appMobi (www.appmobi.com) today announced public beta availability of its highly anticipated directCanvas acceleration technology for the Android mobile operating system from its booth (#2324) at the 2012 Game Developers Conference (“GDC12”) at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco, California. directCanvas dramatically accelerates the speed of screen refresh rates in games and apps that use the HTML5 canvas element. On a typical Android phone or tablet, screen refresh rates will be more than 10 times faster when using directCanvas. This kind of acceleration can be the difference between a game barely working and a game having the fluid responsiveness of a native app.
 
The iOS version of directCanvas was released as open source in November 2011, and today’s beta SDK release supports the use of directCanvas on Android version 2.2 (Froyo) through the current version (Ice Cream Sandwich) on devices like the Amazon Kindle Fire, Barnes & Noble Nook Tablet, Samsung Galaxy, Motorola Droid Razr, HTC One X and others. Developers are invited to join the directCanvas/Android beta program at www.appmobi.com/dCAndroidbeta. GDC12 attendees are invited to visit the appMobi booth, #2324, during the conference to receive a VIP code for the beta.
 
“Today appMobi is extending the proven game acceleration benefits of directCanvas beyond iOS to the Android platform,” said Sam Abadir, appMobi CTO. “With over 300 million devices in the field, and adding 850,000 new devices every day, the Android smartphone platform dominates the Apple iOS platform in size, yet we have seen very few hit Android games. We intend to change that.”
 
Like the iOS version, directCanvas for Android also accelerates sound and physics calculations. appMobi’s multiSound API augments and speeds HTML5’s built-in sound capabilities with low latency sound playback capabilities. The directBox2D API accelerates in-game physics calculations by up to 4000 percent, allowing complex physics-based games to handle large numbers of animated on-screen entities.
 
Since 2010, appMobi has been the clear leader in the industry’s charge toward an open HTML5 mobile app standard. Piece by piece, the company has crafted an integrated technology platform that allows HTML5 games to perform as well as native iOS and Android app store games, on Facebook, and on the open mobile Web.
 
directCanvas for Android complements the complete appMobi HTML5 game platform, which includes:
– playMobi, an API that supports cross-platform in-app payments, analytics, and social gaming
– multiSound
– directBox2D acceleration
– Impact GameDev XDK for 2D physics-based game development  
 
directCanvas for Android will join the iOS version as an open source technology when development and testing has been completed. Game developers who wish to help test and finalize directCanvas for Android can apply to join the beta program at www.appmobi.com/dCAndroidbeta or can visit appMobi in booth #2324 at GDC12 for their VIP beta invite code.