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Secret microLED labs, Apple R&D, and the future of product margins

Over the weekend, Mark Gurman at Bloomberg reported that Apple has apparently built out a microLED display laboratory in California for testing and manufacturing small batches of the next-generation screen technology, presumably for its iPhone and other devices. Apple had previously acquired microLED startup LuxVue in 2014.

The news of a secret research lab fits into a larger narrative about Apple’s deeper and more expensive focus on research and development. Neil Cybart of Above Avalon, a subscription blog focused on Apple, noted that Apple “is on track to spend $14 billion on R&D in FY2018, nearly double the amount spent on R&D just four years ago” and also pointed out that “The $14 billion of R&D expense that Apple will spend in FY2018 will be more than the amount Apple spent on R&D from 1998 to 2011.”

Those are incredible numbers for any company, but the scale of the R&D output even for Apple is exceptional. Even more notably, Apple’s R&D expenses as a percentage of revenue have been steadily increasing over the past few years and are projected to reach a decade high of 5.3% this year despite higher revenues, according to Cybart.

That revenue percentage may be high for Apple, but it is remarkably low compared to peers in the technology industry. Other companies like Google and Facebook are spending more than double and sometimes triple Apple’s percentage of revenue on R&D. Part of that reason is Apple’s sheer revenues and scale, which allows Apple to amortize R&D over greater revenues than its competitors.

The more interesting observation though is that Apple has traditionally avoided having to do the sorts of expensive R&D work involved in areas like chip design and display manufacturing. Instead, the company’s focus has traditionally been on product development and integration, areas that certainly aren’t cheap, but are less expensive than bringing say a new LCD technology to market.

Apple doesn’t produce wireless modems or power management systems for its phones, instead using components from companies like Qualcomm, as in the iPhone X. Even highly-touted features like the iPhone X’s screen aren’t designed by Apple, but instead are designed and manufactured by others, which in the case of the screen was Samsung Display. Apple’s value-add was integrating the display into the phone (that edgeless screen) as well as writing the software that calibrated the color of the screen and ensured its exceptional quality.

For years, that integration-focused R&D model has been a win-win for Apple. The company can use the best technology available at low prices due to its negotiating leverage. Plus, the R&D costs of those components can be amortized not just against iPhones, but all other devices using the technology as well. That meant Apple put its resources behind high-value product development, and could maintain some of the best margins in the hardware industry by avoiding some of the costlier research areas required for its products.

That R&D model changed after Apple bought P.A. Semi almost exactly a decade ago for $278 million. Apple moved from an R&D strategy focused on product development to increasingly owning the key hardware components of its devices. No where is that more visible than in the processing cores at the center of the iPhone. The A11 Bionic processor in the iPhone X, for instance, is completely custom-designed by Apple, and manufactured by TSMC.

Indeed, the processor is an obvious place to start vertically integrating, since it provides so much of the other functionality of the device and also has a large influence on battery life. The FaceID feature, for instance, is powered by a “neural engine” component of the A11 chip.

There is a direct line between creating differentiated features that consumers recognize and are willing to shell out top dollar for, and building out the sorts of custom components that Apple has shied away from in the past. The display is obviously a critical point of differentiation, and so it shouldn’t be surprising that Apple increasingly wants to bring that technology in-house so it can compete better with Samsung.

Alright, so Apple is spending more on R&D to increase differentiation – sounds great. Indeed, one narrative of these expenses is that Apple is investing from a position of strength. Through its sheer force of will, it has become one of the most valuable companies in the world, and it dominates many of the markets in which it competes, most notably smartphones. It has incredible brand loyalty with a millions of customers, and it sees an opportunity to expand into new device categories like automotive in order to continue growing and owning more markets. In other words, it is expanding R&D to propel growth.

The more negative view is that Apple is struggling to maintain its hold on a shrinking smartphone industry, and the increasing R&D spend is really a defensive maneuver designed to protect its high sale prices (and thus margins) against significantly cheaper competitors who offer nearly equivalent functionality. Apple’s custom hardware powers its exclusive features, and that creates the differentiation needed to sustain revenues going forward.

There is truth in both narratives, but one thing is for certain, the margin pressure on Apple is increasing. While everyone is making educated guesses at iPhone X sales, many analysts believe that sales have been, and will continue to be weaker than expected, driven by the device’s high cost. If that is true, then higher prices will not be able to offset higher research and developments costs, and the combination will put more of a vice grip on Apple’s future smartphone innovation than the company has previously experienced.

It seems obvious that a company with hundreds of billions of dollars on the balance sheet should just be investing more of that into R&D initiatives like microLED. But analysts care not just about top-line revenue, but also the margins of that revenue. Apple’s increasing spend and declining unit sales portend tougher financial questions for the company going forward.

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Sony May Owe You $65 for Your Old PS3

If you own an old PlayStation 3, the original “fat” one before it slimmed down, then Sony could owe you up to $65. Unfortunately, there are a few hurdles to jump through, and you only have until April 15, 2018 to stake your claim for compensation.

Class-action lawsuits are very common these days, and they can involve thousands of people, and drag on for years. For the last few years Sony has faced one such lawsuit, and it’s all because the company removed the ability to install Linux on a PS3.

Did You Install Linux on a PS3?

When Sony released the PS3 in 2006 it was touted as a computer. This was partly due to the “OtherOS” feature, which let you partition the hard drive and install Linux on it. Unfortunately, in 2010, Sony released an update which killed that feature.

My favorite thing about this is that “fat” PS3 is the official, legal nomenclature. pic.twitter.com/pz46Y05oCf

— Billy Shibley ?? GDC (@BillyShibley) March 8, 2018

Despite the fact that very few people ever made use of the “OtherOS” feature, a small group of users sued Sony for false advertising and more besides. And after years of legal wrangling, Sony has agreed to pay out a total of $3.75 million.

In October 2016, we reported how claims were being split, with $55 awarded to those who could prove they had installed Linux, and $9 to those who just owned a “fat” PS3. That has now changed so that all claimants are entitled to up to $65 in compensation.

So, if you purchased a “fat” PS3 between November 1, 2006 and April 1, 2010 (U.S.-only) you can make a claim. Just visit the website, fill out the claim form (including proof of ownership), and then sit back and wait for the check to arrive in the mail.

The PS3 Was a Cracking Console

This case has been dragging on for a long time. After all, it’s 12 years since Sony released the PS3, and eight since it dropped the “OtherOS” feature. Still, it looks like this sorry saga is finally coming to an end. And you may end up benefiting from it.

While most of us have jumped ship to the new generation of consoles, this reminds me just how good the PlayStation 3 was. And the 10 best PS3 games still stand up to scrutiny to this day. No wonder so many are being remade and remastered.

Image Credit: Tim Snell/Flickr

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Google Play Instant lets you try games without having to install them

Last year, Google launched Instant Apps, a way for developers to give users a native app experience that didn’t involve having to install anything. Users would simply click on a link on the search results page and the instant app would load. Today, the company is extending this program to games. Thanks to this, you can now see what playing a level or two of Clash Royale, Final Fantasy XV: A New Empire or Panda Pop is like without having to go through the usual install procedure. Instead, you simply head for the Google Play store, find a game that supports this feature, and hit the “Try now” button.

Google Play product managers Jonathan Karmel and Benjamin Frenkel told me that the team learned a lot from the experience with building Instant Apps. For games, though, the team decided to increase the maximum file size from 2 MB to 10 MB, which isn’t really a surprise, given that a game needs a few more graphical assets than your regular to-do list app. In my experience testing this feature, this still allows the games to load quickly enough, though it doesn’t feel quite as instant as most of the regular instant apps do.

The main idea behind this project, Karmel and Frenkel said, is to drive discovery. To do this, the team is adding a new ‘arcade’ tab in the newly redesigned Google Play Games app to highlight the current crop of Instant games and launching an Instant Gameplay collection in the Google Play Store. The main advantage of these Instant games, though, is that users can try the game without having to install anything. As the team noted, every extra step in the install process offers potential players yet another chance to drop off and move on. Indeed, many users actually install a game and then never open it.

Some casual games already take up less than 10 MB and those developers will be able to opt to make their complete game available as a Play Instant app, too.

For now, this project is still a closed beta, though Google plans to open it up to more developers later this year. Some games that currently support Play Instant include Clash Royale, Words with Friends 2, Bubble Witch 3 Saga and Panda Pop, as well as a few other titles from Playtika, Jam City, MZ, and Hothead.

As Karmel and Frenkel told me, their teams are still working on providing developers with better tooling for building these apps and Google is also working with the likes of Unity and the Cocos2D-x teams to make building instant apps easier. For the most part, though, building an Instant Play game means bringing the file size to under 10 MB and adding a few lines to the app’s manifest. That’s probably easier said than done, though, given that you still want players to have an interesting experience.

Unsurprisingly, some developers currently make better use of that limited file size than others. When you try Final Fantasy XV: A New Empire, all you can do is regularly tap on some kind of blue monster and get some gold until the game informs you how much gold you received. That’s it. Over time, though, I’m sure developers will figure out how to best use this feature.

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Facebook builds Patreon, Niche clones to lure creators with cash

Facebook is eager to displace YouTube and Patreon in order to become the home of online content creators, so it’s testing a bunch of new ways for them to earn money and connect with fans. Facebook’s dedicated Creator app that launched in November on iOS will come to Android soon, and it’s also starting a closed beta program where social media stars can work with it to build new features. It’s already cooked up new ones like a leaderboard for each creator’s most engaged fans who earn a special badge next to their comments, as well as a version of its Rights Manager tool for removing or taking over monetization of unofficial copies of their videos.

But most interesting are the new monetization options Facebook is trying out. It will let some users sign-up for a monthly subscription patronage payment to their favorite creators in exchange for exclusive content and a fan badge just like on Patreon. This will bring Facebook into the world of in-app purchases. Fans will be able to sign up for a $4.99 per month subscription, with Facebook forgoing a cut during the testing period, though the App Store and Google Play will get their 30 percent cut. That means creators will get $3.50 per month per subscriber.

It seems that rather than letting creators set their own price points including a cheap $1 per month option like on Patreon where the average subscription is $12 and the startup takes a 5 percent cut, Facebook is aiming for simplicity of pricing at mid-tier point. However it did mention custom pricing could come later. Not adding its own rake shows how much Facebook is prioritizing getting creators onto its platform. Facebook will launch the program next month with ten creators across the U.S. and U.K.

Meanwhile, Facebook has created a tool that lets creators show off a portfolio of their content expertise and audience, and get connected to businesses to hammer out branded content and sponsorship deals. It’s effectively Facebook’s version of Niche, the creator-sponsor deal broker that Twitter acquired in 2015 for around $50 million. [Disclosure: My cousin Darren Lachtman co-founded Niche] Facebook isn’t taking a cut here either during the testing period.

In both cases, Facebook might add a 5, 15, 30, or 45 percent cut when the features officially launch. Facebook already takes a 45 cut of ad break revenue when creators insert ads into their videos. Facebook also has a direct, one-time $3 tipping feature it’s testing with game streamers.

Creators who want access to the new product and monetization tests can sign-up here. “Creators are vibrant, diverse, and wonderful at building community, bringing people from across the world together around shared passions – and that’s why Facebook is a natural home for them” says Facebook’s VP of product for video Fidji Simo.

Facebook already lets creators use ad breaks and self-brokered sponsored content deals to monetize, but the digital arts economy still doesn’t let them earn enough to survive on this long-tail audience model. Facebook is taking a hint from its work with game developers, where it found that a tiny percentage of “whales” spend most of the money that games earn. Similarly, Facebook is now trying to equip creators with ways to earn the most possible from their biggest, most passionate fans who might pay way more in a tip or monthly subscription than a creator could ever earn through ads.

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How to Force Restart an iPhone and Enter Recovery Mode

There are now two distinct families of iPhone, and two different ways of performing some of the most basic tasks. Inputs like taking a screenshot or restarting your device are a bit different on the latest models.

In 2016 Apple dropped the mechanical home button in favor of a capacitive touch panel instead. Less moving parts means a more reliable device, but since the new iPhone home button relies on software, it’s no longer used to hard reset your device.

So let’s look at how to force restart each iPhone, and how to enter recovery mode to reinstall iOS.

Jump to your device:

• iPhone X, 8, and 8 Plus
• iPhone 7 and 7 Plus
• iPhone 6s, iPad, and earlier

Force Rebooting and Recovery Mode 101

You’ll hopefully never need to hard reset your iPhone, but occasionally something goes wrong.

When your device becomes completely unresponsive, you can choose between waiting for the battery to deplete and initiating a hard reset. A hard reset is basically the equivalent of pulling the power plug, forcing your iPhone to shut down and start up again.

Recovery mode takes this a step further, putting your device into a state where you can reinstall iOS by connecting your iPhone to a computer running iTunes. If your iPhone refuses to boot or crashes on startup, you’ll need to put the device into recovery mode (below) in order to rescue it.

Note that when you reinstall iOS, you’ll lose all the data on your iPhone. This isn’t a problem if you make regular backups, which you can do using iCloud or locally in iTunes. Unfortunately, you can’t back up your device in recovery mode, since iTunes will only offer to restore the firmware.

As such, if you are stuck with an iPhone that won’t boot and you don’t have a backup, there’s nothing you can do to save your data.

For iPhone X, iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus

iPhone X is Apple’s top-tier iPhone, notable for its inclusion of facial recognition technology Face ID and dramatic redesign that sees the entire front of the device function as a display. The iPhone 8 was released at the same time but lacks Face ID.

Note: You’ll need to perform these button combinations fairly quickly.

How to Restart the iPhone X/8

1. Press then release the volume up button.
2. Immediately press then release the volume down button.
3. Hold the side button till you see an Apple logo.

How to Put the iPhone X/8 Into Recovery Mode

1. Connect your iPhone to a computer and launch iTunes.
2. Press then release the volume up button.
3. Immediately press then release the volume down button.
4. Hold the side button, and don’t let go when you see the Apple logo.
5. Keep holding till you see the Recovery Mode screen.

For iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus

Both the iPhone 7 and larger Plus model were released in September 2016, and were to first iPhones to lack a mechanical home button. This required Apple to change these shortcuts for the first time since the iPhone was introduced in 2007.

How to Restart the iPhone 7/Plus

1. Press and hold the side button and volume down button and the same time.
2. Release the buttons after 10 seconds when you see the Apple logo.

How to Put the iPhone 7/Plus Into Recovery Mode

1. Connect your iPhone to a computer and launch iTunes.
2. Press and hold the side button and volume down button at the same time.
3. Keep holding the button even when you see the Apple logo.
4. Release both buttons when you see the Recovery Mode screen.

For iPhone 6s or Earlier

Released in 2015, the iPhone 6s was Apple’s last iPhone with a mechanical home button. The following advice is good for any iPhone that came before the iPhone 6s including the Plus models and iPhone SE.

How to Restart the iPhone 6s or Earlier

1. Press and hold the home and lock buttons (the lock button is on the side in the iPhone 6 or later, or on top of the device on the iPhone 5s and earlier).
2. Release the buttons after 10 seconds when you see the Apple logo.

How to Put the iPhone 6s or Earlier Into Recovery Mode

1. Connect your iPhone to a computer and launch iTunes.
2. Press and hold the home and lock buttons (the lock button is on the side in the iPhone 6 or later, or on top of the device on the iPhone 5s and earlier).
3. Keep holding the buttons even when you see the Apple logo.
4. Release both buttons when you see the Recovery Mode screen.

Finally Ready to Recover Your iPhone

When you put your device into recovery mode, you’ll have 15 minutes to begin reinstalling iOS before your device will automatically exit Recovery Mode. You’ll need to repeat the combination of button presses in order to put it back into Recovery Mode if this happens.

Your device will not show up as normal in iTunes while in Recovery Mode, and you’ll see an error message like the one above. You can always choose to update the firmware, or simply restore the existing version.

Once your iPhone reboots as normal, you will need to login with your credentials to remove Apple’s Activation Lock. This is also why you should never buy an iPhone if the seller refuses to unlock it in front of you.

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Facebook builds Patreon, Niche clones to lure creators with cash

Facebook is eager to displace YouTube and Patreon in order to become the home of online content creators, so it’s testing a bunch of new ways for them to earn money and connect with fans. Facebook’s dedicated Creator app that launched in November on iOS will come to Android soon, and it’s also starting a closed beta program where social media stars can work with it to build new features. It’s already cooked up new ones like a leaderboard for each creator’s most engaged fans who earn a special badge next to their comments, as well as a version of its Rights Manager tool for removing or taking over monetization of unofficial copies of their videos.

But most interesting are the new monetization options Facebook is trying out. It will let some users sign-up for a monthly subscription patronage payment to their favorite creators in exchange for exclusive content and a fan badge just like on Patreon. This will bring Facebook into the world of in-app purchases. Fans will be able to sign up for a $4.99 per month subscription, with Facebook forgoing a cut during the testing period, though the App Store and Google Play will get their 30 percent cut. That means creators will get $3.50 per month per subscriber.

It seems that rather than letting creators set their own price points including a cheap $1 per month option like on Patreon where the average subscription is $12 and the startup takes a 5 percent cut, Facebook is aiming for simplicity of pricing at mid-tier point. However it did mention custom pricing could come later. Not adding its own rake shows how much Facebook is prioritizing getting creators onto its platform. Facebook will launch the program next month with ten creators across the U.S. and U.K.

Meanwhile, Facebook has created a tool that lets creators show off a portfolio of their content expertise and audience, and get connected to businesses to hammer out branded content and sponsorship deals. It’s effectively Facebook’s version of Niche, the creator-sponsor deal broker that Twitter acquired in 2015 for around $50 million. [Disclosure: My cousin Darren Lachtman co-founded Niche] Facebook isn’t taking a cut here either during the testing period.

In both cases, Facebook might add a 5, 15, 30, or 45 percent cut when the features officially launch. Facebook already takes a 45 cut of ad break revenue when creators insert ads into their videos. Facebook also has a direct, one-time $3 tipping feature it’s testing with game streamers.

Creators who want access to the new product and monetization tests can sign-up here. “Creators are vibrant, diverse, and wonderful at building community, bringing people from across the world together around shared passions – and that’s why Facebook is a natural home for them” says Facebook’s VP of product for video Fidji Simo.

Facebook already lets creators use ad breaks and self-brokered sponsored content deals to monetize, but the digital arts economy still doesn’t let them earn enough to survive on this long-tail audience model. Facebook is taking a hint from its work with game developers, where it found that a tiny percentage of “whales” spend most of the money that games earn. Similarly, Facebook is now trying to equip creators with ways to earn the most possible from their biggest, most passionate fans who might pay way more in a tip or monthly subscription than a creator could ever earn through ads.

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Is Fortnite Battle Royale on Mobile Worth Playing?

Fortnite Battle Royale is the darling child of Epic Games that just about everyone is talking about. And after making a splash on PC and consoles, the game is now available on your smartphone.

But how well does the mobile version of Fortnite Battle Royale fare against the PC and console versions? Is it doomed to fail like many other mobile shooters? Let’s find out…

Minimum Requirements

• Internet Connection: Yes
• OS: iOS 11 (Android Support to Follow)
• Minimum Free Storage: 2GB
• iPhone: 6S / SE or newer
• iPad: Mini 4 / Air 2 / 2017 / Pro or newer
• Controller Support: None (Support to Follow)
• Battery Drain: +- 7% per 15mins (Screen on 75% Brightness)

We tested the game using an iPhone X and iPad Pro 10.5 on a 200Mb internet connection. Bear in mind the game is still very much in beta, so you can expect a few tweaks and improvements to overall efficiency as the game is developed further.

Graphics and Ergonomics

To make Fortnite Battle Royale playable on mobile, some trade-offs were made. Both in terms of the controls and the graphics. Don’t expect to find ultra high details on mobile. That being said the game looks and runs beautifully, all things considered.

While having the larger screen of the iPad is a little more immersive, the smaller screen of the iPhone makes the game look prettier. Playing on the iPad is slightly more unwieldy, and the on-screen buttons are a little further apart meaning you’re going to be a little slower on the draw.

Getting Started

Before being able to play Fortnite Battle Royale on iOS, you’ll need to get in line and wait your turn by signing up for early access. Once you receive the invitation and you’ve managed to stop hyperventilating, click on the link in the email to go to the app store and download the game.

Once the game downloads, you will need to sign in to your Epic Games account or, if you don’t already have one, create one. You can easily do this using your Google or Facebook account to make the signup process a little easier.

The Interface

If you have been playing Fortnite Battle Royale on other platforms, you’re going to be pleased that your character, progress, and items will carry over. Your loadout will be as you left it. From this point on, it seems any changes made to your character on one platform won’t sync to other platforms. For example, changing your outfit. This may change in the future.

At the time of writing the only game modes that are available are Solo and Squad, with Duo being temporarily disabled. Solo being you against everyone else, or Squad being you and a team of up to four players against other teams.

As there is no controller support yet, everything is touch based. Moving between the lobby, locker and item shops, moving in-game, shooting, building, everything. If you’re coming from mouse and keyboard or controller, this is going to feel a little different.

The health and shield bars have been relocated and replaced with your inventory and build slots. There are a number of buttons placed on-screen along with some touch control modifications.

The Controls

If you have played mobile shooters before, movement and combat will come naturally to you. There are imaginary thumbsticks that you use to control your character. The left stick, which is actually visible, to move, and the right one to aim, shoot, and more. Pro-tip: double tap the left joystick to lock your character into a forward run.

While there is a button to shoot just above the left joystick, tapping on the screen is a little more intuitive. There are buttons on the right to aim down the sights, jump, and crouch. Finally, to reload, there is a smaller button above your inventory which might be better placed possibly closer to one of the index fingers. As you may have guessed, the game is designed to be used primarily with your thumbs.

Moving, aiming and shooting simultaneously is what you should start practicing. There are going to be a lot of times where you accidentally touch the screen and discharge your weapon. Switching between weapons or building elements will require foregoing movement or aiming, which is a downside to how the game is laid out. Close-up combat is also much easier than some of the long-range shots you need to make.

Some other modifications include having the doors open automatically which can be closed by tapping on them. Weapons and items are also picked up automatically by running over them. Switching and dropping weapons is also done by tapping.

This would be all well and good if Fortnite Battle Royale was only about moving and eliminating others. But this game is heavily weighted towards the Minecraft-inspired building mechanic. Being great at building can definitely give you both a defensive and offensive advantage against other players. Building is the difference between winning and losing in Fortnite Battle Royale.

Building

This is where the mobile platform has a very steep learning curve. Getting to the build menu requires touching the tool icon next to your inventory. From there you tap on the structural element you’d like to build, choose the area, and make one last tap to initiate the building.

This is slower than on console, and significantly slower than on PC. In both console and PC, actions can be done simultaneously, like running and building, but it takes some getting used to on mobile.

In the beginning, you’re going to remain stationary for long periods of time while you figure out what you’re doing and trying to get a structure in place while trying to move. Fortnite’s combat can be extremely swift, and in the beginning, you’re going to be a little frustrated.

Sound Indicators

One of the biggest changes to Fortnite Battle Royale on mobile is how sound is represented on screen. As the game on other platforms is so reliant on sound, Epic Games needed to cater for mobile users. This is very useful for a few reasons.

Firstly, not all mobile users are going to use headphones. If you find yourself with some spare time and want to have a quick game, you may not always have headphones on you. The other reason is that when the headphones are plugged in it could impede the grip you have on your mobile device. This could negatively affect your gameplay.

Epic Games catered for this by having directional on-screen sound cues for gunshots, enemy movement, or golden chests. Your player will obviously have to be within proximity for it to be displayed on screen, and the closer you are relative to the sound the bolder it will be on your screen.

On the subject of audio, voice chat still has yet to make an appearance on mobile. Voice is crucial to squad and duo game modes when coordinating between your teammates. The only workaround for the time being is using the Xbox app on iOS to set up an Xbox party chat. Creating a Microsoft account is free along with the Xbox app. After you create a party, invite the friends on your Fortnite squad and chat away while playing the game.

Is Fortnite Battle Royale Worth Playing on Mobile?

Is Fortnite Battle Royale on mobile the same as the PC or console versions? No. While cross-play allows you to go up against players on other platforms, it’s not recommended. Unless you don’t have access to a computer or console, but you still want to play with friends, stick to playing against other mobile players.

Has Epic Games translated Fortnite as best they could? Absolutely, 100 percent, yes. Epic Games has set the bar so high for future developers in making Fortnite run so well on mobile. Even with the complex building system and control system, the developer has truly made something special.

Playing Fortnite Battle Royale on mobile will give you certain advantages over PC or console players, like the sound indicators. And future controller support will level the playing field for cross-play even further. Having access to your progress and character while moving between platforms also sets the bar even higher for other developers.

If we’re honest, unlike these games with phenomenal touchscreen controls, controlling Fortnite Battle Royale on mobile takes some getting used to, and you’re not going to be as fast at moving and shooting as a you are on computer or console. However, this is a tiny sacrifice to make in order to play Fortnite Battle Royale on your smartphone.

To answer the question in the headline, yes, Fortnite Battle Royale is definitely worth playing on mobile devices, and sets a new high bar for developers to aim for. So what are you waiting for?!

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9 Essential Details You Must Know About Your Mac

Facebook lets all PC games Live stream and reward viewers

Facebook is challenging Twitch and YouTube for video game live streaming supremacy with the release of its new Games SDK for PC. After testing Live streaming from games like Overwatch from developers like Blizzard since 2016, today Live broadcasting from PC games to the News Feed opens to all developers. And Facebook will let them reward fans who watch by providing in-game items or bonuses. For example, beneath the comments reel, users might see a promotion like “Watch Paladins streams for a chance to earn random loot to use in-game.”

The potential for viral growth and sales could convince tons of game developers to bake in Facebook’s new SDK, while players could use the simple broadcasting feature to reach a big audience — though one not as dedicated to gaming as on other platforms. Viewers might choose to watch on Facebook because they get rewarded there. Facebook meanwhile benefits because game streams create compelling niche content that can drive long viewing sessions, helping Facebook monetize viewers in the moment with ads while locking them deeper into the platform long-term.

Facebook is also hooking up developers with deeper analytics through custom “app events” that are now available on PC as well as web and mobile. Game developers can also integrate Facebook’s enhanced Friend Finder feature that lets them play with friends and now see “Key Player Stats” about other people they want to join up with to keep playing together. Developers who want access to the SDK can sign up here.

Facebook got a late start in the game streaming world but has been rapidly developing features and signing deals to grow its viewer base and content catalogue. It inked a deal with esports league leader ESL last year, and just added streaming from tournaments of top games like Counter-Strike and DOTA. It’s brought Live streaming to Messenger games. Facebook also recently started testing a way for viewers to tip cash to their favorite streaming stars, and has even hired some of them for its games team.

The question will be if a catch-all mainstream social network can succeed in such a niche content space. 800 million people play Facebook-connected games each month. But not everyone’s real-world friends care about video games or want to watch their buddies play, so broadcasts could fall flat if they don’t find the particular subset who love gaming. On networks like Twitch or corners of YouTube, people are there specifically to watch game stream. So Facebook will have to use rapid feature development, and it’s size and potential for audience growth to attracts streamers, viewers, and developers. Otherwise gamers might stay where they never feel embarrassed about their passion.

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Pinterest is slowly rolling out its automated shopping ads to more marketers

Pinterest is looking to continue to increase its portfolio of ads, though sometimes that can take a little while to see the light of day — and that includes a new-ish tool called Shopping Ads that’s slowly getting opened to more developers.

Getting new ad formats is important for a smaller company looking to build out an advertising business, as it has to show potential advertisers it can offer an array of tools to play with as they experiment with that service. The company said today that it’s expanding those shopping ad tools to hundreds of additional advertisers after launching a pilot program last year as it looks to continue to ramp up that tool. Pinterest has to be able to convince marketers that it should be a mainstay advertising purchase alongside Facebook and Google, which are able to routinely show returns in value for their advertising spend.

Shopping ads automatically create promoted pins from an existing product feed for a retailer. That means it’s basically one less thing for retailers to worry about as they add more and more content to the service. Most of Pinterest’s content online is business content as users share products they might be interested in one day buying or already own. As Pinterest gets more and more data on this, they’ll have a better handle on what ads work best, and hope that businesses will hand off the process in full to something more automated.

Pinterest hopes to capture that routine user behavior of planning what they want to do next, whether that’s an outfit to wear that day or some kind of major event or purchase down the line. Getting a hold of those users in the moment they might be interested in a new product is key to the company’s pitch to advertisers. You can more or less consider this a continued test as the company starts to slowly give the tool to the advertisers it works with before it becomes generally available. If it works, it could probably end up down the line in the hands of all advertisers, which could help for small- to medium-sized businesses without a lot of experience build out their early marketing campaigns.

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#deletefacebook

Facebook is using us. It is actively giving away our information. It is creating an echo chamber in the name of connection. It surfaces the divisive and destroys the real reason we began using social media in the first place – human connection.

It is a cancer.

I’ve begun the slow process of weaning myself off of the platform by methodically running a script that will delete my old content. And there’s a lot. There are likes and shares. There are long posts I wrote to impress my friends. There are thousands of WordPress notifications that tell the world what I’m doing. In fact, I would wager I use Facebook more to broadcast my ego than interact with real humans. And I suspect that most of us are in a similar situation.

There is a method to my madness. I like Facebook Messenger and I like that Facebook is now a glorified version of OAuth. It’s a useful tool when it is stripped of its power. However, when it is larded with my personal details it is a weapon and a liability.

Think about it: any posts older than about a week are fodder for bots and bad actors. Posts from 2016? 2017? Why keep them? No one will read them, no one cares about them. Those “You and Joe have known each other for five years” auto-posts are fun but does anyone care? Ultimately you’ve created the largest dossier on yourself and you’ve done it freely, even gleefully. This dossier reflects your likes, your dislikes, your feelings, and political leanings. It includes clear pictures of your face from all angles, images of your pets and family, and details your travels. You are giving the world unfettered access to your life. It’s wonderful to imagine that this data will be used by a potential suitor who will fall in love with your street style. It’s wonderful to imagine you will scroll through Facebook at 80 and marvel at how you looked at the turn of the century. It’s wonderful to imagine that Facebook is a place to share ideas, dreams, and hopes, a human-to-human connection engine that gives more than it takes.

None of that will happen.

Facebook is a data collection service for those who want to sell you products. It is the definitive channel to target you based on age, sex, geographic location, political leanings, interests, and marital status. It’s an advertiser’s dream and it is wildly expensive in terms of privacy lost and cash spent to steal that privacy. It is the perfect tool for marketers, a user-generated paradise that is now run by devils.

Will you delete Facebook? Probably not. Will I? I’m working on it. I’ve already been deleting old tweets after realizing that border police and potential employers may use what I write publicly against me. I’m clearing out old social media accounts and, as I mentioned before, deleting old Facebook posts, thus ensuring that I will no longer be a target for companies like Cambridge Analytica. But we love our social media, don’t we? The power it affords. The feeling of connection. In the absence of human interaction we cling to whatever dark simulacrum is available. In the absence of the Town Square we talk to ourselves. In the absence of love and understanding we join the slow riot of online indifference.

When Travis Kalanick led his ride-sharing company down the dark path to paranoia, bro culture, and classist rantings we reacted by deleting the app. We didn’t want to do business with that particular brand of company. Yet we sit idly by while Facebook sells us out and its management pummels and destroys all competition.

I wish it didn’t have to be this way. There is plenty of good in these platforms but the dangers far outweigh the benefits. Try to recall the last time you were thankful for social media. I can. It happened twice. First, it happened when I posted on my “wall” a eulogy for my father who died in January. The outpouring of support was heartening in a dark time. It was wonderful to see friends and acquaintances tell me their own stories, thereby taking the sting out of my own. But months later that good feeling is gone, replaced by ads for fancy shoes and political rants. Out of the Facebook swamp sometimes surfaces a pearl. But it sinks just as quickly.

One more sad example: I found out, accidentally, that my friend’s wife died. It appeared on my feed as if placed there by some divine hand and I was thankful it surfaced. It beat out videos of Mister Rogers saying inspiring things and goofy pictures of Trump. It beat out ads and rants and questions about the best sushi restaurant in Scranton. The stark announcement left me crying and breathless. There it was in black and blue, splashed across her page: she was gone. There was the smiling photo of her two little children and there was the outpouring of grief under these once innocuous photos. Gone, it said. She was gone. I found out from her wall where her memorial service would be held and I finally reached back out to my old friend to try to comfort him in his grief. Facebook, in those two instances, worked.

But Facebook isn’t the only thing that can give us that feeling of connectedness. We’ve had it for centuries.

Facebook simply replaced the tools we once used to tell the world of our joys and sorrows and it replaced them with cheap knock-offs that make us less connected, not more. Decades ago, on one coal-fogged winter morning in Krakow, Poland where I was living, I passed Kościół św. Wojciecha with its collection of nekrologi – necrologies – posted on a board in front of the church. There you saw the names of the dead – and sometimes the names of the newly born – and it was there you discovered what was happening in your little corner of the world. The church wasn’t far from the central square – the Rynek – and I walked there thinking about the endless parade of humanity that had walked across those cobbles, stopping for a moment in their hustle at the church yard to see who had died. I stood in the crisp air, flanked by centuries old brickwork, and imagined who once populated this place. This was the place you met your friends and your future partners. It was there you celebrated your successes and mourned your failures. It was there, among other humans, you told the world the story of your life, but told it slant. You witnessed kindnesses and cruelties, you built a world entire based on the happenings in a few square miles.

No more. Or, at least, those places are no longer available to most of us.

We’ve moved past the superstitions and mythologies of the past. Tools like Facebook were designed to connect us to the world, giving us an almost angelic view of daily happenstance. We replaced the churchyard with the “timeline.” But our efforts failed. We are still as closed, still full of superstition, as we were a hundred years ago. We traded a market square for the Internet but all of the closed-mindedness and cynicism came with it. We still disparage the outsider, we still rant against invisible enemies, and we still keep our friends close and fear what lies beyond our door. Only now we have the whole world on which to reflect our terror.

It doesn’t have to be this way. Maybe some day we’ll get the tools we need to interact with the world. Maybe they’re already here and we just don’t want to use them.

Until we find them, however, it’s probably better for us to delete the ones we use today.

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The New AMD Ryzen Vulnerabilities Are Real: What You Need to Know

CPU manufacturers are enduring a rough few months. The massive Spectre and Meltdown vulnerabilities shook the computing world. And then, if the vulnerabilities weren’t bad enough, the patches put out to fix the issues came with their own set of problems. It’ll be some time until the effects of Spectre/Meltdown fade.

AMD chips weren’t unscathed. Worse, in March 2018, researchers claim to have found a raft of new AMD-specific critical vulnerabilities. However, some people in the tech world are unsure. Is there any truth to the reports of critical vulnerabilities in AMD Ryzen CPUs? Let’s take a look at the story so far.

Critical Vulnerabilities and Exploitable Backdoors

Israeli security firm CTS Labs disclosed 13 critical vulnerabilities. The vulnerabilities affect AMD’s Ryzen workstation, Ryzen Pro, Ryzen mobile architecture, and EPYC server processors. Furthermore, the vulnerabilities bare similarities to Spectre/Meltdown and could allow an attacker access to private data, to install malware, or gain access to a compromised system.

The processor vulnerabilities stem from the design of AMD’s Secure Processor, a CPU security feature that allows safe storage of encryption keys, passwords, and other extremely sensitive data. This, in conjunction with a flaw in the design of AMD’s Zen chipset that links the processor to other hardware devices.

“This integral part of most of AMD’s products, including workstations and servers, is currently being shipped with multiple security vulnerabilities that could allow malicious actors to permanently install malicious code inside the Secure Processor itself.”

Are These Vulnerabilities Real?

Yes, they’re very much real and come in four flavors:

• Ryzenfall: Allows malicious code to take complete control of the AMD Secure Processor
• Fallout: Allows an attacker to read from and write to protected memory areas such as SMRAM
• Chimera: A “double” vulnerability, with one firmware flaw and one hardware flaw that allows the injection of malicious code directly into the AMD Ryzen chipset; chipset-based malware evades virtually all endpoint security solutions
• Masterkey: Exploits multiple vulnerabilities in AMD Secure Processor firmware to allow access to Secure Processor; allows extremely stealthy persistent chipset-based malware to evade security; could allow for physical device damage

The CTS Labs security blog states, “Attackers could use Ryzenfall to bypass Windows Credential Guard, steal network credentials, and then potentially spread through even highly secure Windows corporate network […] Attackers could use Ryzenfall in conjunction with Masterkey to install persistent malware on the Secure Processor, exposing customers to the risk of covert and long-term industrial espionage.”

Other security researchers quickly verified the findings.

Regardless of the hype around the release, the bugs are real, accurately described in their technical report (which is not public afaik), and their exploit code works.

— Dan Guido (@dguido) March 13, 2018

None of the vulnerabilities require physical device access or any additional drivers to run. They do, however, require local machine administrator privileges, so there is some respite. And let’s face it, if someone has direct root access to your system, you’re already in a world of pain.

What’s the Issue Then?

Well, no one has really heard of CTS Labs. Which on its own is not an issue. Small firms complete excellent research all the time. It is, rather, how CTS Labs went about disclosing the vulnerabilities to the public. Standard security disclosure asks researchers to give the vulnerable company at least 90-days to rectify an issue before going public with sensitive findings.

CTS Labs gave AMD a whopping 24 hours before putting their amdflaws site online. And that has attracted significant ire from the security community. It isn’t only the site though. The way the vulnerabilities are presented is also drawing issue. The vulnerability information site features an interview with one of the researchers, is full of infographics and other media, has exciting and catchy names for the issues and seems overblown for the release of a vulnerability. (A vulnerability they gave AMD less than 24-hours to fix, mind!)

CTS Labs gave their reasoning for this, too. CTS Labs CTO Ilia Luk-Zilberman explains that “the current structure of ‘Responsible Disclosure’ has a very serious problem.” Furthermore, they “think it’s hard to believe we’re the only group in the world who has these vulnerabilities, considering who are the actors in the world today.” You can read the full letter right here [PDF].

TL;DR: CTS Labs believes the 30/60/90 day waiting period prolongs the danger to already vulnerable consumers. If researchers make the disclosure straight away, it forces the hand of the company to act immediately. In fact, their suggestion of using third-party validation, as CTS Labs did with Dan Guido (whose confirmation Tweet is linked above), is sensible—but something that already happens.

Shorting AMD Stock

Other researchers downplayed the severity of the flaws due to the required level of system access. There were further questions about the timing of the report as it emerged stock short-selling firm Viceroy Research were issuing a report declaring that AMD shares might lose all their value. AMD shares did indeed take a tumble, coinciding with the release of the CTS Labs vulnerability report, but closed the day higher than before.

Linux-kernel lead developer Linus Torvalds also believe that CTS Labs approach is negligent, stating “Yes, it looks more like stock manipulation than a security advisory to me.” Torvalds also laments the unnecessary hype surrounding the release, claiming that security researchers “Look like clowns because of it.”

Torvalds ranting isn’t unprecedented. But he is right. It also comes on the back of another “security alert” requiring both a terrible SSH and terrible root password to work. Torvalds (and other security researchers and developers) point is that sometimes just because a flaw sounds dangerous and exotic, it doesn’t make it a huge issue for the general public.

Can You Stay Safe?

Well, it is a mixed security bag. Is your AMD Ryzen CPU vulnerable? Yes, it is. Is your AMD Ryzen CPU likely to see an exploit of this manner? It is somewhat unlikely, at least in the short-term.

That said, those with an AMD Ryzen system should raise their security vigilance level for the next few weeks until AMD can release a security patch. Hopefully, they’ll be a darn sight better than the Spectre/Meltdown patches!

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How to Download, Install, and Update DirectX on Your PC

While Windows 10 serves a lot of users, it’s definitely a fit for gamers. Features like the Xbox app, Game DVR, and native controller support offer huge advancements over prior versions.

But one of the most important elements powering the gaming experience on Windows 10 is behind the scenes: DirectX. Let’s review what DirectX is, then see how to manage it on your PC.

What Is DirectX?

DirectX is a set of APIs in Windows that handles graphical elements in games. Because no two gaming PCs have exactly the same set of components, game developers use the DirectX libraries to write games that work on computers of all kinds.

In the old days, DirectX was its own separate download. You’d often see a prompt to check for the latest updates for DirectX when you installed a game. Since Windows 8, Microsoft has included DirectX as a part of Windows. Thus, you can update it right from Windows Update.

The latest version of DirectX is DirectX 12, which is only available on Windows 10. Windows 7 and 8 are stuck on DirectX 11.

Note that DirectX isn’t the only graphics API. The Vulkan Run Time Libraries are a newer competitor that offer some enhanced performance.

What Version of DirectX Do I Have?

You can easily open a panel to see all about the version of DirectX you have installed on your PC. To do so, press Windows Key + R to open the Run dialog, then type dxdiag. You’ll see a window titled DirectX Diagnostic Tool a moment later:

At the bottom of this System Information panel, you’ll see a DirectX Version where you can confirm what you have installed. Again, if you’re on Windows 10, you should see DirectX 12 here. Check for Windows Updates if not.

While you’re here, you should click the Display tab (you’ll see multiple if you use more than one monitor) to make sure your computer supports all features of DirectX. DirectDraw Acceleration, Direct3D Acceleration, and AGP Texture Acceleration should all say Enabled.

If not, you’ll need to upgrade your PC’s hardware to take advantage of these features.

How Do I Download DirectX?

How to download the latest version of DirectX depends on the version of Windows you’re using.

Windows 10: You can’t download any standalone packages of DirectX. Microsoft provides updates for DirectX through Windows Update. Thus, you won’t even need to update DirectX when you install a new game. Go to Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update and click Check for updates to see if you can update DirectX.

Windows 8.1: Like Windows 10, there’s no manual update link for DirectX. Windows 8.1 includes DirectX 11.2, which is the latest version compatible with Windows 8. Check Windows Update at Settings > Update and Recovery > Windows Update for any updates to DirectX.

Windows 7: The latest version of DirectX for Windows 7 is 11.1. This is available with Windows 7 Service Pack 1. You’ll need to install Windows Update KB2670838, either manually or through Windows Update, to get it.

Earlier versions of Windows: Windows XP and Vista both no longer receive support from Microsoft. Since they’re so old, you’re probably not playing any modern games on them. For the sake of completion, though, we’ll note that the latest version of DirectX for Vista is 11.0 with Service Pack 2. On Windows XP, you’re stuck with DirectX 9.0c, which you can update with Microsoft’s web installer.

Why Do I Have So Many DirectX Versions Installed?

While the version of Windows you use dictates the newest version of DirectX that your computer can run, that doesn’t mean it’s the only one installed.

Even though DirectX is built into Windows now, you likely have all kinds of DirectX files located at C:\Windows\System32 (and C:\Windows\SysWOW64 on a 64-bit copy of Windows).

Why is this?

Like Microsoft’s C++ Runtime, every game relies on a different version of DirectX. For instance, if a developer wrote a game to use DirectX 11 update 40, then only version 40 will work. A newer one isn’t compatible.

Thus, whenever you install a new game, it will likely install a unique copy of DirectX. This leads to you having potentially dozens of copies on your system.

Should I Uninstall DirectX?

There’s no official way to uninstall DirectX. You can’t remove it from the Apps panel of the Settings app in Windows 10. But there’s really no reason you would need to, as it’s not a normal program. It’s a core part of how Windows displays graphics.

And don’t worry about having several versions installed. Those extra libraries aren’t hurting anything, and they were installed for a reason when you downloaded a particular game.

You shouldn’t try to delete individual DirectX files in the folders mentioned above. That could cause games or other programs to stop working properly. If you’re having problems with a particular version of DirectX, try reinstalling the game that uses it.

Now You Know About DirectX

We’ve covered what DirectX is, how you can check which version you have installed, and how to get the latest updates for it. This powerful library of graphics tools is part of the reason Windows is the popular platform for gaming that it is. It’s a normal part of your computer if you play games, and in most cases, you shouldn’t have to do anything to manage it.

For more, check out the best ways to optimize Windows 10 for gaming.

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Pinterest is slowly rolling out its automated shopping ads to more marketers

Pinterest is looking to continue to increase its portfolio of ads, though sometimes that can take a little while to see the light of day — and that includes a new-ish tool called Shopping Ads that’s slowly getting opened to more developers.

Getting new ad formats is important for a smaller company looking to build out an advertising business, as it has to show potential advertisers it can offer an array of tools to play with as they experiment with that service. The company said today that it’s expanding those shopping ad tools to hundreds of additional advertisers after launching a pilot program last year as it looks to continue to ramp up that tool. Pinterest has to be able to convince marketers that it should be a mainstay advertising purchase alongside Facebook and Google, which are able to routinely show returns in value for their advertising spend.

Shopping ads automatically create promoted pins from an existing product feed for a retailer. That means it’s basically one less thing for retailers to worry about as they add more and more content to the service. Most of Pinterest’s content online is business content as users share products they might be interested in one day buying or already own. As Pinterest gets more and more data on this, they’ll have a better handle on what ads work best, and hope that businesses will hand off the process in full to something more automated.

Pinterest hopes to capture that routine user behavior of planning what they want to do next, whether that’s an outfit to wear that day or some kind of major event or purchase down the line. Getting a hold of those users in the moment they might be interested in a new product is key to the company’s pitch to advertisers. You can more or less consider this a continued test as the company starts to slowly give the tool to the advertisers it works with before it becomes generally available. If it works, it could probably end up down the line in the hands of all advertisers, which could help for small- to medium-sized businesses without a lot of experience build out their early marketing campaigns.

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Rylo’s shoot first, frame later camera is ideal for casual adventure-seekers

Action cameras are a gadget that mostly cater to a person’s wish to see themselves in a certain way: Most people aren’t skiing off mountains or cliff diving most of the time, but they aspire to. The issue with most action cameras, though, is that even when you actually do something cool, you still have to shoot the right angle to capture the moment, which is itself a skill. That’s the beauty of Rylo, a tiny 360 camera that minimizes the skill required and makes it easy to get the shots you want.

Rylo is compact enough to have roughly the footprint of a GoPro, but with dual lenses for 4K, 360-degree video capture. It has a removable battery pack good for an hour of continuous video recording, and a micro USB port for charging. In the box, you’ll get either a micro USB to Lightning, or micro USB to micro USB and USB C cables, depending on whether you pick up the Android or the iOS version, and you handle all editing on the mobile device you already have with you always.

The device itself feels solid, and has stood up to a lot of travel and various conditions over the course of my usage. The anodized aluminum exterior can take some lumps, and the OLED screen on the device provides just enough info when you’re shooting, without overwhelming. There’s no viewfinder, but the point of the Rylo is that you don’t need one – it’s capturing a full 360-degree image all the time, and you position your shot after the fact in editing.

Rylo includes a 16GB microSD card in the box, too, but you can use up to 256GB versions for more storage. A single button on top controls both power functions and recording, and the simplicity is nice when you’re in the moment and just want to start shooting without worrying about settings.

The basic functionality of Rylo is more than most people will need out of a device like this: Using the app, you can select out an HD, flat frame of video to export, and easily trim the length plus make adjustments to picture, including basic edits like highlights, color and contrast. Rylo’s built-in stabilization keeps things surprisingly smooth, even when you’re driving very fast along a bumpy road with what amounts to nearly race-tuned tires and suspension.

Then, if you want to get really fancy, you can do things like add motion to your clips, including being able to make dead-simple smooth pans from one focus point to another. The end result looks like you’re using a gimbal or other stabilized film camera, but all the equipment you need is the Rylo itself, plus any mount, including the handle/tripod mount that comes in the box, or anything that works with a GoPro.

You can even set a specific follow point, allowing you to track a specific object or person throughout the clip. This works well, though sometimes it’ll lose track of the person or thing if there’s low light or the thing it’s following gets blocked. The app will let you know it’s lost its target, however, and in practice it works well enough to create good-looking videos for things like bicycling and riding ATVs, for instance.

Other companies are trying to do similar things with their own hardware, including GoPro with the Fusion and Insta360 with its Insta360 One. But Rylo’s solution has the advantage of being dead simple to use, with easily portable hardware that’s durable and compatible with existing GoPro mount accessories. The included micro USB to Lightning cable isn’t easily replaced, except for from Rylo itself, and it’s also small and easy to lose, so that’s my main complaint when it comes to the system as a whole.

In the end, the Rylo does what it’s designed to do: Takes the sting out of creating cool action clips and compelling short movies for people working mostly from their mobile devices. It’s not as flexible for pros looking for a way to integrated more interesting camera angles into their desktop workflow because of how tied content captured on the Rylo is to the Rylo app itself, but it seems clearly designed for a consumer enthusiast market anyway.

At $499, the Rylo isn’t all that much more expensive than the GoPro Hero 6. It’s still a significant investment, and the image quality isn’t up to the 4K video output by the GoPro, but for users who just want to make cool videos to share among friends using social tools, Rylo’s ease of use and incredibly low bar in terms of filming expertise required is hard to beat.

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Google introduces ‘Shopping Actions’ to help retailers in their battle with Amazon

Google announced this morning a new plan to help retailers take on Amazon – and give Google a cut of their sales in the process. The search giant will allow retailers to list their products across Google Search, in its Google Express shopping service, and in the Google Assistant app for smartphones and on smart speakers, like the Google Home.

The program offers online shoppers a universal cart whether they’re shopping on mobile, desktop or via a voice-powered device. That latter item is especially important to retailers, given that Amazon has tied voice shopping to its Echo devices, and has claimed the majority of market share in smart speakers for the time being. And you aren’t able to shop Walmart from an Echo, of course.

Google is working with a range of top retailers on the new effort, including Target, Walmart, Ulta Beauty, Costco, and Home Depot. Some of these were detailed in the company’s official announcement of Shopping Actions, as the program is called. A report from Reuters noted the others.

Walmart and Target were both already partnered with Google on voice-based shopping, which includes integrations with Google Express and Google Assistant. This allows customers to shop their site through the Google Express app or by saying things like “buy peanut butter from Walmart,” to place a quick voice order with Google Assistant’s help.

Those partnerships, and the new program being introduced today, also allows retailers to increase shopper loyalty by supporting things like 1-click re-ordering, personalized recommendations, and basket-building, says Google. For example, if a customer integrates their Ultamate Rewards account (Ulta’s loyalty program) with Google, it will know what other products to recommend based on past order history when the shopper is searching for a particular item.

Google says it will use a pay-per-sale model, which means it’s only taking a cut of the sale when a shopper makes a purchase. That’s different from Google’s pay-per-click ads, where businesses pay when a web searcher engages with an ad by visiting the website or calling the business.

According to Google, retail partners saw the average size of a customer’s shopping basket increase by 30 percent after joining the program, and Ulta saw average order values increase 35 percent. Target, which has been live for 6 months, says its Google Express shopping baskets increased nearly 20 percent, on average.

The program is live now in the U.S. and open to any retailer.

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The Top 10 Crazy Things You Can Do With a Drone

Do You Love Cats? 8 Smartphone Games for Cat Lovers

There’s no denying it, the internet loves cats. Especially when it comes to memes. You may even own a cat or two, or just wish you had your own cat. If it’s the latter, you probably vicariously live through the cat photos posted of others. You poor, non-cat-owning person.

But even if you have a cat, or get your daily dose of feline fun through Instagram or Facebook, sometimes this just may not be enough. You need cats in everything, from clothes and accessories to video games.

While we can’t help you become the next feline fashionista, we do know some great cat-themed games you can play on your smartphone.

1. Super Phantom Cat 2

If you’re a fan of brilliant platformers, and especially Super Mario Bros., then Super Phantom Cat 2 is a must-play.

The game features colorful and blocky graphics that anyone will find cute and charming. There’s a wide roster of different cats available to play as, each having their own unique costume, and some have special abilities. It takes time to collect all of the necessary hero fragments though, so expect to be playing this for a while.

Super Phantom Cat 2 is level-based, and the goal is to reach the portal at the end to get to the next area. But there are obstacles, traps, and enemies in the way, making it easier said than done. Fortunately, you’ll have the powers of the Phantom World at your side, making the impossible possible.

There are also quests that provide more objectives to complete, as well as neat rewards. These are slightly more challenging than the normal levels.

Super Phantom Cat 2 is a good sequel to the original Super Phantom Cat, and it’s great for cat lovers who want platforming fun.

Download: Super Phantom Cat 2 for iOS | Android (Free)

2. Cat Quest

Are you in the mood for an action-packed, real-time dungeon crawling experience similar to Diablo 3? But with cats? Then you’ll love Cat Quest.

Embark on a grand journey full of dragons, magic, and, yep, you guessed it, cats. As an evil creature catnaps your sister, it’s up to you to get her back.

Cat Quest features distinctive 2.5D visuals with a cartoon style that is both endearing and adorable. The world of Felingard is lush and detailed, and has incredibly smooth animations during navigation and real-time battle.

Felingard is a vast world, and players are not limited to linear exploration. You can roam freely around the lands, battling in real-time to level up and become stronger, and delve into secret dungeons. There’s a lot of enemies to claw your way through with melee combat or magical spells, and plenty of loot to collect too.

Download: Cat Quest for iOS | Android ($4.99)

3. Neko Atsume: Kitty Collector

Do you want to relax and collect digital cats (or virtual pets like Tamagotchis), especially if you don’t have a real cat to call your own? Then check out Neko Atsume.

The simple art style of Neko Atsume matches the super easy gameplay. All you need to do is place toys and snacks in your yard to attract cats. Eventually, they will come and pay you a visit.

As cats stop by for a visit for free food and playtime, they’ll leave behind some fish as a gift. You spend the fish on new toys and snacks to attract even more cats, and repeat the cycle.

There are 40 different varieties of cats in Neko Atsume. Each one gets attracted by certain toys and food, so you’ll have to change things up every now and then, especially if you want to catch the rare breeds.

Download: Neko Atsume: Kitty Collector for iOS | Android (Free)

4. Cat Bird

Maybe Super Phantom Cat 2 isn’t enough of a platformer for you. Or perhaps you prefer your cats to… fly? Either way, Cat Bird should fulfills your needs.

Cat Bird features nostalgic pixel art visuals and chiptunes to appeal to retro gamers. The white cat is also adorable, especially when it takes flight with its stubby little arms.

There are several worlds in Cat Bird packed with a variety of stages. The goal is to help the flying cat reach the portal at the end of each stage so he can go home. It starts out easy enough, but the additional hazards, traps, and enemies make it a challenging task of survival. This one is all about timing.

Download: Cat Bird for iOS | Android (Free)

5. Bread Kittens

Cats and bread go hand-in-hand. Remember the whole “cat breading” meme? The idea is so irresistible that there’s a whole game dedicated to it.

In Bread Kittens, you take the role of a baker. You must stop the evil ChowCorp from turning all cats wild and aggressive with tainted cat food. Cats won’t get adopted and fed when they’re feral, so you have to engage in battles with them until they’re weak enough to get captured through bread.

Yes, you literally use bread like a Pokeball to capture kittens. Then you create bread loaf armor to protect them as you use them to tame other wild cats. Travel with your army of cats, find rare and powerful breeds, and save them from ChowCorp’s grasp.

Download: Bread Kittens for iOS | Android (Free)

6. Nom Cat

We all know cats like to eat, so why not turn that into a mobile game?

Nom Cats is a quick arcade style game that tests your reflexes. Just tap-and-hold to make the two cats open their mouths wide to catch and eat endless waves of fish. But you’ll want to watch out for those bombs that got mixed in. The more fish the cats eat, the higher your score.

There’s an impressive roster of famous felines in Nom Cat too, including Garfield, Grumpy Cat, Nyan Cat, Keyboard Cat, and more.

Download: Nom Cat for iOS | Android (Free)

7. Nyan Cat: Lost in Space

Do you remember Nyan Cat, the internet’s beloved flying cat in a Pop-Tart leaving behind a rainbow trail of awesomeness? There’s a game for this popular meme cat too, and it’s just as random and crazy as you might expect.

Nyan Cat: Lost in Space is an infinite runner with five different game modes. Each of them adds a unique twist to the gameplay that makes it more challenging, or even relaxing. Along the way, help Nyan Cat gather up tasty treats and avoid dangerous hazards like bombs, UFOs, and dogs.

For more Nyan Cat fun, there’s a virtual pet mini-game that awards you prizes quicker if you keep the cat happy. You can also create your own Nyan Cat as well, in case the original isn’t enough cat for you.

And don’t forget about the super catchy “nyan” song.

Download: Nyan Cat: Lost in Space for iOS | Android (Free)

8. Purrfect Date

Sometimes animals are definitely better than people, and that’s proven correct with a dating simulator featuring cats. Say hello to your Purrfect Date.

This creative interactive visual novel combines romance, mystery, and suspense all in one package, and finishes it all off with a lot of cats.

In Purrfect Date, players take on the role of a researcher who gets a new job on this remote island inhabited by felines, appropriately named Cat Island. There’s a mystery afoot, talking cats, and suspicious NPCs. As you try to unravel the secrets of the island, you’ll have the opportunity to get to know a cat on a more personal level. It’s almost like the cats are people, oddly enough.

There are six stories to go through in Purrfect Date, and you have tough decisions awaiting you. It’s a unique (if slightly creepy) game that’s packed with charm.

Download: Purrfect Date for iOS ($4.99)

A Purr-fect Way to Pass Time

If you love cats and mobile games, there are certainly a lot of options out there. We just rounded up some of the best feline-themed games for your enjoyment, and hope they help you to get your daily cat fix.

And while we’re all about the cats, don’t forget about these other trendy mobile games while you’re at it. Or you could always use a tablet to keep your cat entertained instead.

Image Credit: Alexmia/Depositphotos

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