Amazon keeps adding capabilities to its rentable cloud offerings. The latest move could broaden its customer base still further, including companies like Playcast that are bent on streaming games over the Internet.

The Seattle-based company’s Amazon Web Services unit on Tuesday announced what it called “G2 instances,” which gives servers in its big data centers the capability to run the kind of high-end graphics common to videogame consoles and gaming PCs.

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Samsung Electronics Co.  is taking its message directly to investors and analysts with its first “analyst day” in eight years.  Wall Street Journal reporters are live blogging the event in Seoul. For more,  go to Korea Real Time. Read More »

Data storage giant EMC is accusing upstart rival Pure Storage of a concerted campaign to steal confidential information by hiring away dozens of EMC employees.

An EMC suit filed Monday in federal court in Massachusetts says at least 44 sales representatives and other professionals have joined Pure since August 2011 “under suspicious circumstances,” subsequently colluding to steal “thousands of pages of proprietary, highly confidential and competitively sensitive EMC materials.” Read More »

Activision’s blockbuster “Call of Duty” war simulation shooting game may be showing chinks in its armor.

The latest version of the hit series, “Call of Duty: Ghosts,” launched Tuesday to mixed reviews, with most of the criticism claiming the new title didn’t offer enough fresh ideas to push the multi-billion dollar series forward.

“Nothing ‘Ghosts’ does is especially bad, but nothing ‘Ghosts’ does is worth paying any attention to. It exists to exist,” wrote Destructoid.com in its review. That’s opposed to last year’s “Black Ops II,” which threw new unmanned drones into the mix, creating new challenges for players. Read More »

Venture capitalists are betting on a bright future for online gambling.

Betable, a London-based startup providing real-money gambling tools to game developers, raised $18.5 million in a round of funding led by Venture51, says Christopher Griffin, Betable’s chief executive officer. Previous backers Greylock Partners and Founders Fund also contributed to the round, which brings Betable’s total financing to $23 million. Read More »

Apple has reduced the component costs of building the iPad with its latest iPad Air, according to a parts “teardown” report by research firm IHS.

The base model iPad Air with 16 gigabytes of memory and no cellular connectivity comes with a bill of materials of $274, a 13% reduction in costs compared to the equivalent model in the third-generation iPad released in 2012. Apple sells that base iPad Air model for $499. Read More »

After launching series hits with “House of Cards” and “Orange is the New Black,” Netflix Inc. plans to air its first original documentary next month, as the streaming-video service continues its effort to compete against premium cable channels in original content.

The company on Dec. 12 will air “The Short Game,” which follows eight top golfers under the age of seven who are competing in the World Championship of Junior Golf. Emmy award-winning director Josh Greenbaum’s feature debut premiered at South by Southwest and won the 2013 Audience Award. It had a limited theatrical release through Phase 4 Films and Samuel Goldwyn Films.

The documentary can be streamed in all countries where Netflix service is available. Read More »

By Will Connors

Now that BlackBerry Ltd. has scuppered a sale process  and will remain a public company, the task of righting the ship will fall to just-named board chairman and interim chief executive, John S. Chen.

The company says Mr. Chen will soon begin appraising the company’s assets and embark on a hunt for a new CEO.

Who will take on that role? There are a few possible outcomes. Read More »

One of the most successful companies in a small but growing videogame niche says it has reached new milestones in revenue and user growth.

Lumos Labs says its Lumosity brain-training game  service has reached 50 million members, a nearly 43% increase from the 35 million it announced in January. The San Francisco-based company also says its revenue for the year is on track to more than double from the $23.6 million it rang up in 2012. Read More »

By Tom Corrigan

Rebellion Photonics was named “WSJ Startup of the Year” Monday night, beating two dozen other young companies during the five-month-long documentary.

The Houston startup, founded by Allison Lami Sawyer, 28, and Robert Kester, 32, builds cameras that can spot poisonous and potentially explosive gas leaks on oil rigs and at refineries. The cameras can detect at least 20 different gases simultaneously and in real time. Read More »