500 Million Android Activations

Google’s Director of Product Management for Android, Hugo Barra, has posted on Google+ this morning to announce that 500 million Android devices have now been activated globally.

It’s a huge milestone for the company, but it’s one that will quickly be surpassed. Barra also reaffirmed that a whopping 1.3 million Android devices are now being activated every single day. That means that by the end of the year, that total figure should look a lot more like 600 million — especially with the lucrative holiday season coming up.

Barra also announced on Google+ that the company’s Jelly Bean statue (above) is now sat outside of its Mountain View headquarters again. The figure was removed after its plastic head melted in the Californian sun over the summer, but it’s now been fixed.

The milestone is a steady improvement from the announcement of 300 million Android activations back in February and 400 million at June's Google I/O conference. 

Apple used to take part in this game, regularly announcing daily iOS device activations up until 2010, which may or may not have something to do with the fact that Android surpassed iOS in 2011.

Facebook App center

A place to find great apps

For the over 900 million people that use Facebook, the App Center is the central place to find great social apps. Everything has an app detail page, which helps people see what makes an app unique and lets them install it before going to an app.

App detail pages help people understand what makes an app unique, see screenshots of the experience, and login to start using the app. After a user authenticates from an app detail page, they’ll be sent directly into the app.

Growth for high-quality apps

Success through the App Center is tied to the quality of an app. We use a variety of signals, such as user ratings and engagement, to determine if an app is listed in the App Center. To help you monitor user feedback, we provide an app ratings metric in Insightsto report how users rate your app over time.

Well-designed apps that people enjoy will be prominently displayed. Apps that receive poor user ratings or don’t meet the quality guidelines won't be listed.

Driving mobile installs

The App Center is designed to grow mobile apps that use Facebook – whether they’re on iOS, Android or the mobile web. From the mobile App Center, users can browse apps that are compatible with their device, and if a mobile app requires installation, they will be sent to download the app from the App Store or Google Play.

[Source: Facebook]

Galaxy S3 photogallery

Samsung Galaxy SIII has been launched in 145 countries, on 296 mobile operators around the world making it the biggest launch in Samsung history. Here is the Photo gallery. You can view the entire album here.

Angry Birds Space Downloaded 10M Times in 3 Days

Rovio’s Angry Birds Space has had a solid takeoff with 10 million downloads since its release on Thursday, according to the company.

The company, which disclosed the figure in its Twitter feed Monday morning, didn’t say how the release compares with previous title launches. However, according to reports, Rovio’s last major Angry Birds release, Angry Birds Rio, hit 10 million downloads in 10 days, more than three times as long.

The latest game was released for various formats, including for the iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Android devices, as well as the Mac and PC. The company didn’t release a Windows Phone version, though it plans to,according to Rovio CEO Mikael Hed.

The new version brings several important changes, most importantly gravity, which will allow players to use nearby planets to perform trick shots on unsuspecting pigs.

The game has 60 levels, with more content available through in-app purchases (only in the iOS version for now). The game includes hidden goodies and secret levels, and Rovio promises regular free updates for the future.

You can get the iPhone version here. The iPad version is available here, and the Android version is available over at Google Play. Finally, the Mac version is available in the Mac App Store, while the PC version is available directly from Rovio.

[Courtesy: Mashable]