Software

Zynga puts PetVille and more out to pasture

Say goodbye to PetVille, FishFille, Mafia Wars 2, and a slew of other games from the folks at Zynga.

The video game studio has reluctantly pulled the plug on 11 of its gaming titles, as detailed by blog site TechCrunch.

The list of casualities encompass some of the company's most popular games, most of which were playable online through Facebook and a few that were available as iOS or Android apps.

PetVille - Shut down as of yesterday. Mafia Wars 2 - Shut down to new players as of yesterday. FishVille - Shut down December 5th. Vampire Wars - … Read more

TomTom's Lifetime Maps are useless if it takes a lifetime to update

I propose a new test for GPS reviews. Can you actually update your device easily with new maps? When it comes to TomTom, that's a test it has failed for me with three different units, making me want to navigate elsewhere for my GPS needs. Worse, the company seems not to care about known problems.

For all of you TomTom owners feeling lost out there, come along. I'll share some of my pain, and you can nod in agreement. Maybe, just maybe, TomTom might even fix things.

The disposable GPS? Back in 2010, I tried to update my … Read more

Web technology: 5 things to watch in 2013

The evolution of the Web is a messy process.

We do so much with the Web today that it's easy to take it for granted. Banking, social networking, word processing, travel planning, education, shopping -- the Web is reaching to new domains and tightening its grip where it's already used. To match that expansion, the Web is evolving.

But the Web is built by countless individuals -- browser engineers who enable new technology, Web developers who bring that technology online, and standards group members who iron out compatibility wrinkles. With so many constituents, it's no wonder there'… Read more

Instagram said to lose millions of daily users -- but did it?

The number of people using Instagram daily reportedly declined sharply over Christmas, just a week after a flap over the Facebook-owned company's revised terms of service led to widespread user outrage.

As first reported by the New York Post, analytics firm AppData recorded a nearly 25 percent drop in the number of daily active Instagram users in the wake of the controversy. Instagram had 16.4 million daily active users before it announced new plans to introduce advertising into the service; seven days later, that figure had fallen to 12.4 million users by AppData's reckoning.

AppData records … Read more

Apple's Christmas gift -- app downloads jump 87 percent

Apple certainly enjoyed a jolly Christmas, at least to judge from its App Store downloads.

Data out yesterday from mobile analytics firm Distimo revealed an 87 percent jump in iPhone and iPad app downloads on Christmas Day as compared with the average for the month. Sales from all those downloads rose by 70 percent on December 25.

The iPad seemed to be an especially popular gift this season, according to Distimo. App downloads for Apple's tablet lineup grew by 140 percent on Christmas compared to the monthly average, while revenue for iPad apps shot up by 83 percent.

Among … Read more

Google's new VP9 video technology reaches public view

VP9, the successor to Google's VP8 video compression technology at the center of a techno-political controversy, has made its first appearance outside Google's walls.

Google has built VP9 support into Chrome, though only in an early-stage version of the browser for developers. In another change, it also added support for the new Opus audio compression technology that's got the potential to improve voice communications and music streaming on the Internet.

VP9 and Opus are codecs, technology used to encode streams of data into compressed form then decode them later, enabling efficient use of limited network or storage … Read more

Turns out Snapchat, Poke videos don't actually disappear

Snapchat and Poke videos shared with other people are supposed to go poof after a few seconds, but their vanishing act isn't working exactly as advertised.

Snapchat and Facebook's Poke apps are designed for folks who want to share photos and videos with their socially networked friends -- though only briefly. The appeal of both apps is that the photos and videos vanish after up to 10 seconds. That's supposed to mean you can send someone a potentially embarrassing or "sexty" clip of yourself, firm in the belief that it won't stick around for … Read more

Skin your gadget with Windows 8 for Android

With Windows 8 mobile gadgets lagging far behind Android and Apple, it's tough to imagine why anyone would want to look at Windows 8's layout. However, if you've bought a Windows 8 computer or tablet and fallen in love with the tile interface, try Windows 8 for Android. It brings that interface to your Android gadget, but is missing many of the features that make people love custom launchers.

One of the reasons Windows 8's user interface is turning heads is "Live Tiles." The always-updating blocks aren't here, which is a glaring error … Read more

Save videos so you can view them offline with Video Clips

Downloading videos from YouTube, Vimeo, and other sites is sort of the holy grail of free software. Many programs claim to do it, but only a select few can pull it off without hiccups. Video Clips falls firmly into the second category. It rarely works and when it does, it doesn't work well.

Trying to install Video Clips takes several minutes, as you have to decline no less than four programs that try to install with it. If you exit out of them, it often closes the installation process, making the program incredibly difficult to run. When it does … Read more