The Zynga Poker Story

Posted on May 3, 2012 by admin

Zynga is one of the successful slow burners of what we could describe as the Facebook age.  Ten years ago we would have described it as a dot.com triumph but we’re in a different era now, one in which overnight success stories are unheard of and the businesses that survive need long term planning and finance.  Zynga is an interesting example, perhaps best well-known for providing Poker and Farmville on Facebook.

zynga poker

Founded in 2007 as Presidio Media, the name was changed to Zynga shortly afterwards, anecdotally as a reference to founder Mark Pincus’ dog.  It was well funded via venture capitalism almost from the start and Yoville, their first social media acquisition, was attracting millions of users daily.

It’s now a company which has devised dozens of games which are enjoyed by millions of users every month.  It’s vast user-base enabled Zynga to go public in December 2011, raising hundreds of millions of dollars.

Of particular interest to us is Zynga Poker; it’s a free poker application played on Facebook and is currently the most widely used online poker platform in the world.  That’s an impressive feat for a game which offers no money for the winners.  Everyone plays for free and the only thing a player can win is even more free chips.  So what’s the attraction?  Well anyone who has played this game knows that the user interface is superb.  It easily outdoes virtually every other online poker provider, including the ones at which the participants can and do win large sums of money.

Zynga Poker is thought to have around 40 million monthly users and even though it offers no cash prizes, it is one of the most influential poker sites around.  In fact is this presence and influence which has led to much talk about Zynga offering a real cash website.  The infrastructure is already there – it is possible to buy more chips if you really want to – and clearly the user-base is there.  It would only take a small percentage of current players to convert to using real money for Zynga to become a major player in the online poker business.  It’s a company which is clearly going places.

 

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The Rise Of The Online Casino

Posted on May 1, 2012 by admin

If you’ve navigated to this website and are reading this article, it’s fair to say you’re pretty familiar with the internet, this incredible network of billions of websites containing vast amounts of useful (and useless) information.  Twenty years ago, even as some of us used the early internet for the first time, did any of us predict where we would be now?

Many industries have been transformed by the ubiquitous nature of the internet; new industries have spring upon the back of the network, some of which have thrived and some of which have subsequently disappeared.  One industry which seems to have been tailor-made for the internet is the casino business.

Online Poker in full flow

The online casino business is now gigantic – it’s worth billions of dollars every year to the merchant websites, to the affiliates and of course to the minority of players who make a profit at Poker, Blackjack, Online Roulette or whatever is their game of choice.  This industry acts as something of a poster child for the effectiveness of transferring your business online.  So how did we get here?

Back in the mid-1990s westernised countries began to improve their networks, taking advantage of new technologies to upgrade their networks.  This provided a faster, stable network which opened up a whole range of new possibilities for software developers.  Video games could now be played online and real time contact could be sustained between internet users on opposite sides of the world.

Into this sandbox stepped a few pioneering gambling websites offering basic versions of Poker, Craps, Free Keno and the like.  Added to this was the important ability to deposit money at these websites, enabling the players to wager real cash against each other.  These small introductory steps were all the casino industry needed to start an industry which is now gigantic.

So why is it so popular?  The obvious answer is that not everyone lives near a casino and it provides those poker players with a way to play their favourite game whenever they want.  They can play with stakes as tiny or as gigantic as they wish with as much anonymity as they want.  Arguably the ease of which casino gaming can now be pursued means that those who may not have been tempted in the past now have the chance to try out a range of games.  Whether that’s a good thing or not can only be a personal choice.

 

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The New iPad – Not The iPad 3!

Posted on March 8, 2012 by admin

The new iPad is finally here and the biggest revelation seems to be that it’s absolutely not the iPad 3.  It’s literally just the new iPad.  Does that mean it makes it sound like it predates the iPad 2?  Maybe, but there you go; it’s March and we’ve been able to see what the new tablet is capable of.

Perhaps it’s not regarded as enough of update to warrant the ’3′ moniker in the same way as the iPhone 4s didn’t quite make to be called an iPhone 5 but there is no doubt that this new device has some very impressive new features.

iPad 3 new iPad

The new iPad

We’ll start with the camera, a feature that Apple seems to have tackled only half-heartedly if previous devices are anything to go by.  the new iPad has a 5MP camera which is certainly welcome, especially considering any tablet is not going to be used as a camera all that much.  Of course it’s a video camera too and one which is capable of taking 1080p HD footage.  The iPad 2 has a 1MP camera and can cope with 720p

Where the new iPad is really impressive in this area though is the way it displays pictures, video and other graphics.  The ‘retina’ display is claimed to be such high resolution that it’s not possible to view individual pixels and this certainly seems to be the case.  Added to the improved colour quality of the tablet, it all makes for a superb viewing experience.  This also crosses over into eBook reading which is now at ‘Kindle’ quality.

These improvements must be powered by something and the A5X chip replaces the A5 from the iPad 2 to produce some very satisfactory results.  Want to use your iPad as a portable hot spot for up to five devices?  You can now, depending on your telco.  LTE wireless connectivity is also catered for.

It’s a tiny bit heavier (about 55g) and fractionally thicker (0.5mm) and the really good news is that the price is no more than the previous models.  For those looking for a bargain this means that the iPad 2 is now going (relatively) cheap at around £329 in the U.K.

 

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Goodbye BTjunkie

Posted on February 13, 2012 by admin

BTjunkie wasn’t the first bittorrent site of course; there were plenty of others in the download arena before it made a name for itself.  It was one of the best known however and regular users or browsers will have been surprised to see the following message on screen when visiting the site last week:

BTJUNKIEBTjunkie, which arrived on the scene in 2005, had recently claimed an enormous number of daily visitrs so the question on everybody’s lips is why choose now to close down without any sort of warning.

It can’t be a coincidence that the closure comes just a few weeks after the apprehension of the owners of Megaupload.  While Megaupload was a different type of filesharing arrangement, it seemed likely that the founders of BTjunkie saw the writing on the wall.  No legal action has ever been taken against the site but similar bittorrent sites such as thepiratebay.org and others have all been on the receiving end of hostile threats from the MPAA, the RIAA and the U.S. Trade Representative.  Perhaps the founders just wanted to walk away with their hands clean or maybe they have something else up their sleeves.

Other bittorrent sites will quickly fill the gap of course and pick up the slack.  For well-established sites the extra traffic may well come as a welcome bonus.  What may be happening is a gradual change in the way file sharers go about their business.  The point at which we know something major is going on is when thepiratebay.org is finally bullied out of business.  In anticipation of this, large distributed networks already exist far from the prying eyes of the music and movie industry lobbyists.  Untraceable and untrackable, they will of course also become conduits for more unsavoury and illegal material.

As the U.S. attempts to exercise jurisdiction far beyond its borders, website developers in western countries will be more and more unwilling to risk their own freedom and the mantel will be taken up by those in countries the U.S. cannot reach.

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Tech News Update 18/1/12

Posted on January 18, 2012 by admin

It’s all about the iPad this week and the various rumours surrounding the release of the next iteration of the multi-million selling tablet.  The iPad 3 will be unveiled in February and then released in March 2012 so if you’ve only just got hold of an iPad 2 for Christmas, in a few months there’ll be a new improved model clamouring for your money.

What’s going to be different in the new version then?  Why will it deserve the moniker ’3′ rather than ’2.1′ or whatever?  After all, the iPhone 4s wasn’t deemed worthy of being an iPhone 5 because the improvements weren’t deemed revolutionary enough.

Everything is a rumour of course but there are one or two things we can garner from the small amount of information available in the ether.  It’s going to look the same as the iPad 2 but those with a ruler may notice that it will be about 1mm thicker than it’s predecessor.  A bit of extra room inside is hardly surprising when you’re trying to squeeze in a load of extra tech.  The screen will be a 9.7 inch retina display; the ‘retina’ part meaning that even if you look at the screen with a microscope you won’t be able to see any individual pixels.  The newer iPhones and iPod Touch already feature this.

iPad 3

iPad 3 mock-up

Perhaps the least publicist thing will be the inclusion of LTE connectivity.  LTE is the acronym for Long Term Evolution and it means that the iPad 3 (or any other device) includes the capacity to use this new technology.  LTE will ultimately bring very high speed wireless to mobile devices and tablets and although we may not see it supplied in any great quantity for a couple of years, devices such as the iPad 3 will benefit by being part of the development program.  In-car hardware is thought to be one market in which LTE will prove useful (for live video traffic reports for example) and the iPad is already a prefectly adequate sat-nav device.

We’re sure the screen will be slightly bigger on the new iPad 3 with a better camera but we’re also sure there will be one big universal selling point (like Siri on the iPhone 4s) which will differentiate it from its predecessors.

 

 

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30 Years Of The Commodore 64

Posted on January 4, 2012 by admin

Video gaming has come a long way in thirty years.  The late 1970s introduced the general public to the home computer and the early days of console gaming.  By 1981 the mas rket was becoming reasonably sophisticated and it was at this point that Commodore chose to replace its Vic-20 home computer with the Commodore 64, which became the most successful 8-bit computer ever.  So let’s have a quick look at its history.

Commodore 64

Commodore 64

For the time it was a next generation colour console and the CEO Jack Tramiel (also of Tramel Technology) had requested a machine with 64kb of RAM.  RAM chips were expensive but falling in value quickly and Tramiel knew that by the date of manufacture, the price would be competitive.  Originally named the Vic-40, the computer was showcased at the 1982 Consumer Electronics Show.  Commodore’s vertically integrated business structure enabled them to produce an impressive machine which could be sold at a price acceptable to punters – $595.  The Apple II sold for $1200 while the Atari 800 cost $900.

Commodore also had the foresight to persuade retail shops to stock the new product, offering it to everyday shoppers rather than just those visiting computer hardware shops.  It was a successful seller right from the beginning, it’s price and aggressive sales strategy pushing it ahead of its rivals in the United States.  In Europe it eventually even matched the sales of the cheaper Sinclair Spectrum.

In a period which spanned an incredible 14 years of production, it is estimated that the C64 sold between 12.5 and 17 million units – the biggest selling home computer ever.  Around 10,000 different pieces of software were released for it; not just games but office applications, development tools and the like.  It was eventually only discontinued when the price of the manufacture of the integrated disk drive became unsustainable (in fact more expensive than everything else required in the manufacture).

It’s still popular now amongst hobbyists and perhaps Commodore wouldn’t have fallen into financial dire straits had it developed an equally good successor.

 

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Tech News Weekly Update 7/12/11

Posted on December 7, 2011 by admin

After an enforced absence we are finally back in the game and able to bring you our slant on the world of technology this week.

Facebook Timeline Kicks Off In New Zealand

Facebook originally announced it’s plan to integrate the Timeline feature into it’s social network back in September 2011.  The beta version was said to be only a few weeks away but now here we are in December, some three months down the line and at last we are about to see what it’s all about – or those in New Zealand will anyway.

Asking what Timeline is is a good question; statements from the company have included a range of excitable but vague statements;

  • “the evolution of your profile”
  • “a place that you are proud to call your home”
  • “Timeline will revolutionize user’s profiles”
  • “Timeline is wider and more visual than the existing profiles”

So that’s not really that clear then; delve a bit deeper and one can discover a few more details which add up to what could be described as a beefed up user profile.

Timeline’s kick off comes in the wake of Facebook’s acquisition of Gowalla, a location based, social app. provider in the manner of Foursquare which was it’s major rival before the takeover.  Whether Gowalla’s technology is built into the new development remains to be seen.  We predict some disappointment if all it turns out to be is some sort of calendar feature as illustrated in the screenshot below – its a nice idea but hardly groundbreaking.

Facebook Timeline beta

Facebook Timeline beta

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Facebook has had good reason recently to want to up it’s game or, to use another metaphor, keep it’s eye on the ball.  While Google+ may not be raking in millions of users from Facebook, it’s there and funded by the bottomless pockets of Google.  It’s not going to be disappearing anytime soon and this battle of the social networks will ultimately be good for consumers; innovation by both parties and the acquisition of enterprising small businesses will serve to keep both social networks on their toes.

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Tech News Weekly Update

Posted on May 25, 2011 by admin

Netflix Showing the Way Forward

Here in Europe we tend not to hear too much about Netflix, originally a DVD rentalservice in the United States but since 2007, an on-demand movie and TV programme streaming service.

The price for the service is nothing if not competitive – a $7.99 per month subscription gets you unlimited streamed movies and DVD’s by post for playback on a wide range of devices (not Linux though).  This is the type of competition Amazon Prime/Love Film will face if Netflix pushes into Europe.

This article though is about the network traffic generated by Netflix and how we can use that to determine it’s increasing popularity.  In Sandvine’s recent Global Internet Phenomena Report: Spring 2011, Netflix has overtaken BitTorrent as the number one source of peak time, downstream traffic.  It also ranks higher than web browsing in general.  BitTorrent still makes up the vast majority of upstream traffic but as a P2P infrastructure, that’s to be expected.

Now if we contrast this with the European chart, it quickly becomes clear how dominant Netflix is across the Atlantic and why Amazon et al should be getting their act together quickly.

Here, BitTorrent traffic still rules the roost, marginally ahead of general web browsing. In Europe the only streaming service that come close to Netflix is the BBC iPlayer with 6.6% of peak time downstream traffic.

the success of Netflix should also serve as a wake up call to those who question the all you can eat model of content provision.  If Netflix can profitably provide copyrighted, unlimited content for $7.99 per month then it may point the way forward for other providers.  Perhaps the model could also be applied to the music industry?

What these numbers ultimately demonstrate is that people will be prepared to pay what they think is a reasonable amount for content and they may be tempted away from the freely available BitTorrent provided content.  The entertainment industry surely not blame everyone else for their woes for much longer when they’ve been shown the way forward.

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Thunderbolt vs USB 3.0

Posted on May 17, 2011 by admin

The last few years have seen some homogenisation in the world of personal computer connectivity.  Unlike in other arenas perhaps, this generalisation of standards in the world of the home and office computer has been a good thing.  Every device almost without exception uses the USB standard – it can not only connect devices it can also power them, doing away with the need for separate power cables in many instances.  Some manufacturers stuck with Firewire in the early days of converging standards but its high speed could not make up for its occasionally erratic performance or the relatively high license fee demanded per PC by Apple.  The freely licensed USB and then USB 2.0 ruled.

Now Apple is back with the excitingly named Thunderbolt, an almost unbelievably fast

Thunderbolt port

connection that promises speeds up to 20 Gbit/s, and the ability to connect and power up to six devices through a hub.  Thunderbolt, however, is also competing directly against USB 3.0, the latest incarnation of the ubiquitous connection.  It can only offer speeds of 5 Gbit/s but it does offer backward compatibility with the vast number of USB 1.0 and USB 2.0 devices already out there.

Thunderbolt also offers a sort of backwards compatibility by being designed to use the Mini DisplayPort connector which already exists on Macs.  This will mean a sort of limited compatibility with any devices which historically used that connection.

So what will the outcome be in this battle for the next generation of high speed connectivity?

USB 3.0 port

Interestingly Intel, which is also part of the USB consortium, has been part of the development process for Thunderbolt – this was not the case with Firewire vs USB.  This is almost certainly the reason why many device manufactures are researching the feasibility of adding Thunderbolt connectivity.  Intel has released a development kit for any manufacturer taking this approach.

Of course, all these devices will still use USB 3.0, which may mean we have an extra port on our PC and on our peripherals.  Perhaps the period of standardisation is coming to an end.

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Tech News Weekly Update 11/5/11

Posted on May 10, 2011 by admin

Why Is Microsoft Buying Skype?

Internet telephony company Skype is almost eight years old now – probably older than most people imagine and it’s one of the legendary dot coms which doesn’t really have a business model. Developed by Kazaa collaborators Ahti Heinla and Jaan Tallinn, it uses the internet protocol (IP) for voice calls, video calls, file transfers and the like.  It’s phenomenally popular (660 million user accounts) but has never found a way to make proper money.  Everything is free unless you want to call a landline or mobile phone from it in which case it costs a small amount.

So back to the title and why do Microsoft want to pay $8.5 billion for it?  In October 2005 Ebay paid $2.5 billion for Skype, couldn’t find a way to integrate it into its online jumble sale or to make any money from it via any other method.  Investment group Silver Lake bought Skype from Ebay for a bit less than $2 billion and yesterday completed the deal of a lifetime by selling it onto Microsoft.

Early statements by Microsoft talk about the need to integrate Skype into existing services such as Xbox Live, Kinect, Office, and Windows Phone – fine but not really $8 billion worth.  They also reassure users of other platforms – Linux, Android, Mac OS etc – that there will continue to be support for those versions.  Here’s the odd thing though – Microsoft already has Windows Live, it can do everything Skype can do (except call landline/mobile numbers) and it has many more users.  Are they going to ditch that?  Can’t see it.

Microsoft may see a future with its Windows Phone.  If you can’t crack the telecoms market or even compete with Apple (iPhone) and Google (Android), then why not integrate Skype onto your device and offer free or very cheap calls to other users to gain a foothold.  It’s not a bad plan but the telephone networks would hate it and they are the ones which still control the networks and therefore access to VOIP services.

So we are left to wait and see what Microsoft’s plan is and to hope that they don’t ruin or restrict Skype for those of us who rely on it in various corners of the world.  Maybe they just bought a gigantic database.

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