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PopCap CEO Dave Roberts told Nick Cowen Therefore, the company is thrilled with the purchase of Electronic Arts and what it means for game development

One of the biggest stories in the games industry this year around the acquisition of a casual game 's leading lights, PopCap, from Electronic Arts for the princely sum of $ 750m (? 457m) centered.

While the benefits of the sale of EA 's perspective is to develop simple - it expands the company' s reach on both social networking and gaming platforms and smartphones increases his talent-base significantly - for PopCap 's motives the sales have been elusive.

We spoke with PopCap CEO Dave Roberts to find out what motivated the deal and what impact it has on the company.

What were the last six months?
It was definitely crazy. I don 't know if it was the craziest 6 months of my life, but it was fucking crazy.

Can you talk me through the decision process that led to PopCap being acquired by Electronic Arts?
Well, we were with some bankers working on the deal. They took us through the whole thing - that was not 'ta traditional banking business process. At the same time we gave a lot of time and energy to the IPO route on this and make a lot of work on this. So, on the one hand, I was involved in this was, and on the other hand, I use a lot of companies that could potentially acquire to meet us, yes, yes, there was a lot on my plate during this time.

It was a bit like speed dating - although I 've never done speed dating. For us it was a lot of fast 'Hello, how are you' meetings. EA was a good fit for us, though. I think both companies are reminded each other of a few years ago when we first took a good look at each other 's inner life - it was easy to think that everything is static, when in fact, the truth of both companies had changed a amount over time.

There was much to discover new, for us, that EA really cared to play. That was an eye opener for me, I mean, I've known John Riccitiello 's been saying it for a long time, but I' ve heard that something like this before. Just because a CEO says, it doesn 't make it so. But then you have to go through the halls of EA and see how people who are really excited to play.

They also are a product of personal perspective. They have really fond of our games, their interest in us wasn 't because they saw it as filling a niche market. With Riccitiello 's vision for EA, Thurs games come first, and this multi-platform future for all games is kind of where we were heading anyway at PopCap. We share a common vision with them.

It 's now much more can we do with our games - and I think we' ve only the surface of what we 're in a position scratched.

What will the deal change at PopCap?
Well, PopCap 's has been changed every year for the last 10 years, but hopefully we' ll keep the essence of what we do here. One of the things I like about EA - I think and I don 't, this was for them a few years ago - is that they care very passionately about games. I think they lost for a while. The EA of four years ago was the EA, the arrogant and didn 't really give a damn about games. Eventually, though, and I personally didn 't even notice this until about EA as last year, but things had changed. EA was different, the people were really excited about their work again and I don 't think that had happened in a while.

Everything indicates that EA like us as we are. You 've not really proved to be very good, casual content, so there' s no reason why they 'd that the fair by what we have here.

We certainly see it as an opportunity, some of the things we have to take \ trying to do better on a larger scale - such as massive porting effort, for example - that we 've never quite as good as EA at doing. We were just the stuff on a scale of PopCap. Done in collaboration with EA this stuff is to make our lives so much easier, much of our game, guys are space and time to work on games and they won have \ t ', to spend large amounts of time on porting efforts to tell .

That was the main goal to allow the transaction PopCap to focus his creative talents?
Well, that's one objective, sure. We're a relatively small company after all. I mean, for example, we've got a team in Dublin right now that's working on a social media game, but that's also the team we have that does ports to Android. Also, if we get a Sony Ericsson deal, we have to go off and buy 60 handsets to work on.

Look, no individual task is difficult, but you 'd have a situation where we' d have designers, artists and engineers who could be working on a social game, and they 're doing other things, rather than . Now we can move, from the kind of work to look good to other parts of the EA organization to do that stuff much. The good news is that EA have it all set up so that we can choose what parts of our organization and work load that we want to integrate to get. It 's not a big EA mandate that we do things that dictated their way.

Their attitude is: "Look, here '.'s Doing the stuff our organization can let us know what you want and we' ll figure it all out '.

Well, that is 's how it' s so far. We closed haven 't the deal yet, ask me in six months! But we 're pretty excited about it. We have really seen this as an opportunity to a larger company, hopefully without losing what 's in particular, what we do here.

So the other major objective was to PopCap to grow as a company?
Well, we 've always about creating this lasting legacy for our brands. We want our games to rank there with games like Monopoly and Scrabble, regardless of the fact that they 're playing video games. People have favorite games, but many of them aren 't video games and we really want to change that. Now, to reach the consumer, that EA 's got, we' re better that position. We knew that we probably have done it on our own, but it would have taken much longer. With EA, we can accelerate this process by quite a large number of years, because a relationship provides us access to them a lot more resources.

Some of his stuff, like Playfish 's publishing platform that will be our social media game development, or coming to get this huge client database to help us, more players may accelerate.

So we 've got more available. We don 't have all the answers yet on what we' re going to do with everyone, but we 're thrilled to have the opportunity to use it have.

They, like you 'sound it out yet, how do you go ...
Yes, well, that 's just the greatest challenge for a company our size is that there are so many things we could do. The danger is that we don 't sure that we know what is beyond the first things we are after. We 're going to have a little cautious, it' s easy to try a thousand things at once and doing none of them. We 've got to be a bit sensible about things and take advice on it.

Look, there's a lot of questions that we have - we haven 't closed the deal yet - and there' s the potential for a variety of fears people have, if \ Change's so much so that we know we have a lot to work through.

You 've said that it' sa lot, that will change at PopCap - won but surely there are basics that 't be changed - as happened in the last 10 years?
Well they shouldn't be. Unless, of course, we decided we wanted to change them. Look, five years ago we were a download gaming company. Now we're a social media games company and a smartphone games company. That's what we're know for now, and that's a pretty big change, right? It's the biggest change that I think we've had at PopCap – certainly in the time I've been here.

We 've had to play to really think differently too. With games, I really have to credit Jason [Kapalka, founder and chief creative officer] and some of the other guys in the studio for drawing some of the old timers, we 've had here, sometimes kicking and screaming to this genre. Once she got it, if they really realized that not all social games were bad, and they were actually a really cool way, the user in a way that you never even thought of before commit. Once this is done, the whole landscape is changing here.

I think we 're on this morning of the new social games. Not only from PopCap, but no one - we haven 't the best thing that has yet to offer this platform to see. We want the way people look at certain social gaming, and I 'm that other people are working to change the same thing. Take the new Sims social stuff - I haven 't seen it myself, but I' ve heard it 's supposed to be amazing. I don 't think you' re will be seeing a lot more, Cloney, spam-your-friends games that we ve 'on Facebook as seen in the past. I think you 're a lot of innovations will be seen there, and that' s just a good thing.

To think that we 're less social games on platforms which would see a premium put on monetization?
Well, that depends on what you consider important. You can go overboard with monetization on any platform. You can use one of free-to-play models too far and I'm thinking that too much can put a blemish on the industry. I think it actually hurt very early social games, even some of them, like Farmville, what I thought was very spammy at first. But they 've got huge, Farmville players now ask if they like Farmville, and they do. 'Say s easy for us in the core gaming crowd that it' It \ s not even a game, but the truth is, has FarmVille millions of people who play and love it and you can 't argue with that!

Do you think that the core market of developers resist social media games because they, how much money they see, and they begin to worry that begin this the kind of game publishers and developers will focus more on, because that 's where is the money?
I think that 'sa part of it, sure. But then there 's another part of her that she' s because it 's the unknown. Game designers are fickle and they breed a little like the things remain as they are. It 's hard to change things sometimes - we look' ve struggled with him. It 's hard to make a game with the right balance, which is funny, and you can monetize directly, while engaged with it still. A game that one-time fee is a much simpler task than any game freemium model to work.

I 've a lot of bad Freemium models is to see where they expect you two levels and then you pay for it - and the two levels aren' t very good. It can be an interesting game in there, but you 'll never know because the makers tried, you paid too fast!

So, I think the developers have always been game balance issues, and now we 've got a new dimension to game balancing, and I think that' s huge. It 'sa whole new skills and proven by some of the things that I' ve seen out there, a lot of people aren 't very good.

I think we 'll Come Around, though. People learn how to make a better social games. We take an approach here, where we try to lead the fun part and then select the monetization part. We 've probably left money on the table somewhere, but eventually we' ve always been our customers happy and we 've built our reputation and will, frankly, that' s the most important thing for us. We 're in the long run. It 's Facebook today, but it could in a year + Google and it could be something completely different in three years.

Are you a developer to make games for Google +?
I don 't know if I' d may say so, if we are!

Many simple forms of life on this planet, including some of our earliest ancestors don 't right minds. Instead, they have networks of neurons that fire in response to stimuli that trigger reactions. Scientists at Caltech have indeed how such a primitive pre-brain thought to create DNA strands. Researchers, led by Lulu Qian DNA molecules strung together to create bio-mechanical circuits. By sequencing of the four bases of our genetic code in a special way they could program it to react differently to different inputs. In order to prove their success, the team interviewed the organic circuit basically play 20 questions, feeding it information on the identity of a particular scientist with more DNA strands. The artificial neural network nailed answer every time. Check out the PR and the couple of videos that dig a little deeper into the experiment after the break.

Read more DNA-based artificial neural network is a primitive brain in a test tube (video)

DNA-based artificial neural network is a primitive brain in a test tube (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, July 30, 2011 16:36:00 EDT. Please read our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Discovery News

Thirty-four-year-old Nguyen Tien Truong is to find out the hard way that you shouldn 't do the crime if you \ can' t do the time. U.S. District Judge Morrison England, Jr. ruled that Nguyen guilty in fact scamming more than 38,000 victims who are imitators of the design was banking sites trick users into entering their personal data, and ordered him to serve 12 years in prison .

After DigitalTrends Nguyen worked with Romanian fraudsters in a concerted effort to route victims of fraudulent websites via e-mail phishing. He sold the stolen data to Ryan Price and Stefani Ruland, two men who used the information to open credit lines with GE Capital kiosks at Walmart in Northern California. Lines of credit typically ranged from $ 1,000 to $ 2,000 per person. Overall, the crooks about $ 200,000 in illegally obtained items from Walmart.

When the police Nguyen was arrested in 2007, they found a number of incriminating evidence, including web templates to counterfeit versions of banking sites, banks and credit card numbers 38,500 victims, to build fraudulent credit cards, and a fake driver 's license, DigitalTrends says. Nguyen was also allegedly in possession of a Remington 870 Express Magnum shotgun and ammunition in the vicinity, the order from an earlier conviction on three crimes of which violated a written fraudulent checks on hand.

Nguyen 's lawyer unsuccessfully tried his client \ fault' s behavior on his methamphetamine addiction for which he no longer suffers alleged. He was due to conspiracy, aggravated identity theft, possession of a firearm and access device fraud accused.

Image Credit: thehackernews.com

Slashdot points us to a disturbing report from Canada, about a scientist to have received something of a gag order on their research appears to be depleted salmon stocks. I must admit that the article in the Vancouver Sun is not particularly clear at all why the scientists themselves can 't just speak. I 'ma little bit about how Canadian laws on this work confused, but apparently there' sa Privy Council Office, the power, the scientists, Kristi Miller, from talking about their research block has:

The documents show the major media were soon standing in line to speak with Miller, but said the State Office no to the interviews.

The Privy Council Office also nixed a fisheries agreement Department press release about Miller 's study, said the "was not very good, focused to die for salmon and not on the new science aspect" received for documents Postmedia news at the Access to Information Act.

Miller is still not allowed to speak publicly about their discovery, and the State Council Office and Department of Fisheries to defend, as it has been silenced.

What I don 't understand - and perhaps in some Canadian jurists could jump in and explain - is how this particular office can speak from Miller himself to avoid even though the' s clearly the implication of the article. The reasoning of the Privy Council Office and the Department of Fisheries given doesn 't make much sense either:

The Privy Council Office and the Department of Fisheries, said Miller was not allowed to create their work because of the Cohen Commission, a judicial investigation of the Prime Minister to discuss reductions in the famous Fraser River sockeye view. She is expected to appear before the Commission in late August.

But how would reporting the actual results of a study relevant to the Commission be a problem? That part isn't clearly explained either, leading to the obvious implication that the government simply doesn't likeWhat 's in the report, and would prefer that it not be discussed. Of course, if the goal was ... It seems to have gone off the back.

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Apple 's not too happy evil lurking about vulnerabilities in IOS, and they' re not about cracks from rapid-fire updates to prove it. Only 10 days after the release of IOS 4.3.4 (which it gave almost exclusively to kill a potentially unpleasant PDF exploit), they 're back with another: IOS 4.3.5.

Apple 's patent application, give us a glimpse into their post-PC future, and it looks like hard keys so2008th The recent submission revelead shows off a virtual, flat keyboard concept for Cupertino 's line of non-IOS products, flirting with a metal, plastic and glass form factors. With a combination of piezoelectrics, haptic feedback, and Acoustic Pulse Recognition, this prospective design may be hitting your finger-detect input surface. If you 're the kind of fast typing, you' re probably wondering how your numbers identifies the keys without looking. Well, there 'sa few workarounds for it. In its metal and plastic iterations, Jobs and co. Plan to stamp or micro-perforation of the layout in place, while their glass counterparts want to get a graphical overlay. The application also promises an LED-backlit display for tough conditions and the inclusion of capacitive sensors to enable multi-touch watch functions, so you avoid ee cummings-style e-mails. Of course applications can aren 't necessarily indicative surefire for a product, but those interested in tickling their imagination to give the source link a look.

Apple patent application takes the hard keys from the keyboard, a flat surface solution promises originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, July 25, 2011 22:05:00 EDT. Please read our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Patently Apple

There are a ton of so called "sucks sites" out there, set up to criticism or just plain ridiculous for a particular company. Early on, companies often tried to sue the existence of such sites with questionable trademark claims. These efforts usually (though not always) failed. But more importantly, the process really thanks to the Streisand effect backfires. Every time a company went to a legal site sucks, the website and its contents, only a lot more attention. Two years ago, it was alleged that the lawyers for corporate law had finally wised and realized that on such sites is legal only gave these pages a lot more attention.

But since we have yet to hear about such legal threats all the time. Apparently there are still a lot of lawyers there who haven 't get the message. The latest is apparently Demand Media, the content of giant yard. His lawyers sent a cease and to desist and a takedown to Studio Sucks Demand.

Rather than a full legal threat against the site, it was on the fact that some users of the site was apparently on a presentation to the boards, the focus needs to be uploaded as proprietary. Thus the basis of the takedown that the company 's copyright and trademark rights are violated. It appears that DSS 's ISP overreacted and, instead of the actual contents, took the whole forum . Will, of course, this has done everything a lot more attention to driving on the content demand away: a presentation slide shows how the demand is trying to increase the quality (now that Google changed its algorithm to crappy quality of the content that demand with in was associated punished the past).

The demand 's lawyers say:

Demand Media has not granted any licenses to use the trademark of Demand Media, publish or copy Demand Media Demand Media or copyrighted content to publish confidential and proprietary business information. Accordingly, in addition to violating Demand Media Rights to intellectual property in the said materials, the postings are disruptive, dangerous and harmful to our business practices and reputation.

The intellectual property claims seem entirely unfounded. It 's not a brand to be asserted. It 's no consumer confusion or dilution at all here. No one believes that DSS is "confirm" of Demand Media. The copyright claim is dubious. Looking to the blog post in question, I can see, t, as it \ \ is' s fair use. It 's, which is a single slide from a presentation that' s certainly relevant, and offers significant comment on this picture.

The "harmful and detrimental to our business practices and reputation" claims are also quite questionable, if I could think of some random law of the land claims that they 're, they could use to guess here. But, I see only don 't it. Can be critical of someone reporting on your business is disturbing and harmful, but not illegal. And, frankly, is the presentation in question hardly some huge corporate secret. The film is so bland and meaningless and corporatey, it doesn 't really give away anything.

Frankly, \ it 's hard to believe that someone thought it was a wise move by DSS to go that route. It is easy to demand more attention and makes look petty and silly. It 's no surprise that Forbes emphasizes reporting on this story (the original link above) shows that this happens at the same time as demand' s rating fell below $ 1 billion for the first time ....

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Acer 's had \ her day (or two) Unveiling back-to-school laptops, and now it's sister brand, from the Gateway' s. The outfit has just announced the 15.6-inch N-series and the 14-inch-ID47, which include both USB 3.0 and a selection of Sandy Bridge processors. (In the case of entry-level NV, you can also have an AMD 's fresh-off-the-line chips Llano opt.) But the company has more than just give his notebooks a spec bump - also tweaked their designs and added a Chiclet keyboard to the NV series, while the metal-clad ID 's trackpad is 20 percent larger and is no longer lights up like a mood ring. The ID47 has also filled a 14-inch display in a case generally with 13.3-inch panels, and a non-removable battery, which promises to eight hours of combined juice. (The NV is rated for up to 4 hours.) And, in an unusual twist, our friends in Canada will have additional options, including a 15.6-inch version of the ID, and select models with NVIDIA Optimus. Both the ID47 and NV55 / NV57 are now available with the ID from $ 629.99 and $ 799 Canadian and NV get $ 529.99 and $ 499 Canadian. Check out the various configurations after the break with a lot of 'o photos below.

Update: Many of you are asking about the screen resolution to these guys. It 's not in the press release, but the answer is 1366 x 768, all on the line.

Read more Gateway updates its ID and NV-laptop with USB 3.0, Llano and Sandy Bridge International

Gateway updates its ID and NV-laptop with USB 3.0, and Sandy Bridge International Llano originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 7 July 2011 08:00:00 EDT. Please read our terms for use of feeds.

GSMA Mobile Media Metrics show Apple enormously over-indexing, but sad for Symbian show

Should mobile app developers are putting more effort into porting their applications to Symbian phones? It 'sa large existing installed base, and while Nokia is planning to phase out the OS in the next few years, the company claims it will sell another 150 million Symbian devices at this time.

New figures released by the industry association GSMA tell a different story, however. Compiled according to its Mobile Media Metrics report, along with comScore Symbian accounted for only 1% of connected users of the application in the United Kingdom in April.

Apple 's IOS took a 65% share with 31% of Android and other platforms (BlackBerry, Windows Mobile / cell phone, webOS and feature phones) below 3% share.

ComScore 's data on applications to the Internet is based on an operator network, so that they don' t are not connected downloadable games: The analysis is based on the same principles as the research that we reported on last week was. In other words, winning Symbian users who download and play games are counted on their phone 't for the purpose of this investigation.

comScore blog with some apps provided separate figures for its MobiLens research shows device market share in smartphones in the UK in April. According to these figures 27.6% of smartphone users were on the iPhone this month, 24.7% to Android, Symbian to 23.6%, 18.1% to 3.8% on BlackBerry and Windows Mobile or Windows Mobile 7 devices.

Compare the two parts of the research, and you see the iPhone is enormously over-indexing in order to use the attached app, Android is pretty good, but Symbian - 23.6% of the working phones, but only 1% of connected App Users - hardly presents an attractive prospect for developers to make the connected applications.

Precautions? Just a few. The numbers don 't tell us much about the addressable market in the UK for people with non-connected applications. You don 't tell us anything about countries in other parts of the world where Symbian may be a viable platform for these applications.

Meanwhile, we have re \ s-units' share in the arms for BlackBerry, given the popularity of e-mail and messaging BBM on RIM \ confused "- we suspect that these applications do not comScore due to the technical details of the BlackBerry platform to be registered.

Even so, next question, why so many developers IOS tunnel vision of the Mobile Media Metrics have figures for the United Kingdom seem valuable context. To put it bluntly, according to these statistics, there are more than 5.7 million iPhone owners with related applications in the UK, compared to 2.7 million Android-Symbian users and 119,000 users.

It 's not just how many devices have been sold, but how many of these people are actively downloading and using apps. And how many are willing to pay for them, of course, but that 's another piece of research into the production.

New mini-robot evaluation platform for TI 's Stellaris ARM ? Cortex ?-M3 microcontroller provides more tools and software options for experimentation and development to facilitate

AUSTIN, Texas, April 5, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Arming developers with more software and tool options, Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) (NYSE: TXN) today announced the availability of its newest Stellaris microcontroller (MCU) Robotic Evaluation Platform (EVALBOT). The new mini-robot platform within TI's embedded processing portfolio provides developers the flexibility to choose from a variety of software tool chains so they can fully access the features of the Stellaris Cortex-M3 MCU in their preferred environment. The updated Stellaris EVALBOT is also preloaded with a StellarisWare? application, and the kits now include more example projects in source code, including a demo that enables developers to more easily experiment with the kit's expansion port that supports TI wireless evaluation modules. With EVALBOT, developers can experience the Stellaris MCU in a real-world application that leverages the processor's integrated 10/100 Ethernet MAC/PHY, USB On-The-Go, CAN, and motion control capabilities. For more information, go to www.ti.com/evalbot-2-pr-tf or for a video overview, go to www.ti.com/evalbot-2-pr-v.

Stellaris EVALBOT features and benefits (EK-EVALBOT)

• 80 MHz Stellaris MCU with 256K LM3S9B92 Flash, 96K SRAM, StellarisWare ? software in ROM, and integrated Ethernet, USB On-The-Go (OTG) / Host / Device, CAN
• Multiple-tool-chains, including Keil MDK-ARM, IAR EWARM, TI Code Composer Studio, Code Red Technologies Red Suite, CodeSourcery SourceryG + + and generic GNU
• Example of the display, audio and motor control software projects on the sprawling StellarisWare code base for the implementation of concepts in practice are based
• Expansion Port supports TI wireless modules and end-user extensions
• Chronos SimpliciTI demo software allows you to wirelessly control the robot platform, when combined with TI 's CC1101EM low-power RF module and eZ430-Chronos Clock coupled
• Two DC gear-motors provide drive and steering, opto-sensors that detect wheel rotation with 45 degree resolution, and sensors for "bump" detection
• TI motor drivers, voltage regulators, audio codec, interface and logic for simple evaluation of the entire signal chain
• Bright 96 x 6 blue OLED display and on-board speaker
• Debugging requires only a single USB cable (included)

TI 's broad portfolio of microcontrollers and software

From general purpose, ultra-low power MSP430 MCUs ? to Stellaris ARM Cortex-M-based 32-bit MCUs and high performance, real-time control TMS320C2000 ? microcontrollers, TI offers the broadest line of microcontroller solutions. Designers can accelerate time to market by support TI 's complete embedded software and hardware tools, extensive third-party technical.

Pricing and Availability

The Robotic Stellaris evaluation board is priced at $ 149 U.S. and can be purchased at www.ti.com/evalbot-2-pr-es.

Learn more about TI 's Stellaris MCUs and EVALBOT:

• Stellaris EVALBOT: www.ti.com/evalbot-2-pr-tf
• EVALBOT Video Overview: www.ti.com/evalbot-2-pr-v
• Stellaris MCU LM3S9B92: www.ti.com/evalbot-2-b92-pr-pf
• Stellaris Wireless Kits: www.ti.com/evalbot-2-wireless-pr-tf
• Stellaris MCUs: www.ti.com/evalbot-2-stellaris-pr-lp
• TI 's microcontroller: www.ti.com/evalbot-2-mcu-pr-lp
• TI eStore (EVALBOT): www.ti.com/evalbot-2-bot-pr-es

About Texas Instruments

Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN) support to solve its customers and develop new electronics that make the world smarter, healthier, safer, greener and more fun. As a global semiconductor company, TI through innovative design, sales and manufacturing operations in more than 30 countries. For more information, go to www.ti.com.

Trademarks

Stellaris and StellarisWare are registered trademarks and MSP430 and TMS320C2000 are trademarks of Texas Instruments Incorporated. All registered trademarks and other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

SOURCE Texas Instruments Incorporated

Paulina Bozek told the Evolve conference about her new company Inensu

During his time at Sony Computer Entertainment, created the Paulina Bozek SingStar Playstation music game franchise. Now it is 's running her own startup, Inensu, focusing on social and mobile phone games, first fashion and music. On today 's conference in Brighton Evolve, she outlined the strategy behind the new company.

"What I really want to talk about is a new audience," she said, reminding the audience of developers for the past five weeks, the most popular console game in the UK has Zumba been fitness, while the rise of Facebook iPhone gaming and the player base is expanding significantly.

"Suddenly our addressable gaming audience is literally everyone," said Bozek, who Inensu focuses on mass-market games, said. "We see ourselves very much to sit at the intersection of gaming and entertainment."

The studio 's first project is swap Closet, a project with Channel 4 Education. It 'sa social fashion site that people photos of their clothing and upload virtual fashion cupboards with their friends. This is a website integrated with Facebook Connect, but it will also be a native iPhone app and a web app for Android and BlackBerry.

The idea: to encourage people to swap clothes rather than shop for new ones that they don't need: there is a strong sustainability angle to the project. "This app was not going to be about preaching to the converted: we really wanted this to be for the Top Shop Girl," she said. "We wanted to influence normal teenagers, not just have an ethical-for-the-already-ethical app."

When people upload a children's play some clothes, they 're prompted to enter his "story" where she got it where it was she who gave it to them and so on. Then people can look to their friends "virtual closets and swap ping requests to another.

"We think of social as a way to \ an application in people's everyday social sector to get it ... \ part of their leisure time with their friends," said Bozek. "Fashion is really interesting, innovation: it 'sa basically dominated the retail industry, and it hasn' t really change".

This isn 'ta game, right? But there are game elements. "We think that dressing up is playful by nature. Self-expression is playful. But we have an added level gamification" said Bozek. "Our approach was to wear the items, the power on."

If an item is first to provide a cabinet is added, it is 50 points. The first time it 's swapped, it is worth 100 points, then 200 points for the second time and so on. These points then each user will 's total, appear in the rankings. They also have what is important to show which elements belong to one of the most popular group of friends.

Inensu 's second project is called super-fan, and is on the music rather than fashion. The goal here: something for music fans, whose relationship with music design has \ changed "fundamentally an entire industry ... The music industry is going through this big change on the distribution models the consumption models, and each tries to figure out how to to monetize the music, and replace the lost revenue. "

Sun Inensu us is to combine music, games and social functions, with particular emphasis on 12-15 year-olds who are up to digital music and social networking has grown.

"For this audience it's all about accessing music rather than owning it. YouTube is their MTV," said Bozek, who pointed out that increasingly, artists' music videos are being shot with YouTube in mind, not TVs in living rooms. "We think that teens have a very personal and emotional connection to music. It's part of their identity... But the complications of music licensing are still holding us back."

Bozek cited Turntable.fm, the U.S. social music site that people can DJ for one another with their own MP3s, as inspiration. It is still available in the U.S., but was locked out due to licensing reasons. "There is a real-life scenario depend on people and played mirrored disks," said Bozek. "And it was also to discover music through other \."

By Super Fan wants to Inensu gamify fandom, with a mix of games, leaderboards, chat and other social functions. "We call this a fan club 2.0, because fan haven 't really changed," said Bozek. "We 're not involved really in the music license itself. We believe there are a whole bunch of other things going on around the music that we mean don' t have to access the recorded music market itself to . focus "

Super Fan will start in a private beta in a few weeks 'time. Inensu is to some labels about how they speak to commit in the future.

"They love the idea of ??the DAC - the daily active users -.. Even more than we are doing in social gaming is a good opportunity for virtual goods, we have it a bit with Lady Gaga in Farmville, but she didn 't really go this route: they used it as a promotion ".

Bozek said that Inensu thinks it is also an opportunity to link out to concert tickets, merchandise and other products such as super fan will start.

"In short, we need to re-invent the toilet." That 's what Sylvia Mathews Burwell, president of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation' s Global Development Program, said recently. She was at the AfricaSan conference in Kigali, where they called called donors, governments, the private sector and NGOs to discuss re-invent the toilet. Yep, the toilet. The idea is noble. The majority of developing countries have no access to toilets. As Burwell suggests no other innovation in the last 200 years has saved the lives and better health than the toilet flushing, but the bowels Revolution be achieved only a third of the world. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is hoping to rekindle that fire, and improving the lives of countless millions.

While we've covered many developments in the field of prosthetics, are such high-tech developments beyond the reach of those in developing countries where the rates of amputations due to war at its highest. Now, U.S. Army soldiers stationed in Afghanistan have a simple prototype artificial leg, using the local resources, developed so that victims of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and landmines to be back on its feet quickly and cheaply can. .. Continue Reading to develop U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan simple prosthetic leg with local resources

Section: Health and wellbeing

Tags: Mobility, Prosthetics, Prototype, U.S. Army

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