Consumer Electronics Daily News

Families Can Turn to Smartphones for Prescription Saving Solutions

With the drug price index continuing to rise and median incomes decreasing, families are looking to their smartphones for solutions to save money.

"Consumers are recognizing the rising costs of prescription drugs and LowestMed is the solution for everyone looking to save money," said Brad Bangerter, CEO of LowestMed. "Our app and discount card makes it easy for you to compare prescription prices at the pharmacies in your neighborhood."

LowestMed is the first free mobile app in the industry to provide consumers with the ability to view and compare prescription drug prices at leading supermarket and pharmacy chains in their neighborhood. It is available on iPhone, Android, and Windows phone devices. LowestMed offers free and confidential pharmacy savings in the palm of your hand for those on company plans and individual plans under the ACA, as well as those who choose not to buy health insurance.

The LowestMed app is as simple as typing your prescription into your smartphone. Customers do not need to enter any personal information and LowestMed does not track prescriptions.

Trolls vs. Vikings Release Date Revealed!

Trolls vs. Vikings is ready for launch next month. The game is set to hit the App Store on February 26, 2014 in English, French, Spanish and German. Android and browser versions are expected to release during the spring and summer of 2014.

With Trolls vs. Vikings, Megapop has delivered a super tight tower defense experience, with astounding depth of play for a mobile game, all wrapped within a lush and wacky game world. Although a tribute to a certain Plants game, it has sought to re-innovate the beloved formula, adding a range of fresh and unique features. This includes more engagement through movable and active units, a dynamic tiles system, social features, and epic boss fights with the Nordic gods themselves such as Thor, Odin and Loki.

Trolls vs. Vikings is for both casual and hardcore players alike with difficulty modes ranging from normal to a divinely crushing hard. As the gamers progress into the hard levels, all new tactics and challenges are presented for each round, effectively opening up an entirely new gameplay approach! The game boasts 30+ hours of gameplay with even more content to come in future updates, including multiplayer.  

All the developers on Trolls vs Vikings have extensive experience from the games industry, and Megapop's team has previously co-founded companies like Funcom, Artplant and Innerloop.The team have thus directed or been leads on a long range of award winning games over the last 20 years, including  Age of Conan, Anarchy Online, Dreamfall - The Longest Journey, Battlestar Galactica Online and many, many others. The team also consists of composer Aleksander Dimitrevic, which makes one of his first forays into the games industry. He has previously composed trailer music for more than 100 Hollywood movies, including Harry Potter, Narnia, X-men, Pirates of the Caribbean, Wall-E and the Simpsons movie.

Survey Reveals That Majority of Smartphone Users Share Their Location Through An App

Life360, a location and communication app for families, has shared findings from a recent omnibus survey that show a growing acceptance and use of location sharing apps. The survey, conducted by VeraQuest among a group of more of 1,169 teens and adults who own a smartphone, examined habits and feelings about sharing one's location through an app.

More than 60 percent of smartphone users report that they use at least one location sharing app on their smartphone, and 36 percent say they use two or more. 41 percent of adults say they are more willing to share their location today versus five years ago.

Both teens and adults overwhelmingly cite safety as the primary reason they are willing to share their location through an app. Yet that feeling of safety is tied to sharing one's location with family members more so than friends. 87 percent of teens and 73 percent of adults say they feel safer knowing that their family is aware of their location through an app while only 39 percent of teens and 42 percent of adults say they feel safer knowing that friends are aware of their location.

Interestingly, given the number of location sharing apps built to promote socialization with friends and places, only 46 percent of adults and 47 percent of teens say they feel more connected to others when they share their location through a location sharing app.

"As our user base has exploded to more than 20 million families, we were curious to learn more about the habits and motivations for location sharing," said Chris Hulls, co-founder and CEO of Life360. "It's particularly interesting to see that safety is the primary reason driving the use of location sharing apps, and that location sharing with family trumps sharing with friends."

Founded in 2008, Life360 is a free app for iOS and Android that uses location-based technology to help its users stay connected throughout the day via a private map and chat stream, regular check-ins, and "panic alerts" when needed. The Life360 "Circles" feature enables users to set up separate groups for family, friends, babysitters and others with separate privacy controls for each circle. The app's popular "Places" feature allows users to designate their favorite locations and receive automatic alerts when family members arrive. Users have the option to sign up for Life360 Premium, which for $5 per month or $50 per year provides access to a 24/7 Live Advisor, roadside assistance, unlimited use of Places, expanded location history,$100 in stolen phone protection, and location lookups for non-smartphones. 

Conducted by VeraQuest, Inc., the survey sampled 1,950 online general population respondents aged 18+ and 250 teens within the United States between June 27 and June 30, 2013. Respondents were randomly selected to be proportional to the demographic strata of total U.S. population. The estimated sampling error for adults is +/- 2.2 percent +/-6.2 percent among teens at a 95 percent confidence level. These statements conform to the principles of disclosure of the National Council on Public Polls.

Marvel And Aeria Mobile Launch X-Men: Battle of the Atom Mobile Game For iPhone

 Marvel Entertainment has teamed up with developer Aeria Mobile to launch X-Men: Battle of the Atom for iPhone. Featuring gorgeous original art by Marvel artists and stories adapted by prolific X-Men writer James Asmus, the new free-to-play card battle game (CBG) stars everyone's favorite Uncanny X-Men in a battle across time and space.

Relive 50 years of X-Men as they call on past and future allies to combat some of the most dangerous villains ever known. Building a roster from a staggering amount of characters including Wolverine, Storm, Iceman, Beast, Kitty Pryde, and many more, players will tackle more than 45 missions and experience upcoming events based on landmark stories like Schism, Messiah Complex, Age of Apocalypse, and of course, Battle of the Atom!

Join 20-player X-Teams to participate in epic 20 vs. 20 battles in real time. Multi-month story arcs will also feature raid events in which these X-Teams can square off against the most iconic and powerful villains in X-Men history, including Magneto, the Hellfire Club, Apocalypse, and Dark Phoenix. The real-time ranking system also stirs up all-out competition as players vie for recognition as the top Super Hero teams. Regular content updates will consistently introduce new characters, stories, and art; giving players an ever-expanding universe in which to play.

"It's an honor for us to develop a game for such a storied and beloved franchise, one that is a personal favorite of mine," saidLan Hoang, founder and CEO of Aeria Games. "X-Men: Battle of the Atom captures the amazing artwork and drama of the greatest comic book storylines, bringing them to life with exciting, dynamic battles between dozens of players in real time."

"With the release of X-Men: Battle of the Atom, Aeria Games has done a tremendous job of celebrating 50 years of X-Men," said Andreea Enache-Thune, Senior Vice President, Games and Digital Distribution at Marvel Entertainment. "We're especially excited that the game will include hundreds of characters who have populated the X-Men universe over the years, spanning limitless timelines and alternate realities. Fans will be hard pressed to think of any characters not in the game – and if the characters are not there now, they likely will be eventually via one of the numerous classic story adaptations in store for players. It's a great time to be an X-Men fan."

X-Men: Battle of the Atom is available as a free download for iPhone. For more information, find the game on the App Store.

"Kung Fu Robot" iPad App Celebrates 100,000 Download Milestone

The Kansas City-based collaboration team of Kid Rocket Inc. and Propaganda3 celebrated a major milestone with their iPad app Kung Fu Robot by recently reaching over 100,000 App Storedownloads since its release in May 2013. The app quickly hit #3 in the books category in the US App Store, reached #5 in the newly created Kids category for children ages 9-11 in September and has gained a notable following in the UK, China and the Middle East.

Available as a free download for the iPad, the inaugural edition of Kung Fu Robot introduces children of all ages to a robot's love of kung fu, his conscientious sidekick's fear of getting in trouble, android ninjas, a crazy rooster bent on world domination and the pursuit of the perfect peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Its original storyline, art, animation, soundtrack and mini-games have caught the attention of critics as well and in November was named by Parents Magazine as one of 2013's "Best Free Kids' Apps."

A standalone Spanish-language version of Kung Fu Robot, titled "Cómo Hacer Un Sándwich de Mantequilla de Maní, Mermelada y Kung Fu," is also now available for download in the App Stores for Argentina, Belize, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia,Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Spain,Uruguay and Venezuela.

Three more installments of the "How to Make a Peanut Butter, Jelly & Kung Fu Sandwich" story arc are slated for 2014, with Volume Two planned for release in early March.

"Bringing this character and story to life has been a long journey," says Kung Fu Robot creator and Kid Rocket Inc. founderJason Bays. "To finally see him out in the world and being embraced by kids of all ages is truly amazing."

"Working with Jason has been a tremendous source of excitement for us," says Propaganda3 founder/CEO Cello Vergara. "At our core we are storytellers. To be trusted by a fellow storyteller with something as personal as this is quite humbling. We look forward to seeing where this ongoing collaboration takes us." 

Fingersoft and Viima Games Ltd Publish Stuntman Saga "Fail Hard"

Fail Hard is an action-packed and physics-based game from Oulu-based studio Viima Games Ltd. The game is published by Fingersoft and is about a stuntman who tries the craziest stunts, only to (you guessed it) fail hard in all the best possible ways. He falls so hard and often that it almost hurts to play it. It¹s fun for the whole ER!

The stuntman may fail (hard), but the game is destined to succeed. Fail Hard has over four million downloads on Android, and in Apple's App Store, the game immediately gained number one spots in the racing and action categories in several countries, including the USA and Germany. And what's more, Fail Hard is ranked the fourth most popular iPhone app in the USA at the moment.

This is the first collaboration between Fingersoft and Viima Games – and there will be more.

"We are excited to get Fail Hard out on iOS. The game is quite a ride, and it's been great to work on it with the talented weirdos at Fingersoft," says Viima Games CTO Visa Smolander.

Fingersoft itself has a proven track record in crazy and impressive stunts. Fingersoft is known for its global hits Hill Climb Racing and Benji Bananas. HCR has held the number one spots in Apple's App Store and Google Play in several countries, including USA, India, Germany, Russia and Spain. Today Fingersoft games have globally over 160 million downloads altogether.

Fail Hard will follow in the footsteps of Benji Bananas to become the second co-published Fingersoft game. While not aiming to be a full-time publisher, Fingersoft will continue full-time world dominance with carefully selected titles.

"Fail Hard has a great set of elements we like to see in mobile games. Equally important is that with Viima Games, we found a capable and passionate team to hang out with," says Jarkko Paalanen, Business Development Director of Fingersoft.

American Eagle Outfitters and Shopkick Announce 100-Store Trial of New shopBeacon™ Technology

American Eagle Outfitters and Shopkick, the most widely used real-world shopping app, today announced plans to launch shopBeacon^TM in 100 top-performing American Eagle Outfitters and Aerie stores across the country. Shopkick's shopBeacon is the first Apple iBeacon-based presence signal for retailers. When this trial goes live next month, it is anticipated to be the most widely deployed trial in the nation.

"AEO has always been an early adopter of cutting edge technology, which is why we are partnering with Shopkick once again, in order to provide our customers with the best mobile shopping experience available today," said Joe Megibow, Senior Vice President of Omni-Channel eCommerce at American Eagle Outfitters. "Shopkick first launched its app in our Times Square flagship store. Now with shopBeacon, we can deliver a plug and play solution that works to personalize our customers' shopping experience in an impactful and powerful way."

As shoppers enter an American Eagle Outfitters store, shopBeacon will welcome and show them location-specific rewards, deals, discounts and product recommendations – without them even having to remember to open the app.  It can also tie at-home browsing behavior to in-store benefits; if the customer "likes" a specific product online, if they so choose, shopBeacon can remind them where in the American Eagle Outfitters store that product is sold. Even better, in the future, it can also deliver department-specific offers throughout the store – so must-have skinnies show up at the most useful time: in the jeans department.

"American Eagle Outfitters' shoppers are tech-savvy, social and love their smartphones," said Cyriac Roeding, CEO and Co-Founder of shopkick. "shopBeacon is able to connect to this new generation of shoppers as a trusted companion, by reminding opted-in users to open the shopkick app at the entrance of the store, and further personalize their shopping experience with alerts and high-value rewards.  It is helpful and fun for both the shopper and the store."

American Eagle Outfitters is the first partner to deploy shopBeacon to 100 locations across the country, including New York City,Chicago, Los Angeles, Dallas, Houston, Miami, Boston, and San Francisco, chosen based on high-level traction with shopkick. By working with the 100 stores that have the highest traffic across the U.S., this trial is designed to deliver the most data and learning on how consumers enjoy shopBeacon. These stores join Macy's installations in its San Francisco and New Yorkflagship stores, which went live just before Black Friday 2013, and were the first live installations of any iBeacon/BLE technology at any large retailer worldwide.

To install shopBeacon, a retailer simply sticks the device on a wall or other flat surface. Each shopBeacon has a battery life of five years. The shopkick software developer kit (SDK) also makes it easy to customize and further personalize the ways brands and retailers interact with shoppers through their own store apps using shopBeacon.

Equally important, shopkick has built sophisticated proprietary technology on top of the iBeacon protocol into its shopBeacon, to make the scalability, security and location accuracy possible that are required for a commercially feasible retail solution. 

Shopkick delivers high-value rewards, in a currency called "kicks," to shoppers for a variety of actions they take as they go about shopping: being present in stores, browsing and interacting with products, and purchasing at participating retail stores as well as right within the app. Shoppers can redeem kicks to treat themselves with store gift cards, a free coffee or dinner, handbags, song downloads, movie tickets, donations to charity and more.

shopkick is free on the iPhone from the App Store at www.itunes.com/appstore/ and for Android from Google Play athttps://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.shopkick.app.

Swiggle Mobile Game App Now Available

Shore Digital announces today the release of Swiggle^®, the latest mobile app brought to market by this mobile web and digital marketing company.

Swiggle is a compelling new game where players score points by connecting tile game pieces by linking lines. The new app is available for free in iTunes and Google Play for use on iPhone, iPad, and Android smart phones and tablets.

Players can play against friends or random opponents, or play in single player mode against the Swiggle Bot. Swiggle plays like other popular tile games, but uses swiggly lines instead of letters and words, making Swiggle a truly international game.

"It's just a matter of keeping the lines connected and using the bonus squares wisely," said David Mair, Swiggle inventor who has invented hundreds of board games. "Swiggle is an addictive light strategy game that is easy to learn, yet provides advanced players the opportunity for a highly challenging game experience."

Swiggle Features:

• Connect the swiggly lines on game pieces to score points
• Place tiles on bonus squares to multiply points
• Double your score for your turn with the 2X multiplier
• Peek ahead to see which game pieces will be served next
• Automatically share your wins to Facebook
• Play friends from Facebook, your contact list or random opponents
• Play single player mode against the Swiggle Bot
• Pass and play mode allows two players to play on one device
• Easy sign in with email or Facebook
• In-game chat to chat with your opponent
• Push notifications with custom Swiggle notification sound
• Tap feature to nudge your opponent to play faster
• Your games follow you on any of your devices
• Share on Facebook, Twitter, text and email
• Available in iTunes and Google Play

Akron Children's Hospital Launches Mobile App for Childhood Cancer Survivors

Akron Children's Hospital, with funding from Hyundai Hope on Wheels, is giving childhood cancer survivors the resources they need to live a healthy adult life.

Through CancerLateFX, a free, personalized mobile app and website, childhood cancer survivors can get educational information, tips, tools and resources to keep them informed and healthy throughout their adult lives.

Each year, about 13,500 children in the United States are diagnosed with cancer, according to the Children's Oncology Group. Although the number of diagnoses has not declined in nearly 20 years, the overall survival rate has increased from 10 percent from just 40 years ago to nearly 80 percent today.

The same treatments responsible for higher survival rates can also lead to adverse long-term health outcomes, referred to as late effects. Common late effects of childhood cancer encompass broad areas, including growth and development, organ function, reproductive capacity, secondary cancers and psychological disorders.

"Various cancer-related groups provide educational materials, but they are written primarily for healthcare professionals and often provide too much information for young adults," said Stephanie Savelli, MD, director of the Cancer Survivorship Program at Akron Children's Hospital. "We designed the CancerLateFX app to help educate childhood cancer survivors and improve health promotion."

The Children's Oncology Group estimates there are approximately 350,000 adult survivors of pediatric cancer in the United States. And three out of five who survive children's cancer suffer late-effects.

Akron Children's new mobile app and website aims to help this population by increasing the understanding of late effects and prevention measures in young adults, while building self-advocacy and self-care once a survivor has left the pediatric system.

Instead of providing general health guidelines, the app generates content based on a person's symptoms and medical history. CancerLateFX also uses the survivor's cancer type and specific medications/treatments to introduce goals, prevention tips and talking points that can be further explored with the user's current healthcare provider.

The website and mobile app were developed with funding from the Hyundai Hope on Wheels Grant program, which donates $6.8 million per year in the form of $100,000 research and programmatic grants awarded to nonprofit institutions across the country.

For more information, visit www.CancerLateEffects.org or download it (CancerLateFX) from the app store on your iPhone or Android smartphone. 

Apple Inc. Will Provide Full Consumer Refunds of At Least $32.5 Million to Settle FTC Complaint

Apple Inc. has agreed to provide full refunds to consumers, paying a minimum of $32.5 million, to settle a Federal Trade Commission complaint that the company billed consumers for millions of dollars of charges incurred by children in kids' mobile apps without their parents' consent.

Under the terms of the settlement with the FTC, Apple also will be required to change its billing practices to ensure that it has obtained express, informed consent from consumers before charging them for items sold in mobile apps.

"This settlement is a victory for consumers harmed by Apple's unfair billing, and a signal to the business community: whether you're doing business in the mobile arena or the mall down the street, fundamental consumer protections apply," said FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez.  "You cannot charge consumers for purchases they did not authorize."

The FTC's complaint alleges that Apple violated the FTC Act by failing to tell parents that by entering a password they were approving a single in-app purchase and also 15 minutes of additional unlimited purchases their children could make without further action by the parent. 

Apple offers many kids' apps in its App Store that allow users to incur charges within the apps. Many of these charges are for virtual items or currency used in playing a game.  These charges generally range from 99 cents to $99.99 per in-app charge.

The complaint alleges that Apple does not inform account holders that entering their password will open a 15-minute window in which children can incur unlimited charges with no further action from the account holder. In addition, according to the complaint, Apple has often presented a screen with a prompt for a parent to enter his or her password in a kids' app without explaining to the account holder that password entry would finalize any purchase at all.

The rapidly expanding mobile arena has been a focus of the Commission's consumer protection efforts. In addition to its consumer protection enforcement activity in the mobile sphere, last year, the FTC issued staff reports addressing mobile payments and providing recommendations for the mobile industry on how to protect consumers as new and innovative payment systems come into use, advocating improved privacy disclosures in the mobile environment, and addressing advertising disclosures in the context of mobile devices.

In its complaint, the FTC notes that Apple received at least tens of thousands of complaints about unauthorized in-app purchases by children. One consumer reported that her daughter had spent $2,600 in the app "Tap Pet Hotel," and other consumers reported unauthorized purchases by children totaling more than $500 in the apps "Dragon Story" and "Tiny Zoo Friends." According to the complaint, consumers have reported millions of dollars in unauthorized charges to Apple.

The settlement requires Apple to modify its billing practices to ensure that Apple obtains consumers' express, informed consent prior to billing them for in-app charges, and that if the company gets consumers' consent for future charges, consumers must have the option to withdraw their consent at any time. Apple must make these changes no later than March 31, 2014.

Under the settlement, Apple will be required to provide full refunds, totaling a minimum of $32.5 million, to consumers who were billed for in-app charges that were incurred by children and were either accidental or not authorized by the consumer. Apple must make these refunds promptly, upon request from an account holder. Apple is required to give notice of the availability of refunds to all consumers charged for in-app charges with instructions on how to obtain a refund for unauthorized purchases by kids. Should Apple issue less than $32.5 million in refunds to consumers within the 12 months after the settlement becomes final, the company must remit the balance to the Commission.