Sorry Galaxy S owners, no Ice Cream Sandwich for you (blame TouchWiz)
Owners of Samsung’s first lineup of Galaxy S phones are in for some bitter news this morning, as the company has confirmed that the phones won’t be receiving an update to Android 4.0 “Ice Cream Sandwich.”
Samsung pointed to its TouchWiz interface on the phones as the main reason for the snub, saying that there isn’t enough RAM and storage to run both Android 4.0 and TouchWiz, the Verge reports.
The company recently announced that … Continue Reading
The DeanBeat: Game industry predictions for 2012
We all know how worthless predictions can be, but they’re kind of irresistible. They’re easy to make, particularly if nobody pays attention to whether they came true or not. I could come up with a lot of crazy forecasts, like Zynga buys Ubisoft. But I’ll try to stay real this year. If you have some ideas of your own, please leave them in the comments and take our poll at the end.
1. Social and … Continue Reading
Gogo IPO: Raising $100M for airplane Wi-Fi service
Airplane Wi-Fi service provider Gogo has filled an initial public offering today that will raise an estimated $100 million for the company, according to SEC documents.
Gogo offers an in-flight Wi-Fi service on nine major airlines in North America, including Delta, Virgin America, US Airways and American Airlines. Its service is available on more than 1,100 aircraft (or 85 percent of all Wi-Fi-enabled commercial planes on the continent), with commitments to add service on another … Continue Reading
Workday gears up for IPO, plans to raise up to $500M
Following in the footsteps of Jive Software’s successful IPO, Workday, a company that provides cloud software for business operations, is said to be planning for its own public offering next year.
The company hopes to raise up to $500 million in its IPO, Bloomberg reported yesterday, based on information from two sources. Workday is expected to file its S-1, the first step to going public, in the first half of 2012, and to debut in … Continue Reading
Top 10 new game brands of 2012
Earlier this month, VentureBeat published a list of 10 of the most anticipated video games of 2012. Some of you had plenty to say about our picks, especially the fact that most of them were sequels. With many established franchises moving to a yearly release schedule, one might start to wonder where all the originality in gaming has gone.
Well, wonder no more.
While newly announced intellectual properties like Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us … Continue Reading
FCC gives the nod to AT&T’s $1.9B Qualcomm spectrum deal
Sure, AT&T’s grand plan to take over T-Mobile has fallen on its face, but at least the company now has more spectrum available for its budding 4G LTE network, thanks to government approval for a deal announced last year.
The FCC has approved AT&T’s $1.92 billion purchase of Qualcomm’s 700 megahertz spectrum, originally meant for the company’s failed FLO TV project, which AT&T will use to strengthen its LTE network.
Verizon is in the midst … Continue Reading
Worst press release titles of 2011
Nobody sets out to write a bad press release or pitch email, or at least we hope not, and yet we still receive quite a few at VentureBeat. Actually, I would be quite sad if we stopped getting them entirely. They brighten my day.
However, in the interest of public service, here are some of the worst press release and pitch email titles of 2011 and our notes on how to avoid making next year’s … Continue Reading
Kiip announces Swarm to stage mobile game contests with big rewards
Kiip, which offers real world prizes for rewards in mobile games, is launching a new feature called Swarm for its brand advertisers. In a partnership with Disney, the first Swarm is a contest-like feature that allows Kiip to offer some very big rewards in “flash tournaments.”
Kiip offers rewards at the moment when you achieve something in a mobile game, such as getting past a level or a boss. With Swarms, it will be able … Continue Reading
VBWeekly: Top 10 games of 2011
Last week, VentureBeat announced its Game of the Year choices. Now you can see the video of VentureBeat’s top game writers, Dean Takahashi and Sebastian Haley discussing the picks. Enjoy the talk and let us know your favorite game of the year in the comments below.
As we explained previously, here’s how we conducted the selection process: We first asked our reviewers to choose the semi-finalists. Then we picked the final winners from that group. … Continue Reading
Facebook rejiggers platform to increase game usage
Facebook announced Thursday evening that it has made updates to its platform to improve game usage and discovery of new apps.
The social network said it made changes to the platform based on tests that showed it could drive re-engagement and discovery higher. The changes are part of constant tinkering that the company does to prompt users to return to their games or click on new titles. If they work, they could generate more usage … Continue Reading
YouTube videos get a snowflake button for the holidays
Overall, the majority of the country has experienced a pretty mild winter this holiday season, which means there isn’t much fluffy, white snow falling. The same cannot be said for YouTube videos.
The Google-owned video sharing community site has added a temporary snowflake button that allows you to control the level of frosty precipitation within your video player. The feature is available on most videos, but some still don’t have the ability to manipulate the … Continue Reading
UC Berkeley chooses Google Apps over Microsoft Office 365 (updated)
University of California, Berkeley, that hotbed of civil unrest as well as academic achievement, has become the latest university to move from its old-fashioned e-mail system to the Google Apps for Education cloud.
The decision is part of the university’s goal to save $75 million a year in operational and technology expenses. Switching to a web-based email and calendar system will contribute about $500,000 annually to that savings, according to Shelton Waggener, the chief information … Continue Reading
The Kindle Fire allows third-party e-book apps, starting with Wattpad
After some back-and-forth between Amazon and Wattpad, a third party e-reader app, Kindle Fire owners can now use a different apps to read e-books on their device.
Before now, Amazon had been hiding competitor’s e-reader apps in the Kindle Fire’s Amazon Appstore. The apps still showed up in the web-based Appstore, but weren’t available for download onto the Fire. Hidden e-reader apps included Wattpad, Kobo, and Bluefire, all competitors of the Kindle.
For those who … Continue Reading
Facebook most-searched term and most-visited site of 2011
Don’t tell Google, but the top search term and the most-visited website of 2011 were one in the same: Facebook.
Inquiring minds asked about the world’s largest social network so much that Facebook accounted for 3.10 percent of all U.S. searches, according to data intelligence company Experian Hitwise.
Add in a few slight variations, and altogether, Facebook-related queries accounted for 4.42 percent of searches this year. This means the company has now been the top-searched … Continue Reading
DST may invest $200M in Chinese microblogging company, Sina Weibo
In July, it was reported that Sina Corp. had turned down Digital Sky Technology (DST)’s $500m investment in Sina Weibo, a Chinese micro-blogging service. But it seems that the talk between two parties is still on going. We just heard from a reliable source that Sina finally accepted the investment from DST, an international investment firm founded by Yuri Milner. The source said the deal can ‘almost’ be confirmed:
The deal is a convertible bond … Continue Reading
Game trade group celebrates a big year for video games
It’s been a good year for video games, from a favorable U.S. Supreme Court ruling on video game violence, to new recognition as an art form. This according to Michael Gallagher, president and chief executive of the Entertainment Software Association, the game industry trade group.
“The word ‘historic’ is overused, but as we look back on 2011, it is a perfect fit for our industry’s year,” Gallagher said in a letter. “The U.S. Supreme Court’s … Continue Reading
Wowza: Apple will likely ship 30.3M iPhones this quarter
Apple could ship an unprecedented 30.3 million iPhone units during the final quarter of 2011, according to an analyst at Susquehanna Financial Group.
Susquehanna appears to be falling in line with UBS analyst Maynard Um’s prediction a few weeks ago that Apple would sell as many as 30 million iPhones by the end of December. Both Um and Susquehanna have now bumped their initial iPhone sales up by 2 million, based on super-strong web buzz … Continue Reading
Sony unveils big line-up for PlayStation Vita in the U.S.
Sony has lined up a big slate of games for its PlayStation Vita handheld gaming device, which debuts on Feb. 22 in North America and Europe.
The company said the software support for the new device is the biggest in history for a new gaming platform from Sony. The titles are all built from the ground up to to take advantage of features such as the front and back touchscreens, two analog joysticks and a … Continue Reading
Zynga launches Words With Friends on the Nook e-book reader
Zynga launched its first game for the Barnes & Noble Nook e-book reader today, Words With Friends.
The wildly popular Scrabble clone will debut as an app for the Nook tablet today. The move is one more attempt by Zynga to reach non-gamers on non-traditional gaming devices. Zynga wants to expand the mass market for games and the Nook is one more platform for that.
Zynga is dependent on Facebook for more than 94 percent … Continue Reading
Court authorizes jury trial to proceed in Activision lawsuit against Electronic Arts
A Los Angeles court ordered a jury trial to proceed in a lawsuit by Activision Publishing against Electronic Arts. The case involves the poaching of the founders of Infinity Ward, the studio behind the massive Call of Duty franchise.
The case is one of the most heated battles between two major game publishers, and it involves some very high stakes. The Call of Duty games are multibillion-dollar properties that are at the heart of Activision’s … Continue Reading
