Whatever...

Is it Candy Crush vs consoles?

By Hannah Townsend

According to a new report, the mobile gaming market will grow 19 percent per year until 2016. This isn’t much of a surprise as mobile gaming continues to transform the industry, however many are claiming traditional console gaming is dying as a result. Personally, I don’t think you can compare the two – they are completely different experiences. One involves complete immersion into a game that can last hours at a time; the other is casual, short and requires no real commitment. Console gamers are simply not going to stop because they have a new game on their iPhone. If console gaming is declining maybe it’s more to do with the disappointing updates, lack of focus and £429 price tag, as seen with the recent Xbox One launch?

What will happen, if it hasn’t already, is that mobile will become the number one gaming hardware of choice. This isn’t down to consoles being abandoned, but because the mobile gaming market essentially includes anyone under the age of 35. While the Wii broke age and gender barriers, mobile gaming is going one step further by making gaming that much more accessible for time-fraught wannabe gamers (like me).

Candy Crush is a perfect example of the growing mobile gaming phenomenon. It’s a game that is suddenly hard to miss – if you aren’t playing it on your daily commute, friends are sharing lives on Facebook and office chat is revolving around which level you are on. No wonder King is raking in $230 million a year when 45 million players play the game 600 million times a day – quite a feat considering it launched just over a year ago.

What will be interesting is how this evolves over the next ten years. Will Angry Birds have completely replaced traditional games? Will 3D be a feature? Will motion control be brought to mobile? One thing I’m sure of is, if console gaming is still struggling, it will be due to a lack of customer satisfaction rather than mobile gaming advancements.

Check out the most popular gaming apps on iTunes here.

Oversharing is killing my inbox

By Claire Ayles

We all know how annoying it is when people share mundane posts about their cat or upload photos of their dinner on Facebook?  Well this problem of ‘oversharing’ has now hit the business world.

I’m signed up to various collaboration tools like Box, Basecamp and Huddle, and they’re undeniably useful for sharing documents, especially with clients and other agencies.  But there is a downside. I’m now drowning in their email notifications.

While I used to get emails with documents handily attached, I now get the same number of slightly less useful emails telling me to go somewhere else on the internet to find a document that’s been slightly altered.  And that document might not even be relevant to me.  To put it into context, I’ve had 25 such messages overnight.

I appreciate that receiving an extra 25 messages is your quintessential first world problem, and as I said before, these platforms do make life easier, but it does strike me as slightly ironic, considering these tools have always been heralded as the answer to email overload.

Now if only someone could tell me how to turn off the email notifications…

Television, the drug of the nation

By Mike King

Yesterday’s Ofcom report on the UK communications market includes an analysis of TV viewing habits and reveals some surprising trends, particularly in relation to the amount of time spent watching TV. 

While the report covers a lot of obvious ground (like the massive growth in tablet and smart phone use) it is an increase in the average time spent watching TV that struck me as most surprising.  

According to Ofcom’s figures, the average person in the UK watches TV for just over four hours a day; that’s 15 minutes more than in 2008. 

On top of that, 90% of TV viewed in 2012 was live (i.e. viewed as it was broadcast) rather than from a recording or from an on-demand service.

Based on my own experiences, I’d have expected the opposite - a drop in viewing times and a much lower percentage of TV being watched live.  In my household viewing levels have plummeted over the past few years and the TV content that is watched tends to fall almost exclusively between live sporting events and on-demand programmes.  

The explanation, according to the report, is that we’re becoming a nation of digital multi-taskers so although we have more ways to consume digital media than ever (including, of course, multiple devices for internet access) there is an increasing tendency for people to use these devices at the same time, such as tablets or smart phones while watching TV. 

So people are watching more TV but are not really watching it properly because they are doing something else at the same time. 

While TV viewing figures are up, the number of TVs per household has dropped (41% of households had just one TV in 2012 compared with 35% in 2002) driven, in part, by the increased use of tablets for viewing TV content.  As a result, Ofcom claims, “families are gathering in the living room to watch TV just as they were in the 1950s”.  Though I imagine the difference today is that the family members are largely ignoring each other as they media multi-task and struggle with feelings of depression.  

More detail on the Ofcom report can be found here.

Meet Geekmemore, where Han Solo can find his Catwoman

By Morgane Léonard

Earlier this month in Paris, at both Japan Expo and at Comic Con, Geekmemore, the French dating website, took centre stage when it set up a speed dating service for show attendees. Some 160 people per day participated, with men of all kinds – dragons, mutants, zombies or ninjas – sharing their passions with women (or should that be nymphets?) thrilled to find someone on the same page.

Geekmemore, which launched in 2012, already boasts more than 100,000 members and has generated three weddings. If you’re looking for love and speak Klingon, know the Star Wars script by heart or are the king or queen of World of Warcraft, this website is definitely for you. Being passionate is an absolute must but remember, no brand will be mentioned! And aside from them helping you find true love, the site also lets members discuss all kinds of topics, such as video games, Fantasy, SyFy, Comics, Manga, role play and TV shows, while also accessing content.  

The success of sites like Geekmemore illustrates that being a geek today is most definitely something to be proud of, and – with a rise in social networking – it’s never been easier to find like-minded people.  

So if Han Solo and Catwoman had a child, what do you think he’d look like?

The World’s Biggest Data Breaches Visualised

Ever wondered how the world’s biggest data breaches compare with one another?  The (as always) fantastic Information is Beautiful has answered your question with this wonderful interactive infographic, visualising which firms have been affected by hacks, inside jobs, bad security or just plain negligence over the years.  Click through the picture to find out more...

Crikey, is this what it’s come to?

By Aislinn Collins

It was revealed this week that publisher Future and the Press Association (PA) have partnered to launch a new mobile and tablet app.  But not just any old news app, oh no, this app is special.  This app will provide all the content you could possibly need on the subject that has the whole nation, nay world, holding their breath.  That’s right... it’s the Royal Baby app!

*Slams head against nearest brick wall*

According to the press release, the app ‘will feature live updates from the Press Association, ensuring all the latest news on the most anticipated baby of recent years is delivered straight to your device, as well as featuring exclusive photography of the most famous family in Britain.’  You may be pleased to know that you can get the latest news, as well as an update on the Twitter rumours surrounding the royal bundle-of-joy, all for free.  If that isn’t enough for you and you feel you need a bit of background information to ascertain the kind of parents Kate and William will make, then you can pay 69p for extra chapters revealing necessary information on topics such as, the relationship Princess Diana had with her sons or Prince William’s relationship with Kate.

My opinion on this may be slightly skewed given that I am fairly indifferent to the Royal Family and (scandalously) am reaching near exasperation with ‘baby watch’, but is this really necessary?  While I can see that, for some, having an app that combines all of the breaking news on the topic in one place might be attractive; surely the paid-for chapters are a little silly and, dare I say it, wrong?  We all know that the publishing industry is having a pretty hard time and needs to make money where it can but I can’t help but feel this is not only exploiting Kate, William and their unborn child, but also the public whose thirst for gossip on the new family is seemingly unquenchable (this being a case in point).  I fear that anyone who downloads these chapters is going to be sorely disappointed when they realise the content is already public knowledge. 

Of course, there is every chance that this is simply a PR stunt and not a serious money making scheme.  I’m hoping it’s the former, rather than a sign of things to come or we could be headed down a very slippery slope. 

Commercial break? Fast forward please!

By Flora Haslam

Figures released this week revealed some positive signs for the advertising industry with forecasts predicting total growth of 2.6 per cent in 2013 and 4.9 per cent in 2014.  It comes as little surprise to me that internet spend was driven by the growth of mobile advertising, but I was surprised that TV advertising was up 5.6 per cent. 

Personally, I rarely see a TV ad.  Whether Sky+, TiVo, Freeview+, YouView or simply a hard drive hooked up to the TV, there are now plenty of options for recording content and watching it at a time that suits.  Maybe if I was a big sports fan things would be different, but right now almost all my ad viewing is on fast forward.

Maybe I’m missing out.  There have always been classic adverts that we can probably all remember talking about from the Diet Coke break (now nearly 20 years old!), via annoying meerkats to the traditional John Lewis festive offering.  Luckily for me, the ads that are any good tend to make themselves known pretty quickly via Twitter and YouTube. 

As a reminder, here are just five great British TV commercials, as identified by The Guardian, which were contenders for a Cannes Grand Prix.

What’s a LinkedIn endorsement really worth?

By Claire Ayles

No one using LinkedIn over the last year or so could have avoided the endorsement craze.  Whether its status updates popping up in your feed saying Joe Bloggs and has been endorsed by John Doe for ‘management’, automated emails from contacts asking for a quick reference, or people you can barely remember adding to your credentials (presumably so you’ll return the favour), there’s literally no escape.

But are these endorsements worth the (virtual) paper they’re written on?

The other day I was endorsed, not for the first time, for ‘PR’. Not wishing to sound ungrateful, but my LinkedIn profile clearly states that I’ve worked at a PR agency for 13 years, so I’d have thought that much was obvious without the need for third party affirmation. 

I’ve also been endorsed by people who, quite frankly, don’t have a clue what I do in my job or whether I’m any good at it.  These include people I haven’t worked with since the good old days of sending press releases out by post and, worse still, people I haven’t worked with at all.  

For example, a friend of mine has endorsed me for my ‘media relations’ skills.  He’s a stand up comic who I met when our kids were in childcare together.  To be honest, I’m not 100 percent convinced he got a good grip of my credentials amid the tears, tantrums and general mayhem of the morning nursery drop off but, even if he did, who cares? 

Good PR (whether you’re representing a firm or yourself) has to be believable and credible, and the same should apply to LinkedIn endorsements.  If you’ve worked with someone worthy of your praise, then why not write something meaningful and insightful, rather than ticking a few prescribed boxes suggested by LinkedIn?  And if you don’t know someone well enough to write them a proper reference, don’t bother doing it at all.

Don’t get me wrong, I like LinkedIn, it’s a great way of keeping in touch, and is gaining rapid influence as a marketing tool, but all this good stuff is being overshadowed by all the meaningless and annoying endorsements that clutter my experience.   

LinkedIn makes it so easy to endorse someone that people do it without thinking – and it shows.

Making the world smaller, one tweet at a time

By Mike Marquiss 

One of the internet’s greatest accomplishments is surely its ability to shrink the world in which we live. Whether it’s the ability to bring far flung family members together via video chat (hello sis if you’re reading this); condense earth-shattering world events in realtime using whatever’s replaced Google Reader; or even just using the Wimbledon app to keep tabs on centre court whilst you sample some mixed doubles on the outside courts; we’re more connected to everyone and everything than ever before – very little is beyond the reach of our URL boxes.

Egypt is such a fantastic example of this ‘world shrinking’ in action. Twitter and social media played a pivotal role in the Arab Spring of 2010 and the toppling of Mubarak’s government. Furthermore, it continues to influence the political landscape there even now, enabling protesters to coordinate activities and communicate with the outside world. This week, as the political turmoil continues, it emerged that Twitter will begin offering an auto-translate tool for some of the leading posters in Egypt. This is a country 2,000 miles away from my office in London, with an entirely disparate culture and political system, and I’m able to read Tweets from its foremost political leaders and commentators in real-time, chocolate digestive and cup of coffee in hand.

Exciting new developments such as Google Glass look set to push this concept even further, immersing users in the outside world and creating a new sense of their immediate surroundings. I for one am excited to see how this will shape up... Even if you think Google Glass will fall flat for consumers, it’s still a computer you can wear on your face and I think that’s an exciting prospect indeed.

Money and the power

By Jonathan Mathias 

For a while now ‘Bitcoin’ has been a bit of a darling of the technology pages and it’s not too difficult to see why; in a way it’s creating money out of thin air. 

In case you’re not already familiar with the concept, Bitcoin is an electronic currency that differs from real world cash in that it isn’t backed by anything (like gold) and it’s not controlled by a government.  Anyone can make Bitcoin currency, providing you’ve got the knowledge and the power. 

The currency itself is made via complicated cryptographic computing processes, and the more computing resources you have at your disposal, the more currency you’ll be able to generate.  In theory I could just get a whole bunch of computers set up in my bedroom, set them to work mining Bitcoins, sit back and get rich.  In reality it’s not so easy – one of the most interesting practical considerations of complicated computing systems that Bitcoin does so well at highlighting is energy demand and, most importantly from an economic perspective, cost. 

The CPU in whatever device you have switched on to read this is using electricity to power it, and probably to cool it too.  A Bitcoin mining computer rig might have hundreds or more CPUs, so will use a magnitude more ‘leccy.  There’s an interesting piece on Bloomberg from earlier in the year that talks about a 24 hour period where miners used about $147,000 of electricity to power their mining operations, which generated $681,000 of Bitcoins.  At that time the relative value of Bitcoin against the dollar and the average cost of electricity made Bitcoin mining very profitable indeed, but those variables are far from constant. 

Just this week we’ve had warnings of electricity shortages in the UK, and in a couple of years our electricity will cost twice as much as Germany’s.

Ah well, looks like I won’t be getting rich from any home-cooked plans just yet.  I guess I’ll just console myself with a pint. 

 

(image credit: Gizmodo)