• Dalvik Turbo to Speed Up Android
  

  Myriad has announced a replacement virtual machine for Android that increased application speed by three times. Next to speeding up, the company also claims that it will save your battery.

• iDrift Racingwheel for iPad
  Designer Michael Greenberg has released a concept for an iPad steering wheel. Though the concept is extremely simple, we’d love to test it on Asphalt or any other racing game.
  
• Sidebar Launches BlackBerry Discovery App
  US firm SideBar has launched a content discovery application for the BlackBerry platform. With the app, consumers will receive suggestions of what else they might want to purchase.
  

• THQ Aims for Digital Distribution
  

  Though THQ used to own a lot of shelfspace all over the world, this might change soon as the company has announced to focus themselves more and more on digital distribution.

• Nexus Sold 80K Units to Date
  Flurry has calculated that Google/HTC has sold 80.000 Nexus One Phones. Last month we already reported 20.000 sales and to the looks of it, the device didn’t gain much traction a month later as well.
  
• Fujitsu not the Only iPad Trademark Owner
  It seems Apple will have a lot more trademark issues with their iPad when they enter Europe. Apart from Fujitso claiming the name in the US, STMicroelectronics claims it in Europe.
  
• Kindle’s Open Beta
  

  While we informed you that several developers had already started to work on Amazon’s Kindle, the company has now created a portal where new developers can sign up for the Beta as well.

• Metismo to Separate PSP Tech
  Metismo has announced that, besides offering it as part of their Bedrock IDE, their PSP OpenGL ES engine will be available as a standalone product to support the PSP development community.
  
• Gameloft Celebrates 10.000 Twitter Followers
  Creating a huge fanbase isn’t easy and we have to admit, Gameloft has been working very hard for it. Over the past months we have seen the company do many promotions with the result of reaching 100.000 Twitter followers today.
  
• Think Services: iPhone Dominates Over Wii Development
  

  Think Services has interviewed 800 game developers in the US and found out that the iPhone was becoming more and more popular while many are considering to abandon Nintendo’s Wii.

• Apogee Heads for the App Store as well
  Apogee will see a real 90’s PC classic return on Apple’s App Store. In close cooperation with developing company Mobila, the company worked on the revival of ‘Rise of the Triad’.
  
• Fishlabs Lands SE Embedded Deal
  Following barely a week after competitor HandyGames announced a pre-install deal with SonyEricsson, FishLabs has the opportunity to announce their deal for Rally Master Pro.
  
• 3 AU to Sell the iPad
  Drei (or Hutchinson) Austria has confirmed the pricing of the iPad 3G on their networks. The device will be sold at € 333,-. Consumers to have to take a two year subscription with it.
  

• Javaground Sells Tech to Pay the Bills
  Javaground is in big problems as one of its creditors made a claim for $ 2 Million. The company has 10 days to pay the bills in order to survive, or it will lose its assets to the creditor in question.
  
• Retrevo: iPad Fails to Convince Buyers
  In anticipation to the iPad revealing, many consumers had shown interest in this new Apple device. After the presentation however, it turned out that a lot of those consumers have lost interest according to Retrovo.
  
• AppFund for iPad
  Kevin Wendle (CNET) and Daniel Klaus (Fabric Group) are looking to invest in iPad developers with fresh ideas. These AppFund investors are willing to spend up to $ 500.000 on them.
  
• Apple Disallows Android Referencing
  

  Last week we notified our readers that Apple no longer allows any LBS data to be used for purely advertising reasons. Now, the giant disallows developers/publishers to mention Android.

• Super Bowl: Motorola & Megan Fox
  

  With the release of their latest Android devices, Motorola is clearly reviving as an important player in the mobile industry. Though it has nothing to do with gaming, their latest ad for the Super Bowl is one to watch.

• Financials: Gameloft’s FY09
  

  Gameloft has send out its financial overview for the Full Year 2009. Over this year, the company has seen its revenues increase by 11%, reaching € 122 Mln. On a comparable exchange rate basis, growth in 2009 reached 10%.

• iBomber’s Top Visibility on the App Store
  iBomber is a huge success for Cobra Mobile. The game has been downloaded will over 1.5 million times since it was released in 2009 and is on the verge of introducing in-game purchases.
  
• SonyEricsson Relaunches Developer World Site
  SonyEricsson has just announced the relaunch of their developer portal. Apart from a totally new layout, the company also improved the way documents and tools are organized.
  
• Massimo Caporale Leaves GlobalFun
  Following the departure of Bertil Krumnack, another key person in GlobalFun will be leaving. Massimo Corporale announced to depart the company by the end of this month.
  
• Hudson Starts Weekly Sales
  Hudson Entertainment, the US branch of Hudson Soft, has announced a weekly app sale. Every Thursday, a new game will be discounted or go for free for exactly one week.
  
• Requirements Windows Mobile 7 Devices Leaked
  An employee of HTC Russia has leaked hardware requirements for Windows Mobile 7 on this Twitter. The requirements clearly show that new ‘Windows Phone’ devices are set to compete with the iPhone.
  
• Apple Bans LBS Advertising
  Apple has put a blog post online in which it asks developers not to use LBS data purely for advertising. Instead, Apple is pushing developers to do something useful with it.
  
• Glu Tests Augmented Reality Gaming
  With their latest release, Glu is putting Augmented Reality to the test. In their adventure game ‘1000: Find ‘Em All’, players are challenged to find virtual objects in a real world game.
  
• Minis Go on Discount
  Sony is discounting the PSP/PS3 Minis the coming two weeks. Through the discount, the company hopes to attract more consumers to the offering. The offer will run from today till February 18th.
  
• iTunes Preview Also for Apps
  From now on, consumers can check iPhone apps from the comfort of their browsers. Apple has upgraded their iTunes Preview system to support this type of content viewing.
  
• Today, Symbian Goes Open Source (For Real)
  Months ago, Nokia formed the Symbian Foundation to house the Symbian OS and make it an Open Source OS. Today, four months earlier than expected, the sourcecode has been put online.
  
• iPhone Loses Market Share in Q4 2009
  Though Apple has seem massive growth of market share since the first iPhone launch, the company has reported a loss of market share for the first time. Time to trade in the iPhone 3GS for something new?
  
• Appolicious Acquires AppVee
  As App Discovery turns into a healthy business, the first major acquisition is happening. Appolicious Acquired competitor AppVee. With the acquisition, Appolicious expands further into Android as well.
  
• Bertil Krumnack Leaves GlobalFun for Twistbox
  For years, Bertil was one of the faces behind GlobalFun, a company partly owned by Bertil himself. Just over a month ago, Bertil announced to be leaving GlobalFun and now he pops-up at competitor Twistbox.
  
• Juniper: One Million Ovi Maps Downloads a Somewhat Modest Achievement
  Nokia has released free navigation for their top smartphones with the release of Nokia Ovi Maps just over a week ago. Yesterday, Nokia announced to have generated one million downloads and Juniper’s Dr Windsor Holden took a closer look at the business.
  
• HandyGames Signs Embedded Deal with SonyEricsson
  

  HandyGames has announced a new deal in which the company is pre-installing two games on the brand new SonyEricsson Yari device. Both games include Gesturetek recognition controls.

• SonyEricsson Shows Windows Mobile 6.5.3
  By unveiling their new Aspen smartphone, SonyEricsson might have unveiled on of Microsoft’s MWC showpieces at the same time. The SonyEricsson Aspen is running the new Windows Mobile 6.5.3 OS.
  
• DYZPlastic Comes with Android Collectibles
  Monetizing an open platform can be a hard thing, but we can always count on Google to find a new way to do it. This time the giant hooked up with a firm called DYZPlastic for some sweet merchandising.
  
• Handmark and Astraware Split
  In pursuit of their future in development and support, Handmark has given Astraware back to its original owners. Handmark bought the successful casual games studio about two years ago.
  
• DragonFire SDK Enables iPhone Development on Windows
  One of the biggest frustration for Windows developers is the obligation to buy a mac in order to develop for Apple’s iPhone OS. Though Adobe announced a solution already, it seems DragonFire SDK has beaten the giant to it.
  
• WinMo/Android DualBoot
  Developers on a tight budget can now use Windows Mobile devices to test both their Windows Mobile applications and games as well as those for Google’s Android platform.
  
• Macworld 2010 Announces iPad Event
  Developers that will be heading to Macworld 2010 on February 13th will have a shot at playing with the all new iPad according to a special newsletter from the organization of the event.
  
• Fujitsu Claims iPad Trademark
  Aside from Nokia and Apple combating each other over iPhone patents, Apple has a new legal enemy. This time it’s Fujitsu that claims to have a trademark on the name iPad.
  
• Inside Apple's Approval Process
  Ever wondered what life must be like for the folks testing your apps? We found this little video that takes you inside Apple and shows the amount of work and iPhones needed to ensure consumers only get the best quality.
• Dutch Toystore Sells Unlocked 3Gs
  Dutch toystore Intertoys has sent out a mailing to promote their newest toy, the Apple iPhone 3GS. This is the second time the toystore managed to sell official unlocked iPhones in Holland.
  
• iSlate Becomes iPad - UPDATE 6
  One of the biggest hyped devices of the moment has become reality as Steve Jobs exposed what we all expected all along… No, not the iSlate but the iPad! The device seems to be build on iPhone OS as expected this morning.
  
• Vodafone Widget Competition
  In order to further promote their 360 platform, Vodafone NL (and several others) have announced a development competition for widget developers. The best developer will be able to collect a total amount of € 125.000.
  
• IGF Nominees Revealed
  The 2010 nominees for the Independent Games Festival Mobile have been announced. This award is aimed at mobile game developers as well as handheld developers for the NDS and the PSP.
  
• Zune Phone Coming!?
  It seems there will be a Microsoft Zune phone in the near future. The latest firmware for the Zune media players contains USB drivers which carry ‘phone’ in their naming. Those drivers refer to a Microsoft hardware ID.
  
• Petition for Open Competition on the App Store
  Recently there have been a few stories where mobile games have been taken offline by Apple because a competitor filed a copyright infringement report, sometimes without clear proof.
  
• iGameStats Reveals Top iPhone Publishers 2009
  iGameStats based their results on the number of games released in compared to the scores they received in reviews (much like many of the other). Ngmoco took top spot with a 8.1.
  
• Distimo’s December App Stores Report
  Distimo has released a new report on App Store usage over a variety of platforms and the developers behind those platforms. One of the findings shows EU developers price their apps 49% higher compared to the US.
  
• Player X Does Orange UK
  Another big break for Player X as the publisher secured a deal to exclusively deliver mobile games to the games portal of Orange. The service will be totally outsources to the publisher.
  
• C64 Emulator Receives OpenFaint Overhaul
  

  Kiloo has updated their Commodore 64 emulator and integrated OpenFeint support in it. This means consumers can compete on a not-so-retro global level in a-lot-more-retro C64 games.

• Fishlabs’ Waterslide Extreme Reaches 10 Million Downloads
  

  Barclaycard’s Waterslide Extreme was already known as a very successful advertgame from Fishlabs. Now, the company revealed that this game attracted 10 million downloads since its release on July 16th 2009.

• Greystripe reveals Pay per Download Results
  A few months ago, we reported that Greystripe was introducing a new pay per download model for developers. In theory this means Greystripe would deliver a guaranteed download in return for your 99 cents.
  
• IDC: Android to be 2nd Mobile OS by 2013
  IDC expects Android to be the second biggest smartphone operating system by 2013. By that time, there will be over 390 Million devices in the market that have Google’s OS installed.
  
• Appcelerator Shows High Development Interest in iSlate
  Research company Appcelerator interviewed a big amount of developers to chart platform interest amongst them. Though the iPhone leads the chart at 86%, the Apple Tablet sits at third place with 58%.
  
• MD Universomo (THQW) Steps Down
  Markku Hakala, MD of THQ Wireless owned studio Universomo, has stepped down. Markku managed the studio for two years and nine months according to his page on LinkedIn.
  
• Flight Control Sold 2 Million Units
  Firemint has announced that Flight Control has sold 2 Million copies on Apple’s App Store in ten months time. With 2 Million downloads, this might just be the most popular title in its genre.
  
• The Day of the Tablet
  Today is the big day. Apple will reveal a ‘new consumer device’ they are really excited about. Ok, everybody knows we are talking about the iSlate as McGraw CEO Terry McGraw confirmed existence to CNBC.
  
• Windows Mobile 6.5.3 SDK Released & Revoked
  Accidently, Microsoft has released the Windows Mobile 6.5.3 SDK on their website. Shortly after publication, the first quality complaints were filed and Microsoft took the SDK back offline.
  
• Microsoft Holding Back Windows Marketplace Payments
  Intomobile has a story about Microsoft holding back the revenue payments from Windows Mobile developers who have published their apps and games on Windows Marketplace.
  
• Help Me, Customer Services for Mobile Game Developers
  A new Pakistani startup is focusing at providing customer support services for app developers. The company hopes to deliver a low cost alternative to handling consumer complaints and comments.
  
• Motorola Takes Android App Market in Own Hands
  With the possible retreat of Google from the Chinese market, both developers and vendors fear for the sales of their applications and games. To avoid problems, Motorola has decided to launch their own Android Market.
  
• Namco Confirms 23 Million Downloads on App Store
  Namco has a reason to celebrate. Through their games on the app store, the company generated 23 Million downloads. Pac-Man is leading their portfolio and generates over 36K downloads a day.
  
• IMGA Nominees Announced
  With the Mobile World Congress only weeks away, the IMGA jury has announced the nominees to this year’s award show in Barcalona. In total, 25 titles will compete for cash and other prizes.
  
• Walt Mossberg Reviews the iSlate
  A day before Jobs will take the stage, surprising us with a product we all expect, Walt Mossberg is discussing the iSLate and its latest features including support for iPhone apps.
• NeoGames Launches Mobile Scratch cards
  Neogames, a company that has been running online scratch card services in the UK, has announced to start releasing mobile versions of their online scratch card games within the UK market.
• FreeAppADay’s Businessplan
  Jon Jordan is running stories on the business behind the FreeAppADay portal of ICS Mobile. Apart from giving away your game for free, there is also a heavy price to pay for the traffic.
• Flurry Discovers the iSlate
  Flurry has detected Apple’s new tablet in their stats. They have counted 50 tablets through 200 Flurry enabled apps on Apple’s own App Store. Flurry could also locate the geographical location; Cupertino campus.
• Admob December Metrics
  Following closely after the December stats from Getjar, we received those of Admob. Their December package is comfortable packaged in a PDF so we will just sum up some highlights.
  
• Mobclix’s Top 5 Addicting Games of 2009
  Mobclix has conducted some research to find the most addictive mobile games on the app store over 2009. The grand prize is for Doodle Jump which sells on the App Store at a mere $0.99.
  
• Kindle Opening Up
  Amazon has announced it will allow developers to create apps for its e-book readers. Amazon will allow ‘active content’ later in 2010 and the first developers have been reported working on mobile games for it.
  
• SEGA to Launch Emulator on the App Store
  Following the Commodore emulator of Kiloo, SEGA will now also start selling an emulator for their classic Master System on the App Store. In fact, the emulator will be free with one game, but the others will have to be purchased.
  
• Tetris Mobile Passes 100 Million Downloads
  Tetris has always been a success on mobile and it will probably stay a success for a long time. Today, EA is expected to announce that Tetris has managed to generate a total of 100 Million downloads since 2005 (the year they bought Jamdat).
  
• Today’s Gamers Report FR
  

  Today we have yet another report from Today’s Gamers. This time, the report covers the French consumer. In this market, Samsung is the most popular vendor and 58% of the Samsung owners actually pay for their mobile games.

• Getjar’s December 2009 Report
  This is the first analytics report from Getjar, detailing out platform and device popularity. With the report, we hope to assist developers in selecting the right devices and platforms for their products.
  
• MKO: Dutch Teens and their Mobiles
  Dutch consultancy ‘Mijn Kind Online’ has released a new study about the mobile behavior of Dutch consumers aged 8 till 18.
  
• iPhoneOS 4 Specs Leaked?
  During a presentation on the 27th, Apple is expected to launch three new products. Apart from the iSlate, is seems the new iLife and iPhoneOS 4.0 will be part of the big show.
  
• Glu Involves Operators in Crime
  In a new attempt to win the hearts of the operators, Glu has started to include content/platform managers of several big channels in their latest ‘Crime Files’ games.
  
• Today’s Gamers Report UK Part 2
  Today’s Gamer has released additional information on the UK gamer. For age and Gender, please check our first report based on data from this GamesIndustry.com/TNS report.
  
• O’Reilly’s iPhone Game Development Book
  Creating games for the iPhone doesn’t seem hard considering the huge amount of games available on the platform. To aid even more developers in entering the App Store, O’Reilly just finished a book called ‘iPhone Game Development’.
  
• Namco Arcade Launches on Facebook
  Namdo Bandai Networks and Mplayit have launched a new storefront for Namco’s mobile offering. At the storefront, players can leave reviews and directly purchase any of the titles on the site.
  
• Taito goes Exclusively with OpenFeint
  Aurora Feint managed to convince Taito in partnering up for their iPhone titles. Taito has already been a DeNa partner for some time and with DeNa having a share in Aurora Feint, this isn’t a huge surprise.
  
• App Stores Worth $6.2 Billion in 2010
  According to research from Gartner, consumers will be spending $6.2 Billion in app stores all over the world (what makes us wonder if there are any app sales channels that aren’t stores).
  
• PocketGod Downloaded 2 Million Times
  The guys over at Bolt Creative have celebrated the 2 millionth paid download of PocketGod. According to the publisher they are just too late to make the 2010 Guinness World Records Gamers Edition with the news.
  
• Today’s Gamers Report DE
  Today we have the second report from Todaysgamers. Today’s Gamers is releasing a lot of interesting information about the international (mobile gamer). Today, we cover stats from good old Germany.
  
• OIVO: Belgian Teens and their Mobiles
  Belgian consumer authority OIVO has released a report that details mobile usage under teens. According to the report, 90% of the teenagers (10-17 yr) own a mobile phone.
  
• Snackable Proves there is still Money in SMS Gaming
  We all know there is still money in good old WAP games, but who would have considered SMS is still making money? Snackable Media has managed to turn over $170 Million last year.
  
• App Store Developers Donate via App Relief
  The earthquake in Haiti has woken up the caring side of a number of App Store developers. Through the website AppRelief.com, they are announcing to donate incoming revenues to the victims.
  
• Pyramid Research: Chinese Mobile Games Market Worth $2.5B by 2014
  Analyst Pyramid Research expects the Chinese mobile games market to be worth $2.5 Billion by 2014, but that is highly depending on the support of the operators in the market.
  
• Greystripe Hires new VP of Sales
  Greystripe has announced a new hire. Kevin Granath has been appointed as the new Vice President of Sales. He will be responsible for growing the sales teams as well as developing the ad sales strategy.
  
• Google Drops Nexus One Price
  Following the bad sales results, Google has already started to slash the price of their Nexus One Android phone (which will probably lead to more dissatisfied consumers who paid full price).
  
• Apptizr Launches App
  Apptizr.com is a recommendation site for iPhone apps that has been honored in a lot of media. To expand its success, the company behind it has now launched an iPhone app.
  
• Bada Developer Portal Launches
  Samsung has unveiled their new Bada developer portal. It will allow all developers to sign up and submit their applications for the platform. At the same time, they can also enter the Developer Challenge that is still running.
  
• Rockstar Takes on TAG Games
  Rockstar has released Grand Theft Auto Chinatown Wars on the iPhone. With this release, TAG Games’ Carjack Streets is getting some tough competition on the platform where it was released in Q2 2009.
  
• Dutch Consumer Authority Sues Vodafone and T-Mobile
  Dutch consumer authority ‘Consumentenbond’ has prepared a lawsuit against Vodafone and T-Mobile over the (ab)use of Premium SMS as a billing system. Operators don’t take enough responsibility according to the organization.
  
• Developer Enables Flash in Safari
  Even though Apple is still blocking iPhone owners from viewing Flash animations in their Safari browsers, developer Tobias Schneider has developed a workaround that fixes this issue.
  
• Windows Mobile 7 Not Backward Compatible
  Russian developer/journalist Eldar Murtazin has managed to get hold of a Phone containing an early Windows Mobile 7 build. According to his first tests, the device is not able to run 6.x software.
  
• Flurry: Nexus One Sales Below Expectations
  Last week we have witnessed the launch of Google’s superphone, the Nexus One. The launches was plagued by problems with 3G connectivity and consumers not knowing where to go with them.
  
• Telefonica to Upgrade Litmus
  Litmus has been far from successful since the App Store launched on the O2 UK network in 2008. Still Telefonica seems to believe in the platform and so it will be upgraded to fit the rest of the Telefonica network.
  

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