B2C messaging on WhatsApp: A mobile marketer’s dream

Last week, David Wehner, Facebook’s chief financial officer, revealed the social network is exploringbusiness-to-consumer (B2C) interaction in WhatsApp, the mobile messaging service Facebook purchased for $22 billion in late 2014. His remarks re-ignited interest in the company’s plans for monetizing this popular app, which has shut out brands entirely up to this point and solely generates revenue from a small annual fee.

For Facebook, this move could open a substantial revenue stream as businesses line up to pay for permission to communicate with WhatsApp’s massive, global audience. For marketers, the potential opportunity to build and maintain mobile relationships with customers around the world is undeniably alluring. For consumers, they could stay as informed with the brands they love as they do with their friends and family.

Let’s dive more into the possible impact of what would be a landscape-altering decision.

Why is this shift possible for a service that was said to remain advertising-free?

The future of WhatsApp is being shaped by Facebook’s Businesses on Messenger initiative, which currently functions as a customer service tool to allow brands to inform consumers about order confirmations, shipping updates, and the like. Messenger and WhatsApp are both messaging services at their core and mirror each other in many ways, so it makes sense that B2C strategies being explored on Facebook’s homegrown app would be considered for its acquired app as well.

Like Messenger, WhatsApp would likely introduce permission-based functionality that prevents brands from sending messages without obtaining approval from the consumer. (Businesses using Messenger need consumers to sign up on their website during the checkout process.) As an “over-the-top” messaging service, WhatsApp would be expanding its peer-to-peer messaging model with this opt-in option.

If Messenger’s B2C messaging is any indication, there will continue to be no push (i.e. interruption) advertising in WhatsApp, allowing the app to preserve its “no ads, no games, no gimmicks” mantra. This is why the talk of Facebook backtracking on its claims to keep WhatsApp ad-free is misguided and fails to take into account the nuances of permission-based messaging. I would imagine that WhatsApp users who want to keep their experience brand-free will be able to do so. But the services Facebook could introduce into WhatsApp would add such value that many would opt in to B2C messaging.

What might this entail for marketers?

Although Facebook has yet to reveal the specific mechanics of the solution, we can imagine the company will create a frictionless experience for consumers to quickly and seamlessly opt-in for communications with their favorite brands. Think something similar to the “sign in with Facebook” button that appears on many websites.

One of the most obvious and advantageous opportunities for marketers is WhatsApp’s international user base. WhatsApp is among the primary messaging solutions for many people outside of the U.S., where unlimited messaging programs from the carriers are widely out of reach. And while SMS is a key marketing tool in the U.S., taking SMS internationally in a consistent manner is a complex undertaking. If Facebook opens up WhatsApp to marketers, companies can for the first time start to fully interact with consumers globally and seamlessly. If you are a global brand, or one moving in that direction, this would be an incredible opportunity.

Now, even with global access and less regulation than traditional SMS marketing, marketers should still think carefully about how they take advantage of this technology. The same longtime rules of SMS marketing are still in play. This would be a permission-based solution and should be treated as such. Marketers should be cautious about the timing, content, consistency, and relevancy of their messages.

What type of scenarios can consumers expect?

Wehner said that some of the business functions being tested in Messenger could be replicated in WhatsApp. These could include the customer support functions currently offered on the platform (e.g. requesting a different item, sending a notification when an item is back in stock), as well as collecting customer feedback about the shopping and product experience. Facebook has also introduced P2P payments in Messenger; using WhatsApp to send and receive payments could be very appealing, especially to friends and family living abroad. That functionality could extend to e-commerce and allow consumers to pay for items directly in the app.

Where WhatsApp differs from Messenger is that it is directly tied to your phone number. As such, Facebook may choose to borrow from SMS marketers’ playbooks to differentiate WhatsApp’s B2C messaging from Messenger. Brands could take advantage of proven SMS messaging tactics and create a sweepstakes or prize giveaway; send coupons, offers, and event dates; create text votes, polls, and surveys; and enable sign-ups for loyalty programs. Consumers who have opted in to receive text messages from brands would be accustomed to seeing these interactions, and Facebook could capitalize on that familiarity.

In his remarks last week, Wehner noted that bringing B2C messaging to WhatsApp is “more longer-term than the near-term.” Last month, WhatsApp announced it had 800 million monthly active users, so marketers are hoping that Facebook flips the B2C switch sooner rather than later.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said that the company’s products — WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram, and so on — need to scale to 1 billion users before they can become meaningful businesses. While that might be true for Facebook, access to WhatsApp would become a meaningful business for mobile marketers immediately.

John Haro is CTO of Vibes, a mobile marketing company. John regularly covers tech trends shaping mobile messaging, mobile wallets, mobile payments, and mobile devices. You can follow him on Twitter at @JohnHaro.

Admin of WhatsApp group stabbed after removing 2 members

An owner of a garment shop has been left grievously injured after he was attacked with a knife, beaten up and punched by two men in Ulhasnagar. The duo was asked to carry out the assault by two of their friends who were removed from a WhatsApp group, the adminof which is the victim. Two of the accused have alleged that the group admin owed money to them. One of the perpetrators has been arrested – the son of an ex-corporator, who will be produced in court.

Bunty Kurseja (30), the owner of Mayaji Boutique, a garment shop in Ulhasnagar, had created a group titled 'Jai Ho' on instant messaging application WhatsApp. The group was created so that members could exchange info and updates of the garment industry in minimum time.

However, two of the group's members, Anil Mukhi and Naresh Rohra, would keep sharing pornographic content. This irked the others, who sent personal messages to Bunty, the administrator, asking him to remove the duo.

Bunty warned Anil and Naresh to refrain from sending such content, but the two men didn't pay heed. A few days later, Bunty removed the duo from the group.

The now ex-members asked two of their friends, Naresh Chavan aka Bablya, a history-sheeter, and 21-year-old Babu Suresh Gaikwad, the son of ex-corporator, to attack Bunty.

Pretending to be customers, Bablya and Babu entered Bunty's shop on May 27 and ended up arguing with him over the bill, after which they brandished a knife and attacked him.

Manoj Chouhan, investigating officer of Hill Line police said that when Bunty's statement was recorded, he mentioned that he had borrowed a sum of money from Anil and Naresh. "The loan of a few lakhs was borrowed a year ago due to some family problem. The duo would keep pressing Bunty to cough up the amount, but he was unable to do so," the officer added.

The duo's removal from the group was the final straw, which is when they asked Bablya and Babu to carry out the attack, said officer Chouhan, adding: "One of the accused, the son of a former corporator, has been caught and will be produced in court soon. We have got footage of the shop's CCTV, where it is clearly seen that the victim was attacked with a knife by the accused."

Satya Kumar, a resident of Ulhasnagar, said: "After the incident, owners of garment shops got angry and held a meeting to discuss the same. They kept whole lane in Ulhasnagar no 5 area shut, as a mark of protesting the attack."

The case was registered the very next day under IPC Sections 307 (Attempt to murder) and 507 (Criminal intimidation by an anonymous communication). Investigations are ongoing to locate the other three accused.

VIBER DOWNLOAD FOR CHROME OS – FREE TEXT, VOICE AND VIDEO CALLS

Viber is currently being used by more than 100 million people. This application allows users to send messages and initiate calls, free of charge of course. You can use this app on Windows Phone, Blackberry devices, Android ones and of course iOS handsets. In order to set the app in motion, you must have a Wi-Fi connection or a 3G one. Viber has been developing constantly offering users the best services and features. This is why we should start looking at Viber as a pretty strong adversary for other IM app.

The company owning Viber, Rakuten has currently unveiled Viber for Chrome OS. This new launch also includes the text, voice and video chat features. If you want to download Viber, head on to Chrome Web Store.

Initiating video or voice calls is free, especially if you call another Viber user. If you wish to initiate a call to any landline number, you will be required to pay extra. Start by adding your personal account, so you can have access to all of these features. Make sure that the Google operating system functions on Chromebook or Chromebox. Remember that in order to enjoy the HD voice calling features, you should have a 3G or a Wi-fi connection. You can also send all kinds of photos to your friends along with some funny stickers if you want to share your current mood. However, Viber has a top competitor to face, we are referring to Google Hangouts and Imo. And there is a catch: Viber does not function with the Chrome browser on other types of platforms, for now it has some limitations. It was designed for Chrome OS exclusively. Viber is a 28 MB application and it can be used in 54 languages. Users from all corners of the world can keep in touch with their family and friends.

GOOGLE PLAY STORE 5.6.6 APK FREE DOWNLOAD – IMPROVED FEATURES AND BUG FIXES

The Google Play Store is an application that comes installed on most of the Android devices, but every once in a while, it receives updates which help it run better. The app is the shortcut to Google’s Marketplace, from where the users can download and install other applications or games, directly to their devices. The new version of the Google Play Store is 5.6.6 and it comes only with realigned buttons. The last significant change was made in version 5.5.8, where Google introduced a circular animation in the TV shows section for Lollipop 5.1.

To manually install Google Play 5.6.6 you can use two options: by downloading it directly to your phone or using your computer.

The phone method

When installing APK files from other sources than the Google Play, you need to enable the Unknown Sources, which is found in Settings>Security, and the box in front of it must be checked. You can get the new APK file from websites such APK Mirror or XDA Developers forum, and after installing it, you must uncheck the box in front of the Unknown Sources, because you might get some nasty viruses from the internet, when downloading applications from dangerous websites. When the APK file is downloaded, tap on it, read the new permissions and then tap on Install.

The computer method

We recommend you to firstly download APK files to your computer, because this way you can save a lot of mobile data (when the installation files are too big). Also, if you don’t have a wireless network in your house, you can use your computer which is connected to the internet using an Ethernet cable. After downloading the file to your computer, use an USB cable to copy the APK to your smartphone, then follow the exact steps we mentioned above: enable the Unknown sources option, launch the APK, accept permissions, tap on Install, then disable Unknown Sources.

Troubleshooting

If you have problems with the Google Play Store app, it means that the Google Services Framework isn’t functioning properly – this service is an intermediary between the Android store and the applications from your device, allowing them to be automatically updated. When you experience inconveniences with this service, go to Settings>Apps and scroll down until you find the Google Play Store. After tapping on it, you will also tap on Clear Cache and this might fix your problem. The same method should work also for the Google Play Services.

WHATSAPP DOWNLOAD 2.12.109 APK – FREE IMPROVEMENTS AND TOP FEATURES

As we’ve told you in our previous articles, the developers of WhatsApp are quite busy these days and they are releasing a new version after another. Yesterday, we’ve told you about the WhatsApp 2.12.108 BETA version and today we’ve just spotted the 2.12.109 new beta version on WhatsApp’s website.

This new beta version comes with some minor improvements and bug fixes, but there is no official change log for it, as least for now. We still think that WhatsApp’s developers are working closely for getting the Voice Calling feature to the right track, by lowering the data usage and improving the quality of the calls.

Unfortunately, until now, the WhatsApp users didn’t notice any improvements regarding the Voice Calling feature, which means that the developers are still trying to figure out how they can do that.

Installing WhatsApp 2.12.109 APK on Android smartphones

To install the latest WhatsApp 2.12.109 BETA version on your Android smartphone it’s not hard at all. First of all, it is good to know that this version can’t be found on the Google Play Store and in order to install it on your smartphone, you will need to download it from a third party source. We suggest you to install it from the official WhatsApp website, because it’s safer.

To download the WhatsApp 2.12.109 APK from WhatsApp’s website, open the browser that you use on your smartphone and open the whatsapp.com/android website. When the page loads, you will notice a “Download Now” button in the middle of the page. Tap on it and you will start downloading the WhatsApp 2.12.109 APK file on your Android smartphone.

When the download is finished, you will be able to install the new WhatsApp BETA version on your Android device, but not before enabling the Unknown Sources option. This option allows you to install APK files that have been downloaded from third party sources. To enable Unknown Sources, go to Settings->Applications or Settings->Security and check the box in front of the option (if it’s already checked that means the feature is already enabled, so leave it that way).

When you’re sure that the Unknown Sources option is enabled, use a file manager application to get to the location where you’ve saved the WhatsApp 2.12.109 APK file and start installing the new WhatsApp BETA version on your Android device.

Rihanna does Lad-y wear – buy of the day

The Umbrella hitmaker in a bucket hat? We smell another trend that the girls can borrows from the boys

Laugh, but mark our words: come summer, there’s a high chance you’ll be wearing a bucket hat. Underpinning the argument is Rihanna here, taking a leaf out of Schoolboy Q’s, Lauryn Hill’s and Yung Lean’s book at the launch of Melissa Forde’s new rowdybucket hat line at Opening Ceremony (suggesting that bucket hat launches are the new envelope openings) in a pink and yellow pineapple hat, long Raf Simons coat and cut offs.

Bucket hats are an entirely workable hat trend. Yes, we’ve borrowed them from lad-wear, but what’s wrong with that? This season, gender lines are blurred and if Saint Laurent can borrow from Savile Row tailoring then why can’t womens’ street-wear borrow from lad-wear? Lad-y wear, anyone? K-Way and Gloverall offer cases in point. What’s more, provided you buy a generous size, buckets are great because they don’t crush your hair. They’ll also shield your neck from the sun. And wherever Rihanna goes (when she wore a bucket hat to the World Cup final, the following day’s fashion leader columns penned themselves) people follow. Rihanna’s hat by M$$ x WT is a delight but it’s import-only, so try this one from Carhartt which is a little less lairy.

Fashion buy of the day: Topshop suede short suit

Bearing in mind the comforting words of Boris Johnson (“It is easy to make promises – it is hard work to keep them”), in no way does this short suit promise to be practical or easy to wear: it’s suede, for one, and comes in beige, so you can’t wear it on public transport. Plus, you’ll need to wear it a few times to make it worth the price tag. But it is an excellent entry point for smart/casual summerwear if you’re scared of wearing shorts to a meeting at work (a potential issue unless you work in the board-sport sector). Matching short suits are also two a penny this season – see J.Crew’s striped pair and super-casual checks at See By Chloe. Plus it’s very Jurassic World appropriate, should literal dressing be your thing.

Jack Vettriano hangs up paintbrush due to shoulder injury

Scottish painter, who had popular retrospective in Glasgow, signs up to physiotherapy course and ‘long recovery’ after dislocating right shoulder

Jack Vettriano, the Scottish painter, said he would be unable to paint for the foreseeable future after dislocating his right shoulder.

The 63-year-old, who said he believed he was facing a long recovery, released a statement after a “substantial number of inquiries” regarding new paintings following his retrospective exhibition at Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, in Glasgow, which ended last year.

More than 123,000 people went to see the Glasgow show, which featured more than 100 of his paintings, between September 2013 and February 2014, making it the most visited art exhibition at the institution.

Vettriano said: “The reality is that I am going to be unable to paint in the foreseeable future. I am undertaking a course of physiotherapy but am facing a long recovery period. In the meantime, I would like to thank the public for their continued support and interest.”

Vettriano, born in 1951, grew up in Methil, Fife. He left school at 16 and did not take up painting full-time until the age of 40. In 1989, he found fame when two of his canvases submitted to the Scottish Royal Academy sold on the first day. His work has since featured in exhibitions in Edinburgh, London and New York. He was made an OBE in 2003.

One of his most famous paintings, The Singing Butler, sold for £744,000 in 2004 and became one of the best-selling posters in Britain.

Iggy Azalea v Papa John's: has feral fan culture gone too far?

A pizza delivery guy allegedly passed the rapper’s phone number to family, but when the dividing line between fans and stars is so blurred, what do you expect?

Iggy Azalea may not have won a Grammy this year, but she did scoop up the lesser-known award for Worst Pizza Delivery Experience of 2015. The Aussie rapper apparently dialled Papa John’s from backstage at the awards show, no doubt expecting some kind of combination of bread, tomato and cheese to arrive. Instead, the pizzeria dished out a brand-new set of stalkers after the delivery guy decided to share Azalea’s cellphone number with his family.

“Hello is this iggy azalea my brother had delivered something from Papa John’s to u and he gave me the number on Friday night i am ur number one fan call me back please!” was the first message to appear, swiftly followed by: “Is this u please answer u r my idol.”

Azalea responded with a series of furious tweets regarding the data breach, and her rage was hardly placated by Papa John’s decision to tweet something wacky back and hope it passed for damage limitation (as seems to be the trend these days; after all, who cares about a company’s approach to your personal information when they can show off a passing knowledge of pop culture?). But is the fact her number ended up being passed around really that surprising given the way artist-fan relationships have changed over the past decade?

Back in the 1960s, unless you were a groupie cherry-picked from the crowd for special attention, your contact with bands was most likely restricted to joining fanclubs and writing terrifying letters in red ink. Punk aimed to obliterate the widening gap between lofty artist and fan, as did the 1980s DIY scene in which fans would let touring bands kip on their bedroom floor. But the real sea change came at the turn of the century when bands such as the Libertines and the Others were able to marry these punk ideals with the technology required to put them into practice. What fans loved about these bands wasn’t just the music, but the fact they had a seemingly 24-hour hotline to the group – you could chat with them on message boards, or turn up at their flats for acoustic performances. As Richard Day, a diehard Libs fan back in the day, once recalled to me:

After a gig, a few of us were sat around having a drink I mentioned that I had to catch the last train home when Pete said not to bother as he had a spare mattress behind his fridge! We sat listening to [the Smiths’] Hatful of Hollow and the Velvet Underground. I remember Pete reading through a journal of my writing I carried around and complimenting it, which I was chuffed about.

Others frontman Dominic Masters made a point of being even more accessible – doling out his cellphone number to fans so they could chat with him whenever they wanted. Anytime I met with him, often at his flat which seemed to be decorated with stray fans lying around various rooms, his phone would constantly be beeping with messages from members of the band’s wild fanbase dubbed the 853 Kamikaze Stage-Diving Division.

But it wasn’t just east London bands who were cottoning on to the way bands could improve the relationship with their fans. Southampton psychedelicists the Delays once set up their amps in a superfan’s front room for a full-powered band set. The noughties was the decade where bands and fans truly began to interact, and so it made sense when this notion left the indie and punk spheres to become embraced on a global scale, from Lady Gaga’s Little Monsters – who shared a pride in being different – to Taylor Swift inviting wild-eyed devotees to appear on her album-launch webcasts or dance in her videos.

In the age of social media, where pop stars compete to make themselves as accessible as possible online – doing follow sprees, joining conversations or offering prizes to followers – the difficulty is not how to interact with your fans but how to retain any sense of mystique. If a fan wants to say something to a celebrity, they can do it instantly, and the barriers for doing so in a polite way have long since been obliterated. The red-ink letters are still being written, it’s just that nowadays they are landing in notification bars.

It no longer seems intimidating to contact a pop star, and why should it when pop stars are so often reaching out for exactly this kind of contact? Musicians funding their albums through Kickstarter, for example, are regularly throwing in the kind of access 60s fans would have dreamed of – the chance to add lyrics to a record, for instance, or the slightly creepy opportunity to go on a dinner date with a band. In a world where we are encouraged to interact with celebrities as if they are our friends, can we really be shocked when the odd pizza delivery guy oversteps the line?

Iggy Azalea cancels her Great Escape tour of the US for a second time

Australian rapper says she is still committed to upcoming festival appearances and will ‘be back out on the road when the next album is done’

The Australian rapper said in a tweet: “As you may know, the tour is cancelled.” She added that she was “so sad and sorry to let my fans down”.

Azalea announced in March that the Great Escape tour would not begin in April and was being rescheduled due to production delays to take place in the fall

Azalea did not offer further details about the second cancellation. Representatives from her record label, Def Jam, and tour promoter, AEG, did not return emails seeking comment.

The Grammy-nominated rapper, who recently released the single Pretty Girls with Britney Spears, said in a tweet she would be “be back out on the road when the next album is done”.

Azalea said she was still committed to her upcoming festival performances.

Gmail boasts 900 million users; Google Inbox now open to all

 Update: Google has announced to open Inbox to everyone. Launched in October last year, the app is now available for download on iOS and Android without an invitation.

Google’s free webmail application is getting close to the 1 billion-user mark, making it the world’s most popular email service. The figures were revealed by the company’s senior vice president of products, Sundar Pichai, who was speaking at the 2015 Google I/O developer conference.

Gmail has more than doubled its user base since 2012, when the number stood at just 425 million. But as well as attracting more consumers, the way people access the service has also changed. Pichai noted during his presentation that 75% of users now check their mail via mobile.

In the past, Google had updated the Gmail for Android app. In an officialGoogle+ post, the company wrote, “Over the next few days, you’ll see a few improvements to the Gmail app for Android based on your feedback with more coming soon.” Among the new changes, you will find that tapping on people’s avatars will now let you see recent conversations with them. You will also be able to view contact info and more.

It also includes more reliable support for non-Gmail addresses (IMAP). It has also been made smoother to add additional accounts.

PROJECT TANGO SMARTPHONE GOT THE GREEN LIGHT

The Google-Qualcomm Tango tablet has already become available for users to buy from any Google store nearby and everything you’ve heared and hoped about it, is true!

So far, only a handful of people have managed to get their hands on the brain child of Google and Qualcomm and most of them are developer working on improving smartphones altogether.

The tablet functioning on Android OS has an NVIDIA K1 processor and features a 7.02″ 1920×1200 HD IPS display. The Tango tablet kit also allows users to equip a tone of sensors on it and Google has agreed to sell it to users for the same price that  they sold it to developers earlier this year when the Tango tablet was revealed. The price is $512.

Ever since news broke that Google and Qualcomm are working on developing portable devices that feature augmented reality, users have been dying to get their hand on the kits.

However, what really interests most buyers is the possibility of making the Tango smartphone kit available to every augmented reality fan in the world.

Although, it was announced that the Tango phone kit project has been scrapped, we have strong reasons to believe that the project is in fact, back on the table. The Tango Project smartphone will operate of course on an Android OS and will be equipped with 3D sensors, kind of like ones that exist on Kinect.

The sensors will track and draw the area surrounding the user and will function much better than the Kinect sensors because it will be backed up by Movidius Myriad 1 processor. This processor allows the Tango phone to track your moves better and map up you environment in depth without draining the phone’s battery life.

The new smartphone kit might allow users to equip indoor navigation for their device and will also feature games that allow the person to immerse into augmented reality.

The brains behind the Tango smartphone have said that they have gave it their all to make their device as human like as possible when it comes to understanding the environment, basically they wanted to teach the phone to see the environment just like a human being would see it.

It makes sense for smartphone developers to switch their attentions to augmented reality seeing as this is the new trend that users demand and although the idea that a mobile phone could be used for this types of activity has not been put into practice yet, the question of augmented reality on our phones is not a matter of ”if”, but more of ”when”.

And the answer to the question ”When will we have augmented reality on our smartphones?” is soon, very soon in fact.

Apple warns customers about iPhone effective power crash prank and reveals how to fix it

The company has given a clever fix to sort your phone out if your friends prank you with the notorious text

There's a text that you can send to your friends, that will crash their phone instantly, if it's sent from an iPhone to another iPhone.

It's been annoying people across the country, as people message each other the secret code.

The string of unique characters resets the phone, causing it to frustratingly turn on and off.

However, Apple today released a statement saying how to fix the phone if it is sent the malicious text.

The iPhone maker told the Press Association: "Apple is aware of an iMessage issue caused by a specific series of unicode characters and we will make a fix available in a software update. Until the update is available, you can use these steps to re-open the Messages app."

• This 'effective power' text will make your friend's iPhone crash if you send it to them

Apple's advice on how to fix your crashed phone

• Open Siri
• Tell Siri to mark all Messages as read
• Reply to the malicious message

Sending your friend the string of characters, however, does not just crash Messages.

It can also be used to affect the Snapchat and Twitter apps, if sent in private messages on either of the platforms.

However, an expert has told the Press Association that nothing more sinister than a simple reboot will happen if you are sent the message, and that they assume Apple will fix it soon.

Mark James, security specialist at anti-virus firm ESET said: "I am sure we have all had our desktop machines reboot after a seemingly random event has triggered the dreaded reboot. These mobile computers we call phones today have the same core instructions - if all else fails then reboot.

"This does not necessarily mean it's a security flaw or indeed an exploitable bug but Apple will none the less try and rectify this as soon as they possibly can."

Google highlights their favorite Material Design apps on Google Play, here’s the full list

Hot of the heels of Google I/O 2015, Google’s Design Team is ready to talk about, what else, but design. During I/O, they gave their entire site a fresh new Material design overhaul. As most of you know, Material is Google’s new design language that was introduced last year in Android 5.0 Lollipop and bled out into all of Google’s web services.

Material design focuses on clean, minimal design with bold colors and typography that emphasize depth and are brought to life with gorgeous animations. Still confused? Simply put, it’s a lot like paper. Well, maybe the Google design team can explain it better in their latest video:

While we’re just now seeing more and more Android apps follow this design philosophy, some definitely do it better than others. There’s no better way to show what Material Design is than by simply showing you. That’s why Google’s Material Design team decided to showcase their favorite apps adhering to their guidelines in a new featured page in the Google Play Store.

There’s 18 apps total ranging from fitness to messaging and everything in between but Google hand-picked 6 which they felt excelled in specific areas for their first ever “Material Design Awards.” Here are the top picks:

B&H Photo Video Audio Pro for Immersive Imagery
New York Times for Elegant Typography
Pocket for Adaptive Layouts
Pocket Casts for Seamless Browsing
Tumblr for Delightful Animation
Weather Timeline for Crafted Simplicity

If you’d like to see all the others are featured, the full list can be found over on Google’s landing page here.

Movie Review: ‘Aloha’

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — Aloha, Aloha.

And welcome to the summer movie season, even though you’re not a sequel or a prequel or a remake or a spinoff, and even though there’s not a superhero or a gunfight or a car chase or an incendiary explosion in sight.

Aloha is a romantic comedy from director Cameron Crowe that boasts a come-hither cast but is burdened with a hither-and-thither plot.

Crowe is undoubtedly grateful to his fetching cast for being likable enough to smooth over the film’s very rough edges because, as charming as many individual moments and exchanges in Aloha are, the storytelling ability that Crowe demonstrated so vividly early on in his career, while it doesn’t exactly desert him this time, let’s just say it struggles to keep its footing.

Maybe that’s why the first half of the film often feels like the second half of a movie that you missed the first half of.

Bradley Cooper plays Brian Gilcrest, a cynical defense contractor and Air Force officer, wounded in Afghanistan, who returns to the United States’ space program in Honolulu, Hawaii, the site of his triumphant military career.  He has been assigned to oversee the launch of a weapons satellite from Hawaii.  But Crowe’s exploration of space exploration is either incoherent or incomprehensible.

There Brian more or less bonds with, and maybe falls for, the aggressive and enthusiastic Air Force pilot who is one-quarter Hawaiian and has been assigned to him as a watchdog, Allison Ng, played by Emma Stone.

At the same time, he finds himself reconnecting with an ex-lover played by Rachel McAdams, who married a virtually silent Air Force pilot played by John Krasinski after her relationship with Brian went kablooey.

That McAdams and Cooper have unfinished business, however, is obvious to everyone the moment they’re in the same zip code.

And while trying to get his love life in order, Brian finds an abandoned ethical value system kicking in, offering him a shot at some kind of redemption.

Writer-producer-director Crowe, whose impressive resume includes Almost Famous, Jerry Maguire, Say Anything, Singles, Vanilla Sky, and We Bought a Zoo, addresses the issue of the militarization of space as background for this romantic-triangle piece that also dabbles in Hawaiian culture and mythology and politics.  But he can’t seem to fuse the thrusts together so that they seem to be part of the same movie: Aloha has more subjects than its title has meanings.

The George Clooney-starring, Hawaii-set The Descendants, which shares a number of elements with Aloha, handled the juggling of same much more effectively.

Crowe’s strong supporting cast also helps – and that includes Alec Baldwin, Bill Murray, and Danny McBride, none of whom have enough to do.  But Cooper, Stone, and McAdams are in the center ring, and perhaps it’s the not only proverbial cutting-room floor that holds the secret to the film’s essential confusion.

So we’ll dance the hula wearing 2-1/2 stars out of 4.  This romcom is no bomb, but Aloha gets a begrudging hello and a quick goodbye.

Nicki Minaj: I'm High-Maintenance in Bed – and You Should Be, Too

Nicki Minaj isn't difficult, she's just 'bout her business.

"I demand that climax. I think women should demand that," she says in Cosmopolitan's July cover story. "I have a friend who's never had an orgasm in her life. In her life! That hurts my heart. It's cuckoo to me."

But the "Feeling Myself" rapper is nothing if not supportive.

"We always have orgasm interventions where we, like, show her how to do stuff," Minaj, 32, says. "We'll straddle each other, saying, 'You gotta get on him like that and do it like this.' She says she's a pleaser. I'm a pleaser, but it's 50/50."

Keep up with your favorite celebs in the pages of PEOPLE Magazine by subscribing now.

Nicki Minaj

MATTHIAS VRIENS-MCGRATH

Minaj, who recently embarked on her Pinkprint album's world tour, also encourages women to be more demanding in their careers. That starts, she says, with being more open about talking about money. 

"Women are uncomfortable talking about money. I know it's taboo to discuss it at work. Technically, you shouldn't, but you need to know what people around you are making. Otherwise, you're not going to know what you're worth," Minaj says. "You have to ask questions. 'What is this person getting?' Do your research. I've always been pretty competitive in terms of my pay." 

Take her advice: Minaj is the world's highest-paid female rapper and the only woman ever to be included in Forbes' list of the highest-paid hip-hop acts, having made the list every year since 2011. 

Nicki Minaj

MATTHIAS VRIENS-MCGRATH

As ambitious as she is, however, Minaj doesn't see herself rapping into old age. 

"Ten years from now, I will have two children, unless my husband wants three. I will be into my fitness a lot more, I will stop yo-yo dieting and I'll be a housewife with careers that I can run from home," she says. "I want to be able to cook for my children, bake cookies for them and watch them grow up. I just want to be Mommy."