Boot up: hands on Google + games, Apple increases iPhone ' orders ' and more

A quick burst 6 links you to chew over, as picked by the technology team

"Google passes the test so far. It can essentially duplicate Facebook's platform for games and bring over a lot of games that already exist elsewhere. The next test is to see how many games it can get, and how performance works when the games scale to millions of players. Facebook may not be so concerned about Google for now, but it definitely has to watch his back because his platform is not so difficult to clone. "

"Apple has upward adjusted OrderTotal volume for iPhones, consisting of the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4 CDMA and iPhone (5) for the second half of 2011 at 12-13%, from 50 million units originally estimated at the end of the second quarter of 2011 for more than 56 million units. iPhone 5 will account for 25.5-26 million units, according to the Taiwan-based supply chain decision-makers. "

So-called digilantes ditch their mission ... because tech was not good enough. I would bet there are got so much to do with balaclavas as tech.

"...These movies include titles like The Hills Have thighs and Bikini Jones and the Temple of Eros. "

Buddy Media, Facebook advertising affiliate, now worth about $ 500 m, according to its latest funding round.

"The idea came during a" what if "conversation with my wife Brigitte, while walking along University Avenue in Palo Alto. What makes Apple with its almost beyond comprehension $ 76B cash? COO of Gassée family is creative and practical, an abstract painter turned "timber variance"-she builds or rebuilds houses in Palo Alto. She is not enchanted by technology and is a utilitarian conception of computers, phones, navigation systems, tablets ... a position that provides a useful counterpoint to my sometimes overly enthusiastic embrace of something that computes. "

You can follow the guardian technology's linkbucket on delicious

View the original article here

UK's top 20 video games chart week ending 13 August

You will not be surprised to see zumba Fitness still on top of the chart … but at least The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D has made a welcome back

View the original article here

Interpublic sells half of Facebook games

IPG said ' ubiquity ' of Facebook reduced the strategic value of the investment. Photo: Dominic Lipinski/PA

Interpublic Group, the U.S. marketing services giant that owns the ad agency networks including Lowe and McCann-Erickson, has sold half of its stake in Facebook for $ 133 m £ 81 m.

IPG was a relatively early investor, Facebook, buy "less than half of 1%" in social networks website in 2006 as part of a broader strategic partnership.

The selling price of half of the game, which is believed to have been 0.4%, values Facebook at around $ 65bn.

When IPG acquired game said the deal included working with Facebook on marketing pilot programmes including "sponsorships, consumer research and creation of content on behalf of its clients".

Michael Roth, the Executive Director and Chairman of the IPG, said "ubiquity" of Facebook have now reduced the strategic value of the investment, while admitting the value of the game have the port directive.

"Interpublic formed a strategic relationship with Facebook in 2006, allowed us to fast track growth of our social media offers on behalf of clients," added Roth.

«Facebook has since been a part of everyday life for hundreds of millions of people around the world. Its ubiquity has resulted in the strategic value of our original investment has declined, while the economic value of that game appreciated significantly. "

Roth said an "attractive opportunity" to sell some of the games had presented itself and it "makes sense" to do.

IPG does not reveal the number shares it sells but said that the sell-off would see a ultimonettoværdi gain of about $ 132 m.

In June bought investment fund GSV Capital Corp 225,000 shares in Facebook for an average price of $ 29.28 each, valuing social networks on the Web site for around $ 70bn.

• Contact Media Guardian News Front Desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other queries please call the main guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you write a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication".

• To get the latest media news to your desktop or mobile, follow the Media Guardian Twitter and on Facebook.

View the original article here

This week's new games

While most games God have you manage statistics in what may feel like a beautiful colored dishearteningly set of Excel spreadsheets, from dust has an entirely more tactile set of priorities and would rather you spend your time moulding the soil see what is happening than brooding over crop yields. This levels represent miniature playground to experiment with the tools at your disposal: sand, lava and water. Each behave more or less as you would expect, with high enough true or lava walls divert water until it gets deep enough into the overflow area. These materials have been augmented by special powers of access to the supporters massing around the totem poles, while you can build a revelatory encyclopaedia of your environment by releasing tribal memories, triggered by spreading palm trees across its dry and rocky archipelagos. Its gentle pace and encouragement to play with toys allows you do this for a very pleasant gaming experience in this secluded gem of a game.

Ubisoft, 1200 Microsoft points (approximately £ 10.28)

Magnetic Billiards

The object of magnetic Billiards is to clear the tables full of colored pucke by banks them so that they hit and stick with matching colors. Bouncing from the pages of the table and passes close to the other colors increase up your score multiplier while creating geometrical shapes with your increasingly complex puck clusters adds to your combo, gives rise to some really absurd scores when you got the hang of it. Its magical come however from Nintendo-esque levels of refinement, with each table a stricter masterpiece of risk and opportunitythat asks you to meter each shot with fanatical precision, revelling in the absence of deadlines. Its atmosphere is as finely crafted as its mechanics, with frequent interjections from the Pickford brothers developers along with the most from named and thoroughly English assortment of unlockable achievements ever to grace a video game. The fact that it looks like a beautiful animated hand-drawn blueprint is entirely appropriate to what is clearly a labor of considerable love. And it's free.

Zee 3 Digital Publishing, free, extra table specifies 69 p-£ 2.49

Allied Star police

owain weinert is a terminally ill 10-year-old boy, introduced by the Foundation's Make-A-wish to Team 17 Software Ltd, irrepressibly quirky developer recently very asbestos pollution purchased by Electronic Arts. He had developed a video game, and thanks team 17 Software Ltd, Allied Star police have been produced, and is now available free on the App Store. Just download it, I believe in. got something in my eye …

eurogamer Expo has announced that it will be held in Earls Court year, thereby sparing video game-loving the desolate annual odyssey to London's Docklands. Show looks set to feature playable versions of everything from Assassin's Creed: revelations to uncharted 3: Drake deception …

In the meantime have excitable radio commentator Glenn Beck in the United States compared mobile gaming classic Angry birds with both Nazi Germany and a socialist State in a political comparison has even regular players in the game confused.

View the original article here