Roundup: Facebook nears 200M users and seeks loans, Disney joins Hulu, and more
updated
Here’s the latest action:
GamesBeat videos — Check out our videos from last week’s game conference.
Facebook nears 200 million users — The New York Times has a profile of Facebook as it struggles with users angry about its redesign. And it looks like Facebook is looking to raise new debt to replace a $100 million line of credit, reports Businessweek. Here’s our earlier story about the line of credit.
A heist hits 103 countries – A vast Internet spying system has looted documents from hundreds of governments and targeted the Dalai Lama. The New York Times says Canadian researchers suspect China’s involvement.
TheFunded’s shutdown by an investor lawsuit? — Has TheFunded stirred the pot for the last time? Techrunch reports that a notice on the VC-rating web site says the company has shuttered the web site due to a lawsuit. The message on the site is somewhat looney — saying that “investors are great” — but maybe it’s founder Adeo Ressi’s way of begging forgiveness from the investor trying to sue him? Ressi has not responded to requests for comment, but he tells us we’ll get the scoop on all this first thing tomorrow. [update: The shutdown was Ressi's idea of a April Fools joke.]
New Speed Record Set For Wind-Powered Vehicles — Richard Jenkins reached 126.1 mph in his Greenbird car on the plains of Nevada, setting a new land speed world record for a wind-powered vehicle. The BBC has more.
Reddit running ads that look like content — AllThingsD reports that ads that look like news headlines are getting good click-through on Reddit, a Digg-like news aggregator owned by Conde Naste.
Disney may cut deal with Hulu.com — Disney may get an equity stake in Hulu.com, the movie and TV show web site, in exchange for contributing its own content to the site. PaidContent has more.
New Facebook stream could spur viral growth – Apps that take advantage of a new path for viral growth are more popular. Inside Facebook has more.
Former AOL CEO Jon Miller moves to News Corp? – Miller has left venture firm Velocity and taken a role overseeing digital strategy at News Corp. The Wall Street Journal has more. Ross Levinsohn, a partner at Velocity, confirmed the move, and posted his own take on the events. Ironically, Miller is taking a position very similar to the one Levinsohn himself once held.
Android application scans DVD bar codes to download movies — An Android application called BarTor can scan DVD bar codes and then access either uTorrent or Vuze on your PC to download the movie from BitTorrent.
Woz gets ready to tango – On ABC’s hit TV show Dancing with the Stars, former Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak plans on doing a tango in his next routine.
Monsters vs Aliens makes 3-D a hit — The new Dreamworks amimated 3-D film scored $58.2 million in box office receipts for its first weekend. The Wall Street Journal has more.
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About the Author, Dean Takahashi
Dean is lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat. He covers video games, security, chips and a variety of other subjects. Dean previously worked at the San Jose Mercury News, the Wall Street Journal, the Red Herring, the Los Angeles Times, the Orange County Register and the Dallas Times Herald. He is the author of two books, Opening the Xbox and the Xbox 360 Uncloaked. Follow him on Twitter at @deantak, and follow VentureBeat on Twitter at @venturebeat.
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