Eric David
Latest from Eric David
Facebook is still king of social media—for now
The latest social media study from the Pew Research Center shows that Facebook Inc. is still on top by a large margin, but its growth has slowed to a crawl as other services take up the slack. Social Media Update 2014 shows that Facebook usage still sits at 71 percent of American adults who use this internet. ...
New Baldur’s Gate confirmed using original game engine
Usually, when a long-dead series gets new life with a modern sequel, the new game tries to recapture the feeling of the originals while still using the latest graphics and game engine, but for the now-confirmed next entry into the Baldur’s Gate series, what is old is new again. Beamdog, the company that released expanded “Enhanced” ...
Facebook buys yet another tech startup, this time for video
Facebook Inc. has just bought video tech startup QuickFire Networks, adding the company to the social network’s growing army of technology assets, including the recently added voice recognition startup, Wit.ai. The startup designs technology that can be used to process and transcode video efficiently, improving video frameworks to enable media to be loaded quickly with high ...
LinkedIn opens its publishing platform – wants more people writing
The business-focused social network LinkedIn is expanding its publishing platform to include all English speaking countries, greatly increasing the potential contributors to the site’s longer form article posts. “Early last year, we gave every LinkedIn member in the U.S. the ability to publish posts on LinkedIn – and the response was swift and enthusiastic,” wrote ...
Steam Machine controller is “finalized” – rumored to launch at GDC 2015
The design for Valve Corporation’s unique touchpad game controller has been finalized with more details coming at the Game Developers Conference in March, says Origin PC CEO Kevin Wasielewski. “At GDC, they’re going to have more information, and we’ll be there.” Wasielewski said. “That’s the official stuff we can say. They came out with the controller, then ...
Could a Yahoo! purchase be just what Twitter needs?
Twitter Inc.’s stock has dwindled over the last year amidst staff shakeups, falling employee confidence and rumors of CEO Dick Costolo’s departure, but the microblog company saw a sudden spike in share prices yesterday over speculation that it should purchase search engine-relic Yahoo! Inc. Ross Levinsohn, former interim CEO at Yahoo, told CNBC that purchasing Yahoo ...
EA Sports faces lawsuit from ex-NFL players over Madden games
A federal appeals court has rejected requests made by Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) to dismiss a lawsuit by former NFL players claiming that the company used their likenesses in video games without the players’ permission. A 3-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco rejected EA’s arguments that the players’ likenesses ...
Facebook buys voice recognition company with Siri-like capabilities
Facebook Inc. has added another tool to its growing arsenal of tech companies, this time with a focus on voice recognition AI. The social media giant has just acquired Wit.ai, an 18-month-old Palo Alto technology startup that designs natural language processing software. Wit.ai creates software that supports “Natural Language for the Internet of Things.” The company’s tools are used by ...
PlayStation 4 reaches 18.4 million sales worldwide
Sony Computer Entertainment closed out 2014 with a strong showing for the PlayStation 4, which has sold more than 18.4 million units worldwide in a little more than a year since its initial release in November 2013. Roughly 4.1 million PlayStation 4 consoles – over 22 percent of the total sales – were sold in the ...
The Facebook Club? Zuckerberg invites 30 million to his new book club
Last week Facebook Inc. CEO Mark Zuckerberg reached out to Facebook’s one billion members to help him choose his New Year’s resolution, and it looks like he has made a decision. “My challenge for 2015 is to read a new book every other week — with an emphasis on learning about different cultures, beliefs, histories ...