betaworks

Oh noes! Dots high scores disappear

If you know anything about the new hit iOS game Dots, which has already logged 3 million players and more than 250 million total plays, you know that for any serious player, it's all about high scores.

So I've been a bit upset over the last 24 hours after noticing that the Dots high score system had gone awry. On the one hand, my entire personal high score list had disappeared. But perhaps more troubling, the all-time high score list had regressed, with someone's world-beating score of 800 simply having vanished.

If this is all Latin to you, then take a trip over to the iOS App Store (Android users, help is reportedly on the way) and download Dots. Before you do that, though, clear your schedule for the next week so that your inevitable new obsession doesn't interfere with important meetings, dates, dinners, or even sleep. Now you're ready. … Read more

Connect these Dots to go for your high score

Editors' note: This review has been updated with information about moves in the game.

Dots by Betaworks is a simple, yet very well-designed color-matching game that doesn't dazzle you with tons of features or game types, but is still incredibly addictive.

The object of the game is simple: connect same-colored dots to clear them from an ever-refilling board to get the highest score possible in 1 minute. You do this by connecting as many dots as possible horizontally or vertically, and by making squares with your finger to make them disappear. Your score is counted by how many dots … Read more

Back to the drawing board for Nexus Q

We're annoying the IOC with Wednesday's top tech headlines:

Digg has been reborn under the Betaworks leadership. This first redesign simply highlights top stories and popular stories, and users can save articles to read later on the new Digg iPhone app. Betaworks says it will continue to roll out new features, including comments.

After tepid reviews, Google announced it wants to hold off on launching the $300 Nexus Q media-streaming device until it adds more features. But anyone who preordered will get the current model for free.

The Olympics have strict marketing rules, but Beats Audio found a way … Read more

New Digg is now live, with focus on 'top stories'

Betaworks delivered on its promise and launched the newly redesigned Digg Web site today. In fact, the site even comes a day earlier than expected. Just yesterday, Betaworks revealed that the news aggregation site would have a complete makeover that would do away with the headlines list, add photos, and integrate Facebook and Twitter into Digg scores.

"On July 20, we announced that we were turning Digg back into a startup and rebuilding it from scratch in six weeks," Betaworks wrote in a blog post. "After an intense month and a half, we managed to get the … Read more

The new Digg to relaunch in August after total rebuild

Betaworks, the company that acquired the remaining parts of Digg.com, says it will have a brand-new version of the social-news site up and running in less than two weeks.

In a blog post today, the 10-person team offered a brief primer on its plans to rebuild the site, as well as more detail on why Betaworks purchased Digg in the first place.

"We acquired Digg because we all need a product to help [us] find, read, and understand what the Internet is talking about right now," the company wrote, adding that Digg once "represented the messiness … Read more

Can Digg make a comeback?

Digg's painful downfall has finally hit rock bottom. Does that mean Digg can only go up now?

As you've probably heard, the once-mighty social news Web site has sold to Betaworks for a paltry $500,000. The total price of the acquisition was around $16 million, if you include The Washington Post's acquisition of the team and LinkedIn's acquisition of the patents.

That price is still a far cry from the $200 million that Google was ready to spend to acquire Digg in 2008. And those numbers seem paltry in comparison with the billion dollar deals … Read more

Digg bought up by Betaworks, will live on alongside News.me

Social news site Digg has finally been purchased, in a deal that puts it under the ownership of New York-based Betaworks.

The deal, which was announced on Digg's company blog this afternoon, will put Digg's technology inside of News.me, a daily news e-mail digest.

"Digg will join a portfolio of products developed by Betaworks designed to improve the way people find and talk about the news," Digg's former CEO Matt Williams said in a statement, adding that Betaworks founder John Borthwick will now be Digg's chief executive.

Details of the deal were not … Read more

Twitter co-founders partner with new startup, Branch

Twitter's co-founders, who now head an incubator site called the Obvious Corporation, announced their involvement in a second project today--Branch. This new Web site will be focused on creating a discussion platform that will "turn the Internet's monologues into dialogues."

"The prototype, called Branch (formerly Roundtable), enables a smart new brand of high quality public discourse," Twitter and Obvious Corporation co-founder Biz Stone wrote in a blog post today. "Curated groups of people are invited to engage around issues in which they are knowledgeable."

The Branch project is a partnership between … Read more