Originally published on Turnstylenews.com, a digital information service surfacing emerging stories in news, entertainment, art and culture; powered by award-winning journalists.
By: Noah J. Nelson
In the Game of Buzz it's be noticed or be nobody. Win, Lose or Spin, as long as you're talked about you're alive. For now.
WIN
Turntable.fm: There's been little buzz about Turntable.FM for a minute now. Not too surprising as Spotify ate up a bunch of attention as the summer wore on. But it's a new season, and time for the mainstream press to catch up, which our big sister -- NPR -- did today with a long post about Turntable.fm. Nothing revelatory, just that it exists. For revelations you'll have to turn to MG Sigler who got the scoop that the service has an iPhone app in the works. Complete with screenshots. Too bad for MG and Turntable that that particular scoop was being held back for the TechCrunch Disrupt conference -- the blog he works for sponsors. Oops. All's fair in tech muckraking it seems.
Nintendo: When is a radical price drop that demonstrates the weakness of your product launch not a bad thing? When it stimulates demand enough to triple sales. And unlike HP, who saw massive sales spikes when they slashed the price of their TouchPad, Nintendo is actually committed to the 3DS as a platform. Going so far as to create an add on right analog stick -- that totally uglifies the system. Hmm... maybe this belongs in the next category.
SPIN
Tumblr: The popular, and always fun to beat up on, blogging platform hit it's 10 BILLIONTH post today. For reference: it hit 1 Billion posts a year ago. You can do the math yourself. That doesn't mean questions about the stability, reliability, and just plain seriousness about the service have gone away. A widely circulated interview with founder David Karp by Reuters writer and known critic Anthony DeRosa paints a picture of a company that has the temerity of following Apple's philosophy when it comes to vision and secrecy, but perhaps without the chops to pull the pose off.
LOSE
Yahoo! Do you still Yahoo!? We all know who doesn't anymore: recently fired Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz. She had some choice words for the company's Board of Directors, who fired her by telephone this week. The company has had a long string of missteps, but it's hard to tell if this is a sudden awakening or a dip of the toes into the deadpool. Now rumors are cropping up that AOL is looking to merge with the former king of internet portals, which could create a content focused powerhouse with a seemingly ubiquitous reach. When in doubt, combine to form Voltron?