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

May

Want Advanced Play Store Filtering (Such As Seeing Just Paid Apps) And Ability To Add Your Own eBooks Into Play Books? Do This Now

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Google, News

I know many of you have been longing for a way to filter the apps you've paid for into one convenient list. Neither the web nor the app Play Store currently allow this, despite years of outcry. Things are looking up, however, as I believe Google is finally paying attention.

You see, there is a little-known official channel with current top suggestions for Play Store-related features called Suggest a feature for Google Play. You can suggest your own ideas at the bottom, but it also contains a curated list of current top suggestions you can vote for by clicking Suggest it (I think it's a little ambiguous to have a Suggest it button in a list of existing suggestions - it should probably be called Vote for it).

Feb

Paid Apps Return To The Taiwan Play Store After Kerfuffle With Local Laws

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Google, News

Around a year and a half ago, Google removed access to paid apps from the Taiwanese Play Store after a complaint was issued claiming that the company violated a local law demanding a seven day return window. A surprisingly short court battle ensued and 8 months later Mountain View walked away with a $34k fine (you read that right), and a losing appeal. The company opted, at that point, to simply remain out of the Taiwanese market. Until now.

We reached out to Google to confirm that it was, indeed, offering paid apps again. The company had this to say:

“Google Inc.

Feb

[New App] Tiny Phone People Live Wallpaper Lets You Live Out Your 'Rear Window' Fantasies

Posted by Jeremiah Rice in Applications, News

It's not often that we see a live wallpaper that's interesting enough to feature all on its own, but Tiny Phone People fits the bill. This elaborate wallpaper makes your phone a window into the tiny life of one diminutive denizen, as he or she makes their way around the house. The wallpaper gives you a cutaway view of their living place, not unlike a modified version of The Sims... or a certain Hitchcock classic. You might not even want to clutter up your viewing area with useless junk like apps and widgets.

Tiny Phone People cycles through a real-time day and night rhythm, with the character in question puttering around with appropriate actions like sleeping and watching TV.

Jan

Google Play Paid Apps Are Finally Available In Egypt - Music, Movies, And Books Are Still Off Limits

Posted by Jeremiah Rice in News

Egyptian Android users, the day you've been waiting for has finally arrived... assuming that you've been waiting to hand over some pounds to hard-working app developers. Google has updated its list of paid app territories to include Egypt, so open the Play Store and gorge yourself on ad-free indulgences.

Previously Egyptian Android users could download apps from the Play Store, but only free titles. A long-standing petition at Change.org has called for access to paid apps, though there's no indication that the 54 signatures present spurred Google into action. Like most territories outside of the U.S. and western Europe, Egypt still does not have access to the wider Google Play Music, Google Play Movies, and Google Play Books libraries.

Nov

[Updated] Editorial: Full Disclosure - Should Developers Be Required To Disclose That Apps Are Ad-Supported?

Posted by David Ruddock in Android OS, Apps/Games, Editorials

Update: Looks like MachineWorks listened -- Duke Nukem 3D is now ad-free.

Earlier today, a somewhat anticipated game went live in the Android Market - Duke Nukem 3D. We covered the release and the news that it was on the way. But reviews of the app on the Market are painting a picture of a less than satisfied customer base, because of a couple key pieces of information that Machineworks Northwest left out of the app description.

First, the game is ad-supported - but it still costs $1 to purchase. The ads cannot be disabled. Now, I'm perfectly OK with developers making paid apps that also have in-app ads, that's a business decision, not a philosophical debate.

Oct

App Developer Posts His Experiences And Thoughts On Android Market And Apple App Store: Android Market Is Alright, But...

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

Benoit Essiambre, the developer behind iOS and Android apps Speed Bones, Speed Muscles, and Speed Anatomy, recently compared his experience with the Android Market to that of the Apple App Store. Particularly, he discussed ease-of-use, support, and perhaps most importantly, profitability. His thoughts as a developer: the Android Market has a perk or two, but overall it still falls short of the Apple App Store.

His first point: Canada only received paid market support just a few weeks ago. In fact, he created Speed Bones nearly two years ago, before realizing that the Market didn't yet support paid Canadian apps.

Aug

Android Piracy By Country

Posted by Justin Case in Apps/Games, Development

We received an email from David Keyes at KeyesLabs today, with a detailed analysis of piracy in various countries. For those that don't know, David is the author of the battery saving app Screebl, and the open source licensing library AAL. A true pioneer in Android app copy protection.

According to David's data, the often used excuse of "Paid apps are not available in my country" is at least partly bogus. He has customers from countries such as Nigeria, Kuwait, and the Ukraine who have found ways of purchasing apps through the Android Market, without the full market officially being available there.

Jul

Android Market Developer Distribution Agreement Updated To Allow Carrier Billing. Paid Apps In More International Markets Soon?

Posted by David Ruddock in Applications, News

In a short post on the Android developers blog, Googler Tim Bray let word out that the Android Market’s Developer Distribution Agreement had been updated in a significant way:

Posted by Tim Bray on 23 July 2010 at 5:24 PM

Please note that we have updated the Android Market Developer Distribution Agreement (DDA). This is in preparation for some work we’re doing on introducing new payment options, which we think developers will like.

In the spirit of transparency, we wanted to highlight the changes:

In Section 13.1, “authorized carriers” have been added as an indemnified party.

Section 13.2 is new in its entirety, covering indemnity for payment processors for claims related to tax accrual.