Author: Amanda Giasson

Mobile Gaming is revealed to be a daily pastime for many Android users

A new report from Flurry reveals that, globally, consumers play games for an average of 37 minutes every day.

The mobile analytics firm’s study analyzed 60,000 Android devices and discovered that of all these users across the globe, gamers in the United States are the ones who spend the most time engaged in mobile gaming, averaging 51.8 minutes each day, compared to other countries involved in the study that averaged the shortest times, which were France at 30.1 minutes and China at 28.6 minutes.

Mobile game playing has experienced significant growth in the U.S. over the past three years.

The growth in the mobile gaming sector in the U.S. is largely due to a greater number of consumers in the country adopting smartphone and tablets. With the bigger screen size of these gadgets, almost 50 percent of console gamers began using these devices last year. This is a 15 percent increase from 2011.

In terms of the average time (in minutes) gamers spend playing Android games in a day, the study found that Germany was the country that spent the second most time gaming after the U.S., averaging 47.1 minutes, daily. Also above the global average are Russia (40.8 minutes) and Italy (38.5 minutes). A marginal difference was found between South Korea (36.2 minutes) and India (33.4 minutes). It is speculated that the reason for this is due to the fact that India experienced the industrial revolution at a comparatively later stage and that low-end smartphones have become extremely popular in the nation. What was quiet surprising, however, was that the UK was one of the countries where the lowest average amount of time was spent, at just 32.4 minutes.

Mobile gaming apps that appear to be the most popular are Arcade & Action games.

mobile gaming reportThe Global Mobile Gaming App Industry 2014 and distribution of Android gaming apps report from Flurry also looked at the distribution of gaming app sessions by country and category. It learned that while Arcade & Action games were at the top of the list, Casual games followed close behind. The study found that:

• Arcade & Action games were the most popular in South Korea (74 percent) and China (53percent).
• Brain & Puzzle games topped the charts in Italy (55 percent) and Germany (53 percent).
• Casual games were relatively popular among all countries, but were particularly popular in Russia (56 percent) and Brazil (53 percent).

Jarah Euston from Flurry commented about the report’s Android mobile gaming findings saying that “it turns out that while we all speak the language of gaming, distinct dialects exist.” Euston added that “With the global gaming market expected to reach $24B by 2017, there’s plenty of room for both international standard-bearers and local delicacies alike.”

Google Glass to help cops in Dubai

Dubai police intend to equip detectives with Google’s wearable tech.

As part of Dubai’s plan to make its police force one of the “smartest in the world” by the year 2018, the emirate’s police department wants to provide beat officers and eventually detectives with Google Glass, enabling its law enforcement officers to run customized facial recognition software.

Facial recognition technology could help fight crime.

According to Reuters, a police spokesperson from the most populous city and emirate in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), confirmed that Dubai police developed the software and would permit a link between a database of wanted people and the wearer. Essentially, as soon as the wearable device recognizes a suspect via the facial recognition technology, the wearer of the optical head-mounted display is alerted.

Colonel Khalid Naser Al Rzooqi, the director general of Dubai police, informed 7DayinDubai that “The software that we developed internally enables us to connect a database of wanted people with the glass.” He added that “Once the glass recognizes the suspect based on a face print, it will give an alert to the officer wearing it.”

Google Glass - DubaiThe gadget featuring the software is to be introduced gradually in phases. The initial phase would focus on combating traffic violations and tracking vehicles that are suspected to have been involved in driving offenses. The second phase would involve having the technology issued to detectives.

Google Glass isn’t cheap but Dubai is willing to spare no expense when it comes to its police force.

Glass is a costly gadget that sells for $1,500 in the United States. This makes the device far out of the affordable range for the average consumer. However, Dubai is determined to equip its law enforcement with the device. In addition, more businesses are beginning to warm to the idea of using this innovative wearable, which is also beginning to be used in hospitals.

Despite many people being worried about their privacy when Google Glass is worn in public, as the concern is a Glass user could be secretly taking photos or videoing a person without their consent, if policemen were to wear it, the purpose would be to help officers collect information during an investigation.