How to find the best Android tablet apps

However much Google tries, discovering great latest android tablet apps isn’t as easy as it should be.You’re sifting through an assortment of apps for smartphones and tablets and – with the search giant’s open ecosystem approach meaning there is not the same strict vetting process as there is with the App Store and Windows Store – quality varies wildly.Here's what you need to do to make sure you only have the best – and most useful – native Android apps running on your tablet.

Tablified Market is a third-party app that essentially acts as an independent app store for Android tablet apps.The developer has even taken an Apple-esque approach to quality control, pulling scaled-up phone apps from the search and perusing newly submitted apps for Android’s Action Bar and the tablet-specific Fragments API -- tell-tale signs that an app is tablet-friendly.

Kudos to Google because they’ve been making strides in recent months, not only in persuading developers to make better newest tablets apps but also in making improvements to the Google Play store itself.At last month’s Google I/O, the search giant announced that it was tweaking Google Play to show apps designed for tablets in its top app charts.This feature may not work on every Android tablet – for example, the Ice Cream Sandwich tablet I've been using doesn't show this selection in the app storefront.dsaDE3D

But never fear if you too can't find it on your device – you can always head to the desktop version of Google Play and see the list for ‘featured Android apps for tablets’. It’s not perfect – certain vertical apps aren’t listed as they are with the App Store – but it’s better than it ever was before.

Tech review sites often do list articles on the best apps for certain platforms and while that extends to Android, most of these haven’t been tablet-specific.There are useful web resources around though; you just have to be on the lookout.As just a few examples, InformationWeek has a neat list of some of the more popular Android tablet apps and CIO has a similar list for new Android Q88 Tablet buyers. TabTimes' popular list of the 25 best Android tablet apps for work, productivity and business is also worth checking out. Stay tuned for an updated version coming this summer.

Earlier this week, rumors started circulating that Microsoft was cutting the price of RT licenses for OEMs in an effort to boost sales of the failing OS. Many hardware makers have made their ideas of RT clear this week at Computex, such as Hewlett-Packard (HP), which said it currently doesn't have any plans for an RT device; Acer, which called Windows RT "immature," and said that it is focusing on Windows 8 Pro and Android-based tablets instead, and Samsung, which said it hasn't decided whether it should make a successor to its RT tablets for sale. On the other hand, HTC said it's deciding against a larger RT-based tablet, but will develop a 7-inch device with Windows RT. Dell is also working on a new RT tablet and plans to update the XPS 10 this year.