Movies! We all watch them, we all love them, we all criticize them. My Daily Clip is an iOS app that plays one movie clip a day to tickle your eye. And to watch, love and criticize. More »
The Amazon Appstore is the exclusive source (for now) for Angry Birds Rio, which is a free download on Tuesday only.
Amazon opened the doors Tuesday on its own marketplace for Android apps.
As reported by Wired.com last week, Amazon’s new store, the Amazon Appstore for Android, appears to be a more-carefully curated, selective virtual storefront than the Google’s default Android Market. It features the new Angry Birds Rio game, as well as many other popular Android apps, including Twitter, Fruit Ninja, Shazam, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and others. The Amazon Appstore has 3,800 apps, according to reports.
While most of these apps (with the exception of Angry Birds Rio, which is an Amazon exclusive for now) are also available through Google’s Android Market, Amazon’s sales pitch to customers appears to be trust and ease of use. For developers, it’s access to Amazon’s vast customer base.
“The Android platform’s openness provides a great opportunity to reach new customers,” said Mikael Hed, CEO of Rovio, the maker of Angry Birds, in a statement provided by Amazon.
The Google Android Market is primarily accessible through Android phones, which makes comparison shopping difficult, hampers the ability to read many reviews and slows down search to the speed at which you can type on your phone’s keyboard. (Google recently added a web version of its store.) In addition, the Android Market has been frequently criticized for the low quality of and even security risks posed by some apps, a probably inevitable side effect of Google’s rather open policies. However, it contains over 200,000 apps, a far wider selection than any mobile app store save Apple’s.
With the Amazon Appstore, by contrast, apps are easier to browse and appear to be more carefully vetted by Amazon. Customers can browse Android apps through Amazon’s familiar web interface, which makes it easy to see customer ratings and reviews, look at screenshots, read details on the app and see related apps.
In addition, Amazon says it will provide the ability to “test-drive” apps in the web browser, through a simulated Android phone. We were not able to find this feature on any apps in the store, however.
To purchase apps, customers must install an Amazon Appstore app on their Android phones, which requires Android 1.6 or higher.
One problem for Amazon is that its store does not work with AT&T phones, although Amazon says AT&T is working on a solution. AT&T Android devices are currently configured to install apps from the Android Market only. There are workarounds, but they require a bit of comfort with using the command line.
AT&T told Wired.com that it plans to support third-party app stores, including the Amazon Appstore, on Android phones soon.
“We’re working to give our Android customers access to third party application stores,” an AT&T spokesman said. “This requires updates to our systems and finalizing arrangements with Amazon. We we will share more info with our customers in the near future.”
Another obstacle Amazon will face is a lawsuit Apple filed March 18, which claims that Amazon is improperly using the term “App Store,” which Apple says it has trademarked.
In addition to its store’s ease of use, Amazon’s biggest advantage may simply be the option to pay for apps through Amazon.com, which is available in more countries than Google Checkout and has been around more than a decade longer than Google’s payment system.
Once installed and connected with your Amazon account, you have the option of shopping through the Appstore app or on the Amazon.com website. However, you need to use Amazon’s app to actually download and install your new apps (they cannot be “pushed” to your device).
In addition, the Amazon website displays information about each app’s compatibility with your phones, since it knows what kind of hardware you have.
Everyday is an iPhone app to make a movie of yourself getting old
Everyday is a single-serve iPhone app which looks like a lot of fun — if you have a little discipline. Essentially it is an app for snapping self-portraits, but it brings an extra feature not found in other photo-apps: time.
The idea is to snap a picture of your face every single day (that’s where the discipline comes in). Then, once you have a bunch of photos saved, you can stitch them together into a time-lapse movie. You may have seen this kind of thing before — movies spanning decades done by patient people with regular cameras. The difference with Everyday is that it is easy, even if you’re forgetful.
To take a snap, you line up your face with on-screen guides, or show a ghostly overlay from a previous shot. Then snap! That’s it. You can share the individual photos manually or automatically to the usual places — Flickr, Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr — and you can also have the app pop up a daily reminder for you to take the shot.
But the best part? It’s actually not the app, but the accompanying video spot, filmed by the ever soporific-seeming Adam Lisagor, the go-to commercial-maker for nerdy companies with something to sell. Check it out:
Everyday will cost you $2, and is available now.
Everyday product page [iTunes]
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The alternative app store for Android is now live—however much Apple doesn’t like others using the term “app store,”—where US Android owners can download the new Angry Birds Rio game for free, along with 3,799 other apps. It’s been years wandering the desert, but Android users finally have an app oasis of their own. More »
In spite of Apple’s grumbling, Amazon’s proceeding full steam ahead with the rollout of its Appstore for Android. The switch has just been flipped and early adopters will be welcomed with a free copy of Angry Birds Rio, whose Android launch Amazon scooped all to itself. Beyond day one, Rio will be a $0.99 app, but others will take its place as the online retailer is aiming to serve one usually-paid app for free each day. A total of around 3,800 applications are available at launch and you’ll be able to get on board via either a dedicated Appstore app on Android (sideload link available below) or Amazon’s web interface. The latter offers you a 30-minute Test Drive facility, where you can try out a program you might fancy for your phone before purchasing. Service looks to be US-only for now — sorry, international users.
Update: The web Appstore has gone down. Don’t panic, we’re sure it’s just teething troubles and not a smiting by the Cupertino ninja collective. In the mean time, the app still looks to be working okay.
Continue reading Amazon Appstore for Android goes live, welcomes newcomers with free Angry Birds Rio
Amazon Appstore for Android goes live, welcomes newcomers with free Angry Birds Rio originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 22 Mar 2011 03:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Looking for a little snappier response when jumping to and fro between apps on your WP7 device? Well, do we have just the hack for you — a dev from Windows Phone Hacker, Jaxbot, did some poking around in the Window’s Phone registry and found a way to instantly resume apps, no muss, no fuss. By setting the “DehydrateOnPause” registry key value to zero, he got rid of that pesky app dehydration / rehydration process altogether. Keep in mind there may be some “undesirable” side effects from force-feeding your device multitasking (ADD?) ahead of schedule and you’ll need a developer-unlocked device to access the registry, so only advanced users need apply — you taking notes, Mr. Ballmer? Hit up the source link for the full monty, and check out the hack in action after the break.
Windows Phone 7 hack brings instant app resumption, mobile multitasking to the masses originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 21 Mar 2011 22:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
You had to know this was coming. Apple, which is already engaged in a heated battle with Microsoft for the protection of its “App Store” trademark, has filed suit against Amazon for its “improper use” of the same. Amazon’s Android Appstore seems to have been intentionally contracted to a single word to differentiate its name, but that difference isn’t enough for Apple, which has asked a California court to grant a ruling preventing Amazon’s use of the moniker and asking for unspecified damages. Apple claims it reached out to Amazon on three separate occasions asking it to rename its software download offering, but when faced with the lack of a “substantive response,” it decided to take things to court. Its big task remains unchanged — proving that the term App Store is something more than a generic descriptor — and this was a somewhat inevitable move given Amazon’s choice of name. The legal maneuvering, as always, continues.
Apple sues Amazon for App Store trademark infringement originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 21 Mar 2011 20:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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The official Twitter app for iPhone is fantastic! Or, well, was was fantastic until Twitter shoved all those promoted tweets into the top of your timeline. If you’ve been so annoyed with the dickbar that you want to ditch the official Twitter app, here are six of the best non-Twitter Twitter apps available for the iPhone. More »
A screen shot of part of the page you would see when visiting amazon.com/apps before it was taken down. Photo: androidnews.de
Retail giant Amazon is preparing to launch its own app store on the Android platform on Tuesday, March 22, a trusted source told Wired.com.
First leaked in September, Amazon’s Android app store will be a curated market, meaning Amazon reviewers will determine which apps are allowed inside, similar to Apple’s iTunes App Store. That’s a contrast to Google’s “anything goes” policy for apps that appear in the Android Marketplace.
Amazon has been less than discreet with its imminent app store. Earlier this week, an Android fan discovered that a webpage for the Amazon app store —http://www.amazon.com/apps — went live prematurely, revealing a horizontal sliding menu of about 48 apps and their prices.
Customers will be able to purchase apps through the Amazon.com website or directly through a native Amazon app on their Android devices, said our tipster, who is involved in the launch. Our source asked to remain anonymous due to a non-disclosure agreement.
For apps that have links to purchase and download other apps, those links must go through the Amazon market. They may not contain URLs to apps on the Android market, our source added.
An Amazon app store is possible on Android because, unlike Apple, Google allows third parties to set up their own software shops on the Android platform. Some critics point out that an Amazon app store in addition to an official Android app market may create confusion on the platform.
However, it’s worth noting that Amazon payment systems are deployed in more countries than Google Checkout, so an Amazon app store may pose serious competition to the Android Marketplace, and possibly even iTunes.
TechCrunch has speculated that the Amazon app store may precede an Amazon-made tablet powered by the Android OS, enabling Amazon to more directly compete with Apple and other tablet manufacturers.
Multiple reports claim that Amazon will focus on lower prices for apps to gain a competitive edge. Indeed, tech blog Android News looked through the 48 apps on the leaked webpage and found that prices of a few apps undercut the prices for the same respective apps listed on Google’s Marketplace.
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