Whose Dota?

One million dollars (698,000 euros) for the winners: Dota Tournament Game 2, organized by the publisher Valve Gamescon at the convention, Aug. 17 in Germany, has an unusual price. In Korea, where sport-mail is a structured discipline, competitors in the league of Starcraft 2 shared the half of that ... the whole of 2010. Even more surprising, the tournament between teams on a game that is not even out yet.

Dota 2 is indeed the "suite" de Dota, for "Defense of the Ancients", a play created from the community as a flagship studios Blizzard, Warcraft 3. Dota is a "mod", meaning a game based on another security, for which the developers have left the possibility for players to make changes. Warcraft 3 is an action-strategy game in real time: each player must build a camp, recruit units, manage the development of its technology and economy, and eliminate the opponent or accomplish a predetermined objective.

Dota leaves the aspect of "managing" the game: the player controls a single Hero, which can progress to gain experience and buy upgrades, and must destroy a target in the opposing camp with the help of his teammates and units controlled by the less powerful computer. The large number of heroes and powers available, the many tactical aspects of the game have made a gigantic success Dota. With twenty million players estimated - 40% in China - the game has spawned a genre of its own, and has even been a song by DJ Basshunter.

The results far exceed expectations LinkedIn

The professional social network LinkedIn has published Thursday, August 4, results well above expectations for the second quarter, with sales more than doubled and earnings, while analysts expected a loss. "In the second quarter, we saw a record number of entries, unique visitors and page views, while revenue growth accelerated further," welcomed the general manager, Jeff Weiner, quoted in a statement.
Net income, still modest but more than quadrupled compared to last year, $ 4.5 million (3.2 million). Revenues for its part reached 121 million dollars (85.6 million), an increase of 120%. It far exceeds the $ 104.7 million (74.1 million) which had been expected to analysts.

These results contrast with the caution that had displayed the group, founded in 2003, just days before its IPO in May, when he was warned that he had expected a loss for 2011 and a deceleration of growth .

But according to data provided Thursday by LinkedIn, the social network now has nearly 116 million subscribers. In late March, the group announced that it had reached the symbolic figure of 100 million. In the United States in June, the professional network has become the number two in terms of unique monthly visitors, behind Facebook, which claims 750 million registered.

Activision-Blizzard exceeds expectations in the second quarter

The world of video games, Activision-Blizzard, Vivendi-controlled, published Wednesday, August 3, profits and sales well above expectations for the second quarter, driven by the success of the shooter Call of Duty: Black Ops.

Net income jumped 53% to $ 335 million (234 million). Turnover rose against all odds, albeit modest (+2.3%), reaching $ 699 million (488 million), against 599 million dollars (418 million) expected by analysts.

The group also raised its annual forecast: it now expects $ 4.05 billion (2.83 billion euros) in revenue, against 3.95 billion dollars (2.76 billion euros) previously announced. However the forecast for the third quarter are below expectations: turnover is expected at $ 530 million (370 million) instead of $ 632 million (441 million) of which had analysts.

Strong yen, earthquake and piracy: Sony revises forecast downward

The giant Japanese consumer electronics Sony revised its earnings forecast significantly down on Thursday in the publication of its quarterly results. The company, which announced $ 140 million loss this quarter, reduced by over 20% of its earnings forecast for the year.

Sony is suffering from a combination of difficulties that led him to revise its forecast just two months after the publication of the latter. Like other Japanese giants, including Nintendo, Sony is hampered by a strong yen, which reduces its export capacity. The company has also been directly affected by the earthquake and tsunami that devastated Japan, it estimated $ 47 million damage caused by the natural disaster in its factories in the north. Some of this damage will, however, supported by insurance, and Sony will ensure the rehabilitation of factories moving faster than expected.

On the commercial side, sales of flat screen TVs have been well below expectations, like those from Samsung, one of its main competitors. Sony's music division, traditionally one of the least profitable, saw its turnover fall by 0.6%, while its film division was experiencing a rise of over 9% of its revenues, driven notably by The Hornet Green and Karate Kid.

Finally, Sony has also suffered in April, a major piracy PlayStation Network, a network of online gaming. NSP had been unavailable for several weeks in some areas, creating a shortfall for the company and an adverse effect on its image. Sony had previously estimated that the hackers would have an impact of 122 million euros on its results.

Electronic Arts earnings double

The American publisher of video games Electronic Arts (EA) released Tuesday that net income more than doubled in the first quarter of fiscal year 2011/2012 shifted, exceeding analysts' expectations, and a turnover up 26%.
The earnings were $ 221 million against 96 million during the same period a year ago. Per share, this amounts to 66 cents. But taking into account that certain revenues are deferred from the purchase and activation of a game, adjusted earnings per share is equivalent to a loss of 37 cents, less marked than analysts had anticipated (loss current 40 cents).

The turnover reached 999 million on its side against $ 815 million a year earlier, well above forecasts of Wall Street (509 million). "We still made ​​a strong quarter, driven both by streaming products as packaged," commented CEO John Riccitiello said in a statement.

The largest increase came from sales of games for mobile phones, up 75% year on year. To capitalize on the popularity of the media the latest, the group announced July 12 that it would buy rival PopCap Games, a specialist games on mobile devices and social networks, in an amount ranging from 750 million to $ 1.3 billion.

The company said it had sold over two million copies of his new game Portal 2 during the period under review, indicating that pre-orders for Battlefield 3 "ahead extremely well." For the quarter ended September 30, the company revises its estimates of loss per share excluding exceptional items 3 to 13 cents, against a previous estimate of a loss between 5 and 15 cents. It provides, however, always a turnover of 675 to 725 million dollars.

Google+ wants to ban nicknames

A month after its launch, Google + wipes his first controversy. Internet users are denied entry to this social network on the grounds that they were part under a pseudonym. Some of them have suffered in the wake of the outright suspension of their Google Account, thus depriving them of access to their Gmail or blogging service.

Among the "rejected", a blogger who does not reveal her name but signed with the pseudonym GrrlScientist. On his blog entitled "Punctuated Equilibrium", hosted on the website of the Guardian newspaper, he told his misadventure in a note posted Monday, July 25.

He explained that a week earlier, his Google account was entirely suspended, the system has "seen a violation." To re-access their Gmail email account, he was forced to give his home phone number to Google, which in return sent him a code lifting the ban.

Towards the end of talking rabbits Nabaztag

On Wednesday, most of the Nabaztag will fall silent: the servers that run these rabbits speakers connected to the Internet via Wi-Fi will stop. Mindscape, the company that markets and manages the services of these iconic gadgets, is in serious financial trouble: in receivership, the company can not pay all its bills. Illiad (owned by Xavier Niel, shareholder of the World), which hosts the servers of the Nabaztag, has decided to terminate its contract with Mindscape, and cut so that the service July 28.

Created in 2005 by the company Violet, talking rabbits, childlike design, had aroused great interest. Programmable and able to read e-mails or information flow, these gadgets have even been used to create an electronic opera for one hundred rabbits.

Economically, however, success is not to go to Violet. From 2008, the turnover of the company, which also markets other consumer robotic products, drops sharply. Placed in receivership in 2009, it was finally bought by the publisher Mindscape, for 350,000 euros. A turn in big trouble, Mindscape, which publishes mostly games and educational software, was placed into receivership June 23, 2011.

Google + is hunting for nicknames

The search engine Google, which launched there about a month a social networking competitor Facebook, said Monday that its policy for managing aliases, prohibited by the terms and conditions of service. During the weekend, Google had removed a large number of accounts using aliases, their creators without warning, causing a wave of protests.

"We have noticed that many violations of rules on names + Google were honest mistakes, and our practices for those users could be frustrating and disappointing," said Bradley Horowitz, one of the project, its + Google Account. "We are putting in place a number of improvements to our procedures - particularly on how we warn users that their account is not in compliance with our policy." In the future, holders of an account under a pseudonym will be notified that their account will be deleted if they do not use their real name, and will not be deleted directly.

Another charge of Google, when asked by journalist Robert Scoble said that the choice of imposing the use of true identities was comparable to a way to establish an atmosphere suitable for the discussion and limit the impact of accounts used for spam or offensive behavior, "as a restaurant requires its customers to wear a shirt."

In three weeks, Google's social network has attracted about 20 million unique visitors, according to figures from the consulting firm Comscore. An impressive start, but still very far from the figures given by Facebook, which claims 750 million active users.

STMicroelectronics stock market plunges after disappointing results,technology

The title of the Franco-Italian STMicroelectronics Semiconductor plunged nearly 9% Tuesday, July 26, in early trading on the Paris Stock Exchange and punished by investors after the announcement of quarterly results well below expectations.

The group had announced on the night, after the close of Wall Street, net income after minority interests of $ 420 million for the second quarter, up 18% year on year, but the figure was well below expectations. Excluding exceptional items and reported the number of shares, the profit is, in effect to 14 cents, while analysts had expected 22 cents. The revenues, meanwhile, rose 1.4% to $ 2.57 billion, meeting the expectations.

"As expected, during this quarter, we experienced winds related to the situation in Japan and the exchange rate, while continuing to deal with the ongoing transition from ST-Ericsson," said CEO Carlo Bozotti, said in a statement. "In addition, in June, we were faced with lower demand as well as much lower than expected outlook for products for wireless applications from a major customer, and we saw signs of weaker demand in some of our activities, such as digital consumer products and microcontrollers, "he added.

Gross margin for the quarter is also expected around 35.5%, down 38.6% compared to the first half - a result of the slowdown in production at some plants.

As for the quarter ended July 2, revenue rose 28% in the automotive sector, 17% in the segment "Other industrial" and 13% in IT. He, however, declined by 23% in the consumer segment and 20% in telecommunications. Distribution increased by 18%.

The group, which had started to lose its liquid assets with net cash of $ 1.07 billion, against $ 1.14 billion in the April 2, said he expected a sharp drop in capital spending in the second half, having almost completed the expansion of production capacity in the first half. He spent about $ 798 million of capital expenditure between January and early July.

"We two" launches the photo story on the iPhone

A priori, nothing more than old-fashioned photo novel. However, the weekly two of us, the great French specialist in this kind of story in pictures, sold 290,000 weekly copies. Created in 1947 by newspaper publisher Cino Del Duca, the magazine is now owned by the Italian group Mondadori. Spurred on by the director of the center woman, Carole Fagot, it has launched the photo story on iPhone and iPad. For 0.79 euro, it is possible to download an application that allows you to scroll on the screen of their smartphone or its tablet a complete story, image after image, bubble after bubble.

"The idea came from Japan, where people are accustomed to reading novels on their mobile phones, said Ms Fagot. We did this test with some skepticism, given that iPhone users are rather people with high incomes living in big cities. Exactly the opposite of our readership. "Against all odds and without any advertising, success is the appointment, since the application was downloaded 25,000 times. We are now looking to export two novels, photos smartphone in Asia.

The newspaper is sold primarily on newsstands at a price of 1.95 euro. Each week, he offers three picture stories, five new and practical information. Its audience is female, and rather provincial areas. Some 84% of readers live outside the Paris area, 45% in cities under 20,000 inhabitants. "The typical reader is a woman of modest background, aged 53, who manages his family and his everyday life and at the same time, she likes to dream and believe in love," says Dominique Faber, Associate Editor responsible for fiction.

Television did not kill the photo novel. The two readers We are also followers of soap operas like "The Young and the Restless." "The two are complementary, says Faber. TV is something we look at family, with the noise around you. The picture story is of the order of the intimate."

The genus has also been adapted - slowly - in today's society. We will soon publish a two story whose heroine is a beurette. She works in the commercial sector and live a love affair with her ​​boss. This is a first in the history of the weekly. "The social issues are present in our long stories, says Dominique Faber. Abortion, AIDS, blended families. With the end always positive and love that triumphs."

Facebook fixes a vulnerability on private videos,technology

The social network Facebook announced this Monday, July 25, correcting a security vulnerability affecting users' private videos, reports the TechCrunch site. The flaw allowed "friends" a user to access the title, description and image appeal of his videos, even though these were registered as "private" and therefore theoretically not accessible. The flaw did not allow however to check out these videos.

Le problème, qui a duré plus d'une semaine, est le dernier d'une longue série de problèmes concernant le respect de la vie privée pour le premier réseau social au monde. Les autorités de protection de la vie privée et des associations de plusieurs pays ont mis en garde les utilisateurs, ces dernières mois, contre les fonctionnalités de géolocalisation ou de reconnaissance faciale proposées par Facebook.

Le principal concurrent de Facebook, le service Google+, lancé au début de l'été, se positionne justement sur le créneau du respect de la vie privée pour tenter de supplanter Facebook et ses 750 millions d'utilisateurs. Sans révolutionner la manière dont l'utilisateur peut gérer sa vie privée en ligne, Google+ propose une gestion plus claire des différentes options offertes à l'utilisateur. Presque une obligation pour le moteur de recherche : après le fiasco de son service très intrusif Buzz, il y a deux ans, Google a dû accepter une série d'audits des autorités américaines sur la manière dont il protège la vie privée de ses utilisateurs.

Chinese police close two stores fake Apple,technology

It looks like an Apple store, the color - white - an Apple store and the apple logo is everywhere, yet it is not an Apple store. The authorities of the city of Kunming in southern China, has closed two stores posing as official distributors of U.S. computer manufacturer, but that operated without direct relationship with the company.

China produces large quantities of counterfeit iPhone and Apple iPad, but these false shops, flushed by an American expatriate, sold many authentic products. Vendors working in the shop were convinced that they worked well for Apple.

Upon investigation, police tracked down five similar stores, operating without license from the U.S. manufacturer. Two were closed directly because they had no authorization to operate a business. Interviewed by the Wall Street Journal, the manager of a store still in business says sell only Apple products to prices charged by the brand, and is confident in the fact that his store will eventually become an official distributor.

Google + Facebook: The Issue of Privacy,technology

Since its inception in 2004, the social network Facebook has been the subject of much debate on the issue of privacy. Just launched, Google + also raises questions. Comparison between the two social networks on this issue.

• public profiles, private profiles

As of July 31, a profile + Google no longer be private. The user will reveal at least the name and surname. Initially, it was the same for sex. Several sites specialize also note that Google restricts the use of pseudonyms. To justify these choices, the company says that the change of names on Google + will affect other services such as Gmail. The profile of the new social network, however, offers a class "Alias" to indicate his various pseudonyms.

+ Google also allows you to set the visibility of each part of the profile in relation to different circles of friends. The user can also make them invisible tabs in the profile (photos, video, +1' s and Buzz).

Settings "recommended" or "custom" data visible to everyone, from friends or friends of friends ... Facebook offers a variety of settings. But by default the parameters that are "recommended" make visible to everyone, the articles, photographs and publications of the user.

A tab "Custom Settings" allows you to tweak the options. It is through these menus as facial recognition photographs, which has recently been the subject of controversy, can be disabled.

• Sharing of content

Google +, it is possible to choose the circles or the recipients of the content you post. The social network makes you do it in circles and involvement of one of its leading features. "We tell some things to our friends from school, our parents and others to the bare necessities to our boss," reads the official presentation page.

Facebook offers the same type of personal sharing with its function "List". But it is very highlighted by the network of Mark Zuckerberg and less convenient to use.

Google renewed fighting against the Belgian newspapers,technology

The Web giant Google has stopped, Friday, July 15, to reference sites Belgian newspapers on its main search engine, but is prepared to start under certain conditions. A search with the words "Le Soir" on the popular search engine returns to "The Night of Algeria" or about Wikipedia, but more to the site of the Brussels daily. The search for sites other newspapers such as La Libre Belgique and La Derniere Heure, did not give more results, also found Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"Google Lesoir.be boycott," was the headline in the afternoon the newspaper's website, saying to have found "by chance" the end of the listing of the site. La Libre Belgique assured, for its part, put it to his readers "do everything possible to do it [them] not stop to follow the continuous news on our website through various channels."

The case began in January 2006 when the American giant of the Internet in Belgium launched its "Google News" which identifies the major news headlines. Copiepresse society, which operates in Belgium the rights of publishers and French germanophones, had then claimed that Google pays royalties to its members or, if he continues to reference the articles they publish. Google chose the second option, but had also stopped for several months to reference sites of these newspapers on its main search engine, depriving them of a share of traffic.

Is it possible to simulate a human brain with microprocessors?,technology

Can you reproduce the activity of a human brain and its billions of neurons? Researchers are currently conducting the experiment, says the Silicon website. Steve Furber, a scientist at the University of Manchester, and Andrew Brown of the University of Southampton, and try to design a supercomputer made ​​up of a million ARM processors to reproduce the activity of a billion neurons - each 32-bit chip can indeed mimic the activity of 1000 neurons.

The billion neurons and is reproduced, however, far from being compared to a human brain, which comprises 80 to 90 billion neurons, the site notes. But as all of our neurons are not used simultaneously, the supercomputer, named Spinnaker, should be able to move closer to the brain and form the basis of realistic simulations of any part of our brain.

Cisco announced the elimination of 6,500 jobs and yield plant,technology

The telecom equipment and computer Cisco announced Monday, July 18, 6500 deletion of positions, including 4,400 layoffs. This corresponds to a reduction of about 9% of the workforce and about 15% of senior executives. The press had already announced last week, major cuts.

These reductions, which will affect the world and "all functions", part of a plan to save $ 1 billion per year (707 million). They result in charges estimated at $ 1.3 billion (920 million) in total.

Cisco also announced the sale to the Taiwanese Foxconn plant that employs 5,000 people in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. These 5000 jobs that no longer depend on the Cisco 6500 in addition to job cuts, including 2,100 voluntary redundancies.

FOCUS ON EQUIPMENT

Cisco, which connects the disappointing results last year, has made ​​these decisions as part of its focus on the heart of business, network equipment, which led to indent the public. It's already in this objective that the Californian group announced in April off small Flip video cameras. This resulted in the elimination of 550 positions.

Cisco said the employees whose positions would be eliminated in the United States and Canada would be notified "in the first week of August," the rest of the job cuts to be entered later by the laws in force.

The action took Cisco 0.3%, to 15.44 dollars (10.91 euros), in electronic trading after the close of the New York Stock Exchange.

Google bought the domain name g.co,technology

The group of search engine Google bought, Monday, July 18, the domain name g.co, designed to shorten the web addresses of all its services. "We will only use g.co to send you to web pages belonging to Google, and we are the only ones who can create shortcuts in g.co," said the vice president of marketing for Google, Gary Briggs on the group's blog. "This means we can go on a link shortcut g.co being sure to always land on a page of a product or a service from Google."

This new system is complementary to another service, goo.gl, launched in late 2009, which shortens the other Web addresses. Shorter addresses are used in particular on micromessagerie sites, like Twitter, where the text should have a maximum of 140 characters.

Zynga and Facebook: A complex relationship,technology

Documents provided by companies before their IPO are often mines of information. Is still the case for Zynga, the company specializes in "social games" which has so far provided little information on its policy. The publication, Monday, July 18, new elements by the specialized site All Things Digital, the complex shows that the game editor interview with the social network Facebook, which now has more than 750 million subscribers.

Many pieces of information have been masked to avoid disclosure of information to the competition. But the "Developer Addendum" shall include the day to share advertising revenue from Zynga and social network. Facebook reverse and a certain amount (not specified) to the editor of Farmville, in exchange for ads that appear when the user starts a game Zynga. According to the first draft of the IPO, the company made nearly $ 23 million (16 million) in advertising revenue, against $ 575 million (407 million) in sales virtual goods.

The agreement also recognizes some control on the production of Facebook Zynga. American is the young shoot and held to prevent Facebook, a week before the launch of a new game in return, obtain Facebook helps Zynga has a number of unique monthly visitors. Undisputed leader in gaming applications on Facebook, Zynga has about 267 million monthly users, including more than 80 million Citiville for more than 45 million Empires & Allies, and about 37 million to Farmville.

Empowerment Strategy:

Over the past year, both companies have already announced an agreement based on virtual currency. Without giving details, they have partnered for five years, including on the integration of credits, virtual currency for Facebook, the social Zynga games.

The publication of these documents can at least understand why Zynga tries to reduce its dependence vis-à-vis the social platform. As part of the "Rewardville", the developer of Farmville and Cityville, has launched in March the "zcoins", a virtual currency reusable among the holdings of the young shoot. More than a competitor to Facebook Credits, it is a loyalty program for players with titles Zynga.

The documentation provided confirms Zynga not finally Google's investment in the company, which according Crunchbase, received $ 1 billion (707 million) since its inception. Last year, the site specializes TechCrunch ensured that the group's search engine had invested $ 100 million (71 million) in Zynga.

Microsoft offers 250,000 dollars to deliver to him the creators of a network of spam,technology

The story is worthy of a spy movie. In March, Microsoft announced that it had conducted an investigation called Operation B107 to dismantle the botnet Rustock, a group of one million zombie computers controlled remotely by hackers, allegedly responsible for sending 30 billion spam each day, about half of the spam world. These messages were presented in the form of fake notifications of lottery or prescription drugs.

But despite the analysis of servers, Microsoft has failed to identify its creators. After publishing two inserts in Russian newspapers last month, the software giant has upped the ante by offering the $ 250,000 dollars to anyone who will be able to share new information to identify, arrest and convict officials Rustock, Computer World book site. For from the action of Microsoft in March, hundreds of thousands of computers are still infected.

"This award shows that Microsoft is committed to tracking down those responsible for the Rustock botnet, responsible for many criminal activities. Although the primary goal of our legal and technical operation was to stop the threat represented Rustock for each person that it was affected, we also believe that those who controlled it must be held accountable for their actions, "reads the blog of the company.

The promised amount is available for information of any country, even if Microsoft thinks that the creators of Rustock hiding in Russia.

Touch pads Samsung wants to compete with Apple,technology

South Korea's Samsung Electronics unveiled Wednesday, July 20, in its home market, a new version finer and lighter in its tablet Galaxy, hoping to narrow the gap with Apple iPad. This new device has a screen of 10.1 inches (26 cm) against seven for its predecessor launched in October.

Moved from 500 dollars (352 euros) in the United States, the same price as the iPad 2 the Galaxy Tab 10.1 will be in competition with more than hundreds of products most of which work with the operating system Google's Android.

Apple and Samsung, however, largely dominated the market in which Research in Motion and PlayBook and Motorola and Xoom, received a mixed reception. Hewlett Packard, with its TouchPad is the latest entrant in this segment, while the online retailer Amazon has unveiled last week its ambitions in a market heavily congested.