Category: News

eBay released its Q1 earnings on Wednesday, with revenue increasing 14% to $3.7 billion year over year. Profit was $677 million.

What the company considered to be a strong quarter wasn’t enough to please investors, as the forecast wasn’t quite as positive.

eBay stock is down -2.90‎ (-5.17%‎) in morning trading.

Here’s the release in its entirety:

SAN JOSE, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Global commerce platform and payments leader eBay Inc. (Nasdaq: EBAY) today reported that revenue for the first quarter ended March 31, 2013, increased 14% to $3.7 billion, compared to the same period of 2012. The company reported first quarter net income on a GAAP basis of $677 million, or $0.51 per diluted share, and non-GAAP net income of $829 million, or $0.63 per diluted share. The year-over-year increase in first quarter GAAP and non-GAAP earnings per diluted share was driven primarily by strong top-line growth.

I don’t know how long I will be playing Lords of Football for, but the title from developer Geniaware Srl and publisher Fish Eagle is certainly an interesting entry in the football simulation genre, which also includes the likes of Football Manager and FIFA.

Lords of Football is similar to neither of them and can be quickly… (read more)

Working women have been calling for more seats in the boardroom, more days of paid maternity leave, more corner offices, more money, and more — well, more! for a long time. So why does it seem like we’ve only now reached a dull roar on these issues — maybe even what some are calling the rise of “executive feminism”? And can we see signals in the noise?

To explain the sudden surge of discussion on this topic, look to the magic of three: Marissa Mayer, Sheryl Sandberg, and Anne-Marie Slaughter. Would any one of these women been sufficient to jump-start the conversation on their own? No. Slaughter, Sandberg and Mayer are at different stages of their careers and lives, and have very different ideas around a woman’s relationship to work and home. It’s not despite, but because of, these different stances that they are moving the conversation forward. And so often when someone is talking about one of the three on social media, at least one or both of the other are mentioned. This is one of the reasons research has found that in order to experience the benefits of diversity (better risk management, higher creativity, etc) on a board you need three women; one or even two aren’t enough to create real change. You need critical mass, but you also need each woman to feel like she’s advocating her point of view — not “Woman’s Point of View.”

To get a sense of the scale of the conversation that these women have launched, we monitored the billions of conversations that occur in real-time on social media through the NetBase platform. First, we found that the number of mentions of these three individuals across the social web has increased eight-fold in the past year. Further, when we looked at where the conversation is happening, we discovered the chatter is primarily taking place on Twitter, accounting for 84% of the mentions of Marissa Mayer and Sheryl Sandberg, and 61% of the mentions for Anne-Marie Slaughter. Because Twitter is a platform for viral communication, where people express their opinions in the heat of the moment, if this were a brand or a country, it would suggest a major change was coming.

To our surprise, Sheryl Sandberg has generated ten times the chatter of Anne-Marie Slaughter over the last twelve months, as measured by online mentions, while Mayer has more than double that of Sandberg. Both Slaughter and Sandberg have issued “statements” in articles, books and working the media circuit; Mayer simply does — she acts. In doing so, she appears to stimulate even more conversation. This may also explain why Mayer seems to have gone more mainstream, with 64% of her mentioners being male.

But how are the rest of us receiving this conversation? We also looked at the “Brand Passion Index” (BPI), an index that comparatively measures buzz (or number of mentions), sentiment (whether the conversation is positive or negative), and passion intensity (the use of passionate language, for example, love, adore, huge fan, hate, despise, detest etc). Combining these three metrics and comparing them over a twelve-month period of time can give us an overarching snapshot of consumer opinion on people topics or brands.

Here’s what we found when comparing the 3 women:

Brand Passion Index for April 2012- April 2013. The size of the bubble indicates the amount of chatter on the web; the placement of the bubble within the grid top to bottom indicates sentiment and within the grid left to right shows the intensity of that sentiment.

Taking a stand on work and life stimulated an ebb and flow in conversation over the year with sentiment rising and falling, but it netted out to the most unpopular location of the BPI — the dislike zone. As a brand, this is no-woman’s-land. People don’t like you, but they don’t even feel passionately enough about you to hate you.

In social media conversations, Marissa Mayer, the new CEO of Yahoo, has been described as impressive and super-smart, but also as an annoying, terrible bully. She nets the most buzz, but her choice to ban telecommuting led to many people talking about how much they simply do not like her and her choices. The question is, do you need to be popular to be effective? While her location on the BPI is not coveted, the earnings-per-share results she delivered are.

COO of Facebook Sheryl Sandberg’s descriptors have included truly excellent, successful working mom and at the same time crazy bizarre. Interestingly, the overarching theme when people use the term “dislike” are rooted in jealousy — for instance, consider this sample tweet: “I dislike Sheryl Sandberg because she’s my age and a reminder of just how much of a complete failure I am. Don’t get me started on Mayer.” Meanwhile, Anne-Marie Slaughter, former director of Policy Planning at the U.S. State Department, has been depicted as an amazing, successful mother along with destructive and not a good wife. People comment that they don’t like that she stirred up controversy.

All three women have been criticized as being privileged and out-of-touch. Let’s parry here and say that whether they are or not, we see from the data that taking a stand has come at a social cost. This suggests that, when Sandberg penned the words in Lean In, “Writing this book is what I would do if I weren’t afraid,” she had reason to demur. But she spoke up anyway. As did Slaughter, and Mayer, notwithstanding the uproar that the latter must have anticipated when she made the decision to ban telecommuting at Yahoo.

Despite the costs to their own reputations, we’re glad they took the risk.

When highly visible leaders stick their necks out, it makes it easier for the rest of us. Recently, one of us (Whitney) was sitting in a classroom where the teacher had declared the class over and indicated he wouldn’t take any further comments. One of the students, a woman, had sat there with her hand politely raised for several minutes, being ignored, while two different men called out their opinions and were acknowledged. After class, I mentioned this discrepancy to the professor and mentioned Sandberg’s book. He has since self-corrected. In another instance, I was leading a corporate panel and noticed that 80% of the speakers were men, despite the majority of the people in the room being women. Again, Sandberg’s book made me feel empowered to speak up about this inequality in a way I wouldn’t have before. And when a board chairman spoke to me about wanting to fill a board seat with a qualified woman, I wondered whether such total transparency would have happened a year ago.

While these real-life anecdotes are tougher to quantify than social media mentions, we hope that they reflect a similar surge in conversations offline that demonstrate and embody the intricacies of a woman’s relationship to work and home. Because there’s a lot to talk about. And no one person has the answer.

But when you put three women on a board, or in this case, in a movement, they can become agents of change. It’s too early to know the full impact Mayer, Sandberg and Slaughter will have, but early reports suggest that in their impressive, truly excellent, amazing advocacy for their own opinions, this trio is ultimately advocating for every woman.

Back at CES, we had a chance to get our hands on the MOGA Pro Controller, which is the follow up to the original MOGA controller. This one isn’t as compact, but it’s based on PowerA’s top of the line Fusion controller, so it’s for the serious gamer. You get higher quality sticks as well as a second pair of triggers. I will also run on a rechargeable battery as opposed to the original MOGA, which runs on 2 AA batteries. The MOGA Pro will fit larger devices such as the Galaxy Note II, but for gamers that want to use a tablet, they include a really nice tablet stand.

It’s priced at $49.99 and is available online at Amazon, Walmart and MOGAanywhere. Next month you will find it online at Target and in stores such as Walmart, Best Buy, GameStop, and Fred Meyer. For a limited time you will be able to download Gameloft’s N.O.V.A. 3 – Near Orbit Vanguard Alliance for Free with your MOGA Pro purchase.

You can check out our hands on from CES and look for our review soon. Hit the break for the full press release.

MOGA™ Pro Controller Now Available In Stores And Online

Play Immersive Mobile Games The Way They Are Meant To Be Played With The Full-Featured Android Gaming Controller

Woodinville, WA. – April 18, 2013 – Gamers wanting a full-size precision controller for their Android devices will not have to wait any longer as today MOGA™ announced that the console-style MOGA Pro Controller is now available in the U.S. The full-size MOGA Pro Controller is available for $49.99 online at Amazon.com, Walmart.com and MOGAanywhere.com. In May, the MOGA Pro Controller will be available at Target.com and at Best Buy, Fred Meyer, GameStop and Walmart stores. For a limited time, MOGA Pro comes with a free download of Gameloft’sN.O.V.A. 3 – Near Orbit Vanguard Alliance game.

“The full-size MOGA Pro builds on the tremendous success since the launch of MOGA Pocket Controller last October,” said Eric Bensussen, President of PowerA. “When gamers put the MOGA Pro Controller in their hands, there’s an instant familiarity. As the recognized leader with impressive developer support and a growing list of top games including MADFINGER’s Dead Trigger and Gameloft’s Modern Combat 4, we’re giving mobile gamers a console-style experience, with an Android device that they already own.”

Features of the MOGA Pro include full-sized console-style grips, clickable dual analog sticks, four action buttons, a classic directional pad, two shoulder buttons, two shoulder triggers, rechargeable batteries, USB charging cord and a tablet stand. MOGA Pro is also compatible with the emerging HID standard. Additionally, MOGA Pro comes with the full support of the MOGA Mobile Gaming System, including wireless Bluetooth® syncing with Android phones and tablets, the MOGA Arm that secures many of the largest phones on the market and the MOGA Pivot App.

About MOGA

MOGA mobile game controllers offer precision controls, portability and great games. All MOGA controllers feature dual analog sticks, shoulder buttons and action buttons, and connect wirelessly via Bluetooth to transform Android phones and tablets into precise mobile gaming systems. The original MOGA Pocket features a slim and sleek set of controls making it the most portable and economical MOGA available. The MOGA Pro features rechargeable batteries and console-style design that is based on the award-winning FUS1ON Tournament Controller by PowerA. The MOGA system includes Pivot, a free-to-download app that helps users discover the huge library of MOGA Enhanced games that are available. Pivot also syncs MOGA controllers to mobile devices and helps organize the MOGA Enhanced games already installed on a user’s phone. MOGA’s vast and growing game library is made possible by the free MOGA Software Developers Kit (SDK) available at MOGAanywhere.com/developers.

The original pocket-sized MOGA Controller was released on October 22, 2012 to critical acclaim, and has attracted support from top mobile developers and publishers who want to bring console-like precision and control to their Android phone and tablet-based games. Gameloft, Rockstar, SkyVu Entertainment, MADFINGER Games, Namco Bandai, SEGA, Arb Studios, Vector Unit and other acclaimed publishers have developed MOGA Enhanced blockbuster titles such as Modern Combat 4: Zero Hour, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, Tiki Kart 3D, NFL Pro 2013, The Dark Knight Rises HD, N.O.V.A. 3, Sonic CD, and Jet Set Radio. New game titles, developers and publishers are coming on board each month. For a complete list of games that support MOGA, visitwww.MOGAanywhere.com.

The MOGA controllers support Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) and higher mobile devices. The pocket-sized MOGA is now available for $39.99 at Best Buy, Walmart, Toys”R”Us, Fred Meyer, Gamestop, Target, T-Mobile, AT&T, Verizon and a nationwide network of additional retailers and carrier stores. It is also available through Amazon and www.MOGAanywhere.com.

Come comment on this article: MOGA Pro controller now available online, retail availability coming in May

On Monday, I attended the launch of EMPOWERED, Alicia Keys’ new campaign with Greater than AIDS to reach and inform women about HIV/AIDS, at an event hosted by the Kaiser Family Foundation. This is the second event that Alicia Keys and I have attended at Kaiser within the last year, both focused on ending AIDS.

The women were thrilled to meet Alicia Keys, and Alicia, who was deeply moved by their stories, committed to add her powerful international voice to helping to end the epidemic here in the U.S. Alicia and I intended to lift up the women. But really, it was their strength, courage, resilience, good spirit, and humor that lifted us up.

The HIV crisis touches every corner of the globe. And it’s personally touched so many of us, including here at home. We all have tragic stories about how HIV/AIDS has affected our family and friends, and these stories propel us all to continue to fight to end this disease.

Monday's event addressed one of the tragic realities of HIV in our country. The HIV epidemic continues in the United States, with about 50,000 new HIV infections each year. And while about one-quarter of new HIV infections are among women, three-quarters of new infections among women occur among black and Latina women.

read more

There’s been a lot of talk and rumors flying about Twitter’s new music discovery service, but today the social network revealed the details and launched the first app for it.

Based partly on the social site’s recent acquisition of the music startup We Are Hunted, Twitter #music is described as a “new service that will change the way people find music”.

It uses activity on Twitter (such as tweets and general engagement) to identify the most popular tracks and emerging artists and lets you listen to previews from iTunes. If you have a Rdio or Spotify account, you can log in to those and enjoy the full tracks.

Twitter says it plans to add additional music sources in due course.

The Twitter #music app, which is available for iOS now, offers four main tabs — Popular (new music trending on Twitter), Emerging (hidden talent found in tweets), Suggested (artists you might like), and #NowPlaying (music that’s been tweeted by artists and people you follow). You can join in on the recommendations by using the #nowplaying” hashtag to tell people what you’re listening to.

When you discover new music you want to share with others, you just tap the spinning disc in the lower left corner to open the player and access the Compose button.

The service is initially available in the US, UK and Ireland, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, with more countries being added over time. Although the app is only for iOS right now, Twitter says it will be bringing its service to Android. No word on any plans to introduce it to Windows Phone or BlackBerry, however.

The web application will be open for everyone later today and can be accessed at music.twitter.com.

According to Twitter’s official announcement, “Twitter and music go great together. People share and discover new songs and albums every day. Many of the most-followed accounts on Twitter are musicians, and half of all users follow at least one musician. This is why artists turn to Twitter first to connect with their fans — and why we wanted to find a way to surface songs people are tweeting about. We offered music artists an early look at the service. You can see some of their reactions below. We hope you like it, too”.

Verizon Wireless kicked off the U.S. carriers’ earnings season on Wednesday, reporting 720,000 net new subscribers in the normally tepid first quarter. As in recent  quarters, much of its growth was driven by contract smartphones – it activated 7.2 million of the devices, including 4 million iPhones – and it continued the gradual migration of its customer base and traffic to its now not-so-new 4G LTE network.

Overall, Verizon brought in $29.4 million in revenues for the quarter, and posted a 15 percent year-over-year increase in profits.

Verizon’s LTE network now covers 491 markets and 287 million people, which is roughly 95 percent of its current 3G footprint. CFO Fran Shammo said it plans to match 4G coverage to its 3G coverage by the end of this quarter, and he reiterated Verizon’s plans to start building its second 4G network this year over recently acquired Advanced Wireless Services (AWS) airwaves. Shammo said Verizon would start offering its first LTE-only devices – with no CDMA fallback – next year, which should coincide with the launch of its voice-over-LTE service.

Verizon saw 5.9 million LTE device activations in the first quarter, bringing its total 4G retail connections to 26.3 million, about 28 percent of its total contract subscribers. Shammo said roughly half of Verizon’s 4 million iPhone activations were for the LTE-capable iPhone 5.

As more customers upgrade to LTE devices, more of Verizon’s data load moves over to its high-capacity networks: 54 percent of its data traffic is now on LTE, compared to 50 percent in the fourth quarter.

The mix of Verizon’s mobile subscribers is also getting interesting. It’s been moving a big chunk of its customer base over to its new shared data plans since it implemented the tiers last year. About 30 percent of Verizon’s accounts are on a Share Everything plan, and the carrier is averaging 2.67 devices per account. But Verizon also acquired 43,000 net new prepaid subscribers. That’s not a huge number in the world of prepaid, but Verizon has been focusing a lot more attention on the budget segment lately, particularly as its 3G network starts to empty.

Shammo said that while Verizon isn’t getting overly aggressive in prepaid, it’s by no means ignoring it. “We will look for niches in which we can make an impact,” he said.

On the wireline side, Verizon continued to recalibrate its business toward FiOS. Its fiber service now accounts for 69 percent of all consumer revenue. Verizon added 188,000 FiOS internet subscribers and 169,000 TV subscribers. Meanwhile, Verizon shed another 89,000 DSL subscribers.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
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• 12 tech leaders’ resolutions for 2012
• CES 2012: a recap and analysis
• Mobile 2012 and beyond

Stephen Hawking knows a thing or two about the Big Bang. He spent his life researching it and other mysteries of the cosmos. After all this time, he’s more convinced than ever that a divine being had no part in it.

Space reports that Hawking was giving a free lecture titled, “The Origin of the Universe” at the California Institute of Technology. The lecture was mostly about prevailing theories on how the universe was formed, but he first examined how religion frames the creation of the universe. At one point, he even questioned what a divine being would be doing before the creation of the universe:

What was God doing before the divine creation? Was he preparing hell for people who asked such questions?”

Hawking avoided a debate on religion versus science for most of the night, but he did recall a moment earlier in his life when Pope John Paul II called him out in the 80s for trying to explain the origins of the universe. The Pope said that science shouldn’t study the moment of creation. Hawking said that he was just glad that he wasn’t “thrown into an inquisition.”

At the end of the lecture, Hawking reiterated a previous point he made in saying that humanity needs to leave earth sooner rather than later. He predicts that the human race won’t be able to survie another 1,000 years on “our fragile planet.”

Reality TV shows have been putting celebrities through their paces for years now, but perhaps no series has asked more of competitors than Splash. The new network show tasks celebrities (not all of whom are fit) with mastering the Olympic sport of high diving.

As with any Olympic sport, the risk of injury is ever-present, and now one competitor has withdrawn due to doctor’s orders.

Model and beauty queen Katherine Webb has now withdrawn from Splash. On this week’s show, Webb described her poor landing on last week’s show, and how it caused her pain. She is also shown becaming frustrated during her training. Webb took the stage to say,” I went to the doctor and, unfortunately, he told me that I’m out for the competition.”

Webb’s withdrawal is not the first of the series. In the show’s third episode, former Playboy model Kendra Wilkinson quit the show over her fear of heights.

Splash producers used Webb’s departure to introduce some drama, bringing back comedian Louie Anderson, who had been booted from the competition last week.

Intel wants to help equip service providers and telcos for the new world of software defined networking (SDN). Intel this week rolled out reference architectures to accelerate hardware and software development for SDN and network function virtualization (NFV).

Targeted at telecommunication providers, cloud data center and enterprise data center infrastructure market segments, the Intel reference architectures combine SDN and NFV with Intel hardware and software to improve the flexibility and economics of networks.

“SDN and NFV are critical elements of Intel’s vision to transform the expensive, complex networks of today to a virtualized, programmable, standards-based architecture running commercial off-the-shelf hardware,” said Rose Schooler, vice president of Intel Architecture Group and general manager of Intel’s Communications and Storage Infrastructure Group. “The reference designs announced today enable a new phase in the evolution of the network and represent Intel’s commitment to driving an open environment that fosters business agility and smart economics.”

Designing Programmable, Externally-Managed Networks

Addressing what Intel sees as two market trends that have significant movement, SDN and NFV are complementary networking technologies that are poised to transform how networks are designed and managed across data center and telecom infrastructure environments. By separating the control and data planes, SDN allows the network to be programmed and managed externally at much larger and more dynamic scale for better traffic control across the entire data center.

NFV allows service providers to virtualize and manage networking functions such as firewalls, VPN or intrusion detection service as virtual applications running on a high-volume x86-based server. Intel said it has no intention of making network hardware itself, but has many ISVs, OEMs and service providers lined up to develop solutions, including Big Switch Networks, Chunghwa Telecom, HP, NEC, NTT Data, Quanta, Super Micro and VMware.

“We share Intel’s vision of enabling the network transformation with SDN and NFV across the telecom industry,” said Atsuo Kawamura, General Manager Telecom Carrier Business Unit, 1st Carrier Services Division, NEC Corporation. “We are excited to work with Intel to design with the Intel DPDK Accelerated Open vSwitch into our virtual Evolved Packet Core to deliver industry leading packet throughput and performance on Intel architecture.”

Intel Technology Meets Software Stack

The Intel Open Network Platform (ONP) switch reference design builds on the codenamed Seacliff Trail project, and combines Intel processors, Intel Ethernet Switch 6700 series and Intel Communications chipset 89xx series. The ONP Switch Reference Design will include Wind River Open Network Software (ONS), an open and fully customizable network switching software stack using Wind River Linux. Common, open programming interfaces allow for automated network management, and coordination between the server switching elements and network switches enable more cost-effective and extensible services, Intel said.

The Open Network Platform Server reference design is based on the codenamed Sunrise Trail project, and includes Xeon processors, Intel 82599 Ethernet Controller, and Intel Communications chipset 89xx series. The ONP Server Reference Design enables virtual appliance workloads on standard Intel architecture servers using SDN and NFV open standards for datacenter and telecom. Wind River Open Network Software includes an Intel DPDK Accelerated Open vSwitch, fast packet acceleration and deep packet inspection capabilities, as well as support for open SDN standards such as OpenFlow, Open vSwitch and OpenStack.

“By decoupling the network from underlying hardware and enabling a new network architecture based on industry-standard x86 technology, network virtualization can transform the operational model of networking to help customers dramatically lower operational and capital expenses,” said Allwyn Sequeira, vice president, Networking and Security for VMware. “VMware and Intel have built a strong relationship driving server virtualization on x86 platforms, and we are pleased to be working together to continue this transformation through network virtualization to enable the software-defined data center.”

Intel is executing a project aimed at improving small packet throughput and workload performance that can be achieved on the Open vSwitch using the Intel DPDK.  Intel is specifically re-creating the kernel forwarding module (data plane) to take advantage of the Intel® DPDK library. The Intel® DPDK Accelerated Open vSwitch is planned to initially be released with the Intel® ONP Server Reference Design in the third quarter of this year.

Wouldn’t it be great if everyone had access to 130 GoPro cameras. Ever wonder what kind of videos you could create? Ken Block, the marketing master, shows us just how far you can take your imagination with the right tools (and sponsorship) behind it. Check it out after the jump.

Source: Youtube.com

If you are unable to comment on BetaNews stories, our apologies, comment service Disqus suffers service problems this morning. A reader alerted me about 30 minutes ago. When I couldn’t comment on any story, I had headed over to Disqus only to get an “unavailable” message.

“Disqus has been intermittently unavailable for the past few minutes, and we are working on a solution. We apologize for the disruption and appreciate your patience”, according to the Status site, which I got to from a Tweet. BetaNews is one of many sites that relies on the service for comments.

Coming sideways to the main site, I see this message:

Hello! Disqus is currently in maintenance mode. You can still navigate the website and access your content, however many actions such as moderation and settings are temporarily disabled. This shouldn’t take too long, and we’re sorry for the inconvenience. In the meantime, there will be some quirkiness as we make some improvements.

We’ll keep you updated.

Disqus back after 29-minute outage: “Disqus is now running normally again. We again apologize for the hassle and are monitoring the situation closely to ensure there are no further issues”.

No reason is given for the outage.

Photo Credit: Ollyy/Shutterstock

The documentary INSIDE OUT: The People’s Art Project will premiere at the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival in New York this Saturday, April 20, giving an intimate look into the courageous victories and heartrending challenges involved in creating the world’s largest participatory art project.

JR's TED Prize wish: Use art to turn the world inside outIn 2011, French street artist JR announced his TED Prize winning wish to connect people worldwide through a collaborative artistic action. He launched INSIDE OUT, inspiring thousands of people — from South Dakota to Iran — to collectively transform their personal identities into public artwork. From Moscow to Tunisia, citizens have turned more than 120,000 digital portraits into bold posters covering everything from city walls to trains.

Besides shifting the way INSIDE OUT’s participants and onlookers contemplate storytelling and public space, JR’s big dream has inspired diverse individuals to define the soul, values and vision of their communities with a few simple tools — a camera, paper and paste.

Inside Out: The People’s Art Project debuts on HBO on May 20^th at 9PM ET. For a sneak peek, watch the trailer above.

Inspired?

Participate in an action in your community »

Check out just a few of the amazing — and stunning –images pasted in cities across the world »

The exterior of the new DataBank North Dallas data center in Richardson, Texas, part of the company’s plan to expand beyond its original site in the former Federal Reserve building in downtown Dallas. (Photo: DataBank)

With Backing From Avista, Expands in Richardson, Minneapolis

DALLAS – Housed deep below six floors of humming servers, the two-foot thick vault doors speak to an earlier era for the DataBank building, when it served as the main Federal Reserve Bank office in Dallas. The huge vault doors secured the entrance to the counting room – the place where enormous volumes of cash and coins were catalogued en route to storage in lower basements. Legend has it that the vault was used briefly as a holding area for Lee Harvey Oswald following the assassination of Pres. John F. Kennedy, which occurred several blocks from the building.

The Federal Reserve moved out in the 1990s, but the counting room lives on as a symbol of the building’s new mission – serving as a digital fortress for high-value assets, but now housing data centers filled with servers and storage gear.

For the DataBank team, the building at 400 South Akard supports a business narrative for the 21st century, with a reputation for security and reliability built atop rock-solid infrastructure.

After eight years in which it has nearly filled 130,000 square feet of data center space in the original DataBank building, the company is extending its model – first in the Dallas metroplex, and then in other cities around the US.

Investment by Avista, Sale to Digital Realty

This year the DataBank team has taken two steps to realize that vision, opening a new data center in Richardson, Texas and acquiring VeriSpace, a data center provider in St. Paul, Minnesota.

The expansion has been supported by a transaction last year in which private equity firm  Avista Capital acquired a majority interest in DataBank, which also sold the 400 South Akard Street property to Digital Realty Trust in a sale-leaseback transaction. Databank also leased a powered shell building from Digital Realty at its Digital Dallas campus in Richardson.

While Databank is looking to its future, the company’s outlook is defined by the South Akard building and its characteristics. The structure was built between 1915 and 1920, and the Federal Reserve Bank opened its doors in 1921, operating at 400 South Akard for more than 70 years before the moving into a new home in the 1990s. The building was acquired by an investment group, and then sold to telco 360networks, which converted an entire floor to data center use before filing for bankruptcy.

In 2005, the new DataBank team acquired the building, having sold their previous company, LayerOne, to Switch and Data. The building’s sturdy infrastructure, including generous floor loads and ceiling heights, provided an unusual opportunity to build the new economy in the footprint of the old.

“This building has the bones of a data center,” said Tim Moore, the CEO of DataBank.

Continue reading…

Nintendo is gearing up to bring an extra nub to your 3DS XL, if that’s what you’re into. The company listed the previously Japan-only accessory on its website in the U.S. today, with an anticipated ship date of this Friday. The Circle Pad Pro for 3DS XL is like the original version for 3DS, but beefier, and perhaps even more unsightly when glommed on to your portable console.

Less than stellar looks are a trade-off for a much more ergonomic and comfortable design, however, according to most who have used the accessory. Nintendo got a lot of flack back when it first revealed the 3DS for not just including a second analog control pad to begin with in the device itself, and clearly the Circle Pad Pro was a concession designed to calm those whiners.

Nintendo’s got a lot riding on the 3DS, especially since it looks like the Wii U isn’t doing too well in the initial offing. The mobile console faces an even greater threat from multipurpose devices like iPads and tablets that are also getting plenty of software to add to their gaming libraries, and which follow a hardware upgrade cycle that sees them get more powerful on at least a yearly basis, but often even more frequently.

The OUYA Android-based gaming console so far mostly challenges the home console market, and then even not very well, according to early reviews. But Sony at least seems to be investing more time and effort into PlayStation Mobile, its attempt at crossing the divide between dedicated gaming devices and the smartphone market, and third-party devices with more of a gaming focus, possibly from startup sources, likely aren’t that far behind. The Circle Pad Pro for 3DS XL isn’t revolutionary, but it is a cheap way to offer something smartphones generally don’t, so it could help convince fence-sitters unsure about a purchase, at the very least.

Actor Frank Bank, who played Clarence “Lumpy” Rutherford on the TV show Leave it to Beaver, has died. He was 71.

Though the cause of his death has not been reported, Bank died in Los Angeles on Saturday, April 13.

Bank began his acting career in the 50s, with small roles on TV and a role as the young Will Rogers in The Story of Will Rogers. In 1958 he was cast in the role of Clarence “Lumpy” Rutherford in the classic sitcom Leave it to Beaver. Lumpy is portrayed as a bully with an overbearing father who eventually befriends Wally Cleaver, Beaver’s older brother.

In the 70s, Bank left acting and began a career as a bond broker in Los Angeles. However, Bank returned to the role of Lumpy in the 80s in The New Leave it to Beaver, a sequel to the original series. In 2007 Bank published an autobiography titled Call Me Lumpy: My Leave it to Beaver Days and Other Wild Hollywood Life.