In contrast to its success elsewhere, Facebook has so far failed to establish itself as Japan’s most popular social-networking site. The company, with headquarters in Palo Alto, California, has thus decided to launch a cross-platform feature that will allow users of Facebook and Mixi, a popular Japanese social-networking site, to link to each other’s profiles. This also allows users to share links, videos and photos.

“We built this application using Mixi’s standard APIs available for all developers. Through this application, we hope to simplify connecting and sharing with friends across different social platforms,” said Facebook spokeswoman Kumiko Hidaka, adding that Facebook has similar applications in place with other internet services, including Twitter.

This is not an official partnership between the two companies. Instead Facebook has taken advantage of a new platform developed by Mixi last month that would allow its users to share information with other internet services. However, this new feature could raise Facebook’s profile in Japan where it has struggled to win over users from local rivals like Mixi and Gree. There are currently about 21 million registered users on Mixi while Facebook boasts over 500 million members world-wide. Facebook, which launched its Japan version in 2008, declined to disclose user statistics by country.

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NPR Mobile Web has been redesigned for better cross-platform functionality. And its station list has been expanded beyond the 55 it had at launch to include all NPR member stations.

NPR News app, which should be available to Android users later this month, is similar in user functionality to the broadcaster’s iPhone application. But unlike the iPhone app, NPR News app for Android is open and can be customized and improved upon by member stations.

“With the Android app, we can let the stations incorporate their own apps into ours,” Kinsey Wilson, NPR’s SVP/GM of digital media, told Paid Content. “Some stations are more advanced digitally than others. We’re working with them about becoming more robust providers of local news, which will keep them relevant. And we can share our programming and theirs on one app. That expands the opportunities for all of us.”

Under terms of the deal, EA (ERTS) will initially pay $300 million for the developer of such social games as Pet Society, Who Has the Biggest Brain and Restaurant City, including a $25 million retention agreement with Playfish employees. It will subsequently pay $100 million more if the company meets undisclosed profit targets.

By acquiring Playfish, EA is not only validating the social gaming market, but perhaps setting the valuation benchmark for Mafia Wars creators Zynga, which is expected to go public next year. It also tempers–to some extent, anyway–concerns that the lead-generation scam controversy that recently blew up around Zynga and Playfish might harm their perceived value in the market.

“This deal came about very quickly, but let me say that Playfish was never ‘up for sale’,” de Halleux told PaidContent. “We were focused on building our business, because we believed—and still do—that the game industry is changing. EA approached, and we realized that we could be in a better position to act as an agent of change, through them. We could build games and attract users on our own, but this deal accelerates that to a degree that wouldn’t have been possible.”

“Social gaming, with its emphasis on friends and community, is seeing tremendous growth and this is the right time to invest to strengthen our participation in this space,” said Barry Cottle, senior vice president and general manager of EA Interactive. “With the addition of proven expertise from Playfish, their broad consumer base and strong game brands, we’re moving ahead aggressively in our plans to lead in the category of cross-platform social entertainment.”

If there was ever a doubt that social networks might be a viable gaming platform, this acquisition pretty much obliterates it.

Pages, Apple’s word processing application, is also getting a bit of an update. Pages ’09 offers a full-screen view for the easily distracted writer, dynamic outlining, mail merge with Numbers–Apple’s spreadsheet program–and 40 new templates. Not the most exciting stuff, here, but decent additions nonetheless.

In Numbers, Apple (AAPL) has added some new categorization features–Table Categories, and, answering user requests, some 250 new formulas and functions. New charts, trend lines and other advance reporting options as well.

iWork is also migrating from the desktop to the cloud–in a sense. Via iWork.com, users can easily upload documents and share them with collaborators. Docs are viewable online. They can be downloaded. And collaborators can comment on them online. iWork.com is cross-platform (Mac and PC) and cross-browser. The online suite looks very much like the Mac-based suite.

iWork will run you $79, $49 if you purchase a new Mac. “This is the beginning of a new service,” Schiller noted, adding that it’s a beta and launches today, solo and as part of a $169 box set that includes iLife and Leopard.