iPhone News Updated

‘FarmVille’ maker to take games to Japan

Zynga: ‘FarmVille’ maker to take games to Japan; Softbank invests $150M

Zynga, the San Francisco maker of social games for Facebook and other platforms, will team up with Japanese wireless carrier Softbank to distribute games in that country, the two companies announced today.

Softbank also confirmed it has invested $150 million in Zynga, which was reported last month by blogs such as TechCrunch and VentureBeat. Along with a rumored $150 million investment by Mountain View Internet giant Google, that would bring total funding for Zynga to $519 million, according to TechCrunch.

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Android App Data Theft: Advantage Apple?

Mobile security firm Lookout embarrassed Android by revealing that a popular wallpaper app was sending sensitive user data to a mysterious Website in China.

The discovery, on its face, looks like an argument for Apple’s restrictive iPhone App Store. Certainly, the store’s approval process has an extra layer of security that the Android Market does not, even if it means that some desirable apps aren’t allowed because Apple says so. Still, the advantage for Apple is not so clear-cut.

First, a little background: The Android wallpaper app comes from Jackeey Wallpaper, includes popular brands such as My Little Pony and Star Wars, and was downloaded between 1.1 million and 4.6 million times, VentureBeat reports. Jackeey Wallpaper apps collected browsing history, text messages, SIM card numbers, subscriber identification, and voicemail passwords, and sent the data to www.imnet.us, a domain registered in Shenzhen, China.

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