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Posted: 15 Oct 2011 12:01 AM PDT
 Don’t be surprised. The debut of Apple’s iPhone 4S today was met with long lines, loud cheers, activation headaches, and interviews with the ubiquitous Steve Wozniak, the surviving co-founder of Apple.Wozniak was the first in line at the Apple Store in Los Gatos, Calif., where video interviews lined up to interview him. Wozniak said he missed Steve Jobs and didn’t realize just how sick his good friend was. He fears a little for the future of Apple. But Wozniak was ecstatic about the iPhone 4S and its Siri voice command service, in an interview with TechCrunch. The handsets went on sale at 8 am Pacific time and bleary-eyed fans such as Wozniak were waiting in throngs. The iPhone 4S went on sale in the U.S. and six more countries, with more countries being added at a faster rate than with past iPhone launches. Apple’s aim is to clearly put distance between it and its rivals by selling as many new products as it can at the outset when the hype and desire is the strongest. Apple faces fierce competition from rivals such as Samsung, which is launching lots of models based on Google’s Android operating system. But Apple may have a big chance to grab dissatisfied BlackBerry customers who have just suffered through a four-day email outage. Apple has been losing market share to Android devices, but today is the first time it will have simultaneous launches with Sprint, Verizon Wireless and AT&T carriers. In Brooklyn Heights, N.Y., fans waited in a downpour. Some stores sold out of their allotments about 90 minutes after opening. Sprint said it had its best sales day ever. AT&T said it had lines at every store. and sales were exceeding expectations. Verizon also said it saw strong traffic. Apple’s preorders for the phone topped 3 million, but it wasn’t clear how many of those it delivered ton the first day. In Japan, the iPhone was selling with multiple carriers for the first time in Japan, as both Softbank and KDDI sold it. The opening weekend of sales will be marked in California with Steve Jobs Day on Sunday, Oct. 16. Gov. Jerry Brown declared the day in honor of Jobs, and a who’s who of Silicon Valley is expected to attend a memorial service for Jobs at Stanford University on Sunday. Gene Munster, analyst at Piper Jaffray, estimates that Apple will sell 25 million phones in the quarter, up from 22 million sold in the previous quarter. Apple will announce its earnings on Tuesday. Bloomberg said that Apple might sell 4 million units during the opening weekend alone. In 2010, Apple had preorders of about 600,000 units for the iPhone 4. The reaction to today’s sales was positive in the stock market, as Apple’s stock price hit its all-time high on Friday. Filed under: mobile, VentureBeat         This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
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Posted: 14 Oct 2011 06:30 PM PDT
 Nvidia has created a second generation of stereoscopic 3D glasses known as 3D Vision 2, the company said today. The glasses will be bundled with specially designed monitors to create a much better quality experience for gamers who want to fully immerse themselves in 3D games. These improved glasses will solve part of the problem of the slow adoption of 3D graphics. With costs as low as $99, Nvidia is removing a lot of the objections people have to stereoscopic 3D. Now the hardware maker needs more game makers to step up and create cool stereoscopic 3D experiences in games.Jen-Hsun Huang, chief executive at Nvidia, plans to make the announcement aboard the historic USS Hornet aircraft carrier, which is permanently anchored in Alameda, Calif. There, Nvidia will be host to hundreds of gamers who will compete in a competition to play Battlefield 3, an upcoming modern combat game from Electronic Arts, in a massive bring-your-own-computer LAN tournament. The sort of gamers who play in such tournaments are the perfect target for 3D glasses, since the company contends that the glasses will give an unfair advantage to gamers due to the wider field of vision they enable. You can see if someone is sneaking up on you from the side because you will have more peripheral vision in a game, particularly if you use three monitors with the glasses.  I was able to check out the 3D glasses at Nvidia in Santa Clara, Calif., earlier this week. I’ve been a skeptic of most stereoscopic 3D effects, from the Nintendo 3DS handheld to 3D console games on big-screen TVs. But I did like the 3D effects in the theater when I saw James Cameron’s Avatar film, and I liked the original 3D Vision technology. This new 3D Vision 2 technology looks even better. I saw how it looked with the Batman Arkham Asylum game from last year, but I wasn’t able to see it on new games that are compatible, such as Battlefield 3.One of the reasons for the improvement is that Nvidia has designed the lenses to be 20 percent larger, and they have ridges along the sides that block light from getting into your eyes from the sides or bottoms. I never realized how distracting that light could be until I tried out the new glasses. The glasses are backward compatible with older monitors and 3D emitters. And they are more comfortable. The new generation of technology incorporates improvements such as having the emitter, which helps produce the 3D effect, directly in the 3D monitor itself so as to lower costs and the hassle of having a separate device attached to your TV, Phil Eisler, general manager of 3D Vision at Nvidia, told VentureBeat. Nvidia also designed the technology so that it can work with 27-inch PC monitors, which look much more immersive than the 22-inch monitors from the original 3D Vision, which launched two years ago. The monitors are brighter to compensate for the loss of brightness that results when the emitter switches the imagery from one eye to the other. The switching from left to right — which produces the 3D effect — diminishes the light in a scene by half. Nvidia compensates with a brighter picture, and it calls this its 3D LightBoost technology. Monitor makers are incorporating it into their monitors. Asus will have the first one, dubbed the Asus VG278H, a 27-inch screen bundled with 3D Vision 2 glasses and 3D LightBoost. Other 3DLightBoost monitors will come from Acer and BenQ. Toshiba, meanwhile, will have 3D LightBoost on a 17.3-inch Toshiba Qosmio laptop and a Toshiba Satellite laptop. The monitors operate at 120 hertz, which means they flash images on the screen at 120 hertz per second. The 3D effect reduces that to 60 times per second, which is fast enough to keep up with the fastest first-person shooter games. The screens are also designed to reduce ghosting, or secondary images that ruin the 3D experience. “We think we’ve got the world’s best 3D gaming experience,” Eisler said. “It makes you more competitive when you play.” Eisler said there are now 550 PC games that are 3D Vision ready. There are 100 movies as well, and lots of 3D photos and 3D videos on sites such as YouTube. Full told, Nvidia has sold more than 500,000 3D Vision glasses in the past couple of years. That’s a tiny amount compared to the hundreds of millions of graphics chips the company sells. But it’s a start, and it shows there is a growing community of 3D game fans. The new wireless 3D Vision 2 kit will sell for $149 with an emitter. The glasses alone sell for $99. The products will be available later this month.  Filed under: games         This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
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Posted: 14 Oct 2011 05:41 PM PDT
 Apple has scheduled a private, invitation-only memorial service for Steve Jobs on Oct. 16, according to the Wall Street Journal.The event is set for Stanford University on Sunday evening, according to the invitation. Last week, the Jobs family held a small private funeral for the Apple co-founder, who died on Oct. 5 from pancreatic cancer. The memorial is expected to be attended by a number of Silicon Valley luminaries, but Apple told the Wall Street Journal that the service is a private one. Guests were invited to respond to the Emerson Collective, a charity group set up by wife Laurene Powell Jobs. Apple is also gong to have an employees-only celebration of Jobs’ life at its headquarters on Oct. 19. The Stanford setting seems appropriate, as that was where memorial services were held for David Packard, co-founder of Hewlett-Packard, when he passed away in 1996. Meanwhile, Gov. Jerry Brown declared Sunday to be Steve Jobs Day in California. Filed under: VentureBeat         This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
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Posted: 14 Oct 2011 05:27 PM PDT
 Venture capital firm Andreessen-Horowitz announced today that it is participating in startup incubator Y Combinator‘s Start Fund, alongside venture capitalists Ron Conway and Yuri Milner.“We’ve been working with Paul [Graham, founder of Y Combinator] for awhile and we’ve just been really impressed,” said Margit Wennmachers, partner at Andreessen-Horowitz in an interview with VentureBeat. “So when we had a chance to join the program we said ‘absolutely.’” The Start Fund awards $150,000 to each startup brought into the incubator. Ron Conway of SV Angels and Yuri Milner of investment firm DTS have been running the show on their own since January. With Andreessen-Horowitz’s inclusion, the three will each put $50,000 of convertible debt into the pot. The amount is static and does not change per startup, everyone receives $150,000. Andreessen-Horowitz will participate in the next Y Combinator startup event at the end of October. According to Wennmachers, the firm was particularly convinced to join when it found over a dozen of its own portfolio companies to be Y Combinator alumni. These companies include LikeALittle and Bump. “The big point here is that Paul and Jessica do a great job of vetting,” said Wennmachers. The firm has worked alongside Conway and Milner in the past as well, an experience which Wennmachers describes as “awesome.” Conway and Milner started the fund in January 2011. [via All Things D] Filed under: deals         This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
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Posted: 14 Oct 2011 04:29 PM PDT
 When you get a cool new gadget like an iPhone 4S, you want to show it off. But before you can brag about how awesome Siri is, you have to activate your new phone.In the Apple store, employees can guide you through the process, however it’s pretty easy to do on your own as well. Here are some tips for getting your iPhone 4S up and running If you are upgrading from an older phone, you’ll want bring over its SIM card, which has your phone number and carrier data on it. Pop the SIM card out of the old device by pushing the end of a paperclip into the hole on the side of the iPhone. Do the same for the iPhone 4S and insert the working SIM card into the new phone. Turn on the iPhone 4S and follow the easy directions for setup. (Make sure the phone is charged). You select your language, home country, and whether you want the iPhone 4S to use your location. It asks if you want to use a Wi-Fi network or the cellular network to obtain internet access. Now wait for the service to be activated. At this point, it either works or it doesn’t. Some people are reporting that activation is taking a long time, but it was just a few minutes for me. The iPhone setup will ask if you want to set up as a new iPhone, restore from an iCloud backup, or restore from an iTunes backup. I chose to upgrade from an existing iTunes account, where my previous phone was backed up. Now sign in with your Apple ID. The Apple ID is what you need for just about anything related to Apple, like buying songs on iTunes. You can either set one up or use an existing one. The phone will ask you if you want to use the Find My iPhone app, which locates the phone on a map when it is lost. It also asks you if you want to use the Siri personal assistant. That’s a no brainer, as Siri, which performs tasks based on your voice commands, is one of the most interesting new features on the iPhone 4S. You can also opt-in or out of sending diagnostic information to Apple or register the device with Apple. If you want to backup the new iPhone with an older backup copy of your previous iPhone or add your existing iPhone account, you have to first upgrade to iTunes 10.5. You do this on your Mac or PC, going to iTunes.com to download the latest software. That process is easy, but time consuming. Once the update is complete, iTunes will recognize your iPhone 4S when you connect it to the computer. You can then restore the backup to the new iPhone, so you can have all your contacts and apps on the new phone. You then have to enter an Apple ID again. It asks you to set up the iCloud. The iCloud allows you to move data, photos or videos from one device on the iCloud network, like your iPhone, to another, like the Mac. You should then backup the iPhone to the iCloud. At the end of the process you can start using your iPhone. Then you can finally wave it in front of your friends and gloat. Filed under: mobile         This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
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Posted: 14 Oct 2011 04:25 PM PDT
 Tech and financial analysts are making statements today about Apple and what they say is the imminent launch of the next iPad.Susquehanna Financial Group's Jeffrey Fidacaro and Christopher Caso each published notes today on Apple. Caso specifically stated in his missive that as many as one million iPad 3 units could be built between now and the end of 2011. Fidicaro stated his projections for the current crop of iPads; he concluded that Apple shipped 11.5 million iPad units in the third quarter of 2011 and that the company will likely hit 13 million iPads shipped for Q4. Earlier this year, Apple had to discuss some disappointing sales figures for the iPad 2. For the second quarter, the company shipped just 4.69 million units — far less than projections, which had ranged between 6 and 8 million. However, the company denied this low figure had anything to do with consumer demand. "We sold every iPad 2 we could make," said Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer at the time, indicating that the supply chain was, in fact, the problem. Then, last month, we learned that Apple had actually reduced the number of iPads it was ordering from manufacturers. Analysts at JPMorgan stated this was because the company was shifting its focus and resources to the next generation of its tablet, the iPad 3. As Caso stated today in his research note, “We believe Apple pulled production forward to ensure sufficient availability of iPad during the holidays, and such a move is consistent with a production decline in advance of the new model launch (we believe iPad 3 starts production in 4Q) … iPad 3 appears on the forecast for 4Q production start. Our checks indicate that iPad 3 has now shown up on Apple’s production forecast for a late 4Q production start.” The iPad 3 will be manufactured not in China or Taiwan, but at a Foxconn Electronics manufacturing plant in Brazil. The plant is likely a joint venture between Foxconn, which put up an initial $15 million investment, and the Brazilian government. The iPad 3 is rumored to launch in the beginning of 2012. Filed under: mobile         This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
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Posted: 14 Oct 2011 04:02 PM PDT
 Zynga may be losing some ground after spending years completely dominating the Facebook social gaming market.Facebook today announced that it is changing the way it counts the number of active users who access an application on its site, a move that will lower perceived values of monthly active users. The actual traffic to Facebook apps has not changed, but the new calculations should be more precise and transparent, a Facebook spokesperson told VentureBeat. One of the sites affected is AppData, which tracks an app’s monthly active users and is widely used as a metric for gauging success of some social app companies. With the new changes, Zynga’s (and other social app companies’) recorded monthly active users — as measured by Facebook’s metrics — could fall. Sources familiar with the situation told VentureBeat that the drop would be less than 20 percent. AppData currently reports Zynga has 263 million monthly active users. A drop of 11 percent or more would bring the company below its own reported number of monthly active users, 232 million, which the company reported when it filed to go public in July. (Zynga has not updated that number since then.) That would imply that Zynga has lost ground to social gaming companies like Electronic Arts and Wooga. Those companies are nowhere near Zynga in terms of users but are still top-ten developers, and have been slowly making inroads in social games. “We support Facebook's decision to change the way it measures the number of active users of its applications as it more accurately portrays the number of people who play Zynga games,” a Zynga spokesperson told VentureBeat. “As noted in our S-1 filing, we measure our player number on Facebook by how many people access our games and we are pleased that Facebook, and therefore AppData, will accurately reflect that number.” With an IPO in the works, any perceived slow-down in the company’s growth could diminish its perceived value to potential public investors. Zynga is the most profitable high-profile company that has filed to go public this year and expectations are extremely high for the company now that it has hinted at plans to break away from Facebook. (It’s worth noting that VentureBeat’s Dean Takahashi had a story earlier that throws a little bit of skepticism on the company’s accounting practices.) Zynga is still in an enviable position compared to other social gaming companies, which are not even remotely close to the social gaming behemoth. The company recently filed to go public in order to raise up to $1 billion and has delivered hit after hit game on Facebook. Zynga chief executive Mark Pincus played host to a few dozen press earlier this week as he unveiled 10 new games and Zynga Direct, the company’s new initiative geared toward distributing its games on any device without going through Facebook. “It’s important to note that any traffic has changed from yesterday to today, it’s just what they are measuring,” Inside Network’s Justin Smith told VentureBeat (Inside Network runs AppData). “I think they’ll bring (the two values) closer in line.”  Zynga has loaded its cannon with its next Ville game, CastleVille, along with a bevy of other Facebook games. But it hasn’t struck gold in nearly a year since the company released CityVille, which is still the top app on Facebook and contributes around 76 million monthly active users to the company (that’s according to AppData, so that will probably fall when the time comes). FarmVille, one of its first games, has reliably held the second or third-place spot for the company, with its newer games coming and going rapidly as they come out.For example, Empires and Allies held the number two spot for Zynga for a few months. But even that game had a short shelf life of five months before starting to peter out (though it still has 25.6 million monthly active users, again an enviable position). Adventure World appears to have filled the niche for Zynga’s other “top three” game — the company’s top games that account for around 59 percent of the company’s revenue. That strategy has held off a number of other social gaming companies, but Zynga for the first time faced significant competition from The Sims Social when Electronic Arts released it in September. (Also worth noting that The Sims Social’s growth has slowed and it doesn’t look like it will catch up to CityVille.) Even by AppData’s current standards, Zynga hasn’t showed any significant growth or loss over the past 30 days. The changes should more or less drag that holding pattern lower than it currently is (as pictured above). But those numbers do not include what will become part of Zynga Direct, the company’s next plans for growth independent of Facebook. The company is still poised for significant growth if Project Z, the company’s planned independent gaming website, proves successful alongside Zynga Direct. Filed under: games, VentureBeat         This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
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Posted: 14 Oct 2011 02:09 PM PDT
 Apple shares rose 3.3 percent today to close at $422 a share, an all-time high for the company.As fans flocked to Apple stores and waited in long lines to buy the iPhone 4S today, Apple’s market capitalization closed at $391 billion, allowing it to soar past Exxon, once again, as the world’s most valuable public company. Apple’s share price is now up 19 percent from the low it hit after the iPhone 4S was announced on Oct. 4. At that unveiling, fans were disappointed Apple didn’t announce an iPhone 5. But ten days later, things have taken a different turn. Apple is selling out of the device and it received more than 3 million pre-orders in its first weekend selling the device online. Apple had previously become No. 1 in market cap in August, but Exxon passed Apple again. Exxon is now No. 2 at $379 billion. Filed under: mobile         This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
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Posted: 14 Oct 2011 01:30 PM PDT
 Almost like clockwork, AT&T’s iPhone activation servers have crumbled under the onslaught of eager new owners, just as they have for every iPhone launch. Meanwhile, iPhone 4S activations on Sprint and Verizon seem to be moving along swimmingly. Many new AT&T iPhone 4S owners (this reporter included) faced the above activation error screen several times before their phones were able to successfully activate. Instead of just failing completely, iPhone 4S owners are placed in an activation queue when they receive the error and are notified by email when it’s complete. (Ever the eager gadget geek, I spent an hour restarting the activation process before it finally took.) I first noticed traces of AT&T’s annual activation woes this morning on Twitter. MSNBC tech reporter Rosa Golijan posted the above picture with a Vader-esque “Noooooooo!” and it wasn’t too hard to find other annoyed iPhone 4S owners by searching for “iPhone activation” on Twitter. I’ve also talked to several iPhone 4S owners who have been in activation limbo for hours now. You’d think that AT&T would have prepared its servers for this particular launch, since it’s the first time it has to compete directly with other carriers. Now AT&T’s activation issues stand out all the more. Then again, the delays could be worse — back in 2009, it took some iPhone 3GS owners up to two days to activate. Thanks to iOS 5, this year also marks the first time the iPhone can activate itself sans computer. Previously, you had to connect your new iPhone to iTunes to activate it properly. Being able to self-activate will be particularly useful for the iPad, which some computer-less consumers have had trouble activating at home. Neither Apple nor AT&T were immediately available for comment. I’ll update when I hear back. How has your iPhone activation experience been? Let us know in the comments! Photo by Rosa Golijan Filed under: mobile, VentureBeat         This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
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Posted: 14 Oct 2011 01:28 PM PDT
 Amazon is selling the entire lineup of Verizon Wireless smartphones for a penny each with a 2-year contract this week — all except for the Apple iPhone 4S of course, which is launching today. This is an great deal for those looking for a 4G-LTE-enabled Android phone on Verizon, such as the truly awesome Motorola Droid Bionic. If you try to buy the Droid Bionic direct from Verizon’s website, the phone costs $300, while the BlackBerry Bold 9930 (for some reason) retails for $250. Some other cool phones worth considering from Verizon include the HTC Thunderbolt 4G, Motorola Droid 3 Global, LG Revolution 4G and the HTC Droid Incredible 2. All of these devices have an ideal use case, so look carefully and find the right one for you. Amazon’s sale ends on 11:59 p.m. PDT on Oct. 17. The huge Amazon sale could be an attempt to counter all the Apple iPhone 4S hype. It’s unclear if the sale will detract any of the masses who have swarmed to buy an iPhone 4S this weekend, but we don’t blame Amazon for trying. Filed under: mobile         This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
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Posted: 14 Oct 2011 12:27 PM PDT
 Google is axing a number of its limp social products, including Buzz, in favor of Google+ according to a blog post today by Vice President of Product Brad Horowitz.And say goodbye to feeling like you have all the cool features your friends wish they knew about, as the Google Labs website dies off this afternoon. “To succeed you need real focus and thought—thought about what you work on and, just as important, what you don't work on,” Horowitz stated in the blog post. The blog post states Buzz and the associated API (application programming interface) will bow out in the next few weeks, to make way for more products on the Google+ front. Google chief executive Larry Page announced in its earnings call yesterday that its fledgling social network has already surpassed 40 million users. Users will still be able to access their former buzzes through their Google profiles or by downloading it on Google Takeout. Horowitz explained in a separate post on Google+ the impact Buzz had on the development of the new social network. He explained Google learned about the importance of social privacy after settling a hefty lawsuit targeting Buzz privacy concerns. These ultimately led to the development of Circles, a feature in Google+ that allows you to segment your friends and share information accordingly. He also stated lessons gleaned from Buzz shaped the way Google decided to roll out Google+. “Probably the best lesson we learned is about how to introduce a product. We started very slowly with Google+ — in a limited Field Trial – in order to listen and learn and gather plenty of real-world feedback,” he stated in the post. As part of Google’s fall sweep, Google Labs’ website will also take a knee. The company recently cut off its Q&A service Aardvark in preparation for Labs’ departure. A spokesperson for Google clarified that Google’s “experimentation channels” such as Gmail and Maps Labs will remain alive, for all you Gmail users who love that “undo” feature. The company will still use these channels as an opportunity to test out new ideas. The company is also cutting off iGoogle’s social features, taking effect January 15, 2012. Buzz was introduced in 2010. Filed under: social         This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
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Posted: 14 Oct 2011 11:37 AM PDT
Though we think of texting as just as a means of day-to-day communication, it has been utilized in developing countries in a variety of ingenious ways to improve the lives of the people there. Surprisingly, cell phones in the developing world are both cheaper and more ubiquitous than many basic services we take for granted, such as brick-and-mortar banks and, in some countries, even electricity. Entrepreneurs and social activists alike have taken advantage of this fact in some incredible ways. This infographic details several of them.
 A former Social Media consultant at AOL, Greg Voakes regularly contributes his written work as well as Data Visualizations (Infographics) to publishers all across the Web. He is a regular contributor to Guyism.com, Men’s Fitness, and owns/operates a humor blog called Fork Party. [Image via mbaonline.com] Filed under: mobile, VentureBeat         This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
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Posted: 14 Oct 2011 11:22 AM PDT
 Zynga made some changes to its accounting and disclosed new stock repurchases, setting off alarm bells at one analyst firm that studies the value of private companies.It seems like a small accounting change, but it shifted Zynga’s last financial report from a loss to a profit for the six months ended June 30. The change came as Zynga prepares for an initial public offering, and it happened about the same time that Zynga announced a major product launch with 10 new games and services. The accounting change in Amendment 4 in the IPO filing filed yesterday relates to virtual goods, the primary source of revenue. Zynga is actually providing more clarity by spelling out the difference between its consumable virtual goods and its durable virtual goods. That’s a good thing. Presumably, the Securities and Exchange Commission is OK with this because it typically tries to get companies to disclose more information to give an accurate accounting picture. In free-to-play games, users play for free and pay real money for virtual goods. Zynga’s virtual goods are either consumable, which is something you buy and use right away, like energy in a game. Or they are durable, which is something you buy and use as long as you continue to play. Revenue from consumable virtual goods is recognized immediately. But revenue from durable goods is recognized over the time that the average person plays the game. Durable virtual goods are 68 percent of online game revenue, while consumable virtual goods are 32 percent, according to the filing. As viewed by Sam Hamadeh, chief executive of PrivCo.com in New York, Zynga changed the “estimated useful life of durable goods,” so that revenue from virtual goods is recognized faster. Zynga shortened the life of the durable virtual goods, its primary source of revenue in free-to-play games, to 15 months for the six months ended June 30, compared to 19 months a year earlier. Zynga says that it will evaluate on a quarterly basis its estimate for the lifetime of a durable virtual good. Zynga has said that the average duration for durable goods is now shorter. As for the shortening of the duration of play, Hamadeh said, it “makes you wonder how strong the company’s accounting controls are to be off by that amount.” The accounting estimate change added over $27 million to this year’s first half revenues, meaning that without it, Zynga’s first half small profit would have in fact been a loss, Hamadeh said. Net income for the six months ended June 30 was $18.1 million. For the three months ended June 30, net income was $1.4 million. “It’s a red flag when a company wants to suddenly start recognizing revenue faster,” Hamadeh said. Hamadeh also noted that the stock repurchases show that Zynga is using cash raised from investors to buy out the stock owned by some insiders. As it did so, Zynga declared that the company’s value more than doubled in a two-month period from January to March. Zynga bought Class B Common stock from employees Michael Verdu and Cadir Lee in January for $6.43 a share. Then, when chief executive Mark Pincus sold shares to Zynga two months later, Zynga paid $13.96 a share. That was a 117 percent price increase in two months. Zynga was a hot commodity at the time, but did it really become that much more valuable in such a short time? As we understand it, those valuations are based on estimates from a third party. The cash outs during this period amounted to hundreds of millions of dollars. Big shareholders like Pincus still own a lot of stock. But there were also additional amounts of stock sold by shareholders on the secondary markets, worth about $200 million. Hamadeh also highlighted the previously reported fact that Pincus has received a 70-to-1 voting stock class for himself, where he will be able to control the company’s voting power even though his ownership of the company is dwindling. The rumored change has now been confirmed in the filing. So just before the IPO, there are big insider sales, a decline in internal metrics, change in accounting method, a big jump in market value in the company’s own analysis, and a founder implementing 70-to-1 voting stock for himself. If you add that up, it is all legal, Hamadeh said. “But all together, it doesn’t smell good,” he concluded. The company did not comment on Hamadeh’s statements. Filed under: games         This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
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Posted: 14 Oct 2011 10:48 AM PDT
 We’ve all heard insanity defined as doing the same thing and expecting different results.Today, Yahoo‘s board is getting a little crazy, hiring the same executive search firm that unearthed Carol Bartz to find the company’s next CEO. All Things D, citing anonymous sources with intimate knowledge of the situation, reports that a different partner at same firm, Heidrich & Struggles, will be heading up the new search efforts. Bartz’s appointment as CEO was engineered by Heidrich & Struggles partner John Thompson. With any luck, both the firm and Yahoo’s own board will steer clear of any mistakes that might lead to another Bartz. Bartz, who only joined the company in 2009, is known for being a foul-mouthed firebrand. She was fired last month in the wake of underperforming ad sales, slow growth in public trading, mishandled relationships with Asian partners and a fast-spinning revolving door of Yahoo executives. The day after the firing, Yahoo reportedly took on new advisers to conduct a thorough review of Yahoo's performance and assets. Meanwhile, the sudden shift in Yahoo’s leadership has had many would-be acquiring CEOs salivating. Alibaba CEO Jack Ma publicly stated two weeks ago that he is “very, very interested” in acquiring Yahoo. And Aol CEO Tim Armstrong is reportedly just as eager, pitching the acquisition to shareholders as a money-saving merger that would allow both companies to get rid of duplications in overhead and content while dominating online advertising. Whether Yahoo’s board — or its new CEO — will seriously entertain acquisition or merger talks is currently unknown. But the company is without doubt in an unsettled state and is in powerful need of strong, sage leadership as soon as possible. Filed under: VentureBeat         This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
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Posted: 14 Oct 2011 10:04 AM PDT
 Joining streaming music services such as Last.fm and Pandora, Spotify has launched an app for the Boxee Box, the company announced Friday.The Boxee Box is a streaming set-top box featuring Boxee’s open-source media software, which transforms televisions into internet connected media centers. The new Spotify Boxee app signals that the company is pushing beyond desktop and mobile devices and is giving users access to the service in their living rooms (or wherever they watch TV). Users don’t need the Boxee set-top box (just a device running the software) to gain access to Spotify, but they will need to be premium Spotify subscribers to take advantage of the new app. The app gives subscribers access to the Spotify catalog of music and all personal playlists. One thing users won’t be able to do is edit their Spotify playlists, which is something people might take issue with, according to Boxee VP of Marketing Andrew Kippen. “There’s bound to be people who aren’t as happy that you can’t edit playlists or do searches on the app. But, we really wanted to train them to realize that they shouldn’t be doing that stuff on their TV anyways,” Kippen said. I have to agree with him, especially since its not very difficult to get up, sign on to Spotify, make changes and then resume enjoying your music. Boxee is, of course, intended as a passive way to consume media — much in the way you currently watch cable TV. The company said the new Boxee Spotify App should be available now, but I’m still not seeing it populate in the list of newly released apps. Kippen advised Boxee users to try signing out of their accounts and then back in again, which should make Spotify pop up in the list of featured apps. Spotify, which only launched in the U.S. in July, has lots of catching up to do in regards to adding access to other devices and platforms. Competitors like Last.fm and Pandora are already available on hundreds of other platforms. Founded in December 2009, the Swedish company has a total of $253.8 million (€183 million) in funding to date. Filed under: media, VentureBeat         This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
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Posted: 14 Oct 2011 10:00 AM PDT
 We managed to get our hands on one of the upcoming Windows 8 operating system tablets from Microsoft. The tablets, which Microsoft showed off at its recent Build developer conference, will be coming out next year, so we’ve put together a video (below) of what you can expect from them.The tablet we looked at is a Series 7 Slate made by Samsung. You can use the tablet as a full-fledged PC, running the familiar Windows-like user interface. But you can make things happen on the screen by tapping them with your finger. The really cool part happens when you press the main button on the tablet and it shifts the display into the Metro user interface (pictured). The Metro interface has big icons that are much easier to hit when you’re navigating with your fingers. They’re colorful and easy to look at, much like the tiles in the Windows Phone 7 software that runs on Microsoft-based smartphones. Metro is the beginning of a consistent user interface that can now be shared across the PC, tablets, smartphones and even the Xbox Live online gaming service and Xbox 360 game console. You can swipe horizontally to make the tiles move quickly from side to side so that you can navigate quickly. The Metro interface has bold white type that you can see from far away against the colorful backgrounds. The software was running on a big Series 7 tablet with an 11.6-inch capacitive touchscreen. It runs on a beefy Intel 1.6-gigahertz Core i5 microprocessor with integrated graphics. It has connectivity with 802.11b/g/n WiFi. It has a universal serial bus 2.o (USB) port and a micro HDMI socket so you can connect it to a TV. That’s a lot more hardware firepower than you find in a typical tablet. But it was certainly enough to run the tablet at full speed. You can play a cute piano app on the touchscreen or run Microsoft Excel. The Metro interface is cool because you can personalize the tiles so they display what you want, such as the weather in your home town. You can easily access your Twitter or Facebook accounts. You can swipe your finger on the edge of the screen to call up a bunch of functions such as search or share. That search function will let you search not only the whole computer, but a particular app as well. You can lock the screen with a password, PIN number, or a picture password. The virtual keyboard can be used for typing, but I am hoping that Microsoft makes the icon for the keyboard bigger. That’s also the big problem with using the Windows interface on the tablet. Most of the little buttons are too small for you to hit with your finger accurately. It’s an interesting take on doing software for a tablet. I’m not sure that having a single user interface will work across so many devices. But Microsoft is banking that if you become familiar with one of its user interfaces, you will be able to easily learn all of the others as well, from console to tablet. That’s not bad for a grand scheme to catch up with Apple. Check out our video of the Windows 8 tablet below. (Note that I misspoke and called it a Samsung Galaxy tablet. And also note that this developer release only shows a small portion of what will be in a final Windows 8 tablet).  Filed under: mobile         This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
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