Smartphone owners love free apps, but none as much as those toting Android phones, according to new data from Distimo . Approximately 25 percent of apps downloaded across all smartphone platforms were free apps with the exception of Android, where a whopping 57 percent of the apps grabbed were free. The Dutch analytics company finds that games are the most popular apps across all platforms — 90 percent of the most popular free apps and 80 percent of the most popular paid apps. Twitter is still a popular social network for the Apple and Android crowds according to the new numbers
If I can toot my own horn for a minute, I’m pretty damn good at racing games. If I’m not playing one for work (don’t laugh, it is work,) I’m playing one for fun, and I can beat most people in a multiplayer match. But Blur kicked my ass. Getting deeper into the game’s Career mode, even at Normal difficulty, things get tough
Net Applications and AdMob have released their latest reports, and both suggest the protracted struggle for the future of mobile computing is far from over. Net Applications, which derives web browsing market share from some 160 million visitors to sites within its network, has now proven that iPad owners like browsing the web. The iPad, running iOS, nearly doubled its share of the operating system market, from .09 percent in May to .17 percent in June. That surpassed the iPod touch, which remained at .12 percent, while the iPhone dipped from .60 to .59 percent from May to June, likely in anticipation of the iPhone 4
The ongoing game of cat and mouse between China and Google continued today as the Internet search behemoth announced it is making some changes in an attempt to please the Chinese government. The dust up began in January of this year when Google refused to censor any results on Google.cn after accusing China of orchestrating a cyber attack on its servers. Threatened with losing its license to serve content, Google eventually decided to redirect users to its Honk Kong homepage – a work-around which until today had gone unchecked by the Chinese government.
App Store I’m actually writing this post very, very, very late on Sunday night. I was up far too late working and playing video games, so a game like Leap Sheep! HD turns out to be perfect for this time of day. Leap Sheep is the first iPhone game from Turtle Rock Studios , a company that’s worked with Valve in the past on titles like Counter-Strike and Left 4 Dead, and their past experience shows up here; this one is polished and dripping with charm and atmosphere. The actual gameplay is very simple — you have a set of sheep leaping over a fence, and you tap once to help them jump and tap again to make them do tricks.
Sith sister site Massively is picking up chatter from the Star Wars: The Old Republic forums (and evidence from readers) that a closed beta for the game is occurring this weekend, June 25-27. Allegedly, only 100-200 invitations were sent out, so check your email to find out if you had enough midi-chlorians for acceptance. We’re following up with LucasArts for details and confirmation, but it’s like trying to reach Alderaan . Rumor: Star Wars: The Old Republic closed beta this weekend originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 25 Jun 2010 18:30:00 EST
Filed under: Motorsports 2010 Iowa Corn Indy 250 at Iowa Speedway – Click above for high-res image gallery The IndyCar Series moved on to the plains of Iowa for the eighth round of the 2010 Championship with a new points leader – Indy 500 Champ Dario Franchitti. Ryan Briscoe had moved up in the standings too, having won the last round in Texas – the race that had seen Penske return to Victory Lane and had almost seen the immolation of Simona de Silvestro . Fortunately Simona was extricated quickly enough to avoid major injuries and was in fact back in action in Iowa. Qualifying on Saturday had seen early season dominator Will Power at the top of the charts, but he was one of the first drivers on course and had to play a long game of sit-and-wait to see if his time would stand.
Gran Turismo 5, the most popular games on the PlayStation, has reportedly ready to launch in November 2010.
The Xio from Forcetek is … well, it’s interesting. Rather than reducing your controller to a wand or removing the controller altogether , the Xio is a harness that attaches to your arm. The device tracks the motion of your wrist as you turn it and twist it, translating the motions into in-game actions.
A solid third-party app ecosystem is going to be absolutely critical to Windows Phone 7’s commercial success — and Microsoft clearly knows that, having spent nearly as much (if not more) energy talking to developers since the platform’s announcement than it has directly to potential end users. In particular, one area where Microsoft really wants to play ball (pardon the pun) is with a rock-sold gaming experience — and to that end, it seems Redmond isn’t being shy about putting its money where its mouth is. The rumor going around today is that Microsoft is reaching out to developers of popular iPhone games, offering cash in exchange for a Windows Phone 7 port; you might think that most of these devs would be totally down with dropping their games on a hot new platform with revenue potential, but the challenge is that WP7’s development environment is different enough from the iPhone’s to make porting a pretty big challenge. The dev that allegedly contacted PocketGamer.biz about the offer turned it down, saying the financial compensation was “substantial” but ultimately not enough for the amount of work he’d have to put into it — so this might just be a question of how badly Microsoft wants to come roaring out of the gate with a great catalog of apps.
iPhone This one comes on the recommendation of a friend here at E3 — Tomena Sanner was released for the iPhone last year by Konami, and it’s a fun, crazy little game that’s probably lots more entertainment than it deserves to be. Like Canabalt, it’s a one-button title, but unlike Canabalt, it doesn’t take itself seriously at all. Instead, as a busy businessman, you have to run to work, and you simply tap on the screen to get whatever’s in your way out of it. The game is just plain silly, but it works quite well, and as your score and speed climb, so will your excitement
Gaming Ever since the iPhone was introduced, we’ve been looking for a good location-based MMO — a game that could rely on location information direct from the iPhone to let many different players interact with each other on a grand scale. There have been a few contenders so far ( MyTown is definitely the most successful to date, and Shadowforce’s Gunman has loyal fans), but I don’t think anyone’s really nailed that feeling of hunting players and exploring in real-life that we all dreamed of. Paranoid Games, however, is going to give it a shot with Insurrection 2035 , an interesting idea for an iPhone game that’s due out in early July. I got to see the game in action this week at WWDC , and while I didn’t get to play it (the game is basically a map interface so far, and a lack of players means there’s not a lot of action going on quite yet), Sam Magdalein makes a good pitch.
Seven45’s Power Gig: Rise of the Sixstring , the guitar game controlled by an actual electric guitar, has been slated for an October launch, where it will compete against other fall 2010 music games like Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock and DJ Hero 2 (so far). The novelty of the guitar controller — which has, like, real strings and everything — is definitely one advantage Power Gig has over its peers. Seven45 revealed another today: agreements with Eric Clapton, Dave Matthews Band, and … Kid Rock to provide songs for the game.
By the time you read this today, the BP/Transocean/Halliburton oil hemorrhage may finally be on its way to a resolution. Or it may still be burbling away, happily coating wildlife, habitat and the region’s tourism and fishing industries with a viscous sheen of Game Over. A lot of us have taken to our networks to fulminate over this without a lot of focus or hope of affecting things – me included. Of course, sometimes you just have to vent (as a certain large, gaping opening in a BP oil pipe could tell you).
After his Counter-Strike character died in a knife fight, 20-year-old Julien Barreaux spent six months tracking down the virtual killer. Then he grabbed a real kitchen knife and paid the man a visit. More » Counter-Strike – History – Julien Barreaux – Working Class – Web Design and Development
