Today's Facebook Application Review is about an Application willing to help the environment, called Animals Gone Wild.
The idea of this Facebook Application developed by Chegg ((an online textbook rental company) is to help nature by planting a real tree every time one of the goals of this Facebook App is achieved.
To do that once you install this App you have to share with your Facebook friends pictures of cute, wild animals and every ten shares a real tree is planted thanks to the a partnership between the Developers of this Facebook Application and the American Forests Global ReLeaf Program.As I've been personally told by the promoters of this Facebook Application Animals Gone Wild, their innovative marketing model with environmental implications is aiming to create a more involved concious of the effects of deforestation and through that promote their product.
Overall I personally think that this Facebook Application has a great design and I am always in favor of Marketing Campaigns that invest their budgets in effective things besides branding.. so they have my Kudos for that.
The qualification for this Facebook Review is 4.3 out of 5, great goal, great idea and a very smart Marketing twist that shows us that people can make real business and help nature at the same time.
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Facebook Application Review of Animals Gone Wild
Favorite Place in the World on FACEBOOK
Today's Facebook Application Review of the recently launched Application called "Favorite Places on Facebook".This interesting Facebook Application is about Maps, locations and Favorite places. The main idea is to enable users to select their favorite places in the world through Google Maps and the application will then let users to add this exact location (map included) and the Google StreetView panorama into their Facebook profile.
Once you share your selected favorite place on your Facebook Profile your friends will be able to see it and comment about it as well as play with the camera of the Google StreetView service. So basically with this Facebook Application you can start a snowball by selecting one place that will take your friends to different destinations over and over again
Google StreetView... what??. For those who are not very familiar with this, Google Street View Panorama is an amazing service that offers 360 degrees pictures of some of the most popular locations in the world and all of them are linked with Google Maps, so let's say you find The Eiffel Tours in France through Google Maps, then you can see real pictures of that place with Street View.... amazing right?
Anyway back to the Facebook Review...as I was writing before, once the user has found his favorite place through the Google Map, and checked out all the pictures about the area, he can also share some comment or story explaining why this is one of his favorite places in the world. I personally think that this idea is a great thing to share memories with friends... like " do you remember when we went backpacking to Spain and..."
So my friends that's all about this Facebook Application Review of Favorite Places which is great Facebook App. I love Google Maps and Google Street View so this app won my heart from the beginning. My qualification is 4.4 out of 5. If you look at me... I'll be " walking around the streets of Tokyo for the next ten minutes before I go to bed.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Mafia Wars Tips and Tricks (Part 3) – Cuba Business Guide
When I was making the decision on what to write for my next Mafia Wars post, the idea to write a Business guide to cover the new ways of earning money from Cuban Businesses in the Mafia Wars expansion into cuba popped into my head. At first glance, the Businesses might seem quite simple and straight forward. However, there are many tips and tricks that can effect your rate of return and progress in regard to Businesses in Cuba. Have doubts? That’s understandable. I have pooled together and calculated some valuable information to help you progress through and thrive in the new Mafia Wars: Cuba expansion. Read and become informed.
How Mafia Wars: Cuba Businesses work
Although businesses in cuba are 100% different from the properties in New York, they are quite simple to understand. Also, it is easy to see why Zynga, the creators of Mafia Wars, decided to use the new business structure for Cuba rather than the properties from New York.
When you go to cuba in Mafia Wars and then to the business page, the game displays the following information:
“Each Cuban business can be purchased once and produces crates of a particular product every 3 hours. Once the crates are produced, they will be stored in your warehouse, ready to be sold for a profit.”
There are a few main things that I would like to highlight about businesses in cuba.
1. Crates are earned every 3 hours and must be sold in order to earn a profit. (unlike New York where money is earned ever 1 hour)
2. If crates aren’t sold, they will build up until you reach your capacity. Crates will not be produced while you are at maximum capacity.
3. To earn maximum profit, business upgrades should be done in a specific order (outlined in the upgrade section below)
As mentioned earlier, it is easy to see why Zynga decided to redesign the money making system for Mafia Wars: Cuba. With the new system it is necessary to login on a regular basis and sell the crates that your businesses produce in order to earn money. The old property system in New York (original Mafia Wars) allowed players to earn money regardless of their logging into the game. This lead to money being devalued and subsequently useless at higher levels.
Best Mafia Wars: Cuba Business investment
Unfortunately I upgraded my main Mafia Wars account too quickly through the Cuban businesses and did not gather the required information to calculate which business in Mafia Wars: Cuba is the best investment. However, based on initial cost and selling price for the full capacity of each of the fully upgraded businesses, the Tobacco Plantation offers the best cost to income ratio.
Mafia Wars: Cuba Business upgrades
Your Cuban businesses can be upgraded in the following ways:
Quality (5 levels) – your business will produce a higher quality product every three hours, allowing you to sell each crate for more pesos; quality upgrades cost twice as much as quantity and capacity upgrades.
Capacity (10 levels) – your business can store a larger quantity of crates in the warehouse.
Output (10 levels) – your business will produce more crates every 3 hours.
Examined:
Quality upgrades for businesses in Mafia Wars: Cuba change the name of the product being produced and also increases the price that you sell the produced product for.
For the Tobacco Plantation:
Tobacco > C$4 / crate (Base)
Cigarillos > C$5 / crate (upgrade cost: C$3,200)
Panetelas > C$6 / crate (upgrade cost: C$3,600)
Coronas > C$7 / crate (upgrade cost: C$4,000)
Perfectos > C$8 / crate (upgrade cost: C$4,400)
For the Sugar Plantation:
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Gold Rum > C$12 / crate (upgrade cost: ?)
Dark Rum > C$14 / crate (upgrade cost: C$8,000
Anejo Rum > C$16 / crate (upgrade cost: ?)
For the Factory:
Car Stereos > C$? / crate (upgrade cost: ?)
Tires > C$? / crate (upgrade cost: ?)
Suspensions > C$? / crate (upgrade cost: ?)
Frames > C$? / crate (upgrade cost: ?)
Engines > C$? / crate (upgrade cost: ?)
For the Coca Field:
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Pure Coca > C$80 / crate (upgrade cost: ?)
Capacity upgrades
Capacity upgrades increase the number of total crates that can be stored for each Mafia Wars: Cuba business. This upgrade is only useful if you find you are not able to login to Mafia Wars often enough to keep all of your produced crates from reaching the capacity.
Information will be populated as I obtain it. If you can fill in any of the blanks, or know where I can gain the information.. make a comment and let me know. Thank you.
Output upgrades
Output upgrades are quite important. These upgrades will increase the number of crates produced every three hours. When you first obtain a business, its output may be 100 crates / 3 hours, with an output upgrade, this number may increase to 120 crates / 3 hours.
Upgrade order
It is important to note that because Quality upgrades increase the price each crate sells for, and Output upgrades increase the number of crates produced every 3 hours, that each of these increases the benefit provided by the other. This makes it possible to determine the best upgrade order for each business.
Upgrade order for the Tobacco Plantation
1. Output
2. Output
3. Quality
4. Output
5. Quality
6. Output
7. Quality
8. Output
9. Quality
10. Output
11. Output
12. Output
13. Output
