1）美国加州大学伯克利分校最新实验结果表明，玩游戏或有助于强化弱视治疗效果。

传统的弱视治疗法（主要针对儿童）都是让患者在“没有问题”的一只眼睛上覆盖一个眼罩，从而强化另外一只“弱视”眼睛的视觉集中能力。

eye patch(from understandingwilliamssyndrome.blogspot.com)

在本次调查实验中，参与测试者需要在佩戴一只眼罩的情况下，玩40个小时的游戏（分两次进行），他们可以选择第一人称射击游戏《荣誉勋章：血战太平洋》或EA游戏《模拟城市：梦想之都》。

这两款游戏的测试情况基本相同：参与测试者的视力提高了30%（游戏邦注：或者说他们可看到的视力表行数平均增加了1.5行），而传统的弱视疗法若要让患者多看到一行的视力表，却需要多花三倍的时间。

为了测试这项调查结果究竟是与眼罩相关，还是归功于游戏，调查人员又执行了另一项调查，要求7名志愿者戴上一只眼罩，进行20个小时的日常活动，但结果显示他们的视力“并没有提高”。然后这些志愿者又参与了戴眼罩玩游戏的测试，结果表明他们的视力增强情况与之前的调查结果相同。

调查人员认为，他们可以针对儿童弱视患者定制一款非暴力游戏，以增强戴眼罩疗法的效果。

2）据techcrunch报道，谷歌移动广告网站AdMob的某些功能由于不符合公司总体发展战略，目前已经被取消或裁减。例如，谷歌在数月前终止了AdMob的交叉推广下载交易服务，最近又宣布将停用AdMob移动网络服务功能。

AdMob(from news.cnblogs.com)

谷歌曾发布公告指出，AdMob是针对手机应用开发者的广告平台，AdSense是面向移动网络发行商的平台，尽管这两者绑定已经一年有余，但谷歌现在还是着力划清两者界限，要求移动网络发行商使用AdSense进行盈利，而手机应用公司则需采用AdMob。

为了投放手机应用广告，所有AdSense的手机应用测试参与者都已经转移到AdMob，谷歌表示AdMob针对旧式WAP移动网站的支持将于9月30日中止，智能手机平台的广告和网页上的AdMob产品也将被逐步取消。

观察者认为，为了进一步融合AdMob和AdSense，这两者的重叠功能和程序还会再被缩减，例如，谷歌去年秋季就已宣称AdMob网络的iPhone、Android应用开发者可以在AdMob广告无法发挥作用的情况下，采用Google AdSense广告。

3）据Digitimes报道，日前有传闻称英特尔有可能弃用MeeGo操作系统，并于2012年开发基于Android和Windows Phone操作系统的移动设备。

intel-meego(from newstonight.net)

不过英特尔并未确认此事，仅表示公司仍将采用MeeGo操作系统。

MeeGo是由英特尔和诺基亚共同研发的操作系统，后者最近倒向了Windows Phone阵营，很可能为MeeGo的发展前景蒙上一层阴影。

4）据FOSS Patents报道，苹果在近日起诉Android手机设备制造商HTC时向美国国际贸易委员会（ITC）表示，Android发明者Andy Rubin是在苹果任工程师期间获得启发，然后才研发了Android操作系统。该报道指出，这种迹象或表明苹果未来有可能以此起诉谷歌Android，或者借此打击谷歌旗下的摩托罗拉公司。

Andy Rubin(from venturebeat)

苹果在提交给ITC的文件中写道：Rubin于90年代初期在苹果担任工程师，参与研发了“263（realtime API）专利。这项代号为U.S. No. 6,343, 263的专利涉及“连续传输数据的实时信号处理系统”，或称为软件API。该专利于1994年备案，甚至比早期智能手机软件问世还早十多年。苹果宣称Rubin就是当年提交该专利工作人员的下属。

5）据Global and Mail报道，继起诉iOS、Android、Mac开发者之后，Lodsys公司日前又将矛头指向了黑莓开发者，并向加拿大独立工作室（《Horseplay》开发商）发出通知，要求后者向其支付IAP授权使用费，否则就将把它告上法庭。

justice(from macworld.co.uk)

观察者认为，RIM现在也将面临与苹果一样介入此案的棘手问题。苹果之前已出面说明，公司享有IAP专利使用权，这项服务也将覆盖其生态系统的所有开发者。而谷歌则要求美国专利局介入调查此事，不过RIM至今仍未对此作出回应。

6）手机应用营销平台Appsfire日前针对苹果限定开发者访问iOS用户UDID（游戏邦注：UDID指独立设备用户ID，开发者、移动广告网站、游戏网站、分析工具和应用测试系统等经常使用该设置监测用户访问应用或使用服务情况）的决定，推出了自己的开源UDID项目及解决方案OpenUDID，并欢迎所用开发者加与该服务的测试。

UDID(from m.techcrunch.com)

手机社交游戏平台OpenFeint也在不久前推出了OFUID这一服务，为该平台开发者提供了替代性选项，但它仅限于OpenFeint平台开发者，并且无法彻底取代UDID。据Appsfire所称，OpenUDID与OFUID有所不同，它是一个开源项目，支持任何应用使用这项服务，提供了开源代码以便iOS和Android开发者生成和访问OpenUDID，同时也支持用户选择退出这个设置。

7）Net Applicaions最新数据显示，iOS浏览器Safari的使用率居于所有移动浏览器之首，其地位相当于电脑桌面浏览器IE。

但与IE不同的是，Safari在2011年8月的使用率占所有移动浏览器的53%，而且其上升趋势有增无减。在去年8月份，iOS平台的Safari使用率占44.3%的份额，在一年间增长率为9%左右。但IE却正遭遇Chrome的冲击。

mobile browser market share(from gigaom)

居于第二位的移动浏览器是Opera Mini，其所占份额为20.77%；第三名则是Android Browser，所占比例仅15.73%。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

1）Playing Games May Improve ‘Lazy Eye’ Symptoms, Suggests Study

by Frank Cifaldi

There are very few treatments to help adults combat amblyopia, commonly called “lazy eye,” but new research coming out of UC Berkeley suggests off-the-shelf video games may help.

Traditional therapy (primarily among children) sees the patient wearing an eye patch over their “good” eye, forcing the other, under-developed eye to focus.

In this experiment, twenty participants wore an eye patch while playing a total of 40 hours (split into twenty sessions) of one of two games: either first-person shooter Medal of Honor:

Pacific Assault and EA’s SimCity Societies.

Both games yielded the same results: a 30 percent increase in visual acuity, or an improvement of 1.5 lines on the standard optometrist eye chart. By comparison, traditional eye patch therapy can take three times as long to improve by only one line.

To check whether the results were due to the eye patch or the games, the researchers conducted an additional experiment where seven new volunteers wore a patch over their good eye for twenty hours during normal activity, which resulted in “no improvement” on vision tests. These same volunteers then went through the 40-hour video game test, and showed the same level of improvement as in the previous study.

“I was very surprised by this finding — I didn’t expect to see this type of improvement,” said researcher Roger Li, an optometrist at the University of California, Berkeley.

The researchers say that they are customizing a non-violent game to conduct the experiment on children, as an alternative to having to wear an eye patch in their day-to-day lives.（source:gamasutra）

2）AdMob To Stop Serving Ads To Mobile Web, Google Pushes Developers To Use AdSense

Leena Rao

When Google bought mobile ad network AdMob for $750 million in 2009, the company was clearly trying to capitalize on the growing mobile advertising market. Mobile advertising, both on apps and the mobile web, is a natural extension of Google’s display and search ad business. Of course, as the integration has taken place over the last year, certain AdMob features have been axed because  they didn’t fit with the overall strategy or  for redundancy. For example, Google ended AdMob’s cross-promotion download exchange a few months ago. And now Google is announcing that it will soon end AdMob’s mobile web serving capabilities.

As Google aptly titled its blog post announcing the change; AdMob is for mobile app developers. AdSense is for mobile web publishers. Even after over a year of integration, Google is still sorting out the overlap and has determined that mobile web publishers should head to AdSense to monetize their sites, and mobile app publishers should use AdMob.

And for mobile apps advertising, all AdSense for Mobile Applications beta participants have been switched to AdMob, which Google says is now the primary ad solution for mobile app developers.

Google says that AdMob support for older WAP mobile web sites will stop on September 30. For sites and ads that can be viewed on more advanced mobile devices like smartphones, the AdMob product will be around for a little longer but will also be phased out eventually.

It makes sense that there would be some crossover between AdMob and AdSense’s mobile offerings, and that certain programs and features in both platforms will be cut and further integrations will be made. For example, Google announced last fall that iPhone and Android application developers in the AdMob network will be able to show Google AdSense ads when an AdMob ad is not available.

And despite some earlier reports that the AdMob integration hasn’t been going so well, the mobile ad network’s metrics are still growing like gangbusters. It’s unclear how much hardship this move will cause developers (Google makes it sounds like a natural progression and integration), but it definitely doesn’t make sense for there to be competing ad serving technologies within the same organization.（source:techcrunch）

3）Rumour: Intel to drop MeeGo in favour of Android or Windows Phone

by Matt Sakuraoka-Gilman

Reports are surfacing that Intel may be planning to cease development of its MeeGo OS as it’s not gained industry support, with handset and tablet developers looking elsewhere.

Instead, industry sources claim Intel will look towards Android and Windows Phone OSes for its hardware in 2012.

Where has MeeGone?

Intel itself declines to comment, stating that it remains committed to MeeGo despite speculations to the contrary. It also maintains that it is dedicated to the MeeGo development community in regards to meeting the requirements of its open source users.

MeeGo had initially been set up by Intel and Nokia, however with the latter’s recent move toward Windows Phone, the future has been looking bleak for MeeGo.

With few players adopting the Linux-based OS for their handsets or tablets, these industry speculations are looking ever more valid.（source:pocketgamer）

4）Apple says Andy Rubin was inspired for Android framework while at Apple

Devindra Hardawar

In a surprising maneuver, Apple has told the International Trade Commission that Android creator Andy Rubin was first inspired for the Android application framework while working as an engineer at Apple, reports FOSS Patents.

The statement came in the latest reply to the ITC as part of Apple’s first complaint against Android phone maker HTC. As an argument, it’s a bit of a doozy, since it states plainly that Android’s roots can be traced all the way back to Apple in the early ’90s. And as FOSS Patents’ Florian Mueller points out, it could have stunning legal implications for future Apple suits against Google over Android, or against soon to be Google-owned Motorola Mobility.

Apple writes in its reply to the ITC:

Android and Mr. Rubin’s relevant background does not start, as HTC would like the Commission to believe, with his work at General Magic or Danger in the mid-1990s. In reality, as the evidence revealed at the hearing, Mr. Rubin began his career at Apple in the early 1990s and worked as a low-level engineer specifically reporting to the inventors of the ’263 [realtime API] patent at the exact time their invention was being conceived and developed.

The patent, U.S. No. 6,343, 263, refers to a “real-time signal processing system for serially transmitted data”, or in other words, a software API. It was filed back in 1994, more than a decade before modern smartphone software was a reality. Now Apple is asserting that Rubin worked right under the people who filed that patent.

Mueller points out that in the HTC investigation, Rubin’s work at Apple has little impact since he’s never worked for HTC. But should Apple wage legal war against Google directly, Rubin’s history could end up serving as a major hindrance.（source:venturebeat）

5）Lodsys expands remit as first Blackberry developer is drawn into IAP patent battle

by Matt Sakuraoka-Gilman

Expanding beyond iOS, Android and Mac developers for the first time, BlackBerry based studio Rotten Ogre is the latest outfit to be accused by Lodsys of infringing its in-app purchase patents.

The Canadian indie studio – developer of an app ironically named Horseplay – has received a letter from Lodsys offering a “licensing opportunity”.

In short, the developer would be required to pay Lodsys fees for utilising its patents in its titles in order to avoid any legal battle through the courts.

Upping the stakes

Just as was the case with studios working on Apple and Google’s platforms, the alleged infringement revolves around the in-app purchase button employed in Rotten Ogre’s titles.

It’s the same stance Lodsys has employed across the board, with the firm’s growing list of patent cases swelling to include major names such as EA, Square Enix and Take Two in recent months.

As was with the case with Apple, however, pressure will now grow on RIM to offer some form of response, especially if further BlackBerry developers end up being drawn into the battle.

Justice for all

Apple has already made moves to defend its indie devs from attacks by Lodsys by demanding involvement in any patent infringement cases.

Having already obtained a patent license from its previous owner, it argues that such licenses should also cover developers operating on its platforms.

Google, meanwhile, has asked the US patent office take a further look into the cases, with a view to invalidating them.

No comment has yet been offered by RIM, though those invested in the BlackBerry ecosystem will be hoping the company moves to defend in developers, if only to prevent other studios from dropping their plans to employ IAPs in their titles for the platform.（source:pocketgamer）

6）Appsfire Announces Open Source UDID Replacement For iOS: OpenUDID

Sarah Perez

Appsfire, a mobile application marketing platform, is introducing its own solution for the issue created by Apple’s decision to phase out developer access to the UDID (unique device identifier) on iOS devices. It’s called OpenUDID. As you may have guessed by the name, this is an open source UDID initiative.

In other words, it’s an attempt at creating a non-proprietary solution that aims to replace all that was lost, and in which all stakeholders can participate.

The change to UDID access was noted in a recent set of iOS5 release notes, where it was listed as “deprecated.” The UDID, for those unaware, is an alphanumeric string unique to each Apple device, which is currently used by mobile ad networks, game networks, analytics providers, developers and app testing systems, like TestFlight, for example. In some cases, developers are even using the UDID to verify whether users are accessing their app from a new device.

By removing access to the UDID in iOS5, Apple has thrown an entire ecosystem into chaos.

Last week, mobile gaming network OpenFeint introduced a its UDID alternative called OFUID, which provides a solution for the gaming developer community. Users who opt-in to OpenFeint’s new single-sign on system thereby give the developer access to this OFUID, a universal account system for the gaming network’s cross-platform users. The OFUID lets developers track users’ behavior across apps, and helps with their ad targeting efforts.

But this system was criticized as being an incomplete UDID replacement, and for its proprietary nature.

The newly proposed OpenUDID will be different.

Says Appsfire:

As Appsfire is both a developer of consumer apps and an ad network, we sought a UDID replacement but were not interested in a solution owned by any single provider. We also foresaw a fragmented market where UDID management was operated by multiple providers with no cooperation between them. To help ourselves and thousands of other mobile app developers, we began working on the OpenUDID open source initiative.

The company says that it wants to work with others to provide a reliable proxy and replacement for a universal unique device identifier on a per device basis. It also wants to enable OpenUDID to be accessed by any app, supply open-source code to generate and access the OpenUDID for iOS (and later, Android), and incorporate, from the beginning, a system that will enable users to opt-out.

That latter requirement is in there because the new system should “match Apple’s initial intent,” explains AppsFire. Apple isn’t saying why it made the decision to remove the UDID. It may have made the change in response to previous privacy concerns or as a way to pre-empt future concerns. But in either case, it’s clear the company is taking a step to further respect its users’ privacy via the UDID removal. The new open source system should respect Apple’s decision in the matter.

Appsfire has published a simple Objective-C class that provides a one-line replacement to take advantage of the OpenUDID on github. All mobile app developers are invited to join in the testing process now, the company says.（source:techcrunch）

7）Apple continues to dominate mobile browsing

By Darrell Etherington

In the mobile browser world, one Apple’s mobile Safari is unmatched in terms of reach. New data from Net Applications shows the iOS version of Safari as easily beating out even the closest competition by a wide margin in terms of mobile browser usage share. In fact, it looks a lot like the mobile equivalent of the desktop products of one of Apple’s longtime competitors: Internet Explorer.

As with IE in desktop computing, mobile Safari is used for more than 50 percent of the browsing done on mobile devices (53 percent in August 2011, to be exact), and it has remained at or near that mark for many months now. Unlike IE, Safari on iOS isn’t bleeding market share; in fact, its usage is trending upward. In October 2010, Safari had 44.3 percent of the overall picture, which means it has grown by just under nine percentage points in less than a year, according to the stats from Net Applications. IE is steadily falling, losing ground especially to Chrome.（source:gigaom）