Author: Swadesh Parasher

Why doesn’t anyone seem to take mobile gaming seriously? – The Solutions
Joe Hindy recently wrote a great article over at AndroidAuthority listing all of the reasons why he believes mobile gaming isn’t being taken seriously when compared to other mobile gaming platforms. Like Hindy, I’m a big mobile apps guy and have played through and reviewed countless applications so I can totally understand his frustrations here. Right now, the mobile app space just isn’t the place to safely support developers looking to release serious video games.

Joe Hindy spoke a little bit about what he thought were the reasons for this and I thought I’d follow up by suggesting what could be done to fix each issue.

Money

Hindy’s argument here was that there just isn’t enough safe revenue potential for big time game developers when working in the mobile industry. Yes, mobile game revenue is very high but Hindy was right when he mentioned over 95% of revenue came from freemium games. In fact, 2014 saw 98% of all Google Play mobile game revenue come from freemium titles.

This is a big problem for the mobile game industry. How can gamers take mobile gaming seriously when they’re all filled with shoddy in-app purchases that are clearly designed to take cash from your pockets every step of the way?

The solution: There are probably a few ways to deal with this problem, but I’d like to suggest what I think could work quite well. If a developer were to make a decent, lengthy mobile game, they could provide a beginning portion of the game for free, and then charge extra for more chapters.

What’s great about this is that a developer could potentially only develop the first few chapters of a game and then work on more chapters as previous ones are purchased. If a developer reaches their revenue goals, they can continue their development process. If revenue slows down, development of the next chapter could be stopped until revenue goals are met or development could be cut out completely.

This exact example could only apply to certain types of games, such as RPGs or episodic storytelling games, but a similar model could be used for other titles. Racing games could have new tournaments. fighting games could have new arenas, fighters and skillsets.

Throw in some extra cosmetic items and set up some decent stretch goals to encourage players to help the developers reach their revenue goals and we have a payment model that could work well.
- This payment model doesn’t feel as “freemium” as many mobile games do
- Extra non-game defining IAPs could help increase revenue
- Revenue can be earned as the game is developed
Piracy

Admittedly, piracy is a huge issue for mobile gaming. It’s caused publishers to move over to the freemium model and it’s made it very difficult for hard working mobile games developers to earn a living from what they do best.

Fighting piracy is of course an ongoing battle that even has it’s prevalences in other gaming platforms. There is no real quick fix for piracy because pirates will always find workarounds and those looking for free entertainment will do so also.

The Solution: As a solution right now, providing games for free would definitely be the better choice. Even if a developer were to provide two minutes of gameplay for free and then charge for all other content via IAPs, that developer is already cutting out any quick piracy that’s done by simply re-uploading .apks and app files to file hosting websites.

We’re already seeing other gaming platforms moving towards a supplemented payment model. How many big name video games have released without DLC this year? The amount is completely outnumbered by games that do have DLC, and it’s something that gamers are now being forced to accept.

A DLC based or chapter based payment model with a free price on top could work well for game developers on the mobile platform.

Lack of Promotion

This is of course an issue for smaller developers without a name for themselves. Getting yourself seen on the app store is a bit hit and miss. App store optimization can be used to increase your chances of being seen in search results but it’s a practice that many developers now use.

Besides ASO, there are not many opportunities within the app store to get your app shown off to the world. The biggest option is the top apps charts in the Google Play store and this if course completely over run by freemium titles.

The Solution: For small time developers, once again making a game to be taken seriously that could have good revenue potential would only work well if you choose to make a free game. At this point in time it seems clear that trying to make a paid game work just isn’t the option to take.

Instead developers should focus on what they can do to stay away from that freemium feeling whilst still providing valuable and desirable in-app purchases to their players.

Big time developers and publishers shouldn’t have as much issue with promotion – they have the purchasing power to put a good marketing campaign out there. The trouble is that nobody is brave enough to take chances in the video game industry. It’s too expensive to do something that you aren’t sure will work. This is why we see rehashed games released each year by the big publishers because they know it’s familiar territory and they know it’s a concept that will sell.

Publishers should consider opening up smaller experimental branches that are given the freedom to create whatever comes to their creative minds – this kind of studio would have a much smaller budget but it could open the potential to bring something brand new to the world. Think of an experimental branch like this as an indie game studio that has backing and financial support by a big name publisher.

Hardware

Joe Hindy brought up a very big point about touch screen based mobile gaming having a huge negative effect on the potential for decent video games on the platform. Most popular genres are very difficult to play on a touch screen and mobile gaming hardware just isn’t being adopted at a big enough pace.

The solution: Video game developers need to come up with creative ways to utilize the touch screen – mobile games don’t need to follow the same categories defined by previous gaming platforms and the touch screen is a good example why.

At the end of the day, a touch screen can be interacted with at any point – any single location on a mobile display can be used as an input. I’m not the genius to figure out the solution, but there must be a way to make touch screen gaming work better than it currently does.

Mobile gaming is new – the potential of the platform has not yet been fully untapped. The inconsistencies with it have scared away big name publishers, but their only way of entering the platform is via a more creative, open minded approach. It is definitely a risk but it could pay off well.

Over-saturation

It’s very true that the mobile app stores are over-saturated. When you choose to buy an Xbox game, your choice is limited between hundreds or maybe thousands of titles. With mobile gaming, you’ll be getting thousands of titles added to the app store every day.

The solution: I honestly don’t think this needs to change. It’s a new platform and utilizing it properly will take some initiative. With that being said however, there are already plenty of ways to step up above the crowd and when this happens the oversaturation is no longer so much of a problem.

The Culture

Filled with freemium apps, pay as you go gaming and all sorts of experiences aimed at more casual players, there’s no wonder why most gamers couldn’t think about taking mobile gaming seriously.

As a result, many developers wouldn’t touch mobile gaming with a barge pole. Working in the mobile game space is a fear of many big time names in the video games industry.

The solution: In theme with other suggestions in this article, I strongly believe that publishers should attempt to open and maintain lower budget experimental branches of their development teams to give their company a more open minded, creative approach on mobile gaming.

New thinking, creativity and initiative is the only thing that’s going to change how gamers view mobile gaming. Video game publishers like EA, Square Enix and Blizzard have the presence to get creative but it’s a risk that they may not ever be willing to take.

Image credit: Forbes; Mrcrab; Howtohackforfree; CultofAndroid; Cinemablend; blog.teamtreehouse.com; Nardio.net
August 22, 2015
This Futuristic Aperture wrench looks so cool

Someone who Works with nuts and bolts would understand how painful it might get sometimes when you have to fiddle into the box of tools to find the right range of wrench to (un)screw them. Also, carrying the large box of tools is not always an option when you have to deal with different sizes of them. If you’re the one who is looking for something that can replace your tool box, Aperture Wrench might be the one.

The concept is visually awesome, and design-wise the whole thing looks futuristic. The designer behind this concept says that they were inspired by the iris mechanism of camera lens, and we give them credit for bringing something so unique and beautiful. There’s also a light surrounding the aperture, so you can see what you’re trying to unscrew, which is useful when you’re working in a low light condition. The only drawback we can point out atm is the ability of this wrench to work in tightly packed or closed areas.

Sadly, it is only a concept at the moment, with no scheduled timeline of it getting into manufacturing phase. We will sure come back with more information if they have to share about it later.

Behance

August 19, 2015
Google Onhub: Stupidly simple WiFi router

Google announced a Wi-Fi router which is stupidly simple and faster than any other alternatives available right now as they promise OnHub router will “give you WiFi that’s fast, secure and easy to use.” Modern Wi-Fi routers are hideous and as much as we want it to keep it in plain sight, we always end up hanging it in a corner or moving it to someplace which wouldn’t be ruined by the ugly wires plugged to a square box.

“Many of us keep our router on the floor and out of sight, where it doesn’t work as well. We replaced unruly cords and blinking lights with internal antennas and subtle, useful lighting, so you’ll be happy placing OnHub out in the open, where your router performs its best. “

Google OnHub claims to fix the basic problems that you’d face with modern routers, providing additional features along the way. Google wants to make it a centralized on the go router, which can be managed from anywhere with a mobile app.

A router that’s simple, fast and really, really ridiculously good looking? Meet #OnHub. http://t.co/KxjTzKBYvK pic.twitter.com/raL0ikZdbi

— Google (@google) August 18, 2015

The Company says setup is easy and the device automatically scans your local airwaves to find the best channel for you. “A unique antenna design and smart software keep working in the background, automatically adjusting OnHub to avoid interference and keep your network at peak performance,” Google says.

The best feature of the router would be Bandwidth prioritizing, which ensures the bandwidth allocation to your chosen device when there are multiple users connected to the Wi-Fi — No more bandwidth hog while your wife or kids stream videos over the network.

Google also claims that OnHub’s innovative circular antenna design would provide reliable Wi-Fi coverage in more directions in your home, keeping the Wi-Fi signal within reach even in the remote corners.

This new router is available on pre-order at $199.99 (approx Rs 13,000) from online retailers in the US, including the Google Store, Amazon, and Walmart.com. OnHub will be available on retail stores in US and Canada soon, there is no word about its launch in India.

Google OnHub

August 19, 2015
Xiaomi Mi Band – a cheap gimmick of premium fitness tracker [Review]

Few years ago, a fitness tracker was just some premium overpriced gadgets for those who could spend a chunk of cash to monitor daily physical activity. This is radically changed recently when Xiaomi and other competitive manufacturers jumped into the game. Nowadays, everyone wants to have a healthy life and become physically fit – the only problem being that no one wants to do what it takes to stay fit. Fitness tracker is supposedly the device that can help you track the daily physical activity and allows you to monitor your heart rate, distance walked/ran, daily diet intake, sleep analysis, body temperature monitor and so many other things to come.

Fortunately, now digitally monitored fitness is not only for those who can throw a big chunk of money to these companies – thanks to the competitive market. Xiaomi has launched a budget fitness tracker which is within the reach. However, this is not something that a professional fitness guru would seek, as it lacks some features that you’d find on high-end bands. It still is a good alternative for those who are looking for a test drive to these gadgets.

We find Xiaomi Mi Band, a great gadget at the price it is being sold at, but it certainly is not the most reliable one. Let’s figure out why.

Appearance

Mi Band was shipped with really interesting packaging, which was a slim square cardboard box, holding all the pieces inside. We said ‘pieces’ because Mi Band is not a single unit, it has modular parts which include a fitness tracker, Mi Band, and a USB charging cable.

In addition to these modular units, the box has a user manual listing the instructions to use the Mi band and help setup the fitness tracker with your smartphone.

The band looks fantastic on the wrist, and surprisingly comfortable considering the material used on this band is USA Dow Corning TPSiV material, which has an excellent elasticity, which suits the skin better.

Performance

Mi Band is great, but it is disappointing at so many levels — It is ultimately true that you get what you pay for. It is cheap, affordable, comfortable to use and provide good statistics of your daily activity. But, it certainly isn’t reliable fitness tracker when it comes to the only thing you’re supposed to buy it for — tracking your steps. It is so unreliable that you’d notice “Mi Fit” app reporting the number of steps you took in your dream while you were sleeping. More on to it later.

We took out the tracker module out of the box and connected it to the power source via USB cable. It took more than 2 hours to charge it to 100 percent since it was shipped with 0% battery. Once it was charged, there were 3 green LED lights indicating the fitness tracker is ready to go.

Xiaomi has done a really nice job with the LED indicators, which uses 4 different colors to push the notification on the band. The dedicated official ‘Mi Fit’ app is going to be your ‘display’ that the band lacks. You need to rely on the app for everything you want to visualize from the tracker, which is paired with your device powered by Android KitKat or higher, using Bluetooth.

Download Mi Fit app from Play Store

We didn’t notice any significant drop in battery backup on our Huawei Honor 6 Plus, which packs a massive 3600 mAh battery. The overall battery performance was normal, and if you’re not like one of those guys who wants to jump to all the notifications on the phone right away, you wouldn’t probably want to keep your Bluetooth on all the time. The Mi Fit app syncs with Mi Band every time you manually open the application on your phone — Sorry, no live sync; which is another high-end feature this fitness tracker doesn’t have. The very neat feature that we liked about Mi Band is not how it can help you with your physical activity monitoring, but the ability to get the notification and call alerts on the band.

You can setup the app to notify you for all incoming calls, which you can set 3 to 30 seconds after the first ring on your phone. You can also choose up to 3 application on your phone via ‘Mi Fit’ app for which it will push alerts on your band. Every time there is a notification on your phone, the app will push notification alert to your band, which will vibrate and blink green. This is pretty neat feature and really useful when you’re in crowded place or have your phone on silent mode but it only works if mi fit app is running in background and phone is paired with the band.

Another neat feature that we really liked about Mi Band is sleep tracker – it does work. During our testing period, Mi Band logged our sleep time perfectly. It even reported the deep sleep, light sleep and how many hours of the nap was actually taken. It is really useful if someone wants to know how much sleep they’re getting, which according to specialists should average to 7 hours for an adult to be considered as healthy. The Good thing is that it is all automated – you don’t to remember pushing a button to enable sleep mode or tell the app to activate sleep tracking, it just works. One drawback about this feature is that it will only track your sleep during the night. Apparently, Xiaomi has rigged the band to track sleep every night and skipped the day time in the process.

Step/Activity Tracking:

One thing that Xiaomi Mi Band had to be good at to be crowned as fitness tracker was to reliably monitor the distance traveled by the owner, but it managed to ruin it. We are not saying that it cannot monitor your activity, but it is unreliable. The fact that it relies on the mechanical parts inside the tracking module, and there’s no software to differentiate the false movement of the hand on which band is strapped on, makes it a gimmick. It is even tracking my steps while we are composing this article.

You should know that other premium fitness trackers has the similar behavior and they’re not precisely accurate. However, Xiaomi Mi Band manages to f*ck it up at so many levels. It just can’t be accurate, and tracks every false movement of hands or soft jerks/movement of the wrist.

Don’t get us wrong, it does track the steps you take, and log them fairly well during a single session. If you rest or do some other work between it, it will be inaccurate. So, you’d want to fire up Mi Fit app before heading out to have a walk, or jogging activity and remember to fire it up again when you’re done. It will help you determine how much steps you took during the session. Unfortunately, you cannot rely on it to analyze the data over a week or month.

What do we think?

Xiaomi Mi Band is a great alternative to other premium fitness trackers out there, but it manages to perform considerably unreliable at something it should be good at. We won’t recommend it for Profession fitness junkies, but it is a very pocket friendly mimic of premium fitness bands for those who wants to get around the gadget and know what these bands can do for them before going to the high-end options.

August 18, 2015
10 things an Android fan would say about Your iPhone

Yesterday I posted up an article listing 10 things you’d expect to hear from an Apple fan about Android devices. Today I thought Id turn the tables and list the kind of things the Android user base would say about iPhones.

The software has no customization options

Android users seem to constantly praise the amount of customization options available to them, whilst the iPhone in comparison is left with very little flexibility in this area. It’s very true that Android has always been the more customizable operating system, but sometimes having a single, solid design is much easier and quicker, especially when you just want something to work for the sake of functionality.

iPhones are too expensive

Brand new iPhones are expensive – there is no denying that. If you were to look at the top high-end Android smartphones the pricing wouldn’t be that different. Manufacturers like Samsung often sell their latest flagship Android smartphones for very similar prices to new iPhones. If you want to pay less for a smartphone, then you’re going to be sacrificing on quality somewhere. With that being said, it is practically impossible to get a cheap iPhone unless you buy second hand.

There’s no variety – they all look the same

Because of the huge number of manufacturers working to produce Android smartphones, there is always a huge variety of new smartphones on the market every year. Compare it to the iPhone ecosystem and you’ll notice that Apple has a lot less to offer in comparison. Sometimes simplicity is the best way to be though. This year we’re expecting to see the iPhone 6S, the 6S Plus and the 6C and that’s more than enough variety for some people.

Only being able to install from the iTunes App store sucks

On Android, you can install apps from the internet, whilst non-jailbroken iPhones can only have their apps installed from the iTunes store. Yes, iPhone users may be missing out on some applications, but being limited to the iTunes store offers a great degree of security. iOS applications have to go through a screening process before they even get uploaded to the app store.

Having no microSD storage must be a pain

Being able to add extra storage on the fly via a microSD storage card does sound like a nice commodity but in 2015 finding a flagship Android smartphone with this feature is becoming harder to do. More manufacturers are dropping microSD compatibility to make room for more internal hardware, and to make up for that, internal storage is usually increased to up to 128GB. 128GB is more than enough storage for most smartphone users.

iPhones have worse internal hardware

Comparing the iPhone 6’s specs with the Galaxy S5’s specs on paper will make it sound like the S5 is far superior to the iPhone 6.

The iPhone 6 comes with a Dual-core 1.4 GHz processor and 1GB of RAM whilst the S5 comes with a quad-core 2.5GHz processor and 2GB of RAM. It’s clear to see which one sounds better, but performance tests show that both devices perform equally well. This is mainly to do with how the operating system is compiled on iPhones – iOS has been optimized a lot more.

iPhones have smaller batteries

Here’s another area where the paper stats are different to real life results. The iPhone 6 has a 1,810mAh battery whilst the Galaxy S5 has a 2,800mAh battery. Does this mean the S5 has a considerably longer battery life? Perhaps, but it’s not as huge as the numbers would make you think. Less powerful hardware means less of a strain on battery life.

Personalizing your iPhone is practically impossible

Making your own iPhone truly feel like your own, the personal device is apparently impossible as far as some Android owners are concerned. With iOS 8, you can install your own keyboard, set up different personal settings and if you want to take it a step further, jailbreaking your iPhone opens up new opportunities for personalization.

Apple Maps is terrible

Well … Okay, this is true. Apple Maps just doesn’t quite cut it. Fortunately, Google Maps can be picked up on iOS too – it’s certainly not exclusive to Android devices.

iPhones Break Easily

It’s not that iPhones break easily, but it could be argued that they break easier. If you’re going to be dropping your caseless smartphone from head height anytime soon, you may want to stick to an Android phone. I’ll leave the video to do the talking.

Image credit: Samsung.com; Devianart, Bleson

August 18, 2015
10 things an Apple fan would say about Your Android

There’s a certain bitter rivalry between iPhone and Android fans – so much so that getting an iPhone user and an Android user in the same room together alone is probably a bad idea. Below I’ll be listing 10 of the kind of things you’d expect to hear from an Apple fan in regards to your Android smartphone.

Android is Too Complicated

Apple seems to pride itself on it’s simplicity and the iOS operating system is supposed to be easy to use, easy to adapt to and super straight forward. If you were to compare an old Android operating system like Gingerbread to iOS then this argument would certainly be valid, but Android has become a much better OS since.

In fact even Samsung’s TouchWiz, one of the most bloated Android UX’s to date now looks super clean and it’s fairly straight forward to get used to.

iTunes is Better than Google Play

iTunes used to be the place to get music, games apps and more entertainment but it’s now rivalled with the Play Store which also provides great deals on apps, games, eBooks, movies, music and more.

Which one is truly better now only comes down to personal preference.

iOS Gets More Apps

For the most part, this is something that has remained true for most of Android’s life. Even now, when app market share has never been more even, apps like Fallout Shelter and Telltale Games story titles are getting released to iOS months before the Android versions.

iOS Gets Quicker Updates

Once again, this is something that iOS does take a winning point for. iOS usually gets a yearly update and iPhones can be updated as soon as the update is available. For Android, the update rollout process is very complicated and lengthy as the update gets pushed from Google, to the manufacturers and then to the network carriers.

iPhone is a Better Brand

This is hardly a point worth arguing about but you may hear it being brought up every now and again. Some iOS fans have a sense of pride when using Apple’s products, but it’s hard to call it the better brand. Apple is certainly known worldwide, but so is Samsung, especially thanks to their recent marketing efforts that have cost them billions.

iPhones are Safer (Viruses, Malware)

It is possible to get malware, adware and dodgy apps on your Android smartphone, mostly because Android’s app screening process is a lot simpler than Apple’s. Apps on the iTunes app store must be checked out and tested before going live.

The trouble is that iPhones aren’t without their vulnerabilities though. In fact, recently a text message was discovered that could shut down the recipient’s iPhone remotely. Something similar has been found for Android recently too, so it’s clear that both operating systems have their security flaws.

Each New iPhone is Significantly Better than Last Year’s

Whilst all manufacturers point out how their new smartphones are significantly better than last year’s model, Apple seems to do an extra special job at convincing Apple fans how important this all is. Mentions of 40% performance increases and 20% extra battery capacity are usually thrown around near a new iPhone launch, but the same stuff happens on Android.

The iPhone Camera is Amazing

For a long time, the iPhone was the smartphone camera king, but this is no longer so true. Android manufacturers are now being very competitive with their camera offering and, as a result, most Android flagships like the Galaxy S6 and the LG G4 produce results that can rank up against the iPhone 6’s camera.

iPhones have Retina (or Retina HD) Displays

A retina display is the term Apple has adopted to explain the high resolutions on their iOS devices. Recently Apple has adopted the Retina HD term, which has an even higher resolution than the standard retina.

Whilst a retina HD display is quite decent, it doesn’t actually compare very well to Android flagships. In fact, most Androids have far superior screen resolution. For example, the iPhone 6 pixel density is 326 pixels per inch, whilst the LG G4 has a pixel density of 538 ppi and the S6 has a pixel density of 577 ppi.

Siri is Amazing

Apple fans just can’t get enough of Siri. Videos get posted online all the time about various interactions with the personal assistant and it just seems that Siri makes every Apple fan’s day better. Personal assistants on other mobile operating systems may not seem as ‘cool’ or personal as Siri, but they’re still great at helping people out with everyday tasks.

Image credit: Apple.com

August 16, 2015