Hasta La Gadget!

Google’s Android Market now has a web client. Finally! And guess what else, it’s already live. Hit the source link below to get exploring. It’s very simple, really, you can browse the entire Market catalog on your desktop or however else you’re accessing the web, you can purchase anything that takes your fancy, and then — via the magic of over-the-air transfers — it downloads and installs onto your Android handset. A neat My Market Account section will let you nickname your registered devices to make them more recognizable as well.

Google has also just announced that Android will soon support in-app purchases. Widespread developer interest has been cited as the major reason for doing it, so you’ve got those lovable coders to thank for the oncoming wave of micropayments you’ll have to deal with in your Android apps. The in-app purchasing SDK is releasing to devs today and will be “live to users prior to the end of this quarter.”

Update: Invalid request. Yep, that’s the message we keep getting when we try and download an app. Google promises that it should be working soon…

Update 2: And now it appears to be working!

Android Market gets a web store with OTA installations, in-app purchases coming soon originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 Feb 2011 13:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve gotten a bunch of tips in the past hour or so that the Android Market is doing weird things, and we can corroborate this on our Nexus S here — we’re just not able to download stuff. Apps look like they’re starting to download, then they suddenly vanish into thin air without a trace and without an error message. Our Droid 2 is still fully functional, though, so this definitely isn’t consistent; really, we’re just wondering if this outage might have something to do with tomorrow’s Android-themed festivities at the Google campus, which — naturally — we’ll be attending. So how is everyone faring out there tonight?

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Android Market acting weird — is it a precursor to tomorrow’s event? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Feb 2011 23:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve already heard of some changes that Google’s planning to make to boost app purchases in the Android Market, and it looks like it’s now also undertaking a considerable in-house effort to increase the number of quality apps that are available. According to The Wall Street Journal, Google is planning to hire “dozens” of software engineers, product managers, user-interface experts and “others who have ideas for mobile apps,” and it’s apparently already shifted some of its current employees to work in this new “apps lab.” As you might expect, that’s being done at least in part to close the so-called “app gap” with Apple, and it looks like the new apps will reach far beyond Google’s usual properties — the WSJ even specifically mentions games as one area they’ll focus on. The apps would also apparently all be free (but possibly ad-supported), and Google is said to be trying to woo developers with its distribution power, noting that it will be able to promote the apps in the Android Market and even have them pre-installed on many phones.

Google said to be hiring ‘dozens’ to boost Android app development originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Feb 2011 13:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Having a Market full of apps is a very good thing for owners of Android handsets, but those owners buying few premium apps is a bad thing for developers who keep that Market full. That, of course, is also bad news for Google, which is making a variety of changes to appease devs, some of which Android Platform Manager Eric Chu outlined at the Inside Social Apps conference yesterday. After already nuking the 24 hour trial period Google is now working on an in-app payment system, which would enable the direct-selling of add-ons, costumes, and enough other bits and bobs to ensure you’ll never buy a fully-featured app again.

Google is also negotiating with more carriers to allow users to have app purchases appear on their bill, rather than using a separate payment system, as is already possible on AT&T. Finally, a team of honest to gosh humans is working on helping to weed out apps that violate the company’s terms of service, sifting through the Market to find bogus downloads, perhaps an admission that the “open and unobstructed environment” ideal isn’t working out. We wonder if they’ll also be looking for free apps that quite capably provide the functionality of premium ones. Those, it seems, are the greatest threat to the paid apps — and perhaps the greatest asset of the Market itself.

Google ‘not happy’ with Android Market purchase rates, many changes coming originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 26 Jan 2011 06:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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After Google’s uncharacteristic (and swift) action against Flash game clearinghouse Kongregate when its Android app went live a few days ago, it wasn’t clear what was going to have to happen to get it back in the Market — but they’re giving it a shot today by making a few key tweaks and republishing. Most notably, version 1.1 no longer dumps Flash games that you download to SD storage; instead, the phone’s browser cache is used just as for any other website you visit, which would seem to be a definitive step toward giving the app less of an “app store” feel — precisely the thing that Google’s concerned about. We’ll have to wait and see whether this puppy stays deployed… but for now, you can grab it from the Market.

Kongregate makes triumphant return to Android Market after a few tweaks originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 25 Jan 2011 19:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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