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New Media News Every Morning

Android Grows Up, Offers Developers A Reason To Join

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Despite dominating the mobile universe and offer the largest app store after Apple, the Android Market as a whole looked mediocre when compared against their iOS rival.

Previously the only way to locate an app without utilizing a smartphone was via third party sites or word of mouth (i.e. tech blogs or the news) making discover-ability difficult.

Now it looks like Google may not only have remedied that issue, but also added a few extra features that put Android Market on par with Apple’s App Store.

Starting today, we have extended Android Market client from mobile devices to every desktop. Anyone can now easily find and share applications from their favorite browser. Once users select an application they want, it will automatically be downloaded to their Android-powered devices over-the-air. […]

After months of hard work by the Android Market team, I am extremely pleased to announce the arrival of In-app Billing on Android Market. This new service gives developers more ways to monetize their applications through new billing models including try-and-buy, virtual goods, upgrades, and more. (Android Developers Blog)

Truth be told both of these features should have been launched months ago, as their absence probably explains why premium Android apps have performed so poorly when compared against their iOS brethren.

Unfortunately Android’s premium market is still small compared to Apple’s, as the former is only available in 32 countries which is pathetic compared to Apple’s 90 nation reach, although hopefully carrier billing can help make it easier for Android developers to put food on the table.

Users can visit the Android Market online at market.android.com, and while Google still has a few more quirks to fix before it can fully match Apple, it looks like developers may soon have a viable alternative to Apple’s walled garden.

Originally posted on February 3, 2011 @ 2:20 pm

Nokia Giving Up On MeeGo?

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After being birthed from an alliance between Intel’s Moblin and Nokia’s Maemo, Nokia reportedly may abandon MeeGo altogether instead of using the prized mobile OS to compete against Android as well as iOS devices.

Nokia has stopped developing its first smartphone using the MeeGo operating system, two industry sources close to the company said.

In a leaked internal memo, Chief Executive Stephen Elop wrote: “We thought MeeGo would be a platform for winning high-end smartphones. However, at this rate, by the end of 2011, we might have only one MeeGo product in the market.” (Reuters)

This isn’t good news for Nokia who hasn’t designed a decent smartphone ever since iOS was first unveiled to the world.

While the company undoubtedly makes some of the best phones around (hardware wise), the company has never excelled at software which seems to be the achilles heel for the company.

Betting on Symbian is probably equally foolish, especially in light of Android’s rise which could make the company obsolete half a decade from now.

Nokia’s only hope may lie with ditching Symbian for Android, although it wouldn’t be surprising to see the company choose Windows Phone 7 OS instead (given that their CEO Stephen Elop use to work for Microsoft).

Originally posted on February 9, 2011 @ 2:12 pm

Skype Courts Palm Pre 2 On Only One Carrier?

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For those of you who have not given up on webOS, you’ll be delighted to hear that Skype has finally released an app for Palm Pre 2 fans.

Unfortunately they are once again playing favorites with select carriers, which means a large number of Pre fans will be out of luck.

We’re working constantly to bring Skype to as many mobile devices as possible, and we’re excited to announce that Skype is now available on the Palm Pre 2 from Verizon Wireless. […]

All calls run on the largest and most reliable wireless network in the US, which helps to make sure that call quality is top-notch, and lets you use your favorite accessories, including Bluetooth headsets. (Official Skype Blog)

Palm Pre 2 fans upon other carriers attempting to download Skype will be greeted with a friendly “Skype is not available for your phone” despite the fact that they run the same exact mobile OS.

Skype isn’t saying when their app will be available for the rest of the Palm Pre tribe, but hopefully the company will consider exiting Verizon’s walled garden lest they lose out customers to rivals like Google Voice.

Note: If anyone has any tips/hacks for porting Skype to Palm Pre 2 fans on other carriers, feel free to enlighten us in the comment section below!

Originally posted on February 25, 2011 @ 3:33 pm

Google: Are You Ready For The Next Evolution Of Android?

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With half the geek world straining to analyze cryptic details regarding iPad 2.0, Google is preparing to show case the next generation of Android (dubbed Honeycomb according to Google).

Not content with merely releasing the Android 3.0 SDK, Google’s invited a smattering of press to its Mountain View campus on Feb. 2 for a closer look at Honeycomb. Didn’t get your invite? That’s OK, because the entire shindig’s going to be streamed atYouTube.com/android. (Android Central)

Although numerous Android tablets exist already, most of them are running a customized version of Android that was designed primarily for smartphones, not a larger touch screen device.

While Google’s mobile OS isn’t as impressive as webOS in my honest opinion, Android does have a greater developer community which could be Google’s key towards challenging iOS for the tablet crown.

It will be interesting to see if Android tablets running Honeycomb in 2011 will be able to slow down Apple’s momentum (similar to how Android has slowed down the iPhone’s momentum).

Unlike last year however Google may face stronger competition from rivals like the upcoming HP Topaz (sporting webOS) as well as the Blackberry Playbook, both who could potentially steal market share away from Google in 2011 (at least among tablets).

Originally posted on January 29, 2011 @ 1:19 am

Google Refutes Web Spam Myth

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After hearing numerous complaints across the blogosphere, the search engine giant has finally responded to allegations that it was unconcerned web spam popping up in their queries due to the fact that many spammers are generating revenue via Ad Sense.

As we’ve increased both our size and freshness in recent months, we’ve naturally indexed a lot of good content and some spam as well. To respond to that challenge, we recently launched a redesigned document-level classifier that makes it harder for spammy on-page content to rank highly. The new classifier is better at detecting spam on individual web pages, e.g., repeated spammy words—the sort of phrases you tend to see in junky, automated, self-promoting blog comments. We’ve also radically improved our ability to detect hacked sites, which were a major source of spam in 2010. And we’re evaluating multiple changes that should help drive spam levels even lower, including one change that primarily affects sites that copy others’ content and sites with low levels of original content. (Official Google Blog)

With plagiarism at an all time high, many bloggers have been worried about content farms driving them out of business by simply stealing ones content and using SEO tricks to rank ahead of the original author.

Fortunately for bloggers and free lancers, Google is still placing a greater emphasis on original content (regardless of whether one is using AdSense or not), which should help ease up some fears about Google becoming lazy when it comes to fighting spam upon their search engine.

Originally posted on January 21, 2011 @ 2:33 pm