Gate2Play launches Zynga game cards in Middle East and North Africa

Zynga plans on taking over the world with social games. But it’s not so easy in places where there aren’t easy payment mechanisms such as credit cards. So the company is teaming up with Gate2Play to launch prepaid Zynga Game Cards which can be purchased in stores and redeemed to buy digital goods in Zynga’s online games.

Amman, Jordan-based Gate2Play will distribute the prepaid cards at thousands of stores in 16 countries in the Middle … Continue Reading

Nintendo posts unexpected quarterly loss and slashes full-year profit forecast

Nintendo reported a first-fiscal-quarter net loss, hurt by both slow sales of its 3DS handheld game device and a strong yen. The Kyoto-Japan-based company cut its full-year forecast as a result.

For the quarter ended June 30, the company reported an operating loss of 37.7 billion yen ($483.6 million), worse than the expected profit of 7.1 billion yen, according to Thomson Reuters. Nintendo now expects an annual operating profit of 35 billion yen, down dramatically … Continue Reading

Gamify Network’s growth mirrors popularity of gamification

Turning ordinary web sites into something fun through “gamification” has been a popular idea. And that has helped The Gamify Network gather some steam itself.

The site has become a media hub for gamification, which is becoming a big business as service companies and consultants try to train big companies to make their information sites more game-like. It may seem early for this nascent industry to spawn its own media site, but market researcher Gartner … Continue Reading

Startup Weekend refocuses on community, practical entrepreneurship

If you thought Startup Weekend was a hackathon, you’d be about half right. According to a recent report, the event’s focus has shifted from executing clever tech tricks to solving problems in a community. It’s an exercise in practical entrepreneurship rather than pure coding.

The nonprofit’s annual report, released last week, shows huge growth for the still-young organization. Nearly 36,000 people have attended a Startup Weekend even, and 43 companies say they got their start … Continue Reading

Universal Music Group launching its own Spotify playlist service?

Universal Music Group is launching its own music playlist service called Digster powered by Spotify’s free usage tier, reports Billboard.

Digster, which is scheduled to go live in the U.S. Wednesday, gets music editors to create playlists just like any Spotify user, but adds its own layer of editorial influence and discovery. Those that create the playlists are either music artists or Universal Music employees, according to the report. The music isn’t limited to songs … Continue Reading

Annual smartphone sales will top 1 billion by 2016, says IMS

Smartphone sales are still on track to skyrocket during the next few years and will exceed one billion devices by 2016, IMS Research said in a new report out today.

“The trend is mostly enabled by an increase in entry-level smartphones, which give more users access,” Josh Builta, mobile analyst for IMS Research, told VentureBeat. “Like with many other products, affordability along with high demand equals big sales.”

A prime example that Builta cited for … Continue Reading

Smartling makes translation affordable with $10M in funding

The Internet is an international place. You can be in India on one page and Brazil the next. However, translation can be costly for small content publishers. Translation software-as-a-service (SaaS) company, Smartling, wants to change that.

The service works like this: For each desired language, clients create separate DNS, or domain name system sites, which assign new IP addresses. Then, websites, mobile apps and more are dropped into Smartling’s dashboard, which is an end-to-end web … Continue Reading

Read It Later lands $2.5M to access bookmarked content anywhere

Read It Later, the company that lets you bookmark web content and access it on other devices, has secured a first round of funding for $2.5 million, according to a company blog post.

The idea is to let you save content from your browser and access it later via a desktop or other device, like an iPhone or tablet. Founder Nathan Weiner notes that he was constantly struggling to move articles and movies from work … Continue Reading

THQ reports a widening loss but continues to invest in digital games

THQ, a mid-sized publicly traded game company, reported an unexpectedly high loss today as sales of its Red Faction: Armageddon game and children’s games sold below expectations.

THQ is one of the stalwart console makers of the game industry, but it’s sales are smaller than those of the industry titans and its results can suffer if one big budget game turns out to be a disappointment. It’s one more reminder that games are a hit-or-miss … Continue Reading

LulzSec spokesman arrested by British authorities

British police apprehended a 19-year-old spokesman of notorious hacker group LulzSec in his Scottish home today, reports the New York Times.

Police said they believe the man arrested is linked to an ongoing international investigation into the criminal activity of  ”hacktivist” groups Anonymous and LulzSec. The man is also believed to use the online alias Topiary — who describes himself as a “simple prankster turned swank garden hedge” on his Twitter profile.

The last update … Continue Reading

Locationary raises $2.5M to improve local business data and management

Locationary, an online and mobile service that lets you search “place” data, such as local businesses, announced Wednesday that it has raised $2.5 million to hire new staff and launch a powerful new local data management system.

“We want to take the data management process to a bigger level,” Locationary founder and CEO Grant Ritchie told VentureBeat. “We’re working with publishers, app developers, and more to make this happen.”

If you’ve ever used Google Maps … Continue Reading

Solar-leasing startup SolarCity sells subsidized electric car chargers

Solar panel leasing company SolarCity announced today that it will begin selling 240-volt electric car chargers manufactured by ClipperCreek for $1,500 for customers that currently lease solar panels.

The “Level 2″ 240-volt chargers can charge an electric car like the Nissan Leaf to an 80-percent charge in around 3 hours. SolarCity sells the chargers outright, but gives their solar leasing customers a discount. So residents who lease solar panels are essentially getting subsidized electric car … Continue Reading

Gig.U project aims to bring gigabit Internet to college communities

Twenty-nine universities in the US have banded together to bring incredibly fast gigabit Internet access to their campuses and surrounding communities.

Dubbed Gig.U, the project aims to attract cutting-edge startups to college communities, in addition to delivering fast Internet speeds to college students, the New York Times reports.

“These zones would ideally function as hubs for building a new generation of faster computer networks, which could make the United States more competitive internationally,” wrote John … Continue Reading

Kixeye accuses Kabam of copying its Backyard Monsters game

Facebook game makers frequently each other of copy-catting games. The latest accusation comes from Kixeye, which says that heavily-funded Kabam has blatantly copied Kixeye’s big hit Backyard Monsters.

Kixeye, which is growing fast thanks to the popularity of its Battle Pirates game, says that Kabam’s upcoming Edgeworld game is a “re-skinned” copy of Backyard Monsters. Will Harbin, chief executive of Kixeye in San Francisco, said in an interview that the company is “exploring all options” … Continue Reading

Kleiner Perkins partner: Loan guarantees could be next government cut

The next victim of the United States debt crisis could be conditional loan guarantees, says a prominent venture capitalist.

The loan guarantees are one of the financial engines powering many cleantech investments in Silicon Valley.

“I think the loan guarantee programs could go away,” Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers partner Ray Lane told VentureBeat. “I think everybody is concerned about the loan guarantee program, fewer are concerned about (the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program) … Continue Reading

Groupon buys Zappedy for $10.3M

Daily-deal site Groupon bought Zappedy, a mystery company, for at least $10.3 million, according to a Form D filed with the SEC today.

Brad Williams, an internal spokesman for Groupon, confirmed the purchase and explained in an interview with VentureBeat that the move is not a taboo one during a quiet period. The SEC imposes quiet periods to ensure information about a company filing to go public isn’t disseminated selectively to potential investors.

“We’re not … Continue Reading

Check out Ray Lane of Kleiner Perkins’ new ride, the Fisker Karma

Hybrid electric car manufacturer Fisker Automotive delivered its first production model electric car for consumers, the Fisker Karma, to Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers partner Ray Lane (pictured right) on Tuesday.

Fisker Automotive has produced 54 cars and is revving up it production of the high-end luxury electric car. Lane’s Karma marks the first car that was manufactured for consumers and delivered. That means the company might soon be another player in the electric car … Continue Reading

Here’s how Facebook wants to school businesses

Facebook Tuesday retooled its Facebook for Businesses splash page with an emphasis on educating small businesses on using its site.

The new splash page features step-by-step online guides aimed at helping small businesses understand and use Facebook Pages, ads, sponsored stories and the Facebook API. While not actually adding any new features, the retooled “online education center” is definitely overdue for a service that most companies have either been using for years or knew they … Continue Reading