Google’s bringing sponsored app placements to the Play Store
Google is about to allow software companies to promote their apps on the Android Play Store, a space that was previously off-limits for advertising. That means alongside regular search results, you’ll soon see apps from companies with the biggest marketing budgets. The search giant has pitched it as a way to “provide consumers new ways to discover apps that they otherwise might have missed” while letting vendors raise the profile of apps that’d normally get buried. As the WSJ put it, however, the new tactic is also a way for Google to sell more advertising in the face of slowing sales.
The feature will launch to a “limited set of users… from a pilot group of advertisers” in order to gauge feedback from the ads. Promoted apps will be clearly labeled as such, just as they are in regular search results. So far, Google Play’s apps search has only used algorithms and human intervention, so the changes could have a substantial impact on results.
Google may have decided to monetize Play with ads since Facebook now vacuums in a large amount of ad revenue for apps from the likes of King — which spent almost $400 million marketing Candy Crush Saga and other games. Google took in around $10 billion in revenue from Play last year, and paid nearly $7 billion of that to developers.
Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Software, Google
Source: Google
Google’s newest AI can beat your Atari high-scores
Most people’s anxieties about AI concern computers realizing they don’t need humans and wiping us out. It probably never occurred to anyone that, as soon as they discovered beer, Netflix and video games, that computers would ditch plans for world domination, drop out and get a job at the local gas station. It’s a lesson that Google-owned startup DeepMind has learned the hard way after it got its thinking computer hooked on retro computer games.
The London-based startup, founded by Theme Park programmer Demis Hassabis, wondered if an AI could learn how to play computer games all on its own. It hooked the AI up to a series of Atari 2600 titles, but provided it with no specific instructions on what it should do. The team was looking into “reinforcement learning,” whereby you get a little reward whenever you do something good. When the computer started earning points, it received the digital equivalent of a dog treat. After a while, it stopped stumbling around and started to get pretty good at beating the arcade classics of yesteryear.
It’s a big departure from rigid games like Chess, since it’s a lot harder to “solve” a game like Pong with brute-force calculations. Here, the AI has to adapt, learn on its feet and device a rudimentary strategy in order to be successful and earn its little jolt of praise. The team admits that it’s not yet at the point where the system can beat more strategic titles like Ms. Pac-Man or Private Eye, but DeepMind is hoping that it won’t be long before it can. After that, the team is planning to turn its thinking computer into a StarCraft expert — and if it gets hooked on that, there’s no way it’s ever going to take out the garbage, or develop a way to subjugate humanity.
Filed under: Science, Software
Via: The New Yorker
Source: Nature
Gameloft pushes first update for Brothers in Arms 3: Sons of War with New Story, Game Mode and Guns
The first of many updates started rolling out today for Gameloft’s Brothers in Arms 3: Sons of War. The update is live for iOS and Android devices and brings in a number of new things that players are sure to enjoy. Ont he single player front you will get 5 new story missions and 10 […]
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Android 5.0.2 Lollipop rolling out for AT&T Motorola Moto X (2nd Gen)
Those of you that have been patiently waiting for Android 5.0.2 Lollipop to grace your AT&T branded Motorola Moto X 2nd Gen can finally start furiously hitting the update button. According to the devices page with Motorola the update is rolling out to customers. AT&T doesn’t have their page updated yet to reflect the push, but […]
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Google is working on a Chrome reading mode, try it out
Google wants to give your peepers a break. Google Chromium Evangelist Francois Beaufort laid out early versions of Reader Mode for Chrome desktop and mobile in a post today on Google Plus (of course). Reader Mode is designed to make on-screen text easier to absorb, by removing unnecessary pictures, boxes, buttons and ads. Safari has long featured a Reader Mode, and extensions such as Readability offer similar services for Chrome, but now Google is getting into the game itself with these Reader-friendly experiments.
Google’s project is based on Chromium’s open-source DOM Distiller, meaning technical minds can poke around right in the code. Reader Mode for mobile devices has been lurking in the background of Chrome since late last year, and it’s accessible by heading to chrome://flags#enable-reader-mode-toolbar-icon, hitting “Enable” and relaunching Chrome. The Reader Mode icon should pop up in your toolbar for applicable pages after that. On desktop, run Chrome with the –enable-dom-distiller switch to unlock the “Distill page” menu option. Happy reading!
Filed under: Software, HD, Google
Source: Francois Beaufort
‘Diablo 3’ getting free-to-play features, but not in the US or Europe
Blizzard may have shut down the Real Money Auction House after contention from the community, but it’s opening up a new way to potentially use real money for in-game items. The difference here is that it’s doing it in territories that are pretty accustomed to this sort of thing already — most likely China. On the developer’s American and European forums, an employee writes that an upcoming patch will add a new currency (“platinum”), timed experience boosts, cosmetic items, character slots and a tweaked UI to handle all of the above. Basically, the type of microtransactions that are fairly common in free-to-play games. As Gamasutra notes, Blizzard already has a partnership with NetEase (a Chinese internet company that has a web portal and its own massively multiplayer role-playing game), which operates a version of Diablo 3 in the country. All that to say, this makes sense for Blizzard.
How’s it going to affect players stateside or in Europe, though? Well, Blizzard says they’ll benefit from the UI changes that are being implemented, and that’s about it. Forumgoers are worried, however, that the free-to-play elements will come to roost in their game, devaluing their progress (a complaint levied at the RMAH) and transforming the game into a pay-to-win scenario rather than skill or luck-based.
It’s a stark contrast to how we view gaming in the United States, and Blizzard’s upcoming additions to Diablo 3 reflect that.
But given how different the Chinese gaming market is from the domestic and European ones, the community’s initial worries are likely without warrant. Free-to-play games are bog standard in China because, as this VentureBeat story illustrates, internet cafes are more affordable than having computers at home, and that’s coupled of course, with the fact that video game consoles had been banned (soft of) for over a decade in the country. That’s to say nothing of China’s economy either (or how quickly microtransactions can add up), which makes shelling out a pretty sizable chunk of money up front for a console and games difficult for many.
It’s a stark contrast to how we view gaming in the United States, and Blizzard’s upcoming additions to Diablo 3 reflect that. The developer’s experimented with different business models in the past, including making World of Warcraft free to a point; the multiplayer portion of StarCraft 2 is largely gratis as well. It wouldn’t be the first time Activision Blizzard has tailored one of its games for the market, either — Call of Duty Online is a region-specific free-to-play version of the wildly popular shooter. Where the microtransactions will appear hasn’t been confirmed, but we’ve reached out to Blizzard for more detail and will update this post should we hear back.
Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment, Software, HD
Via: Gamasutra
Source: Battle.net (1), (2)
Algorithm determines which rappers have the slickest rhymes
The days of arguing over the worth of your favorite rappers might soon come to an end. Data mining student Eric Malmi has built Raplyzer, an algorithmic program that gauges the average length of a rap or hip-hop star’s multi-syllable rhymes (the key to the “dopest flows,” Flocabulary says) and ranks that person accordingly. Based on this math, the champions are a mix of veterans and relative newcomers. Wu-Tang Clan’s Inspectah Deck is on top, while big names like Rakim, Earl Sweatshirt and ASAP Rocky are near the front.
Malmi is quick to admit that this computer-driven charting isn’t perfect. It’s only looking for standard American pronunciations, so it won’t reflect accents or purposefully skewed words. Also, it assumes that multi-syllable rhymes are what you’re looking for — Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, and Snoop Dogg sit near the back of the chart, but few would doubt their impact on the rap world. Still, if you’re tired of having to explain why you think MF Doom is better than Kanye West, you now have some evidence to help settle that dispute.
[Image credit: Coup d’Oreille, Flickr]
Filed under: Software
Via: Prosthetic Knowledge
Source: Mining 4 Meaning
T-Mobile brings device software update page to life, lacks any real information
Keeping customers in the know on when their device may, or may not, receive a software update is tricky business. In the beginning we really never knew. We just waited and hoped it would come. Then things got heated where an update would land on one device in one country and never make it to […]
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Inbox by Gmail making its way to Google Apps for Work users
Some users really like the Inbox by Gmail app, while others hated it immensely. I was a bit in the middle and eventually just stopped using it all together. It had its uses, it was a nice change, it was something new. However, 95% of my email communications come from my AndroidSPIN email and not […]
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YouTube Kids makes its debut on the Play Store today
Google’s new YouTube Kids app has been delivered to the Play Store today as previously promised. The new kids geared app brings in a slew of educational and fun content for our kids to access without parents needing to worry about them being derailed by videos they shouldn’t really be watching. The app highlights videos from […]
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