Plus a Tor trojan for Android, Apple's AGM gets anti-spying call, Wolfram's amazing new language, Typo keyboard review, and more
A burst of 9 links for you to chew over, as picked by the Technology team
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| Hello! Would you like to make an in-app purchase in this game?" Photograph: Tony Beck / Barcroft Media |
A Long Tail of Whales: Half of Mobile Games Money Comes From 0.15 Percent of Players | Re/code
In a mobile monetization report released today, app testing firm Swrve found that in January, half of free-to-play games' in-app purchases came from 0.15% of players. Only 1.5% of players of games in the Swrve network spent any money at all.
The latter finding is in line with what the advocates of free-to-play have been saying for years: Players don't have to pay anything to enjoy the game. But the former stat underscores the importance of big spenders, or "whales" in industry lingo, to the app ecosystem.In other words, 15 in every 10,000 generate half of the money. Another 135 in every 10,000 provide the other half. And 9,850 in every 10,000 never spend any money.
OEM: Windows Phone license fee plummeting >> PCMag.com
"We're hearing Microsoft will drop the license fee quite a bit, as far as 70%, which will make their product more competitive in terms of price," Infosonics CEO Joseph Ram told PCMag.
Ram's company is one of the many makers of low-cost Android phones here at Mobile World Congress. It makes the Verykool line of phones that are sold by carriers in Latin America, and primarily unlocked in the US.
With license fees dropping, Infosonics would certainly consider building Windows Phones, Ram said.Microsoft is having to play at Google's pricing. Can Microsoft undercut Google at anything?
Automatic connects your car to Twitter, Facebook, and more with IFTTT >> Automatic blog
Automatic is a device that links to your car's ECU and onboard computer and thence to a smartphone app:When we set out to create Automatic, it was because of the incredible potential we saw in connecting your car to the internet. Automatic uses that connection to track your trips, remember where you parked, tell you what's wrong with your engine, and even call for help in a crash.
Today, we're taking that connection to a whole new level: giving drivers the power to connect their cars to dozens of popular web services like Twitter, Facebook, and Dropbox. We've launched the Automatic Channel on IFTTT.The internet of cars approaches, tweeting.
xkcd: Now
You asked to know the time around the world? XKCD is happy to help with this HTML5-based page. Shortcut: http://xkcd.com/now .The first Tor Trojan for Android >> Securelist
Virus writers of Android Trojans have traditionally used Windows malware functionality as a template. Now, yet another technique from Windows Trojans has been implemented in malware for Android: for the first time we have detected an Android Trojan that uses a domain in the .onion pseudo zone as a C&C. The Trojan uses the anonymous Tor network built on a network of proxy servers. As well as providing users with anonymity, Tor makes it possible to display 'anonymous' sites in the .onion domain zone that can only be accessed in Tor.
Spy Lockout >> EFF and others
Apple has approved the following proposal for discussion at its 28 February 2014 shareholder meeting in Cupertino. Spy Lockout was developed by Apple shareholders, developers, users, and employees, with advice from Electronic Frontier Foundation attorney Kurt Opsahl, encryption expert Bruce Schneier, Lavabit attorney Ian Samuel, and EFF founder John Gilmore…
Apple should, to the full extent permissible by law, deploy its strengths in both technology and law to publicly reveal, challenge, reduce, and overturn every government attempt at covert surveillance against its customers that doesn't meet these standards: surveillance of single, identified individuals under a warrant issued by a neutral judge, particularly describing the person and places to be searched, and of limited duration. To the full extent permissible by law, Apple should not actively or passively agree to do or allow covert mass surveillance against its customers, nor remain silent about what Apple and the government have done or are doing.Note the phrase "to the full extent permitted by the law". That isn't very far.
Government open standards consultation will likely impact all of us. Make sure your voice is heard by 26th February >> The Microsoft Partner Network UK Blog
You may not be aware, but the UK government is currently in the process of making important selections about which open standards to mandate the use of in future. These decisions WILL likely impact you; either as a citizen of the UK, a UK business or as a company doing or wanting to do business with government.in a good way by making ODF mandatory? Microsoft wants it to mandate both ODF and OOXML. Pity this only just appeared in our feeds.
Stephen Wolfram's Introduction to the Wolfram Language >> YouTube
Wolfram shows off the new symbolic language. If you don't have a couple of moments where your jaw drops in amazement at what it can do.. you should. (It runs on the Raspberry Pi, too.) Try this preview and scroll down to the "plug sockets" example.
The Typo review >> How the fuck did the Q10 ship?
From the Tumblr of Hussein Kanji, who got so fed up with the BlackBerry Q10 he finally dumped it (after many months) for an iPhone - but with a slide-on keyboard from Typo, backed by Ryan Seacrest:If I was Ryan Seacrest's product guy, I'd add a battery pack to this and invest in better keys. There is plenty of margin on this thing. I can't imagine the bill of materials on this thing is more than $3-5.
Now that I have this, I have no reason to use the Q10 anymore. But when I do, the Q10 keyboard is a breath of fresh air. The keys are much nicer. But functionally, these two things are pretty similar.
if I was John Chen, I'd make an official Blackberry Typo for the iPhone. I'd price it at $150. It's free money. Anyone on iOS is *NEVER* coming back to Blackberry. Might as well sell them a keyboard. It's free money.
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