Best Android Games as of March 2018

Don’t settle for anything less than the best!

If you’re looking for the best new games available in the Google Play Store, you’ve come to the right place. We update this list whenever a new game comes out that’s worthy of being added to this list, so you’ll always know about the latest and greatest games.

Whether you’re new to Android and need some fresh, new games to start building out your Google Play library or simply looking for the latest trendy games that are worthy of your time and attention, these are the best Android games as of March 2018!

• PUBG Mobile
• Stranger Things: The Game
• Reigns: Her Majesty
• The Battle of Polytopia
• Death Road to Canada
• Causality
• Framed 2
• Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp
• Island Delta
• After the End: Forsaken Destiny
• Escape Team
• Fire Emblem: Heroes
• Heart Star
• Star Wars: Force Arena
• Neon Chrome
• Penarium

PUBG Mobile

It’s pretty incredible how well PUBG Mobile plays on Android. This is a massive PvP battle royale game that pits 100 players against each other on a massive island loaded with weapons, ammo, tactical gear, and vehicles. You drop in as a solo player or as part of a team and must use all your best skills to take down your opponents until you’re the last man standing.

It’s not unheard of for a popular PC or console release to find its way to Android, but you’ll be surprised at how well PUBG plays on a smartphone. The developers have made it easier for mobile players to pick up and manage items, and have also added bots in the lowest ranks to help ease players into the game experience. Bluetooth controller support would be a nice addition, but the touch controls are some of the best I’ve seen for a shooter on mobile.

It also allows you to scale back the graphics so you can enjoy smooth gameplay even when playing on an older device. If you’ve got a newer device, crank those settings to the max and enjoy one of the best looking mobile games I’ve played in a long while.

PUBG Mobile somehow delivers all the epic moments you’d expect the PC game scaled down perfectly for mobile devices. Best of all, it’s free to play and currently devoid of any in-app purchases. Get your squad together, and I’ll see you on the battlegrounds!

Download: PUBG Mobile (Free)

Stranger Things: The Game

Stranger Things: The Game is the tie-in mobile game that other companies wish they could churn out. It’s a full-fledged action adventure game with a full cast of playable characters, tons of collectibles, and a retro graphical style that fits into the show theme and setting.

The game presents the entire town of Hawkins, Indiana along with the adjacent Mirkwood Forest to be explored. It plays like a classic Zelda-style adventure game, with the ability to switch between characters lending itself to creating complex puzzles.

Credit Netflix’s marketing team for spending the time to make sure the developers at BonusXP Inc. delivered something special for fans of the series. They’ve created a real winner here, and a true contender for game of the year — and I’m not even a huge fan of the source material.

The controls are optimized for mobile and there’s great game design on display here. The overworld is vast and filled with secret areas to explore and familiar items from the show scattered throughout as collectibles.

There’s just so much to appreciate here. Not only is it a faithful adaptation of the show, it’s available for free with no in-app purchases or ads — although you can certainly count the game itself as being an ad for the second season of Stranger Things. Here’s hoping it ushers in a new trend of substantial mobile games based on TV shows and movies.

Download: Stranger Things: The Game (Free)

Reigns: Her Majesty

Reigns was one of the best games of 2016 and actually won the first ever Google Play Indie Games contest. So needless to say we were pumped to check out the sequel.

In Reigns, you play as the monarch of the land and make decisions that affect four aspects of the kingdom: the church, the people, the army, and the royal wealth. Your goal is to keep all four in balance — if any meter fills to the max or is entirely depleted your reign is over… and a new reign begins!

The sequel plays nearly identically to the first game, except this time you play as the Queen instead of the King, complete with new characters to interact with and multiple branching storylines to discover. The gameplay is as easy as swiping left or right on cards and if it’s anything like the first game there’s a ton of great easter eggs to find along the way!

I would hate to spoil anything for this new game, but if you played the first one and are afraid that it’s going to be too similar, I can assure you there are plenty of new mechanics to make this one of the best titles of 2017.

Download: Reigns: Her Majesty ($1.50)

The Battle of Polytopia

Highlighted as a finalist for the 2017 Google Play Indie Games contest back in February, The Battle of Polytopia is a great game for anyone who’s a fan of turn-based strategy games, like the Civilization franchise. The game features multiple game modes, including the rarely seen pass-and-play option for playing against friends. With multiple tribes to choose from, this plays like a full-fledged strategy game packaged with cartoony graphics and scaled down perfectly for playing on a mobile device.

The turn-based gameplay against the AI is brisk and you can add more opponents or up the difficulty level if you’re in need of a bigger challenge. Best of all, it’s a free download from the Google Play Store!

This games feels perfect for your daily commute on public transit or really any time you got time to kill — if you start a Domination game (last tribe standing wins), you can save and resume your game at a later time as needed.

Download: The Battle of Polytopia (Free w/IAPs)

Death Road to Canada

Death Road to Canada is a $10 game — I want to open with that just to get the sticker shock out of the way before I talk about how awesome this freaking game is. (It’s currently on sale for a dollar, though, which makes it an even better purchase.)

Facing a zombie apocalypse, you must lead a scrappy squad of somewhat interesting characters on a deadly mission to the relative safety of Canada. Along the way, you’ll need to explore and loot places for supplies, while also managing your team’s health and morale.

Everything in Death Road to Canada is randomly generated, making every play-through a unique experience in this dynamic road trip action-RPG. You can randomly generate your character and buddy or custom design your starting characters with different attributes to help them stay alive, but you probably don’t want to get too attached unless you’re a really good shot.

The controls admittedly take some getting used to, and there’s a pretty steep learning curve as you learn which weapons are most effective and which times it’s better to fight or run. And you will die, early and often, although that’s part of the fun of a zombie apocalypse, right?

There’s a ridiculous amount of depth in this game, including 10 different game modes to unlock. The price might seem a little steep, but if you’re a fan of rogue-like zombie games, it’s well worth the investment!

Download: Death Road to Canada ($9.99)

Causality

Causality is a mind-blowing puzzle game that’s all about manipulating time. This is just a brilliant game where you control time and make adjustments to the level and alter the sequence in such a way that you help your stranded astronauts reach their goals.

Set in simplistic-yet-beautiful alien landscapes, this stylish game will have you wracking your brain as you try to figure out how to guide each astronaut to their color-coded exit within the allotted time. Of course, you have full control over the timeline and can jump to any point in time and change an aspect of the level. There are 60 mind-bending puzzles to unlock and complete in this outstandingly polished and challenging game.

Download: Causality ($1.99)

Framed 2

Get ready for more comic book stylized fun in Framed 2! This is a standalone prequel to groundbreaking mobile game Framed developed by Hideo Kojima back in 2014.

As the story unfolds, you control the action by rearranging the comic book panels to help your character make his way through each section. It’s a totally unique way to play a game and is unlike anything else you’ve likely played on Android. It’s got a cool noir look and feel to it, with an engaging story to keep you hooked.

If you love the format, you can pick up the first Framed game for just $3. Really worth your time if you’re into unique puzzle games.

Download: Framed 2 ($4.99)

Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp

Nintendo has done it again.

Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp is the latest Nintendo franchise to make the leap to mobile, and it’s arguably the best transition we’ve seen yet.

If you’ve never played an Animal Crossing game on GameCube, Wii, or Nintendo DS, here it is in a nutshell: a relaxing casual game about collecting items, making friends, and building a little virtual life for yourself in a beautifully animated world. It’s a super cute and fun concept that’s been lovingly ported over to mobile.

In Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp you get to build out your very own campsite, which you can customize with furniture and decorations to entice other nearby campers to come and hang out. Your goal is to level up your friendships by fulfilling requests, which in turn help you to level up your character and unlocks new items to craft for your campsite. There’s so much to explore and collect and while there are in-app purchases for buying in-game currency they can be disabled in settings and aren’t required to enjoy the game.

Animal Crossing is a natural fit on mobile, as it’s the type of game that’s best played in casual bursts. Definitely worth checking out and a great pick for younger kids. Hop in your camper and get exploring!

Download: Animal Crossing Pocket Camp (Free w/IAPs)

Island Delta

Island Delta is a very stylish top-down action-adventure-puzzler developed by Mantisbite out of Finland. Explore the mysterious retro-futuristic island lair of Doctor Gunderson as our heroes, Zoe and Baxter.

Using your anti-gravity gun, you must work your way past mechanical minions, traps, and guards as you solve puzzles to make it through to the end of each level. At its best moments, Island Delta feels like a stripped down, third-person version Portal, which is something I wasn’t aware I needed in my life. The cartoony graphics and outstanding level design will immediately draw you in.

You can read our full review here before deciding to buy it. It’s available for $2.99 from the Google Play Store.

Download: Island Delta ($2.99)

After the End: Forsaken Destiny

After the End: Forsaken Destiny is a really beautiful puzzle game set in a mysterious desert world. The story follows a father-son duo who are on parallel paths at different times and must work together across time to help each other progress past obstacles and puzzles.

The wonderful art style will draw you in. The controls are fairly simple to pick up: you use the left half of the screen to control your character, tap the button that appears on the right side of the screen to interact with switches and objects, and you will also need to frequently rotate the camera by swiping across the screen.

The puzzles here are varied and increase in difficulty as you progress further through the game. There are so many secret areas to explore and relics to collect throughout the game. It’s a paid game, so there are no ads or in-app purchases to distract you from the beautiful graphics and challenging puzzles.

Will the father and son ever be reunited? There’s only one way to find out.

Download: After the End: Forsaken Destiny ($3.99 )

Escape Team

Escape rooms are great fun for a group of friends, but getting a group together can be tricky and booking a room can get expensive.

Escape Team lets you enjoy the fun of solving escape room-style puzzles in the comfort of your own home using pen and paper. You download and print off missions from the Escape Team website and then load up the matching mission in the Android app. The app gives you your countdown clock and delivers a fictional backstory for the missions via audio clips. You can also use the app to request hints if your group gets stuck on a puzzle.

The game is recommended for groups of two to four people, and requires some outside-the-box thinking and teamwork if you’re to be successful. You get the introduction and first mission for free then you can get the remaining four missions for just $1 — and that’s the only in-app purchase or ad you’ll see. The paid missions are each around a half hour to complete, so for $4 you can get a full afternoon’s worth of good clean fun saving the world.

If you’ve ever tried an escape room or just love solving puzzles, you’re going to fall in love with this game.

Download: Escape Team (Free w/IAPs)

Fire Emblem: Heroes

Fire Emblem: Heroes represents Nintendo’s first foray into developing games for Android (ignoring last year’s Miimoto app) and is the eighth title in the popular strategy-RPG franchise to be released on North American shores.

Heroes brings all of your favorite Fire Emblem characters together for a brand new story that pits the noble Askran Kingdom against the power-hungry Emblian Empire, which wishes to rule all worlds. You play the role of a mighty summoner who has the power to bring Fire Emblem’s best heroes together to help defend the kingdom. Battle takes place in arenas where you must strategically move your Heroes around to attack and defend against your opponents.

Play through the Story Mode to unlock new game modes, including Special Maps, Arena Duels, and the Training Tower. Arena Duel is the multiplayer aspect of the game that will keep you busy beyond the single-player campaign.

You can read our full review to learn more.

Download: Fire Emblem: Heroes (Free w/IAPs)

Heart Star

Heart Star is a cute puzzle platformer with a simple concept: you swap controls between two characters who can only walk on certain surfaces. You must use teamwork to make it through the 50 mind-bending levels.

Featuring wonderful retro graphics and an 8-bit soundtrack, this is just a really complete game that offers a decent challenge as you progress through the later levels. You will have to contend with the occasional ad that pops up when you fail or complete a level, but it’s worth the minor distraction to play this fun little game for free.

Download: Heart Star (Free)

Star Wars: Force Arena

Star Wars: Force Arena is arguably the best Star Wars game you can play on Android. Combining the card-casting mechanic from Clash Royale with MOBA-style gameplay, it’s an extremely exciting game that couples fast-paced action with deep strategic elements as you step in as general for the Empire or the Rebellion.

Choose from your favorite Star Wars heroes and villains from the original trilogy and Rogue One and lead your army into battle against online opponents. There’s a freemium model in play here, meaning you’ll be tempted to spend real money to help unlock and upgrade new characters and troops more quickly — but you can move up the rankings just fine by being strategic in battle and patient opening card packs. You can battle one-on-one or team up with another hero for epic 2 vs. 2 skirmishes.

At its best, Star Wars: Force Arena lets you recreate your own epic battle scenes on your phone. Rally your troops and take down the enemy turrets on your way to victory!

Read our full review to learn more.

Download: Star Wars: Force Arena (Free w/IAPs)

Neon Chrome

Neon Chrome is a must-own game in 2017. It’s a top-down twin-stick shooter with super-stylized visuals and procedurally generated levels. Initially released in 2016 on Steam and then later for the Xbox One and PlayStation 4, it arrived on Android earlier this year and is available for $6.99 from the Google Play Store.

This is a really polished game that’s designed with replayability in mind. Each playthrough is going to present unique challenges and weapons, as you work your way through the compound on your quest to bring down the Overseer. Nearly everything you see is destroyable and there’s a ton of loot to collect, which you can use to upgrade your character

If you’re a fan of games with neon-futuristic cyberpunk aesthetics, like Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon, you are in for a treat with Neon Chrome. The game is super deep with upgrades and is just a blast to play, though be prepared for a real challenge here. If you need more convincing, check out Windows Central’s review of the game for the Xbox One.

Download: Neon Chrome ($6.99)

Penarium

For those who love a great platforming challenge, you need to check out Penarium. Developed by Self Made Miracle and Team17 — the folks behind the celebrated Worms franchise — Penarium tells the tale of a simple farm boy, Willy, who is trapped in an evil circus forever.

This game looks and plays beautifully, with all the action contained within a single screen — all you have to do is follow the circus master’s instruction and survive for as long as you can. Penarium features a story mode with 30 increasingly difficult levels to play through, along with an “endless mode”, which tests your skills as you challenge yourself to see how long you can last while collecting coins, which can be spent on character upgrades to help you collect more coins in future playthroughs.

The touch controls are very simple and kept near the bottom of the screen to not distract from the action on screen. You’ll need to develop lightning-fast reflexes to dodge everything this game throws at you. It’s a paid app, so you never have to deal with ads or in-app purchases. It’s a really polished game that’s perfect for those who are gluttons for punishing platformers.

Download: Penarium ($1.99)

Update March 2018: Added PUBG Mobile to our list — Winner Winner Chicken Dinner! Also updated pricing info for all games on this list.

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Best Car Mounts for Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+

Stay secure. Arrive alive.

Phones like the Galaxy S9 and S9+ do a lot, including in-car navigation. With Google Maps, Spotify, Android Auto, and the open road, the Galaxy S9 is a perfect companion — but you need somewhere to put it while you’re obeying the rules of the road. That’s where these excellent car mounts come in.

• Nite Ize Steelie
• iOttie Easy One Touch Qi Wireless Fast Charge Car Mount
• Anker Univeral Magnetic Car Mount
• Kenu Airframe+ Vent Car Mount

Nite Ize Steelie

There’s nothing simpler than a magnet, and Nite Ize’s Steelie solution is one of the best implementations of a magnetic car mount we’ve seen. Simply stick the small nub to the back of your smartphone or (preferably) phone case, mount the dash portion anywhere you want using the included 3M tape, and connect the two together. The connection between phone and mount is strong enough that, despite the magnet’s small size, your phone isn’t going to go anywhere, even on a sharp turn or a hard stop.

The beauty of this product is that its small size makes it easy to place in cars that aren’t always friendly to larger stationary plastic mounts, and this one does the job just as well — often for half the cost. Get it for around $18.

See at Amazon

iOttie Easy One Touch Qi Wireless Fast Charge Car Mount

iOttie’s Easy One Touch is the Ferrari of wireless charging car mounts. The suction is secure and can withstand even the coarsest of dashboard materials, and on the other end, the phone holder does a great job gripping the Galaxy S9 in and out of a case. There’s also an articulating arm that extends up to 8.3 inches, so you can get the phone as close to you as possible (or, as if often the case, as far from the vents as possible).

To facilitate wireless charging — yep, it does that, too — there are little feet that can be raised and lowered to find the Galaxy S9’s “sweet spot,” which is enormously helpful. This $50 accessory also acts as a USB passthrough, so you can plug in another device into the same charging outlet.

See at Amazon

Anker universal mount

Anker is known for quality products for your phone, and its car mount is no exception. The fundamental idea is the same as the Steelie above but this one is a bit larger and easier to use, and the magnetic plate that attaches to the phone is considerably thinner.

Even better, it supports being placed underneath a phone case — the magnet is pretty darn strong — so no one has to see the magnetic plate on the back of your phone when it’s out of the car. At $16, this is a bargain, especially since it comes with two plates and two pieces of 3M sticky tape for mounting to an unruly dash.

See at Amazon

Kenu Airframe+

If dash mounting isn’t your jam, and you’re not blasting hot air in the middle of winter, there are always car vents. Kenu’s Airframe+ is a simple solution to a vexing problem, especially for cars that either don’t have space on the dash, or the design doesn’t lend itself to one of the above options: stick your phone in the spring-loaded arms so there’s a tight fit, and push the Airframe+ onto a vent so it stays in place.

A word of warning: this solution may not work for everyone. My car (an Acura RDX) has vent fins too thin to accommodate a product like the Airframe+, but my older Toyota Corolla had no issue with it at all. Another word of warning: this isn’t a product where there’s winter six months a year, since you’re not going to want to blast hot air onto the back of your phone.

If you’re vexed by neither of those issues, the Kenu Airframe+ is a manageable $20.

See at Amazon

Your take

What do you use to attach your Galaxy S9 to the car? Let us know in the comments below!

Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+

• Galaxy S9 review: A great phone for the masses
• Galaxy S9 and S9+: Everything you need to know!
• Complete Galaxy S9 and S9+ specs
• Galaxy S9 vs. Google Pixel 2: Which should you buy?
• Galaxy S9 vs. Galaxy S8: Should you upgrade?
• Join our Galaxy S9 forums

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Amazon cancels ‘Breakaway’ video game

The team behind the competitive battle game Breakaway announced this weekend that the game “is no longer in active development” on Reddit. The brawler was being developed by Double Helix and published by Amazon Game Studios. It was one of three games Amazon’s in-house game studio was planning on releasing.

Back in October, the team announced that it would be focusing on changes to Breakway’s core gameplay. This was in response to feedback that the development team received after a four-month Alpha testing period. As a result, the game was put on hiatus, with no timeline for when the game would finally release.

Now, it appears that the Breakaway team didn’t quite make the progress they’d hoped on the game. The post on Reddit says:

“Since our last announcement, we have worked to implement community feedback and iterate on Breakaway’s core gameplay. While we have developed many ideas and made a lot of progress, we are also setting a very high bar for ourselves. In spite of our efforts, we didn’t achieve the breakthrough that made the game what we all hoped it could be. After a lot of soul searching, the team decided to focus on new ideas. As a result, Breakaway is no longer in active development.”

They don’t rule out returning to the game in the future — in the final paragraph of the Reddit post, the team says, “if a thunderbolt of inspiration strikes that leads us back to Breakaway, you’ll be the first to know.” However, at this point it seems very unlikely that the game will ever see a public release.

Via: Polygon

Source: Reddit

Genius tests out swipe-able ‘song story’ explainers

Genius, which you might remember from its slick Behind The Lyrics feature on Spotify, is now introducing an even richer, Instagram Stories-style feature, with some YouTube assistance. Song Stories folds together Genius artist interviews, social media missives, concert videos and interactive elements (like quizzes) to swipe along to as the track plays.

Like Snap or Instagram Stories, cards will also automatically swipe themselves, so that lyric quotes and other thematic card line up in time. Swiping up will open up other videos or sites related to the track or artist. You can take a quick look how this all comes together here. Genius showed us several demo stories for the likes of Cardi B, Joy Division and Troye Sivan, but at this point it’s still just an experimental feature that’ll include over 10 songs at launch on both the Genius site and companion mobile apps.

Like Behind the Lyrics on Spotify, it’ll be interesting to see how many further tracks get covered in this experiment. It takes more effort to make these media-rich additions than simply folding in pre-existing lyrics. Ilan Zechory, Genius’s co-founder and president said that: “Genius and YouTube, the two biggest sources of musical deep cuts and rabbit holes on the planet, are natural collaborators on this mission.”

Source: Genius.com

India loses contact with a recently launched satellite

On Thursday, the ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization) launched the GSAT-6A, the country’s most powerful communications satellite to date, into orbit. Yesterday, the organization confirmed that it had lost contact with the satellite, possibly due to a failure in the power system, according to the Times of India.

The launch, aboard the GSLV-F08 rocket, appeared to go smoothly, and the satellite successfully completed an orbital maneuver following its deployment into geosynchronous transfer orbit. GSAT-6A was then supposed to execute another operation to raise its orbit a day later. About four minutes after that maneuver occurred, officials lost contact with the satellite.

The successful launch of GSAT-6A was seen as a huge triumph for India’s space program, so this is certainly a setback. The country has been developing a robust space program capable of competing on the world stage for years. It doesn’t help that this is the second satellite that the agency has lost in the last six months; the last failure was one of the launch vehicle PSLV, rather than the satellite itself.

Still, all is not lost. ISRO Chairman K. Sivan told The Hindu that, according to the data the organization has right now, “we expect that we will be able to recover the satellite.” That’s certainly good news, and will help the agency get back on track.

Source: Reuters

Apple Store in Westchester Now Closed During Renovations

Apple’s retail store at The Westchester shopping mall in White Plains, New York has temporarily closed to allow for renovations to be completed.

Apple Store at The Westchester in 2011
The location originally opened in September 2002, entirely before products like the iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch, so it could benefit from some additional square footage to accommodate an increased number of products and customers.

The store should also receive a facelift in line with Apple’s latest retail design, including large glass doors, large video screens for product marketing and in-store events, and sequoia wood shelves on the walls for accessories.

Apple has renovated dozens of its stores worldwide since 2015, when the new design was introduced. Newer stores like Apple Union Square and Apple World Trade Center have also incorporated the refreshed aesthetic.

Apple Store at Westfield World Trade Center
Apple The Westchester joins the following other stores that are currently being or will soon be renovated in the United States:

• Apple Fifth Avenue in New York, New York
• Apple Green Hills in Nashville, Tennessee
• Apple Alderwood Mall in Lynnwood, Washington
• Apple Southlake Town Square in Southlake, Texas
• Apple Natick Collection in Natick, Massachusetts starting April 22

White Plains is roughly 20 miles north of Manhattan in Westchester County. Apple directs customers to its store list to find another location, suggesting it won’t have a temporary store at The Westchester during renovations.

Related Roundup: Apple Stores
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Brits (still) can’t stream BBC iPlayer abroad

While the BBC charges £150 a year for a TV licence fee in the UK, the corporation won’t offer streaming access to its iPlayer in mainland Europe. The paid-for competition, like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, now follow the EU’s digital media portability rules which came into play over the weekend. These let residents watch digital media services in other EU member states as if they were in their home country.

There’s reasons for it, however. Other paid-for TV services know who is accessing their content as there is typically billing paper trail that outlines, say, a country of residency. The BBC, which introduced a registration system for its iPlayer last year, can’t ensure that non-payers would be kept out of viewing its wares for free in Europe. It’s not the only one avoiding the rules, either. UK terrestrial TV broadcasters Channel 4 and ITV aren’t opening their free services to the rest of Europe.

In a comment to The Guardian, the BBC said that it was “interested in being able to allow UK licence fee payers to access BBC iPlayer while they are on holiday, and welcome the European Union regulation to help make this feasible.”

The spokesman continued: “There are complex technical issues to resolve which we are investigating and it will be dependent on what legislation is in effect in the UK in the future.” The problem could resolve itself, as once the country leaves the EU, these portability rules may no longer apply.

Source: The Guardian

Stomach wearable could replace the need for invasive probes

Researchers have created a wearable monitor that can track your stomach’s electrical activity for signs of digestion maladies. Called electrogastrography (EGG), it’s like an EEG for the GI tract, and was used briefly in the ’90s but abandoned due to a lack of usefulness as a diagnostic tool. UC San Diego scientists are trying to resuscitate it with improved hardware and, most importantly, algorithms that help filter out noise. The results so far are promising, and if perfected, it could help doctors diagnose gastro-intestinal problems without the need for invasive probes or even a hospital visit.

EGG works by scanning electrical signals in the stomach that control gastric contractions. Any oscillation rates different from a normal three cycles per minute can signal GI tract maladies. The system had a moment in the 90s, but is rarely used by gastroenterologists nowadays. That’s because signals from the skin-mounted electrodes can be distorted by patient movement movement and complex stomach interactions.

To fix those issues, UC San Diego’s team optimized the electrode positions and increased the number of scanning channels from one to 25 in the high-resolution device, or eight in a portable version. More critically, they developed algorithms that remove electrical noise to isolate the true stomach wave signals.

In a small trial with 11 children they tested the high-resolution device against an invasive manometry test, in which a cathetor is inserted the nose to measure stomach contractions. The EGG results closely lined up, while the older, single-channel system matched the manometry in just three of the eleven subjects.

“A gastroenterologist can quickly see where and when a part of the GI tract is showing abnormal rhythms and as a result make more accurate, faster and personalized diagnoses,” said lead author Armen Gharibans. “Until now, it was quite challenging to accurately measure the electrical patterns of stomach activity in a continuous manner, outside of a clinical setting.”

On top of helping physicians find GI tract issues, the device could be worn over a long period to help healthy patients or athletes perfect their dietary regimes. It might also be useful for patients with diseases like diabetes that cause secondary digestive issues.

Critics have questioned whether EGG data is valuable, even if accurate, saying that gastric contractions are too general to use as a diagnostic tool. To counter that, the UC team is now testing 25 adults with digestive disorders and found promising correlations between electrical signals and specific problems like abdominal pain, bloating and heartburn. If the final study bears out those results, it could bring relief to a host of stomach-churning issues.

Via: Spectrum IEEE

Source: Nature

Jony Ive Talks About His Design Process, Apple Secrecy, Steve Jobs, and More in New Interview

Apple chief design officer Jony Ive recently sat down with model and actress Naomi Campbell for an interview, discussing topics like his design process, Steve Jobs, Apple secrecy, and more (via Vogue).

Campbell asked about Ive’s personal involvement in the manufacturing process, bringing up a rumor she heard that he slept on factory floors when Apple was making the first iPhone. Ive didn’t specifically confirm the rumor, but he mentioned he has “stayed for months” in the places that Apple makes its products. “I don’t know how you can be an effective designer and not do that,” he said.

Image via Vogue
On the topic of Apple’s secrecy:

I don’t really see it as being secretive – if I’m working on something and it’s not finished, I don’t want to show somebody! One of the defining things about the nature of ideas is just how fragile they are: when you’re not sure whether some-thing is going to work, the idea is vulnerable. Part of protecting the idea is to be careful about who you show it to; premature criticism can shut something down that perhaps deserves more of a chance.

Ive also discussed former Apple CEO Steve Jobs, mentioning that the two “looked at the world in the same way,” and that he appreciates and misses Jobs more as time goes on. When Campbell asked about lessons learned from Jobs, Ive said that Jobs’ way of thinking has stuck with him: “There was an incredible liberty in the way he would think. He wouldn’t obey rules that were perceived to be accepted wisdom, and he had an extraordinary optimism and enthusiasm.”

Ive also stated that he thinks of Jobs and his values when hiring new people at Apple:

The main thing is how they see the world. Ultimately, Steve’s legacy is a set of values and, I think, the belief in trying. Often the quietest voices are the easiest to overlook, but he was brilliant at listening as well as leading and speaking. A lot of com-munication is listening – not just listening to figure out what you want to say in response.

The Ive-Campbell interview has been published ahead of Ive’s sponsorship of former fashion designer Azzedine Alaïa’s work at London’s Design Museum in May. Ive said that he used to watch Alaïa design and was in “utter awe”: “It was incredible to see the way that he understood material, and the way he would be frustrated with material and so create new ones. And then these beautiful forms would emerge.”

To read the full interview, visit Vogue’s website.

Tags: Vogue Magazine, Jony Ive
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Mark Zuckerberg Rebuts Tim Cook: Companies That Charge You More Don’t Necessarily Care About You More

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has countered an argument that companies without an ad-supported business model are better off.

“You know, I find that argument, that if you’re not paying that somehow we can’t care about you, to be extremely glib,” said Zuckerberg, in an interview with Vox’s Ezra Klein. “And not at all aligned with the truth.”

“The reality here is that if you want to build a service that helps connect everyone in the world, then there are a lot of people who can’t afford to pay. And therefore, as with a lot of media, having an advertising-supported model is the only rational model that can support building this service to reach people.”

Last week, Apple CEO Tim Cook told Recode’s Kara Swisher and MSNBC’s Chris Hayes that his company “could make a ton of money if we monetized our customer,” but added “we’ve elected not to do that.”

Apple’s business model is primarily focused on selling products like iPhones and iPads to customers, rather than targeting users with advertisements based on their personal information. Facebook, on the other hand, is a free service that relies on ads for a significant portion of its revenue.

Cook, who said Apple views privacy as a “human right,” believes that Facebook shouldn’t have the ability to collect as much information as it does.

“The ability of anyone to know what you’ve been browsing about for years, who your contacts are, who their contacts are, things you like and dislike and every intimate detail of your life — from my own point of view it shouldn’t exist,” said Cook, speaking at the annual China Development Forum last week.

Zuckerberg argued that while Facebook is “squarely in the camp of the companies that work hard to charge you less and provide a free service that everyone can use,” it doesn’t mean the company doesn’t care about people.

“I don’t think at all that that means that we don’t care about people. To the contrary, I think it’s important that we don’t all get Stockholm Syndrome and let the companies that work hard to charge you more convince you that they actually care more about you. Because that sounds ridiculous to me.”

Zuckerberg’s comments follow last month’s revelation that data firm Cambridge Analytica used personal information harvested from more than 50 million Facebook profiles without permission to build a system that could target U.S. voters with personalized political ads based on their psychological profile.

Cook said the situation “is so dire and has become so large that probably some well-crafted regulation is necessary.” He also made the mic-drop comment that he “wouldn’t be in this situation” if he were Zuckerberg.

The entire question and answer is embedded below.

Ezra Klein
One of the things that has been coming up a lot in the conversation is whether the business model of monetizing user attention is what is letting in a lot of these problems. Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, gave an interview the other day and he was asked what he would do if he was in your shoes. He said, “I wouldn’t be in this situation,” and argued that Apple sells products to users, it doesn’t sell users to advertisers, and so it’s a sounder business model that doesn’t open itself to these problems.

Do you think part of the problem here is the business model where attention ends up dominating above all else and so anything that can engage has powerful value within the ecosystem?

Mark Zuckerberg
You know, I find that argument, that if you’re not paying that somehow we can’t care about you, to be extremely glib. And not at all aligned with the truth. The reality here is that if you want to build a service that helps connect everyone in the world, then there are a lot of people who can’t afford to pay. And therefore, as with a lot of media, having an advertising-supported model is the only rational model that can support building this service to reach people.

That doesn’t mean that we’re not primarily focused on serving people. I think probably to the dissatisfaction of our sales team here, I make all of our decisions based on what’s going to matter to our community and focus much less on the advertising side of the business.

But if you want to build a service which is not just serving rich people, then you need to have something that people can afford. I thought Jeff Bezos had an excellent saying on this in one of his Kindle launches a number of years back. He said, “There are companies that work hard to charge you more, and there are companies that work hard to charge you less.” And at Facebook, we are squarely in the camp of the companies that work hard to charge you less and provide a free service that everyone can use.

I don’t think at all that that means that we don’t care about people. To the contrary, I think it’s important that we don’t all get Stockholm Syndrome and let the companies that work hard to charge you more convince you that they actually care more about you. Because that sounds ridiculous to me.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Tags: Facebook, Tim Cook
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