Distimo illustrates the iPhone’s 4x revenue advantage over Android with the graph above. The iPad also makes a noteworthy mark by beating Android as well. These figures are from the 200 highest grossing apps for all three stores.

Revenue growth has been helped by the explosion of apps in all stores. The exhibit above depicts that astounding increase. Distimo provides further analysis and mentions that revenue from both camps have been driven largely by free-apps containing in-app purchases.

When you break down app growth by free-apps you’ll notice that both iPhone and Android stores have made some significant strides, especially Android. According to Distimo, approximately half of the revenue generated from apps in the Apple App Store originate from these free-apps. Even more amazingly is the Android Market where the number is 65%. Android has become the largest free-app market.

What are people downloading causing this drive in revenue? The answer is simple – Games. Games are the “most robust and thus the most important.” There are 79,077 games available for iPhone, 28,683 for the iPad, and 46,045 for the Android Market.

For more information on the report check this link.

Amazon Price Check app

Pros	Cons
Unique RTS gameplay	Crashes may occur
Levels can be more challenging than expected	Short campaign mode
Three different gameplay modes

Strategy games outside the realm of tower defenses are a rare find – real time strategy (RTS) games even more so.  RTS games usually require the use of a mouse and keyboard in a large scrollable map. From these requirements there’s no doubt that finding an RTS game on any phone would be difficult.  The developers at Chillingo aren’t scared of the challenge though, and have come up with an intriguing game called Swords and Soldiers that aims to blend the elements of an RTS game into a screen a hundred times smaller than your average computer monitor.

This isn’t Swords & Soldiers first appearance in the world of gaming. Swords & Soldiers first appeared on console platforms as downloadable games in 2009 and later on PC and Mac. Nothing truly new has been added besides touch implementation, which is feels naturally integrated.

The game boasts three nutty, well-animated factions: the Vikings, the Aztecs, and the Chinese. Each faction has a playable campaign and story that is unique and engaging. The Aztecs center attacks and spells themed around death. Contrast to that, the Vikings use defensive and healing tactics. Finally, the Chinese center around casting buffer spells. The campaigns for each race are somewhat interwoven and aim to communicate a grander story. These plot points add marginal value but help drive the diversification of levels and gameplay.

The game’s core mechanics, disregarding race, involve spamming troops and digging for gold, all the while defending your commander. This makes the game simple and easy to manage, which is a stark contrast to traditional Real Time Strategy (“RTS”) games. Here, you stockpile troops and enhance them with spells in one direction of the screen, not the multiple directions found in games like Starcraft. A simple formula like that can be dull and boring, but Swords & Soldiers maintains interest with its upgrade tree and spells. This formula may not be the best fit for a console game, but is perfect for a person who is looking to kill some boredom on their phone.

The few negatives the game presents all concern the AI. In most instances you will be fighting against hoards of enemy troops with nothing much to do except buckle down and wait for a spell that can level the playing field. A more balanced/diverse AI along with more spells could help fix this. Some missions that diverge from the mass hoards of enemies are campaigns that involve no gold or defend objectives. In some cases these missions are more difficult as they provide little resource to pump more men, but when you come across these missions the develops usually provide a solution that helps in your advantage.

Overall a unique game that offers an enjoyable RTS experience.

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After looking at the numbers only 17% of cell phone users and 7% of tablet users say they don’t use apps at all. The biggest percentage (30% for phones and 33% for tablets) are accessing 3 to 5 apps a week. As you might expect, the older the population, the less they use apps: 31% of people ages 50 and above don’t use apps on their app-ready device. Whereas only 16% of peoples ages 30-49 don’t use their apps.

Breaking down the numbers by all adults shoes you:

The app usage may appear a little depressing, but 35% of all adults (with devices or not) are accessing at least one app on a cell phone once a week. The share of adult cell phone owners who have downloaded an app nearly doubled in the past two years – rising from 22% in September 2009 to 38% in August 2011. For tablets, 9% of adults access a tablet app. Remember though that tablets are still a niche product, but are selling faster than any consumer electronics product in recent memory; that number will quickly grow.

Below is a breakdown of the type apps:

Some of these categories can definitely overlap, such as the category regarding updates on sports, weather, etc. and the category regarding receiving more information.

All in all, we can only see app usage continue to grow.

As the title says, it seems that the App Store is currently allowing some users running the iOS betas to update their apps from the update tab without leaving the App Store. Basically, you’ll no longer be yanked out of the App Store screen and into your home screen to watch your apps update. Now you can continue scouring the App Store while your apps update in the background. This make perfect sense as most users usually go to the App Store to search and download apps, and not primarily to update their existing ones.

This new feature may suggest that Apple is finally planning to let users download multiple apps at once, without ever leaving the App Store. Presently, after you select the app you want to download, you are redirected out of the App Store and to the home screen where your app is being downloaded. This is great for downloading one app, but when you want to go all out and download a bunch (like we usually do) you have to re-enter the app store each time. The ability to queue app downloads would make the overall downloading experience much more streamlined too.

Hopefully, we’ll see more updates soon – in the meantime we’re all just as slow as snails when downloading apps. 

Pros	Cons
Over 460 icons	Icons can only be viewed by Apple device users
Simple and easy interface	Verizon iPhone to At&t iPhone issues
Free

The Emoji Free! app, by Awesomest Inc., adds a twist and hint of creativity to your text messages, notes, or emails. Instead of the typical punctuation and letters, this application makes your responses more unique and interesting. You’re able to express a greater degree of emotion with emoticons deeply portraying your feelings of fear, disgust, frustration, or embarrassment! Interestingly, there’s also icons that depict animals, places, and things. So if you’re going to throw a joke and call someone a cow, Emoji has made it easy – just type in the cow icon.

Delving more deeply into the app there’s a certain physics based sandbox feature downloaded onto your home screen that’ll enhance your experience. This feature allows you to play with the Emoji icons. You can add/delete the icons to the box and make them bigger, smaller, tilted, etc. We don’t really see the point of this feature or the huge upside, but it might come in handy during times of extreme boredom.

Here are instructions on how to enable the Emoji Free! Application after downloading it onto your phone:

1. Go to Settings -> General -> Keyboard -> International Keyboard -> Add New Keyboard -> Emoji.
2. Restart the iPhone.
3. Open any application with keyboard support.
4. Tap the international globe icon. (You may have to tap several times more to get there if you have other keyboards enabled.)
5. Select an Emoji group from the Emoji keyboard.
6. Tap any icon to add it to your text.

itunes Store

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iTunes

Angry Birds Free
If you have an iPhone it’s best to take advantage of the addicting library of games. Some would even go as far to say that the iPhone and its brother, the iPod Touch, is basically a portable gaming device. One of the best games, free and paid, is Angry Birds. The free version doesn’t include as many levels as the paid version, but still packs plenty that’ll give you some time to come up with the cash to buy the real version. It’s addicting nature will leave you wanting more, that means buying the paid version. Maybe it’s not a good idea to get this app then…

HootSuite for Twitter
One of the best things about having a smart phone is that you can stay up to date with all your social networks. Facebook and twitter both have apps that you can download, but to be honest, they’re not that great. The facebook app is laggy, buggy, and there’s some functionality that just doesn’t work. You can still download it, but at times it can be real frustrating to use. The Twitter app is better – it doesn’t lag and it updates pretty frequently.

HootSuite one ups those apps and offers non-laggy functionality along with tons of other additions, such as conversation history, url shorteners, language translation, etc. HootSuite allows you to manage Twitter, Facebook, and Foursquare in a non-frustrating, happy manner. Download HootSuite for your social media needs.

Instagram
The iPhone 4 is equipped with a high quality camera that is capable of taking photos that are better than cheap point and shoot cameras.
Instagram allows you to edit those photos in an artistic fashion, creating pictures that are truly everlasting. Instagram will give your photos a classic finish with the ability to share them on all your social networks. Instagram is a must have to take advantage of your iPhone’s camera. To read a more thorough review click here.

Pandora
Music is what sooths everyone’s soul. With that said, there are times where you just can’t afford new music or even worse you just can’t find any. Pandora solves this by delivering new music to your iPhone that is similar to whatever music you like. You simply choose a song that you like and Pandora will create a playlist of songs that resembles that chosen song.

The only annoying thing about this app is that every so often an ad from living social will pop up. But hey – you’re getting free music so it’s worth it. Get the Pandora app to sooth your soul.

Yelp
Delicious food is a gift from God. Disgusting food is a curse from the devil. Thankfully the yelp app helps us find the oh-so great tasting foods that the planet has to offer. The yelp app not only helps us find the best restaurants around us, but also has filters that allow us to find the cheap ones. You can also use yelp to read reviews about places other than restaurants, like stores, salons, museums, etc. To help you get to the best places around you, download the yelp app.

Pros	Cons
Great responsive controls	Sound would sometimes disappear in survival
No lag no matter how many zombies on screen	Story mode beatable in less than 2-3 hours
One-liners by Barry Steakfries – Enough said

BRAIIINNNSSSSSS.  Professor Brains has made a time machine and sent zombies to different eras to take over the world! The world is doomed… but wait, Barry Steakfries and his one-liners to the rescue!  In Age of Zombies you play as Mr. Steakfries as he travels through time in order to stop Professor Brains with your collection of SMGs, shotguns, flamethrowers, buzz saws, bazookas, land mines, and more!

The controls are simple.  One thumb controls movement while the other controls the direction you shoot.  The controls were responsive and its nice how you can change in the options whether you want the controls fixed in place or wherever you place your thumb.  The responsive controls are vital especially when you are being chased by hordes of zombies where one wrong move will get you surrounded and torn to pieces!

The graphics are great and the game did not slow down even if the entire screen was nearly full of zombies chasing me.  There is a great level of detail in the zombies to the point where you can tell there are multiple types chasing you down.  The sounds were right on as well from gunshots to zombies screaming “brainnnss”, although in survival mode the sound would occasionally go away for a few seconds and then come back.

There are two modes of play: story and survival.  The story mode, while short, is a blast.  There are 4 time periods you travel through, each with 3 levels.  Mr. Steakfries is prepared for each era with not just his weapons, but also his awesome one-liners.  At the end of each era you fight a boss related to the area.  The game isn’t too difficult and I was able to beat the story mode in less than 2-3 hours.  The survival mode is self-explanatory: survive as long as you can and rack up your score!  This helps to add replay value as you try to climb up the leaderboards (it uses Open Feint).

Overall this is a great game from the creators of Fruit Ninja.  We highly recommend it!

Age of Zombies (Android App Store)

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Pros	Cons
Challenging	Not a complete or genuine golf game
Variety of beautiful courses and replay value	Multiplayer would be nice
Simple controls

To many people out there, golf is a relaxing and peaceful sport with 9 or 18 holes in a course – to the developers at Full Fat it’s simply an all out driving range. Flick Golf! is described as a golf game, but is a little different from what most people would refer to as a full 18 hole game. Yet, Flick Golf! delivers addicting game play in a way that is perfect for a mobile device. Can Flick Golf! capture a golfer’s heart? Better yet, can it even capture ours?
Launching the application will give you the option to choose between three different modes; quickshot, world tour, and quickshot pro. Quickshot is a timed game, world tour is a campaign mode where you can win trophies, and quickshot pro is also a timed game but with harder mechanics such as less time and more wind. Wanting to win those shiny trophies, we started off with world tour.

When you start the game a short and easy explanation of how to play the game appears right before you. The game is truly easy to grasp, as all you have to do is simply flick the golf ball up in the air, then as the ball is in the air you can swipe at it making it go the direction you want it to go. You can only swipe the ball when it’s in the air or when it’s bouncing – after that you won’t be able to change its direction. Later when you face more challenging courses, you’ll also have to factor in the wind. The game play is simplistic enough, but it’s still challenging in a way that you won’t want to put your device down.

After passing the beginner stage you’ll be able to unlock more stages up to the elite stage at Totori Shore. There are total of six stages and each has four different trophies. The platinum trophies are difficult to acquire, but once you get them you’ll have a satisfying grin that you can only get after good hard work.

Some may consider the game play to be a little too challenging, but we found that it was just right – it wasn’t frustrating or unfair to the point that we wanted to rip our hair out. Another problem some people may have is that it’s not a complete golf game. The game is really just a driving range, where you don’t continue from where you hit the ball – you continuously hit from where you start. There aren’t 9 or 18 different holes in a course, and there isn’t a different set of clubs you can hit with (wish we could putt…). Thus, you can say this isn’t truly a golf game, yet Flick Golf! still has us addicted to its straight forward style.

Flick Golf! offers a good amount of hours with its three different modes too. We’ve all registered about 20+ hours of game play and we’re still trying to get all the achievements. This game will definitely keep you occupied and save you from boredom for a good while.

If you have a dollar to spare and need an entertaining game to pass the time then this game is for you. Flick Golf! will amuse anyone who picks it up. So go get your swing on.

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