15
May
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[I/O 2013] Google Gives Developers A 'Better Distribution Experience' In Revised Play Store Console Coming 'This Summer'

Posted by in Applications, Development, News

Between Hangouts, the gorgeous new Maps, Play Music All Access, and everything else discussed in I/O's opening keynote this morning, several revisions to the Play Store developer's console were announced.

Perhaps the most interesting addition to the console will be an organized method for alpha and beta testing, and staged rollouts.  Basically, developers can select alpha and beta testers, receiving all feedback directly (instead of through reviews) and, when the time comes, roll out the app to certain percentages of the user base.

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The changes also include a major help in ensuring your apps make sense to international users – a full translation service by which developers can order specific translations, come back a week or so later, and download the translations directly from the console.

05
Mar
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[Rumor Smash] That Rounded, Gradient-Covered Rectangle Wasn't The Galaxy S IV, It Was An Expansys Placeholder

Posted by in News, Rumors

Rumors are tricky things. On the one hand, one of the best ways to verify that a suspicious-looking leak is legit is to examine the track record of the leakster. On the other hand, when an image comes out that's nothing but a rounded rectangle with a few gradients, it should be assumed that the picture is complete bunk or, at best, resembles a real device by virtue of adhering to predictable patterns. Those two principles collided, however, when the legendary @evleaks tweeted the following images that turned out to be Expansys placeholder photos.

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Here's the rub: @evleaks is generally a very reliable source.

23
Jan
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Developer Economics 2013 Report: Devs Want A Third Platform, Tablets Nearly As Important As Phones

Posted by in News

The Developer Economics 2013 report—a sort of State of the Union on app development—is out and it's packed with helpful tidbits, both for armchair analysts and programmers trying to make some sense out of this crazy software world. One of the most interesting observations the survey showed is there is still demand for a third platform. And right now they're getting it in a surprising place: on Blackberries.

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Above is the graph of OSes that developers list as their "main" platform. That is not to say that any of them code exclusively for them, just that it is the primary target for attention.

24
Sep
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Julie Uhrman Issues Official OUYA Status Report: 'We've Been Heads-Down Cranking'

Posted by in Android OS, Games, News

We've been covering the OUYA since its original debut as an ambitious idea on Kickstarter in July. Within a month, the campaign had raised an astounding $8.6 million. We've also heard that OUYA is partnering with Square Enix, will include OnLive support, and a whole lot more (thanks to Founder Julie Uhrman's AMA on Reddit).

After a brief pause in OUYA news, Uhrman recently published a post to the official OUYA blog, giving readers a "full update" on the project. The post, titled "the train keeps on rolling," explains just about everything from details surrounding the status of manufacturing, to developer relations, to plans for the fit and finish of the final product.

24
May
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Millennial Media Report Shows Android As Top OS, Galaxy Tab As Number 2 Tablet

Posted by in News

If we told you that Android was the number one mobile OS worldwide, you shouldn't really be surprised by this point. By most metrics, the little green guy has overtaken the competition in just about every area, including sales, actual userbase, and ad impressions, as demonstrated here by Millenial Media's report. There are a couple surprises in the report, though.

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For starters, while the iPad being the top ranked tablet is no surprise, the Galaxy Tab beating out the Kindle Fire is. The model in the report appears to be the original Galaxy Tab. The seven inch slate running Gingerbread.

14
Apr
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[Updated] Alleged App Crash Log Points To A Mysterious 'takju' Variant Of Galaxy Nexus, Confirms Android JellyBean Codename

Posted by in Android OS, Galaxy Nexus, Jelly Bean 4.1, News, Rumors
Last Updated: April 24th, 2012

Update: The takju mystery is solved: it's the U.S. GSM Nexus that Google released this morning. It's pretty clear that this device will be one of the first, if not the very first, to see the Jelly Bean OTA update.

We deal with rumors and potential fakes on a daily basis, and I have to warn you right away - on a scale of unconfirmed to solid, the source of this post is leaning to the left.

Everything you're about to see can be easily spoofed, but the circumstances in which the evidence was allegedly obtained, combined with information I dug up in our web server log and the web make quite a compelling case.

21
Dec
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Weather Underground Releases Official App – Utilize Interactive Maps, Hourly Forecasts, And More From Your Android Device

Posted by in Applications, News

Weather Underground, a popular (and extremely useful) online weather service, released its official app to the Android Market yesterday, bringing sophisticated, reliable weather reporting to the palm of your hand.

Perhaps the most handy of Weather Underground's features is the Interactive Wundermap, which allows users to get vital weather information in various forms, from webcam to satellite overlays to radar animations.

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WUnderground's app also includes up-to-the-minute local conditions from weather stations near you, reporting temperatures, "feels like" temperatures, hourly forecasts, interactive maps, 7-day forecasts, and more. Weather Underground also utilizes over 22,000 neighborhood weather stations, giving you "the most localized weather information available."

Overall, Weather Underground's app seems to live up to the name established by "the internet's first ever weather site." Best of all, the app is completely free in the Android Market, so there's no reason not to check it out.

05
Nov
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PSA: No, This Is Not MSN 2012, Angry Birds 2, Or Modern Warfare 3 For Android - What You Can Do If You See Malware In The Market

Posted by in Android OS, Apps/Games, Tips & Tutorials

In my continuous hunt for new apps, I sometimes run into such obvious malware/crapware that it causes an immediate virtual gag reflex. Sometimes, however, this malware is cleverly disguised and to an unsuspecting user it may seem legitimate.

Here, have a look at what I found today:

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If you briefly scanned this page, you may have missed the fact that the publisher's name is MicrosDft Corporation (in all caps), or that it's requesting a permission to directly dial phone numbers without your intervention, or that the website in the listing is msM.com.

Thankfully, the amount of 1-star user reviews is now starting to look alarming, but that wouldn't have been the case if you saw it right as it came out.

12
Oct
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Alternative Android Market BloomWorlds Dead Before Arrival - Here Are The Startup Lessons They've Learned (And You Should Too)

Posted by in News

Have you heard of BloomWorlds? Chances are you probably haven't, because even though I've been seeing intermittent updates about it on and off for the past year and a half, they never actually came out with a product, which was supposed to be a family-friendly, curated Android market. As of today, the project is shut down, and the post mortem report filled with reasons for its failure is sitting in our inboxes. And now your screens.

I've heard a lot of talk, and one of the founders even fruitlessly spent hours buying Brian and me drinks at CES trying to convince us that their market had a chance.

04
Mar
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Looks Like Google Is Starting To Listen - Hundreds Of Pirated Books/Apps Deleted From Android Market Minutes After Report

Posted by in Applications, News

Up until some recent events, it was quite hard to get through to Google regarding anything going on in the Android Market, be it stolen apps, copyrighted material, or getting any feedback regarding why your own app was removed. Sure, they still listened to DMCA requests and malware reports, but it seems that complaints by mostly large copyright owners saw any action, while reports by small-time developers getting ignored were getting abundant around the web.

The Android Market really doesn't need more bad publicity at this point, and Google knows that. Whether they will be beefing up their service personnel to handle complaints in an appropriate manner or not remains to be seen, but they are already quite a bit more sensitive to Market complaints, at least thrown by us into the atmosphere on Twitter.

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