The lines between digital, mobile, technology and apps are blurring in today’s world. We at Robosoft are keen followers of developments in this arena. Here’s a quick summary of what’s buzzing:
Google’s special plans for India
Source: Google India
While the rate of Internet growth is flat globally, India is the only exception with a 43% year-over-year growth. The numbers of mobile Internet users is expected to grow further to 730 million by 2020. Notably, the growth is not just taking place in the urban parts of India, but also in the rural parts of India, thanks to cheaper smartphones and 2G connections. To deal with this growing number of online users and slower net connections, Google announced products designed specifically for India during its recently held Google for India event. Some of these products include:
- Optimised Play Store for 2G connections
- YouTube Go to download videos for offline viewing
- Chrome would be able to save entire pages and videos
- Native Hindi language support in Allo and Duo
- Expansion of Google public Wi-fi initiative to public places like malls, bus stops, cafes and more.
HTC launches VR App Store
Source: Digital Trends
The competition in the VR space is heating up with Daydream-ready mobile phones to be released soon, Google’s Daydream SDK launch a few weeks back and more. Quite a handful of brands have already created mobile apps with VR experience taking advantage of the rapidly growing technology.
Joining the VR movement, HTC recently launched the VivePort, a dedicated app store that will cater to VR experiences. Apart from offering apps in different categories such as education, travel, news, music and others, the store also includes Viveport Community, wherein users can connect with like-minded people. The fairly small app store is now available in more than 30 countries.
A Phoney story
Source: Phoneys
A few weeks ago, along with the release of iOS 10, iMessage got its own App Store. And soon Phoneys, developed by Adam Howell, became the top-grossing app in the iMessage App Store. However, the clever sticker app that literally puts words in your friend’s mouth has upset Apple’s lawyers and now the developer has been given a week’s time to make the suggested changes or watch it get pulled out from the App Store. The reason why Apple is objecting to the app is due to the use of San Francisco as the typeface and the blue and green colour of the stickers. The developer shares the conflict he is going through in deciding whether to update the app with the said suggestions or watch it get pulled out of the App Store.
