ooVoo is an iOS and Android release from the company of the same name. It’s available now as a free download from the Apple App Store and Google Play and carries no additional in-app purchases.

ooVoo is a video and text chat system in the same vein as Skype and Google Hangouts. When first opening ooVoo, users will be prompted to sign into or create an account. Account creation can easily be done through social media profiles, though creating a proprietary account can be accomplished just as fast as connecting a social media profile. Once logged in, ooVoo will import contacts from the device and social networks and will easily list any contacts that are also using ooVoo. Users who don’t have friends using ooVoo can easily invite them, and the ones who are connected will show up on a special contact list.

When two users connect on ooVoo, their options are similar to Skype: video, audio, or text. The video and sound quality are good, and are mostly on par with the competition. Getting into a call and connecting with other users is a breeze and users are able to organize chats with up to 12 people simultaneously. It’s a simple system that feels very familiar to Skype and Google Hangouts users. ooVoo’s basic functions doesn’t offer anything that those other services do not, but it does everything just as well, including seamless interaction between mobile and PC users. (more…)

Skyscanner All flights, everywhere! is an iOS release from Skyscanner. It’s available now as a free download from the Apple App Store and carries no additional in-app purchases.

Skyscanner All flights, everywhere! attempts to allow users to easily find the best price for any airline ticket and book it right from their mobile device. When users open the app, they’re greeted with the search window, either as a clean slate, or showing their previous search. It’s a simple menu that simply asks for the starting airport, the destination, the depart and return dates, and how many passengers. This process works identical to flight app competitors, with a couple additions. The first is a list of every available airport, sorted by country. The other option is to display this same list as an interactive map.

Once the information is entered and submitted, Skyscanner continues to work like most other flight-booking websites and apps. Once the list of flights is generated, it’s automatically sorted by price per person. Users can change the sorting by departure time, duration, and arrival time, and they can filter out certain airlines, multi-stop trips, and block out undesirable times. Users who aren’t satisfied with the prices or times can pull up a chart that allows them to quickly change the departure and arrival dates and quickly execute another search. If users need some time to think about their plans, they can press a button to add the search to their favorites list and check it out later.

There’s a bit of customization in Skyscanner that, when combined with its straightforward interface, can make it a somewhat-appealing candidate for booking flights on the go. Users can easily change their currency, save booking information, and put various trips on a watch list so they can book if a good deal pops up. Users who find a deal or have an idea that they want to pass on to someone else have a few sharing options available. Users can post their searches publicly to either Twitter or Facebook, or they can email flight and trip details to anyone. These options are nice to have, despite the social media sharing seeming entirely unnecessary.

While other services allow for booking of hotels and rental cars, often in bundles, Skyscanner relies entirely on flights at this time. Part of that is due to the service booking directly through the airlines, but users who want to plan entire trips will need to book hotels and vehicles separately. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as many users book separately anyways, but those who are into bundling their vacations will need to look elsewhere.

Everything Skyscanner does, it does very well. The issue with the app isn’t that its not good, it’s just not entirely relevant. There are other apps and services that help book flights. In some cases, other services will find lower prices on the same flight, though most are about equal. Skyscanner is in the midst of crowded flight app market, and while it has a very easy-to-use interface to help it stand out from the pack, it gives no compelling reason for anyone to pick it over the competitors.

You can follow Skyscanner’s progress on AppData, our tracking tool for mobile and social apps and developers.

Game developer 5th Planet Games today launched Dawn of the Dragons for Android in North America (and worldwide later this week). The social MMO has come along way for the indie developer who first launched the title on Facebook back in May 2010, and later released for Kongregate and Armor Games.

We first heard about Dawn of Dragons flying its way to mobile for iOS in January, and then the game hit the Apple App Store weeks later in February (review). Chief mobile officer Rob Carroll told us that there’s no differences between the iOS and Android versions, but users can play simultaneously with other players on either platform. As for cross-platform play between the mobile offerings and the web-based versions, 5th Planet Games decided to not let the mobile and web versions talk to each other due to the game being developed in Adobe Air and to allow the mobile version to have its own exclusive content. Carroll also adds the Android port was published in partnership with 5th Planet Games by an unnamed publisher (the studio will announce details about the publisher soon). (more…)

Twitter today announced the launch of Vine, it’s 6-second video sharing app, for Android. Twitter also revealed that Vine (review) has reached 13 million downloads on iOS just five months after the launch of the app.

Twitter says the feature set between the iOS and Android versions is different, but it plans to get the Android version up to par with the iOS soon. Although, the Android version does launch with a zoom functionality that’s not present in the iOS version. Upcoming features for Vine include front-facing camera functionality, search, mentions and hashtags, Facebook sharing, and general bug fixes and performance improvements.

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Sho Masuda: iOS and Android have absolutely dominated the market and have done a fabulous job of building an ecosystem of mobile content. Specific to gaming, smartphones and tablets are now the primary devices for gaming-on-the-go,  Where before players couldn’t see past the traditional console first parties for gaming outside of the living room, we are now seeing mobile studios generating millions in revenue daily.

I do believe the market is cyclical and the audience is always looking for the next best thing so there is definitely room for another competitor to swoop in with something completely unexpected. That said, Apple and Android have been leading the market and will likely continue to lead and innovate how people use their devices. I don’t see them losing that market share anytime soon.

As for Windows Phone, Blackberry, or what may be coming — there is potential for them all. This industry is so young and just at the start of what it can do. To put it numerically — there are one billion smartphone users out there and six billion mobile subscribers worldwide — we have just scratched the surface and there is so much more to come.

Google and Samsung have had an exceptionally strong relationship to date and it is clear that Samsung has built some of the best Android-operated hardware on the market. One thing we are missing when it comes with Android is the one tablet that owns the Android market — the one that can truly go head-to-head with the iPad. That is definitely something we — as gaming developers — are looking forward to.

Hipstamatic Oggl is an iPhone by Hipstamatic, LLC. It’s available now as a free download on the Apple App Store and carries additional in-app purchases.

Hipstamatic Oggl is an image editing and sharing service and social network. When users first open Hipstamatic Oggl, they’re prompted to make an account. Unfortunately, there’s no option to sign in with other social media accounts, so users will be forced to create a proprietary Hipstamatic account, which only takes a minute. Once in, users will be shown a brief overview, then thrown into the wild, expected to learn all of Hipstamatic Oggl’s features with minimal assistance.

Hipstamatic Oggl is filled with a ton of features. Instagram users will feel right at home taking pictures and adding filters, but the depth Hipstamatic Oggl offers in that area is far more impressive than Instagram. When users snap a picture, they can go into their gallery and apply two types of filters. One filter simulates different camera lenses, while the other simulates different film. These two elements can be combined to create beautiful images, but some of the combinations don’t work well, so users will need to spend some time discovering what fits and what does not. (more…)

Monogram is an iOS release from Fara, Inc. It’s available now as a free download from the Apple App Store and carries no additional in-app purchases.

Monogram is a collection of user-created shopping catalogs intended to help users present their unique shopping experience. Monogram features an easy-to-use iOS app, but also requires a web browser to make full use of its functions. Monogram places a focus on fashion and apparel, and currently features more than 300 online stores whose products can be mixed and matched to create catalogs of different themes and styles. Monogram’s ease of use and strong visual presentation makes it attractive for both users and fashion bloggers.

Users who just want to focus on shopping and don’t care about creating their own magazines will feel right at home with the Monogram app. To use the app, Monogram doesn’t require users to create an account or link social media accounts. When the app is first opened, users are immediately introduced to Monogram’s featured posts, a collection of quality entries from users. Every featured post links back to its source magazine, which is where Monogram starts to shine. Magazines are collections of posts created by a group of users. There are two types of magazines: ones that are ran by a group of select users, and ones that are open for public contribution. All magazines are ran by editors, chosen by the magazine’s creator. Editors are there to makes sure the submitted content fits their theme, and from our experience, they seem to be doing well. (more…)

Supercell, the startup darling of the mobile gaming industry, today announced the addition of Kristian Segerstrale to its board of directors. Segrestrale is known for co-founding Playfish and Macrospace (which changed to Glu Mobile after merging with Sorrent).

Segerstrale, a limited partner at venture capital firm Initial Capital, has been associated with Supercell from the start. Initial Capital led the Finnish studio’s first round of funding in 2010. Electronics Arts acquired Playfish in 2009 for more than $300 million, and Segrestrale joined EA as executive vice president of digital until he departed in February. (more…)

AppCurious is an iPhone app from Starkid Inc. It’s available now for free on the App Store and carries no additional in-app purchases.

AppCurious is a new social networking service that aims to help users connect with other users and discover new iPhone apps. When the user first opens AppCurious, they’re prompted to log in through Facebook or create an AppCurious account. After that, they can create a username, and set any visible profile info. Once that’s done, the focus shifts to the most important part of AppCurious — the apps. Users are asked to mark some of the apps they use on their iPhone. Finally, users are asked to follow at least five other users, with a recommendation list generated by celebrities and power users.

Once the info is set, the user’s feed is generated. Using a Twitter-like appearance, AppCurious shows activity from the user and everyone they follow. Whether they add apps to their collection, make comments, or answer questions, everything is shown in order to best connect users with new apps. The feed can be sorted in numerous ways, from recent activity, to recent questions, to listing popular apps and comments. The feed is the main tool for discovering new apps and connecting with others, but it currently suffers from the drawback of little popularity. There aren’t many users currently using AppCurious on a regular basis, meaning that the feed can feel a bit empty at times, even if a user is following numerous people.

The “Explore” option is also a great tool for finding new apps and people to follow. The first part of the explore tab is the AppCurious introduction video, which gives a very brief overview of what the app is trying to do, but doesn’t explain how it works. Below the video, AppCurious lists some of its more popular users and their top apps. Again, there’s not a lot of depth to this feature right now. The featured users consist mostly of celebrities and the AppCurious founders. Most of their showcased apps are popular apps and games that most users will have already used or at least have known of beforehand.

The “ask” function is potentially the most powerful tool for app discovery. When clicking on the ask tab, users are presented with a list of questions made by other users. Most questions are looking for the best app of a certain category, such as “What is the best app for email?” After writing a question, users pick a category and submit it to AppCurious. From there, others can check out the question and answer it by linking to an app’s AppCurious page. Like the rest of AppCurious, the lack of active users will determine how powerful this feature is over the long run.

Overall AppCurious is a social network with a ton of potential. Users who frequently want new apps, or are often looking for specific apps, will find a helpful resource and some helpful people. There’s also potential in AppCurious being used to help developers promote their apps, as the amount of sharing and interaction is high. Like any new social network, there are concerns about the longevity of AppCurious, but if the active userbase continues to grow, it will be a great way to discover new apps.

You can follow AppCurious’ progress on AppData, our tracking tool for mobile and social apps and developers.

Editor’s note: DeNA’s Japanese RPG card battler has been a hit for the mobile-social gaming juggernaut since release. As Inside Mobile Apps previously reported, Blood Brothers’ events feature is wildly successful for the game. In a third guest post from Kevin Oke, lead designer at both Adrian Crook & Associates, a social-mobile game design consultancy, and PlayRank, a second screen startup, he analyzes the successful components of Blood Brothers from an outsider’s perspective. He previously wrote guest posts for Inside Mobile Apps which analyzed Supercell’s Clash of Clans and NimbeBit’s Nimbe Quest.

DeNA Mobage’s Blood Brothers for iOS and Android recently celebrated its one year anniversary, and is continuing to monetize very well, with an ARPU that has grown every month since release. With this milestone in mind, now seems like a good time to take a dive into the game and highlight some of the things this collectible card game (CCG) does well.

Although it’s certainly firmly rooted in the conventions of the CCG genre (“hands-off” battles, card fusion, gacha) Blood Brothers does add its own touches of innovation, as explained below.

PvP

Blood Brothers excels at player vs. player (PvP) on a number of levels, one being surfacing. Good surfacing ensures that players are not only made aware of key AEM (Acquisition, Engagement, Monetization) features and the benefits they stand to gain by using them, but also pushed towards these behaviors via smart timing and offering incentives. This is generally done through contextual dialog boxes and limited time promotions.

As PvP gameplay is traditionally a strong source of retention and monetization, it’s especially important to do surfacing well. Blood Brothers keeps PvP at the forefront of the player’s mind with random PvP battles while the player is progressing through a level. These random battles are effective in several ways:

• Surfacing of PvP gameplay to get the player interested in it and strengthen its ability to help monetize and retain players.
• Increases PvP’s effectiveness as a morale sink (morale being the rechargeable energy resource needed to engage in PvP and raid boss fights).
• Clear, simple goals and incentives (winning streaks reward the player with items) — these suck the player in, extending sessions and draining the player of their morale as they attempt to extend their win streak to hit the next reward.

Although conceptually not unique to Blood Brothers, the inclusion of “all-out attacks” (more effective than regular attacks but three-times more costly in terms of morale) and high level raid bosses that are susceptible to them further help to keep morale a precious resource and make a micro-transaction refill more tempting.

Lastly, compared to the confusing and convoluted user experience (UX) that precludes getting into a PvP match in Rage of Bahamut, there is little such friction in Blood Brothers. Opponent selection filtering options are eliminated in favor of pre-determined choices, and it’s immediately clear to the player what’s at stake with rewards, and how their deck stacks up against their potential opponents. (more…)