This just might be the only video of the BlackBerry Slider
Well, thus far anyway. Since BlackBerry showed off their BlackBerry Slider at Mobile World Congress, one question people have been asking is, how come no one got a good picture of it? Even our own Derek Kessler who was there couldn’t capture it. Well, Ron Louks, BlackBerry’s President of devices and emerging solutions only showed the device on stage for approximately five seconds.
If higher quality images exist, even BlackBerry isn’t sharing them on their company blog. However, Mobile World Live was there at the event yesterday documenting the occasion for Mobile World Congress and they managed to capture at least some video of the all new BlackBerry Slider. You can skip to 2 minutes and 40 seconds in the above video to see more.
Huawei confirmed to make the next Nexus phone
Last week we told you that not one, but two Nexus phones could get launched this year,and it was rumored that LG and Huawei would be the makers. Today we are getting further confirmation on Huawei as the Director of China Research at iSuppli, Kevin Yang, has confirmed it.
If you look at this in hindsight, it can’t be a surprise since Huawei is so up and coming right now, it’s ridiculous. They are sitting as the 3rd phone manufacturer in the world in terms of market share and they made a huge splash with a very nice looking Android Wear smartwatch. It will be interesting to see if Huawei utilizes their own Kirin processor in the phone.
It still hasn’t been officially confirmed if there will indeed be two Nexus handsets, but as I said before, it makes the most sense to offer new versions of the Nexus 5 and Nexus 6 since Google cannot offer a Nexus 7 phone for obvious reasons.
source: Weibo-iSuppli
via: GizmoChina
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Nvidia to launch GRID game streaming in May
Nvidia has just unveiled details about its upcoming GRID game streaming service, which will offer AAA titles at up to 1080p 60fps over your internet connection. The company has dubbed it the “Netflix of games” and the platform will launch with more than 50 games in its catalogue.
GRID will operate with two different subscription options, a basic package and a “premium” tier, which doesn’t have a price yet. A decent internet connection is a requirement to stream games without lag, as Nvidia has targeted a reasonably low latency of 150ms between the user and its servers.
Nvidia demoed a handful of games reportedly streaming from its servers. Some big names already running on the streaming platform include Batman: Arkham Knight, The Witcher 3, Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes and Resident Evil: Revelations 2. GRID will be used to bring all of these titles, and more, to Nvidia’s newly announced Shield 4K gaming console. Visual quality seems marginally lower than playing the game directly on a PC or console, but it holds up very well overall and some level of video compression is expected in order to keep latency low enough.
Nvidia has been promising this technology for a quite a while, but the streaming service is now scheduled to launch in May, alongside the Shield 4K. You can already check out the list of launch titles on Nvidia’s GRID website.
Moto E (2nd Gen) LTE now available in the US for $149.99
Following last week’s announcement, the Moto E (2nd Gen) is now available to purchase in the US through Motorola’s online store.
There are three choices when it comes to network options. There’s the new 4G LTE handset and 3G options for global or US carrier bands. Here’s a breakdown of the differences between three, so that you can double check bands with your carrier. GSM/GPRS/EDGE bands are identical on each handset.
4G LTE – US GSM (XT1527):
UMTS/HSPA+ (850, 1700 (AWS), 1900 MHz)
4G LTE (2, 4, 5, 7, 12, 17)
3G US GSM (XT1511):
UMTS/HSPA+ (850, 1700 (AWS), 1900 MHz)
3G Global GSM (XT1505):
UMTS/HSPA+ (850, 900, 1900, 2100 MHz)
As well as LTE capabilities, the second generation Moto E comes with a few other hardware changes too. The new Moto E moves up from a dual-core SoC to a 1.2GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 processing package, storage space has been increased from 4GB to 8GB and the screen is now also a little larger at 4.5-inches, rather than 4.3-inches. However, the display’s resolution remains the same at 960 x 540 (qHD).
The Moto E (2nd Gen) is available for $119.99 with 3G networking, while the 4G LTE variant costs $149.99. Both come in your choice of either a black or white case.
Apple Tops Movie Product Placement Rankings for the First Time Since 2011
Branding website Brandchannel recently revealed the winners of the Brandcameo 2015 Product Placement Awards, which names the movies and brands with the most proliferation within Hollywood films over the past year. For the first time since 2011, Apple nabbed the 2014 Award for Overall Product Placement, appearing in 9 of the 35 films that topped the U.S. box office last year.
Brandchannel mentions the most influential Apple moments in films last year, perhaps the most popular of which is an extended scene in Marvel’s blockbuster Captain America: The Winter Soldier, in which two of its protagonists use a MacBook Pro inside an Apple Store to hack into secretive S.H.I.E.L.D. data.
A quick tangential reference to an iPod Shuffle in The Lego Movie also helped Apple reign over previous winners like Budweiser (2013) and Mercedes-Benz (2012), and just barely beat out the likes of Coca-Cola and Sony for the award.
Apple bested both Coca-Cola and Sony by a single appearance, for which Apple can thank “The Lego Movie.” The Apple logo doesn’t appear in the film but Lord Business does talk about his iPod Shuffle. Recent winners Budweiser (2013) and Mercedes-Benz (2012) showed up in a distant five and six times respectively.
Other appearances include in “Ride Along,” “The Other Woman,” “Neighbors,” “The Fault in Our Stars,” “Think Like a Man Too,” “Gone Girl” and “Ouija.”
The website mentions that while Apple’s return to product placement dominance in 2014, appearing in just over 25 percent of the top box office films, is a step up from the last few years, the company’s brand appearances still remain well below its peak performance years. The brand saw the most proliferation in its “golden age” of 2009, appearing in nearly 50 percent of all number 1 movies that year. It dropped to 42.5 percent in 2011 and to just 15 percent in 2013.
The newly Apple-owned brand Beats, unfortunately, won the 2014 Award for Worst Product Placement. The company’s popular Bluetooth speaker, the Beats Pill, popped up in a scene in the critically-panned Transformers: Age of Extinction, wherein Stanley Tucci creates a Pill using his mind and the fictional “Transformium” material that pushes much of the film’s plot into motion.
Relaxing with Runcible, the circular ‘anti-smartphone’ steeped in nostalgia
The Runcible is both the strangest and most intriguing device that I’ve seen at Mobile World Congress this year. It offers many of the same capabilities as a smartphone, but it looks like a trinket you would find in a trendy vintage store. That’s by design though — its creator, Monohm, wants the circular gizmo to challenge the now ubiquitous smartphone experience, which is increasingly defined by a relentless stream of notifications. Aubrey Anderson, founder and CEO of Monohm, describes the Runcible as a “quieter” gadget that can help people relax and live in the moment, while still staying connected online.
So what does it do? Well, the Runcible tries to solve the problem of internet overload. Smartwatches, Google Glass and other wearables all promise to make notifications more manageable, with glanceable information that can save you from constantly pulling out your smartphone. The difference with the Runcible is that it’s a truly standalone device. It runs on Mozilla’s Firefox OS platform and lets you make calls, ask for directions and browse the web. So when you’re heading out to grab dinner with friends, you can leave your smartphone at home and avoid the temptations of Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat.
Three people at Monohm have been building the Runcible for the last 10 months, so the software is still in early development. Anderson is cautious to talk about too many individual apps, or “faces,” as he calls them, but the prototype indicates where the team is headed. One watchface has different colored bubbles that increase in size as your social networks become more active. Another apes a classic compass, giving just a single direction and the remaining distance to your destination. They’re not as complex or informative as a smartphone app, but that’s the sort of whimsical experience Monohm is shooting for.
It’s also why the “anti-smartphone” is such an unorthodox shape. The company wanted a quiet, relaxing product and took inspiration from pocket watches, compasses and other circular objects that people used to carry in their pockets. It culminated in the prototype now being shown off in Barcelona, which has a flat, circular display on one side and a softly curved piece of wood on its rear. “As we did the industrial design, the form became a symbol for the idea and the product itself,” Anderson says. “Just to hold it is calming.”
The Runcible is supposed to represent a new product category that sits somewhere between a wearable and a smartphone. It’s small enough to slip in a pocket, but also boasts all of the connectivity of a modern handset, including LTE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and NFC. Like a traditional pocket watch, Monohm hopes people will hold on to the Runcible and pass it down as an “electronic heirloom.” Technology moves fast, so its innards have been designed to make it easily fixable and upgradeable. It’s not quite Project Ara, but Anderson hopes it will keep the Runcible current and useful for years to come. “Just because the camera resolution falls out of spec with whatever is current, we don’t want you to have to throw out the whole thing,” he says. “We just want to be able to replace the camera.”
The Runcible is a strange product, but it’s hard not to admire Monohm’s audacity. It’s a radically different take on the smartphone, which is refreshing in a market chock-full of thin, flat handsets made from metal and glass. The company also has financial backing from Japanese carrier KDDI; the Runcible is almost definitely coming to Japan, and won’t evaporate like so many Kickstarter and Indiegogo projects. It’ll be a difficult gadget to market, but at least Monohm won’t have any problems standing out from the crowd.
Filed under: Cellphones
Tapjoy’s Marketing Automation and Monetization Platform aims to maximize Lifetime sales from Freemium Apps
Many of us have a smartphone or tablet with a selection of paid or free apps installed. Sometimes the free apps are subsidized by the inclusion of ads, but the growing trend is to release a free app (freemium) that earns the developer money by offering In-App-Purchases (IAP’s). Only a small percentage of people make use of the IAP’s though, so Tapjoy has just launched its Marketing Automation and Monetization Platform to help maximize the revenue from these ‘proven spenders‘.
How does Tapjoy aim to optimize revenue for the App developer? Well, by combining predictive analytics, marketing automation, IAP’s and something called the Future Value Map. The Future Value Map uses data to predict when an individual user will be most open to making an In-App-Purchase, allowing developers to deliver the right message to the right user at the right time, instead of a blanket campaign that can often drive potential customers away. The Future Value Map function can also predict how much a proven spender is likely to spend during the lifetime of the app.
Domin Yoon, Product Manager at NeoGames said that ” The Future Value Map gives us a clear picture of our user’ lifetime value potential, and allows us to conduct effective marketing campaigns using this segmentation. We also look forward to increasing our monetization throught the variety of content and messaging tools offered in the new Tapjoy platform.”
Tapjoy’s platform also allows developers to use rewarded advertising. This is where the user can earn a reward by watching a video ad or clicking on an ad. Usually, the reward will consist of a virtual currency that is used in the app, for example, 10 gold coins for clicking a link. As of December 2014, Tapjoy has a reach of over 520 million monthly active users.
Click here to view the embedded video.
Full Press Release:
SAN FRANCISCO, March 2, 2015 /PRNewswire/ — At the Game Developers Conference today in San Francisco, Tapjoy launched its Marketing Automation and Monetization Platform, designed to help freemium mobile app publishers maximize the lifetime value of every one of their users. The new offering combines predictive analytics, marketing automation, IAP driven monetization and Tapjoy’s rewarded advertising solutions to transform the company into the industry’s most comprehensive mobile marketing automation platform.
The new platform introduces Tapjoy’s Future Value Map™, an innovative solution that leverages data science, deep segmentation and proprietary algorithms to predict the future behaviors of individual users, and determine whether an IAP promotion, advertisement or in-app message will drive the most revenue. The platform’s marketing automation capabilities then enable developers to deliver targeted messages to those users at the right moment.
“Freemium app developers understand that the vast majority of their revenue comes from a very small percentage of users,” said Steve Wadsworth, president and CEO, Tapjoy. “Tapjoy’s Marketing Automation and Monetization Platform helps optimize the revenue from those proven spenders, while also uncovering more spenders and increasing engagement and ad-based monetization from the rest of their audience. With Tapjoy’s Future Value Map, developers can now predict the lifetime value of all of their users, and initiate personalized in-app experiences that maximize the engagement and revenue potential of every user.”
Tapjoy’s Marketing Automation and Monetization Platform includes market differentiators such as:
- Predictive and Actionable Analytics that enable developers to know, and take action against, the future value of every user. Tapjoy’s Future Value Map makes deep segmentation and real-time analytics actionable so developers can serve a nearly infinite variety of marketing actions that drive lifetime value.
- Marketing Automation tools that instantly deliver contextually relevant messages to engage spenders, or deliver rewarded advertisements to the users that will never spend.
- Real-time IAP and Ad-based Monetization are now available to developers from a single data set, in one platform. With Tapjoy, developers no longer need to integrate a variety of single point solutions and can focus on one SDK for all of their analytics, marketing automation and ad-monetization needs.
“We are very excited about Tapjoy’s newly integrated product, especially the new analytic features and marketing automation tools,” said Domin Yoon, product manager at NeoGames. “The Future Value Map gives us a clear picture of our users’ lifetime value potential, and allows us to conduct effective marketing campaigns using this segmentation. We also look forward to increasing our monetization through the variety of content and messaging tools offered in the new Tapjoy platform.”
Publishers interested in gaining additional revenue from their apps simply need to serve an estimated four interstitial ads per monthly active user, and Tapjoy will credit back their analytics costs, enabling them to create a sizable, and incremental revenue stream. For more information or to download the SDK, visitwww.tapjoy.com.
About Tapjoy
Tapjoy’s goal is to maximize the value of every user for freemium mobile app publishers. Its Marketing Automation and Monetization Platform for mobile apps uses market leading data science, user segmentation and predictive analytics to drive deeper engagement and optimize revenue from every user. Tapjoy’s SDK is embedded in more than 270,000 apps with a global reach of more than 520 million monthly active users (December, 2014). Backed by top-tier investors including J.P. Morgan Asset Management, Rho Ventures, North Bridge Venture Partners, InterWest Partners, and D.E. Shaw Ventures, Tapjoy is headquartered in San Francisco. The company also has offices in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Santa Barbara, Atlanta, Boston, London, Beijing, Shanghai, Seoul and Tokyo. For more information, please visit www.tapjoy.com.
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Huawei Honor 6 Plus heading to India this month
Already released in China and Europe, Huawei’s Honor 6 Plus smartphone is now also scheduled for a release in India later this month.
Huawei already launched its Honor 3C and Honor 6 smartphones in India last year and the country is becoming an increasingly important market for the brand, and one that the company will be focusing heavily on this year.
With the launch of 4G in India, we are sure that we will be able to increase our market share by introducing affordable 4G smart phones in India.
The Honor 6 Plus features some compelling specifications at a reasonable price, including an octa-core HiSilicon Kirin 925 CPU, 3GB RAM, 16/32GB internal memory, a microSD card slot, 3,060mAh battery, and dual 8MP cameras at the back. Although, we weren’t blow away by the dual-camera implementation, the smartphone is a great entry point into the high end market.
An exactly date for the handset’s Indian launch has not been given yet, nor has the price, but Huawei will be teaming up exclusively with popular e-commerce retailer Flipkart to bring the phone to consumers.
For a closer look at the Huawei Honor 6 Plus, its specs and our thoughts, be sure to check out our full review.
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Save 43% today on these 6ft Lightning to USB cables in any color!
Now you can charge your Lightning device without worrying about knots and tangles! Ventev’s charging data cable provides 6 feet of convenient charging and syncing whenever you need it. The cable’s flat design makes it easy to maneuver around obstacles and even easier to store away for traveling purposes. Yours today for only $16.95
Apple Watch Magazine Tour Continues in Chinese Fashion Magazine ‘YOHO’ [iOS Blog]
The international debut of the Apple Watch in magazines across the world continues this week with the wrist-worn device making a cover appearance on Chinese fashion magazine YOHO. The upcoming April issue of the magazine features actor and pop icon Archie Kao wearing an Apple Watch Sport with a white band on the cover and showcases other fashion shots of the wrist-worn device in a related story.
Kao has been acting in Hollywood films and TV shows for nearly two decades, making regular appearances in series such as Chicago P.D., Power Rangers Lost Galaxy and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. The actor was born in Washington D.C., but splits his time between living in Los Angeles and Beijing. He married Chinese actress Zhou Xun at a charity event in Hangzhou, China in July 2014.
Apple has been marketing the Apple Watch in a number of magazines over the past few months, including Self, Vogue, Style and East Touch, as it continues to position the wrist-worn device as a fashion item. Apple is expected to provide more details about the Apple Watch at its highly-anticipated “Spring Forward” media event on March 9th at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco.
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