Project X Zone is an ambitious project. One one of the biggest crossovers in crossover history, this hybrid strategy/fighting game features over 50 characters from more than 30 Namco Bandai, Sega and Capcom series make an appearance in the game. The reveal trailer shows off some of the stylish fighting, and some of the 3D environments featured in the game. Project X Zone is currently in stores, and is only available on the 3DS.
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AMD is getting aggressive in its marketing stance towards rival Nvidia, and has launched a new campaign to convince gamers that their future lies with AMD. AMD has scored a coup by snagging both the Xbox One and the PS4 into using AMD’s blend of CPU and graphics chips. Now AMD wants to be top dog in the lucrative PC card market, and has enlisted the help of The Fixer to make this happen. Note the blurred out green logos on the card being destroyed… what company could that be
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Last week Forbes released a countdown revisiting social media studies spanning over the past five years. The educational reports indicate what some user Facebook behavior translates into the real-world. Some findings were as silly as a curly fries Facebook Like revealing intelligence, but many statistics were eerily accurate; the correlations between online behavior and real-world characteristics could be something advertisers could benefit from in campaigns.
“We’re on the cusp of a new way of doing social science,” said a Harvard sociology professor at the time. “Our predecessors could only dream of the kind of data we now have.”
That was more than five years ago. So how was that statement held true to today Here is a collection of some of the insights from academic researchers and social scientists who’ve lurked on the social network for professional purposes. We’ve listed the top 30 below.
1. The more Facebook friends a teenager has, the more privacy promiscuous he or she is. (2013 survey)
2. It’s scientifically proven that Facebook’s privacy settings are confusing. (2011 study via Huffington Post)
3. The chances of your “anonymous” dating site profile getting linked to your Facebook profile may be as good as your chances of getting lucky there, thanks to facial recognition. (2012 study)
4. So much for “six degrees of separation.” We’re now linked to just about anyone else by a messy 4.74 people. (2011 article)
5. Your Facebook friend list will reveal you’re gay. (2009 study)
6. So will your Facebook “Likes.” They may also reveal your political leanings, your religion, and your ethnicity. It turns out we are what we like. (2013 study)
7. Eating fries isn’t terribly healthy but liking curly ones on Facebook suggests high intelligence. (same study)
8. People who like the littlest Family Guy, Stewie, are likely to be “dissatisfied with life.” (same study)
9. A site designed to get you to share stuff gets you to share stuff. We are programmable. (2013 article)
10. Stuff White People Like On Facebook: other white people. (2008 study)
11. Forget LinkedIn. Facebook can tell you if someone is worth hiring. (2012 study via article)
12. Honesty is the best policy… on social media sites while job searching. (2011 survey)
13. Those people who are venting all of their emotions on Facebook are probably as unstable as they seem. But it does help them feel better. (2012 study)
14. Big networks are great, but it’s the really good friends who got your back. Close friends are more likely to help you find a job. (2013 Facebook study)
15. If the NSA sends you a friend request, it’s a bad idea to accept. (2010 academic paper)
16. Need to chill out? Facebook-stalk yourself. Looking at heavily-curated, best versions of our digital selves makes us feel better about our lives. (2013 study)
17. …Just don’t look at other people’s vacation photos while you’re on the site. Seeing your friends in beautiful places will send you to an unhappy one. Discontent lies in comparing yourself with the heavily-curated versions of others. (2013 article)
18. Our digital selves are not as divorced from our real selves as some would have you believe. For example, we like our friends just as much online as offline… (2013 article)
19. … and people who talk about politics online like to be involved in politics offline. (2009 study)
20. College students prefer befriending people who like the same music and movies as them. But they don’t care what they read. (2012 study)
21. Classical and jazz music are the only contagious “likes” among college students, probably because we’re cultural elitists. (same study)
22. It’s hard to hide the fact that when you say you’re doing a study on a bunch of “anonymous” students from an “anonymous” college that got on Facebook early, you’re actually talking about Harvard kids. (2011 article)
23. Caring about privacy is contagious. (2008 study)
24. Using Facebook and texting while doing schoolwork hurts a college kid’s GPA… (2011 study)
25. … or maybe not. (2012 study)
26. People can talk politics online without completely losing it. (2009 study)
27. People who live in battleground states actually care what happens in their races. (2012 study)
28. Social media peer pressure works — when it comes to voting. (2012 study via Slate)
29. Social media peer pressure also works when it comes to “Likes.” (2010 study)
30. Chick-fil-A, rest assured. People who “like” brands are more likely to forgive and forget when those brands screw up. (2012 study)
Source: Forbes
Zynga, Acer and desktop app Pokki have come together to develop a game arcade for Zynga’s vast library of games that will be pre-loaded onto new Acer PCs running Windows 8. Pokki, which was developed by SweetLabs, features desktop versions of popular mobile games such as Angry Birds and Cut The Rope, as well as a start menu app that easily brings all of the free apps together in one place. Ten of Zynga’s games will appear, including FarmVille 2 and Zynga Poker.
The new Zynga cabinet will allow users to install games with one click and play them on the desktop. The app also features a recommendation system that tailors decisions to what players would or wouldn’t like.
As Zynga begins to move its gaming reach beyond mobile and Facebook games, broadening its audience to PC users with prime placement in new Acer systems certainly fits that strategy nicely. In response to the announcement on Tuesday, Zynga’s share price rose nearly eight percent over the course of the day.
Source: Forbes
Photo sending service Snapchat announced on Monday that it will be implementing its first monetization features since the app was first released. Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel has told TechCrunch that they will be adding in-app purchases and microtransactions.
The exact details of what these purchases would include aren’t finalized but the company has been experimenting with a number of options. It is clear, however, that the transactions will not include the ability to save snaps sent by other users.
“In-app transactions will come first,” Spiegel told TechCrunch. “We think we can build really cool stuff people want to pay for.”
Users of Snapchat take and send over 200 million pictures and video every day. This is up from 150 million a day two months ago. At that rate of growth it’s understandable how the app is quickly moving to monetize users. Snapchat also just received $60 million in funding from International Ventures Partners, which can be seen as both a boon for the company’s prospects and a cushion to get its monetization plan off the ground.
Source: TechCrunch
While having responsive design for a website is a great way to reach a huge audience, it isn’t the end-all solution for a site. Apps are still a very important part of a publisher’s toolkit for reaching out to as large an audience as possible. Having a single web design optimized for all of the possible devices and browsers isn’t easy, and apps developed for specific operating systems that run on multiple devices are still one of the best options.
According to AdWeek, a number of different news outlets including The New York Times and BuzzFeed utilize both responsive web design and apps in the distribution of their services. Having the option to use a dedicated app to view a publisher’s content is incredibly effective at reaching consumers who know the publisher and seek out their news on a daily basis, while having responsive design is more effective at reaching people who utilize links and sharing.
There is no perfect answer to whether responsive design or a dedicated app is better. Depending on the service, an app may be clearly better for getting word out. On the other hand, sometimes having an app may not reach as many people as a dedicated website would. The easiest way to reach the greatest audiences is to find a balance between a reliable app and a website that caters to as many potential users as possible.
Source: Adweek
Mobile entertainment company Movile has launched PlayKids TV, a mobile video app targeted toward kids. The company has a history of distributing digital video content to Latin American countries on non-smartphones.
Movile has increasingly been looking into reaching into U.S. markets and designing apps for smartphones and tablets. PlayKids TV’s release in the U.S. is a jump in that direction.
In PlayKids TV, when a user opens the app, they are shown a train with a number of cars attached to it. Each of the cars represents a “show” that can be watched. Instead of streaming episodes, episodes are downloaded straight to the app. They can be watched repeatedly after downloading, even without an internet connection.
While the app is free to download, only the first episode of each of the initial five programs is available for free. Users need a subscription to the service to watch more episodes.
Movile plans to release more shows in addition to distributing the initial five episodes. The company could look to Netflix and Amazon for inspiratoin. Both have initiatives to create and distribute programming to kids. Movile is targeting the same lucrative audience these two media giants are vying for, and their experience on mobile and history with kid-focused fare may give them an edge.
Source: TechCrunch
Social and mobile gaming studio Crowdstar has thrived on the creation of fashion-focused mobile games targeted toward young women. Their newest app Covet Fashion is starting to break that trend. The app isn’t only a game, but a catalog. It features the likes of Rebecca Minkoff and Cynthia Rowley, among other fashion designers. The company will also court celebrities to have them create their own styles and provide fashion advice within the application. Fashion stylist Rachel Zoe has signed on as Covet’s first “Style Ambassador.”
In the game, players have a virtual mannequin that can don fashions from various designers. They’re given the task to dress up for a specific occasion, such as an ‘Epic Road Trip’, and compete to win actual clothes and get fashion advice.
The app bridges the gap between simply being a game and actually becoming an interactive catalog. It includes direct links to purchase real clothing.
“[Covet] lowers the friction toward purchase because users are able to interact much further with the item,” said Crowdstar CEO Jeffrey Tseng.
Crowdstar is attempting to broaden their audience from teen girls who used their previous apps Top Girl and Social Girl to women who might not normally play games or use social apps. Covet Fashion is acting as a game and as a shopping experience.
Crowdstar hopes that fashion choices seen and used in the game will also find a market in the real world, leading to real life purchases. Planned social sharing features such as a direct link to Pinterest could make this a truly integrated social game and marketing tool.
Source: TechCrunch
According to figures released by Gartner, 2.4 billion IT devices (which includes PCs, smartphones and tablets) will be shipped in 2013, and that number will rise in 2014 up to 2.5 billion devices. One third of these devices are currently Android devices. Gartner says that as of next year, one half will be Android-based. PC shipments will be seeing a decline as more and more people use mobile devices as their primary means of computing.
Leading the rise in smartphone usage worldwide is the portability of smartphones and their ability to compute anywhere and everywhere. Another growing market in shipments is the ultra-mobile group, which features Chromebooks and other small portable computers. As this segment grows in popularity, it may eat into the share of tablets and smartphones, but it isn’t a solid market yet. Only 20 million devices shipped in 2013 will fall into the ultra-mobile category.
Another interesting note from Gartner is Android’s domination over the mobile market. Yet while there is a 50 percent share of the market for Android phones, the disparity between the different kinds of devices and the different versions they run give it very little unity. Apple, while having considerably less market share, has a lot more unity in their operating system with 93 percent of users using the most current version.
As far as device sales, Android will take a commanding lead. But on the software front, Apple may have an advantage by featuring apps that easily work across all of their devices.
Source: TechCrunch
