Sunday, May 13, 2012

Seraku's Android mirror lets you reflect on your operating system

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/05/13/serakus-android-mirror-lets-you-reflect-on-your-operating-syste/

Seraku's Android mirror lets you reflect on your operating system

Phones, watches, TVs and in-car entertainment. Android has been put to work in many corners of our technological world. Now, it's reached another, less expected one -- mirrors. The Verge spotted itself the Smart Wash Basin prototype at Smartphone and Mobile Expo, and took a good look into it. The heavy lifting is done by a hidden Android tablet, and the reflective display is actually a separate monitor with a semitransparent piece of reflective glass. If you're thinking "smudges," hang fire, as RF proximity sensors are used, so you interact with it without smearing your paws across the shiny surface. The show prototype had water monitoring functions, and was coupled up to a set of scales in the floor. The manufacturer hopes one of the uses for the invention could be reading the news at the hairdresser. What we want to know is, when did salons suddenly go al! l futuri stico?

Seraku's Android mirror lets you reflect on your operating system originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 13 May 2012 13:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink The Verge  |  sourceSeraku (Japanese)  | Email this | Comments

Read More...

Here's The Super-Cool Transparent TV Concept From The German Company Apple Might Buy

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/loewe-invisio-transparent-tv-apple-might-buy-2012-5

Apple is rumored to be in talks to acquire Loewe AG, a small German manufacturer of high-end TVs and audio equipment.

Loewe's products look really slick--Apple-like.

The one everyone's buzzing about, though, is the transparent TV below.

This concept, designed by Michael Friebe, does not appear to be in Loewe's current product catalog (we're not sure it's actually for sale--anyone know?)

But it certainly is cool looking. And it also resembles the "sheet of glass" concepts that analysts have discussed with respect to the forthcoming Apple TV.

Loewe Invisio

See more pictures here, at Yanko Design >

SEE ALSO: APPLE'S TV DREAM REVEALED: Embarrass Hardware Makers, Squeeze Content Cos, Kill Cable

Please follow SAI on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

Read More...

Apple's iPad WiFi + 4G renamed 'iPad WiFi + Cellular' across many of its stores

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/05/12/apple-new-ipad-wifi-4g-now-ipad-cellular/

Image

Remember Apple's new iPad WiFi + 4G? Well, forget that moniker, as this variant of the company's latest slate has been quietly re-dubbed as the iPad WiFi + Cellular. As noticed by 9to5Mac, the change occurred within the last "24-48 hours" across many of Apple's region-specific webstores (update: and retail locations), including (but not limited to) those for the US, UK, Australia, Canada and various countries in Asia. If you'll recall, in many regions the best you'll get out of the slate is HSPA-connectivity, even though it's also equipped for LTE -- something that Apple itself had considered good enough to market it as 4G despite offering refunds to customers in Australia who (like many others) couldn't officially partake in its LTE. Interestingly, 9to5Mac also notes that a similar change hasn't made its way over to the iPad 2, which still has its cellular-equipped variant named, iPad 2 WiFi + 3G. We've reached out to Apple for comment, but the meantime, feel free to hit up the source links below for more insight.

Apple's iPad WiFi + 4G renamed 'iPad WiFi + Cellular' across many of its stores originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 12 May 2012 17:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink 9to5Mac, Twitter (@markgurman)  |  sourceApple  | Email this | Comments

Read More...

MIPS unveils new Aptiv mobile chip design, vows more speed in a tiny space

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/05/12/mips-unveils-new-aptiv-mobile-chips/

Image

MIPS has only had a slight amount of traction in smartphones and tablets given that its best friend is Ainovo. It might get a better footing in an ARM-dominated world with a new range of processors in the Aptiv line. The highest-end chip of the bunch, the ProAptiv, is reportedly much smaller than its ARM opponents across the aisle while managing the same speed, goosing the floating-point math, memory addressing and multi-core support to where it's as much as 75 percent faster over the previous generation. That's good news for mobile devices and set-top boxes where space is tight. MIPS isn't leaving embedded gear like 4G LTE modems alone, either, as the mid-size InterAptiv and tiny MicroAptiv are getting similar improvements. If you're eager to get cracking on a processor of your own, you can license MIPS' new work right away -- and us plebeians who simply buy the devices can expect Aptiv to be ready for gadget use by the middle of the year.

Continue reading MIPS unveils new Aptiv mobile chip design, vows more speed in a tiny space

MIPS unveils new Aptiv mobile chip design, vows more speed in a tiny space originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 12 May 2012 19:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceMIPS Aptiv  | Email this | Comments

Read More...

Saturday, May 12, 2012

Gamification: Insights And Emerging Trends

Source: http://techcrunch.com/2012/05/11/gamification-insights-trends/

monopoly

Editor’s note: Tim Chang is a managing director at Mayfield Fund. Follow Tim on Twitter @timechange. He’s hosting a workshop on gamification at the Mayfield Fund offices on June 6 and has reserved 10 spots for TechCrunch readers — more details at the end of this post.

I have been active in the field of gamification for the past couple of years, working with companies like Badgeville, HealthTap, Gigya, Basis and others on leveraging game mechanics for end user behavior measurement, scoring and shaping. Last week, I participated on an investor panel of at VatorSplash's Gamification Summit and the group shared several noteworthy points:

Gamification is expanding beyond the initial verticals of media and fitness: The next target verticals are education, eCommerce, local retail (example: Belly), and financial services.

Gamification is not just for consumer end users, but also corporate employees: Corporations can not only gamify their products and services for consumers and end users, but also leverage game mechanics to make work more fun, measurable, productive, and rewarding for internal employees. In fact, the internal enterprise-facing gamification market may turn out to be just as large (if not larger) than the consumer-facing opportunity, given the budgets and SW/SaaS spending involved with worker productivity.

Companies that let customers embrace gamification in baby steps will win: Rather than slamming existing and new users into a fully gamified experience out of the gate, companies may want to allow users to opt in to the game mechanics that they find most compelling and appealing. After all, different personalities "play" in different ways, and a common mistake for businesses is to assume that a single gamification element will appeal universally to all users. That said, simply bolting on gamification-lite to an existing business is likely to flop (remember when many companies attempted to add in avatars or virtual currencies because it was the trend at the time?) Companies should first think about their key business goals and target outcomes, match appropriate game mechanics to these goals, and then weave them into the user experience as seamlessly as possible — even if this means allowing users to initially opt-out or not engage in gamification elements.

Gamification needs to address all four phases of the user life-cycle: Think about leveraging game mechanics to facilitate and graduate users along each specific phase of the user experience: 1) new user onboarding (gamification is an excellent way to implement interactive tutorials); 2) user engagement; 3) conversion of free users to paid (or opt-in data sharing); 4) retention of power users. Remember that different mechanics are best suited for certain personality types and phases.

Gamification and Social often go hand in hand: Just as games come in single-player and multi-player flavors, gamification can be oriented towards solo or social play. For many companies, implementing gamification may first require installing social plumbing. As an example, Mayfield portfolio company Gigya (www.gigya.com) is a SaaS social infrastructure company that provides a suite of tools (like Social Login) that enables any business to add a social layer to their Web presence. Interestingly, they have found that users who are logged-in with Social Login spent 30% more time on-site than users who sign in with native site login. Customers like Pepsi use Gigya to build custom co-viewing experience sites for Pepsi-sponsored TV shows like The X-Factor, The Grammies and the SuperBowl, allowing users to collect “caps” (badges) and gain social ranking by commenting, sharing, and liking other users’ comments. Verizon Wireless created a community site of local events called VerizonInsider, where users are rewarded with points and badges for interacting with content.

Gamification design is about to emerge as a specific skill set: There's likely to be a whole new talent pool trained at places like Playdom and Zynga that will be branded as "gamification designers" – many of our portfolio companies are already actively hunting for such people!

The possibilities for gamification are universal and endless: Every aspect of the human experience is a journey of sorts, meaning that there is a learning and leveling curve, a start, mid-point, and end goal…and multiple ways and strategies to reach the destination. Gamification should be thought of as helpful signposts, markers, scorecards, feedback loops and treats to guide the user along the way, show him or her different ways to "play" and provide hints as to what may be behind choice A, B, or C that they're about to make.

Note to Entrepreneurs: Please avoid the "gamification as panacea" trap, tacking gamification as a "badge" onto every pitch, as VCs can see through this, just as consumers will shun bolted-on game mechanics.

We will be hosting an interactive evening workshop on gamification and game mechanics on June 6 at the Mayfield Fund offices on Sandhill Road, which will cover a broad range of topics including consumer motivation, leveling curve designs, pros and cons of various gamification tools; freemium conversion tuning for microtransaction and subscriptions; and using the seven deadly sins as a design framework.

We have reserved 10 spots for TechCrunch readers/entrepreneurs.  To be considered, please comment and share this post to Facebook and we will pick the folks who we think will benefit the most from the discussion.

[image via flickr/Fiona Shields]



Read More...