Hasta La Gadget!

Google has pulled an app that ran PlayStation games. The app's creator blames the release of the upcoming Xperia Play phone (above), which plays PlayStation games.

By Ben Kuchera, Ars Technica

Google has yanked a PlayStation Emulator from the Android Market and the developer is claiming his program is being targeted due to the upcoming release of the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play. After all, why would someone pay for official copies of PlayStation games when they can download and play pirated, or legal backups, for free?

“PSX4DROID v2 was pulled by Google due to ‘Content Policy violation’ as noted here. Trying to determine what can be done,” the emulator’s developer wrote via Twitter. “Sony’s Xperia Play must be coming soon.”

The developer also complained that he was working on an update for the program, and is looking for ways to allow those who have already downloaded the program to access the improved version of the emulator. He thinks this is a larger issue, however. “This isn’t about emulators. This is about Google letting Sony rule their ‘open’; marketplace,” he continued. What’s odd about this argument is that, as of this writing, the FPSE emulator is still available.

Here are the reasons Google may remove your application from the Market:

• Illegal content
• Invasions of personal privacy or violations of the right of publicity
• Content that interferes with the functioning of any services of other parties
• Promotions of hate or incitement of violence
• Violations of intellectual property rights, including patent, copyright (see DMCA policy), trademark, trade secret, or other proprietary right of any party
• Any material not suitable for persons under 18
• Pornography, obscenity, nudity, or sexual activity
• Emulators themselves don’t run afoul of any of these policies, and they’re certainly not illegal. It’s a different story if you include copies of games with your for-pay application, but as long as the program is “bare” and it’s left to the user to find and play legally copied titles, the application should be acceptable.

We’ve contacted Google for comment, and will update this post if there is a clarification. This could be a misunderstanding, but the charges that Google is manipulating the Market in order to create a better environment for Sony’s for-pay games are serious and troubling.

See Also:

• Google pulls PlayStation emulator PSX4Droid from Android Market (pocketgamer.co.uk)

Openness has always been Android’s beauty and its curse. Google’s mobile operating system is available to any manufacturer that wants a slice, meaning you see it everywhere! It’s also historically been a place for hardware specialists and carriers to flex their software muscles, leading to custom alterations—skins—that often leave an elegant smartphone solution ugly, unusable, or both. More »

When you only have WiFi to worry about, testing in the foam rooms of doom at the FCC gets a little bit easier. Or so we’d imagine, anyhow. Samsung’s WiFi-only PMP, the Galaxy Player 5 (aka YP-G70, aka Galaxy Player 70), just got rubber-stamped by our favorite federal body, passing with flying colors. While we weren’t treated to any teardown antics, we do have the lovely sketch above showing you where you can find the FCC logo. It’s the thing on the pointy end of the red arrow above, a label that hopefully you’ll be able to see in person very soon.

[Thanks, James]

Galaxy Player 5 stops by the FCC, only takes the easy tests originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 31 Mar 2011 08:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A storm seems to be brewing over the realm of Android development. Bloomberg’s Businessweek spies have received word from “a dozen executives working at key companies in the Android ecosystem” that Google is actively working to gain control and final say over customizations of its popular mobile OS. That might not sound unreasonable, and indeed Google’s public position on the matter is that it’s seeking to stabilize the platform and ensure quality control, but it does mark a major shift from where Android started — an open source OS that was also open to manufacturers and carriers to customize as they wish. Not so anymore, we’re told, as apparently Mountain View is now demanding that content partnerships and OS tweaks get the blessing of Andy Rubin before proceeding. The alternative, of course, is to not be inside Google’s warm and fuzzy early access program, but then, as evidenced by the company recently withholding the Honeycomb source code, you end up far behind those among your competitors who do dance to Google’s pipe.

Things have gotten so heated, in fact, that complaints have apparently been made to the US Department of Justice. They may have something to do with allegations of Google holding back Verizon handsets with Microsoft’s Bing on board, ostensibly in an effort to trip up its biggest search competitor. Another major dissatisfaction expressed by those working with Android code is that Google needs an advance preview of what is being done in order to give it the green light — which, as noted by a pair of sources familiar with Facebook’s Android customization efforts, isn’t sitting well with people at all. Google and Facebook are direct competitors in the online space and it’s easily apparent how much one stands to gain from knowing the other’s plans early. As to the non-fragmentation clauses in licenses, Andy Rubin has pointed out those have been there from the start, but it’s only now that Google is really seeking to use them to establish control. The future of Android, therefore, looks to be a little less open and a little more Googlish — for better or worse. As Nokia’s Stephen Elop puts it:

“The premise of a true open software platform may be where Android started, but it’s not where Android is going.”

Google tightening control of Android, insisting licensees abide by ‘non-fragmentation clauses’? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 31 Mar 2011 05:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It looks like the steady stream of leaked HTC Pyramid pictures shows no signs of slowing down. While we’ve recently seen shots of the back and the front of the device, we’re now getting the full monty, courtesy of xda-developers. Thankfully, Mr. Blurrycam toned things down this time around: there’s a spread of the phone with its battery cover removed, and screenshots detailing additional specs. The HTC Pyramid is expected to land on T-Mobile at some point with a 1.2GHz dual-core Snapdragon processor, 768MB or RAM, a 4.3-inch qHD (960×540) display, font-facing camera, 8 megapixel camera with dual LED flash, HSPA+, and Android 2.3.2 (Gingerbread) with Sense 3.0. Hit the source link for more photos.

[Thanks, egypt and Andrew]

More HTC Pyramid pics leak, now with less blurrycam and extra specs originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Wed, 30 Mar 2011 21:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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