Yesterday, Tapbots‘ Paul Haddad shared on Twitter that there were already more Tweetbot users on iOS 7 than still on iOS 5.

We confirmed the tweet’s contents with Haddad, then went on to poll a few more developers who corroborated the findings both on and off the record. The statistics here are pretty powerful, and demonstrate the shifting landscape of rapid updates on iOS and exhibit how far ahead Apple still is when compared to Android in this area.

Pioneering Twitter app Twitterrific, by The Iconfactory, is also seeing big usage numbers on iOS 7. The company confirmed that they’re seeing roughly 3x as many users on iOS 7 as there are still using 5.x versions.

The time shifting app Pocket is also seeing big adoption numbers, with 4.8% of weekly iPhone actives last week on iOS 7, 3.9% on iOS 5. All of these stats are even more impressive when you think about the fact that iOS 7 is theoretically still limited to ‘developers and test devices only’.

Obviously there are tons of caveats here, including the fact that despite us reaching out to a spectrum of developers, they could very well represent a cross-section of the early adopter crowd. Twitterrific, for instance, was widely praised (rightfully I believe) for being almost prescient about the look and feel of iOS 7. This means that it ‘fits in’ very well and iOS 7 users might be more inclined to install it than another Twitter client. But given that Tweetbot was seeing similar adoption rates, the issue might be more along the lines of popularity among the ‘early adopter’ crowd.

We spoke to a developer of a hugely popular game whose market is solidly in the ‘median’ (non-techy) user crowd and their results spoke differently about the adoption of iOS 7. While there was still a significant amount of iOS 7 users, they were still around 1/3 of the numbers being seen for iOS 5 versions. So definitely not there yet among ‘normal’ folk.

Still, for the numbers to be anything but a blip on the radar speaks very highly of Apple’s ability to move users from old versions of iOS to new versions. Right now the ‘new’ version is iOS 6, which is seeing massive 93% adoption among users. The mobile web and native app analytics company Localytics shared some interesting stats with us recently that drive home the power of a rapidly upgrading user base.

Localytics found that 64% of qualifying iPads are already on 6.1.3, which is a pretty crazy number. iPod touches came in at 58% and iPhones are at 37%. Roughly 74% of users had upgraded from 5.0 to 5.1 within 14 days, and 6.0-6.1 took even less time at 11 days. Obviously, this allows developers to more rapidly support new features in new versions of the OS, but with iOS 7 it will also allow them to adopt the radically new design language without fear of alienating tons of customers.

Another interesting tidbit they found was that users who had updated to the latest version of the OS were far more likely to update to the latest versions of apps as well. Yes, this might be circumstantial, but other stats corroborate that ‘early adopter’ activity spreading outwards. For instance, users using the current version of an app have 40% more sessions per user and 63% longer session lengths than those on older versions.

I don’t want to harp on the troubles that Google has had with getting Android developers to update, but the latest stats still put the largest percentage of users on a three year old OS. There have definitely been inroads as Jelly Bean is now clocking in at 33%, but the confidence that developers can move to support only the latest versions of the OS just isn’t there yet.

But for iOS developers, the conclusions are simple: developers can be more aggressive about adopting the latest versions of iOS, including their features and feel. Doing so not only frees them up to use the latest APIs and tools, but also brings higher app engagement numbers. It’s a win-win scenario and iOS 7 is already shaping up to be a boon for those who are quick to adapt.

Facebook for iOS has gotten a small update today that adds a couple of nice changes. Foremost is the ability to very quickly edit the privacy of a given post so that it’s visible only to the people you choose.

This is accomplished by tapping on the small downward chevron next to any post, which presents you with an ‘edit privacy’ option. Once you’re in there you can choose to have it seen by friends, family or a particular list. Note that this can also be defined before you post the item as well, it’s just made a bit easier to do it after the fact now.

In addition to the slightly easier privacy controls, Facebook for iOS also now supports ‘emoticons’ of sorts that tie into their actions feed. This means that you can post what you’re feeling, reading, watching, listening to, drinking, eating, playing and more. Each option, which is accessed via the ‘what are you doing’ smiley face, leaves behind a short message which is now accompanied by an icon.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

So, if you’re a frequent user of the activity feature of Facebook, you’ve got some shiny new icons to go along with your status updates.

You can now also begin new conversations off of photos that you get inside Messages by tapping and sharing to ‘a new message’. There are also a few new Chat Heads animations in the update, including a ‘swipe up’ that shrinks your window as it closes it.

Facebook for iOS

Disclosure: This article contains an affiliate link. While we only ever write about products we think deserve to be on the pages of our site, The Next Web may earn a small commission if you click through and buy the product in question. For more information, please see our Terms of Service.

Banking startup Simple has updated its iPhone app today with its popular ‘Goals’ feature, giving users an easier way to manage their savings and budget for regular expenses while on the move.

Goals is already available from the browser and helps consumers save with very little fuss or regular input on their part. It’s a rather simple process – users simply specify how much they would like to save, along with a desired deadline and Simple automatically allocates the necessary amount of money on a regular basis.

The tool can be customized so that a very small sum of money is moved each day, or so that transfers only occur on pay-day or another specific time of the month. It’s worth noting that the money never actually leaves the users’ account. Simple sets it aside as a separate balance, but it’s still there for the user to dip-into should they need it.

Simple does all of the heavy-lifting here, using a feature called ‘Safe-to-Spend’ which automatically subtracts the amounts moved in accordance with the users’ various goals. It’s deceptively simple and give users an accurate look at how much they can really afford to spend.

“Together, Safe-to-Spend and Goals give you an easy but powerful way to organize your finances and encourage saving you might not be able to do otherwise,” Simple said on its blog today.

The execution of Goals in the iOS app includes almost all of the functionality found in the browser, enabling users to transfer funds between their Goals and ‘Safe-to-Spend’ accounts at any time.

The story so far

Simple started life as BankSimple, before rebranding in November 2011. The company doesn’t replace users’ existing banks, but rather compliments them with additional – and arguably far superior – services for managing accounts and payments.

TNW previewed Simple back in August 2012, commending the service for its “refreshingly minimal design”. The company had already launched a rather beautiful iOS app at that point, but followed up with an update in November that enables users to take a picture of a check and deposit it in their Simple account.

The company then followed up with an equally impressive Android iteration in January this year. Product development firm Two Toasters – the same company behind Airbnb’s popular Android app – were involved and the app sported largely the same functionality found on iOS, including photo check deposits and the like.

➤ Simple | iOS

Disclosure: This article contains an affiliate link. While we only ever write about products we think deserve to be on the pages of our site, The Next Web may earn a small commission if you click through and buy the product in question. For more information, please see our Terms of Service.

Image credit: Thinkstock

The arrival of the first Ubuntu OS-based smartphone took one step closer today with the formation of the Ubuntu Carrier Advisory Group – a collection of operators around the world that want a say in the ongoing development of the Ubuntu smartphone OS.

Canonical, the company behind the open source operating system Ubuntu, first outlined its plans to have essentially the same version (using the same kernel, at least) of its platform running on PCs, TVs, smartphones and tablets at the beginning of the year but little progress has been seen in the interim months.

However, with the formation of the Carrier Advisory Group (CAG), we can at least rest assured that the industry is considering the possibility of rolling out Ubuntu smartphones at some point in the future.

Among the initial founding members are EE, Deutesche Telekom, Korea Telecom, telecom Italia, LG UPlus, Portugal Telecom, SK Telecom and “the leading Spanish international carrier”.

The aim of the CAG will be to discuss various aspects of development of the platform and will cover things like ways to differentiate it for operators and OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers – device makers), which HTML5 standards it should support and how best to establish marketplaces for apps, content and services.

Canonical said the group will also aim look at things like platform fragmentation, revenue share models and payment mechanisms and standards.

The company also noted that other national or internation operators are still welcome to join the CAG, adding that only the group’s members will have access to early information about device manufacturer plans to support the OS, as well as the opportunity to be a launch partner when the first devices do indeed start rolling off the end of the production lines.

Exactly when that will be is unknown, but in the past Mark Shuttleworth, founder of Canonical, has said that the first smartphones should arrive from around January 2014.

Image Credit – Thinkstock

Google Hangouts competitor Rounds has just announced the launch of a new “co-browsing” feature which lets friends browse a limited number of popular sites together simultaneously.

This news follows Round’s rollout of HTML5 games in May, which included Tetris and Draw Something clones, plus classic board games like chess and checkers. Currently, Rounds says it has 8 million total users, approximately 6 percent (500 thousand) of which are on mobile.

To launch co-browsing, Rounds teamed up with Channel.me, a Netherlands-based startup which provides multi-user Web browsing services for consumers and businesses. Rounds calls its site browsing feature an “open URL” experience, but it is limited to just 14 sites: Google Search, Wikipedia, Preen.Me, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Reddit, Amazon, eBay, ESPN, The Huffington Post, wanelo, Imgur and TheFancy.

We’re betting that free services like Pinterest will be most popular for Rounds users, but the company seems determined to make a truly social shopping experience popular on mobile devices. With support for major sites like Amazon and eBay, Rounds will quickly find out if shopping is the sort of behavior users will want to embrace during a video chat.

➤ Rounds for iOS, Android, Web and Desktop

Image credit: Thinkstock

Disclosure: This article contains an affiliate link. While we only ever write about products we think deserve to be on the pages of our site, The Next Web may earn a small commission if you click through and buy the product in question. For more information, please see our Terms of Service.

Messages for OS X is a mess. I don’t care who you ask inside Apple or out, they know it’s jacked up. I have no idea when Apple will get around to fixing it, but I do know that it’s still a tool I have to suffer through using every day so I’d like it to be better now.

That’s what the small but useful app Chatology is all about. It’s not a chat client itself, instead it’s a search tool that allows you to surface relevant text, images and links in your iChat, Jabber, iMessage and AOL chat logs. The premise sounds simple, and it is, but it’s also incredibly useful for someone whose workflow centers around text conversations with people for stories.

Chatology is an app from Flexibits, the company that makes the excellent Fantastical, another one of my go-to tools for Mac. The app, says developer Michael Simmons, “grew out of frustrations born with Messages for OS X. Trying to find a message, or an image, or a link is pretty painful. We had to make a solution that fixed this problem.”

The app is a standard Mac window affair, with three columns. The left column displays conversations as IDs, the middle shows you when the conversation took place including the last message and date (and an indicator of how long ago that was). The right column is all about your conversations, broken down by text, images or links. I’m not reproducing my conversations here for embarrassment and privacy reasons, but just imagine endless rivers of gifs. And trust me that Chatology is very effective at surfacing the stuff that you’re trying to find.

Whether that’s an image that you sent over Messages, a link that you shared with a friend or just the right turn of phrase that you can’t quite replicate, Chatology will surface it. Aside from filters by today, 7 days, 30 days or the last year, there are just a couple of other controls. You can share the link out as a chat archive, find the folders that your logs reside in or delete a conversation entirely.

The current search experience in Messages is an exercise in futility and frustration, with every result given equal importance no matter what kind of content you’re looking for or how old it is. Chatology remedies that in a swoop. Simmons says that the announcements about Messages getting more features in OS X Mavericks will only make Chatology more relevant.

“In fact, we think it’s even more relevant,” he says, “because the announcements will likely make users use Messages more. Chatology lets you find your chats (including filtering your images and links) a pleasure.”

Unfortunately, Chatology is not a chat client and Flexibits has no plans to expand it into one. Simmons calls that “highly unlikely, because a chat client (even light) is a huge task and would require a lot of development focus. Take a look at Adium and you can see how big the time is and how big the project is. Sure, that’s a full chat client, but it still requires a lot of work and a lot of humanpower.”

But if you use Messages as much as I do and find yourself searching it every day, you’re in for a treat with Chatology. Heck, it’s almost worth it for the gorgeous chemistry themed icon by David Lanham alone.

Chatology is $19.99 on Flexibits’ site only, not the Mac App Store.

Building on its success with the Where’s My Water? franchise, Disney has announced Where’s My Mickey? a new game coming later this week to iOS, Android and Windows that features its iconic mouse character.

The original Where’s My Water? game was something of an experiment for Disney’s mobile division as it represented an effort to launch a new IP from a game first. The title quickly became a hit, and even had the good fortune of being the 25 billionth app downloaded on the App Store. A sequel, Where’s My Perry?, included characters from the Phineas and Ferb television series. Disney Mobile head Bart Decrem said in an interview with The Next Web that the franchise has notched over 200 million total downloads.

Where’s My Mickey?, which will hit app stores on June 20, takes Disney full circle by combining one of its newest properties with one of its oldest. Mickey’s one of the most recognizable faces on the planet, but the current crop of kids has cut their teeth on newer Pixar characters than Disney’s traditional animation.

Animation is actually a major focus for Where’s My Mickey?, as the game includes full story animations featuring Mickey and friends and drawing upon a classic visual style from the 1920s and 1930s. Stories include Mickey trying to set up a lemonade stand at the beach, or Goofy trying to find paints for an art project. Disney has loosely connected the game to coincide with the release of several new Mickey Mouse cartoon shorts that will go live on the Disney Channel later this month.

Where’s My Mickey? will cost $0.99 for phones, $1.99 on tablets and $4.99 on Windows tablets and PCs. The game include five chapters and bonus levels, and tablet versions will also include 20 extra levels designed specifically for the devices. New gameplay mechanics include wind, light, rain and plants.

Alongside Where’s My Mickey?, Disney Mobile will also release a Monsters University game for the upcoming Pixar film. The game will cost $0.99 when it arrives on the App Store and Google Play on Thursday.

Mobile has been a key area of focus for Disney, and it has been steadily releasing games for iOS and Android devices. Last week, the company brought its Marvel Avengers Alliance RPG over from Facebook onto mobile. Last month, Disney Interactive announced Story, a storytelling app for creating collages. According to Decrem, the company reaches 85 million players on mobile devices every month.

The Walt Disney Company turns 90 later this year and has risen to become one of the world’s largest media conglomerates. While a game like Where’s My Mickey? certainly pays homage to the firm’s storied past, the company’s efforts on smartphones and tablets suggest it has the adaptability to remain on top for the foreseeable future.

Header image credit: Yoshikazu Tsuno / AFP / Getty Images

Disclosure: This article contains an affiliate link. While we only ever write about products we think deserve to be on the pages of our site, The Next Web may earn a small commission if you click through and buy the product in question. For more information, please see our Terms of Service.

Today the habit forming app Lift is launching a new Web app that works across desktops and devices like Android and Windows phones. The app is designed to compliment the current version for iOS that launched in late 2012.

The Web edition of the app appears heavily inspired by mobile devices like the iPad, and it scales across multiple platforms with a responsive design. There’s near feature parity between the iOS app and the Web app, though a new statistics section has been added to the web to give you deeper and longer access to personal statistics and visualization.

Lift, if you’re unfamiliar, is an app that allows you to pick from predefined personal goals that you would like to transmute into habits, or create your own specific tasks that you’d like to do more of. It does this by encouraging you to check off each item that you do daily, making sure you begin building a regular rhythm of these checkins. As you go along, you’re rewarded with crisp, beautiful graphs and feedback in the form of streaks and encouragement from other users.

Lift was co-founded by Tony Stubblebine of Crowdvine and Jon Crosby of Path, in partnership with Obvious Co., a project of Twitter co-founders Biz Stone, Evan Williams and Jason Goldman. Lift received Series A funding led by Bijan Sabet at Spark Capital, who also joined their board. Other investors in the round include SV Angel, Adam Ludwin from RRE, as well as GTD author David Allen, speaker Tony Robbins and Emmy winning director Greg Yaitanes. Tim Ferriss, Narendra Rocherolle of Smile and Jeremy LaTrasse of MessageBus participated in the seed round along with Obvious.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

I’ve been playing with the Web version a bit and it’s pretty killer. There’s a lot to like here for a Lift user and the design brings not only the features of the iPhone app, but as much of the feel can be possible as well. Actions taken are nice and crisp, there is quick positive feedback in both buttons and page response times. You still get your nice graph and checkin buttons, as well as more expansive sections for commentary.

The social and interaction sections of Lift are now accessible to anyone, on any platform, which means that there should be more cross pollination between groups of users. This includes a few of the ‘formalized’ groups surrounding experts like Tim Ferriss, sites like Foodist and Zenhabits and more, as well as groups of friends and teams going after the same goals. The positive reinforcement gained when people are sharing tips and more in the comments of your goals or checkins is all part of the ‘positive feedback’ loop that Lift is trying to create.

And bringing the app to the Web proper allows people to sit down and write lengthier posts without having to type them out on the iPhone’s keyboard. This could encourage more sharing and socializing in addition to the regular ‘check in’ catchiness of the service.

The addition of mobile web editions also takes care of bringing Lift to every other platform outside of the iPhone in one swoop. Though an Android version of Lift is still in the works, developing for the mobile web hits a bunch of targets at once, so it was likely the best way to go. And the responsive design, I’m happy to report, looks great across a resized web browser or a phone browser.

The design of the Web experience owes a lot to the split pane standard set by the iPad and reflected by designs of other sites like Facebook and Pinterest. But that doesn’t make it any less effective. It’s done well and with restraint, and manages to translate the spirit of the iPhone app better than many other mobile web versions. This is how to do it right.

And there are some ‘bonus’ features for the Web in the form of a deeper tracking of habits across years. This exposes patterns of behavior in a colored graph that could help you to get a deeper understanding of the personal trends you’re seeing.

Going from the iPhone to a Web app is becoming a more frequent trend. Going from the most used mobile platform to the open web seems to be a really viable option for a lot of apps these days, especially ones looking to appeal to groups of people with disparate technologies. It doesn’t make sense for a motivational app like Lift to adhere to an artificial divide between ‘iPhone users’ and ‘not iPhone users’. Though other native clients will come, this particular path is one we’re seeing more and more, and it seems right for Lift, who has proven progressive about other features like push notifications as well.

Lift.do

Poutsch, a service which we likened to Quora for polls earlier this year, is launching on the iPhone.

With this move, the startup is clearly pushing the social aspects of its network. Instead of serving as a polling tool, it’s more of a network for asking and answering questions with friends.

As with any social service, it’s going to be difficult to use if your friends aren’t already on it. To keep your feed from utter emptiness, Poutsch recommends active users to follow. You won’t know them, but given how low-friction polls are, it’s pretty easy to get wrapped up in answering random questions like: “Is Tumblr still cool?” and “Dailymotion or YouTube?”

After experimenting with the service on the Web, we found it to be quite good — not perfect,  but still one of the best around. On the iPhone, our opinions remain unchanged; the app is impressive, but comes with a few glitches and random slow-loads that likely won’t make or break your experience.

As far as the design goes, Poutsch has continued its decision to embrace a decidedly flat design with an almost-pastel color scheme. In other words, it’ll fit right at home on Apple’s upcoming iOS 7.

If you’re actually searching for a polling solution, Poutsch is definitely worth a try — although you might not be able to pronounce the name. But even if you’re not actively searching for this sort of tool, you might find Poutsch an entertaining way to spend a few moments answering quick polls in your downtime.

➤ Poutsch for iPhone (free)

Image credit: Thinkstock

Disclosure: This article contains an affiliate link. While we only ever write about products we think deserve to be on the pages of our site, The Next Web may earn a small commission if you click through and buy the product in question. For more information, please see our Terms of Service.

Huawei launched the Ascend P6 today, the world’s slimmest Android smartphone with some robust mid-to-high end specs.

The handset was unveiled at Huawei’s ‘Beauty’ event in London, just days before Samsung debuts a number of new Galaxy and ATIV devices at its dedicated ‘Premiere 2013′ event in the city.

The Ascend P6 is just 6.18mm thick and comes with a 1.5GHz quad-core processor in a sleek, metallic body. It offers a 4.7-inch high definition display – no word on the resolution for now – and what the company describes as an “industry-leading” 5-megapixel front-facing camera.

It’s joined by an 8-megapixel snapper on the front, capable of shooting at an aperture of just F2.0 and a 4cm macro view. It also supports 1080p video recording and playback, which is the staple for high-end smartphones these days. Huawei revealed today that the device also uses its new IMAGESmart Enginge with Auto Scene Recognition to help casual smartphone users shoot better images on Auto.

The device runs on the latest version of Android, version 4.2.2, with Huawei’s custom Emotion UI slapped on top. There are over 1,000 pre-generated themes to choose from now, alongside three designs created specifically for the Ascend P6′s new colors. The handset is also powered by a 2000 mAh battery, which is competitive but not industry-leading by any means.

“Building on the success of our Ascend P series of fashion smartphones, the Huawei Ascend P6 provides unsurpassed technology and a design that is simply stunning,” Richard Yu, Chief Executive Officer, Huawei Consumer Business Group said.

The device isn’t a huge surprise though. Huawei confirmed its existence in May, using a number of teaser images and a post that revealed very little in terms of detail or specs. The @HuaweiDevice Twitter account then posted a high-resolution image on June 14 teasing the Ascend P6 in its black color variant.

It was followed with a second image yesterday, however, that showed a white version of the smartphone with an unusual metallic case:

Huawei is yet to make any real impact with a high-end Android smartphone, in part because it’s always focused on building devices at the lower-end of the price scale. Samsung currently dominates this space with the Galaxy S3, Note II and newly launched Galaxy S4 – which passed 10 million global sales in its first month – and it will take something rather special to knock it from its lofty perch.

HTC, Sony and a number of other competitors have tried to differentiate themselves, but their efforts are yet to resonate at anything like the same scale. Huawei is still a fairly unknown brand in Western markets, but an eye-catching device such as this one – especially if it can boast the title of the world’s thinnest smartphone – would help it stand out from the crowd.

The Ascend P6 has a recommended retail price of €449 and will be available in black, white and pink with matching color cases. It will launch in China later this month before being sold in Western Europe in July through Vodafone, Telefonica, Orange, H3G, O2, Carphone Warehouse, TalkTalk, Media Markt & Saturn, TIM and online with Amazon and CDiscount. A wider international release hasn’t been detailed yet, although Huawei added that “other markets” would soon follow.

The rumored upcoming HTC One Mini smartphone, previously all whispers and hearsay until now, will ship to customers with that name and include a 720p resolution display, according to one of HTC’s own websites.

The company inadvertently confirmed the existence of the HTC One Mini’s name by posting its User Agent Profile to the HTC-owned Taiwanese domain htcmms.com.tw.

There’s not a lot of info to be gleaned from the pages in terms of the expected specs of the device, but it does confirm that it should arrive running Android 4.2 Jelly Bean and will have a 720p (1280 x 720 pixels) screen resolution. Judging from the page, we’d expect the model number of the HTC One Mini to be PO581. Similar information surfaced ahead of the release of the original HTC One, which can also be found on the site with its model number of PN071.

Official information about the HTC One Mini is thin on the ground, although Engadget said last week , citing tipsters, that the device will arrive with a 4.3-inch display of lower resolution than the original HTC One’s 1080p offering.

The device is also expected to keep the same design as its larger sibling, meaning dual front-facing speakers. Other details such as camera specifications or processor power are still unknown but with the leaks becoming more frequent and HTC likely wanting to ride the wave of popularity its One device is currently enjoying, we’d expect to see official details sooner rather than later.

Naturally, TNW asked HTC for comment on the One Mini, but a spokeswoman for the company simply told us that “HTC does not comment on rumor or speculation”.

The introduction of smaller versions of flagship handsets has also been seen in Samsung’s product lineup with the imminent launch of the Galaxy S4 Mini. However, where Samsung has a broad range of devices at a variety of price points, HTC’s One Mini will play a more key role in its range as it looks like it will essentially fill its mid-range handset slot for the forseeable future. Last year, HTC released a number of HTC One-family devices including the HTC One X, S and V.

Image Credit – AFP/Getty Images