HQ Trivia creator says lessons learned from Vine, creative constraints inspired the popular new game show app

Twice a day, my afternoon and evening are punctuated by an eagerly awaited push notification inviting me to join a growing crowd of fans all over the world playing HQ Trivia, a modern take on the classic TV game show. The brief, fifteen minute games usually end for me with a “savage question” that eliminates my chance of winning a growing cash prize, but leaves me excited to try again tomorrow. The thrill of the game is no accident; it’s all part of the app’s clever design.

9to5Mac asked Rus Yusupov, co-founder of HQ Trivia and the former social network Vine, just what makes the new game so captivating.

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Happy Hour Podcast 149 | Moving with HomeKit, Apple Heart Study, and getting to the root of Mac bugs

This week Benjamin and Zac discuss moving houses with HomeKit accessories, restarting a fitness routine with Apple Watch, Apple and Stanford’s new Apple Heart Study, the brand new Pixelmator Pro Mac app, macOS High Sierra’s terrible root vulnerability and quick fix, and the history of software bugs in recent and not-so-recent years.

9to5Mac’s Happy Hour podcast is available for download on iTunes and Apple’s Podcasts app, StitcherGoogle Play Music, or through our dedicated RSS feed for Overcast and other podcast players.

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Global smartphone sales return to growth; Apple up 5.7% year-on-year in Q3 – Gartner

Gartner predicted last month that global smartphone sales would return to growth next year, and its latest numbers show that this was actually achieved sooner than expected, in Q3 this year.

Global sales of smartphones to end users totaled 383 million units in the third quarter of 2017, a 3 percent increase over the same period in 2016, according to Gartner, Inc. All of the top five smartphone vendors achieved double-digit growth apart from Apple …

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