to Verizon, which is all well and good, but Samsung actually has yet to announce the phone or release a list of specs.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 has beaten the iPad when it comes to profit margins, and for the third time this week, Rockstar has released a new batch of Grand Theft Auto V screenshots. Astronomers have discovered a pair of new spiral galaxies that have a lot in common with our own, and it would appear that Amazon has leaked its tablet plans through a new advertisement. Wrapping up the news tonight, Facebook is having its developers use the Facebook app for Android in order to get them motivated to fix it, or at least that’s what the rumors say.

As is usually the case here at SlashGear, we didn’t just have news for you today, as Chris Burns provides a review of SuperTooth DISCO 2 for you to check out. Have a good weekend everyone!

SlashGear Evening Wrap-Up: August 24, 2012 is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.