For evidence of this shift, look no further than Apple. The company just reported an absolutely bonkers financial quarter, in which it sold 37 million iPhones and 15.4 million iPads. The two products now make up 72% of Apple's quarterly revenue and the consumer demand shows no sign of letting up.

This month, iOS edged past Mac OS X for the first time, accounting for 8.15% of all Web traffic, compared to the 7.96% coming from Mac desktops. Of course, this data does include Android, which probably constitutes a share of Web traffic that's roughly comparable to iOS. Even so, the combined mobile operating systems likely do not even begin to outnumber desktops overall, as there are still plenty of Windows machines out there.

Indeed, it will be some time before tablets and smartphones truly outnumber desktops and laptops. For now, most consumers are not replacing their computers with smaller devices, but rather supplementing them.

The app update section returns for the its fifth month and we found that fewer of our existing apps issued updates for new features or bug fixes than in months past. We also have a new treat in the Apps of the Month: a limited Staff Picks section where some of ReadWriteWeb's writers picked the apps they found most interesting during the month.

The list, as always, is a bit subjective so please let us know in the comments if we missed an app or you have found one that you cannot live without.

Vimeo (Free - iOS, Android)

As a video platform, Vimeo has always played second fiddle to YouTube. Yet, Vimeo does attract a more professional grade of videographer and often the contents of Vimeo are much more polished than the much uploaded to YouTube from millions of would-be Internet stars. Vimeo finally has a new app for iOS and Android and it is everything you would expect from the platform in terms of quality video and performance. Users can view videos, manage their accounts and upload all from one app. The Android version of Vimeo requires 2.3 Gingerbread or above.

Producteev (Free - iOS, Android)

Talk about cross-platform. Producteev is a task manager available for Macs and Windows PCs, iOS and Android, IM and email. It is basically everywhere. As a task manager, one of its best features is the ability to work offline so you can access your tasks and projects from everywhere. Imagine being an intern working on Capitol Hill in D.C. and stuck on the Metro Orange Line between Roslyn and Foggy Bottom (if you have never worked in D.C., that is where the train goes under the river and there is absolutely no cell reception) then the ability to access your tasks offline on your phone is tantamount. You can also invite other users into the projects within the app with its workspace feature. Business is going mobile.

Lanyrd (Free - m.Lanyrd.com)

We eventually envision that the cross-platform Apps of the Month section will be dominated by HTML5 mobile Web-based apps as opposed to those that happen to be released for both iOS and Android within the same month. So, we introduce our first HTML5-based Web app ever in this column with Lanyrd, the social conference directory. It made a big splash when we wrote about it for ReadWriteMobile on the last day of January and the community at Hacker News had a fairly robust discussion about how it was made and what its benefits are. The greatest benefit of Lanyrd's mobile Web app is that it utilizes HTML5 offline caching so you can get around any conference even when the Wi-Fi or cellular connection has gone kaput. While Lanyrd is a fairly simple and the UI leaves a bit to be desired, this is a great first step towards open standards and cross-platform deployment through the mobile browser.

Plex ($4.99 -- iOS, Android)

Plex for iOS actually came out for iOS in December but the Android version was released in January so we will give it a cross-platform designation. It is a media platform that runs across Windows, Mac and Linux. Install the Plex Server on your computer then download the app and all of your media (music, video, pictures) will be converted to mobile form through your myPlex app. Plex serves over 200 channels including Vimeo, YouTube, Revision3 and others. When attaching it to a Mac it can run content from iTunes, Aperture and iPhoto. Truly a simple and powerful media streaming app.

Zynga Poker (Free - iOS, Android)

It is what it is, as they say. Poker from social gaming company Zynga. This poker game is a little cooler on the geek factor though since it was written in HTML5 and then wrapped for the native platforms (a hybrid app). If you have ever played Zynga's poker app on Facebook, this will be no different except it has now gone mobile. Connect with friends, get some free chips and get your Texas Hold 'em' on.

Staff Picks

So, when I mentioned a "limited" Staff Picks section, I was being literal. Trying to get the busy ReadWriteWeb staff to put together one measly selection for Apps of the Month is like trying to pull the back hairs off an angry baboon. I promised I would shame the staff for not getting in their Apps of the Month selections by the deadline and I will continue doing so in this column until more than five staffers actually send me selections. They have a variety of excuses from "I didn't like the app I chose" to "I learn about new apps when you write about them." Bah! For a staff that writes about new applications and gets thousands of pitches a month on a variety of topics, you would think that picking one measly app would be easy enough to figure out.

Well, here are the staff selections we did get.

Jon Mitchell - Writer

The Ying to my Yang here at RWW, Jon had his App of the Month lined up weeks ago. Kudos, Mr. Mitchell.

Day One (Journal/Diary) ($1.99 - iOS)

Day One is my new journal. It supports tweeting and whatnot, but it's the best app for keeping things to myself that I've ever used. You can set daily reminders to write in it, or you can just dash off entries whenever it suits you. If you want to keep it secret, you can lock it with a passcode. Day One supports MultiMarkdown formatting, so you can make text bold, italic, and add links, too. Day One has been around for a while, but version 1.5, which launched this month, adds iCloud syncing. Now your journal is seamlessly synced between your iDevices, as well as the Mac app if you swing that way. It also supports Dropbox, if you'd prefer to sync there.

Robyn Tippins - Community Manager

Our intrepid community manager is a big gamer. You would not think of it coming from a mother with a thick Southern accent but if we ever open a RWGaming channel, Robyn would be our go-to resource.

Shogun: Rise of the Renegade (First mission is free on iOS, $1.99 to unlock the full game and the other missions.)

I'm a big fan of the games where you dodge unbelievably complex patterns of bullets and bombs, like Geometry Wars, so when I saw the screen grabs from this game I knew I'd probably enjoy it. In Shogun: Rise of the Renegade, you are fighting a warlord, the winner of World War IV. The premise is silly, but you don't play these games for a story. The graphics are retro-90s, the soundtrack is annoying but appropriate for the game type, the price is great, and other than the minor annoyance in weapon changing, it's a cool game. If you enjoy Japanese arcade games filled with lasers and 'bullet hell' situations, you'll enjoy this fun little game. Best part? It fits right into the iCade!

Joe "Zonker" Brockmeier - Channels Writer

Joe came in with an app at the very last minute after I threatened a public shaming on the staff editorial call. I was ready to give him a pass since he has been traveling in Europe last week, but Zonker came through.

Wunderkit (Free - iPhone)

Wunderkit is a sort of social to-do manager. It's suitable for setting up a "Getting Things Done" type workflow for personal use, or you can invite friends and co-workers to join and share workspaces. It's a low-impact collaboration tool that might catch on, if a team is iPhone-equipped and heavily into social tools. For maximum features, like gettimg involved with other people's projects, you need to sign up for a $5 a month account. But that's far cheaper than a lot of other collaboration tools. Having just checked it out recently (it was released on January 31), I can't vouch for its effectiveness just yet, but it looks promising.

And back to our regularly scheduled program.

iPhone & iPad

Chasing Salander: The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo ($0.99, iPhone)

I break my own rules (that Apps of the Month need to be published in the month being written about) every so often for apps that came the month before that rock. Chasing Salander certainly fits into that category. It is an enhanced e-book of the Girl With The Dragon Tattoo where you chase renegade Lisbeth Salander through 14 locations with a short reading and pictures. With over 100 new facts not found in the books or movies this is a great app for any fans of the Salander triology.

Yamaha NoteStar Sheet Music (Free - iPad)

Play the piano? Want to rock with your favorite band but do not have the sheet music to do it? NoteStar is a hands-free sheet music where you can play along with the band or have the keyboard section isolated to study it on your own. You can preview and purchase new music from within the app and Yamaha's screen flow feature provides automatic page turning in time with the music. The performance can be slowed or sped up depending on your learning limits. If I knew absolutely anything about playing the piano, this would seem like a great place to learn new songs.

iTunes U 2.0 (Free, iPad/iPhone)

Apple called for a mysterious press conference in the middle of January in New York City. It was actually a cruel thing to do to the poor Apple Fan Boys of the world because they all got excited that a new iPad was coming down the pipeline. No such luck. What Apple did announce was its new textbook initiative that makes courses available online through the iPhone or iPad from universities across the world. As a general concept this is cool stuff, but there has been controversy over Apple iBooks End User License Agreement and if it is even legal to proceed in the fashion that Apple has. Our Marshall Kirkpatrick called iTunes U 2.0, "not perfect, just awesome."

SoulCalibur ($11.99 - iPhone/iPad)

I used to play the classic SoulCalibur game on the ill-fated DreamCast at my neighbors house in my early adult years. Outside of some golf pro and business apps, graphic intensive games are the most expensive on the iOS platform. Normally I will add the expensive games in Apps of the Month because they good examples of the capabilities of smartphones and tablets but not download the actual apps. I decided to bite the bullet and spend the $11.99 on SoulCalibur because it was the greatest fighting game ever.

Numberlys ($5.99 - iPhone/iPad)

One of the greatest things about the mobile revolution is that the nature of storytelling is fundamentally changing. It is dynamic, interactive and visually appealing like never before. Numberlys might be the greatest example yet. It is a game, a mystery, a story, a learning adventure. it is a depiction of the origins of the alphabet told through numbers. Our Jon Mitchell reviewed the app; " It's an interactive tale with a massive visual scope appropriate for people of all sizes. Its stark, soaring black-and-white aesthetic draws on Fritz Lang's Metropolis to tell the story of five characters' quest to create the alphabet in a world run by numbers."

Congressional Records App (Free - iPad)

This is an impressive app from the Library of Congress. Yes, I just wrote that sentence. This is the daily edition of The Congressional Record on your iPad using data from Office of the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives, the Office of the Secretary of the Senate, and the Government Printing Office. Browse by date (going back to 1995), share via email, read as a PDF and identify the latest bills put forth on the House and Senate floors. Great for politicos trying to catch up on activity, student researchers, interns, lawyers, pundits and lobbyists.

Android

Wikipedia (Free)

You would think that one of the largest Web services in the world would have already released an Android app. Wikipedia finally came to Android in January. It is fairly self-explanatory. Search, save for later reading, share with the Android share function. All the good encyclopedia knowledge that you need in the comfort of your pocket.

ViBe (Free)

ViBe is caller ID with vibration patterns. Choose a contact, set a vibration pattern for that person and know from the feel of the movement in your pocket who is calling you without looking at your phone. This is so weird that I think it might be one of the coolest things ever. If your phone is on silent at work, in a meeting, at a conference, while on a date, know who is contacting you based on the pattern. I am trying to figure out how the studio, Base2Apps, dreamed this up but it has become one of the more useful apps in my Android collection. One of the notable uses is for blind or deaf people that cannot see or hear their phones ring. "We're passionate about deaf advocacy," the Android Market page states.

Jotly (Free)

Rate everything. Like, really, everything. Go social, local and mobile (ack, dare I say it? mocial.) Jotly is actually a parody app of the often absurd world of apps and startups and their obsession with memes, rankings and just. being. social. It is not directly supposed to be a parody of Kevin Rose's Oink, but it kind of is anyway. It came to Android in January and just the Android Market page (linked above) is hilarious. "Move around freely. Jotly will automatically go where your phone does." Or better, "Find the best and worst things at any place. Like ducks? Jotly will show you big and little ducks." You know all those wonderfully sarcastic people you find on the InterWebs? They are kicking it on Jotly.

Dragon Go! (Free)

Dragon Go! from Nuance is new to Android in January. It came out for iOS in November. It is a voice-activated search app that gives Siri a run for its money and puts would-be Android contenders like Iris to shame. The tagline is " Just Say it, Get it and Go!" Search for local shopping, movie tickets and more. Connected to 200+ channels on the Web like ESPN, YouTube, Ask.com and more, it is a good search app from the developers at Nuance.

Decide (Free)

Last night a startup friend and I debated the merits of local shopping with an entrepreneur looking for seed funding for a mobile, social commerce app. It is a really tough space to get into. A good reason for that is apps like Decide. Decide is an app that helps you figure out if you want to buy the newest consumer electronics gadget on the market. At the store doing research on some fancy new tablet? Ask the Decide app if it is worth it or not and the app will give you a "Buy Now" or "Wait" instruction. Scan the barcode or a QR code and Decide will look up the gadget, give you price information and tell you if it is worth spending money on.

Embark (Free -- NYC, San Francisco and D.C.)

Embark is a series of public transportation apps that help you navigate a new city. Cannot figure out how to get from Manhattan to Brooklyn? (I never can, unless I am going to DUMBO.) Or maybe you performed the impossible and got lost on BART in San Francisco? What about conditions on the Orange Line in D.C? Embark provides train schedules, route planning and interactive maps for travelers who have lost their way.

Screenshot: Embark D.C. Metro

Notable Updates

It is always important to remember to go into your device and update apps on a regular basis. Updates provide new functionality, performance and security upgrades and make sure that the bugs from the last version have been taken care of.

Notable iOS Updates:

• Rage HD, Pandora Radio, Order & Chaos Online, Fishing Joy HD, HeyStaks, XFinity TV, Angry Birds Rio, IMDb, Powder Monkeys, Infinity Blade, Instagram, Zite, Netflix, Opera Mini, ShowYou, Path, Project Slice, Fanhattan for iPad, Kibits, Evernote, Square, Groupon HD, NBC Player, Epicurious, Urban Crime, Google Books, Hulu Plus, Rdio, Flixster, SoulCalibur, CNN for iPad, The Wall Street Journal, iBooks, Hipmunk, Slacker Radio.

Notable Android Updates:

• AirSync by DoubleTwist, Angry Birds, Angry Birds Rio, Barcode Scanner, ESPN ScoreCenter, Evernote, Facebook, Fandango, Firefox, Foursquare, Google Goggles, Google Maps, Google Music, LevelUp, LinkedIn, Lookout Security, Match.com, Norton Mobile Utilities, Flixster, News360, OpenTable, Opera Mobile, PewPew, Rdio, SketchBook Mobile, The Weather Channel, WordPress, Words With Friends, E*Trade Mobile, Google Voice, NPR News, Path.

Despite its recent growth in popularity, jailbreaking is still not a mainstream activity among iPhone and iPad owners generally. It's more for the tinkering type and those who want to customize their device's functionality and UI design. Whether it's done to download unauthorized (yet often quite useful) apps from Cydia or customize the look and feel of the OS, there are a lot of reasons why people jailbreak their devices. For iPhone 4S owners, that list is made all the more compelling by one thing: hacking Siri.

Using a feature called Activator, users can verbally do things like lock the phone, turn WiFi and Bluetooth on, run a Spotlight search and much else. Activator lets you define your own customized requests, so if you want Siri to open a new email every time you say "Abracadabra," then so be it.

Tweaks like this begin to show the real potential behind Siri, as is often the case with features that only work on jailbroken devices. Apple ships a solid, but limited offering, and then developers get their hands on it and in improve. In many cases, some of the best new features find their way into Apple's next official release.

Even before the Absinthe A5 jailbreak tool was released, developers wasted no time modifying Siri to do things like start cars and adjust thermostats. Such cross-device hacks require coding skills, a third party service like SiriProxy and a compatible, Web-connected appliance to mess with. It can make a fun weekend project, but it's probably beyond what most users are willing to get their hands dirty doing.

This new breed of device-based Siri tweaks is much more in line with what the average user would likely be interested in using. If history is any indication, these may be standard features in iOS before long.

The latest clues about that future come from a newly-published patent, which hints at some of the things Siri may be able to do after its first iteration.

One thing Apple apparently plans to have its devices do is automatically detect those hands-free scenarios and adjust the UI accordingly. That is, when you mount your phone in the car, the device realizes it's time to substitute certain core elements of its GUI with voice and audio-based controls.

The wording of the patent itself is not exclusive to smartphones. Indeed, it lists personal computers, tablets, televisions and gaming systems as devices with which this technology could potentially be used. There should be little doubt that the company plans on expanding Siri beyond the iPhone and building it into other hardware, quite possibly including the forthcoming new iPad and Apple's much-anticipated HDTV set.

The Role of Siri-Hacking

Some of the more exciting clues about Siri's future potential come not from patents but from the community of developers who have already started tinkering with what Apple released and putting it to new uses. Early examples built using the SiriProxy hack include remotely adjusting the thermostat and starting one's car, as well as calling up television shows on a Web-connected set top box.

While Apple officially frowns upon such tinkering, it has a tendency to borrow heavily from the iOS jailbreaking community when developing its own products. It's even hired a few notable iOS developers with roots in the jailbreaking community. Each new version of iOS pulls in a feature or two previously only available on jailbroken devices. The recently overhauled Notification Center is just one substantial example.

When users started hacking the Kinect, Microsoft famously endorsed the practice, going so far as to offer cash for the best hacks. If Apple embraces Siri-hacking, it will likely be in more subtle ways, probably by quietly rolling a few of the best hacks into its own official offering. The line will always be drawn at features that go too strongly against carrier wishes, present user experience challenges or otherwise don't meet Apple's strict requirements.

Despite the company's official disapproval, jailbreaking iOS is still big among a certain subset of users, as evidenced by the popularity of the A5 Absinthe tool that was released last Friday. But should people in the jailbreak community continue to rest easy, assured that freeing their devices will forever remain legal? Probably not.

The only way to ensure that this doesn't happen, says the EFF, is for everyone to let the Copyright Office know that they would prefer to see jailbreaking remain legal, and why. There's a comment form that lets them do that.

In addition to smartphones, the EFF wants the Copyright Office to add exemptions for tablets and video game consoles as well. Two years ago, the tablet market simply wasn't what it is today, let alone the jailbreak community around it.

Video game consoles have been hacked and modded for years, but more recent tinkering with Microsoft's Kinect in particular has brought the true potential of the technology to the forefront. Even though Microsoft itself has embraced Kinect-hacking, the EFF doesn't want to let this kind of user-modification of game consoles slip through the legal cracks.

Nearly 1 million people jailbroke their iPhone 4S or iPad 2 between Friday and Monday, according a blog post from the Chronic-Dev Team, who took the lead in developing the untethered solution for jailbreaking iOS 5 on Apple's newest gadgets.

Not surprisingly, the iPhone 4S was the most-jailbroken device with over 491,325 phones broken free from the restrictions of the iTunes App Store. Since iOS 5 came pre-installed on the iPhone 4S, this is the first time its owners could jailbreak the device without tethering it to a computer, which is too cumbersome a process to be considered by most users. The iPad 2 saw n 308,967 new jailbreaks, on top of the 152,940 second generation iPads running iOS 4 that were re-jailbroken. Those users were likely waiting to upgrade to iOS 5 until this solution was available, which is one of the drawbacks of jailbreaking.

Why People Jailbreak

For devotees of the jailbreaking process, the drawbacks are vastly overshadowed by the benefits. Rather than be able to cite a single "killer app" that makes it worth it, most just prefer the general freedom and customizability it offers. That includes the ability to tweak the visual appearance of the device's UI and run any number of unauthorized apps.

Cydia, the repository of apps for jailbroken iPhones and iPads, contains many applications that would never meet Apple's approval requirements for inclusion in the official App Store. For some, it's because of trademark or copyright issues, such as video game emulators or controversial music services like Grooveshark.

Quite often, the apps don't adhere to Apple's agreements with the carriers, who would obviously never approve of an app that lets users tether their phone to their laptop and use its data connection without paying extra. With the iPhone 4S, the feature that offers perhaps the most new potential for jailbreakers is Siri, which developers have wasted no time hacking and tinkering with.

As controversial and officially frowned-upon as the whole thing is, many of the experimental features available on jailbroken iOS devices actually end up being included in the next release of the OS. This was true of recording video, which was technically possible on a jailbroken iPhone 3G. Similarly, the overhauled Notification Center found in iOS 5 bears a striking resemblance to the notification system available on jailbroken devices running iOS 4.

Jailbreaking May Not Be Mainstream, But Its Popularity is Growing

As Apple's gadgets continue to burn through sales records, there also appears to be a growing interest among users in doing more with their phones, much like Android device owners are already accustomed to.

Truth be told, jailbreaking probably isn't something the average user is going to get into, given the nature of the process, its risks and the tools involved. It's really something more geared toward tinkerers and those who want more control over what their device can do.

Given the massive number of iOS devices out in the wild, several hundred thousand new jailbreaks doesn't come anywhere close to a constituting majority of of users. Rather, it's the pace of the growth that's interesting to see.

That's all set to change within three years, according to a growing chorus of analysts. The latest to vouch for the impending growth of Windows Phone is iSuppli, who last week predicted that the platform could outperform Apple's iOS by 2015.

Still, some have balked at the claim that Windows Phone could rise to challenge iOS anytime so soon, given Apple's propensity to upgrade its mobile hardware every year, with even modest iterations yielding surprisingly successful results. What do you think?

Still, a report released by IHS in the wake of Microsoft's earnings announcement last week is worth a closer look.

"Combined with Nokia's efforts to drive the development of the Windows Phone ecosystem, the Lumia 900 and its successors will help Microsoft to reclaim its No. 2 ranking in smartphone operating system market share by 2015." Lam wrote.

To do so, Microsoft would need to jump from its current market share of 2% to 16.7% in four years. Windows Phone has gotten loads of praise from reviewers and tech writers, but the company does face some hurdles, including a lack of apps when compared to the number of apps available for iPhone and Android.

Based on comments after the release of its earnings Thursday (which topped Wall Street analysts' estimates), Microsoft seems to be positioning itself to make Windows Phone more developer friendly. To date, developers have been far more interested in working on applications for iOS or on Web-based platforms.

"I would say one of the things [we] talked about at CES last week was just how important it is for us to work on and with developers to create a really vibrant developer ecosystem," said Bill Koefoed, Microsoft's general manager of investor relations, during the call with analysts.

The holiday season typically sees a surge in mobile application downloads, especially once Christmas Day arrives and countless consumers all over the world unwrap their new Android devices, iPhones, iPads and iPods. In a true testament to the continued proliferation of these devices, this year's holiday spike in app downloads was a one for the record books, according to Flurry's data.

Apple hasn't released numbers, but there's little doubt that items like iPads, iPhones and the iPod Touch did quite well this holiday season, and for those who already own such devices an iTunes Store gift card made for a no-brainer of a present. Amazon's own Kindle Fire, which has access to a limited version of the Android Marketplace, was that company's top-selling and most frequently gifted item this holiday season as well.

The 1 billion weekly downloads threshold may be a new one, but it's one that Flurry expects to see continue well into 2012. There's very little reason to doubt that prediction, as smartphones and tablets continue to pick up steam in the marketplace and new devices from Apple, Amazon and Android handset manufacturers are expected to drop throughout the year, in many cases at lower price points.

As quick and painless as this seems, Apple wants to simplify things even further for owners of its iPhones, iPads and other iOS devices. Imagine walking up to your phone or tablet in its dock and seeing the screen light up with a greeting. You pick it up and pull it a few inches closer to your face, and voilà! the screen is unlocked and the digital universe is instantly at your finger tips.

This is a feature already available on jailbroken iPhones, but one that works very slowly and can easily be hacked using a photograph.

Update: As some of our diligent commenters have pointed out, facial recognition unlock feature is also available in Ice Cream Sandwich, the latest version of Android. That implementation, however, has been shown to be easily fooled and Google has acknowledged that its not as secure as a traditional passcode.

The technology required to get this type of feature to work effectively is pretty sophisticated and, as Patently Apple describes it, "computationally expensive." The trade-off for using an alternative method is weaker security, which defeats the purpose.

In a somewhat jargon-loaded post, the Apple patent-watching blog describes how the company plans to overcome the challenges associated with implementing such technology. Their method would use a two-dimensional analysis of the placement of facial features as well as skin tone and check those details against "target images" previously captured by the device. This patent comes about a month after news of Apple's acquisition of a patent for advanced 3D object recognition, which could be used in a similar fashion.

Exactly how they would thwart creative attempts to hack the system wasn't detailed, but presumably they would have that sorted before this feature sees the light of day.

Plans like this point to the future of our interaction with computers and data. Motion-based gestural control is already here thanks to Microsoft's Kinect and the iPhone 4S has brought the most capable voice-controlled artificial intelligence application yet to the mass market. Siri is rumored to be coming to other iOS devices, including the iPad 3 and Apple's much-rumored HD television set, due to launch next year. Thanks to the curious tinkering of developers, we've begun to see what tools like the Kinect and Siri are capable of, and their potential goes way beyond desktop computers and mobile devices.

The app has long been beloved by owners of the iPad, the only device on which it was available until recently. By bringing the app to the iPhone, the Palo Alto-based startup made good on a promise they had been making for several months.

It was a busy week last week for this breed of news reading applications. On top of Flipboard's news came an update to Flud, a Zite app for iPhone and Google's launch of Google Currents, a somewhat underwhelming Flipboard competitor for iOS and Android.

Flipboard, which was named App of the Year by Apple last year, remains the leader of this particular space for now, as crowded as it's becoming.

The next logical step for Flipboard, especially if it wants this growth to continue, is to put out a version of its beloved social reading app for Android. Cofounder Evan Doll told us in a call last week that an Android app is a top priority for the company, but declined to give even a rough timeline for its launch.

The update also adds an unexpected feature that allows users to scribble with colors on a canvas and attach it to a message. It's a basic paint application that takes advantage of the touch screen, rethinking the way mobile email apps work. Unfortunately, some of the most requested features are still in development. Maybe the ability to scribble will tide users over...

It also launched with a disconcerting notification bug that caused new users to be greeted with an error message. The "bad version" was pulled from the store, and a fix was issued two weeks later.

Since the app is basically just a wrapper for the Web view, it's not clear why it doesn't support multiple email accounts, while the Web version does. Perhaps Google would prefer iOS users to use the main, Chrome-like Google App and launch the Web-based Gmail from there.

But hey. It has Scribbles. Read more on the Gmail blog.

Get the Gmail app from the iTunes Store

The search bar is front and center, collapsing to a top menu bar instantly when you put in your query. You can also access search history, Google Web apps, voice search and "Goggles" - image search using the iPad's camera - right underneath. The new Gmail app for iOS may be a dud, but this update to an already-great Google Search app makes it the best Google iOS app by a longshot.

Google.app, which is a universal app for iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch, was last overhauled in August, adding more search filters and Instant Pages for pre-caching result pages, so they load faster. In today's update, the search results themselves are instant, too, showing up as soon as you type in your query.

The app now has even more tablet-friendly UI features, like a swipe-able carousel for viewing image results. It also has visual history, instead of just a text list of queries. It adds search previews that pop up before you choose which search result you want, a feature recently added to desktop search. And, of course, there's a +1 button.

Google Search App Is Also A Launcher

This excellent release leaves iOS users with an obvious question: How can the search app be so good, while the new Gmail app is so bad?

Today's update gives two possible answers. It's now even easier to launch all of Google's great Web apps from the search app, which was already one of its most useful features. That includes Gmail, and the Web version of Gmail is more or less the same as the native app, if not better in some ways. So using the Google Search app puts users one tap away from a menu with Gmail, Calendar, Docs, News, Plus and more, even Google Voice, which has its own (lame) native iOS app, too. This launch screen got a nice overhaul today.

The other reason this is Google's best iOS app is voice search, also available with just one tap on both the iPad and iPhone versions. Apple's voice-powered AI search assistant, Siri, bypasses Google for some searches on purpose, and Apple is buying Google competitors, such as 3D mapping companies, to find even more ways around Google. By building an excellent iOS search experience, with voice search just one tap away, Google can train iPhone and iPad users to keep using it for search, even with Siri on board.

Do you use the Google Search app on your iPad or iPhone?

Enter Covert Browser, which was approved by Apple earlier this week. It uses Tor to encrypt Internet traffic and route it through three different servers to ensure data about users cannot be intercepted by third parties. Such data would include browsing history or, more commonly, one's geographic location.

Common use cases for Tor include activists wishing to elude authorities, journalists hiding their sources and even law enforcement encrypting their own online communication. Wikileaks has also used Tor to transfer documents.

In this case, Tor's infrastructure is being used to reroute and strongly encrypt Internet traffic, something that previously wasn't possible on non-jailbroken iOS devices, at least not to this extent.

The initial release of Covert Browser has some stability issues, with a few users noting that the app crashes frequently. As one commented in the user reviews, "I can't order my drugs, tiger meat and rhinoceros horns with a browser that crashes all the time!" Hoffman has already submitted an update to the App Store that attempts to fix these problems.

Unfortunately, users' more substantive concerns with the app have not been addressed. The Gmail team's blog post says that multiple account support, improved notifications and mobile-specific signatures are coming, along with "many more" features. But for now, little has changed about the app that many panned as insufficient for a native Gmail app.

The day the Gmail app first rolled out, popular Mac mail client Sparrow tweeted that an iPhone version of Sparrow would come "to the rescue" and give iPhone users "the Gmail experience [they] deserve." We'll just have to wait a few months.

Grab the Gmail app from the iTunes Store.

Does the Gmail app work for you, or do you need more features? Sound off in the comments.