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This opportunity doesn’t come up too often; in fact it hardly comes up at all. We actually have a company that just might give Google a run for its money, but before you all get excited, it’s not for their search feature, but for “Street View,” which allows users to see ground level 360° images of places around NYC, San Francisco, and Miami.

Personally, I love Street View; it’s a great way to find strange and crazy things. But, unfortunately the quality isn’t always so great, and I can’t always see images as clear as I’d like.

So, what may be the solution? Well, it might be Earthmine.

Earthmine has yet to launch, but the company plans to take what Google created to the next level. Details are limited right now, but what we do know, besides people seeing a funny looking SUV driving around town, is the company plans on rolling out higher quality images than Google, a tagging system, and even what looks like some sort of 3D mapping feature.

So, make sure to keep an eye on this website!

Wired News reports that Rooster Teeth, the small company behind the now famous ‘Red v. Blue’ Halo, inspired Machinima series has decided to retire the show. As the true pioneers in Machinima, we owe this creative bunch a warm thank you for helping to evolve the concept — video games as art. The folks over at Rooster Teeth had this to say regarding the series finale:

Having labored on the series for four years, Red vs. Blue creator Michael “Burnie” Burns, who remains the series’ writer, editor, director and lead voice talent, wants to make sure fans aren’t let down.

The 15-minute final episode will be “the biggest one we’ve ever done,” says Burns, “but The Sopranos stole our ending, so we had to change it completely.”

With a strong Machinima fan base this only marks the end of the beginning of this fast growing segment in video game culture. How long will it take before we see a feature length film in this genre? In any case, thanks for the laughs.

Wired Story

In case there wasn’t enough iPhone to feast on this week, our friends over at Apple have provided a virtual tour for our enjoyment (to feed our addiction). Now, we’re certain you’ll be ready for Friday.

Watch The Video

Rockstar Games and Take-Two Interactive, the makers of the very controversial “Grand Theft Auto (GTA)” series, are once again causing a stir with their new video game, Manhunt 2, the sequel to 2003’s Manhunt. Manhunt is about a man who is being hunted for sport and the only way out is to kill your way out.

 

And if you couldn’t already tell, here is where the game’s problems begin…

 

The tactics used to kill in Manhunt 2 are about as horrific and violent as any game out there. Therefore, this has lead Ireland and

Britain to ban the game and the ESRB (Entertainment Software Rating Board) to rate the game “Adults Only.”

 

Now here’s the dilemma: many large retailers will not carry games with “Adults Only.” This includes Best Buy and Wal-Mart. In fact the highest rating a game could be to be sold in any of these places is “M” for mature.

 

 

This is all VERY bad for the business!!!

 

Strauss Zelnick, Take-Two Interactive’s chairman, responded by saying the game, “Brings a unique formerly unheard of cinematic quality to interactive entertainment, and is also a fine piece of art.”

 

I will be the first to say that video games are just as much a piece of art as any, but when you are in the business of making video games that sell for profit, good games that never get a place on store shelves are bad games for business!

 

Still, it will be very interesting to see what comes out of all this. Rockstar Games and Take-Two Interactive have pushed the envelope before with GTA, so they are no strangers controversy.

 

Even so, doesn’t it seem a bit peculiar that Rockstar Games is the only game maker with such troubles?

Correct me if I’m wrong, but we see many games that are full of violence come out everyday. In fact, most don’t seem to have a problem getting by with “M” ratings. Could it be that Rockstar is really being the one hunted in all this? They have already come under great political scrutiny regarding their upcoming GTA release. I guess only time will tell…

 

As of right now the game makers have decided to suspend the release of the game, which was originally slated to release July 10, in the hope that the game can somehow get the ESRB to change the rating to “M.”

 

Happy “M” hunting!

 

So we’re only about a week away from Apple rolling out its iPhone everywhere (if, by “everywhere,” you mean only from AT&T stores) and today a nifty announcement that the phone will come equipped with a pre-loaded player to showcase YouTube videos. It won’t be complete access to all videos within YouTube, but a selected group of around 10,000 clips that have been designed to be “battery-preserving.” See Forbes’ article HERE (one of many from 6/20) -

This announcement got me thinking, as many other people of course are, about the rest of what I perceive to be the iPhone’s shortcomings. Not that I don’t think the iPhone will come with many cool features and will certainly do a lot to advance every aspect of portable media… I think it will. But at this moment there are a few things that I see as major issues with the new device. For now I’ll just highlight what is clearly the most glaring - memory.

Your new iPhone can be in either a 4 GB or 8 GB form. For a phone, that’s a lot. But this isn’t supposed to be just a phone. No one would be too excited about Apple coming out with a $599 phone, no matter how cool it looked. This device is supposed to really start to bridge the gap between portable media devices. No more iPod in your left pocket, phone in your right and blackberry in your hand. Internet access via the network, wi-fi compatibility, iTunes synchability, a large video display…these are designed to bring your devices into one. So then the $599 doesn’t sound so bad considering how much all of those other three devices cost.

But 8 GB at the most? I venture to guess that many people have at least half that in mp3s that they’ve downloaded from iTunes. Many more have spent the last few years converting their entire music collection to digital on their 30 or 60 GB iPods. Those hardcore users will not be able to combine devices. They’ll still need to carry their iPods around for a while.

Then we’ve got the movies and video clips…”Cool,” you say. A screen that knows when it’s flipped sideways and turns to widescreen. Yes, it is cool. You could actually watch a full length movie on there and not need a telescope. But how much space does a movie take up? About 750 MB to 1.25 GB on average. That’s about 8 or 9 movies if that’s all you have on your iPhone. If you have some of those songs you’ve spent years converting, you’re talking about room for maybe 2-3.

Of course, the new screen is also perfect for keeping all of your digital pictures and showing them off on the fly. You can even make slide shows set to music. But add 3-4 vacations’ worth of images at a resolution that you’ve taken them at and you’re quickly over 1 GB (which many people have on their camera currently).

Bottom line, there isn’t enough space. And this, of course, is talking about the $599 8 GB model. I’d bet that most people are going to be more fascinated with the design and less interested in consolidating devices and therefore will go with the $499 4 GB model. They will quickly realize that once the phone novelty has worn off, the issues with practicality will be a bit of a kick in the pants.

Again, don’t get me wrong. I think the iPhone will do wonders for portable devices, much like the iPod did. It will certainly help media folks from all walks of life make lots of money (AT&T and Apple in particular). I look forward to writing more about this in the future. But this one issue just seems way off for me and I just can’t get around it. For me, this is reason enough to not invest the half a thousand in a new iPhone.

….but wait…I wonder if the 30 GB iPhone will be ready by next Christmas?