Alec Saunders, VP of Developer Relations, just took the stage at RIM’s DevCon gathering in Amsterdam to build up and promptly knock down a few “myths” about RIM’s state of health. First up, he tackled the notion that BlackBerry is a declining platform by saying that App World is seeing six million downloads per day, which is up 30 percent from three months ago. He also rejected the idea that BB apps devs don’t make money, revealing that 13 percent of them have made over 0,000 from their products and that App World generates 40 percent more revenue than the Android Market. Lastly, Saunders said “we’re sorry” that RIM’s strategy has been “hard to understand” for “some people”, but added that BB10 will solve that problem. He said that the new OS represents a “simple and easy-to-understand strategy” that is about combining the best of QNX and the current BB OS, offering consistent cloud services and making software that is both backwards and forwards compatible.

RIM indulges in some ‘myth busting’ at BlackBerry DevCon Europe originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Feb 2012 05:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Via its Research Blog, Google has announced the donation of the Sky Map project to the open source community. Originally developed by Googlers during their “20% time,” the stellar application was launched in 2009 to showcase the sensors in first generation Android handsets. Four years and over 20 million downloads later, Sky Map’s code will be donated to the people — with Carnegie Mellon University taking the reins on further development through “a series of student projects.” Hit the source link for the official announcement and a bit of nostalgia from Google.

Google Sky Map boldly explores open source galaxy originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 21 Jan 2012 20:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Here at Engadget, we like to live in this wild, ever-changing world called “The Internet.” Last month, Google launched yet another branch for internet dwellers to explore, and explore we have. We’re happy to say that you can now find each and every Engadget post within Google Currents, a Flipboard-esque reader that nicely formats your favorite websites for magazine-style enjoyment. We’ll be working on tweaking the experience based on feedback received, and we certainly hope you’ll have a gander if you’re already building out your subscriptions.

Engadget Distro

Engadget in Editions

Engadget on your TV

Currents is available for both iOS and Android platforms, and while Google’s limiting the official downloads to accounts based in America, there’s a decent chance you can use Google’s own search engine to find an APK to sideload. Give it a look if you’re clamoring for a more subtle design (just hit ‘Add’ and look in the Science & Tech category), and while you’re at it, have a gander at Engadget Distro, too. Enjoy!

Engadget: now available in Google Currents! originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 02 Jan 2012 15:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Garmin S1W

You’ll find so quite a few GPS these days. But, only a number of that can be used for golfing user. And, Garmin S1W is one of them. This The game of golf GPS helps people who play golf in many ways with his or her beneficial functions.

I have this GPS too. Why performed I purchase this GPS NAVIGATION? Because My spouse and i was a new golf beginner, and I’d difficulties with predicting how far the hole that i am focused. This Garmin S1W Golf GPS can help to solve the problem along with measuring shot distance correctly and just. There can also be other advantages that we get. First positive aspects that aware me is I will get this specific devices along with watch also a single package. Awesome. It’s very flexible, so I could use Garmin S1W in many occasions. Another fine detail advantages will be reviewed in below text.

Cool and Sporty Design

Garmin S1W features a cool and sporty layout. I including their style because it’s not look older and far too rigid, like additional GPS on the whole. Garmin S1W GPS Watch’s design and style offers flexibility, so I will use this revolutionary product not only inside my golf pursuits, but also in my casual actions.

Lightweight GPS

This kind of GPS is extremely light in the event you compare along with another GPS. I imagine it’s possible to bring Garmin S1W GPS DEVICE Watch everywhere easily, even far more this Garmin S1W can be used in your own wrist as watch.

Measure Shot Distance

It is my most liked features because I could measure shot distance correctly. So, I could shot nicely. Then Garmin S1W may track how long you go. This features is very helpful pertaining to golf consumer, especially golfing beginner.

FREE 19.500 U.S. and Canadian Course

I’m able to get 19.500 U.S. and Canadian courses directly in Approach S1W without downloads or perhaps subscriptions. I may play golf anywhere in U.S. in addition to Canadian place although My spouse and i don’t know the site before.

Watch with Alarm as An Additional Function

Watch is added feature which is offered by this Golf GPS. I believe this more feature choose this product much more valuable. I make use of this GPS Watch every day as watch and alarm security alarm too. I don’t have to arrange the time in that watch, because the time is arranged automatically. Their alarm great for individuals, to stand up each day.

Waterproof GPS

That feature is incredibly helpful inside rainy season. You may use this GPS Watch even you will find there’s big rain and My partner and i don’t ought to worry when this Garmin S1W can be broken.

There tend to be my review relating to this product, and My spouse and i conclude that benefit you can obtain from this device is over the price that you should pay. Hope this particular review can help you.

Continue reading Samsung’s in a gifting mood, is giving away up to 16 free games for select Galaxy devices

Samsung’s in a gifting mood, is giving away up to 16 free games for select Galaxy devices originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 21 Dec 2011 19:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you’ve still got the 3DS price drop blues, perhaps a fresh (and final) infusion of free games will help. Early adopters that signed into the Nintendo eShop before August 11th will find ten GameBoy Advance games tacked on to their handheld’s purchase history, retrievable via the same clunky redownload system that delivered the 3DS Ambassador program’s NES titles. Thankfully, the unintuitive process is relatively simple — just hop into the eShop’s menu, scroll down to “Settings / Other”, and select “Your Downloads,” to claim your (potentially-exclusive) games. Short of having a 3DS guide us through the Louvre, we can’t think of a better use for Nintendo’s fledgling handheld.

Nintendo completes 3DS Ambassador program, delivers 10 GBA games to early adopters originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 16 Dec 2011 23:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Flurry projected that 73 percent of fourth quarter app starts will be by iOS developers compared to 27 percent for Android. That’s based on the first month of the fourth quarter. That would be slightly less than the 75 percent Apple had in the third quarter but on par with the second quarter when it also had 73 percent of app starts. Android actually had its best quarter in the first quarter, when it got 37 percent of app starts.

This data was pulled from new project starts in 2011, in which developers set up analytics for approximately 50,000 apps. Flurry said it’s used in about 25 percent of all iOS and Android apps.

On the revenue side, the comparison also favors iOS by a 3-1 ratio. Flurry found that for top apps running on both platforms, for every dollar generated on iOS, the same app will make 24 cents on Android. This is based on a sample of in-app purchases of top apps comprising millions of users on both platforms. Flurry said the big difference came down to the relatively lower penetration of Google Checkout. Compared to an iTunes account, which every iOS user needs to buy anything, not every Android user has a Google Checkout account, which adds an extra barrier to purchases of apps and in-app transactions.

Google has still a lot to crow about. As we’ve written, it’s hit 10 billion in Android app downloads and it appears to have pushed past iOS in the pace of recent downloads. Flurry estimates that 550,000 Android devices are now activated daily compared to an estimated 450,000 for iOS.

But the numbers show that it’s not just about device market share or the aggregate number of downloads. It’s about which users are more valuable to developers. There is still more of a culture of buying and spending money on iOS and that benefits Apple. Even Amazon with its Kindle Fire is proving to be a popular option for Android developers because those early tablet users appear to be open to buying a lot of things.

Google is working on this and its steps to integrate Google Checkout and Google Wallet are helpful. Also, moves to get new Android users to enter their credit card information when they set up their phone will be beneficial. And as the Android device market share continues to grow, developers can’t ignore the big opportunity there. But it looks like iOS is still very much their priority and despite the wishful thinking of Schmidt, it’s going to take a lot for Android to win the hearts of developers.

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It’s …

Wired Top Stories

In its official press release announcing the news on Monday, Apple used quotes from developer partners to highlight its platform advantage. Autodesk SVP Amar Hanspal said that his company is “using the Mac App Store to deliver new products and reach a growing base of new Mac customers,” and Pixelmator’s Saulius Dailide said that offering their version 2.0 software “exclusively on the Mac App Store allows us to streamline updates to our image editing software and stay ahead of the competition.”

Apple also took time to talk about the success of the iOS App Store, which it says has over 500,000 apps presently, and which has seen more than 18 billion app downloads in total, at a rate of more than 1 billion apps per month. The iOS App Store caught on much faster than the Mac App Store, however, at least in terms of downloads: only nine months after its launch, it had already reached 1 billion downloads.

The Mac App Store also doesn’t offer nearly as large a library; according to the latest count by AppShopper.com, there are 8,459 apps available on Apple’s OS X software store. But there are some caveats that go a long way toward explaining why the Mac App Store’s growth rate is slow compared to its mobile cousin. First, the Mac App Store is available only on Macs running OS X Snow Leopard or later, so it isn’t on every active Mac computer out there. Second, the Mac App Store isn’t the exclusive software distribution channel for Mac apps, the way the iOS store is for Apple mobile devices (unless you jailbreak).

For a PC software market, the Mac App Store is still a huge success, and will likely continue to grow as it ships on future Macs and increasingly becomes a go-to resource for customers looking to get new apps on their machines. Apple’s ability to attract top-tier developers away from direct web distribution models will also be a key factor in helping it expand its library.

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Well, Xyologic, a mobile app search firm, has come up with what it says is the first break down of mobile advertising on Android apps, showing that Google’s AdMob is well ahead of rival ad providers. Xyologic found that half of the top 1,000 apps in Android Market use an advertising SDK and 22 percent of all apps use more than one advertising SDK. Of those apps that use advertising, 89 percent of the apps use AdMob, well ahead of any other challenger. These apps also represented 89 percent of all downloads in October for the top apps with advertising.

That AdMob does well on Android may not sound too surprising considering Google owns both Android and AdMob. But I’ve been told before that AdMob sees Android as just another platform and doesn’t provide any special functionality for Android devs. And AdMob was the top mobile advertising network before it was purchased by Google.

The second most popular mobile advertising provider was Millennial Media, whose SDK was used in 34 percent of the top 1,000 apps, which represented 48 percent of all downloads in October among the top apps. It was followed by InMobi, which had presence in 22 percent of the top apps that use advertising. These apps represented 26 percent of all downloads of top apps with ads in October.

AdMob’s ad exchange AdWhirl was fourth with 19 percent presence on Android apps that utilize advertising followed by Mobclix with 15 percent. The overall numbers don’t add up to 100 percent because apps can work with more than one advertising company.

The rest of the market includes mobile ad exchange networks AdMarvel, Smaato, Burstly, Mopub, Nexage, Fiksu, and mobile ad network Jumptap who each make up less than 3 percent of the overall market share. They serve the remaining 15 percent of the top apps that use advertising. This group represented 26 percent of all downloads in October among the top downloaded apps with mobile advertising.

Xyologic said it came by its numbers by evaluating the top 1,000 most downloaded apps on Android for October and screening these apps for advertising SDKs. These apps have more than over 340 million downloads in total, representing 54 percent of the downloads in October.

It’s hard to know if these numbers are completely accurate. IDC tried to make some estimates in 2009 on the overall mobile ad market and who the biggest players were but it was criticized for its methodology. But the fact that AdMob is used in so many Android apps shows that the purchase of AdMob was worth it, especially now that mobile advertising is expected to grow to .6 billion by 2015, according to Gartner.

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