Last month, Google revealed that their total number of downloaded Android apps had passed the 10 billion mark. The largest slice of the app pie went to games, with a staggering 25.6% of all apps downloaded, that’s 2,560 million games downloaded so far. Phew. Here’s our rundown of the top 5 free Android games available on the market at the moment.

5 – Zombie Dash

At the time of writing, this game holds the number 1 spot on the freebie Android games chart, having toppled the mighty Angry Birds from its pedestal. The secret of the Android games success is down to two things. The first aspect is its simplicity – you have two moves at your disposal, jump and shoot. The second aspects is zombies. People like zombies. Especially when you can shoot them. When jump and shoot is combined with zombies, you have a winning formula, as 5 million Android games downloads have so far confirmed.

Like this games app? Download Zombie Dash from the free Android games chart.

4 – Pool Master Pro

Pool has always been a popular game subject whatever the platform, and the Android games version continues the trend with its 10 million downloads. Offering practice modes, as well as options to play against a friend or the computer, simply add a pint of lager and bowl of stale peanuts to recreate your local pool hall as accurately as possible without ever leaving the house.

Like this games app? Download Pool Master Pro from the free Android games chart.

3 – Fruit Slice

There has been much debate over the two fruit based slicing games currently available. Fruit Slice and Fruit Ninja offer a very similar setup; various items of fresh fruit fly through the air as you swipe the touchscreen to split each item of your potential five-a-day. The plentiful produce is occasionally punctuated by Looney Tunes style bombs, which you have to avoid or its game over. It may sound dull, but it’s hugely addictive stuff. On the Android games chart, Fruit Ninja has the highest placing (although they both have 10 million downloads), but we suspect that this is just down to it having the better name. Ninjas are cool – ‘nuff said. Judged on the games themselves, however, Fruit Slice is the clear victor. It offers more games on the app itself, much better graphics, and a smoother gameplay. If you have a spare fifteen minutes to waste though, either of the two will pass the time nicely.

Like this games app? Download Fruit Slice from the free Android games chart.

2 – Words With Friends

This game is essentially Scrabble, but slower, which doesn’t necessarily sound too exciting, but stay with us on this one. The slow nature of the game is essentially its unique selling point, as it’s great for taking out on your afternoon break, playing your go, and then forgetting about it until later. The game consists of a Scrabble style set-up where you make words with the lettered tiles you are given, trying to use the double/triple letter/word squares to hit maximum points. As the title suggests, you can connect with your favourite social networking site to challenge your friends, or select random player in order to take on a mystery opponent from anywhere in the world. It would appear that ‘Words with Friends or Stangers’ just wasn’t as catchy a title. Either way, it has 10 million downloads to date.

Like this games app? Download Words With Friends from the free Android games chart.

..And number 1 of our Android games – Angry Birds

Probably the most popular smartphone game ever, with a mere 50 million downloads at the time of writing, our number 1 spot goes to those perturbed avians, the Angry Birds. It’s a total mystery as to why they are quite so angry, or why they take out their frustration by loading themselves into slingshots in order to systematically assassinate a race of green disembodied pigs with a penchant for flimsy architecture, but they just do. Spawning a series of themed sequels and special editions, such as the Halloween and Rio editions, and their very own merchandising line in the real world, the Angry Birds seem pretty unstoppable… especially if you’re a pig with no legs..

Like this games app? Download Angry Birds from the free Android games chart.

But why take our word for it, all Android games mentioned are free of charge so log onto the Android Market and check them out for yourself.

Prefer portable console gaming to Android games apps? Check out our blog on the soon to be released PS Vita. If you’ve played these free Android games, let us know what you think of them on our Facebook page. Find out more about Android smartphones.

I’m Lee and have been with the Geek Squad since February 2007. I work as a double agent mostly visiting homes to kill all your spyware, and make computers do what you want them too. My specialties lie in Macs and Mobile Phones so as my first blog post I have given you a quick run through some of the steps you can go through if your phone misbehaves. Hopefully it will be a help to some of you!

Its amazing how many people have problems with phones and do not know basic steps to follow on how to fix them, especially when you consider how importantly mobile phones feature in people’s lives. What I am going to tell you about now are the steps I go through to fix a problem:

1. Turn the phone on and off

It may sound obvious but whenever I get someone who cannot make a call, cannot text or even some keys do not work the first thing I ask them is, have you tried turning your phone on and off. We refer to it as a power cycle and it can fix a lot of problems, a customer will often ask me why should they have to do that. You must bear in mind that most mobiles are on 24/7 there are not many electrical devices that have the same demands put upon them. By performing a power cycle you are giving the phone a breather.

2. If the problem still exists try a master reset

This is like a super power cycle if you will, a phone may look pretty basic from the menu you see but there are thousands of processes running in the background that determine how your phone run. So if one of those processes is not working correctly it is very difficult to diagnose and also even more difficult to change. The best thing to do is a factory reset, it is often found in settings and should be relatively easy to find. It will change your ringtone and wallpaper and any other customization your have made but will not delete your pictures or any other data, (be careful with Sony Ericsson handsets though there is an option which does do this, just pay particular attention to what it says on the screen).

3. Still Broken

If these are both unsuccessful you should check your phone for water damage, there is usually an indicator on your battery which should be a white dot or small square, if it is any other colour then I am afraid you are in trouble. Water damage does not always manifest itself immediately so that time you thought you got away with using it in the rain 3 months ago could easily only now just be affecting your phone, if this is the case your phone insurance should cover you for a replacement.

Other than that the phone could simply have a bug, the phone manufacturers are under such pressure to release new handsets the quickest, the testing time before release is getting shorter and shorter this is why they entitle you to free software upgrades throughout your entire first year of ownership so you can make sure you have the fastest most feature packed experience possible with your handset. This is done by either sending your phone to the manufacturer (usually 28 days) or the easier option is to take it to a Carphone Warehouse where on occasion they can fix it on site if they can, failing that they send it to a central location where the turnaround time is around 14 days.

4. If all else fails….

Try finding people with the same problem. If your problem is on a Nokia n95 and you are having trouble sending texts type “nokia n95 text problem forum” into the Google and you will be granted access to a world where people are having the same problem where most of the time someone else has done the hard work and found a solution already that you can apply. If this is fruitless you can always appeal for help by crating your own topic, the Nokia forum is especially helpful with the engineers themselves often posting solutions.

So these are the steps that I follow myself and also when I am charged with the task of fixing other phones too. Hopefully if you follow them to it will help you out. Always remember to back up your photos and numbers either on a computer or extra memory card. If this all sounds a bit confusing and not worth your time, you can get us to do it instead. Call 0800 049 4335 and a geek squad agent will be on hand to advise you of the best solution. If you would rather e-mail send your problem to contact@geeksquad.co.uk and chances are I will deal with you myself.

Lee Williams | Agent 5235
Geek Squad Europe | London