Games and entertainment

Time Warner Cable customers just received their holiday gift early: after a long wait, they'll soon have access to HBO Go and Max Go.

HBO launched HBO Go last year. The offering allows HBO subscribers on certain cable services to stream movies, television shows, documentaries, and other content over the Web and on mobile devices, like Apple's iPad. HBO Go comes with 1,400 available titles, while Max Go includes access to over 400 Cinemax videos.

HBO Go launched with support for customers on DirecTV, Verizon, and several other cable and satellite services. However, HBO owner Time Warner surprised many industry observers … Read more

Zynga thought its success thus far could justify a $10-per-share stock price. But Wall Street disagrees.

The social-gaming company's stock closed the day today down 50 cents to $9.50, making it the first major Web IPO this year to close lower on its initial trading day.

The writing appeared to be on the wall earlier today when Zynga's shares were unable to sustain an early-morning surge that saw the stock climb to $11.50. Throughout much of the afternoon, Zynga's shares stayed in the red, hitting a low point of $9 before climbing back up to … Read more

Social-gaming company Zynga is officially trading on the Nasdaq, and so far, things aren't looking too good.

The company started selling its shares for $10 around 8 a.m. PT this morning. The stock initially jumped to over $11 a share, but soon dropped about 5 percent to around $9.50. After that, the stock was teetering between small gains and small losses, despite the market trading up on the day.

At the end of the day, the shares closed down 50 cents to $9.50.

Earlier this month, Zynga said that it would price its shares at $8.… Read more

Social-gaming pioneer Zynga priced its initial public offering at the top of its range--$10 a share--setting the stage for its market debut tomorrow as the next major technology IPO.

The $10 price means Zynga could raise up to $1.15 billion, depending on whether it also offers over-allotted shares, and values the company at roughly $7 billion. That gives Zynga a larger initial market capitalization than videogame giant Electronic Arts, currently valued at $6.9 billion. (Zynga's lead over EA, however, is a narrow one--and definitely not the $2 billion advantage reported elsewhere.)

Zynga announced plans to go public in July. … Read more

It's been a good year for video gamers--and not just the epic legions of Call of Duty fans enjoying Modern Warfare 3.

A few months after Foldit players helped decode the structure of a protein key to the way HIV multiplies, another group of gamers taking on DNA sequencing in the game Phylo have contributed more than 350,000 solutions, the game's designers at McGill University report.

When University of Washington researchers unveiled Foldit in 2008, it wasn't clear whether the protein-folding game would be a one hit wonder. But one-year-old Phylo, already averaging 1,000 eureka … Read more

Ever see an actor on a show and have trouble remembering what that person's name is? If so, Hulu has a feature for you.

Dubbed Face Match, the new technology from Hulu Labs allows users to find out more about an actor on-screen. In order to use the service, Face Match needs to be turned on in the settings for the show or clip. After that, users need only hover the mouse cursor over the person's face and the video will pause, showing details about the actor.

I took Face Match for a spin today and it seems … Read more

Researchers at the Indiana University School of Medicine have been studying the effects of media violence for more than a decade. Now, for the first time, they are showing that violent video games directly alter brain activity--not after years of play, but after one week.

It must be noted that the researchers, who presented their findings at this week's Radiological Society of North America annual meeting in Chicago, studied only 28 young men, ages 18 to 29. In other words, these findings are preliminary at best.

Still, the small study shows a direct relationship between playing violent video games … Read more

Social-gaming company Zynga is ready to brave the turbulent initial public offering market, and if the IPO goes well, it might just raise over $1 billion.

Zynga reported in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing today that it will price its stock between $8.50 and $10 a share. The company currently plans to sell 100 million shares, but has made 15 million additional shares available for over-allotment. Depending on how well Zynga can attract buyers, the company could raise between $850 million and $1.15 billion in its offering.

"We intend to use the net proceeds to us … Read more

Zynga has been hit hard lately by reports that say it has been tough on employees. But according to a new story, employees might be preparing to strike back.

Every quarter, Zynga holds a staff survey to find out how employees feel about the company. Last month, the company's CEO Mark Pincus got more than he bargained for from employees after many of them complained of tough working conditions, according to The New York Times yesterday. At least one of the people who responded to the company survey said that as soon as Zynga goes public and they can … Read more