Jan 27, 2012

It was an amazing year. With over 1.5 million votes cast (over three times the number cast last year) and a record number of nominations, we now have the winners of the 2011 Best App Ever Awards. Thanks to all that voted, nominated, and made these fantastic apps!

All-in-all Android made a fantastic showing pulling in 46% of the overall votes. A great response considering this is the first year for Android to be included in our well established awards. But unfortunately it wasn’t enough to topple iOS from the top prize. Now, the winner of the Best App Ever!

Best App Ever Category

Winner: Jetpack Joyride by Halfbrick Studios

Halfbrick made iOS the winner of the Best App Ever by beating the top Android vote getter by nearly 10:1. Here are a few more interesting stats:

1,565,833 total votes cast
1.1 million unique voters
36,431 number of votes the top vote getter, Jetpack Joyride, got across all categories
1,692 unique apps in the awards
53.9% of the votes were for iOS apps
46.1% of the votes for Android apps
1 Best App Ever winner, Jetpack Joyride from Halfbrick Studios!

Thanks again for voting, we’ll be back again next year for our 5th Annual Best App Ever Awards!

Read on for the full list of Android winners or check out the Best App Ever Awards site for full details on all categories.

Jan 3, 2012

The final nominees for the 2011 Best App Ever Awards have just been announced. This year saw a huge increase in the number of nominations placed and the number of applications nominated. The big change this year was the introduction of Android applications to the awards, with each category (other than the Best App Ever category) having a winner from each platform.

The Best App Ever Awards are the most prestigious (if we do say so ourselves) and longest running mobile app awards. Last year saw nearly 500,000 votes cast in the awards, and this year the goal is over a million. Here are a few more stats on this year’s awards:

2011 Best App Ever Awards, By The Numbers:

  287,643 nominations placed by users at the site
  7,243 different applications submitted for nomination
  1,692 different application are final nominees
  1,336 different developers have apps nominated in the awards
  109 app / game categories in the 2011 awards
  76% of the nominations submitted were for iOS applications, 24% for Android applications
  42 Gameloft app nominations, Gameloft leads the pack with the most of any publisher
  20 nominations per category (10 for iOS, 10 for Android)
  1 Best App Ever category winner (it’s iOS vs. Android)

The overall winner, the Best App Ever will be chosen in a no-holds-barred cage match between the 10 top Android and 10 top iOS nominees. Only one supreme app will reign supreme as the single best app on its mobile platform. Which will reign supreme? The Android nominees are listed below:

Best App Ever

The overall best app of the year. Nominees are the apps that received the most nominations across all categories
» A Space Shooter For Free from Frima Studio Inc.
» Angry Birds from Rovio Mobile Ltd.
» Evernote from Evernote Corp.
» Google Maps from Google Inc.
» SHADOWGUN from MADFINGER Games, a.s.
» Stitcher Radio – News & Talk from Stitcher, Inc
» SugarSync from SugarSync, Inc.
» Talking Tom Cat 2 from Outfit7
» Taptu – DJ Your News from Taptu
» World of Goo from 2D BOY

Voting is open now through January 25th with the final winners to be announced at the 2011 Macworld / iWorld Expo in San Francisco, CA. Shortly after, they will be posted to the Best App Ever site, and we’ll point you to them there as well. Make sure you get your votes in early, and take advantage of the social sharing option on the site to rally support for your favorite apps.

Hit the jump (or see the Best App Ever site for the full list of Android apps nominated in the 2011 Best App Ever awards in the other 108 categories.

And let us know in the comments, who you think will win, Android or iOS for Best App Ever?

We’re looking for several App Reviewers and Bloggers to expand our coverage here on Android Rundown. The premise is very straight forward: a website focused on Android, with heavy emphasis on reviews of paid apps available in the Android Market.

Your past experience is not nearly as important as your ability to write proficiently, your passion for Android, and your drive. The ideal writer for our Android site should be able to devour apps and games and be able to write about them quickly and authoritatively. You should have a good critical eye and the ability to express yourself well. You should be able to self edit your posts and deliver them ready to publish. And most importantly, you should be able to do this while keeping your review fun and interesting like the common voice of our sites.

In addition to app and game review writers, we are also looking to add one or two news reporters. The ideal news reporter would be someone who knows when an app is going to be released before anyone else does. Someone who knows the industry and the people in the industry. Wakes up in the middle of the night to see what new apps have gone live. And is comfortable talking to developers, marketing people, and even press agencies. You must be able to respond to and write about events and industry changes quickly. And most importantly you should be able to filter through information for what is a good story and what is just PR fluff.

If you think either of these descriptions fit your skills, please keep reading. In exchange for your amazing writing skills, we will provide a brand new outlet for your talents. And of course there’s the money. We do ask that you only apply if you can keep up a regular posting frequency of at least 5 posts per week. While this isn’t a full time job, it is certainly not a once-in-a-while hobby either.

As this is a paid opportunity, please provide several samples of your work that is relevant. For those of you who don’t have relevant experience, please pick your 2 absolute favorite Android games and 2 favorite apps and provide a 300 word review of each of them along with your information.

If you have any questions, please contact us at the address below.

How to apply

If you think you have the writing skills, the drive, and the Android focus to help take our Android site to top, send us the following:

Your name
Where you live (city, state, country)
What Android device(s) you use
Why you want to write for us
3 writing samples
Past writing experiences

Email all that to helpwanted+android {at} 148apps {dot} com and we will be in touch.

Dec 15, 2011

Wyse, developers of the excellent PocketCloud remote desktop app, have released PocketCloud Explore today to allow you remote access to all files on your home network.

PocketCloud Explore ($4.99) gives you the ability to search and browse files across your entire network, on any hard drive connected to any machine that you have the PocketCloud server installed on. Not only that, but it does so almost instantly. Explore also gives you lots of options once you find the file you are looking for. You can copy the file to the local Android device, or open it with a compatible app. You also have full control of the files remotely — copy, delete, rename, etc.

Another easy function is the ability to email a remote document. When you start this process, you pick the file you want to mail, it’s automatically downloaded to your Android and attached to an email message. Ready to go.

PocketCloud Explore is an impressive tool. Looks like it will be indispensable for the modern mobile warrior. For the full press release with more details and images, hit the jump.

Wyse Delivers Innovative Secure Mobile Cloud Search App
 
Wyse PocketCloud Explore app enables users to conduct secure, reliable and simple content search and management on any remote computer from anywhere
 
SAN JOSE, Calif. – December 15, 2011 – Wyse Technology, the global leader in cloud client computing, is changing the way people search, view, and organize their digital lives while on the go with the launch of the Wyse PocketCloud Explore mobile cloud app. The app also pioneers multi-device search, allowing users to easily access files anywhere on their device or remote computers. 
 
Connecting Android devices to content on computers, Wyse PocketCloud Explore enables users to view and share that content from mobile devices. For example, if a user wanted to find the folder of photos from a combined business and vacation trip but could not remember whether it was on their home computer, work computer or office server, they could search all the devices at once and open it on their Android phone.
 
“At its core, Wyse PocketCloud has always been about making computing on mobile devices easy, intuitive and secure, and Wyse PocketCloud Explore is a perfect example of our dedication to this philosophy.” says Daniel Barreto, general manager of the mobile cloud business unit at Wyse. “With Explore we are providing a way for people to finally search their entire digital lives from absolutely anywhere.”
 
The Wyse PocketCloud Explore app provides the convenience of remote file storage and access without the extra cost or security risk of placing files in third-party storage clouds. Where cloud storage companies charge hundreds of dollars to store files, Wyse PocketCloud Explore allows unlimited access to the files already on users’ devices. This allows users to remain in control of their own content and still have anytime, anywhere access to their digital lives. In short, it no longer matters which device a file originated from or where you saved it, with Wyse PocketCloud Explore you’ll be able to find it, organize it, and share it and quickly and easily.
 
Wyse PocketCloud Explore features include:
• Search and browse all files and folders on your computers and Android devices
• Unlimited copying and moving of video, image, and audio files between Mac or Windows computers and Android devices
• Open remote files in the app viewer or edit in your choice of Android apps
• Create and delete folders and rename or delete documents
• Open a remote computer file from Android email client and send as attachment
 
Wyse PocketCloud Explore allows users to finally achieve a sense digital harmony with the efficiency of multi-device search, the power of full mobile computing, the beauty of a native Android interface, and the security of retaining control of digital content. Wyse has not only pioneered multi-device mobile search, they have created true digital Zen.
 
Wyse PocketCloud Explore for Android is available now for $4.99 and can be downloaded here: http://market.android.com/details?id=com.wyse.filebrowserfull
 
About Wyse Technology
Wyse Technology is the global leader in cloud client computing. The Wyse portfolio includes industry-leading thin, zero and cloud PC client solutions with advanced management, desktop virtualization and cloud software-supporting desktops, laptops and next-generation mobile devices. Cloud client computing replaces the outdated computing model of the unsecure, unreliable, energy-intensive and expensive PC, all while delivering lower TCO and a superior user experience. Wyse has shipped more than 20 million units and has over 200 million people interacting with their products each day, enabling the leading private, public, hybrid and government cloud implementations worldwide. Wyse partners with industry-leading IT vendors, including Cisco®, Citrix®, IBM®, Microsoft and VMware®, as well as globally recognized distribution and service partners. Wyse is headquartered in San Jose, California, U.S.A., with offices worldwide.  
 
For more information, visit the Wyse website at www.wyse.com or call 1-800-GET-WYSE.

FREE!

PocketCloud Remote RDP / VNC

App Available on: Android Market
Released by: Wyse Technology Inc
Downloads: >250,000
User Rating: 4.45 / 5 with 13,710 ratings

Remote desktop access to Windows and Mac OS from your Android device.

US$0.99

PocketCloud Explore

App Available on: Android Market
Released by: Wyse Technology Inc
Downloads: 1,000-5,000
User Rating: 4.06 / 5 with 215 ratings

Search, view and organize files on your computers from your Android device

Dec 8, 2011

The 2011 Best App Ever Awards have launched. It’s time to nominate your favorite apps and games of 2011.

In it’s fourth year, the Best App Ever awards is a people’s choice awards for apps. Last year over 500,000 votes were cast in the quest to find the best apps, not just the best selling. This year it’s back bigger and better than ever.

In a big change this year, not just iOS but also Android applications and games are up for nomination in the awards competition. Users can nominate their favorite apps and games in any of the multiple categories by heading to the app nomination page and choosing a category.

“This will be interesting to see what the Android user response is to these awards. The Best App Ever awards are well established but adding a new platform is something we’ve haven’t done in the past. Android apps have matured so much over the past year, that it was time for us to add them to the awards. We’re hoping that we’ll see quite a fight for Best App Ever once people realize it’s iOS vs. Android.” said Best App Ever founder, Jeff Scott.

Nominations are open through the end of the year. After that the nominations will be tallied and the top 10 iOS and Android apps in each category will fight it out for the awards. In addition, the 10 iOS and 10 Android apps that get the most nominations overall will fight it out for the title of Best App Ever.

What app do you think will win for Best App Ever in 2011?

Start Nominating Apps Now!

The third APPNATION conference will be held November 30-December 1 at the Concourse at the SF Design Center and AndroidRundown and the 148Apps Network are proud media sponsors. The agenda is shaping up to be yet another great one this time around. Some of the great speakers and panel members lined up include:

Doug Purdy, Director of Developer Relations, Facebook
Baudouin Corman, VP Publishing Americas, GAMELOFT
Gibu Thomas, SVP Mobile and Digital, Walmart
Ben Keighran, CEO, Chomp
Brandon Watson, Senior Director, Windows Phone, Microsoft
Dave Castelnuovo, Founder & CEO, Bolt Creative (PocketGod)

And many more.

Want to attend AppNation III? 148Apps network readers can get a 30% discount on the registration fee by using code 148APPS 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 third annual APPNATION event will feature speakers and exhibitors from leading companies from across the app economy. DEVELOPERS: Submit your app and have a chance to pitch at the AppCircus@Appnation! Isobar is sponsoring an NFC Hackathon and check out the AppNation Bootcamp.

148Apps Network readers receive 30% off full conference registration by using code 148APPS!

Jun 17, 2011

The following is cross posted from our sister site, 148Apps.biz.

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.

Innovation trumps sleep. Always.

Link: More information and to sign up.

May 18, 2011

PocketCloud will be updated soon with some features that really set it apart from the remote desktop competition. It’s already recognized as one of the best remote desktop apps, these new features make it even better.

Mount your Android device on your Windows Desktop – this feature will allow you to directly access your Android file system from your Windows desktop. Very convenient way to transfer files to and from your device when connected to a remote machine. With this feature you won’t need to go through a cloud storage provider like Dropbox, you just direct connect and drag and drop.

Stream remote audio and video directly to your Android device – this feature will automatically re-encode your media appropriate for the connection speed you have and stream it directly to your device. Some remote desktop devices try to stream video playing on the remote desktop, which rarely works well, especially over a 3G connection. This re-encode and stream solution should provide for a much more robust experience.

Remote printing – you will now be able to print from you Android device to any printer connected to any of the remote desktops you have connections to.

Bluetooth devices support – Bluetooth keyboard and mouse support turn your Android tablet into a mobile workstation.

These updates should be hitting soon. Keep an eye out as they make and already great remote desktop app even better. Wyse also showed us a few new features they are working on for future updates. These updates should take it up yet another huge notch.

PocketCloud is available on the Android Market in Paid and Free versions.

Google today announced a huge set of changes to the Android Market site and a new Android Market app all aimed at helping users discover new and better apps.

The changes to the Android Market were announced at Google I/O and focus on raising the discoverability of new apps and apps that might match a users preferences. Most of the changes were launched today on the Android Market site, though the new Android Market app has yet to be released.

From tuning the lists that are there to including new ones, the top app lists are getting an overhaul. New lists will include recent top free and paid apps — newer apps that are selling well, top grossing app lists (taking a cue from Apple on that one), and overall trending apps. The current lists will be tuned to take into account more of what apps people are actually using.

In addition, Google has started an Editor’s Choice list of apps. These are apps chosen by Google as the favorites of employees. Also a distinguished developer tag has been applied to the listings from developers that Google deems the best developers on the market.

Google made the announcement that US downloads have fallen overall to just 50% of total downloads. This underscores the importance of international markets to app developers. In addition, 99 new countries will get access to paid downloads.

App size has been an issue for some developers such as GPS and game developers. But now Google has upped the size limit to a whopping 4GB. That should be enough for just about any GPS app.

(Ed. note: This should be the end of apps on the Market that are just frontends for downloading the necessary game data, like EA’s games and Dungeon Defenders: First Wave)

We should see the new Market app launch soon. We don’t know what exactly will be included or when it will launch, but there’s plenty of room for improvement for the Market site and the app, so any change will be welcome.

May 12, 2011

During a HTC event at Google I/O yesterday, Gameloft was showing off their 3D chops with Ultimate Spider-Man: Total Mayhem. We got a short chance to take a look at a new game that Gameloft tailored to the new 3D capable Android handsets. Spider-Man was one of our favorite iOS games of recent memory from Gameloft. Soon it will be out on Android and in 3D if you have the right device.

The game itself is a comic book story where you play as Spider-Man, exploring multiple levels and fighting bosses. Inspired by the Ultimate Spider-Man series of comics, the graphic style is sort of a merge of that and the original Spider-Man. You have over 20 fighting combos and moves. Controls are the standard thumb stick on the left, context aware action buttons on the right. Pretty standard for Gameloft games.

Take a look at the video from the iOS version for a good idea of the game and the gameplay. It obviously doesn’t show the 3D.

The 3D effect on the HTC Evo 3D was pretty spectacular, while less pronounced than 3D images or movies on the device. The 3D effect is reserved, but very well done and less distracting than what the 3DS offers. You really see the 3D when Spider-Man throws a criminal directly at the screen. Very nice.

We can expect Spider-Man 3D to ship either on the 3D devices or around the time they are released. Gameloft has not been specific on the matter, but this is one to keep an eye out for.

Apr 5, 2011

The AppNation conference will be held April 27 & 28 at the Moscone Convention center in San Francisco and the 148Apps Network 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.

Sep 15, 2010

OpenFeint announced today that their social gaming network SDK has been released for Android developers. They have also announced some heavy hitting iPhone games that have been ported to Android and will be out this month. In addition, they will be working with game developers to help promote the best games that utilize their SDK both to consumers and to carriers.

OpenFeint is the leader in social gaming networks for the iOS platform with over 28 million users. They hope to bring this kind of success to the Android platform by releasing their SDK at the same time as a slew of iOS games that support OpenFeint are ported over. Time will tell if it will take off on Android like it has on iOS, but the launch is really strong.

Some of the games we can expect to see on Android in the next month include MiniSquadron, Face Fighter Gold, Fruit Ninja, and Solipskier. All fantastic games that will be great to have on Android.

One of the more significant parts of the announcement is the game promotional aspect. OpenFeint will be working with carriers to feature games on carrier decks. This will help increase exposure for some smaller, yet really great games that the carriers normally wouldn’t be interested in dealing with.

Hit the jump for the full press release with details and a full list of games we can expect over the next month.