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Mar

The Pros And Cons Of The Amazon App Store: A Promising Market Replacement?

Posted by Cameron Summerson in App Reviews, Applications, Editorials, News, Other Reviews, Reviews

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

On March 22nd, the long awaited Amazon Appstore was released, bringing a whole new way to find, install, and share apps on Android. After its initial debut, we decided that this new Appstore was the real deal. In this post, we'll break down what Amazon's done right, and what it still needs to improve on.

Pros

1. Better descriptions and more in-depth comments

Most users will tell you that finding good Android apps is not an easy task. If you're browsing the Android Market looking for something specific, then the only bit of information that you have to work with is what the developer wants to say (which usually isn’t much) and one-line-comments from other users.

Mar

[Weekend Poll] Now That The Amazon App Store Is Here, What Are Your Thoughts?

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Apps/Games, News, Polls

Last Updated: September 3rd, 2011

This is the newest in our Weekend Poll series. For last week's, see AT&T Is Buying T-Mobile USA; As The Dust Settles, What Are Your Thoughts?

We saw it coming from a mile away (and knew all the details), and now it's finally happened: the Amazon Appstore officially launched on Tuesday, March 22. So far, with the exception of a minor hiccup, it looks like the launch has been fairly smooth. Now that you've had a few days to test the waters, we'd like to know what your thoughts are on the Appstore.

As always, you can vote in the poll below, and we encourage you to drop us a line in the comments to voice your opinion.

Mar

Amazon Is On A Roll: Today's Free Premium Android Appstore App - SwiftKey Keyboard

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, Deals, News

Without taking a break from yesterday's free Shazam Encore deal, Amazon is continuing its daily giveaway of awesome premium Android apps with another one of our favorites - SwiftKey Keyboard.

SwiftKey normally costs $1.99 in the Android Market ($1.79 in the Amazon Appstore), but for the next 24 hours, U.S. residents will be able to download it to their Digital Lockers for free, thereby claiming it forever. Even if you are not a fan of SwiftKey just yet, there is no reason to pass on this deal if you can get it - just do it now, then think and decide later.

Mar

Amazon Appstore's Free Premium App Of The Day: Shazam Encore (Normally $5)

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, Deals, News

To those who can access it (read: U.S. users), the Amazon Appstore may seem like one of the best things since sliced bread - it trumps Google's own web-based Android Market in almost every way. One of such differentiating features is the Goldbox-like Free Premium App of the Day concept that, like Groupon and its competitors, was introduced to provide great deals to consumers and giant spikes in traffic to app developers.

Of course, it was no surprise that the first such premium app given away was Angry Birds: Rio (though, it remains free to this day and was clearly more of a marketing ploy), but the next few apps were not really that exciting.

Mar

Gameloft Turns To Amazon To Distribute Games On Android

Posted by Brad Ganley in Games, News

In a recent interview with Reuters, Gameloft stated that they will be focusing their attention on the Amazon App Store to distribute their games on the Android platform. The company's games are already insanely popular on Android (and iOS, for that matter), despite being actively opposed to Google's Android Market. Their Android offerings have thus far only been available on their website, so their move to a Market isn't so surprising.

Their reasoning for choosing the Amazon App Store? Consumers are already comfortable making payments through Amazon, and it provides a better ecosystem for game distribution. More importantly, though is that Gameloft sees Google's DRM to be wildly inadequate.

Mar

Nostalgic For Heroes Of Might & Magic? Highborn From The Guys Who Made Command & Conquer Is Now Exclusively In The Amazon Android Market

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Games, News

When I was growing up in the 90s, one of my favorite games I probably spent a combined year of playing time on was Heroes Of Might And Magic, a turn-based strategy that you can play for weeks. Since each move lasts as long as you want, it's easy to keep playing whenever you have a free moment (or a block of 5 hours in my case), and the vast number of strategies, heroes, units, and resources provided for almost infinite replay value.

While not exactly HOMM, today I was very excited to see a new game, called Highborn, made by the guys at Jet Set Games, who in turn used to work in Westwood Studios, the company that made equally as infamous Command & Conquer (+ Red Alert) back in the 90s.

Mar

[Updated] The Amazon Android Appstore Now Live - Angry Birds Rio Is The First Free App Of The Day [Download]

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Apps/Games, News

Moments ago, after months of preparations and precisely on the rumored release date of March 22nd, the Amazon Android Appstore finally went live.

Update: The Amazon App Store is now back up, but it looks like it's US-only. Also, the Test Drive is not available anymore, at least for now.

If the appstore is still down for you, try downloading the app using this direct link to the appstore APK (I got it via an SMS from Amazon): http://amzn.to/getappstore. You should be able to log into your account, browse, and download apps this way.

You can filter apps by featured categories, such as Instant Trials, Bestsellers, Top Rated, New Releases, Free, and Deals, as well as conventional categories, such as Games, Music, News & Weather, etc.

Mar

Apple Sues Amazon Over Use Of 'App Store' Name

Posted by David Ruddock in Apps/Games, Development, News

Amazon's upcoming Android Market competitor, the Amazon Appstore, is in hot water for its namesake. On Monday, Apple filed a lawsuit in a California federal court claiming Amazon had infringed on its trademark of the phrase "App Store." Apple applied for a trademark to this name way back in 2008, but it wasn't approved until January of 2010. Since then, Microsoft has filed a dispute with the trademark office alleging that the grant was improper. That complaint's outcome is still pending.

In the meantime, Amazon may have a difficult time asserting that its use of "Appstore" (as opposed to "App Store") doesn't violate Apple's trademark - it's hard to deny that Apple's App Store is a well-know name in the mobile world.

Mar

Dell Streak 7 WiFi Only Android Tablet On Sale For $379 On Amazon

Posted by Abhiroop Basu in News, Streak 7

Although not yet officially announced by Dell, Amazon has made the Wi-Fi-only version of the Dell Streak 7 tablet available for pre-order on its website for $379.99.

The 4G version of Dell's latest tablet went on sale over a month ago, however its unsubsidized price on Amazon is $449.99. So, the sub-$400 price tag of the WiFi version of this tablet may be an attractive proposition for first time tablet purchasers looking to get their feet wet.

Reviews of this tablet were lacklustre but it may be a compelling device for those looking for a smaller form-factor.

The specifications of this version of the tablet are largely the same as the earlier 4G model, only lacking the cellular radio:

7" WVGA display
Android 2.2 with Dell Stage UI
5MP rear camera
1.3 MP front-facing camera
16GB internal SD storage plus SD card slot
WiFi
Bluetooth
GPS

There is no word yet on when the device will start shipping.

Mar

Unnamed Toshiba Honeycomb Tablet Appears On Amazon - No Word On Price

Posted by Abhiroop Basu in Honeycomb 3.0/3.1/3.2, News, Thrive / Regza / Antares / AT100, Toshiba

Last Updated: April 16th, 2011

Over a month after Toshiba first demoed its Android Honeycomb tablet with an awesome teaser site, Amazon has put up a product page featuring the tablet with its specifications and capabilities. The tablet cannot actually be purchased from Amazon yet and there is also no word on pricing or when it will finally become available.