KitKat’s share of Android devices more than doubles to 5.3 percent
After months of treading water, Android 4.4 KitKat is finally taking off. Google reports that 5.3 percent of Android users are running the newer OS version as of early April; that’s more than twice the 2.5 percent that it claimed one month earlier. There’s no official explanation for the jump, but it’s most likely thanks to a wave of KitKat upgrades from HTC, LG and Samsung. Most older versions lost share as a result. It could be a long, long time before KitKat overtakes Jelly Bean (which dipped to 61.4 percent), but the transition is under way — and it’s only likely to accelerate now that flagships like the Galaxy S5 and new One are reaching store shelves.
Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Mobile, Google
Source: Android Developers
Spotify’s quest to get it ‘just right’ through balanced design
In the heart of Stockholm a team of designers and engineers have been hard at work, mostly in secret, overhauling one of biggest names in music. (And no, we’re not talking about Icona Pop or even an ABBA reunion.) On Birger Jarlsgatan, a street that divides the neighborhoods of Ostermalm and Norrmalm in the Swedish capital, sits the home of Spotify. Not all that long ago it was the undisputed king of subscription music services. Today it is just one of many major players in the exploding marketplace with would-be usurpers, from Google to Beats, surrounding it on all sides.
Over the years it’s shoehorned in new features and accelerated its international expansion, the design stagnated. Its iTunes-like desktop client didn’t just look dated, it was cumbersome and many of its features bordered on obsolete. Its mobile apps and web player filled a need, but lacked the polish and stability many mainstream customers demanded. So for the last several months a team led by Michelle Kadir (Director of Product Development) and Andreas Holmstrom (Lead Communications Designer) have been toiling away to bring Spotify into the 2010s. That means a flatter more playful look with soft edges and large images. But the company also bucked the trend towards lighter color palettes by slathering its UI with enough black to make Tomas Skogsberg proud.
Even though it was in desperate need of a fresh coat of paint Spotify had to be careful when it came to reimagining its flagship product. It has amassed tens of millions of users. Even if only a small portion of those pay monthly subscription fees, their patronage results in ad revenue. The guiding philosophy was that of “lagom” — a Swedish word which roughly translates to “just right.” Basically, a redesign had to be a quest to find the perfect balance in the new Spotify experience. A balance between being distinctly new and modern, but not unfamiliar; feature rich, but not overwhelming; beautiful, but not over-designed.
The first and most critical step was gathering user feedback. That, of course, included the standard set of surveys and unsolicited missives from customers. But engineers and designers also watched people using the apps. Even if a user couldn’t articulate what was important to them or what was wrong with current experience, the acute eyes of Spotify’s experts could spot the problem simply by watching a person’s behaviors. Though the company was reticent to highlight its own weaknesses, it would cop to users being confused by the inconsistent UI across platforms. It also found that people preferred the darker interface elements that Spotify favored during its earlier days.
They even ran separate focus groups with users who had never used the service before, which made it easy to spot the more counter-intuitive and confusing elements of the experience. Those users were at the front of the company’s mind when it also chose its new typeface and icons. They’re clean, rounded and simple. In a word: approachable. And that accessibility extends beyond simple looks. The engineers aimed to simplify almost every task to make sure that the app was doing “the heavy lifting” not the user. Primarily that effort focuses on exposing the most commonly used functions, but it also means fully implementing search as you type for quickly surfacing results.
The return to dark roots is immediately apparent when you fire up redesigned web player. The gray panels are replaced with a stark black backdrop. Against that absolute absence of color the other elements of the UI seemingly float in empty space. And that’s the point. While others like Google are trying to flatten their interfaces as much as possible by putting white on light gray, Spotify is trying to separate the content from the rest of the UI. The dark backdrop mimics that of a movie theater — black is the color of entertainment to here the designers tell it. That choice alone sends a message about the purpose of the app. And while you’re probably not going to listen to your music in fullscreen mode it sends a certain message to the user when the rest of the UI simply fades into the background.
Movie theaters and Swedish concepts of moderation aren’t the only influences at play, however. Looking at the new Spotify apps it’s hard not to see the distinctive mark of social networking. In particular the company appears to have borrowed heavily from Google+. Albums, artists and users are all represented as cards in the primary browsing view. They’re not as heavily adorned as they are in Google’s “social backbone” but there is an obvious resemblance. Most notably when clicking through to an artist’s page, which contain round “profile” pictures against a large header image that fills out the rest of the pane. Individual user profiles are laid out very similarly. When you see a round image it sends the user a visual cue that this a person or persons, allowing them to quickly distinguish between a direct link to content like an album and a profile.
Whether or not Spotify succeeded in embodying the principle of lagom is entirely subjective. While some may find the large rounded icons and social network-influenced flourishes instantly welcoming, other may be turned off by its simplicity. But the intended goal is obvious. By blending the old with the new and putting its focus on content Spotify is trying to bring balance and uniformity to what has until now seemed scatter-shot.
Filed under: Home Entertainment, Internet, Software, Mobile
Complaints that we usually come across in web marketing
Web marketing is a field where the experts strive hard to increase the sales of the company, whereas web marketing experts are the people who are behind the scenes to make this goal achievable.
These experts help the clients achieve the targets their company has set. However due to the low cost involved marketing the products online makes it more competitive as there are many companies who are marketing the same product or service which you as a company are. All these if not taken care of convert into web marketing experts complaints.
As an owner you know what is best suited for your company. Hence there is no one better than you who can set its objectives for online sales. The working is definitely to be done by the expert but basis your requirements.
Turning Web Marketing Experts Complaints into Compliments
As a web marketing expert you know what went wrong that a compliment converted into a complaint. There can be several reasons that could trigger this. Firstly a right product sold to a wrong consumer or vice versa and sometimes a right product sold to a right consumer can also turn into a complaint.
This happens because when the product sold gives less or no utility to the user may be because the user is not abiding by the rules of the product usage. This kind of complaints can be handled by the expert.
As the web is the main medium to sell the products, in the same way it is also a medium to fix problems. Each website has a blog and a forum or comments section attached to their website.
All the expert has to do is keep a close watch on this blog and clear the doubts of the customers on the web itself. Else ask the customer to contact the company engineers for the repairing of the product to satisfy the customer. This way the web marketing experts complaints can change into a compliment.
Good Website Structuring
A good website can be very helpful in delivering information. This information is vital for the consumers as this will be the backbone of your company sales. If the correct and useful information is not given to the users then there are chances that you will lose the business from him and many others.
This will only be accurate if you take the help of the reputed and recognised web marketing expert firm who will guide you at every stage to get you closer each time to your goals thereby reducing the chances of a web marketing professional’s complaints.
As each and every thing will be under control then there is no chance of any mishaps happening and the products will be sold with ease and take your company to a new high.
These all factors may look small while discussing it but are a major impact when executing the same. But this is a cake walk for the right web marketing professionals. If you have professionals working on your website you would not have to worry about any outcome. You can in fact make use of your time and divert the energy to the tasks where it is really required. You may not always come across genuine online marketers, in fact there are high chances that you come across the online marketers that offer temporarily great performance but puts your website in the danger zone in the long run, which needs to be avoided. A bit of research online will help you find a good online marketing expert.
Snugg Nexus 7 Case Cover and Flip Stand Review: a case with an unsurprisingly snug Fit
In a world where it’s hard to differentiate one tablet accessory from the next, it’s often hard to make an informed choice about one case in particular. Will it fit properly? Does it provide enough protection? Can I use it as a stand? These are just some of the more standard concerns for shoppers, and hopefully that’s where reviews like this come in handy. Today we’ll be taking a look at the Snugg Nexus 7 Case Cover and Flip Stand, so let’s dive in and see what’s what.
What’s in the box
There’s not much to the The Snugg‘s packaging: what you see is what you’ll get and you’ll be getting the case, and all the lovely air and packaging on the inside.
The case
The Snugg case adopts the folio form factor and uses a velcro-secured case to harness the tablet much like the one we’ve seen on roocase’s folio cases. As the name of the brand might suggest, the Nexus 7 does fit extremely comfortably into the allotted space and leaves ample space on all sides and access points.
The case is covered on the inside and out with PU leather, also known as bicast leather, which generally uses a combination of leather and polyurethane to give a slightly glossy appearance that is fairly durable and easy to keep clean. The result is a case that looks like leather, feels great to hold and has just enough grip not to be a drop hazard. The case we are reviewing today is also available in several other colours including Baby Blue, Distressed Brown, Electric Blue (which we have here), Orange, Candy Pink, Red, White and Black.
You will notice on the inside of the front cover, there is a lack of card holding space which is a bit of a bummer, however in it’s place is something that looks like a strap; we’ll look at the application of this a bit later.
On the back of the case is the leather stopper that will allow you to turn the Snugg case into a stand. It’s solidly made despite being made from leather, though it is a bit stiff to manipulate at first. Using the stopper, you’ll be able to prop up your tablet in the upright, landscape position, and if you’re so inclined, you would also be able to stand your case in the portrait direction at 90 degrees.
To hold the case closed, the cases uses two simple magnets, one at the top corner and the other at the bottom corner, which makes for a really tight seal. As you might expect from a folio case, it doesn’t provide particularly heavy duty protection, but would be most comfortable in an office/home setting.
The Snugg case also has a sneaky inclusion at the bottom of the case which is a pen slot in case you want to store your stylus or pen for safe keeping.
The practicality
Let’s go back to that strap on the inside of the case’s cover. When the case is in the stand position, the strap can be used as a hand strap which is aided by the fact that the stand acts as quite a good handhold. What this results in is quite an ergonomic way to operate and hold your tablet with one hand without fear of dropping it. I’m not 100% if this is what you’re supposed to use the strap for, but this is definitely the best way I’ve found to use it and I found it really neat.
As a case overall, I have to say that the Snugg case is overall missing a few features that would make it even more useful, including slots for cards and money. The pen holder is obviously a nice touch, but I can’t say that it’s the most practical seeing as most pens don’t have their clips in the middle of the pen; securing a pen in this pen holder would result in a pen that sticks out when stored. That said, it does exactly what the label says and it is a well-made, high quality product.
The verdict
Rating: 4/5
There’s really nothing particularly revolutionary about the Snugg Nexus 7 Case Cover and Flip Stand; it operates as it’s supposed to and it has a fair list of features. What it does do, however, is does everything it offers extremely well, and for that it should be commended as a very solid product. I would have no issues using this as my everyday case, and actually have been since I reviewed it; it feels premium and it does the job well. What more can you ask for in a case?
The Snugg Nexus 7 Case Cover and Flip Stand is normally sold for MSRP $39.99 USD, however The Snugg is currently having a sale where the price of the case has been slashed to just $24.99, an exceptional price for such a solid, quality case. If you want to take advantage of the sale, you can visit its product page at the link below:
Snugg Nexus 7 Case Cover and Flip Stand product page
If you want to check out The Snugg’s other products, you can visit their main site here.
Gallery of Photos
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Cool costumes for appropriate occasions
There are many occasions when one is required to shed the conventional garb and don a fancy dress attire. How would you term those dresses? Skim through the rest of the article to know more about the same. In this post, some light shall be shed on the cosplay costumes. This term will be alien to many so why not know more about it? It basically comes from the word costume and role play which constitutes the word cosplay. There are many nightclubs and Halloween parties where the guests dress up in the garb of their fictional characters who happen to be their favorites. Some role-play activities are performed for having some fun and thrilling moments. There are so many groups, communities or clubs where you can go in for these kind of cosplay activities.
These types of lively and exciting parties can break the monotony of the daily mundane life and provide a refreshing break from the boring chores of everyday life. Everyone craves excitements in life and this is how the cosplay costumes make a thrilling difference in their lives. So basically these outfits can be summed up as being worn when one is enjoying role-play. The best kinds of sources which are used to be derived from these cool costumes for parties include fictional characters, pop stars and even Japanese manga. The players express dedication towards their favorite characters and have a fun time donning these costumes. You can also make your own outfit instead of buying it from the market. These types of costume play ensemble made their origin in Japan and gradually spread to other parts of the world. Some other countries which also design these kinds of costumes are UK, USA and Canada.
Anime characters were what these costumes for role-play were actually designed for. The kinds of cosplay stores have seen the rise in the financial prices and production of these costumes according to the popular demand.
More updates
One criterion is important while the anime and manga characters for these types of dresses are being designed. In countries like Mexico, these types of costumes are worn during the science fiction gatherings and conventions of the videogames. The anime and manga characters don’t have the type of physical proportions which can be emulated by the cosplayers. So you should know about it before donning these costumes. In Australia, the characters of the cosplayers are selected from television shows based in America, comic and cartoon characters plus fictional fantasies. These are some of the updates which you should know about the same.
Relevant details
The movies which are made on animations and graphics have gained a lot of attention due to these kinds of cosplay garbs. These unique and eye catching ensemble are much in demand throughout the world and are also evolving with new designer techniques and pattern strategies. You can even sew or stitch together these costumes if need be. So get set to do the same by taking the help of the articles on the internet websites.
Conclusion
So after skimming through this article, you must have realized the art of designing and making these cool and superbly exciting costumes for a fun filled session of thrilling role-play activities. You can make a purchase of your customs accessories online. Swords or face paints are some of the accessories which you can be aware of after assembling your complete dress. So you can log onto the internet websites to gain more knowledge about these ideas and emerge wearing a knockout costume which will impress your partner no end.
Android the next big thing
Nobody can imagine a world wherein a smartphone does not function on android. Yes indeed there are other operating systems as well but the Android has killed the other competition globally becoming the most preferred operating system of all times. Android has become the crux of our lives. It is an operating system used for mobile phones which is based on Linux kernel. This is basically used for touchscreen smart phones. Android has become so big in the recent past that everyone has moved onto it. This has only been possible because of the numerous applications for android available also called as aplicaciones android in Spanish. All these applications are available on the android market known as play store.
Android 10
Android 10 is a website in Spanish language which has many applications available for android and helps in downloading them from the play store. It has many games as well which are specially built for the android users only. These games make the user hooked to their phones for hours and are a great addiction not only between the youngsters but also with the adults.
One more reason of these games being popular is that it has been linked to various social websites and social network blogging sites which publish your current status on the games and its levels making you compete with your friends and family. This has made it more unique within the public.
The android 10 website has all the new additions on the android market; available with them making them updated to the core. For any new games or applications all you need to do is just login to the website and get the link for the play store to download it on your mobile device.
Google has been the playing the key role in android and its success. It has given its extensive support to android to be what it is today. For any android based phones you will need a Google account first. This is the base for any android phones and this reason has made Google even more important for mobile phone users.
Application reviews
The applications for android are very user friendly and this can be seen from all the applications listed on the android 10 website. It becomes very easy for the user to know about the application and decide whether to download it or not. This can be decided by reviewing the application from the previous users and their comments on it or by you downloading it and then reviewing the same to help the other users know your views on the application thereby making it user friendly.
Aplicaciones android are the most popular among android users as this has almost all the applications available for the users. You think of an application and search on the market and you will find it there. This has become so common. You will get applications from measuring your distance you cover while walking to the speed of the mode you are travelling in.
Application building is also very easy as the Android market is an open platform for all. You have an idea for an application; all you have to do is build it and get it uploaded on the android market with the help of its technicians and there you go. Your application is ready to be downloaded and used online. You phone gets a lot smarter with android on it and you will have access to a million apps that are free of cost and simply essential for you to work on your phone with. Android is the way to go!
Xiaomi clones Kickstarter project for its new one-button Android controller
Last October saw Pressy — a one-button Android controller that plugs into your device’s headphone jack — eclipse its initial Kickstarter goal of $40,000, ending with almost $700,000 in its coffers. Apparently Xiaomi was paying attention, because the Chinese firm has teased an eerily similar product of its own that follows Pressy’s look and functions almost to a “T.” The metal cylinder plugs into a Xiaomi headset jack, and the button’s function can be configured to perform 10 different tasks (taking a photo or dialing a specific contact, for example) based on 10 different click types. The major similarities stop at price and availability. As Tech in Asia reports, Xiaomi’s version is called the MiKey, costs 4.9 Yuan (or $0.79) and will launch abroad this April 8th. Stateside, it doesn’t appear to have a name or release date just yet, and Hugo Barra is asking Google+ users to name the domestic version.
The Pressy, in comparison, is $27 and its promised March shipping window is now in the rear-view. Considering that its developer Nimrod Back has mentioned legal action against clones before, we’ve reached out to the company for a statement and will update this post if we hear back.
Via: Tech in Asia
Source: Hugo Barra (G+), Xiaomi (Chinese)
Viber’s Windows Phone 8 app now allows you to call any number you want
How does Viber celebrate being acquired for a ton of money? By bringing one of its most popular features, Viber Out, to Windows Phone 8 — that’s how. In second thought, we’re probably way off. Still, the Skype rival has indeed updated its WP8 application, celebration or not, allowing users to now make calls to any phone number thanks to Viber Out. This new version also lets you send video messages and multiple photos at a time, while added Bluetooth support should make it easier for you to enjoy some hands-free action. As usual, you can grab the update from the Windows Phone Store — and feel free to share your Viber 4.1 impressions with us in the comments below.
Filed under: Cellphones, Internet, Software, Mobile, Microsoft
Source: Windows Phone Store
Amazon quietly adds Metacritic review scores to video game listings
Amazon’s own product rating system is fine and all, but subjective reviews aren’t always as relevant as we might like, even when there’s an overwhelming consensus. Whether browsing for games online, or scanning shelves in a second-hand store, this editor always has Metacritic handy on one device or another — the well-regarded review aggregator basically has to score titles fairly by design. If you find yourself doing the same, then don’t worry about tab-hopping while walking the virtual isles of Amazon anymore, as the retailer’s quietly integrated Metacritic scores into its video game listings. It’s great for those wanting more professional guidance, but we’re only seeing on Amazon.com right now, so hopefully it’ll roll out to other regions later. New rule of thumb: avoid anything with a red box.
Filed under: Gaming, HD, Amazon
Via: Polygon
Source: Amazon.com
Spotify for iOS Updated with Redesign, Revamped Browse and Playlist Features [iOS Blog]
Streaming music service Spotify today updated its app for iOS, bringing a major user interface redesign that emphasizes album arts with a darker theme, along with the addition of newer fonts and icons. The app’s new look is meant be in line with the design of the desktop and web versions of Spotify, which marks the first time the service has seen a visual overhaul since it first launched in 2008.
Speaking to The Next Web, Spotify’s Director of Product Development Michelle Kadir said the following about the service’s new look on iOS and other platforms:
We thought it was time for us to make a change… What we felt the past year is that we’ve kept innovating — we’ve shipped a lot of new features, we’ve launched in new markets, and we’ve also shipped on many new platforms. But what we haven’t done is to take a step back and just redo the design so that we feel like it’s new, it’s fresh — but also so that it really works across all platforms.
In addition to an overhauled user interface, the app also now includes a revamped Playlists section that allows users to save and organize music in a variety of ways, along with an updated Browse feature that contains enhanced smart playlist functionality and improved context-aware suggestions.
Spotify launched its free streaming tier for iOS devices last December, and integrated its Browse playlist curation feature last August as it has attempted to keep up with the likes of rival music streaming services such as Pandora and iTunes Radio. A report from Edison Research last month noted that Spotify was the fourth most popular service in the United States, making up for 6% of all listeners behind Pandora, iHeartRadio, and iTunes Radio.
Spotify is a free download for iOS devices and can be downloaded through App Store. [Direct Link]
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