05
Sep
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Sources Confirm To The Verge That An Amazon Smartphone Is Coming, May Be Announced Tomorrow

Posted by in Amazon, Android OS, News, Rumors

After Motorola's big event today, we didn't figure much of anything else interesting would be going on. We were wrong - numerous sources have confirmed to TheVerge that Amazon is legitimately, actually working on a smartphone. We totally pretended to call it.

Those same sources say that Amazon's phone is yet to be totally finished, but that we may see a prototype tomorrow at Amazon's event in Los Angeles. They've also confirmed it runs a variant of an expected-to-be-announced Android 4.0-based Kindle Fire OS, which makes sense. That means no Google services, which definitely would put it at a disadvantage compared to, well, almost everything on the market.

01
Aug
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Amazon Mobile Android App Updated To Version 2.0 - Shop By Department Added, Major Performance Enhancements

Posted by in Applications, News

If there's one thing that's annoyed me about the Amazon app for Android, it has been the lack of a shop by department option. Sometimes you just have an urge to peruse the "Everything Else" section. Today's update to Amazon's official mobile app for Android finally allows you to do just that.

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And this is the full Amazon shopping experience - you get all the sort and filter options you would on the website, which is awesome indeed. While the look of the app is basically the same (a bit odd for a 2.0 release), Amazon has done some under-the-hood performance optimization that has really sped up scrolling and page load times (at least on my One X).

31
Jul
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Awesome: Amazon MP3 Now Matches Your Imported Music To Its Own Library And Gives You 256Kbps Versions, Plus A Lot More

Posted by in Applications, News

I make no bones of the fact that Amazon's MP3 service is my favored music playback option on Android, and the service just got a big update to compete with its primary rival - Google Music. The general changelog is here, but it's a little difficult to parse, so I'll give you the gist.

  • Imported file matching to Amazon MP3 library. This is big. Any time you import music into Amazon Cloud Player, before the file is uploaded, Amazon scans the entirety of the eligible Amazon MP3 library and if it finds a match, just adds that file to your Cloud Player library.

13
May
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[Rumor] Amazon May Be Working On An "Entire Family" Of Android Devices (For Real This Time)

Posted by in Amazon, Devices By Manufacturer, News, Rumors

It looks like truth may just mirror fiction. Either that or the Android Police team has some scary psychic powers (although some may call it intuition). According to Android And Me's latest rumor, Amazon is indeed set to dip their toes into the waters of the Android device market. Multiple tipsters within the industry have informed them that Amazon is working on an "entire family" of Android devices slates for a holiday 2011 arrival. It seems safe to say that "entire family" can be interpreted as a phone and a number of different sized tablets.

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This isn't very surprising, as Amazon has been a major player in e-readers for a long time, and there have been previous rumors of "iPad competitors" coming out of Amazon HQ since September of last year.

01
Mar
Amazon Appstore Developer Blog Is Packed With Details, From The Appstore Requirements & Layout To Tips To Help Your App Succeed - Android News, Reviews, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets, Tips, Mods, Videos, Tutorials - Android Police

Is Amazon's Android Market Set To Launch This Month?

Posted by in Applications, News

That Android Market rival that Amazon.com has been preparing may be set to launch soon. If a recent tweet by advertising platform Millennial Media is correct, then it will be going live later this month.

While much is still unknown of the web retail behemoth's answer to the Android Market, their Developers' Blog did recently reveal several tidbits, including:

  • Your apps are linked to your Amazon account, and any apps you purchase will be pre-installed on Android devices you order from them
  • The style of the app listings will be consistent with Amazon.com's pages for any other product

Is there currently room for another store for Android apps?

29
Sep
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Amazon's Android App Store Legal Docs Leak, Reinforce Rumors

Posted by in Android OS, Apps/Games, News

That new Android app store that Amazon is rumored to be working on? Yeah, SlashGear just landed a copy of the Terms & Conditions for it, and it confirms just about everything we'd heard earlier:

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.”

Some pretty lame requirements there, no?