#INFOGRAPHIC: Top 10 Android Applications For Small Business Owners And Entrepreneurs

Applications are becoming an integral part of life for Smartphone users of any operating system. Aside from making our lives easier, convenient and more organized, utilizing apps in right way enables small business owners and entrepreneurs to operate their whole business from the palm of their hand. Here we've 10 best free android application that will help you to get the most out of your Android device

This Infographic is Designed by Digital Information World  and Published by Irfan Ahmed

Top 10 Android Applications For Small Business Owners And Entrepreneurs infographic

Facebook Home: 5 Things You Need to Know

 By Michael Sawh at T3:

With Facebook still dominating the interwebs thanks to sheer weight of traffic, its millions of users and booming advertising revenue, Mark Zuckerberg has turned the gaze of his web-monster towards the mobile sector with the aim of making the social networking site more deeply integrated into day-to-day smartphone use by officially announcing its Android-based Facebook Home user interface which can be downloaded from Google Play. 

Aiming to turn your Android phone into a 'great social phone', Facebook is hoping to make smartphone interaction more focused on people than apps. So what does that mean? If you missed the announcement, here's five things you need to know about Facebook Home.

Cover Feed

Referring to the home screen as the soul of your smartphone, the image-centric user interface will let you swipe from left to right to see Facebook content so if you see a cool image that your Facebook friend has uploaded you can zoom in and out of it or double tap on it to Like. Facebook content can also be viewed in the lockscreen without having to make any swipes or gestures and can be turned off if you are worrying about data issues. 

App Launcher

If you are wondering where your native icons are going to go, they will be integrated into Home where your circlular profile pic icon will sit at the bottom of the screen and once tapped can open the standard applications tray as well as give you access to Facebook Messenger and a Most Recent app icon. 

Chat Heads

If you are looking at a photo or playing a game and you want to talk to a friend about it, Chat Heads will let you talk with Facebook Messenger friends and people in your contacts you'd normally just text all from one place. A small circle with your friends profile picture will pop up when a message has come through and a preview of the message to understand the context at which point you can continue the discussion all while the application you’re currently looking at is still open. If you want to close a Chat Head conversation or multiple conversations you can simply flick them off the screen. 

Facebook Home updates

Facebook announced that it will be adding new features on a monthly basis to enhance the Home experience but did not detail what kind of additions we can expect.

How do you get Facebook Home?

If you are in the US and have the most recent Facebook Android app and Facebook Messenger versions US customers will be able download it from Google Play next week with a global launch tipped in a few weeks time.

Unfortunately it will only be available for smartphones with a tablet version in the works which Facebook promises will be on the way in several months time. The other bad news is that the HTC One X, Samsung Galaxy Note 2, Samsung Galaxy S4 and HTC One will be amongst the few smartphones to be able to access Home as well as the newly announced HTC First which will have the Home software pre-loaded.

Redesigned SoundCloud Apps Include Playlists

SoundCloud has released new versions of its iPhone and Android apps for recording and sharing audio tracks.

The most noteworthy change is the addition of “sets,” which are basically playlists that listeners can curate and share. A new search filter will make the sets from other community members easier to discover.

This feature was previously available only on the desktop.

To make room for this and other features, the “record” button has been moved to the “more” menu for iPhone users and the side bar for Android users.

iPhone users will also see that the interface has been redesigned and the app icon has changed.

Users can download version 2.5 on Google Play and the Apple App Store. The company added that updates for iPad are coming soon.

#INFOGRAPHIC: Is Social Media Bad For Your Phone?

We all love being connected to each and the rest of the world via our phones, but we need to look at what this is costing us. Are the economical and emotional drains on our resources worth it? Our infographic has some surprising facts and figures.

This Infographic is Designed and Published by Cordless-Phones.co.uk

Is Social Media Bad For Your Phone? infographic

More Social Sharing With Via.Me, Now on Android

By Pete Davison at Inside Mobile Apps:
Via.Me is a “social sharing” app for the Web and mobile devices. The developer RadiumOne claims that the existing iOS version of the app currently has over 12 million monthly users, and the service has now expanded to Android devices.

The Android app was tested on a Motorola Xoom tablet running Android 4.0.4. The app ran, but was a little slow at times and suffered several seemingly unprovoked crashes during normal use while testing.

At heart, Via.Me takes inspiration for its core functionality from a variety of existing services, specifically the photo filtering of Instagram and the focus on “resharing” from Tumblr. Based largely around a “feed” of content posted by members that the user has chosen to follow, the app allows for the posting of text, photographs, videos and sounds and then allows the community to like, repost or comment on each item. Social connectivity allows users to automatically share content they post on Via.Me to Facebook and Twitter — this is done selectively at the time of posting by checking or unchecking the relevant boxes. The Web interface for the service allows sharing of content after it has been posted to Google+, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and email, but the Android app appears to be significantly more limited in this regard — there does not appear to be the facility to share content to other social services at all from within the app’s own news feed, meaning it must either be shared at the time of posting or not at all — or via the Web.


Read the full story here













 

Spotify Releases Free Radio App for Android

By Devon Glenn at Social Times:

The social streaming service for music lovers is putting a radio in the pockets of Android users everywhere. One month after releasing its radio app to iOS users, Spotify has brought the app to the Android.

Listeners can create stations from artists, albums, or other playlists from Spotify’s entire library of songs. The last time we counted, there were 16 million. They can also look at their friends’ playlists for inspiration.
Much like Pandora, the songs come up automatically. Listeners can give a song a “thumbs up” or a “thumbs down” to train the app to pull up songs they’ll actually like.
One cool feature is that any song that listeners “like” on the app will appear on their desktops when they get home.

Spotify’s radio app is free to download, but premium members (who pay a monthly fee) can listen to the radio without advertisements. The app is available now at the Google Play Store.


Read the full story here

By Matt Petronzio at Mashable

The Beginner’s Guide to Socialcam

1. Getting Started

First, you'll need to download Socialcam's mobile app. You can also create an account at Socialcam.com, but since you'll be using your smartphone to take and upload videos, you may as well start there.


Once you have the app, registration is simple. You just need to decide how you'd like to sign up: through Facebook, Twitter or email.


If you'd like to get the most social experience out of the platform, you'll probably want to choose Facebook. Don't worry -- you can set privacy controls later.

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2. Connect With Others

Right off the bat, Socialcam suggests users to follow. You can pick and choose through your personal network and featured users, or you can hit Follow All for a quick path to engagement.

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3. Videos Tab

The Videos tab acts as a sort of news feed, where you can navigate between various tasks.


Sort through your feed of friends' videos, edit your profile, toggle between your social settings and manage general settings.


On your personal profile, you can see your own video feed, who you're following, who's following you, any comments users have left on your video and any tags.

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4. Popular Tab

The Popular tab shows videos that have gained traction recently, based on views and likes. Here you can check out what other Socialcam users are into.

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5. Trends

From the Popular tab, you can also see trending topics, similar to Twitter.

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6. Friends Tab

The Friends tab is pretty self-explanatory. You can view users that you follow, users that follow you and find friends also using the platform.

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7. Find Friends

From your smartphone, you can invite friends to Socialcam and search for friends using the app through Facebook, Twitter and a general search bar.

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8. Activity Tab

The Activity tab acts a lot like Facebook's Activity Log. In the Yours section, a list accumulates your actions, such as comments, likes and views. The All section includes the same for the accounts you follow.

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9. Camera Mode

If you tap the red record button, you reach the most important part of Socialcam: the camera itself. See the next slide for more details on how to optimize your video.


If you've already recorded a video on your phone and you'd just like to upload it to the app, tap Library to browse for it and select it.

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10. Touchscreen Commands

Once you access camera mode, use your finger to manipulate the camera in order to create the perfect video.


Swipe your finger left or right to choose a filter, tap a section of the screen to focus, and pinch the screen to zoom in and out.

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11. Filters

The filters Socialcam offers are very Instagram-esque, but they're obviously geared more toward filming rather than static images.


The available filters are:

• Kodak: Vintage, burnt edges, shifting screen


• Grunge: Gray-washed screen, white streaks


• Watercolor: Reddish tint, water stains near edges, dark splotches


• Action: Very rich color enhancement


• Bokeh: Out-of-focus points of light


• Blueprint: Blue tint, orange-brown splotches


• 1971: Soft edges, bluish-green tint


• Noire: Soft edges, black and white, grainy image


• Bleach: White border, low saturation


• Electronica: Solid colors turn black, edges of objects are highlighted in multiple colors


• Rouge: Black and white, except for red color scheme


• 1970s: Vintage film quality, moving streaks and white spots

And, of course, you can always choose "No Filter."

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12. Titling and Privacy Settings

Hit the record button again to stop filming. Now you can title your project and decide whether you want it to be available to all Socialcam users, visible only to your followers or people you share with directly, or private.

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13. Preview

Before you publish your video, you can preview it to make sure it's exactly what you want others to see.

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14. Themes and Music

If you're not satisfied with just a filter, you can also add a theme (style choices that include opening text) or background music.


Nine available themes:

• News: News channel-like banner with your name and video title


• Classic: Similar to the opening titles of films


• Celebrate: Video appears on a postcard/invitation next to party favors


• Journal: Video appears in a phone next to writing journal


• Casual: Video title appears in casual handwriting font


• Travel: Includes date and location in opening shot


• Reporter: Similar to the News theme, your name and video title will appear as if it's being typed onto the screen


• MTV: Video title, your name and date will appear in lower-left corner, as if in a music video


• Ticker: Title, name and date scroll once across the bottom of the screen


Fifteen available songs:




• Love: Mellow guitar and background cello


• Street: A mix of strings, drums and vocals leading to a hip-hop feel


• Action: Electronic sounds, drums and fast tempo


• Country: Nylon guitar with a bit of twang


• Deep: A simple piano tune with plenty of minor chords


• March: Parade-style drums and horns, almost with a swing feel


• Wonder: Slow, solemn electric guitar


• Club: Electronic, dance-inducing trance music


• Happy: Drums, guitar and keyboards for a delighted feel


• Breezy: Wind and guitars that sound harp-like and whimsical


• Time: Guitar and soft cymbals reminiscent of '70s acoustic rock


• City: Lots of bass, drums and electronic distortion


• Guitar: Electric guitar rock


• Orchestra: A soft symphony


• Rhythm: Electronic keyboards, drums, soulful vocals

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15. Tagging and Sharing

After you choose a theme, pick a song and hit Save, you're prompted to tag friends in your video (this is optional).


You can also add email addresses to share your video directly, or you can post it on six social networks: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Dropbox, Posterous and Tumblr.

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16. Editing After Going Live

If you'd like to make a few changes after you've already published your video to your feed, not to worry. You can change the title, alter the privacy settings or delete the video altogether.


In the same menu, you can also vote for your video to make it to the Popular tab, though it will require more votes to actually make it there.

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17. General Settings

In the Settings menu, you can change your account settings (profile picture, name, email, etc.), social settings (showing your actions on Facebook or Twitter) and push notifications.


This is also where you can change your overall privacy settings. You can manually approve follow requests, ask the platform to automatically approve Facebook friends or automatically accept all followers.


To automatically share your videos to the six available sites, configure your accounts in this menu, too.


Last but not least, your videos will automatically save onto your phone's internal memory. You can turn that feature off in Settings.

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18. Featured Bio

If you get seven of your friends to sign up for a Socialcam account and integrate Facebook, you can get a featured bio.


Featured bios are short descriptions that appear under usernames and on profiles, and they're usually reserved for featured users.

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19. Facebook on the Web

When you completely integrate Socialcam with your Facebook account, you'll be able to see videos from the users you follow in your Facebook news feed, alongside your friends' other updates.

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20. Socialcam on the Web

The web counterpart to the Socialcam app allows you to view videos on a bigger screen, though you can't upload your own videos directly through the site. You can also access your feed, popular videos and general settings.

One of the more interesting things the site version offers that the app doesn't is the Leaderboard. Here, you can view the most-followed users and brands using Socialcam.

To participate in the digital age requires a certain kind of visual thinking. Whether creating a snazzy website layout, capturing artsy pics with Instagram or even choosing the perfect Facebook cover photo, interesting images and videos enhance social engagement .
Social video sharing platforms, such as YouTube, Viddy and Socialcam, have recognized (and propagated) this shift away from plain text. Users can express their personalities and interests in videos and share them with friends and followers.

Socialcam has specifically worked to streamline mobile video sharing. Spun from Justin.tv in March 2011, the quick and easy platform allows you to upload and customize videos that you capture with your smartphone (iPhone and Android). Plus, it doesn’t have a time limit like Viddy’s 15-second cap. You can add filters, themes and music, and it’s simple to integrate your multiple social media accounts.

Autodesk, a company known for its 3D design, engineering and entertainment software, bought Socialcam earlier in July for $60 million, thus acquiring its 54.7 million monthly active users.
If you’re looking to see what all the buzz is about, we put together a simple guide in the gallery above, outlining everything you need to know. All you’ll need is your smartphone and some creativity.


Note: Socialcam’s Android app hasn’t been updated for about a year. The iPhone and Android apps vary as far as layout goes, but the functions are similar. The user experience is much smoother for iPhone users.

Showing No Signs of Slowing, Instagram Hits 80 Million Users

By Mike Isaac at AllThingsD:
Continuing its breakneck pace of user growth and scaling, Instagram announced on Thursday that the site had reached the 80 million user mark, a 60 percent increase in its community over the past 13 weeks.

“We now have >5.7m users per employee,” Instagram infrastructure engineer Rick Branson wrote in a tweet. If you do the math, that’s 14 employees. And there’s more to come: “We’re hiring :),” Branson added.

It’s a significant milestone for the company, which has only continued to gain traction over the past year. The company finally launched its Android application in April, and almost instantaneously gained millions of users. To date, those 80 million-plus users have shared more than 4 billion photos using the service.

Gauge that growth for one minute: Instagram first launched in October of 2010. It took a year and a half for the company to reach 50 million users, which it announced toward the end of April. It only took an additional three months to bolster its ranks by another 60 percent, or 30 million users. Frankly, that growth is nuts.

There were concerns that Facebook’s announcement it would acquire Instagram for $1 billion would curtail the service’s growth; perhaps a Facebook-owned Instagram could screw up the already massively popular, simple service. Others worried that the addition of millions of Android users would muddy the quality of items shared; even Apple exec Phil Schiller stopped using the service after Android was added.


Read the full story here

Seven More Countries Get Facebook App Center

By David Cohen at AllFacebook:
Facebook’s app center applications discovery portal is now available in seven more countries: Brazil, France, Germany, Russia, Spain, Taiwan, and Turkey.

The social network said users in those seven countries should now see the app center bookmark on the left side of their homepage on Facebook.com and in Facebook apps for the iPhone, iPad, and Android.

Earlier this month, Facebook announced that app center was available to 100 percent of its users in the U.S., Australia, Canada, India, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa, and the U.K


Read the full story here

How Miniclip Went From Web Portal To 100M Mobile Downloads

By Kathleen De Vere at InsideNetworks:  
Few may know it, but the 11-year old online games portal Miniclip is also a mobile powerhouse. The company has racked up over 100 million downloads across iOS and Android, and currently has 15 million mobile monthly active users across its most popular titles.
The week the Swiss company furthered its commitment to mobile, redesiging its website to make it into a mobile-friendly site that allows users to play Miniclip’s mobile games online before they download the apps to their phones.



The move is an expanded take on Miniclip’s existing cross-platform promotion system, according to Miniclip’s EVP and commercial director Chris Bergstresser. He explains the company pairs the launch of every mobile title with a flash-based mini-version of the game on its website, allowing Miniclip to leverage the 70 million visitors its website receives every month to drive adoption of the new game.

Not only does the approach mean Miniclip doesn’t have to spend much on mobile user acquisition or advertising to drive its games up the charts, it’s also proven to be extremely lucrative for the company.

“We won’t divulge any revenue figures right now, but we can say that mobile has become the second biggest revenue channel for Miniclip – just a bit behind ads,” says Bergstresser. Considering the company was already earning between 20 and 30 million euro in yearly revenue in 2010, its unsurprising Miniclip is pushing even more aggressively into the mobile space. Miniclip is entirely bootstrapped and had never taken on external funding.

While the company still sees more profits and higher average revenue per user (ARPU) on iOS, the next step for Miniclip on mobile is to establish itself on Android. The company currently has 28 iOS games and 15 Android titles, but it plans to release a further 20 Android games within the next year.



In order to support the expansion Minclip has developed its own cross-platform porting technology to allow it take iOS games and bring them to Android quickly.  “The software reduces the time we would have normally spent building an Android version of a game from 1 month to around 1 week,” says Bergstresser.

The end goal, explains Bergstresser is for Miniclip to do for mobile what it has done for the web — to become an alternative discovery engine.  “We see many similarities between the emerging mobile space and how we viewed the web games space when the company started 11 years ago,” he says.

According to Begstrasser, the biggest problem facing developers right now is discoverability, and making sure their title is noticed among the half million other apps currently available in Apple’s, Google’s and Amazon’s stores.

“This is where Miniclip becomes a real differentiator, through our ability to market mobile games on the web to a massive user-base of casual gamers,” he says.

Top Apps and Tips for Mobile Bloggers

By Jane Johnson at SpiceUp Your Blog:  
Today’s smart phones and mobile devices are making it possible to blog from anywhere, anytime. I take my iPad with me whenever I travel so that I can post a daily blog from the airport, train station, or aboard a bus whisking me to another state. I’ve even been known to take a coffee break during road trips so I can post a quick blog from the comforts of a padded booth with an apple fritter at my side.

However, it wasn’t always like this. It took me some time with my iPad figure out all the little tricks and shortcuts that I could take advantage of. Once I did, it became my favorite device, and now I use it far more than my laptop—and it’s much lighter to transport too.

Why I love blogging from mobile devices as opposed to desktop or laptop computers:

• Tablets and smart phones are extremely light weight and specially designed slide into any carry-on bag
• I personally find, that when I use my iPad, I’m less likely distracted because its software architecture is basic compared to my laptop—so fewer distractions
• Mobile devices have pretty good battery life—I find my laptop dies after about 4 hours while my iPad lasts up to 10 on a single charge

Now that you see the benefits of using your smart phone, I’d like to share my personal tips for using one to blog effectively using some easy downloadable tools:

For brainstorming ideas and capturing notes I use…

Must have blogging tools for publishing on the go!

1)  iThoughtsHD ($9.99 – for iPhone and iPad)

As a blogger, having a tool to generate ideas for my blog posts is important. The iThoughtsHD app is a mind mapping app that synchs up to Dropbox (a central storage app) so I can create a mind map to help me brainstorm blog topics, themes, drafts, and then save everything back to Dropbox, so I can take my drafts with me and access them whenever the mood to write strikes.

2) Evernote (Free – for Android & iPad, iPhone)

As far as free apps go, Evernote is the best note taking and storage app you will find! Simply take notes whenever you have a “eureka” moment and know that all will be saved and stored across all devices—your desktop, laptop, smart phone, and tablet device. Evernote provides peace of mind for bloggers like me who like to transport all of their work with them when they’re on the go.

3) Blogger (Free – for Android & iPhone & iPad)

The must-have publishing platform is available for your mobile device. The Blogger app makes it easily to publish quick blog posts, and even upload pictures, add hash tags, and location information. However, the thing I like the most about Blogger is the list view of posts that it offers—you can view all blogs across multiple accounts and easily switch between them with ease.

4) Dropbox (Free – for Android & iPhone, iPad)

When it comes to reliable storage, you can’t ask for more than Dropbox. This all provides storage and synchronization for all of your photos, documents, and videos for free. Any file you save to your Dropbox will be instantly accessible from all of your computers and mobile devices. You can even save items to your favorites for fast access and viewing.



Author - Jane Johnson is a writer for GoingCellular, a popular site that provides cell phone related news and commentary as well as reviews on popular providers and devices like the popular Samsung phones.

The 20 Best iOS and Android Apps Of 2012

By Brad Sprrison at TechCrunch:  
Halfway into 2012, there are now more than 1.2 million mobile applications available to download to iOS and Android devices. With so many options literally at our fingertips – including dozens of worthy titles introduced to us each day – the task of compiling a mid-year “best of” list of new apps is more challenging (and enjoyable) than ever.

Out of the hundreds (if not thousands) of titles worthy of inclusion, our favorite 20 iOS and Android apps released so far in 2012 can do everything from appraise the value of a home merely by taking its picture, to supplying users with loyalty swag merely for checking-in to their favorite TV shows. We also salute a highly anticipated game sequel that somehow catapulted beyond its otherworldly hype.

A quick primer on our methodology before we get going. All apps picked were either released or significantly updated between January 1 and June 30 of this year. Titles that debuted on iOS or Android in 2012 that were previously available on another platform are eligible for inclusion.

All of our selections were sourced, ranked and finalized by Appolicious Advisors and members of our community.  In all, about a dozen members of the Appolicious editorial team offered their favorites. We also surveyed the most active and influential users of Appolicious sites and applications. We did not account for the number of app downloads or overall popularity. Our qualitative assessment is based primarily on the production value, utility and creativity of baked into each cited application.


Let’s get going.

 

Best iOS apps

Camera Awesome (iPhone, iPod Touch: free)

While Instagram’s sale to Facebook dominated the headlines earlier this year, the best new app of 2012 so far is another photo-sharing service that actually helps you take better pictures. Created by 10-year-old photo-sharing site SmugMug, Camera Awesome is a revelation in iPhoneography and yet another reason why many of us can ditch our digital cameras. Beyond Camera Awesome’s stunning interface, there are several ways this app can “awesomize” your pictures, including automatic levelization and color adjustment. All presets and filters can be purchased in-app for $9.99 (or a la carte at 99 cents a pop). The ability to capture videos up to five seconds before you press record is also a great option. Finally, Camera Awesome makes it dead simple to share photos across your favorite social networks (Instagram included).

Pocket (Formerly Read It Later) (Universal: free, also available for Android)

Independent “read later” apps may become an endangered species this fall when Apple incorporates its Offline Reading List into Safari as part of iOS 6. Until then (and perhaps thereafter), the best bookmarking app for your buck (actually free) is Pocket. Formerly known as Read It Later, the app’s April rebrand involved more than just a name-change and price reduction. Pocket’s new features, which include the ability to seamlessly view videos and images as well as grid-based article lists, do not undermine the app’s simple and elegant interface.

Khan Academy (iPad: free)

The best thing about this app is how it doesn’t clutter or distract from the expert video tutorials that are produced by next-generation educator Salman Khan. The more than 3,200 educational videos that touch on everything from “Getting a seed round from a VC”, to  “Earth Formation” to “The Bay of Pigs Invasion” are categorized within a simple taxonomy. The YouTube-hosted videos that contain subtitles are extensively logged, allowing users to quickly and easily locate a phrase or passage that may have gone over their heads.

TouchTV (iPad: free)

From customized news provider SkyGrid comes TouchTV, which beautifully showcases video clips from broadcast and cable networks onto the iPad. TouchTV runs video clips (typically up to five minutes in length) from 16 official providers including ESPN, Bloomberg Television and Jimmy Kimmel Live. While downloading TouchTV alone is not enough to “cut the cord” from your satellite or cable provider, the app offers a glimpse of what an app-enabled television universe can look like. TouchTV joins video discovery services like Showyou and Squrl (which each received significant updates this year) as among the best iOS apps to currently watch on Apple TV.

Any.Do (iPhone, iPod Touch: free)

Our favorite Android app of 2011 in June finally made its way to iOS devices. And it was worth the wait. Any.Do, which is backed by Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt, is an uber-productivity app that lets you easily create and complete tasks with the swipe of a finger. The app’s voice-dictation technology reliably records tasks without a user needing to type anything. You can also share your to-do lists with friends in the hopes they might help out with whatever needs to get done.

Highlight (iPhone, iPod Touch: free)

Coming out of the South By Southwest bracket of the 2012 mid-year app tournament is this social mobile local app. Highlight alerts you when a Facebook friend or individual with similar interests is nearby, and lets you learn more about other Highlight users when they are in your vicinity. Like similar services including Sonar, Banjo and Kismet, Highlight is only effective if there is a critical mass of other users in your area. While each service has its strong points, Highlight looks to have the greatest chance of any to crossover to the mainstream.

Viggle (iPhone, iPod touch: free, also available for Android)

Receiving discount cards from the likes of Amazon, Starbucks and the Gap just for watching TV for many could be considered the American dream. Viggle makes it a reality by letting users check-in and earn loyalty points for watching their favorite programs.
The app performs reliably, while offering additional features including trivia questions, polls and curated tweets as gravy.

LinkedIn Update (Universal iOS: free)

The best thing about LinkedIn’s April iOS update is that the app is now finally compatible and optimized for the iPad. Presumably inspired by Flipboard (where it has a key presence), LinkedIn functions best as a social magazine on the iPad.
The magic of LinkedIn on the iPad is how it integrates content shared by your connections with the ability to map common relationships with the sender in ways not possible via any other app or site.

Clear (iPhone, iPod Touch: $2.99)

Clear is the to-do list for those who just want to get their stuff done and move on. While it lacks many of the features of heavy-hitter task-managers like Omnifocus and newer contemporaries like Any.Do, Clear excels in letting users quickly create categories and list the things they need to do that fall under those categories. The app’s beautifully designed interface also lets users sort these listed items by priority and quickly swipe to erase them when they’ve been completed.

HomeSnap (iPhone, iPod Touch: free)

While HomeSnap can’t do much to bring the nation’s housing market back to pre-crash levels, the app – with an assist from augmented reality – can help users determine the value of a home merely by taking its picture. In addition to financials, you can also see school information, historical data and the number of bedrooms and bathrooms in a given home. HomeSnap is not 100 percent reliable, but neither is information provided by a seller or broker.

Best iOS and Android games
It’s no accident that most of the top games to come out so far in 2012 are available on both iOS and Android devices. While there are constraints involved in making sure games are compatible across myriad Android form factors and operating systems, developers realize they need to embrace the platform in order to achieve a critical mass of users.

Draw Something by OMGPOP (Universal: $2.99, also available for Android)
While the momentum for this touchscreen-based and unofficial variation of Pictionary slowed down after it was acquired by Zynga in March, there are reasons why Draw Something generated tens of millions of downloads in only its first few weeks (faster than Angry Birds, Instagram, and any other app in history). It’s really fun to play! The premise of the game is simple enough for a five-year-old to pick up. Further, Draw Something’s social integration via Facebook and email makes it easy to play the game with a friend or stranger regardless of what kind of iOS and Android device they own. Don’t own a device on either platform? No worries, you’ll soon be able to watch the upcoming Draw Something primetime game show.

JAZZ: Trump’s journey (Universal: $2.99, also available for Android)
Loosely based on the life of Louis Armstrong, JAZZ: Trump’s journey plays well as a “greatest hits” for platform games. With beautiful graphics that capture 1920’s era New Orleans, great controls, and of course a killer soundtrack, Trump’s journey has enough features and depth to appeal to established gamers while also serving as a spirited and soulful introduction to newbie players.

Angry Birds Space (iPhone and iPod Touch: $0.99, iPad: $2.99, Android smartphones: $0.99, Android tablets: $2.99)
With a launch promotion that was literally out of this world, there was a concern that Angry Birds Space wouldn’t live up to its hype, or just be a slight variation of previous versions of the game. That fear was flung into the stratosphere once we actually began playing it. With new gravity-based mechanics, awesome new birds, a darker color palate and bizarrely amusing space aesthetics, Angry Birds Space is arguably the most refreshing and enjoyable title in the franchise.

N.O.V.A 3 (Universal: $6.99, also for Android)
If you are a fan of first-person shooters, than this is the game for you. Developed by Gameloft, N.O.V.A. 3 more than any other title available on mobile devices moves and feels like a console game. N.O.V.A. 3 has you blasting aliens and enemies through a number of planets (including a war-torn Earth). The multiplayer aspect of the game will have you sharing your battle with as many as 11 other players. Each beautifully animated level takes about 30 minutes to complete, offering a lot of bang for your seven bucks.

Spellsword (Universal: $0.99)
With furious and addicting gameplay, unique mechanics, and retro graphics and music, Spellsword is a fresh new platform game contained within a sword and sorcery kind of environment. Use your single sword to strike down enemies, and launch fireballs along the way. As you proceed through the missions and maps, new spell cards will be introduced along with new enemies. The best thing about Spellsword, at least for more competitive gamers, is that it contains no in-app purchases, and all of the achievements must be earned by the player.

Best Android apps

Many of the best new releases on Android – including three of our five favorites – were originally created for iOS devices. When the best titles are finally available on multiple platforms, we all win.

Flipboard (free)
Our favorite iPhone app of 2011 finally and officially arrived to Android in June. The socially curated magazine – which beautifully presents news, photos and status updates shared by your social graph – included YouTube integration as part of its Android launch (Google+ integration arrived a few days earlier). Flipboard is also the best way to read content from third-party publishers on mobile devices, including the New York Times which on June 28 debuted its NYT Everywhere service to subscribers within the app.

Instagram (free)
Instagram’s arrival to Android was a positive development to say the least for the photo-sharing pioneer. Within one week, Instagram attracted more than 5 million downloads. A few days later, the company was acquired by Facebook for what was at the time a 10-figure valuation. The company’s immediate triumph illustrates how apps need to be available for both iOS and Android devices to emerge as a true pop-culture sensations.

Google Drive (free with subscription, also available on iOS)
In our two months of using the service, we are finding that Google Drive is a superior and more cost-effective solution for storing and sharing documents than Dropbox. For individuals and organizations that already rely on Google Docs, migrating to Google Drive is a no-brainer. The app works seamlessly across all of our Android devices.  Now that the service as of June 28 is available to download to iOS devices, there is not much else standing in the way of market domination.

Airbnb (free)
Airbnb’s arrival to Android in January, after previously being available online and via iOS devices, was more than just a copy and paste job from one platform to another. The service, a vacation-rental marketplace, for the first time made it possible for property owners and travelers to quickly instant message each other for questions or go over any issues that arise during a stay. There are more than Airbnb 200,000 listings across the world, as well as curated travel recommendations from the likes of Ashton Kutcher and Jack Dorsey.

Chrome (free on Ice Cream Sandwich devices only, also available on iOS)
If you use the Chrome desktop browser and own an Android smartphone or tablet powered by Ice Cream Sandwich, owning this app is a no-brainer. The Chrome mobile and desktop apps interact seamlessly with one another, meaning you can access your bookmarks and browsing history on the app. The app also lets you swipe between tabs without ever having to go to the tabs menu. The Chrome app also supports voice search, bookmarking and private browsing. Like Google Drive, Chrome launched on iOS devices on June 28 during Google I/O 2012.

Google Analytics Finally Gets Mobile App

By Thom Craver, at Search Engine Watch:  
At long last, the Google Analytics team has announced an official Google Analytics mobile app. There are nearly a dozen apps in the Google Play store that use the Google Analytics API to display reports and other dashboards.

The app uses a swipe-gesture interface to switch between screens that include access to multiple reports for all your Google Analytics profiles, including real-time analytics, all your dashboard stats and even goal alerts, all on-the-go.
"Our users have been asking us for a Google Analytics app for some time now, and we're so excited to make it available today on Android," said Peng Li, a software engineer at Google. "This project has been a real labor of love, and we're thrilled that users can start downloading the app today."

Earlier today, the Analytics team also announced Mobile App Analytics. With their newly release app, you can now check your mobile app's analytics with the Google Analytics mobile app.

The Google Analytics app is available in the Google Play store.

For how long have you been waiting for this app? When you download it, sound off in the comments below.