Redwood City,
Calif. – Electronic Arts on
Tuesday announced the launch of Tiger "Woods PGA Tour Online," a
browser-based golf game that requires no game installation, no disc and no
additional peripherals. The basic game is free to play, with users also able to
pay monthly or yearly memberships, at $9.99 and $59.99 respectively, for
premium features.
Related Links:
http://tigerwoodsonline.ea.com
Detroit
– WaTunes, a social music discovery service and digital music store, announced
on Tuesday announced that it has released a Music Store application for
Facebook. The application lets users browse a catalog of millions of songs,
share them with friends, rate and review music, and suggest albums on friends’
Walls. Facebook users buying song downloads will be able to so via Music Store
without having to sign up for WaTunes.
Related Links:
http://www.watunes.com
http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=107940119224416
Philadelphia – The
Philadelphia Inquirer’s Philly.com has partnered with U.K. social
games developer HubHub, which will provide its FanDuel fantasy sports offering
on the site, TechCrunch reported. FanDuel users play for real money, and can
challenge each other to daily or weekly fantasy games, with Philly.com
receiving a commission on revenues generated.
Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/vamuk
(TechCrunch)
New York – Universal Music Group announced on Tuesday that
it partnered with social music gaming firm Conduit Labs, to provide players of
games like "Music Pets," "Super Dance" and
"Loudcrowd" to access Universal songs. The 1 million players of
Conduit titles will be able to purchase music within them using the company’s
virtual goods model.
Related Links:
http://conduitlabs.presslift.com/universal
Los Angeles – Following a federal
judge’s order last month to removing all infringing content from its site, Torrent
search engine Isohunt has opted to block its main site from U.S. users,
instead pointing them to a bare bones search page.
The company hopes that by
launching the "Isohunt Lite" search engine for U.S. users, it
can potentially avoid the judge’s proposed order to install a keyword filter
that would actively block the appearance of links to copyrighted content.
The
Lite site will "demonstrate the similarity to certain other popular search
engine [sic] also required to censor in China."
"Requiring any
internet search engine to filter broad keyword searches is absurd. The DMCA
mandates with reason that copyright notice and takedown requested by copyright
holders be done under penalty of perjury with accurate identifcation, with
standard practice of URLs, not broad mucking with the dictionary," the
company said in a note on the new site.
Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/valqj
(TorrentFreak)
http://snipurl.com/valty
(DMW previous coverage)
Washington
– Backed by such industry heavyweights as Comcast (NASD: CMCSA), Facebook and Microsoft (NASD: MSFT), a
new D.C.-based organization officially launched on Tuesday, with the goal of
getting more seniors to adopt broadband services.
The Project to Get Older
Adults onLine (Project GOAL) is preaching the importance of the Internet to the
aging U.S.
population, particularly with regard to accessing healthcare information and
connecting with the community.
"It’s clear that having broadband offers
great value for older individuals," said Debra Berlyn, the executive
director of Project GOAL.
Berlyn said the organization will "highlight the
benefits broadband provides the older adult community and… work with other
aging organizations to address the challenges."
Berlyn also serves as the
president of Consumer Policy Solutions, and represented AARP on the digital
television transition.
Other sponsors of the organization include backed by
AT&T (NYSE: T), the National Cable and Telecommunications Association, Time Warner
Cable (NYSE: TWC), T-Mobile and Verizon (NYSE: VZ).
Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/val0n
New York – U.S. private
equity fund-raising dipped 8% to $17.6 billion during the first quarter,
compared with the same quarter in 2009, according to new figures released by
Dow Jones LP Source.
The amount is substantially lower than the $65.9 billion
raised in the first quarter of 2008, showing just how hard the industry has
been hit by the economic downturn and credit crunch.
"The fundraising
total is negligible, but the story behind the numbers is telling," said
Jennifer Rossa, managing editor of Dow Jones Private Equity Analyst.
"Many
commitments made during the first quarter were to funds early in their
fundraising process unlike the same period last year when many closes were holdovers
from 2008."
Leveraged buyout and corporate finance funds accounted for
more than half the total, while venture funds raised $4.1 billion, a 41%
increase from the same period last year.
Related Links:
http://www.dowjones.com/pressroom/SMPRs/PM/1Q10USVCFunds.html
