1）英国手机评价网站GoodMobilePhones最近问卷调查结果显示，将近三分之二的英国家长（他们拥有10岁以下的子女）同意孩子使用自己的移动设备，23%受访者则表示不同意，还有13%表示对此没有看法。

在同意孩子使用其移动设备的家长中，有82%受访者表示此举可“娱乐”孩子的生活；有68%的家长认为，让孩子每天最多使用一个小时的移动设备比较合适，有23%则认为每天可让他们使用1-2小时，有9%则每天使用超过2小时。

child_playing_on_smartphone(from people.smu.edu)

这些孩子对移动设备的主要用途如下：

*看电视/电影（占比72%）

*玩游戏（占比65%）

*使用教育应用程序/电子书（23%）

*音乐/美术/创意应用（16%）

*社交媒介应用（6%）

2）据AppData数据显示，Facebook Android应用DAU现已超越其iPhone应用，但MAU仍然逊于后者。

Facebook android app(from androidpolice)

Facebook Android应用在12月17日的DAU为5830万，iPhone应用则是5740万。据尼尔森报道，Facebook是除Android Market之外，最受18-44岁用户欢迎的Android应用。

观察者认为这种现象或与Facebook在十多天前更新了Android版应用，为用户提供了堪比iOS版本的功能有关。

3）Social Gaming Network创始人Shervin Pishevar在最近的媒体采访中表示，他祝贺Zynga进行IPO并称这是社交游戏领域的一大盛事，同时也指出手机社交游戏市场规模将在未来3年超越Facebook游戏，发展成为价值数十亿美元的产业。

Shervin Pishevar(from fastcompany.com)

4）据serkantoto报道，日本移动内容供应商Index公司最近宣布推出“法国首个社交游戏平台”MissionGate。

Nicky Larson(from serkantoto)

这家位于东京的公司向法国推出社交游戏平台的原因在于，该公司于2004年收购了一家巴黎公司，并将其重命名为Index Multimedia。MissionGate现已提供《Nicky Larson》和《Mission Ninja》这两款面向智能手机平台的免费游戏，将向其他手机平台推出30款以上的可下载游戏。

5）社交搜索平台Tagged日前透露了收购Hi5的相关细节，指出公司仅收购Hi5的资产（品牌、网站及用户）而并不包括后者的人才，他们将与Hi5的部分成员合作，但不会保留其他员工。

hi5 logo(from blog.games.com)

Hi5总裁兼首席技术官St.John（游戏邦注：他曾是社交/休闲游戏开发商WildTangent创始人及CEO）将负责完成这种收购过渡，但不会在Tagged担任要职。Hi5在今年初时有70名员工，后来因人员重组而裁员28人。

Tagged将通过这次收购获得Hi5的2.3亿注册用户（Tagged原来已有1亿注册用户），将独立运营两个网站品牌。

6）据pocketgamer报道，法国发行商Gameloft第一人称射击游戏《Modern Combat 3：Fallen Nation》近日宣布进军Android Market，支持运行于2.1及其以上版本的Android平台，目前售价为4.99美元。

modern-combat-3(from tipb.com)

该游戏优化了玩法和画面效果，支持玩家体验多达12人参与的游戏模式。

7）徐静蕾贺岁爱情电影《亲密敌人》与全球领先的社交游戏公司Zynga旗下的《星佳城市》以及拥有超过3亿用户的腾讯微博最近联合宣布，将启动一次跨界合作，让《星佳城市》玩家和《亲密敌人》影迷通过在游戏中完成一系列为影片定制的任务来感受影片的精彩。

《星佳城市》中的《亲密敌人》活动截图

此次合作将于12月15日正式启动，玩家届时将在游戏中与《亲密敌人》女主人公艾米虚拟形象互动，在自己的城市中建起一座专属于《亲密敌人》的商业大厦，并通过游戏和微博与朋友们分享自己的快乐会带给玩家惊喜的奖励。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom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）64 per cent of Britons let their children use their mobile devices

by Zen Terrelonge

More than three-quarters are granted access to the tech to keep ‘entertained’.

Mobile comparison site GoodMobilePhones.co.uk surveyed parents in the UK with children aged under-ten, in order to discover how much interaction they had with smartphones and tablets.

When asked whether they allow their children to use one of their mobile devices almost two-thirds said ‘yes’, 23 per cent said ‘no’, while 13 per cent said ‘no comment’, according to the report.

The report says out of those that let their youngsters use their tech, 82 per cent said it was to keep the kids ‘entertained.’ This shows a growing trend in the move away from traditional handheld games consoles, and an early adoption into the mobile sector.

As for how long the children were allowed to use the devices for, 68 per cent said ‘up to an hour of use a day’, while 23 per cent said between 1-2 hours of daily use. However, the report highlights that nine per cent get more than two hours of use per day.

Further results show that the top five ways the children are using the devices include:

1  Watching TV/Films – 72 per cent

2  Games – 65 per cent

3  Educational Apps / eBooks – 23 per cent

4  Music/Art/Creative apps – 16 per cent

5  Social Media apps – six per cent

Mark Owen, owner of GoodMobilePhones.co.uk, said: “When used correctly, smartphones and tablets can be great learning aids and there are hundreds of educational apps available to parents.

There’s also the possibility for children to play games, or even watch the TV programmes and films that their parents have bought.”

“Children are becoming more and more familiar with technology, and smartphones and tablets can certainly be a great way to keep them them entertained on a long car journey.”（source:mobile-ent）

2）Facebook’s Android app beating out iPhone for daily usage

Meghan Kelly

Facebook‘s Android app passed the iPhone in daily active users today, but is still trailing behind when it comes to monthly activity.

According to analytics reports by AppData, the Android application had 58.3 million daily active users on December 17, as opposed to the iPhone’s 57.4 million DAU. Indeed, Facebook is the most popular Android app for users 18 and older, according to a Nielsen report. The social network’s app came right after the Android Marketplace as most used application for Android users between the ages of 18 and 44, which means Android users of a wide age range are paying attention to what Facebook is doing in their mobile strategy. Now they’re starting to pay more attention daily.

Android in general owns the most market share at around 40 percent proliferation, but when it comes to activity on Facebook’s mobile app, iPhone has rung king. The new shift in daily active users may be a natural favoring of the operation system with the biggest share of voice, but it may also be a lot simpler: Facebook recently updated its Android app. Before Android users had a chance to experience it, Facebook updated its iOS applications with a new sidebar and easier navigation around the app. It was faster, sleeker and Android users were still stuck with the older, slower version. Only 11 days ago, however, Facebook updated the Android app, giving it the faster features and new navigation iOS users were enjoying. When you user experience is made faster and the interface easier, you’re more willing to use the application, right?（source:venturebeat）

3）Will they laugh this time? Shervin Pishevar predicts social mobile games to dwarf Facebook games

Dean Takahashi

As the founder of Social Gaming Network, Shervin Pishevar squared off against Zynga in the early days of social gaming. But Pishevar veered off into iPhone gaming while Mark Pincus stayed put on Facebook with social games.

The consequences of that competitive battle have played out. Zynga went public at a $10 billion valuation yesterday, while MindJolt acquired SGN for a much lower price in April. But Pishevar isn’t bitter. He offered his congratulations to his friend Pincus and many of his friends whose companies were acquired by Zynga. And he still believes mobile social games will be bigger than Facebook games.

“This is a historic day for a bunch of us,” said Pishevar, now a managing director at Menlo Ventures, in an interview on Friday. “Back in 2007, there were a very small band of entrepreneurs who believed in social gaming. I took the route of mobile and Mark took the route of Facebook.”

Pishevar deserves some cred as a visionary in the space, even if his company didn’t hit the home run.

“The DNA of all of the entrepreneurs are in the successes of this business,” Pishevar said.

He recalls giving a talk at a Casual Connect show in Seattle a few years ago. He predicted social gaming would be a multibillion-dollar business. And the audience laughed.

“That was an amazing cycle to go through,” Pishevar said. “Mobile social gaming will be bigger than Facebook gaming The numbers we are seeing are pretty incredible.”

Now, Pishevar predicts, “Mobile social gaming will be bigger than Facebook gaming in the next three years. It will be a multibillion-dollar business.”

Menlo Ventures is looking for the companies that will be the winners in mobile, where Pishevar said, “Zynga hasn’t cracked the code.” So far, the missing piece of the puzzle is social connectivity, a layer that still has to be built into mobile games and mobile game networks.（source:venturebeat）

4）MissionGate: Index Opens “France’s First Social Gaming Platform” [Social Games]

by Dr. Serkan Toto

In Japan Tokyo-based Index has announced the launch of MissionGate, which is “France’s first social gaming” platform, according to the company.

Why would a Japanese mobile contents provider open such a platform in France of all places? The answer is simple: back in 2004, Index bought a Paris-based company, turned it into their subsidiary and renamed it to Index Multimedia.

MissionGate starts by offering two free-to-play social games for smartphones, an anime (City Hunter)-based game called Nicky Larson and another title called Mission Ninja. Index says that “MissionGate offers also more than thirty games to be downloaded on all other mobile phones”.

The platform offers a virtual curreny, an avatar system and social networking functions.（source:serkantoto）

5）Tagged’s Hi5 Buy Doesn’t Include Staff, President Alex St. John

by Eric Caoili

“Social discovery” network Tagged revealed its acquisition of Hi5 this week, but apparently it wasn’t interested in the whole package.

A Tagged rep revealed to Gamasutra that its acquisition of Hi5 is an “asset-only” purchase, and it will not bring on board video game industry veteran and now-former Hi5 president and CTO Alex St. John, nor any of Hi5′s staff.

The company said it will work with a few Hi5 workers on a contract basis, but it will not keep the rest of the site’s staff. Hi5 reportedly employed 70 workers earlier in the year, before laying off 28 in September due to infrastructure adjustments.

“We will be shifting some team members internally to focus on Hi5 implementation,” said a spokesperson for Tagged. “This was an asset-only acquisition so we just acquired the brand, the website, and users.”

St. John, who was brought into Hi5 two years ago as president and chief technology officer to lead the network’s transformation into a social game-focused community, will aid with the transition, but he will not have an active role at Tagged.

Prior to Tagged, St. John was Microsoft’s DirectX evangelist, as well as the founder and former CEO of social/casual gaming developer WildTangent. He’s also known for expressing a strong opinion on the future of console gaming.

Under St. John’s direction, Hi5 sought to position itself as a social gaming alternative to Facebook by acquiring developer Big Six, attracting studios with free marketing and access to viral channels, and building its “next generation” SocioPath platform.

Tagged is an online community designed to help users meet new people through social games, customizable profiles, and other features. The company believes the Hi5 purchase will help it “dominate the social discovery category.”

“Tagged is the perfect home for hi5 as it continues to prove itself as a major contender in social,” said St. John. “At Hi5 my colleagues and I recognized the unanswered opportunity to connect new people online, and I’m thrilled that Tagged is making strides to fulfill this mission.”

With the acquisition, Tagged will add Hi5′s 230 million registered users to its own 100 million registered users. For the immediate future, though, it intends to operate the sites as “two independent and freestanding brands.”

“Hi5 will eventually look and feel much more like Tagged, with a focus on social discovery (meeting new people),” the firm Tagged told Gamasutra. “Games are an important part of the Tagged experience as well, so they will remain a focus for Hi5.” （source:gamasutra）

6）Modern Combat 3 abseils onto the Android Market

by Will Wilson

Gameloft’s Pocket Gamer Bronze Award-winning first-person shooter, Modern Combat 3: Fallen Nation has sneaked its way onto the Android Market today, planted a bomb, and scored a headshot on high-end Android phones.

The game picks up directly after events in Modern Combat 2, with a combined invasion force of Bad Guys descending on America and wreaking havoc among suburbs, skyscrapers, and everything in between.

Additions to the gameplay include a sprint button and much-improved graphics that help accentuate the explosions and ‘staring at my gloves’ moments.

Believe me, you stare at your gloves a lot during the large single-player campaign.

Brothers in arms

Alongside the fully-featured campaign is multiplayer for up to 12 players that builds upon the foundations of its predecessor.

Now there are even more unlockable items to shoot for, as well as the MC version of Call of Duty’s powerful kill streaks, and tons of team and solo modes to fight in.

Modern Combat 3 appears to be only for high-end devices running Android 2.1 and above, although strangely this includes the original Galaxy Tab (but not the Xperia Play or ASUS Transformer).

It’s available on the Android Market now for £4.99 (download). （source:pocketgamer）