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No. 1 app on iOS and Android – Draw Something
“Draw Something” the game similar to Pictionary that was developed by OMGPOP, has quickly become one of the best apps for both of the industry’s top platforms, iOS and Android. The developers, OMGPOP told TechCrunch that the number of registered users had hit 25 million while the number of active users daily had hit 10 million. This resulted in close to 1 billion paid ad impressions every day. Success like this is hard to imagine after just 5 weeks of launching and yet it has come to fruition.
Follow up press reports indicate that game tycoon Zynga is looking to buy over OMGPOP while the app has steadily climbed up ‘favourite’ charts in both, the App Store and Google Play Store. Currently, the app is perched at the No.1 position in both stores; the No.1 Top Paid and Top Free iPhone app in the App Store and the No.1 Top Free app in the Google Play Store. To add more fuel to the fiery rage, it also sits nowhere near precariously at the No.1 spot of the Top Free iPad app in the game category while it is also listed in the Top 5 of many other charts across 80 countries.
Although it does not come as a surprise that Zynga, it might be a good move having sat and watched as “Draw Something” glided past Zynga’s “Words With Friends” by gaining 3.5 million daily users as the most Popular Facebook Connect game. As the life span off apps like these are determined only by how interesting and fresh the developers can keep it, with frequent additions and updates, it seems that “Draw Something” might have a bright future. Although I personally have drawn “Titanic” so many times, I can assure you that I’m still enjoying it.
The Fairphone 2 was first unveiled in June earlier this year, where this particular handset carried a modular design while featuring majority of its components that have been sourced from conflict-free mines. It seems that this particular handset that you can purchase with a clear conscience has begun to ship to those who happen to live across Europe.
Fairphone announced in a blog post, “It’s been almost two years in the making, and some of the earliest buyers have been patiently waiting since July to receive their new phones. As community manager, I want to personally welcome the new batch of Fairphone owners to our community.” The initial 1,000 units are tipped to ship this month, before the other pre-orders follow in January 2016.
In terms of hardware specifications, the Fairphone 2 will run on a Snapdragon 801 chipset, has a 5″ 1080p screen with Gorilla Glass 3 protection, 2GB of RAM, an 8MP camera, with Android 5.1 Lollipop in tow. It will be a dual SIM capable handset with a microSD memory card slot and plays nice with 4G LTE networks, retailing for approximately €525 a pop.
It looks like the upcoming flagship model from Xiaomi will feature NFC support, at least based on a document that was released by China UnionPay. Just in case you are scratching your head and wondering who China UnionPay is, they happen to be the only domestic payment gateway supplier and card organization, and hence, to see them offer detailed support concerning the newly released NFC-based payment system points to the very real possibility of the upcoming Xiaomi Mi 5 featuring NFC capability.
After all, the Xiaomi Mi 3 was also mentioned on the list, which so happens to feature NFC, and there is no mention of the Xiaomi Mi 4 which does not come with NFC. Still, such a new payment system would be the ideal tool to see the reintroduction of NFC to the flagship model.
OnePlus did make an announcement in the previous month that the Ceramic variant of the OnePlus X will be released on November 24. True to their word, they did exactly that – although only a pitiful number of units were made available, and not only that, this was through a charity auction. Thankfully for the rest of the masses who are on the lookout for this device, it has gone on sale officially already.
Needless to say, this particular variant is available only by an invitation, although do bear in mind that standard OnePlus X invites are not good here – you will still need to snag yourself a specific Ceramic variant invite before you make a purchase. OnePlus is also on the lookout to offer additional methods of picking up this smartphone, although no further details were revealed.
The OnePlus X Ceramic will be available only in select markets, where among them include Europe, India, and Hong Kong. To date, we do know that OnePlus had made only 10,000 units of the handset available. A case of the early bird getting the proverbial worm here?