App sales are nothing new, but the biggest of the year is here, and we’ll be tracking the best of the sale apps right here. Expect lots of updates over the weekend. And a reminder, app prices change quickly. We’ll try to keep the list below updated, but if you see something you want, grab it when you see it, the price could change next time you see it.
We’ve got games, educational, navigation, and other apps on the list. Make sure you look through all of the pages for the full list.
Updates:
- 11/23, 11:45am – added a few EA titles and others of interest.
- 11/23, 10:00pm – A bunch of great new games and apps added. Some really great sales.
- 11/24, 2:00pm – lots more added, tons of games from Disney, Activision, and great apps as well.
- 11/25, 10:00am – as the Thanksgiving meal coma subsides, we found a couple dozen more great apps on sale.
- 11/28, 12:00pm – updated for Cyber Monday app sales
Black Friday: Game Apps on Sale
iBlast Moki 2 HD - price returned to $2.99, was on sale for $0.99
At 10am, Tim Cook – the fresh new Apple CEO – took the stage to announce what will change everything, again. Not wearing Steve Jobs’ usual turtleneck, he instead wore a nice slate colored dress shirt – setting his own style. Tim delivered updates on what’s happening in Apple retail, the iPod line, iOS 5, iPad, and the iPhone 4. Want to watch the keynote online? It’s up now at Apple.com.
First up we got the usual statistics recap. Stats of course can be spun however the speaker wants, but here are some pretty solid and interesting bits. Apple now has 357 retail stores, has sold 300 million iPods. iPods have has a 70%+ marketshare the entire time they have been available. For reference, Sony took 30 years to sell 230k Walkmen cassette players. Apple sold 300 million iPods in 10 years.
iTunes now contains 20 million songs and in total has seen 16 billion downloads. Apple is reporting 500,000 apps in the app store — as usual they are a bit premature on that as it’s currently about 20,000 shy of that number. But there are well over 125,000 iPad apps available. The App Store has had 18 billion downloads with over $3 billion paid to developers, with 1 billion app downloads per month. That’s billions, with a B, right there.
The really big number here, though, is that there are 250 million iOS devices now out there.
Let’s skip right to what we are all came for, shall we? The new iPhone:
The new iPhone 4S – looks like the old iPhone
One of the worst kept secrets was that the iPhone 4 was going to get a bump in features to a new model, named the 4S. While there are only minor changes to the hardware case itself, this is a pretty substantial update on the inside. The main processor chip is now the same dual core A5 chip that runs iPad 2, increasing the speed and upping the memory. That means apps will have more resources to use and more apps can be run at the same time. In fact, Apple claims graphics can run at up to 7x the speed of the iPhone 4.
A killer new 8MP camera – the coolest hardware feature of the new iPhone 4S is the new camera. The camera has been upgraded to an 8MP backside illumination f2.4 camera. Meaning? This camera pulls in up to 73% more light per pixel – that means better pictures in just about all situations but especially so in lower light. Really a great camera on paper, better than most small cameras and even some DSLRs. Of course, we’ll have to see how it does in real life situations.
The camera also includes 1080P image stabilized video recording, face detection for quick focusing, and quick image capture – 1.1 seconds to first picture, 0.5 seconds for successive images.
Siri – the intelligent assistant to get things done just by asking – The coolest new feature is the Siri assistant. This feature is rather hard to describe, but it truly is an assistant. It will allow users to interact with the phone with only their voice, getting responses via a computer voice. Things like reading your SMS messages, replying to them, setting calendar appointments, playing music, replying to email, and searching Wikipedia can all be done by voice. I think we’re seeing just the tip of the iceberg here with Siri. I expect this to continue to expand with future iOS versions.
Take a look at the video below from Apple for more great examples of what you can do with Siri.
Siri launches only on the iPhone 4S. The processing power apparently required apparently is only available on the 4S. [Editor's note: what wasn't mentioned, of course, is the availablity of Siri on the iPad 2, which has the same processing power as this new 4S device]
Now on Sprint The iPhone 4S will be be available on three carriers simultaneously for the first time. AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint – all will launch at the same time.
More new iPhone 4S features Some other new features include a single dual mode phone, which can be used on all US carriers. Technically this dual mode feature is a huge deal. But in real life, not so much. Carriers will still have the device locked down so users can’t easily switch between them. And even the unlocked phone version of this will apparently not work on the CDMA carriers anymore (Verizon and Sprint). It’s a mess – and we can blame the carriers for that.
Barely mentioned in the keynote, the iPhone 4S will do Airplay Mirroring just like the iPad 2 – a feature that lets users see their device screen wirelessly on an Apple TV. Great for games, this sleeper feature will be huge one day, when Apple decides actually back the Apple TV more.
iPhone 4S Available on October 14th – the iPhone 4S will be available on October 14th in the US, Canada, Australia, UK, France, Germany, and Japan. Pre-orders will start on October 7th: this Friday. The price will be $199/$299/$399 on two year contract for 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB versions.
In addition, the iPhone 4 will be available for $99 for an 8GB model while an 8GB 3GS model will be available for free with contract.
New Applecare+ One great new options is the Applecare+. For $99, Apple will extend your warrantee to two years. One great new feature here is that Apple will replace an iPhone up to twice due to accident – dropped, submerged in water, etc. “Coverage for up to two incidents of accidental damage from handling, each subject to a $49 service fee.”
Our Take on the iPhone 4S
While internally the iPhone 4S is a pretty decent jump, it still is lacking compared to some of the other devices (Android, Windows Phone 7) being released. Don’t get the wrong idea, the iPhone 4S is still the best phone out there, but it may just lack the sexy features the some people will look for. Dual core processors are great, but the screen size is on the very low end these days.
If you have an iPhone 4, I’d say skip this upgrade. Wait for the next one and you should be out of contract and able to switch carriers if you wish. If you don’t have an iPhone, it’s the best iPhone we’ve ever seen, I’d say make the jump now.
Overall, this a good device, but there aren’t enough compelling or new features to justify the 16+ month wait. We wanted more. A lot more.
iPod touch
The iPod touch didn’t get an update at all this year. Oddly it’s the same device, just slightly cheaper at around $30 less than last year prices. It is available in white now as well as black. But that’s not really an upgrade.
Our Take on the iPod Touch Update – Or lack of update. Apple is now touting the iPod touch as the most used game device. And while it may be, it’s not that competitive anymore. Without an A5 processor upgrade, the iPod touch is now quite a bit behind the iPhone 4. Not unexpectedly, as the iPod touch is usually a bit behind the iPhone; it got a retina display a couple months after the iPhone. Overlapping the upgrade of the iPhone with the iPod touch made me hope it would at least get an upgraded processor.
iOS5 Release – October 12
The iOS5 release was officially announced to be October 12th, a little over a week from now. It’s a free upgrade. No real new features were mentioned beyond what was announced at WWDC. Refer back to our earlier coverage for more and we’ll have a full guide for you on launch day.
Our Take on iOS5 – while we had hoped to see some further updates to some of the core apps and perhaps some new features, iOS 5 is a really solid upgrade. Lots of great new features and much needed improvements. Highly recommended if you have a iPhone 4, iPad 2, or iPod touch 4th gen.
Older devices may not fare so well with this upgrade. So if you have an older device and your device is officially supported, iPhone 3GS, original iPad, and iPod touch 3rd gen, let others try the upgrade first to see how it functions in real life.
iCloud and iTunes Match
As you may remember, iCloud is the name of Apple’s new group of cloud based services. The basic level is free, and something everyone should use. For a quick overview, take a look at the video below.
No new features were announced beyond what we heard about at WWDC. But we did find out that iCloud will launch on October 12th with iTunes Match following up in late October. We’ll have more on iCloud in a follow up article and expect this to be something that Apple iterates regularly. And let’s hope so. Both products seem like they are a little unfinished and missing features – we had hoped for some finishing touches to be announced. We’ll just have to keep waiting.
New Apps from Apple
Cards – is a new app from Apple that will allow you to create greeting cards on your device. Those cards will then be printed and mailed to whomever you choose for $3 in the US, $5 internationally. If you ship it to the US you can get a push notification when it’s delivered.
Find My Friends — Hinted at for a while, this is a feature that lets you share your location with your friends. Friends can request where you are and the app gives you some interesting control over how long and when they can get that information.
Both of these apps will launch on the App Store with iOS 5 on October 12th.
Summary
It’s hard to really get too excited over this announcement. We only saw one really revolutionary thing from Apple, by the name of Siri. I think a lot of people assumed that with the delay in release of a new iPhone we were in for a huge set of announcements. Things like whole new maps app, Facebook integration, a truly new device, and hopefully a lot of things we hadn’t even heard of.
Instead we got a really solid, but very safe phone. Some great announcements, but nothing revolutionary, and nothing that changes everything – safe. And nothing that seemed to tie up the loose ends that are iCloud and iTunes Match. They just seem like unfinished products.
The big question for me, and for anyone contemplating an upgrade, is when will the next iPhone come out. Apple has thrown out their usual calendars this year. The usual cadence of a new iPhone every summer is gone. We could see the next, expectantly revolutionary iPhone, anytime from next Spring to two years from now, which makes long term planning and contract scheduling hard. Rest assured, though, that we’ll be here to help get the information out as it arises.
It’s almost like Christmas and your birthday morning all wrapped up into one! But for this holiday you will be compelled to spends lots of money. Today Apple will make a bunch of announcements around the iPhone. It’s pretty much a lock that we will see at least one new iPhone today, final iOS 5 details including some that have been unseen so far, iCloud, and probably a new Apple iOS app, perhaps iPhoto.
While the rumors have been all over the place, the crazy crazy rumor mill have pretty much all settled on the new iPhone to be announced today being an iPhone 4S. An updated version of the iPhone 4 with perhaps a faster processor, more memory, a bigger camera (8 MP), and perhaps a few more features. This isn’t the iPhone 5 that we think Apple needs to make a statement, but such is Apple. They take their own paths — and let’s be honest, it usually works out for them.
It’s almost assured that we will see some new features in iOS 5 that haven’t been seen in the betas. And hopefully more details around iCloud and how it will work.
One area where iCloud is really lacking is photos. We’re expecting Apple to announce some new features around that and perhaps even an iPhoto for iOS. With each of the recent hardware releases Apple have released an iOS version of one of their core apps (iMovie, Garage Band, iWork, etc.) — it follow that they will continue this and I’m hoping we see something photo related today.
And maybe, just maybe, we’ll see the death of Ping today.
Tim Cook will be presenting the new information today, his first big presentation gig as new Apple CEO. Break a leg, Tim!
We’ll be reporting all of the big announcements as they happen on our Twitter and Facebook streams. Check there for the very latest info. And we’ll be posting an analysis of the announcements later in the day.
The first HTML5 Developers Conference is set to launch next week. And just announced they will be hosting a hackathon with a special focus on mobile gaming.
Everyone is talking about HTML5 — it’s the future, right? Developers from all over the world are getting together to learn more about HTML5 and those ubiquitous plans next week in San Francisco.
The HTML5 Developers Conference has already announced some fantastic speakers like Douglas Crockford (discoverer of JSON), Yahoo!, Ben Savage, Sibblingz, Steve Souders, Google, and Jason Hoffman. Take a look at the full lineup of speakers, looks like it’s going to be a packed day.
The HTML5 Developers Conference takes place next Tuesday, September 27th at the Westin Hotel in San Francisco. You can register with 10% off using the code HTML5vibe.
And for the full details on the hackathon, hit the jump. For more information on the HTML5 Developer Conference, hit up html5devconf.com.
Another holiday weekend in the US means one thing — apps on sale! This time around we are seeing good, but not best ever sales from Gameloft, EA, Namco, Big Fish, and many many more. Hit up the list below, we’ll try to update it a couple times this weekend — but I’ve got a grill to attend to as well!
And as always, you can keep track of the latest and greatest app price drops on the Price Drops page and RSS feed.
Update: 9/4, 1pm – Labor Day weekend continues. The grill is hot, the beer is cold. Should be a perfect day. Oh, and here are another 30 great apps that are on sale for super cheap.
Update: 9/5, 11am – More apps, more great sales!
App conferences are becoming a lot more common. From conferences that focus on the business of marketing apps, hard core development conferences, and even grass roots community driven ones. App Developers Conference, coming to Santa Clara, CA on October 26-27, hopes to unite developers and marketing folks into a single conference.
148Apps is a proud media sponsor of the event. If you’d like to join us there, you can use discount code 148vip to get $100 off the registration fee.
More on the conference, direct from Engage Digital, the creators of App Developers Conference is at 148Apps.biz
Readdle have created some of the best business focused apps we’ve seen for iOS. And to celebrate being in the app business for 4 years, they are having a 30% off sale on all of their apps. In addition, they are giving away 4 iPads in a retweet contest.
Some other interesting stats. Readdle have seen over 3,150,000 people are actively using Readdle apps. 900,000 users of the Readdle Terra Browser, Scanner Pro has seen over 250,000 users on the iPhone.
It may not be a huge trend, but it appears that a growing number of companies are offering funds to assist developers to create and/or promote their apps in the Apple and Android markets. These companies foresee that the number of mobile phones and tablets purchased is only going to keep on rising for the foreseeable future along with the number of apps for these users. It’s a good time to get into the marketplace. Case in point: Gamevil recently announced a $10 million partnership fund for external developers who have smartphone gaming ideas.
Apple today announced that the App Store has delivered over 15 billion downloads, up from 14 billion just over a month ago. At the current rate, users are downloading over 32 million apps per day, more than seen in the entire first month of the App Store.
“In just three years, the revolutionary App Store has grown to become the most exciting and successful software marketplace the world has ever seen,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “Thank you to all of our amazing developers who have filled it with over 425,000 of the coolest apps and to our over 200 million iOS users for surpassing 15 billion downloads.”
This amazing growth in downloads can be accredited to the acceptance of the iOS platform and speaks to the amazing feat that Apple has accomplished with iOS. While iOS has been called an closed ecosystem, and to some degree it is, the control that Apple has maintained has allowed the whole system to work smoothly as a whole. That in turn has lead to a better application lifecycle for developers and a better way to get new apps for consumers. All while minimizing the issues we see on other platforms with hardware and OS fragmentation leading to app availability issues.
MacRumors has created a graph with data points shown for each announcement Apple have made for download numbers.
As we can see, the growth has kept up a nice pace and fairly closely matches a logarithmic growth scale. Very impressive indeed. With the impending updates to the iPod touch and iPhone lines, we can expect the growth to continue to take off.
A combined MobileBeat and GamesBeat will take place in San Francisco next week. July 12-13 at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco will see a group of some of the most interesting minds in the mobile and gaming industries will gather to discuss what’s next for mobile.
Great speakers include Nolan Bushnell, the father of video games, Jason Spero, Head of Mobile for Google, David Williams, VP of Mobile Products for AT&T, and many more. There will be plenty of great information shared, new products launched, and as usual, lots of great conversations to be had between sessions.
This weekend we celebrate Independence day here in the US. And as app developers tend to do, they have put a whole bunch of games and apps on sale this holiday weekend. We’ll update this post regularly with the latest, so please check back.
Included below are just about every game that EA makes, a few great ones from Gameloft, a bunch more great ones from Chillingo, Com2US, Nickelodeon and many many more.
Update 2 – 7/4 1:30pm: Lots of great stuff including lots of free games. And a huge sale from Firemint.
Update 1 – 7/2 11:00am: Lots of stuff from Konami and a bunch of great free games added. Grab them before the prices go back up!
As I mentioned in a previous editorial, I believe that AirPlay Mirroring could be the way that Apple enters the home game console market. AirPlay Mirroring was barely mentioned as an iOS 5 feature at the most recent keynote, but it has the potential to make the biggest change in how we think of iOS.
As a quick reminder, AirPlay mirroring will allow your iPad 2 to transmit your iPad screen to your TV via a connected Apple TV, wirelessly. Anything you see on your iPad will be mirrored on your TV. This includes any animations, interactions, apps, movies, photos, and most importantly, games. It’s not just for images, it’s the full iPad experience mirrored to your TV.
As the video below shows, AirPlay Mirroring just works with current iOS applications that are enabled for tethered HDMI output using the adapter for iPad 2. And it works very well for an early beta. There are some things that need streamlining, but it’s very impressive.
A huge thanks for Trevor at Apple’n'Apps for this video. It does a great job of showing the potential. After thinking about AirPlay Mirroring I was concerned that there would be considerable lag as the video was compressed and transmitted to the Apple TV. As we can see from the demo, lag seem to be fairly well mitigated and the responsiveness seems good.
We can also see that if games are developed like Real Racing 2 HD, they can provide full screen output on your TV, not just the 1024×768 window that you will see otherwise. Real Racing 2 HD looks absolutely amazing when output full screen on a TV. And I think this is just the beginning of what we will see. With this system, Apple is in a position to own the home console gaming market. And they are well on their way to owning the mobile market already with 200 million devices out there; this number overshadows even Nintendo with the DS.
And it looks like I’m not the only person to believe Apple is the future for gaming. Phil Harrison, former Sony boss, believes that if current growth levels continue, Apple is in a position to be the entire gaming industry within 10 years. In a recent interview with Edge Phil Harrison states:
At this trajectory, if you extrapolate the market-share gains that they are making, forward for ten years – if they carry on unrestrained in their growth, then there’s a pretty good chance that Apple will be the games industry.
In the proliferation of devices – you’ve got iPhones, iPads, iPods, which are all part of the same ecosystem; the speed at which Apple sold 15 million iPads is phenomenal. And the number one activity on an iPad, according to some reports, is games, and I think that will only continue.
Whil the traditional console gaming companies have struggled to adapt to a more casual gaming market as well as electronic delivery, Apple continues set the bar. Apple seems to be hitting every point spot on, putting them in line to lead the gaming industry in the near future. And this upset of the current gaming leaders can not be underestimated – it’s a huge shift. The story continues and I’m sure we’ll be bringing you more soon.
The update to Flash Builder and Flex that allows developers to create mobile apps for iOS, Android, and even Playbook, has been in beta for a while now. You may remember there was even a bit of a brouhaha over it. But all that is behind us now, and Adobe have officially released the updated application development environments.
What this allows developers to do is use existing code for Flash and Flex applications, traditionally delivered via the web, to create mobile applications. If you develop your Flash/Flex application in the proper way this can be a huge time saving when targeting multiple platforms.
For more information on how to upgrade and what exactly this means for Flash Builder and Flex, take a look at the Adobe Flash Platform Blog for the details, links, and videos.
EA made a fairly big PR push, by EA Mobile standards, when their casual game studio 8 lb. Gorilla launched in July of 2009. The goal of the studio at that time was to produce a casual game every month. Unfortunately, in spite of the fairly good showing with their first game out of the gate, the simple, casual game Zombies and Me, 8 lb. Gorilla disappeared without a trace after just one game.
Over the following nearly 2 years I asked everyone I met from EA Mobile about 8 lb. Gorilla. No one knew what happened to the tiny ape. They seem to have just disappeared. That was until June 16th of this year, nearly 2 years later, when their second release came out.
EA has released Ghost Harvest, from the 8 lb. Gorilla studio. This is the first foray into the freemium space on iOS for EAand 8 lb. Gorilla are now the studio leading that push for EA. Speaking to others in the industry, everyone knew it freemium games were coming form EA, they just didn’t know when or how it would appear.
Ghost Harvest is a fairly standard farming type game though told from a very different angle. In this one you harvest ghosts from graves (crops from fields) in your graveyard (farm) while building up XP and buying graves and dead bodies to fill them. It’s an oddly morbid game for EA — where you plant dead bodies and wait for their spirits to mature to the point that you can harvest them. Ghost Harvest is a free ad supported game, just like all the others in the style, with incentivized offerings from Tapjoy thrown in too. The one twist on the standard model is that there is a very simplified Plants vs. Zombies style defense game tacked on.
iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Released: 2011-06-15 :: Category: Games
Overall the game seems rushed. Obviously 8 lb. Gorilla weren’t spending two years on it. There’s a frighteningly low animation cell count — everything moves chunkily — and non-retina level graphics are just below par these days. We know EA can do much better than this, perhaps this is just a feeler in the category. And is it just me or does the 8 lb. Gorilla logo look like a blue Donkey Kong?
If it’s one thing I like it’s a good hackathon. 148Apps is proud to be a media sponsor of the Muther of All Hackathons coming up next weekend in Mountain View, CA. The goal of this hackathon is quite ambitious, they hope to develop 100 mobile applications in just 24 hours! To help incentivize the developers there are over $100,000 in prizes already lined up. Including Macbooks, iPads, other devices, and even a trip to Mobile World Congress next year.
Head on over to the site for more details on the categories, judging, and prizes.
As a special promotion, we have 10 passes to give away to the Hackathon. The ticket price is a reasonable and geeky $42, but we can save you that $42. Leave a comment on this post on 148Apps.biz and we’ll pick 10 lucky winners on Monday.
The Muther! of All Hackathons + DevCon
Friday, June 24 to Saturday, June 25, 2011
Computer History Museum
Mountain View, CA
WIPs Muther! of all Hackathon + DevCon is coming and YOU don’t want to miss it! This will be a real mashup where Hackathon meets DevCon in a fun, informative format! The real world doesn’t focus on a single technology, phone or solution, so neither will the Muther! Over $100k in prizes to be won!
Join hundreds of New developers, Experienced developers, Tool companies and Carriers, Investors and other mobile fanatics for a two day adventure of Master Classes, UnPanels, Coding, New APIs, Prizes, and more.
The winners of the Apple Design Awards were announced last night at the annual ceremony during the World Wide Developers Conference.
The awards which are chosen by Apple employees, celebrate apps that are great examples of design, innovation, and technical excellence. Whe winners of the ADAs receive a great trophy (pictured to the right) and a nice prize pack of Apple devices including an Air, iPad 2, and iPod touch.This years iOS winners include:
Apple announced a ton of info today at the WWDC keynote. Like that there are now 200 million iOS devices out in the wild. And that there are 425,000 applications available for iOS. Oh yeah, and iOS 5, Lion, and iCloud are coming very soon.
Rather than just go down the feature list, we’re going to post some thoughts on the new features and point you to places you can see full details on the new stuff.
First, we just posted about what is one of the largest features mentioned, that got very little attention. Apple is now firmly in the game console business by allowing iOS 5 games to be displayed, wirelessly from your device to your TV via the Apple TV. It will be huge.
iOS 5 New Features Look Familar…
The biggest new features shown of iOS 5 all looked more than a little familiar. There were many features in the new Camera app that looked like they could have been borrowed from Camera+. There’s a new todo application called Reminders that could be any number of todo apps in the store. The updates to the Message app, now called iMessage, match the features of the Blackberry Messenger app (BBM), that we’re shocked. Even the method for pulling down the notifications list comes straight from Android.
Now to be fair, these other platforms have “borrowed” from iOS as well. So all’s fair I guess. And I’m still looking forward to the new features, they look fantastic. And will be nice to have some of the baked into the OS.
200 New Features in iOS 5
Some of the new features that stick out in my head most include photo editing features, Twitter integration (single sign on built into the OS), greatly improved notifications / widgets available anywhere, great new mail features, PC-free setup, and apparently 200 more.
For a full list of new features, check out the official list at Apple. It’s got a good roundup and includes a lot of screens and details not mentioned in the keynote.
iOS 5 should be available for all devices in beta, for developers today. It will ship to consumers in the fall.
Oh yeah, and there’s iCloud. This turned out to be a much greater solution than we were originally expecting to see. Full wireless syncing of your app data, calendar, contacts, email, todos. Even music, photos, and we assume videos (which weren’t mentioned) as well. And even bigger, apps! Download a new app on your iPad and, if you turn the feature on, it will also be downloaded to your iPhone.
Besides data syncing for built-in iOS apps, what this means is that, once fully developed and supported by developers, you’ll be able to sync data between devices for apps as well. Finish a level on Angry Birds on your iPhone at lunch, that level status will be synced to Angry Birds on your iPad when you get home.
There’s a lot more to this than we can cover in this wrap up. Apple has posted a few more details on iCloud on their site.
iCloud will be free for up to 5 GB of data. We assume there will be a way to pay for more storage, but this wasn’t announced.
iTunes in the Cloud
The iCloud music features, labeled iTunes in the Cloud, let you sync you iTunes purchases on up to 10 devices. Apple also made available a paid service, iTunes Match, for $24.99 per year. This service will match songs you have ripped from other sources like CDs, Amazon.com, etc. and enjoy them in iTunes and it’s 18 million downloadable tracks. All upgraded to 256k AAC. Very nice, and a great deal for $24.99 per year.
Summary
There was a ton announced today. An amazing number of new features for iOS, Lion, and iCloud. So many that they are still digesting. I can’t wait to get my hands on these features.
In one of the smaller announcements today, Apple announced that iOS 5 on the iPad 2 will support a feature called AirPlay mirroring. This feature is something that I’ve been telling people would eventually come to the iOS world and basically backdoor Apple into the console market.
If you aren’t familiar with HDMI mirroring on the iPad, it’s a feature that lets you plug in an cable into a special adapter on your iPad 2 and display your screen on an HDTV. This feature is great for use in classrooms and has even seen some play in games as well with Firemint using this feature to allow 1080p output on your TV from their Real Racing 2 HD via mirroring. But, you are tethered to the TV with a cable.
So, what’s AirPlay mirroring then, you ask? According to Apple, “AirPlay® Mirroring to wirelessly display everything you do on your iPad 2 right on your HDTV through Apple TV®.” To me, that means with an iPad 2, you’ll be able to do that mirroring without a cable. That means anything you see on your iPad 2, you will be able to see on an Apple TV. Let that sink in and then think using that feature for games.
This means that any game you play on your iPad 2, you’ll be able to play on your TV, wirelessly. Yes, wirelessly. You launch Angry Birds on your iPad 2 and the Angry Birds screen will show up on your TV. Boom, instant game console with $0.99 game downloads.
To control the game, you would use the iOS device as the controller. The Apple TV becomes the cheapest console out there at $99 with the largest game library at nearly 100,000 games. Your iPad 2 becomes your controller, albeit a very expensive one. We can assume that this feature will also be available in the next iPhone and iPod touch, once their processors and memory are upgraded and on parity with the iPad 2.
Let’s wrap that all up together, and it means that you can consider the Apple TV to be firmly in the game console market now. This is huge! I can’t stress enough how much of a game changer this is for the gaming world.
Sony, Nintendo, or Microsoft should be worried. They have all been rather slow to adopt downloadable games, now Apple has gone and made it easy and cheap. If Apple does to the console market what they have done to the mobile software market, they should be very worried. The Apple TV, which started out as Steve Jobs hobby, could turn out to be the most popular home game and entertainment console around.
It just goes to show you how popular the apps from Outfit7 are. The makers of the Talking series of apps released Talking Tom 2, a free app, last week and nearly instantly saw 1.8 million downloads. And the most amazing thing is that it was downloaded over a million times on Sunday alone according to a tweet from Outfit7 CEO Andrej Nabergoj.
Outfit7 must be the most downloaded app company on the App Store with well over 100 million downloads across all of their apps. Their series of talking animal apps are hugely successful with kids and adults alike.
Andrej Nabergoj, Outfit7′s CEO remarked “With more than 55 million downloads and a cameo on ABC’s hit Modern Family, it’s clear that Talking Tom Cat has fans around the world eager to see how his character & story will evolve,Talking Tom Cat 2 not only offers a new look and story for Tom but also makes it really easy and appealing for people to create and share their stories. We are really about empowering our users to become story-tellers themselves through original characters and creative interactions.”
Amazing success. While these apps are not the kind of app we generally report on, the amazing success has to be noted. Congratulations Outfit7!
The App Store was all quiet on July 10, 2008, with just five hundred applications to its name. But that all changed with the iPhone’s growth in both consumer and business markets, as well as the creation of the iPod Touch and iPad. This week Apple approved the 500,000th application, in a sign of stellar strength that defied the global financial crisis. “It’s amazing to see the growth of the iOS App Store” writes 148Apps Founder Jeff Scott. “Very few devices will ever see 500,00 applications created for it. But to see this many created in less than three years is astonishing.”
In recognition of the App Store’s latest milestone, we’ve teamed up with App Store search service Chomp and game developer Chillingo, to bring you contests and giveaways aplenty in the upcoming months. We’ve also created a special info-graphic to mark the occasion. Click here for all the details.
148Apps will be coming to this year’s Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC), and if you’re a developer, we’d love to meet you. Got a new game or application in the works? Schedule a meeting with Jeff Scott here.
The Editor’s Choice badge this week was awarded to Tower Defense: Lost Earth, for its five star graphics and sound, as well as a flawless user interface. “[This game is] one that genre loves and armchair generals should not miss” quips Rob Rich, a contributing writer with the 148Apps network. “Even people who don’t generally care for tower defense games might want to give it a try … it’s certainly won this jaded nitpicker over.” Tower Defense is available to purchase for $2.99. Read the full review here.
Favorite Four took a turn to video this week, with writer Kevin Stout examining the top four free applications that provide video content on-demand. Crackle, SnagFilms, ABC Player and TED all made the mix, with BBC iPlayer getting a special mention for our UK users. Episode 86 of The Portable Podcast is also available to download, featuring guests Alex Fateyev from A-Steroids and Brett O’Brien from Viddy. Host Carter Dotson discusses their applications, Vampire Rush and Viddy.
iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Released: 2011-04-11 :: Category: Photography
In a final piece of news this week, Apple issued a response to the recent controversy created by Lodsys’ patent claims of in-app purchases. Presently, Apple pay a license fee for the use of in-app purchases, an idea originally thought of, and patented by, Lodsys. The company has spoken to a number of App Store developers, claiming that, without proper licensing, they are in violation of patent laws. Apple’s response? “There is no basis for Lodsys’ infringement allegations against Apple’s App Makers.” Read all about it right here.
That’s all for this week – and remember, keep an eye out for frequent contents and giveaways in celebration of the App Store’s unmatched milestone.
The App Store hit a major milestone today, in less than three years since the launch in July, 2008, Apple has seen over 500,000 applications approved in the US App Store alone. Over half a million applications!
It’s amazing to see the growth of the iOS App Store. Very few devices will ever see 500,000 applications created for it. But to see this many created in less than three years is astonishing.
Before we go to far, please note that while 500,000 have been approved, the App Store is just shy of 400,000 live apps in the US. There are a lot of reasons for this. We’ve seen quite a few apps removed that were never updated to work with the latest OS, or abandoned by their developers. Still others removed due to violations of Apples terms. We’re not sure if 20% abandoned/removed applications is high or low for a platform. My gut feeling is that it’s about average.
Let’s get geeky and take a look at some numbers. From that nearly three years of data we know that you’d need a 7.5 terabyte iPhone to hold all of the apps available at once on your device. I guess we have a new high end target for the storage limit of the iPhone 5. Oh, and it would cost you $891,982.24 to buy all of the apps.
37% of all live applications are free while 15% are games. It’s interesting that in recent months Books has been the largest category. But just this last month we saw Games overtake Books once again.
Here’s a small segment of the infographic. Click the image for the full thing in its full glory.
To celebrate this major milestone, we’ve teamed up with Chomp and Chillingo. Over the next few months we’ll have a bunch of contests / giveaways, and look back at the life of the App Store and some of the developers that make it the fastest growing platform ever. You can keep track of all of that over at a special 500,000 Apps Facebook page we’ve set up and of course right here.
This week, May 16-20, significant updates were released by major titles, including Angry Birds, Need for Speed and Infinity Blade. Rovio’s Angry Birds Rio is receiving a new expansion pack called “Beach Volley” – which adds thirty new stages to the game that is already sixty level strong. Its sister game, Angry Birds Seasons, is due to be updated mid June. EA’s Need for Speed Hot Pursuit update is now available, and adds a new feature called ‘Autolog’ – where you’ll “be able to track your career progress, personal best times and how they compare against your friends” and more. Finally, Infinity Blade now has an ‘Arena’ that allows multiplayer game challenges with friends through Game Center.
148Apps Editor Rob LeFebvre continued his monthly series on iOS editorials by publishing “Why, Freemium, Why?!” in response to the App Store’s love/hate relationship with the controversial pricing model, whereby consumers get the core part of a game or application for free, and then have to pay for extra levels or features. “As an avid gamer across all platforms, I’ve seen my share of games. And, to be honest, Freemium as a business model doesn’t inspire me to play a game” writes Rob LeFebvre. “Many of these games seem to be about the mechanics alone … we need something new, if the freemium model isn’t to crush itself under its own weight and continued copy-cat-ism that reigns in space.” Read the full editorial here.
The Editor’s Choice badge was awarded to Japanese this week, an English-Japanese and Japanese-English language converter with an extensive dictionary database, as well as tools like flashcards and handwriting recognition. Bonnie Eisenman reports. “I’m going to be studying Japanese in Japan this summer, and I knew that I’d need a dictionary … Japanese is a comprehensive dictionary app with all the features that I could ever ask for, save perhaps for voice recognition.” The language application features approximately 160 000 words, as well as 12 000 kanji entries, the modern Japanese method of writing. “It’s impressively comprehensive, including everything from a giant database of words and example sentences to flashcards and handwriting recognition for kanji. The only thing it lacks is audio.” Japanese is available to download for $9.99.
Bungie, the creator of the Halo and Marathon franchises, is believed to be coming to the App Store sometime in the near future. Through an official brand name filing description, the company wrote: “Computer game software for use on mobile and cellular phones” – and we all know that means the iPhone. Read all about it here.
That’s all for this week! Remember that you can follow us via Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed and through a myriad of RSS feeds that will keep you in the loop about all the latest, most exciting applications and games. Click here and choose the options which suit you best.
Earlier today it was announced that EA intends to acquire the superstar Melbourne iOS development house Firemint. At the time I first read this, I was outraged. I have never seen an acquisition work well, other than monetarily, for the acquired company. With rarely an example in the other direction, the members are eventually reassigned in the company and the founders exit within 2-3 years. Let’s hope EA won’t put out the fire in Firemint.
For once, I holstered my temper and restrained myself from posting a passionate knee-jerk reactionary rant, though I wrote three of them this morning. What held me back is that I am a huge admirer of Firemint the studio, the people involved, and their games. And I don’t want to see the creative and original games go away. I feel that while this may be good for Firemint and the founders in the short run, only EA will profit from it in the long run. And we, as gamers, will most certainly lose. Let me explain.
This acquisition will likely mark the beginning of the end of one of the most interesting indie studios developing games for the iOS platform. Why do I say that? When was the last time you saw an acquired company thrive when purchased by a huge company like EA? It may work out in the short run as Firemint will get an influx of cash to keep doing what they are doing. But in the long run, meeting the schedule and bottom line of EA and the shareholders will be the undoing of the way Firemint works and what makes their games special.
For example, at the Game Developers Conference earlier this year, Firemint introduced their latest game, Agent Squeak. This combo route / maze game has been in development for well over a year. I’m guessing that during the acquisition talks EA praised Firemint for their dedication to getting the game out when it was right, not out quickly. But once it’s EA’s bottom line begins getting impacted by a 20 month development cycle for a casual game, the dedication to a quality over speed may not be as strong.
There’s no doubt as to why EA wants to acquire Firemint. EA has failed to show any real creativity in mobile games. They half-heartedly tried with 8 Lb. Gorilla, an internal studio for quick, casual games. That group was to produce a game per month. They disappeared after just 1 game.
During decades in the video games business, EA has built a huge portfolio of franchise IP — John Madden, Need for Speed, Tiger Woods. That has lead to a plethora of franchise games and console companion apps, but we have seen a real lack of creativity when it comes to mobile focused games from EA.
On the other hand, Firemint has produced 3 amazing games – all well thought out and designed from the ground up for mobile platforms, not franchise IP squeezed onto a 3.7″ screen. I can’t remember a single EA game that has given me 1% of the awe at the originality and creativity that Flight Control gave me on first play. I mean, come on, Coconut Dodge? Looks and plays like a feature phone game reject. In all fairness, EA is just publishing that game, but still, really?
So what will happen? In the best case nothing will change, Firemint will be left to do their thing and EA will publish the games. In the worst case, Firemint will be absorbed into EAMobile and we’ll see Flight Control 2 and 3 rushed to market with guest appearances by a silly coconut catching crab. The real answer is probably somewhere in between. But anything past the first scenario and we, as iOS gamers, will lose.
Perhaps some of the vitriol I have comes from being part of a company acquired by the hapless Yahoo!. A group that was then wasted, split up, and then forced out. Even so, stories of acquisitions going well for those acquired are few and far between in the valley. For their sake, and they are truly nice people, I hope it goes well for Firemint and everything I said above is completely wrong.
Acquisition news comes at strange times. Today is no different. Late in the day just before a long holiday weekend it was announced that OpenFeint had been acquired by Japanese company GREE for $104 million.
[Updated 7:00pm, PST] Reportedly the acquisition shouldn’t change either company drastically. Users shouldn’t expect any immediate chances to the OpenFeint system, and both parties are positioning this acquisition as a one plus one equal three kind of thing, the sum is greater than the parts.
We are all very familiar with the little green leaf of OpenFeint with it’s social gaming network already integrated with over 5,000 iOS and Android games. GREE, is a Japanese social games company much like DeNA, the company that acquired ngmoco last year. They develop massively social games for the Japanese market.
For OpenFeint, the investors get over a hundred million dollars, and validation of the network that they have built, the largest mobile social gaming network. For GREE, they get quick access to the US, and the iOS and Android platforms. GREE will also seed some more money to help OpenFeint accelerate and grow. A good sign that they are interested in building the company and not just absorbing them.
In an open letter to developers who use the OpenFeint platform, Jason Citron, CEO & Founder of OpenFeint tried to assure developers that this change will be good for the platform as it will increase the speed of updates and new features. OpenFeint have also posted a FAQ with answers to some common questions on the deal.
In my opinion, most acquisitions seem have a negative side to them. One company gets the short end of the stick. But thus far, this acquisition seems to be a win for both parties and will allow OpenFeint to continue to do the great work that they do while letting GREE better benefit from that. Time will tell.
A big congratulations to all at OpenFeint!
Read the full press release and note from Jason Citron below, after the jump.
The AppNation conference will be held April 27 & 28 at the Moscone Convention center in San Francisco and 148Apps is a proud media sponsor. The agenda is shaping up to be a great one and this year, I’ll be moderating a panel called the App Rock Stars. For this panel, we’ll be talking with some of the people with the most app downloads out there. In total, the participants have over 100 million app downloads, and we’re going to find out how they did it. The panel line-up is scheduled to include:
Dave Castelnuovo, Co-Founder, Bolt Creative (PocketGod)
Thomas Chung, CEO, The Playforge (Zombie Farm)
Andrej Nogeskoj, CEO, Outfit7 (Talking Tom)
Berkeley Malagon, Founder, Distinct Dev (Moron Test)
It should be a very informative panel. Want to attend AppNation? 148Apps network readers can get a 30% discount on the registration fee by using code APP148 on the registration page.
More About APPNATION
APPNATION is an ambitious and bold thought leadership conference and exposition focusing exclusively on the burgeoning consumer applications revolution and global app economy. The second annual APPNATION event will be held April 27 – 28 at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco and will feature speakers and exhibitors from leading companies from across the app economy including Digital Chocolate, Marvel Entertainment, Jumptap, Nielsen Mobile, Sequoia Capital, WIP, Fox Broadcasting, Greystripe, Norwest Venture Partners, Wall Street Journal and dozens of others. DEVELOPERS: Submit your app and have a chance to pitch at the AppCircus@Appnation on April 27th! AppCircus is powered by dotopen, and is a unique global traveling showcase of the most creative and innovative apps presented by their creators during some of the most influential international events in mobile/web. AppCircus is open to developers, startups and any other organization and offers each participant a chance to get a nomination to the annual Mobile Premier Awards at Mobile World Congress. Visit AppCircus for full details, rules and submission information. Deadline for entry is April 17th.
Developers NOTION Music, Inc. released Progression Free earlier this week, a guitar tab editing application built to “write, edit and playback guitar tablature using real audio samples.” The free application includes an interactive fretboard, whereby users can tap on the board to input data. “Progression gives even the inexperienced guitarist an abundance of guitar functions, including but not limited to: vibrato, slides, string bending, hammer-ons, pull-offs, trills, whammy-bar methods and more,” reads the official release.
This is a tool that a number of more popular applications, such as Guitar Pro and TabToolkit, lack the ability to do. Although the interface behind Progression Free isn’t perfect, it certainly makes it easier to tab on-the-go. Files are saved in a unique .notion extension, with the ability to email a PDF version for non-iPad users, or those seeking to print the tablature. No word yet on what future updates will hold – I’m hoping the ability to export as .gp and .ptb and .txt will be in there – but it’s certainly a step in the right direction, and sure beats using Notes.
There are over eight thousand applications in the Productivity section of the App Store, totalling almost 2.5% of all applications available to download. Why then – and how – has 6 Wunderkinder’s Wunderlist come from nowhere to almost eight million task creations, being labelled as iPhone App of the Week by Apple in both the US and German App Stores? Through a beautiful design and integrated interface, all with no price tag attached, its one million users have everything to be happy about.
The sleek get-things-done application aims to simplify life’s tasks with one interface and minimal fuss. “Wunderlist makes it dead simple to organize your daily life. Just add some lists and start filling them with the things that need to be done” reads the official release, noting the capability to add tasks by e-mail. The application is free to download on both the iPhone / iPod Touch and iPad, with no strings (or adverts) attached.
There doesn’t appear to be any compromise between price and security either. The free application sports SSL encryption, meaning every login and sync happens securely with no interception from third parties. All data is stored on secure servers run by Media Temple, a 103-employee strong company that operates twenty four hours a day to ensure that secured data remains secure.
Earlier this week, I got in touch with Robert Kock, Co-Founder of the company behind the application. Here’s what we talked about:
What was the inspiration behind Wunderlist? Robert: Before we started working on Wunderkit, we discussed how we could gain awareness for our brand and our work even before the initial launch. How could we get thousands of people being interested in us? We wanted to make it big, so we decided to built a software and give it away for free. Thinking about an application that literally everyone would need, we came up with a concept of a task manager called Wunderlist. To improve the user experience to a maximum, we combined several aspects of popular software. So now we have an easy-to-use task manager for nearly every device that provides cloud sync and sharing functionality for free.
Why and how is the service free? Robert: Wunderlist is free because it is a give away. We want users to get used to our philosophy of simplicity and good usability and we wanted them to get to know the 6Wunderkinder brand. We managed to built a substantial fan base literally within several weeks.
What are your future plans? Robert: Because the development and the maintenance of the Wunderlist service requires more and more of our resources, we thought about monetize Wunderlist later on. But we won’t consider any actions before we asked our community which way they’d like us to go. Besides all that, we are working on Wunderkit and hope that all of our users will love it as much as we do.
When Apple launched the iPhone in June 2007, there was one application that seemingly everyone wanted to get rid of: Stocks. To those who used it, it was invaluable. To those who didn’t, it was worthless. Perhaps this is why, when Apple launched the iPad in April 2010, Stocks wasn’t to be found anywhere – even as an optional download. Financiers and stock enthusiasts still rely on third party solutions to make up for the lost Stocks application, from the Financial Times to Bloomberg to CNBC Real Time. And now there’s a new Finance application on the block, namely MarketDash by Yahoo! Inc.
Aesthetics aside, MarketDash is Stocks (not least because Stocks acquired its data from Yahoo! Finance) with a few subtle differences, such as external related news and additional ratios like earnings per share (EPS). Charts now enjoy a 5Y and max timeframe, as well as the usual 1D / 5D / 1M / 3M / 6M / 1Y / 2Y. Most notably, MarketDash provides real-time tracking of stocks during the trading day for selected markets – there’s no 15 or 20 minute delay to be found. Mathematical algorithms automatically calculate adjusted market cap, price and % change every minute.
The home screen includes a personalized “watch list” along with an option to import your personalized finance portfolios from Yahoo! Finance. Quotes can be retrieved from a long list of exchanges, the full extent of which can be found here
When you blow up the charts to full screen, a beautiful and financially relevant feature is to be found: comparisons. The correlating graph of another stock or exchange can be added to the graph you are currently looking at, illustrating the full extent of the success of the stock or exchange in relation to another section of the market. What’s more, you can add more than one comparison. This is something I’ve yet to see in any other finance application.
Like Stocks for iPhone, MarketDash for iPad is free to download. There are no in-app purchases, no unlockable features: it’s a truly free application and available now.
From the developers of the Musée du Louvre application, one of the most downloaded educational applications in the App Store’s history, comes a new project: HDvision. The iPad-only magazine, second of its kind only to Virgin’s Project, immediately shot to the number one downloaded News application (and number seven overall) in its premiere in the French App Store. Now it’s available in the US and a number of different App Stores across the world.
HDvision is devoted to high definition media and technology. “Get the best of Cinema, Blu-ray, TV Shows, Video Games, VOD, Multichannel Sound and Technology on your iPad with the HDvision magazine” reads the official blurb, all through an interactive app that includes embedded HD video trailers, HD picture galleries and interactive slideshows. The first issue of HDvision is free to download. This month’s magazine weighs in at 619MB, heavy even for magazine standards but to be expected given HDvision’s focus on high definition content.
I spoke to David Fakrikian of HDvision earlier this week, asking him about the inspiration and development of the popular magazine. “The [printed] project was refused by every publishing company around for both costs reasons, and political reasons … until the iPad came about, and Mastery Pictures International offered to team up with us” he writes. “The idea was irresistible: iPad offered the possibility to blend both contents of the original magazine (features articles + video) into one package, and make an international (english) edition, offering us for the first time the possibility to be read worlwide, as well as by most directors and actors we interview.” The pricing strategy behind the magazine application is yet to be determined, given its early stages.
The magazine’s inception stems from DVDvision, a print magazine that Fakrikian created and edited between 1999 and 2003. You can download the first edition of its new counterpart, HDvision, for free. Just check out the link below the YouTube teaser.
Chillingo, a division of Electronic Arts most recognized for its creation of Angry Birds, which sits almost always as the #1 paid application in App Stores across the world, announced today that Cut the Rope will receive a special update for Valentine’s Day, February 14.
“The new Cut the Rope 1.2 update marks the annual celebration of love and affection with adorable Om Nom as cupid in a special Valentine’s Box filled with 25 gorgeous levels. A romantic and fun, “split-candy” gameplay is also introduced to challenge players as they strive to slice the right ropes to feed the insatiable green creature. Brand new artwork and a distinctive Valentine’s icon make Cut the Rope the perfect gift for your special someone” reads the official release.
“This 1.2 update is our gift to you this Valentine’s Day for being the greatest fans out there; we hope players love the new box, levels and features just as much as we enjoyed creating it,” states Efim Voinov, CTO of Zeptolab. “Thank you for the continued support, we are already working closely with Chillingo to enhance the game and think fans will be extremely delighted!”
Such holiday updates are becoming more and more popular, even within Cut the Rope’s own development. In December of last year, 148Apps reviewer Brad Hilderbrand announced the Christmas update of the popular application, which to date has now sold more than six million copies. Conservatively, that means Cut the Rope has generated over $4 million in revenue (after Apple’s 30% commission), not taking into account the price difference between the iPad and iPhone version of the immensely popular game. It stood as the sixth most popular paid-for iPhone game in 2010.
When 148Apps reviewed the game last year, writer Carter Dotson awarded it 4 stars. “Cut the Rope is ingenious, following a similar formula to Angry Birds – charming graphics, simple gameplay that gets complexity steadily layered on top of it in a way that feels natural, almost without even feeling like it’s getting more difficult” he writes. “That is just brilliant game design, and with more levels promised, Cut the Rope has an exciting future, but is still great with even just the core game content.”
Available for $0.99 on iPhone and $1.99 for iPad, a free lite version is also available to download, allowing you to try-before-you-buy. A sneak peak video of the update is available below:
At 10am, Tim Cook – the fresh new Apple CEO – took the stage to announce what will change everything, again. Not wearing Steve Jobs’ usual turtleneck, he instead wore a nice slate colored dress shirt – setting his own style. Tim delivered updates on what’s happening in Apple retail, the iPod line, iOS 5, iPad, and the iPhone 4. Want to watch the keynote online? It’s 
A killer new 8MP camera – the coolest hardware feature of the new iPhone 4S is the new camera. The camera has been upgraded to an 8MP backside illumination f2.4 camera. Meaning? This camera pulls in up to 73% more light per pixel – that means better pictures in just about all situations but especially so in lower light. Really a great camera on paper, better than most small cameras and even some DSLRs. Of course, we’ll have to see how it does in real life situations.
Siri – the intelligent assistant to get things done just by asking – The coolest new feature is the Siri assistant. This feature is rather hard to describe, but it truly is an assistant. It will allow users to interact with the phone with only their voice, getting responses via a computer voice. Things like reading your SMS messages, replying to them, setting calendar appointments, playing music, replying to email, and searching Wikipedia can all be done by voice. I think we’re seeing just the tip of the iceberg here with Siri. I expect this to continue to expand with future iOS versions.
It’s almost like Christmas and your birthday morning all wrapped up into one! But for this holiday you will be compelled to spends lots of money. Today Apple will make a bunch of announcements around the iPhone. It’s pretty much a lock that we will see at least one new iPhone today, final iOS 5 details including some that have been unseen so far, iCloud, and probably a new Apple iOS app, perhaps iPhoto.
The first HTML5 Developers Conference is set to launch next week. And just announced they will be hosting a hackathon with a special focus on mobile gaming. 
Readdle have created some of the best business focused apps we’ve seen for iOS. And to celebrate being in the app business for 4 years, they are having a 30% off sale on all of their apps. In addition, they are giving away 4 iPads in a retweet contest.
It may not be a huge trend, but it appears that a growing number of companies are offering funds to assist developers to create and/or promote their apps in the Apple and Android markets. These companies foresee that the number of mobile phones and tablets purchased is only going to keep on rising for the foreseeable future along with the number of apps for these users. It’s a good time to get into the marketplace. Case in point: Gamevil recently announced a $10 million partnership fund for external developers who have smartphone gaming ideas.
The winners of the 
iCloud, Too!
It just goes to show you how popular the apps from Outfit7 are. The makers of the Talking series of apps released Talking Tom 2, a free app, last week and nearly instantly saw 1.8 million downloads. And the most amazing thing is that it was downloaded over a million times on Sunday alone according to a tweet from Outfit7 CEO Andrej Nabergoj.
Acquisition news comes at strange times. Today is no different. Late in the day just before a long holiday weekend it was announced that OpenFeint had been acquired by Japanese company GREE for $104 million.
The AppNation conference will be held April 27 & 28 at the Moscone Convention center in San Francisco and 148Apps is a proud media sponsor. The 
