It was almost exactly two years ago that Flixster bought one of the original popular movie apps for the iPhone from a college sophomore. Now, two years later, their Flixster iPhone app is the top movie application on the platform. It’s also the top movie app on the Android and BlackBerry platforms as well. All told, the app has just crossed a massive 20 million installs. What’s perhaps even more...

Officially launching today is Mappiness, a UK iPhone app that “maps Happiness” by pinging users with a survey in order to plot out their feelings during the day (happiness, in this case, is apparently user-defined). Using LBS, the app links responses and response locations to environmental data in an attempt to, according to lead researcher George MacKerron, “better find answers on the impacts of...

You’re likely aware of Foursquare, the location-based service that turns checking-in to venues into a game of sorts. You may also be aware of StickyBits, an app that turns barcodes into message boards. What do you get when you combine them? Barcode Hero, a new product by Kima Labs, a startup founded by two Amazon veterans. The main idea behind the service is an app that attempts to make shopping more social. A...

Editor’s note: Is the law of large numbers getting to Google? Innovation is hard, especially when a new idea needs to create billions of dollars in revenue for it to count. In the the following guest post, author and former venture capitalist Peter Sims talks about the challenges Google faces not to suffer the same fate as every other dominant tech company before it. Sims is co-author of True North:...

Have you been looking for a way to call your Facebook friends on your iPhone or your Android device? Haven’t figured out their numbers yet? A new solution from Vonage offers free calls to all you Facebook friends who, virally, have downloaded the same app. The calls work over WiFi and 3G/4G networks. The app, called Vonage Mobile for Facebook, is an odd, viral solution for voice communications. The app trolls...