Software : Draw Something now Facebook's most popular game

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Draw Something now Facebook's most popular game Posted: OMGPOP's Pictionary-inspired social drawing title Draw Something is now the most played game on Facebook. According to stats from tracking service AppData, the game is racking-up 10.8m daily users, comfortably beating its closest challenger Zynga's Words With Friends, which has 8.6m every day. Draw Something's social networking success follows its sharp rise to the top of the iOS and Android charts after hitting 20 million downloads just five weeks after it was released. The duality of its success on mobile and Facebook has arisen largely through allowing cross-platform challenges, during which users have to guess their pals' touchscreen drawings. Just like Words With Friends and the official Scrabble game it pinched took inspiration from, iPhone players can take-on Facebook friends and vise-versa. Old ones are always the best The exceptional success of Words With Friends and Draw Something do prove one thing; time tested games like Scrabble and Pictionary are still massive winners even though we rarely sit around and play the physical games. Hooray for the 21st century mediums keeping them alive and kicking. For Zynga, for so long the kingpin of the Facebook gaming arena, through titles like WWF, Farmville and Zynga Poker, its dethroning raises further questions about its long-term future on the social network. The company recently announced its own gaming portal, which will go head-to-head with Facebook and also encourage third party developers to submit their own titles.

PayPal Here credit card reader to challenge Square Posted: PayPal has launched an iPhone-friendly credit card reader and plans to enter into direct competition with the well-established Square ecosystem. PayPal Here is a small, triangular, blue dongle that plugs into the iPhone's headphone jack and allows vendors to accept payments for goods and services wherever they may roam. Like Square, launched by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, PayPal Here uses an iPhone app which, once the card is swiped, allows a merchant to type in the amount. The phone can then be passed to the customer to check the amount and sign, using the device's touchscreen. Both the app and the card reader are encrypted. Beyond that, there's also a Scan Card feature, which doesn't require the dongle, but will need the seller to type in the zip code and three-digit security number on the back of the card. Undercutting Square As for PayPal's end, the company will take 2.7 per cent per transaction, compared to Square's 2.75 per cent charge. PayPal is also giving out free PayPal debit cards, which can be used to withdraw cash from a local ATM as soon as a sale is made and, with each transaction offering 1 per cent cash back, it effectively lowers the fee to 1.7 per cent. The service will launch in the United States, Australia and Hong Kong initially and will come to the rest of the world soon. However, despite undercutting Square, the company has a long road on its hand to eclipse the mobile payment pioneer. Square took in $4 billion in revenue last year, has found its way into New York taxis and recently launched the Square Register app, which threatens to make the traditional cash register a thing of the past.

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