Droid Game Hub: Real Racing 3, Guns For Hire, Project Shield, Cypress Inheritance, Fast And Furious 6, And More

Were well into 2013 and exciting stuff for games just keeps rolling out. From new game consoles to the games we play on them it’s a great start to a new year. Check out what we got for you this week.

Firemonkeys Releases New Dev Diary Video For Real Racing 3

Firemonkeys, the guys behind the recently released Need For Speed Most Wanted are the same guys throwing their efforts into the pot for the next big racing game from EA, Real Racing 3. As you may or may not have known they have been putting out a series of Dev diary videos to talk about the game and otherwise get people excited about it. The next Dev Diary video is out and this time they want to talk about multiplayer mode. The multiplayer mode is called Timeshift Multiplayer and the great feature about this is that it will allows racers to race anyone whenever they want. No matter what time it is or where they are, or even if they are offline, you guys can throw down on a race. How could I describe this in utterly ridiculous terms kids use these days? I know, does YOLO work? I’ve heard that thrown around the last 4 months and it seems popular. Hmm… nope, doesn’t apply to the situation. Let’s just say that it’s really damn awesome the way they set multiplayer up.

Basically all single career events will have doubles of your friends racing against you that are fully controlled by the AI. Your Facebook account is used to make this happen, which means you can actually race against your friends before they hop online and actually race against their vehicles. No more waiting because Johnny gets off of his pizza delivery job too late to have any fun. The Game is slated for release soon, later this month in fact. Sadly it goes to iOS first but Android will soon follow and we can all enjoy it.

Guns For Hire Turns Into A Mercenary, Can You Handle It?

The world is in chaos and arms runners and illegal weapons dealers are threatening everything people love in this world. There’s only one group of people that can handle taking down these scumbags. The Expendables were busy so we have you and your rough and tough band of mercenaries. You’re all the world’s got. Guns For Hire is a new free-to-play top down shooter that will have you commanding a mercenary group to take down wise cracking, artillery shooting, evil arms dealers that don’t give a lick about your morals or what you stand for. They only care about money and death to you. Fortunately for them arms dealing takes care of both. It’s your job to stop those mad men!

Guns for Hire is developed by Rebellion (appropriately named I think), and will have you commanding a tough squad of mercenaries to take down evil dictators and anyone else standing in your way of keeping the world safe. It’s a top down shooter with lots of bullets, graphics, glory, and plenty of weaponry both at your disposal and being used on you. You will have use of things like anti-personnel mines to throw down and blow your enemies to bits. You can outfit your crew with the latest armor for their protection, and command them with one touch controls to place them tactically. Did I mention air strikes? Yea, you can make hell rain down on your foes. I might be sold.

It sounds like there’s tons of stuff to keep you entertained while you kill some baddies. The game is free-to-play and supports in game purchases although I’m not sure how reliant the games story is on you making any of those purchases. You can pick it up from the play store now.

Borderlands 2 Will Be Playable Through Steam On Project Shield

We all love our games, some more than others. (Ahem.. don’t judge me…) One of my favorites right now is Borderlands 2 which I have purchased through steam to play on my super badass laptop. Yep, nvidia graphics. Duh… If you’ve heard about Nvidias project Shield, than you probably already know that it will run Android Jelly Bean and will allow you to play all kinds of cool games from the play store. But wait, it will also let you play your steam games. Ok, maybe you already knew that too. Maybe you didn’t. Either way, it’s possible and Will from nvidia shows us just how good the game looks on the device in the new Cyber Monday video that they will be doing every week. Nvidia is all about the next generation in gaming. That’s why they created project shield. That’s why they are perfecting cloud based gaming. They want us to have our hands on our games where ever we are.

In the video from this week Will shows us how project shield logs into steam and allows him to connect up to play his Favorite game also, Borderlands 2. He notes that whatever you see happening on Project Shields display is what’s happening on the PC rig it’s hooked up to. Everything looks great, and I must say I can’t wait to get my hands on a Project Shield device. Thank you Nvidia for finally making my dream come true. If you haven’t already checked out, here’s the cyber Monday video of the Borderlands 2 steam demo.

Cypress Inheritance Lands On Google Play In All Its Futuristic Glory

Action adventure games seem to making somewhat of a comeback these days, especially on Android. The newest addition to this genre is Cypress Inheritance, coming in hot with first person graphics that are not to be overlooked and a futuristic feel and flare that just might intrigue even the skeptics. You will play the game as Lorna, who is a relative of a crazy, brilliant, and rich man (think Howard Hughes) who has left you with vast sums of money, possessions and multiple mansions. Tough life.

What makes this game interesting is that to retrieve all the things that have been bequeathed to you, you must enter the mansions which are guarded by a now evolved AI named Vonya. Inside the mansion are seven priceless paintings that you must find, but to do so you will have to escape a number of traps and overcome many challenges placed in front of you by Vonya. Traps won’t be the only thing standing in your way though. Vonya will deploy an army of Robotic knights that will stop at nothing to see you dead, all in the name of protecting the treasures inside the mansion.

The game is built using Unreal Engine 3 so you can expect some pretty decent eye candy here. It seems the developers went full swing and really want the players to become involved in the game and the storyline so they have gone all out to produce actress Saffron Burrows for the voice of Vonya, and musical score by Dani Donadi will help plunge you into the games world of mystery and adventure. It seems the game will have lots to offer those who enjoy games where they are recommended to deeply pay attention to the story.

The game is set to be part of a series so if it sounds intriguing the good news there could be follow up titles to look forward to. It is recommended that you play the game with Android 4.0 or above and have at least a gig of ram and dual-core chip to play it, although it is compatible with generations of Android 2.3 +. You can pick this up from Google Play for $2.99

Gameloft Teaming Up With Kabam For Fast And Furious 6 Game

Kabam, the developers behind titles like Arcane Empires and The Hobbit: Kingdoms of Middle Earth, is teaming up with Gameloft to put out a movie tie in game based off the new Fast and Furious movie. This is nothing new for Gameloft, they’ve done about a billion of these movie based games, and who could blame them? People love movies and people love games it would stand to reason that people would love the games about the movie. The CEO of Kabam Games had this to say about everything:

The Fast and the Furious series is one of the hottest movie and mobile-gaming franchises of all time. Kabam is pedal down, blending the art of game design and the science of free-to-play distribution to make this game a thrill for street racing fans around the world. I can’t imagine a better partner to bring this game to market than Universal. - Kabam Studios president Andrew Sheppard.

Kabam is no noob when it comes to games. They have plenty of titles out across multiple platforms but they usually fly in the style of RTS types. So this is a slightly new direction for them. It’ll be interesting to see if they pull off a great game or if it’ll be a bust. I have never been a fan of the movie based games put out by Gameloft myself, I enjoy their original titles. (I know, you’re thinking.. “original?” I mean games that are non-movie based. ) Fast And Furious 6 is due to release on May 24^th so we can expect to see the game slightly before or soon after.

The XBLA Title Space Ark Will Be Landing On Tegra 3 Devices Soon

I love me some Xbox Live Aracde games. That being said, a new game from the XBLA line up will be heading to devices that run a tegra 3 chip called Space Ark. Tegra 3 means it will most likely be compatible with Tegra 4 chipsets as well seeing as those aren’t  too far off. Space Ark is currently available through the Xbox marketplace under the XBLA games and on Steam for the PC gamers out there. And now we can join them.

Space Ark looks a lot like a retro SNES game from the old days, at least in style anyway. Basically the game will have you rebuilding planets that have been demolished by a black hole. You will be able to choose from one of 24 different playable characters known as “Arkonauts” that have had their planet destroyed and are now traveling the universe, rebuilding all the planets in the wake of the black hole and repopulating the inhabitants.

There will be 30 missions across 5 fantastic worlds that challenge you. Along the way you will have to collect precious crystals that you can use to bring the broken worlds back to life. Space Ark will have plenty of weapons, crystal upgrades, and planet shields for you to unlock and there will be a huge library of arkonauts for you to unlock as well. Can you unlock all of them?

Space Ark will have expanding content so we can expect new worlds and arkonauts to be developed as time goes on, giving us new things to discover in the game and keeping it fun. So far no release date has been set yet but hopefully we will see this show up in tegrazone and google play soon. Seems like a pretty fun game. Has anybody played this XBL or Steam yet?

Gameloft Drops A Multiplayer Bomb With The Next Blitz Brigade Video

I talked about Blitz Brigade in last week’s Droid Game Hub. It’s Gameloft’s Version of the popular Valve FPS title that has been stealing gamers attention on Steam called Team fortress 2. In similar fashion, Blitz Brigade will have a cartoon like feel while allowing players to engage in some high tension multiplayer action of trying to blow each other to bits. Previously all they had released was a teaser trailer that showed only cut scene like footage of the game, and no actual gameplay. Well on Thursday they released a video that shows off the multiplayer action in all its glory.

There is 5 characters to choose from in all and you can expect tons of weapons, artillery, and tools to use to advantage in conquering the enemy team. There will be multiple maps to play on, vehicles to commandeer and run down foes, and even a single player campaign mode for those who don’t want to hop online and get their feet wet. We’ll update you guys more as information is released but for now enjoy the multiplayer footage.

Nvidia Demos Real Boxing On Project Shield

So we already know about Nvidia’s Cyber Monday video diary that they will be doing every week. A new weekly video series that they will be doing is called Android Thursdays and this week they decided to do a little demo of an upcoming game available for Project Shield called Real Boxing.

The will apparently have an in depth career mode that will immerse gamers into the boxers career from training to winning title belts. Real Boxing will feature 20 different characters all with their own unique skills and attributes and outfits. Thus far I don’t think I’ve seen anything like it on Android. I haven’t played a boxing game since Punch Out was re-released for the Nintendo Wii, but this is something I could definitely get on board with.

Project Shield is certainly taking Android gaming to the next level with the tegra 4 chip that is powering its core and Real Boxing was a great way to display the level of intensity we can start to expect from upcoming games on the Android platform. I was more impressed with the capability to play Borderlands 2 on it but I am enjoying seeing some new stuff come to the table with the graphics quality of what we see in consoles today. The video looks good and the game seems to play well. What would really be intense is if they showcased some sort of FPS or RPG similar to Skyrim. Something that is extremely demanding to show off how powerful the device will be. What do you guys think?

Nokia Lumia 620 First Impressions

 

 

In this article, we'll be looking at the cheapest Windows Phone 8 device ever made: The Nokia Lumia 620. This is a phone I've had my eye on for some time, as the smartphone seems to offer a compelling feature set despite its low price, boasting the full Windows Phone 8 experience yet costing about half that of the flagship Lumia 920 and HTC 8X devices. It's certainly a promising looking device, and I'm excited to take a closer look.

 

What follows are my first impressions of the Nokia Lumia 620; a prelude to the full review that will be made available next week.

 

1. Unboxing & Setup

 

The Nokia Lumia 620's box is an attractive one, with the same colour scheme as previous Nokia Windows Phones. That's a blue background colour, textured silver lettering for the name of the phone, and some rather colourful photographs of what's inside. The Lumia 620 is available in a wider range of colours than its more expensive forebears, and that's shown off to good effect here. I'm rather disappointed I only managed to find the white version - the green is rather fetching, as is the pink. On the back of the box, we've got the standard array of multi-language features that you'd see on any other phone.

 

 

To actually get at the precious contents of the parcel, you simply slide out the inner box. This reveals something rather nice - recycling information for the packaging as well as the phone itself. It's good to have this kind of ecological reminder easily accessible without being too aggressive. On the top we have the phone itself, covered in a typical plastic wrap, as well as a fairly good selection of accessories and a manual.

 

 

Taking everything out, we can see the full contents:

• Nokia Lumia 620 handset
• 1300 mAh battery
• MicroUSB to USB cable
• USB AC adapter
• Headphones (w/ inline remote + mic)
• Welcome manual

To get the phone set up, we'll need to take it apart, then put it together.  First thing's first - peel off any plastic wrap that you find on the phone and its accessories, including the camera lens - so many times I've seen this forgotten! Once this is completed, it's time to take off the back of the phone. This is accomplished by doing something a bit worrying - pushing the camera lens away from you, while pulling the top of the plastic back of the phone. While it feels wrong, it works well enough, quickly separating the phone into its two halves. This is easy enough - which is a good thing, seeing as you'll have to do it each time you want to change the microSD card, micro SIM, battery or even install a new cover.

 

 

Now we can start to install things. Put your micro SIM into the little tray as indicated on its diagram, then slide it into its slot on the left top side of the battery cavity. Next, install your microSD card (if you have one) into the folding slot; you'll need to slide it in, push it down and then slide it again to lock it in place properly. Once all these are installed without incident, it's time to put in the battery and close the phone once more. To get the two pieces of the phone back into one, just place the bottom of the screen into the bottom of the case, then fold the two halves together at the top.

 

Now you've got everything in place, just turn on the phone by pressing the middle button on the right hand side. For the first time setup, you'll need to sign in with a Microsoft account so make one if you don't already have one. Later, you're able to add new accounts from the Settings app - there are options for loads off the bat, including Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google. Follow the instructions and you'll be ready to start using your new phone!

 

You should automatically receive the right settings you need to send MMS and make calls, and receive a text notification of the same. Try sending a text, making a call and accessing the internet to make sure that everything is shipshape.

 

2. Specifications & Hardware Impressions

 

Let's look briefly at this phone's specifications, before we talk about the hardware itself:

• Display: 3.8" WVGA (800 x 480) ClearBlack 
• CPU: Dual-core Snapdragon S4 Plus at 1 GHz
• GPU: Adreno 305
• RAM: 512 MB
• Internal storage: 8 GB
• External storage: microSD up to 32 GB
• Battery: 1300 mAh

So on the hardware side, it's quite good considering the Lumia 620's status as the cheapest Windows Phone 8 device in Nokia's arsenal. We've got a dual-core processor that's a big improvement even over the Lumia 900 that came last year; we've got a fairly low amount of RAM, but again a better GPU than the Nokia Windows Phone 7 flagship. Internal storage is decent, but can be augmented via microSD to allow for more than enough storage space. The battery is a potential worry, but is still moderately sized given the somewhat tepid internals. The display is the same resolution and type as the Nokia 900, but slightly smaller at 3.8" - granting a higher pixel density.

 

So against older flagship phones, the Lumia 620 is quite good on paper. Using the phone bears this out - the phone is only rarely laggy, with generally snappy performance in a wide range of apps. I ran the free WP Bench application and received a score of 171.3. It's certainly nowhere near the score attained by the top of the range Windows Phone 8 devices, but it's still comfortably over all members of the previous generation which typically didn't reach triple figures.

 

In terms of physical design, I've got few complaints. While the all-plastic construction is nowhere near as lovely as that of the Lumia 800 or 900 series phones, it's an understandable design choice given the low price point. The swappable covers definitely allow for a splash of colour around the device, and I may look into picking up a green or pink cover to augment my collection. The phone is certainly both chunkier and smaller than my Nexus 4, but it's still easily pocketable and it's generally easier to use with a single hand.

 

3. Software Impressions

 

How does the Lumia 620 strike me in terms of software? Well, it's actually fairly good. While app selection on Windows Phone still isn't brilliant or comparable to that of Android or iOS, it's not too bad and seems to be getting better at a fairly rapid rate. Apps that I used to only find on the bigger platforms - like my local train company's live rail times app - have now made it to the Windows Phone marketplace and seem to work well.

 

 

 

There are still some problems though, with missing functionality - like my fitness app, which doesn't allow the option of logging in through Facebook unlike the Android version - and inexplicably missing apps, like Dropbox. On the whole though, Windows Phone is far from the barren wasteland it was on launch and seems to reliably be the #3 choice of developers behind Android and iOS.

 

The Lumia 620 also has the benefit of having access to Nokia's now considerable library of Windows Phone apps - including Cinemagraph, Nokia Care, Nokia City Lens, Nokia Drive+ (Beta), Nokia Maps and Nokia Music. All of these are strong options that rival or eclipse what ships natively with the platform, and continue to be a strong differentiator for Nokia against rivals like HTC, Samsung and Huawei.

 

4. Conclusion

 

I'm enjoying my time with the Nokia Lumia 620 thus far, and while I do miss using my Nexus 4 as my daily driver, it's not as much of a loss as I would have expected.

 

 

Be sure to tune in next week as I deliver the full review for the Lumia 620, and make my final verdict on the phone's viability as a budget Windows Phone. I'll also be following that coverage with a few other articles, including looks at the Lumia 620 accessory ecosystem and some of the best apps available for the phone.

 

Thanks for reading, and be sure to let me know your own first impressions of the Lumia 620! In addition, if there are any questions you'd like me to answer in the review please do leave them in the comments below. Thanks once again and have a good night!

HTC Butterfly Features Specifications Review - Price in India / US

HTC is simply – one brilliant smartphone maker. They have been making smartphones unlike others since the very beginning, and the sparkle of their awesomeness was seen last year – through their One series smartphones. The HTC One X is rated one of the best Android smartphones of the year, and it still is the best in the HTC Android smartphone device lineup.

And HTC is going to continue to increase this brilliantly featured handsets in this year as well, and this is the Taiwanese company’s first 5’ inch smartphone. Or should we call this a phablet? It was first made as J Butterfly as a Japanese variant, and now making its way to the international market. However, let’s have a sneak peek at HTC Butterfly international version.

HTC Butterfly Features - Appearance & Specifications

The Body

Well, it’s sleek but a little thicker than the HTC One X. The typical HTC designs in a renovated form! It’s lightweight though, but still not so much.

Display

This huge size display indeed deserves to be more emphasized. HTC indeed put a lot money for the development of the display, and the resulting thing is superb! It’s a 5 inch display with 1920x1080 pixels resolution, which indicates a full HD display. The pixel density is a whopping 441 PPI….have you ever seen a phone with this much higher PPI? It just makes the display more crisp and clear! Higher PPI in a smartphone screen, that makes the pixels more tighter in a less space and results a better display than….umm iPhone5 and Galaxy SIII! The display is Corning Gorilla protected to avoid scratch marks.

CPU, GPU, Processor

This Butterfly flies on a 1.5 GHz quad core Krait CPU. HTC didn’t walk in the Tegra 3 way like everyone else, because Tegra 3 is power hungry. But this didn’t stop the butterfly from flying.

And the graphics chip is not Adreno 225, it’s Adreno 320. A new chip by the manufacturer Adreno.  And the 2GB RAM adds smoothness in flying!

Camera

The camera is a similar one to the ‘HTC One X’, and it has a large aperture of f/2.2. Pretty large for a camera of a cellphone, this ensures capture of good photos. Video mode is awesome, captures at 1080p, and you get all the functions like One X. The burst shots, the photo capture while recording video….everything!

And the front facing camera is 2.0 megapixels. This camera has a crazy aperture rating, and supports 1080p recording! The second phone after Nokia Lumia 820 with this feature.

Connectivity and Memory Expansion

About Wi-Fi, HTC didn’t clarify anything about having dual band Wi-Fi. But as a 2013 smartphone, it should have the dual band capability. And for the same reason, it supports 4G LTE.

The internal memory is 16GB onboard, and thanks to HTC’s generosity.  They have kept the micro SD card expansion slot.

And yes, the butterfly is equipped with NFC. Why shouldn’t the files fly?

HTC Butterfly Price - Approx.

Expected HTC Butterfly Price in other countries list below.

Expected HTC Butterfly Price in India is Rs 38000/-.

Expected HTC Butterfly Price in USA is $788.

Expected HTC Butterfly Price in UK is £300.

Expected HTC Butterfly Price in Pakistan is PKR 68134

Expected HTC Butterfly Price in Dubai/UAE is AED  2551

Expected HTC Butterfly Price in Singapore is SGD 847

Expected HTC Butterfly Price in Malaysia is RM 2123

Expected HTC Butterfly Price in Hong Kong is HKD 5387

Expected HTC Butterfly Price in Philippines is PHP 28502

And, we’re done peeking….
That was long enough for a sneak peek. The launch price was somewhat around 45ooo Rupees, you may wait for some days for the price to fall a little bit; and if you can’t wait then you can get it just right now. What I can say – your money will be worth it! HTC Butterfly – Feel Free like a Butterfly

Read more: http://www.androidgyan.com/2013/02/htc-butterfly-features-specifications.html#ixzz2KXw29SkH

Next-gen Nexus 7 could see Nvidia ousted in favor of Qualcomm

The next-generation Nexus 7 tablet could see Nvidia's Tegra 4 System-on-a-Chip (SoC) ousted in favor of Qualcomm's Snapdragon S4 Pro silicon.

According to Pacific Crest analyst Michael McConnell, Google is choosing to go with the Snapdragon S4 Pro APQ8064 chip over the Tegra 4 hardware, not only because Qualcomm is willing to offer a better deal but also due to the S4 Pro's tighter integration with 3G and 4G modem technology.

This simplifies the supply chain, which means ultimately means lower costs.

The S4 Pro is a good choice for the Nexus 4 because it offers integrated cellular technology; something that even the upcoming Tegra 4 SoC—which Nvidia claims is the world's fasted mobile processor—will not.

The Tegra 4, previously codenamed "Wayne", was unveiled at CES 2013 and features at its heart 72 custom Nvidia GeForce GPU cores, giving it six-times the graphics processing power of the current Tegra 3. The Tegra 4 also comes with worldwide support for 4G LTE voice and data by utilizing the optional fifth-generation Nvidia Icera i500 chipset.

The loss of a place in the Nexus 7 represents a big hit for Nvidia. At an average price of $20 to $25 per Tegra processor McConnell estimates that it will mean an "adverse revenue impact of $200 million to $250 million."

McConnell claims that the new Nexus 7 is scheduled to begin shipment in the second quarter of 2013. 

 

But it's not all bad news for Nvidia.

McConnell sees good news for the company on the workstation front, with a rise in high profit margin—around 46 percent—of professional Quadro GPU sales. McConnell has increased his Quadro workstation sales estimate to $897 million, representing an 8 percent year-over-year growth, compared to his previous estimate of $857 million, or a 3 percent year-on-year growth. 

Happier Launches To Help You Share Your Daily Happy Moments

iOS app Happier is launching today with the ambitions of, well, making you a happier person. The app is inspired by research that shows that focusing on the positive and sharing good things that happen to you with the people you care about makes you happier. You can download the app here.

The app, which is the brainchild of former Where product VP (sold to PayPal) Nataly Kogan, encourages people to capture and share happy moments during the day. As Kogan explains, happy moments can be small, such as eating something you enjoy for breakfast, getting an email from a friend, or a hug from your kids.

To share a moment, you can jot down a memory and take an accompanying picture. You can also categorize these happy moments, such as food, exercise or time with friends. And you can share these moments in the app with friends and family.

The end vision, says Kogan, is that by collecting and organizing data about what makes people happier, the team can build a “happiness graph.” Of course, there needs to be enough usage of the app to attain this goal.

The Boston-based startup has raised $1.2 million from Resolute VC and Venrock.

Smartphone operating systems: The rise of Android, the fall of Windows

A quick glance at comScore's latest numbers on smartphone operating systems reveals no real surprises. Android is still number one, with 53.4 percent of the market, a slight gain over the previous quarter; Apple's iOS is still number two, with 36.3 percent of the market and a significant uptick of 2 percent; and Windows Phone is fourth, behind BlackBerry, with 2.9 percent, a drop of 0.7 percent.

Wait. What? Wasn't the arrival of Windows Phone 8 supposed to finally give Microsoft mobile operating systems a long-needed kick in the pants?

It's Android in first, iOS in second, and a fading pair, BlackBerry and Windows Phone, in third and fourth. (Credit: comScore)

Well, yes actually it was. Windows Phone 8, along with Windows 8 and the Surface devices, was supposed to reinvent Microsoft. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer claimed that in the first month of sales Windows Phone 8 sales had seen a 300 percent jump over Windows Phone 7 and Windows Phone 7.5 sales. And, the top-of-the-line Windows Phone 8, the Nokia Lumia 920, got generally favorable reviews. So, what went wrong?

Behind the hype, I think Google hit the nail on the head. The Android giant said it had no plans to build apps for Windows Phone 8 because they're not enough users. Well, based on comScore's numbers, it looks like Google Apps product management director Clay Bavor was right and Ballmer was... misinformed. There really isn't much user interest out there in Windows Phone 8 devices.

Whether Windows Phone 8 is really much good isn't the question. The simple fact is that Microsoft hasn't been successful in making people believe that smartphones with Windows Phone 8 are better than Android phones or Apple iPhones. 

The mobile phone operating system race is still what it was before: a two-horse race between Android and iOS with Android holding a comfortable lead. BlackBerry? While the new BlackBerry Z10 handset looks good, it's a case of too little, too late for the long, declining company.

True, BlackBerry is trying to make it easy for Android developers to port their apps to its new QNX-based (an embedded Unix) BlackBerry 10 operating system, but why bother? With BlackBerry platform share at 6.4 percent, a drop of 2 percent from the previous quarter, you'd be hitching your wagon to a failing horse.

No, looking ahead for mobile operating systems, the real question isn't which ones to develop for and plan on using: It's Android and iOS by a country mile. Android, even with its continuing fragmentation problem, will remain in the lead. The true question is which if any smartphone operating system might become a viable third platform.

As for Windows 8 Phone, stick a fork in it, it's done. BlackBerry is going to continue its decline. If there's going to be a number three smartphone platform with some life to it, I see it coming from the various Linux distributions giving the smartphone a try. The new and coming contenders for third place in 2013 will be Firefox OS, Sailfish OS, Tizen, and Ubuntu. 

Of this quartet of contenders for third, I like Ubuntu the best. Now that we know that Ubuntu phones will be shipping this year, I feel much better about its chances. Behind Ubuntu, Firefox OS -- which will shortly be shipping on its first two phones -- is my dark horse.