Distimo: 57% Of Android Apps Are Free Vs. 28% Of iPhone Apps

App store analytics provider Distimo last week published its report for June 2010, and zoomed in on the pricing of mobile applications across a variety of platforms once more.

The startup found that more than half of mobile apps are priced below or equal to $2 in Android Market, Apple’s App Store for iPhone and iPad, Nokia’s Ovi Store and Palm’s App Catalog.

The exceptions to the rule: BlackBerry App World (which doesn’t allow apps priced below $2.99) and Windows Marketplace for Mobile.

The latter also boasts the smallest share of free applications for all stores researched (22% to be exact), and notably, five out of the ten most popular free apps in Windows Marketplace for Mobile are actually published by Microsoft.

Android Market sticks out with a 57% share of free applications, way more than what the other stores average. Most of them clearly circle around 25% free vs 75% paid, according to Distimo’s research findings. In fact, the only other app store with a share of free apps larger than 1/3 is Palm’s App Catalog.

Katy Perry On “Glee?” Pop Singer Urges Facebook Campaign For “Glee” Role


Katy Full of Glee?

Pop tart Katy Perry is urging her fans to launch an online campaign to land her a role on the FOX musical series Glee after learning that her “California Gurls” co-star Snoop Dogg has reportedly already accepted a guest spot on the hit show.

Perry is desperate to land a spot on the all-singing all-dancing series — and after watching how successful a network of devoted Facebookers were in convincing Saturday Night Live producers to cast 88-year-old Betty White as a guest host last May, the singer is appealing to her fans to launch a similar campaign in hopes of persuading Glee chiefs to hire her.

Samsung Galaxy S2 i9200 tipped: 2GHz, 720p Super AMOLED display and more

It’s a slow news day, so lets dabble our feet in the murky rumor waters for a while and take a look at what we’re told is the Samsung Galaxy S2 i9200. The tipped successor to the Galaxy S, and supposedly due in early 2011, according to the talk circulating Russian forum itrans the Galaxy S2 is said to have a whopping 4.3-inch 1,280 x 720 Super AMOLED display with around 340 pixels per inch, certainly intruding into Apple’s Retina Display realm.

Meanwhile there’s also supposedly a 2GHz CPU paired with 1GB of RAM and a 4GB ROM, together with 32GB of flash storage and a microSD card slot. The camera is said to be 8-megapixels capable of not just 720p but 1080p Full HD video recording, and the OS to be Android “Gingerbread” which we’ve heard is expected to drop in Q4 this year. Connectivity includes WiFi b/g/n and Bluetooth 3.0, while there’s also A-GPS, an accelerometer, gyroscope, proximity and ambient light sensors.

There might never be a Google Nexus Two, or any other new Nexus phone

If you’re waiting for the Google Nexus Two, Google Nexus Three or any other new Nexus, you’re probably waiting in vain.

Google’s Eric Schmidt has recently suggested that the company isn’t interested in making own phones anymore – despite previous rumors about a possible Nexus enterprise handset.

In an interview with Telegraph.co.uk, Google’s Chairman talked about the company’s first phone, declaring:

The idea a year and a half ago was to do the Nexus One to try to move the phone platform hardware business forward. It clearly did. It was so successful, we didn’t have to do a second one. We would view that as positive but people criticized us heavily for that. I called up the board and said: ‘Ok, it worked. Congratulations – we’re stopping’.

I’m not sure if the Nexus One is as successful as Google and HTC have wished (the two companies never announced how many units have been sold), but the device has probably reached its aim: it pushed Android further, and inspired other manufacturers.

And although we might never get to see a new Google Nexus phone, no one has to be sorry about this. There are already quite a few high-end Android smartphones to choose from (including the HTC Desire, Samsung Galaxy S, HTC Droid Incredible, HTC Evo 4G), and there will be a lot more in the future (the Motorola Droid X, the Samsung i9200 Galaxy S 2 and so on).

Google and HTC will likely produce the Nexus One until demand declines. With all the new and powerful Android smartphones around the corner, I’d guestimate that the Nexus will ride into the sunset before the end of 2010.

iOS has a bigger dev army than Android, but will cross-platform apps rule the day?


We oftentimes hear raw numbers of apps bandied about in mobile OS comparisons, but we rarely get any idea of just how many developers are behind the scenes working for each platform. This is the void of knowledge filled by AppStore HQ today, who have gone to their dev directory -- claimed to be a complete listing of all 55,000+ coders whose work is currently available for consumption in the Apple App Store or Android Market -- and stacked them into neat piles of Apple, Google and Gapple programmers. It's immediately apparent that single-platform development is the norm (with Apple holding the predictable edge), but AppStore HQ also provides a list of some of the most well known (and well funded) apps doing the cross-platform dance, and suggests that a movement is afoot toward making software available for both sets of users. Then again, the BNET article below points out the difficulties faced by smaller outfits, who might struggle to find the resources required to port their content over and maintain the skills required to be multi-platform, resulting in them sticking to one environment, irrespective of what allures others might throw their way. Give them both a read, we say.

4minute releases full MV for I My Me Mine!


The ladies of 4minute have done it again, going from their HuH (Hit Your Heart) concept to yet another unique concept for their follow-up song I My Me Mine, and can be clearly seen in their recently released music video.

A few days ago, we got a long teaser of what was to come, and now we have the full video to satisfy our 4minute needs. The girls are rocking a new catchy choreography as was seen during their first week of promotions for I My Me Mine.

Enough chit-chat, enjoy the video! Many thanks to wintersun for the tip.

Actor Park Yong Ha's demise sparks wave of suicides?

Just a day after popular Korean actor-singer Park Yong-ha hung himself, singer Roh Jin-woo from rock band Lazybone attempted to off himself by jumping into the Han river but survived when the police rescued him, reported Chinese media.

According to a police statement, Roh, 31, said he was "suffering from depression" and started having "suicidal thoughts" after hearing of the "Winter Sonata" actor's demise on June 30.

However, Roh's manager claimed that the singer was simply drunk at the time and accidentally fell into the river.

Roh may have survived this incident but a 40-year-old female owner of a Korean production house was not so lucky.

She apparently hung herself with a belt at home on July 1, leaving behind a suicide note that read "I am sorry mother!"

Another 49-year-old woman had also hung herself on that same day. After examining her suicide note, police have expressed that the woman, who was a fan of Park, may have taken her own life to follow her idol.

Park was the latest of a number of entertainers to kill themselves. They include top movie actress Lee Eun-Joo, who committed suicide in 2005, and Choi Jin-Sil who died in 2008.

Jet Li drew up will a decade ago

Action star Jet Li revealed that he had already drawn up his will 10 years ago, and made arrangements to ensure his daughter could live comfortably, even when he is no longer around, reported Chinese media.

Speaking during a recent appearance on a television talk show, Li revealed that his eldest daughter Jane, 10, had a very "a keen sense for business" and started making money at a very young age to buy birthday gifts for her classmates.

"When she was seven, she was already making money by mixing powdered lemonade with water, refrigerating it and then selling it by the glass for a profit," said Li.

However, while he was confident about his daughter's business prowess, Li was unsure if his little girl will choose the right kind of guy when she grows up.

Li confided that he had put in place contingency plans so that his daughter could still live independently, even if she picked a boyfriend who could not support her.

LG announces Android tablet, Optimus One and Optimus Chic (with Froyo)


LG’s Android-related goals for 2010 are pretty ambitious: the company wants to launch 20 Android smartphones by the end of the year. It already introduced a few of them, and today it announced two new ones: LG Optimus Chic and LG Optimus One.

Both new smartphones run Android 2.2 Froyo and will probably be available only in South Korea.

The Optimus Chic is a handset targeted at young consumers, while the Optimus One is an entry-level device. The features of LG Optimus Chic and Optimus One have not been unveiled, but both phones can be seen below (the Chic is the first one):

Lenovo chairman: Steve Jobs “doesn’t care about China”

Lenovo chairman Liu Chuanzhi has described Steve Jobs as “a big pearl”, and said that his company is “lucky that Steve Jobs has such a bad temper and doesn’t care about China. If Apple were to spend the same effort on the Chinese consumer as we do, we would be in trouble.” Apple products have the same halo effect in the Chinese market as elsewhere, but limited official availability has so-far minimized the impact smartphones like the iPhone 4 have had on rival devices. That limitation has given Lenovo a pass on their limited app selection, Chuanzhi said.


“The iPhone has more than 100,000 content providers, and we have no more than 1,000″ he pointed out, though went on to counter that “our Chinese customers feel our applications are very convenient to use.” Apple, meanwhile, says it should have 25 retail outlets in China by the end of 2010.

Opera/Chrome Rivalry Gets The Hitler Video Treatment

When Opera Software last week released the final version of its Opera browser (version 10.60), it titled its press release ‘What is faster than the fastest?’.

The company touts other features, like built-in geolocation and webM support, as well but not nearly as much as it boasts about its browser’s speed. By doing so, the software maker aims to challenge claims that Google’s Chrome browser is, in fact, speedier than Opera and other popular browsers such as Firefox, Safari and IE.

In the midst of the browser wars, an Opera-employed copywriter has now turned to one of the most over-used but still amusing Internet memes, and has come up with some custom subtitles for the famous Hitler outburst scene from the film ‘Der Untergang’ (via Download Squad).

European Antitrust Guns Now Pointing at Apple?


As well as facing possible antitrust claims in the US, the European Union is now taking a look at Apple's closed-shop practises—with EU Commissioner Neelie Kroes claiming makers "cannot just choose to deny interoperability with their product."

The locked-down nature of Apple's App Store was specifically mentioned by Kroes, who also said that "consumers need choice when it comes to software or hardware products". And she doesn't mean buy a DROID instead.

Apple ought to be rather concerned about the rampaging commissioner, as she has a track record in winning EU antitrust cases—Kroes helped the EU whack Intel for over a billion dollars in '09.

'Eclipse': Box office total hits $161M

Eclipse didn't break more records. It didn't top New Moon. It didn't have to.

The $68 million Twilight Saga installment upped its five-day, worldwide haul to an estimated $261.2 million, per the latest numbers.

And, oh, yeah, it won the weekend, too.

Friday-Sunday estimates show Eclipse grossing $69 million, and topping the critic-defying Last Airbender, which finished a respectable second in the box-office standings with an apparently disaster-averting $40.7 million.

Eclipse and Last Airbender are expected to take hits today as moviegoers ditch the indoors for the great Fourth of July outdoors. As an added bonus, though, they'll have the Monday work-day holiday with which to fatten up.

'You've met your match!' Katy Perry reveals how she tamed Russell Brand - by making him wait for sex

The mystery of how famous lothario Russell Brand was finally tamed by Katy Perry has been uncovered - she made him wait for sex.

The fiery singer has revealed she turned down the British comedian - who she said was basically a 'professional prostitute' before he embraced monogamy - on the night they met.

She boldly told him 'You've met your match m****** f******' as she threw a plastic water bottle at him at their first meeting.



The pair hit it off instantly, Perry said in an interview with Esquire magazine, and went clubbing together that night.

But when Brand assumed he would be taking the songstress home, he was in for a surprise when she refused him.

'Can you imagine the horrible feeling he had when he was used to getting everything he wanted,' she told the magazine.

Get A White iPhone 4 Right Now — If You Have Money, Steady Hands, And No Fear

In the past week or so that the iPhone 4 has been available, there’s been one major thing holding people back from from getting one. No, not the antenna issue. Instead, more people I talk to say they’re simply waiting for the white one to come out. Sadly, that’s not happening until the end of this month. But if you have cash to burn and don’t mind taking some risks, you can get one right now. Sort of.

The site WhiteiPhone4Now.com is promising to make you “one of the first in the world to own the white iPhone 4.” How? They have a DIY kit they’re selling to convert your black iPhone 4 into a white one.

The $229 kit includes the following:
1 x iPhone 4 Retina Display
1 x White iPhone 4 Front Panel
1 x White iPhone 4 Back Cover
1 x White iPhone 4 Home Button
1 x White iPhone 4 Digitizer (enables touch function)
1 x White iPhone 4 Front Panel Support Frame

HTC Vision with Android, full QWERTY in the wild?


For reasons seemingly known only to Peter Chou himself, HTC has mostly steered clear of producing high-quality physical QWERTY devices running Android, despite the fact that there might be no phone manufacturer in the world more skilled at making them (let us remind you of the Touch Pro2, among many others dating back the better part of a decade). Anyhow, we caught wind last month of a possible entry in the form of the so-called "Vision," but we didn't have any visuals -- just a user agent profile that may or may not amount to anything. Well, that seems to be changing today with a couple blurry shots out of a Croatian site that allegedly shows the goods featuring a 3.7-inch display, a 1GHz processor (Snapdragon, we assume), and Android 2.1 with Sense (the launcher looks like stock Android in this photo, but the status bar is clearly HTC custom). At a glance, it doesn't seem to be the prettiest thing in the world -- but for a form factor traditionally associated with power users and suits, this might be just the ticket.

Eilat Anschel: Dating Lindsay Lohan?

It looks like Lindsay Lohan has a new girlfriend, and you'd better not mess with the troubled actress now, because her girl will totally whomp your a$$!

Eilat Anschel, a former member of the Israeli Defense Force, met Lindsay a while back in L.A., and has been spotted with the train wreck a bunch lately.


Lindsay and Eilat, who completed her mandatory stint in the Israeli army, have been "getting pretty serious" over the last month, according to reports.

One source says the head case began using Eilat Anschel as a "shoulder to cry on" during the probation / bail / ankle monitor drama, then things evolved.

Pretty much how it always happens.

What's Next for the Harry Potter Kids?

What are the Harry Potter kids gonna do after this last movie?

The eighth (and last) Harry Potter flick wrapped production earlier this month, and the young stars all have post-Hogwarts plans. They are actors, after all.

At least one has been making good money standing still and looking hot for Burberry, and you should be able to catch them all on the big screen, bearing props that are definitely not wands:

For example, the lead actor in all eight of the Harry Potter movies, Daniel Radcliffe, is attached to do a war picture that does not involve Death Eaters but rather, simply, death. He's signed on to play the lead, Paul Baumer, in a remake of the World War I picture All's Quiet on the Western Front. ("Daniel brings a vulnerability and innocence to Paul," producer Ian Stokell told Variety last month.)

The last time the movie was made, it was in 1930, and it won Best Picture, and even portkeys hadn't been invented yet, and I'll try to stop now.

Opera 10.6 hits Windows, Mac and Linux with faster Javascript, WebM video support


Four short months after Opera 10.5, the Scandinavian potato boilers are back for more -- the latest version of their lightweight web browser features not only claims to be the fastest, but the first final browser with WebM video support. While we actually noticed a variety of web videos felt choppy with the Windows version, there's no denying it's a speedy little hummingbird; Engadget felt snappier on Opera than Chrome or Firefox by far. Don't take our word for it, though -- try it out for yourself at the source link.

Best Buy advertises the HTC Aria with 4G

In a small but embarrassing snafu, Best Buy Mobile is proudly displaying the HTC Aria on the front of its Mobile Buyers Guide with 4G connectivity. An eagle-eyed reader noticed the aberrant 4G icon and was quick to point out that it does not belong on that particular Android handset which runs on a network that does not even feature 4G. Now, we realize that stock images of devices are loosely tossed around on marketing materials but you would think that the front cover of the Mobile Buyers Guide would be a bit more accurate, no? Full cover with the Aria front and center is after the jump.

Xiah Junsu taken to the ER in Los Angeles


On July 3rd at 10PM, Xiah Junsu was taken to a hospital in Los Angeles because of a high fever and exhaustion.

Earlier that day, Xiah Junsu complained of a high fever and exhaustion. His was taken to the emergency room as the symptoms got worse. A representative said,

“Xiah Junsu has been admitted to a hospital in Koreatown, Los Angeles at 10pm on July 3rd. Being that it was a weekend, after inquiring over 20 hospitals within Koreatown we were able to connect to one hospital and he was able to be treated.“

Junsu has been fatigued from recording for their new album, which led to his high fever and exhaustion. At first the symptoms were like a mild cold, but as day progressed the symptoms worsened and so we seeked out an emergency room. When we had arrived at the hospital, his fever exceeded 40 degrees Celsius (~104 degrees Fahrenheit). After receiving shots and emergency treatment, he was stabilized. A representative said,

Jackie Chan imparts Hollywood wisdom to Jay Chou, tells him not to worry


Despite Jackie Chan's new movie "The Karate Kid" having already grossed US$150 million and currently ranked as the sixth highest-grossing movie in the United States so far this year, the movie has experienced very little interest from movie-goers in both Hong Kong and Taiwan and is facing the likelihood of being released direct-to-DVD there. While Jackie was not willing to discuss the topic much while promoting the movie in Mexico several days ago, the international superstar talked about Taiwanese entertainer Jay Chou breaking into Hollywood and said, "He's still young. You don't worry, and know to let nature take its course."

The now 56-year old Jackie Chan made his Hollywood debut by acting alongside famous American actors Farrah Fawcett and Burt Reynolds in the failed 1981 comedy flick "The Cannonball Run". Strings of movie disappointments that followed his initial Hollywood entry discouraged the Hong Kong-based actor, but with the release of the Hollywood movie "Rush Hour" in 1998, Jackie instantly become a household name.

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