Firefox for Android's new clothes

Big changes are arriving in the developer's build of Firefox for Android in a bid to make it more appealing, while the significantly more popular desktop version is getting several noteworthy but smaller changes, the company announced at the end of 2011.

Available for download now, the first versions of Firefox 11 Aurora for Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android came out ju... [Read more]

If you haven't whipped your Web site into shape for easy viewing on small-screen devices, you'd better get cracking.

Mobile browsing reached its highest levels so far, 7.7 percent of total browser usage, in December.

That's because the use of mobile devices reached an all-time high in December, accounting for 7.7 percent of browser usage according to Net Applications' measurements of daily visits to its network of 40,000 Web sites. That may still be a small fraction of total Web traffic, but it's a large and growing population in absolute numbers.

Tablet browsing in many ways is similar to desktop browsing; screen resolution on the dominant iPad and iPad 2 aren't that far off a laptop. But touch interfaces are different from mouse interfaces, especially when it comes to tapping buttons with precision. And smaller tablets are awkwardly in between the iPad and mobile-phone screens. It's for these reasons that there's a lot of work in retooling CSS and other Web technologies to make Web sites adjust to different screen sizes, but for now it's a tough challenge for Web programmers.

Among mobile browsers, Apple's Safari remained the top dog with 53.3 percent of usage, a drop from 55.0 percent in November. Opera rose to 2... [Read more]

Apple iOS and Android users downloaded a record 1.2 billion apps during the last week of 2011, according to mobile analytics firm Flurry.

The seven days from Sunday, December 25, through Saturday, December 31, saw a 60 percent jump in the average number of downloads from the first two full weeks of the month. The final week also handily beat the previous week's record of 857 million to zoom past 1 billion for the first time.

Along with downloads, 2011's final week captured a record number of device activations. For the full week, more than 20 million iOS and Android devices were activated.

The week's numbers capped off a Christmas Day record of 242 million apps downloaded and 6.8 million devices activated for both mobile platforms.

(Credit: Flurry)

Traveling across the globe, the U.S. accounted for 509 million downloads last week, or 42.3 percent of the world's total. China, considered the world's second largest app market, took second place with 99 million downloads. Though China grabbed only one fifth as many downloads as did the U.... [Read more]

Did your spouse or significant other bestow an iPad upon you this Christmas? If so, it won't be long until your spouse or significant other asks you to put down your new toy for a little while and pay attention to the rest of the family. There is, of course, a way to spend time with your family and your new iPad simultaneously: iPad board games!

Four classic games--Monopoly, Scrabble, Life, and Risk--are available for the iPad, and if you catch EA's DailyDeals holiday sale on the right day, you can get them for as low as 99 cents. The fifth game here, Ticket to Ride, is a personal favorite, and its iPad version is beautifully done. With Monopoly and Ticket to Ride, the iPad acts as the board, with players sitting around it and taking turns as they would with the actual board game. With Scrabble, Life, and Risk, the games feature Pass N' Play, where the board is oriented in one direction and the iPad is passed to each player when it is his or her turn.

Granted, playing a board game on the iPad isn't the same as gathering the family around the real thing, but for these five games, the iPad offers a reasonable facsimile. The iPad forces you to downscale, but what you sacrifice in size you make up for in faster gameplay, as the iPad tallies scores, moneys, armies, and so on.

Monopoly HD

Ever wish you could have just a little more screen real estate?

Having extra monitors is always nice, but can be costly when you need a pair or more of them to complete your desktop. This guide may offer a temporary solution to your problem if you're on a Windows PC and have a spare Android device (or one you don't mind tying up for a while).

What you'll need:

• Windows
• An Android device
• Wi-Fi connection

Begin by purchasing and downloading ScreenSlider from the Android market. Once that's complete, request a download link for the ScreenSlider desktop client by providing a valid e-mail address.

(Credit: Screenshot by Nicole Cozma)

Step 1: Run the ScreenSlider app on your Android device. You'll be prompted to enter a name for the device.

(Credit: Screenshot by Nicole Cozma)

Step 2: Right-click on the ScreenSlider icon in the System Tray and select Find devices from the list.

... [Read more]