The popular gaming company Zynga files for $1 billon IPO

[DealBook]:Zynga,  social network game developer behind hits such as Farmville — and the owner of other smash titles such as Words with Friends on Android and iPhone — has filed for an initial public offering (IPO), The New York Times reported on Friday. It currently has a $20 billion valuation and has plans to offer 10% of its shares; Morgan Stanley will work on the deal. Mark Pincus, the company’s CEO, expects that Zynga can earn $1 billion through the IPO. Unlike some other recent tech IPOs, which have caused many to claim the industry is in the midst of a “tech bubble,” Zynga has had solid earnings through its business model, which typically relies on in-app purchases for in-game currency. The firm reportedly recorded a profit of $90.6 million in 2011 on revenues of nearly $600 million. Zynga currently remains the top-dog when it comes to gaming on Facebook — it has 272.5 million active users across its biggest titles such as Cityville and Farmville.
Read:[DealBook]

Mark Zuckerberg:"Company going to launch something awesome next week"

Mark Zuckerberg teased reporters on a tour of Facebook's Seattle office today by announcing that the company will "launch something awesome" next week, reportsReuters, which guesses it's in the "mobile or tablet arena." Let the speculation begin:

• BGR: "We suspect it’s going to be the newiPhone photo-sharing service that we saw just last week. ... It’s entirely possible that Zuckerberg will also take the wraps off of his company’s native Facebook iPad app, since it would likely fit well into the photo-sharing ecosystem."

• CNET: "It could be Facebook's long-awaited iPad application. The company currently offers an iPhone app, but iPad owners have so far been forced to use the full site."
• Business Insider: "If we had to guess it would be an iPad app."

HP TouchPad review

It has been exactly 140 days since Hewlett-Packard first unveiled the TouchPad, and I think of it as the first device to emerge from a post-acquisition Palm team that has really been tested over the past few years. To be fair, it will actually be the third webOS device to launch since HP took over Palm, but the the Pre 2 was a leftover from before the deal went through and the Veer never should have been been released. But yes, the Palm team has been through a lot: from botched acquisition talks, to the brink of collapse, to resurrection through Elevation Partners’ investments, to a brilliant new web-based mobile operating system, to the announcement of the phone that would save the business from the brink of collapse, to BGR exclusively reviewing the phone that would save the business from the brink of collapse before any other site on the planet, to the launch of the phone that would save the business from the brink of collapse, to the failure of the phone that would save its business from the brink of collapse, and finally, to HP. Can a company that once lead the industry come back to regain mind share, market share and profit share following a roller coaster ride like that? Hit the break to find out if the TouchPad pushes the company’s mobile business in the right direction or if it is another dud from a company that could be dominating the market.

2015,Dawn of Zettabyte Cisco says

The majority of global Internet traffic (61 percent) will be in some form of video—Internet video-to-PC, Internet video-to-TV, mobile video, et al.The "dawn of the Zettabyte era" will be an unprecedented online milestone that will occur in our lifetime.

 Courtesy of Cisco, a skyscraper infographic about the dawning of the age of the zettabyte.

The what? Each zettabyte is 1,000 exabytes. No? One exabyte = 1,000 petabytes. One petabyte = 1,000 terabytes. One terabyte (you may be starting to feel the ocean floor now) is 1,000 gigabytes. See, you can find your way to the shore now.

Cisco sees the movement towards the exabyte as an inevitable endpoint of the growth in video traffic online. Its analysis suggests that we'll have shifted into the zettabyte age by 2015: by then, it reckons,

Image by Cisco :

Motorola XOOM Honeycomb Tablet : first tablet PC on HoneyComb

World's first Tablet powered by Android 3.0 HoneyComb

Motorola has just outed its first Tablet Pc ever, which is carrying an impressive name, the Motorola XOOM. This slim looking tablet packs with a 10.1 inches capacitive touch screen having a high-resolution of 1280×800 pixels and running on ARM-based dual-core Tegra 2 processor. XOOM is the first tablet to run the Android 3.0 Honeycomb tablet-based operating system.

Motorola XOOM is equipped with a 5 Megapixels rear camera with 720p HD video capture and a 2 Megapixels front-side camera for video calling. Motorola XOOM is also having 4G LTE compatibility with external modem attachment and it is having 802.11n WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR and 3G connectivity on Verizon Wireless networks and it gives full 1080p HD support with HDMI-out port and it also having Adobe Flash Player support, accelerometer, gyroscope features and it features Google Maps 5.0 with 3D interaction.

All the 3G XOOMs can be upgradeable to 4G LTE. Bluetooth keyboard and dock accessories will be available for the tablet. Its mobile hotspot capability provides an online connection for up to five other Wi-Fi-enabled devices and ofcourse, a healthy 32GB of onboard storage.

Price & Availability

The Motorola XOOM tablet will launch as a 3G/Wi-Fi-enabled device in first quarter of this year 2011, while 4G connectivity will be made available as an update in Q2. Pricing information has not yet been disclosed. Check out more images and an official promo of Android Honeycomb OS after the break.

Specific Media bought Myspace for $35 M from NewsCorp.

Specific Media, a digital media company, today announced it has acquired Myspace from News Corporation. As part of the agreement, News Corporation will take a minority equity stake in Specific Media. Additional terms of the agreement are confidential and will not be disclosed.

“Myspace is a recognized leader that has pioneered the social media space. The company has transformed the ways in which audiences discover, consume and engage with content online,” said Tim Vanderhook, Specific Media CEO. “There are many synergies between our companies as we are both focused on enhancing digital media experiences by fueling connections with relevance and interest. We look forward to combining our platforms to drive the next generation of digital innovation.”

Specific Media is an innovative global interactive media company that enables advertisers to connect with consumers in meaningful, impactful and relevant ways. Founded in 1999 by brothers Tim, Chris and Russell Vanderhook, Specific Media is currently headquartered in Irvine, CA and operates offices around the world.

About Myspace

Myspace, Inc. is a leading social entertainment destination powered by the passions of fans. Aimed at a Gen Y audience, Myspace drives social interaction by providing a highly personalized experience around entertainment and connecting people to the music, celebrities, TV, movies, and games that they love. These entertainment experiences are available through multiple platforms, including online, mobile devices, and offline events.

Myspace is also the home of Myspace Music, which offers an ever-growing catalogue of freely streamable audio and video content to users and provides major, independent, and unsigned artists alike with the tools to reach new audiences. The company is headquartered in Beverly Hills, CA.  http://www.myspace.com/pressroom/

About Specific Media

Specific Media is a digital media company driving viewership for content owners, engagement for brands and relevance for consumers. With capabilities spanning original programming, cross-channel distribution and addressable advertising, the company connects audiences, content and brands, adding meaning to each touch-point. As people discover new ways to consume content, Specific Media creates impactful media experiences no matter where they are.

www.specificmedia.com

This is the e-mail written by Myspace CEO mike Jones to their staff

From: Mike Jones
Sent: Wednesday, June 29, 2011 11:26 AM
To: Myspace All
Subject: IMPORTANT COMPANY NEWS
Importance: High

Myspacers,

Today, we are announcing that Myspace will be acquired by Specific Media, one of the world’s leading online media and advertising platforms. Over the next few days you will be hearing from the team at Specific, including their CEO, Tim Vanderhook, regarding their exciting plans for Myspace and how it fits in with the overall vision of their company.

In conjunction with the deal, we are conducting a series of restructuring initiatives, including a significant reduction in our workforce.  I will assist Specific with the transition over the next two months before departing my role as Myspace CEO.

I wanted to take a minute to thank you all for the incredible experience it has been to lead this company and to work closely with all of you over the past several years. While I regret we won’t be working together at Myspace any longer, I am very proud of the work we have done here and believe we have performed with excellence – even under extremely difficult circumstances.

My time here at Myspace represents the most engaging and challenging time of my professional career. I have found our team to be comprised of the best people I have come across in our industry.

You can read the press release below.  Once again, thank you for all of your hard work and dedication.

Thanks,

"What do you love ?" (from Goolge) New Google Service

Source:[HP] : Google is offering a new service that will help you search for your favorite topics and engage with a host of Google products--all in once place.

The new site, called What Do You Love, invites you to enter a query into a special search bar, the same way you would with a normal Google search. When you hit the "heart" button, Google takes you to a site with 21 Google-branded widgets that help you explore your topic further.

TechCrunch, explains what happens if you search for the term "love": 

On the results page you'll find pictures of love, patents about love, love on Google Trends, videos about love, how to say love in different languages, books about love, etc. It can be interesting. But the results showcasing Gmail, Calendar, Chrome, and a few others again show that this is meant to be more of a promotional tool for Google products rather than anything hugely useful. A button at the bottom of each widget takes you directly to the Google product showcased.

More widget options are likely to follow as Google fleshes out the features on this experimental site.

HTC Thunderbolt 2.3 soon, before Motorola Droid Bionic release date?

It’s also worth noting that HTC is fully aware of the problem that some HTC Thunderbolt owners are currently complaining, the rebooting bug, that is according to reports, randomly reboots an HTC Thunderbolt while using an application or watching videos in YouTube. HTC hopes to fix all the issues with the Gingerbread update according to HTC rep’s letter.

Droid life also reports some of the features included in the Gingerbread update like improved battery management, faster and more intuitive text input, internet calling and Gingerbread’s NFC support. The HTC Thunderbolt is the first 4G/LTE device of Verizon released last March. The phone suffered from release date delay due to battery “problem,” although some still say that the battery life of the Thunderbolt is still its weakest point.

Aside from the HTC Thunderbolt, other Verizon 4G LTE devices are Droid Charge by Samsung and the LG Revolution 4G that was pre-installed with Netflix out of the box. The carrier is also expected to introduce a brand new LTE smartphone this summer, and this time, it’s from Motorola, the second Droid LTE phone, the Motorola Droid Bionic.

According to rumors, the Droid Bionic will include Android Gingerbread out of the box, and the user interface is tweaked by Moto’s, formerly known as MotoBlur. The previous Droid Bionic leak is also suggesting that the Gingerbread version on board is 2.3.4 that supports Google Talk with Video, so we’re not sure if the HTC Thunderbolt’s Gingerbread update will include the same build.