Author: Sean Patterson

If there’s one thing LinkedIn is, it’s consistent. The company has slowly built its brand and membership numbers in the crowded social media space where other companies are getting bloodied.

LinkedIn today announced its fourth quarter 2012 and year-end 2012 financial results, and, once again, the social network for professional networking hit its marks.

The company pulled in revenue of $303.6 million in the fourth quarter of 2012, an 81% increase over the fourth quarter of 2011. Non-GAAP net income was also up at $40.2 million and its non-GAAP diluted earnings per share rose to $0.35.

For the whole of 2012, LinkedIn took in $972.3 million, an increase of 86% year-over-year.

“2012 was a transformative year for LinkedIn,” said Jeff Weiner, CEO of LinkedIn. “We exited 2011 having successfully revamped our underlying development infrastructure. Based on that investment, we said that 2012 would be a year of accelerated product innovation, and it was. The products we delivered throughout the year drove member engagement and financial results to record levels in the fourth quarter.”

For their fourth quarter earnings, the company cited strong revenues of $161 million from its “Talent Solutions” recruiting products and $83.2 million from its Marketing Solutions products. Subscription revenue from premium memberships to its social network rose 79% to $59.4 million.

LinkedIn set ambitious goals for itself in 2013, and expects to bring in between $1.41 billion and $1.44 billion.

“Continued investment in our talent and technology infrastructure drove momentum in both product and monetization, resulting in record revenue, profitability, and cash flow,” said Steve Sordello, CFO of LinkedIn. “As we look forward to 2013, we remain excited about the value LinkedIn will create for members and customers in the coming year.”

Back near the beginning of the year, gameplay footage from Activision’s upcoming Walking Dead: Survival Instinct video game hit the web. The footage was so dreadful that fans speculated it must be from an unfinished version of the game, and Activision later confirmed that the video was a fan edit of footage from an early build of the game, and that it doesn’t reflect on the game’s actual quality.

The 20-second release date trailer released in mid-January raised suspicions about the game’s quality by showing absolutely no game footage. Instead, it featured some bland statements about the game from the actors who play the game’s characters on The Walking Dead AMC TV show.

Today Survival Instinct has finally gotten an “Official” trailer featuring footage from the game. Unfortunately, it does nothing to assuage gamers’ fears that the game is only a low-quality cash-in on a popular TV brand. The video appears to be made up almost entirely of in-game cut scenes, with graphics that don’t appear to have changed much from the “early build” footage leaked earlier. There are only a few quick-cuts to shots that look like they could possibly be actual gameplay footage. This is with less than two months to go before the game’s March 19 release date.

NASA this week revealed that astronomers have discovered a mysterious object that acts like a strobe light. The object, named LRLL 54361, releases a flash of light every 25.34 days. Though other objects in the universe have been observed with similar patterns, this one is the most powerful yet seen.

In a new paper published recently in the journal Nature, astronomers have proposed that the strobe effect is caused by interactions between two very young stars (protostars) that orbit each other (binary star). As material is dumped into the growing binary star, they believe that the flashes are caused by a blast of radiation unleashed when the stars closely approach each other in their orbits. Such an event, known as a pulsed accretion, has been observed before, but never with such regularity or in a system so young. The binary star is estimated to be no more than a few hundred thousand years old.

“This protostar has such large brightness variations with a precise period that it is very difficult to explain,” said James Muzerolle, co-author of the paper and a researcher at the Space Telescope Science Institute.

LRLL 54361 is located 950 light-years from Earth in a star-forming region named IC 348. The discovery of its strobe-like property was made using NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, and astronomers used NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope to confirm the observations and reveal the structure of the system.

Though the gas and dust surrounding the system prevents it from being observed directly, the Hubble was able to detect two “cavaties” in the material on opposite sides of a central dust disc. Astronomers believe the cavities were created by an outflow from near the binary star.

(Image courtesy NASA/ESA/JPL-Caltech/STScI/NOAO/University of Arizona/ Max Planck Institute for Astronomy/University of Massachusetts, Amherst)

Activision and Nickelodeon today announced that they have teamed up to create new video games based on the rebooted Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles TV series that began airing last year. The deal encompasses three video games, the first of which will be released sometime this summer.

“The fans of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are unique in that they span generations and are very passionate,” said Kurt Niederloh, vice president of Activision Publishing Minneapolis. “We respect this passion and look forward to working with Nickelodeon to create games that embody the spirit of the property.”

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles video games have a storied history. The first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles video game was released for the original Nintendo console in 1989. Though it is considered one of the hardest games of all time, it sold well and is considered a classic. Two arcade games released around the same time, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Arcade Game and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time also went on to become hits and are considered classics of the side-scrolling beat ‘em up genre. Since that time, most Ninja Turtles video games have been plagued by the same quality problems seen in many games created to cash in on licensed TV or Movie properties.

“We are confident that these upcoming games will take gamers through interactive environments and action-packed adventures that truly capture the essence, tone and exciting elements of the Turtles,” said Sherice Torres, SVP of Nickelodeon Consumer Products.

Here’s hoping.

Late last year, Robin Roberts stepped down from her job anchoring Good Morning America to undergo a bone marrow transplant. Roberts had been diagnosed with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), a blood disease disorder of bone marrow stem cells.

Since that time, viewers and fans have worried over Roberts’ health and whether she will be able to return to job on the ABC morning news program. Today on the show, Roberts’ colleague and co-worker George Stephanopoulos announced that Roberts will indeed return to her anchor chair on February 20.

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Welcome back Robin!!! Big day Feb. 20!!! http://t.co/V0VajDDA

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On her ABC News Blog, Roberts herself issued a thank you to friends and family. From the blog post:

I’m excited to re-join my wonderful ‘GMA’ family. I’m also looking forward to thanking YOU … for your many prayers and well wishes. Your compassion has been an enormous source of comfort to me and my family.

I’m heading to the beach for the next week to reflect and give thanks for my many blessings.

Light Love Power Presence…XO

Today Capcom announced all of the details on its upcoming Capcom Arcade Cabinet for PlayStation Network and Xbox LIVE. Starting on February 19, the publisher will release one of five “Game Packs” every two weeks. Each pack will include three classic Capcom arcade titles in full HD.

The first pack will cost $5 or 400 Microsoft Points and includes Black Tiger, 1943: Battle of Midway, and Avenger. Black Tiger will be given away for free, presumably to show off the features of Arcade Cabinet. Subsequent packs will each cost $10/800 Microsoft Points, but patient gamers can wait until May 21 to buy all of the titles in a $30/2000 MIcrosoft Points bundle. The games in each pack will be made individually available for $4/320 Microsoft Points two weeks after they are released in a pack.

Pack 2 (March 5) will include Ghosts ‘n Goblins, Gun.Smoke, and Section Z. Pack 3 (March 19) includes Side Arms, The Speed Rumbler, and Exed Exes (Savage Bees). Pack 4 (April 2) includes Commando, Legendary Wings, and Trojan. Pack 5 (April 16) includes 1942, SonSon, and Pirate Ship Higemaru. Gamers who buy all of the titles – even in bundle form – will receive two mystery games (Street Fighter, perhaps?).

In addition to the HD optimization, the Arcade Cabinet features a “virtual dip switch” to customize game settings, online multiplayer for games with two-player modes, and leaderboards. Also, since Capcom knows many modern gamers won’t enjoy the difficulty level of classic games, all of the games will have a “Casual Mode” that will “allow less experienced players to wade into the more difficult challenges with fun and sometimes unexpected tweaks.”

The previews for Aliens: Colonial Marines have been a bit back and forth. By that I mean some of them make the game look like a thoughtful spinoff of the first three Alien movies with similarly creepy design (the alien hive preview), while others have made the game look like a mindless shooter that resembles all the action-heavy parts of James Cameron’s Aliens (the “Kick Ass” trailer).

In that context it’s understandable that Alien and shooter fans alike may be wary of how the game will play. The latest trailer for the game, released today by Gearbox, attempts to split the difference. To do this, heavy action scenes similar to those in the “Kick Ass” trailer are set to some low-key instrumental music and given a few Zack Snyder-style slow-mo sequences. It’s reminiscent of the old Gears of War “Mad World” trailer, but with explosions and face-huggers.

Whatever Aliens: Colonial Marines actually turns out to be, we’ll all find out next week when the game is released on February 12.

The U.S. National Weather Service is warning residents of New England that a coming winter storm could be a record-breaker. The storm will hit the Northeast and New England sometime on Friday and continue into Saturday.

The storm will bring heavy snow and blizzard conditions to those areas, and temperatures could drop to 10 or 20 degrees below average. Snowfall rates of up to two to three inches per hour are predicted for some areas of Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts. Wind gusts of up to 60 or 75 miles per hour could also present an additional headache for the transportation and power industries.

A statement from the National Weather Service in Massachusetts read: “A potential historic winter storm and Blizzrd is expected to drop 1 to 2 feet of snow across much of the region Friday into Saturday.” Winter storm watches are in effect through Saturday afternoon for much of the Northeast.

In Boston the winter storm watch has been upgraded to a blizzard watch, meaning whiteout conditions are possible. A blizzard watch has also been issued for some parts of New York, though the city is still under a winter storm watch. Six to ten inches of snow are expected in the city along with “a trace of ice” and temperatures in the lower 30s.

The last developer update on the upcoming standalone version of DayZ included just about everything fans of the game could want to know. Dean “Rocket” Hall revealed that many of the proposed overhauls are complete and that others are being worked on.

What the last update did not include, however, was a video of gameplay. This week’s update on the DayZ Tumblr blog has corrected that oversight.

The first DayZ standalone video blog includes a look at configuration options, map improvements, and new areas, including swamps, an expanded military base, and an all-new island. There is also a long section that gives a basic overview of the new clothing available in the game.

New loot spawn mechanics are also detailed in the video. Instead of piles of a few objects sitting on floors, loot can now be found on the tops of tables or other surfaces, as well as underneath objects or hidden away in hard-to-find locations. Unfortunately, the re-vamped inventory system is meticulously edited out of the video.

In addition to the video blog update, Rocket mentioned that closed, internal beta testing has uncovered many bugs, and closed, external beta testing still has not commenced. He provided no date for when external testing may occur, but did promise to provide regular updates on the title’s progress.

Last month, U.K. electronics retailer HMV entered administration. Employees and customers were left wondering whether the business would be shutting down.

Today, Deloitte, the firm hired to oversee HMV’s administration, announced that 66 HMV stores will be closing throughout the U.K. These stores collectively have 930 employees, and no plans to relocate them were revealed. HMV currently has 220 stores in the U.K.

This step has been taken in order to enhance the prospects of securing the business’ future as a going concern,” said Nick Edwards, joint administrator of HMV. “We continue to receive strong support from staff and are extremely grateful to them for their commitment during an understandably difficult period. All other key stakeholders remain very supportive and I continue to be hopeful of securing a future for the restructured business.”

No date has been set for the closure of the stores, but they are expected to shut down sometime in the next two months. Below is the list of stores that will be closing. Consumers near these stores would be well-served to keep an eye on them to watch for closeout sales.

Ashton-under-Lyne, Ballymena, Barnsley, Bayswater, Belfast Boucher Road, Belfast Forestside, Bexleyheath, Birkenhead, Birmingham Fort, Blackburn, Boston, Bournemouth Castlepoint, Bracknell, Burton-upon-Trent, Camberley, Chesterfield, Coleraine, Craigavon, Croydon Centrale, Derry, Dumfries, Durham, Edinburgh Fort, Edinburgh Gyle Centre, Edinburgh Ocean, Edinburgh Princes Street, Edinburgh St James, Falkirk, Fulham, Glasgow – Fort, Glasgow – Silverburn, Glasgow Braehead, Huddersfield, Kirkcaldy, Leamington Spa, Leeds White Rose, Lisburn, Loughborough, Luton, Manchester 90, Moorgate, Newry, Newtonabbey, Orpington, Rochdale, Scunthorpe, South Shields, Speke Park, St Albans, St Helens, Stockton-on-Tees, Tamworth, Teesside, Telford, Trocadero, Wakefield, Walsall, Walton-on-Thames, Wandsworth, Warrington, Watford, Wellingborough, Wigan, Wood Green, Workington, Wrexham.

McFarlane Toys this week announced that it is partnering with Ubisoft to release Assassin’s Creed III-branded figurines.

The first set of the collectibles will include seven different figures, including Connor, Haytham Kenway. Two different Connor figures are being made, one with the character in the traditional assassin cloaks and one with the character in his Ratonhnhaké:ton outfit from the upcoming “The Tyranny of King Washington” DLC add-on.

There is no date set for when the figures will be released, but the prototypes for the items will be on display at the International Toy Fair next week. The toys will be be around six inches tall and will have “an average of 25 points of articulation.” They will cost $15 to $16 and will be found at most toy retailers throughout North America, South America, and Australia.

The figures will also come with a code that provides “exclusive” Assassin’s Creed video game content, such as weapons and character outfits.

“We’re always looking to raise the bar with our figures, and Ubisoft has been a great partner to help make that happen,” said Todd McFarlane, CEO of McFarlane Toys. “These will be the first McFarlane Toys to include integration with the game itself. Our Assassin’s Creed figures will include codes that unlock unique content in game – things like new weapons, clothing colors, or other customization options. Features like this reward the hardcore fans who buy the figures, and give collectors some added value.”

U.S. President Barack Obama today announced his pick for a new Secretary of the Interior. Sally Jewell, the CEO of Recreational Equipment Inc. (REI), will be nominated by the president to head up the U.S. Department of the interior. If confirmed, Jewell will replace former U.S. senator Ken Salazar, who currently holds the position.

“…even as Sally has spent the majority of her career outside of Washington – where, I might add, the majority of our interior is located – she is an expert on the energy and climate issues that are going to shape our future,” said Obama. “She is committed to building our nation-to-nation relationship with Indian Country. She knows the link between conservation and good jobs. She knows that there’s no contradiction between being good stewards of the land and our economic progress; that in fact, those two things need to go hand in hand. She has shown that a company with more than $1 billion in sales can do the right thing for our planet.

The Department of the Interior manages and conserves federal resources, including 500 million acres of public land and national parks. It also oversees the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Geological Survey, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which operates programs for Native Americans, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians.

“I have a great job at REI today, but there’s no role that compares than the call to serve my country as Secretary of the Department of Interior,” said Jewell. “I’m humbled and I’m energized by this opportunity, and I look forward to getting to know members of the Senate as they consider my nomination in the coming weeks.”

Jewell has been CEO of REI since 2005. Since that time, the consumer cooperative has nearly doubled its sales from $1 billion to almost $2 billion and added 71 stores across the U.S.

(Image courtesy REI)

Last month Ubisoft confirmed that the first episode of Assassin’s Creed III‘s “The Tyranny of King Washington” DLC (titled “The Infamy”) will be released on February 19. Today the publisher finally filled in the details for the final two episodes of the series.

The second episode, “The Betrayal,” will be released one month after the first episode, on March 19. The third and final episode, “The Redemption,” will be available for download on April 23. The dates are the same for all systems, including Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC. The price for each episode will also be the same, $10 on PC or via the PlayStation Network, and 800 Microsoft Points via Xbox LIVE. There are no firm dates yet for when the content will hit the Wii U, but Ubisoft has promised that all Assassin’s Creed III DLC will make it eventually.

In conjunction with the announcement, Ubisoft has also released a new teaser trailer for the content. The video gives an overview of the new powers Connor will receive as part of the DLC, which include wolf camouflage and summoning wolves.

BlackBerry, the company formerly known as RIM, today announced that the BlackBerry Z10, the company’s first BlackBerry 10 device, is already breaking records. The device was only just released yesterday in Canada, and the hometown crowd seems to have backed the Ontario-based smartphone manufacturer considerably.

BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins today announced that first-day sales of the Z10 in Canada were 50% better than for the launch of any other BlackBerry device. BlackBerry fans in the U.K., where the Z10 shipped on January 31, have stepped up as well, buying nearly three times as many Z10s during its first week on the market than they have any previous BlackBerry smartphone.

“In Canada, yesterday was the best day ever for the first day of a launch of a new BlackBerry smartphone,” said Heins. “In fact, it was more than 50% better than any other launch day in our history in Canada. In the UK, we have seen close to three times our best performance ever for the first week of sales for a BlackBerry smartphone.”

Of course, there is only one BlackBerry 10 smartphone model currently available, with the upcoming Q10 bringing a second physical keyboard option sometime this spring. RIM customers used to have the option of a wide range of BlackBerry choices. The reduction in options shows that handset manufacturers are truly beginning to embrace Apple’s “one phone fits all” philosophy.

Astronomers this week published a new study that estimates six percent of red dwarf stars may have Earth-sized planets orbiting within their “habitable zone” – the area around a star in which liquid water can exist on the surface of an orbiting body. Since many stars close to our solar system are red dwarfs, astronomers say an Earth-like planet could be just 13 light-years away.

“We thought we would have to search vast distances to find an Earth-like planet.,” said Courtney Dressing, lead author of the paper and an astronomer at Harvard University. “Now we realize another Earth is probably in our own backyard, waiting to be spotted.”

The research, to be published published in The Astrophysical Journal, came from data from NASA’s Kepler space telescope. 95 planet candidates orbiting 64 red dwarf stars were analyzed, and three of them were found to be smaller than twice the size of earth and orbiting in their stars’ habitable zone.

“We don’t know if life could exist on a planet orbiting a red dwarf, but the findings pique my curiosity and leave me wondering if the cosmic cradles of life are more diverse than we humans have imagined,” said Natalie Batalha, Kepler mission scientist at NASA’s Ames Research Center.

Though the planets may be similar to Earth in some ways, the nature of a red dwarf system could mean they are very different in others. Since the habitable zone of a red dwarf is closer to those stars than our own, planets within that zone would be more susceptible to solar flares. Also, such planets would likely be very old and tidally locked to their star, leaving one side of the planet in perpetual darkness. Astronomers suggest, however, that a thick atmosphere could counteract these effects, and that such stresses could even help life evolve.

“You don’t need an Earth clone to have life,” said Dressing.

(Image courtesy D. Aguilar/Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics)

Sony has only two weeks left to sell PlayStation 3 consoles before it announces the PlayStation 4 on February 20. It also has only months to convince gamers that the final games of this generation are still worth buying.

With this in mind, the announcement this week of the God of War: Ascension “Legacy Bundle,” could represent one of Sony’s last attempts to sell PlayStation 3 consoles on the back of first-party games. The U.S. version of the bundle comes with a red PlayStation 3 and a copy of every game in the God of War series.

Europeans, though won’t be getting the God of War: Ascension Legacy Bundle. Instead, a different God of War: Ascension/PlayStation 3 bundle will be released. The different bundle will include a white 500 GB PlayStation 3 slim console, rather than the red one in the U.S. bundle. Europeans will also not be getting a copy of God of War: Saga in their bundle, and there was also no mention of the normal 30-day free trial of the PlayStation Plus service.

To make up for not being as comprehensive of God of War as the U.S. version, the bundle in Europe will include a gold God of War: Ascension-branded Dualshock 3 controller. Also, the Ascension game disc will come in a “Steelbook” case, which includes the game’s soundtrack and codes for a “Double XP” multiplayer unlock, a PlayStation 3 theme, and a PlayStation 3 avatar.

Though Samsung‘s flagship Android smartphone, the Galaxy S III, has been a huge success for the Korean manufacturer, the company isn’t about to let its dominance of the Android mobile market slip away.

Rumors last year put the announcement of Samsung’s next Galaxy S phone as early as February or May. Today, the latest rumor puts a more specific date on the announcement.

SamMobile is reporting that the announcement of the Galaxy S IV will come on March 15. The report cites an unnamed “trusted insider” as stating the new smartphone will go on sale sometime at the beginning of April. Europe and Asia are predicted to get the device first, with the U.S. having to wait for a May or June launch.

Though the invitations for the announcement event are expected to go out this month after the Mobile World Congress conference, the location of the announcement is still secret, even from the anonymous source. Last year’s announcement of the Galaxy S III took place on May 3 in London.

SamMobile is the same website that provided the supposedly leaked image of the Galaxy S IV back at the beginning of January. The device is rumored to have close to a five-inch screen with a 1920 x 1080 resolution.

(via BGR)

A new study using data from NASA‘s Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) mission has put forth an explanation for an interstellar “ribbon” of energetic neutral atoms. The ribbon confounded researchers in 2009 when IBEX was able to map the interstellar boundary at the edge of our heliosphere, where particles from inside the solar system interact with and bounce off galactic material. Many more energetic particles were found to be streaming from the ribbon than in other places.

The new paper, published this week in The Astrophysical Journal, proposes that the ribbon is in an area where neutral hydrogen atoms from solar wind cross the galactic magnetic field, stripping away their electrons and changing them into charged ions. The particles then become trapped in the ribbon regions by vibrations in the magnetic field.

“Think of the ribbon as a harbor and the solar wind particles it contains as boats,” says Nathan Schwadron, first author on the paper and researcher at The University of New Hampshire. “The boats can be trapped in the harbor if the ocean waves outside it are powerful enough. This is the nature of the new ribbon model. The ribbon is a region where particles, originally from the solar wind, become trapped or retained due to intense waves and vibrations in the magnetic field.”

Previous models testing the magnetic field hypothesis had predicted a ribbon that was narrower than the one measured by IBEX. The new model fits with actual observations, and Schwadron stated that the math looks “remarkably like what the ribbon actually looks like.”

“This is a perfect example of the scientific process,” said David McComas, co-author of the paper and the principal investigator for the IBEX mission at the Southwest Research Institute. “We observe something completely new and unexpected with IBEX, develop various hypotheses to explain the observations, and then develop mathematical models to try to validate the hypotheses.”

The new hypothesis has yet to be confirmed, and changes in the ribbon in conjunction with solar wind will be observed to see if they match up with the new model. If correct, though, the findings could help researchers understand more about how the heliosphere interacts with the galaxy.

“The ribbon can be used to tell us how we’re moving through the magnetic fields of the interstellar medium and how those magnetic fields then influence our space environment,” said Schwadron.

(Image courtesy NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio)