Shaun White makes the jump from Olympic half-pipe to virtual slopes

Shaun White shows off his new game for the Nintendo Wii. Credit: Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times.

Shaun White used to battle with his older brother Jesse for control over the family's PlayStation game console while the two grew up near San Diego. Now, at 23, the Olympic snowboarder gets to star in his own video game, Shaun White Snowboarding: World Stage, set to hit shelves on Sunday.

Developed by Ubisoft Entertainment, the game is a sequel to White's first title, which sold more than 3 million copies since its release last November.

White may not be a household name, but neither was Tony Hawk when he came out with his first video game 10 years ago, Tony Hawk Pro Skater. Now some fans know Hawk more through his virtual stunts than his actual work on the ramps. Could the same be true for White someday?

White spoke to us about how he got his start in snowboarding, what he wants people to get out of playing his video game and who he aspires to become. Here's a video of part of our interview with White, taken by Times videographer, Myung Chun:

And, for old school reader types, here's an edited transcript of the conversation:

How did a kid from Carlsbad, Calif., grow up to be a snowboarder?

I ended up going to Big Bear skiing with my family. When my brother started snowboarding, I did too. I was 6 then, and I started to compete when I was 7. I actually grew up in Del Mar and Carmel Valley. The schools were really good, but they didn’t recognize my sport. At the time I had money saved up [from winning snowboarding competitions and sponsorships], so I bought a house in Carlsbad as an investment when I was 13, and that let me go to school in Carlsbad. The schools there really supported me when I competed.

Didn’t you want to surf instead?

My dad got me a huge board when I was little. He loves to surf. He suited me up and sent me out on this huge wave. I went under, and when I came out and the board hit me in the face. So I said, I never wanted to do this again. I stayed away until I was 13.

One of your sponsors, Red Bull, last February built you a private half-pipe in Silverton, Colo., called Project X. Is that going to appear in the game?

It actually is. There’s a special...

Sony sales slide 20% as global economy erodes profit

Sony saw sales drop nearly across the board in its fiscal second quarter as the consumer electronics and media giant continued to struggle with a withering global economy.

As shoppers around the world cut back on buying televisions, cameras and computers, Sony's revenue plunged 19.8% to $18.5 billion from the same quarter a year ago. Bargain pricing also eroded profit margins, leading Sony to swing from a $200-million profit last year to a $292-million loss.

Sales slipped in all of Sony's divisions except for its financial services business in Japan. Sony's consumer products and devices division, which includes its Bravia TV and Cybershot camera businesses, plunged 36.5% to $8.9 billion as consumers bought fewer electronics and at lower prices. Still, the unit eked out a $99-million operating profit.

Its networked products division, which includes Sony's PlayStation video game and Vaio computer businesses, also saw a steep 24% drop in sales to $3.9 billion. Losses for the unit widened substantially to $654 million, accounting for the bulk of Sony's operating loss in the quarter.

Sales of its PlayStation 3 game console jumped 33% to 3.2 million units, thanks to a $100 price cut that brought the price down to as low as $299. But that was not enough to make up for a 24% slide in sales of the PlayStation 2 and a 6% decline in sales of its handheld PSP console.

Consumers appeared to also have cut back on other types of entertainment. Sales for Sony's music labels, the second largest in the world after Universal Music Group, fell 3%. But the decline was cushioned by a surge in the popularity of Sony's catalog recordings of Michael Jackson, leading the unit to post a $96-million operating profit on $1.4 billion in revenue.

Sony's movie business also took a hit. Sales declined 30% to $1.5 billion as consumers bought fewer DVDs and curtailed trips to the movie theater. Sony Pictures posted a $71-million loss for the quarter.

On a brighter note, the company said it now anticipated lower losses than it had initially projected for its current fiscal year ending March 2010. Sony credits the improved outlook to the ability for its consumer products business to turn a profit, thanks in part to aggressive cost-cutting, and the health of its Japanese financial services business. File under: It's not as bad as we thought.

-- Alex Pham

Follow my random thoughts on games, gear and technology on Twitter @AlexPham.

Google launches music search with Lala, Pandora, Rhapsody, imeem and MySpace

Google this afternoon began rolling out its widely rumored music feature, which lets users search for and listen to entire songs for free.

The search engine banded together with several music service sites that are responsible for streaming the songs on Google's search results pages. Searching for Coldplay, for example, will yield the band's album cover art, alongside four popular songs that users can play once for free. Once a song has been played by a user, they will only be able to hear a 30-second sample of tune. (The feature is being gradually rolled out over the next 24 hours, so some folks may not see the feature until tomorrow.)

Google itself isn't paying record companies for the rights to play millions of songs on its search page; its partners are. Those include Lala, Pandora, imeem, MySpace Music and Rhapsody, a subscription service from Real Networks. All have licensing agreements with record labels to stream or sample millions of songs online.

The Mountain View, Calif., search company said it's not interested in competing with digital music retailers such as Amazon and Apple's iTunes.

"We're not in the music business per se," said R.J. Pittman, Google's director of product for the music search project. "We don't license the music nor sell the music directly on Google. We are merely a music search feature."

But in steering millions of Internet users to these sites, Google is indirectly boosting their ability to compete with iTunes, which was responsible for 69% of U.S. digital music sales in the first six months of this year, and 35% of all music sales, including physical albums, according to market research firm NPD Group Inc. Amazon, the second-largest player, accounted for 9% of digital music sales and 10% of overall music sales.

Google says it's only interested in helping people find and discover music. Whether it can help revitalize the music industry is another question that Times editorial writer Jon Healey addresses here.

Millions of people already use Google to ...

Coming soon to a PlayStation 3 near you: Netflix streaming [Updated]

Better late than never. Sony today said it will add Netflix's free video streaming service to the PlayStation 3 in November.

The announcement comes a year after Microsoft gave its Xbox Live Gold members access to the Netflix service in November 2008. That move helped turbo-charge the number of subscribers to Microsoft's online service from 14 million last year to more than 20 million today.

Jack Tretton, head of Sony's PlayStation business in the U.S., said what sets Sony's version of Netflix apart is that subscribers won't have to pay Sony any membership fees to take advantage of the service. In contrast, Xbox 360 owners who want to stream Netflix must pay a $50 annual fee for the Gold membership.

(Sony and Microsoft require users to subscribe to Netflix's movie-rental service, which costs between $5 to $29 a month.)

"We see the PlayStation 3 as the ultimate entertainment device," Tretton said in an interview.

Funny, Microsoft said the same thing about its Xbox 360 game entertainment console earlier this year.

The two companies serve up similar fare. Sony's online service, called PlayStation Network, currently has 2,300 movies and 13,800 TV shows. In November, it will add 17,000 Netflix titles to the tally. Microsoft's Xbox Live features more than 20,000 movies and TV shows, including Netflix titles. As for music, neither offers a way to buy tunes. (Xbox Live comes close, letting its Gold subscribers stream Last.fm, an Internet radio channel.)

What about Sony, which owns its own music label?

"My personal opinion is if you're going to do something, do it right," Tretton said, when asked if Sony would introduce a music service to the PS3. "Doing things right is more important than doing them first. But this would be something that would definitely be well received."

-- Alex Pham

*This post has been updated to add the number of Netflix titles Sony said it will add to its PlayStation Network in November.

Follow my random thoughts on games, gear and technology on Twitter @AlexPham.

Five ways to become the next video star

Internet funny guy Mike Polk. Credit: Break Media.

So you want to be a video star?

If you performed at a real-life comedy club in Los Angeles in the last three months, you could have been spotted by Mike Polk, a producer for Break.com who was scouting for fresh talent. Instead of clicking through countless YouTube videos to find someone, Polk decided to venture into (gulp!) the real world and hit a few live stand-up shows.

Based in Beverly Hills, Break.com gets about 70 million unique visitors a month, mostly guys 18 to 34 years old, making it one of the leading humor sites out there. Partly owned by Lionsgate Entertainment, the site serves up video game trailers, photos and short Web videos about cream cheese as deodorant pranks and Hummers on a rampage. You know, guy stuff.

Polk, whose background is in creating viral videos including a video promoting tourism in Cleveland that got 1.6 million hits, has been combing L.A.'s comedy clubs for Break.com's next comedic star.

What was he looking for? And how are those traits different for online video personalities? In a recent interview, Polk gave us, in his own words, five criteria for online video stardom: 

1) Immediacy: There has to be something that grabs you right off the bat. The Internet is flooded with people who can get your attention quickly. We're looking for people who can be funny in a very short period of time.

2) Eye-catching thumbnail portrait: It's not about being attractive. It's about having presence and charisma. But online, you have to convey that on a picture about the size of a postage stamp. Thumbnails are incredibly important.

3) Versatility: There's a one-man-band nature of Internet videos. You have to be able to incorporate music, work your own camera and know how to edit video. There are so many comics who don't know how to do any of this.

4) Original persona: You need a concept of what you want to do and how you want to get that across. It has to be unique and original.

5) Likability: We want someone people would want to approach, someone who's not already a star or full of himself. He has to be able to laugh at himself.

There's one other criterion that Polk did not explicitly mention. But it's all here in Break.com's recruiting video. (Hint: You might want to bring an athletic cup to your audition.)

-- Alex Pham

Follow my random thoughts on games, gear and technology on Twitter @AlexPham.

Microsoft stock soars despite downturns in sales and profit [Updated*]

Microsoft Corp., fresh from yesterday's Windows 7 launch, this morning reported a 14% slip in sales and an 18% plunge in profit for its fiscal first quarter. Its shares immediately soared, briefly flitting to a 52-week high of $29.35 before ending the day up $1.43 to $28.02.

Is Wall Street out of its mind?

To understand why, it's helpful to look at the unofficial currency of financial markets -- expectations. Analysts had forecast that the Redmond, Wash., technology giant would report per-share earnings of 32 cents. Microsoft instead earned 40 cents a share, better than investors had anticipated.

Expectations were also behind yesterday's stock move. After Microsoft launched its most important product in three years, investors added just a penny to the company's shares. That's because the release of Windows 7 proceeded exactly as planned. Every aspect about Windows 7 had already been public knowledge, including its price, features and even consumer reviews.

So what did investors like so much about today's earnings? Let's take a closer look.

Net income for the quarter ended Sept. 30 was $3.6 billion, or 40 cents a share, down 18% from $4.4 billion, or 48 cents, a year earlier. Sales slipped 14% to $12.9 billion.

Many had expected the decline given the recession, which has all but paralyzed businesses that may be considering buying new computers. Instead, many organizations either made do with their old machines or opted for cheap netbook computers. Costing little more than $200 apiece, netbooks are so cheap they offer little or no profit for their manufacturers or for Microsoft, which sells the operating system software for these devices.

"Microsoft, like the rest of the PC industry, is struggling with low average selling prices," said Richard Shim, analyst with research firm IDC. 

Still, Microsoft was able to beat expectations by aggressively cutting costs. Operating expenses fell 8% from a year earlier to $8.4 billion.

Another reason for Wall Street's counter-intuitive euphoria: It could have been worse.

The results, Technology Business Research analyst Allan Krans wrote in a note to investors, "though still weak, reflect stabilization of the economy and Microsoft's revenue streams."

*This post, which was written prior to the close of Nasdaq, has been updated to include Microsoft's closing price.

-- Alex Pham

Follow my random thoughts on games, gear and technology on Twitter @AlexPham.

Amazon announces Kindle for PC (no Kindle device needed, but bring your own PC)

The Kindle for PC software will let users read Amazon's digital books without having to buy the $259 Kindle device. Credit: Amazon

Most people think of Amazon's Kindle as a slim piece of hardware the size of a very thin paperback book.

In fact, Kindle is also a piece of software that displays digital books on any device Amazon chooses. Today, the Seattle online retailing giant unveiled a Kindle version for computers. The application was part of Microsoft's Windows 7 operating system launch event in New York this morning. Expected to be released in November, the program will also run on Microsoft's earlier operating systems, Windows XP and Windows Vista.

Dubbed Kindle for PC, the free software will let readers view full-color photos and use touch screens to browse books, turn pages and adjust font sizes for digital books purchased at Amazon's online bookstore. Amazon has released a version of the reader for Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch devices.

Amazon's announcement came days after rival bookseller Barnes & Noble said it would start selling its own device, the nook. Due to ship in November, the $259 reader features the same gray-scale E Ink screen as the Kindle, but also has a separate color touch screen. Nook owners also can share their books with their friends for up to 14 days at a time.

In contrast, the Kindle 2 and the Kindle DX, two devices sold by Amazon, has only the gray-scale screens and don't allow users to "lend" digital copies of their books to others.

By releasing Kindle for PC, Amazon is expanding the audience for its digital books beyond just readers who can afford to buy its $259 device to about 1 billion of the world's PC users.

-- Alex Pham

Follow my random thoughts on games, gear and technology on Twitter @AlexPham.

Windows 7: Can Microsoft reboot reputation and give the tech sector a jolt?

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer speaking at CeBit in March. Credit: Kay Nietfeld / European Press Photo Agency.

With more than 8 million "beta testers" using Windows 7 since January and dozens of reviews already published, virtually every aspect of Microsoft's new operating system is already public knowledge prior to this morning's "launch" -- except one.

Can Windows 7 repair Microsoft's reputation and trigger enough sales to pull the technology sector out of the economic funk?

Steve Ballmer certainly hopes so. The Microsoft chief executive and impresario known for his highly energetic speaking style this morning kicked off the launch of its latest computer operating system by saying, "Today is an important day for the computer industry, certainly for Microsoft and I hope perhaps even most importantly for all of the customers around the world."

Much rides on the success of Windows 7. Microsoft is counting on it to lift its sales, which fell last fiscal year for the first time since the company went public in 1986. Computer makers and software companies are praying that Windows 7 will set off a wave of demand for their products, which have been dampened by the recession as buyers postponed PC purchases or opted for ultra-cheap netbooks over full-fledged computers.

Even consumer electronics companies see Windows 7-based computers as a way to make their devices sexier as gateways for entertainment programs on-demand.

"Windows needs to be an incredible opportunity innovation for hardware companies and software companies," Ballmer said at the company's kick-off event in New York. "Windows 7 takes us a step closer to the vision we articulated ... around the three screens -- the PC, the phone and the TV, all communicating across the cloud, the Internet backbone."

Ballmer tried to nail the point home by ...

Need for Speed sales race past 100 million copies

Screen shot of Need for Speed Shift, released in September. Credit: Electronic Arts.

Need for Speed, Electronic Arts' racing franchise, has raced past the 100 million copies mark, making it one of the top five bestselling video game properties of all time. (The other four franchises in the elite 100-million club are the Sims, Mario, Pokemon and Grand Theft Auto.)

Developed in 1994, Need for Speed has evolved from a game made by a dozen developers to roughly 100 designers, programmers and perfectionists who obsess over cars. EA has cranked out 15 Need for Speed titles, but it wasn't until Need for Speed Underground came out in 2003 that sales got turbocharged. Since then, EA has moved 60 million copies of the game.

Over the years, the franchise has undergone a couple of remodels. The first came with Underground, which shifted the franchise away from "aspirational" Lamborghinis to street-style racers made from customized compacts and souped-up sedans. EA developers knew they had street cred when they began to see body shops build actual parts based on the game's vehicles.

And as computer graphics became ultra-realistic, even car manufacturers got into the act. Nissan, for example, used the game rendering of its 370Z sports car to help unveil the vehicle at last year's Los Angeles Auto Show.

The brand got its second makeover this year. 

"We started to develop different versions for different audiences," said Keith Munro, EA's vice president for global marketing. "We noticed we had fans who liked an authentic simulation experience. But we also had others who wanted an over-the-top arcade style with hyperbolized physics."

The goal: Develop three titles to address different audiences.

The first, Need for Speed: Shift, came out in September, catering to players who wanted an authentic, visceral racing simulation. In November, Need for Speed: Nitro will hit the street offering freewheeling arcade play. Developed for Nintendo's Wii console, Nitro is designed to be easy to pick up and play. And sometime next year, EA plans to open up Need for Speed: World Online, a free-to-play game with Hollywood style chase sequences.

There is fierce competition among racing games -- Gran Turismo, Project Gotham Racing and Forza Motorsport are all formidable franchises with their own ultra-loyal fans. EA is hoping that its three-pronged strategy will help drive sales of Need for Speed's next 100 million copies. On your mark....

-- Alex Pham

Follow my random thoughts on games, gear and technology on Twitter @AlexPham.

Barnes & Noble's nook digital book reader to let users lend titles to their friends

The $259 nook digital book reader. Credit: Barnes & Noble.

Barnes & Noble Inc., looking ahead to the next chapter in digital publishing, this afternoon took the wraps off an electronic book reader, dubbed "nook." 

Anyone who has read Dr. Seuss' "One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish" will recall Theodor Geisel's Nook who took a look at the book on a hook. For Barnes & Noble's $259 device, the hook is its ability to let users lend their books to their friends for up to 14 days at a time. Using the LendMe feature, nook owners can send a copy of their digital titles to their friends' iPhone, iPod Touch, BlackBerry or computer.

The second hook: The nook marries a gray-scale E Ink screen, which is standard with other digital readers such as the Sony Reader or the Kindle, with a separate color touch screen below the E Ink display (see photo to the right). As with the Kindle and the upcoming Sony Daily Edition, nook lets shoppers browse and buy books, newspapers and magazines wirelessly, and without a computer, by hopping on AT&T's cellular phone network.

The New York bookseller said it would start distributing the device in November (free shipping if ordered from the company's online store).

Barnes & Noble, which operates more than 777 stores in the U.S., in July re-launched its online bookstore, which carried 700,000 digital titles.

-- Alex Pham

Follow my random thoughts on games, gear and technology on Twitter @AlexPham.