bet you don't konw what chinese is crazy for ?

bet you don't konw what chinese is crazy for ?

Travel Frog, or Tabi Kaeru, a Japanese mobile game about rearing a pet frog and supplying him with equipment to travel, has in recent weeks risen to become the most downloaded free game from Apple’s App Store in China. So popular is the game in China, presently the world’s largest gaming market, that there are now low-quality copycat games appearing in the App Store, as well as unauthorized assistant software that helps users cheat in the game.

China’s obsession over Travel Frog has come as a surprise to many, not least to its Japanese developers at Hit-Point, who released the similar-natured game Neko Atsume, or Kitty Collector, back in 2014. In an interview with Sina, the developers behind Travel Frog expressed that they had also been taken aback by the news of how much of a hit the game is with Chinese youths. While Travel Frog is currently only available in Japanese in App Store (an unsanctioned Chinese version of the game, however, is available in Android systems), the language barrier appears to have no effect in deterring Chinese players. According to a statement released by Hit-Point, Travel Frog has hit 10 million downloads in Apple’s App Store and Chinese users alone are responsible for 95% of the downloads. Japanese users, on the other hand, contributed only 2%.

Image credit: Hit-Point

There have been many theories about why the mobile game is so beloved in China. The cuteness of the character, the titular frog, and the interface of the game may play a significant factor. The game developers themselves have stated that when they designed the game, they had initially envisioned young females between the age of 10 and 30 as the target demographic. The fact that the game calls for less time commitment or skills from its players—most of the time when you’re playing Travel Frog, your frog is traveling and all you can do is patiently wait for him to come back home or wait to hear from him via postcards—has also set it apart from other mobile games, which are more demanding of the users’ focus and energy.

But perhaps it’s the traveling aspect of the game that has appealed the most to Chinese players. By playing Travel Frog, users are able to travel vicariously through the postcards and mementos given to them by their frogs. A Weibo user has remarked that the best part of the game is that she is able to savor a taste of freedom and wanderlust that she desires, but is unable to satisfy in real life.

The popularity of Travel Frog has, unfortunately, led to a slew of copycat games that are looking to bank on the game’s fame. Last week, a Chinese version of Travel Fog that required users to pay 30 RMB ($4.74) before downloading appeared on China’s App Store. The copycat game, developed by Song Yang, and not Hit-Point, garnered nearly 8,000 reviews, most of them from angry customers claiming they had been scammed. While the game was later removed from the store, Chinese knockoffs of Travel Frog are still prevalent. In Apple’s App Store, there currently is an app called Frog Traveling!, as well as another game that bears a similar name to the Chinese translation of “Travel Frog.” Both games unsubtly ape the design of the real Travel Frog.

In addition to the influx of copycat games, there have also been reportsof illegal assistant software that is being used to help users gain more in-game currency. The longevity of software like this, however, may be short-lived, as many users are claiming that the software led to data loss and malfunctions of their phones.

According to the Hit-Point developers, they are currently working on producing an international version for Travel Frog in response to the game’s largely international user base.

https://technode.com/2018/01/31/travel-frog/

You Drink good coffee everyday....?! The World Coffee Brewers Cup champion comes from Taiwan, our country...BRAVO !!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNjILh-ii34

Chad Wang Of Taiwan Wins The 2017 World Brewers Cup

June 15, 2017Budapest 2017

Taiwan’s Chad Wang of Jascaffe China is the 2017 World Brewers Cup champion. This is Wang’s second appearance on the World Brewers Cup stage and his first win, moving up two positions from his third place finish last year in Dublin.

“Today I wish to connect the coffee, the barista, and the guest,” Wang explained to the judges during his finals presentation. That coffee–a natural-processed Geisha from Ninety Plus Geisha Estates in Boquete, Panama–was cup number 227 out of a total 300 different coffees Wang tasted during an origin trip last month to select his competition coffee. Lucky number 227 consisted solely of purple Geisha cherries picked earlier this year in January and roasted here in Budapest not but three days ago.

For his winning routine, Wang opted to brew with a cold ceramic Hario V60, noting that the thick ceramic promoted “temperature stability” and the non-warmed brewer “enhances the intensity of [his] coffee.” Using 15 grams of coffee to 250ml of 92°C water (197.6°F)–a 16.667:1 ratio–the Taiwanese champion began with a 30 second bloom before pouring the remaining water into the center of his V60s for a two-minute total brew time. The end result was a total of 220ml coffee for each of the judges.

In the cup, Wang’s Panama Geisha treated judges to aromas of peach, melon, and butterscotch, and flavors of melon, white peach, orange blossom, and caramel with a banana liqueur and kiwi finish. A pineapple acidity and honey-like sweetness were prominent features in his world dominating brew.

Wang’s performance was a masterclass in precision. No energy was wasted throughout the entire nine minutes and 59 seconds of his routine, every movement done with effortless intentionality. Watching his performance, it was clear that we were witnessing a master of his craft in his element. It was evident last year when Wang took the bronze that he would be a favorite, should he make it to the World stage in 2017. But he’s a favorite no more. Chad Wang of Taiwan in the 2017 World Brewers Cup champion.

sourced from : https://sprudgelive.com/chad-wang-taiwan-wins-2017-world-brewers-cup/

Evian joins big brands in race to bin plastics

The luxury mineral water brand said it would redesign its packaging, accelerate recycling and recover plastic waste from nature.

Evian became the latest big brand to turn its back on polluting plastics on Thursday, pledging to make its water bottles from recycled materials by 2025.

It joined British supermarket Iceland, coffee chain Costa and fast-food giant McDonald’s, which have all announced similar decisions in the last month.

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Evian, the luxury mineral water brand owned by Danone , the world’s third-largest bottled water company, said it would redesign its packaging, accelerate recycling and recover plastic waste from nature.

The shift by some of the biggest high-street names answers widespread consumer disquiet over pollution, accelerated after popular British naturalist David Attenborough urged consumers to stop using plastic bottles and start protecting marine life in his “Blue Planet II” documentary series.

Supermarkets have vowed to use less plastic packaging and a tax on plastic bags in Britain has led to safer alternatives.

But plastic bottles remain ubiquitous—strewn in garbage cans and littering waterways, after bottled water became a lifestyle choice in countries that offer a safe and easy alternative to tap water.

“Evian will drive a step change to address the critical issue of plastic,” said global brand director, Patricia Oliva, in a statement. “We want to use the power of our global brand to take a leadership position.”

Virtuous cycle

The so-called “circular economy” approach is gaining ground in the fight to cut waste, and entails reusing products, parts and materials, producing no waste and pollution, and therefore using fewer new resources and energy.

Britain’s Costa coffee chain said this week that it would remove plastic straws from its stores and replace them in 2018.

We want to use the power of our global brand to take a leadership position.

Patricia Oliva, global brand director, Evian

“We will launch a non-plastic alternative straw this year as part of an ongoing review into all our packaging and takeaway cups,” said Jason Cotta, managing director of Costa UK & Ireland, part of Whitbread Plc.

This follows recommendations by British lawmakers in January for the introduction of a “latte levy” whereby consumers pay an extra 25 pence ($0.34) for a disposable coffee cup.

British supermarket Iceland plans to eliminate plastic packaging from its own-brand products by the end of 2023 and will instead use paper and pulp trays along with paper bags, all of which are fully recyclable.

Prime Minister Theresa May this month unveiled a new environmental agenda which seeks to eradicate avoidable plastic waste in Britain by 2042.

This follows a ban on plastic microbeads, common in body scrubs and shower gels.

Clogged

The combined steps by major consumer companies aim to address criticism that packaging and global transportation causes undue environmental damage, as mountains of plastic waste get dumped in landfill and oceans every year.

Eight million tonnes of plastic—bottles, packaging and other waste—enter the ocean every year, killing marine life and entering the human food chain, says the United Nations Environment Programme.

The world’s biggest restaurant chain McDonald’s Corp said on Tuesday it would switch to environmentally friendly packaging materials and offer recycling in all its restaurants.

McDonald’s said it aims to get all its packaging from renewable, recycled or certified sources by 2025, with a preference for products from responsibly managed forests.

The company will also make recycling available in all restaurants by 2025, up from about 10 percent, and eliminate foam packaging from its global supply chain by year-end.

“Our customers have told us that packaging waste is the top environmental issue they would like us to address,” said Francesca DeBiase, McDonald’s chief supply chain and sustainability officer, in a statement.

sourced from :http://www.eco-business.com/news/evian-joins-big-brands-in-race-to-bin-plastics/

If you’re using an Android phone, Google may be tracking every move you make

Biking? Google probably knows you are. Up a mountain? It probably knows that, too.

The Alphabet subsidiary’s location-hungry tentacles are quietly lurking behind some of the most innovative features of its Android mobile operating system. Once those tentacles latch on, phones using Android begin silently transmitting data back to the servers of Google, including everything from GPS coordinates to nearby wifi networks, barometric pressure, and even a guess at the phone-holder’s current activity. Although the product behind those transmissions is opt-in, for Android users it can be hard to avoid and even harder to understand. Opting in is also required to use several of Android’s marquee features.

As a result, Google holds more extensive data on Android users than some ever realize. That data can be used by the company to sell targeted advertising. It can also be used to track into stores those consumers who saw ads on their phone or computer urging them to visit.1 This also means governments and courts can request the detailed data on an individual’s whereabouts.

While you’ve probably never heard of it, “Location History” is a longtime Google product with origins in the now-defunct Google Latitude. (Launched in 2009, that app allowed users to constantly broadcast their location to friends.) Today, Location History is used to power features like traffic predictions and restaurant recommendations. While it is not enabled on an Android phone by default—or even suggested to be turned on when setting up a new phone—activating Location History is subtly baked into setup for apps like Google Maps, Photos, the Google Assistant, and the primary Google app. In testing multiple phones, Quartz found that none of those apps use the same language to describe what happens when Location History is enabled, and none explicitly indicate that activation will allow every Google app, not just the one seeking permission, to access Location History data.

Quartz was able to capture transmissions of Location History information on three phones from different manufacturers, running various recent versions of Android. To accomplish this, we created a portable internet-connected wifi network that could eavesdrop and forward all of the transmissions that the devices connected to it broadcast and received.2 None of the devices had SIM cards inserted. We walked around urban areas; shopping centers; and into stores, restaurants, and bars. The rig recorded every relevant network request3made by the Google Pixel 2, Samsung Galaxy S8, and Moto Z Droid that we were carrying.

According to our analysis of the phones’ transmissions, this is just some of the information that gets periodically sent to Google’s servers when Location History is enabled:

• A list of types of movements that your phone thinks you could be doing, by likelihood. (e.g. walking: 51%, onBicycle: 4%, inRailVehicle: 3%)
• The barometric pressure
• Whether or not you’re connected to wifi
• The MAC address—which is a unique identifier—of the wifi access point you’re connected to
• The MAC address, signal strength, and frequency of every nearby wifi access point
• The MAC address, identifier, type, and two measures of signal strength of every nearby Bluetooth beacon
• The charge level of your phone battery and whether or not your phone is charging
• The voltage of your battery
• The GPS coordinates of your phone and the accuracy of those coordinates
• The GPS elevation and the accuracy of that

“That goes beyond what you’d expect for Location History,” Bill Budington a security engineer for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told Quartz when these transmissions were described to him, “especially in terms of predicted activity.” The EFF is a nonprofit organization that advocates for digital civil liberties, freedom, and privacy, which both I and Google have made charitable contributions to in the past.4

Google, accurately, describes Location History as entirely opt-in. “With your permission, Google uses your Location History to deliver better results and recommendations on Google products,” a spokesman wrote to Quartz in an email. “For example, you can receive traffic predictions for your daily commute, view photos grouped by locations, see recommendations based on places you’ve visited, and even locate a missing phone. Location History is entirely opt-in, and you can always edit, delete, or turn it off at any time.”

When asked to opt in, however, the full implications of enabling Location History are rarely made clear. Here are some of the ways Google apps ask users to enable Location History.

Google Photos

When the “Places” album is selected, the app requests to turn on Location History. The prompt says that Location History will allow you to “see photos grouped by where you’ve been.” It doesn’t say anything about Google using that information for other purposes. It doesn’t mention that in exchange for organizing your photos, you let Google record what stores you’re shopping in and what restaurants you’re eating at by collecting information about nearby Bluetooth beacons and wifi networks. There is no option to limit Location History to only be used for sorting photos.

Google Maps

In Google Maps, users are encouraged to “Get the most from Google Maps” by turning on Location History. “Google needs to periodically store your location to improve route recommendations, search suggestions and more,” the full-screen prompt explains. Those suggestions come in exchange for Google knowing how often you go for a run and how often you charge your battery.

Google App

In the primary Google App, the prompt to turn on Location History occurred almost immediately on one of the Phones we tested. On another, it only appeared when trying to activate information about local road traffic. Tapping “Learn More” reveals that Google plans to use this information not just for aiding a commute, but also to give you “more useful ads on and off Google.”

Google Assistant

On first use, the Google Assistant’s activation screen immediately makes Location History look like a requirement. “The Assistant depends on these settings in order to work,” the screen says, describing Location History as creating a “private map of where you go with your signed-in devices.”5 It makes no mention of sharing your wifi connection, only that it will “regularly obtain location data from this device, including when you aren’t using a specific Google product.” Allowing these permissions is required to activate Google Assistant, although if Location History is disabled after Google Assistant is set up, the assistant will still function and does not seem to prompt for it to be re-enabled.

Google Assistant is of strategic importance to the company’s efforts to keep users in its ecosystem of devices, apps, and services rather than those of Apple, Amazon, or Microsoft. Most recently, all of these companies have been focused on in-home appliances that respond to voice and can assist with various routine tasks like playing music, calling a taxi, or ordering laundry detergent.

Your Location History

Android users can check some of the information Google has collected about them by looking at “Your timeline” in Google Maps. (Google’s information page on how to access it can be found here.) These instructions show how to turn off Location History entirely.

sourced from :https://qz.com/1183559/if-youre-using-an-android-phone-google-may-be-tracking-every-move-you-make/

Better plastics for healthier oceans

Yes, better plastics for healthier oceans, let's wish it will be better !

Plastic is versatile, cheap, and convenient. But in its conventional form, it is also “immortal”, sticking around for hundreds of years and causing pollutions. Former UK MP Michael Stephen proposes a better way to work with plastic.

Groceries in a bag. Can imposing a fee for plastic bags help to protect the environment? Image: velkr0, CC BY 2.0

By Michael Stephen

Monday 8 January 2018

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Plastics are among the most popular materials in use today. Given the material’s versatility, it is little wonder that some 320 million tons of it are used around the world each year. Indeed, the recent holidays left many with a mountain of plastic products and packaging. But plastics also pose a serious environmental threat.

If not disposed of properly, plastics can lie or float around for decades. In addition to being harmful to terrestrial and aquatic life, free-floating plastics in oceans can adsorb toxins and break up into micro-plastics, which then enter the food chain.

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It is this seeming immortality that has led governments to tax certain environmentally damaging plastic products or ban them altogether. Many governments are also encouraging better waste management, and the reuse, redesign, and recycling of plastic products.

This is prudent policymaking. But while taxes, bans, and waste-management policies will reduce the problem of plastic pollution, they will not solve it.

And, because plastics are made from a byproduct of oil refining, a ban would have little or no impact on hydrocarbon extraction, either. What taxes and bans will do is deprive the poorest people of a useful and inexpensive material.

The fact is that, despite the best efforts of well-intentioned lawmakers and nongovernmental organizations, thousands of tons of plastic waste are still entering the environment, particularly the oceans, every day. Clearly, a better approach is needed.

Some governments and companies have been persuaded that “bio-plastics” – which are derived partly from biomass like cornstarch – are the solution. But this argument is flawed: bio-plastics are very expensive and energy-intensive to produce, and still contain large amounts of material derived from oil.

Moreover, recycling bio-plastics requires that they be separated from ordinary plastic. Such polymers are tested to biodegrade, but only in the particular conditions found in industrial composting. In other words, while this technology might sound appealing, it will not solve the problem of plastic litter seeping into the environment.

sourced from :http://www.eco-business.com/opinion/better-plastics-for-healthier-oceans/

Great idea for saving space...everybody needs this ~~! Glad to know many of them can be made by plastic injection, produced from plastic injection mold (our major business line: www.taiwanmoldmaker.com)

Great idea for saving space...everybody needs this ~~!
Glad to know many of them can be made by plastic injection, produced from plastic injection mold (our major business line: www.taiwanmoldmaker.com)

sourced from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AIG8oSP8iI



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