Does Zynga Have A Future? (3 videos)

Are Better Days Ahead for Zynga?: Video - Bloomberg:
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IDG Ventures USA's Tyler He and Bloomberg Intelligence's Praveen Menon discuss the outlook for Zynga with Pimm Fox on "Taking Stock." Bloomberg's Cory Johnson also comments. (Source: Bloomberg Aug7)

Zynga's Wild Ride: Can the Company Ever Rebound?: Video - Bloomberg:
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Zynga once seemed like a dominant company in a rapidly growing industry. But after a big IPO that enriched its founder Mark Pincus, Zynga became the poster boy of a failed social-media company. As CEO Don Mattrick enters into his second year at the helm of Zynga, Bloomberg's Cory Johnson looks at Zynga's strange and interesting path to today. (Source: Bloomberg Aug7)

Turnaround Troubles: Can Don Mattrick Save Zynga?: Video - Bloomberg:
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 Zynga posted second-quarter results at the low end of its forecast and cut its full-year outlook after deciding to delay new games, including poker and Words With Friends. Cory Johnson has more on "Bloomberg West." (Source: Bloomberg Aug7)

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Struggling Zynga serves up ChefVille virtual restaurant game

Struggling Zynga serves up ChefVille virtual restaurant game
CNET
You can't rain on Zynga's parade. Amid lawsuits and disappointing earnings, the game-creator continues to expand its "Ville" series with a new restaurant-themed social game. by Donna Tam Zynga launched its version of a restaurant social game today, ...

Chrysler, Sprint team up to offer new Uconnect infotainment features
The Detroit News
By Melissa Burden Acme, Mich.— Chrysler Group LLC said Monday it has partnered with Sprint to provide embedded wireless services for Chrysler's Uconnect infotainment system that will be available in the 2013 Ram 1500 pickup and SRT Viper models in fall ...

Infosys launches cloud solutions
Hindu Business Line
This, according to the company, will enable its existing and future clients to adopt, manage and govern cloud computing solutions. Vishnu Bat, Vice-President and Global Head-Cloud, told Business Line: “Businesses can now accelerate time-to-market of ...

Going Mobile: Frequent Queries From the C-Suite
Wired News
I've been reading Wired since Issue 1 in 1993 and while that may date me, I'm not ashamed to say it since it also means I've been around long enough to witness many IT trends in the workplace. The most significant is today's surge in mobile and social ...

Web Applications Are Attacked One out of Three Days, Report Says
PCWorld
By Lucian Constantin, IDG-News-Service:Romania-Bureau A typical Web application is the target of an attack at least one in three days on average, according to a report released by data security firm Imperva. The third edition of Imperva's semi-annual ...

Payback: Samsung says Apple destroyed evidence
CNET
Samsung tells court not to buy Apple's excuses for why managers, including Steve Jobs, generated so few e-mails relevant to the companies' patent dispute. Samsung wants Apple penalized. by Greg Sandoval Apple didn't preserve e-mail evidence any better ...

Why Dropping YouTube in iOS 6 is Good
PC Magazine
By Sascha Segan A little too much ado is being made over Apple dropping the YouTube app from iOS 6, probably because Apple and Google are locked in a death match right now. That's true, but it isn't why YouTube had to go. That YouTube icon on every ...

Sprint drops price of 16 GB iPhone 4S to $149.99
Computerworld
By Matt Hamblen The move comes about five weeks ahead of Apple's expected launch of the next-generation iPhone on Sept. 12. Sprint is also offering free activation when buying the 16 GB iPhone 4S online, an added savings of $36, according to its ...

Apple pulls its boy genius ads
CNET
Claiming this was its strategy all along, Apple removes the Olympics ads in which its Genius Bar employees were helpful at 4 am and its customers were none too bright about tech. by Chris Matyszczyk Just as you were getting used to the idea that men in ...

Amazon reportedly delivers Lockers service to San Francisco
CNET
The company already offers its Lockers, the e-retail giant's answer to Best Buy's in-store pickup, in New York City, the Washington, DC, area, and Seattle. by Don Reisinger Amazon Lockers, the e-retail giant's answer to Best Buy's in-store pickup, ...

Kno launches digital textbooks for K-12 pupils
CNET
Digital education startup Kno is making its move on elementary and secondary schools. Rent a textbook, anyone? by Charlie Osborne Kno has announced a new partnership with publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt that sees the company getting into the K-12 ...

Microsoft Reaches Licensing Deal With Sharp
Wall Street Journal
By Tess Stynes Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) reached a licensing agreement with consumer electronics company Sharp Corp. (6753.TO, SHCAY) for technology that eases the transfer of larger files between personal computers and other electronic devices.

British radio telescope genius Sir Bernard Lovell dies
Register
By Anna Leach • Get more from this author Sir Bernard Lovell - the brilliant British physicist whose inventions observed cosmic rays and ended up on the front lines of the Cold War - has died at the age of 98 this week. Bristol-born Sir Bernard is ...

Google asteroid mining venture attracts billionaires
Newsday
Business Newsday New York Print Aa Google asteroid mining venture attracts billionaires Originally published: August 7, 2012 10:53 AM Updated: August 7, 2012 11:06 AM By BLOOMBERG NEWS Planetary Resources Inc., an asteroid-mining venture backed by ...

Newsday

AMD's New FirePro Chips Offer Integrated CPU, Graphics
eWeek
Like previous AMD chips, the FirePro APUs combine compute and graphics capabilities on the same chip, and are aimed at workstations used by design professionals. Advanced Micro Devices is rolling out new FirePro chips that integrate both discrete-level ...

In-App Purchases Coming to Windows Phone 8, Not Earlier Versions
PC Magazine
By Stephanie Mlot Microsoft is finally bringing in-app purchases to Windows Phone, but it will only be available on the upcoming Windows Phone 8. Recent Microsoft guidelines confirm that users and developers working with the current version of Windows ...

Community Win: DayZ Being Developed as a Stand-Alone Game
Forbes
“The end of the beginning,” reads a post on the DayZ development blog, with an appropriately apocalyptic tone for the massive ArmA II zombie mod that's attracted some 1000000 players. The news inside is much sunnier than a terrifying wasteland infested ...

Google Invests in Digital Signature Company DocuSign
PCWorld
By Loek Essers, IDG-News-Service:Amsterdam-Bureau Google has staked some cash on the market for digital signatures on electronic documents with a venture capital investment in DocuSign, the companies announced Tuesday. DocuSign's technology is used by ...

Bingo! Facebook Gambles On Games Using Real Money, Not Credits, To Engage Users
TechCrunch
For the last three quarters, Facebook has been struggling to move the needle on its payments business, but today a new game has launched that could provide a clue to how that could change that in the future: the social network has, for the first time, ...

Plextor M5 Pro bulges SSD envelope with 94K IOPS and 540MB/s
Engadget
By Steve Dent posted Aug 7th 2012 1:00PM Plextor's newly launched M5 Pro is angling to be the top dot on the SATA III SSD spec charts -- and looks like it will mostly succeed. The Marvell Monet controller lets the unit hit a continuous 540 MB/s read ...

Amazon's First Game is a Hallucinatory Minutiae-Spotters Wonderland
Kotaku
As mentioned this morning, Amazon.com is in the game development business. The first Facebook title from the newly-revealed Amazon Game Studios is a fresh take on the hidden object genre that'll have you seeing things. WithinLiving Classics's colorful ...

THQ Cancels inSane, Returns Intellectual Property Rights to Guillermo del Toro
RipTen
As THQ works to streamline their operations and recover from a miserable period in their financial history, even exciting titles aren't safe from cancelation. Yesterday during the publisher's Q1 financial earnings call, it was revealed that Guillermo ...

RipTen

Uncharted 3 Patch 1.13 Adds Most Content Ever
Cinema Blend
Uncharted 3 is nearly a year old, but that doesn't mean the team over at Naughty Dog is done adding to the online component of the game. Patch 1.13 is due to drop later today and, with it, the developers are promising the largest batch of updates to ...

Cinema Blend

Wii U Box Art for Three Ubisoft Games Appear at Amazon
TheHDRoom
Nintendo has remained quiet on revealing Wii U specifics with roughly three months to go until the new console's anticipated November release. We still don't have a release date, price, box art, or finalized pack out specs.

TheHDRoom

Everyone wants to marry NASA's 'Mohawk Guy'
Seattle Post Intelligencer (blog)
Bobak Ferdowsi, likely NASA's only heartthrob, might just be the most sought-after man in the nation right now. Ferdowsi, who became instantly famous for simultaneously looking attractive and landing the Curiosity rover on Mars — impossible!

Seattle Post Intelligencer (blog)

Mass Effect 3 Will Include Interactive Comic On Wii U
Gamenguide
The Mass Effect series will be making its much anticipated debut on a Nintendo console this holiday season and the game's maker Bioware has announced that the upcoming Wii U version of Mass Effect 3 will uses an interactive comic book to catch Nintendo ...

Gamenguide

New app lets New Yorker issues pile up in your phone instead of your bathroom
San Francisco Business Times (blog)
At last The New Yorker can be read (or left to pile up unread, creating feelings of guilt) via an iPhone. The New Yorker rolled out its new iPhone app this week, though the magazine didn't say whether the battery of a typical phone will last long ...

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Zynga and the Perils of Becoming a Platform

Zynga and the Perils of Becoming a Platform
BusinessWeek
By Ryan Lawler on March 02, 2012 I will give Zynga (ZNGA) this much: The company has some serious stones for setting up Zynga.com as a place for its own games and those of third parties to live outside Facebook. You can't really blame it for doing so.

Google's Chrome drops share for second straight month
Computerworld
By Gregg Keizer Computerworld - The browser battle returned to a kind of normalcy last month as Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE), which had posted its largest-ever share increase in January, declined slightly in February. And Google's Chrome fell for ...

Computerworld

Ubuntu 12.04 Beta 1 Arrives With New HUD
Tom's Hardware Guide
Canonical has just released the first beta of Ubuntu 12.04 "Precise Pangolin," and will follow up with beta 2 next month and the final release possibly within the next eight weeks. Ubuntu 12.04 Beta 1 is a long-term support release (LTS) that ...

GM to Halt Production of Slow-Selling Chevrolet Volt Plug-in for 5 Weeks
Bloomberg
General Motors Co. (GM), missing sales goals for the Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid, plans to halt production of the sedan for five weeks beginning later this month rather than discount the high-technology cars. GM will stop making Volts at its ...

Google planning Siri-like 'Assistant' for later this year, says report
VentureBeat
Google will release a voice-enabled application for Android that is similar to Apple's popular Siri by the fourth quarter of 2012, according a report by TechCrunch. While some view Siri as a gimmick, Apple touted its voice assistant heavily in several ...

VentureBeat

Terrafugia preps flying car for New York auto show
TG Daily
Flying cars have been the stuff of dreams for decades, and thus far, remains limited to the realm of science fiction. Yes, many people have tried to make the dream of flying cars a reality for the masses, yet the only company that appears to have some ...

NASA Reveals Litany of Security Breaches
Escapist Magazine
Highlights include the loss of the International Space Station's control codes to laptop theft. Whoops. A lifelong diet of sci-fi movies and space-based novels has inculcated a certain sense of NASA's invulnerability in various regions of our dear ...

Does A 'Steam Box' Console From Valve Make Sense?
Forbes
Setting off a rumor firestorm, The Verge reported that game developer Valve might be developing a 'Steam Box' console, bringing its Steam gaming service into the living room. The maker of Half-Life 2 and Portal 2 has traditionally published games for ...

Forbes

Will Apple create the all-iPad classroom?
San Jose Mercury News
By Sharon Noguchi Apple hopes its foray into digital textbooks for the iPad will impress educators and corner a huge, lucrative K-12 book market. But the high costs of the plan and the challenges of mobile technology could ensure that hardback books ...

Apple's App Store hits 25bn downloads
Financial Times
By Chris Nuttall in San Francisco More than 25bn apps have been downloaded from Apple's App Store, the company has announced in a milestone that highlights the shift to a new model for computing, digital content, software and the web.

Financial Times

Game-changing Lytro camera changes focus after you shoot
Arizona Daily Star
The Lytro introduces the concept of a "living photo" that can be adjusted by photographer or viewer. Unlike a traditional digital camera, the Lytro captures all the light traveling in any direction - enough information to allow the focus to be ...

Cassini spacecraft discovers oxygen around Saturn's moon: NASA
The State Column
NASA's Cassini spacecraft has detected molecular oxygen ions around Saturn's moon Dione, according to a NASA press release Friday. Scientists posit that this discovery confirms the presence of a very thin atmosphere. In fact, scientists reveal that the ...

Tutoring Software, AutoTutor, Responds to Student's Emotions
PsychCentral.com
By Janice Wood Associate News Editor Emotion-sensing computer software that responds to students' cognitive and emotional states, including frustration and boredom, has been developed by researchers at the University of Notre Dame, University of ...

AT&T sets new limits for 'unlimited' data plans
ITworld.com
AT&T yesterday clarified when and how it will slow down the connection speed of smartphone users who still have an unlimited data plan. Starting immediately, those with unlimited data will be warned via text message when their billing cycle consumption ...

iPads using iOS 6, high-res displays showing up in Ars server logs
Ars Technica
By Jacqui Cheng | Published March 2, 2012 11:15 AM Are employees at Apple already using the so-called iPad 3—possibly running iOS 6—to surf the Web ahead of its expected announcement on March 7? We're not sure, but the Ars magic 8-ball says "signs ...

Playstation Network Maintenance Today
GamersDailyNews
As you may recall, we had postponed our scheduled PlayStation Network maintenance session from last Thursday to a time to be announced. It is now determined that maintenance will take place tomorrow (Sunday, March 4). This significant PSN maintenance ...

Frenchman sues over Google Views urination photo
Reuters
| NANTES, France (Reuters) - A Frenchman took Google to court on Thursday over a photo published online by its Street View application showing him urinating in his front yard which he believes has made him the laughing stock of his village in rural ...

New speech-jamming gun hints at dystopian Big Brother future
ExtremeTech
By Sebastian Anthony on March 1, 2012 at 6:37 am Japanese researchers have created a hand-held gun (pictured above) that can jam the words of speakers who are more than 30 meters (100ft) away. The gun has two purposes, according to the researchers: At ...

ExtremeTech

Ocean acidification may be worst in 300 million years: study
AFP
WASHINGTON — High levels of pollution may be turning the planet's oceans acidic at a faster rate than at any time in the past 300 million years, with unknown consequences for future sea life, researchers said Thursday. The acidification may be worse ...

AFP

If you're using 'Password1,' change it. Now.
CNN
By Stacy Cowley @CNNMoneyTech March 1, 2012: 1:04 PM ET SAN FRANCISCO (CNNMoney) -- The number one way hackers get into protected systems isn't through a fancy technical exploit. It's by guessing the password. That's not too hard when the most common ...

Anonymous supporters attacked, their bank data vulnerable
msnbc.com
Anonymous supporters who willingly enlisted their personal computers to launch denial-of-service attacks against the groups' enemies may have unwillingly donated their personal banking information in the process. After the Jan. 20 raid on Megaupload, ...

Invasion of the flying robots
CNN
By Richard Galant, CNN Long Beach, California (CNN) -- It was after the robotic hummingbird flew around the auditorium -- and after a speaker talked about the hypersonic plane that could fly from New York to the West Coast in 11 minutes -- that things ...

Observers of Colorado skies to be treated to celestial wanderers
The Coloradoan
For millennia, stargazers around the world have recognized tha,t in addition to the sun and moon, five star-like objects are able to move about the heavens relative to the background stars and constellations. Because of this unusual characteristic, ...

Galactic collision creates mysterious 'dark core'
Christian Science Monitor
Images captured by the Hubble telescope reveal a mysterious clump of dark matter thought to be left behind after a massive galactic collision. But this dark matter isn't behaving in the way scientists expect dark matter to behave.

Christian Science Monitor

New privacy policy lets Google watch you — everywhere
Washington Post
Several weeks ago, I bought some exercise videos online. Then I noticed that whenever I did an Internet search about anything, an ad for that same video package and other similar workout videos kept popping up. It was spooky. The whole thing reminded ...

FBI: Cyber attacks may soon be top threat to USA
GMA News
Cyber-attacks loom as the top threat to the United States in the near future, officials of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation said. A report on PC World quoted FBI Director Robert Mueller as citing threats from hackers, including state-sponsored ...

Windows Server 8 Beta: 10 Big Feature Boosts
PC Magazine
Microsoft has tweaked and tuned up Windows Server 8 since the Developer's Preview. Here are the biggest updates in the latest version. By Samara Lynn Microsoft made available March 1 the beta version of the Windows Server 8 operating system, ...

Nokia To Issue Lumia 800 Battery Fix
InformationWeek
By Paul McDougall InformationWeek Nokia is distributing a firmware patch designed to fix a number of bugs and boost performance in the Lumia 800 in several key areas, including battery life--a widely criticized feature of the otherwise well-received ...

Sea otter that inspired legislation to protect species dies
Los Angeles Times
Toola, the female sea otter who inspired state legislation to better protect her species and was a pioneer in surrogate motherhood for stranded pups, died Saturday of natural causes and age-related ill-health, according to Monterey Bay Aquarium ...

Hadoop jumps through hoops, becomes mainstream — Tech News ...
By Matt Howard, Norwest Venture Partners
In 2012 and 2013, we will see a growing body of case studies and the emergence of best practices as Hadoop technology matures and gets deployed in traditional enterprise environments. In short, Hadoop's momentum will grow ...
GigaOM
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