With most media, there comes a time when people kind of stop dead, refusing to consider anything past a certain point ‘proper’. This is particularly common in music, where every generation loves the music it grows up with and then, once adult, considers contemporary music inane, tuneless drivel.

Videogaming’s much younger than music, but similar issues are becoming commonplace. I once thought I’d already hit one such bump, with the move to seemingly enforced 3D during the era of the PSX, although I’d argue that wasn’t just my then-nostalgic inclinations, but also the argument by game developers that everything had to be in 3D—an idea handhelds like the GBA, DS and iOS devices have since consigned to oblivion. However, I’ve now definitely hit one ‘I don’t get it’ bump, and I’m not alone.

Citing a Flurry report that claims a stunning 68 per cent of iOS game revenue is now from ‘consumable’ rather than ‘durable’ purchases, Ben Brooks says:

This is astonishing to me and being that I am not in the group that plays these types of games, I just can’t see the motivation to buy in-app currency to use — especially knowing that I will have to buy it again at some point.

Again, no judgment — I just don’t “get” it.

Same here. I get sequels and unlockable content. I get ‘demo’ freemium games where you play a few levels and then pay for the rest. But I don’t get the appeal of grind-oriented games were you pay for currency to spend on things, run out of virtual cash, and then pay for more currency to spend on things. It’s not about challenge or skill—it’s about how deep your pockets are. It’s the videogaming equivalent of bling, and I don’t understand the appeal at all.

What’s that, every tech blog on the internet? The iPad 3 has been delayed, possibly due to “Retina display issues”? Would this be the iPad 3 that Apple hasn’t bloody announced yet, let alone offered a release date for? The one that DigiTimes and other papers with an accuracy rate just shy of a golfer using a loaf of bread instead of clubs said would arrive in September? Or maybe November? Or maybe whatever month they hit on their calendar with a dartboard, to get you to report on their story that carries no weight whatsobloodyever?

How about the iPad 4? Has that been delayed too? What about the iPhone 7? The only thing that’s been delayed is the tech industry’s return to common sense and reporting on news rather than rumours.

From the Google Blog and other sources, Google is to buy Motorola Mobility for $12.5bn. Naturally, Larry Page’s note bangs on about how great Motorola is and how terribly unfair everyone’s being regarding so-called “anti-competitive patent attacks on Android”, along with, laughably, saying the “acquisition will not change our commitment to run Android as an open platform”.

Like hell.

Google has already been tightening its Android ship and this will further continue to do that. At best for Googorola’s competitors, they’re now going to be competing against a company that has the potential to produce something Apple-like in its integration of hardware and software. Bar the low-end market (unless Googorola goes for that too), they’re screwed if the new superteam gets that right.

But I think this acquisition is good news for everyone aside from existing Android vendors. It should ensure better Android devices in the future and also give Apple a kick up the bum regarding improving iOS and iOS devices. It’s also further vindication that Apple’s got the business model right: control the hardware and the software and you create a better user experience. HP gets this. Google now, seemingly, is starting to understand this. All we need now is another big press release that Microsoft has bought or merged with Nokia and we can look forward to a hugely entertaining scrap as the smartphone and tablet vendors aim to better each-other.

Update: Note, of course, that this could also be a patents land-grab, which would be a massively missed opportunity for Google. I’m being more optimistic than that, though. I think Google’s starting to understand that its ‘open’ system is merely open to being screwed up by vendors, and so it wants to put a stop to that. If not, that shows a stunning lack of vision. However, quotes by Android partners saying they are behind the deal mean nothing. Their businesses largely rest (at present) on Android’s success, so they were hardly going to respond with “screw you, Google”, although there is also some truth in this acquisition potentially safeguarding Google and Android to some extent against the Apple/Microsoft patent threat.

From the LA Times:

The San Mateo district attorney’s office has opted not to charge Gizmodo and writer Jason Chen for buying an iPhone prototype from a man who found it in a bar last year, months before the device was made public.

What the fuck?

Chen and Gizmodo’s decision to pay $5,000 for the lost iPhone was “not motivated by financial greed,” said Morley Pitt, San Mateo County’s assistant district attorney. “His claim was that he was undertaking a journalistic investigation.”

What the fuck?

Yeah, sure Gizmodo was all about the journalism when buying stolen property. It was in the public interest to buy stolen property and report on it, because the world would have been DOOMED without that particular story. It had NOTHING to do with financial motivations, such as the fuck-ton of page hits Gizmodo got from reporting on the stolen device, and yet, brilliantly, still missing a ton of the new things Apple had added to the device, rather suggesting the ‘investigation’ part of ‘journalistic investigation’ was a bit rubbish.

Still, hey, all US journos: be happy! Precedent has now been set, and it’s absolutely fine to buy stolen property and perhaps even try to blackmail the owner, as long as you write an article about it! PHEW! *headdesk*

There’s a certain amount of “the sky is falling” hackery surrounding the iPad right now. Apple commanded a massive 94.3 per cent of the market not that long ago, when it was pretty much the only game in town. Now, according to sources such as T3, Apple’s share has dropped “as Android soars”.

The figures state Apple’s going to end up with 61.3 per cent of the market during Q2/11, with Android on 30.1 per cent. It’s notable that most Android figures appear to involve units shipped rather than sold, but let’s ignore that for a moment; let’s also ignore the fact that 61.3 per cent of the market is still massive. For me, the most interesting news is from HP, which has dropped the TouchPad’s price by $100.

When so-called ‘iPad killers’ first appeared, they were like little clones and also aped the iPad’s price, matching it as closely as possible. “Look! We’re just like the iPad in every way,” the rivals claimed, despite some of them being a wee bit smaller than Apple’s model (Engadget has a rather nice photo of the Galaxy Tab atop an iPad).

With the TouchPad, I think it’s a pity HP is attempting to fight the battle on price, because webOS is in many ways a very good system. But it’s an inevitability if a system doesn’t have the critical acclaim, popularity and ecosystem enjoyed by the likes of the iPad. Expect those rivals that haven’t dropped their price to follow suit soon; but when they do, bear in mind Apple’s been using its billions to buy up major components for tablets at the best possible price. This means while Apple could feasibly cut its tablet’s price and still make a massive profit, that’s certainly not the case for most other companies. And while in the world of PCs, massive sales sometimes led to at least some profitability, if you’ve only got a smallish share of the tablet market and are making naff-all profit per unit, you’re pretty much done for.