Cell Phone Gaming Taking Off

According to a new consumer study conducted by research firm Information Solutions Group on behalf of casual games publisher PopCap Games, 57% of AT&T wireless subscribers play mobile games.

The advent of the iPhone and its App Store have made the download and usage of mobile games easier than ever, and the mobile gaming industry is expected to grow more than 10% per year to hit $6.3 billion in user spending by 2011, according to a report from Gartner.

52% of gamers cited 'distraction from daily life issues' as the top benefit derived from mobile gaming, followed by 'relaxation and stress relief' (40%) and 'improved mood' (12%)--in addition, 52% of gamers said they play mobile titles during work hours, and 14% selected 'during my work day, when I need a short break' as the time when they most often play games on their phone.

60% of all mobile gamers cited 'while waiting for an appointment' as a time when they play mobile games, with 'during the day on weekdays' selected by 34% of respondents and 'when traveling on vacation' and 'on the weekend' tying for third at 25% each.

The Information Solutions Group study reports that 59% of AT&T gamers play games on their phone at least once a month, and 40% said they play weekly or more often--41% said they played less than once per month. 91% of mobile gaming sessions last fewer than 30 minutes, and 62% extend fewer than 15 minutes. In all, 71% of mobile gamers play games on their phone for less than an hour per week, although 52% of those who play daily said they play for three or more hours per week.

Asked to name 'games you enjoy playing on your cell phone,' 20% of AT&T gamers cited Tetris, followed by Bejeweled at 18% and Solitaire at 17%. Puzzle games topped popular genres at 66%, followed by card/casino titles at 51%--board games earned 15% of the vote, with action/adventure trailing at 11%.

86% of mobile gamers also play video games on one or more other devices, with 76% of gamers playing on computers, 41% on consoles and 24% on handheld game devices.

17% of mobile gamers consider their mobile handset their primary gaming device.

5000 Android Apps

Google's Android Market now offers more than 4,900 applications for smartphones powered by the Android mobile operating system, according to the web services giant's vice president of engineering Vic Gundotra.

Speaking Wednesday at Google's annual I/O developer event in San Francisco, Gundotra said Android users have downloaded an average of more than 40 applications per user, adding that Android smartphones are now second in the U.S. in mobile web browsing, behind Apple's iPhone.

5000 apps is a pretty good number. We (Movaya) are about to launch our first premium app in the Android Market next week so we'll see how that goes.

Is True Global Democracy the Next Great Political Movement?

A near-universal disillusionment with traditional forms of government is driving new expressions of democracy around the world, underscored by a growing awareness of global issues and Internet-based connectivity. Paul Hawken of Orion magazine describes how many of the networking trends evident over the last decade are coalescing to create new ways for socially- and politically-minded groups to organize and make a difference:

This is the first time in history that a large social movement is not bound together by an 'ism.' What binds it together is ideas, not ideologies. This unnamed movement's big contribution is the absence of one big idea; in its stead it offers thousands of practical and useful ideas. In place of isms are processes, concerns, and compassion. The movement demonstrates a pliable, resonant, and generous side of humanity...

The promise of this unnamed movement is to offer solutions to what appear to be insoluble dilemmas: poverty, global climate change, terrorism, ecological degradation, polarization of income, loss of culture. It is not burdened with a syndrome of trying to save the world; it is trying to remake the world.

Source: AlterNet

How to Stop -- Or Live With -- Global Warming

According to research at Princeton, current technologies are capable of stopping (or at least slowing) the rate of global warming by 2050 if properly applied. Using a mix-and-match approach, students who participated in a game-like experiment found that the current portfolio of energy-saving policies and technologies (flourescent bulbs, nuclear power, wind turbines, reducing deforestation, etc.) could indeed keep global greenhouse gases constant over the next 50 years. The trick is to apply these solutions to developing countries, where rapid industrial growth will put them on track to overtake the developed world in greenhouse gas output within the next several decades.

Meanwhile, Live Science has a top-10 list of side effects of global warming, such as more severe allergies, more sinkholes from permafrost melting, a less dense upper atmosphere that will affect how satellites orbit the earth, more forest fires and rapid deterioration of ancient ruins. Perhaps the strangest prediction of all: mountains that lose their glaciers and permanent snow caps will actually 'grow' as the weight on them decreases.

Accessibility: Are You Serving All Your Users?

[This post is by Joe Fernandez, a technical writer for developer.android.com who cares about accessibility and usability. — Tim Bray.]

We recently published some new resources to help developers make their Android applications more accessible:

• Accessibility Developer Guide

• Implementing Accessibility Training

"But," you may be thinking, "What is accessibility, exactly? Why should I make it a priority? How do I do it? And most importantly, how do I spell it?" All good questions. Let's hit some of the key points.

Accessibility is about making sure that Android users who have limited vision or other physical impairments can use your application just as well as all those folks in line at the supermarket checking email on their phones. It's also about the Mom over in the produce section whose kids are driving her to distraction, and really needs to see that critical notification your application is trying to deliver. It's also about you, in the future; Is your eyesight getting better over time? How about that hand-eye coordination?

When it comes down to it, making an application accessible is about having a deep commitment to usability, getting the details right and delighting your users. It also means stepping into new territory and getting a different perspective on your application. Try it out: Open up an application you developed (or your all-time favorite app), then close your eyes and try to complete a task. No peeking! A little challenging, right?

How Android Enables Accessibility

One of main ways that Android enables accessibility is by allowing users to hear spoken feedback that announces the content of user interface components as they interact with applications. This spoken feedback is provided by an accessibility service called TalkBack, which is available for free on Google Play and has become a standard component of recent Android releases.

Now enable TalkBack, and try that eyes-closed experiment again. Being able to hear your application's interface probably makes this experiment a little easier, but it's still challenging. This type of interaction is how many folks with limited vision use their Android devices every day. The spoken feedback works because all the user interface components provided by the Android framework are built so they can provide descriptions of themselves to accessibility services like TalkBack.

Another key element of accessibility on Android devices is the ability to use alternative navigation. Many users prefer directional controllers such as D-pads, trackballs or keyboard arrows because it allows them to make discrete, predictable movements through a user interface. You can try out directional control with your apps using the virtual keyboard in the Android emulator or by installing and enabling the Eyes-Free Keyboard on your device. Android enables this type of navigation by default, but you, as a developer, may need to take a few steps to make sure users can effectively navigate your app this way.

How to Make Your Application Accessible

It would be great to be able to give you a standard recipe for accessibility, but the truth of the matter is that the right answer depends on the design and functionality of your application. Here are some key steps for ensuring that your application is accessible:

1. Task flows: Design well-defined, clear task flows with minimal navigation steps, especially for major user tasks, and make sure those tasks are navigable via focus controls (see item 4).

2. Action target size: Make sure buttons and selectable areas are of sufficient size for users to easily touch them, especially for critical actions. How big? We recommend that touch targets be 48dp (roughly 9mm) or larger.

3. Label user interface controls: Label user interface components that do not have visible text, especially ImageButton, ImageView, and EditText components. Use the android:contentDescription XML layout attribute or setContentDescription() to provide this information for accessibility services.

4. Enable focus-based navigation: Make sure users can navigate your screen layouts using hardware-based or software directional controls (D-pads, trackballs and keyboards). In a few cases, you may need to make UI components focusable or change the focus order to be more logical.

5. Use framework-provided controls: Use Android's built-in user interface controls whenever possible, as these components provide accessibility support by default.

6. Custom view controls: If you build custom interface controls for your application, implement accessibility interfaces for your custom views and provide text labels for the controls.

7. Test: Checking off the items on this list doesn't guarantee your app is accessible. Test accessibility by attempting to navigate your application using directional controls, and also try eyes free navigation with the TalkBack service enabled.

Here's an example of implementing some basic accessibility features for an ImageButton inside an XML layout:

<ImageButton      android:id='@+id/add_note_button'      android:src='@drawable/add_note_image'      android:contentDescription='@string/add_note_description'/>

Notice that we've added a content description that accessibility services can use to provide an audible explanation of the button. Users can navigate to this button and activate it with directional controls, because ImageButton objects are focusable by default (so you don't have to include the android:focusable='true' attribute).

The good news is that, in most cases, implementing accessibility isn't about radically restructuring your application, but rather working through the subtle details of accessibility. Making sure your application is accessible is an opportunity to look at your app from a different perspective, improve the overall quality of your app and ensure that all your users have a great experience.

Introducing Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) preview platform, and more

[This post is by Angana Ghosh, Product Manager on the Android team]

At Google I/O today we announced the latest version of the Android platform, Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean). With Jelly Bean, we've made the great things about Android even better with improved system performance and enhanced user features.

Improvements include a smoother and more responsive UI across the system, a home screen that automatically adapts to fit your content, a powerful predictive keyboard, richer and more interactive notifications, larger payload sizes for Android Beam sharing and much more. For a lowdown on what's new, head over to the Jelly Bean platform highlights.

Of course, Jelly Bean wouldn't be complete without a healthy serving of new APIs for app developers. Here are some of the new APIs that Jelly Bean introduces:

Expandable notifications: Android 4.1 brings a major update to the Android notifications framework. Apps can now display larger, richer notifications to users that can be expanded and collapsed with a pinch. Users can now take actions directly from the notification shade, and notifications support new types of content, including photos.

Android Beam: In Android 4.1, Android Beam makes it easier to share images, videos, or other payloads by leveraging Bluetooth for the data transfer.

Bi-directional text support: Android 4.1 helps you to reach more users through support for for bi-directional text in TextView and EditText elements.

Gesture mode: New APIs for accessibility services let you handle gestures and manage accessibility focus. Now you can traverse any element on the screen using gestures, accessories, you name it.

Media codec access: Provides low-level access to platform hardware and software codecs.

Wi-Fi Direct service discoverability: New API provides pre-associated service discovery letting apps get more information from nearby devices about the services they support, before they attempt to connect.

Network bandwidth management: New API provides ability to detect metered networks, including tethering to a mobile hotspot.

For a complete overview of new APIs in Jelly Bean, please read the API highlights document. Note that this is a preview of the Jelly Bean platform. While we're still finalizing the API implementations we wanted to give developers a look at the new API to begin planning app updates. We'll be releasing a final platform in a few weeks that you should use to build and publish applications for Android 4.1.

For Android devices with the Google Play, we launched the following at Google I/O today:

Smart app updates: For Android 2.3, Gingerbread devices and up, when there is a new version of an app in Google Play, only the parts of the app that changed are downloaded to users' devices. On average, a smart app update is a third the size of a full apk update. This means your users save bandwidth and battery and the best part? You don't have to do a thing. This is automatically enabled for all apps downloaded from Google Play.

App encryption: From Jelly Bean and forward, paid apps in Google Play are encrypted with a device-specific key before they are delivered and stored on the device. We know you work hard building your apps. We work hard to protect your investment.

Google Cloud Messaging for Android: This is the next version of C2DM and goes back to Froyo. Getting started is easy and has a whole bunch of new APIs than C2DM has to offer. If you sign-up for GCM, you will be able to see C2DM and GCM stats in the Android developer console. Most importantly, the service is free and there are no quotas. [Learn more.]

Starting from today, over 20 Android sessions at Google I/O will deep-dive in many of these areas. Join us in-person or follow us live.

Xplorer X2 Gratis: Sustituye el Explorador de Windows

Xplorer² es un explorador dual de escritorio, una magnifica herramienta para sustituir el Explorador de Windows que a veces no satisface todas nuestras necesidades. Con una interfaz rápida, amigable e intuitiva Xplorer funciona para todas las versiones de Windows y se integra eficientemente con nuestro entorno Microsoft.
Este explorador cuenta en su haber con un numeroso arsenal de herramientas que harán nuestra gestión de archivos mucho más eficiente y productiva:
- Completísimo Shell de navegación de archivos
- Exploración Dual de carpetas y archivos en nuestros unidades de discos.
- Búsqueda multi-atributos, encuentra los ficheros no importa si están en carpetas ocultas.
- Control de espacio de carpetas y discos.
- Previsualización de documentos instantánea.
- Comparación de carpetas.
- Búsqueda de duplicados.
- Ejecución de comandos personalizados (los que tu crees, incluso del DOS)
- Completamente ajustable  a tus gustos (personalización).
- Juegos de colores para tus archivos.
- Programa nativo para 32/64 bits.
- Bajo consumo de recursos.

Xplorer² se puede adquirir a un precio de 30.00 USD la versión Profesional y 50.00 USD la versión Ultimate, poco menos de 95,000.00 COP, también podrás usar una versión Trial de 30 días de prueba desde esta página.

Descarga versión de pruebas de Xplorer Free .

Comptabilidad: Microsoft Windows 2003 / Xp / 7/ Vista  (32 y 64 bits)