25 top-rated Facebook games from 2012

Games can be both a welcome and an annoying diversion on Facebook, the world’s most popular online social network. This year, Facebook crossed a big milestone — reaching 1 billion active users. Game companies such as “FarmVille” creator Zynga Inc. and Rovio Entertainment Ltd. of “Angry Birds” fame seek to tap into that vast base of users to gain more players for their games.

This week, Facebook Inc. issued a list of the 25 top-rated games that launched on Facebook in 2012. The company says the rankings are based on user ratings and engagement with the games. It’s the same methodology that Facebook uses to rank apps in its App Center.

Some of the games are played on Facebook’s website, while others are only on Apple Inc.‘s iOS or Google Inc.‘s Android devices using Facebook’s app.

Here’s the list:

1. “SongPop” (by FreshPlanet, on Facebook.com, iOS and Android)

2. “Dragon City” (by Social Point, on Facebook.com)

3. “Bike Race” (by Top Free Games, on iOS)

4. “Subway Surfers” (by Kiloo, on iOS and Android)

5. “Angry Birds Friends (by Rovio, on Facebook.com)

6. “FarmVille 2″ (by Zynga, on Facebook.com)

7. “Scramble with Friends” (by Zynga, on iOS)

8. “Clash of Clans” (by Supercell, on iOS)

9. “Marvel: Avengers Alliance” (by Playdom, on Facebook.com)

10. “Draw Something” (by Zynga, on iOS and Android)

11. “Hay Day” (by Supercell, on iOS)

12. “Baseball Heroes” (by Syntasia, on Facebook.com)

13. “ChefVille” (by Zynga, on Facebook.com)

14. “CSR Racing” (by NaturalMotion Games, on iOS)

15. “Candy Crush Saga” (by King.com, on Facebook.com and iOS)

16. “Matching With Friends” (by Zynga, on Facebook.com)

17. “Legend Online” (by Oasis Games, on Facebook.com)

18. “Jurassic Park Builder” (by Ludia, on Facebook.com)

19. “Dungeon Rampage” (by Rebel Entertainment, on Facebook.com)

20. “Pockie Ninja II Social” (by NGames Ltd., on Facebook.com)

21. “Jetpack Joyride” (by Halfbrick, on Facebook.com)

22. “Social Empires” (by Social Point, on Facebook.com and iOS)

23. “Bil ve Fethet” (by Peak Games, on Facebook.com)

24. “Ruby Blast Adventures” (by Zynga, on Facebook.com and iOS)

25. “Pyramid Solitaire Saga” (by King.com, on Facebook.com)

Social Media News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Worn Out? Stars Step Out in Same Style

Kristin Cavallari vs. Dania Ramirez

The Hills star Kristin Cavallari sported this festive red skater dress at the Chinese Laundry launch party for her new shoe collection in NYC Tuesday night, though Dania Ramirez beat her to the punch -- she stepped out in the same memorable dress (which she chose to pair with a black belt) at Variety's Power of Women event back in October. 

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Unidentified skeleton found on Jamaica Bay island

Skeletal remains that appear to belong to a teenage girl were discovered on an uninhabited island in Jamaica Bay, authorities said.

A boater passing the Canarsie Pol, across from Canarsie Pier around 4:45 p.m., Tuesday spotted the bones and notified police, sources said.

Fog, darkness and choppy waters prevented the NYPD Harbor Patrol from investigating the find on the marshland until yesterday, police said.

The Medical Examiner’s Office has not identified the remains but sources said at least one document belonging to a girl who has been missing since last year was found nearby, sources said.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether the person suffered any trauma and investigators are still trying to determine a cause of death.

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Innovate MIA puts spotlight on startup community

If you think the next week is all about art, you may be surprised to learn there are also six entrepreneurship events vying for your time.

And that is all by design.

In much the way that Art Basel helped put Miami’s arts community on the international map, organizers of the first Innovate MIA hope their weeklong grouping of events will shine a light on the city’s growing tech startup community and its position as the gateway to Latin America.

Many of the events — ending with Florida International University’s Americas Venture Capital Conference — are after Art Basel. That’s also why the third annual AVCC was moved to Dec. 13-14 from its previous mid-November dates.

“Our message is come for Art Basel, and stay for AVCC,” said Juan Pablo Cappello, a lawyer, entrepreneur and investor who is on the steering committee of the venture capital conference and several other Innovate MIA events. And all week, there will be plenty of opportunities for Miami’s entrepreneurs, creatives and investors to mingle with their counterparts from all over the Americas and beyond.

In addition to the AVCC, there’s Incubate Miami’s DemoDay, where its class of startups present their companies, the martial arts-inspired TekFight and HackDay, which dangles a $50,000 cash prize. Endeavor, the global nonprofit that promotes high-impact entrepreneurship in emerging economies, is bringing its two-day International Selection Panel to Miami, and Wayra, an international accelerator, is holding a one-day event to showcase its promising startups from Latin America and Spain. It’s all part of Innovate MIA week: “I don’t think anything like it has ever been organized here in South Florida,” Cappello said.

The AVCC will be the big draw, with about 300 people expected to attend the two-day event at the JW Marriott Brickell. The conference, themed “Data, Design & Dollars,” will feature thought leaders from all over the world, particularly Latin America, and presentations by 29 selected companies. This year, the format has been overhauled and energized, with lots of short talks and more time for question-and-answer sessions and networking, said Jerry Haar, associate dean of FIU’s College of Business, director of the Pino Global Entrepreneurship Center and AVCC co-chair.

The AVCC’s 36 speakers include Martin Varsavsky, Argentine tech entrepreneur, investor and founder of Viatel, Ya.com, Jazztel and FON; Hernan J. Kazah, co-founder and managing partner at Kaszek Ventures and co-founder of Mercadolibre; and Jason L. Baptiste, CEO and co-founder of Onswipe. There’s also Michael Jackson, former COO of Skype and now a venture capitalist; Albert Santalo, founder and CEO of Miami-based CareCloud; and Bedy Yang of 500 Startups.

Chosen from more than 100 applicants, the 29 presenting companies hailing from all over the Americas will be giving either two-minute or five-minute pitches, fielding questions from a panel of judges and competing for prize packages valued at about $50,000. Eight of the startups are from South Florida: itMD, Kairos, Trapezoid Digital Security, Esenem, LiveNinja, OnTrade, Rokk3r Labs and Zavee.

The presenting companies have “proven innovation, proven management teams and the ability to scale well and be a pan-regional player,” said Faquiry Diaz Cala, president of Tres Mares Group and co-chair of AVCC. “The word is out this is a great place to come and pitch to great investors in addition to potentially being one of the prize winners.”

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Miami-Dade Commission postpones Jackson Health System decision

Miami-Dade County Commissioners postponed Tuesday voting on a resolution concerning the future shape of the governing board of the Jackson Health System.

Commissioner Rebeca Sosa asked for the delay and no one opposed the move.

In October, the commission voted 6-5 to make permanent a seven-member Jackson board, selected by a nominating committee of nine persons, five of whom would be board members. The commission would then approve the nominees.

That resolution was pushed hard by Commission Chairman Joe Martinez. Martinez, who lost the mayoral race, left the board in November, and Commissioner Barbara Jordan led an effort to reconsider.

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Stars Return to Middle-earth for 'The Hobbit'

Are you ready to return to Middle-earth? Peter Jackson's The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is coming to theaters and IMAX everywhere in 3D on December 14, and the extensive cast of Hobbits, Elves, Dwarves, Orcs and Wizards features a pleasant mixture of new and returning faces to new, first installment of the growing, six-movie franchise.

Video: An Unexpected Journey to the NZ 'Hobbit' Premiere

"It's been 10 years since Lord of the Rings and we had no interest in making a sequel," says Peter Jackson about the new movie, which serves as a prequel to Rings. "But fortunately J.R.R. Tolkien had written this incredibly charming children's fairytale. … It's a much more charming, humorous story, and that was really the attraction for us -- the fact that we were able to go back and be the same storytellers, the same filmmakers, going back into Middle-earth again, but following a different story with a different group of characters largely. And a different tone – a lot more humor."

The long-awaited big-screen adaptation follows the adventures of the diminutive Hobbit Bilbo Baggins (played by Martin Freeman) as he journeys with a group of 13 Dwarves to reclaim the lost Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor from the fearsome dragon Smaug. On the way, they must battle treacherous Goblins and Orcs, deadly Wargs and sly Sorcerers. And when Bilbo gains possession of Gollum's (the returning Andy Serkis) "preciousss" ring, the fate of Middle-earth hangs in the balance.

"We've seen Bilbo already with the brilliant Ian Holm, and [in this movie] you start with the younger Bilbo. Suddenly it's the beginning of his journey, and it's the classic sequel," explains Martin Freeman, who adds that the newcomers to the franchise were welcomed with open arms by the family-like cast and crew: "We were made to feel like we had every right to be there, and we were well looked after."

Richard Armitage, who plays exiled Dwarf king Thorin Oakenshield, says, "I do think Peter has done something really interesting by kind of connecting the blood flow from the Rings trilogy into The Hobbit, very much in the prologue and all of the other characters that sort of link the two films together, and that has given it some sort of oxygen that fans will really enjoy."

Video: Precious Gollum Moments in New 'Hobbit' Trailer

Cate Blanchett, Hugo Weaving and Elijah Wood never imagined that they would return to Middle-earth to put on Hobbit feet and pointy Elven ears, and Elijah says, "The whole notion of coming back, it was a gift. It isn't something that any of us really expected. … It was an amazing experience."

And how different is Gollum this time around? "Well, he's 60 years younger, so he's only 540, and I think pretty sexy," jokes Serkis, who also served on The Hobbit as second-unit director: "It was doubly thrilling," he said of the unexpected offer from Jackson, joking of the opportunity, "He's known I've wanted to direct for a long time, and so it was really like being given a Maserati when you haven't passed your driving test. … It was a fantastic experience and hugely challenging."

The epic film also features returning The Lord of the Rings cast members Ian McKellen, Ian Holm and Christopher Lee alongside new faces Manu Bennett, Jed Brophy, Adam Brown, John Callen, Mark Hadlow, Peter Hambleton, Barry Humphries, Stephen Hunter, William Kircher, Sylvester McCoy, Bret McKenzie, Graham McTavish, James Nesbitt, Dean O'Gorman, Conan Stevens, Ken Stott and Aidan Turner.

Pics: 'The Hobbit' Photo Exclusive

So why will The Lord of the Rings fans love The Hobbit? "Because they'll be totally surprised by it," says Weaving, who especially loves the scene in which the Dwarves sing. "It was transporting … and moving." Cate agrees, "I found it really rich and surprising," pointing out that she's "really cool this month" to her three boys!

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Two more former LIRR workers cop to disability pension scam

They're hopping off the gravy train.

Two more LIRR retirees pleaded guilty today to scamming disability pensions -- and promised to pay back all the money they stole by faking career-killing injuries.

Former conductor James Reiser, 59, also cut a deal to cooperate with the feds in a bid to stay out of the slammer, admitting in court that he schemed with an indicted orthopedist to create phony paperwork that claimed he was unable to continue working.

Reiser -- who came to Manhattan federal court sporting a tie emblazoned with a cartoon train -- pretended that he suffered from back and neck pain that made it hard for him to sit, stand, walk, bathe or even dress himself.

But the feds say that after his 2006 retirement, Reiser, who now lives in Florida, played basketball daily and worked as a referee, and was spotted playing golf and carrying bags of groceries up the stairs to his home.

Reiser, who pocketed more than $225,000 in bogus benefits, declined to comment afterward, but his lawyer said Reiser "would love to go back in time" and uncouple himself from the massive, $1 billion fraud scheme.

Co-defendant Philip Pulsonetti, who isn't turning rat, agreed to spend up to 30 months behind bars for swindling more than $175,000 from the Railroad Retirement Board.

Both he and his lawyer declined to comment.

Yesterday's guilty pleas brought to eight the number of crooks who have pleaded guilty in the widespread scam, in which more than 1,500 LIRR retirees are suspected of taking part.

During his court appearance, Reiser implicated Dr. Peter Ajemian, one of three doctors the feds have said helped perpetrate the scam by taking payoffs to falsely verify retirees' purported ailments.

Ajemian's lawyer, Tom Engel, said Ajemian maintained his innocence, noting that he only reported "what he was told by his patient."

bruce.golding@nypost.com

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Commissioners to reconsider board structure for Jackson Health System

Struggling to find the best long-term solution on how Miami-Dade’s public hospitals should be governed, county commissioners are expected Tuesday to reconsider a resolution that a deeply divided commission approved six weeks ago to permanently shrink the Jackson Health System’s governing board to seven members.

The motion passed in October, pushed hard by Commission Chairman Joe Martinez, with the key vote 6-5 in favor. Martinez left the commission in November, and as soon as he left the board brought up the issue of reconsidering.

Marcos Lapciuc, Jackson board chairman, has urged commissioners to keep the board at seven because it would be “more engaged and more nimble.” Martha Baker, president of SEIU Local 1991, blasted the proposal as a “power grab,” because the majority of the nominating council would be current board members, with the nominees then being approved by the County Commission.

Chief Executive Carlos Migoya, while not formally endorsing any board proposal, has said previously that a smaller board makes it easier for him to brief members by meeting one-on-one with each of them before public board meetings.

“That’s Sunshine 101,” Migoya said at one board meeting, referring to the state law that bans private meetings between two or more members of a public governing body.

Jackson’s board used to have 17 members, an unwieldy number that often resulted in 12-hour meetings with a lot of talk and delayed decisions. In the spring of 2011, Martinez pushed through a temporary Financial Recovery Board of seven members to help the financially troubled system get back on secure footing. Meetings became much shorter and decision-making faster. The FRB was scheduled to end in May until Martinez proposed making the board permanent.

Under the FRB, the general practice has been for Migoya, Chief Operating Officer Don Steigman and Chief Financial Officer Mark Knight to meet with each board member for an hour, a day or two before the monthly board committee day. The board members have commented at public meetings that they are happy to have the briefings.

Baker, who represents Jackson’s nurses and other healthcare professionals, says the results of the briefings are apparent in the public meetings: “The amount of open discussion is greatly reduced which causes a very concerning lack of transparency.”

Barbara Petersen, president of the First Amendment Foundation in Tallahassee, says that if the briefings are intended “to avoid discussion of the issues at a public meeting, or is relaying information from one board member to another, that’s a potential violation of the Sunshine Law, not just the spirit of the law.”

Migoya issued a statement Tuesday: “The board members, all of whom are volunteers, have expressed that one-on-one briefings help them understand the complexities of healthcare policy and the nuances of our recommendations. This helps them have thoughtful and informed public discussions that adhere to both the letter and the spirit of Florida’s sunshine laws.”

Migoya is not alone in his use of one-on-one meetings. Commissioners at the city of Miami -- where Migoya was city manager -- and Miami-Dade school board members, among many others, receive regular pre-meeting briefings.

Jon Kaney, general counsel for the First Amendment Foundation, calls the one-on-ones a difficult issue. “Every manager or director follows the practice to some extent. Up to a point, it is necessary and appropriate. But when the meetings... supplant public discussion, there is a problem. Of course, the members and executive always swear there was no polling of the members or relaying views from one to the other.”

Sometimes briefings backfire, as they did at last month’s Jackson committee meetings during a discussion on contracting with an outside pharmacy service. When Baker said the service could be provided better and cheaper with Jackson pharmacists, board member Joe Arriola complained that he had not been “totally informed” in his executive team briefing. “It is very troubling,” he said. He voted against the item.

Linda Quick, president of the South Florida Hospital and Healthcare Association, said that briefings make sense for any board, public or private. “Any book you pick up on board communications and board management recommends that managers have individual conversations with board members prior to board of director meetings.”

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Ericsson seeks U.S. import ban on Samsung products

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Swedish telecoms gear maker Ericsson has filed a request with the U.S. International Trade Commission to ban U.S. imports of products made by South Korean group Samsung,

The request from Ericsson, which said on Monday the products infringe on its patents, came after it sued Samsung for patent infringement in a U.S. court last week.

“The request for an import ban is a part of the process. An import ban is not our goal. Our goal is that they (Samsung) sign license agreements on reasonable terms,” spokesman Fredrik Hallstan said.

Ericsson said last week it was suing Samsung after talks failed to reach agreement on terms that were fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) over patents.

Samsung said it would defend itself against the lawsuit, adding that Ericsson had asked for “prohibitively higher royalty rates to renew the same patent portfolio”.

(Reporting by Sven Nordenstam; Editing by Dan Lalor)

Tech News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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ET Confirms Jamie Foxx in 'Spider-Man' Sequel

Jamie Foxx has some electrifying news for ET: He will definitely be starring in the sequel to The Amazing Spider-Man!

Related: Did 'Spidey' Director Just Reveal New Villains?

"Electro is a great character," Jamie tells ET's Nancy O'Dell when she asks him if he's confirmed to be in the next installment of the blockbuster franchise "I met with the director, Mark Webb, I met with Andrew Garfield, and we talked. … I think Electro will be an exciting character to play because he's a … genius electrician-type person, and he gets the short end of the stick from the whole world, and the next thing you know he turns it on."

Rumors had been swirling for quite some time that Jamie would be taking on the role of Spidey's nemesis, and he fueled the fire the day after Halloween when he tweeted that he dressed up as the character.

Plus, Webb alluded to the super-villain being a part of the next movie while promoting the upcoming release of The Amazing Spider-Man on Blu-ray and listing his favorite villains: "I like Green Goblin. I like Electro a lot. I think Electro is pretty fantastic."

Earlier today it was announced today that Chronicle and Lincoln star Dane Dehaan will join the super sequel as Harry Osborn, with Webb tweeting, "Meet Harry Osborn. So excited to have him on board. @danedehaan."

Of course, Spidey fans know that Harry Osborn is the son of Norman Osborn, who becomes The Green Goblin, and Harry himself eventually becomes the super-villain Hobgoblin. So who are the official baddies of the next Spider-Man film? No actual names have been announced, but the information is all there for those who want to connect the dots.

Video: 'Spider-Man' Sequel Secrets Hidden in Blu-ray?

Also starring Emma Stone, Jamie Foxx and Shailene Woodley, the new film in the Spider-Man saga is set for release in 3D on May 2, 2014. Production will begin in early 2013.

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