Bluestacks, the team behind the Android app player for Windows, has released the company’s first “Mr.Android” study. Ever wonder what the average Android user may look like? Pretty normal, apparently. Using data collected from Nielsen Media Research along with a survey of Bluestacks’s 145,000 Facebook fans, the company created a composite of what the average Android user looks like and even what kind of clothes typical Android users might wear. Additionally, the chart includes country of origin, phone habits and much more. Interestingly enough, 18% of users have unusually large heads according to the study, while 62% wear jeans and 63% have a significant other. The data was collected between December 12th to December 19th, and it is in no way scientific. The company’s full press release follows after the break.

BlueStacks Announces “Mr.Android” 2011

Android-Apps-on-PC software company compiles statistics on prototypical Android user

Campbell, CA (PRWEB) December 29, 2011

Android on Windows company BlueStacks has announced its first annual “Mr.Android.” The company built a proxy for the average Android user employing data from Nielsen, along with a poll of its 145,000 Facebook fans.The data revealed some interesting statistics, such as the fact that a full third of Android users have never downloaded a paid app, and more eccentric nuggets such as the fact that 18% reported having unusually large heads. 37% of Android users reported wearing glasses.

To turn the data into photos, the company turned to Brazilian designer Pablo de la Rocha. “I loved the idea of an amalgam of the different aspects of the Android user,” said de la Rocha. “It’s one of those things where you don’t know how it’s going to look until you try. It came out pretty weird, which is why we love it.”

BlueStacks says it plans to release a “Ms.Android” in 2012. The Mr.Android graphic can be found at http://bluestacks.com/mr-android-2011/. The company has made embed code available at the bottom of the page.

BlueStacks recently announced its Android Apps on PC software passed 550,000 downloads since the release of its alpha version in October. A beta release is expected in the new year. The free download is available at http://BlueStacks.com.

Read

Let’s face it, while app reviews in the Android Market might be helpful to developers and potential customers for finding out some of the best and worst features of the current release of an app, they haven’t been altogether too informative, and could be skewed to show the app as being worst/better than it really is. Old reviews can still weigh heavily on the user’s choice, especially if those reviews mention glaring bugs that had been fixed in recent updates or that were only present on older Android phones. Also frustrating is when developers see a review with good feedback that they would like to save/share later, only for it to get lost in the thousands of other reviews for that same app – going back in to find it later is like trying to find a specific needle in a pile of other similarly formatted needles.

The web version (not on your devices yet) of Android Market has solved those two concerns with a simple and effective update. Users can now see the type of device that the reviewer was using the app on (such as the LG Optimus 2X in Juan’s review above) and the version number of the app that they were reviewing (version 2.9, again, in the screenshot above).

On top of that, developers (and anyone for that matter) can now grab the permalink to individual reviews for sharing or reading later. To the right of every reviewer’s nametag and device info you will see the universal symbol for “link”. Click that icon and the page will reload with that review on top and a fresh URL that you can send anywhere.

In the future it would be nice to sort reviews by specific devices or app versions being used, rather than asking us to browse through or link them all individually (it would also be great if they reproduced this in the mobile app soon), but for now this update is a welcome change.

Thanks for the Tip, Stephen!

Around here we don’t judge people for their choice of smartphone OS.  We might point and snicker, but it’s all in fun.  Having said that, there are more than a few people making the leap from an iPhone to an Android phone.  There’s a world of difference, and sometimes it can be difficult to figure out the “android way” of doing things — especially if you’re used to iOS and their different, “Apple way” of doing things.  AC forums adviser, and all around guru of guides milominderbinder has you covered once again.  He’s taken the time and broken everything down to the basics, with an eye for folks switching to Android from iOS.  It’s a beautiful read, even if you’re not an ex-iUser — you’ll probably learn something.  Be sure to hit the forums and check it out, and give milo a big thanks for his hard work!

Apple user’s guide to Android

I agree.

I popped open my market app, tapped Music, hit top Albums, CHECK, tapped top Songs, CHECK.

Phil’s post was dead on perfect. He got all of them right. Copy, Paste, Done.

Next week: Top selling books from the android market. EXTRA! Extra!: Top Movie Rentals!!!

Anyone can check this list any time they want from any android device.
So why do we need an article about this?

Amazon Kindle Fire forums

Wanna sideload apps (or use ADB for any other reason) to your Kindle Fire via your computer?  It’s really easy — just add the USB Vendor ID to the Windows ini file.  Even reading it seems more complicated than it really is.  On your Windows computer, press the Start button, then choose “All programs” > “Accessories” > “Command prompt” to open the text based command prompt for your computer.  Then copy the following line, and past it into the command window:

echo 0×1949 >> “%USERPROFILE%\.android\adb_usb.ini

Press the Enter key, and you’re done.  What’s it doing you ask?  It’s adding the Vendor ID (0×1949) to the end of the Users\%your_user_name%\.android\adb_usb.ini file, so that the Android SDK tools can communicate with your Kindle Fire.  Doing it via the command prompt means you don’t have to make hidden and protected files viewable, and it has a little bit of nerd factor to make you smile inside.

Once you’ve done that, enable Unknown sources in your Fire, connect it to your computer, and you can install apps just like you would with any other Android device.  For more help on installing and setting up the Android SDK, visit the forums. 

Source: ACT Local Media (Mac instructions are there) via Android Guys