Madden on Facebook
Google may want to create its own version of Twitter. Madden NFL is coming to Facebook and you can use a new social network to create the next big thing is doughnuts. It’s Tuesday, February nine. I’m Natali Del Conte and it’s time to get loaded.
Google may be launching a micro-blogging platform that resides in your Gmail. I wouldn’t really call this a Twitter killer but it does seem to be a very Twitter like. This new feature would capitalize on your status updates in your Google chat but then it would then create a stream of those updates so that you could follow along like you do on Twitter. Yahoo did something like this last year with mail but obviously, that has not killed Twitter. This could launch as early as this week.
You’ll soon to be able to play Madden on Facebook. I am of course referring to the Madden NFL Football video game series. EA Sports is going to create a version of the game for Facebook but it obviously won’t be quite as evolved as the console version.
PayPal service in India has been temporarily suspended. Any funds requested through PayPal has been reversed while this hold is in place. It’s apparently due to business partners and stakeholders who have questions about the service.
Google has dropped the recovery fee for the Nexus One from $350.00 to $150.00. When it was still $350.00, that meant that it could cost up to $500.00 to give it back if you decide that you don’t want it because the carrier also charges up to $175.00 for early termination. Google has dropped the fee but if you’re upgrading your service, you may still pay a $50.00 equipment recovery fee. The company also opened a costumer service phone line where you can talk to a real person. This was a previous complaint of Nexus One users that they could get anyone on the phone for help. Now you can, call 8848-Nexus between 7 AM and 10 PM Eastern for help.
Foursquare has yet another partnership, this time with Zagat the high-end restaurant rating service. This means you can find and check into fancier restaurants and even earn a Foodie badge in major cities such as San Francisco and Chicago. Just last week, Foursquare announced the deal with Bravo for similar location based fund. They seem to be on a partnership tear lately. MySpace is experimenting with audio advertisements inside MySpace music. So when you land on an artist’s page, you’ll get 30 seconds of an ad that will play before the artist’s playlist starts up.
Unfortunately, you can’t click these away or skip them like you can a banner ad but you do only have to listen to one every 100 songs or so. Small price to pay the stream music I suppose.
Chinese law enforcement has announced that it has cracked down on an open hacker training camp that recruited thousands of butting hackers. The group provided software and training to would be attackers. Most analysts believe that this crack down is in response to Google’s much publicized hacking. The arrest and seizure of equipment however don’t seem to have that much to do with the hackers that originally attacked Google.
If you think you have good taste, you might want to enter Dunkin’ Donuts’ donut creation contest. If your donut is tastier or more creative than the other submissions, you could win $12,000.00. Dunkin’ Donuts did this last year but this year, the contest is more social. You can save your creations in the My Donuts section. Download versions for your desktop or social networks and then link your page over you social networks like Facebook and Twitter. If you’ve got an idea, head on to dunkindonuts.com/donut and I wouldn’t suggest copying the one that I made for this demo because I don’t think a pumpkin donut with strawberry frosting is a winner.
Those are all your headlines for today. I will see you tomorrow. Thank you for watching. I’m Natali Del Conte with Cnet TV and you’ve just been loaded.
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