The Mac App Store takes the model Apple established with mobile and tablet apps for iOS and applies it to the desktop. Developers who opt to charge for apps get a 70% cut of the revenue, just as mobile developers do.

For developers, it provides a tried-and-true method of monetizing their work, if they're willing to accept Apple's revenue cut. From the looks of it, the platform is popular enough that, if nothing else, the Mac App Store gives developers increased visibility for their finished products. It's become a resource for not only independent, lightweight desktop apps, but also for heavy-duty programs like Logic for audio-editing, Final Cut Pro for video and Photoshop Express.

From Apple to Microsoft, Desktops Begin to Resemble Mobile

The desktop app marketplace is not the only aspect of Apple-manufactured computers that recalls the user experience of using a tablet or smartphone. When the company released Mac OS X Lion earlier this year, it baked in several elements of iOS, from the mobile-style layout of apps in Launchpad to the multitouch gestures supported by the trackpad. Browsing the Web and scrolling through documents and menus on Lion feels more like doing so on an iPad or iPhone now, with a two-finger swipe up resulting in the page moving down (and vice versa).

Apple isn't the only company merging the experience of using the desktop with that of smaller devices. Microsoft is taking things even further. The next generation of their PC operating system, Windows 8, borrows heavily from mobile design and user experience concepts. It features a touch-friendly UI, a new breed of HTML5-driven applications and a relatively seamless user experience between smartphones, tablets and the desktops.

The results are not hugely shocking, but contain some interesting tidbits nonetheless. The list is broken down into three rankings: overall usage, male usage and female usage. The top half of each list is littered with the apps you'd guess were popular: Facebook, Gmail, Maps, YouTube. Pandora, Words With Friends, Twitter and Amazon's Kindle app all make expected appearances in the top 20 as well.

As always, share your thoughts on those we missed in the comments below.

Spott: This app uses your phone's GPS to point to map out nearby film and TV locations. Great for entertainment buffs. ($0.99, iTunes and $1.13, Android Market)

Nosh: This food-spotting and reviews app lets you photograph, share and track great places to eat and the meals you've had there. (Free, iTunes and Android Market)

Facebook for Every Phone: This new app brings Facebook to over 2,500 phones worldwide. To download, go to m.facebook.com or enter d.facebook.com/install in your mobile browser.

MyMoby lets families privately share their location with each other and send alerts when needing assistance. (Free, iTunes, Android and BlackBerry)

iPhone

Batphone: This experimental app uses the phone's microphone to record the sounds in a room to develop an acoustic "fingerprint" for that space. The idea is that this type of location-detection could be used in future apps when GPS is not available. There's nothing much you can really do with this app right now, but what a cool concept! (Free, iTunes)

Capture: Instead of wasting time hitting "record" or adjusting settings, the Capture app starts recording video as soon as the app launches. Finally, you can record the kids before the moment has passed!($0.99, iTunes)

Trover: Newly launched app Trover was an undiscovered gem until the big press push this month surrounding the app's update. With Trover, you can connect with others to discover places and things nearby using photo-sharing combined with geolocation. (Free, iTunes)

Summify: This new iPhone app delves into the social news space to deliver periodic summaries of the news from your friends on Twitter, Facebook and Google Reader. (Free, iTunes)

Trimit: This app summarizes webpages into either 1,000, 5,000 or 140 character summaries for easy reading and social sharing. (Free, iTunes)

Katango: Like the idea of Google Circles but happy on Facebook? Katagno automatically organizes your Facebook friends into groups, then allows you to share just with them. It's automagical! (Free, iTunes)

Evoz: This app turns your iPhone, iPod or iPad into a baby monitor by working with another iOS device connected over Wi-Fi. Put one device in the baby's room, listen on the other. (Free, iTunes)

Dragon Go: This voice control app understands the intent of your questions and opens the appropriate website to provide an answer (e.g., Reviews of sushi restaurants might open Yelp, music by Lady Gaga, starts playing a song on your iPod, etc.) (Free, iTunes)

Photovine: This new photo-sharing app comes from Google-acquired Slide (yes, we know, weird!) Fun, but invite only for now. (Free, iTunes)

ON Voicefeed: A great new app for iPhone, ON Voicefeed lets you set up custom voicemail greetings for different callers or groups of callers. A premium version ($9.99/year) adds unlimited greetings and voicemail storage. (Free, iTunes)

Foreca.st: From the makers of Hurricane Party, Foreca.st lets you share where you're going with friends, then lets you check in using Foursquare when you arrive. (Free, iTunes)

Flixlab: This app lets you easily make movies and slideshows on your iPhone which you can then share with friends on Facebook. (Free, iTunes)

OfficeDrop: You can scan, search, organize and archive your paper files, PDFs and other documents using this new iPhone/iPad app and view them either on your device or the Web. (Free, iTunes - additional storage available for a fee)

im360: With this iOS application you can check out an amazing collection of 360-degree videos from your iPhone (Free for Lite version or $1.99, iTunes)

Next Page: Android & Tablet Apps

Android

ABC News: The official ABC News app arrived on Android bringing top stories, video briefs, pictures, breaking news and more. Select cities also have access to local news. (Free, Android Market)

Do it (Tomorrow): A great new productivity (or procrastination) app for Android, Do it Tomorrow lets you keep track of your to-do's in an attractive, simple interface. Cloud syncing is available, too. (Free, Android Market)

AwayFind for Android: This app brings email management tool AwayFind to mobile users, letting you route urgent emails to your Android phone or tablet, read the whole message and reply. Push notifications are supported too. (Free, Android Market)

Vellamo Mobile Web Benchmark: This new app from Qualcomm lets you evaluate Web performance in detail so you can see which Android devices offer the best experience in terms of browser performance. (Free, Android Market)

Localicious: This new Android app from WhitePages helps you find popular nearby businesses, plus real-time tips and trends. Foursquare users can also use the app to do "pre check-ins." (Free, Android Market)

Scrabble Free: This month EA launched its first free Android game, Scrabble Free, which includes all the features you love and expect. (Free, Android Market)

Tablets

SwiftKey X: One of the best alternative keyboard interfaces for Android added a ton of new features, including better predictive intelligence and "cloud learning," which lets you optionally connect to Twitter, Gmail, Facebook and SMS to improve its predictions. Android Honeycomb is also supported. ($3.99 for Android phones, $4.99 for Tablets, Android Market or Amazon Appstore)

Crayola ColorStudio HD for iPad: Not just an app, but an app and pen combo, this new experience for iPad actually lets your kids color on the tablet with a big pen. No more crayon on the walls! Can't wait for my daughter to be old enough for this! (App is free in iTunes, iMarker pen is $29.99.)

Star Trek PADD: The app you nerds (ahem, self included) have secretly been waiting for: the PADD turns your iPad into an authentic-looking PADD from Star Trek. For practical purposes, you can read Star Trek news, but really, who needs practical? ($4.99, iTunes)

iUsers: This iPad app sets up your iPad for use with multiple users, each with their own mailbox, settings and apps. (Jailbreak only - add http://cydia.iblogeek.com as a source then search for iUsers)

Birds-Eye: An iPad app that shows you who's tweeting around you. Simple, but fun. (Free, iTunes)

NASA Visualization Explorer: An awesome app for space geeks, this new iPad app provides a direct connection to NASA's research news in an engaging format using photos and videos. (Free, iTunes)

iSheetMusic: Although it works on iPhone too, we like iSheetMusic on the iPad instead - it's easier to see. As you may have guessed by its title, this app lets you search for, buy and organize sheet music collections on your device. An audible and visible Metronome are included, too. (Free, iTunes)

Notable Updates

You may have missed the following app updates this past month. Here are a few worth mentioning.

Social

• Foursquare launched notifications on Android (first!) and added directions to the iPhone versions.
• FriendCaster (Facebook app for Android, formerly called Flow for Facebook) came to Android tablets (in alpha, via invite)
• StumbleUpon! came to the iPad
• Hashable's social CRM app was updated with a new focus on privacy instead of broadcasting connections.
• Twitter for Android added push notifications and support for multiple accounts

News/Info

• Bloomberg arrived for Android tablets
• NASA's official app arrived on Android

Entertainment

• Amazon's Cloud Player arrived on iPad via a Web interface, and added unlimited storage for $20/year
• Hulu Plus for Android added support for more devices
• Zinio's magazine reader app expanded Android support to all Froyo and Gingerbread devices
• SoundHound for iPhone added LiveLyrics, which lets you search for lyrics for the music you're listening to
• IMDb added support for Android tablets and several new features
• TV guide app i.TV partnered with check-in service GetGlue on iOS

Google / Other

• Google Maps for Android added stop-by-stop information for transit and offline maps
• Google Docs for mobile browsers added the ability to sort, narrow and share multiple docs from your list
• Google Shopper was updated with support for Google Offers (local deals)
• Evernote for Android updated with new interface, rich text notes and more.
• Pinger brought free text messaging to European users
• Mint for iPhone was updated with more money management features, including the ability to add transactions while on the go
• M-commerce app Zaarly arrived on Android
• Cross-platform smart note-taking app SpringPad was updated with reminders, push notifications and badges (iOS)
• Thrutu, which lets you share information and media while on the phone, arrived on iOS

AIR Marketplace for Consumers

The two stores served different purposes for Adobe. The AIR Marketplace was a consumer-facing effort where end users could search for and discover applications built using Adobe AIR technology, like TweetDeck, AccuWeather's alerts app, AOL's Top 100 Videos or a Facebook Photo Uploader, to name a few of the more popular items. Developers were encouraged to list their apps in this store for self-promotional purposes, and it included typical consumer app store features like images, descriptions, ratings, reviews and social sharing options.

InMarket for Developers

Meanwhile, Adobe's InMarket was an app distribution service targeted towards developers. The idea here was that developers could publish once to distribute everywhere.

Adobe launched the store last fall, when it only supported publication to Intel's AppUp center, a Windows app store designed for netbooks and notebooks. At the time, Adobe said that it expected to support 10 stores by the second half of 2011. Unfortunately, that did not happen. According to the InMarket FAQ, only AppUp and Adobe's own AIR Marketplace were supported. This makes it seem as if the store's shutdown had less to do with "developer feedback" and more to do with Adobe's failure to secure app store partners as promised.

Developers have until August 31st to download their app analytics, revenue reports and other data, and update any widgets or links to their app's webpage. Developers who published to AppUp will receive an email from Intel over the next few days with more details about direct publishing.

But what's most unique about this app is the way it reformats the text for the small screen. The "floating text" reading experience, which gives the app its name, reflows text originally formatted for the Web for better reading on mobile devices.

This floating text experience has its roots in the technology Scribd introduced last year, when it began offering a way to convert Adobe PDF documents into HTML5. At the time, the company learned a lot about how to transform and rearrange text from one format and one type of interface to another.

In the new native iPhone app called Float, the team leveraged that expertise so that you can now zoom in on text using pinch gestures, and then see that text automatically reflowed for that particular zoom level. You can also scroll left or right in the app, as you would with a book or magazine.

Content Sources

The content in Float comes from over 150 websites, including The Associated Press, Fortune, CNET, HuffingtonPost, Engadget, Entertainment Weekly and People, but it also comes from the information your friends are sharing on social sites like Facebook, Twitter and, of course, Scribd. And you can share content from the app back to those same sites, too.

A special browser bookmarklet lets you save items you find online for later reading on Float.com or within the iPhone app.

A Unique Mobile Reading Experience

Does the idea of yet another "social reading" app leave you dry? This is, after all, a crowded space - filled with apps like Pulse and Flipboard and others like them. But Scribd says its key differentiating factor is its focus on the reading experience, particularly the small screens of smartphones. In addition to the reformatted text, Float offers an Instagram-like "reading styles" option which lets you choose between different formats that work better for different users, like e-ink, high contrast as well as fun ones like "Gutenberg," because, well, just because.

The app itself exists in a unique niche - somewhere in between the social news readers and the "Read It Later's" or Instapaper's of the news consumption world.

In the future, Scribd will look at different business models to aid its publishers - for example, offering them the opportunity to insert ads into the articles in a better format than is typically possible on mobile. It will also attempt to bring in premium publishers offering subscriptions, and is now in talks with newspapers interested in exploring that option.

At launch, Float is available for the iPhone and Web only, but an iPad app and Android version will launch this fall. You can give Float a try for yourself, here.

Well, guess what? It worked! Look what our headline reads!

Still, it is an impressive number, and one that puts competing app stores to shame. And Apple had even more new numbers to reveal today, too.

Some of these numbers represent an increase over those revealed at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference in June. At that time, Apple had reached 400,000 mobile apps, 90,000 of which were iPad-specific and 14 billion downloads.

Compared to Others

To put these numbers in context, Google said at its I/O conference in May that the Android Market had reached 4.5 billion downloads, and Google has seen over 100 million devices activated worldwide. Also at that time, Google was activating 400,000 Android devices daily. By the end of June, Google's Android chief Andy Rubin reported that daily activations had increased to 500,000 per day.

Google said, too, that there are over 200,000 apps in the Android Market. What it didn't want to tell you, however, is how many work on Android tablets. It's an embarrassing number that may be somewhere from 50 to 100, reports The New York Times.

As for Nokia, it's seeing over 6 million apps and content downloads per day, and more than 300,000 new Nokia accounts created daily. The Ovi store is now home to over 48,000 apps. Nokia also said that Qt developers can target more than 100 million devices now, and will be able to target 150 million more in the future, due to the Symbian smartphones Nokia intends to sell.

RIM is now seeing 3 million app downloads per day, the company announced in March, up from 1 million just under a year ago. Microsoft's newcomer Window Phone reached its own milestone recently: 25,000 apps, up from 11,500 in March.

This time around, we're again focusing on new (and notably updated) iPhone and Android applications, as well as a few iPad, tablet and cross-platform apps that caught our eye. As always, share which apps are your new favorites in the comments below.

Discovr Apps: An interactive map of all the iOS applications on iTunes. Search for a favorite app, and Discovr shows you related apps in a beautiful visualization. ($0.99, iTunes)

Frenzapp Music: A social music player for sharing songs with friends. (Free, iTunes)

Roger Ebert's Great Movies: Offers all of the reviews in Roger Ebert's series of Great Movies books, from 1915 to the present. ($0.99, iTunes)

Doxo: A file cabinet in your pocket. Snap photos of bills and receipts, view digital files, backups supports, and receive paperless statements from select providers. (Free, iTunes)

BiteHunter: Like Kayak.com for restaurants, this iPhone app helps you seek out dining deals via real-time search. (Free, iTunes)

SayClip: Free & private video messaging. Coming soon to Android. (Free, iTunes)

Agenda: A beautiful calendar app with a clean, minimal design. Great replacement for the stock calendar. ($1.99, iTunes)

WeatherTrends 360: Discover your future weather...up to a year ahead! Uses the company's high level statistical forecasting model to project temperature, precipitation and snowfall trends for 6.4 million locations in 195 countries. ($0.99, iTunes)

SmartFuel: Lets you find cheap gas, but also rate station cleanliness and safety. Uses the Oil Price Information Service (OPIS) database which tracks credit card swipes at the pump for determining fuel rates. (Free, iTunes)

Photosynth: Microsoft's 360-degree photos app was recently updated to offer cropping, expanded sharing (now Bing, Facebook and email) and includes "Best of Bing Maps" contest, where the prize is free Xbox 360 and Kinect. (Free, iTunes)

Flixwagon Live Video Share: Broadcast live video from your iPhone and share on Facebook, Twitter, via SMS or email. Sketch and draw over the live, video too. (Free, iTunes)

Universal (iPhone/iPad) and iPad-only

exfm: Social music discovery app goes mobile, letting you follow favorite tastemakers, note songs to favorite or share, listen to friends' shares and buy from iTunes. (Free, iTunes)

NBC: Clips and previews, not full-length episodes. Worth noting, we suppose, but kind of lame. (Free, iTunes)

Fring: Recently updated to include video conferencing on iPad 2. Supports groups of up to 4 people. (Free, iTunes)

Flixlab: Lets a group of friends share video clips and pictures to make movies together. (Free, iTunes)

Hipmunk: Popular flight search app is now available for iPad, letting you sort flights by "agony." (Free, iTunes)

Roadshow: Lets you save online videos for later viewing, even if you go offline. Supports Vimeo, CollegeHumor, Funny or Die, The Onion, but not YouTube. (Free, iTunes)

Book Crawler: Book database and reviews app was recently updated to integrate Skyhook's Local Faves. Now lets you talk to others nearby about the books you're reading. ($1.99, iTunes)

Next Page: Android & Cross-Platform Apps

Android Apps

Google+: Google's new social network comes with its own Android app offering access to your streams, circles and photos. An "instant upload" feature is also supported, to immediately post camera photos online to a private album only you can see. Widget included with app. (Free, Android Market)

Hulu Plus: Now on Android, Hulu Plus brings you TV shows and movies for $7.99/month. (Free, Android Market)

Path: The private photo-sharing app for connecting with family and friends is now available on Android, in addition to iOS. (Free, Android Market)

Skype: The Android app has been updated, bringing video calling to the Google Nexus S, HTC Desire S, Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo and Sony Ericsson Xperia Pro, with more on the way. Our coverage. (Free, Android Market)

Third Eye: A reality-based game using Viewdle's facial recognition technology. You play as a vampire or a slayer. (Free, Android Market)

Crackle: Now on Android, Sony Pictures Entertainment's video network brings ad-supported, full-length Hollywood movies and TV shows to Android. (Free, Android Market)

Music Unlimited: Sony's Qtriocity service goes mobile with access to 7 million+ songs. Free for 30 days then $3.99 or $9.99 per month afterwards, depending on plan. (Free, Android Market)

QikCam: This Android widget lets you snap photos or videos quickly just by tapping the homescreen widget. (Not new, but we just discovered!) (Free, Android Market)

UberMusic: From LauncherPro's creator, UberMusic is a new music app offering artist/album downloads, album art, last.fm scrobbling, headphone controls and a homescreen widget. (Free, UberMusic.com APK)

Zimbra: VMWare released an app for Android as a "fling," allowing access to email, contacts, calendar, tasks and files from any Android device. Not guaranteed to be a part of any future product offering, says VMWare, nor is support offered. Our coverage. (Free, VMWare.com)

Wikitude World Browser: Now available for Honeycomb tablets, this AR browser lets you explore the world around you via informational overlays on your camera's display. (Free, Android Market)

Cross-Platform Apps

Snipper: Lets you share short videos with family and friends using private broadcast channels that send clips directly to specific people or groups of people. Public channels are also supported. (Free, iTunes, Android Market, BlackBerry App World, Ovi soon)

Nearparent: GPS-enabled app lets you alert a network of family and friends when your child needs assistance or is in danger. Kids can use the app to check-in, too, or alert the network if they need help. (Free, iTunes, Android Market)

PInger Textfree Web: This free mobile Web application lets you text message with any phone in the U.S. and 18 other countries for free. Unlimited picture messages are included, too. (Free, but you have to sign up on a PC that supports Flash)

Opera Mini and Mobile: Both Opera Mini (uses data compression) and Opera Mobile (full Internet browser) were updated to include search suggestions from Google and Yandex and a top-level domain learning feature where the appropriate domain (for example, .uk, .ru, .id) is picked by the browser. (Free, Mini - Java J2ME, BlackBerry, S60, Android, iOS; Mobile - Android, S60, Win 7, MeeGo)

Flipboard has also added built-in search, LinkedIn integration and has reformatted how the links from Twitter appear. But the company's biggest update is still yet to come.

The newest release of Flipboard is more evolutionary than revolutionary. The most notable change is the improved access to finding and discovery content. In the latest version, tapping on a red ribbon at the top right of the home screen ("More") takes you into a content guide where you can delve into sections dedicated to topics like "Business," "Science & Technology," "Cool Curators," "Art & Photography" and others.

When viewing articles or posts from these sources, a new "Add" button at the top of the screen lets you mark the publication as a "Favorite" for easier access in the future.

Also new is a "Featured" section which Flipboard will use to showcase its partners, the latest addition being The Economist, which will be available at launch. Although many websites can be viewed in Flipboard, the company's partners have the ability to run magazine-style advertisements alongside their articles, formatted in a reading-friendly iPad layout, and track the visits from the application's users.

LinkedIn, Search & More

Another big update this summer release is the new LinkedIn integration. Flipboard is the first company to provide third-party access to LinkedIn Today, a news feed-like look at various industry verticals. 37 major industries are covered by LinkedIn Today, like Food & Beverage, Law and Non-Profit, for example. The end result is something like a trade magazine for following your industry's most important news.

Other updates to Flipboard include the added ability to continue flipping through a magazine or publication after reaching the last page of article, a revamped way to read articles coming from tweets (the article is now given priority while the tweet and its associated actions are moved to the bottom of the page) and the addition of a search feature that returns results for RSS feeds, Twitter and Facebook updates, results from Flickr, Instagram, Google Reader and more. People search is supported as well.

There are several "behind-the-scenes" improvements, too, to make the app run faster and to offer less noticeable user interface improvements in spots.

Coming Soon: Personalized Recommendations

However, what we really wanted to know was when Flipboard would begin to capitalize on the technology it acquired at launch through a startup once known as Ellerdale.

The answer is that Flipboard has already done so. And we'll see more of that technology soon, according to Flipboard co-founder and CEO Mike McCue.

Ellerdale's smart data-parsing algorithms are currently used in the app's search feature and for deriving what's popular on its network, but Ellerdale's technology will be even further baked into the product in the near future.

Will this just be a series of incremental updates, like what we've seen so far? Or does Flipboard have an even bigger launch on the horizon? Both, says McCue. The product will get smarter over time, as new versions are released. But another update, which McCue says is "coming pretty soon" will offer an even better personalized experience involving recommendations.

In the meantime, Flipboard's next big focus is its iPad app, due to arrive later this summer. Versions for Android or other platforms aren't out of the question, but the company hasn't reached any solid conclusions on that front.

The new version of Flipboard is now live in iTunes here and is a free download.

From the description, the app seems somewhat basic, maybe even a little boring: share photos via Facebook, Twitter or email. But it does so with a simplicity, elegance and ease that I've often found lacking elsewhere.

Above: Sample Photogram

Even though there are social networking sharing mechanisms built in to give the app a more universal appeal, the app's target demographic is, to be sure, parents. Like me. And especially parents who need to share iPhone photos with their kids' grandparents, and everyone else who "doesn't have a Facebook yet." (Yes, despite Facebook's some 500+ million users, there are still so many who still prefer email for photo-sharing. I know, shocking.)

While the iPhone's photo gallery app makes emailing photos easy enough, the end result is just a plain email. Photogram, instead, lets you dress things up a bit with a selection of artistic themes to showcase your photos, some of which are free and some that are paid. There are "baby" and family-oriented themes, party themes, minimalist themes, outdoor themes, and many others.

But the real killer feature is the ability to create recipient groups so you can share with the same folks (e.g. "grandparents," "friends," etc.) over and over again, without having to address the emails by hand. Facebook and Twitter can be combined with email recipient groups too, so you can send our your photos everywhere in just one step. Genius.

An App for Everyone

While none of these things are new innovations, necessarily, it's the way they're put together that makes the app so great. There aren't those trendy photo filters to mess with like in Instagram and its clones, you don't have to create a "profile," add friends or find others to follow - you just pick a few photos (4 max.), add a message and share. So easy, anyone can use it. And that's the point.

Sometimes, simply making a task easier, quicker and more fun is all it takes to win me over. Now, Photogram, won't you please come to Android?

Below: Photogram of the most adorable child in the world: mine.

Now, according to a new report, things may have changed. An official iPad app for Facebook could be only be weeks away.

Nice move, Facebook. We almost believed you.

After all, the iPad is a computer, not a smartphone that requires a specialized experience due to a smaller screen size. That Facebook would simply optimize its website for the Safari Web browser and leave it at that was certainly believable. In fact, that same sort of optimization is reportedly on its way, too.

Facebook Let 3rd-Party Apps Dominate for Too Long

But the longer Facebook waited to release an official app, the more third-party services rushed in to fill the void. Today, apps like Friendly, iFace, MyPad and others sit at the top of the charts in the iTunes App Store for iPad, indications of the demand for a native Facebook experience.

With some 25 million iPad users, it's odd that the world's largest social networking service has ignored the tablet market for so long. But that may have been a political maneuver on its part. Facebook and Apple have been at odds in the past - for example, when Apple launched its iTunes social networking service Ping, it pulled the Facebook integration at the last minute, citing "onerous terms we could not agree to." And more recently, Apple announced that Twitter, not Facebook, would be the social networking service deeply integrated into iOS 5, the next version of Apple's mobile operating system.

But if the delayed launch of Facebook iPad app had to do with politics, and not its technical nature, the only one really hurt was Facebook itself. Not all of the third-party apps deliver a great experience for end users, leaving frustrated customers with negative feelings towards the brand. That should change soon, too, says the report. Apple plans to feature the official app prominently in the App Store, one source said.

With Bing's app discovery feature, normal Web searches will also return results for popular iPhone applications, even if you don't specifically say "iPhone app" or "mobile app" or something similar in the text of your query.

That means a search for Facebook, for instance, will return the Facebook iPhone app, while a search for a movie may return apps like IMDb or Fandango.

When you explicitly search for iPhone apps, like a search for "top apps," a category search or a search for a particular app name, the results will also include direct links to the app's download page.

Not Just Integration with Bing Search Results, Search Within Apps, Too

The most interesting aspect of this new feature is Bing's ability to actually launch your iPhone apps for you, from the search results. If you have the app installed on your iPhone already, in some cases, Bing will be able to launch the app and take you directly to the search results within the app itself.

In the example posted on Microsoft's Bing Search blog, a query for "Thor 3D" provides a link to IMDb, as usual. But for those with IMDb installed, clicking "download" opens up the app on your iPhone, with a "Thor 3D" query already in place.

This is a unique use case for Bing, where it's positioned as an app that aims to replace or augment the more basic app search options built right into the iPhone itself.

Microsoft Building for iPhone Users

It's not unusual these days to see Microsoft build specifically for the iPhone. It's already the maker of several iOS applications including OneNote, Windows Live Messenger, Photosynth, Tag Reader Bing and others. Notably, though, it has yet to launch a native Office for iPhone app.

This is also not the first time Microsoft has attempted to leverage the iPhone's popularity for its own ends: in 2009, Microsoft promoted its new Visual Search feature, which lets you search by flipping through pictures, as yet another tool for iPhone app discovery.

But Bing builds for other mobile devices, too, besides iPhone. For example, this week Bing also launched an update to its mobile browser website at m.bing.com, which supports iPhone, Android and RIM devices running HTML5-compatible browsers. The update brings new features like Facebook sharing options, a news section for U.S. users, split views for maps, search history and trends and more.

In other words, why it initially may be attention grabbing to say "Microsoft" and "iPhone" in the same sentence - (How did this headline work for you, by the way? We had a little fun with that.) - it's not odd, nor is it even a new move by Microsoft to build things for iPhone users. It's just business as usual.

Now, the guidelines state that app publishers can offer access to content purchased outside the app, with no requirement to offer the subscription through Apple's store.

The problem with the former requirements, according to many publishers, is that the 30% revenue cut was too steep, and greatly impacted their bottom line. For example, The Financial Times dropped its iOS application this week in favor of a Web application, in order to manage its own subscription price plans as it saw fit. The iOS app may be available for an interim period, the newspaper said, while it transitions subscribers to the online edition.

The wording of Apple's new guidelines, first spotted by Apple-tracking blog Macrumors, read as follows:

11.14 Apps can read or play approved content (specifically magazines, newspapers, books, audio, music, and video) that is subscribed to or purchased outside of the app, as long as there is no button or external link in the app to purchase the approved content. Apple will not receive any portion of the revenues for approved content that is subscribed to or purchased outside of the app.

Another interpretation of these rules is that they allow publishers to price their in-app subscriptions higher than those sold outside the App Store, in order to recoup Apple's 30% take. That would allow the publishers to reach both market segments: the price-conscious users who would don't mind a few extra steps in order to get a better deal and those who are willing to pay the higher price for the added convenience of instant gratification.

LeafSnap: Possibly the most ground-breaking app released in recent days, LeafSnap lets you identify trees by taking a picture of their leaves. Created by researchers at Columbia University, University of Maryland and the Smithsonian Institute, the app is like something you would see on TV, roll your eyes at and scoff, "as if that exists!" Well, technology moves fast - it exists! And, according to the app's description, this is only the first in a series of field guides the researchers are developing. (Free, iTunes)

Seamless: This app lets you start playing a song on your Mac then "seamlessly" transition to listening to it on your iPhone/iPod Touch, or vice versa. Both devices have to be on the same Wi-Fi network. ($1.99, iTunes)

FavFriends: A new way to keep up with your favorite Facebook friends, using a combination of a customized friend list and push notifications. Our coverage. ($0.99, iTunes)

Hype Machine Radio: A new app from MP3 blog aggregator Hype Machine lets you find new music from undiscovered, indie artists and stream to your mobile device. Our coverage. ($2.99, iTunes)

Voice Brief - Lite: Get briefed on your schedule, news, Facebook, Twitter, Google Reader, stocks and more, with this virtual assistant app that reads aloud to you. (Free, iTunes)

Yahoo Messenger: This new IM app for iPhone and iPad can do video and voice calls, text chat, presence, SMS and photo-sharing. Our coverage. (Free, iTunes)

Trover: A great local discovery app that offers photo-sharing, social networking and more. (Free, iTunes)

DOL - Timesheet: From the Dept. of Labor, this app lets employees track the hours they work and calculate the amount owed by the employer to verify they're being paid what they're due. (Free, iTunes)

i3D: This concept application tracks a user's head movement using the iPhone or iPad and updates a 3D scene on the device accordingly. A cool technology demo. (Free, iTunes; image credit AppAdvice)

do@ (doat) mobile search: It's hard to Google the name of this app, which aims to revolutionize mobile search. The idea here is one of a universal search app that finds movies, music, TV, shopping, news, people, sports, cooking and other information from one interface. (Free, iTunes)

Sonar: This new app helps you find the most relevant people in a room based on your Facebook, Foursquare and Twitter social networks. (Free, iTunes)

Meporter: A location-based news app for citizen journalism, this app lets you write, take photos or video and then share that info with anyone who has a mobile phone. (Free, iTunes)

Tracks: A new mobile photo-sharing app for private sharing between family and friends. (Free, iTunes)

Mixcloud: Now on iPhone, this on-demand radio platform provides streaming podcasts, DJ mixes and radio shows. (Free, iTunes)

ooVoo Mobile: This video calling platform is now available on iOS, in addition to Android and the desktop. Supports up to 6 parties at once. (Free, iTunes)

Songkick: This new app for iPhone lets you track 100,000 concerts and your favorite bands. (Free, iTunes)

iWork: Apple's own Keynote, Numbers and Pages have now come to the iPhone. ($9.99 each, iTunes)

Next Page: Android Apps

New Apps for Android

Netflix: At last, on Android! Need we say more? Select phones only, but more are coming soon. (Free, Android Market)

Google Music: One of the biggest new launches on Android is Google's own Google Music app. This player app lets you access your MP3's stored in the "cloud" right on your Android phone. (Free, Android Market)

Goodreads: The social book discovery and sharing site Goodreads is now available as an Android application with access to almost all core features available on the desktop version. (Free, Android Market)

SPB Shell 3D: A new homescreen replacement/launcher app which is "gorgeous," "smooth" and "incredible," according to gadget review blogs. Works better on high-end handsets. Pricey, but cool. ($14.95, Android Market)

Regina 3D Launcher: Another new homescreen replacement/launcher app which works well on modern, powerful devices, offering 3D graphics, effects and new widgets. (Free, Android Market)

White House: The official White House application is now available for Android, in addition to iPhone. (Free, Android Market)

Hacker's Keyboard: For advanced users, this new keyboard is designed for use with SSH and features keys like Tab, Ctrl, Alt, Esc and Arrow Keys. (Free, Android Market)

ShakeCall: This fun Android app lets you answer incoming phone calls by shaking your phone. (Free, Android Market)

Spiceworks: I.T. management SaaS and community app is now available on Android. Our coverage. (Free, Android Market)

Next Page: Bonus Section with Updates & Tablet Apps

Bonus: Awesome Updates!

Wordpress: The popular blogging platform gets a major upgrade with tons of bug fixes and new features like "quick photo" posting, localization, mobile stats and more. Our coverage. (Free, iTunes)

Cardcloud: The app that promises to do away with business cards now integrates with LinkedIn, allowing you to turn your LinkedIn profile into your business card. Our coverage. (Free, iTunes)

Firefox for Android: The latest update brings the "Do Not Track" feature to the Android version of the popular Web browser. (Free, Android Market)

Seesmic: The popular third-party Facebook, Twitter and social networking app added support for Instagram and Salesforce in its most recent update. Our coverage. (Free, iTunes)

SkyGrid: This powerful news app was just updated to version 2.0, allowing you to follow topics you're interested in. (Free, iTunes)

Newsy: With the recent update, this news aggregator helps you keep up with daily news and video from multiple sources. (Free, iTunes)

Bonus: New Tablet Apps!

Photoshop Companion Apps: Adobe launched its trio of Photoshop companion apps for the iPad including Color Lava (a color mixer, swatch & theme creator), Nav (a touch control pad for Photoshop) and Eazel (for paintings). ($2.99, $1.99, $4.99, respectively, iTunes)

Plizy: Like April's ShowYou app, Plizy brings video recommendations from your friends to the iPad, but it also pulls in recommendations from other sources, like Twitter and your own viewing history. (Free, iTunes)

Fanhattan: This new app helps you find movies and TV shows from Netflix, iTunes and Hulu Plus, sort of like a TV Guide for the iPad. (Free, iTunes)

Watchlater: This iPad app lets you save videos via browser bookmarklets for later viewing. ($2.99, iTunes)

Games for Cats: Cat lovers, you have to try this! (and tell me if it works - I'm a dog person). A new trio of apps designed for cats comes to you courtesy of Friskies, the cat food company. (All free, Web - designed for tablets)

Remember the Milk: The popular to-do list application is now available on iPad, offering gesture support, syncing, notes, and other smart features. (Free, iTunes)

Google Earth: An update to the Google Earth for Android app brings satellite imagery and 3D building to Honeycomb tablets. (Free, Android Market)

Decks: A trio of apps for iPad, Decks for Apps, Decks for Movies and Decks for Flickr, these apps let  you discover new content matching your interests. Our coverage. (All free, iTunes)

SnagFilms: Watch free, award-winning documentaries on your iPad. (Free, iTunes)

iSwifter: This iPad app lets you play Flash-based games on the Flash-free iPad. Our coverage. (free 7-day trial, then $4.99/month)

That's all we have so far, let us know which ones we missed!

Although the number of active iTunes App Store applications is currently around 400,000 due to removals and replacements, reaching half a million apps is a milestone Apple, its developers and fans, will want to celebrate. Now they can. Thanks to a combined effort from app search engine Chomp,  app review site 148apps and game publisher Chillingo, a new infographic memorializes this moment, showing the app ecosystem breakdown today, its future growth projections and more.

• It would cost $891,982.24 and over 7 terabytes to get all available applications.
• Approximately 36% of all apps are free and paid apps have an average price of $3.64
• Angry Birds released by Chillingo and developed by Rovio has held the number 1 paid spot more than any other app at 275 days total.

It also includes more practical data, like the average price for a paid app ($3.64), number of iOS developers (85,569) and percentage of free apps (37%).

The infographic is also available to view its own Facebook page.

Click to see larger:

With Opera Mini 6, iPad users have what feels like a "real" Web browser on their tablet computers, thanks to features like the customizable start page which you fill with your own favorite websites, for example.

It also introduces improved tabbed browsing without Safari's 8-page (iPhone) or 9-page (iPad) limit.

In the new Opera Mini 6, you press the "tabs" button at the top of the screen to show your open tabs in a scrollable interface. The tabs lay on top of each other just slightly, allowing you to see enough of the page to identify it, while still conserving space on the smaller screen. To add a new tab, you simply tap the plus (+) button.

So how many tabs can you load? It may depend on the websites you open and how much memory they require, but let's just say this - I got tired of testing this after loading up around 20 or so tabs. I can't imagine needing more than that open at any given time in everyday use, especially on a mobile device. But even if I did, Opera Mini was ready to load more.

The secret to Opera's multi-tabbed experience comes from the way Opera compresses data on the backend. Opera Mini 6 offers up to 90% compression, the company says. This is useful not only when you're on a slower network connection, but it can also help when you're trying to conserve data to avoid paying overage fees for going over your data cap with your mobile operator.

Share to Twitter, Facebook with a Tap (& More)

Social sharing buttons are another new feature in Mini 6, allowing you to quickly and easily share a link on Facebook and Twitter, plus the company's online community at "My Opera" or on vKontakte, a popular Russian social network.

The updated browser also includes a password-saving feature, an alt menu (accessible via long press) for actions like opening links in new tabs, copy and paste, editing a Speed Dial and more. And for Opera desktop users, the browser will sync bookmarks, Speed Dial settings and search engines between your PC and your mobile.

Meanwhile, under the hood, the company promises faster and smoother panning and zooming adjustments, a faster and more fluid experience and faster scrolling.

Like its predecessor, the updated Opera Mini 6 is available as a free download from iTunes here.

Opera made a big deal about getting its mobile browser accepted into the iTunes App Store last year, having assumed that Apple would reject it for competing with iPhone's Safari. But as of today, a search for "browser" in iTunes yields 506 iPad apps and 771 apps for iPhone. While not all of those are actually full Web browsers, of course, many are, and many include the same features Opera touts today, like tabbed browsing or password saving, for instance.

With Mini 6, Opera can no longer count on media hype around Apple's "will they or won't they" app rejection plans, but will instead need to compete on merit. Will Opera Mini 6 deserve a spot on your homescreen? Let us know what you think in the comments.