Playforge made enough money from a single iPhone game, Zombie Farm, to support a 25-person company. Now the developer has launched the next game, Zombie Life, and it has another hit on its hands. Call it the domestication of the zombie, a big trend in pop culture.

Zombie games are a dime a dozen these days. But Playforge struck a chord when it launched Zombie Farm with cute zombies about 18 months ago. Since that time, the game has consistently stayed on the top free app charts and generated more than 20 million downloads. That’s a pretty big hit, allowing the company to generate revenues from sales of virtual goods as well as ad revenues.

Vince McDonnell, chief executive of Playforge in San Mateo, Calif., said in an interview that the first game was a hit because it resonated with people who were accustomed to zombies as scary characters. As with the PopCap game Plants vs Zombies, turning the zombies into cute and lovable characters was a change of pace. Sometimes that kind of novelty is all it takes to create a big hit.

“We humanizing the zombies,” McDonnell said.

Playforge took those cute characters and mashed it up with a farm game, sort of like Zynga’s FarmVille. Likewise, Zombie Life is a simulation of life, akin to EA’s The Sims game series.

The new game was released late Thursday night and has been climbing the charts of the top free games, hitting as low as No. 15 on the top list. The company promoted the game by cross-promoting it with its Zombie Farm fans, and it advertised the title as well.

In the game, you play the role of a young zombie challenged to live life in the real world. The zombies have to put on make-up in order to escape detection from humans in the game world, as the humans freak out when they recognize zombies.

McDonnell said the revenues from the first game were enough to build a team of 25 developers. The company plans t hire 10 more by the end of the year. The company’s focus is on making fun games that can be understood by all ages, McDonnell said. So there are no gory scenes or zombie guts that would be too much for little kids to handle. In the Zombie Life game, players have to stay “fresh” by putting on deodorant. The zombies can hang out, bite people, and get a promotion. Zombies have to get real-world jobs, work hard and climb the corporate ladder.

Playforge was founded in 2009. Rivals include PopCap Games (now owned by Electronic Arts) and a host of other mobile game companies. McDonnell said that the company recently released an Android version of Zombie Farm, but  it will focus mostly on iPhone games. Another game is in the works and will come out before year end. With a bigger team, McDonnell said, “We can start pumping out the games.”

Yesterday, both the New York Times and Robert Scoble unveiled publicly for the first time what a company called Kiha Software has been working on for about three years in stealth now: a piece of software called Aro Mobile. With $20 million in backing from the likes of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, they’re obviously getting a lot of buzz. And that should continue when they fully show the system off in a few weeks at Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco. But for now we have a video sneak peak of it in action, and 1,000 exclusive beta invites for TechCrunch readers to try out the software themselves.

So what is Aro? Currently, it’s a piece of software that runs on top of Google’s mobile Android OS. But it’s not just another layer like some of those awful skins that OEMs design for Android. Instead, it weaves itself into the OS and uses AI and machine intelligence to make sense of what you’re doing with your phone. It natively ties into your email, phone, calendar, address book, and browser to make them potentially much more useful to you when you’re on the go.

Maybe someone sent you an email mentioning an address, the Aro system can recognize that and with the click of a button give you all kinds of actions you can do with it. The same is true with names — of both people and companies. And dozens of other things.

But it really is one of those things that’s better when you see it in action. So watch the videos below. And if you’re interested in signing up to test it out, use this link. The first 1,000 people who do will get priority access to the beta program (though it is still rolling out in waves as they ramp up).

This weekend, I’ve been catching up on some reading. One post that was of particular interest to me was David Beach’s article from last week about developing for Android. Beach, who is a product manager at eBay Mobile and a co-founder of 12seconds, basically says that the experience sucks for a number of reasons (all of which Google can fix, but will take quite a bit of work and time). But one quote in particular stuck out to me:

Android has succeeded despite Google. In fact it’s safe to say that Android is successful for one primary reason. The iPhone is only available on AT&T. If the iPhone was on Verizon a year ago. Android would be no where near as popular.

Obviously, Beach isn’t the first person to bring this idea up. But he brings it up in a way that he’s able to back-up his feelings from a developers’ perspective, while at the same time roping in what isn’t ideal from a consumer perspective about Android as well.

This is going to sound like flame bait, and everyone knows that I love the iPhone — but I have to agree with Beach. I’ve used no less than six Android phones for extended periods of time over the past couple of years. I really am trying to like them. But I just can’t.

Now, don’t get me wrong, almost all Android phones are a million times better than the phones we had just a few years ago before the iPhone burst onto the scene. And if the iPhone didn’t exist, there is no question that I would use an Android phone and would probably be very happy with it. But the iPhone does exist. And I simply can’t bring myself to use an Android phone when I know a superior device is out there. That’s my only requirement for me to use a product: it has to be the best.

The only valid argument I can see for the iPhone not being the best is the AT&T requirement. So let’s put that aside for a second.

While I obviously understand that people have different tastes, I can’t see how you can objectively say that the overall experience of using an Android phone isn’t worse than using an iPhone. There are a dozen or more elements that are better about the iPhone. Everything from the big: the App Store versus the Android Market (from the consumer perspective) — to the little: the multi-touch and overall touchscreen responsiveness.

Even the most diehard Android loyalists I know (like Jason and Mike) will readily admit that the iPhone offers a better user experience. So why do they love Android (again, besides the lack of AT&T requirement)? The openness. They hate that you can’t get Google Voice on the iPhone (I hate it too). And in general they hate Apple’s restrictive policies for the App Store (which I don’t like either). But those are problems that most regular consumers don’t think about — or realize exist at all.

Instead, like Beach says, the thing some consumers don’t like about the iPhone is that it’s AT&T only (in the U.S., obviously). Even if you live in an area where AT&T doesn’t absolutely suck, having no choice of carriers is a big restriction. People have work plans, family plans, etc, etc, that they just can’t switch. Or they don’t want to.

If the iPhone was on Verizon (which is a larger network, remember), is there any question that it would be selling at least double the amount of units it is right now in the U.S.? I don’t think so. What if it was available on all the networks? And what would happen to Android sales if that was the case? That is the big question here.

Next year, it’s looking increasingly likely that we’ll get at least a partial answer. If the iPhone is available on Verizon or even just T-Mobile, will the pace of Android sales slow down in the U.S.?

I know a number of people who are Android users simply because of the iPhone/AT&T restriction. If and when the devices comes to Verizon, they will jump ship. The big question is: will millions of others follow? Or, perhaps more importantly, will millions of new users that would have gone with Android now go with iPhone?

I’m seriously curious to know why you like Android over the iPhone if you do. Is it because of the openness ideal? Is it the variety of devices? Is it the variety of carrier choices? Or is it something else?

The Market is a mess, the media situation is arguably worse, and the user experience is still just off when compared to the iPhone. Google is working on improving all of those things, but Apple is rock solid in all of those areas right now. Both sides will keep improving, but Google’s problem is that Apple is ahead and has remained ahead. Can Google surpass them? I’m just not sure I can see how unless Apple regresses — which they’ve shown no signs of doing. What I can see is a Verizon iPhone.

Apple and Google are in the midst of a PR war for who is activating more devices each day. Google is doing 200,000 a day. Apple is doing 230,000 a day. But Apple says Google’s numbers may include upgrades. Google says Apple is wrong. This will go on and on.

It’s great that there is competition in the market right now. But would it be as fierce in the U.S. if it weren’t for the AT&T situation? Would most people just be using an iPhone? Beach states it as a fact, but I don’t think it’s an unreasonable question to consider. And it’s something I’m sure Google is considering as the Verizon iPhone approaches.

[photo: flickr/laihiu]

Motorola has acquired a new set of app development tools in the form of Y Combinator startup 280 North.

A Motorola official confirmed to TechCrunch that Motorola acquired the web-app developer to “help facilitate the continued expansion of Motorola’s application ecosystem.” The deal was reportedly worth $20 million.

280 North developed the Objective-J and Cappuccino app development platforms, designed for those with more limited and focused programming experience. The platforms were showed off in the company’s 280 Slides app.

These app development tools could be another way for Motorola to differentiate its devices from other Android phones. Device makers are already trying to do this by developing their own “flavors” of the basic Android operating system, including Motorola’s own MotoBlur.

Those major handset manufacturers are founding members of the Open Handset Alliance, which was created to help promote an open set of tools available to all developers in the form of the Android operating system.

The deal was closed earlier in the summer, according to the Motorola official cited by TechCrunch and Barron. 280 North had initially raised $250,000 in a 2008 Angel investment fundraising round, giving a pretty sizable exit for its current investors if the TechCrunch number is accurate.

I’ve reached out to both Motorola and 280 North for confirmation and details, and I’ll update if I hear back.

Tags: Android, cupp, development, droid, OHA, Open Handset Alliance, web apps

Companies: 280 North, Google, HTC, motorola, Samsung

Here’s our summary of the week’s business and tech news. First, the most popular articles published by VentureBeat in the last seven days:

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 map pack launches with glitch, competition from Bad Company 2 — The brawl between the blockbuster combat games restarted this week, with the release of multiplayer map packs for both Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 and Battlefield Bad Company 2.

GameCrush inundated with male gamers who want to play games with hot gamer babes — GameCrush evidently hit home with its offer to let gamers “be a player” and pay to play online games with attractive women. The site claimed that more than 10,000 people tried to sign on in the first five minutes it was open.

Self-published e-books make it to Apple’s iPad for almost no cost — Big publishers are flocking to the iPad, but smaller publishing houses are making the move, too, including self-publishing service Smashwords.

Motorola Droid finally receives Android 2.1 update with multitouch web browser — Verizon has finally began rolling out the Android 2.1 update to Motorola Droid users. The new version of the mobile operating system includes pinch-to-zoom multitouch capabilities in the web browser, maps, and gallery applications.

Google brings Quake 2 to the browser with HTML5 — Thus far, we’ve mainly seen the up and coming HTML5 web standard used for video. A bunch of Google engineers wanted to see what else HTML5 could do, and decided to try porting the classic first-person-shooter Quake 2.

And here are five more stories that we think are important, thought-provoking, or fun:

Why Silicon Valley needs the Unvarnished truth — VentureBeat’s new executive editor Owen Thomas praised a new startup called Unvarnished, calling it “not just timely, but necessary.” The site aims to gather fair and honest reviews about people who wouldn’t normally hit the limelight — mid-level product managers, senior engineers, and the like.

Squeaky-clean offer firm gWallet gets into trouble — Social gaming ran into its biggest scandal last fall, when allegations surfaced that offer companies were defrauding consumers by presenting them with less-than-savory advertising offers. Now gWallet, a new offer company with a previously solid, truthworthy reputation, has been caught running a handful of questionable offers, too. The percentage appears to be tiny, but it illustrates how hard it is to police offers.

Kleiner Perkins’ John Doerr: iPad will ‘rule the world’ — Most of the focus was on the iPad at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers’ event this week announcing the expansion of its the venture firm’s iFund. Kleiner partner John Doerr sounded especially excited about the device, claiming that it will “rule the world.”

Is Greenpeace overreacting about the iPad’s announcement? — In anticipation of today’s iPad launch, environmentalist juggernaut Greenpeace released a new study emphasizing the damaging impact of cloud computing — the framework that more and more of the internet, and particularly the iPad will depend on.

ChatRoulette faces a stiff challenge in becoming a legitimate business — Video chat site ChatRoulette has been mocked by everyone from Jon Stewart on the Daily Show on down for the hordes of anonymous masturbators who sometimes lurk on the site. Kim-Mai Cutler examines some of the issues facing the site if it wants to make money.

Tags: Android, droid, ipad, Modern Warfare 2, Quake 2

Companies: chatroulette, GameCrush, Google, Greenpeace, Gwallet, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, motorola, Unvarnished

People: john doerr

Zector, developer of cloud-based storage platform ZumoDrive, announced today that its solution is now available for Palm Pre and Android mobile devices.

Zumodrive offers users the ability to store several forms of content, including music, video and photos, to a cloud-based storage platform that can be accessed from multiple devices. The service is valuable as many devices — both PCs and mobile, alike — have limited storage capabilities. Its a good option for people worried about content size and losing data. ZumoDrive automatically provides backup to specifically selected folders so that consumers can access their content both online and offline.

Recently, the company made several big announcements, including that Hewlett-Packard agreed to have ZumoDrive power an “HP CloudDrive” service installed on the computer maker’s new line of netbooks. It also closed a new round of funding for $1.5 million from investors Ram Shriram, plus original investors Tandem Entrepreneurs and VeriFone CEO Douglas Bergeron.

The Burlingame, Calif.-based company, founded in 2007, offers several tiers of the ZumoDrive application. The application is available for Mac OS X, PC, Linux, iPhone, Android and Palm Pre platforms.

Tags: Android, cloud storage, Palm Pre

Companies: Zector, ZumoDrive

Earlier this evening Gizmodo published leaked images that apparently show off the pricing details for Google’s upcoming Nexus One phone. The Nexus One comes in at a hefty $530 for an unlocked device, or $180 with contract on T-Mobile — pricing that’s pretty standard for a smart phone. But even still, it’s a very big deal. It also looks like Gizmodo’s screenshots may have included clues hinting at a previously unannounced feature for Android: automatic backup of your data.

Under the section for Optional Accessories, the Nexus One will apparently have a docking station available (as did the Droid). The description for the dock is as follows: “Charge your phone while streaming music and backing up your data“.

Now, that text isn’t terribly specific. In the case of the streaming music, I think Google is probably referring to an app like Pandora. In the case of backups, Google could be referring to using one of the third party backup solutions available on Android Market, like the top rated MyBackup Pro. Or it might just be saying that you can manually back up your phone to your computer while it’s charging. Or, it could be referring to a natively supported backup option. I’m guessing it’s the latter.

Up until now Android hasn’t had a native backup solution. Unlike the iPhone, which backs up your data every time you plug the device into a computer, Android simply mounts your device as a USB drive. Granted, you could drag and drop these files to your computer’s desktop if you wanted to, but that’s hardly an intuitive solution and it doesn’t let you selectively update only the files that have changed.

But what would an Android backup service look like? Google obviously favors the cloud, so it seems logical that it could back up your essential data wirelessly. Then again, Android already does that for much of your data, like Gmail and Contacts, because it’s tied to your Google Account. The fact that this backup is done while the phone is docked seems to imply it’s more time consuming. Perhaps it’s something that involves a desktop client — something that Google has avoided until now and would be at odds with their cloud-based strategy.

We’ll likely know for sure by January 5th — the date that the Nexus One is rumored to make its public debut.

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Finally. Over a year after iPhone users got their native Yammer fix, Android has an official Yammer application available on Android Market. The application, while still fairly basic, comes with support for most of Yammer’s core functionality. If you use Yammer and you have an Android phone, you’ll want this app. We can’t link directly to the app because Google still hasn’t launched a strong web presence for the Market, but you can find it by running a query for “Yammer” from your phone.

The new application is actually derived from the codebase of Yowl, a third party app for Android that Yammer acquired a couple months ago. CEO David Sacks says that the application has been off the Market since the acquisition, primarily so that the team could fix a few issues. Now it’s good to go.

While a mobile application isn’t totally essential to using Yammer (you can use SMS, and the web app works well enough from mobile browsers), they sure make life easier. The Android application can automatically notify you when you have new messages, and you can leave it running all day in the background (on the iPhone you have to set up Push notifications). We’ve relied heavily on Yammer since its launch at TechCrunch50 2008, and this will make things much easier for those of us who have made the jump from the iPhone (or something else) to Android.

I’ve been playing with the app throughout the day and found it to work well overall, but it isn’t perfect yet. I found a bug or two (for instance, whenever I try to jump back in a message I’m writing to correct a typo, the whole message disappears). And there are some features that aren’t in the app yet, like the ability to granularly control which messages should issue an audio/vibrating alert. Sacks says the app will definitely be upgraded with more features in the future.

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Clear Channel Radio already had mobile applications for iPhone, BlackBerry and Chumby devices, but today it’s adding an Android version to the line-up.

Not that there’s a lack of decent radio streaming applications on well, any platform these days, but here goes: Clear Channel Radio’s iheartradio app gives users free access to some 350 American radio stations, including a couple of artist-hosted stations from the likes of Christina Aguilera, Megadeth, Eagles and Weezer.

The app also enables you to get ‘frequently updated’ traffic reports for large markets including New York, L.A., Chicago, San Francisco and Houston.

Like its iPhone / iPod Touch sister, the iheartradio app for Android can be configured to automatically start playing a specific station upon launch, includes artwork and lyrics and also enables users to tag songs for purchase on iTunes.

To download the free app, simply log on to Android Market from your handset (Android v1.5 or higher).

Enjoy the music.

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What is the best reading experience on a touchscreen device? As magazines and tablet-makers grapple with this question for larger form factors, Issuu has an answer for touchscreen phones. The Web-based document-viewer just released Issue Mobile for Android phones, and is working on an iPhone app.

Issuu Mobile is a mobile document reader which gives you access all the magazines, books, and documents uploaded to Issuu. Millions of public documents have been uploaded, just like on Scribd or DocStoc, and you can view your own private documents in your own account as well. The Android app shows featured content and addresses the small screen size with a new EasyRead feature. You just scratch a portion of the text and it pops up in a magnified view. You can also subscribe to publishers and news feeds.

Everything on Issuu is free or promotional right now, but you can find previews and free editions of books from Penguin, Random House and indie magazines. Issuu really needs a store like Scribd’s. But it is creating new mobile reading experiences which everyone can learn from.

I just wonder of down the road you need a separate app, or whether you can get the same reading experience from the Web. For now, Issuu is offering both and, at least for smaller screens, optimizing the experience with an app.

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