virtual world
Uniiverse wants to save us from our depressed, Internet addicted lives
thenextweb.com
Last year, we saw innovative companies like Airbnb and Skillshare take off. We’ve also seen a slew of smaller startups like Eventup and GetAround spring up in this “sharing economy” space. While the population continues to expand and the Internet weaves itself into our daily lives, our networks are becoming...
25 alleged Anonymous members arrested internationally; hacker group retaliates
arstechnica.com
Tuesday afternoon, the international police organization Interpol announced the arrest of 25 alleged members of Anonymous by officials in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, and Spain. Shortly after the announcement, Interpol's website was hit by a distributed denial-of-service attack. At the time this story was posted, the website remained unavailable. Interpol...
MiniMonos wants to bring more little monkeys into kids’ lives, raises €1 million
thenextweb.com
MiniMonos, a New Zealand-based ‘green’ game development startup, has raised 1 million euros about a year after launching its eco-friendly virtual world for kids in public beta and six months after making its debut in the UK. MiniMonos – which means little monkeys in Spanish – will use the fresh...
Grand Cru raises $2M to build free-to-play Supernauts superhero game
venturebeat.com
Grand Cru is announcing today it has raised $2 million in seed funding to build a kids online adventure game called Supernauts. The company is entering a crowded field, but Grand Cru chief executive Markus Pasula said in an interview with VentureBeat that the company is trying to bring kids entertainment...
Augmented Reality Sandbox uses Kinect for real-time topography and simulated water
www.theverge.com
If you loved sandboxes but now think they're a little too juvenile for you, the Augmented Reality Sandbox might be of interest to you. It's not the first AR table we've seen, but this special sandbox uses a Kinect sensor and a projector to create an interactive topographical map...
Plug in Better: A Manifesto
www.theatlantic.com
The trick isn't to unplug from our devices -- it's to unplug from the distractions, information overload, and trash that make us unhappy.A world ruled by spin, in which political influence lasts only until the next embarrassing YouTube video. Industries starved of creative, deep thinking, as focused effort gives way...
Educational App Maker Mindshapes Picks Up $4M Round Led By Index; Adds Big 5 Publishers To Magic Town
techcrunch.com
Another funding announcement that underscores what big business kids’ and educational apps can be. Mindshapes, a UK-based developer of interactive learning apps, has picked up a $4 million round of funding led by Index Ventures, with Richmond Park Partners and existing investors also participating. The news caps off an eventful...
Educational App Maker Mindshapes Picks Up $4M Round Led By Index; Adds Big 5 Publishers To Magic Town
Party Rockin’ On Facebook: Disrupt Winner Shaker Hits North America With Club 53 Launch
techcrunch.com
Sometimes you want to be out partying on a Friday night and simply can’t muster the energy. It happens. But last year at TechCrunch Disrupt San Francisco, a service launched that aimed to solve that problem, and the company ultimately won and took home the Disrupt Cup. That company is...
Sony Puffs Up Its Gaming Cloud, Buys Gaikai For $380M. OnLive Next In Line For A Buyer?
techcrunch.com
Some more consolidation in cloud-based gaming services: Sony Computer Entertainment announced today that it will pay $380 million to acquire Gaikai, the California-based provider of a platform that currently delivers some 40 games, including Mass Effect, the Sims, and Fifa Soccer, as cloud-based services to a variety of devices, without...
How the kindness of (virtual) strangers on Twitter saved my day | Momtaz Begum-Hossain
www.guardian.co.uk
After Twitter followers helped me remove a BNP banner from my street on election day, it's my first port of call from now onI've made a decision. From now on, if I need help, I'm heading straight to Twitter. I've tweeted pleas before. I once posted that I needed a...
How Flickr Made It To The Next Level
www.fastcompany.com
The third in our series, The Pivot, about the crucial changes in direction that saved some of the most successful startups in recent history. In this installment: Flickr.As with many web innovations, Flickr, the site that became synonymous with online photo sharing, started out as one idea only to pivot...
Interpol website suffers 'Anonymous cyber-attack'
www.guardian.co.uk
Website crashes briefly following Interpol's announcement of the arrest of 25 suspected members of the hacking groupInterpol's website appears to have been the victim of a cyber-attack after the international police agency announced the arrests of 25 suspected members of the hacking activist group Anonymous in Europe and South America.The...
Activision Toys Around with a ‘Skylanders’ Sequel
blogs.wsj.com
Activision Blizzard, the maker of intense videogames such as “Call of Duty” and “World of Warcraft,” isn’t known for kid-oriented videogames. That perception changed somewhat last fall, when it had a surprise hit in the kids’ game “Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure.” Now, the world’s biggest videogame maker wants to ride that...
Habbo’s future is bleak as child sex scandal explodes
gigaom.com
Things are looking bad for Habbo, the Finnish virtual world for teens, as explosive revelations about the site continue to ripple through the industry. Earlier this week a report by the U.K’s Channel 4 News alleged that Habbo — a cute, blocky isometric environment which lets young users chat to...
Canon overhauls Mixed Reality platform with new head-mounted display
www.engadget.com
Canon's been fiddling around with augmented (or mixed) reality for some time now, but the company just took things to the next level. A new AR headset announced today is less stylish than that other soon-to-be-released wearable tech you've likely heard about, yet certainly more sophisticated than its bigger...
Social games have lower costs per click on Facebook than brands do, analysis shows
www.insidefacebook.com
On average, brands advertising on Facebook pay more per click than social game companies do, according to data provided to us by third-party vendor AdParlor. Facebook ad costs continue to rise across a number of industries as competition increases, particularly among consumer brands and the hardcore social game sector. Advertisers...
5 Signposts to the Future of Gaming
www.readwriteweb.com
At their best, video games are bite-sized experiments. The virtual world of a game a miniaturized space where our imaginations can clash horns with psychology, culture and the technological horizon, often to addictively playable ends. We take a look at how five compelling trends from E3 2012 are pioneering a...
Encyclopaedia Britannica Is Dead, Long Live Encyclopaedia Britannica
www.fastcompany.com
That's not just a gratuitous Ides of March headline. This week the 244-year-old company announced it is ceasing print publication, but here Encyclopaedia Britannica president Jorge Cauz discusses the business' digital innovations and why its future may be more vibrant than its storied past.As you may have heard Encyclopaedia Britannica...
Teen world Habbo hit by child sex scandal
gigaom.com
Finnish virtual world Habbo is in hot water amid claims that it is not doing enough to protect its young users — accusations that have led one investor to pull its support for the company entirely. The veteran social network, which has more than 9 million users — many of...
World of Minecraft: Gamers Recreate WoW in Minecraft
www.pcworld.com
A virtual world inside a virtual world? One gamer used Minecraft to recreate the World of Warcraft at 1-to-1 scale....
Sony patent encourages MMO players to meet in real life
arstechnica.com
Meeting new friends through the world of massively multiplayer games is all well and good, but Sony seems to think MMO players need a little bit of help interacting with each other in the real world. They're so concerned about it, in fact, that they've patented a method for...
The (dis)Connected World, Pt. 1
pandodaily.com
It was an all too familiar scene. I looked around the table at my lunch companions and realized that I was actually eating alone. Every one of them was enthralled by whatever was happening on their cell phone screens, ignoring the people at the table. Was the online world of...
Shadowrun Returns: Fan funding revives a dream
www.geekwire.com
Seattle-area video-game designer Jordan Weisman has long aspired to revive his popular Shadowrun role-playing franchise, stepping back into its world of mythological creatures, machines and magic. Several years ago he negotiated a license back from Microsoft, which had acquired FASA Interactive, where the game was originally developed. But limitations on...
A Year Later, $41 Million Startup Color Has A Pathetic 30,000 Daily Users
www.businessinsider.com
About a year ago, serial entrepreneur Bill Nguyen shocked the startup world when he announced his latest effort, a company called Color, had raised $41 million out of the gate in order to build yet-another iPhone photography app. Even before the app had a chance to launch, the startup company...
25 ‘Anonymous’ hackers arrested in multinational sting
www.bgr.com
Interpol on Tuesday announced that 25 suspected members of the hacker group “Anonymous” have been arrested in a raid across Europe and South America. The suspected members ranged in age from 17 to 40 and are accused of planning coordinated cyber-attacks against various government institutions, such as Colombia’s defense ministry...
Creating the illusion of emotion or why you care about ones and zeroes
www.theverge.com
As much as you may love video games and the stories they help you tell, it's impossible to escape the fact that much of your experience is a trick of the mind. The thing that separates video games from other forms of media, the ability to interact with and...
This Company's Office Is So Advanced, The Walls Talk And No One Has Regular Phones
www.businessinsider.com
This Series On The Future Of The Workplace Is Brought To You By Cognizant. Most companies are stuck in the dark ages when it comes to workforce tech. They think letting their workers use their own iPads to send corporate e-mails is cutting edge. Pshaw. Want to see what...
Trash talk from Sony game executive: Our competitors are losing the plot (interview)
venturebeat.com
The battle of the press conferences at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) is over. Now it’s time for Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo to interpret the competing events and declare victory. The latest to do so is Sony’s head of digital games, Jack Buser. Buser says that while Sony showed...
Spend money in the real world, get cash in the virtual world
news.cnet.com
American Express and Zynga have teamed up for a program that rewards users with virtual currency when they spend money in the real world. [Read more]...
MIT’s (T)ether melds virtual and real space, shows the future of collaboration
venturebeat.com
Every few months a new innovation in physical interaction with virtual objects comes along and the Minority Report comparisons begin. But (T)ether, a new project by a group of students at the MIT Media lab, is one of the first that actually made me believe it. After watching their demo...
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