Month: April 2015

If you weren’t glued to your smartphone, or constantly checking Twitter/Facebook/other news app or social network of choice over the weekend, it’s possible you may have missed some interesting articles. Well not to worry, help is at hand, as we select some of the most interesting reads in tech from the weekend that should help brighten up your day.

Twitter’s new Highlights service gives you a daily digest of curated tweets

We don’t all have the time (or desire) to check Twitter constantly, something which the social network has addressed in its new Highlight service. If you opt in, you will receive push notifications twice a day with popular Tweets from your network, as well as trending events and news. There is also a new Highlights tab within the app, meaning you can check out the curated content at any time.

Seven of Twitter’s 11 top executives tweet less than once a day

Maybe the Twitter Highlights service was designed to help the company’s executives, many of whom aren’t regulars users of the social network themselves. According to analysis carried out by web developer Si Dawson: “The typical executive at Twitter has tweeted less than once per day since they joined the social network”.

Facebook is making 3 big changes to its News Feed algorithm

Bad news for publishers, good news for regular social network users, as Facebook updates the algorithm that decides which posts will show up in your News Feed. The big changes include hiding posts that your friends have liked or commented on while showing you more content that your friends have shared.

See the Apple Watch torn down to its minuscule parts

One of the big stories of last week was, of course, the release of the Apple Watch. And if you’d like to take a deeper dive into what exactly makes up this smartwatch, you’ll want to check out this video that takes the watch apart and shows you just what is inside

This is how Uber will take over the world

It seems like Uber is constantly in the news for one controversial decision or another, so it can be easy to forget exactly how successful the company has actually been. And now it is continuing its hyper local approach in markets that represent a huge opportunity but present a dizzying range of challenges. Examples include its UberGo hatchback-based cheap car service and UberAuto auto-rickshaw service in India, as well as UberSuperCar luxury car rental service in Singapore.

What’s coming and going on Netflix for May 2015

If Mad Men, Better Call Saul, and House of Cards just aren’t enough to quench your Netflix streaming thirst, you’ll be happy to know that a slew of new series and movies are being added in May. And in an interesting twist, it will stream a new series called Between weekly, rather than giving you access to all episodes at once.

Related Articles

Five Apps to Try This Weekend

App of the Week: Google Handwriting Input

Diary of a fat man – Part 2 of the Noom chronicles

Follow me on Twitter: @karenmccandless

We carry these incredibly powerful but comparatively small computers around in our pockets all day, so it seems like a logical step that we should be able to pay with them. However, while many of us have had smartphones for years, paying with our cellphones has yet to really take off. Forrester believes this will change, as it predicts that US mobile payments will grow from $52 billion in 2014 to $142 billion by 2019. Fellow research company IDC paints a different picture, with its own report suggesting that most people don’t have a strong desire to pay with their phones. This is even in the case of mobile wallets, which add in loyalty programs, coupons, and rewards.

Whether or not mobile wallets have a bright future or not remains to be seen, but many of the big tech companies have already entered the market. We profile some of the main companies vying to become the mobile wallet provider of choice.

Apple Pay

Of course, when Apple brings out a product in a certain category, it tends to raise its profile a great deal, even if said product is not on par with the competition. When the company first unveiled Apple Pay to the world in September and announced it would be built into iPhones and the Apple Watch, there was a media storm of attention, while Forrester predicts that 2015 will be the year of Apple Pay. And the stats are there to back this up, with Apple CEO Tim Cook announcing in January that the service already accounted for two out of every three dollars processed through contactless payment systems. Add to that the fact that the number of supported bank and credit union accounts has significantly increased since launch, and that customer satisfaction levels are, so far, pretty high. An impressive debut.

Google Wallet

The Google Wallet has been around for some time and, while it may be used for purchases in the Play Store and in other online stores, it has never taken off as an in-store payment method due to some complaints from network providers. But the company has been ramping up its activities in recent months, no doubt driven in part by the popularity of Apple Pay. In February, it signed a deal with Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile, and AT&T to pre-install the mobile wallet on their cellphones in the US. In the same month, it announced that it had bought Softcard which provides point-of-sale technology with the aim of increasing usage of Google Wallet’s tap and pay feature, which has been available since 2011. More recently, Google has been signing partnerships with retailers such as Dunkin Donuts that allows customers to pay before entering the store.

Samsung Pay

In March, Samsung threw its hat into the ring by announcing that it will be launching a new payment service called Samsung Pay. It allows people to make payments from their Visa or Mastercard accounts but using their phone instead of a card. What makes the Samsung announcement important is that the service will work at a lot more retailers than both Apple Pay and Google’s Wallet because it supports both traditional card readers, as well as newer contactless terminals. Samsung Pay will come pre-installed on Galaxy S6 phones.

Paypal

Google isn’t the only company that is stepping up its mobile wallet offering due to the launch of Apple Pay. In March, PayPal bought mobile payments company Paydiant, which is behind mobile payment apps from retailers including Subway. The company has already had some success in the market, as its mobile payments volume grew 68% in 2014, from $27 billion to $46 billion.

CurrentC

The mobile wallet space is not just reserved for the big name mobile companies, retailers are also chasing their own slice of the pie, most notably in the form of mobile wallet app CurrentC. MCX, the group behind this mobile wallet, is spearheaded by Walmart and scans QR codes rather than using NFC technology, which is only present in a small amount of retailers at the moment. CurrentC also stores your loyalty programs and promotions in the app.

Starbucks

It may be Apple that generates all the headlines when it comes to mobile wallets, but Starbucks’ own mobile wallet app has been an immense success for the company. The coffee company’s mobile app, which allows you to pay for your coffee with a tap/wave of your phone, is not only used for payment but also for generating loyalty points. This is an added value that the likes of Apple Pay and Google Wallet have yet to address and point to the continuing success of Starbucks’ mobile wallet app, at least in the short term.

Microsoft

While Microsoft may not be yet be in the mobile payments market itself, the company has applied for payment licenses in all 50 states in the US. Currently, it’s Windows Phone platform is far behind both iOS and Android in terms of user adoption so that doesn’t give it as strong a base to launch a mobile offering from. Although this is an issue, the company is looking to address this problem by building Windows 10 for desktops and phones from the same code base.

Yoyo

Aside from the big names in the mobile space, there are a number of other smaller niche players in the space, such as British mobile wallet startup Yoyo. The company currently only offers its service to universities in the UK, but it is growing rapidly and is second only to the Starbucks app in the UK in terms of mobile wallets. Having recently received $10 million in investment, Yoyo – like Starbucks – processes payments using QR codes and is more than just a payment platform, as it also lets you earn loyalty points at retailers when you pay using the service.

Related Articles

Best shopping and deals apps

Apple announces Apple Pay digital wallet

Apple Watch: everything you need to know

Follow me on Twitter: @karenmccandless

Welcome back to Softonic’s Five Apps to Try This Weekend, our series that does exactly what you expect it to, and provides the perfect video to watch if you have no plans until Monday.

This week we start with Titan Souls (PC|Mac), the challenging 2D top-down action game that demands speed and strategy. It could have you tearing your hair out all weekend – but in a good way. If you are a gamer who is looking for something slightly more relaxed we also have Hearthstone (PC|Mac|Android|iOS), the popular card battling game that has just been released for smartphones.

brightcove.createExperiences();

If you are more interested in poetry, social networking, and photography, then Hykoo (iOS|Android) could be what you are looking for. This visual haiku app allows you to create poetry through pictures and then share them with friends. It is kind of beautiful.

Next up, we have one for Facebook fanatics who want to continue chatting free of distraction from news and other update noise. Messenger for Desktop (PC|Mac) is an unofficial app that does just that, letting you chat freely with your contacts.

Finally this week we have Google Handwriting Input, an app that can translate your penmanship into digital text. Oddly impressive, but not the most efficient method of text entry.

That’s it for this week. Do subscribe to our channel and we will see you again next week.

Related Stories

Five Apps to Try This Weekend – April 17th 2015

Five Apps to Try This Weekend – April 3rd 2015 (kind of)

Five Apps to Try This Weekend – March 27th 2015

Follow me on Twitter: @DoFuss

Before you read this week’s diary of a fat man, let me just check that you had a look at last my last entry about Noom (iOS | Android), because everything I said there about the app’s functionality holds true. Its intuitive interface and evolving list of my personal habits, continue to improve. It has legitimately helped me improve my habits and reawakened my desire to be fit and healthy. My positive impressions left me wanting to dive deeper into Noom’s features, which is exactly what I have done this week – right up to the point of the subscription purchase page.

Moving beyond the base functions of simple data entry and tracking, takes you into Noom’s deeper philosophy – it is not a diet app but a lifestyle coach. This doesn’t mean that you won’t have to change your food habits, there is a good chance that it will recommend you eat different foods and less of them, but it won’t prescribe your meals. Instead it takes a holistic approach, with the goal of altering your health far beyond reaching a desired weight.

To aid in this goal the free app asks daily questions and lays out information to reinforce the right kind of thinking about eating and exercise. In many cases I was already aware of the information it passed on, but some of it did certainly remind me of forgotten wisdom and points out more of Noom’s underlying principles.

The most informative of these was learning just how Noom categorized foods. Rather than breaking things down into the traditional groups of the food pyramid, it color coded them Red, Yellow, or Green. As you would expect (at a base level), green is better for you than yellow, and red is pretty poor. But that doesn’t mean a day of green is well balanced or filling, so Noom recommends that you eat a good mix (around 50% green, 35% yellow, and 15% red). This may not reveal all of the nutritional information, but it does provide a guideline that is easy to follow.

That’s the food, but there is also a good range of other tips to help you change your lifestyle. These are sometimes words of motivation, while others set simple challenges like getting off the bus one stop early to walk a little further to work one day.

One of my favorite of these tidbits was not to push yourself too hard with physical activity. Surprisingly good advice for me, as I have perhaps launched myself back into the gym a little too hard in the last weeks, and have started to feel the effects. The reason for this call for moderation again plays back into the idea of Noom not being a diet, but a lifestyle. If your regimen isn’t sustainable (and injury free) and you burnout and give up, which ultimately has worse impact on your overall health.

This was all so good, I thought “why not, let’s subscribe”. I clicked the Go Pro option and was lead through a number of well-targeted questions to start constructing my personal plan (and get me more invested) before delivering me to the payment options. The basic monthly subscription is $11.99 ($59.99 for the year) which feels a tad steep without more evidence of how the upgrade would benefit me (particularly as the base app currently offers me more than enough). The end result: I am sticking with the free option for the moment.

Noom has the capability of offering a positive long term change to your lifestyle. Perhaps, if you need the extra support and more tailored help, then the premium subscription may make sense – but until you reach a plateau in your weight loss, it’s hard to recommend the subscription.

Next week it is back to my usual two week loop of exercise and food tracking apps. That will be starting with Runtastic Road Bike Tracker (Android|iOS) – so I can track my ride home each day. And then the following week… who knows. It’s going to be hard to and find something better than Noom, but I will try.

Related Stories

Diary of a fat man – Noom Coach (no more excuses)

Diary of a fat man – Fitivity (sometimes walls get in the way)

Diary of a fat man – MyPlate (sometimes life gets in the way)

Follow me on Twitter: @DoFuss

Welcome to Softonic’s Greenlight Spotlight, a new column where I highlight games that I have caught my eye on the community voted Steam Greenlight program. The beauty of this crowd voted platform is that it has resulted in a broader range of game’s making it through Steam’s clearing process for better and, occasionally, worse (yes, not all these game will be good).

With it being such an open and diverse environment, the games that I will focus on here should either have gained a certain amount of attention/infamy, or simply have caught my eye – which is exactly what happened this week with Tormentum – Dark Sorrow on PC and Mac.

Landing on the store page I was instantly drawn to this point-and-click adventure’s grim hand painted art, and I knew I had to play it. Reading Tormentum’s description only further enamored me to its style, as it cited both H.R. Giger and Zdzislaw Beksinski as its visual influences. These artists blending of industrial, organic, and often sexual imagery, gives a slick violent look to the world, providing the perfect setting to the bleak adventure.

In honestly though, for me, its art style did more than just set the stage, it evoked the sense of playing within the Dark Souls fiction. This was a feeling quickly reinforced by Tormentum’s similar story setup (you begin in a dungeon thanks to a mysterious mark), or the resemblance the lead character had with my mage in Dark Souls. Whatever the reason, the effect was absolute – for me this became a side story to a game I adore, showing me a different side to that world. Like an amazing fan fiction, it entranced me.

Of course, Tormentum – Dark Sorrow is a very different game to Dark Souls. Its point-and-click puzzles place a focus on guile and cunning, rather than brutal combat. The strange effect this had for me was that it created a further fascination to this amalgamation world and how people may try and survive in it, albeit only in my head.

You can get a taste of Tormentum from its demo, though this short taster’s puzzles lack the involvements of later conundrums. This area’s linear nature does nothing to show how later challenges expand, layering in unforeseen ways to create depth in the fiction, often resulting in choices that effect later sections of the game and story. This was an unforeseen treat in what I expected would be a simple linear affair with attractive art.

To really cement my enjoyment of Tormentum, it also features well designed puzzles. Often point-and-click adventure games demand surreal paths of actions, but here the logic seems straightforward – or at least comprehensible. If you need to kill a phallic shaped beast, of course a poisoned spider’s leg stewed with a steak will work. Or perhaps you have to create a spark in a boiler – two ram skulls smashed together should do it. Also, to make sure you are never reduced to clicking randomly around the screen for possible hints, everything you can interact with is politely indicated with a nice glow effect.

Your hero’s battle for freedom is a wonderful one, and something I would never have experienced had I not been combing my way through Greenlight. Certainly give the demo a try, and consider if the look and feel will draw you in, because you don’t have to be a fan of the genre to enjoy Tormentum – Dark Sorrow, just a fan of the world.

Related Stories

Tormentum – Dark Sorrow review

Titan Souls review

Titan Souls gameplay video

Follow me on Twitter: @DoFuss