PocketGamer.biz Week That Was: Apple ignores F2P for GotY, Mavens take on sexism in the industry, and YouTube's false copyright claims create pain for indies

Unless you're in the parcel or mail delivery business, chances are good that you're wrapping up your last bit of work for the year and have thoughts of some well-earned time off.

But just because the App Store Freeze kicks off on Saturday doesn't mean that the mobile games industry has been sitting idle this past week.

Far from it, in fact. Things have been as busy as ever, but thankfully your friends at Pocket Gamer Biz are here to bring you the highlights of the week that was.

Tools and platforms

• Wearable tech gets another boost of talent, as ex-OpenFeint engineer Jakob Wilkenson launched the Awear platform for wearable computing.
• Applifier thinks the PS4's video sharing is 'awesome' but sees much more potential on mobile.
• Apple skipped over freemium as it named Ridiculous Fishing and Badland its iPhone and iPad (respectively) Games of the Year.

Monetisation

• Headaches all around from YouTube, as false copyright claims see indie devs scramble to claim footage from their own games.
• Get them in early - our first Chart of the Week shows that 63 percent of IAP spending happens on day one.
• While the second takes a look to the east and notices that Chinese mobile advertising is booming up 151 percent.
• Meanwhile, our Monetizer for the week looks at the western card battler Heroes of Dragon Age.
• Edging out Candy Crush Saga and Puzzle & Dragons, Distimo named Clash of Clans the top grossing app of the year.
• And GREE's "I can't quit you" award-winning Knights & Dragons tops $5 million in a 30-day period.

Industry voices

• Icelandic dev Plain Vanilla's Thor Fridriksson notes that while it had $1 million for UA at launch, it only spent a fraction of it (and still hit #1 in the US).
• Our Mobile Gaming Mavens discuss whether the games industry is inherently sexist, or if the problem is broader than that.
• While Carter Dotson from 148Apps thinks its time for the mobile industry to find a balance between success and failure.
• Why game when you can develop? Createrria's Wojciech Borczyk talks about why the game creation app is looking to turn gamers into developers.
• And Pixelberry's CEO Oliver Miao shares how weekly updates are key to keeping High School Story's day-7 retention rates over 50 percent.

Funding, start ups and acquisitions

• Polish education app start-up Frugoton secured $300,000 in seed funding as it announced its incorporation in the US.
• While Android OS customization outfit CyanogenMod raised $23 million with new investors Andreessen Horowitz and Tencent leading the charge.

PG Connects
We've started a speaker spotlight on the industry voices who'll be educating attendees at PG Connects- our conference scheduled for January 20-21 in London. Highlighted attendees include:

• Nicoll Hunt, I Fight Bears
• Veli-Pekka Piirainen, Critical Force
• Volker Hirsh, Oystercrowd
• Steve Gray, Tencent
• Harry Holmwood, Marvelous AQL
• Enda Carey, Standfast