Mike Schramm

Editor

Mike has worked in the Joystiq Network since 2006, as lead blogger and senior editor on WoW.com and one of the founding editors on Massively.com. Currently, he is a contributing editor on Joystiq, and also writes and podcasts for various outlets, including The Unofficial Apple Weblog.

Mike Schramm's Latest Posts

Spacetime Studios' games hit 100 million play sessions

by Mike Schramm (Feb 9th 2012 7:00PM)

Spacetime Studios has hit a pretty crazy milestone, even in the ever-more-massive world of iOS and mobile gaming. The company's MMOs on the iPhone, Android, and Chrome platforms have hit a total of 100 million play sessions, which means people have loaded up and logged into Spacetime's titles more ...

Warner Music reporting more stable sales, propped up by iTunes and streaming services

by Mike Schramm (Feb 9th 2012 4:30PM)

There's finally some good news in the music business, but don't get too excited, it's not that good. Warner Music reports (before we hear about the full industry sales from 2011) that its sales were steady last year, at $780 million. In this case, steady is better than a drop, which is what most ...

Court says reworked Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1N can be sold in Germany

by Mike Schramm (Feb 9th 2012 3:30PM)

Apple's been going back and forth in German courts over the Samsung Galaxy Tab, suggesting it "borrows" a few too many features from the iPad, but the latest ruling has fallen in Samsung's favor. A German court has now decided that the Galaxy Tab has "clear differences" from the iPad, and thus can ...

Daily iPhone App: Spice Invaders

by Mike Schramm (Feb 9th 2012 10:00AM)

If you're tired of tower defense games, I don't blame you. Feel free to skip this post, but let me say this before you go: I wouldn't spotlight yet another tower defense game if it wasn't special. That's why Spice Invaders has made the cut. The standard tower defense tropes are in place. Build and ...

Apple shows interest in European patent laws

by Mike Schramm (Feb 9th 2012 6:00AM)

Apple has delivered a letter to the European Telecommunications Standards Institute asking for basic principles for that region of the world on patents and their licensing, according to the Wall Street Journal. The letter asks for consistency across the board in how patents are owned and shared, ...

App usage doesn't drop during Super Bowl -- except during halftime

by Mike Schramm (Feb 8th 2012 11:00PM)

Mobile advertiser Flurry's latest report, on app usage during the Super Bowl, is fascinating for those of us who have been following the "second screen" phenomenon: The tendency of mobile device users to use their devices while also watching television or other media. Flurry notes that during last ...

Protests against iPhone factory conditions planned at Apple Stores

by Mike Schramm (Feb 8th 2012 3:15PM)

Stories about troubling factory conditions at Foxconn are all too familiar, unfortunately, but hearing that protestors are planning to do something about it is new. GigaOM reports that this Thursday, representatives from Change.org and Sumofus.org are planning to bring petitions to Apple Stores in ...

Buffalo Wild Wings testing iPads for ordering

by Mike Schramm (Feb 8th 2012 10:00AM)

While we were in San Francisco for Macworld | iWorld, I noticed that the wait staff at Mel's Drive-in were using iPads to take orders. I hadn't seen that before, but apparently the folks at Mel's have used iPads for a while. Now an even bigger restaurant chain, Buffalo Wild Wings, is planning to ...

Daily iPhone App: Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective scares up some fun

by Mike Schramm (Feb 8th 2012 8:00AM)

I've been waiting for this one for a while. Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective is a title that won accolades on the Nintendo DS last year, and it's now arrived on iOS in a universal version (that's free to download to boot). The idea is that you're a ghostly "phantom detective" who must solve his own ...

Mass Effect 3 getting an iOS game

by Mike Schramm (Feb 7th 2012 9:00PM)

Mass Effect 2 got its own iOS game when it was released on the traditional consoles a few years ago, and since Mass Effect 3 is due out in another month or so here, you probably won't be surprised to hear that EA is again planning another iOS game tie-in for the release. This time around, though, ...