Google has announced the release of Chrome Apps for Mac. The platform was initially released in September for Windows and Chrome OS. Chrome Apps work like mobile apps but for the desktop. Mac users will now be able to use Chrome Apps by downloading them from the For Your Desktop area of the Chrome Web […]
Android Device Manager
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In recent times Japan has seen a substantial shift from feature phones to smartphones powered by iOS, Android and other platforms. This obviously meant that users got access to a wide variety of applications that are available on each and every platform. The smartphone trend has caught on quite quickly in The Land of the Rising Sun, with Apple clearly dominating the local market. That said, app analytics firm App Annie has released a new report saying that Japan has overtook the U.S. based on sheer app revenue, spending 10 percent more than the U.S.
This is a significant improvement, considering the fact that just last year, Japan was spending 40 percent less on mobile apps as compared to the U.S. Two reasons are believed to be behind this increase, first the fact that smartphone adoption in the country has jumped from 28 percent to 42 percent in just one year and the second being interest in mobile games. GungHo Online and Sega, who are both game publishers, are said to be the biggest drivers of app sales in Japan. Moreover, given Android’s footprint in the country, Play Store sales were able to match App Store sales in the country. App Annie expects that smartphone sales in Japan will grow in the coming year as well, possibly reaching beyond 60 percent penetration in the entire cellphone market.
Japan Leads The U.S. In App Revenue original content from Ubergizmo. 
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The developers at Rovio have revealed their next big play for the mobile gaming universe with a customizable racing game by the name of Angry Birds GO! This game works with some of the same premises as he previous games they’ve released – customizability from Bad Piggies, catapulting birds from Angry Birds – and twists […]
There is big money to be made on games and other apps for mobile devices around the world. There has been a change at the top of the most profitable countries for apps with Japan taking the top spot. Previously, the top country for mobile app revenues was the US. Japanese consumers spent 10% more […]
Earlier this year, the folks Rovio teased a new Angry Birds game called Angry Birds Go!, which was later revealed several months later to be a kart racing game. Given that the Angry Birds franchise has been more or less about slinging birds into pigs, just in different settings, this appeared to be a pretty refreshing change. The game was pegged for a release on the 11th of December and sure enough Rovio has announced the release of the game! To be fair the game had a soft launch not too long ago, although it appeared to be available only for the Australia and New Zealand iTunes App Store, but with the official launch, presumably everyone will be able to get their hands on the game.
For those hearing about it for the first time, Angry Birds Go! is a karting game where players will be able to choose characters such as Red, Chuck, Stella, and King Pig, just to name a few, all of which are from the Angry Birds franchise. Gamers will also be able to choose from over 50 karts to race in as well as a variety of different race tracks. The game will be free-to-play, and Rovio expects to monetize the game through in-app purchases which could get pretty expensive. The app will be available for iOS, Android, Windows Phone 8, and BlackBerry 10 devices starting from today, so head on over to your respective app stores for the download!
Angry Birds Go! Now Available For Download original content from Ubergizmo. 
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The world is a social place, and the digital variety is no exception. Keeping pace with this, Google has announced a new update to the Play Store app that brings with it a couple different social elements achieved with Google Plus integration. The update is rolling out now, but will continue to do so for […]
Aereo is testing a Chromecast app, CEO Chet Kanojia said today. The app would effectively bring the company’s streaming broadcast TV service full circle in a historical sense, returning broadcast TV to the TV. From locally installed antennas on Aereo property to mobile devices and browsers around the United States to the Google streaming media […]
Slowly but surely, Google’s Chromecast devices is beefing up with content partners. The company just announced 10 new apps landing on the $35 smart TV dongle, including VEVO, Revision 3, PostTV, and Songza, to name a few.
For those of you who don’t already know, Chromecast is a device developed by Google that plugs right into your TV to add various streaming services like YouTube, Netflix and most recently HBO Go.
Here’s what Google had to say about the new apps:
Beginning today you can enjoy action sports, news, music videos, and more with the addition of VEVO, Red Bull.TV, Songza, PostTV, Viki, Revision 3 and BeyondPod.
And for those many holiday gatherings, you can also cast your personal media straight to your TV using Plex, Avia, or RealPlayer Cloud apps. There’s no need to huddle around small screens when you can share your own photos and videos using your phone, tablet, or laptop.
To learn more about Google Chromecast, click here.
Along with the launch on Chromecast, Songza is also launching new Holiday Playlists.
Songza has been relatively quiet since the launch of iTunes Radio in September, but that might have to do with raising $4.7 million and launching Club Songza, the company’s ad-free premium service.
Or perhaps they were just hard at work on bringing a variety of holiday-related playlists to the apps. Songza has developed over 75 different Christmas playlists ranging from Drunken Christmas Party to Christmas on the Beach.
You can check out the app here.
If we’re going to prepare future generations for an increasingly technical world (and workforce) ahead, then we need to teach them computer science and engineering. To some, that may sound like a no-brainer, but to the American educational system, where nine out of ten schools don’t offer programming courses, it not. Of course, to really get students engaged and inspire that lifelong love of computer science and technology — just as it is with learning a new language — education has to start early. And it has to be fun.
Learning how to code takes time and is a difficult proposition for adults, so asking kids to sit down and write a line of code (let alone learn the laws of computer science) almost seems absurd. It’s this problem that led Vikas Gupta, the former head of consumer payments at Google, to create Play-i and a couple of kid-friendly, educational robots.
Joined by co-founders Saurabh Gupta, who previously led the iPod software team at Apple, and Mikal Greaves, who led product design and manufacturing for electronics and toys at Frog Design, to make programming and engineering concepts accessible to kids, who’d rather be outside digging in the dirt. The team knew that whatever solution they designed would need to be something kids would want to play with, so they created Bo and Yana, two programmable, interactive robots that look and act a lot like toys.
The team raised $1 million from Google Ventures, Madrona Venture Group and others last year to build the prototypes, and today, though it’s still tinkering with details, the learning system is nearly ready for lift-off. When it comes to market next year, kids will be able to play with Bo and Yana right out of the box, controlling them through Play-i’s companion app designed for the iPad.
The app presents visual sequences of actions and simple commands on the iPad that kids can then perform — like clapping, waving their hand or shaking one of the robots — that compel the robots to perform certain actions. Young programmers can get three-wheeled Bo to scoot around the room, blink his light or play a xylophone, shake Yana to roar like a lion, or have them interact with each other. Through actionable storytelling, play and music, younguns start to learn the most basic concepts behind programming, like causation.
The coolest idea behind the interactive learning system is that, as kids get older, they will start to find that the commands are recorded on the app in a variety of programming languages, like Java and Python, so that concepts become more challenging as they progress. The idea is for Bo and Yana to be accessible to all ages, the level of learning is as simple or challenging as you want it to be.
While the gamifying of coding and teaching programming through toys isn’t new and, as Eliza pointed out, Play-i is entering a market already inhabited by products and startups like Cargo-Bot, Move the Turtle and Bee-Bot, this kind of computer science education is still relatively new. The demand and the market for it is also just beginning to develop, and as education reform pushes STEM education into more schools and, in turn, schools begin to look for novel ways to teach these concepts at younger and younger ages, the opportunity will continue to grow.
Although the co-founders think they’re onto something with Bo and Yana, they wanted to test the level of interest and demand among consumers. So they launched a crowdfunding campaign on the Play-i website in mid-November, and have since been pleased to find that not only was there interest, but that interest wasn’t just limited to the U.S.
Over the course of its 31-day crowdfunding campaign, Play-i raised $1.4 million, five-times its goal, and $26K of that total were contributions towards robots that the company will give to schools and organizations that work with underprivileged children. The campaign saw contributions from the U.K., Canada, Germany, Australia, India and France, among others, with over 30 percent of contributions coming from outside the U.S.
With over 10,000 pre-orders and plans to ship next summer, the team will spend the next six months finalizing manufacturing and distribution partnerships. Gupta tells us that they plan to sell the robots through their website and through both online and brick-and-mortar retailers, though he says those deals are still in the works.
For more, stay tuned, find Play-i at home here and Eliza’s interview with the Play-i founder below:
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