ēgencie™

Game developers need COPPA compliant tools

Tim Baio — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 20:58:55 +0000

Thank goodness Jabbersmack is releasing its full set of COPPA compliant social tools to help App developers launch safer games for kids under 13.

FTC: Kids app makers aren’t taking privacy seriously

by Ryan Kim

DEC. 10, 2012 – 9:49 AM PST

photo: Flickr user umpcportal.com

SUMMARY:The FTC is lighting a fire under the mobile app industry to improve its privacy and disclosure policies for children’s apps. The FTC said that most apps still don’t do basic disclosure about the use of data for advertising and other third-party services.

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Children’s app developers may need to start reconsidering how they build their apps in light of more pressure from the Federal Trade Commission, which intensified its scrutiny of kids app makers and the privacy policies they employ. The FTC on Monday released its second report on privacy and disclosure practices of children’s mobile apps and found there was little progress by app ecosystem members on how transparent apps and app stores were about their policies.

The report, which examined more than 400 children’s apps in Google Play and the Apple App Store, found:

About 80 percent of apps don’t disclose privacy policies in the app or on a website.
59 percent of apps transmit information from the device to the app developer or more often to a third party such as an ad network or analytics company.
58 percent of apps contain advertising, but only 15 percent disclose that to app users.
22 perent of apps reviewed have social media links with only 9 percent sharing that fact.
And 17 percent allowed in-app purchases within their app.

The app industry has not made significant movement on providing parents with more information about what happens in these apps, said Jessica Rich, associate director of the FTC’s Division of Financial Practices. She said some apps could be in violation of current privacy laws for children. The FTC is now conducting non-public investigations of some apps though Rich declined to say which apps were being reviewed.

She said the danger to children from these apps could come from inappropriate ad targeting of children, sharing a child’s location or opening them up to messaging from outsiders.

“It’s important for kids’ privacy that there be better disclosures and accurate disclosures for parents on what’s happening to kids data,” Rich said.

The FTC is urging the industry to better incorporate privacy protection into the mobile products; offer better information to parents about what’s happening in their apps and choices for data collection and sharing; and offer more transparency about the usage and collection of data.

Egencie welcomes Fit Club

Tim Baio — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 21:14:20 +0000

Madison, WI — Ēgencie welcomes new client: Fit Club. Fit Club Personal Training has come to Ēgencie with a concept to bring their highly successful and unconventional training methods to thousands more adults and kids with an adaptable, socially supported iPhone and Android App. Fit Club will use there proprietary workouts, content and training methods to bring both kids and adults more natural and safe workouts using App and Web technology. The App will allow private groups to form, support each other and even compete.

Fit Club has pioneered methods to help all ages work their bodies the way they naturally use them, training by body movements, not isolated exercises you find with traditional workouts. These advanced training programs will be offered to users through the App, along with other services like; coach selection, group creation, awards and game leveling.

Ēgencie will use its experience in CMS (Content Management Systems), Gamification and Mobile App building to develop the App and related web services.

About Fit Club:
The original Fit Club Personal Training Studio opened in November 2008 with the vision to provide top of the line training with pricing options to meet most potential clients’ needs. Their training focus is on functional and unconventional training. Fit Club experts train with body movements, not isolated exercises you find at traditional gyms. Experts constantly emphasizing stability and body control. Many exercisers rely on machine training and simple motions for their weight training regimens. These isolated styles of training miss the small stabilizing muscles, the sorts which allow us to maintain body balance and stability, and help to prevent injuries. High-quality integrated training helps your body to become strong, healthy, balanced and stable. This approach also helps build muscle, burn calories, and rapidly increase strength and endurance.

VISION: Fit Club is dedicated to provide a wide variety of training options to ensure a style that will help individuals meet their fitness goals. Each workout plan is customized to meet individual needs and maximize potential.

About Ēgencie (E-jen-see)
Ēgencie™ brings together the most qualified and talented people possible to deliver outstanding strategic consulting, planning, design and development of integrated, cross platform; mobile and social games, mobile apps, websites and virtual good/economy driven solutions.

Ēgencie’s impressive client list is growing rapidly: Tiger/Aspect Entertainment/Mr. Bean (UK) EMI Records (UK), Kidsocial, Inc., Mattel/American Girl, Sony Creative Software, Spectrum Brands/Remington, Fiskars USA, Fiskars Europe, Tunipop, Anamalz (Australia) and Myachi. Egencie has also completed successful online projects for Russ Berrie, Hasbro and RC2.

For more information contact us:
+1 310 876 8621
+1 608 338 8195

or by email at: work@egencie.com

Egencie creates the Jabbersmack Social App for Kids

Tim Baio — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 15:27:51 +0000

Madison, WI — Ēgencie is happy to announce the Jabbersmack Social App for kids.

The new App created by Egencie is a significant development in the social app space. The App brings a new and evolved approach to social interaction by safely allowing kids under 13 to connect and share content and posts completely governed by their parents. For children under age 13, the App brings aspirational social tools: it’s their own “Instagram-ish” hub for playing and communicating – but with the safety protections Facebook, Instagram and Twitter don’t have. For parents, the Jabbersmack App is a place they don’t need to monitor: they simply set content restrictions, friendship permissions and the technology takes care of the rest. The Jabbersmack Social App further conforms to the newest changes to COPPA regulations, providing a safer experience for kids everywhere.

Among the biggest changes coming to COPPA regulations and incorporated into the App are that online services will now have to seek permission directly from parents in order to collect information from anyone under the age of 13. Additionally, the FTC has also added that “personal information” now includes photos and videos, and it says it has closed a loophole that allowed apps and websites to collection information through plug-ins.

Other features of the App allow parents to easily view the age range, parental status and real first name and last name initial of a potential friend (e.g. Sally B). This feature allows parents to easily block friendships and content from users they do not know. Parents may also review posts, set content ratings and control access times.

Jabbersmack plans on releasing kid-appropriate games, apps and eventually TV/Movie access with the App and believes the new App, currently in private beta has an important place in the ever-growing social landscape.

For more information contact us:
+1 310 876 8621
+1 608 338 8195

or by email at: work@egencie.com

About Jabbersmack:
Jabbersmack, a new platform created by Kidsocial, Inc., and currently in Open Beta, has a revolutionary approach to the social opportunities and realities faced by children, tweens and families. Instead of adding another individual site to cyberspace, which kids need to find and parents need to vet, Jabbersmack has invented a vertically integrated social platform that will bring safer social communication to kids and tweens as well as aggregate hundreds of content contributors into one safe platform (think Instagram for kids but with thousands of kid-friendly brands contributing).

For children and tweens, Jabbersmack will be a rich environment populated with scores of professional Contributors offering educational activities, games, virtual worlds, videos and music, while also allowing them to purchase goods and interact with their real-world friends.

About Ēgencie (E-jen-see)
Ēgencie™ brings together the most qualified and talented people possible to deliver outstanding strategic consulting, planning, design and development of integrated, cross platform; mobile and social games/apps/websites, web-enabled toy solutions, virtual worlds and virtual good/economy driven solutions.

Top 5 App Conceptual Development Mistakes:

Tim Baio — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 20:09:12 +0000

After a few years of helping companies plan new Apps, Games and integrated platforms, we’ve seen a few mistakes made and made a few ourselves. Here’s some that come to mind and how you might avoid them.

#5. The Pipe-dream
A company has a big idea, they want to get in on the ‘app-action’, and believe they can make an instant App or Game hit. So they rough up their idea and hire a firm to help build it, usually not asking for much input from the developer, reviewing the market or really having much understanding of the trends. Yes, they can get lucky but the odds are not good.

Solution: Get alternate, pragmatic even pessimistic opinions. Research start-ups, press releases throughout the industry and look for other chatter across the landscape and make sure your concept is on solid ground.

#4. Too much, too fast
Most companies have a concept that is too big. Simply put, there are too many bells and whistles for the development time allotted. This means development will take much longer than necessary and likely miss a timely release into the marketplace. Most successful apps and games are small in features and keep things simple to attract a user base. If they are planned from the beginning to be feature rich/larger releases then they have a big budget, big marketing plans and a reasonable development timeline as well, all inter-coordinated.

Solution: Pare it down and plan your upgrades to release with market adoption.

#3. Now what?
We all want those downloads to come fast and furious after our big launch but what if they don’t? Or what if they come in droves? Are you really ready for the support issues, bugs, and the customer service issues you might have? Do you have the marketing and PR plan ready to execute? Load-N-Pray is not a good approach these days. Most companies are simply not prepared for what comes after the launch.

Solution: Make sure your marketing partner has a plan and you have Hosting, Testing, Support and Customer Service processes ready to go, even if it’s a small participation projection.

#2. Big Technology
Many companies are simply lost when it comes to picking a technology in mobile development. Either IT departments have very limited experience or they have the preferred vendor pick the technology. All well and good except that most vendors build their staffs up around one technology and its usually a little dated and a little expensive. Also, the larger the budget the more they’ll desire custom back-ends and native builds. All fine if you have the budget, time and are most assured you have a winner.

Solution: Consider a simple iterative approach to building. Start with a cross platform technology, pre-built CMS or eCommerce systems using services and plan your upgrades to correspond with success.

#1. Out of School initiatives
We see many start-ups and experienced companies jumping into industries they don’t know much about. We’ve been guilty of it too. For every high school kid who made a ‘hit app’ in his basement, there are thousands or hundreds of thousands who worked harder and failed. In most cases, even the kids in their basement spent years building, refining and changing their app. Your success likelihood increases dramatically when you release an App within the industry you know and understand well.

Solution: Don’t release ‘out of school’, stay in your industry or spend a lot of time getting to know the industry you’d like to be in. If you’re the developer, make sure your client is in a place they know and love or your revenues are ill-gotten booty.

Good luck and have fun!

-Ēgencie (E-gen-see)

Need to discuss your Mobile App or Game concept? Let Ēgencie help you invent, plan, design, build, test and launch a successful App on multiple platforms.

Ēgencie™ delivers outstanding conceptual refinement, project planning, design and development of; mobile and social games/apps/websites, web-enabled toy solutions, virtual worlds and virtual good/economy driven solutions.

Ēgencie’s impressive client list is growing rapidly: Tiger/Aspect Entertainment/Mr. Bean (UK) EMI Records (UK), Mattel/American Girl, Sony Creative Software, Spectrum Brands/Remington, Fiskars USA, Fiskars Europe, Tunipop, Anamalz (Australia) and Myachi. Egencie has also completed successful online projects for Russ Berrie, Hasbro and RC2.

For more information contact us:
+1 310 876 8621

+1 608 338 8195
or by email at: work@egencie.com

Egencie welcomes latest Client: Sony

Tim Baio — Sun, 01 Jul 2012 14:28:17 +0000

Madison, WI — Ēgencie is happy to announce a recent deal with Sony Creative Software to develop Mobile, Social games and applications to promote Sony’s award-winning line of products. The first project for Sony is currently underway.

About Sony Creative Software

Sony Creative Software inspires artistic expression with its award-winning line of products for digital, audio, and music production, as well as industry-leading technology for DVD production and Blu-ray Disc™ authoring. Sound Forge™ Pro, ACID™ Pro, and Vegas™ Pro software have defined digital content creation for a generation of creative professionals. These signature product lines continue to advance media production by providing powerful, accessible tools. Today, there is a Sony Creative Software application for every level of expertise, including a full line of consumer software based on the company’s professional applications. In addition, Sony Creative Software produces the extensive Sony® Sound Series collection of royalty-free loops and samples, Sony Pictures Sound Effects Series exclusive sound effects, and Vision Series video creation assets. Further, the company provides the industry-leading tools for enterprise-level Blu-ray Disc™ authoring: Blu-code™ encoder, Blu-print® software, and on-Q Create® for Blu-ray Java. The company’s customers span the globe and include professionals in the film, television, video game, and recording industries, as well as students, educators, and hobbyists.

Ēgencie™ brings together the most qualified and talented people possible to deliver outstanding strategic consulting, planning, design and development of; mobile and social games/apps/websites, web-enabled toy solutions, virtual worlds and virtual good/economy driven solutions.

For more information contact us:
+1 310 876 8621
or by email at: work@egencie.com

Google Search Stories™

Tim Baio — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 15:32:52 +0000

Facebook App

Ēgencie™ was called on to create the Facebook application to compliment the wildly successful 2010 Superbowl Ad campaign from Google. Users can use Facebook to create their own ‘Search Stories’ Television commercials. It was Google’s most successful social project to date.

• Social Site and Game Design
• Complete Production and Support

Mattel™/American Girl™ / Innerstar University

Tim Baio — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 14:39:06 +0000

Ēgencie™ currently works for American Girl to Support and Maintain the ISU Virtual World. This Virtual world has thousands of online users, over 20 games, many different avatar styles and assets all connected with multiplayer game server technology and cloud servers.

• Game Production
• Environment Support
• System Architecture Consulting
• System monitoring and Support

Egencie welcomes latest Client: EMI Music

Tim Baio — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 22:15:08 +0000

Madison, WI — Ēgencie is happy to announce a recent deal with EMI Music to develop projects to promote EMI’s top Artists. Egencie’s team of Game Designers, Engineers and Strategists are working hard to help concept, plan and design some exciting new project ideas from EMI.

About EMI Music

EMI Music is one of the world’s leading music companies, home to some of the most successful and best known recording artists. Through our own companies and network of licensees, we are able to serve our artists, consumers and partners all over the world.

EMI Music brings artists and fans together by driving action and creating value wherever music is experienced. Our record labels include Angel, Astralwerks, Blue Note, Capitol, Capitol Latin, Capitol Records Nashville, EMI Classics, EMI CMG, EMI Records, EMI Records Nashville, Manhattan, Parlophone, Virgin Classics and Virgin Records.

Seminal albums in EMI Music’s catalogue include ‘Ziggy Stardust’ and ‘Aladdin Sane’ (David Bowie), ‘Revolver’ and ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band’ (The Beatles), ‘Pet Sounds’ (Beach Boys), ‘A Rush Of Blood To The Head’ (Coldplay), ‘Birth Of The Cool’ (Miles Davis), ‘Come Away With Me’ (Norah Jones), ‘Dark Side Of The Moon’ (Pink Floyd), ‘OK Computer’ (Radiohead) and ‘Songs For Swingin’ Lovers’ (Frank Sinatra). EMI also owns and runs the world-renowned recording studios Abbey Road in London and Capitol Studios in Los Angeles.

EMI Music provides EMI’s roster of artists – as well as independent labels and artists – with a global menu of commercial services and seamless access to an expanding range of revenue streams and business models, including digital and physical distribution, sales, press and promotion, marketing, licensing, synch, brand partnerships, live recordings and merchandising.

Ēgencie’s impressive client list is growing rapidly: Tiger/Aspect Entertainment/Mr. Bean (UK) EMI Music (UK), Mattel/American Girl, Sony Creative Software, Spectrum Brands/Remington, Fiskars USA, Fiskars Europe, Tunipop, Anamalz (Australia) and Myachi. Egencie has also completed successful online projects for Russ Berrie and Hasbro.

For more information contact us:

+1 310 876 8621

or by email at: work@egencie.com

Android Media Player doubleTwist Hits 1 Million Active Users

Tim Baio — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 21:21:34 +0000

@ Tech Crunch / By Rip Empson

Today, the Android media player doubleTwist reached a big milestone: 1 million active users between its mobile and desktop apps.

We’ve been following the media player closely for over a year now, watching to see if it would find enough adoption to make it the premiere Android alternative to iTunes.

Back in November, the company launched its wireless syncing software called “AirSync” that automatically syncs your music, movies, and photos whenever you’re in wireless range — and offers us a glimpse into the future of mobile tech. Add AirSync to doubleTwist’s already slick interface, the ability to import iTunes playlists, and support for audio/video podcasts, and you can see why the player has quickly become one of the most popular on the Android market. And now that the company has reached the 1 million user milestone, it’s clear that they’re more than just “on their way.”

In light of their impressive recent growth (300% active user growth in the 4Q 2010), doubleTwist announced it will also be both reshuffling current management as well as adding new members to their team. Co-founder and CTO Jon Lech Johansen will be taking over the role of CEO from Monique Farantzos, and Farantzos will become President and Chairman.

In addition, Farantzos told us that the company will be adding Blake Krikorian (the former CEO of Sling), who will be joining the board of directors; Stuart Collingwood, former Head of European Operations for Sling, will be the Head of European & International Operations, and Lucas Dickey (formerly Product Manager at Amazon for Amazon MP3) will become Product Manager for the doubleTwist mobile, desktop and cloud applications.

To round out doubleTwist’s bevy of announcements, the company is launching “AirTwist”, a free update to AirSync, which will allow users to stream their movies, photos, and music directly to their TV using an Xbox or a PS3. Plus, it will wirelessly sync data with your desktop. Look out, iTunes.

http://techcrunch.com/2011/02/15/android-media-player-doubletwist-hits-1-million-active-users/

Today, the Android media player doubleTwist reached a big milestone: 1 million active users between its mobile and desktop apps.We’ve been following the media player closely for over a year now, watching to see if it would find enough adoption to make it the premiere Android alternative to iTunes.

Kidsocial.com / Social Network for Kids

Tim Baio — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 14:26:40 +0000

A New, Parent Protected Social Network for Kids

Ēgencie™ is has nearly completed the KidSocial Network designed to allow hundreds of Entertainment and Toy Brands to easily launch a parentprotected social site. Thousands of kids will then be able to have a safe, parent-monitored facebook-like experience and travel from sponsored site to site playing games and socializing with real-world friends. The Network will launch soon with its flag-ship site Jabbersmack!

• Conceptual Development
• Social Strategy Development
• Social Site and Game Design
• Complete Production and Support

Remington

Tim Baio — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 14:00:08 +0000

“Tim and the other folks at Ēgencie are highly creative, collaborative and dedicated to successful initiatives. It is truly refreshing to work with a team that is excited about the projects and the possibilities rather than just in calculating billable hours. [Ēgencie] has been my secret weapon at three global companies and has helped me achieve outstanding results for all of them.”

-Suzanne Fanning
Director, Marketing Communications, Remington

Sony

Tim Baio — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 13:59:23 +0000

“Ēgencie’s ideas were far better and their creative far more exciting than anyone we could have worked with, we are excited about partnering with them on our mobile and social projects.”

-David Chaimson
VP Marketing, Sony Creative Software

Fiskars

Tim Baio — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 13:58:16 +0000

“Over the years the project management from Ēgencie has delivered great results, on time and within budget. The technical assistance has been invaluable. Tim and company have always delivered with a great attitude, along with options to help refine a project… we will continue to use Egencie with confidence that projects will be delivered on time and on budget.”

-Mike Heuvelman and CJ Hall
Senior Digital Media Developers, Fiskars Brands

Horizon Media

Tim Baio — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 12:17:26 +0000

“I emailed Tim at 5pm on a Tuesday looking for an app developer to pull off the impossible [for one of our biggest clients Google]. By Wednesday I had a scope and we were off and running. Tim and his team met or exceeded every deliverable, were responsive to all of our silly questions, and were able to work within the very unique parameters of this situation. I will not hesitate one bit to work with Tim and Egencie again.”

-Molly Sugarman
Creative Media Director, Horizon Media

LiveGamer

Tim Baio — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 12:11:42 +0000

“We’ve worked closely with Ēgencie on a number of important projects and continue to be impressed with their social game concept development and understanding of the trends and technologies that drive successful online projects, including the creation of microtransaction-based virtual economies. We are always happy to recommend Ēgencie.”

-Andrew Schneider
Co-founder & President, LiveGamer