TechNewsWorld

The introduction of multiplayer gaming is very interesting, according to Pietro Macchiarella, an analyst with Park Associates. Up to now, Zynga games have been asynchronous -- a player plays them at their leisure without regard for other players, he explained.

"Now Zynga can afford to have synchronous games because it has such a huge user base that it always have some players online," he told TechNewsWorld.

It's estimated that Zynga has 292 million users, 65 million of t ...read more

If Uppleva products appeal to anyone, it will be the first-time home entertainment center buyer, posited Kurt Scherf, vice president and principal analyst with Parks Associates.

"It's more of a starter kit for someone," he told TechNewsWorld. "Older, more established consumers are going to be more discerning about their electronic equipment."

"The vast majority of consumers buy their entertainment equipment component by component," he added, "but that speaks to consumers ...read more

Of course, Kinect has already found a wide array of applications outside of gaming as well, and these new capabilities -- if indeed the rumors turn out to be true -- would likely expand its reach in such areas even further, Pietro Macchiarella, a research analyst with Parks Associates, told TechNewsWorld.

Medicine and the arts are two such areas, according to the Xbox site, but "the biggest trend I see for Kinect is becoming a controller for content," Macchiarella said.

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"It seems to me that the hacking takes place at the transmission link level, in this case, either a WWAN connection, meaning a mobile network, or a WiFi LAN," Harry Wang, director, mobile and health research at Parks Associates, told TechNewsWorld.

It's easier to hack into a network-connected device.The majority of medical devices aren't connected to networks now, which accords some measure of safety, but that's beginning to change, Wang said.

However, the chances of a h ...read more

"I'm not sure that Microsoft would position it as game-centric, but might instead use things like set-top boxes and business videoconferencing and add elements of Kinect within those," Kurt Scherf, vice president and principal analyst at Parks Associates, told TechNewsWorld.

One possible use of the Avatar Kinect is within an entertainment experience, such as watching television, Parks Associates Scherf said.

"Microsoft has demonstrated Kinect with Sky in the UK and havin ...read more

"Video chat is not a niche application," Kurt Scherf, vice president and principal analyst at Parks Associates, told TechNewsWorld.

Twenty percent of respondents to a 2010 Parks Associates survey said they conduct video chats at least monthly, and 12 percent said they do so weekly. The rates were "significantly higher" among younger consumers, Scherf said.

From the article, "Time for Video Chat's Big Close-up?" by Richard Adhikari

Apple's melding all iDevices into a family linked by the cloud is "the normal evolution towards providing more convenient service on mobile devices," Harry Wang, director of mobile and health research at Parks Associates, told MacNewsWorld.

"Google has already said the upcoming version of Android, Ice Cream Sandwich, will combine tablet and smartphone capabilities," Wang pointed out. "That leads to the possibility of Google having another cloud with the Android Marketplace f ...read more

If news that the password reset process is flawed is true, this "might cause more damage to the brand than the previous hack," warned Pietro Macchiarella, a research analyst at Parks Associates.

From the article, "Sony's Spanking New PSN Security Marred by Password Exploit" by Richard Adhikari