So this is what we’ve learned through Sensor Tower about our 15+ apps launched:

Sensor Tower is an online program/platform that allows you to take your first steps into the world of mobile apps analytics and keyword optimization.. It will give you thorough insights on popular apps, and on your apps as well. The main thing you need to know about Sensor Tower is that it is totally user friendly. Upon creating an account (which takes less than five seconds), you are walked through the website and showed how to use it with easy to follow tips. If you’re just starting out in this business, or you just want to take yours to the next level, this is the place to be.

You will learn more about your apps, than you could ever hoped for.

This is what we’ve learned: the keywords we’re ranking for, and the ones that we could chase. Also what our competition ranks for and what we can do to update our rankings.

With a free account you can analyze one app, even if not yours, and see the keywords it ranks for, and it will even suggest more keywords you can go after. Also, there’s a Keyword Spying feature where you can spy on your competitor’s best keywords, you can translate any keyword you need, or research keywords, and even track your competitor’s progress if that’s something you want to do.

Here are some of our seed keywords and our suggested keyword we got out of sensor tower:

Once you get used with how the site works, you can add the apps you’d like to watch daily, and it’s as easy as typing them into a search bar. There are loads of apps on there, including most popular ones, and there is no worry that you’ll have a hard time finding the on you’re looking for.

You can even track your competitors. Here are just a few of our suggested competitors:

Featured rich, and to the point, this is what you can do, and these are their current products, which me and my partner love:

App Intelligence

• App Store Optimization
• App Profile

Store Intelligence

• App Store Intelligence
• Google Play Intelligence

Rankings & Leaderboards

• App Store Rankings
• Google Play Rankings
• App Worth Leaderboards
• Publisher Leaderboards

Working your way through the site is a piece of cake, and if you have any issues, you can check the blog section or other pages. You can start with the “Start Here” Section and you will be just fine. There are all the references you will ever need to make your app a success. We have on app that hit the 10.000 downloads mark recently, and I gotta say, Sensor Tower had a big role in that, as the helped find our best matching keywords for our app.

The user interface of the website is a breeze. You can get to any section you need with ease. The graphs that show the progress of your app are easy to read and coloured coded appropriately so you can easily see where you need to improve things. This makes it easy for the end user to get the most valuable data out of their app insights.

Of course you can take it to the next level with the analytics with your apps, and get one of the paid plans. The fees they charge will make your app more profitable in the long run by providing extra advice and data for your best ranking on the marketplace. There are no hidden fees to worry about, and you can rest assured that your money is going to your own business through Sensor Tower.

In the end, Sensor Tower is a great website that is all about helping you and your app grow, and that’s what we are all after, right? Whether you are computer literate or not, this website is easy to use, and there is a lengthy section that will tell you how to use this website if in doubt, as I said on their own blog. In one word, Sensor Tower is awesome, and we will continue to use and to grow our business with.

Don’t wait any longer, and go ahead and check their site right now.

 Ba-Gua and You

Ba-Gua is a way of mapping the way that the energy flows around your home, though this is a little more complicated than most and may require an expert to come in for you to get a full explanation of your homes Ba-Gua, it essentially boils down to good energy and bad energy and how well it flows around your home.

For example good energy is energy that is allowed to move or flow through your home, clear spaces and easily navigated rooms help the positive energy move freely whilst cluttered or jumbled rooms may cause the energy to pool and become stagnant, turning it into negative energy. You may have noticed that there are some rooms you prefer over others because of their perceived space and airiness – this usually means they have positive energy in then!

 Where to Start?

To start altering the energy flow in your home pick the place you least like to spend time – is that room cramped and cluttered? Filled with things you no longer need? Then it’s time to clear out! Clearing spaces of unnecessary items helps stop the negative energy from pooling and will leave you breathing a sigh of relief and fresh air! Organise your most cluttered rooms one by one, be it by clear outs or storage solutions and you will find your home opening up.

 Rearrange Your Furniture

Did you know that Feng Shui promotes having your furniture facing the front door? It also advocates for not blocking it with any pieces either as it can stop energy from entering your house. We’d advise you at http://furnitureuk.co.uk/ to try to space furniture around so that the front door is easily viewable or that there is enough space so that you can easily navigate amongst the pieces.

 Influence Your Life

Having certain objects in your home can help improve how the energy in your home affects your life – for example having lots of green plants promotes a healthy energy as does running water – like a table top fountain or a fish tank. You may want to go with the fish tank though as having live fish in your house is meant to help promote wealth in your life!

I’m sure you’re already aware that colours can influence your mood, Feng Shui reinforces this belief by suggesting neutral and calming colours for certain rooms – like bathrooms with colours like a deep red in the bedroom to stimulate passion, be careful though, red can also stand for restlessness so you may want to have a few different types tested on your walls before choosing which one you like best.

The UK has its fair share of accidents over 750,000 per year occur in the home. This is broke down as follows:-

•     500,000 people injured colliding with household objects
•     235,000 injured using their stairs

Some of the more bizarre facts are that over 50,000 people a year are injured by beds which are the most common furniture in the home that causes accidents. Who would have though a bed would make for a lethal health and safety hazard.

Additionally even more bizarrely over 30,000 people are injured in the home annually due to wood flooring. In contrast the figure of 235,000 people injured when using stairs makes more sense.

This results in over 3000 deaths a year. It makes for grim reading but these figures show the home can be a dangerous place. Even more so for the elderly over 65 that make a large proportion of people suffering an accident using their stairs in the home. With children under 5 making a substantial contribution to the figures.

So why is? It is probably due to the fact that we take our home for granted. Experts believe that accidents occur when people are at their most complacent. With that in mind nerves cannot be that bad!

This post was provided by Ann Richards health and lifestyle writer and contributor.

It’s about time too. It’s been a good 8 years since the release of the Xbox 360 and PS3 and all this time those self-satisfied PC gamers have been racing ahead. Consolers can’t keep up with their ramped-up graphics cards and space-age hard drives – but that will all change at the end of the month.

So with all this extra power, what can we expect from the games?

Graphics

While it’d be a little harsh to say that we’ve been ill-served with the graphics in the latest few console games (especially when you look at the landscapes rendered in the latest Tom Raider and Assassin’s Creed games), we’ve been somewhat left in the dust when compared to the PC versions. The latest consoles should bring us up to date, or maybe even edge a little ahead, albeit only slightly. History has shown us that PCs will race ahead pretty quickly, but that doesn’t mean that we’ll enjoy what we get any less. Consoles still offer a whole lot more ease and convenience when compared to their PC cousins and when you wrap that up with even more detail than we’re used to now, that’s quite a nice little package.

Size and scope

The sandbox worlds that are so painstakingly created for us by our game-designing feeders are already pretty grand as it is, but with that added extra that the next generation of consoles are going to offer, the worlds we’ll then have to explore seem set to be even more epic. This might not necessarily just be size, but rather the details that will make us dizzy. Imagine exploring each, fully rendered, individual building of San Andreas in GTA 6. Well, you could. Also, for all you WWE fans, what if the console could actually handle 30 figures in the ring at once during the Royal Rumble (or at least more than 6). I think we’ve all been pretty frustrated about that limit over the last 8 years.

Artificial Intelligence

While there has been improvement over the years, most consoles just offered a ‘hard’ setting, meaning it’s harder to kill your enemies i.e. more bullets are supplied or whatever. Yet what gamers have really been after for years is a genuinely intelligent enemy that’s going to challenge the ol’ brain box. With the updated technology now available, this could well become a reality. No longer will an enemy goon run aimlessly upon hearing a sound: instead, you’ll find them creeping in through the window behind you.

Look out – the bad guys are about to get a little more badass!

Tips for stocking up

With the next generation of consoles hitting the shelves during the holiday period, you have plenty of time to get through your current stock of games in time for the big change. Who really goes back to their old console once they’ve upgraded? It’s just too hard to look at something pixelated again once you’ve seen the same thing rendered so smoothly. So once the holiday season hits, it might be time to trade up.

Naturally, this is going to leave you with a surplus of obsolete games that  are going to sit and gather dust in the corner. There’s really no need for this, however, as you can sell them. The easiest way to make a little money on your old,  now-obsolete console and games is through Music Magpie

They offer a simple process where you just enter in the barcode of your game or the name of your console and they give you a valuation. If you’re happy with that valuation, you can send it to them to sell on and you get the cash. Then what do you do with that cash? Why, upgrade your games collection and replace old stock! (Of course, you’ll have got the console for Christmas.)

Investing in green architecture means that you are making an effort to take care of the environment. However, knowing where to start can be a little bit confusing. What are some of the basics about which you must know?

Dealing with Garbage

Anytime you’re crafting some sort of building, be it residential or commercial, you are going to deal with some debris. To show that you are truly committed to the green movement, make a solid effort to clean up this garbage. Make sure that any materials are going into the proper recycle bins if applicable. Of course, you want to ensure that as few pollutants as possible are released in the environment around you.

Avoiding Toxic Substances

While it might seem rather obvious that you should not use toxic substances in your daily life or work life, you might not realize how toxic all of the pollutants you’re putting into the environment really are. Therefore, you want to make sure you aren’t using lead paint or anything of that nature. As you’re going to be painting, hammering and sawing away, you also must  make sure that you are choosing organic substances with which to build. Doing so will allow you to be friendly to both your body and the environment.

Watching Energy Use

Now, this topic has two components to it. First, in your actual construction of the building, you need to make sure you aren’t overusing energy. For example, let’s say that you have power on throughout the day. When you’re not using it, make sure that it’s turned off! On top of that, you should also be choosing materials that are used to help create energy. Let’s say that you’re putting together the windows of a building. You absolutely need to use Energy Star certified windows. Of course, considering the importance of solar panels is something else you must do.

Protecting Nature

Have you decided to put up a building in the middle of a forest? Well then,you aren’t following the basic practices of green architecture at all. Instead, you’re actually working to destroy nature. Make sure that you aren’t disrupting any natural habitats when you’re putting up these buildings. You want to be certain that both animal and plant life are going to continue as normal. If you’re a company that stands for green practices and someone wants you to craft such a building, you need to be adamant in saying “no” to them. Remember, you don’t want to violate your own ethical code.

So many concepts come into play when we talk about green architecture. When you love the environment, you do not want to engage in any practices that could potentially hurt it. Therefore, you need to be committed to implementing these basics into your day-to-day life at your place of work.

Brenda Hernandez writes about all things related to design. Her recent work is about cheap online web design degrees.

How To Create SVG Files Part I

First you will need a high quality image that you can work with. Either by tracing it, or by converting it into shapes and paths. To do that, you can use Illustrator or Inkscape. In this example we will use Illustrator, as it’s one of my favorite pieces of software ever developed by adobe.

To get your image, a royalty free one I mean, go to: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/images/ . That’s where I’ve got my snowboarder from. I then import it into Illustrator, by dragging and dropping the image in.

Next step is to click on the image, and select Image Trace. If you want the image to be created from paths, and fills. But the result I’m after is a bit different, so we can manage without tracing the image. We want to give this image the impression it was made with a paintbrush.

So just hit the Embed button up top, under the Main Menu, and then create a new layer in the layer panel. Inside this new layer, create a new path, but with a large enough width and with a fluorescent color, so you can see the contrast between the path, and the initial image. When the entire image of the snowboarder is covered, set the opacity of this stroke to 0%.

When you’re satisfied with the result, just go to Save As, and select the SVG file format. Be careful to select Embed in the Image Location setting. That will embed the image, and you won’t have issues later on, if you accidentally delete the original image you are using as the base of the SVG.

Leave the rest of the options as they are, and just give the file a new name.

In order to import this new file into VideoScribe, just follow the short tutorial below. You will also understand how to use a paintbrush to render this image into what you want.

How To Create SVG Files Part II

This software is getting more popular by the day, because hand drawn image are a great tool to send you message out. With an attention retention rate of over 90% for this type of videos, it’s pretty easy to spread your message, sell your services and talk to your audience so they understand and take action. If you think this software is worth your time, go ahead and order it here: https://archtopia.pixelhost.me/go/Sparkol/

Enjoy, and leave a comment in the section below if you have any questions.

Me though? I’m house proud sure, but I don’t really have any interest in frilly things like throws or champagne glasses. No, what I like to show off when people come around is my widescreen TV, my computer, my desk and the range of useless gadgets and features I’ve installed into the home. It’s the little gadgets that I really get a kick from and I find that my male friends tend to be more impressed by these than the lack of dust on the kitchen counters.

If you’re like me then, and if you enjoy having an automated ‘home of tomorrow’ just so you can show off to your friends, then read on for a list of some of my favourite pointless-but-cool features. One or two of them might even be useful.

Clap-On Lights

The home of tomorrow whenever it is depicted in on TV is always one that doesn’t require any physical buttons. Voice commands are a little way off yet (the Kinect is the best it gets at this point), but clapping to turn on your lights is old news. Old news, but still cool and something you’ll grin smugly about when you do it.

Motorized Adjustable Beds

Sitting up in bed reading is annoying because you have to find a way to prop your back up using pillows. Often this ends up not being very comfortable, or you start sliding down the side of the bed gradually until you’re craning your neck up at your book again. Don’t worry though – technology can help! Really beds that you can alter the angle of using remote control are designed or those with back problems or other disabilities, but you can still get a great kick out of lifting your back up with the touch of a button and it can still make your bed much more comfortable to do things other than sleep in.

Virtual Fish

This is surely the kind of the pointless feature – virtual fish that drift around on a screen to create ambience but that you don’t actually have to feed at all. Of course these are a little soulless compared to the real deal, but they still look snazzy and they come with a lot of benefits – including immortality and low maintenance costs.

Automated Garage Door

This one is one that’s actually quite useful on the other hand – allowing you to arrive home then open your garage to drive in without even needing to get out of your car. Automated gates can be similarly useful (and an intercom so you can open them for guests and feel like a rich celebrity.

Shower Remote

This is one a friend of mine showed me eagerly recently. The idea is that you have a little button by your bed that you can press, which will then start your shower for you. His argument was that it meant the shower was already hot by the time you’d gotten up and walked to the bathroom, but we all know it’s just another pointless-but-cool gadget.

Remote Flush

This on the other hand has no conceivable benefit even that I can conjure up. Why would you want to flush the toilet from anywhere other than the bathroom? Who knows… but you can!

Spa Bath

Having a spa bath is something that impresses a lot of people and is a great way to relax and indulge yourself… once. After that it becomes another feature that you never actually use, but it will still impress guests and you can feel smug knowing you have on. Of course you will be trumped though by anyone who has an actual hot tub in their garden… Or a sauna…

Waterfall Shower

On the other hand a waterfall shower is something that you will probably use often and that can genuinely be more invigorating than a usual shower. It also looks cool.

Featured images:

•  License: Creative Commons image source
•  License: Creative Commons image source
•  License: Creative Commons image source

Dennis Michael is a technophile who is likely to spend more on gadgets than on food, clothing and rent. When he’s not fighting off his roommates for the PlayStation controller or standing in queues for midnight product launches, he works at Australiana Garage Doors, providers of garage door and remote control solutions in Australia. Michael claims he works in order to fund his gadget addiction.

1.Renwick Hospital, New York City, USA
What used to be a smallpox hospital is now simply an abandoned building, replete with mansard roofs, corbelled parapets and granite veneer. Now, it’s nothing more than a spooky reminder of New York’s grisly past. It was once used to accommodate quarantined immigrants, who suffered from smallpox. The mystery behind the abandoned hospital is that (besides its overall scariness) is that, at night, it is illuminated by some anonymous patron, supposedly one that has a view to it from a penthouse in Upper East Side.

2.Kolmanskop Diamond Camp, Namibia
The local bushmen call Skeleton Coast, where the camp is situated, “The land, which God made in anger”, and the Portuguese refer to is as “The gates of hell”. One of the diamond camps’ manager’s house, called Minenvewalter, is completely taken over by sands. There is sand everywhere, in some places up to the roof. There are rumors that the house is haunted by the ghosts of the diamond miners that used to work there. In 1960, many years after the last miners left the camp, many ax-punctured skulls were found in the house.

3.Skara Brae, Scotland
More than just one building, but rather a whole village, and an ancient one, Skara Brae is situated on Skaill’s bay. The settlement is still being excavated and, during that process more and more details about the pre-Celtic era of Europe are revealed. What makes Skara Brase so strange is that despite being older than the Egyptian pyramids (it is around 5,000 years old), the buildings in the village are still in relatively good condition. There are no logical explanations why and how they have managed to remain in the condition they are.

4.Woodchester Mansion, England
Stone gargoyles stand on top of this nineteen century Gothic mansion built of honey-colored limestone. The spooky building was abandoned in 1873, in mid-construction, after its owner passed away. Situated amid a secluded valley, the mansion is now used for tours, as well as paranormal nights and Halloween parties. However, one has to have a lot of courage in order to visit and even stay in the mansion, as the building used to be a morgue during World War II. There are even rumors of uniform-wearing ghosts and 1940’s music in the hallways.

5.Rubjerg Knude Lighthouse, Denmark
Towering from one desolate dune by the name of Lønstrup Klint, the ghostly lighthouse was built back in 1900 but was abandoned in 1968 when sea, sands and wind began devouring it whole. The 75 feet tall building will most likely collapse because of coastal erosion and shifting sands during the next century. Even though, when built over a hundred years ago, the lighthouse stood at a relatively safe spot – on a duneless cliff, 655 feet away from the sea as well as almost 200 feet above sea level, yet, despite all the rescue attempts, the elements managed to slowly swallow the whole lighthouse.

Grace is an author keen on architecture and home organizing. Enjoy her tips on Acton house removals, interior design and decoration.

1.Hotel Marques de Riscal, Spain
It is a design of Frank Gehry, one of most successful architects of America. The building aimed to attract more tourists in the region. However, instead of matching the surroundings, Gehry’s building stands out as something truly unique. Not only is the exterior one-of-a-kind, but also all rooms are different than one another, guaranteeing a unique experience. The building is made out of concrete cubical elements and is covered with enormous stainless titanium panels, whose positioning basically makes no sense.

2.House Attack, Vienna, Austria
House Attack was created in 2008 by Austrian artist Erwin Wurm. This permanent art installation is a house, hanging upside down from the Museum of Modern Arts’ front facade. Its creator explains that it represents the everyday challenges and worries of families from all over the world and its purpose is to inspire architects.

3.Bolwoningen, Netherlands
The Bolwoningen housing were designed during the 1970’s as an experimental building. The architect that created these odd structures was Dries Kreij Camp. These so-called houses are shaped like golf balls and definitely managed to stand apart from anything else ever known at that time. Apart from looking strange, the Bolwoningen also have strange floor plans – the bathroom and toilet are in the very middle of the ball, while the bedroom is downstairs and the living room – upstairs. The diameter of the capsules is 5.5 meters and they have six round windows on top.

4.Wonderworks (United States)
This is one of Tennessee’s biggest attractions. Looking at its exterior, it is an upside-down building, but once inside, you realize it is more than just a wacky piece of art. It is actually a museum of the strange with exhibits you are less likely to see in ‘regular’ museums. And, bear in mind, that when you enter, you actually start from the attic, all the way up to the basement.

5.The Crooked House (Poland)
If you have ever been in front of those funny mirrors you usually find at fairs, you know what to expect looking at the crooked house. Designed by Szotynscy Zaleski and built in 2004, the structure resembles a building out of a fantasy book. As a matter of fact, the fairy tales drawing books of  Jan Marcin Szancer were Zaleski’s main inspiration.
It is a three storey house, built among a row of other, ‘normal’ houses. It basically looks as if it is melting or, while looking at it, you might think your vision is blurred due to many drinks.

6.The Atomium (Belgium)
As strange as it may sound, judging by its futuristic look, this structure was built way back in 1958, for the Expo in Brussels. Even today, it is visited by thousands of tourists and considered really impressive.
What it basically represents is an iron crystal, magnified 170 billion times. The atomium is comprised of nine steel spheres, each one with a diameter of 18 meters, connected to each other. The top sphere is an observation deck, while the other eight are exhibition halls). The whole structure  has a height of a staggering 102 meters.

Grace is a housewife and  writer keen on flowers, Italian food and house organizing. You can also enjoy her tips and suggestions for creating a better home and for NW6 house removals in London.

Adding an unusual feature to a kitchen area gives it a unique element that differentiates it from the typical, generic kitchen. This could involve anything slightly quirky, from bright orange tiles to a large chandelier. When designing a potential future kitchen creativity is essential as the area should represent personality and convey an individual style.

Small but significant differences

A random pop of colour throughout the room will bring the kitchen environment to life. This could be a bright and obvious colour such as orange or yellow or a more neutral colour like lilac or pale blue. This colour could be incorporated within the counter sides or feature in a coloured retro fridge.

Keeping a central colour throughout the room creates a theme as providing this colour is the focus, and therefore the surrounding colours are light and modest, it will attract the attention to a particular area of the room. Tiling is a good way to combine and mix colours that are dotted around the room. For example, a tiled section of the wall could incorporate orange, white and blue if those are the central colours.

Glass as a central feature

A highly futuristic and more modern approach is to select glass to make up part of the kitchen area. Adding light and therefore openness to the area using glass helps create an illusion of more space making it an ideal option for smaller kitchens.

Glass paneling is a modern day phenomenon which involves installing glass within the floor boards. This can produce a very modern and sophisticated interior. Alternatively an open kitchen in which the outside walls are made just of glass giving an open and spacious feel to the room. However, a central disadvantage is the lack of privacy that comes alongside this option.

  Here the glass, in addition to the light cream tones, creates an illusion of more space

A featured or printed ceiling

A patterned or coloured ceiling is the ideal way to express creativity. Designs can be personalised and artistic making the room unique and differentiated. Although raised wall paper designs appear to be decreasing in popularity as more people oft for a plain white ceiling they can offer a change from the generic choice.

However, it is crucial to take into account spacial elements as dark coloured ceilings can make the room appear much smaller and more closed in. Going for a lighter overall colour but with hints of a stronger or brighter colour can often add a spark of personalisation to the kitchen area.

  The feminine ceiling design adds a touch of romance to the area

 Conclusion

Whatever the drastic element may be the key concept is to focus on one central bold feature which the rest of the surroundings compliment. Try not to overload on patterns of large and attention grabbing features as this can create an environment that is far too busy, and consequently overwhelming.

Image Credits: carnavalet and A&A Design Build Remodeling, Inc.

Author: Sally Lindsey, kitchen designer at Audus Kitchens. While working on modern kitchen design projects, Sally developed a concept of personality features in the kitchen using customized paraphernalia, original arrangement and some “crazy” additions to your living space. These features are not necessary luxurious solutions anymore, many clients ask for personalized space realizing how important kitchens will be in their families’ life.