27
Oct
paypal_post

Whoops: PayPal Accidently Reveals That Support For Android, iOS, And BlackBerry Is Coming

Posted by in Apps/Games, News

In what is certainly a grade-A dropping of the ball, it looks like somebody accidently pulled the trigger on a post at PayPal's Blog before it was time to. We say accidently because the post read:

... reporting from Innovate 2010. Today, Google announced that you can use PayPal to buy apps on their Android Market.

The only thing is, at the time the post went live, no such thing had been revealed yet - whoops. The post was quickly pulled, but thankfully Google Cached it - and just in case that somehow disappears, we've got a screencap of it right here:

paypal_post

This should be good news for developers and users alike from unsupported countries, as many have complained about issues with Google's current setup.

07
Oct
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AppBrain App Updated Again, Adds Handful Of New (Awesome) Features

Posted by in Applications, Apps/Games, Games, News

Looks like the already-awesome AppBrain App Market app (yea, it's a little hard to wrap your head around that one) has been updated today, and now includes some pretty awesome new features:

  • Cloud to Device app uninstalls
  • Set wallpaper
  • Send URL to phone
  • Landscape mode
  • Dark theme

Cloud to device uninstalls are by far the big winner there - AppBrain already allowed some pretty awesome remote control over your phone's apps via your PC, and remote uninstall is a major addition to the existing feature set. Set wallpaper could also be handy - I'm personally not a big fan of how Android handles setting picture wallpapers - but I have yet to test it.

21
Jul
install

The Race To App Store Quality

Posted by in Applications, Editorials

Ever since Apple released its App Store on the (then) iPhone OS 2.0, a special emphasis has been placed on the quantity of apps. As other app markets arrived, the same metric of success carried over. The platform creators used the quantity of applications as a way to convince critics that their platform was popular and thriving and that prospective buyers could take comfort in the platform they were investing money.

Fast forward to 2010. The app market model has proved crucial in this smartphone arms race and Google itself just announced 70,000 applications in the Android Market. That’s great! There’s a diversified, quality collection of Android applications ready for discovery… right?

06
Jul
Android_Developer_Logo-9881ae9ac14ba612

Developers: Android Market Needs Some Work

Posted by in Development, News

The H Open wrote an interesting article on a post from developer Jon Lech Johansen’s blog. Johansen, co-founder and CTO of doubleTwist, had some pretty legitimate complaints about and suggestions for the Android Market. For example:

  • The Android Market is available in 46 countries; developers can only offer paid apps in 13 of those
  • Prices for foreign apps are not displayed in a users local currency – they are displayed in the dev’s currency
  • Developers can’t customize their price by country – they set it in one currency, and it is automatically converted into others at the current exchange rate
  • Foreign apps can’t be paid for with American Express or billed to your phone plan
  • No support for in-app changelogs or payments
  • Google is too hands-off about the market - there are more than a few apps that are blatantly illegal

4739920738_519ec86498 

All in all, they seem like very reasonable complaints to me, and most seem like they would be (comparatively) easy enough to fix.

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