store

Jan

[Preview] Steam On Android Is A Great Companion App, But It Still Needs Plenty Of Work

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in App Reviews, Games

Yesterday Steam launched its brand new app for Android. Unfortunately, the app is still in closed beta and many users are waiting with bated breath for their invites to show up. If you're among the unwashed masses waiting for your golden ticket, we’ve got you covered. Don’t worry, though. You're not missing out on too much.

The Basics

Let's get the obvious out of the way first: you won't be playing any games with this app. While users might hope for an OnLive-type setup that allows players to stream games over a network, Steam is still a ways off from ...

Nov

[Weekend Poll] Google Music Is Here, But Will You Use It?

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Applications

Last Updated: November 26th, 2011

This is the latest in our Weekend Poll series. For last week's, see How Many Apps/Games Do You Have Installed (Excluding Pre-Installed)?

Google debuted its official music store this week, and it's clear that the company has made a serious effort to bring to market a product that is geared towards consumers and artists alike. But can it crack a market that's already well-saturated (not to mention lead by the juggernaut that is iTunes)? Let's take a quick look at some of our post-launch coverage of the service:

Google Music is now out of beta. Contrary to what was

...

Nov

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Shameless Speculation: What In The Heck Are T-Mobile And Google Going To Announce On Wednesday? We Have A Guess Or Two

Posted by David Ruddock in Android OS, Editorials, News, Rumors, T-Mobile

It seems that invitees to Google's big not-yet-officially-about-Google-Music-event have just received a second invitation - to the after party. Oh, and Maroon 5, Busta Rhymes, Dirty South, R3hab, and Drake will all be in attendance - and so will we. We'll be watching the earlier event via livestream along with most everyone else (space is apparently very limited), but Android Police will present for the post-event-event Wednesday night, below. We're excited.

But as awesome as the event's headliners are, we're still more interested in what it is Google and T-Mobile are launching that warrants such a high-profile promotion.

Now, we ...

Oct

Rumor: Google's Music Store Will Not Have Subscriptions, But It Will Have Song Sharing

Posted by David Ruddock in Android OS, News

Google's Music service has been an incomplete experience since its unveiling at Google I/O back in May. While Music Beta does allow you to upload your songs and stream them to your Android device, it lacks any kind of storefront. Google does have a small library of featured free tunes for Music users, but I can't say any of the albums or artists there have ever really interested me too much.

A quick note on the "rumor" status of this post before we actually discuss it - Business Insider was contacted by a music industry insider regarding Google's deal with ...

May

[Amazon Appstore Lawsuit] An App Store Is Not A Store For Apps, Says Apple (No, Really, They Said That)

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

Yesterday, in the Federal Court for the Northern District of California, Apple filed its response to a counterclaim (filed by Amazon) in its ongoing suit over Amazon's use of the word "Appstore" in its new Android... app store (what else am I supposed to call it, Apple? An app acquisition service?)

The counterclaim contained one of the single greatest premises for a trademark lawsuit I have ever seen (not that I've seen that many):

Apple denies that, based on their common meaning, the words “app store” together denote a store for apps.
- Apple, Inc., 2011

Now, from a legal ...

May

Begun, The Market Wars Have: Plants vs. Zombies Coming Exclusively To Amazon App Store May 30

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

Are you ready for some Plants vs. Zombies? We know you've been waiting for it (I certainly have). Just a little bit longer: Plants vs. Zombies will be available on the Amazon App Store starting late this month (presumably May 30 or 31) for the low, low price of free. The app will be free on its debut-day (May 30), then for 2 weeks will be exclusively available on the Amazon App Store, in a deal similar to that which Rovio had with Amazon upon the release of Angry Birds Rio.

PopCap games, the developer of Plants vs. Zombies, ...

May

Mobile Research Firm Predicts Android Market Will Surpass Apple App Store In Number Of Apps In August 2011

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Apps/Games, News

Analyst Egle Mikalajunaite of research2guidance has modeled the growth of the Android Market and Apple App Store, and based on his predictions, the former will overtake the latter in August of this year. While we're generally pretty weary of these sort of predictions, the short-term nature certainly makes this much more plausible.

The graph largely speaks for itself, but there's a bit more to be said in terms of specific numbers. First, according to their numbers, the Market has been adding more apps per month since October of 2010. Second, it's since continued to pick up the pace (notice that ...

Apr

Buy.com Releases Official Android App

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, News

To shopaholics' delight, Internet superstore Buy.com quietly graced us with its official Android app this evening. After playing with it for a few minutes, I found it to be quite similar to Amazon's shopping app, including a prominent search box, product listings, Buy buttons, account management, barcode scanning, and voice searching.

All in all, not bad for the initial release, but considering the account management is just a wrapper over their mobile site, it's nothing to write home about either. Still, Buy.com enthusiasts will find it a step above the mobile experience.

Have a look at the screenshots and proceed ...

Apr

Editorial: Google's Music Talks Aren't Going Well - Will Music Be Too Little, Too Late?

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

To answer the question, briefly: nobody really knows at this point. But I do think Google is going to have to make some sacrifices in the short term if the Music service is going to get off the ground. And that's because the record labels won't play ball - at least not by Google's rules according to All Things D, quoting two apparently well-connected sources.

Of course, the words of a couple anonymous music industry insiders aren't definitively representative of the feelings of all the (presumably numerous) parties involved in Google's Music negotiations. For all we know, those persons could ...

Mar

Amazon Appstore Doubles Down: Farm Frenzy And Newsweek Mobile Both Free Today

Posted by David Ruddock in Applications, Deals, Games, News, Tips

That's right, Amazon's offering not one, but two free apps on the Amazon Appstore this morning! You can pick up the popular HeroCraft title Farm Frenzy along with the official Newsweek Mobile app from Amazon free of charge.

I don't know about you - but I can't tell which is which.

Newsweek Mobile offers Amazon's "Test Drive" in-browser emulation, so you can try it from your browser before making the 15 second commitment to put it on your phone. Anyways, load up the Amazon Appstore (if you can) and grab these freebies while the getting is good.

Update: ...

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 ...

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 ...

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, ...

Mar

Apple Sues Amazon Over Use Of 'App Store' Name

Posted by David Ruddock in Apps/Games, Dev, 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 ...

Feb

[Weekend Poll] Can The Amazon Appstore Succeed Against The Android Market?

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

Last Updated: September 3rd, 2011

This is the newest in our Weekend Poll series. For last week's, see Is The Nokia/Microsoft Alliance A Threat To Android?

A few days ago, we posted a rundown of the details found on the Amazon Appstore Developer Blog, and noted that the store will be very controlled compared to the nearly anarchistic Android Market:

On a subjective note, after reading through the details, I can’t help but wonder if Amazon is just going about it better than Google. I largely agree with David’s issues with the Market: it’s spammy, there’s no solid system for exploring new apps,

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