According to statistics released last year by Nielsen, the average U.S. smartphone user keeps 41 apps on their device, and since those figures were collated quite some time ago, we can safely assume that the number is probably higher today. With 41+ apps, it’s impossible to utilize all of them in equal measure, and thus, most of us have our favorites. Unfortunately, some take this favoritism to the next level and begin to develop addictions, particularly on apps linking us to our favorite social networks on-the-fly, and if you find yourself checking Facebook or Twitter a little more frequently than is perhaps healthy, there’s a tweak that might help you refrain from such addictive behavior.

Let’s be honest, we’re all friends here. If you’re reading this on a weekday morning then it’s safe to say you’re a bit of a geek. It’s OK, we are too, and it’s nothing to be ashamed of.

Christmas is always going to be a big time for companies like Apple and Google. With gifts being given the world over, there’s a high probability that a good chunk of them run either Apple’s iOS or Google’s Android. Both have their own application stores.

A newly released iPad app promises to change the way we watch not just YouTube video content, but much of the online video content that we now consume on a daily basis.

It’s that time of year again, when we all spend way too much money on rubbish nobody really wants and then eat more food than any human being should.

One of the social networking apps to take iOS users by storm is Instagram, but it’s not just any normal social network. Allowing users to upload their own photos after editing them using a selection of provided affects, Instagram is a cross between Flickr and Twitter and is currently the must-have app for the technorati of iOS. The problem is, there is currently no Android version and fans of the little green robot are getting tires of waiting.

When Apple launched Game Center in iOS 4, one of the many arguments laid fairly and squarely at its feet was its severe lack of any sort of messaging system. When you look at similar services on other platforms such as PSN, Xbox Live or Steam then you’ll see that sending messages between players is integral to the experience. Apple missed that, completely.

Apple today updated its Apple Store iPhone application to include the expected ‘self-checkout’ feature, which will allow buyers to purchase items in Apple’s retail stores without the need for a clerk to take their payment.

Apple has filed a patent for in-app purchases that, if granted, could be used against competitors like Google and Microsoft, Redmond Pie has learned.

With Apple’s iPhone being a device that we carry around pretty much 24/7, we often want to share web content with each other, and thanks to the App Store, there are more than a few good ways to do just that.

If you’re a Mac user and live and breathe Skype, or just use it occasionally to talk to your distant friends, you might be happy to know that the application has been updated to add support for OS X Lion as well as HD video chats. These improvements come in the form of Skype 5.3 which is available to the public today.

One of the greatest features in Lion is the ability to maximize apps to full-screen, even in apps where traditionally a full-screen mode wouldn’t make that much sense, as long as developers choose to add it in. If they haven’t, luckily, there’s a way you can implement full-screen mode yourself that works with most apps, system-wide.