Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Sep

Next Up To Try And Overthrow The Android Market: Amazon

Posted by Brad Ganley in Apps/Games, News

Hot on the heels of plans for Verizon to create their own market for Android, Amazon.com has decided that they will now create their own app market. Developers reportedly started receiving emails about a business opportunity from Amazon on September 25th. At that time, there were very few details aside from the fact that it was happening. Now, there is a bit more clarity from our friends at TechCrunch:

Okay, some details:

For each sale of an App, we will pay you a royalty equal to the greater of 70% of the purchase price or 20% of the List Price as of the purchase date (70/30 is standard, this 20/80 split is somewhat odd and confusing)

The List Price is apparently in place so that you can’t sell your app cheaper on other “similar services” — meaning other app stores, presumably

The “similar services” should also include the forthcoming Chrome Web Store, if I’m reading this correctly

There is a $99 fee to be a developer in this program (the same as Apple’s iOS developer program)

It seems like if your app is available on other platforms, you have to make sure to update it at the same time on Amazon’s store that you do in any other store (this will piss off a lot of developers)

Apps will have to be laced with Amazon DRM — meaning they will only work on devices they approve (obviously)

Amazon has the right to pull any app for any reason (obviously)

Apps can also be shown on amazon.com (this is up to Amazon)

You can offer free apps

The app store is U.S.-only (at least for now)

This part is interesting too: “We have sole discretion to determine all features and operations of this program and to set the retail price and other terms on which we sell Apps.”

As of right now, that's all we know.

Sep

HTC Merge Shots Emerge: Complete With Brushed Metal Keyboard...And Bing

Posted by Brian O'Toole in HTC, News, Verizon Wireless

BoyGeniusReport just got a nice clear photo of the HTC Merge, a device we may or may not have seen pass through the FCC with a red keyboard, better known as the dual-mode QWERTY slider for Verizon. The phone appears to be running Sense, and is now rocking a rather svelte brushed-metal style keyboard - one with a markedly different layout to the G2.

There's also the whole Bing thing. It seems that Microsoft have a deal with Verizon to shove Bing onto any phones without the DROID branding. Which is pretty strange, considering the whole black-and-red colour scheme the Merge has got going on, making it look like it really should be a DROID.

Sep

Droid 2 R2-D2 Edition Breaks Free Of The Tractor Beam September 30 For $249, Pre-Loaded With Star Wars Themed Goodies. Do You Think It Will Be A Flop? [Poll]

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Droid 2, Motorola, News, Verizon Wireless

Not many phones come at the on-contract price of $249, save for the Epic 4G, and now, the latest addition to the Droid family - the R2-D2 edition of the Droid 2. At $249 it's not exactly cheap, but then again, that buys you not just the Star Wars-themed phone itself, but also:

a box designed to look like carbonite
a special Star Wars dock
the interactive live wallpapers we caught sight of earlier
a bunch of custom sounds, photos, and widgets
a "binoculars" app (your guess is as good as mine as to what that's for)
an Empire Strikes Back app that will be available from the Android Market for $2.99 for this device and all other Android phones on Verizon running Android 2.1 and above

Of course, the software side of this phone should be ported over to other Android devices soon enough - look no further than the clever ~~hackers~~ developers over at xda-developers for proof of that - but who could say no to an R2-D2-themed phone?

Sep

Cyanogen Demos HTC Fast-Boot-A-Like On Nexus One

Posted by Brian O'Toole in Development, News, Nexus One (Passion), Videos

This is what happens when you try to one-up the open-source community. Just when we were beginning to think HTC Sense might have come up trumps with a real killer feature in their Fast Boot, CyanogenMod creator Steve Kondik's right there with a cheeky "Yeah, CM6 "does" too :)". Tweeting that the feature will be committed to the CyanogenMod source soon (possibly with the arrival of version 6.1), Cy noted that the Nexus One would likely last in this hibernation state for about a week. Now, let's see what it looks like in action:

Of course, as we have discussed before, this is not a real, clean reboot, but we can still see plenty of potential use cases - switching off in areas of areas of no coverage, periodic check-ins on hikes, and other scenarios where something quite close to instant-on would be.

Sep

Calling All Designers For Our Biggest Contest Yet: Design A Shirt, Win A New Android Phone

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Contests / Giveaways, Intercept, Samsung

Last Updated: March 22nd, 2012

This contest is now over and the winner has been chosen. See this post for details.

We'll keep this short and sweet - Android Police needs an official shirt design. However, none of us are of the artistic caliber necessary for such an endeavor (if you need any proof of that, check out the t-shirt I was sporting at Google I/O this year. Ironed on, baby!). This is where you, the super-talented-Photoshop/Illustrator-wizard, come in.

If we pick your design as the winning entry, you will get a brand new free black Samsung Intercept slider phone for Sprint valued at $499.99 (see our review of this phone here), shipped to your doorstep, courtesy of Samsung.

Sep

[How-To] Get FM Radio Working On Your Rooted Droid 2

Posted by Brad Ganley in Droid 2, News

This article deals with rooting. If you’re unfamiliar with the term, hit up our primer here: Rooting Explained + Top 5 Benefits Of Rooting

There was initially some doubt as to whether or not the Motorola Droid 2 actually contained the proper hardware for FM radio. We can safely lay that discussion to rest because, as of today, the developers at XDA have gotten a fully working port of the FM radio app from the Droid X onto the Droid 2. While it takes a good amount of knowledge to get this done, it doesn't take very long. In reference to how well it works, you are going to have to decide that for yourself.

Sep

[Productivity Series] Four Little Apps That Will Make Using Your Android Device A Whole Lot Easier

Posted by Ron Hamelin in App Reviews, Applications, Reviews, Tips & Tutorials

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

Get that boss-key ready, because it’s time to kick off the first installment in Android Police’s productivity series! We’ve scoured the [sometimes murky] depths of the Android Market for those vital productivity boosting applications that can save you time, money, and hopefully, some sanity. We’re always looking for new apps to cover, so if you have any suggestions, drop us a line at tips@androidpolice.com

I’m always looking for ways to make using my Android device easier and faster. Well, I’ve discovered four apps in the Market that will do just that… and, best of all, they’re free.

In-App WiFi

This little app does exactly what it says: it allows you to turn WiFi on or off, no matter what you’re doing on your Android device.

Sep

Appcelerator & IDC's Q4 Mobile Developer Report: Android's Hitting Its Stride, Likely To Conquer Electronics Landscape

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Android OS, Apps/Games, News

In June, Appcelerator surveyed 2,700 mobile developers and published the results in a report that we covered. The June report showed that developers prefer to develop for iOS, but that they had a more positive long-term outlook on Android; fast forward three months, and Android has widened its lead in long-term outlook. Further, developers see Android as being more capable, more open, and offering better support for multiple devices.

After running June's report, Appcelerator wanted to get a better look at the "why" behind the results as well as a more in-depth look at how developers view a wider range of devices.

Sep

Verizon To Jump On The Capped Mobile Data Plan Bandwagon

Posted by Brad Ganley in News, Verizon Wireless

It looks a lot like Verizon is going to follow in the much-criticized footsteps of AT&T and their tiered data plans, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal. Before you scream "travesty!", consider this: Nielson (the company that analyzes everything so others don't have to) has reported that 99% of the 60,000 phone bills they had looked at would benefit from a tiered pricing structure.

The average monthly consumption of mobile data has risen from last year's 90MB up to 298MB this year. This is, obviously, nowhere even close to 5GB that some "unlimited" plans include but also takes non-smartphone users into account.

Sep

T-Mobile G2 Will Not Support Tethering At Launch, But T-Mobile May Add It Later

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Froyo 2.2, G2 (Vision), HTC, News, T-Mobile

While T-Mobile's G2 may support calling over WiFi, according to TmoNews, it won't support one of stock FroYo's best features: turning the phone into a portable WiFi hotspot.

T-Mobile's official statement on the matter?

“T-Mobile does not currently support handset tethering or offer a tethering rate plan. Though tethering and Wi-Fi sharing will not be initially supported on the T-Mobile G2, we know that consumers are interested in these features and we are working to develop a solution to support them in the future.”

A flawed explanation at best, especially since the Nexus One, which runs on T-Mobile's network (unless you've got the AT&T version of the phone), supports the WiFi hotspot feature.