Mobile shopping app and website use rose on Black Friday last week, with more than 21 percent of smartphone users comparing prices on apps and 40 percent on websites, according to a blog post today from NPD.

The top app used by consumers was Amazon at nearly 10 percent, with 10 percent from Android users and 12 percent from iPhone users. eBay was the second most used app, with seven percent of users browsing through the online auction and shopping company’s app.

Mobile web was even stronger than native app usage, with 39.5 percent of Android users accessing shopping sites. Amazon was the leading mobile web destination for users, with 13 percent. Big-box stores including Walmart and Best Buy faired well, with mobile web usage of 6.3 percent and 2.5 percent respectively.

Men were more likely to use native apps on both Android and iPhone devices, while women were more likely to use mobile web at 45 percent versus 33 percent of men. Overall, the iPhone was used more as a shopping tool compared to Android at 28 percent against Android’s 21 percent.

Throughout the day on Black Friday, midnight to 4 a.m. saw the least amount of shopping activity, but activity spiked soon after and continued to rise throughout the day.

According to our traffic tracking service AppData, Amazon Mobile cracked into the top 25 in the top free apps category on iOS last Saturday and reached the No. 32 spot today in the top free apps category for Android.

Amazon Game Studios today launched Air Patriots, the developer’s first mobile title for Kindle, Android and iOS.

Air Patriots is a tower defense game where players use planes to fend off an invasion of tanks. Users draw the paths for planes to follow and attack hostile units, changing their patterns to meet different waves of enemies. This sounds like it’s similar to the flight path mechanics used in Harebrained Schemes’ recent defense title Strikefleet Omega. The game’s graphics are also designed to take advantage of HD displays on mobile devices.

This is Amazon Game Studios’ second title, following the social game Living Classics (which launched in August). Since Living Classics came out on Facebook, the game has yet to really take off on the social network, as our AppData traffic-tracking service shows the game is currently at 10,000 daily active users and 140,000 monthly active users.

Air Patriots is free to download on the Amazon Appstore for Android, Google Play and the Apple App Store.

OMGPOP costs Zynga $85 to $90 million — Zynga may have overpaid for Draw Something developer OMG. The company revealed yesterday it will write down between $85 to $90 million of its initial $180 million purchase price. As The Next Web points out, that’s almost $500,000 a day in losses since Zynga announced the acquisition on March 21.

More Windows 8 devices arriving soon — With the imminent release of the Windows 8 OS, more details are emerging about mobile devices running the OS. According to AT&T, Nokia’s Windows 8-based Lumia 920 and 820 will be available in November. Microsoft has also begun inviting the press to an Oct. 26 midnight launch party for its Surface line of tablets.

Treater debuts mobile apps — Gift giving service Treater has made the jump to mobile with native iOS and Android apps. The service allows its users to instantly send real-life gifts such as spa visits or even a round of drinks at a bar. Gifts bought through the service are delivered as virtual gift cards through email, SMS or Facebook posts.

Appcelerator launches Innovation Fund — Mobile app development platform provider Appcelerator has created the Appcelerator Innovation Fund to help startups building apps on its platform, reports TechCrunch.

Amazon Appstore opens doors to Japan – The Amazon Appstore is now allowing developers to submit their apps for distribution in Japan when the service launches in that country later this year.

Pocket Change integrates with GameMaker: Studio – Universal loyalty currency provider Pocket Change has partnered with YoYo Games to have its product directly integrated into YoYo’s GameMaker: Studio.

We Heart Pics wins Facebook hack award – Mobile photo sharing app We Heart Pic was named a winner at the Oct. 1 Facebook developers hack in Moscow. The app received first prize in the Best Mobile Application category. The company plans to integrate the new functionality it created at the hack into its app soon.

Kiip coming to Passbook — Real-life rewards network Kiip will soon be integrated directly into iOS 6’ Passbook. Consumers will be able to redeem coupons for Kiip rewards directly from notifications, emails and Kiip’s app.

[RUMOR] iPad mini in production — Apple has already started production on a 7.85 inch “iPad Mini”, according to the Wall Street Journal.

[Funding] Contacts+ raises $1 million seed round — Contact aggregator Contacts+ has raised $1 million in seed funding, reports TechCrunch. The funding comes from TriplePoint Ventures, Tencent, TMT Ventures and others.

DeNA, Gloops partner for international expansion — DeNA has entered into a comprehensive business alliance with Japanese mobile-social game developer Gloops that will see 10 Gloops games land on the Mobage network, five in 2012 and five in 2013. Unlike previous games Gloops has made for Mobage, all 10 titles will be targeted for North American and European markets. One of the titles will be based on what DeNA refers to as a “popular American franchise.”

15 percent of iOS devices upgraded to iOS 6 after 24 hours — Map woes aside, iOS device owners appear to be enthusiastic about iOS 6. Mobile cross-promotion network Chartboost reports 15 percent of all iOS devices were running the operating system within 24 hours of its launch.

HTC unveils two Windows 8 handsets — HTC has revealed what its two Widows 8-based handsets, the 8X and the 8S will look like. The midrange targeted 8S comes in four colours and features a 4” touch screen, 5 megapixel camera, 720p video recording, 4GB of storage, 512 MB of RAM and a Qualcomm S4 1GHz dual core processor. HTC’s flagship 8X phone is also comes in four colors, but has a 4.3” touch screen, a Qualcomm S4 1.5GHz dual core processor, 1 GB of RAM, an 8 megapixel camera capable of recording 1080p video, a 2.1 megapixel front-facing camera and 16GB of storage.

Pocket adds text-to-speech Listen feature – Content curation app Pocket now supports text-to-speech through its new Listen feature. Currently only available to Android users, the new feature allows users to have the app reach saved articles to them out loud.

Horn drops to $2.99 — Phosphor Games’ critically acclaimed title Horn is on sale for $2.99 until Sept. 27. The game is also now localized into 11 languages.

Thumb hits 1.2 million users – Social opinion sharing app Thumb now boasts 1.2 million members. According to the company, the average user now spends more than five hours a month using hte service.

Amazon releases its own Maps API — Amazon’s Maps API is now available for interested developers. Currently in beta, the Maps API is designed for developers who are currently using Google’s native Android Maps API, and allows for interactive maps with custom overlays.

Apple shares rise on iPhone 5 — The fast selling iPhone 5 has pushed Apple’s share price above $700 for the first time. At the time of writing, Apple shares were selling for $698.70 in after hours trading.

[Acquisition] Shutterfly grabs up mobile print app developer Penguin Digital — New York-based Shutterfly has acquired Penguin Digital, the developer behind iPhone photo printing app MoPho. MoPho’s technology will be rolled into Shutterfly’s own printing apps, according to TechCrunch.

[Launch] Hotel Transylvania app hits iOS – Playfirst’s latest game, Hotel Transylvania Dash, a licensed game based on the Sony Picture’s animated movie Hotel Transylvania, is now available in the iTunes App Store.

[Launch] The Bard’s Tale hits Android – inXile has brought its classic humorous RPG The Bard’s Tale to Android. The game is available in Google Play, the Amazon Appstore and third-party app store TegraZone for $5.95.

[Launch] Ricky Gervais gets into app market with JustSayin’ – Popular comedian and Office-creator Ricky Gervais is lending his star power to social conversation app JustSayin’. The app allows users to record conversations and post them to their social media profile to enable voice-based communication. The app is available on iOS.

[Funding] Square closes $200 million fourth round — Mobile payments processor square is now valued at an estimated $3.5 billion after closing an enormous $200 million Series D round of funding. Citi Ventures, Rizvi Traverse Management and payments partner Starbucks all participated in the round.

[Funding] Scopely raises $8.5 million in venture funding – LA-based mobile social gaming company has raised an impressive $8.5 million in venture round funding from Anthem Venture Partners, The Chernin Group, Greycroft partners and others reports VentureBeat.

[Funding] GENWI gets $2 million for mobile publishing push – GENWI, the startup aimed at working directly with publishers to create mobile apps, has raised $2 million in additional funding from Floodgate and Elevation Partners.

Amazon is giving developers a new way to get noticed in the Amazon Appstore — large format features the company is calling Billboards.

As detailed today on the Amazon developers blog, Billboards are essentially Amazon’s version of the prominent app features Google and Apple use in their own apps stores to  promote apps they find to be particularly interesting or noteworthy. Just like the app features already employed in Google Play and the iTunes App Store, clicking on an Amazon Appstore Billboard will take a user directly to an app’s listing page

Although the impact of receiving such a prominent featured position in an app store varies depending on the store, the type of app being featured, and whether or not the app in question is free or paid, the endorsement almost always results in a significant spike in downloads. In January fitness app RunKeeper saw its downloads boosted by an eye-popping 673 percent after receiving a Billboard-style feature in Google Play.

Much like the app features in Google Play and the iTunes App Store, Amazon itself will select which apps will receive a Billboard feature, but developers can apply for consideration by submitting a 1024 x 500 Billboard-ready image through Amazon’s mobile app distribution portal.

Seattle-based Amazon is the undisputed leader in online retail. Now the web-based marketplace is challenging retail competitors with a mobile app that allows consumers to compare prices while standing in brick-and-mortar stores.

Price Check by Amazon is, as the name implies, an app that allows consumers to compare prices with Amazon.com and its merchants. The app features four methods for checking prices using a one-button interface for each method. The first method is typing the name of the product. The second is scanning the barcode of a product using a smartphone’s built-in camera. An image-centering feature helps users accurately scan barcodes, but we found the process to be a bit difficult. Users can also take a picture of an item directly as a third price-check method, but the function seems limited mainly to books, DVDs, CDs and video games. Lastly, a user can generate a search query for an item in the app using their phone’s voice-recognition feature. From there, a customer can log into their Amazon account to complete the purchase if they want the price of the product on Amazon.

Aside from prices, the app also provides product descriptions and customer reviews. Every product a user looks up has a “Submit Price” button, so if the price in a store is cheaper than Amazon, the user can share the in-store prices with Amazon. Users can also share product prices via Twitter, Facebook, text message or email.

Price Check doesn’t display ads, nor monetize through any other means besides goods purchasing.

Interestingly, Price Check’s main competitor is Amazon Mobile — which displays much of the exact same information, such as customer reviews. Features that are exclusive to Price Check are the voice functionality and price submission button. The voice functionality doesn’t seem like that much of a distinction, given that Amazon mobile users could just click on the search field and activate their smartphone’s voice recognition feature for the same effect.

According to our AppData metrics tracking service, Price Check is currently ranked 62 (top chart) under the lifestyle genre in the Apple App Store and sits at the 23 (bottom chart) spot in the shopping category and 498 for overall applications in Google Play.

Amazon Mobile ranks No. 60 (top chart) for the top free apps category in the App Store and slightly higher in Google Play ranking 54 (bottom chart) among top free apps. Google Play is reporting 500,000 to one million installs for Price Check by Amazon and five million to 10 million for Amazon Mobile.

Even if there’s not much to set Price Check apart from Amazon Mobile, we found the app to be a simple, useful tool for making cost-effective purchasing decision. We have reached out to Amazon to find out if there are plans to introduce new features to Price Check that would better differentiate it from Amazon Mobile, but haven’t heard back as of press time.

Price Check by Amazon is available for free on both iOS and Android, respectively. You can follow the app’s progress with AppData, our tracking service for mobile and social apps and developers.

Apple helps devs complain about app copycats — Apple now gives developers the chance to report copyright infringing apps and content reports The Next Web. The revamped forms read in part:

If you believe that an application available in the App Store violates your intellectual property rights, you can use this form to submit a claim to the App Store Legal Team.

Apps on the App Store are made available by third party providers. Once you have identified the app and described the alleged infringement on the following pages, we will respond via email with a reference number and will put you in direct contact with the provider of the disputed app. 

Malware explodes, Android targeted the most — Security firm McAfee’s second quarter Threat Report has found 1.5 million pieces of new malware. On the mobile front, botnets and ransomware were the fastest growing category of malware. McAfee’s report was also bad news for Android owners — the firm found almost all the new mobile malware it detected during Q2 was targeted to Android devices.

Flurry expands mobile video ads to Android — Mobile analytics/advertising company Flurry has brought its mobile video ad service AppCircle Clips to Android, reports TechCrunch.

7 million Lumia phones sold — Nokia has sold 7 million Lumia model Windows smartphones, according to a tweet from VisionMobile founder Andreas Constantinou.

Rovio announces Bad Piggies – As heavily teased by the Finnish company, the green pigs from Angry Birds will soon have their own game. Bad Piggies will be available on iOS and Android. According to Fast Company’s exclusive preview, the game will be a physics puzzler.

Big Fish streaming service comes to Android tablets — Big Fish Games’ Unlimited Streaming service has made the jump to mobile, and is now available on Android. The service has been optimized for the Nexus 7, but doesn’t currently work on Android phones.

MoMinis brings PlayScape to entire game lineup — Israel’s MoMinis announced this week its PlayScape mobile social network and shared virtual currency will be available in all its titles. The service is available via Google Play.

Devs throw weight behind Kindle Fire HD – It may not be available yet, but developers are already announcing support for the Amazon’s new 8.9” Kindle Fire HD tablet. Gameloft has announced it will optimize The Oregon Trail: American Settler, Asphalt 7: Heat, Fashion Iconand Ice Age Village for the device with new features. Crytek’s physics Puzzler Fibble – Flick ‘n’ Roll will also land on the device with two new areas.

SocialCam’s API opens up — Third party developers can now create apps that use video creation and sharing app Socialcam’s API through its new developer program.

GREE signs 6 game deal with Capcom – GREE has signed a deal with Capcom that will see six mobile social games released on the GREE network by the end of the year reports Dr. Serkan Toto. Three of the titles, based on Dead Rising, Resident Evil and Monster Hunter, will be available on GREE’s global platform.

[Launch] Skylanders touches down on Kindle Fire – Activision has brought its lucrative children’s game Skylanders Cloud Patrol to Android via the Kindle Fire. Players will be able to purchase physical Skylanders toys from within the app. The game will cost $0.99.

[Launch] Zillow debuts iOS rentals app — Real estate listings company Zillow is expanding its mobile presence again, bringing its rental listings app to iOS. The app made its debut on Android earlier this year.

[Launch] Bubble Shot hits iOS – Independent Brighton-based developer Fat Fish Games has released its arcade bubble shooter Bubble Shot into the iOS app store.

[Funding] Ooomf nets $500,000 for app discovery platform — Montreal-based Ooomf has raised $500,000 from Real Ventures and BDC Venture Capital for its user-centric app discovery platform, reports TechCrunch.

[Funding] Snappli snaps up $1 million in funding – Mobile data compression service Snappli has raised $1 million in funding from VC firms Greylock Partners, Index Ventures and Angel Investors Simon Murdoch, Klaus Hommels and Alex Zubillaga.

As widely anticipated, Amazon has refreshed its popular Kindle Fire tablet, revealing a revamped 7 inch model and a new, more powerful 8.9 inch HD model.

Unveiled today at Amazon’s Los Angeles press event, the updated Kindle Fire keeps the original’s 7 inch display and boasts a new, faster processor which will boost performance by 40 percent according to Amazon, twice the RAM of the original model and a longer battery life. The new Kindle Fire will retail for $159 when it ships on September 14, strategically undercutting the price of Google’s fast-selling Nexus 7 Android tablet, which costs $199 for the 8 GB model.

Amazon’s new Kindle Fire HD is 8.9 inches with a 1920 x 1200 display. Physically, the new tablet is 8.8 mm thick and weighs in at 20 ounces. The processor is a TI OMAP 4470, which Amazon claims can process 50 percent more operations per second than the standard Kindle’s Tegra 3 chip. Amazon has also added stereo speakers and dual band Wi-Fi antennas. The Kindle Fire HD only comes in a 16 GB model. It will cost $299 and a 4G LTE model will also be available for $499. Data plans will cost $49.99 per year and will cap at 250MB of data per month. The Kindle Fire HD will ship on November 20.

PayPal partners with Discover — Consumers will soon be able to use PayPal for physical transactions at more than 7 million new U.S. locations reports AllThingsD. According to a new deal signed with Discover, starting in April 2013 merchants that accept Discover payments will allow customers to pay with their PayPal charge cards, or by entering their phone number and PayPal pin number.

GREE signs up four new developers — SkyVu Entertainment, InfiniDy, Oceanside Interactive and Gamenauts are the latest developers to sign up for GREE’s new global mobile-social gaming platform.

Sony restructures mobile business — Sony has announced it will move the headquarters of its mobile phone business from Sweden to Japan. As part of the move, Sony will lay off more than 1000 division staff over the next two years. Sony’s mobile division makes Android powered smartphones.

Braintree acquires Venmo — Social payment app Venmo has been acquired by mobile and online payment solution provider Braintree for $26.2 million in cash and stock, according to the company’s Crunchbase profile.

Amazon calls for promotional app artwork – Amazon has called on its mobile development community to send in promotional artwork for their apps. According to an Amazon email, promotional images must be 1024 x 500 pixels, and will be used in featured placements.

GREE moves into merchandising – GREE has announced it is setting up a subsidiary to handle merchandising. According to Dr. Serktan Toto, the new company will be called GREE Entertainment Products, and will produce physical goods based on its mobile-social games.

Square Enix ports The World Ends with You – Square Enix is bringing its 2008 Nintendo DS role-playing game The World Ends with You to iOS. The company’s teaser countdown references the Japanese version of the game, but it is likely the game will come to iOS in English as well.

Chinese smartphone user distribution revealed — Chinese company Umeng has released a series of maps that outline Android and iOS smartphone penetration in China, reports Tech in Asia, which has the english translation of the data. According to Umeng, Android  and iOS devices are most popular in the coastal province of Guangdong, accounting for 16.5 and 12.5 of the country’s total share.

DeNA signs up Axel Mark — DeNA has signed a deal with Tokyo-based social game developer Axel Mark to bring the company’s games to North America via DeNA’s Mobage platform, reports Dr. Serktan Toto.

[Launch] Nukotoys releases mobile app powered trading cards — California-based Nukotoys has announced it is releasing two lines of collectible cards that are designed to be used in conjunction with a smartphone app. When used with the accompanying free app, the cards “come to life” as 3D in-game creatures.

[Launch] Gameloft touches down with Cosmic Colony – Gameloft’s latest casual free-to-play title Cosmic Colony has been released for iOS and Android. The game combines citybuilding with exploration.

[Launch] Fantasica debuts on Mobage — Silicon Studio has released an English version of its game Fantasica on iOS and Android through DeNA’s Mobage platform. The game, which features illustrations from Final Fantasy staffer Hideo Minaba is a hybrid role-playing game/tower defense/card-battle game.

[Launch] Dragon Collection comes to Canadian app store – Konami’s top grossing Japanese hit Dragon’s Collection is heading to North America, and is already live on the Canadian App Store. As industry watcher Dr. Serkan Toto notes, the card-battle game is the top-grossing third party game on GREE’s platform.

[Funding] Revel Touch nabs $10 million — Merchandising software creator Revel Touch has landed $10 million in funding from Foundation Capital and Lightspeed Ventures reports TechCrunch. The company’s software is designed to help retailers create better mobile shopping apps

[Funding] Discovery Bay Games raises $15 million – iOS accessory maker Discovery Bay has raised a $15 million Series B round of funding. The round was lead by Trilogy Equity Partners and Logitech, and will be used to further fund the company’s line of physical accessories for iOS devices.

TV Guide launches iOS app — The long running publication launched an iOS app which allows users to create a watch list of their favorite shows and find links to streaming services like ABC, HBO Go, Crackle and more.

Taptica releases cross promotion platform Appear Exchange — User acquisition based mobile network Taptica today announced the release of Appear Exchange, a free mobile based  platform which allows developers to cross-promote other iOS and Android apps on their available and currently unused ad space.

Nexon’s Cloudstone updated with more content, available on Kongregate — Nexon’s point-and-click action role-playing game Cloudstone has been updated with a large new map to explore, a level cap raised to 40 and a new PvP season. Players can now also play Cloudstone on the free online games portal, Kongregate.

Google Play gift cards are coming — Google continues to improve the monetization options on Android with gift cards on the way. Android Central reports the latest version of the Play store APK includes references to redeeming gift codes, although they are not currently active.

iPhone 5 anticipation depresses sales of all mobile phones — Gartner Research is reporting that anticipation for the upcoming iPhone 5 is so high, worldwide cellphone sales have declined 2.3 percent year-over-year as consumers hold off on planned purchases and upgrades.

Nokia and Zynga team for feature phone gaming — Draw Something and Zynga Poker are coming to Nokia’s Asha Touch line of phones, according to a Nokia blog post. The games will be free-to-play.

Trulia’s mobile visitors grow 176 percent year-over-year — Real estate search service Trulia has revealed it now receives an average of 4.3 million mobile visits a month, up 176 percent year-over-year, according to its S-1 filing.

DeNA begins disclosing gacha odds — The fallout from the kompu gacha ban continues. As part of the new regulations mobile-social game operators will have to disclose the odds of winning items through randomized gacha draws. As Japanese industry watcher Dr. Serkan Toto reports, DeNA has already begun disclosing these odds.

Android adds 13 new languages to Voice Search – Android users can now use their device’s Voice Search functionality in 13 new languages, Google announced this week. Voice search is now available in: Basque, Bulgarian, Catalan, European Portuguese, Finnish, Galician, Hungarian, Icelandic, Norwegian, Romania, Serbian, Slovak and Swedish, for 42 languages in total.

Gameloft teams with Playmobil — Gameloft signed an exclusive partnership deal with children’s toy manufacturer Playmobile to create a mobile game based on Playmobil’s Pirates line of toys. The free game, which will be called Playmobil Pirates, will be available on iOS and Android by the end of the year.

Trademob opens U.S. office — German mobile ad purchasing platform Trademob has announced it will open a U.S. office in New York. The company aggregates mobile advertisement buying for its customers, allowing them to purchase and compare ads from many different networks.

DeNA adds Twitter messaging to Mobage games – DeNA now allows its Japanese Mobage players to connect their Twitter accounts to its smartphone games. Players can log in through twitter, find their friends though the service and send one another Twitter DMs while plays Mobage games.

GREE announces two new Moshi Monsters games – GREE has announced that as part of its deal with Mind Candy, two new Moshi Monsters games will be coming to its network of games. Moshi Monsters Village and Moshi Monsters: Lost Islands are both due for release in the fall.

Olympic downloads for official app — Neowiz Internet’s official London 2012 Olympics mobile game has been downloaded over five million times since it was released on iOS and Android.

Instagram 3.0 introduces map – The most recent update to the photo sharing app allows users to have all photos tagged with a location appear in a map view.

[Rumor] Amazon to produce 10” Kindle Fire DX — The Digital Reader reports that a new,  10 inch Kindle Fire device has likely obtained FCC approval after being submitted by shell company called Harpers LLC. As the Digital Reader reports, it’s a tactic Amazon has used many times before, in order to keep its upcoming hardware plans a secret.

[Launch] GREE releases Monpla Smash — GREE’s latest english language game is Monpla Smash, a monster-battle game that features more than 100 different monsters to collect. The game is available on iOS now.

[Launch] Airport City lands on iPhone — Game Insight’s top-grossing strategy game Airport City is now available on the iPhone. It was previously available on Android devices and iPads.

[Launch] Outfit7 goes educational with Talking Ginger – Talking Friends developer Outfit7’s latest mobile app is Talking Ginger, an edutainment app designed help young children learn basic skills.

[Funding] Windows Phone voice assistant Ziggy picks up $5 million in funding — Ask Ziggy, a voice-powered virtual assistant similar to Siri for Windows Phone has picked up $5 million in funding from an undisclosed company. Ask Ziggy is using the money to bring its technology to Android and iOS, according to TechCrunch.