Flipboard App for the iPhone

The new Flipboard app for Apple’s iPhone has reached more than one million downloads a mere week after it was released.

paidContent is also saying that Flipboard is not one of those apps that people download and then never use again. According to paidContent, the Flipboard app for iPad has been bringing in around 650 million flips per month, and after Apple added the app for the iPhone, numbers are on course for the app to bring in more than 2 million flips per month.

Jill Duffy, a junior software analyst for PCMag, brought up the potential issue that "one might worry that the comparatively cramped screen space might bog down the experience, but our first impressions are that design still reigns even on the smaller device," she wrote. "The usability and 'flipping' motion of paging through the app are just as graceful and pretty as they are on the iPad version."

So, some of you may be interested in what on earth the Flipboard app is. Well, it is a social reader app that offers feeds for formal news sources, as well as social networking sites, and presents them in a magazine-like format. The app seems to be a hit, as it has been receiving incredibly positive feedback from the press and Apple App Store reviews.

If this sounds like something that you would be interested in, you should definitely check it out!


Sources: PCMag - Flipboard iPhone App Logs 1 Million Downloads in a Week, paidContent.org - Flipboard’s Phone Flips Beating iPad 2:1 and Mashable Tech - Flipboard Has 5 Million Users, iPhone App Gets Million Downloads in First Week

A Tech Travel Agent can get a laptop rental to you within 24 business hours in over 1000 cities worldwide. Call Me Toll Free 800-736-8772

Apps from Nintendo? Not Any Time Soon!

The biggest app category in Apple’s App Store is games. However, according to The Loop, Nintendo does not plan to capitalize on that any time soon. Although Nintendo has been pressured by investors to begin designing games for iOS devices like the iPhone, the iPad and the iPod, according to comments made by Nintendo President Satoru Iwata, there are not any plans for games for iOS devices in the company’s near future.

“This is absolutely not under consideration,” Iwata told the Japanese news site Nikkei after a 3DS press conference. “If we did this, Nintendo would cease to be Nintendo. Having a hardware development team in-house is a major strength. It’s the duty of management to make use of those strengths. It’s probably the correct decision in the sense that the moment we started to release games on smartphones we’d make profits. However, I believe my responsibility is not to short term profits, but to Nintendo’s mid and long term competitive strength.”

However, tablets are on the rise. Will Nintendo need to change their stance in order to remain competitive?

“Collectively, iPad gamers are showing slightly decreased involvement with gaming on home consoles, mobile phones, and Nintendo handheld consoles,” Interpret analyst Jason Preston said in a statement. “These facts imply that iPad game developers and publishers can definitely reach a new audience on the iPad.”

Nintendo has already been going through some rough waters with the 3DS. In August the company had to drastically drop the price of their 3D hand-held device from $249.99 to $169.99. Nintendo felt that this was necessary to boost the sales numbers for the console a mere six months after its release.

On top of all of these issues that Nintendo is having, games sales are also down. In the July earnings report, Nintendo reported its first quarterly loss in its entire history. Despite this, Iwata does not seem to be concerned. He believes that Nintendo has a successful business model that will show its worth when the holiday seasons rolls around a little later this year.

Find out what is going on in the Tech Army World.



What are the Top 10 Money Making Missions?

What other companies have joined and what do they do?

How do I join the
Tech Army Organization ?

Android Market Now Has Over 200,000 Apps

Google’s Android Market seems to really be taking off and doing quite well. In just a few months, it looks as though the Android Market has more than doubled in size. AndroLib.com is releasing numbers that show that as of Tuesday, December 28, the store had more than 200,000 apps available to the public.

It was just in October 2010 that Google announced that its Android Market had surpassed more than 100,000 available apps. Now, so far Google has not confirmed any current numbers concerning its app market, but if AndroLib.com is right, then Google truly more than doubled the number of apps that they offered on the Android Market in less than three months.

Now, despite these incredible numbers that have been put forth by AndroLib.com, Apple’s App Store is still the largest apps source available to-date. The Apple Apps Store features more than 300,000 apps in the entirety of its catalog. AndroLib.com did not seem to be worried about this though. They stated that although Apple has more than 100,000 apps more than Google, there have been more than 2.5 billion apps downloaded from the Android Market, so it looks as though Google is definitely gaining some ground.

When the Android Market first debuted in October 2008, there were only 34 apps and nine games available. In February of 2009, Google started moving forward when they began to accept priced applications from different developers in the U.S. and the U.K. Just a month after Google began accepting priced applications from various developers, Google reported that the Android Market then had 2,300 different apps, and by the end of the year, they reported that the Android Market consisted of 20,000 apps.

2010 has definitely been a year for some major growth on the Android Market. In April, Google reported that the app store featured more than 38,000 apps. Just three months later, AndroLib.com claimed that the app store had grown to offer more than 100,000 apps, but this report was denied by Google who said that the number was closer to 70,000.

To give a comparison of the Android Market to the Apple Apps Store, Apple launched their store in July 2008, three months before the Android Market was launched. It was reported by Apple that in November 2009 the Apple Apps Store reached the 100,000 app mark. This occurred just a few months after Apple reported that they had achieved 1.5 billion downloads.

Google’s vice president did announce in early December that more than 300,000 Android devices are activated each and every day. This announcement came only a few months after the chief executive of Google, Eric Schmidt, said that 200,000 Android devices were being activated every day. In just a few months, the daily activation of Android devices increased by 50 percent.

It was reported in October that Android had 8.4 percent of the global market, but in November that number moved up to 14.9 percent. Two separate studies have shown that Android is ahead of both RIM and Apple in the last quarter, claiming 44 percent of the market.

"Much of Android's quarterly share growth came at the expense of RIM, rather than Apple," Ross Rubin, executive director of industry analysis for NPD, said in a statement. "The HTC EVO 4G, Motorola Droid X, and other new high-end Android devices have been gaining momentum at carriers that traditionally have been strong RIM distributors, and the recent introduction of the BlackBerry Torch has done little to stem the tide.”

It’s exciting to see how well the Android Market is doing. I think that it is really fascinating how quickly they seem to be catching up to Apple’s App Store. For now, I guess we’ll just have to wait and see if they can really do it.

Looking for a way to really spruce up your event booth? Why not try a Plasma Display Rental? Renting Audio Visual equipment for your next event can be a real money saver if you aren't looking to spend a lot of money. Rentacomputer.com has been providing technological rentals to over 1000 cities worldwide for more than 20 years. Call 800-736-8772.

10 Best Free iPhone Apps 2010

As Apple continues to crank out the latest version of their iPhone, new apps continue to emerge day after day. Apple’s App Store can provide you with pretty much anything you could want or imagine, and tons of people seem willing to shell out millions of dollars to purchase these apps. The iTunes App Store carries over 225,000 apps for an average price of $2.80 per app. Fortunately, for those who don’t wish to spend lots of money on apps, there are plenty of free apps that everyone can appreciate.

Here are a few of the free apps…or what I would consider the top 10 free iPhone apps available right now:

10. ESPN ScoreCenter 1.5.3
ESPN INC., www.espn.go.com
This is absolutely perfect for anyone that’s a sports fan. ESPN ScoreCenter allows you to track all of your favorite sports teams on one single page and can provide instant notification when a game starts or a team scores.

9. Facebook 3.1.4
Facebook, www.facebook.com
If you’re a Facebook fanatic, then your definitely going to need this app. The home screen of this Facebook app is a 3 x 3 grid that gives you access to basically everything on Facebook. A nice feature that is included is the ability to call or text any friend through this app who has their number posted on their page.

8. Epicurious Recipes & Shopping List 2.1
Condé Nast, www.epicurious.com
Epicurious is an extremely useful site where you can plan meals and find recipes. This iPhone app allows you to not only find recipes but also turn your favorite recipes into a shopping list that you can check off. You can also turn your favorite recipes into a paginated cookbook form.

7. eBay Mobile 1.7.0
eBay Inc., www.ebay.com `
eBay Mobile allows you to manage all of the eBay auction items that you might be keeping your eye on easily from your phone. You’ll be able to bid on and hopefully win your items right on your iPhone. The app allows you to search, bid, update information, check your bids, and more.

6. Dragon Dictation
Nuance Communications, Inc., www.nuance.com
Dragon Dictation allows you to easily dictate an e-mail or text. All that you have to do start up the app, tap the red button, and dictate for up to a minute at a time. It's great to use on the go.

5. Dropbox 1.2.2
Evenflow, Inc., www.dropbox.com
Dropbox is an app that allows you to “drop” files, pictures, videos, spreadsheets, and documents into a personal file space that can then be accessed from any computer. This app can be used not only on your iPhone but also on the iPod Touch or the iPad.

4. CNBC Real-Time 1.3
NBC Universal Inc., www.cnbc.com
This is a great business site that gives business alerts and even features a detailed stock portfolio tracker. If you follow the stock market closely, this app is for you.

3. AT&T myWireless 1.3.2
AT&T Services Inc., www.att.com
The myWireless app from AT&T is extremely helpful. It will tell you when you’re coming close to your monthly data limit, how many minutes you have used for the month, or when your next bill is going to be due. This app helps protect you from getting any unpleasant, unexpected AT&T charges.

2. Bing 1.2
Microsoft Corp., www.bing.com
Bing is your perfect search engine for the iPhone. It also offers photo search, voice search, and local shopping searches. This app even allows you to scan products bar codes in order to look up prices in the store.

1. Apple iBook 1.1
Apple Inc., www.apple.com
The Apple iBook app doesn’t just work as a fantastic e-book reader, but it is also a great PDF reader. You can arrange all of your virtual books and PDFs on the virtual bookshelf. Apple has some older books available from their online store for free, which is nice. You can even sync all of your bookmarks and notations with your iPod Touch and your iPad.

If you're looking to try out the iPad, check out the best place to rent an iPad.

---

Looking for help with travel and technology? Then call a Tech Travel Agent at 800-736-8772. Or see this link for a Laptop Rental on your next trip.