1）据pocketgamer报道，芬兰开发商Rovio热门游戏《愤怒的小鸟：里约》日前在伦敦摘走2011年GamesMaster金手柄奖“年度最佳手机游戏”的桂冠。

由Rovio自主发行的《愤怒的小鸟：里约》是首款植入电影元素的iOS游戏，目前《愤怒的小鸟》系列在各平台下载量已超过3.5亿次。

2）《愤怒的小鸟》的橙色小鸟（Orange Bird）新造型已在日前亮相，这个角色刚上弹弓时“骨瘦如柴”，但如果玩家在触摸屏上点击它，就会膨胀成一只硕大的“汽球鸟”，很适合用户碰撞紧凑型的建筑缝隙。玩家解琐《愤怒的小鸟节日版》中的万圣节关卡第4关，就可以体验这种橙色小鸟新玩法。

Rovio高管Vile Heijari表示，他们希望让小鸟显得更简单，所以按颜色给这些小鸟命名（游戏邦注：例如Red Bird、Yellow Bird和Orange Bird）。这款游戏在2011年创造了许多新关卡，但仅推出橙色小鸟这一新角色，原因在于Rovio团队虽然有许多新想法和理念，但他们只想选择其中最优者植入游戏中。

他称几乎所有人都喜欢原来的黑色小鸟，所以他们决定创造另一只体格庞大的鸟，历时4周时间让橙色小鸟从概念变成现实。目前还不成确定这只橙色小鸟是否会出现在经典版本《愤怒的小鸟》或《愤怒的小鸟：里约》之中。

3）据research2guidance观察发现，尽管Android Market每月下载量有可能在2012年6月赶超App Store，但这些Android应用被移除的比例却高于App Store。

该公司调查结果显示，开发者在2011年9月之前向Android Market提交的34%应用随后都会被移除，而在App Store同一时期提交的应用中，有24%随后被应用商店移除。

research2guidance认为出现这一结果的原因可能是iOS应用审核要求更高，从而减少了开发者频繁发布试用版或劣质应用的概率，而Android Market却充满大量试探性、试用版、演示版和恶意软件等内容。

调查还发现，78%以上被移除的Android Market应用属于免费产品；截止9月底，App Store共有45万9589款应用，Android Market则是31万9161款应用。

平均每个Android开发者面向Android平台发布6款应用，而iOS开发者平均仅发布4款应用。

4）科技调研机构ABI最新报告指出，智能手机占据2011年亚太市场所有手机出货量的24%，比去年增长17%。

其中，谷歌Android平台在智能手机出货量中占最大比例，其市场份额为52%。

三星、HTC等亚太Android移动设备制造商的主导地位可能遭遇华为、Micromax、Karbonn、G’Five和ZTE等低端设备厂商的挑战。

报告还预测，2011年亚洲市场的平板电脑出货量将达780万部。随着3G网络在这些新兴市场国家的普及，以及低价平板电脑的问世，亚太地区对平板电脑的市场需求仍会持续增长。

5）法国发行商Gameloft最近针对《Order & Chaos Online》的Facebook和iOS用户帐号被黑事件作出回应（游戏邦注：索尼和CCP公司不久前也遭遇同类情况），确认有100名用户的帐号受到影响，为安全起见，他们将关闭网页版的Gameloft Live服务。

据其所称，所有与Gameloft联系的用户的帐号均已恢复常态；因为仅有不到1%的用户是通过Gameloft Live服务的网页版本登录系统，所以公司决定关闭这项服务。

6）据pocketgamer报道，在乔布斯过世后，由Walter Isaacson所撰写的《史蒂夫·乔布斯》传记指出，乔布斯曾在2010年1月发表了对谷歌Android的看法，称Android是一个“盗窃产品”。

在某款HTC移动设备发布后，乔布斯表示他认为Android的某些功能剽窃了苹果iPhone，并告诉传记作者Isaacson，Android简直是犯了“重偷窃罪”，“只要我活着还有一口气，花掉苹果在银行中的400亿美元我也要解决这个问题。我要消灭Android，因为它是一个偷来的产品，我愿意和它决战到底。”

两个月之后，苹果就起诉了HTC，乔布斯也在一则新闻声明中表示，“我们可以对竞争者偷窃我们专利发明的现象坐视不理，也可以对其采取一些行动。我们的选择就是有所作为，采取一些措施。我们认为竞争是好事，但竞争者必须拿出自己的原创技术，而不是靠偷我们的东西来参战。”

该传记还指出，乔布斯随后还告诉谷歌首席执行官Eric Scdmidt，苹果无意起诉谷歌，他们并不需要谷歌的钱，“你给我50亿美元，我也不要，我已经有很多钱了。我只是希望你们的Android不要再使用我们的创意了，这才是我想要的结果。”（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

1）Angry Birds Rio wins Golden Joystick 2011 Award for Best Mobile Game

by Will Wilson

Rovio’s physics-puzzling behemoth Angry Birds Rio secured the GamesMaster Golden Joystick Award 2011 for ‘Best Mobile Game of the Year’ today in London.

During this annual ceremony, held at the swanky Westminster Plaza hotel in London, gongs are handed out to titles that have been voted for by gamers, rather than by mysterious men in suits or sales robots.

Rio runaway

Angry Birds Rio, self-published by Rovio, was one of the first games on iOS to get the movie tie-in treatment.

In this Pocket Gamer Bronze Award-winning iOS and Android hit, everyone’s favourite furious fowl go head-to-head against some of the villains from DreamWorks’s summer cartoon Rio.

Back in August, Rovio claimed series-wide downloads had now passed the 300 million mark. （source:pocketgamer）

2）Meet the new member of the Angry Birds team – Rovio introduces us to the Orange Bird

by Mark Brown

The Angry Birds have a new friend: another self-sacrificing avian assassin has joined the team to help put an end to those naughty, egg-thieving piglets.

He’s called Orange Bird, and while he might look like a scrawny little chick in the catapult, one tap of the touchscreen will make him blow up like a self-inflating dinghy. This ballooning bird is perfect for throwing into tight gaps before expanding and dislodging foundations.

You can play with this new bird right now by downloading the free Ham’o'ween level pack for Angry Birds Seasons and unlocking Level 4. We spoke to Angry Birds developer Rovio to find out everything there is to know about this new birdie.

Name game

“We like to keep things simple with our birds on a general level,” Ville Heijari, VP of franchise development at Rovio, squawks. (That explains why the birds go by names like Red Bird, Yellow Bird, and, now, Orange Bird.)

“In future stories, you might get to meet and know more individual birds,” Heijari chirps.

While there have been armfuls of new levels for Angry Birds in 2011, “there’s a reason why Orange Bird is the only new bird that has appeared in our adventures this year,” Heijari cheeps.

“There are loads of ideas and concepts floating around the studio, so picking the one that gives the best experience and most fun gameplay is quite the task.

“Everybody seems to love the Black Bird, so we wanted to create another big, physical experience. At first, the Orange Bird was a bit too powerful, smashing everything when you activated the special power. But we toned him down just enough, so you get a really nice, physical mechanic where you just push blocks out of the way.”

Building birds

It can take up to four weeks to make a new bird from concept to finish, “but it’s a lot of work to incorporate them into the existing gameplay seamlessly without disrupting the balance,” Heijari crows.

He reckons the hard work paid off, though: “What we ended up with is a completely new, distinctive bird, with gameplay that’s in my opinion the most fun we’ve had so far in Angry Birds.”

Rovio wouldn’t tell us whether or not we’ll see the Orange Bird in the classic Angry Birds game, or if he’ll show up in Rio – “that remains to be seen,” Heijari coyly tweets.

Future fowl

But what about a whole new bird – is the Angry Birds team finally complete?

“There are around 10,000 different species of birds in the world. Some of them must be Angry – we just have to study them a bit more and discover the most special ones,” Heijari trills.（source:pocketgamer）

3）34% of Android Market apps later pulled from sale, reports research2guidance

by Matt Sakuraoka-Gilman

Android Market might be on course to pass the App Store in terms of monthly downloads by June 2012, but according to research2guidance, many of those apps go on to be pulled from the marketplace altogether.

Indeed, the firms claims there is a marked discrepancy between the number of apps submitted and later removed from Google’s Android Market than on Apple’s App Store.

Rigidity as standard

According to the company’s research, 34 percent of apps submitted to Android Market before September 2011 were later removed.

The App Store’s tally came in somewhat below that figure, with 24 percent of apps pulled at a later date.

The firm claims one of the possible reasons for this difference is “the more rigid application submission requirements [on iOS] prevent developers from publishing multiple trial or low quality applications whereas publishers in the Android Market place a lot of market testing, trials, demo and malware content.”

In short, the loose nature of Android means scores of apps go live before they’re checked, pulled from sale later on when they’re deemed unsuitable for whatever reason.

Average joe

The report also highlights how Apple and Google’s differing business models may impact on the two marketplaces.

“Over 78 percent of the apps removed from the Android Market were free, which could mean that publishers put more effort into the applications they place with the pay-per-download business model, thus ensuring that it is kept longer in store.”

Other figures released by the firm include the total number of apps available on each platform.

The App Store – as of the end of September – holds 459,589, whereas Android Market plays hots to 319,161.

Android developers do have a higher average multiple app total than those working on iOS, however. The average Android developer has published 6 apps on the platform, whereas on iOS the average figure is just over 4 apps.（source:pocketgamer）

4）Android grabs 52 per cent of Asian smartphone market

by Zen Terrelonge

Tech researcher ABI is behind the report, which examines Asia-Pacific’s growing mobile market. It claims the smartphone market has a 24 per cent share of total handset shipments in 2011, which has increased by 17 per cent from last year.

This demonstrates the popularity for smartphones in the region. Just yesterday we reported Thailand’s shipments are to increase 19 per cent.

Google’s Android devices account for the majority of smartphone shipments, up 16 per cent from 2010 to 52 per cent.

This increase has led to the market share held by ‘big three’ Android makers Samsung and HTC rising from 11 per cent to 24 per cent for the year.

However, ABI says this domination could be challenged as low-end handset firms such as Huawei, Micromax, Karbonn, G’Five and ZTE raise their smartphone market shares.

Tablets also seem to be popular in Asian markets as 7.8 million devices are predicted to be shipped for 2011.

Jeff Orr, group director, mobile devices, said: “Despite the current global economic situation, markets in the Asia-Pacific will continue to see increased acceptance for media tablets, driven by the accelerated penetration of 3G in emerging markets, as well as the availability of media tablets in lower price ranges.”（source:mobile-ent）

5）Gameloft shuts down web version of Gameloft Live after user account hack

by Matt Sakuraoka-Gilman

Mobile publisher Gameloft is no stranger to controversy – its most recent low point the revelation of poor working conditions suffered by former employees.

Recent reports pertaining to a leakage of Gameloft Live player account information may have dented the company’s reputation further.

A number of Order & Chaos Online players had earlier reported that their accounts had been hacked – something Gameloft confirmed to sister site Pocket Gamer, stating the firm was looking into the cause of the breach.

Since then, Gameloft has released an official statement, confirming around 100 users have been affected and that, as a security response, the firm is closing down the web version of Gameloft Live.

Data protection

“All users who have contacted us saw their account situation restored,” read the statement.

“As less than 1 percent of Gameloft Live users accessed Gameloft Live through the web version, we decided to close the web version of Gameloft Live.”

“We’re taking this situation very seriously. It is a priority for us to keep player’s data protected.

Gameloft joins Sony and CCP as a major player to suffer user accounts hacks.

Sony’s PSN was shut down for weeks in April 2011 while CCP, developer of the upcoming PS Vita shooter Dust 514, has also seen accounts hacked on its PC-based MMO Eve: Online.（source:pocketgamer）

6）Jobs biographer: Steve vowed to ‘destroy’ Android, branding Google’s OS a ‘stolen product’

by Keith Andrew

As Adobe and Flurry will attest, former Apple CEO Steve Jobs very rarely kept his opinions to himself if he felt a company had overstepped the mark.

According to one of the first biographies published since his death, however, his personal views on rival Google – and, in particular, Android – weren’t fit for broadcast, with Jobs branding the OS as a “stolen product”.

Hatin’ on HTC

Obtained by the Associated Press, “Steve Jobs” by Walter Isaacson recounts Jobs’s views on Android in January 2010.

Following the launch of an unnamed HTC device Jobs reportedly believed sported features lifted from Apple’s iPhone, Isaacson claims Jobs told him Android was guilty of “grand theft” in an ‘expletive-laced’ encounter.

“I will spend my last dying breath if I need to, and I will spend every penny of Apple’s $40 billion in the bank, to right this wrong,” Jobs is quoted as saying in the book.

“I’m going to destroy Android, because it’s a stolen product. I’m willing to go thermonuclear war on this.”

Mo money, mo problems

As it happens, two months later Apple sued HTC, with Jobs detailing his anger in a more diplomatic fashion in a press statement.

“We can sit by and watch competitors steal our patented inventions, or we can do something about it. We’ve decided to do something about it,” said Jobs in the release.

“We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours.”

Isaacson also claims Jobs told then Google CEO Eric Scdmidt in a later meeting that Apple wasn’t interested in settling the lawsuit.

“I don’t want your money,” Jobs told Schmidt, who had previously served on Apple’s board.

“If you offer me $5 billion, I won’t want it. I’ve got plenty of money. I want you to stop using our ideas in Android, that’s all I want.”（source:pocketgamer）