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If you hadn’t heard enough about Flappy Bird already, here’s some more: Google and Apple are now actively rejecting other games that contain ‘Flappy’ in the title.
The move is an apparent effort to stem the flow of clones appearing in the respective stores, since over the last few days we’ve already seen a number of them emerge such as Flappy Doge, Sesame Bird, Fall Out Bird. TechCrunch reports a number of developers have submitted clones only to have them rejected swiftly by both Apple and Google.
If you’re planning on building yet another Flappy Bird clone it might be best to avoid using “Flappy” at all.
➤ Apple & Google Begin Rejecting Games With “Flappy” In The Title [TechCrunch]
Pop is bringing reaction GIFs to the real world with its new iPhone app, launched yesterday. Think of Pop as a way to quickly create hilarious mashups of the real world with “my reaction when“ GIFs.
The idea behind Pop is that you record a short video directly with the iPhone camera, then attach a GIF to it which appears only when the user holds their finger on the screen.
Once a “Pop” is recorded, the service taps into Giphy’s search engine and trending lists to help deliver top-notch memes directly into the app so you can mash them up with your own video.
Just like Instagram, Pop has a social feed so that you’re able to comment and like posts shared by friends. On top of that, you’re able to reply directly to a Pop with your own creation which quickly into conversation threads full of GIFs.
The company says that the app was built around conversation, with the intention creating a “public forum where people interact through remix.”
I created a Pop to demonstrate how the application works (make sure to click on the video). The beauty of the service is that the “Pops” themselves are not limited to just on mobile devices but can be shared directly to the web as well thanks to the service being built using HTML5.
The company behind Pop also built a similar service called Zeega while it was part of a startup accelerator called Matter in San Francisco last year. Zeega allowed users to create interactive videos for the web, mashed up from sources like Giphy, Soundcloud and Tumblr.
Pop is intuitive, fun and addictive which could lead to rapid success for the service, but the lack of support for other platforms may be an issue at first. If you love GIFs, this app is for you.
Kickstarter announced today on its blog that it has been hacked, after the company was advised by law enforcement that hackers had gained private customer information on Wednesday night this week.
While the company says that no credit card information was accessed by hackers, it is advising all users of the service to reset their password immediately and ensure that any other accounts that use the same password are changed as soon as possible.
Unfortunately, other personal information including email addresses, mailing addresses, phone numbers and encrypted passwords were compromised in the attack. A Kickstarter staff member said on HackerNews that older users’ passwords were encrypted using salted SHA1 on the site, but newer passwords use a method called ‘bcrypt’ which may be safer.
The company said on its blog that it is “incredibly sorry that this happened” and that the “incident is frustrating and upsetting.” It continued, saying Kickstarter has “since improved our security procedures and systems in numerous ways [and is] working closely with law enforcement.”
If you have a Kickstarter account, we suggest you immediately reset your password using a strong password generated by a tool like Lastpass or 1Password.
We’ve all been there; attempting to guess how much a used device could be worth and hoping that it sells for a random price plucked from the air.
Bidvoy, a Germany-based startup, is attempting to solve that problem by indexing completed eBay auctions and providing average price data as well as free trending information on the price over time. By analyzing all auctions on eBay, Bidvoy provides insights into price trends on the second-hand market that were previously unavailable.
The service is extremely good at showing price changes over extended periods of time, with data going back well over the last six months. Bidvoy also offers a comparison to the current price of an equivalent new device on Amazon, as well as suggesting the best times to list your gadgets on an auction site for maximum profit.
One of the most interesting searches we found was the price of the iPhone 5s, which has only lost around $50 of its value on the second-hand market in the last six months despite the release of the iPhone 5s and 5c in September.
A search for the Nexus 5, shows that prices were initially high while stock was low but they steadily decreased over time as supply increased. Bidvoy also runs lists of the top devices, comparing them to each other on a leaderboard (the iPhone 4S is the most-sold phone on eBay according to the site).
For those that are looking to sell (or buy) used electronics, Bidvoy can help squeeze every dollar out of the sale by giving insight like never before into other users’ success on eBay.
Image credit: Gil C / Shutterstock