Analog Reality
Daily News about Internet, Technology, Software and Gadget
Developers debate Android gaming potential at Mobile Games Forum
More than 62m people played games on their mobile phones in September 2011 across the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain, according to data shared by comScore at the Mobile Games Forum conference in London. That represents more than 25% of all mobile users in those “EU5″ countries. Meanwhile, nearly 13m played mobile games almost every day that month. “There’s a frequency of repeat usage that’s encouraging,” said comScore’s vice president of mobile Jeremy Copp as he revealed the figures. The most popular gaming platform in these countries? ... Read More..
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Pirate Bay irks Games Workshop by sharing 3D plans for its designs
Filesharing site The Pirate Bay gained notoriety by enabling users to exchange music, movies and software. But now the site is branching out to provide a new category of downloads – the templates for physical objects. A new section of the site lists files that visitors can use to construct items with 3D printers – machines which build three-dimensional objects by overlaying thin layers of fast-drying plastic resin. But the site, which is famously unpopular with Hollywood for linking to torrents of films, has already drawn the ire of a major company for its new scheme. Games Workshop, ... Read More..
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Nintendo profits fall sharply as smartphones eat into console market
Nintendo posted a sharp drop in quarterly profit and forecast a bigger-than-expected full-year loss as its dedicated games consoles lost ground to smart devices such as Apple’s iPhone. The creator of the Super Mario and Pokemon franchises dominated the videogames industry for years with its DS handheld devices and Wii home consoles, but is now struggling to keep up as sales of more versatile smartphones and tablets boom. “To say that [the days of consoles] are over is likely an overstatement, but social-network and internet-delivered games are growing and structurally changing ... Read More..
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Ghost Recon: Future Soldier – hands-on
It seems hard to believe now, but several years ago, shooters weren’t just about following computer controlled super soldiers into gigantic cinematic set pieces. Once upon a time, you didn’t simply squirm through narrow corridors of linear action and plot exposition; you took command of your own AI teams, and you intricately planned your approach to combat hot zones. This was, of course, the era of the squad-based shooter genre, brought to prominence by the likes of Hidden and Dangerous and Rainbow Six, then carefully honed to console perfection via the excellent Ghost Recon: ... Read More..
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Developers debate Android gaming potential at Mobile Games Forum
More than 62m people played games on their mobile phones in September 2011 across the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain, according to data shared by comScore at the Mobile Games Forum conference in London. That represents more than 25% of all mobile users in those “EU5″ countries. Meanwhile, nearly 13m played mobile games almost every day that month. “There’s a frequency of repeat usage that’s encouraging,” said comScore’s vice president of mobile Jeremy Copp as he revealed the figures. The most popular gaming platform in these countries? ... Read More..
Posted in Mobile Phones | No Comments
Ericsson sees annual sales grow but shares dive on fourth-quarter slump
Soaring demand for smartphones and tablet computers has increased the number of mobile users worldwide to nearly one billion, helping Ericsson, the largest telecoms equipment supplier, to return to growth after a two-year slump with a 12% rise in annual sales. But the company was fighting to reassure investors today that its recovery was not a flash in the pan. In a stark indication of the depth of corporate fear over an imminent global recession, Ericsson’s income suffered a sudden collapse in the last three months of the year. With smartphones accounting for 30% of all handsets ... Read More..
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Smartphones users 50% more likely to own tablet, Google study finds
The UK saw the biggest jump in smartphone usage during the first 10 months of 2011 out of any of the “big five” developed countries, rising from 30% to 45% by October, according to new statistics from market researchers Ipsos Mori. It also found that smartphone users are roughly 50% more likely than the average person to own a tablet across the US, UK, France, Germany and Japan. The study, commissioned by Google, found that by last October, smartphone usage was 38% in the US and France, 23% in Germany and 17% in Japan. Those had risen by 7, 11, 5 and 11 percentage points ... Read More..
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Google approved new Motorola lawsuit against Apple iPhone and iCloud
Google specifically gave permission for Motorola Mobility (MMI) to file a new lawsuit against Apple over its iPhone 4S and iCloud products, according to an analysis of the takeover agreement in which the search giant aims to buy the struggling mobile maker. The move marks a heightening of tensions between Google and Apple, where the Cupertino company is fighting a war by proxy against the use in the Android mobile operating system of a number of user interface elements that it sees as closely copied from the iOS software. In September last year Google sold nine patents to Android handset ... Read More..
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O2 admits it gives users’ numbers to sites offering age-restricted content
Mobile operator O2 has admitted that it regularly hands over subscribers’ phone numbers to sites that offer age-restricted material and premium-rate billing, whether the users realise it or not. The admission followed the revelation late on Tuesday that the company had since 10 January inadvertently been providing user phone numbers to any sites that its millions of users browse from their phones using the 3G network. That would mean site owners could find the details in their server logs, and potentially use them for marketing or SMS campaigns without the user’s ... Read More..
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Apps Rush: Take Me Out, MPme, Met Office, I Am A Child: Just Like You, RBS 6 Nations and more
A selection of 19 apps for you today: Take Me Out Flirting ITV’s TV dating show Take Me Out has an app for iPhone and Android, which is encouraging viewers to chat to the contestants, and also to one another. So, besides being promotional for the show, it’s effectively a mobile dating service in its own right.iPhone / Android MPme TuneIn Radio has been hugely popular as a way to listen to radio on mobiles and tablets, but now it’s got some competition in the form of startup MPme. Initially available as an iPad app, it uses your music library and social graph to recommend ... Read More..
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