Mobile Phones News Blog

More than half of the Android devices have Gingerbread operating system in them, according to a latest report of Google which is the maker of the OS.

According to Google, 58 percent of the Android devices are now running Android 2.3 Gingerbread. The Android Honeycomb currently has 3.4 per cent market share, whereas Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich is there only on one per cent of devices.

These figures help the users find out which operating system to prioritise while choosing their smartphones.

While Android users have often talked about the fragmentation issue, the Google chairman Eric Schmidt, has said variation in devices give more choices to the end users. It is due to variation that Android will likely move up in the consumer preferences. The company, however, did not clarify how many devices were covered in this data.

Reports surface earlier this week concerning malware discovered in the Android Market, which security specialists Symantec labelled it the ‘biggest ever’ threat found and estimated up to 5 million infections to date.

There were 13 apps discovered to contain the trojan dubbed Android.Counterclank, which recorded information such as the brand of phone it was installed on, various unique numbers such as the IMEI, as well as setting an alternative browser homepage and adding a new search shortcut to the homescreen.

After continued examination of the apps, and Counterclank’s relationship with another Android trojan named Tonclank, Symantec has confirmed the code comes from the same company. Subsequently, it now believes that rather than being malicious, Counterclank is actually part of an advertising network.

This doesn’t mean it’s not annoying though, but seems to put it more in the category of ‘adware’ rather than ‘malware’. Symantec has asked Google to remove the apps anyway, but so far Google has refused, saying they meet its Terms of Service.

In its official blog post on the subject, Symantec recognizes that to begin calling problematic software found on mobile platforms ‘adware’, ‘spyware’ or ‘malware’, could cause the same level of confusion it did when referring to Windows several years ago.

Instead, the plan is to inform users of what it calls ‘undesired applications’ and let them make up their own minds on what to do. Its security software won’t delete this software either. Whether this approach will see an increase in apps using Counterclank’s aggressive style of delivering ads remains to be seen.

New data from market intelligence firm IDC this week places Apple as the third largest manufacturer of mobile phones, in a fourth quarter of 2011 which overall showed surprisingly little growth on the same period of 2010.

Apple’s latest model, the iPhone 4S, was partly responsible for a jump of almost double the number of units shipped over the last calendar year compared to 2010, increasing from 47.5 million to 93.2 million in a jump of over 96%.

With Apple gaining so much ground in the smartphone race for market share, there had to be losers and the primary victim of the surge was LG, whose reported drop of almost 25 percentage points in smartphone sales between the end of 2010 and two months ago has badly affected shareholder confidence.

The Korean manufacturer’s overall market share is only down from 8.4% to 5.7%, though considering the huge amount of smartphones purchased in that year (nearly one and a half billion, up 11.1% on 2010), LG’s growth has certainly slowed compared to the iPhone’s success story.

The top two mobile makers remained unchanged with Samsung in second after near one-fifth growth year-on-year, whilst leaders Nokia, who also reported a loss of ground to Apple maintain top spot despite sales down from 453 million during 2010 to 417 over the last calendar year.

New data from market intelligence firm IDC this week places Apple as the third largest manufacturer of mobile phones, in a fourth quarter of 2011 which overall showed surprisingly little growth on the same period of 2010.

Apple’s latest model, the iPhone 4S, was partly responsible for a jump of almost double the number of units shipped over the last calendar year compared to 2010, increasing from 47.5 million to 93.2 million in a jump of over 96%.

With Apple gaining so much ground in the smartphone race for market share, there had to be losers and the primary victim of the surge was LG, whose reported drop of almost 25 percentage points in smartphone sales between the end of 2010 and two months ago has badly affected shareholder confidence.

The Korean manufacturer’s overall market share is only down from 8.4% to 5.7%, though considering the huge amount of smartphones purchased in that year (nearly one and a half billion, up 11.1% on 2010), LG’s growth has certainly slowed compared to the iPhone’s success story.

The top two mobile makers remained unchanged with Samsung in second after near one-fifth growth year-on-year, whilst leaders Nokia, who also reported a loss of ground to Apple maintain top spot despite sales down from 453 million during 2010 to 417 over the last calendar year.

Images from debugging software claimed to be running on an Apple iPad 3 prototype have been published by BGR. The pictures aren’t of the device itself, but of the data collected by the development tool, and purport to show certain technical features of the forthcoming tablet.

The juiciest morsel to come from the pictures is the presence of an A6 processor inside the tablet, bearing the model number S5L8945X, which is believed to be a quad-core chip.

There will be two iPad 3 models according to the leak, known as the J1 and J2 or iPad 3,1 and iPad 3,2. As before, one will be a Wi-Fi model and the other will have a cellular radio inside, but this time it will support GSM, CDMA and LTE networks.

When the iPad 2 was launched this time last year, the addition of 4G LTE wasn’t talked about much beforehand, however, the rumours really got started prior to the iPhone 4S’s release. While some expect the iPhone 5 to also have a LTE connectivity, others say it’ll first appear on the next iPad and skip another iPhone generation.

Of course, none of this matters here in the UK, as our next-generation mobile network has yet to reach the public anyway.

As to when the iPad 3 will be released, a set of iPad 3 for Dummies books have appeared on Amazon France, complete with a 29 March release date.While this could be pure speculation on the publishers part, it would be odd to sell the book without the device it refers to being available.

Mozilla has released the Firefox version 10 for different platforms like PCs and Android smartphones. The Android version of Firefox 10 comes with many improvements over its older cousins apart from the bug fixes.

With Firefox 10, users will now have the ability to use web applications that leverage the entire screen. Hence, web apps will look exactly like native apps on the device and also work like one with the new browser.

Firefox Sync – which enables users to access their bookmarks, browsing history, passwords, and open tabs across various devices like smartphone, PCs and tablets – is now much easier to manage and doesn’t require a desktop PC as it can be done through tablets and smartphones as well.

With the new browser, Firefox updates also become smoother and easier to manage as incompatible add-ons are automatically disabled and all other add-ons will be updated to become compatible with devices. Add-ons will get the updates in the background so users don’t need to bother.

Mozilla has also provided several features in the Firefox 10 that will be of use to developers. The browser comes with the ability to transform two-dimensional elements into 3D through HTML5 without the need for third-party plugins which will result in more 3D content for the users (even in devices that do not have 3D support).

In the past 9 months, Firefox has seen six new versions from Firefox 4 to Fire 10 now, and this means that the browser is being updated every six weeks bringing better features.

Usually, Mozilla releases the Nightly version (strictly for developers and testers) followed by Aurora version of its browsers for the enthusiasts and developers who then help in identifying the problems. The company then brings the ‘beta’ version, which is for a wider audience but is still not the final release. Here also mistakes are pointed out and rectified after which the final release happens.

This way a more stable yet faster updates happen and it seems people are enjoying the process as is evident from the downloads that are happening.

How does one go about bringing Space Invaders, an established genre classic, but very much a product of its time, to a new generation of gamers? After all, however familiar the attacking aliens and their ‘womp, womp, womp, womp‘ musical accompaniment may be, the incredibly primitive graphics and simple gameplay won’t satiate many Uncharted or Gears of War fans.

The answer may sound simple – update it accordingly – but a new version should also consider those gamers who love the original. It would be all too easy to alienate (sorry, no pun intended) players who pumped coins with reckless abandon into the arcade machine back in 1978, by ignoring its roots and turning Space Invaders into something crass that would appeal only to hyperactive tweens.

In essence, this was the challenge faced by Taito, who wanted to commemorate the game’s 30th anniversary with an all-new game that would appeal to all players. Released way back in 2009 for iOS, and just before Christmas 2011 on Android, Space Invaders Infinity Gene is the result, but does it manage to keep both newcomers and old-timers happy?

What Infinity Gene does is actually quite interesting, and is clearly the result of a lot of time, effort and love for the original on the part of the developers. Space Invaders is the grandfather of all shoot ‘em up games, leading to Galaxian, Defender, Scramble and many more, as the genre split and mutated to include everything from sideways scrolling games to the most recent evolution of the space shoot ‘em up, ‘Bullet Hell’ games.

Infinity Gene is an evolution of Space Invaders, but it could almost precede all the games mentioned above, as it not only references a dizzying amount of classic titles, but serves as an introduction to them.

The game starts out with an exact recreation of the Space Invaders game, before ‘evolving’ into a scrolling shoot ‘em up. At first, your ship only moves from side-to-side as the level scrolls by, but as you progress through the levels and score more points, you unlock bonuses that include complete movement around the screen. Weapons are upgradeable too, a process that means destroying UFOs and collecting the genes they leave behind. Other weapons are soon unlocked, along with other special features of the game.

Enemies vary greatly, from little aliens shooting around the screen to massive ships that require separate sections destroying before they can be defeated, and tricky beam generators that block your path. All this is accompanied by an electronic score that’s part trance, part chiptune, and perfectly in sync with the on-screen action.

To give an extra dimension to the gameplay, Infinity Gene has a trick up its sleeve: Turn your device to landscape and the game swaps from being a top-down shooter to a sideways scrolling game. It’s a stroke of genius, and truly alters how you play certain levels.

Presented almost entirely in monochrome wireframe-style graphics, with the occasional splash of background colour, Infinity Gene looks decidedly retro. The ships are angular blocks and weapon fire varies between solid straight lines, squiggly lines or solid circles. You’ll pay close attention to the bullets too, as the screen can get very busy, very quickly once you’re into the later levels.

If you’ve been keeping count, that’s about six or seven different genres covered in the above synopsis of the game. Playing Infinity Gene recalled everything from R-Type‘s huge spaceship that takes up its entire third level, Rez’s use of a trance music soundtrack, Star Wars’s filled wireframe graphics and the precision of modern ‘Bullet Hell’ games. But due to Infinity Gene’s style, it never feels derivative, in fact it feels like it has just been discovered on an old hard drive and really pre-dates all of them.

Infinity Gene is straight-forward enough to play, and is genuinely addictive, but it’s a far better game on the iPad as your finger will get in the way on the iPhone, but this isn’t a problem on the larger screened iPad. Although the levels are short, the fast-paced action keeps you coming back for more, and the excellent soundtrack keeps your excitement levels high as you play. Like all good shoot ‘em ups, it’s easy to play, but difficult to master.

For a real challenge, try out the Music bonus level, which lets you listen to a song from your iPhone/iPad’s library and play a level of the game around it. The game quickly throws everything it can at you here, and you’ll need plenty of practice just to make it to the end of a song.

The game isn’t without problems though, the biggest of which is understanding what is going to kill you and what isn’t. The screen is frequently filled with enemy fire and ships, incoming bigger ships and some landscape, however, not everything destroys you on contact and it’s never completely clear what those things are. There’s nothing you can do but rely on trial-and-error, but it does lead to some annoying moments where you’re not sure why you’ve been blown up.

Taito has succeeded in doing something that Hollywood rarely manages: They’ve remade a classic and not only brought something new to the table, but understood its roots in the genre and that there are many fans who don’t just want the same thing with more explosions. Space Invaders Infinity Gene is a brilliant retro shooter that every arcade game fan will love, no matter whether they played the original or not.