WEDNESDAY 1 JANUARY 2014 • [email protected] • www.thepeninsulaqatar.com • 4455 7741 inside Prolific Padukone CAMPUS rises to top of • Expert discusses nuclear power with Qatar Bollywood A-list Academy students P | 4 P | 8-9 COMMUNITY • Filipino musicians to perform at West End Park P | 5 WHEELS • Volkswagen poised to beat GM for China crown P | 7 HEALTH • Mid-life job stress linked to later health problems The 50 best P | 11 TECHNOLOGY • Camera makers face apps of 2013 shakeout as smartphones shatter hopes P | 12 From lifestyle and children’s apps to games, social Learn Arabic networking and the • Learn commonly downright useful, here are used Arabic words the 50 best apps of the year. and their meanings P | 13 2 PLUS | WEDNESDAY 1 JANUARY 2014 COVER STORY Children’s apps were another big trend, with a growing community of developers aiming to educate and entertain children as young as two years old on the tablets owned by their parents. Best of 2013 for iOS and Android By Stuart Dredge apps of the year without an in-app purchase 2013, it got a quirky but brilliant follow-up: 79 videos in sight. for elements in the periodic table, showing the (often Traktor DJ iPhone/ iPad, £2.99/ £13.99 There are he stats around mobile apps remain Also big in 2013: fitness-tracking apps, as explosive) results when they’re used in real-world quite a few DJing apps for smartphones and tablets, startling. There are now more than part of a trend known as “quantification of experiments. It’s got all the right chemistry. and most ape the turntables used by real-world DJs. one million apps apiece in both the self”. Tracking your steps, calories, work- This is different: it turns songs into waveforms to be Apple’s App Store and Android’s outs and even your sleeping patterns became Bob Dylan: The Bootleg Series iPhone/ iPad, free: mixed, scratched and warped at home or at a house Google Play, with tech research increasingly common, with a flurry of existing Bob Dylan’s latest album is a collection of rare bootleg party… Tfirm Gartner estimating that 2013 saw 102 bil- apps tied to external monitors, and some new tracks from his past, and it was accompanied by this lion app downloads across the various stores. ones (like Moves in this roundup) which simply accomplished app. Timelines, biographies of musicians, Xbox One Smartglass iPhone/ iPad/ Android/ It’s big business too: the company reckoned used your smartphone’s sensors. photo galleries and video interviews give the stories Windows Phone, free: You’ll need an Xbox One games that developers would make £15.8bn from behind the songs. console to use this app, but it’s an essential companion their apps this year. if you do. You can use it to control the or browse the 2013 was also a year of strong growth for Lifestyle and Disney Animated iPad, £6.99: If you’ve ever loved web on TV – and a growing number of games will use Android, with Google-powered smartphones entertainment a Disney movie and own an iPad, this is an essential it as a second screen too. flying off the shelves, and tablets starting to purchase, exploring the history of the animations with challenge Apple’s iPad too. That was reflected artwork, a timeline of every movie and even the chance Twitter #Music iPhone, free: Twitter’s music dis- in the larger number of apps available for both Glow iPhone, free: Using what the developers to animate a character yourself from Wreck-It Ralph. covery app hasn’t been hugely popular, but it’s still a iOS and Android, with Microsoft’s Windows describe as a combination of “magic and science”, very good way for music fans to keep tabs on up-and- Phone snagging more of the most popular this fertility prediction app is for couples who are trying Iplayer Radio iPhone/ Android, free: This year, the coming artists and songs, filtered through what people apps for its own store too — albeit often those to conceive. It includes charts, health-tracking features BBC created a standalone app for listening live to its are tweeting about most. that had been out for a year or more on rival and, daily reminders. radio stations, which also streams on-demand shows platforms. and podcasts and helps you add songs to playlists in The biggest app trend of 2013 was the Moves iPhone/ Android, £1.99: Activity-tracking other services including Spotify and YouTube. Games domination of “free-to-play” games: those apps were big in 2013, but often they needed a that are free to download and play, but which pedometer-like gadget. Not Moves: this app uses your Beethoven’s 9th Symphony iPhone/ iPad, free: A Angry Birds Star Wars II iPhone/ iPad/ Android/ make their money from in-app purchases of smartphone’s sensors to track your walking, running real treat for classical music fans, whatever their level Windows Phone, up to 79p: You can tell from both the virtual items or currency. The biggest of the and cycling, while also showing you where you went of knowledge. This app offers four famous recordings Angry Birds Star Wars games that the developers at lot was Candy Crush Saga, although its 2012 during your day. of Beethoven’s Ninth and lets you switch between them Rovio have a genuine love for the Star Wars films. launch means it’s not included in this roundup. while viewing the score, and hear experts talking about This is another round of slinging birds at (evil Empire) It helped to make mobile gaming more main- Helpouts Android, prices vary: This app comes the work and its composer. pigs, with famous characters aplenty – and even some stream than it has ever been, as a glance at from Google: a way to connect to experts in a host of tie-in toys. the touchscreens on any commuter train or categories for one-to-one help on… well, whatever you Bloom.fm iPhone/ Android, free: One of the most bus showed this year. want. From computers to cooking, fashion to fitness, the stylish streaming music apps available on smart- Call Of Duty Strike Team iPhone/ iPad/ Android, Children’s apps were another big trend, twist is that you talk to the experts via live video chat. phones, Bloom.fm streams you radio-style stations up to £4.99: Call of Duty games are big business on with a growing community of developers aim- based on genres and artists. If you want to store tracks consoles, but this year saw a brand new title just for ing to educate and entertain children as young BBC SPORT iPhone/ Android, free: The BBC split on your phone, you can pay £1, £5 or £10 a month for smartphones and tablets. It’s part first-person shooter as two years old on the tablets owned by their its sports coverage off into a standalone app this year, 20, 200 or as many as you like. and part tactical strategy game, as you switch between parents. Communications regulator Ofcom drawing on its online, TV and radio coverage. The shooting and controlling your squaddies. estimated that 42 percent of 5-15-year-olds app offers news stories, stats and tables for a range Google Play Music iPhone/ Android, free/£9.99: and 28 percent of 3-4-year-olds now use a of sports as well as the ability to watch and listen to Google’s music service has many hats. It’ll stream you Clash Of Clans iPhone / iPad / Android, free: Clash tablet at home. events live. “custom” radio stations based on songs, artists and of Clans was one of the most popular mobile games in Parents were spoilt for choice when it came albums, as well as your own music collection if you’ve the world in 2013: a characterful strategy game that to engaging apps for their kids, although free- Explore Shakespeare iPad, free: This iPad app stored it on Google’s servers. And if you pay £9.99 a saw you methodically building up a town and training to-play games proved more controversial in came from Cambridge University Press: comprehensive month, it’s a full, unlimited Spotify rival. an entire army to wreak havoc on other players. this market, with several high-profile cases of versions of Shakespeare’s most famous plays includ- children blowing their parents’ iTunes budg- ing the text, performance photos, audio versions and Soundwave Music Discovery iPhone/ Android, Clumsy Ninja iPhone/ iPad, free: Another huge ets on virtual items, and an investigation by interactive features to understand them. Individual plays free: This app is perfect if you want to discover new success on the App Store, this is a virtual pet game, the Office of Fair Trading warning dodgy cost £4.99 via in-app purchase. music, rather than just listen to the music you know. It except with a wonderfully animated ninja instead of a developers to mend their ways. On the plus tracks the songs you play on streaming services Spotify dog or cat. Your job is to train him up to be less clumsy, side, crafting game Minecraft – which is huge The Elements In Action iPhone/ iPad, £2.49: or Rdio and shows you what your friends are playing including tossing him through basketball hoops like among kids – was one of the biggest-selling The original The Elements was a huge hit on iPad. In – all in a slick, mobile-friendly interface. a rag doll.