Flurry: Christmas Day 2012 Smartphone And Tablet Activations Top 17.4M, 2.5X The Record Set In 2011

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Christmas Day is increasingly the day that a flood of new phones and tablets come online; it regularly sets and breaks records for new device activations. This year was no exception, according to mobile analytics firm Flurry’s annual study, which found that 17.4 million devices were activated on December 25 this year, a 332 percent increase over activations covering December 1 – 20, and a 156 percent increase on the numbers from a year ago.

Flurry’s data covers a catalog of 260,000 apps that use its mobile analytics platform, across Android, iOS and Amazon devices, and the firm claims it can account for roughly 90 percent of total new device activations given its reach. Not surprisingly, app downloads likewise spiked alongside the record activations, with 328 million app downloads on Christmas Day, a record high for a single day since Flurry started measuring app downloads. Downloads per hour peaked early at around 11 AM on the 25th, and remained high throughout the day until around 8:30 or 9 PM. While Christmas represents a single-day peak, Flurry projects that app downloads will remain high throughout the next week and into New Year’s Day, ending the holiday period with over 1.5 billion downloads, and possibly reaching as high as 2 billion total.

Lat year, app downloads were at 242 million for Christmas Day, so this year’s total represents a 36 percent increase over last year’s number. Total holiday downloads were at 1.2 billion in 2011, so if they experience a similar spike, Flurry’s predictions make sense, since 36 percent growth would put the total at just over 1.6 billion downloads for the holiday period.

Tablets won the day over smartphones, at least compared to their average performance. Fifty-one percent of new devices activated on Christmas were tablets, vs. just 20 percent during the baseline period covering December 1 -2. That suggests that tablets are considered by most to be a more suitable gift than smartphones, perhaps owing to their availability without contracts. It could also reflect that while people are generally willing to spend on a smartphone for themselves, a tablet is seen as more of a luxury item, and therefore not something most folks are likely to have bought themselves. Flurry says the top winners among tablets for the holiday look to be the iPad, iPad mini and Amazon Kindle Fire HD 9-inch, specifically.

Moog Music tacks on Grateful Dead expansion pack to Animoog 2.0 for $4.99 (video)

Moog Music tacks on Grateful Dead expansion pack to Animoog 2.0 (video)

Late last week, Moog Music rolled out version 2.0 of its Animoog synthesizer app for Apple’s slate. Now, the Asheville, North Carolina outfit is adding a truckload of new sounds less than a week after the initial release. The Grateful Dead Expansion Pack is now available for the iPad software, touting 82 presets and 45 timbres broken down into ensemble, percussion and vocal groupings. Each piece of the add-on was taken from a February 1968 performance at the Carousel Ballroom and optimized for the Animoog platform.

“We’re not simply providing samples from the Grateful Dead’s body of work, rather we’ve distilled the essence of notes and phrases in a different way to transform these performances into new instruments — new voices,” says Cyril Lance, Moog’s Chief Engineer. The $4.99 in-app purchase is available now, but while you’re mulling it over, jump down past the break to catch a glimpse of Mickey Hart taking it for a spin.

Continue reading Moog Music tacks on Grateful Dead expansion pack to Animoog 2.0 for $4.99 (video)

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Source: Moog

Google Names Its Best Android Apps For 2012

google apps Google Names Its Best Android Apps For 2012Not to be outdone with Apple’s list of best iTunes apps for the year 2012, Google is also flashing its own list of this year’s best Android apps. Topping the list is the Zappos app, which is basically an app for shopping shoes, clothes, housewares, and more. Second in line is the insanely popular note-taking app, Evernote. Landing at the third spot is Pinterest and bagging the fourth place is Grimm’s Snow White. (more…)

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: African-Designed Smartphone & Tablet Launched, Huawei Ascend Mate 6.1-inch Full HD Phablet Spotted,

Google lists best Android apps of 2012

With Apple recently releasing a list of what it considers to be the best iOS apps of 2012, we’ve been waiting with bated breath for Google to reveal its own list. The wait is over, as today Google named the best apps to land on the Google Play Store in 2012. The apps range to ones that probably everyone has installed on their Android device to ones that will be relatively unknown to the mainstream crowd, so you could potentially use Google’s list to discover your new favorite app.

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Google doesn’t assign any particular ranking to these apps, so none of them are supposed to be considered “better” than the others. Some of them bring online storefronts to your device, while others are services that many users take advantage of on a daily basis. The majority of them are free to install, save for just one app on the list. In no particular order, here are Google’s best Android apps of 2012:

Evernote
• Zappos
Pinterest
• Grimm’s Snow White
• Expedia
• Pocket
• Ancestry
• Fancy
• Mint.com Personal Finance
• SeriesGuide Show Manager
• Pixlr Express
• TED

It isn’t very surprising to see Evernote and Pinterest show up on the list, and Zappos is a clear choice considering it seems to be pre-installed on nearly every Android device that comes through our doors. It’s good to see apps like Pocket, Fancy, and Pixlr Express get some much-deserved attention, and it seems that Google has delivered a list that’s quite diverse.

As diverse as it is, it notably doesn’t feature any games unless you want to count Grimm’s Snow White – an interactive storybook – as one. Perhaps Google will also release a list of its favorite Android games for 2012? Only time will tell, but for now, let us know if you use any of the apps listed in Google’s favorites for the year!

[via Google]


Google lists best Android apps of 2012 is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Get This iPhone App With Secret Tethering Powers While You Can

FlashArmyKnife in the iOS App Store has secret built-in powers that will allow you to tether you iPhone to a computer for no extra charge. The app costs $2, while using your iPhone’s data connection on a separate device would cost you a monthly fee. More »

These Are the Best Android Apps of the Year According to Google

You already saw Apple’s selection for best apps of the year 2012—which were kind of crappy and ridiculous. Here’s Google’s own list of best apps for Android. It’s not much better than Apple’s. Check them out and tell us what you think in the comments. More »

Card Lust: A Beautiful Excuse to Send Digital Notes

Yesterday you got some sweet new gifts. Now it’s time to write thank you notes. Card Lust is an easy, thoughtful way to do that. More »

XDA University has been officially launched

xda uni XDA University has been officially launchedIf you’ve always been interested in creating apps or developing for smartphones but had trouble finding the resources to learn it, you might recall a couple of months back that XDA Developers announced that they would be launching XDA University. This is basically a website where all the tutorials and resources required to develop are consolidated into one location, making it easy and convenient for budding developers to find what they need. Well the good news is that the website has been officially launched and you can pop on over to its website to start learning. There are tutorials separated into user-based and developer-based, where user-based tutorials will teach regular Joes how to flash their Android devices, recovery and etc., while the developer-based tutorials will dive into the more technical aspects of things. For those who have always wanted to flash custom ROMs and tweak ROMs, perhaps XDA University might be a good place to check out.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Google Offers Free Calls Within US And Canada Through 2013, Samsung ChatON For Android Updated But Broken,

RIM announces Android Port-A-Thon for January 2013

655 blackberry 10 RIM announces Android Port A Thon for January 2013We know that RIM’s CMO promised that Blackberry 10 would launch with at least 70,000 apps, although with RIM recently announcing their Android Port-A-Thon, we’re guessing that some of those 70,000 apps will be apps ported over from Google’s Android platform. That’s not a bad thing though because Android numbers more than half a million apps the last time we checked, and if more popular Android apps get ported onto Blackberry 10, the more people might be willing to check out RIM’s latest mobile operating system.

RIM has announced that the Android Port-A-Thon will be taking place on the 11th of January 2013, and it seems that they are eager to reward developers with make successful ports. According to their website (source link below), a successfully ported and approved app will net the developer $100 with a maximum of 20 apps per vendor. Developers who submit apps will also be eligible to participate in drawing in which they will be able to win a Dev Alpha device. For interested developers, hit up the source link below for the details, and for the layman what this means is that (hopefully) by the time Blackberry 10 launches, there will be a ton of cool apps you will be able to check out.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Google Offers Free Calls Within US And Canada Through 2013, Samsung ChatON For Android Updated But Broken,

The best iOS apps of 2012

2012 ended with quite a bang, and while the world didn’t end as we expected, we got to see so many awesome iOS apps come to fruition this year. It was a big year for Google, and a lot of independent developers stepped up to make not only good apps, but great apps. We decided to gather up all of the iOS apps that released throughout the past 12 months and provide you with 10 of our favorites. It wasn’t an easy task to narrow it down to just 10, though — there were a lot of amazing apps that just barely missed the cut, but we think we have a solid list here. So, without further adieu, here are our choices for the best iOS apps of 2012.

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Google Drive

Google Docs, the company’s own cloud-based office suite, was pretty rad, but they completely overhauled the service by renaming it Google Drive and turning it into a full-fledged cloud storage solution. They made it even better by introducing an iOS app that now features full editing capabilities, as well as the ability to make changes offline. It makes the service not only a top-notch cloud-based office suite, but also an awesome cloud storage service that’s capable of taking on Dropbox, SugarSync, and the rest of the cloud-storage gang.

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Google Chrome

Chrome is an awesome browser for the desktop, but the company replicated the app and brought it to iOS over the summer. It includes most of the same great features as the desktop version, including the omnibar that allows for instant searches, pre-fetched pages, and swipe gestures to manage and close tabs. You can also sync bookmarks, history, open tabs, and even saved passwords for web pages across devices that also have Chrome running. Essentially, it’s a feature-packed app, and it’s even better when you already use Chrome on your desktop. Read our full review to learn more.

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Clear

To-do list apps are a dime a dozen nowadays, with a only few that really stand out. Clear is just one of them. It has an insanely minimalist interface, and while there’s not much to look at (other than a to-do list), swipe, pull and pinch gestures are what make the app really shine. Tasks are arranged on top of one another and the more important task are toward the top in red, while low-priority tasks are given a cooler color the further down they are. There’s no buttons whatsoever — everything is done through gestures, and tasks are limited to 30 characters, forcing you to make your lists straightforward and to the point. Check out our full review of Clear to learn more about it.

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iPhoto

If you use OS X, you most likely take advantage of iPhoto to organize and manage your photo collection. For iOS, though, there was really no good app that had the capabilities of iPhoto on the Mac — the built-in Photos app was the next best thing. However, Apple finally released iPhoto for iOS earlier in the year, and it allows you to browse, edit, and share photos on your mobile device, all from a good-looking and intuitive interface. There’s also a lot of quality effects and features that you can take advantage of right in the app, including adding captions for photo journals, adding vignettes, and use a variety of “brushes” to repair or adjust photos. Read our full review of the app to learn more.

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Google Maps

If there was one app that felt like it was saving us from a sinking ship, it was Google Maps for iPhone. Many iOS 6 users who loathed Apple’s own maps offering looked to Google for a ring buoy to grab onto. Luckily the company delivered in only a few short months after the release of iOS 6, and while we didn’t have anything to complain about with either apps in our comparison, you can’t go wrong with Google’s extensive database and super-detailed maps. Check out our full review of Google Maps for iPhone to learn more.

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Fantastical

Fantastical is probably one of the best calendar apps you can get for your Mac, and it just recently released on the iPhone. The mobile version is just as solid as the OS X version, and it features an intuitive interface, as well as incredibly fast natural language input. The app’s interface relies mostly on swipes. It starts off by giving you the day’s events, and swiping to the right will advance the calendar one day, while swiping down will give you a quick glance at the full month. Swiping down again will result in going back to the day view. And of course, it integrates with all sorts of different calendar services, like Google Calendar, iCal, and even Facebook.

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YouTube

Just like with Google Maps, Apple ousted its built-in YouTube app in iOS 6. However, that didn’t stop Google from releasing a native YouTube app that turned out to be even better than Apple’s previous built-in offering. This time around, the app comes with voice search and a redesigned user interface that makes navigation way easier, as well as a slide-out sidebar that provides quick access to settings and playlists. Avid viral-video viewers can finally watch Gangnam Style just one more time while on the go.

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Checkmark

There’s certainly nothing wrong with iOS’s default Reminders app, but why settle when you can get so much more? Checkmark offers location-based reminders that are far more easier to set up than Apple’s offering. In just three taps, you can create reminders that notify you when you get home, arrive at work, or pass by the grocery store. And just for good measure, Checkmark also includes normal reminders that will alert you of important tasks at a specified time.

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Spotify for iPad

One of the best music-streaming services arrived on the iPad earlier this year, and it came with an interface that we fell in love with immediately. Spotify for iPad is only available to Premium subscribers, but users will certainly get their money’s worth. The app sports a “Now Playing” screen with huge cover art, and also features gapless playback and crossfading abilities. It also allows you to search for songs and playlists right from the main screen without having to tab around or even stop a song that’s currently playing. Check out our full review of the app to learn more.

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Tweetbot for iPad

As with iOS 6’s Reminders app, the official Twitter app isn’t horrible, but Tweetbot offers a few more features and greatly takes advantage of swipe gestures. Essentially, Tweetbot does what any other Twitter client can do, but it does it extremely well. The apps includes quick access to all of your essential feeds, like replies, mentions, and favorites, and it offers quick customization options. However, one of the most-used features that users will enjoy is the ability to tap on a tweet and instantly have a selection of actions to choose from. Check out our review of Tweetbot for iPad to learn more about it.

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The best iOS apps of 2012 is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.