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Undead Labs learns the psychology of the apocalypse at Burning Man
In a recent dev diary, Undead Labs' Gronk gives us a first-hand perspective on a trip he made to the Nevada desert for Burning Man. Why is a vacation travel log news for MMO fans? Well, mostly because the experience was written up with post-apocalyptic survival in mind -- a topic that Undead Labs will be tackling in its upcoming zombie MMO. "At Burning Man, real-world currency is largely useless... much like it would be after a societal collapse," Gronk writes. "Would you want to trade the food you need to survive for some green paper? I sure wouldn't." Reading a personal experience like this leads us to believe that the Undead Labs zombie MMO will have a heart -- a rotting, putrid, maggot-infested heart -- but still, a heart. [Photo Credit: Wacky Archives]
Shawn Schuster09.12.2011
You decide what goes in the Borderlands 2 collector's edition; also, a survey
Gearbox is all ears (and other limbs, internal organs and appendages -- they're not freaks) for the contents of the Borderlands 2 collector's edition, asking for creative fan suggestions to fill out its packaging. Post your collector's edition dreams in the official forum, or right here, as Gearbox has promised to read our own thread as well. Gearbox also has a short survey for Borderlands players to fill out, asking questions about which aspects of the game were most important and why, ending with an open-ended suggestion box. For those low on free-form comment juices, feel free to copy this one with the appropriate words inserted: "Borderlands was a(n) (adjective) game with (adjective) art style and (adjective) gameplay mechanics. (Don't) change anything in that regard for Borderlands 2. The storyline could be (more/less) cohesive in the sequel and the AI could (not) be improved. Also, more lasers."
Jessica Conditt09.09.2011
Apple tops J.D. Power customer satisfaction survey, grim reading for RIM and Nokia
Not only is Apple shipping the most smartphones, it's also shipping the best smartphones -- if you believe the stats in J.D. Power and Associates' latest US customer satisfaction survey. It gave the iPhone a score of 838, versus HTC's handsets in second place with 801 and an industry average of 788. Sammy got a disappointing 777, but we guess it might have fared better if the Galaxy S II had been quicker to cross the Atlantic. Hapless RIM got shunted into fifth place, having come second in 2010. You'll find plenty more factoids in the PR after the break, including evidence that people just love 4G. Well, we could have told you that.
Sharif Sakr09.09.2011
Younger audiences play more freemium games, but 25-34 year-olds pay for them
Flurry's latest post is yet another interesting read on freemium games on the App Store, specifically which age groups are playing them, and which age groups are paying for them. They've used consumer spending data across over 1.4 billion sessions, which means this information is as accurate as you're going to get outside of Apple's own databases. As you can see above, the patterns are interesting. Younger players are the primary users of freemium games, and that's not really surprising -- we've known for a while that the younger generation is downloading and playing more games than anyone else. But that third blue bar is the really interesting one: The people actually paying for freemium games are primarily in the 25-34 age group, right in the middle of the demographics. Sure, they're playing their share of the games, but freemium titles are almost completely funded by that stripe of the age demographic. And when you consider that the average freemium title only really pulls in-app purchases from a small percentage of its audience anyway, that age group becomes even more important. This seems logical, as most successful in-app purchase items are for convenience and time-saving. The 25-34 age group has more money but not as much free time as the younger audience, and thus are willing to shell out for items that help them in the game. But the big question is whether this will change as the years go by. As the younger audience gets older, will they become the main payers for these titles, or just stay the main players? We've only been playing with this model for a few years, and if the younger audience keeps playing without paying, freemium could be a short-lived trend.
Mike Schramm09.08.2011
Objective-C rocketing up the TIOBE charts
The TIOBE index is a chart of what have been rated as the most popular programming languages in the world, according to various searches online, the number of experts in those languages, and even software output (though it is very certainly not a strict chart of "most lines written"). Obviously, it can't be perfect, but it's at least a very simple indicator of what kinds of computer languages developers are using at any given moment. Look what has appeared at spot number 6: Good old Objective-C, the language that Mac and iOS developers use to code Mac and iOS apps. Mac and iOS development are gaining in popularity lately, thanks to both the Mac and iOS App Stores, and lots of developers are either jumping in to Objective-C development for the first time, or deciding to flex their coding muscles even more (often by leaping into the iOS fray). This chart shows just how phenomenally Objective-C is growing lately -- just since 2009, developers have started flocking to the platform in droves. That's pretty amazing. Part of it, of course, is that Apple has poured a lot of resources and development time into building up Objective-C and Xcode alike, but I don't think you can overestimate just how powerful the growth of the App Store as a distribution platform has been for Objective-C and its apps. [via DF]
Mike Schramm09.06.2011
Study finds post-Steve Jobs consumer optimism
The general consensus before Steve Jobs resigned from Apple was that, when he did so, people would expect Apple to go downhill from there. However, an analysis by ConsumerAffairs finds that people's view of Apple and its future actually became more positive after Jobs resigned. ConsumerAffairs analyzed 27 million Tweets, Facebook comments, and sentiments from other social networking sites over the previous twelve month period. After August 24th, the day Steve Jobs resigned, positive sentiments for Apple hit a high for the year. ConsumerAffairs says that out of 234,000 comments in August, 50% were positive, 30% were neutral, and only 20% were negative. Typical comments included: "Apple will be fine thanks to his [Jobs'] leadership" and "Apple is incredibly solid thanks to him [Jobs]." Also of interest is that of the 20% of comments that were negative, most of those focused on pricing or technical issues with Apple products, rather than the perceived outlook in the future of the company. Overall, Steve Jobs' resignation has had little material impact on Apple (the stock is currently about $5 higher than its close the hour before Jobs' resignation was announced), but as the ConsumerAffairs analysis shows consumer faith in the company also moved in the opposite direction many would have expected it to.
Michael Grothaus09.06.2011
You're the Pundit: What's the Apple "Product Transition" going to be?
Other sites have rumors. We have the TUAW braintrust. We put the question to you and let you have your go at it. Today's topic is Apple's mysterious fall "product transition." During Apple's Q3 Financials, Peter Oppenheimer mentioned an upcoming product transition due to take place this autumn. Without giving specific details, Oppenheimer hinted that it could impact earnings. So what is this "future product transition that we will not talk about today" that will affect the fall quarter? You tell us. Place your vote in this poll and then join in the comments with all your predictions. %Poll-68613%
Erica Sadun09.01.2011
You're the Pundit: iPhone 5 US Carriers
Other sites have rumors. We have the TUAW braintrust. We put the question to you and let you have your go at it. Today's topic is the iPhone 5 and its carriers. As Autumn rolls around and the iPhone 5 gets ready to launch, what carriers do you expect to see joining Verizon and AT&T with official Apple support? By "official", we're not talking about putting a T-Mobile SIM into an unlocked Apple GSM iPhone. We're talking about announcement and roll-out in integration with the company. Place your vote and then join in the comments with all your predictions. %Poll-68460%
Erica Sadun08.31.2011
The slippery slope: Analysing the decline of World of Warcraft
It's the word on the street these days: World of Warcraft is no longer quite the king that it used to be. The massive title has lost around one million subscribers over the past year, even with Cataclysm releasing last December. Gamasutra sat down with Blizzard for a frank talk about why the title is in decline, and what the studio has planned to counter this trend. While Blizzard is pleased with the tune-up that Cataclysm provided to the landscape and questing, some players cite the erosion of difficulty and challenge as a reason for their leaving. Lead Systems Designer Greg Street acknowledges this, but says that the WoW team is in uncharted territory: "We just don't have a lot of examples of games that have lasted this long and been this popular for so long to show the right way to do it. I think coming up with new mechanics and new systems is relatively easy, the problem is integrating it with what we already have. World of Warcraft today is so much more complicated than it was when it launched six or seven years ago." Ultimately, it may come down to players becoming bored more quickly as Blizzard struggles to pump out content to keep their attention. UC Irvine's Thomas Debeauvais conducted a study of 2,865 WoW players across the world, and found that 75% of them had stopped playing the game for at least a month while still being subscribed to it. Blizzard says that it wants to provide faster content updates and continue to overhaul the game's mechanics and graphics to give the players a reason to stay.
Justin Olivetti08.31.2011
Age of Conan dev update talks new content, crafting revamp
Yeah, you read that right, Age of Conan fans. Funcom is planning on remaking the game's much-maligned tradeskill system. While the exact nature of the changes has not been revealed, and the deployment date is pretty far in the future (sometime in 2012), it's a big step for what has thus far been a squarely combat-focused game. This month's AoC development update has the details, along with teasers for a new adventure pack in the early part of 2012, not to mention additional content before the end of 2011. That content includes the conclusion of tier four raid progression in Khitai as well as the long-awaited House of Crom dungeon. Funcom game director Craig "Silirrion" Morrison describes the space as part open dungeon (similar to the Onyx Chambers) and part team instance with dynamic opportunities for both cooperation and conflict. Today also marks the deployment of the Savage Coast of Turan adventure pack to the live servers (though it's worth noting that you won't be able to access it until September 8th unless you ordered the early bird pack), and Funcom currently advises players of a six-hour down time on the AoC patcher. Finally, the devs have put together a community survey that is open to everyone, so be sure and fill it out to make your voice heard with regards to AoC's future development.
Jef Reahard08.31.2011
Zite searches show some fascinating regional differences
Zite is my favorite news discovery app on the iPad. I find myself using this free app several times a day as it crawls over thousands of websites looking for things I will be interested in. It works by noting my interests, and finding more based on a complex personalization algorithm. I'm constantly finding compelling articles and sharing them with friends and colleagues. Today, Zite shared some data about the terms users select to seed the app. They've broken it down by state, and the results are interesting. It's clear the US is not homogeneous in interests -- that's obvious to most of us -- but it's really clear in the Zite data. Click here for an interactive map and move your mouse over each state. You'll see a variety of search terms over each state. It's not a list of the top search terms by state, but rather how those states differ from other parts of the country. For example, the term 'code warriors' comes up in California, Washington state, Colorado and Massachusetts. 'Disney' is a popular search term in California, Florida, Hawaii, New Jersey and Alabama. 'Beer' is on a lot of Zite users minds in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin. 'Aliens' and 'conspiracy' searches in quantity is unique to Nevada. Area 51 anyone? In Alabama, 'Bible Study' slightly beats out 'Lingerie'. Of course if the survey was taken today I'd expect to find 'hurricane' and 'Steve Jobs' searches, but what Zite has done is more interesting, because the differing regional interests we know exist in the US are easy to see on the map. You can read more about the methodology here. It's an interesting stroll through some data that helps illuminate what is on American minds. Take a look at the map. Any surprises for you?
Mel Martin08.26.2011
3G coverage survey gives British smartphone users little to smile about
The UK has plenty of endearing olde worlde attributes, but its lack of fast mobile data access isn't one of them. The country has yet to enter the LTE era and, according to a crowdsourced survey by the BBC, it's still plagued by "not spots" where you can't get 3G reception either. More than 40,000 Brits downloaded a tailor-made Android app that recorded their local street level access and their results proved that many city centers and rural areas are effectively no-go swamplands for smartphone users -- although coverage was good over 70- to 80-percent of Her Majesty's territory. It's about time we did a similar survey in the US. Oh, and check out the source link to watch a Galaxy II-owning village vicar vent his frustrations in the politest possible way.
Sharif Sakr08.25.2011
McAfee: Android malware soars while iPhone untouched
McAfee says that the Android OS is having some issues with malware lately -- according to a new study from the anti-malware company, Android malware has grown by 76% over the past few months, sending the number of troublesome scripts out there to over 40. Some of the malware appears to be legitimate apps, and other issues come from code that sends unwanted text messages or performs other scammy behavior. Meanwhile, Apple is doing great with iOS -- McAfee has recorded zero legitimate threats to a stock iPhone, with the only attacks on the hardware coming to four different jailbroken devices. It appears Apple's "walled garden" approach, while limiting to some developers and customers, has at least made good use of those walls in keeping malware away. The other mobile OS with a spotless score? webOS, which of course is probably that way simply because it's just not used that much.
Mike Schramm08.23.2011
Study confirms: Some people are way too invested in their favorite brand
Did you weep into your cornflakes over Antennagate last year? Me either, but a new study suggests that some people might have. According to Ars Technica, researchers at the University of Illinois discovered that attacks upon people's favorite brands can be perceived as attacks against their self image. The study claims that people with high "self-brand connections" were more likely to perceive personal psychological injury when their brand was attacked, while those same people were likely to gloss over or ignore negative news concerning their brand. We at TUAW get accused of this kind of behavior all the time, naturally. All of our writers own multiple Apple products. Our benevolent corporate overlords at AOL (not, as many have claimed, Apple itself) pay us a modest sum to write about them. Does this mean that I lunge for the Prozac every time some Android-plugging pundit insists that the iPhone is "dead in the water?" Nope. When various pundits go out of their way to slam Apple and prop up the competition by making outlandish, unsupportable, and linkbaity claims, what depresses me isn't that it's an assault on Apple, but an assault on logic. Another common criticism that some of our more fervently anti-Apple commenters regularly like to toss at us is that we never report any negative news about Apple and spin everything to make the company look favorable and pristine. Just from my own back catalog of posts I can tell you that's far from the case. Here's some proof: Baffling inconsistencies in OS X Lion Multi-Touch OS X Lion Bug: Safari guzzling massive amounts of RAM Lion bug: Some iMacs locking up after playing video Apple issues recall for some iMac hard drives And my favorite: Why my next Mac won't be a notebook Of course, stepping up to defend myself and TUAW like this is just what you'd expect a "fanboy" to do, right? And the scientific minds behind Cracked would point out that poo-pooing study results like those from U of Illinois is extremely common, that we all delude ourselves we're above that sort of thing. "Certainly," we'll say, "there is an Apple cult, but I'm too self-aware to be part of it. This is why I stay with Apple, not because I salivate every time I see a precision-crafted piece of unibody aluminum." I will say that my loyalty to any company goes only so far. My PlayStation 3 died yesterday as a result of a well-known manufacturing defect, and my PlayStation 2 died an untimely death only four years ago because of yet another manufacturing issue. Both happened well outside of Sony's pitiful warranty period, so all repair/replacement costs came out of my own pocket. So guess what? I'm not buying a PlayStation 4. Sony, you and me, we're done professionally. As for Apple and its products, the second a single company comes out with a notebook better than a MacBook Pro or Air, and a phone better than an iPhone, and a tablet better than an iPad, and an operating system better than OS X, and customer service better than AppleCare, and integrates it all so tightly that from top to bottom there's no mistaking the quality of the products or the experience of using them, I will kick Apple to the curb without regret. I mean, wouldn't you? ...No? Pfft, fanboy.
Chris Rawson08.17.2011
Pew: Half of US customers use phones to get info in realtime
Have you ever been out and about with your cell phone, needed some information, and looked it up right there on the spot? You're not alone: The Pew Internet Research Project has released a report that says more than half of US cell phone owners have used their devices to get information they needed in real-time, right where they happen to be. That's a huge change in the way we used to deal with information -- remember when you had to print out maps or call ahead before you went somewhere, or just forget what the name of that '80s movie actually was? Nowadays, connected phones are so ubiquitous that all of that information is literally and conveniently a touch away. In fact, I'm surprised that number isn't higher. And looking up information isn't the only thing smartphone owners do with their phones: 92 percent text and take pictures, 80 percent send photos to others, and 76 percent send emails. Social networking in general is popular as well, with 59 percent of owners using those sites, and 15 percent going to Twitter specifically. We've heard before that people are actively doing these kinds of things with their smartphones, but the trend is definitely continuing.
Mike Schramm08.15.2011
Instapaper usage stats show high iOS 4, iPad adoption
Marco Arment, developer of Instapaper, has provided some intriguing usage stats for his bestselling app. While the numbers aren't representative of the entire iOS ecosystem, the fact that Instapaper is a popular paid app (almost always in the top 5 paid apps in the News category on the App Store) makes these stats worth looking at for developers looking to efficiently design and market their apps. The majority of Instapaper users (56 percent) are using the app on an iPad, versus 39 percent on iPhone and a tiny six percent on the iPod touch. In only four months of availability the iPad 2 accounts for over 27 percent of devices using Instapaper, with usage numbers already nearly identical to those seen from the original iPad. As a universal app and a news reader, it's not particularly surprising that iPad adoption is so high among Instapaper users, but the huge jump in iPad 2 numbers in such a short time is rather startling. Based on the numbers he's seeing, Arment estimates that approximately 40 million iPads have been sold since its introduction. As for OS compatibility, 99 percent of Instapaper users are using iPhone OS 3.2 or above, and 98.4 percent are on iOS 4 or later. After taking into account the high adoption of iOS 4.2 and above (96 percent of users) and the tiny number of users running Instapaper on devices that can't be upgraded to iOS 4 (0.4 percent of users still running an original iPhone or iPod touch), Arment has decided to make iOS 4.2 the minimum supported OS for the next release of Instapaper. According to Arment, dropping support for versions of iOS earlier than 4.2 has allowed him to streamline Instapaper's code in several ways. 5.4 percent of his users are running Instapaper on devices that are capable of running iOS 4.2, but for whatever reason those users have yet to update. If you're one of those users, now's the time to update your OS... and if you're still running a first-gen iPhone or iPod touch and want to keep Instapaper current, it's time to upgrade your hardware. Other iOS developers can learn a lot from Instapaper's usage stats. While the stats for your app are probably going to be a bit different, it seems that as time goes by the number of users actively using older iPhones and older versions of iOS steadily declines to the point that it's no longer efficient to support them. Arment estimates that the number of Instapaper users still using an iPhone 3G will diminish significantly after the iPhone 5 hits the market, which means many types of apps (games in particular) may benefit from dropping support for that model iPhone sometime in the next few months. If you're in the same position as Arment -- looking for ways to improve your app's codebase and considering dropping support for earlier hardware and iOS versions -- it's worth comparing your usage stats to his and seeing if, like him, you'll be better off in the long run by bumping up your app's base requirements.
Chris Rawson08.14.2011
Spotify iPhone users jump after US launch
Here's an interesting stat I think tells a bigger tale: Onavo is a service for iPhone which claims to shrink your data as it goes in and out, and that service has been monitoring data coming back and forth from its users' iPhones. Spotify, as you probably know, is a music cloud service that recently launched in the US, and Onavo says that iPhone usage for Spotify has spiked since the US launch. In other words, Spotify's iPhone audience has jumped since the service was introduced to the States. This doesn't mean that iPhone is the only way people use Spotify, as there's no information included about what Spotify's web traffic might be like, or the Mac app. But I think it does show that there's a growing trend of people listening to streaming music on their iPhones (something we've already seen from Pandora and other apps). Traditionally, streaming music has always been a web phenomenon, but obviously it's easier and more convenient to listen to music while out and about, and better mobile Internet connections have made that possible. As usual, Apple's already at that party, with big plans for iCloud. That's not actually a streaming service, it should be noted: iTunes Match only allows for syncing, not full streaming. But this idea of music to and from anywhere is definitely a trend that's growing. [via TechCrunch]
Mike Schramm08.12.2011
US map shows which states trend toward iOS versus Android
A report from mobile advertising firm Jumptap has been compiled into a handy map that shows which US states trend toward Android or iOS usage. By measuring ad click stats from the 83 million users on its network, Jumptap determined the areas of the country where more ads were being clicked on Android versus iOS versus BlackBerry. As the map shows, most of the US west of the Mississippi trends toward Android, while most of the Midwestern and Northeast states are showing iOS dominance. New York, Maryland, and Virginia are hotbeds of BlackBerry activity, which isn't at all surprising considering the preponderance of business and governmental users in those parts of the country. With RIM on the decline, it'll be interesting to see how this map changes over the next couple years. As GigaOm says, this map could be of use to advertisers who want to target more users in their area. If an advertiser's state is ruled by Android according to Jumptap's stats, it might want to target that platform more aggressively than iOS. You know what survey result I really want to see? How many of these highly-prized ad clicks are served up by people tapping them accidentally when they're just trying to scroll around a webpage? In my case, it's roughly 100 percent.
Chris Rawson08.06.2011
T-Mobile working to solve G2 battery life concerns, needs your help
T-Mobile wants YOU... to help them figure out your phone's recent battery life troubles. If you own a G2, there's a slight possibility you've noticed your prized mobile possession hasn't been up to snuff over the last week or so. Is it feeling overworked? It's got a lot of stress bogging it down? Or maybe it's just downright depressed? Sadly, the carrier doesn't have the fuzziest idea of what's going on either, so it's turning to the best resource it has: its customers. If your G2 is lucky enough to be in this "small group" of affected users, you've been given the green light to share your feedback. Though this is happening (coincidentally) at the same time as the phone's monumental update to Gingerbread, it turns out a healthy portion of sufferers haven't actually made the jump up yet. So head on over to offer your two cents -- if one person can make a difference, several hundred should definitely do the trick.
Brad Molen08.05.2011
iPhone preferred by adults, BlackBerry by teens in the UK
A recent Ofcom survey suggests the iPhone is the favorite handset among adults in the UK, while the BlackBerry is preferred by teens. Almost one in three (32%) UK adults with a smartphone rock an iPhone and 37% of teens carry a BlackBerry. The survey of 2,073 adults and 521 teenagers doesn't address the reason why teens prefer a BlackBerry, but it likely has to do with the lower price of the handset and the ease of texting associated with a full, physical QWERTY keyboard. Apparently, both teens and adults with a smartphone love to use their handset. About 37% of adults and a whopping 60% of teenagers claim they are "addicted" to their smartphone. [Via BBC]
Kelly Hodgkins08.04.2011