Tuesday, 2 July 2013

How Many Apps Does an App Need to Sell to Be in the Top Apps List?

How Many Apps Does an App Need to Sell to Be in the Top Apps List?

When the App Store was fresh and new, you'd see different apps pop up in the Top Apps list. Those Top Apps lists were actually usable. But ever since Angry Birds and Fruit Ninja and whatever else decided to squat down, it's the same damn apps over and over. So how popular does an app have to be to crack these lists?

According to Distimo, a paid app needs to be downloaded over 4,000 times a day to hit the top 10 list. A free app needs to crack 72,000 a day. A top 10 grossing app would need to bring in $47,000 in paid downloads every single day. Not exactly chump change! If you're trying to crack the top 50, it gets slightly easier. Paid apps need to just clear 950 apps a day (and 12 grand a day for most grossing) while free apps need to be downloaded 23,000 times. If you're trying to make it as an app developer, those numbers are your magic numbers. [Distimo via UberGizmo]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/how-many-apps-does-an-app-need-to-sell-to-be-in-the-top-641026988

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BlackBerry whacked with downgrades after dismal earnings

BlackBerry Earnings Analyst Downgrades

You get the feeling that it?s going to be a rough week for BlackBerry. Barron?s points out the company get hit with three separate downgrades from analysts on Monday in the wake of its hugely disappointing earnings report last week. The most bearish analyst flagged by Barron?s is?Deutsche Bank?s Brian Modoff, who cut BlackBerry?s price target to $6 and who says the company?s hardware business has actually become its biggest weakness. Instead of making smartphones, Modoff thinks BlackBerry should instead focus on its BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 platform that he says is the company?s most valuable remaining asset.

[More from BGR: Leaked image points to September 5th launch for Verizon?s HTC One]

?Unfortunately, we believe that continuing to run the devices business could be their Achilles heel,? Modoff writes. ?If they choose to keep plowing money into marketing BB10 devices across the globe, it will create a heavy cash burn unless the uptake begins to quickly gain traction.?

[More from BGR: MacBook Air continues to crush ultrabooks]

Needham & Co. analyst Charlie Wolf, meanwhile, thinks the company has some short-term upside because its QWERTY-equipped BlackBerry Q10 and Q5 models ought to sell well with diehard fans who want to have full keyboards on their smartphones. However, he warns that we shouldn?t see this slight boost as the start of a long-term recovery.

?Q10 sales could quickly ramp significantly once the smartphone is rolled out since the installed base of BlackBerry owners in the enterprise has been stuck on older models for so long,? he writes. ?But the potential sharp rise in sales could be short lived since the installed base in the business market is not that large any more. Recalling the comments of reviewers, virtual keyboards have taken over in a few short years. So even diehard BlackBerry fans may think twice before upgrading to the Q10.?

The latest earnings results were so discouraging that even analysts who maintained their ratings on the company found it very hard to believe it has a future as a competitive smartphone platform.?Goldman Sachs analyst Simona Jankowski, for instance, maintained a Neutral rating for BlackBerry shares but slashed her price target from $17 to $12 and said that BlackBerry 10 had no hope of competing with iOS or Android in the mobile market.

?Our prior fundamental valuation used a scenario analysis that assigned 20% probability to the bull case (i.e. a turnaround based on traction with BB10) and 80% probability to the sum-of-the-parts base/bear case (i.e. continued share declines),? she writes. ?We no longer assign any probability to the bull case, given the disappointing traction of BB10 in the first full quarter since the launch.?

This article was originally published on BGR.com

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blackberry-whacked-downgrades-dismal-earnings-001548383.html

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Sunday, 30 June 2013

Doink the Clown passes away

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Source: http://www.wwe.com/inside/doink-the-clown-passes

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FCC meets Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 8.0 with foreign LTE bands

The FCC has met with the SM-T315 which is an overseas variant of the? Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 8.0. While this version of Sammy's slate includes support for LTE, these are not the bands that are compatible with U.S. carriers. There is connectivity with AT&T's HSPA pipeline while the LTE is meant for countries like South Korea. The 8 inch size is obviously meant to compete with the 7.9 inch Apple iPad mini and if you need to have an 8 inch Samsung built slate in the U.S. with LTE connectivity, there is always the Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 8.0 is equipped with an 8 inch screen with resolution of 1280 x 800. This works out to a pixel density of 189ppi. Under the hood is a dual-core 1.5GHz Samsung Exynos 4 processor with 1.5GB of RAM onboard. 16GB of native storage can be expanded with the 64GB capacity microSD slot and the 5MP camera on pack captures video in 1280 x 720 at 30fps. There is also a 1.3MP front facing snapper while a 4450mAh cell keeps the power humming. Android 4.2 is pre-installed out of the box.


source: FCC via Engadget

Source: http://www.phonearena.com/news/FCC-meets-Samsung-Galaxy-Tab-3-8.0-with-foreign-LTE-bands_id44678

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Friday, 28 June 2013

98% Before Midnight

All Critics (146) | Top Critics (38) | Fresh (142) | Rotten (3)

Hawke and Delpy remain as charming as ever, and their combined goofiness is more endearing than annoying.

Love is messy here, life cannot be controlled, satisfaction is far from guaranteed. Romance is rocky at best. But romance still is.

Though "Before Midnight" is often uncomfortable to watch, it's never less than mesmerizing - and ultimately, a joy to walk with this prickly but fascinating couple again.

"Before Midnight" is heartbreaking, but not because of Jesse and Celine. It's the filmmakers' passions that seem to have cooled.

Before Midnight is fascinating to watch, and so long as Celine and Jesse are communicating, there's still hope.

How (Jesse and Celine) try to rekindle that flame is what drives Midnight, a film that feels so authentic it's like overhearing a conversation you're not sure you should be hearing.

Loving words mix with personal attacks, the magic moments with the unintended slights, as we witness the occasional desperation of imperfect people doing the best they can when life moves beyond meet-cute and courtship. That's authentic.

Linklater and his players bring an end to the fantasy and welcome the thrilling ups and bitter downs of reality to this love story.

Like the first two films, it reflects the real world in a way that seems almost preternatural. It's just that, here, the real world is a harsher, more disappointing place.

The duo, clearly so comfortable in their characters' skin, indulge in intelligent banter, sharp humour and emotional truths.

So much better written than contemporary novels, this film is a literary as well as cinematic achievement to cherish. For grown-ups.

As before, it's often very funny, with Jesse and Celine swapping Woody Allen-esque one-liners - nicely snarky, appealingly abrasive.

The acting, the dialogue and direction are superb.

None of the films is faultless in itself, but, tinted with complementary tones, the complete cycle comes as close to perfection as any trilogy in cinema history.

Marvelous. It's impossible to shake the feeling that we are merely eavesdropping on reality. Witty, wise, and -- most important of all -- truly romantic in ways that movies usually aren't.

It's been 18 years since Hawke, Delpy and Linklater introduced us to Jesse and Celine, and their story just gets richer, funnier and more punchy each time we see them. In 1995's Before Sunrise, they were idealistic 23-year-olds.

Hawke and Delpy are as believably real as any screen couple can ever be.

This is one of the few sequels for which the cliche 'eagerly awaited' is truly applicable.

Predictably, it's just as great as the first two.

By the end, Before Midnight inches towards a dawn of charm. But it's a troubled trip.

As an organic experiment in collaboration between actors and director, it is a triumph, co-created and co-owned by Delpy, Linklater and Hawke.

Hawke and Delpy, who are both credited on the script too, have never found co-stars to bounce off more nimbly or bring out richer nuances in their acting.

The performances and dialogue are wonderfully naturalistic; a reminder that the best special effects are often the cheapest.

Before Midnight is about the nature of long-term relationships, and the way love deepens and grows but also finds itself subject to the complications of maturity. Smart, insightful, and poignant.

For those who witnessed Jesse and Celine's tentative getting together as inter railing students almost twenty years ago, it's reassuring to see them still in love.

Brilliantly directed, superbly written and impeccably acted, this is a thoroughly enjoyable, thought-provoking and emotionally engaging drama that perfectly complements the previous two films.

Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/before_midnight_2013/

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How to Save Sharks off Cuba s Coast and in the Gulf of Mexico [Slide Show]

Is it possible to create a sustainable fishery for sharks before the ocean's top predators are gone?

Cuban fishing boat

SHARK SHACK: A typical Cuban fishing boat that targets sharks in the country's coastal waters. Image: ROBERT HUETER, MOTE MARINE LABORATORY

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Throughout 2011 researchers from the University of Havana prowled fishing docks in Caba?as and Cojimar on Cuba?s northwestern coast. The teams met returning fishing boats, noted the type and number of fish caught, and asked crews where they had fished, how long and what effort was involved. Oceanic whitetip sharks regularly appeared in catches, and fishermen reported hauling in smaller ones and using them as bait. Researchers say this could indicate the presence of a whitetip nursery area nearby.

So far, that is the only piece of good news from a widespread, collaborative effort by scientists and policy makers to fill in gaps in our knowledge of sharks in Cuban waters. That knowledge is needed to determine how to save these apex predators in the Gulf of Mexico as a whole. The regional population of Oceanic whitetips and other shark species may have declined by as much as 99 percent since the 1950s, according to Doug Rader, chief oceans scientist with the nonprofit advocacy group Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). Populations have plummeted in part because sharks are often swept up as incidental by-catch.

>> View the slide show here.

Researchers have documented at least 54 species of sharks in Cuban waters, many of them important to low-tech, small-scale fisheries. But shark fishermen are reporting decreases in their catches, likely due to the accidental capturing of sharks by boats targeting other species of fishes. Little historical data exist for Cuban fisheries, making it hard to compare targeted and untargeted shark catches over the long term. "We have to go on discussions with fishermen, which is helpful but not truly quantitative," says Robert Hueter, a shark researcher at Florida's Mote Marine Laboratory.

There also is little data about the presence of shark nurseries and the frequency of the species?s migration in Cuban waters.

This lack of dataspurred U.S., Cuban and Mexican scientists to launch the Trinational Initiative for Marine Science and Conservation in 2007. The group set six research priorities, including expanding knowledge of sharks in Cuban waters in order to support conservation decisions for the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean. The ambitious effort currently involves scientists from the EDF, Mote Marine Laboratory, Mexico's El Colegio de la Frontera Sur, and the University of Havana's Center for Marine Research.

The port surveys are one part of their work. During a nine-day research cruise in February 2013 a multinational group of scientists aboard the Felipe Poey collected water, plankton and sediment samples on the south side of Cuba around Golfo de Batabano and Isla de Juventud. They also interviewed fishermen harvesting finfish, tuna, and lobster in the area (pdf). A key objective of the cruise was tagging sharks, but although researchers had estimated five to 10 sharks per 100 hooks cast, Hueter says, ?We caught three sharks total, or 1.44 per 100 hooks set.? The low numbers as well as discussions with fishermen suggest that overfishing in the area has affected shark populations.

Port surveys planned later this year for Batabano and Jucaro Bay on the south coast may confirm these suspicions. Scientists will also look for evidence of another whitetip nursery?a possibility given the location?s ecological similarity to the nursery area on the north side of the island.

A cruise planned for the fall will explore the Jardines de la Reina archipelago and Golfo de Ana Maria, two popular ecotourism areas where researchers expect to tag higher numbers of sharks. The group will eventually compile tagging, observational data and port surveys to create a formal habitat classification system. The system will describe the distribution and abundance of sharks in Cuban waters to help determine their habitat needs, Rader says, an important first step toward protecting them. "Most scientists believe sharks are critical to the resilience and robustness of marine systems, and that one of the best ways to maintain a warming and acidifying marine environment is to rebuild robust shark populations," he adds.


Source: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=how-to-save-sharks-off-cubas-coast-and-in-the-gulf

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Fed Up Teachers Refuse to Teach Summer School in Texas

Summer school in Dallas is lacking one critical component.

On Tuesday, classes began in the Dallas Independent School District (DISD) with about 6,000 students, and a very limited amount of teachers.

?We?ve never had a shortage for summer school, never. And I?ve been in DISD for about 12 years,? Angela Davis, president of the National Education Association, a teachers group, told a Dallas television station.

So, what?s the problem?


Teachers blame Superintendent Mike Miles, a leader who they claim has a very heavy hand when it comes to management. Davis told the television station that teachers were very stressed during the school year.

Michael Messer, regional organizer for Save Texas Schools in Dallas-Fort Worth, agreed.

?Since the board hired Mike Miles to be superintendent, his heavy-handed approach has left the teachers and staff demoralized,? Messer told TakePart. ?The school board and Mike Miles decided to fire two principals and approximately 400 teachers in late May. Many experienced teachers have left the profession in response to these harsh measures. At some point, you have to expect people to start standing up for themselves, even if their typical response to administrative adversity is to grin and bear it for the students.?

Messer said that teachers can refuse to teach summer school because their contracts do not obligate them to do so. Teachers are only paid a daily rate for teaching summer classes.


He said teachers have been extremely stressed since spring 2012 when the district school board decided to increase class sizes and extend the workday by 45 minutes. They do not get the support they need to do their jobs, he said.

?These moves made the teachers? jobs more difficult by adding extra paperwork to their already busy schedule,? he said. ?It insulted them by insinuating that they did not already work enough hours to justify their salary. Anyone who is or knows a teacher understands just how much personal time they devote to grading homework, writing lesson plans, and heading after-school programs.?

An anonymous blog dedicated to issues in the Dallas school district paints a dire picture. A teacher in the district wrote that while conditions during the regular school year are tough, summer school poses its own set of problems.

?The entire student body consists of the students who failed despite all interventions. A large percentage of these same students are disruptive and unable to behave appropriately in a classroom,? she wrote. ?It?s a tough gig to jump in the trenches with so many below-level kids and get them up to speed so they can promote to the next grade.?


Teachers attempt to do their best in summer school with struggling students, but it?s tough. In addition, this year there is additional stress for teachers. The staff will be closely monitored with ?more spot observations.? She adds, ?In short, teachers were promised more opportunities to get fired.?

The teachers aren?t the only ones saying enough is enough. This week, the school district?s communications chief quit her job just days after the personnel chief and the operations chief quit.

Because of the shortage, students who must attend summer school in Dallas may be placed in larger classes. And more students in one classroom means less one-on-one attention. Therefore, students who were already having trouble understanding the material (or had failed the controversial STAAR exams) have less time with a teacher to explain, Messer said. ?It renders summer school an ineffective waste of taxpayer funds, and the students are more likely to repeat classes.?


Related stories on TakePart:

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/fed-teachers-refuse-teach-summer-school-texas-233200773.html

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