Google using “zero rating” to spur Android One growth in emerging markets
Emerging markets are receiving a ton of attention from hardware and software companies due to the growth seen down the line. The roadblock between these companies and consumers, however, is the cost of data. Consumers in emerging markets are able to purchase devices at affordable prices, but data remains expensive. To combat this issue, Google is applying the “zero rating” approach.
Zero rating, for those unfamiliar with the term, is when another company either reduces or eliminates the cost of data used by specific apps or services on a mobile device. Consumers are then free to use corresponding apps or services without having to closely monitor data usage,
Google has asked select developers in emerging markets (such as India) about the possibility of participating in zero rating, according to The Information. It has not been stated whether or not Google reached out to carriers in emerging markets as well. As for developers, it is possible that an app like WhatsApp could participate in zero rating with Google. WhatsApp is arguably the most popular app in emerging markets.
Back in November, we heard that Android One was not performing very well. The good news is that the platform is expanding and successfully garnering partners for zero rating in emerging markets would allow Android One to experience growth.
Source: The Information
Via: Business Insider
Come comment on this article: Google using “zero rating” to spur Android One growth in emerging markets
Vote for the best GIFs on the net in ‘The 2015 .GIFYs’
Fans of GIFs and judging things, it’s your time to shine. Public voting is open for The 2015 .GIFYs, the first and only award dedicated to the majestic moving GIF. Vote for your favorite GIFs across 11 categories, including “film and TV,” “music,” “weird,” “sports,” “animals” and “cats.” Yes, cats get their own category because they’re not animals but the fluffy embodiment of our deepest desires (to sleep all day and be waited on hand and foot).
GIFs in each category were submitted by the wide and wild internet on giphy.com, then curated by a panel of professional GIF lovers (including yours truly). I can’t tell you what I voted for, but rest assured they were the best.
“In the thick of award show season, The .GIFYS are the one award show that the entire internet gets to vote on,” The .GIFYs co-founder Chelsea O’Brien says in a press release. “Our expert panelists help nominate the best GIFS, but we believe the ultimate decision should lie in the hands of those who create GIFS: everyone.”
Whether you want to make the internet a better place for everyone or you’re just in it to judge something, cast your votes before February 24.
Filed under: Internet
Source: The .GIFYs
The Apple Car, ‘Titan’, CarPlay, and what comes next
After Apple released the iPod there were rumors the company was working on a phone. (They were working on a tablet, but it became a phone). After the iPhone, there were rumors they were working on a tablet. After the iPad, rumors they were working on TV or a watch. Now that the Apple Watch is on deck, rumors have shifted to an Apple Car. For Apple and for those fascinated by Apple, the reason is the same — humans want to cross seas and climb mountains. The minute we have something we immediately want to know what’s next.
I’ve mentioned before that Apple is filled with incredibly smart people and, as a company, they make exceedingly logical decisions. In other words, if a writer on a website can theorize that it would make sense for Apple to think about TVs or cars or cameras or whatever, chances are several of those incredibly smart people have already thought about, and perhaps even investigated the potential, of doing just that. To do anything else would be negligent.
Not everything Apple thinks about leads to investigation, not every investigation goes into prototype, and not every prototype goes into production. It takes a lot of work to generate those “thousand nos for every yes”.
When it comes to cars, Apple has been thinking about them for years. From The New York Times:
In a meeting in his office before he died, Steven P. Jobs, Apple’s co-founder and former chief executive, told John Markoff of The New York Times that if he had more energy, he would have liked to take on Detroit with an Apple car.
Steve Jobs passed away in 2011. In 2013 Apple announced CarPlay, part of their systematic decoupling of interface and device, and a way to give iPhone owners a better experience beyond the confines of a single product. Apple is still actively working with the auto industry on developing CarPlay, and given the other technologies they’re releasing, it’s not hard to imagine how far future versions could go.
Some of the recent rumors sound, in part, like they’re conflating ongoing work on CarPlay with work on an actual car, but consider this — if you ran Apple, would you be at least thinking about making your own car hardware? Would you think it worth investigating?
The Wall Street Journal:
Apple has several hundred employees working secretly toward creating an Apple-branded electric vehicle, according to people familiar with the matter. They said the project, code-named “Titan,” has an initial design of a vehicle that resembles a minivan, one of these people said.
Just like with the phone and tablet and watch, there’ll no doubt be a ton of conflated and conflicted rumors about an Apple Car — Car? — for months and years to come. The only thing for certain is, just like there was a phone and tablet and now a watch, unless Tim Cook and company decide to drop the mic and “Apple out!”, there will be something next.
There will be products they believe they can bring to market to solve real problems and provide great experiences and, of course, increase the value of Apple’s other products and ultimately, Apple itself.
Maybe that something next will be an Apple Car, or maybe it’ll be another service like Apple Pay, or a hybrid, or something that’s yet to be so much as rumored.
The only questions right are — will a car make it onto that incredibly short, incredibly focused product list, and when?
Xbox app for Windows 10 updated with feedback button, friends list tweaks
For those of you running the Windows 10 Technical Preview, your Xbox app is set to get an update today. There’s nothing groundbreaking involved, but the update does bring a feedback button on the top navigation bar, along with some tweaks to the friends list.
Xposed Framework for Android 5.0 Lollipop now available
The popular Xposed Framework, which adds tons of customization options to Android, is now available as an alpha build for Android 5.0 Lollipop. Just the other day, developer rovo89 posted a teaser on XDA hinting that Xposed for Android 5.0 would be available ‘soon’. That day has finally come, so if you’re rooted and running Lollipop, get to it!
Before you jump in, though, just remember that this is an alpha build, so there are bound to be a slew of bugs, inconsistencies and even boot loops. If you’re new to the modding community, the developer strongly advises that you sit this one out. He explains:
Because there have been huge changes since the last stable release that need to be tested by people who know how to use a recovery, escape from boot loops and report bugs properly. I strongly advise newbies to wait until Xposed has been tested by enough experienced people.
Note that this framework will currently only work with ARMv7 devices. So, no 64-bit or Intel-based devices are supported yet, but we’re assuming those variants will get support sometime in the near future. Additionally, the developer has a lot of important things to say about this build, so I suggest you head to this page first to check out what he has to say. If you’re interested in trying the alpha build, head to the link below to get flashing!
Download Xposed Framework for Lollipop
Lollipop heading to Sprint’s HTC One (M8) Harman Kardon Edition this weekend
Another device from HTC is being prepared to receive a software update that brings with it the latest version of Android. This weekend, the Harman Kardon Edition of the HTC One (M8) on Sprint will see Android 5.0 Lollipop arrive. Mo Versi, HTC’s Vice President of Product Management, shared the news on Twitter, saying that the over-the-air (OTA) update would start this weekend.
Let us know in the comments when you have received the update.
Source: @moversi
Come comment on this article: Lollipop heading to Sprint’s HTC One (M8) Harman Kardon Edition this weekend
Hundreds of Apple Employees Working on Creating Apple-Branded Electric Vehicle
Following up on today’s report suggesting that Apple is recruiting automotive technology and vehicle design experts to work in a secret research lab, The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Apple is developing an electric vehicle.
According to the publication’s sources, Apple has hundreds of employees working to design an Apple-branded minivan-like electric vehicle under the code name Project Titan. The large size of the team indicates that the company is serious about the project, but it’s possible that Apple may not go through with plans to create a car despite its current research efforts.
Apple may decide not to proceed with a car. In addition, many technologies used in an electric car, such as advanced batteries and in-car electronics, would be useful to other Apple products, including the iPhone and iPad. Apple often investigates technologies and potential products, going as far as building multiple prototypes for some things that it won’t ever sell. Any product would take several years to complete and obtain safety certifications.
Apple executives have reportedly flown to Austria to meet with contract manufacturers of high-end cars, like Magna Steyr.
Rumors that Apple is working on a vehicle first started circulating last week after mysterious vans equipped with cameras and leased to Apple were spotted on Bay Area streets. Speculation led some to believe the cars were for a possible mapping project, while others postulated that they were self driving vehicles.
It’s not known if the vans are related to Apple’s rumored electric car project, but they roused enough interest to lead to its discovery. Earlier this week, an Apple employee who saw the car rumors told Business Insider that Tesla employees had been leaving the car company to work on an Apple project that was “too exciting to pass up” and that would “give Tesla a run for its money.”
That rumor led Financial Times to discover Apple’s efforts to recruit vehicle experts, such as former Mercedes-Benz R&D President and CEO Johann Jungwirth, who joined Apple back in September, which in turn led to the uncovering of the full scope of “Project Titan” at Apple.
Apple reportedly has ‘hundreds’ working on an electric car
Those ages-old rumors of Apple working on its own cars may have some merit after all. Wall Street Journal sources report that Cupertino has “several hundred” staffers working on an electric car project nicknamed Titan. It’s supposedly early days (a release would be “several years” away), but the current effort apparently resembles a minivan. There’s no mention of whether or not Apple’s camera-toting vans are linked to this EV effort, although it’s certainly tempting to make that connection.
One thing is clear, if the claims are true: Apple isn’t taking the project lightly. The WSJ understands that ex-Ford engineer and veteran iPhone leader Steve Zadesky is heading up Titan. The Financial Times, meanwhile, has learned that Apple is recruiting loads of automotive experts, including former Mercedes-Benz research chief Johann Jungwirth (who’s officially tasked with Mac Systems Engineering). The company may be talking to vehicle suppliers like Magna, too. It’s possible that there’s something less ambitious in the works (such as more substantive car infotainment systems) or that the initiative will fall apart, but the sheer scale and focus suggests that Tesla could get stiff competition in its own back yard.
[Image credit: Theo Wargo/Getty Images for (RED)]
Filed under: Transportation, Apple
Source: Wall Street Journal, Financial Times
Android Central 222: Fifty Shades of J(erry)
height=”480″ src=”http://www.youtube.com/embed/oVFvIO8YKlU?wmode=opaque”
frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen>
Come in from the cold and spend an hour with us as we wrap up the week that was in Android, including more Samsung devices getting Lollipop (for better or worse, judging by our inbox), Xiaomi’s San Francisco meetup, Google “only” selling 750,000 Android Wear devices in the first six months, and we’ll answer more of your questions live.
Our thanks to this week’s sponsors
- Casper Mattresses: Get $50 at casper.com/ac and use coupon code AC at checkout.
- Igloo: Give your company an intranet they’ll actually want to use at igloosoftware.com
Helpouts: A dissection – What went wrong?
If you haven’t heard by now, Google Helpouts will be shutting down on April 20th, 2015. The official reason was due to lack of use which surprised no one. Thankfully, those who did use the platform can backup all of their data using Google Takeout and that will be available to them until November 1st.
The downfall of the one-on-one tutorial platform really isn’t surprising. Despite many attempts, Helpouts never seemed to hit the mainstream. Let’s explore why.
Google Search was simply better
Sadly, the bottom line is that there wasn’t much on Helpouts that you couldn’t get for free on Google and YouTube with some simple searching. Need to learn how to cook? There’s a channel for that. Need help figuring out how to make money on YouTube? There are countless tutorials on that.
It was the core problem with Helpouts since the very beginning. There were people asking for money (usually) to help with problems that a little knowledge, creativity, and Google Searching could solve for free. Would it be easier to get it done in 15 minutes? Yes, but was it worth $25 to get that information? Apparently not, but we’ll get more into that later.
The pricing structure was brutal
Helpouts had two pricing structures. Video hosts could charge for a chunk of time (e.g. $10 per 15 minutes) or charge by the minute (e.g. $0.59 per minute). Neither of these scenarios were usually very helpful and costs could add up very quickly.
With both pricing structures, you are never sure that you’re going to get the help you needed inside of the budget and time that you had. A $25 Helpout that promises only 15 minutes of help isn’t particularly reassuring and that’s especially true for the ones who offered advice and tutorials. What exactly is anyone going to learn in 15 minutes that justifies $25?
No one should be battling the urge to yell at the professional to shut up and get to the point because time is money.
While we’re at it, the pay-per-minute structure was about as stressful of an experience as you could get. Every minute that passed was more money out of your pocket. Isn’t the idea of getting the help you need supposed to be to relieve stress? Who wants to sit around for 10 minutes having a concept explained to them when each minute is going to cost them more money? No one should be in a video hangout with a professional, battling the urge to yell at the professional to shut up and get to the point because time is money.
Nobody knows who these Helpouts people are
If the service were entirely free, this wouldn’t matter. However, when you’re asking for $25 for 15 minutes of time, the question becomes, “Who the hell are you and why are you worth $100/hour?” It’s a question that was seldom, if ever, answered. No one knew who these self-proclaimed experts were or what their qualifications were.
Who the hell are you and why are you worth $100/hour?
Yeah there’s a guy who promises to help you grow your YouTube channel. Does he know anything about YouTube channels? If I were taking YouTube growth advice from PewDiePie, Smosh, or Vevo, that information is well worth $25 for 15 minutes. I know who they are and I can visibly see their success. Most content creators have no problems producing vaguely worded excerpts like, “I work for top people doing top things.” That’s not very reassuring.
Now before everyone starts hating me, I’m not saying these people aren’t qualified or aren’t good people. The few I’ve met seem like good, knowledgeable people. The problem is that I had to meet them to know they were good, knowledgeable people and meeting them costs money. You’re essentially asking people to spend money on faith that the person on the other end of the video doesn’t suck.
The content was niche
Helpouts was originally promoted to be a place where you could learn anything and at first, that seemed like it could be true. However, Google bottlenecked this process severely by strictly screening potential candidates. A process they did very slowly resulting in a very poor flow of new content creators. The floodgates for content variety just never seemed to open up.
This created a problem. When you first heard about Helpouts, what did you do? If you’re like me, you probably went on over to the site to see what was going on. Like me, you probably didn’t see anything worth doing. You then probably left, checked back once or twice, saw the exact same stuff at the exact same price, left, and never went back. That’s certainly what I did.
There is exactly one search result for “student loans”
What content there is currently available on Helpouts is generally niche. Expert YouTube Marketing Strategies, WordPress Development and Programming, Life Coaching for the Self-Employed, etc have a combined total potential user base similar to the entire viewership of the final episode of TV’s No Ordinary Family.
What’s worse is that a lot of stuff people actually need help with don’t seem to be represented. There are roughly 40 channels on how to properly breastfeed, a skill that is extensively written about everywhere. There is exactly one search result for “student loans” and it’s to help people “hustle” their way into getting enough money for college.
The service could’ve probably used more people like Michael Morgan, the 24 hour emergency mechanic.
There are over 70 Helpouts available for the ever-changing monster that is SEO (search engine optimization) but there’s only one Helpouts channel that pops up when you search for “changing oil” that is actually capable of helping you change your oil. To that one guy’s credit, he’s open pretty much 24/7 for emergency consults on all sorts of car repairs which is, without a shadow of a doubt, the most epicly useful thing I’ve seen on Helpouts.
In short, there are hundreds, maybe thousands, of channels for niche needs but not very many for more mainstream problems. The service could’ve probably used more people like Michael Morgan, the 24 hour emergency mechanic.
The organization was terrible
This one is quick. Go and search for a mechanic on Google Helpouts. The top result? A mechanic for WordPress. Also on that list are two physics tutors, a bike repair channel, and a guy to help with your golf swing. In the first ten results, there are only three actual mechanics.
It’s extremely difficult to find what you’re looking for. The search has trouble inferring from context. For example, “how to change the oil in my car” shows no results, but there are several channels on Helpouts that can teach you exactly that.
Between the goofy names and bad search mechanics, good luck finding something you’re actually looking for. Most people don’t have the time or patience to search for just the right thing to get them help when you can ask Google Search anything and get more results. Let’s not forget that there’s no search bar on the homepage.
Greed
Greed goes both ways. On one hand, you have people charging $100 per hour for essentially blowing smoke and providing nothing of real use. On the other hand, few people who visited the site had any real intention of spending money there anyway.
It’s a crux that has plagued many ecosystems and one as fragile as Helpouts simply couldn’t handle it. This is why most websites and YouTube content are paid for by advertising. It costs consumers nothing except maybe a moment of their time to hear or see the advertising and the people providing the content still get paid.
We live in a world now where people are trying to get as much as they can for as little money as possible.
On Helpouts, there was no symbiosis between content creators and consumers. There was no real solution available that made everyone happy. Professionals and experts actually do deserve money for their expertise but this was perverted by some professionals and experts who didn’t understand the budget of their audience, wanted more for their services than they deserved, or a combination of both.
@Helpouts no, that's too expensive
— mahalah womack (@Mahalah_faye) May 16, 2014
For consumers, they could easily find video and written tutorials that cost them nothing aside from the occasional advertisement. Most of them simply weren’t willing to spend the money on the useful advice and were often chased away by those who asked for too much. We live in a world now where people are trying to get as much as they can for as little money as possible. Helpouts and some of its content creators simply didn’t fit that cultural paradigm.
Wrap Up
Helpouts felt like a smaller tool that was supposed to be a part of something bigger
Overall, Helpouts felt like a smaller tool that was supposed to be a part of something bigger. It never really had the value or depth of a platform like Udemy where professionals create entire courses, people pay for them once, and have access forever. In a perfect world, you’d see Udemy and Helpouts combine forces, give people entire courses to take, and use the video Helpouts as an aid to learning rather than the focal point. Nevertheless, this will go down in the annals as a failed experiment like Wave and Google Reader. Rest in peace, Helpouts.
AIVAnet 