US president Barack Obama was sharply critical of China’s newest security demands for foreign companies this week, saying that plans to “snoop and keep track” of users of US-made technology were unacceptable.
But Obama’s remarks completely ignore the fact that the most prominent and profitable technology company in the world has reportedly already agreed to China’s demands. Apple fully accepted China’s new cyber-security rules in January, according to Chinese state media.
Unlike many of its contemporaries, nothing about Crossy Road makes a player feel the need to pay to progress or win. Its design subdues its monetization, and that has cost its developers revenue. Crossy Road rarely — if ever — squeezes onto the top of the iOS App Store's list of highest grossing games, where titles like Clash of Clans and Candy Crush Saga are entrenched. Yet yesterday, Crossy Road was the 12th most popular free iPhone app without even appearing in the App Store's list of top 100 grossing iPhone apps.
This is not an accident. Crossy Road was an experiment in doing free-to-play differently, and that experiment has been wildly effective.
Electronic Arts is closing Maxis, the studio behind the SimCity franchise, EA confirmed in a statement to Polygon today, following reports on Twitter from now-former employees of the company.
R.I.P. Maxis 1987-2015. Hopefully SimCity 2000's transportation advisor can now find peace. pic.twitter.com/3DU8ILbl1w
— Wow, A Bob Mackey! (@bobservo) March 4, 2015Simple, useful radio streaming app for Macs.
Syncing by reading and writing files on a generic storage system, on the other hand, is much, much harder.
In another move that should alleviate indie label concerns, the leading digital download store has also backed away from relying so heavily on the sales velocity algorithm it had been experimenting with in December and January, which it was using to help determine the music featured in its sliders.
oh man you got hacked? you should have turned on 2 factor auth and also sacrificed a goat to the infosec gods. you did? two goats, then
— Sarah Jeong (@sarahjeong) March 4, 2015Thanks for reading.