Tinder users get 'apocalyptic' reality show on date experience

SAN FRANCISCO, United States — If dating were not scary enough already, users of the Tinder app will now be able to simulate the experience with an interactive reality show where they choose partners for a character just before the end of the world.

Tinder's "Swipe Night" is set to debut in the US on October 6, the dating app said, describing it as an "apocalyptic adventure" that will let members play leading roles and make quick moral choices as a group of friends face the end of the world.

The app dating service, known for its "swipe" feature on the profiles of prospective partners, said it hopes the interactive show will help users who face their own thorny decisions on finding a mate in an uncertain world.


"Let's face it, if we knew the world was ending, we wouldn't want to go it alone," Tinder said in a blog post Friday announcing the new feature.

"We can't think of a better way to break the ice than over emojis and the apocalypse."


"Swipe Night" is described as "a first-person, apocalyptic adventure where at key turning points" Tinder members decide what happens next.

The show follows a group of friends played by actors Angela Wong Carbone, Jordan Christian Hearn and Shea Gabor and asks users to guide them through "moral dilemmas and practical choices."

A new episode of "Swipe Night" will air each Sunday in October, streaming live inside the app.


"Seven years ago, Tinder revolutionized the way we meet with the invention of its swipe feature," said chief executive Elie Seidman. "Now, with Swipe Night, we’re proud to be pushing the envelope again."

Tinder users interacting with the production will make moral and practical decisions regarding characters, influencing the storyline and feeding choices into dating profiles at the service, the company said.

The new feature is the first venture into original media for Tinder, which has gained a reputation for casual "hook-ups" rather than lasting relationships.

The interactive feature has also been used by Netflix which recently released a Black Mirror episode called "Bandersnatch" that lets viewers make choices that influence the story.

Tinder said it is playing to its predominately "Gen Z" user-based with its interactive show, defining the demographic as people between the ages of 18 and 25.

"We know Gen Z speaks in content, so we intentionally built an experience that is native to how they interact," said Tinder chief product officer Ravi Mehta.

source: philstar.com

Chinese firm buys major stake in gay dating app Grindr

SAN FRANCISCO, California — Popular gay dating application Grindr said Monday that it has hooked up with Chinese online game titan Beijing Kunlun Tech.

Grindr said in a blog post that it has taken on a “majority investment” from Beijing Kunlun Tech Co., referring readers to a New York Times story pegging the stake at 60 percent and valuing the almost seven-year-old start-up at $155 million.

It should help Grindr compete in the increasingly competitive online dating market, and will give Beijing Kunlun an opening to spread beyond online gaming, as well as outside of China.

It was not immediately clear whether Beijing Kunlun intends to take Grindr to the market in China, where attitudes towards homosexuality — long taboo in the country — are slowly changing.

Grindr founder and chief executive Joel Simkhai touted the investment as “a huge vote of confidence in our vision to connect gay men to even more of the world around them.”

Grindr opened the door for the investment to accelerate growth and improve the mobile application for its “millions of users,” according to Simkhai.

The amount invested was not disclosed. Simkhai founded Grindr with his own money and he said that this is the first time it has raised money from an outside investor.

“It will generally be business as usual for us here at Grindr, but with a renewed sense of purpose and additional resources to deliver a great product to you,” Simkhai said.

Los Angeles-based Grindr was founded in 2009 and the gay dating application — versions of which are tailored for Apple or Android devices — is reportedly used in 196 countries.

The application lets users see pictures of other users and then lets them connect by sharing locations, photos or messages.

source: interaksyon.com

Google unveils unified email for Android users

SAN FRANCISCO — Google said Monday it was updating its mobile Gmail app for Android device users to allow them to manage multiple email accounts from a single program.

“Starting today, you’ll be able to view all your mail at once, regardless of which account it’s from, using the new ‘All Inboxes’ option,” Google software engineer Regis Decamps said in a blog post.

“This way, you can read and respond to all your messages without having to hop between accounts.”

The new app will aggregate email from rival services such as Yahoo and Microsoft Outlook, among others.

Gmail had allowed users to access multiple accounts from desktop computers, but the new app aims to seamlessly integrate the various email services in a unified inbox with search and preview capability.

source: interaksyon.com

WeChat announces latest version, 3 new games

MANILA, Philippines — Mobile app WeChat announced the launch of the latest version of the popular social messaging application on Thursday, revealing three new games, animated stickers, an expanded group chat feature, and a complementary app to enhance photos.

“We want to offer WeChat users a very, very exciting mobile, social experience,” said WeChat business development manager Steve Zheng.

Free for download through the Games section of the app are Gunz Dash, 2Day’s Match, and Craz3 Match.

Side-srolling race game Gunz Dash is, in event host Spanky Enriquez’s words, WeChat’s version of Super Mario. To rescue a girl captured by a vampire, users may assume the character of any of the three heroes as they slide and jump through the obstacle course: “cute and sometimes clumsy” Kattie, “blonde beauty” Nikita, and “passionate and strong” Leo. They are accompanied by pets, as well.

With 2Day’s Match, users match similar tiles as fast as they can to kiddie-party background music.

Craz3 Match, meanwhile, has users matching animal faces in groups of three or more in WeChat’s version of Bejewelled and Candy Crush.

These are only usable when online, however, as they were designed to add to social messaging experience, said Zheng.

Animated stickers also make conversations more fun. Some of the newest characters include Frog and Horse, “crazy friends who escaped from the zoo (who) super love to dance”; Sinkcomic, “famous webcomic artist from Taiwan”; and Puppy, an adorable creature who’ll make a stressful day better.

StoryCam, a free complementary app, allows users to tell the stories behind their photos. They can add real-time, location-based information; alter their photos using any of 13 filters; put watermarks; and share easily through chat, e-mail, or Moments. The latter is similar to profile pages on social media sites, which features snippets of the user’s daily life. Liking and commenting are enabled, too.

Group chat has been expanded to accommodate 100 members, too.

Other changes made include the ability to save users’ favorite text and voice messages, photos, and videos to Favorite Messages, “the first cloud-based storage service on mobile communication apps”; and integration with Gmail.

The new 5.1 version of WeChat may be used on the latest versions of iOS and Android, as well as on BlackBerry, Symbian, and Windows Phone operating systems, too. Downloading is free on these markets, and on PC, as well.

WeChat, developed by Chinese company Tencent International Service Pte. Ltd., has seen a 2,000-percent growth in the Philippines from May, when the first television commercial was rolled out, to August last year. Zheng, however, did not give the numbers of Filipino users.

Nevertheless, the app already has 500 million registered users as of July last year, including 100 million users outside China.

Citing findings from Google Trends, Zheng added that WeChat was the most searched social messaging app, as well as the third most searched mobile app, in the Philippines.

source: interaksyon.com

China’s Baidu buys mobile app firm for $1.9 billion

BEIJING — China’s leading Internet search engine is to buy a smartphone app distribution firm for $1.9 billion, it said Tuesday, in what is said to be the largest takeover deal in the country’s Internet industry.

The move will consolidate Baidu’s position as a leading access portal to China’s mobile Internet, according to a report by Chinese industry research firm CCID.

Baidu held 80.6 percent of the country’s search engine market in the first quarter of this year, independent research firm iResearch said in a recent report.

The firm said in a statement it has signed a preliminary agreement to acquire a 57.41 percent stake in 91 Wireless Websoft currently held by NetDragon, a company based in southeast China’s Fujian province.

It will buy the rest of 91 Wireless’ shares owned by other parties on similar terms, giving the deal a total value of $1.9 billion.

That makes it by far the largest acquisition in China’s Internet sector, CCID said on its website.

Started six years ago, 91 Wireless operates two leading smartphone app distribution platforms in China, with more than 10 billion apps downloaded to date, according to the Baidu statement.

The company is the top third-party app distribution platform in China by both active users and accumulated downloads, Baidu said, citing a 2011-2012 report by iResearch.

source: interaksyon.com

British teenage whiz strikes deal with Yahoo

LONDON (AP) — One of Britain's youngest Internet entrepreneurs has hit the jackpot after selling his top-selling mobile application Summly to search giant Yahoo.

Seventeen-year-old Nick d'Aloisio, who dreamed up the idea for the content-shortening program when he was studying for his exams, said he was surprised by the deal. As with its other recent acquisitions, Yahoo didn't disclose how much it is paying for Summly, although British newspapers suggested the deal's value at several million dollars.

"I would have never imagined being in this position so suddenly," he wrote on his website, before thanking his family, his school — and his venture capitalist backer Li Ka-Shing — for supporting him.

Summly works by condensing content so readers can scroll through more information more quickly — useful for the small screens of smartphones.

The deal announced Monday is Yahoo's fifth small acquisition in the past five months. All of them have been part of CEO Marissa Mayer's effort to attract more engineers with expertise in building services for smartphones and tablet computers, an increasingly important area of technology that she believes the Internet company had been neglecting.

Although the Yahoo acquisition won't close until later this spring, D'Aloisio said the Summly will no longer be available. Summly's technology will return in other Yahoo products, he said.


D'Aloisio will work for Yahoo in its London office — in part so that he can complete his high school exams. Two other Summly workers will join Yahoo at its Sunnyvale, California, headquarters.

D'Aloisio is younger than Yahoo, which was incorporated in March 1995.

source: philstar.com