App Smart: Basic Apps for Your New Smartphone or Tablet

Don’t panic. Here’s a selection of great, basic apps to get you going.

Let’s start with some games. Sky Gamblers: Cold War from Atypical Games has 3-D graphics so impressive that it is almost as if you have a game console in a device you can put in your pocket. This $5 iPhone or iPad game puts you in the cockpit of a number of aircraft from the Cold War era. You steer by turning your device in the air, and control various systems and weapons by tapping on icons or swiping on the screen. The game has dramatic missions, and is great fun. It’s also an ideal app to show off the power of your new device to a friend.

On Android a similar game is Sky Gamblers: Air Supremacy, from the makers Namco-Bandai. It also has good graphics and the same sort of complex gameplay. It’s free, although it costs up to $3 to unlock different missions and aircraft. There also is Air Supremacy on iOS for $1, but I feel the Cold War version is better.

For an alternative to a war-themed game, try Infinity Blade 3 on iOS and Dragonslayer on Android. These are fantasy games with amazing 3-D graphics that place you on an adventure in a mystical land with just your wits and sword skills to save you. Infinity Blade 3, which is also perhaps the most graphically wonderful game you’ll see on an iOS device, costs $3. Dragonslayer is free on Android.

You probably have heard of Angry Birds, a wonderfully odd puzzle game where you catapult moody avians to destroy buildings made by evil pigs. The latest, Angry Birds Star Wars 2, is free on both iOS and Android and is hilarious to play. Its puzzles and hidden levels have kept me amused for too many hours to count. There is a Windows 8 version too that will cost you a dollar.

For a different puzzler, check out Candy Crush Saga, which has been downloaded half a billion times. It’s a bit like the classic Tetris, with cute graphics and simple but addictive gameplay. It’s free on iOS and Android.

With social networking apps you can experience the thrill of sharing news or photos or even video about what you’re up to with the world in real time. Twitter (free on iOS, Android, Windows Phone), Facebook (free on iOS, Android and Windows) and Instagram (free on iOS, Android, Windows Phone 8) are all worth checking out. Again, these apps come with a warning — you may use them much more than you expected.

But don’t forget that smartphones and tablets have more uses than merely to gossip or play games. How about using them to get you from A to B? Waze is a powerful GPS app to try. It replaces that old device that you used to suction onto your car’s windshield with a modern mapping system that is constantly improved by its community of users.

As well as the usual tricks of showing a map and speaking turn-by-turn directions, Waze offers real-time traffic data and alerts for incidents like traffic jams or accidents. The app has some quirks, like requiring a network connection for live data, thus eating up your mobile data allowance, and its cutesy graphics may not tickle your fancy. But it is free, and available on iOS, Android and Windows Phone.

For more real-time data for the world around you, download Layar or Junaio to tap into some of the same “augmented reality” vibe that Google’s Glass headset is championing. These apps turn your device into a digital window.

You hold your device up and the screen will show a view through the camera’s lens. Superimposed on top of this view is all sorts of additional data you select from a library of different “layers,” including information like the identity of boats you can see on the ocean, or photos that Twitter users nearby have shared.

Layar (iOS, Android) and Junaio (iOS, Android) are free and may amaze you with the amount of location information you can find within moments. But this technology is quite new, so be prepared for a bit of a learning curve with the apps and occasionally unreliable performance.

Finally, check out the amazing power of Shazam. This app listens to music you hear in public, as you sit in a coffee shop, for example, and automatically identifies the tune for you. It’s magical to see in action, and it even offers links to buy the music if you really like it. Shazam is free on iOS, Android and Windows Phone.

These, of course, are just the beginning. There are many thousands more out there — many free. Do some of your own exploring, and you’ll find apps for everything. Just be careful about spending surprising amounts of money on in-app purchases, particularly in games.

QUICK CALL

Cut the Rope 2, the sequel to the first runaway hit, is new for $1 on iOS. It’s a sort of puzzle game with timing and physics-based elements, and it’s great.

Chipping Away at the Smartphone Leaders

Samsung is now more profitable than Apple, according to second-quarter financial results released by Samsung on Friday in Seoul. But while the two rivals have successively one-upped each other with ever sleeker, more technologically sophisticated phones, new competition is stirring.

Already, the combined share of the worldwide smartphone market controlled by Apple and Samsung slipped to 43 percent in the second quarter from 49 percent a year earlier, IDC, a research firm, reported Friday.

Some of the companies that are chipping away at the leaders are familiar names attempting comebacks, like Sony, Nokia and HTC. Others are relative newcomers, like LG of South Korea and Lenovo, ZTE and Huawei of China.

“The story is no longer Apple versus Samsung,” said Bryan Wang, an analyst at Forrester Research. “Going forward, they will both face similar challenges.”

Analysts say buyers are more willing to look at alternatives to Apple or Samsung because the differences among smartphones are becoming less pronounced.

The proportion of phones running Google’s Android operating system keeps growing and technical specifications are converging. Like Samsung’s Galaxy S4, a number of other phones, including Sony’s Xperia Z, also include high-definition, 5-inch screens.

That makes price, where the Chinese smartphone makers have an edge, an increasingly important selling point.

Those challenges were evident in the latest earnings report from Samsung on Friday, when the company said it expected competition in the smartphone business to stiffen in the third quarter, with new models pending from LG and other rivals. “The strong growth streak for the smartphone market is expected to continue in the third quarter, albeit at a slower pace,” the company said in a statement.

Samsung remains a powerhouse, reporting big gains Friday in sales and earnings for its latest quarter. Net income rose 50 percent, to 7.77 trillion won, or $6.96 billion, from 5.19 trillion won a year earlier. Revenue rose to 57.46 trillion won, or $51.6 billion. from 47.6 trillion won.

On Tuesday, Apple posted quarterly net income of $6.9 billion on revenue of $35.3 billion.

Strategy Analytics, a research firm, said Samsung had passed Apple for the first time to become the world’s most profitable maker of mobile handsets. Samsung, which does not break out results for its handset-making business, generated $5.2 billion in quarterly operating profit from the unit, Strategy Analytics estimated, compared with $4.6 billion for Apple.

Samsung had previously pulled ahead of Apple in market share, and its gains continued in the second quarter, when it controlled 30.4 percent of global smartphone shipments, compared with 13.1 percent for Apple, according to IDC.

Samsung has had to work harder than Apple to achieve those gains. Ubiquitous TV ads around the world and big-ticket promotional events like an introductory gala for its flagship model, the Galaxy S4, at Radio City Music Hall have driven up marketing costs. And while the S4 has been selling at a brisk pace, it has fallen short of some analysts’ expectations. Investors have grown accustomed to bigger gains, and the share price of Samsung, like Apple shares, has taken a beating this year.

“In a way, Apple and Samsung have become victims of their own success,” said Pete Cunningham, an analyst at the research firm Canalys. “When these companies report many billions of profits every quarter, it’s hard to say they are doing anything wrong.”

While the old generation of phone makers — Nokia, Motorola, BlackBerry — struggle, together Samsung and Apple still collect more than 90 percent of the profit in smartphones, analysts say. Yet that success has emboldened more companies to try to challenge them.

Individually, none of these companies poses a threat to the top two. Collectively, however, the next three top players showed strong growth over the past year. No. 3 LG’s share of worldwide smartphone sales increased to 5.3 percent from 3.7 percent in the second quarter, according to Strategy Analytics, with No. 4 ZTE rising to 5 percent from 3.7 percent and No. 5 Huawei going to 4.8 percent from 4.2 percent.

IDC had a slightly different ranking, with Lenovo replacing Huawei in the top five and also showing solid growth, to 4.7 percent from 3.1 percent.

As recently as the first quarter of 2011, three Western companies — Apple, Nokia and BlackBerry — topped the IDC list.

The eastward shift reflects the growth of sales in China, which has surpassed the United States to become the biggest smartphone market, and other developing economies. Analysts say much of the growth in coming years will occur among lower-priced smartphones, an area in which Chinese makers are strong and Apple is notably absent.

But both Apple and Samsung face new challenges at the high end of the market, where their dominance has been most pronounced. Sony, for example, has shown renewed strength in Japan, where its Xperia Z has been outselling the iPhone, and Europe, where IDC showed Sony’s market share rising to 10 percent in the first quarter from 6 percent a year earlier.

LG, which said in the last week that its smartphone shipments had more than doubled in the second quarter from a year earlier, to 12.1 million from 5.7 million, clearly has bigger ambitions in the United States. For the introduction of a new flagship model, the company has planned a high-profile event along the lines of Samsung’s Radio City extravaganza, sending out a “save the date” notice to journalists for Aug. 7.

Why are rivals to Samsung and Apple so optimistic? Despite the slowdown in growth that the market leaders have signaled, the business continues to expand. Smartphone shipments worldwide rose 52 percent in the second quarter, to 238 million phones, according to IDC.

“The smartphone market is still a rising tide that’s lifting many ships,” said Kevin Restivo, an analyst at IDC. “Though Samsung and Apple are the dominant players, the market is as fragmented as ever. There is ample opportunity for smartphone vendors with differentiated offerings.”

Disruptions: Smartphone Battles Shift to Software

Eric Risberg/Associated Press Timothy D. Cook, Apple’s chief executive, on Monday at the company’s Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco.

SAN FRANCISCO — Last week, Timothy D. Cook, Apple’s chief executive, stood on stage at the company’s Worldwide Developers Conference without a new version of the iPhone or the iPad or some new device.

After showing off new laptop computers and a new, cylindrical Mac Pro, Mr. Cook and other Apple executives spent the rest of their two-hour keynote address discussing the features of Apple’s latest mobile operating system, iOS 7. With the image of a flattened smartphone interface with thin typography on a screen in the background, Mr. Cook proudly noted, “This is the biggest change to iOS since the introduction of the iPhone.”

How does he figure that?

Mr. Cook’s bold claim was based on something that is well understood in tech circles but is easily overlooked by consumers. It is the design of the software, far more than the look and feel of the device itself, that allows a company to leap over its competitors.

Hardware features like processing speed or screen resolution or even how well a camera works offer only fleeting advantages in the constant competition among smartphone manufacturers. And with more than a billion smartphones in the world today, much of them with the same rectangular design meant to fit in your hand yet large enough to be used as a phone, it is hard to imagine a breakthrough in their general look.

But changes to the software are limited only by the skill and creativity of a company’s engineers and designers and are not as easily mimicked since they appeal to softer notions like “experience” rather than speed or weight.

Designers at Apple, Microsoft and Google appear to have been keenly aware of that when they worked on the latest versions of their mobile operating systems, experimenting with ways of making software that is unique yet as intuitive as a road sign.

“I have my home, I have my office and I now I have my phone interface,” said Paola Antonelli, senior curator of architecture and design at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. “When you turn a smartphone off it is an enigmatic monolith; it’s the interface that not only animates it but gives it meaning.” Ms. Antonelli said she hoped to one day include iOS 7 in MoMA’s design collection.

Apple is making some stark changes to the appearance of its software with the latest operating system, which will be available to consumers in the fall. Jonathan Ive, senior vice president for industrial design at Apple and the executive responsible for the new look, has done away with design metaphors like a wood grain bookshelf for the phone’s virtual newsstand. The new look also eliminates borders. It doesn’t sound like much, but that allows apps to stretch across the screen, which makes the phone feel larger. By doing away with shadows and dark colors, the design makes the phone’s screen feel brighter, too.

Interestingly, until this update, among the digital technology community, Apple was losing its reputation for cutting-edge design as competitors like Microsoft experimented.

“From a design standpoint, Apple’s interface became pretty cheesy and predictable,” said Yves Béhar, the founder of Fuseproject, a San Francisco design agency that helped create the low-cost One Laptop Per Child PC and the Jawbone Up wristband health-monitoring device. “It lacked strength and vision.”

Microsoft, which was regularly criticized in recent years for the staid look of its software, has been pushing the design boundaries as it tries to play catch-up in smartphones. In a recent blog post on the company’s Web site, Steve Clayton, a design manager at Microsoft, wrote that company executives finally understood about three years ago that the look of the software was just as important as what the device could do.

The new appearance of the company’s operating system for mobile devices, Windows Phone 7, consists of an array of flat, colorful squares that can be easily moved around on the screen. Though when that tiles-based look was also applied to the Windows 8 PC operating system, some longtime customers complained it was too drastic.

But it has been good for the mobile business.

In the first quarter of 2013, Windows Phone nudged Blackberry to become the third most popular phone operating system globally, according to a report by IDC, a market research firm. Microsoft shipped seven million Windows Phone 7 devices in the first quarter, compared with 6.3 million Blackberry devices. Blackberry is trying to rebound with a new version of its phone with software that has also changed considerably from older versions.

Mr. Béhar said a good software design would always help sell more hardware.

“We are in an era where the 30-second TV ad doesn’t count anymore,” he said. “The product — the smartphone — is its own form of advertising today and a good experience, where people want to spend more time with the product, is what people see.”

E-mail: bilton@nytimes.com

App Smart: Smartphone Tools Have Their Place in the Wild

Planning a camping trip can be complex because there are so many different things you may need to take with you. The Camping List Pro, $2 for iOS, can help. It’s a list-making and organizing app specially set up for camping, with categories from shelter to personal hygiene. You can add your own things to the list as well. It’s easy to use and attractively designed, and its preloaded lists may help you remember to pack some useful items you may have overlooked, like air pumps and Ziploc bags.

Camping Trip Planner, $1 for Android, is similar. Simpler than Camping List Pro and graphically more spartan, it may suit your tastes. A list-based interface is straightforward, though I wish for a button on the main display to add entries rather than having to tap through the menu first. The app doesn’t suggest items for you, but it does have a model list with over 200 useful camping items to jog your memory.

After you’ve planned your trip, the next step is finding a campsite. On iOS and Android, the popular Camp and RV app is packed with comprehensive information for campsites across the United States and Canada — nearly 25,000 of them, from private sites to military campgrounds.

The app is based on a map interface. You search for a campsite or simply navigate to the region you’re interested in exploring, and see what icons pop up on the map. Tapping one of the icons brings up a message with more information on that site.

From there, you can bring up an information page that includes data like a Web site URL, contact details and even photographs. The $10 price tag is high, but it is kept current by its developers and will work offline, which may be really useful if you’re on the road. You can also opt for just the Camp and Tent version or the RV version, depending on your needs, and they’re just $5 each.

If you’re planning some sightseeing walks on your trip, then Columbia’s GPS Pal, from the Columbia Sportswear Company, may become your best outdoor digital friend. Using the GPS technology in your phone, it automatically logs your trek, including elevation data, so you can see later where you went. You can also add notes, photos and video to specific GPS location tags to record something memorable. It’s on iOS and Android and is free, which is impressive. But there’s one important issue common to all GPS apps: using them will eat up your battery life. That’s something to remember if you’re planning to use them to find your way back to where you started.

Knots are always handy to know, whether or not you’re camping — I even put my old Scouts knot training to use the other day while putting up a hammock. Many apps can help you learn knots, but a great one on iOS is What Knot to Do, also from Columbia Sportswear. It’s free and no-nonsense, listing 70 knots sorted by category, including knots like hitches or “stoppers.” The app includes a short description of each knot category and what individual knots are useful for, and you can save your favorites for easy reference later.

It walks you step by step, with images, through tying each knot. But if you’re a complete novice, you may get a bit lost among all the options and knotty jargon, with phrases like “a loop on the bight” and “fair the knot.”

The Android app Knots Guide is a great alternative, with a simple interface that divides knots into categories like “fishing” or “decorative.” It’s not the best-looking app ever, and the knot-tying diagrams sometimes need close examination. But it is free.

Compass apps are useful for trekking, or even pitching your tent relative to prevailing wind directions. Commander Compass on iOS is a graphically attractive compass that also packs in an inclinometer, GPS tracker and speedometer. If its $4 price is too much for you, you might try Apple’s simpler built-in compass app instead. On Android, the Compass app from Catch.com is a rough equivalent to Commander Compass and it’s free.

When you are out in the countryside, remember to use these and other apps only when you need them. The view of the real world around you is probably far better than the one on your touch screen.

Quick Call

Crayon Physics Deluxe has long been a big hit on iOS, thanks to its clever physics-based game and cute graphics that make your on-screen crayon drawings come to life to solve puzzles. It has finally been released as an Android app on Google Play, costing $3.

Tool Kit: Outsmarting Smartphone Thieves

“I never thought this would happen to me,” said Mr. Huckaby, 39, a personal trainer, who since the robbery, which he called an iCrime, has become the kind of person who patrols his neighborhood streets in San Francisco warning strangers about the dangers of using their smartphones out in the open.

Phone theft, especially of Apple’s coveted iPhones, has increased sharply in recent years. Last year, nearly half of all robberies in San Francisco involved a smartphone.

So, how do people like Mr. Huckaby deal with the stress after a phone theft? How do you dodge robbers in the first place? And what should you do if your phone is stolen?

Here are some suggestions:

BE LIKE A DOLPHIN Dolphins sleep with one eye open, to stay semi-alert to lurking predators and unexpected danger. If you need to use your phone in the wilds of the subway or sidewalk, do so discreetly, reserving at least a portion of your cognitive capacity for minding what is happening around you. Avoid leaving your phone on the table at restaurants, bars and coffee shops where it can easily be snatched. Thieves have perfected robbery tactics based on patterns of typical nonchalant public smartphone behavior, the police say. Consider the sidewalk texter, casually holding the phone in front while walking, or more likely weaving, down the street. “A popular move is to slap the victim in the back of the head,” said Edward Santos Jr., a San Francisco police lieutenant. “The phone goes flying up in the air and many of these guys have gotten so good they’ll catch the phone in midair.” So long, phone.

LOCK IT UP Most thieves erase all identifying information from a phone within hours, sometimes minutes, after stealing it. Still, passwords on your phone’s home screen can help protect your personal information in case it isn’t wiped clean. A San Francisco woman whose iPhone was stolen from a San Francisco bar in January got a call a week later from Peru from a man threatening to publicly post nude photos he found on her password-free phone if she did not pay him, the police said. Avoid such unpleasantries by using a simple password, which can easily be enabled on both iPhone and Android devices.

KNOW YOUR NUMERALS Write down your phone’s model number, serial number and unique device identification number. If your phone is stolen you’ll want to report these numbers to the police and to your carrier. There are several ways to find your phone’s International Mobile Equipment Identifier or IMEI number. On most phones, you can dial *#06# and the number will pop up on your screen. Alternatively, turn the phone off, take the battery out and find the IMEI and serial number on the label under the battery. On an iPhone, go into Settings, click General and then click About and you will find a page listing your phone’s model and serial number and IMEI code. Save these numbers where you can retrieve them easily.

USE LOCATION TRACKING APPS When a phone is stolen, one of the first questions the police will ask is whether you have a tracking app. The police have recovered stolen phones by tracking the GPS signal trail straight to a robber’s pocket or backpack. But for the apps to work, the phone has to stay on. Increasingly, the police say, practiced thieves know to turn the phone off and wrap it in aluminum foil before turning it back on, which thwarts the tracking technology. Still, it is worth installing an application to monitor your phone’s whereabouts. Apple makes a free app, Find My iPhone, which can be turned on in Apple’s iCloud or downloaded from iTunes. Android users have several options for free third-party tracking apps including Where’s My Droid and Lookout. In addition to broadcasting a phone’s location, many antitheft apps allow you to remotely lock your phone, wipe it clean of sensitive information and even remotely set off a screaming phone alarm.

BRICK IT If your phone is stolen, immediately report the theft to the police and your carrier. Start with the police. Give them your IMEI and serial number and the password to remotely log in to your tracking app. Once you’ve finished dealing with the police, call your carrier. Tell your carrier to disable, or brick, your device, which will lock it and prohibit anyone else from activating it, even with a new SIM card. The carrier should add your IMEI number to a national database of blacklisted phones. The database keeps track of the phone’s IMEI number to prevent it from being activated. But the police say the database is largely ineffective because many stolen phones end up overseas, out of the carrier’s reach, and because thieves are able to modify the IMEI number. Still, it’s better to have the phone entered in the database than not.

The Federal Communications Commission’s guide to stolen and lost phones recommends that you ask your carrier for written confirmation that your phone has been reported stolen and that they have disabled it. If you are an A.T.&T. customer, call 1-800-331-0500; Verizon, call 1-800-922-0204; Sprint, call 1-888-211-4727; and T-Mobile, call 1-800-937-8997. The F.C.C. maintains a full list of carrier contacts for reporting stolen phones.

CHANGE YOUR PASSWORDS Even if your carrier bricks your stolen phone, you should change your passwords for any social networking sites, e-mail, banks and health care sites you may have visited from your phone.

BECOME A LATE ADOPTER Less than a week after the iPhone 5 was released on Sept. 21, 2012, barely used phones turned up for sale at makeshift kiosks at flea markets in Oakland, Calif., known hot spots for peddling stolen merchandise, according to the police.

Last month a woman was held up for her iPhone by two men, one with a gun, in El Cerrito, Calif., just east of San Francisco. After she handed it over, the robbers took one look at her older model iPhone and gave it back to her, the police said. Just like the Apple fanatics camping out in front of Apple stores before a new iPhone is released, thieves want the latest model, too. Having one can make you a target.