Companies Suddenly Want to Get Into the Android Launcher Business

Parmy Olson, writing for Forbes:

Messaging app KakaoTalk is gearing up to release an Android launcher that will be similar to the mobile product Facebook announced last week called Home. KakaoTalk’s co-CEO Sirgoo Lee revealed the plans in an interview with Forbes, adding that the launcher would be released “within a couple of weeks” and would make accessing its free-messaging and calling app easier for current users, most of whom are in southeast Asia. “We hope to put in features that will attract non-KakaoTalk users as well,” he added.

Facebook's recently announced Facebook Home, it seems, will be the first of many Android launchers that will attempt to garner greater visibility by catering to their specific user base. Also, I was unaware that KakaoTalk has such a large percentage of users in South Korea (66%) when compared to Facebook's share (17%).

'In Defence of the Floppy Disk Save Symbol'

Connor Tomas O'Brien, in a blog post:

Those who believe that the floppy cannot represent saving a document because nobody uses real floppy disks anymore miss an important point: while symbols initially piggyback on the meaning we assigned to a material object in order to stand in for something more abstract, once a symbol is used often enough, the symbol itself is enough to carry meaning, and the material object is no longer important.

O'Brien has an interesting viewpoint on this topic, which has been on a lot of designers' and developers' minds ever since we started debating things like skeuomorphism.

'Engineering Serendipity'

Greg Lindsay, writing for The New York Times:

Silicon Valley is obsessed with serendipity, the reigning buzzword at last month’s South by Southwest Interactive Festival. The term, coined by the British aristocrat Horace Walpole in a 1754 letter, long referred to a fortunate accidental discovery. Today serendipity is regarded as close kin to creativity — the mysterious means by which new ideas enter the world. But are hallway collisions really the best way to stoke innovation?

It's tough to create an environment where creative professionals (such as developers) are highly productive. You have to hire the right team, you have to work on interesting things, and you have to figure out your workplace situation. The article covers a topic that has become de rigueur these days. It isn't enough to simply do the aforementioned steps; a company must cultivate an environment where developers meet each other in informal settings and 'talk shop', thereby generating fresh new ideas.

The First-Person Shooter Version of Mega Man Would Have Been Weird

Michael McWhertor and Wes Fenlon, at Polygon:

The game would have stayed true to core Mega Man X gameplay concepts, re-imagining his X-Buster arm cannon, his dash and his ability to appropriate the special powers of his fallen enemies. Platforming elements, including X's wall jump, and classic Mega Man X characters would have been re-imagined in new ways.

The videos are quite interesting. They show a Mega Man game that has a completely different style than previous editions. That difference, in fact, might have been the downfall for the game (which was never made beyond prototyping). The article mentions the transition that Metroid made from 2D to 3D, but it's worth noting that the style change was not quite as drastic since Metroid was always somewhat 'dark'. Mega Man, by comparison, has historically been a lot more 'upbeat' in terms of art style.

Sonic Dash is a Good Example of Freemium Done Right

I've recently been playing an iOS game called Sonic Dash, and it is a good example of how to do freemium right. While not the most original game (it is--at its core--a Temple Run clone), it is a fun game that distills the core experience of Sonic the Hedgehog games--running, jumping, and loop-the-loops.

That speaks to the fun, but what about the freemium? Well, that can be summed up by saying that Sonic Dash, while clearly trying to sell in-app purchases to the player at various points throughout the game, makes its sales attempts in a way that is much classier and more enjoyable than many other freemium games.

Take Words with Friends as an example. It not only has a user interface filled with distractions (mostly ads), but degrades the user's enjoyment by taking over the entire screen with ugly ads. In the worst cases, Zynga takes the cake by forcing users to load a video ad.

*Words with Friends is an example of poor user experience caused by intrusive ads.*

In contrast, Sonic Dash integrates in-app purchases in a more sensible manner. When a user loses, they see this screen:

The user is presented with a sales proposition (in this case, to purchase tokens that let them continue their current 'run'). Notice the difference from Words with Friends. The ad is something that helps the user continue in the game, rather than being an ad for something completely unrelated to gameplay. As well, the ad can be quickly dismissed by tapping the green arrow.

Tapping that green arrow, by the way, presents the user with the following screens:

The user is presented with items that can be purchased using 'currency' that can be earned via gameplay (in this case, collecting golden rings). As well, the user is shown their score for the current 'run'. Tapping the 'X' on the hint window will take users to the final screen, where they can share their experience on social networks, see a list of items that can be purchased, or simply play again.

It's important to take note of the fact that not only is the for-pay portion of Sonic Dash more sensible in the context of the game, its ads are also much more pleasing to the eye than the typically garish ads displayed in Words with Friends.

Folks, SEGA has done a fine job of producing a freemium game that is fun to play and sells items without being distasteful about it.

Samsung is Building Stores Inside of Best Buy

As has been reported, Samsung is building stores inside of Best Buy. This is a very smart move to push the Samsung brand across all of the many products that it manufactures.

Coincidentally, I popped into a local Best Buy and snapped a pic of that store's Samsung store (which is not yet complete).

To no one's surprise, this is across the aisle from the Apple store.

Try Out BlackBerry 10 On Your Phone

The folks at BlackBerry have a new site out there that lets smartphone users 'try out' the new BlackBerry 10 user interface via a touch-enabled guided tour. It showcases the multi-tasking feature, calendar app, game center, BlackBerry Peek + BlackBerry Hub, BlackBerry Keyboard, BBM Video with Screen Share, Docs to Go app, and Camera + Time Shift Mode features. Although it is a very static demo, it does give users a good preview of what they can expect from BlackBerry 10.

A while back, Microsoft did something similar to let users try out the Windows Phone user interface. This may be the start of a trend for platforms looking to attract users.

Google Had a Bug in Handling iTunes App Links, And Some People Freaked Out

Robin Wauters, writing for The Next Web:

Mind you, I’m not suggesting Google has intentionally tweaked its search algorithms to taunt Apple and reduce the number of direct iOS app downloads via its engine, but the change is noticeable nonetheless, and not in the best interest of end users in my opinion. I’m no Danny Sullivan, but I would think that if this was a simple matter of the Apple iTunes website losing PageRank juice, the results would be consistently poor, and they’re not.

I'm surprised that so many writers and commenters would think that Google was suppressing iTunes results when users search for iOS apps. Presumably these writers think that Google is doing this in some sort of bid to hurt iOS/help Android. Folks, the fact of the matter is that Google makes its money via advertising to users that want to use its products (e.g. Search) because the products are good. It makes no sense for Google to sabotage search term relevancy in this case.

Even better is that Google provided a statement to The Verge stating the obvious:

We’ve been having some issues fetching pages from the iTunes web servers, and as a result some people may have had problems finding iTunes apps in search easily. We’re working with the team there to ensure search users can find what they’re looking for.

Thoughts on a Facebook Home Screen

Josh Constine for TechCrunch:

Last week, Facebook sent out invites to a big press event to “see our new home on Android”. My sources got us the scoop that Facebook plans to unveil a new homescreen for Android that pipes in its news feed content and notifications for instant access. We’re told this experience will be debuted on an HTC handset running a version of Android that’s been modified by Facebook. The homescreen replacement is also likely to make its way to other handsets, either in the form a launcher app that can run on standard Android builds, or through Facebook partnerships with other OEMs.

A Facebook home screen could be interesting, but it could just as likely be a non-factor in the mobile phone market. At best, it could be something somewhat similar to Google Now. The problem is that it would be very limited when compared to the true Google Now.

Apple is Putting Boots on the Ground for Maps Accuracy

Looks like Apple is finally doing what just about every serious mapping effort does...hire people to go out in the world and verify the accuracy of mapping data. It's surprising that it took them this long to make this move.