Zynga NY studio chief leaves after mobile games disappointment

By Gerry Shih

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The head of Zynga Inc's New York studio has left the social gaming company a year after its $180 million purchase of his mobile game start-up failed to produce the expected results.

Dan Porter, the former chief executive of OMGPOP, will be succeeded by Sean Kelly, an executive formerly in charge of Zynga's smash hit "CityVille," the company said in a statement on Tuesday. Zynga's New York office focuses on developing games for mobile devices, a top priority for the company.

Zynga did not say where Porter, who was vice president and general manager of Zynga's New York operations, would go next.

Porter joined Zynga last March when it bought OMGPOP, known for its popular Pictionary-like game, "Draw Something," in its largest acquisition to date. His departure comes shortly before the highly anticipated global launch of the sequel, "Draw Something 2."

"Draw Something" began losing users soon after Zynga's purchase and OMGPOP struggled to replicate its previous success, leading Wall Street analysts to question the deal.

OMGPOP's integration into Zynga was challenging in other ways. Porter, a colorful and outspoken executive, publicly apologized to his Zynga colleagues last month after Quartz, a business news website, quoted him as saying that the company copies other publishers' games.

Zynga eventually wrote off $95 million in relation to OMGPOP last fall.

Despite Porter's rocky tenure, Colin Sebastian, an analyst at R.W. Baird, said Zynga's OMGPOP purchase helped signal the company's shifting emphasis toward mobile game development.

"I certainly can't say that he has been able to string together a long line of hit titles, but that's not necessarily his fault," Sebastian said. "In bringing some of that mobile perspective to Zynga and at least one key game, that mission was accomplished even if the price tag was deemed to be very pricy."

Zynga's stock plummeted 80 percent in 2012 from a high of $12.90 last March, but has rebounded in recent months. The shares fell 2 percent to $3.09 late Tuesday.

(Reporting by Gerry Shih; Editing by Richard Chang)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/zynga-ny-studio-chief-leaves-mobile-games-disappointment-205337916--finance.html

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Lollapalooza 2013 Lineup: Released!

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/04/lollapaloooza-2013-lineup-released/

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Pincam (for iPhone)

When Twitter's video sharing app Vine launched last month to great fanfare, what you often heard was that it was "like Instagram for video." (Around the same time, Twitter actually stopped allowing Instagram photos to show up on users' streams.) But the comparison doesn't flesh out very well, since a big part of Instagram is its ability to enhance your mobile photos with effect filters and retro looks.

Pincam, a recent free iPhone app from the South Korean firm SK Planet, steps in to give us a closer video analog for Instagram, complete with filters and direct uploading to YouTube and Facebook. This is in spite of the app's frequent use of the term "pin," which would suggest a tie-in with Pinterest. Even the app's logo resembles that social network's, but I found no real tie-ins or resemblances. In any case, the video pinning you do with Pincam, though initially somewhat perplexing, can definitely provide moments of enjoyment with your iPhone's video camera.

Interface
Pincam's initial interface is pretty spare. Its most prominent element is a big, universally understood, red Record button. Other controls grace the corners of the screen: At the top you see Settings and Flash on the left, and switch camera on the right.? The most interesting button is at lower-right?Filters. This lets you see effects like Blue Vintage, Vanilla Sky, Dotty, Mozaic, Tooner, and Sketchbook. The last two are pretty impressive, letting you see and record drawing-like versions of your scene in real time. In all, there are a baker's dozen of effects to choose from.

Recording Video
When you hit that big Record button, a progress bar starts running along the bottom and large Pinterest-like button appears in the right side of the screen. Pressing the latter starts an on-screen timer counting down from three seconds, with the word "Highlight!" superimposed on the recording video.

In some ways, I prefer Vine's ability to let you press the screen to choose when recording should happen. That way, you can easily create clever stop-motion effects. But then there's Vine's stingy six-second limit?.Pincam has you start recording, and then pick the best three-second intervals. You can keep the camera rolling as long as you like, but when you stop it by hitting Record again, you'll see an Encoding message and progress bar. When you then watch the final product, you'll see that Pincam has edited your footage to just the Highlighted sections, with one second added to the start, since it's likely that you missed the very beginning of the interesting bits before hitting the button.

You can't do trimming at specific points in the video, but the Highlight button handles that for you. You can open previously recorded video from your Camera Roll, but only to select and edit down to Hightlights in the clip?you can't add one of Pincam's effects.

My results were more impressive if less pithy than what I'd been able to do with Vine. The filters are a definite plus, and it will be interesting to see whether the app can do for mobile video what Instagram did for mobile photos.

Sharing
After signing into a YouTube account and giving permission for Pincam to access it, you'll be able to add a text caption, which by default just says "via Pincam." I didn't appreciate that you can't choose whether the viddy should be public or private, or choose a category before uploading. After a few minutes, a message informed me that my five-second test upload was Successful! The category was set to Entertainment, and the privacy to Public. Again, I wish I'd been able to choose those before uploading. Facebook uploading is even more streamlined, and my video showed up with an HD viewing option.

A Pincam representative told me that SK Planet would be adding its own online sharing service, so the app will become an even more accurate analog to Instagram. The new service will allow private sharing and have a Facebook tie-in.

Stick a Pin in It
Pincam solved the problem of recording video with monotonous sections you want to ditch. And its cool live filter effects go beyond what you get in Vine, as does its longer time limit. But using Pincam is a bit trickier than shooting with Vine or Lightt, and for that reason, I'd be less likely to use it often. I'd probably prefer a post-shooting video editor such as Apple iMovie for iOS, but video editing on phones remains problematic. Pincam's sharing abilities are reasonable, but I look forward to seeing the app's own upcoming online service. For its superior image capabilities, I give Pincam a higher rating than Vine, but for now the PCMag Editors' Choice is still up for grabs in this still emerging category.

When Twitter's video sharing app Vine launched last month to great fanfare, what you often heard was that it was "like Instagram for video." (Around the same time, Twitter actually stopped allowing Instagram photos to show up on users' streams.) But the comparison doesn't flesh out very well, since a big part of Instagram is its ability to enhance your mobile photos with effect filters and retro looks.

?

Pincam, a recent free iPhone app from the South Korean firm SK Planet, steps in to give us a closer video analog for Instagram, complete with filters and direct uploading to YouTube and Facebook. This is in spite of the app's frequent use of the term "pin," which would suggest a tie-in with Pinterest. Even the app's logo resembles that social network's, but I found no real tie-ins or resemblances. In any case, the video pinning you do with Pincam, though initially somewhat perplexing, can definitely provide moments of enjoyment with your iPhone's video camera.

?

Interface

Pincam's initial interface is pretty spare. Its most prominent element is a big, universally understood, red Record button. Other controls grace the corners of the screen: At the top you see Settings and Flash on the left, and switch camera on the right.? The most interesting button is at lower-right?Filters. This lets you see effects like Blue Vintage, Vanilla Sky, Dotty, Mozaic, Tooner, and Sketchbook. The last two are pretty impressive, letting you see and record drawing-like versions of your scene in real time. In all, there are a baker's dozen of effects to choose from.

?

Recording Video
When you hit that big Record button, a progress bar starts running along the bottom and large Pinterest-like button appears in the right side of the screen. Pressing the latter starts an on-screen timer counting down from three seconds, with the word "Highlight!"ighlight" superimposed.

Hit the Record button again and? another progress bar with the text Encoding

?superimposed on the recording video.

?

In some ways, I prefer Vine's ability to let you press the screen to choose when recording should happen. That way, you can easily create clever stop-motion effects. But then there's Vine's stingy six-second limit?.Pincam has you start recording, and then pick the best three-second intervals. You can keep the camera rolling as long as you like, but when you stop it by hitting Record again, you'll see an Encoding message and progress bar. When you then watch the final product, you'll see that Pincam has edited your footage to just the Highlighted sections, with one second added to the start, since it's likely that you missed the very beginning of the interesting bits before hitting the button.

?

You can't do trimming at specific points in the video, but the Highlight button handles that for you. You can open previously recorded video from your Camera Roll, but only to select and edit down to Hightlights in the clip?you can't add one of Pincam's effects.

?

My results were more impressive if less pithy than what I'd been able to do with Vine. The filters are a definite plus, and it will be interesting to see whether the app can do for mobile video what Instagram did for mobile photos.

?

Sharing
After signing into a YouTube account and giving permission for Pincam to access it, you'll be able to add a text caption, which by default just says "via Pincam." I didn't appreciate that you can't choose whether the viddy should be public or private, or choose a category before uploading. After a few minutes, a message informed me that my five-second test upload was Successful! The category was set to Entertainment, and the privacy to Public. Again, I wish I'd been able to choose those before uploading. Facebook uploading is even more streamlined, and my video showed up with an HD viewing option.

?

A Pincam representative told me that SK Planet would be adding its own online sharing service, so the app will become an even more accurate analog to Instagram. The new service will allow private sharing and have a Facebook tie-in.

?

Stick a Pin in it

Pincam solved the problem of recording video with monotonous sections you want to ditch. And its cool live filter effects go beyond what you get in Vine, as does its longer time limit. But using Pincam is a bit trickier than shooting with Vine or Lightt, and for that reason, I'd be less likely to use it often. I'd probably prefer a post-shooting video editor such as Apple iMovie for iOS, but video editing on phones remains problematic. Pincam's sharing abilities are reasonable, but I look forward to seeing the app's own upcoming online service. For its superior image capabilities, I give Pincam a higher rating than Vine, but for now the PCMag Editors' Choice is still up for grabs in this still emerging category.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/8rF7PaHV-1A/0,2817,2417201,00.asp

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Suspicion in DA death shifts to white supremacists

KAUFMAN, Texas (AP) ? Suspicion in the slayings of a Texas district attorney and his wife shifted Monday to a violent white supremacist prison gang that was the focus of a December law enforcement bulletin warning that its members might try to attack police or prosecutors.

The weekend deaths of Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland and his wife, who were found fatally shot in their home, were especially jarring because they happened just a couple of months after one of the county's assistant district attorneys, Mark Hasse, was killed near his courthouse office.

And less than two weeks ago, Colorado's prison chief was shot to death at his front door, apparently by a white supremacist ex-convict who died in a shootout with deputies after fleeing to Texas.

The Aryan Brotherhood of Texas has been in the state's prison system since the 1980s, when it began as a white supremacist gang that protected its members and ran illegal activities, including drug distribution, according to Terry Pelz, a former Texas prison warden and expert on the gang.

The group, which has a long history of violence and retribution, is now believed to have more than 4,000 members in and out of prison who deal in a variety of criminal enterprises, including prostitution, robbery and murder.

It has a paramilitary structure with five factions around the state, Pelz said. Each faction has a general, who is part of a steering committee known as the "Wheel," which controls all criminal aspects of the gang, according to court papers.

Four top leaders of the group were indicted in October for crimes ranging from murder to drug trafficking. Two months later, authorities issued the bulletin warning that the gang might try to retaliate against law enforcement for the investigation that also led to the arrest of 30 other members.

At the time, prosecutors called the indictments "a devastating blow to the leadership" of the gang. Pelz said the indictments might have fragmented the gang's leadership.

Hasse's death on Jan. 31 came the same day as the first guilty pleas were entered in the indictment. No arrests have been made in his killing.

McLelland was part of a multi-agency task force that investigated the Aryan Brotherhood with help from the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration and police in Houston and Fort Worth. McLelland and his wife, Cynthia, were found shot to death Saturday in their rural home just outside the town of Forney, about 20 miles from Dallas.

Detectives have declined to say if the Aryan Brotherhood is the focus of their investigation, but the state Department of Public Safety bulletin warned that the group is "involved in issuing orders to inflict 'mass casualties or death' to law enforcement officials involved in the recent case."

Killing law enforcement representatives would be uncharacteristic of the group, Pelz said.

"They don't go around killing officials," he said. "They don't draw heat upon themselves."

But Pelz, who worked in the Texas prison system for 21 years, said the gang has a history of threatening officials and of killing its own members or rivals.

The 18-count indictment accused gang members of being involved in three murders of rival gang members, multiple attempted murders, kidnappings, assaults and conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and cocaine.

Some of the attempted murders in the indictment involved gang members who were targeted for not following orders or rules or who were believed to be cooperating with law enforcement. The indictment also alleges that gang members discussed killing a police officer in 2008 and allegedly ordered a subordinate gang member to kill a prospect "and to return the victim's severed finger as a trophy."

Meanwhile, law enforcement agencies throughout Texas were on high alert, and steps were being taken to better protect DAs and their staffs.

In Kaufman County, deputies escorted some employees into the courthouse Monday after the slayings stirred fears that other public employees could be targeted. Law enforcement officers were seen patrolling outside the courthouse, one holding a semi-automatic weapon, while others walked around inside.

Over the last century, 14 prosecutors have been killed in the U.S., according to news reports and statistics kept by the National District Attorneys Association.

Deputies were called to the McLelland home by relatives and friends who had been unable to reach the pair, according to a search warrant affidavit. When they arrived, investigators found the couple had been shot multiple times. Cartridge casings were scattered near their bodies, the affidavit said.

Authorities have not discussed a motive.

The slayings also called to mind the death of Colorado's corrections director, Tom Clements, who was killed March 19 when he answered the doorbell at his home outside Colorado Springs. Two days later, Evan Spencer Ebel, a white supremacist and former Colorado inmate suspected of shooting Clements, died in a shootout about 100 miles from Kaufman. On Monday, judicial officials acknowledged Ebel was freed four years early because of a paperwork error.

In an Associated Press interview shortly after the Colorado killing, McLelland himself raised the possibility that Hasse was gunned down by a white supremacist gang.

After that attack, McLelland said, he carried a gun everywhere around town, even when walking his dog. He figured assassins were more likely to try to attack him outside. He said he had warned all his employees to be constantly on the alert.

___

Lozano reported from Houston. Associated Press Writer Angela K. Brown in Fort Worth also contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/suspicion-da-death-shifts-white-supremacists-223215989.html

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Researchers find immunity protein that ramps up inflammation, and agents that can block it

Mar. 31, 2013 ? Scientists at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine have discovered a new biological pathway of innate immunity that ramps up inflammation and then identified agents that can block it, leading to increased survival and improved lung function in animal models of pneumonia.

They reported their findings today in Nature Immunology.

Pneumonia and other infections sometimes provoke an inflammatory response from the body that is more detrimental than the disease-causing bacteria, said senior author Rama Mallampalli, M.D, professor and vice chair for research, Department of Medicine, and director of the Acute Lung Injury Center of Excellence at Pitt.

"In our ongoing studies of pneumonia, we found infecting bacteria activate a previously unknown protein called Fbxo3 to form a complex that degrades another protein called Fbxl2, which is needed to suppress the inflammatory response," said Dr. Mallampalli, who is also chief of the pulmonary division of the VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System. "The result is an exaggerated inflammatory response that can lead to further damage of the lung tissue, multi-organ failure and shock."

The research team, led by Bill B. Chen, Ph.D., associate professor, Division of Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care Medicine, conducted experiments in which mice that lacked the ability to make Fbxo3 were infected with a strain of Pseudomonas bacteria, and found that they had better lung mechanics and longer survival than mice that still made the protein.

Research team members Bryan J. McVerry, M.D., and Yingze Zhang, Ph.D., both of the Acute Lung Injury Center of Excellence, found that blood samples from 16 people who had sepsis, a condition of systemic inflammation, revealed higher levels of Fbxo3 and other inflammatory proteins and lower levels of Fbxl2 than samples from seven patients who did not have sepsis or lung infection.

Based on the structure of Fbxo3, the researchers developed a family of small molecules with the aim of inhibiting its activity. Administration of one of them, called BC-1215, led to reduced inflammatory markers and improved lung mechanics in mouse models of pneumonia and sepsis.

"The key is to find ways to help the body temper its inflammatory response so that it's able to kill the infectious agent without causing injury to healthy tissue," Dr. Mallampalli said.

"The F-box protein Fbxo3, and other related proteins, represent ideal targets for treatment of acute lung injury, because it controls the innate immune response, is upstream of important inflammatory signaling pathways, and is more selective than traditional drugs that regulate protein turnover," noted Mark T. Gladwin, M.D., chief of the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care Medicine, Pitt School of Medicine.

The team is beginning to study the effects of BC-125 on other conditions of systemic inflammation, such as colitis and arthritis.

Co-authors of the paper include Tiffany A. Coon, Jennifer R. Glasser, Jing Zhao, Ph.D., Yutong Zhao, M.D, Ph.D., Chunbin Zou, Ph.D, Bryon Ellis, and Frank C. Sciurba, M.D., all of the Acute Lung Injury Center of Excellence, University of Pittsburgh.

The study was funded by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs; National Institutes of Health grants HL096376, HL097376, HL098174, HL116472, HL01916, and P50HL084948; and the American Heart Association.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

---

Journal Reference:

1. Bill B Chen, Tiffany A Coon, Jennifer R Glasser, Bryan J McVerry, Jing Zhao, Yutong Zhao, Chunbin Zou, Bryon Ellis, Frank C Sciurba, Yingze Zhang, Rama K Mallampalli. A combinatorial F box protein directed pathway controls TRAF adaptor stability to regulate inflammation. Nature Immunology, 2013; DOI: 10.1038/ni.2565

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/_Z7ZSjqW9jo/130331165601.htm

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'Walking Dead' Season-Finale Preview: Bloodshed Is Coming

'When it goes black, the wait until season four is going to be interminable,' actor Dallas Roberts tells MTV News about what to expect.
By Josh Wigler

"The Walking Dead"
Photo: AMC

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1704654/walking-dead-season-finale-preview.jhtml

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Nev. crash kills 5 in Calif. family; teen arrested

This photo provided by the Nevada Highway Patrol shows Jean Soriano, 18, who was booked into the Clark County Detention Center after he was treated and released at University Medical Center in Las Vegas. Soriano has been arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence in a southern Nevada crash that killed five members of a California family and injured the suspect and three other people. (AP Photo/Nevada Highway Patrol)

This photo provided by the Nevada Highway Patrol shows Jean Soriano, 18, who was booked into the Clark County Detention Center after he was treated and released at University Medical Center in Las Vegas. Soriano has been arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence in a southern Nevada crash that killed five members of a California family and injured the suspect and three other people. (AP Photo/Nevada Highway Patrol)

Five members of a Southern California family were killed in southern Nevada when their van was rear-ended by an 18-year-old driver who was later arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence, authorities said.

The dead were among seven family members who were in the van, authorities said. The other two ? the 40-year-old female driver and a 15-year-old boy ? were hospitalized in critical condition.

Jean Soriano of California was booked into the Clark County Detention Center after he was treated and released at University Medical Center in Las Vegas, Nevada Highway Patrol Trooper Loy Hixson said.

The crash happened at about 3 a.m. Saturday on Interstate 15 near the Utah line. Soriano's sport utility vehicle struck the van from behind, causing both vehicles to spin out of control and roll near Mesquite, some 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas, investigators said.

A 23-year-old passenger in Soriano's SUV was treated at the hospital and released.

Authorities believe Soriano was returning from a visit with family in Utah to his home in California at the time of the wreck, Hixson said. They didn't immediately release his hometown or the names or hometowns of the victims.

Beer bottles were found in the SUV, Hixson said, and troopers performed a blood-alcohol test on Soriano at the hospital. The results won't be known for a couple of weeks, he said.

Hixson said only two of the seven people in the van were wearing seatbelts. The five who were not buckled in were ejected, but one survived.

"Unfortunately, so many in the van weren't wearing seatbelts, and some might have survived had they been wearing them," Hixson said. "We see it so many times where people can survive simply by having a seatbelt on."

The van was carrying a couple, their children and some aunts and uncles, he said. Killed were three men in their 40s, a teenage female and an adult female.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-03-31-Five%20Killed-Accident/id-82331392f6c844eab88864170557fe7c

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