Angry Birds Developer Apologizes For Incompatibility Issues - PC Magazine

A small percentage of Android users may be suffering Angry Birds withdrawal, but not for long.

Rovio Mobile, the developer of the bestselling Angry Birds app, has announced that it is developing a lighter version of the game for "lower end" Android devices after many users experienced problems running the app.

Rovio had released a free, ad-supported version of Angry Birds for Android on October 15 through independent app store GetJar. It was so popular on the first day it brought down Rovio's servers, and hit the two million download mark within three days.

But many Android users were disappointed to learn that the game didn't work on their phones, an issue commonly known as "fragmentation." Older and lower performance Android devices experienced "severe performance issues," Rovio acknowledged in a blog post.

Rovio listed 17 Android phones officially not supported by Angry Birds, as well as devices running a version older than 1.6 or custom ROMs. The list includes newer phones like the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 mini, T-Mobile G2 and Motorola Backflip.

"So far, we have hesitated to create multiple versions of Angry Birds for the Android platform. But judging by the feedback we have received, we feel that by providing a lightweight solution, we are doing a favor for our fans," Rovio wrote.

The company hasn't announced a release date for the lighter version.

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Amazon Offers E-Book Gifting - InformationWeek

Amazon.com hopes to boost holiday sales this year by offering e-books as gifts. The online retailer Friday added the ability to send digital books as gifts through its Kindle store.

The process is simple: choose the book, click the "Give as a Gift" button, add the recipients' e-mail address and your shopping is complete. Amazon will send an e-mail notifying the person that his gift is waiting to be downloaded.

People can give e-books whether or not the recipient owns one of Amazon.com's popular Kindle e-readers. Gifted e-books can be read on any device with the Kindle application installed. Amazon.com has made the app available for the Apple iPad, iPod Touch and iPhone; Research in Motion's BlackBerry and smartphones based on Google's Android operating system. The app is also available for Macs and Windows PCs.

"We're making this functionality available in time for the holidays to offer an easy, stress-free holiday shopping option for anyone -- not just Kindle owners," Russ Grandinetti, VP of Amazon Kindle, said in a statement.

Surprisingly, Amazon.com has not pushed gifted e-books before. However, with Kindle and e-book sales booming, the time couldn't be better. In late October, Amazon.com said the latest generation Kindle, released in June, was the fastest-selling Kindle to date. In addition, the retailer said that unit sales of digital books over the previous 30 days surpassed that of hardcover and paperback books combined for the top 1,000 bestselling books on the site. Among the top 10 books, the electronic editions have been outpacing the physical versions by more than 2 to 1, according to the retailer.

The Association of American Publishers reported that e-book sales grew 193% during the first eight months of the year. Amazon.com says e-book sales on the site have exceeded that rate. Amazon does not release sales numbers for the Kindle or e-books.

Besides trying to leverage booming sales, Amazon's push for selling e-books as gifts comes as rival Kobo, whose namesake e-reader is sold and marketed by bookseller Borders, plans to offer the same capability. A date hasn't been released, but Kobo says e-book giving will be available in time for the holiday shopping season.

SEE ALSO:

Amazon Kindle Sets Sales Record

Amazon To Let Kindle Users Lend E-Books

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Master volume - CNET

November 18, 2010 1:41 PM PST By: Kent German

It's not out for the public yet, and we still don't know when it will come, but the Gold Master for Apple's iOS 4.2 became available this week. Apple is still mum on the official features list, but we found a lot of new goodies after we downloaded and installed the developer version on the iPhone 4. The iPad will get additional changes from iOS 4.2, which we've covered in a separate photo gallery.

Nothing is particularly Earth-shattering, but we welcome the updates in any case. You'll find interface tweaks, new personalization options, and added functionality.

First, off is a new master volume control that's accessible from the Home screen. To get there, double tap the home button to get the standard multitasking menu. Then, if you swipe all the way to the left (past the iPod controls), you'll see a new master volume control.

Photo credit: Screenshot by Kent German/CNET

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Bartz: Yahoo developing content optimization service - Computerworld

IDG News Service - Yahoo is developing technology to help publishers personalize their websites, in much the same way that it helps them to populate their sites with ads, Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz said on Tuesday.

"We're looking at helping people manage their content," Bartz said at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco, during a keynote appearance in which she was interviewed on stage by conference co-chairman John Battelle.

When Battelle asked her if the content management service she was describing existed as a product already, she answered that it doesn't. Once it's ready, Yahoo will be able to help Web publishers with both ads and content, she said.

The "content optimization" tool would focus on helping publishers personalize their content offerings and target it better for their site visitors, a process that requires automation, algorithms and data crunching at a scale that can't be done manually, she said.

For example, Yahoo serves up 6 million variations of its home page every day, varying the content it displays and the placement of items, based on what it determines will be the best experience for different users, she said.

Part of that knowledge comes from what Yahoo knows about signed-in users, from machine-learning insights and, also, from human-driven editorial decisions, Bartz said.

To be a successful content provider, Web publishers need to strive for "intense personalization," and one thing that hurt Yahoo was that it kept its content pages "static too long," she said.

Earlier on Tuesday, Yahoo announced new and enhanced local search and social media tools and features, including broader integration with Twitter and Zynga, a new beta version of Yahoo Messenger with more social-networking capabilities and local search improvements.

Yahoo also announced a program called Local Offers, in which Yahoo will aggregate offers, coupons and special deals from local merchants through partners including Groupon, LivingSocial, DealOn, Zozi, Tippr, Coupons.com and Valpak.

Reprinted with permission from IDG.net. Story copyright 2010 International Data Group. All rights reserved.

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Muslims celebrate Bakri-Eid today - Times of India

MUMBAI: Muslims are looking forward to celebrate Eid-ul-Azha or Bakri-Eid on Wednesday with gaity and in a spirit of sacrifice. After the brief prayers in the morning at mosques, the community will get down to sacrificing goats and sheep.

This meat will then be used to prepare a variety of dishes. But then feasting is just one aspect. The main purpose of Bakri-Eid is reiteration of devotion to the divine rule, Muslim scholars say. Since the festival is a commemoration of prophet Abraham's unflinching faith and devotion to Allah's commandments, Muslims must try to show the same spirit when they celebrate Bakri-Eid.

"The sacrificial meat is divided into three parts. One part goes to the poor, the second to relatives and the third remains with the family. And the animal's skin is given as charity," explains senior cleric Maulana Shoeb Koti.

"This clearly shows that Allah wants Muslims to remember the poor in celebrations. This spirit will help establish justice in society."

This year, the festivities are rather low key as prices of essential commodities as well as goats have skyrocketed.

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