Palo Alto, Calif. – Facebook has announced the creation of
the "Hacker Cup," a programming competition that will challenge
contestants to "successfully solve algorithmic-based problem
statements," judged on accuracy and speed. The top 25 competitors will be
flown to Facebook headquarters in California to compete for cash and prizes.
Related Links:
http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=467531498919
London – U.K. mobile content publisher Mobile Streams
announced this week that it has sold its Ringtones.com domain for $750,000. The
identity of the buyer was not disclosed. Mobile Streams said it is refocusing
the company more broadly on mobile applications, which it sells via its
Appitalism.com.
Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/34t4u8t
(PaidContent)
Foster City, Calif. – Sony (NYSE: SNE) Computer Entertainment has
developed a "machine-gun" accessory for its PlayStation Move
motion-based controller, dubbed the Sharp Shooter. Sony said the $39 accessory will
support game titles including "Killzone 3" and "SOCOM 4: U.S.
Navy SEALs."
Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/2dx6fqd
New York – Qualcomm is offering refunds to customers who
purchased mobile devices compatible with FLO TV, the mobile TV service it has
announced its will shutter on March 27, the Associated Press reported.
Qualcomm
will provide full refunds on products including its own portable TV, an Audiovox-branded
portable player, and an in-car system.
Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/32n2v59
http://tinyurl.com/24u6g7a
(DMW previous coverage)
Mountain View, Calif. – Google (NASD: GOOG) this week released its annual
"Zeitgeist," a listing of the most popular and trending search terms
in 2010, which revealed "Chatroulette" to be the fastest rising
search term worldwide this year.
Other fast-rising search terms included
"iPad" and "Justin Bieber."
In the sports world, World Cup-related
queries were popular, such as "vuvuzela" and "Paul the
Octopus."
Charity-related search terms also spiked this year, after
earthquakes in China, Chile and Haiti, floods in Pakistan and the Gulf oil
spill.
The full collection of Google Zeitgeist lists for 2010 is available from the link below.
Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/3yvp2dx
(Google blog)
Port Washington, N.Y. – U.S. video game sales saw their best
November sales on record, rising 8% to $2.99 billion from a year ago, according
to sales data compiled by market research firm NPD Group. Sales in all
categories were up in November from a year ago, with the exception of portable
device hardware and software.
Game hardware sales were up 9%, to $2.95 billion,
led by Microsoft’s (NASD: MSFT) Xbox 360, which saw a 68% sales increase from last November.
Meanwhile, software sales rose 4% to $1.46 billion, and accessories — fueled
by the Kinect and PlayStation Move — saw sales leap 69%, to $413 million.
"The 360 platform accounted for over 40% of total industry sales driven by
the successful launch of Microsoft’s Kinect," said NPD analyst Anita
Frazier.
"Xbox 360 accessories accounted for 60% of that categories’
dollar sales this month."
Activision’s (NASD: ATVI) "Call of Duty: Black Ops"
was the top-selling game last month, with sales of 8.4 million units.
Other
titles in the top ten included "Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood" and
"Just Dance 2" (Ubisoft); Electronic Arts’ (NASD: ERTS) "Madden NFL 11";
and Microsoft’s "Fable III."
Related Links:
http://www.npd.com
Los Angeles – Convicted file-swapper Jammie Thomas-Rassett
has asked the court to reduce the damages a jury ordered her to pay the record
labels as punishment for copyright infringement from $62,500 per song to zero,
the Recording Industry vs. The People blog reports.
Thomas has now been ordered
to pay substantial damages by three juries examining her case, and along the
way has had some success in getting the damages she must pay — which under
U.S. Copyright laws can reach up to $150,000 per song — reduced.
The new
motion from her legal team argues that the record labels provided no evidence
of actual damage as a result of her offering songs for download from her
computer on the Kazaa file-sharing network.
Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/2gygowg
(Recording Industry vs. The People)
http://tinyurl.com/238gsn5
(DMW previous coverage)
Dulles, Va. – Echo360, a provider of Internet audio and
video technology used by universities, has raised the first $1 million in a
planned $2 million notes offering, according to a filing with the Securities
and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Nine investors have taken part since the first
sale on Dec. 1.
The company last raised $26.4 million in a round that began in
late 2008 and closed in April.
Dulles, Va.-based Echo360’s main offering helps
universities record and replay lectures from professors through podcasts, video
and rich media.
The technology was developed in partnership with the University
of Western Australia.
The company initially was born as a subsidiary of
Anystream, and in 2007 acquired Lectopia, a company providing lecture capture
services in Australia and New Zealand.
Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/2f5wa29
Washington – Looking to bolster the digital marketing
industry’s interests in DC, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), the New
York-based industry organization representing more than 460 media and
technology companies, said on Friday it has created an office of general
counsel and promoted Mike Zaneis to the roles of senior vice president and
general counsel.
Zaneis most recently served as the organization’s vice
president of public policy, and earlier served as the executive director of
technology and e-commerce at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in DC.
"Public
policy has taken center-stage as one of the most critical issues facing the
digital marketing industry, and no one is better equipped to represent the IAB
and our members than Mike," said Randall Rothenberg, president and CEO of
the IAB.
In addition, the IAB has promoted Patrick Dolan, formerly chief
administrative officer, to COO, and David Doty, previous senior vice president
of marketing and thought leadership, to CMO.
Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/2dx45ul
Washington – The U.S. military has told troops to stop using
removable media — CDs, DVDs and thumb drives — that could be used to transfer
classified data in a means similar to how whistleblower site WikiLeaks received
its trove of documents, Wired reported.
Orders have been issued to all military
branches for servicemembers to cease using removable media on the Defense
Department’s secure network — or else face a possible court-martial.
Meanwhile,
Dutch authorities yesterday arrested a 16-year-old, alleged to be a hacker
involved in the pro-WikiLeaks group Anonymous’ "Operation Payback"
denial-of-service attacks on the websites of MasterCard, Visa and PayPal.
To
help maintain the future of the whistleblower concept of WikiLeaks — whose
head Julian Assange is currently in jail in Britain — some former members of
the WikiLeaks team are creating a new service, called OpenLeaks.
Unlike
WikiLeaks, OpenLeaks will accept secure, anonymous submissions, but work with
other publishers like newspapers, who will ultimately release any documents.
Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/2aes7zs
(Wired)
http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-20025215-281.html
http://techcrunch.com/2010/12/10/wikileaks-defectors-openleaks
