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Walyou

Facebook Acquires Moves Activity Diary App, Doesn’t Kill the Service
“Game of Thrones” Book Opens Into a 3d Map of Westeros
5 Things You Didn’t Know About Mobile Apps
The Next Nexus Tablet Could be a Product of HTC
OnePlus One Is a Potential Nexus 5 and iPhone 5S-Killer
Hitachi’s High-Speed Elevator Will Cover 95 Floors in 43 Seconds

Facebook Acquires Moves Activity Diary App, Doesn’t Kill the Service

Posted: 24 Apr 2014 09:45 AM PDT

As acquisitions go, Facebook really lacked a fitness tracker, but the recent acquisition of Moves mark’s the social network’s entry in this field.

It’s a habit for some companies to kill the services they acquire in order to integrate them in their own products. Moves seems to be as one of the exceptions, as Facebook won’t include this app’s functionality into its own anytime soon. For the time being, Moves users might not even notice that the app and the service have a different owner now.

ProtoGeo Oy, the Finnish company that developed Moves, announced on this service’s blog that “For those of you that use the Moves app – the Moves experience will continue to operate as a standalone app, and there are no plans to change that or commingle data with Facebook.”

While the Moves service itself might not be altered in the not-so-distant future, ProtoGeo Oy will start working on current Facebook services. This suggests that the social network’s mobile apps might gain a similar functionality soon.

The unique aspect of Moves was that once installed, people didn’t even have to launch the app or enable the data connection in order to track their physical activities or routes. The app was permanently active in the background, even though it didn’t even appear in the Task Manager. At the end of the day, users could see the places they’ve been to, as well as the routes they’ve taken and the means of transport (by foot, by bike or by public transport).

The fact that it doesn’t actively use the GPS or data connections has its downsides, as the routes are not drawn precisely. From this point of view, I prefer a lot more such mobile apps as Endomondo, despite their more aggressive use of the battery, just because I can see exactly the streets I walked on.

Moves has a minimalistic interface that shows the number of steps or the distance covered, along with a simplified version of the route, focused on the places where the user spent the most time. Other fitness trackers provide a lot more detail, at the smartphone battery’s expense. The Finnish app is directly competing against such passive activity tracking apps as Human more than against Runtastic and the likes.

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“Game of Thrones” Book Opens Into a 3d Map of Westeros

Posted: 24 Apr 2014 07:00 AM PDT

As Game of Thrones keeps growing in ratings and importance, several publications pop up to help the fans understand the universe better, and this book does that quite literally.

This incredible map book by Insight Editions is meant to delight fans of the HBO megahit Game of Thrones by displaying a completely three-dimensional map depicting some of the most popular locales seen in the series and books with an art that resembles the show opening.

You can see more about the book in the video below these lines. If only it included the music too, it’d be the greatest thing in the world. You know, after the books themselves.

Source: Nerdgasmo

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5 Things You Didn’t Know About Mobile Apps

Posted: 24 Apr 2014 06:00 AM PDT

The world of mobile apps is a large one, full of mystery and intrigue. But what mobile app facts are you missing out on? Find out here.

Most people know their Angry Birds from their Flappy Bird and their Candy Crush Saga from their Fruit Ninja and a fair few may even know the difference between the four developers behind them. But for the majority of those who don't follow the mobile app market, there are common misconceptions and incorrect data in the public eye that show that most know the same amount about mobile apps as we do about Area 51, i.e not a great deal. So, here to dispel these untruths and boost your knowledge like the easiest 5 minute long class that you've ever attended, is this post and you can read on to find out 5 important facts that you never knew about mobile apps.

1. Freemium Apps Aren't the Best Way for Businesses to Make Money

In the past few years or so, a new game type has emerged: free to play. This enticing level of freebie-ism draws players in with the hope that a small percentage of players will become paid customers, shelling out real money for extra in-game currency, new levels or content. In some cases, it has proved successful, with Candy Crush being a fantastic example of how frustration has led players to pay money to access new levels, but contrary to popular belief, there are better ways for devs to make a profit. According to the statistics, which show that 37% of mobile users in the US have clicked an ad in a mobile app, good ol' fashioned PPC (pay-per-click) advertising is still a smart way to go for those that don't want to implement or annoy their users with a freemium system, showing that the old guard isn't quite being phased out due to unpopularity just yet.

2. The Most Used Mobile Apps Aren't Games

This one is harder to believe because the games are the ones that get most of the headlines. The public's love of fun causes us to be vocal, loud and excitable when it comes to talking about the mobile game that is whittling away our time, but in reality, we're quite frond of more practical mobile apps too. Specifically shopping apps, where the statistic that 47% of US smartphone owners use shopping apps, which they access a whopping 17 times a month, is particularly brick and mortar store bothering as it shows that and proves that smartphones are not just games consoles with pared down screens and specs.

3. Mobile Apps on iOS Don't Make a Massive Amount of Money

It's true, they do, but only if you have millions of investor capital, a killer concept and at least 5 lucky horseshoes in your collection. Not every game can earn money like a Zynga, Rovio or King branded title, despite the headlines boldly announcing their successes, with the stat that the global average revenue per download from Apple's App Store being just 19 cents per download, as of Q2 2012. That figure is the result of a decline from 24 cents at the end of 2011. The statistics may have changed for the App Store since, but with Android's continued dominance in the mobile market, that figure has likely decreased.

4. The Mobile App Market Isn't a Level Playing Field

While it's been mentioned that the likes of Zynga and King do incredibly well for themselves, there are some who do believe that there is little to know disparity in the chance of garnering a massive mobile app made wealth. That's not the case and there's a statistic to prove it, with the top 25 iOS and Android apps accounting for 15% of app revenue in 2012. That's not quite a 1% vs 99% type figure but without these top 25 apps, both Apple and Google (the creators of Android)'s bottom lines but be severely damaged.

5. iOS and Android Aren't the Best Places to Release a Mobile App

This is another easy to believe misconception as the massive popularity of the iOS and Android operating systems makes their respective app marketplaces great places to release an app but consider Windows 8, perhaps the third place contender, where there are fewer available apps and therefore the chance of having an app become successful on the operating system is far greater. This is something that many developers realise, with 57% of mobile app developers planning to develop apps for Windows Phone, suggesting that there is a large, untapped, Microsoft branded market looking to be broken into.

6. Only 2.2% Of F2P Players Spend Money

Free to play (F2P) is one of the most popular monetisation methods in mobile gaming, as mentioned, so you'll be shocked to know that it's actually incredibly inefficient for developers to earn money this way and that more players than you think never spend a dime on the free to play games that many of us have downloaded.

Surveying the gaming habits of 10 million players, analyst firm Swrve found that just 2.2% of those players spent money on free to play games during the 90 days during which their gaming was monitored. Not only that but around 53% of gamers spent money within the first 7 days of downloading a game and two thirds of free to play players reportedly stop playing the game after a day, making for some shocking statistics about mobile gaming.

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The Next Nexus Tablet Could be a Product of HTC

Posted: 24 Apr 2014 05:00 AM PDT

HTC has had two hits with its One line, leading many Android enthusiasts to wonder what a new HTC Nexus would be like. Soon it might not be up to imagination.

Google’s Nexus branded phone lineup was originally kicked off in 2010 by HTC with the Nexus One, which has largely been considered by many to be the best Android phone of its time. In the 4 years following, HTC has produced many hit phones including their EVO lineup, and now the One lineup, while Google has continued the Nexus brand with Samsung, LG, and ASUS.

Considering the reception of the Nexus One, as well as the appreciation for both brands individually since that time, there has been a steady clamor for HTC to produce another Nexus device. A new report from DigiTimes suggests we may soon see just that, although not a Nexus phone, but an HTC Nexus 8 tablet.

Many reports have suggested that Google may put an end to the Nexus program soon, which would be a symbolic end if HTC is the one to bring the program full circle. The Nexus program has served many purposes, but market penetration was one of the biggest benefits. The Nexus 7 did just that with the tablet market, and now that Android is much more common for tablets, there isn’t as much of a need for Google to be the one pushing the standard when other OEMs are producing better devices that are more in-line with Google’s design standards .

The Nexus brand is known for being both high quality and low price, so it’s not known how HTC would approach a Nexus tablet, considering they have pushed more of a premium device standard with their One brand. Their last foray into the tablet market was with the HTC Flyer/EVO View, which was a 7″ tablet and one of the first to introduce a proprietary stylus of the kind that later achieved popularity with Samsung’s Galaxy Note series.

Whether the device is a full body aluminum tablet like the new HTC One (M8), or a soft touch plastic more in line with the Nexus device from LG and Asus, HTC is likely to bring quality manufacturing to the table. The Taiwanese manufacturer has a long history, starting out manufacturing devices for other brands, including the very first Android device, the G1, only more recently building a reputation as a standalone brand.

The idea of an HTC Nexus device is thrilling to many and rightly so. Likely, we will hear more about this during the lead up to Google I/O. Although there is nothing solid pointing to HTC as the next partner at this time, it would be a much loved reunion by most Android fans.

Source: DigiTimes

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OnePlus One Is a Potential Nexus 5 and iPhone 5S-Killer

Posted: 23 Apr 2014 01:55 PM PDT

iPhone 5S and Nexus 5′s reign might come to a sudden stop once OnePlus One is released in Europe and the US in May. This highly customizable smartphone seems to be the perfect mix of sleek design and top specs.

LG and Apple’s flagship smartphones are in danger, as a Chinese startup launched in December 2013 is looking to launch an Android device capable of outsmarting both of these. The impressive specs of the OnePlus One include a Snapdragon 801 quad-core CPU running at 2.5Ghz, 3GB of RAM, a 5-megapixel front-facing camera, 5.5-inch screen with 1080P resolution, 13MP camera with F2.0 aperture and Sony image sensor, NFC, and stereo speakers. In other words, plenty of processing power to run even the most demanding apps out there.

In a recent blog post, the company explained that “Embodying the OnePlus motto of ‘Never Settle’, the OnePlus One boasts industry leading design, superior build quality and top of the line specs at a disruptive price point.”

As the phone runs a custom version of CyanogenMod based on Android 4.4, Steve Kondik meant to express his enthusiasm: “I am incredibly proud of the effort our team has put in to the CyanogenMod build for the OnePlus One. We’ve brought out the full potential of the hardware and complemented it with innovative new features to give users a fresh new experience and the tools to tailor the One to their personal style. We will continue to expand this effort to provide a genuinely enjoyable and powerful operating system for the user.”

Pete Lau, CEO of OnePlus pointed out that “By paying attention to the smallest details, taking a holistic approach to product design, and working with the best partners such as Cyanogen Inc. and Qualcomm Technologies, we have been able to create the greatest day to day user experience in a smartphone without compromise.”

The manufacturers plan to launch OnePlus One in

Austria
Belgium
Denmark
Finland
France
Germany
Hong Kong
Italy
Netherlands
Portugal
Spain
Sweden
Taiwan
United Kingdom
United States

There will be a 16GB Silk White version that will sell for $299/269 and a 64GB Sandstone Black for $349/299. That is considerable less than the $600+ people have to pay for a no-contract Nexus 5, iPhone 5S or Samsung Galaxy S5. Mind you, the price is only one of the aspects that makes this device a Nexus and iPhone-killer.

All in all, many aspects of this phone are rather impressive, but I wish they had come with a better name for it, as it’s very easy to mistake it for HTC’s One.

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Hitachi’s High-Speed Elevator Will Cover 95 Floors in 43 Seconds

Posted: 23 Apr 2014 01:15 PM PDT

At the moment, another Japanese company – Toshiba – is holding the record for the world’s fastest elevator, but Hitachi plans to change that by 2016.

Hitachi’s elevator that will be used inside China’s Guangzhou CTF Finance Centre is meant to travel at 1,200 m/min, which means that even getting to the top of the world’s tallest building (currently the 828 m tall Burj Khalifa) would take less than minute. If it wasn’t obvious already, such elevators, provided that they will ever become a reality, will only be included in selected buildings from very rich cities and regions.

In a press release published a couple of days ago, Hitachi promised that “The 1,200 m/min ultra-high-speed elevator that Hitachi will deliver will feature both the drive power needed to attain the world’s fastest speed, and also reliable control capabilities. The elevator will travel a shaft height of 440 meters from the 1st to 95th floor in approximately 43 seconds. Furthermore, Hitachi will achieve both high-speed elevator operation and a safe, comfortable ride by using braking equipment and a governor*3 that safely bring the elevator to a stop, as well as technologies to prevent lateral vibration and to reduce the sensation of ear blockage caused by air pressure differences. Hitachi will install a total of 95 elevators at Guangzhou CTF Finance Centre, consisting of two of the world’s fastest elevators announced today with a speed of 1,200 m/min; 28 double-deck elevators; ultra-high-speed elevators with a speed of 600 meters per minute; and other elevators.”

Traveling at that speed horizontally is one thing, but when that is changed to a vertical trip, side-effects usually develop. Inertia could even cause people to smash into the walls of the elevator (or rather the ceiling), so making ultra-high-speed elevators is not as easy as it may seem. Hitachi is also concerned about the safety of anyone using this elevator, so it’s trying the make the ride as comfortable as possible.

The 698-feet tower that Hitachi built in 2010 proves that this Japanese company takes product testing quite seriously, so that in 2016, when this ultra-high-speed elevator is unveiled everything is safe and sound. The heat-resistant materials will also prevent the elevator from catching fire, so this is yet another thing the potential users of the elevator will have to cross of their risk lists. Until this becomes a real product, we can only dream of having such elevators in 10-storey buildings.

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