Continue reading »]]> iOS (known as iPhone OS prior to June 2010) is Apple’s mobile operating system. Originally developed for the iPhone, it has since been extended to support other Apple devices such as the iPod touch, iPad and Apple TV. Apple does not license iOS for installation on third-party hardware. As of January 14, 2011, Apple’s App Store contains more than 300,000 iOS applications, which have collectively been downloaded more than 10 billion times. In the last quarter of 2010, it had a 16% share of the smartphone operating system market in terms of units sold, third behind Google’s Android and Nokia’s Symbian. As of May 2010 it accounted for 59% of mobile web consumption (not including the iPad) in North America.

The user interface of iOS is based on the concept of direct manipulation, using multi-touch gestures. Interface control elements consist of sliders, switches, and buttons. The response to user input is immediate and provides a fluid interface. Interaction with the OS includes gestures such as swipe, tap, pinch, and reverse pinch, all of which have specific definitions within the context of the iOS operating system and its multitouch interface. Internal accelerometers are used by some applications to respond to shaking the device (one common result is the undo command) or rotating it in three dimensions (one common result is switching from portrait to landscape mode).

iOS is derived from Mac OS X, with which it shares the Darwin foundation, and is therefore a Unix-like operating system by nature.

In iOS, there are four abstraction layers: the Core OS layer, the Core Services layer, the Media layer, and the Cocoa Touch layer. The operating system uses roughly 500 megabytes of the device’s storage, varying for each model.

Continue reading »]]> Amazon.com, Inc. is a US-based multinational electronic commerce company. Headquartered in Seattle, Washington, it is the largest online retailer in the United States, with nearly three times the Internet sales revenue of the runner up, Staples, Inc., as of January 2010.

Jeff Bezos founded Amazon.com, Inc. in 1994 and the site went online in 1995. The company was originally named Cadabra, Inc., but the name was changed when it was discovered that people sometimes heard the name as "Cadaver". The name Amazon.com was chosen because the Amazon River is one of the largest rivers in the world and so the name suggests large size, and also in part because it starts with "A" and therefore would show up near the beginning of alphabetical lists. Amazon.com started as an online bookstore, but soon diversified, selling DVDs, CDs, MP3 downloads, computer software, video games, electronics, apparel, furniture, food, and toys. Amazon has established separate websites in Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Austria, Japan, and China. It also provides international shipping to certain countries for some of its products.

Other Information

• Type : Public
• Traded as :
• NASDAQ: AMZN
• NASDAQ-100 Component
• S&P 500 Component
• Founded : 1994
• Founder : Jeffrey P. Bezos
• Headquarters : Seattle, Washington, United States of America
• Area served : Worldwide
• Key people :
• Jeffrey P. Bezos
• (Chairman, President & CEO)
• Industry : Online shopping, Cloud computing
• Products :
• Amazon.com
• Zappos
• Amazon Studios
• Amazon Web Services
• A2Z Development
• A9.com
• Alexa Internet
• Audible.com
• Endless.com
• IMDb
• Kindle
• Lovefilm
• Woot
• Revenue : US$ 34.204 billion (2010)
• Operating income : US$ 1.406 billion (2010)
• Net income : US$ 1.152 billion (2010)
• Total assets : US$ 18.797 billion (2010)
• Total equity : US$ 6.864 billion (2010)
• Employees : 33,700 (2010)

Link

• Amazon.com

Continue reading »]]> A social network game is a type of online game that is distributed primarily through social networks, and typically features multiplayer and asynchronous gameplay mechanics. Social network games are most often implemented as browser games, but are not necessarily so. They are amongst the most popular games played in the world, with several products with tens of millions of players. Mafia Wars, FarmVille and FrontierVille are examples of popular social network games.

While they share many aspects of traditional video games, social network games often employ additional ones that make them distinct.

Continue reading »]]> Android is a software stack for mobile devices that includes an operating system, middleware and key applications. Google Inc. purchased the initial developer of the software, Android Inc., in 2005. Android’s mobile operating system is based on the Linux kernel. Google and other members of the Open Handset Alliance collaborated on Android’s development and release. The Android Open Source Project (AOSP) is tasked with the maintenance and further development of Android. The Android operating system is the world’s best-selling Smartphone platform.

Android has a large community of developers writing applications ("apps") that extend the functionality of the devices. There are currently over 200,000 apps available for Android. Android Market is the online app store run by Google, though apps can also be downloaded from third-party sites. Developers write primarily in the Java language, controlling the device via Google-developed Java libraries.

The unveiling of the Android distribution on 5 November 2007 was announced with the founding of the Open Handset Alliance, a consortium of 80 hardware, software, and telecom companies devoted to advancing open standards for mobile devices. Google released most of the Android code under the Apache License, a free software and open source license.

The Android open-source software stack consists of Java applications running on a Java-based, object-oriented application framework on top of Java core libraries running on a Dalvik virtual machine featuring JIT compilation. Libraries written in C include the surface manager, OpenCore media framework, SQLite relational database management system, OpenGL ES 2.0 3D graphics API, WebKit layout engine, SGL graphics engine, SSL, and Bionic libc. The Android operating system, including the Linux kernel, consists of roughly 12 million lines of code including 3 million lines of XML, 2.8 million lines of C, 2.1 million lines of Java, and 1.75 million lines of C++.

Other Information

• Company / developer : Google Inc., Open Handset Alliance
• Programmed in : C (core), Java (UI)
• Working state : Current
• Source model : Free and open source software (3.0 is currently still closed source)
• Initial release : 21 October 2008 (2008-10-21)
• Latest stable release :
  • Tablets: 3.1 (Honeycomb)
  • Phones: 2.3.4 (Gingerbread) / 24 February 2011; 3 months ago (2011-02-24)
• Supported platforms : ARM, MIPS, x86
• Kernel type : Linux kernel
• Default user interface : Graphical
• License : Apache 2.0, Linux kernel patches are under GPL v2

Link

• android.com

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• android xbox gamepad

Continue reading »]]> HTC Corporation, formerly High Tech Computer Corporation, is a Taiwan-based manufacturer of smartphones. The company initially made smartphones based mostly on Microsoft’s Windows Mobile operating system (OS) software, but in 2009 it began to shift its core focus away from Windows Mobile devices to devices based on Android OS, and in 2010 to Windows Phone OS as well.

HTC is also a member of the Open Handset Alliance, a group of handset manufacturers and mobile network operators dedicated to the advancement of the Android mobile device platform. The HTC Dream, marketed by T-Mobile in many countries as the T-Mobile G1, was the first phone to the market to use the Android mobile device platform.

Other Information

• Type : Public
• Traded as : TWSE: 2498
• Industry : Telecommunications
• Founded : 1997
• Headquarters : Taoyuan, Taoyuan County, Taiwan, R.O.C
• Area served : Worldwide
• Key people :
• Cher Wang, Chairwoman
• Peter Chou, CEO and President
• Fred Liu, COO
• Products : Smartphones, Tablets
• Revenue : $9.57 billion USD (2010)
• Operating income : $1.544 billion USD (2010)
• Net income : $1.357 billion USD (2010)
• Total assets : $6.535 billion USD (2010)
• Total equity : $2.565 billion USD (2010)
• Employees : 5,569

Link

• htc.com

Continue reading »]]> A smartphone is a mobile phone that offers more advanced computing ability and connectivity than a contemporary feature phone. Smartphones and feature phones may be thought of as handheld computers integrated with a mobile telephone, but while most feature phones are able to run applications based on platforms such as Java ME, a smartphone allows the user to run and multitask applications that are native to the underlying hardware. Smartphones run complete operating system software providing a platform for application developers. Thus, they combine the functions of a camera phone and a personal digital assistant (PDA).

According to an Olswang report in early 2011, smartphones are experiencing accelerating rates of adoption: 22% of UK consumers already have a smartphone, with this percentage rising to 31% amongst 24-35 year olds.

Growth in demand for advanced mobile devices boasting powerful processors, abundant memory, larger screens, and open operating systems has outpaced the rest of the mobile phone market for several years. According to a study by ComScore, over 45.5 million people in the United States owned smartphones in 2010 out of 234 million total subscribers. Despite the large increase in smartphone sales in the last few years, smartphone shipments only make up 20% of total handset shipments, as of the first half of 2010. In March 2011 Berg Insight reported data that showed global smartphone shipments increased 74% from 2009 to 2010.

Continue reading »]]> Glu Mobile (NASDAQ:GLUU) is a leading global publisher of games for smartphone and tablet devices.  Glu’s unique technology platform enables its titles to be accessible to a broad audience of consumers all over the world – supporting iOS, Android, Palm, Windows Phone 7 devices and beyond. 

Glu is focused on bringing the best in social, freemium, cross-platform mobile gaming experiences to the mass market. Founded in 2001, Glu is headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area and has major offices in Brazil, China, Russia and the UK.  Glu is focused on creating compelling original IP and also partners with leading entertainment brands including Activision, Atari, Fox and Harrah’s.  Consumers can find high-quality, fresh entertainment created exclusively for their mobile devices wherever they see the ‘g’ character logo or at www.glu.com. 

Links

• Twitter at www.twitter.com/glumobile
• Facebook.com/glumobile.

Continue reading »]]> Ayman ‘Allen’ Adham is an American businessman, who along with Michael Morhaime and Frank Pearce, was one of three co-founders of Silicon & Synapse, which changed its name to Blizzard Entertainment. He led the creation of The Lost Vikings, RPM Racing, Rock N’ Roll Racing, Warcraft: Orcs & Humans, among others.

One of Allen’s many persuits was an intense interest in the exact height of Mt. San Gregorio in Southern California.

He received his bachelor’s degree in 1990 from UCLA.

Continue reading »]]> Mike Morhaime is the president and a co-founder of Blizzard Entertainment, a video game developer located in Irvine, California and currently owned by Activision Blizzard. He is also an alumnus of Triangle Fraternity and received his bachelor’s degree in 1990 from UCLA.

Morhaime appears in animated form in the South Park episode “Make Love, Not Warcraft,” which deals with the World of Warcraft MMORPG.

In 2008 Morhaime was honored at the 59th Annual Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards for Blizzard’s creation of World of Warcraft. Along with Don Daglow and John Carmack, Morhaime is one of only three designers or producers to accept awards at both the Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards and at the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences Interactive Achievement Awards.

Morhaime plays poker and reached 2nd place in edition 2006 of DICE’s Celebrity Poker Tournament. In the last round, Mike faced Scott Fischman and Perry Friedman (World Series of Poker professionals), as well as Ray Muzyka, co-CEO of video game developer Bioware. After a dramatic 45-minute battle, Ray emerged victorious, with Mike placing 2nd overall in the tournament.

Morhaime graduated from Granada Hills High School in 1985. Morhaime is also a member of Level 70 Elite Tauren Chieftain, a Metal Band formed of and by Blizzard Employees, where he Plays Bass.

In 2008, Morhaime was inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences’ Hall of Fame.

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Continue reading »]]> Frank Pearce was Co-founder of Silicon & Synapse (later named Blizzard) in 1991 with Allen Adham and Michael Morhaime.

As Blizzard Entertainment, Inc.’s executive vice president of product development, Frank Pearce plays a critical role in the development of all Blizzard Entertainment® titles. This involves coordinating the work of multiple teams in order to ensure that every project maintains the same polish and quality that mark all Blizzard games.

Pearce takes an active role in the ongoing development of World of Warcraft as the current executive producer, and he recently oversaw the development of World of Warcraft’s first expansion pack, The Burning Crusade. Before this, he directed the development process of Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos and Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne. Currently, Pearce is coordinating the development of the highly-anticipated StarCraft II and World of Warcraft’s second expansion, Wrath of the Lich King. Since co-founding Blizzard with Allen Adham and Mike Morhaime in 1991, Pearce has been deeply involved in the company’s projects. Games he has worked on include Amiga ports of various licensed titles, as well as The Lost Vikings™, Blackthorne™, Justice League Task Force™, and The Lost Vikings II for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, and Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness™, Diablo, StarCraft, StarCraft: Brood War, and Diablo II for the PC, among others.

Pearce holds a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science and engineering from the University of California in Los Angeles.

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