The impact of pets on our lives should never be underestimated. Whether you own a mangy mutt, a 14-foot python or a memory-challenged goldfish, pets are like members of the family. To make sure we continue to treasure our furry/scaly/slimy/feathered friends, a National Pet Month has been organised to promote responsible ownership, raise public awareness of professional pet services and celebrate all things pet-related. So to acknowledge the contribution our animal friends make to our lives, we have cherry picked the top three pet-themed apps for your enjoyment.

MapMyDogwalk

This is an app that you can enjoy with your four-legged friend. Walking your hound not only gives the canine a workout but it also keeps you fit as a fiddle. Connecting via your device’s built-in GPS, this app tracks and maps your dog walking jaunts and records the duration, distance elevation, pace and speed in real-time. It also analyses how many calories you burn and whether you need to step up the march. You can your route with an online account, share your progress with friends on social networks and upload geo-tagged pictures of your walk with Rover for posterity.

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Another month in the App World has passed so that means it is time for another episode of the App Show! And, boy do we have some top quality stuff lined up to pass by your ear buds.

We’re chatting to free to play consultant and general good egg Will Luton about whether freemium is here to stay. We caught up with Simon Read, developer of New Star Soccer, and Barry Meade, part of the studio behind The Room, to talk shop about their Bafta triumph. And we have Beth from MagicSolver reviewing three interesting infinite runners, as well as the news and Free App Magic chart.

You can listen to the show at 9pm tonight on Star Radio or, if you’re too busy watching the football, catch up with the podcast from tomorrow morning.

Enjoy!

George, App Show Presenter

Interested in learning more about the App Show? Then drop us an email at appshow@star107.co.uk

In honour of the 43^rd annual Earth Day we bring you our top three eco-friendly apps! These handy apps use great design and fun techy features to help you save money, conserve energy and most importantly, do your bit for the environment!

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Check out this in depth infographic about the rise of Indian as an app superpower and insatiable consumer apps. Created and commission by vserv.mobi, this rather lengthy graphic points out how the country is ranked top or near the top in major app stores around the world and how an app developer culture has emerged to fuel this climb to app top table. More interestingly it also delves deeper into the demographic of apps users and the type of consumers they are. Take a look below.

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Following on from our previous blog post – “Living without apps? Impossible” – if we need further confirmation that the world is addicted to using mobile apps then Flurry’s comprehensive five-year research analytics provides it. Integrating it analytics into thousands of apps in the U.S, the company monitored the behaviour and usage of the country’s smartphone owners. The top line results show that apps dominate the lives of American smartphone and tablets users, cannibalising 80% of the time spent using an iOS and Android connected device (according to the report this amounts to two hours and 7 minutes every day.)

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Naturally, we love apps at MagicSolver but how pivotal have they become to our everyday lives? This interesting infographic commissioned by apigee reveals that many of us are dependent on apps to get us through the day or carry out simple tasks. In fact Spain is the country most reliant on apps with 93% of the research respondents saying they can’t see out one complete day without accessing apps. And who can blame them. For further infomorsels on our app addiction take a look at the infographic below.

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For game developers, large and small, there is no bigger industry event than GDC. Held in San Francisco from the 25^th – 29^th March, the Game Developer Conference is a forum for industry figures – from programmers, artists, designers, audio professionals and business execs – to network and share the latest developments in gaming. MagicSolver will be there with its mobile gaming hat, while for other business management software like fake paystub generator is useful for different payments and others. 

Recent research from industry body TIGA reported that mobile was a major factor in the growth in the gaming industry and this year’s GDC is expected to have a big mobile flavour.

With games the most popular apps to download, getting noticed in an 800,000 ocean of apps can be difficult. MagicSolver has consistently supported mobile gaming by promoting publisher’s games on our apps such a Free App Magic and we especially take pride in helping fledgling independent game developers gain visibility in both iOS and Android app stores.

So if you’re an independent game developer creating exciting apps for iOS and Android, need help to climb the app store rankings and going along to GDC, we would love to meet you. Email letschat@magicsolver.com and we can set something up.

Making a success in the apps business is getting harder, especially for fledgling developers. But how difficult? A recent article in the Wall Street Journal, based on research by Distimo, laid out the stark reality facing app startups. From the 800,000 apps on Apple’s iTunes Store, only 80 generated more than $1 million in revenue during the fourth quarter.  A couple of years ago a few hundred downloads would secure a place in the top 20 rankings – now you need several thousand – while only 2% of the top 250 publishers in the U.S. app store are first time app developers and they haven’t even touched on Android.

The problem for app startups is gaining visibility in a vast landscape dominated by more established, well known publishers. Getting as high up the rankings as possible is vital when you consider that more than half of iPhone users fail to look beyond the top 25 apps. And who can blame them – the thought of sifting through over 800,000 apps to find the exciting ones is a herculean task.

Of course app startups don’t possess the marketing clout of bigger companies, so making themselves heard in the App Store noise is a challenge. But there is an alternative way for developers to increase download traffic.

Over the years MagicSolver has developed an eco-system of apps that help promote developer’s apps to reach a wider audience. By recommending the best apps to download each day our flagship product, FreeAppMagic, and our range of seasonal apps, such as Halloween, Valentine’s Day and Christmas, offer a platform on both iOS and Android to hit the right people.

So although the Wall Street Journal article paints a dispiriting picture, with 10 million active users and over 50 million downloads generated for app developers, we provide another effective option for developers to get noticed in app stores and make a success of their business.