A FarmVille-like game that uses ultra-cute Smurf characters has become the highest grossing game in the Apple App Store, but controversy has arisen over its in-game app charges. Smurfs’ Village is free to download, with the developer making its money from in-store purchases. The app has earned four stars in the App Store, with the …

Google’s Android mobile OS will dominate smart phones like Windows dominated the PC world, leaving the iPhone for dust. A bold statement for anyone to make, but all the more surprising when you learn it came from Steve Wozniak, the co-founder of Apple. Android is suffering the same problems Windows had in its early days, including consistency and user satisfaction, …

As we draw closer to the release of Gingerbread and the rumored enhancements, Google is currently working to make adjustments to the Android Market. Improvements started last week with the addition of a “Recent changes” feature for applications. Essentially a dedicated change log for apps and games, it provides users with the details that go into each release of an …

Editors’ note: This is a guest column. See Larry Downes’ bio below. As lawmakers gear up for the post-election Congress that convenes in January, the multiyear debate over new laws to keep ISPs from blocking Web sites or managing traffic in anticompetitive ways–the so-called Net neutrality rules–is heating up again. The result can be safely predicted: more wasted energy and …

Google has announced that it’s rolling out a Docs editor for certain versions of Android and Apple’s iOS. In the past, you could only access and view Docs files on a smart phone, as opposed to editing and sharing them, as you would on a laptop.  The editor means you’ll be able to open up and play with your Google …

NEW YORK–If you’ve ever been frustrated using a voice activated customer agent or have scratched your head while reading an unintelligible voice-to-text message, AT&T says help is on the way. The company, which has invested more than one million research hours over the past 20 years in speech and language recognition technology, says that it’s developed technologies that will not …

Back in April, Yahoo Mobile announced a unique approach to searching for nearby restaurants with the Sketch-A-Search app for iOS. The concept of the app couldn’t be more simple: pull up a map of the area that you’re currently in, and then sketch a circle (or any approximation of a shape) around the neighborhoods or blocks of streets where you’d …

The Ovi Store is now seeing 3 million downloads each day. Nokia Nokia’s Ovi Store has officially hit 3 million downloads per day. The Finnish mobile phone maker attributed the new milestone to higher global demand for its apps and new smartphones sporting the more user-friendly Symbian 3 operating system. In late September, Nokia began shipping its N8 smartphone, its …

There’s no shortage of AT&T quick messaging phones, but relatively few of them boast touch screens. The compact (almost too compact) Samsung Solstice II has a 3-inch touch-screen display, just like its predecessor, the Samsung Solstice. While it does get some touch-ups, the Solstice II adds very little and even does away with a small feature. Be sure to read …

Android fragmentation kills birds, dual cores everywhere, and use your phone as a time machine, all that and more on this week’s edition of Android Atlas Weekly. Join Justin Eckhouse along side guest host, Senior Editor Kent German! Now playing: Watch this: Ep. 25: Android fragmentation kills birds 38:43 Podcast Your browser does not support the audio element. Subscribe: iTunes (MP3) …

Time Warner Cable will soon test a less expensive cable TV package called “TV Essentials” as the company tries to cater to lower income consumers. Time Warner Chief Marketing Officer Sam Howe provided details of the new low-end video offering for the first time at the SNL Kagan Cable MSO Summit in New York on Thursday. The new package will …

A couple weeks ago, I showed you a sneak preview of one of the most surprising iPhone games ever, Star Wars Arcade: Falcon Gunner, which combines seemingly traditional space combat with augmented reality (AR) for a decidedly unique “Star Wars” experience. As I said then, “It’s like the PC classic ‘TIE Fighter’ mixed with the ingenious UFO on Tape mixed …

Over the past two weeks iPhone and iPad users alike have been waiting for the promised iOS 4.2 update. After a false alarm last Friday, Apple pushed out Gold Master developer versions of the update today and Wednesday. So as we wait for the real deal–which could come as early as tomorrow–we downloaded the Gold Master to give the update …

Apple Apple has just released a new version of the highly anticipated iOS 4.2 update for developers, iOS 4.2.1 Gold Master. Though the first Gold Master of iOS 4.2 was released weeks ago, Apple has yet to initiate a public release. This version of iOS has build number 8C134 and instructions from Apple for developers to retest their iOS 4.2 …

As word spread that Samsung was beginning to deploy Android 2.2 to its Galaxy S handsets, users began wondering when their particular handsets would see the update. In the United States we’ve seen only leaked builds for Sprint and T-Mobile’s models so far, but Canada is a different story. Samsung Mobile Canada took to its Facebook page earlier today to …