Technology market intelligence firm ABI Research provided some fascinating numbers today that show that Apple is still maintaining the lead in the tablet market despite the release of a plethora of Android tablets. According to the ABI Research numbers, iPad users have downloaded three billion apps since the launch of the iPad in April of 2010. The iPad made it to this milestone in just a year and a half, while it took the iPhone two years to reach this point

After a few issues with making sure that the voting poll was actually published (my fault), we finally have a winner in the productivity app category for the TUAW Best of 2011. That winner was Communilator Pro (US$2.99), a global translator app from RantNetwork

Silicon Valley startup CloudOn today released a free iPad app [ App Store ] that aims to bring the functionality of Microsoft Office to the iPad. The iPad app actually serves as an interface for the full cloud-based app on CloudOn's servers, and thus requires an Internet connection to function, but offers what seems to be a remarkably functional implementation of Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, all integrated with file storage and syncing through Dropbox. CloudOn’s WorkSpace allows you to: -Use Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint on your iPad to create or edit documents.

During December and January, The Unofficial Apple Weblog is soliciting your nominations and votes for the best products for Mac, iPhone/iPod touch, and iPad. We'll start with nominations in a category, and then tally your votes for the top-nominated products a few days later. The winner in each category receives the highly-coveted title of TUAW Best of 2011 .

The nominations are in, and the poll is ready to go! The TUAW Best of 2011 awards are all about you -- the readers -- and what you think is the cream of the crop of Apple or third-party products and software. To vote, select one entry from the top nominations made by readers.

The nominations are in, and the poll is ready to go! The TUAW Best of 2011 awards are all about you -- the readers -- and what you think is the cream of the crop of Apple or third-party products and software.

Each year, iOS developers scramble to position themselves well ahead of the iTunes Connect shutdown/freeze in order to benefit from any boost in sales from the holidays.

Trumpeting in its headline that " iPhone is for games, Android is for apps ," Xyologic has managed to pull a singular feat: it's undermined 5/8 of its own name with the analysis that follows.

Trumpeting in its headline that " iPhone is for games, Android is for apps ," Xyologic has managed to pull a singular feat: it's undermined 5/8 of its own name with the analysis that follows. Xyologic compares the entire US Android Market against just the free iPhone offerings in the App Store, which is the first warning that its data and analysis is going to be skewed. Comparing the top 150 downloads between these weirdly disparate markets yields the following results: Entire Android Market: 85 of top 150 downloads are apps, with 91.5 million downloads 65 of top 150 downloads are games, with 33.4 million downloads Free iPhone Apps: 50 of top 150 downloads are apps, with 25.6 million downloads 100 of top 150 downloads are games, with 71.6 million downloads If you didn't know any better, you could easily look at the numbers Xyologic came up with and reach the same conclusion they do: Android users certainly appear to be downloading more apps than games compared to iPhone users.

During December and January, The Unofficial Apple Weblog is soliciting your nominations and votes for the best products for Mac, iPhone/iPod touch, and iPad. We'll start with nominations in a category, and then tally your votes for the top-nominated products a few days later. The winner in each category receives the highly-coveted title of TUAW Best of 2011