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Glass and Sex – so many questions

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Google Glass might be getting its second adult app by way of Sex with Glass. Conceived at the Wearable Tech Hackathon in London, the project promises to enable both dancers of the bedroom tango to record and stream their POV to each other. The video recorded will be available for viewing for 5 hours, after which it’s deleted.

It’s an interesting take on sex with Google Glass, and something we’ve been thinking of since we received our Glass last year. We’ve always said that first and foremost Glass is a communications device, and as with all communication, sex is an inevitable topic. It’s a natural progression of technology, no, humanity, to incorporate sexuality with adult interaction. In fact, this week in Los Angeles, we’ll be giving an hour long presentation on just that.

But I digress.

While we’re stoked to see more adult Glassware, we’re definitely scratching our heads over here after perusing the company’s website and the creator’s Twitter this morning.

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First off, the site heavily incorporates the use of Google’s own Glass promotional images- something I gather le Goog nor their models will be happy to see.

Secondly, @sherifmaktabi admits on Twitter that he’s not a developer. But there’s not much any mention that I could find of his technical team. The graphic team looks a-plenty. Is this a site drummed up to gauge the interest of the public? If so, consider our interest piqued. Image may be NSFW.
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;)

Then there are the apps. Either the Glassware hasn’t been developed yet or is in development- I can’t tell. Unless I’m reading this wrong, he doesn’t have a Glass device. Note to the team- if that’s the case, ping us and we’ll send you an invite when we get more. Seriously.

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Hurry up and wait

While we wait anxiously for the next adult Glassware, we can also wait anxiously for the accompanying iPhone app. Just sign up and they’ll send you the download link when it’s ready. Seeing as this is a sex app for the iPhone, methinks we’ll be waiting a long time. I was hoping to see an Android app in the works. It’s a shame to ignore Android, especially considering the unlikelihood of Apple approving the iPhone app coupled with Android being made for porn.  I reached out to Sherif on Twitter and will update if I hear back.

Lastly, in terms of the legal issues- we learned the hard way Google’s stance on adult apps for Glass. Over the summer, Google quietly updated their developer policy to prohibit adult content on Glass after they learned of our adult Glassware, Tits & Glass. Pushing content that Google doesn’t approve of to its beta device will likely land Glass and Sex in Zero API Limit territory- not a fun place to be.

Regardless of the status of this project, we’re really happy to see more adult fare making its way onto Glass.  In the meantime, you can get our adult Glassware on titsandglass.com. And if you’re curious as to what two-way POV sex looks like while wearing Glass, check out the First Ever Google Glass Porn (SFW) with James Deen and Andy San Dimas.

(Safe for YouTube version)

The post Glass and Sex – so many questions appeared first on MiKandi Blog.


We’re Hiring! Join the MiKandi Team

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Calling all Rockstar Devs

MiKandi is looking for ambitious people that are interested in a challenging position and who are eager to learn. If you shudder at the thought of adjusting the border radius on the same button for the next 9 months, email us. We promise a career that will be anything but boring.

As a small team, your role with us will be significant. You must be passionate about learning and coding, and willing to try on many hats. We’re obsessed with delivering great customer experiences and you should be, too. Fight for the user.

Due to the adult nature of our business, all applicants must be at least 18 years of age and/or over the age of majority in their jurisdiction. A professional and positive attitude a must! A penchant for blowing shit up a big plus.

Open Positions

POSITION: PHP SOFTWARE ENGINEER
LOCATION: DOWNTOWN SEATTLE
STATUS: FULL TIME
STARTS: IMMEDIATELY
COMPENSATION: DOE

Ideal candidate will be proficient in PHP and be familiar with HTML and CSS. Experience with data stores, including MySQL, Redis, etc. desired but not required. An independent person that is able to work well with minimal supervision.

Medical, dental, and transportation benefits provided.

Submit your resume

POSITION: ANDROID DEVELOPER
LOCATION: DOWNTOWN SEATTLE
STATUS: FULL TIME
STARTS: IMMEDIATELY
COMPENSATION: DOE

Ideal candidate will be proficient in Java (specifically Android) with a familiarity in restful APIs. Ideal candidate will also have experience with HTML5 and CSS. Experience with unit testing and other automated testing a plus, but we’ll teach you how to do it if you don’t already know.

Medical, dental, and transportation benefits provided.

Submit your resume

About MiKandi

MiKandi is a fast growing company that thrives on entrepreneurialism and creativity. We provide a cutting edge solution to developing, marketing, and managing mobile applications within the adult industry. MiKandi is based in Seattle, Washington, home of some of our favorite breweries. 

The post We’re Hiring! Join the MiKandi Team appeared first on MiKandi Blog.

Google Glass Porn Presentation

Link Love: Android myths, Yandex Kit

Debunking four myths about Android, Google, and open-source – ZDNet.com

You can take Android Open Source Project (AOSP) code today and make your own version of Android today. If you want to, you can even take a page from CyanogenMod’s book and make an Android that works with multiple devices instead of being tied to one vendor’s smartphones and tablets.

Contrary to Edelman’s claims, you can also build commercially viable operating systems off Android without Google Mobile Service (GMS) apps. Or, at least, you can try to. That’s exactly what Mozilla is doing with Firefox OS. And, Canonical’s Ubuntu Touch started out using CyanogenMod Android for its foundation. Indeed, it still uses Android during its initial boot up.

Case in point…

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yandex kit

Yandex offers apps-and-services bundle to help others build non-Google Android devices - Gigaom

Enter Russian web giant Yandex, which has spent the last couple of years developing alternative services for those manufacturers who are trying to build an own-brand system on top of AOSP. On Wednesday, the company unveiled what it calls Yandex.Kit, a firmware package that includes email, mapping, a browser, a 3D launcher, and Yandex.Store, which boasts around 100,000 apps.

The post Link Love: Android myths, Yandex Kit appeared first on MiKandi Blog.

Link Love: Wearables SDK, Android/Windows tablet, Android versions

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sundar

Wearable developer tools coming in two weeks

Android makes its way into wearable tech with the announcement of a wearables SDK in the works. The software development kit will enable developers to create Android software for wearable hardware, and is slated for release in just two weeks.

Read more on engadget.com

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Asus dual boot

Google cited as bothered by Android-Windows hybrid

Google is reported miffed by the Asus dual OS Android/Windows laptop-tablet. Not even kind of surprising- Microsoft hasn’t openly opposed the device. Hell, who would blame them?

Read more on cnet.com

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chart

Android 4.4 KitKat now at 2.5%, Jelly Bean tops the chart at 62%, 2.3 Gingerbread drops to 19%

Every month, Google updates its Platform Versions page to show its Android operating system’s adoption rate. Currently Android 4.4 KitKat is at 2.5%, Jelly Bean (4.1, 4.2, 4.3) takes the top spot at 62%, the slightly older version 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.

Read more on periscopepost.com

The post Link Love: Wearables SDK, Android/Windows tablet, Android versions appeared first on MiKandi Blog.

MiKandi featured on YourStory.com

Google says “no” to sexy

Is it 2010? Because it feels like 2010. What with arbitrary app approvals, app purges, and moral responsibilities and such.

Just before the weekend, Google sent out a notice via email and G+ to inform developers of updates to the Google Play Developer Program Policies. The general theme of the update is a notable crack down on deceptive ads and practices. However, inching closer and closer to Apple-esque territory with each policy update, Google also revised its stance on adult content, stating:

Sexually Explicit Material: Apps that contain or promote pornography are prohibited; this includes sexually explicit or erotic content, icons, titles, or descriptions. Google has a zero-tolerance policy against child sexual abuse imagery. If we become aware of content with child sexual abuse imagery, we will report it to the appropriate authorities and delete the Google Accounts of those involved with the distribution.

…because apparently you can’t simply say “we don’t want porn” without following it with a hyperbolic association.

Seriously? That’s like saying Due to allergies, cats are not permitted in our house. Anyone caught skinning a 3 day old Bengal tiger cub alive will be reported to the authorities. 

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Developers have 15 days to comply with the new policy, else see their apps removed from Play. While we’re disheartened to see Google further villianize legal content and the adults who create and consume it, we appreciate their efforts to be clearer with developers as to the content allowed in their marketplace. At the end of the day, it’s Google’s app store and they can stock their shelves as they please. We just hope that Google chooses to enforce these new rules consistently, without awarding big brands preferential treatment over the same type of content. We’ve seen it happen before elsewhere, and it isn’t fair to put developers on such precarious ground.

Displaced by Google?

MiKandi was built on the belief that adults should be treated like adults. That means enabling them to download and purchase the legal content they desire on the devices they own. It also means providing developers a safe environment to share their adult applications with our 4.5 million customers worldwide. We may be a small app store, but we’re proud that we treat our developers and customers fairly and equally. Any developer affected by this update are encouraged to join the MiKandi Adult App Store. We look forward to working with any developer displaced by Google.

Related: Apple says no to “sexy” – our official POV

The post Google says “no” to sexy appeared first on MiKandi Blog.

Motorola Announces ‘Project Ara’, a DIY Smartphone

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The team behind MiKandi has backgrounds in software development and deployment, product design, and a decade in hardware manufacturing. So when Motorola announced Project Ara, a DIY smartphone that sounds a lot like Phonebloks, we got a little tingly in the pants. While we’re not drawing up a blueprint to pornify Ara, we’re stoked at the possibility of third-party engineers and designers taking a stab at mobile hardware.

From Phandroid:

According to Motorola, each device will come with an endoskeleton or “endo” that holds all the different components together (see above image). And really, skies the limit when it comes to the modules that can be attached to an endo. Hardware keyboard, faster processor, bigger battery, or something different altogether (taser gun perhaps?). Anything you can dream up.

“We want to do for hardware what the Android platform has done for software,” writes Motorola, adding that it’s goal is “to give you the power to decide what your phone does, how it looks, where and what it’s made of, how much it costs, and how long you’ll keep it.”

If this interests you as much as it does us, Motorola would like to put you to work. Over the next 6 – 12 months, they’ll be doing research to shape the direction of Project Ara. You can help by collaborating on special missions. Sign up to become an Ara Scout here. You know we’ve already done it.

The post Motorola Announces ‘Project Ara’, a DIY Smartphone appeared first on MiKandi Blog.


We’re Hiring! Join the MiKandi Team

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mikandi hiring
MiKandi is looking for a talented and ambitious engineer to help us design, create, and expand our multiple content delivery platforms across mobile and web. Your work will be used by millions of adults worldwide. We promise a career that will be fast-paced, challenging, and rewarding. As a close-knit team, your role with us will be significant. Be prepared to share your feedback, offer suggestions, and collaborate closely with everyone on the team. You’ll have a voice at MiKandi.

Our ideal candidate will have

  • 3+ years of software development experience. No degree? No problem. Nothing beats hands-on real-world experience.
  • Strong architecture experience.

Strong algorithms experience.

  • Strong database, data storage, and data manipulation experience.
  • Solid programming skills in PHP or Java (Android). Are you better versed in another language, but experienced in the above? We still want to hear from you!
  • The entrepreneurial spirit, and a passion for elegant code and learning.

And if you possess the following, even better!

  • Experience with SQL, HTML5, CSS3, Redis, and CodeIgniter.
  • Experience in systems management and hosting infrastructure.
  • A keen eye for UX and design principles.
  • A love of board, card, and video games.
    • And burgers.
      • Also, microbrews.
        • Cats, dogs, or pandas wouldn’t hurt either.

Benefits

  • Competitive salary
  • 401(k) with 50% match
  • 100% employer paid medical, vision, and dental insurance
  • Parking subsidy or paid bus pass
  • Frequent catered company lunches
  • Bagel Friday!

How to apply

If you’re as passionate about programming as we are, you’ve probably worked on some projects in your spare time. Send us some of your work along with your resume, even if it’s not complete. We’d love to geek out with you on the work you’ve done.

About MiKandi

MiKandi is a fast growing company that thrives on entrepreneurialism and creativity. We provide a cutting edge solution to developing, marketing, and managing mobile applications within the adult industry. As a next-generation adult company, we are focused on creating innovative products backed by strong tech and an unrelenting commitment to treat adults like adults.

The post We’re Hiring! Join the MiKandi Team appeared first on MiKandi Blog.

Important Security Update: Heartbleed Statement

On Monday April 7, a widespread and critical exploit in recent versions of OpenSSL affected many popular websites and services across the Internet. Dubbed ‘Heartbleed’, the vulnerability can allow remote hackers to access your passwords and other sensitive information even when you connect to remote services with the padlock icon in your browser.

How Heartbleed Works

Xkcd.com put together this simple comic that does a good job at explaining the Heartbleed vulnerability in laymen’s terms.

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Heartbleed Vulnerability

Heartbleed exploits OpenSSL, the open-source software that allows websites to provide encrypted information to visitors; the normal safeguard of data you type into your Web browser.

Protecting Your Accounts

At MiKandi, your security and privacy are our utmost concern. We’ve extensively patched and tested our services to ensure that MiKandi is not vulnerable to Heartbleed. For your ease of mind, we thoroughly reviewed our billing system and have determined that at no point was our credit card service compromised. We did have some ancillary services (such as image and video delivery servers) which used affected versions of OpenSSL. We have patched all of these services and rekeyed all of our SSL certificates, not only those on affected services.

The next time you open the MiKandi App Store, you will be prompted to update the application. Version 4.5 of MiKandi includes better account management, speeds up the app, and requires you to reset your password as a proactive defense against Heartbleed.

In addition, although we found no evidence that MiKandi was targeted, we’ve reset your password as an added precaution. Even though we found no evidence that any information was compromised from MiKandi, and we don’t store user passwords in plaintext, but only an encrypted form, we know that many people use the same password for many services. If your password was compromised from just one site, hackers could use the same username / password combination to log into dozens of sites, including MiKandi.

Please check your email for instructions on completing your password reset. If you have not received an email from us, you can reset your MiKandi password on our password reset form. We strongly recommend you change your password not only on MiKandi, but on any other sites you visit. In addition, we’ve added a new email based password flow that can allow you to login using your email account.

If you have any questions regarding your account, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us via email, Twitter, or the comments below.

Jesse Adams,
CEO, MiKandi

The post Important Security Update: Heartbleed Statement appeared first on MiKandi Blog.

Work with the Next Generation Adult Company. Join the MiKandi Team!

MiKandi is looking for a talented and ambitious engineer to help us design, create, and expand our multiple content delivery platforms across mobile and web. Your work will be used by millions of adults worldwide. We promise a career that will be fast-paced, challenging, and rewarding. As a close-knit team, your role with us will be significant. Be prepared to share your feedback, offer suggestions, and collaborate closely with everyone on the team. You’ll have a voice at MiKandi.

Our ideal candidate will have

  • 3+ years of software development experience. No degree? No problem. Nothing beats hands-on real-world experience.
  • Strong architecture experience.

Strong algorithms experience.

  • Strong database, data storage, and data manipulation experience.
  • Solid programming skills in PHP or Java (Android). Are you better versed in another language, but experienced in the above? We still want to hear from you!
  • The entrepreneurial spirit, and a passion for elegant code and learning.

And if you possess the following, even better!

  • Experience with SQL, HTML5, CSS3, Redis, and CodeIgniter.
  • Experience in systems management and hosting infrastructure.
  • A keen eye for UX and design principles.
  • A love of board, card, and video games.
    • And burgers.
      • Also, microbrews.
        • Cats, dogs, or pandas wouldn’t hurt either.

Benefits

  • Competitive salary
  • 401(k) with 50% match
  • 100% employer paid medical, vision, and dental insurance
  • Parking subsidy or paid bus pass
  • Frequent catered company lunches
  • Bagel Friday!

How to apply

If you’re as passionate about programming as we are, you’ve probably worked on some projects in your spare time. Send us some of your work along with your resume, even if it’s not complete. We’d love to geek out with you on the work you’ve done.

About MiKandi

MiKandi is a fast growing company that thrives on entrepreneurialism and creativity. We provide a cutting edge solution to developing, marketing, and managing mobile applications within the adult industry. As a next-generation adult company, we are focused on creating innovative products backed by strong tech and an unrelenting commitment to treat adults like adults.

The post Work with the Next Generation Adult Company. Join the MiKandi Team! appeared first on MiKandi Blog.

How Silicon Valley is Failing Sex

Today’s tech scene is startup-fueled and app-driven, actively encouraging disruption in every sector imaginable. Except sex. -Joshua Rivera

Recently, there’s been a lot of coverage on the challenges businesses face if they choose to operate in the adult space. While these restrictions are sadly nothing new, I’m happy to see that they’re coming to light. MiKandi has been around since 2009, and we and our registered developers have had our share of unnecessary obstacles over moral objections to perfectly legal content. There’s a misconception that anything related to the adult industry = PROFIT, but in truth the business climate is becoming increasingly hostile for next-generation adult companies.

It’s not just about Google and Apple purging their markets of anything sexual. It’s not being allowed to use MailChimp or similar newsletter services. It’s not being able to find a bank that will take your business. It’s being slut-shamed by your personal bank. It’s sites enabling their users to steal and distribute your content on their platform while prohibiting you from recouping your losses through affiliate promotion. It’s not being able to accept money via American Express or Paypal or Google Wallet. It’s having to settle for incredibly high rates from credit card processors that want to charge an upwards of 13% of each transaction (thankfully, not our processor, who we love dearly). While one on one these restrictions are small, collectively they’re catastrophic. Keeping up with the technical obstacles is expensive and time-consuming. Unless your adult company has strong technical chops or enough money to spend on full time engineers, you’re not going to make it. MiKandi is tech-first, so we’ve been able to weather this perpetual storm. But how is this business climate fair to sex entreprenuers who aren’t?

Last week, I spoke with Joshua Rivera at The Daily Beast on what the digital world can do to help facilitate innovation and distruption in an industry that’s been given the shaft by Silicon Valley. Hear from myself, Cindy Gallop from MakeLoveNotPorn.tv, and Tina Gong from HappyPlayTime.

Excerpt

“The collective gripe about the way mainstream service companies treat those of us in the adult space isn’t just that they ‘slut-shame’ adult businesses,” says Jen McEwen, co-founder of MiKandi, an adult app-store. “It’s also their lack of transparency when they do it.”

Read the rest: Silicon Valley’s Soft Sex Ban

The post How Silicon Valley is Failing Sex appeared first on MiKandi Blog.

Ovuline Show Us Who is Having the Most Babymaking Sex

Ovuline, the company behind Ovia, the popular medical iTune apps, released a heatmap on its American users’ bedroom romps of the babymaking variety.

Ovuline gathered data from 4.35 million instances of sex from hundreds of thousands of users who are trying to conceive and put that data on an overlay of a map of the United States. The result was an interesting visual of who’s getting down and where. According to the data, Idahoans are the most anxious to add to their litter, while residents of Washington DC ain’t got time for that, clocking in a paltry 4.62 days a month. The other Washingtonians rank at 6.35 days a month, Oregonians at 6.51 days a month, making the Pacific Northwest (which we proudly call home) the most sexually active region.

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reaction GIF kiss

Remember that this data concerns users who are trying to get pregnant. If House of Cards has taught me anything, it’s that people in DC know how to get down and often. According to my calculations (aka thinking of random numbers in my head), if we include recreational sex, that number would increase to 35 days a month.

The top 5 states (highest to lowest):

  1. Idaho, 7 days
  2. Vermont: 6.94 days
  3. Nebraska, 6.92 days
  4. Wyoming, 6.9 days
  5. Iowa: 6.83 days

The bottom 5 states (lowest to highest):

  1. Washington DC, 4.62 days
  2. Mississippi, 5.27 days
  3. New York, 5.53 days
  4. Kentucky, 5.62 days
  5. Delaware, 5.7 days

For good measure, here’s a heatmap of MiKandi‘s US customers and our top and bottom states searching, browsing, and downloading our adult apps.

The top 5 states (highest to lowest):

  1. California
  2. Texas
  3. Illinois
  4. Florida
  5. Georgia

The bottom 5 states (lowest to highest):

  1. Vermont
  2. Rhode Island
  3. Maine
  4. South Dakota
  5. Delaware

Learn more about Ovuline’s findings on their blog.

The post Ovuline Show Us Who is Having the Most Babymaking Sex appeared first on MiKandi Blog.

Earbuds Promise to Enhance How You Watch Porn

Winzz, the Taiwan-based company behind the wireless virtual reality sex toys for long distance couples, announced last week earbuds that promise to enhance how you watch porn.

The so-called world’s first 6-way earphone delivers sound that is “so close, so real, so 4D experience” through “360 degree surround sound” that adjusts female voices to soud “more pleasing and less sharp” and male voices to be “fuller and rounder.” The earbuds will run you $24 with coupon. Not too shabby, but methinks they might want to charge a little more and get a designer better versed in Photoshop.

 

 

The post Earbuds Promise to Enhance How You Watch Porn appeared first on MiKandi Blog.

Apple CEO Tim Cook: “Android dominates the mobile malware market”

Apple CEO Tim Cook took the time to blast Android yesterday while giving an audience of 6,000 developers an update on iOS7 adoption. Citing some 130 million new customers in last 12 months, Cooks shared that half were Chinese customers who switched from Android for “a better experience.” A stat that Cook remarks as incredible. But is it really?

Android has an enormous 78.6% marketshare in China. Apple has only recently began to adoption efforts in China, so of course it’s only logical that new customers will come from the dominating OS. I mean, where else would they come from? Even with 65 million new Chinese users coming from Android to iPhone, it’s much too early to scoff at the mobile OS Hulk.

The Delicate Balance Between Security and Openness

That said, Cook brought up some interesting critiques of Apple’s largest mobile competitor. Particularly that it’s fragmentation problem is not only driving customers away, but exposes the ones who stay to “a toxic hellstew of vulnerabilites.” The way Google releases updates to Android leaves users at the mercy of OEMs or carriers- and as well as at the mercy of Google, as OEMs and carriers first need Google to release the updates to them before they can pass it down the wire. Buying direct from Google is the only way to be sure you’re getting the latest updates as they’re released.

Security and user protection are often cited as reasons to justify more restrictions. In his speech, Cook concedes that Android does dominate the market- the mobile malware market, that is. I find the timing interesting given last week’s exploit against Apple’s ‘Find my Phone’ feature, in which cyber attackers hacked into iPhones and demanded payment in return for unlocking them. It’s important to remember that we’re not talking about malware, but an exploit in Apple’s features that gave the attackers access to hijack the devices. For all the restrictions Apple imposes on its users, it’s still susceptible to security breaches. Do the higher restrictions in the name of security justify the loss of consumer freedom? It all depends on what you what you value more- freedom to make your own decisions or ease of mind.

People love Android because it’s always strived for a balance between security and openness. No OS is 100% safe, but by educating users to practice due diligence when downloading, folks can reduce their chances of becoming victims of cyber attacks. Here are our tips for protecting yourself.

Practice Safe Downloading

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safe-downloading

Below is a list we complied back in December 2009 of precautions you should take before downloading anything (mobile or web).  Please take the time to review it as it can be the difference between a working Android and a cracked one.

  1. Put on your sleuth cap. Research the developer of the application before downloading. Applications in the MiKandi marketplace are not created by MiKandi.Developers use our marketplace to connect with you, the end user.  So before you hop into bed with an app, get some details on the Developer.  A Developer’s contact information can be found in the app description.  If it’s not, just give us a shout at info@mikandi.com and we’ll send you the info.
  2. Read the fine print. Always read the legal information and privacy policy the Developer provides and review what information they want to collect.  In order to install an app, you will be notified of security permissions the app is requesting access to.  Be wary of apps that request more access than necessary.  Be cautious about sharing your personal information, and click Cancel if you are not comfortable with granting access.  In the end, it’s best to refer to the first guideline and email the Developer with any questions.
  3. Be cautious who you share your location with. Some apps allow you to share your location with the Developer, friends, or public at large.  Refer to Guideline #2 and find out why the app you want needs that information.  There are many fun apps out there that require access to your location.
  4. Listen to the tribe. MiKandi’s review process is driven by the community, as opposed to imposing our own review process. We leave the feedback to our community of users.  Take note of what other end-users are saying about the app you want.
  5. Report abuse. Obviously, illegal content is NOT tolerated on MiKandi.  If you discover an app with illegal content, please report the app in question at developer@mikandi.com
  6. Install a mobile security app. Lookout provides trusted protection against phishing, malware, and spyware. You can download the app free on MyLookOut.com or in Google Play.

Developers are more than happy to answer any questions you may have regarding their application. Developers who stock apps on MiKandi are subject to the MiKandi Terms of Use.  All apps are subject to MiKandi’s Privacy Policy.

MiKandi Permissions Explained

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mikandi permissions

When you download any Android app, you must allow the app certain permissions before it can install on your device. Here is the list of permissions MiKandi asks for before you install, and why.

Your Personal Information (read sensitive log data)
This gives us access to MiKandi log data only. It does not give us access to log data of other apps. We retrieve this debug information so we can help improve the app, such as when the app crashes or other login problems.

Network Communication (full internet access) 
MiKandi needs internet access to stream content and apps to you.

Storage (modify/delete SD card contents) 
This allows you to manage (install/uninstall) free apps on your SD card though MiKandi.

Phone Calls (read phone state and identity) 
MIKandi uses this permission to track different versions of Android, so that we can do a better job of serving you content that is optimized for your device.

System Tools (retreive running applications) 
MiKandi uses this permission in order to install and manage applications that you download through MiKandi.

Network Communication (view network state) 
This tells MiKandi if you are connected to the Internet via data or WIFI.

My Accounts (discover known accounts) 
This allows MiKandi to securely store your account credentials on your device.

The post Apple CEO Tim Cook: “Android dominates the mobile malware market” appeared first on MiKandi Blog.


Is this Android’s new logo?

Android has had the same logo for as long as it’s existed. Five and a half years later, it just might get a makeover.
This alleged 17-second boot animation for the LG G Watch gives us a glimpse as what may come. The result is a friendlier, playful, and even more human logo. Well, as human as robots can get. Which is to say, more human every day. This is all speculative as Google hasn’t confirmed the new logo. That said, what do you think?

The post Is this Android’s new logo? appeared first on MiKandi Blog.

Link Love: Instagram for Porn, Monetizing Mobile Apps, Building Customer Loyalty

Pornostagram Changes Name to Uplust

From XBIZ

With a new name, new look and new features, Pornostagram.com, a social networking platform that welcomes hardcore images and sex talk, has changed its name toUplust.com in an effort to avoid any confusion with the popular Instagram hub.

Read the article on xbiz.com

Common Mistakes To Avoid When Monetizing Mobile Apps

The Mobile Team at Apptentive share common mistakes to avoid when monetizing mobile apps.

Read the article on apptentive.com

Retention is King

Managing Partner of Quint Growth, Jamie Quint, asks “How do we get better at keeping the users we already have?”

Read the article on andrewchen.co

 

 

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The War on Adult Content

Recent months have marked a sharp increase in the types of businesses that are closing their doors to adult content creators. March saw a number of mainstream payment processors and crowdfunding sites take a staunch position against adult performers, even when their use of these services had nothing to do with creating adult content. In April, Chase closed the bank accounts of a number of adult performers and their partners, including those of performers who were not using their accounts for business. Last month, MailChimp briefly suspended the account of an adult boutique over an innocuous newsletter rounding up sexy apps currently on the mobile market. And now Google is taking further steps to make it harder for adult businesses to make a profit.

Earlier this month, Google sent out a message to adult sites using AdWords to announce that the search giant will no longer accept ads that lead to adult sites.

“Beginning in the coming weeks, we’ll no longer accept ads that promote graphic depictions of sexual acts including, but not limited to, hardcore pornography; graphic sexual acts including sex acts such as masturbation; genital, anal, and oral sexual activity,” the e-mail from the Google AdWords Team read. “When we make this change, Google will disapprove all ads and sites that are identified as being in violation of our revised policy. Our system identified your account as potentially affected by this policy change. We ask that you make any necessary changes to your ads and sites to comply so that your campaigns can continue to run.”

The e-mail included a link to the Google Advertising Policy log, which added, “Under this policy, sexually explicit content will be prohibited, and guidelines will be clarified regarding promotion of other adult content. The change will affect all countries. We made this decision as an effort to continually improve users’ experiences with AdWords.”

Further communications from the Google AdWords Team last week reveal this change will impact not only sites that feature pornographic visuals, but any sites that contain language referring to sexual acts, something that will impact educators in the field of human sexuality.

Sexually explicit content includes graphic depictions of sexual acts, including but not limited to hardcore pornography. This also includes graphic sexual acts such as mastrubation, genital, anal, and oral sex. We will restrict the content similar to the nature of the examples below: images or language depicting any sexual acts in progress, images or language depicting masturbation or genital arousal, images or language depicting any type of genital, anal, and oral sexual activity, language explicitly referencing arousal or masturbation, explicit language to reference genitalia. [...] This includes but is not limited to graphic language describing a sex act or images (computer generated images included) depicting a sex act.

The AdWords Team noted that nudity and “other” adult content will not be prohibited, but that guidelines will be imposed on these types of content as well — a move that will, without doubt, impact a number of photographers and artists.

While this change to AdWords doesn’t affect sites’ page ranking on the search engine itself, it nevertheless represents another example of Google’s increasingly consistent attitude toward adult content across its products. Almost a year ago, Google prohibited the monetization of adult blogs on its free hosted blogging platform Blogger.

“Do not use Blogger as a way to make money on adult content,” read the Blogger Content Policy after the update. “For example, don’t create blogs that contain ads or links to commercial porn sites.”

As with the AdWords change, which tells adult content creators to change their ads so these are not in violation of new terms, the Blogger update ignored that for many bloggers — those posting their sexual experiences, sex toy reviews, erotica, and news in the adult industry — adult ads were often the only monetization option available to them because of their chosen niche. Adult content creators to whom blogging had long since become a source of income faced a simple choice when Blogger cut them off: stay and blog for free or self-host.

Many of these bloggers turned to self-hosting, which costs money to set up and maintain, and lost all incoming links that they had accumulated over the years, which affected their ranking. This is a great loss, as ranking has been increasingly difficult for adult content creators on the search giant. There are two main reasons for this. The first is evident: if Google determines that a site is “adult,” it doesn’t show up on a search when a SafeSearch filter is on, which is its default setting. The second reason is less obvious: an “adult” label makes it difficult for sites to rank normally due to changes in the search algorithm that require that searches specifically signal that the person making the query is looking for adult content — even when SafeSearch is turned off. (To get a sense of how this works, go ahead and run an Image Search for “tits” and then run one for “tits porn.”) Naturally, a lot of users don’t use search in that way unless they are looking for porn, which has the effect of reducing discoverability for adult content producers whose products are not within the porn category but still fall under the Google-imposed “adult” label.

Reliance on AdWords came as a way to slightly even the playing field for adult content creators, by giving their sites prime real estate through ads. As part of Google’s advertising arm, AdWords delivers relevant text ads alongside search results on Google and a number of partner search networks such as Ask.com and AOL, as well as displays relevant media ads across over the million websites and mobile apps in the Google Display Network.

It hasn’t been an easy relationship. For years now, advertisers using AdWords to drive traffic to adult properties faced some level of restriction. A number of adult properties were banned outright, such as those containing “sex-related services and information” and sites that either provide or promote sex work. In 2011, the ambiguity of what, exactly, “promote sex work” means got Google into hot water when they cancelled an AdWords campaign for the Dublin-based Turn Off the Blue Light non-profit, whose site focused exclusively on lobbying for sex workers’ rights.

For adult properties that were not banned, ads were possible, but these ads — marked “Approved (adult)” by Google — could not include images or video, only text, and were blocked in some 30 countries. Even in countries without such restrictions, “Approved (adult)” ads only triggered when people performed adult-specific searches — meaning that all keywords chosen by these advertisers when placing the ad had to be specifically adult in nature. Additionally, members of the web and mobile Display Network were free to bar adult ads on their properties, greatly decreasing the potential exposure for “Approved (adult)” ads.

Despite these restrictions, a number of adult properties successfully leveraged AdWords to get visibility, contributing to Google’s $50 billion advertising revenue last year. But as has been made clear by Google’s recent messages to advertisers of adult properties, this relationship will be coming to an end as early as mid-month, though the revised policy may not appear until July.

The American organization Morality In Media has taken credit for this change, as part of a joint effort with Enough is Enough, Concerned Women For America, the Family Research Council, Focus on the Family, Covenant Eyes, and Net Nanny Community. In May, this coalition met with Google to discuss how to “protect individuals, families and children from exploitation” by putting an end to the tech giant’s involvement with pornography but is highly unlikely that pressure from these groups truly had any influence on the company. For some time now Google has been making policy changes across its products to uniformly distance itself from adult content.

In 2006, the tech giant began collaborating with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), and joined both the Technology Coalition, which fights online child sexual exploitation, and the Financial Coalition Against Child Pornography, a group of 34 leading banks, credit card companies, electronic payment networks, third-party payment companies and Internet services companies dedicated to eradicating child pornography. Fighting child pornography is a laudable cause and there was little reason to believe that it would impact adult content creators that were operating within the bounds of the law.

But it wasn’t and isn’t simply a matter of child pornography, as Elliot Schrage, former vice president of global communications and public affairs at Google, would clarify in 2007, when he said, “When a child isn’t seeking out objectionable content, but someone deliberately forces such content on them, this amounts to exploitation — and requires government involvement and cooperation by ISPs and other online services.” In short, Google believes that showing adult content to a person who has not given consent or — in the case of a minor, cannot give consent — to view adult content, is “exploitation.”

Over the years, the tech giant has taken more and more steps to restrict the visibility of any adult content to prevent this scenario from happening. Before Schrage clarified the company’s position, Google already had put SafeSearch in place on its search engine to offer users content control. This content-control was pretty hit-and-miss at the beginning, prompting a Harvard study to note, “Google SafeSearch seems to lack a principled or rational basis for allowing certain pages while blocking others. [...] A manual review of additional sensitive search results indicates that this apparent arbitrariness extends to a large number of search terms including searches about sexual health, pornography, and gay rights.”

In 2009, Google enabled users to lock SafeSearch on, making this setting impossible to change unless the person wishing to do had the Google account password of the user that had enforced that restriction. And, as mentioned previously, at the end of 2012 Google tightened its web and image search function to require that users clearly signal that they are looking for adult content in order for it to show up in search results at all, regardless of whether SafeSearch is on or not. At the time, Google clarified: “We are not censoring any adult content [...] you just may need to be more explicit in your query if your search terms are potentially ambiguous.”

In 2010, Google introduced Safety Mode to YouTube, its video-sharing network. Learning from SafeSearch, YouTube’s Safety Mode was launched with the option to lock the filter on the browser, making change possible only with the Google account password of the user that had enforced that restriction. A lesser-known aspect of YouTube’s Safety Mode is its connection to SafeSearch — turning on one also turns on the other.

YouTube, it should be noted, prohibits sexual content outright, but also maintains age-restrictions on videos that contain “Vulgar language, violence and disturbing imagery, nudity and sexually suggestive content and portrayal of harmful or dangerous activities.” Users are encouraged to preemptively age-restrict their own videos, but YouTube might do it for them. The imposed age-restriction can be appealed by “Partners,” people who are part of the YouTube advertising program, but only once. Age-restricted videos are invisible by default, requiring that users log in to their Google accounts and verify their age before they can access them, and are not be eligible to join the YouTube advertising program — though videos from giants like Hollywood and the music industry that one might think would fall under the age-restriction category, such as Beyonce’s “Partition” music video, seem to always get a pass.

In January of 2012, Google’s social network Google Plus lowered the age requirement for users from 18 to 13, which spurred a spree of image-flagging across the social network as the Photos Team made a dash to tidy things up for the newcomers. Due to ambiguity in policy, the results were uneven and concerns about accidentally running afoul of the policy remain a reality for photographers, models and artists on the social network. In April of 2014, Google Plus enabled Pages on Plus to age-restrict much like YouTube, by marking themselves “18 and over” or “21 and over.” To date, Google Plus has not made age-restriction available to Profiles.

Shortly after the Google Android Market metamorphosed into Google Play in March, 2012, they began to stringently enforce restrictions on adult content that they had, up until then, been fairly lax about, going as far as to ban a Reddit app because sometimes posts appearing on that networking service direct to adult sites. At the end of March of this year, Google Play expanded its restrictions on apps to include erotic content as well. If the adult restriction was ambiguous, the ban on erotic makes the situation even worse.

In April, 2012, Google introduced its cloud storage service, Drive, with a content policy that prohibits sharing files that are sexually explicit. “Writing about adult topics is permitted as long as they aren’t accompanied by sexually explicit images or videos, or any material that promotes or depicts unlawful or inappropriate sexual acts with children or animals. Additionally, we don’t allow content that drives traffic to commercial pornography,” reads the policy — meaning that sharing a Doc with colleagues about anything as benign as a spreadsheet of traffic stats for adult URLs could result in account suspension. Individual user tests on this have revealed that the nudes taken by the American photographer Alfred Stieglitz are considered pornographic and sharing them is limited by the service.

In June of 2013, Google updated its developer policy for Glass apps (called Glassware) to prohibit “nudity, graphic sex acts, or sexually explicit material” and briefly suspended the developer account of the adult Android app store Mikandi for releasing Tits & Glass, an app that would enable users to create and share adult content using the wearable technology. That very same month, Google banned the monetization of adult content on Blogger.

In November of 2013, Google introduced Helpouts, which connect people who need help with experts via Hangouts video chat (previously GTalk and Plus in-network Messenger). The tech giant made its position on adult content abundantly clear from the get-go, banning experts on topics such as: “Dating sites, dating services, general dating advice or companionship services; Abortion; Birth control; Adult dating, companionship, or escort services; Excessively exposed skin/nudity; Non-fine art containing nudity/adult concepts which are gratuitous or intended to be sexually gratifying, lingerie; Sex toys and other sexual wellness products; intimate massage; Strip clubs; Adult job searching sites; Mail order brides; Content intended to arouse; Pornography; Otherwise sexually explicit content.”

A month later, it was revealed that the Android KitKat update packed a list of 1,400 banned words to prevent these from auto-completing or auto-correcting due to their “adult” connotations (bizarrely, this list included things like “lactation,” “uterus,” “STI,” and “preggers”). A similar list of banned words for predictive search on Google Instant had been discovered shortly after its launch in 2010, but it recently drew attention once again when activists found that “bisexual” was still on that blacklist in 2014.

A number of the moves that Google has made in the past decade are to ensure that it is not seen as profiting from pornography, but a great deal more have been made to prevent adult content from showing up when people don’t want it. Unfortunately, based on accounts from the many users who have reported suspension for content violation on any number of Google services — myself included — and the amount of content that should be age-restricted or disallowed by those same standards, but isn’t, it’s obvious that the company doesn’t have an internal consensus on what qualifies as “adult” content. This lack of clarity on the part of Google has created an unsafe environment across its services for adult content creators, who are basically waiting for the inevitable accidental policy violation that will result in their loss of access to everything from Gmail to Google Calendar.

Unlike porn sites that might be considering turning to ICM Registry’s dot-xxx top-level domain, its adult-only search engine, and ad networks, “gray area” adult content creators that are not in the business of pornography will not fare better in that competitive pornography-centered space — and that’s not even getting into the obvious concerns about how trivial it would be to block the domain extension in the root zone, thus censoring the entire digital adult ghetto.

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Study Says: Monogamy Doesn’t Necessarily Protect Against STIs

Ruh-roh. Looks like news isn’t good for those of you out there who think that monogamy protects you from an STI. (So… Most of you.) Survey says, people in monogamous relationships catch sexually-transmitted infections almost as often as people in open relationships.

The study in question was conducted by researchers at Ball State University and published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine. Participants in the study included 556 people with an average age of 26 to 27, 70 percent of whom were women. All of the participants were instructed to fill out an online questionnaire that included questions about their relationship status, whether they’d had outside sexual contact, and their condom practices both with primary and “extra-pair” partners.

Considering the fact that open relationships are generally considered to be more risky in terms of sexual health, the results of this study were kind of surprising. The researchers found that of the 351 people in the study who were in monogamous relationships, one in four said they had cheated on their partners at some point. Whether or not they were monogamous, one in five of the people surveyed had been diagnosed with an STI.

Buzzfeed reports that the researchers also discovered that people who had made but not kept a monogamous commitment were less likely to use condoms with their primary partners, even if they’d been stepping out. People in “consensual non-monogamous” (a.k.a. “open”) relationships, however, were more likely to use condoms and also more likely to get tested regularly.

“It turns out that when monogamous people cheat, they don’t seem to be very good about using condoms,” the author of the study, Justin Lehmiller, told BuzzFeed News by email. “People in open relationships seem to take a lot of precautions to reduce their sexual health risks.”

This study is especially worrisome in light of the fact that, a) so many people consider ditching condoms to be a sign of commitment and, b) the terrible sex education that entire generations of Americans (myself included) have been subjected to means that we’ve been told, time and time again, that monogamy is a way to protect ourselves from STIs. And while true monogamy (by which I mean no one cheats) surely is a way to protect against STIs, there are hundreds of thousands of people who think that they’re in a monogamous relationship when, in fact, they aren’t.

So what’s the solution? Not cheating is one, obviously. But beyond that, regular testing even for people who are in monogamous relationships should be recommended by all doctors. For example, I go to Planned Parenthood for my yearly exam and they always ask if I want to get tested. For the past two years, I’ve said no — because I’m in a monogamous relationship. This study illustrates the fact that health care providers are doing a disservice to their patients by not encouraging testing, regardless of relationship status.

Let’s all take a lesson from the non-monogamous amongst us, shall we? Be careful, conscientious, and get tested regularly, regardless of relationship status. It’s not about mistrust, nor is it saying that you love your partner less. It’s really just about taking care of yourself.

Image: Keoni Cabral/Flickr

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A Porn Pull-Back: Is Today’s Audience Going Soft on Hardcore?

In the highly competitive world of adult entertainment, one of the most tried and true methods of standing out in a crowded marketplace is to push the envelope — offering increasingly hardcore content to profit from niche audiences and the seekers of “shock value.” This race to the bottom may have gone too far, however, causing consumers to choose tamer fare and alternative forms of fun as they seek to satisfy their carnal cravings.

One of the most visible recent examples of this trend is Playboy magazine’s announcement that it is eschewing nudes from its future pages — an almost unthinkable stance for a company whose name is so synonymous with “nude.”

Launched by Hugh Hefner in 1953, Playboy created an immediate splash by featuring Marilyn Monroe on its first cover, and swiftly came to symbolize “living the good life” for generations of Americans —while bringing adult entertainment out of the shadows and into the living rooms of polite society.

In the process, Playboy built a brand that is recognized around the world and known for its celebration of the beauty of womanhood — and although it glorified the ideal of the perfect Playmate, it always did so tastefully, and with a reluctance to be seen as “porn.” Although the decision to drop nudity from the pages of Playboy magazine has startled many observers, it has been more than a year since the Playboy website moved away from the time-honored pictorials — paving the way for the decision to expand the strategy offline.

As for the results, reports indicate a quadrupling of website traffic with a slashing of a key demographic: the average age of the site’s visitors dropped from 47 to around 30 — a positive step in reaching that desirable 18-30 year old audience, which it courts through social media via campaigns on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, among other channels, where a more “family friendly” approach garners greater traction and fewer complaints.

It is also a move that brings Playboy closer to a Maxim-style publication, drawing inevitable comparisons between the two. For example, web metrics firm Compete.com reports that Playboy.com received some 1.6 million unique visitors in September, 2015, representing a drop over the previous month; compared to 1.2 million visitors to Maxim.com, which saw an increase in visitors during this same time period.

For further consideration, Compete.com reports that free porn site Pornhub.com saw a 13 percent drop in traffic in September — but still pulled in nearly 25 million unique visitors — while xHamster.com, another free tube site, saw a 21 percent drop in traffic, down to 12 million unique visitors for the month.

Both sites feature the hardest of hardcore porn, for free, and although they are far more popular than Playboy.com, that consumer interest appears to be dwindling.

Taken on its own, these figures might not justify as titanic a turnaround as trimming the tits from Playboy’s venerable pages, but they do point to an alternative market strategy for appealing to today’s consumers who may be tiring of more tawdry fare since the novelty of its ubiquitous access has waned — or as Playboy CEO Scott Flanders put it, “that battle has been fought and won.”

“You’re now one click away from every sex act imaginable for free,” Flanders explains. “It’s just passé at this juncture.”

While it might be easy to blame the Internet and the glut of online porn (both free and premium) for the fall-off in Playboy’s fortunes, it’s important to note that the magazine has faced a protracted decline —with its best-selling issue released a whopping 43 years ago, in November of 1972 — which according to the Alliance for Audited Media, reportedly sold more than 7 million copies. Contrast this with the plunge to today’s average circulation of around 800,000 issues per month.

Related — The Most Iconic Playboy Covers

To its credit, Playboy has made several attempts to bolster its brand, and outlasted many of its “men’s magazine” competitors. With overall global distribution taken into account, Playboy magazine remains profitable to publish — but it’s a loss-leader in the American market, reportedly losing some $3 million dollars annually — and it will take a master stroke of corporate helmsmanship to successfully transform one of adult entertainment’s most venerable brands into a more relevant one for today.

Beyond Playboy’s high-profile maneuvering, the ebb and flow of consumer taste has been fueling the proliferation of “porn replacements,” many of which are extremely sexually explicit, but which defy the traditional notion of porn as erotic photographs and videos. Indeed, old-school phone sex lines could be seen as the harbinger of this trend, which is underscored by the interactive market segment’s transition into the live webcam arena. Other offerings, such as the growing range of adult comics in the MiKandi Adult App Store, and virtual worlds such as RedLightCenter.com, point to a market demand for “more fantasy in fantasy,” in addition to a continued interest in more traditional pornographic material.

While copulating cartoons and computer-game graphics are unlikely to supplant photo-realistic porn, they serve as an example that there is more to adult entertainment than hardcore porn — and indeed, more to it than explicit images, as Playboy is now demonstrating. It may be the end of an era, but it may also be the key to Playboy satisfying consumer demand for another 60 plus years…

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