Mplayit, maker of the mobile app catalog that lives inside Facebook, will release a report later today that lists the top games in their collection. Tetris, The Sims 3, and Wheel of Fortune are among the winners. So are Tap Tap Revenge and Rock Band.
[via VentureBeat]
Currently, Android OS-based smartphones can only run software stored in their internal memory, which severely restricts the number of apps that can be installed. Google intends to remove this limitation, though.
Android devices have slots for removable memory cards, but these can’t be used to hold software that’s been installed on the device. Instead, apps go into a small internal partition that’s not directly accessible by users. This was done to prevent users from easily pirating software, but it also restricts the number of apps that can be installed.
After yesterday’s unveiling of Android OS 2.1, Google’s revealed a plan to allow users to install software onto a removable memory card in an encrypted form. This will both prevent easy piracy while also allowing users to store many gigabytes of app files.
At this point, it’s not clear when this feature will be add to the Android OS. The fact that a Google executive is willing to talk about it in public is a sign that it could be relatively soon, though.
[via Brighthand.com]
Google (NSDQ:GOOG)’s Android Market has crossed the 20,000 applications mark and is continuing to grow at a rapid clip, having nearly doubled in size in the last five months, according to a third-party portal.
A 20,000-app strong Android Market still puts Google well behind the titanic that is Apple’s App Store, but the progress suggests the Android Market is poised for explosive growth next year.
The 20,000 apps statistic comes from AndroLib, a portal and applications tracker that looked at the distribution of free and paid applications in Android Market and on Tuesday had the Android Market at more than 20,140 applications. Of those applications, about 62 percent are free and 38 percent are paid, according to AndroLib. Google’s Android Market saw the most software added in November 2009, around the time Motorola’s Droid smartphone was launched, AndroLib found.
Google CEO Eric Schmidt earlier this year suggested that Android’s growth would be explosive, and indeed, many of the fall’s hottest smartphones — from Motorola (NYSE:MOT), HTC, Samsung and others — run on the Android platform. Google itself has a Google-branded smartphone in the works called the Nexus One, scant details of which have started to emerge this week.
Most analysts suggest Apple (NSDQ:AAPL)’s App Store will hit 300,000 applications in 2010, with the Android Market expected to hit 50,000. In a presentation at the Raymond James IT Supply Chain conference in New York Tuesday, IDC Chief Research Officer John Gantz urged attendees to keep a sharp eye on how Google’s Android grows.
“Android is very distantly following the iPhone right now, but there will be some very interesting developmnts around the Google Android [platform] in the next 12 months,” said Gantz, who also predicted a “developer war like you’ve never seen” thanks to the number of mobile Internet users hitting 1 billion for the first time next year.
[via ChannelWeb]
Slacker Radio 3.0 (to be) on the BlackBerry Storm.
(Credit: Slacker Radio
Earlier today at CTIA Wireless 2009 (see all stories), Slacker Radio demoed its new apps for Windows Mobile, Android, and Blackberry phones. In typical slacker Radio fashion, the applications looked sleek, suave, and dark–we’re not sure about dangerous. All three apps are gravitating toward a similar, standard look that tweaks the interface to add the same small improvements across the board: a new screen that tiles lyrics (visible in full with the Radio Plus subscription), biographies, and a review, and an area that reminds you which song is playing while you browse other categories.
Google’s Android operating system, native to T-Mobile’s G1 and myTouch smartphones and due out soon in a number of new phones and even netbooks, is an impressively open and versatile platform. As with rival smartphone platforms — Apple’s iPhone OS, RIM’s BlackBerry OS and Palm’s new WebOS — the out-of-the-box features offered by Android are just a starting point.
[via Computer World]
In the mobile OS world, Google’s Android is still a challenger but with the amount of devices that will be running the system that are due to come out in the coming months alone in combination with its open approach it is definitely a contestant to watch closely. The success of Apple’s App Store for the iPhone / iPod Touch is often measured by how many apps have already been developed for the platform (around 70,000), but since Google doesn’t disclose exactly how many apps are available through Android Market it was difficult to compare the two on that particular level.
AndroLib’s latest stats show a total of 10,072 apps that were crawled by their system, the majority of which were free (64.2% to be exact).
[via MobileCrunch]
That’s right you don’t have to download apps only from the Google Android Market for your phone. You can download apps at an increasing number of sites. The one site that is currently standing out in the crowd is a place called SlideME which is an Android Community and Marketplace where developers can show case and sell their apps. Currently the SlideME Marketplace has a little over 200 apps which is dwarfed by the 5,000+ apps in the Google Market but they offer some unique apps like tethering. Apparently even Google has agreements with the cell phone providers and cannot offer tethering apps on their site. Another benefit is that people from anywhere in the world can use SlideME to purchase apps, where as the Google Market is mainly limited to the U.S. and the U.K.. And for developers SlideME has a feature called SlideLock to help protect their paid applications from being freely shared.
Check Out the SlideME Website:
http://www.slideme.org/
HowTo Install the SlideME App (Slide Sam)
This first part is needed for any external app:
NOTE: USE THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK! We take no responsibility for you breaking your phone, yada, yada, yada.
Goto “Settings” -> “Applications”
Then check the box for “Unknown Sources”, Allow Install of non-Market applications.
Exit back to the main screen
Now open the browser and go to “http://slideme.org/sam2.apk” to download the Slideme Market App
Once finished click on the downloaded application “sam2.apk”
Click “Install”
Click “Done” or “Open” to try out the application.
You should now have an app installed called “Slide Sam”. It works just like the Google Market App.
That’s it, have fun downloading more apps for your Android with the easy to use interface!
There are other stores emerging as well although not as advanced, like:
http://andappstore.com/
http://www.androlib.com/
http://www.androidfreeware.org/
http://www.cyrket.com/
This is in no way a complete list and I am sure more markets and download sites will be popping in the near future. You can also look for the developer’s main website for the application and sometimes you will find newer versions and alpha products that have not been released yet. This is great if you are having a problem with an app and can’t or don’t want to wait for and official update.
Happy Android App Hunting!
Article By: Daryll Bennett
Article Source: Google Android Blog
