By The Editors 5/10 5:11pm

shameless rumormongering

The picture of despair.

Rumor Roundup: Dave McClure Calls Big Omaha Attendee a ‘Lying Bitch’ and Zynga Employees Run Into Traffic

Lying Bitches 500 Startups founder Dave McClure, known for his rather dirty mouth, made a big slip-up at the Nebraska-based thinkfluencer festival Big Omaha today. According to Valleywag, Mr. McClure was giving a talk at the conference when he asked someone how good her iPhone battery life was. When she responded with a presumably positive answer, Mr. McClure called her a “lying bitch.” On stage. In front of tons of people. Read More

By Kelly Faircloth 4/18 8:12am

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Worms can get in through that bite now. (via Wikipedia)

Booting Up: Apple’s Been Better, Thanks for Asking

Apple stock is down 24 percent this year. Shares slipped briefly below $400 earlier this week. [Wall Street Journal]

Did an adding error in Microsoft Excel exacerbate unemployment? [Ars Technica]

“It really is that simple–just design something great, something that users love.” Damn, someone ought’ve told  Zynga. [Forbes]

Should we really be so worried about hackers? [TechDirt]

Barry Diller says, ”I see the death of irrelevant media.” You think he relishes the angel of death role?[NetNewsCheck]

By Kelly Faircloth 4/04 10:25am

BummerVille

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As Dan Porter Departs, Former Zynga Folks Dish

You’ve got to wonder what employee happy hours are like in the legendarily intense environs of Zynga. (We’re gonna guess testy.) A couple days ago, the company announced the departure of New York GM Dan Porter, and former employees are already dishing to Fast Company. A lot of former Zynga staffers, it seems, are ready to trash talk the OMGPOP acquisition, which cost Zynga a $95.5 million write-down.

One former employee complained to Fast Company, ”They bought it at the peak [of Draw Something], and people got tired of the gameplay quickly and the usership dropped. We got the timing wrong.” Read More

By Jessica Roy 4/03 8:43am

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(Photo: How to get real)

Booting Up: Wish Your Cellphone a Happy 40th Birthday

It should probably come as no surprise to you that Facebook has employees whose job it is to read private messages that have been flagged as inappropriate, particularly if they contain malicious URLs or child porn. [BuzzFeed]

Zynga’s first big real-money casino games, ZyngaPlusPoker and ZyngaPlusCasino, are launching this week in the U.K. At least you’ll have the potential to win actual dollars instead of spending them on virtual crops? [AllThingsD]

Apple is finally beginning iPhone production this quarter so calm down ya fanboys. [Wall Street Journal]

If you live in California, you may soon be able to know exactly what personal information your telecom company collects on you. [Ars Technica]

Happy 40th birthday to the cellphone. Oh, how far we’ve come. [The Verge]

By Nitasha Tiku 3/27 5:00pm

ZyngaVille

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Zynga New York Is Back With a New Game at No. 1 in the Apple App Store [UPDATE]

UPDATE: Yesterday evening after our post went up, Zynga’s What’s the Phrase moved from no. 3 to no. 1  for top free games in Apple’s App Store and is currently holding down the top spot.

Zynga New York hasn’t always had the chummiest relationship with Zynga’s corporate office back in San Francisco. The East Coast outpost was formed a year ago after Mark Pincus acquired OMGPOP and its mobile juggernaut Draw Something–installing OMGPOP CEO Dan Porter as general manager.

Things started to sour last fall when Zynga blamed a $95.5 million write down on its $183 million OMGPOP acquisition for a bad quarter. But after a round of office closures, Zynga New York remained open, which is in line with gaming giant catching the all-mobile-all-the-time bug from Mark Zuckerberg. COO David Ko (Mr. Pincus’ no. 2 man) also continues to speak highly of Draw Something and the upcoming, Ryan Seacrest-approved Draw Something 2.

Soon he may have even more to crow about to wary Zynga shareholders.  Read More

By Jessica Roy 1/30 8:23am

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Another rainy day in NYC. (Photo: wired New York)

Booting Up: Another Zynga Exec Bids Adieu

Zynga has lost another exec. The struggling company’s chief game designer Brian Reynolds has resigned. [VentureBeat]

Sorry, Facebook: Twitter is now the fastest-growing social platform in the world. No data yet on who owns the universe, though. [GlobalWebIndex]

Netflix wants to become the next HBO. So, lots of shows with gratuitous nudity and cursing just ‘cuz, “It’s premium cable, man.” [The Verge]

McDonald’s is the new study hall. Hey, it’s not like the library has french fries. [Wall Street Journal]

Startup visas may soon become a thing after the President endorsed them in a recent speech. But what about all those lawless seafaring incubators? [Huffington Post]

By Kelly Faircloth 12/31/12 7:40am

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flickr.com/davidcory

Booting Up: Let’s All Make ‘No More Privacy Scares’ A New Year’s Resolution

At the eleventh hour, a security bug was discovered in Facebook’s “Midnight Delivery” feature, which made it possible to see and even delete users’ New Year’s messages to friends. Whoops! It’s been fixed. [TNW]

As part of a plan to cut costs, Zynga has shut down a raft of games over the course of December. The latest: PetVille and Mafia Wars 2. [TechCrunch]

Guess Nate Silver’s election-day triumph didn’t singlehandedly slay the gut feeling in favor of big data, after all: “What is intuition at its best but large amounts of data of all kinds filtered through a human brain rather than a math model?” [New York Times]

Techies we lost in 2012. [Wired]

“But there is a darker possibility, too, which is that some people will own workbots before other people do, and that the people who lack workbots won’t be able to keep up with those to do.” Happy New Year, ya’ll! [New Yorker]