Activision CEO: games are brands, not products
Sorry Facebook, mobile users just want to text
Mobile content usage spanning everything from downloading apps to browser and social network usage continues to escalate, but nothing is taking off quite like texting.
Nearly 75 percent of all U.S. mobile subscribers now send text messages, according to new data from analytics firm comScore.
The data, gathered from a monthly online survey of 30,000 mobile subscribers ages 13 and up, reflects an ongoing shift in the changing behaviors of the more than 234 million … Continue Reading
LG’s scanning mouse now connects to Evernote, Dropbox, more (exclusive)
LG‘s mouse scanner might not be the scanner with the highest resolution or the best color stitching, but it is certainly the most fun to use.
LG licenses the technology from Dacuda, which unveiled the product to the US market at the Consumer Electronics Show this year. “Today many people don’t use a scanner because they have no easy access to digitizing the information,” said Dacuda chief executive Alexander Ilic. “The mouse market is really … Continue Reading
What Facebook isn’t telling you about its risky ad business
In its IPO filing Wednesday, Facebook identified mobile’s limited revenue potential, competition from other social networks, and the potential loss of advertisers as factors that could seriously harm its business. But was the social networking company, which relied on advertising for 85 percent of its revenue in 2011, forthcoming enough about the real risks associated with its primary money-maker?
“The issue of click-through rate was not mentioned as a risk in the S-1,” said Peter … Continue Reading
Windows Phone 8 ‘Apollo’ may offer support for Skype, NFC, more
Microsoft’s upcoming software for Windows Phone, dubbed “Apollo”, will offer integration with Skype and Windows 8, according to internal video uncovered by Pocketnow.
The Windows Phone OS will have a make-or-break year in 2012, and it’s already off to a good start by being featured in Nokia’s anticipated Lumia 900 smartphone and a few other powerful devices that were pushed by CEO Steve Ballmer (pictured) at CES 2012. Another big update to the phone’s software … Continue Reading
Xbox co-creator Seamus Blackley launches mobile-game startup with Atari arcade veterans
Seamus Blackley, the co-creator of the Xbox, passionately believes that gameplay will triumph in the game business. That is why he and his new startup are relying on a team of famous designers from Atari to make a series of games for the Apple iPhone and iPad.
The idea that he and his partner, chief executive Van Burnham, have dreamed up is to use the creators of the best arcade experiences from the golden age … Continue Reading
Tim Cook expresses pride over Apple’s philanthropy
Apple is not well known for its charitable contributions, but Apple chief executive Tim Cook wants to change that perception. During a company meeting last week, Cook talked about Apple’s contributions to local charities and its participation in global campaigns.
Cook told Apple employees that the company has donated $50 million to Stanford’s hospital, the Verge reported. In addition, Cook also talked at length about Apple’s participation in (Product) RED, a charity fighting against AIDS, … Continue Reading
Simply Hired fires a big part of its staff (exclusive)
Updated at 5:03 p.m. PT with more info about which teams were let go.
VentureBeat has learned that job search startup Simply Hired has laid off approximately 20 percent of its staff, according a source close to the company.
After repeated queries, the company would neither confirm nor deny the percentage of staff that it had laid off. However, it did admit that it had “consolidated” and “expanded operations offshore,” which means the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based … Continue Reading
6waves Lolapps chief denies violating NDA in copyright dispute with Spry Fox (exclusive)
Rex Ng, chief executive of 6waves Lolapps, denied allegations that his company violated a non-disclosure agreement in a case related to allegations of copying Spry Fox’s social game on Facebook.
Spry Fox, a small game developer in Seattle, said last Sunday it filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against 6waves Lolapps because 6waves’ Yeti Town mobile game copied the gameplay and look of its Triple Town Facebook game. The issue of copycat games has raised considerable … Continue Reading
THQ CEO admits confidence was “misplaced” on children’s video games
THQ chief executive Brian Farrell ate some major crow on his company’s analyst conference call today.
“We anticipated our third fiscal quarter would be the largest in our company’s history,” Farrell said. “Unfortunately, we were wrong.”
The weakness in the third fiscal quarter was due to poor sales of the uDraw tablet, a kid-oriented drawing tablet that was a hit last year on the Wii. But poor sales of uDraw dragged down the quarterly performance, … Continue Reading
Two Facebook graphs Wall Street analysts and investors should ignore
Wall Street likes data. Annual reports and quarterly reports move markets. If Wall Street could access daily data on the ins-and-outs of a company, it would. Hedge funds have been known to use analysis of satellite imagery of Wal-Mart parking lots to try to get a jump on the markets.
That micro level of analysis isn’t going to be very helpful in predicting Facebook’s future. For example, here are two of the types of charts … Continue Reading
Showyou 3.0: Now with better video discovery and sharing for the iPad
After months of hard labor, Remixation, creator of the popular video discovery app Showyou, has released a new version of the app that works just as well for social media abstainers as it does for Facebook and Twitter users.
Showyou 3.0, available now for free on the iTunes Store, doesn’t look much different from past versions of the app on the surface, but dig a little deeper and you’ll find a richer and more rewarding … Continue Reading
Updated: Super Bowl Sting — Feds seize 307 domains in “Operation Fake Sweep”
Updated: Official statement from the U.S. Immigration and Customs office has been added at the bottom of the post.
The U.S. Department of Justice has issued a new round of domain seizures today targeted at websites that provide access to illegal live sports streaming video.
The DOJ’s timing is likely related to this Sunday’s NFL Super Bowl championship football game, which has routinely become the most watched televised event of the year with over 100 … Continue Reading
Earnings fall short of target for embattled game publisher THQ
THQ‘s net income for the third fiscal quarter fell short of the number expected by analysts. The results show how tough the video game market has become for publishers that aren’t executing with a number of great hits.
THQ is one of the largest U.S. game publishers, and its financial struggles after more than two decades of making video games is a sign of big changes happening in the core video game industry.
THQ’s Saints … Continue Reading
AOL to transform Huffington Post into an Internet TV network
AOL is planning to launch a new streaming video network branded under its Huffington Post web news site, the company announced Thursday.
The new network will feature live streaming video content 12 hours a day during the week from 9 a.m to 9 p.m. ET, according to a THR report. Founding Huffington Post editor Roy Sekoff will head up the new network, which will be produced in AOL’s New York City and LA studios by … Continue Reading
Upverter launches paid accounts for private hardware hacking
Upverter, the fascinating open-source hardware hackers’ tool, has just launched paid accounts.
With these accounts, users can hack away at their designs away from the public eye. It works a lot like Github’s private offerings, where paying users can shield their code repositories from outside eyes, if they so choose.
Upverter won hearts as a DEMO Fall 2011 company; its blend of cloud-based collaboration and hardware-hacker focus hit the market at just the right time.… Continue Reading
Take-Two Interactive sees big drop in earnings thanks to Max Payne 3 game delay
Take-Two Interactive Software reported a big drop in earnings due in large part because of the delay of its major video game, Max Payne 3. The earnings decline was in line with the expectations of analysts, who had been forewarned, but revenues fell short of expectations.
The New York-based company reported GAAP net income of $14.1 million, or 16 cents a share, compared with net income of $40.9 million, or 45 cents a share, a … Continue Reading
Bluetooth-accessory startup Mosoro gets $1.5M in funding
Mosoro, a startup that makes Bluetooth hardware with complimentary smartphone apps, has raised $1.5 million in its first round of funding.
Mosoro creates “appcessories,” or Bluetooth devices with dedicated companion apps for iOS and Android. The company has made two Bluetooth devices so far, 3-D Sport and Weather, and has two more in the works, Talk, and Bonsai. They all connect with smartphone apps to record motion, report weather conditions, play audio, stream video, and … Continue Reading
Security! Android’s Bouncer to prevent malware from making it to the Market
Whether accurate or exaggerated, claims of rampant malware apps have haunted the Android Market. Now, Google’s Android team is announcing Bouncer, a new security mechanism that should prevent bad apps from ever making it into the Market.
It’s a programmatic solution that’s allegedly good for both the goose (or users, in this case) and the gander (honest mobile developers who don’t want to wait through a lengthy application process à la the Apple App Store’s).… Continue Reading
Ticket aggregator TiqIQ raises $1.7M as it goes head to head with rival SeatGeek
Two New York startups are vying for the title of top ticket aggregator. SeatGeek is better known, but TiqIQ announced a $1.7 million series A Thursday, giving it almost as much funding as its high-profile rival.
Both companies crunch mountains of data to forecast the price of tickets, helping fans decide on the best time to buy. Both work with publishers to power ticket sales on their sites. Up until now, only SeatGeek had a … Continue Reading
Under new CEO, AMD will launch processors for tablets this year
Advanced Micro Devices said at its analyst meeting today that it will ship its first chips designed to provide the processing and graphics power for tablet computers.
Rory Read (pictured), chief executive of Sunnyvale, Calif.-based AMD, was appointed the new boss of the company in August. In his first appearance before analysts, he said the company is now focused on where the market is going. AMD is a strategic company in the semiconductor industry, as … Continue Reading
