Public sector

Oxfam app reveals history of items

From the Rutland and Stamford Mercury

"Shoppers at 10 Oxfam stores in Manchester will be able to find out the story behind items on sale by using their iPhone. The charity has set up Shelflife, an app which gives more details about items donated for sale as well as its ethical and unwrapped products. The concept is based on an idea developed by TOTeM: Tales Of Things And Electronic Memory, a collaboration between five British universities University College London, The University of Edinburgh/Edinburgh College of Art, Brunel University, the University of Dundee and the University of Salford."

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Local industry

Jamie Byng - The SRB Interview

From the Scottish Review of Books

"The opportunities for publishers have never been greater. You can choose to publish books as you always have done or you can think, Hold on, we’re quite good at bringing people together, why don’t we examine this at a more serious level than we have before. Digital is the most liberating medium in that sense. It's fairly simple these days, as you can see on Canongate. TV... digital is an important way in which we see ourselves growing – and learning."

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Bigpoint Signs Deal With GamesAnalytics

From scottishgames.net

"Edinburgh's Games Analytics have signed a deal with Bigpoint, the German-based online games publisher. The deal will integrate Games Analytic's Predict platform into Bigpoint's games. This will allow Bigpoint to analyse and predict user behaviour. They can use this information to enhance the user experience, personalise games and increase retention rates and revenues."

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Outplay looks to create Scottish jobs with well-worn genres

From Gamasutra

"Outplay Entertainment was founded by brothers Doug and Richard Hare, both of whom have been driving forces in the Scottish video games space for a good while. The company's first two games, Word Trick and Booty Quest for Facebook, are arguably safe bets. The former is a take on Scrabble, while the second is a rather simple match-3 game. For the studio's upcoming games, the team is "still working within proven genres," explains Hare. However, the industry veteran suggests that leading off with games in well-worn genres is part of the company's master plan."

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App of the Day: Big Cup Cricket

From Eurogamer

"Cricket's all about the pageantry, the eccentricity of an English country fair captured in an afternoon spent getting plastered in the sun. And it's been captured beautifully in Denki and Beautiful Game Studios' Big Cup Cricket. It's endlessly satisfying, making it possible to lose hours chasing the boundaries or swinging for the stumps. I love it."

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General industry

From Zynga To Flipboard: Why All Eyes Are On China For The Next Mobile Boom

From Tech Crunch

"China’s massive mobile potential is more than just a numbers game. It's true that there are more mobile users in China than anywhere else, but they're also starting to spend more. A lot more. According to App Annie, mobile revenue in China has nearly tripled in the last year, increasing by 187 percent. This is partially due to Apple's recent announcement that they're going to start accepting App Store payments in Chinese yuan. Now Western game developers can seamlessly offer virtual goods to China's huge audience."

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Android growing 250 percent year-on-year, with over 300 million total devices worldwide

From The Next Web

"To coincide with Mobile World Congress, Google has announced its latest figures for the growth of the Android ecosystem. The company reports a year-on-year growth rate of more than 250 percent, with 850,000 new Android devices activated each day. Google says that this means that the total number of Android devices around the world has topped 300 million. Meanwhile, there are 450,000 apps on Android Market – that's triple the amount just one year ago, when Google announced 150,000 total apps."

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Groupon sees big growth in North America, 25 percent of deals now bought via mobile

From The Next Web

"Deal discovery and daily deal pioneer Groupon is at Mobile World Congress, providing us with some fresh insight into how well its mobile platform is performing — and it’s going well for them, particularly in North America. Groupon today announced that its mobile apps broke records in December 2011, with 25 percent of all of its deals in the region purchased via a mobile device."

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Intel Capital announces $100 million new fund to invest in 'connected' cars

From Mercury News

"Intel's venture capital arm Wednesday announced a $100 million fund to invest in 'connected car' technology. "The car is the ultimate mobile device," said Staci Palmer, general manager of Intel's Automotive Solutions Division. Among the areas in which the new fund will invest are in-vehicle "infotainment" systems and apps."

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The Credit Card Is The New App Platform

From Forbes

"Credit and debit cards are ubiquitous, but they're mostly pretty dumb. That’s about to change. We’re at the early stages of a massive wave of innovation in the payment industry. Developers will add new capabilities to cards by programming the payment network to link online applications to specific payment events. Consumers will be able to effectively 'drag and drop' apps to their smart cards in the same way that they add apps to their smart phones today."

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Reports

Mobile Web users consume more media on their handsets than their TVs, survey finds

From Next Web

"Time spent watching TV has been overtaken by mobile media consumption amongst those who use the mobile Web, a new survey has found. Mobile ad network InMobi has revealed the results of a survey into the way that media is consumed on mobile devices. Conducted between September and November 2011 and questioning 20,000 mobile consumers in 18 markets, the survey shows that respondents spent 27 percent of their media time on mobile and 22 percent on TV."

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Events

Information Day on the Connected Digital Economy Catapult, Edinburgh

From Eventbrite

"In January 2012, the Technology Strategy Board announced its intention to establish a Catapult centre in the Connected Digital Economy to take advantage of the transforming power of the internet and the trend towards convergence. The TSB is holding two events (in Edinburgh and London) to update the business and academic community."

The event in Edinburgh takes place on Tuesday, 13 March at the Edinburgh Conference Centre, Heriot-Watt University, Riccarton, Edinburgh.

Compiled by David Hartley