MobileCrunch |  |
- The Top 20 iPhone And iPad Apps of 2011
- Facebook For Android Finally Has More Daily Active Users Than Facebook For iPhone
- Verizon’s Next DROID RAZR Already Spotted In Their System
- Zynga COO John Schappert On Going Public, And What’s Coming Next
| The Top 20 iPhone And iPad Apps of 2011 Posted: 17 Dec 2011 07:52 PM PST  Editor’s note: Contributor Brad Spirrison is the managing editor of mobile app discovery services Appolicious, AndroidApps.com and AppVee. With this post, he continues an annual tradition of picking the best iOS apps of the year. It's telling that Apple chose an app that debuted more than 14 months ago, Instagram, as its "iPhone App of the Year" for 2011. This should not imply that there was a shortage of quality and groundbreaking apps released this year. Far from it. From social magazines to music discovery apps to console-quality games that players can hold in the palms of their hands, there are hundreds of new titles in the iTunes App Store that will inform, organize, and entertain virtually anyone who owns an iOS device. As more choices become available to different kinds of consumers, however, it's difficult to identify the undisputed champions of the app world. We picked 20 of the best iOS applications that came out or received significant updates in 2011. The list is a healthy mix of free and paid titles that can run on the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. (We will follow up with a separate top 20 list just for games, which are not included in this list). There are hundreds of additional titles worthy of mention, and we selected our favorites based on the production value of an app more than its popularity on the Top Seller charts. You might take issue with some of the apps included here as well. But with about 600,000 apps available for iOS devices, everyone is entitled to their own favorites. Here are ours. 1. Flipboard After launching exclusively on iPads last year, this pioneering social magazine expanded to all iOS devices in December. Significant updates to the app — including LinkedIn integration and the inclusion of many more third-party publishers like Conde Nast — make Flipboard the best iOS app of 2011. The new iPhone-specific Cover Stories feature that showcases what users are most interested in is also a game-changer. 2. Photosynth Who would have thought that one of the most enjoyable and innovative iPhone apps of the year would be developed by Microsoft. That's the case with Photosynth, which lets users quickly and reliably capture panoramic 360-degree gyroscopic images simply by moving their cameras. This next-generation music detection app lets users not only identify what song they are listening to, but also seamlessly share the track with friends and followers from Facebook, Twitter and foursquare. SoundTracking also lets users tap into what their friends are listening to and tagging. This language translation app from Google excels above all others for its ability to audibly translate spoken words into other languages. Google Translate's simple and elegant interface translates text between 63 languages and lets users star notable translations and access them for later use. 5. SkyView – Explore the Universe City dwellers in particular appreciate this astronomy app which uses augmented technology to display stars, planets and satellites that otherwise would be obscured. The dead simple point-and-use functionality, 3D graphics and snippets of celestial background information can make anyone a happy and well-informed stargazer. 6. GarageBand While Apple created an ecosystem for thousands of third-party developers to innovate and market their wares to iOS devices, the company is also capable of producing its own killer apps. Having GarageBand available on the fly for less than five bucks is music to the ears of working and aspiring musicians and podcasters. This app, which is also available on the iPad, is arguably Tiger's greatest professional accomplishment of 2011. Users can compare side-by-side videos of their swings next to Tiger's. For those spooked by Tiger's potential skills regression, an option exists to customize alternate "swing lines." 8. iMuscle Beyond measuring heart rates and determining how many calories are burned during a workout, iMuscle — also available as a separate iPad application — provides more than 450 unique exercises and stretches. Fittingly, the app offers 3D views to help users target the muscles and areas of the body that deserve the most focus. 9. Snapseed While there were worthy and less expensive photo editing apps released for the iPhone and iPad this year, none were better than the $4.99 Snapseed. The app's user-friendly interface combines a nice mix of basic editing tools and cool effects that will please beginner photographers and experienced shutterbugs alike. 10. Super 8 Super 8 is an innovation in advertising as much as it is a real cool retro camera app. A promotion for the JJ Abrams/Steven Spielberg film of the same name, the app lets users create their own Super 8-style movies on their iPhones (scratch overlays and shaky cameras included). Nice to see a major studio release something more thoughtful than a cheesy commercial. 11. Spotify Spotify was worth the wait. Three years after launching in Europe, this music streaming service finally made its way to North America in July. The iOS application combines access to Spotify's deep library with great playlist creation and social networking capabilities. Well worth the $10 monthly subscription for hardcore music fans tired of iTunes. 12. Pinterest Embracing the minimalist style of Tumblr, this blogging app allows users to create virtual bulletin boards of their favorite things. Friends and followers can then re-pin their own comments on words and images that attracted them. This is not an app for the verbose. 13. Quora A must-have mobile extension to the popular questions and answers site, the Quora app captures information about nearby locations using the GPS capabilities found within iOS devices. Where else can you tap into the collective wisdom of the digerati wherever you travel? 14. Weather+ With mainstays like The Weather Channel and Accuweather already available for iOS devices, it's difficult for other upstarts to find any sunlight. Weather+ shines through the clouds by providing looped visualizations of each type of weather forecast displayed at any time of the day. 15. IntoNow A Shazam for television, IntoNow identifies what a user is watching on TV merely from picking up signals from its audio track. IntoNow, which was recently purchased by Yahoo!, uses proprietary fingerprinting technology called SoundPrint. The app also makes it easy to share what you're watching with friends and followers. Armchair baseball general managers can now access the Sabermetric wizardry of acclaimed baseball statistician Bill James with this free iOS app (that debuted for $14.99). The level of detail here is unprecedented for any piece of software that can be displayed in a device smaller than a baseball mitt. 17. Google Currents Google's Flipboard competitor is the best pure news aggregator available for mobile devices. While currently no match for Flipboard in terms of social integration, Google Currents is faster and offers more intuitive customization options with third-party publishers. Not surprisingly, it's also the best way to tap into Google+ profiles from thought leaders like Robert Scoble and Guy Kawasaki. 18. HBO GO Beyond the premium content this app serves up to HBO subscribers, HBO GO is pioneering how broadcast and cable networks make programming available to users on-the-go. The ability to tap into an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm from any place at any time is a pretty, pretty, pretty good thing to have. 19. Procreate Simply the best painting app available for the iPad. The clean and simple interface enables painting in real time. There is enough variety and options to appeal to painting pros as well as talentless amateurs just having some fun. 20. Garmin StreetPilot onDemand While turn-by-turn navigation technology is not revolutionary, packaging it within a 99-cent app (with an eventual $2.99 monthly subscription) is. The app also features great pedestrian-friendly walking directions. Top image: Daniel Y. Go
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| Facebook For Android Finally Has More Daily Active Users Than Facebook For iPhone Posted: 17 Dec 2011 03:53 PM PST  For the first time, the Facebook for Android mobile app has eclipsed the daily active user count of Facebook for iPhone. The Android app launched in September 2009 more than a year after its iPhone sister and has been playing catch-up ever since. Both are developed internally by Facebook. This week the two were briefly tied, but the Android app is now pulling away with 58.3 million DAU compared to the iPhone app’s 57.4 million, according to the AppData tracking service. With the Android device base growing at 550,000 activations per day and Timeline now available for Android but not yet for iPhone, I expect this gap to widen.
Another explanation for the Android app taking the lead is that Facebook released an official iPad app in October which now has 5.5 million DAU. Though many users likely switched from using the unoptimized iPhone app on their iPad, some probably came from unofficial third-party apps. Until Facebook for iPhone is updated to support Timeline, some of the app’s users some may stray to the HTML5 mobile site and slow the app’s growth. Meanwhile, Facebook for Android 1.8.1′s ability to access Timeline can help the app grow its lead. For reference, Facebook for BlackBerry has 29.9 million DAU, and Facebook for Windows Phone has 360,000 DAU according to AppData. User counts of the Facebook apps matter because they can influence where Facebook devotes mobile development resources. For years, features were first released for the iPhone version, possibly because its higher user count made it more of a priority. If the Android app becomes significantly more popular, Timeline might be the first of many features it gets early. [Update: This could set an example for other companies to develop for Android first as well.] And that could sway people choosing what phone to buy. This is a coming of age moment for Android.
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| Verizon’s Next DROID RAZR Already Spotted In Their System Posted: 17 Dec 2011 12:56 PM PST  Because the name “Verizon DROID RAZR by Motorola” seemingly isn’t long enough, it looks like Verizon’s already planning another RAZR with even more words in the name. I kid, of course (does the name even matter? Everyone outside of the tech scene just calls every Android phone “the Droid” anyway), but I pick on the name because it’s pretty much the only thing we know at this point. Spotted lurking in VZW’s inventory system by the guys at Droid-Life, it looks like the next handset in the DROID RAZR series will be the DROID RAZR MAXX. Motorola just launched a phone (the HD XT928) in China last week that could pass as the RAZR’s twin, save for two big differences: it has a 720p screen (1280×720, while the original DROID RAZR comes in at 960×540), and a 13 megapixel camera (vs 8.) The current thought is that the HD XT928 and the Droid Razr Maxx are one in the same, though it’s all conjecture at this point. Keep an eye out and let us know if you spot anything, won’t you?
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| Zynga COO John Schappert On Going Public, And What’s Coming Next Posted: 17 Dec 2011 12:28 PM PST  Zynga is still in its quiet period for another 24 days after going public yesterday, so chief operating officer John Schappert wouldn't answer my more specific questions about the company's future plans when I talked to him last night. After opening up at an aggressively priced $10 per share, the company had a slight pop before closing down 5% yesterday. But as Schappert emphasizes to me in the interview below, ZNGA is here for the long-term and its investors should be thinking that way, too. He adds some color to the roadshow video the company has been showing investors over the last couple weeks, discussing the company's expansion plans across social and mobile platforms, and internationally. TechCrunch: Now you're public — congrats. What's changed now? How do you plan on spending the new money? John Schappert: Like we talked about on the roadshow, we have a larger bank account to invest in future of gaming, notably social gaming, which we think is where play is headed. When we think of growth, there are a few different areas. We're investing in existing games to drive bookings [revenue-generating events like the purchase of a virtual good]. We're also working to create new franchises and genres, like Castleville, which we recently launched on Facebook. That also means more international expansion. We've just started localizing a year ago with CityVille. TechCrunch: Can you tell me more about your specific approach to localizing by language, country or region? John Schappert: I can’t go down to country. But CityVille launched a year ago, and it was our first game that was localized into five languages at launch. Now, we launch in a dozen languages, and we continue to add more. We've built it into the engine. Related to that, we're making progress with localizing payments. Two months ago, if you were in Europe and purchasing virtual goods in games, you were still buying in US dollars. Now you can buy in the euro and the pound. International is an area we're going to continue to invest in. TechCrunch: What about your plans for other platforms — mobile, Google Plus? You're now at 13 million mobile daily actives? John Schappert: We've invested heavily. We've already talked about growing mobile by ten times to more than 11 million DAUs. It's still early on Google Plus, we still have hopes that Google will continue to invest there. Hopefully it'll turn into a nice platform. We're also on Tencent [a leading web copmany] in China. And they're like Google. They're very dedicated to it. They're both big players with lots of audience, who we've built great social games for. TechCrunch: Can you tell me any more about how Tencent is going — what are the early results, since it launched a few months ago? John Schappert: I can’t give much detail on Tencent. It's still very early for us. We've spent a lot of time on localizing localize. even more with content. very early going for us. But we're very proud about mobile. If you look at AppData, and at our Facebook DAU, and compare our mobile stats to our closest competitor on Facebook, you'll see that we compare quite favorably. We have new game engines on mobile coming out now for CityVille Hometown, FarmVille Express, Words With Friends…. I would say when we look at mobile, we don't separate by saying they're mobile not social. We create social games on every device, so you can play anywhere and everywhere. TechCrunch: How do you expect ad revenue to grow versus virtual goods, which is currently the core of your business? John Schappert: We can't provide any forward projections, but in the roadshow we talked about ads, how they've grown 160% — very fast. We do see it as a nice area of opportunity. engagement… all our s-1 stuff. We're reaching 227 million monthly active users. Big brands love that. We're partnered with Dreamworks for Kung Fu Panda, and lots of others. We offer unique ways to integrate advertisers into games. Best Buy in Cityville was interacted with 110 million times. TechCrunch: How do you feel about Google's efforts with Android, lately? It's not getting the same results for developers as iOS, even though it is getting bought like crazy. John Schappert: Google is continuing to improve marketplace, continuing to invest and further develop it. There are also a lot of new devices, and more coming this holiday season with Kindle Fires and iPads and other tablets and phones showing up under Christmas trees. The activation on all of this is pretty spectacular. I can't break out how Words With Friends is doing on the Kindle but it's a top mobile game. I mean, people play it even when they shouldn't on airplanes…. TechCrunch: What message do you have to investors after seeing how they reacted to your initial offering today? John Schappert: Our message to investors one day in is the same as on the road. We look at this for the long-term, we're not making short-term decisions. It's not single day or single hour. We're looking at the long-term of play, the long-term of Zynga and connecting the world through games, and that's hopefully what people are investing in — the future of social gaming and play. TechCrunch: How should people expect you to go about acquisitions and hiring now that you have all this new money in the bank? Are you looking at bigger companies to buy, for example? John Schappert: People who are thinking about working at Zynga should go to our web site and apply. With respect to M&A, it remains the same — we're actively looking for great teams, studios, IP…. when we find those, it's a great add to our company. Conduit Labs built Adventure World, CastleVille is from Bonfire. In terms of larger acquisitions? We're looking at a lot of different companies of all different sizes, and we'll see what makes sense. TechCrunch: Any parting thoughts about what people should understand about Zynga today? John Schappert: A lot of people watch things and don’t watch follow-up. But what we’re most proud of is follow-up. Our users stay engaged — we have five out of the five top games on Facebook today, and some of the titles are not new — and that's something very few people can say. [Schappert avatar via Zynga.]
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