Hasta La Gadget!

Android Market may have a lot going for it, but most would surely agree that it could use some improvement when it comes to discovering apps that you aren’t specifically looking for. Thankfully, it seems Google has indeed been aware of those concerns, and it’s now announced five new features that should go so some way towards improving things. Those include some newly revamped top app charts that promise to be “fresher” and country specific, a brand new Editors’ Choice section that highlights apps chosen by Google, a new Top Developers feature that places a special icon next to the name of developers that make the grade (currently more than 150), improved related apps on individual app pages and, last but not least, a new trending apps section that shows the apps growing fastest in terms of daily installs. What’s more, while all of those features are currently exclusive to the web-based version, Google says they’re also “coming soon” to the Android Market on both phones and tablets.

In other Android Market news, Google has also announced that it will be adding support for larger apps — up to 4GB — in June, and it will be giving developers the ability to exclude specific devices to avoid compatibility problems, or make multiple versions of an app available under a single Market listing, complete with aggregated ratings and stats. All that, plus personalized recommendations based on your apps (details on it are still a bit light), and paid app support for an additional 99 countries (coming within the next week or so).

[Thanks, Ian and ZZ]

Google announces new ways to discover apps on Android Market, more tools for developers originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 May 2011 15:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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One of the features that makes choosing to pick up a BlackBerry PlayBook a little safer is the compatibility with Android apps. You can run RIM‘s official apps and those of third-parties developed specifically for the platform and OS, but there’s the thousands of Android apps to fall back on too. The only problem is […]

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The iPad’s native iPod app isn’t particularly pretty nor easy to use—you either get a dense list of artist names or a scattershot cover view—but even if it did get a swell redesign, it’s hard to imagine it existing in the same universe as the breathtaking cosmic music player Planetary. More »

Criticized for its lack of native applications like e-mail, the Blackberry Playbook will debut that and other new features this summer. Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

Most of the complaints aimed at Research in Motion’s BlackBerry PlayBook tablet have been based on its middling array of software. But after a live demonstration of soon-to-come apps at the company’s BlackBerry World conference on Tuesday, the naysayers may begin to shut up.

For the first time since the tablet’s release, RIM showed off a live demo of the three biggest features that have been MIA since the tablet’s launch: native e-mail, calendar and contacts applications. The company also ran a number of Android applications on the PlayBook, which will eventually be available in BlackBerry’s App World store.

Combined, the demos show that RIM is serious about shoring up the PlayBook’s shortcomings, and it’s willing to recruit the vast library of Android apps to help bolster its own tablet’s appeal.

Currently, those who want to access their e-mail on the PlayBook have one of two options: open a browser window and navigate to a web-based e-mail client, or use the BlackBerry Bridge feature, which requires tethering the PlayBook to an existing BlackBerry smartphone in order to view e-mail on the tablet. Those who don’t have a BlackBerry phone but still want native e-mail access are out of luck.

RIM has taken a lot of heat for launching the PlayBook without native e-mail, calendar and contacts applications. After receiving early test devices, many reviewers (including Wired.com) considered the tablet half-baked, formidable in its hardware yet unfinished in its software.

RIM’s strategy has been to address those shortcomings gradually, continuously pushing over-the-air updates to its customers. On Tuesday, for example, the PlayBook received video chat capability. Later this summer, the PlayBook will receive a native Facebook app, with e-mail and calendar apps to follow.

Some have criticized this release schedule as compensation for a premature product release. But with the first generation iPad already beating every other tablet to market by a year, RIM’s release strategy seems to be a necessary compromise: If it had shipped any later, and the PlayBook would have been even more irrelevant.

The company has also been criticized for its small amount of apps available for the PlayBook in its App World store, roughly 3,000 at launch. But 3,000 is far more tablet-specific apps than Android Honeycomb-powered tablets like the Motorola Xoom and Acer’s Iconia A500 Tab have available to them. As of this week, the Android Honeycomb tablet app count hovers somewhere in the range of 50.

In order to supplant its lack of PlayBook apps upon launch, RIM decided to allow Android apps to be ported over to the PlayBook Tablet OS by developers. After a developer submits his or her Android app to BlackBerry App World, RIM vets the apps and releases them to its store if deemed acceptable.

Android applications ran in an “Android Player” app, which expanded to fill the tablet’s entire seven-inch screen. The apps seemed to run smoothly throughout the demo, with no crashing or visible stuttering. Though it should be noted that the apps RIM demoed were not Android version 3.0 (Honeycomb), “tablet-optimized” ones, but rather version 2.2 (Froyo) applications. It hasn’t been said if the PlayBook will be able to run Honeycomb-tablet apps.

Whether an Android or BlackBerry app, all are available through App World without differentiation. RIM calls this its “one-app experience.” Since there are many more Android apps than there are for the BlackBerry at the moment, it’s probably a better move by the company to keep the two uniform in look. Imagine looking down at a RIM product filled with nothing Android apps — it might be enough to make you wonder why you didn’t buy an Android device in the first place.

RIM said it plans to release the three native applications “later this summer” in an over-the-air software update. The Android applications weren’t given an exact ETA.