Mobile software

There might be hundreds of thousands of apps in your favorite mobile marketplace, but chances are, few developers there are actually making serious cash.

During the first 20 days of November, just 25 developers, including Rovio, Zynga, Electronic Arts, and Disney, generated half of all mobile app revenue earned, research firm Canalys discovered in a study announced yesterday. The companies pulled in a combined $60 million in the U.S. from paid downloads and in-app purchases. The remaining $60 million was earned by all other developers.

Canalys analyzed both the App Store and Google's Play marketplace. Although other app … Read more

Band of the Day is an app that works just like the name suggests. Each day the developers upload a new band to their page for some sweet free listening. Runner up for Apple's App of the Year 2011, they carry a variety of genre and each day will offer something different from the last. The cool thing about the app is that it offers listeners the option to learn more about the band beyond the music. Full blown biographies and interview pages are posted along with the soundtrack. We were able to watch some cool video interviews and … Read more

It's been about 18 months since I first wrote about Zapd, a clever app that lets you build simple, attractive Web sites using nothing more than your iPhone.

Why would you want to do that? To chronicle something cool, of course, like a wedding, vacation, party, or even a work project. I mean, your photos are already in the phone, right? The next logical step is to publish them where friends and family can have a look.

Of course, most such events involve your friends, family members, and/or co-workers, who will no doubt be snapping photos of their … Read more

Adobe decided to kill off support for its Flash Player on Android a while back. Unfortunately, that didn't mean all Web sites you visit would start using HTML5 instead of Flash (though it would have been nice). So what can you do if some of the Web sites you want to look at are using Flash and your new Android device doesn't have support for it?

Fortunately, the last version of Adobe Flash Player that landed on the Google Play Store will work with your Jelly Bean device. However, since it's no longer available through the Play … Read more

Popular Web sites that sell e-books like Amazon and Barnes & Noble allow you to preorder titles with your credit card. Google Play Books now offers the ability to do the same, from the Web or your Android device.

To allow preordering of titles, you'll need to make sure you have a payment option available in Google Play, like Google Wallet or carrier billing.

Step 1: Open Google Play Books in your Web browser or on your Android device. When using an Android device, just open the Google Play Store and tap on Books.

Step 2: Search for the … Read more

Released yesterday, Adblock Plus for Android offers a no-nonsense way to completely remove ads from your mobile computing experience. Simply download and install the app, and let it run behind the scenes. From there, you should notice that display ads, video ads, push notifications, and even many in-app ads are no more.

So far, I've seen AdBlock Plus kill ads on several Web sites, including Google, and within the ad-supported Pandora app. According to its developers, though, AdBlock Plus does not work when browsing with Firefox for Android, since Firefox does not support Android's system proxy settings.

Adblock … Read more

With the holiday season fully under way, there's a good chance many of you are planning to pick up a new Android phone or tablet. Heck, you might even be looking into one of these new "phablet" thingies that people are talking about. Whatever the case may be, if you're rocking a new Android device, there's no question you're going to want to some killer apps to test its limits. Lucky for you, we've put together a list of some of the hottest ones.

Editors' note: For six of the hottest apps on … Read more

Let's be honest: family and friends are swell, but food is really the star of the show whenever the November holiday rolls around, right? That means that whether you're celebrating at home or heading out to a potluck, the heat is on to make something oh-so-delicious for the festivities.

To help you in your endeavor, we've got a list of our favorite cooking apps for the Android platform. They'll not only help you find the best Thanksgiving recipes to get you started, but they'll also provide you with some extra tools to get the cooking … Read more

Nokia is going all in on mapping services for iOS.

The company yesterday launched Here Maps, a free application that provides a host of features for travelers. The mapping application is powered by Navteq data, the same information used in the majority of in-car navigation systems. Users are able to view maps and get real-time traffic data on a particular area. Here Maps also includes a satellite view and the ability to save map areas for later.

To add a social flavor, Here Maps lets users create and save maps that can be accessed by others. Users can also share … Read more