In today’s mobile and social news roundup: EA pulls back from Facebook, Foxconn resumes hiring to gear up for production of the new iPhone, Google Fiber gets a boost from Sony, and more.

EA just announced the closure of a number of its popular Facebook games such as The Sims Social, Pet Society, and SimCity Social which will go offline on June 14th. There are no current plans to shut down the popular games from its PopCap subsidiary. Social games have been losing popularity on Facebook, but they have plans to re-emphasize its commitment to gaming later this year.

Foxconn has resumed hiring to gear up for production of the new iPhone. An additional 10,000 workers being added each week, and despite recent financial issues, analysts are being optimistic about the future, saying monthly revenue will likely pick up gradually in May, when the company is expected to begin production for the new iPhone.

When it comes to internet speeds, nobody is faster than the Japanese. A Sony-backed ISP, called So-net Entertainment, announced that they will be doubling the speed of Google’s fiber with their own version of high speed internet, called “Nuro.” To make things worse for Google, not only will Nuro double the speed of the fastest internet service in the United States, but it will also be cheaper.

Mobile mayhem

iOS users can now get in on the live and uncut action on YouTube. An update to the iOS YouTube app is available in the App Store, and the most exciting feature is its support for Live Event Streaming. YouTube for iOS still lags behind its Android counterpart, but with this update, its closing the gap.

Softbank feels secure in its relationship with Sprint. The Japanese telecommunications company isn’t worried about the recent advances by Dish Network. Investors may not share that confidence. Shares in SoftBank fell by close to ten-percent when the news of Dish’s twenty-five billion dollar buyout proposal for Sprint broke.

TV revolution

Comcast’s encryption of services was a natural step for television providers to protect their content. Customers who have a TV which is hooked-up to cable without a set-top box will now require an adapter to view basic cable. In preparation for the transition, Comcast is contacting customers and offering up to two adapters for free for the first two years.

Netflix just acknowledged that plug-in solutions, like Microsoft’s Silverlight product that it currently uses, will eventually be replaced by HTML5. A recent corporate blog post explained why. The chief issue, among several, is that many browsers don’t support plug-ins. HTML5 is still a relatively new technology, and it doesn’t yet include standards for all the features necessary to run a service like Netflix. They’ve been collaborating on several W3C initiatives that, upon adoption, will bring the streaming video industry closer to an HTML5 video reality.

Apple recently informed all of its product support specialists about an issue some of its third-generation Apple TV units may be having. The units in question may not be able to handle several WiFi operations, like locating WiFi networks, joining Wifi networks, or maintaining a reliable connection to a network. Replacement models can be offered at no cost, up to two years after the dysfunctional device’s purchase date.

Twitter is reportedly close to reaching a partnership with Viacom and Comcast, to begin providing video content to the popular social network. Building on their existing partnerships with ESPN, The Weather Channel, and TBS, Twitter is seeking to add more entertainment to their site, and these latest talks would add even more networks to the list, such as USA, MTV and even Nickelodeon.