Media

The big winner in mobile content is Games, accounting for 80% of download revenue and even more from in-app purchases.But most game publishers struggle to make a living. Data from in-game mobile ad network Tapjoy points to User Interface (UI) as the key differentiator for engagement and monetization.

The New Health Age will usher in transformational changes in health care and rapidly approaching medical miracles, and the economics of health care will be turned upside down. In fact, the future of health care is already appearing, at a revolutionary new medical complex in India.

The technique of marketing mix modeling has become so pervasive over the past two decades that every BTC company worth its salt is using MMM to make the biggest decisions it makes every year on the demand side.

Just because the company you may be interested in has no job openings does not mean none exist. The real challenge is in getting to the key decision maker who could hire you.

TVB, along with major local television broadcasters, is advocating for audience measurement that most accurately represents viewer and consumer behavior. Simply put, Live + Same Day data is not only more accurate, it is the most logical and reasonable measure of local television viewing.

The RIAA has submitted its latest tax filing to the IRS, covering the fiscal year ending March 31, 2012. The figures follow the trend we spotted last year and show a massive decline in revenue for the music group. In just two years overall revenue has reduced from to $34.8 to $24.8 million. For decades the RIAA has been the anti-piracy bastion of the music industry, but the new numbers show that the group’s financial power is weakening. The drop in income can be solely attributed to lower membership dues from the major music labels. Over the past two years label contributions have dropped to $23.6 million, and over a three-year period the labels cut back a total of $30 million, which is more than the RIAA’s total income today. The cutbacks are not immediately apparent from the salaries paid to the top executives. RIAA Chairman and CEO Cary Sherman, for example, earned $1.46 million compared to $1.37 million the year before. Senior Executive Vice President Mitch Glazier also saw a modest rise in income from $618,946 to $642,591. A lot of the revenue decline has translated into employee cuts. Over a two year period the number of RIAA employees has been slashed almost in half from 107 to just 60. RIAA’s Spacious Washington Office The reduction in legal costs is even more significant, going from to $6.4 million to $1.2 million in two years. In part, this reduction was accomplished by no longer targeting individual file-sharers in copyright infringement lawsuits, which is a losing exercise for the group. Looking through other income we see that the RIAA received $196,378 in “anti-piracy restitution,” coming from the damages awarded in lawsuits against Limewire and such. Finally, the tax filing also reveals that the RIAA paid $250,000 to the Center of Copyright Information for the “six strikes” scheme. Together with the MPAA the RIAA coughs up half of the CCI budget, but since the fiscal year ended March 2012 it’s probably not the full year payment. Overall the filing appears to suggest that the major labels believe that the RIAA can operate with fewer funds. This is a trend that has been going on for a few years and it will be interesting to see how long it continues. Source: RIAA Makes Drastic Employee Cuts as Revenue Plummets

Robin Good's insight:If you are looking for some oustanding examples of curation at work here's one that should not be missed. A collection of collections, the Typologist is a unique site curated by Diana Zlatanovski, Museologist at The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and Photographer at The Typology, and showcasing interesting objects and photo typologies that she has found around the world. Check also her print shop at: the-typology.myshopify.com/ Follow Diana here: twitter.com/thetypologyfacebook.com/thetypologyRecommended.See it on Scoop.it, via Content Curation World

GSF India-backed Biosense Technologies has launched a iOS urine testing app called uChek. Available in India and the United States, the company claims that uChek can be used to test for 25 different medical conditions including diabetes, kidney, liver and bladder problems, pre-eclampsia and hypertension, and urinary tract infections. Users can install the app on their iPhone and read the urine dipsticks with the urine sample using a peripheral called ‘Cuboid’ and color mat. The company says that urine dip sticks begins reacting within 60-120 seconds of dipping them in an urine sample. These sticks should then be read at a specific time after the reaction begins using the app, cuboid and color mat. The reaction for each condition is different as per the instructions given by the urine dip stick manufacturer. The test results can be stored locally on  phone, graphically analysed, or the app also allows users to mail the results. The company claims that the results are never stored on its server. Since the data can be stored on the phone, no network or data connectivity is required to retrieve or access the data at any point. The website states that uChek is a medical device and can be used only for external testing as advised by a healthcare professional. Speaking to Medianama, Myshkin Ingawale, Director of Biosense said that this disclaimer is more in compliance with U.S laws to avoid self-medication and that anybody with a smartphone can use this app on their own. The iOS app is compatible with iPhone 4, 4S and 5 and is available in India for free. The company plans to introduce their android app in July this year. Since the accuracy of the test depends on the quality of the camera in the phone, the company is hesitant about introducing the app in feature phones, adds Ingawale. However, to use the app, one needs to purchase the uCheck kit which is available for Rs 1,999 in India and $40 in the US. The kit includes the cuboid and the mat, while the urine dip sticks which are available at different price ranges need to be purchased separately. Ingawale also said that the kit is reusable & comes with one year guarantee and that only the dip sticks needs replacing. He adds that uCheck’s trial with the IIT Bombay lab has ended and now it is conducting a 3 month trial with Hyderabad based LV Prasad Eye Institute. In March 2013, Biosense Technologies had raised $500,o00 funding from GSF India and Insitor Fund to improve the infrastructure around both its products. Our take: Similar to the way glucometers have changed the way blood sugar levels are monitored by individuals, uChek app can change the way urine testing happens with options to test for multiple health conditions and parameters. However, the cost of the kit can still be a matter of concern to people at the bottom of the pyramid, although their long term cost is lesser than glucometers. The personal usage of the app is limited to people who can afford high end smartphones. Although, it would still be useful in hospitals especially in the developing countries considering the poor healthcare infrastructure that is available. The accessibility of this app is likely to further increase with their android app. However, since the accuracy of the app depends on the phone’s camera, the app might not give accurate results in all the phones. Similar initiatives: While we are not familiar of any Indian company offering a similar solution, Denmark-based LineHQ offers a similar iOS app called Piddle. Strangely though, even Piddle doesn’t seem to be available for download from the iTunes store, at the time of writing this article.

Here's a story that the New York Times has yet to carry. A petition, signed by 23 leading US academics, authors and film-makers, has been launched which urges the paper's "public editor" to examine the Times's inconsistent coverage of two Latin American countries.They argue that there are disparities between its largely negative reporting on Venezuela during the presidency of Hugo Chávez (who died in March) and its less critical reporting on Honduras under its successive leaders, Roberto Micheletti and Porfirio Lobo.Among the petition's signatories are more than a dozen experts on Latin America and the media plus Noam Chomsky and Ed Herman, and the film directors Oliver Stone and Michael Moore. Here's the full script of the petition… Dear Margaret Sullivan,In a recent column, you observed:Although individual words and phrases may not amount to very much in the great flow produced each day, language matters. When news organisations accept the government's way of speaking, they seem to accept the government's way of thinking. In The Times, these decisions carry even more weight.In light of this comment we encourage you to compare the New York Times's characterisation of the leadership of the late Hugo Chávez in Venezuela and that of Roberto Micheletti and Porfirio Lobo in Honduras.In the past four years, the Times has referred to Chávez as an "autocrat," "despot," "authoritarian ruler" and a "caudillo" in its news coverage. When opinion pieces are included, the Times has published at least 15 separate articles employing such language, depicting Chávez as a "dictator" or "strongman." Over the same period - since the June 28 2009 military overthrow of elected president Manuel Zelaya of Honduras - Times contributors have never used such terms to describe Micheletti, who presided over the coup regime after Zelaya's removal, or Porfirio Lobo, who succeeded him. Instead, the paper has variously described them in its news coverage as "interim," "de facto," and "new."Porfirio Lobo assumed the presidency after winning an election held under Micheletti's coup government. The elections were marked by repression and censorship, and international monitors, like the Carter Centre, boycotted them. Since the coup, Honduras's military and police have routinely killed civilians.Over the past 14 years, Venezuela has had 16 elections or referenda deemed free and fair by leading international authorities. Jimmy Carter praised Venezuela's elections, among the 92 the Carter Centre has monitored, as having "a very wonderful voting system." He concluded that "the election process in Venezuela is the best in the world." While some human rights groups have criticised the Chávez government, Venezuela has had no pattern of state security forces murdering civilians, as is the case in Honduras.Whatever one thinks of the democratic credentials of Chávez's presidency - and we recognise that reasonable people can disagree about it - there is nothing in the record, when compared with that of his Honduran counterparts, to warrant the discrepancies in the Times's coverage of the two governments.We urge you to examine this disparity in coverage and language use, particularly as it may appear to your readers to track all too closely the US government's positions regarding the Honduran government (which it supports) and the Venezuelan government (which it opposes) - precisely the syndrome you describe and warn against in your column.Yours sincerely...To see all 23 of the early signatories, and to sign the petition, go hereSources: NYTimes eXaminer/North American Congress on Latin AmericaNew York TimesVenezuelaHondurasAmericasUnited StatesHugo ChávezNoam ChomskyMichael MooreOliver StoneJimmy CarterHuman rightsCensorshipRoy Greensladeguardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Two things make a good magazine – presentation and content. Many magazine will be good at one or the other, the best combine the two elements. Perdiz is one such magazine. Its second issue has just landed, promising further proof that ‘Happiness is Contagious’. The issue will be easily recognisable to anyone who picked up the launch issue late last year. The same format is repeated, which is sound as it’s a strong one. Loose-stitched open binding (actually improved from issue 1) and a kaleidoscopic foil block title take good advantage of print and the bold use of colour is bright and appropriately happy. It looks and feels good. Like many current independents, Perdiz is a magazine about people. It uses its basic theme – happiness – as an excuse to examine how different people live, and divides the content into long and short forms in an intelligent and well-paced manner. Despite being bilingual (it’s published from Barcelona in English and Spanish) it doesn’t feel cramped. Longer pieces don’t overstay their welcome and vary between being text-orientated and image-led (such as that above and below, about one man’s love of the sea and fishing). The longer material is split up with pictorial spreads such as this collage of rainbow-based books covers by Kent Rogowski (above). Plus there are briefer pieces of good news and a nicely put together illustrated list of ‘10 Things I changed to Improve My Life’ (above), with advice around managing email and travelling long haul. There’s also a paeon to good grammar, well-illustrated by Raquel Gonzalez (above) that is a brave subject to deal with in two langauges at once. I can’t judge the Spanish but the English avoids mistakes. Looking at these images, they don’t do full justice to the issue. Perdiz is a well-made and characterful magazine that hangs together as a whole – these pages are even stronger bound together. Highly recommended. (read my review of issue 1 here) Perdiz #2 is currently available from the magCulture shop.