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The best deals on subscription services we found for Black Friday
Here are the best deals on subscription services, including streaming services, password managers, learning services and more, for Black Friday 2021.
Uber will offer free Rosetta Stone language courses to drivers
Uber and Rosetta Stone have teamed up to give drivers free language lessons that will help them speak to passengers.
Fit Brains Trainer: Keeping your grey matter in shape
While a lot of us are at least making the attempt to keep our bodies in shape, not so many people think about keeping their brains fit. That's the idea behind a recent app from Rosetta Stone Canada called Fit Brains Trainer (free with in-app purchases). Like some of the other brain health apps on the market (Lumosity Mobile, as the most obvious competitor), Fit Brains Trainer seeks to boost your health by improving memory and recognition, increasing your attention span, giving you a faster reaction speed, assist you with problem solving, and more. It's done by providing you with a number of learning exercises disguised as games. According to the folks at Fit Brains, the games are actually an adaptive learning system that scales and measures your cognitive performance across five major brain areas. Tools in the app track your performance over time, so you can see if there's an improvement and also compare yourself to others of your age and gender. A recent update added daily brain training sessions that are just plain fun. Like many other users of the app, I downloaded Fit Brains Trainer for free. After a certain time period, you can either spend some money to unlock additional games and levels, or you're stuck playing the same games forever. Fit Brains usually provides deals, so be sure to get an account (which also saves your progress) and wait for the deal email to arrive before you spend your money. So, how are the games? Some seem simple to me, while others are just plain mind-boggling. I try to do a training session every day, as that is recommended for the best results. In each session, you'll be given games to play that work a specific brain area. Today, for example, an early session chose "Focus" as the work area, while this afternoon I was given "Memory" games to play with. Each one of the games is timed, and you're asked to perform a specific task. For example, one memory game provides a board with a number of dissimilar objects on it. It changes, and you're tasked with tapping on the objects that have changed. At the end of the pre-set time (60 seconds per game), you're given a score for the game that includes points (and a comparison with your best score), a reaction time number, the number of correct answers, and your accuracy. There's also a percentile ranking so you can see just how you're doing in comparison to the rest of the population. Each training session consists of four stages. The next stage in my afternoon session consisted of the Missing Pieces game, where you decide which piece is missing after object drop through a funnel. Once again, speed and accuracy are rewarded, and you should get faster and more accurate as time goes by. Fit Brains Trainer sessions can be accomplished in about five minutes, so it's a perfect way to build your brain power while not taking a big chunk of time out of your day. The games are challenging and get more so as time goes by, and new games are introduced regularly to keep you coming back. If I have one complaint about Fit Brains Trainer, it's that the company's in-app purchases can be very confusing. For example, look at this sidebar from the App Store: What's the difference between FULL ACCESS and COMPLETE? (the latter apparently provides access to seven other apps, but aren't they all included in the Fit Brains Trainer app? Why are there two prices - $24.99 and $49.99 - for the Lifetime FULL ACCESS purchase? Is one the discounted version unlocked with the email and the other the undiscounted version? Why is the COMPLETE annual subscription so incredibly expensive compared to the FULL ACCESS lifetime subscription? Why not just make it simple and fair and give everyone the lower price? As you can tell, just trying to figure out what Rosetta Stone is trying to do with the confusing array of products and pricing is enough to exercise your brain. If you can get past that barrier and just enjoy the games, you'll find a well designed and implemented brain training app. Fit Brains Trainer is designed for both iPhone and iPad, so you can switch between devices as desired.
Argue about the offside rule in Portuguese with Rosetta Stone's Futebol app
We're big fans of Football English Soccerball, but even we aren't hardcore enough to be able to discuss the technicalities of the game in Portuguese. Thankfully, and just in time for the World Cup, Rosetta Stone (amongst others) is unveiling a Futebol Edition of its travel app, helping you to say escanteio (corner kick), un meio-campista (midfielder) and por favor, queremos saber onde fica o estádio (excuse me, we're looking for the stadium). The app, which is available for free on iOS and Android will give you tips on navigating public transport, but since all of the data is offline, it won't rinse your data connection as it does so. We've tried the app and it's missing a few practical phrases (o árbitro é um bastardo) but otherwise it's golden.
The Echo Nest teams with Twitter to integrate tweets into music apps
The Echo Nest, better known as the creature behind the Spotify Radio curtain, is teaming up with Twitter for a pilot program to integrate tweets into music apps of all ages and descriptions. The company has applied its artist extraction technology to Twitter's Verified Accounts in order to identify artists whose Twitter handles are now part of its Rosetta Stone service. The tie-up allows developers to include artists' Verified Account handles and tweets within music apps; for example, app developer can include tweets from a currently-playing artist alongside music, lyrics, blog posts, photos and other media. No word on what apps will be tucking the functionality into their next update, but you can dig for details in the PR after the break.
Rosetta Stone launches iPad app for well-heeled language learners
The language-learning behemoth known as Rosetta Stone has launched itself into the iPad world with the new TOTALe Companion HD app, a supersized version of the iPhone TOTALe Companion that arrived earlier this year. TOTALe Companion HD delivers access to core Rosetta Stone v4 features on the mobile device: build vocabulary with the Rosetta Course module, and extend/enhance pronunciation with voice recognition. It does not include the Rosetta Studio 'live interaction' video chat, at least not for now. iPad users can sync their progress with the desktop versions of RS. Rosetta Stone may be the dominant brand in computer-aided language learning, but needless to say, it does not come cheap. You can download the iPad app for free, but it doesn't do anything without a corresponding Rosetta Stone account. You activate the app by purchasing the boxed $179 level I lessons for Mac or PC, which provide 3 months of online access (ouch!). Additional levels cost more (it's almost $500 for a five-level course suite), and if you want to continue your access past the 3-month window prices start at $25/month (going as low as $15/month with a 15-month commitment). The $199/299 3 or 6-month online-only (no boxed software) subscription also works with the iPad app. It may not be for the casual student, but if you have a professional or personal need to get conversant in a new tongue pronto, check it out. We will be taking a deeper look at the iPad app shortly. [via CrunchGear]
L3@rn1ng 1337 Sp3ak
With the pending release of Hello Kitty Online, we are all going to need to become proficient in leet speak. This is the language of nerds and basement gamers everywhere (Ed: Because no one in WoW ever talks like this, right?). So in hopes that we'll be able to better understand all those cute little muffins of joy, let's immerse ourselves in some leet speak for the rest of the post.It is also rumored that Rosetta Stone will be releasing a Leet Speak module soon. Stay tuned to HKO Insider for a review of that in the near future.Th3 pr1m@ry th1ng 2 r3m3mb3r ab0ut 1337 sp3@k is th@t u n33d 2 abr3vi@t3 3v3ryth1ng @s mch @s p0ss1ble. U sh0uld a1s0 n3v3r ty93 0u7 7h3 w0rd "you", i7 sh0uld alwayz b u!!!!11lol!!!111An0th3r th1ng t0 r3m3mb3r 1s n3v3r typ3 0ut a c0m9l373 w0rd 1n r3@1 1@ngu@g3 un13ss y0u abs0lut3ly hav3 t0. Us3 b@d gr@mer and sp3ling wh3n 3vr p0sibl3. U sh0uld n3v3r juzt typ3 "lol" n3m0@r. I7's alwyz LOLOL!L!!!!!111!!!!! S33? Dat iz sexi k3wl!!! Y@!!!!S0 h0w iz ur l337 593@%? Iz it uberz?
