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Google thinks it can make translated apps fail less
While often hilarious, mistranslations can be embarrassing or even dangerous. Google, which is no doubt responsible for a large number of those, has come up with a way to help developers ensure their apps make sense in other languages. The problem is that machines don't understand context -- as an example, Google cites the word "auto," which can be translated to French either as automatic or automobile, depending on how it's used. That prompted the search giant to develop the Language Quality Survey (LQS), consisting of 10 questions that developers can pose to foreign users.
This 46-gigapixel image is the biggest map of space ever made
Astronomers at Germany's Ruhr-Universitat Bochum have unveiled the largest space map ever compiled on Friday. The image is composited from some 268 individual shots captured over the past five years and spans a staggering 46 billion pixels. That's 855,000 by 54,000 pixels. "If you would want to display this in full resolution on full HD TV screens, you would need more than 22,000 screens," Moritz Hackstein, a PhD candidate who conducted the survey as part of his thesis, told CBS News.
Apple refutes survey that says Apple Music users are jumping ship
Apple Music's panoply of bugs, cluttered user interface and overall instability has given the service a bit of a bad reputation in its first few months, but that doesn't appear to be driving away users. In a statement given to The Verge, Apple says that 78 percent of users who signed up for Apple Music are still using the service. This statement was meant to refute a study from research firm MusicWatch. According to the company's survey of 5,000 US consumers, 48 percent of those that tried Apple Music had stopped using it, despite the fact that it's free through at least September.
Survey shows boys think women are underrepresented in video games
A recent exploratory study conducted by Time has found that 47 percent of middle-school and 61 percent of high-school-aged boys believe that female characters in video games are too often treated as sex objects. The survey was conducted to examine issues of sexism in video games and asked over 1,400 students about their feelings surrounding how women are depicted in the medium. What's more, 70 percent of girls surveyed said that the gender of a protagonist doesn't factor into them playing a game while a surprising 78 percent of boys said the same. And 58 percent of boys who identified as gamers think there should be more female heroes in game, like Bayonetta up above, for example. Oh, and reassuringly "very few" of the respondents knew what Gamergate was. Phew.
Rock Band survey hints at modern console sequel
Following the recent release of the series' first new DLC in nearly two years, it appears that Harmonix might be gearing up for a new entry in its Rock Band series, if an online survey is anything to go by. "Hello friends! You should fill out this important Rock Band survey," reads a tweet from the official Rock Band Twitter account. "Sharing the link is encouraged. DO IT NOW!" The link attached to that message leads to a three-page survey regarding your history with the Rock Band series to date. It's pretty typical stuff - What Rock Band game did you play most?, Which console do you use to play Rock Band?, etc. - but the third page is where things get interesting.
GDC survey: eSports rising, consoles cresting
The Game Developers Conference revealed its third annual "State of the Industry" survey results, which found that 79 percent of North American game developers believed eSports is a "sustainable business." GDC surveyed over 2,000 developers, 12 percent of which said they are working on an eSports-style, skill-based, competitive multiplayer game. The State of the Industry survey also found that 21 percent of developers said they made most of their profits from microtransactions, whereas 29 percent said "direct sales to consumers or digital sales" was their biggest draw. This compares to 13 percent of the developers surveyed, which pointed to sales at retail as the source of the majority of their profits. Of those surveyed, 41 percent said profits for their companies were higher in 2014 compared to the previous year. Lastly, 56 percent of the polled developers said their current projects would launch on PC and 50 percent said their games would reach smartphones or tablets. 26 percent said they were currently working on a game for PS4 while 22 percent said they were developing an Xbox One game. Head over to GDC's site for a more detailed breakdown of its State of the Industry survey results. [Image: GDC]
Working adults are too busy emailing to care about social media
This new Pew Research survey might explain why the most active people in your Facebook friends list are your grandparents and selfie-loving high school cousin. The research firm asked over a thousand adults online what role technology plays in their work lives, and according to the results, those who have jobs find internet connection and email the most important tools for communication. For some reason, landline phones outrank cellphones and smartphones, while social media occupies the very last place.
Players power direction of Oort Online's development
Oort Online's dev team is not content to make this voxel sandbox in the isolation of its ivory tower (or the corner of a deserted warehouse, whatever may be), but it has been asking for constant input from backers for the direction of the game's development. "As the game currently stands, the playable features are quite contained as we've been focusing on establishing the core MMO services and game engine," the devs posted. In a recent backer survey, 43% of those surveyed asked for the devs to prioritize the creation of character races out of the four options presented. In addition, the team said that some of the biggest priorities for a 1.0 release include resource gathering, crafting, and PvE combat. At the bottom of the list? "Real money purchases -- I want short cuts!" Oort Online is a "universe-sized" sandbox that's currently in alpha testing and has raised over $123,000 in crowdfunding. [Thanks to Jose for the tip!]
American, Chinese consumers more enthusiastic about smartwatch wallets than Europeans
A survey conducted by German market research firm GfK seems to indicate that the ability to use a smartwatch like the Apple Watch for electronic payment receives a more enthusiastic response in the US and China than in European countries. The survey tapped 1,000 smartphone owners each in the US, UK, Germany, South Korea, and China. While 54 percent of Chinese and 40 percent of American respondents said they'd be interested in using a smartwatch-based contactless payment system, only 27 percent of those in the UK and South Korea, and 20 percent of German consumers were excited about the prospect. Likewise, 70 pecent of Chinese consumers, 50 percent of Americans, and 43 percent of South Koreans were interested in storing personal health information in a smartwatch, while only 33 percent of UK respondents and 25 percent of Germans had any interest in doing so. AppleInsider's Sam Oliver speculated that the relative lack of credit card-based contactless payment systems in the US and China could be one reason that consumers in those two countries are so receptive to the idea of gaining faster payment through a smartwatch-based system. Apple Pay, Apple's NFC-based smart payment system that works with the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, begins its rollout in the US this week and should be an early indicator of just how Americans will react to being able to make payments without reaching for a wallet.
Survey shows parents are open to using tech to monitor unsupervised kids
Privacy issues are a big topic in America right now, but for kids under 17 privacy is almost always going to be dependent upon their parents. There are no unlawful search and seizure laws governing parents, and a new survey indicates that Big Mother and Father may soon be watching. The survey, conducted by the home automation and security company Piper, shows that a majority of parents interviewed would be willing to use technology to monitor their unsupervised children. Of the 500 parents interviewed for Piper's survey, 60 percent indicated they were open to the idea of using technology to monitor their kids when they're unsupervised at home. Still, those kids are probably doing their homework, right? Mom and Dad apparently aren't so sure, as only 5 percent of surveyed guardians said they thought kids would stay on track and complete their homework if left alone. With that in mind, their concern is understandable; these kids are spending a lot of time alone. 40.6 percent of respondents said their children spend four to five days a week unsupervised after school, while 35.2 percent reported their kids spent at least one to two afternoons unsupervised. Interestingly, while 60 percent of these parents are open to monitoring, only half of them think it would actually work. When asked if remote monitoring would make their kids more or less likely to follow the rules at home after school, 47 percent said it wouldn't make a difference. Kids will be kids, after all. What are your feelings on monitoring your children? Should modern technology give parents more control over keeping track of their kids? Are freedom, trust, and autonomy an important part of a youth's development? Let us know in the comments.
Devs would rather work for Valve than go indie, IGDA finds
Given an open field, developers in the gaming industry would most want to work at Valve, according to the 2014 Developer Satisfaction Survey conducted by the IGDA. The IGDA surveyed more than 2,200 developers to gather the top 10 most desirable employers in the gaming industry. Valve tops the list, followed by "my own company," Activision Blizzard, BioWare, Ubisoft and "current employer." According to these results, the desire to go independent is alive and well in the industry, trumped only by what we assume is a deep need to know the status of Half-Life 3. See the complete list in the below press release.
The Repopulation looks back at its July test updates
The end of the month means a new update for those on the outside looking in at The Repopulation, and July brought with it some sizable changes. For example, the game introduced 27 new areas, with several existing areas seeing new improvements and a lot of extra paths opening up. Any explorer has plenty of new stuff to see throughout the game, from new ways to see old regions to old regions just filled with new things. July also saw the inclusion of the training mechanic, which allows players to spend training points to improve various abilities. Pharmaceuticals, equipment fittings, and music also saw large-scale overhauls for players, and the development team launched a survey to get a better idea of the player types watching the game closely. You can see the full list of patch changes with the official update, along with more details on the overhauls and plans moving forward.
GDC Europe survey finds devs flocking to PC, mobile
The European wing of the Game Developers Conference has unveiled the second annual European State of the Industry Survey, a study that suggests most European game developers see their future on the PC or mobile devices. According to the survey, PC and mobile platforms boast the lion's share of active development projects. 58 percent of developers replying to the survey had PC projects in the works, while 65 percent were developing mobile games. On the console side of things, the PlayStation 4 holds a minor advantage over its Microsoft counterpart. 18 percent of those surveyed claimed to be working on PS4 games, while that number drops to 13 percent for the Xbox One. That gap may be widening though, as 33 percent of respondents believed their next project would appear on PlayStation 4 while only 23 percent said the same of the Xbox One. Before you visit the comments, keep in mind, this survey is not an objective judgement on which hardware is best for gaming. GDC Europe did not just dictate that your iPhone is a better gaming machine than your PlayStation 4, or that your Xbox One has no value. These findings say nothing of technological quality, only where game developers feel they might be able to make money employing their skills. [Image: Rovio]
VMware releases survey on the "Apple Enterprise Invasion"
Today VMware announced the results of a company commissioned survey of 376 IT professionals to access the current state of enterprise desktops. The survey was conducted by Dimensional Research with the goal of capturing hard data on Apple device usage in the workplace, and to quantify the enterprise readiness of Macs. The results of the report, titled "The Apple Enterprise Invasion," shows that Windows is no longer the platform of choice in the enterprise, with users overwhelmingly preferring Macs. User preference is the top reason given by IT administrators as to why their organization supports Macs with 73 percent of IT administrators identifying it as the main driver. There is still progress to be made however when it comes to Mac's enterprise future. 64 percent of surveyed IT administrators said that only some or none of their enterprise applications were currently ready to run on Macs. One possible solution presented by the VMware survey is a virtual desktop which could bridge the gap between Linux PC, Mac, and Windows PCs. 91 percent of surveyed IT administrators stated such a set up would be valuable to their jobs. You can read all of VMware's survey over at their blog.
IGDA: Number of women in industry rising, still under half
Women compose 22 percent of the gaming industry, up from 11.5 percent in 2009, the 2014 IGDA Developer Satisfaction Survey reports. Men make up 76 percent of the industry, while 2 percent of respondents identified as transgender or "other." "Men still dominate the industry," the IGDA says. Game industry respondents worked for an average of four different employers in the past five years, and nearly half of all developers earn less than $50,000 annually; 19 percent earn more than $100,000 annually. The average respondent has been in the industry for nine years and has worked on 16 projects. When these developers leave the industry, 39 percent of the time it's to find a better quality of life. Fifteen percent of respondents say they leave because they're burned out. "Similar to the findings in the 2009 survey, respondents say they feel they need to work more hours than are specifically required or expected," the report says. Fifty-three percent of respondents say "crunch" is not a necessary aspect of game development, and 37 percent report they receive no extra compensation for working a crunch schedule. See the visual breakdown of these numbers below. [Images: IGDA]
More than half of UK studios employ four people or fewer
Small game development studios are on the rise in the UK, as trade body TIGA revealed that 59 percent of all UK studios employ a permanent staff of four employees or fewer. The number is a significant jump from TIGA's report last year, which found that 50 percent of UK studios had similarly petite staffs in 2012. While studios in the region have gotten smaller, they've also grown in number; TIGA surveyed 448 active UK studios in 2012, compared to 620 in 2013. "This is a direct consequence of the UK games' industry increasing focus on mobile as the primary games platform," TIGA CEO Richard Wilson stated. "The surge in start-up studios is encouraging, but many of these will be vulnerable because of their size. TIGA's focus now is to help developers grow their businesses by ensuring that governments create a favorable environment for the industry and by providing quality networking events, professional business advice and access to partners, publishers and investors." [Image: TIGA]
Apple's iOS 7.1 update a mixed bag for users: Solutions to the most common problems
Apple's recent iOS 7.1 update resolved a number of issues for many users of the company's smartphone and tablet products. However, results of a survey conducted by TUAW show that over a quarter of a sampling of Apple customers who have installed the update feel that their devices are now in "worse" or "much worse" shape than they were prior to the update. Our survey asked readers to respond to the question "Have things gotten better or worse for you since iOS 7.1 was installed?" with one of five answers ranging from "Much Better" to "Much Worse". Almost a third of the 556 respondents were very happy with iOS 7.1, stating that the update had fixed a variety of issues with iOS 7 ranging from random reboots to slow response time on older iPhones. Altogether, over half of respondents said that life in the iOS 7.1 lane was better. For the unhappy users, the major issues appear to be deteriorating battery life and connectivity problems with cellular data carriers. One reader noted that "Since installing 7.1, the AT&T data connection has completely disappeared on both my phones. AT&T says there is nothing wrong, but every time I try to make a data connection I get an error message saying 'You are not subscribed to a data service.' Even a hard reset and the complete reinstallation of the operating system didn't help." Another wrote that "Cellular connectivity seems to have been decreased: the other day I had 2 "dots" of LTE and 4G service (ATT) and could not establish a viable data connection (iPhone 5). Same for my iPad with T-mobile (one dot)." Here are some helpful solutions for dealing with the most common problems that have arisen following the update. Problem: You can't connect to your cellular data carrier This problem has been occurring to various degrees for many users. The first thing you should try is to turn on your phone's airplane mode for ten seconds (reveal the Control Center with an upward swipe from the bottom of any screen, and then tap on the airplane icon), and then turn it off by tapping the airplane icon again. If this doesn't work, restart your phone by holding down the power button and home button simultaneously until the Apple logo appears. For some users this will fix the problem. However, if you still find yourself unable to connect to your provider after a reset, the best thing you can do is go to a retail location for your carrier. They have access to professional diagnostic tools and should be able to reconnect your phone to their data network. It's a pain, but still better than having to get a new phone. Problem: My battery life seems shorter under 7.1 The folks over at Ars Technica ran a series of tests on iOS devices comparing battery life between iOS 7.0.6 and iOS 7.1. Unfortunately, while they found a slight decrease in general battery life, it wasn't anything major. You can view the results of their study here. There are a number of minor issues that may be causing your battery life to be draining faster. Apps in iOS 7 or 7.1 may consume more battery power than before, in part thanks to iOS 7's new Background Refresh feature. In iOS 7, apps in the background can now request the ability to update their content (like a newspaper), trigger location-based alerts (like Foursquare or Yelp tipping you to a new coffee bar nearby) or just keep chugging along even if you switch the foreground app (like Google Maps giving you voice navigation directions even though you've moved on to something else). This also includes some Apple-provided apps like Podcasts and Weather. While iOS is supposed to be smart about managing this background access for convenient and power-saving times, it doesn't always quite work out that way. Want to see what kind of impact the background refresh is having on your battery life? Easy enough; just turn it off, in Settings > General > Background App Refresh. Either use the master switch to disable all apps at a stroke, or toggle individual apps that seem particularly profligate with your power. You may discover several that have no earthly reason to be updating in the background. (Coca-Cola Freestyle, this side-eye is for you.) Apple also suggests the option of a "force quit" for battery-hungry apps, making sure they can't update again in the background until you relaunch them manually. This is done by double-tapping the Home button to bring up a scrollable list of your currently active apps. Just swipe up with your finger on any app you would like to close. Using either of these approaches to keep apps from chewing up battery when you're not using them will extend the battery life on your iOS device. This is especially important to know if you're new to iOS. For other handy ways to improve the battery life on your iPad or iPhone, check out our previous tutorial on the subject. Problem: Apps are crashing Check to see if there are recent updates available for your app by launching the App Store app and tapping on Updates. Many programs have received patches already that fix crashing issues, and it may be that your device hasn't installed the update automatically. If there isn't a patch available, try uninstalling and reinstalling the app. Problem: This is the first time you've updated your phone in a while With the recent news regarding iOS security updates, it makes sense that some people are upgrading their phones for the first time in a while. We've actually spoken with some users who have never updated their phone beyond the version of iOS it shipped with. For these users the shift to iOS 7.1 is going to be a bit of a jump. A lot has changed since your previous version of iOS, so it's going to take some time to get used to. A good recommendation in this case is to visit Apple's excellent support website at http://apple.com/support/. The site provides a number of topics on how to make the most of the features of your iOS device as well as troubleshooting tips. If you're new to iOS 7, be sure to check out Apple's tips on "iPhone and iOS 7". And whatever you do, please back up your phone first. Conclusion: We're still looking through all of the data that our survey respondents submitted to see if there are other solutions available for the most common problems. In the meantime, give our handy tips a try and see if they help your most pressing iOS 7.1 issues. TUAW editors Steve Sande and Mike Rose also contributed to this report. Updated 3/19/14: Background app refresh information added.
Has iOS 7.1 broken or fixed your iOS device? TUAW wants to know!
While our blogging and editorial team seems to be having relatively few issues with the recent iOS 7.1 update, we've heard of some other people having major problems. So we'd like to know if things have gotten better or worse for you, and in what ways. Let us know what you've experienced for better or worse, and we may contact you for additional detail. Just fill out the form below and we'll take it from there. Thanks in advance for your help! Loading...
Last day to nominate your favorite gadgets for the 2013 Engadget Awards
We'll soon be crowning winners in our annual Engadget Awards, but we need your input first. If you haven't answered our survey about the best products from 2013 yet, head here now. You'll be able to nominate your picks until 11:59PM ET tonight, March 7th, and then the real fun -- voting on our finalists -- will begin. Stay tuned!
Report: 0.15% of mobile gamers account for 50% of F2P game revenue
A recent survey conducted by app marketing firm Swrve found that 50 percent of all free-to-play mobile game revenue comes from only 0.15 percent of players. The survey, reported by VentureBeat, finds that big-spending players, or "whales," often determine a free-to-play game's financial success. Swrve's survey additionally found that the vast majority of its 10 million tracked players never spent any money whatsoever on free-to-play mobile games. Speaking to VentureBeat, Swrve CEO Hugh Reynolds broke down the survey's results, explaining that only 1.5 percent of surveyed players made a purchase within a free-to-play game in the month of January. Around 50 percent of recorded revenue came from the top ten percent of players who did make purchases, representing 0.15 percent of the survey's total headcount. Reynolds also warns that traditional in-app purchase marketing methods are proving less effective in the current marketplace climate. "People are very mobile, and they have a lot of options," Reynolds told VentureBeat. "Trying to capture them is becoming more and more difficult." [Image: Swrve]
