Android Market acting weird — is it a precursor to tomorrow’s event?

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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Google Music and web-based Android Market could be announced tomorrow

Google’s last Android-centric event, Google I/O in the middle of last year, treated us to a pair of delectable demos that may now finally be turning into mobile realities. One was a web client for the Android Market with OTA installations — you just browse to an app you want to install while on your desktop and choose to push it to your Android device — and the other was a cloud-based music backup and streaming service. The latter has since picked up the moniker of Google Music in subsequent rumors, and today both are receiving some speculative support for a launch at tomorrow’s Honeycomb event. Android and Me has an insider source claiming the web-based Android Market is finally ready to roll out, whereas BusinessWeek reports Andy Rubin is heading up Google’s digital music team and also has software ready for release, potentially at some point this month. Given the importance of both new additions, it’s highly logical for Google to at least announce and show them off once more tomorrow. Then we can get back to waiting for the next Android update.

Google Music and web-based Android Market could be announced tomorrow originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Feb 2011 15:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Gizmodo  |  sourceAndroid and Me, BusinessWeek  | Email this | Comments

Google said to be hiring ‘dozens’ to boost Android app development

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.

Permalink Slashdot  |  sourceWall Street Journal  | Email this | Comments

Enspert Identity Tab E201 rings up at $350 with Froyo, Gmail and Android Market

Enspert blindsided us at CES 2011 with a pair of quality Android tablets, and here’s another surprise — next month, the company’s Identity Tab E201 will apparently ship 100% Google-certified. Importer Dynamism is taking preorders on February 1st for the 7-inch Android 2.2 tablet, which comes with both Gmail and Android Market on board, though admittedly for a somewhat larger outlay than we originally heard. $350 is what you’ll pay for the 800 x 480 slate, which sports a 1GHz Hummingbird processor and PowerVR SGX540 graphics, 8GB storage and 512MB RAM, 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1, a full compliment of sensors and an SD card slot. Just a month ago we’d have called this quite the deal, but come February 1st you may want to wait — after all, Google’s busy bees may show off the fruits of their labors the very next day.

Enspert Identity Tab E201 rings up at $350 with Froyo, Gmail and Android Market originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 30 Jan 2011 12:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink jkkmobile  |  sourceDynamism  | Email this | Comments

Google ‘not happy’ with Android Market purchase rates, many changes coming

Google 'not happy' with Android Market purchase rates, many changes coming

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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Google I/O includes Google TV app development session; software speedup in the works

Take this for what it’s worth, but the schedule for Google’s 2011 I/O conference includes a little session called “Building Android Apps for Google TV,” as well as “Building Web Apps for Google TV.” That’s certainly interesting, as Google’s reportedly asked TV manufacturers to delay (or at least downplay) their smart TV products at CES until the core software is revamped, and we’re hearing that the relaunch will focus heavily on apps. We’re also told by a trusted source that there’s a big performance boost coming as things get more optimized, comparable to the jump from Android 1.6 to Android 2.3 on phones, and that future input devices will be more streamlined and simpler to use than the current Logitech and Sony affairs. That’s all good news, but, um, I/O isn’t until May, so we’re hoping all this stuff comes true much, much sooner than that.

[Thanks, D.]

Google I/O includes Google TV app development session; software speedup in the works originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 25 Jan 2011 21:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Kongregate makes triumphant return to Android Market after a few tweaks

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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Google Removes Flash App From Android Market

Apple exerts famously tight-fisted control over what apps make it into its iTunes App Store. Now, one Android app developer has learned, Google can play that game, too.

Kongregate, a popular website featuring Adobe Flash-based games, had an app in the official Android Market for less than 24 hours before Google pulled it down.

Google removed the Kongregate Arcade app on Wednesday afternoon, citing a violation of the Android Market Developer Distribution Agreement.

Although Google didn’t elaborate, it’s likely that Kongregate violates section 4.5 of the Developer Distribution Agreement. That’s a non-compete clause which states developers “may not use the Market to distribute or make available any Product whose primary purpose is to facilitate the distribution of Products outside of the Market.”

The Kongregate app hosts Flash games created by thousands of outside developers. In other words, the app is in effect routing around the Android Market’s approval process, setting up its own distribution system for Flash-based software.

“It does seem like a pretty extreme distortion to call something that plays content in a browser to be the same thing as an application store,” Kongregate CEO Jim Greer said in a statement given to multiple news outlets.  “By this definition, we don’t see why apps like the Kindle or other music apps aren’t across the line.”

Google’s policy is reminiscent of Apple’s infamous no-Flash policy on iOS devices. Apple has stated publicly that it disallows Flash due to the platform’s proprietary nature, security issues and performance-related problems. But there’s another, unstated reason why Apple doesn’t want Flash: It’s too dangerous for a company that wants to maintain control of its products and software to let a platform like Flash become accessible to the iOS. If Flash developers were to do what Kongregate did with the Android Marketplace — code games in Flash and load them to a web page, which the Marketplace app redirects users to — Apple would lose control of the iOS platform. That could introduce security risks but would also cut into Apple’s revenue, as it would provide developers with a way to distribute software while avoiding paying the percentage that Apple takes on app sales.

Google, however, is being more straightforward with their approach. Rather than unleashing a torrent of words on us like Steve Jobs did with his no-Flash explanation, the DDA clause boils down to two hyphenated words: “Non-compete.” Don’t release apps that have the potential to take customers outside of the Android Marketplace economy.

Pointing at others who may or may not be breaking the rules, however, probably won’t help Kongregate much in this case. But the company hasn’t completely given up hope for reconciling their differences with Google.

“While Google has pulled [the app] down temporarily,” Greer told Wired.com in an email statement, “we will work with them to make the app available in their Market.”

It’s not as if Kongregate is completely exiled from all Android OS-running handsets, either. It took me only a few minutes to sideload the Kongregate Arcade app onto my smartphone by accessing Kongregate’s web site directly through my phone’s browser, although to do so I had to deactivate the safety option prohibiting users from downloading apps from unofficial Android app stores. And there’s always the option of putting the app up on alternative, unofficial Android app markets.

But being banned from the most popular market for Android apps is obviously undesirable for Kongregate. At least the company has a pretty good idea of why Google is objecting to its app.

Photo: Kongregate app/Gamestop.com

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Kongregate app pulled from Android Marketplace, CEO hopes it’s just a misunderstanding

We’ve heard of apps getting 187’d from the iTunes App Store ad nauseum, but Google’s Android Marketplace? That’s pretty novel. In what is probably the most high profile bait-and-switch since the mobile platform’s launch, Kongregate found its eponymous software pulled on the very same day it came out. As CEO Jim Greer tells Joystiq, the app was pulled due to the “claim you can’t use their app store to distribute another app store.” Which is all well and good until you realize that what Kongregate the app does is simply serve as a portal for Kongregrate the mobile site — Greer says it’s the same experience as visiting m.kongregate.com to play its free Flash games — with the option for offline mode. “It’s all essentially cached content delivered in a browser,” he said, “which to me is just bizarre that that would be considered an ‘app store,'” he said.

The Android Market Developer Distribution Agreement says, “you may not use the Market to distribute or make available any Product whose primary purpose is to facilitate the distribution of Products outside of the Market,” with Product defined broadly as “Software, content and digital materials created for Devices in accordance with the Android SDK and distributed via the Market.” When we talked to Google, the company pointed out the same clause and said, “Applications in violation of our policies (like Kongregate) are removed from Android Market.”

Greer adds that a number of people in Google had seen it previously and liked the app (not the ones who ultimately pulled it), and he hopes this is all some grand misunderstanding. We’ll see, but in the meantime, the app is still available for side loading care of Kongregate’s website. Nothing like a backup plan, eh?

Kongregate app pulled from Android Marketplace, CEO hopes it’s just a misunderstanding originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 Jan 2011 22:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceJoystiq, Kongregate  | Email this | Comments

14-year-old dev’s first game tops iOS free apps list (we’ll just say it: aww…)

Eighth graders of the world: you’re not overachieving enough. Meet Robert Nay, the subject of today’s feel-good story. The 14-year old Utah native designed a simple-and-fun mobile game and managed to rack up a million downloads within two weeks of its December 29th launch. Which thrust his game to the top of the iTunes Free Apps list (and subsequently netted another 400,000 downloads, according to AllThingsD). Bubble Ball’s the game, also available in the Android Market. Give it a shot, and then do more with yourself, k?

14-year-old dev’s first game tops iOS free apps list (we’ll just say it: aww…) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 18 Jan 2011 00:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink dailywireless.org  |  sourceAllThingsD  | Email this | Comments