Game iPad

Whereas our daily Apps Rush post focuses on what's new on the various app stores, once a week we review the smartphone apps that we've spent some time with. This week's crop takes in gaming, music, literature and social applications.

iPad, ?7.49

Songkick Concerts

Live music website Songkick's first mobile app is brilliantly simple in concept: it scans the iPod music library on your iPhone, then tells you when artists whose music you own are playing nearby. You can search for gigs in other towns and cities too, and set up push notifications to ensure you are alerted as soon as new concerts are announced. You can also tap through to buy tickets for gigs, although here the experience varies according to how mobile-friendly Songkick's ticketing partners' websites are.

The latest app designed to help you find more apps uses a flowchart-style interface, where iOS apps are linked according to their similarity. Start with one that you like, and see what it's connected to, double tapping at any time to read a full description, see screenshots and tap through to the App Store itself. It's an innovative and tactile way of making sense of the hundreds of thousands of apps jostling for your attention, although it complements other discovery apps like Appstream rather than replaces them.

Hop on Pop

iPhone, iPad, Android, ?2.39

Windows Mobile, ? 3.99
Microsoft is currently making a big push for Windows Mobile-gaming, with Angry Birds and Plants Vs. Zombies hogging most of the headlines. Hydro Thunder GO is also worth a look at though. Based on an existing aqueous-racing game, it sees you cast motor boats to a number of courses, the detection and short cuts nabbing power-ups along the way. It 's fun, and the Xbox Live social functions of the fuel core competitiveness. Well, they, if you have a few friends who are also Windows phones, anyway.