This week’s headlines from across Inside Network
A roundup of all the news Inside Network brought you between September 24 and 29.
Inside Mobile Apps
Tracking the convergence of mobile apps, social platforms and virtual goods.
Monday, Sept. 24
- Real-time opinions with Thumb
- Transit direction apps get boost after Apple Maps release
- EA closes PopCap studio in Dublin
- Fluid Football brings line-drawing gameplay to the soccer pitch
- iPhone 5 sells record 5 million units, but fails to ignite the same app marketing frenzy of the 4S
- Podcasts, Target, Bubble Shooter and more on this week’s top free mobile apps
Tuesday, Sept. 25
- Physics-based bird-busting in Chicken Raid Begins
- Appcelerator: developers disappointed with HTML5, Facebook’s mobile strategy
- iTranslate Voice, Rayman Jungle Run, The Room and more on this week’s top paid app charts
- Scan and organize your documents with ABBYY FineScanner
- Chitika: Most smartphone and tablet owners use default browsers, iOS users more likely to download alternatives
Wednesday, Sept. 26
- Android reaches 25 billion app downloads, 675,000 total apps available
- Murder Room gives players a horror-themed room escape challenge
- Being free is no defense: Arxan finds 40% of free iOS, 80% of free Android apps have been hacked
- Tracking growth: the iTunes app store vs Google Play
- The Inside Network Job Board: Changyou.com, Mintflow Games, and SponsorPay
- New hires in mobile apps: Gameloft, GSN, Red Robot Labs and more
- FIFA 13, Hay Day, Tiny Monsters and more on this week’s top grossing apps charts
- G Cloud Backup gives Android users peace of mind for free
Thursday, Sept. 27
- Fiksu: anticipation for iPhone 5 depressed downloads, user acquisition costs in August
- Madefire brings motion comics to iPhone and iPod touch
- Bad Piggies hits No. 1 in more than 37 countries — impressive, but not as good Angry Birds Space or Amazing Alex
- Square Enix jumps aboard the card-battling bandwagon with Guardian Cross
- Instagram tops Twitter in U.S. mobile engagement, ComScore finds
- More than 15M users connect Facebook with iOS 6
Friday, Sept. 28
- Rovio returns with Bad Piggies
- Apple CEO Tim Cook apologizes for iOS 6 Maps
- Following Rovio’s footsteps, Pixowl raises $1.2 million to expand on its cartoony-cute Grub series
- Line-art yourself with Manga-Camera
- Chartboost: Canada and Australia most expensive countries for user acquisition, Japan and South Korea much cheaper
- Mobile app news roundup: Chartboost, Red Robot Labs and the Tokyo Game Show
Saturday, Sept. 29
Inside Social Games
Covering all the latest developments at the intersection of games and social platforms.
Monday, Sept. 24
- Zynga dominates this week’s list of fastest-growing Facebook games by MAU
- After Zynga, Jeff Karp starts new career with GSN
- Announcing Social Gaming Summit Los Angeles 2012
- Wings of Destiny review
- Nekki launches Shadow Fight’s spiritual successor, Vector
- EA closes PopCap studio in Dublin
- Robert Nashak on the success of Dancing With The Stars: Keep Dancing without Facebook
Tuesday, Sept. 25
- Wedge Buster secures $2.2M in venture funding, launches social and mobile apps
- Hasbro’s Zynga-branded merchandise coming to stores next week
- Court denies 6waves’ petition to dismiss Spry Fox lawsuit
- Warner Bros. forms fellowship with Kabam for Hobbit games
- War Commander re-review
Wednesday, Sept. 26
- Bubble Pirate Quest on top of this week’s list of fastest-growing Facebook games by DAU
- Electronic Arts acquires ESN
- The Inside Network Job Board: Changyou.com, Mintflow Games, and SponsorPay
- Vector review
- New hires in social games: Zynga, SGN and more
Thursday, Sept. 27
- Dancing with the Stars: Keep Dancing review
- Candy Crush Saga and ChefVille this week’s gainer and loser among the Top 25 games of September 2012
- Aaron Loeb on Jetset Secrets’ storytelling: Treat it like a TV series and stay connected with your users
Friday, Sept. 28
- High 5 Casino and foreign language games win big on this week’s list of emerging Facebook games
- Doctor Who: Worlds in Time review
- Social games news roundup: PopCap wants to stop “Zombie Mouth”, Zynga’s gaming with celebrities and Grumpy Goats gets it snack on
Saturday, Sept. 29
Inside Facebook
Tracking Facebook and the Facebook platform for developers and marketers.
Monday, Sept. 24
- Facebook partnership with Datalogix helps measure offline impact of online ads
- Zynga games, War Commander, Causes, Chase Community Giving and more on this week’s top 20 growing Facebook apps
Tuesday, Sept. 25
- Facebook updates developer SDK with support for iOS 6, more native UI controls
- Facebook platform industry hires: Adknowledge, GraphEffect, Nanigans, Sociable Labs, TBG Digital and Unified
Wednesday, Sept. 26
- Facebook Groups get Dropbox integration for more flexible file sharing
- Bath & Body Works, Dove, Manetane Beauty and others in this week’s top PTAT gainers among beauty/health pages
- Some page owners see decline in Likes as Facebook eliminates false accounts
Thursday, Sept. 27
- Instagram tops Twitter in U.S. mobile engagement, ComScore finds
- Facebook launches Facebook Gifts for users to buy friends real gifts through mobile and desktop
- More than 15M users connect Facebook with iOS 6
- Pinterest, Scribd, 9GAG, Spotify, Zynga Game Bar and more on this week’s top 20 growing Facebook apps by DAU
Friday, Sept. 28
- How Facebook on mobile is ‘closer to TV’
- Hug Me, Sonar, Twoo, Obama and more on this week’s emerging Facebook apps
- Facebook hires: gaming account manager, research scientist, risk analyst, Chinese language specialist and more
- Facebook career postings: open source advocacy, data center security, ads risk analysis, sales and more
- Facebook personalizes pages browser, prompts users to Like pages they might be interested in
- Has Facebook cracked f-commerce?
- Facebook round-up: carrier billing, Offerpop, Ustream, voter registration
Saturday, Sept. 29
