Cult of Android - page 88

Papermill launched on Android several weeks ago. Developed by Ryan Bateman and designed with the help of Matt Legaspi, the app is a beautiful Instapaper client for Android devices. Papermill received high praise from the community and widespread media coverage when it launched, and the developer has since broken down its success based on sales. The conclusions he draws about Android users in general are particularly interesting.

Bateman says that, “Android users not being willing to pay for an apps whose focus is quality and whose price reflects this.” Is this true only for the average Android user, or should the average iPhone user be considered as well? How can one make the blanket argument that people don’t want to pay for quality apps? I think it comes down to the basic issue of supply and demand.

Grand Theft Auto III for iOS and Android was introduced earlier this year for $2.99 with much fanfare. Today, we have more exciting news from game maker Rockstar, who has announced that Max Payne Mobile is launching for iOS on April 12th and Android April 26th.

A security researcher has discovered a serious flaw with the Facebook and Dropbox apps for both Android and iOS that puts all of your sensitive personal data at risk.

Anyone with access to your device can use a free piece of software that’s easily available on the internet to retrieve an unencrypted, plain text file from your device that provides access to your entire account — without requiring a jailbreak.

You can add another name to the list of companies dropping Google Maps in favor of OpenStreetMap. When Wikipedia announced its new app for iOS today, they also announced that they would be using OpenStreetMap exclusively for the nearby view in both their iOS and Android mobile apps. Wikipedia feels this change will be a better fit for their goal of making knowledge available in a free and open manner to everyone.

This also means we no longer have to use proprietary Google APIs in our code, which helps it run on the millions of cheap Android handsets that are purely open source and do not have the proprietary Google applications.

I have some great news for users of the popular cloud storage service Dropbox. Earlier today, the Dropbox team announced that they would be doubling the amount of free storage awarded in their referral program. That’s right, from now on, any friend you get to install Dropbox, you’ll both get 500 MB of free space. For those with a free account, you have the ability to invite up to 32 people for a total of 16 GB of extra storage. Those with Pro accounts will now earn 1 GB per referral, for a total of 32 GB of extra space. Now isn’t that just doubletastic!

Late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs famously said that he intended to wage “thermonuclear war” on Android. The rift between Apple and Google has been growing wider over the years, and the two companies have essentially become sworn enemies in most areas of business.

In an interesting profile by Bloomberg Businessweek, current Google CEO Larry Page says that Steve Jobs’ public defamation of Android was “for show” to rally Apple around its obvious enemy. Page also talks about topics like the current state of Google, the Motorola acquisition, and more.

Social network Path came under great scrutiny after it was discovered that the app would upload a user’s entire address book to Path’s servers. The worst part, for iOS users at least, was Path never let them know. After a public apology, Path worked diligently to remedy the issue and came up with a few enhancements to the way they handle user privacy. Today, Path has rolled out an update to both its Android and iOS apps reflecting the changes and assuring users that they take their privacy seriously (or at least now they do).

How awesome is Instagram for Android? Well, just take a look at the photo above. Instagram may not be stable, but at least you’ll have hipster filters to make every random crash, well… hip! This photo, taken by reader Alan Liddell, is aptly named “functionality,” and shows that not every app launch goes off without a hitch and perhaps Instagram should have spent a little extra time in the dark room filtering its code for Android.

AT&T’s twelve market 4G LTE rollout is scheduled to begin on April 8th. Of the twelve markets we reported on last month, only three appear to be receiving 4G LTE on the 8th. The following markets will be the first ones to receive the upgrade:

• Bloomington, Ind.
• Muncie, Ind.
• Bryan/College Station, Texas

A new Israeli start-up on the scene named ZooZ has founded a new SDK, which allows developers to implement an in-app payment system into their apps easier. To get the system implemented, all developers have to do is add three lines of code into either an Android or iOS app, which will then get things rolling. From there, customers who would like to purchase something from within the app can use Paypal or a credit card with ZooZ’s system. Check it out:

Music streaming service Spotify has announced that it will continue offering unlimited listening to its free customers in the United States. In case you didn’t know, all that free music you’ve been listening to won’t last forever. Spotify said from the very beginning that free users would only have unlimited listening for 6 months, and it’s been 9 months since the streaming service went stateside. Looks like the honeymoon will last a little longer.

A specific date for the unlimited listening discontinuation has not been given, so you may want to think about coughing up $10 per month for a Spotify Premium account. There’s also some good news for certain Spotify users in Europe.

Note: Title has been changed to reflect “in-app” revenue

You may have seen this report around the web about the Amazon Appstore generating more in-app revenue than the Google Play Store. While that in itself it impressive, everyone seems to be missing the most important detail of the report: Android is generating more in-app revenue than iOS. At least that’s what this report is claiming.

The immensely popular MMO Pocket Legends is turning two and Spacetime Studios is throwing a celebration to honor all of its milestones and devoted fan base. The now cross-platform global hit, Pocket Legends, was originally launched on iOS April 3rd, 2010. Since then, Pocket Legends has been played in every country on the planet (with the exceptions of Cuba and North Korea) by over five million people. That’s an impressive feat for a mobile MMO! Spacetime Studios thinks so too, that’s why players will now have access to all Pocket Legends premium content areas for free!

Looking for a great deal on the tablet that proved to manufacturers that price matters? Amazon is offering up certified refurbished Kindle Fires at a ridiculous price of $139. It’s a limited time, limited quantity deal, so you’ll want to act fast. The Amazon Kindle Fire blazed into the tablet market with its perfect price and treasure trove of content. It was the first tablet to successfully steal a sliver of the market away from tablet titan Apple. At $199 it opened the door for budget conscious consumers to experience digital content in a new and exciting way. It was a good deal then and at $139, it’s a great deal now!

2012 Mobile Game of the Year, The Dark Meadow, received a pretty major update on iOS today. Aside from all of the new features, the game has also gone freemium. The freemium version, entitled Dark Meadow: The Pact is a separate download on the App Store and as far as I can tell is exactly the same as the original paid version. The decision to go freemium may benefit the developers over the long term and is the reasoning for the jump. Although it is only available on iOS at the moment, it is scheduled to hit Android next month.

Smartphones are close to becoming the primary type of mobile phones sold in the U.S. for the first time. Market research giant Neilsen’s latest analysis of the mobile industry shows that about half of all mobile phone owners in the country now own a smartphone – up significantly from this time last year.

In addition to smartphones gaining major traction, the company also released its data on the makeup of the U.S. smartphone market that shows gains by Apple’s iPhone and significant losses for RIM’s BlackBerry. Android, however, still manages to hold the biggest share of the market overall.

According to an HTC patent filed back in 2011 and a new device design discovered by Patent Bolt, it appears HTC is working on a handheld PMP device to rival the ever dominant iPod Touch. With companies like Philips, Sony, and Samsung all failing to chip away at the iPod Touch’s domination, I guess it couldn’t hurt to give HTC a chance. This new device combined with the new Google Play model could give this HTC device a fighting chance but I wouldn’t put my money on it.

Announced at CES 2012 in January, Verizon’s Jetpack MiFi 4620L is finally launching on April 12th, Verizon announced today. The Jetpack MiFi 4620L packs 4G LTE and 3G and will be available for $50 with a two-year contract, after a $50 mail-in-rebate. If you don’t yet have a Verizon LTE enable iPad, this will be a nice way to get Verizon’s blazing fast 4G speeds on all of your devices. 

Ever wonder who exactly Samsung hired to test out the Galaxy Note before shipping it out to retailers across the globe? It was no easy task finding a quality assurance team that measured up to the pure magnitude of the Galaxy Note, but after interviewing nearly a dozen teams, Samsung went with lead QA Engineer Peter the elephant and his expert team of mixed mammals.

With more than 100 Android devices out in the wild and more being manufactured every day, OEM’s are running out of clever names for their devices. Of course they could always use the highly technical Android Phone Name Generator to come up with the next magnificent mobile moniker, but that would be too easy. Instead, it appears manufacturers are looking to the condom industry for their tantalizing trade names.

Update: And just like that, Microsoft has decided to do the right thing and award Sahas his prize.

Microsoft concocted a brilliant marketing campaign where they challenge mobile users to complete various tasks faster than a Windows phone. Any contestant able to “smoke” a Windows phone with their current mobile phone will be awarded a Hunger Games Special Edition PC worth over $1000. Even if you lose the challenge (which Microsoft has made certain of), you will win the opportunity to trade-in your current phone for a free Windows phone (excluding the Nokia Lumia 800). The contest has been hit heavily with accusations of Microsoft rigging the contest via various methods including deliberately throttling Wi-Fi speeds for non-Windows Phones. Despite the many unfounded accusations, one challenger has come forward claiming Microsoft blatantly denied him his prize after legitimately “smoking” a Windows phone with his Samsung Galaxy Nexus.

If you thought interest in the slingshotting hit Angry Birds has faded over the years, you’d be sorely mistaken. In fact, it seems to be even more popular according to the latest numbers announced by Rovio. According to Rovio, their latest Angry Birds Space netted 10 million downloads in less than three day. That’s quite an accomplishment, and to put things into perspective, it took Angry Birds Rio ten days to reach 10 million downloads.

If you visit www.instagr.am/android you’ll be greeted by the above sign-up form. That’s right, Instagram has started letting users sign up to be “the first in line” for its official Android app. No details about the app or its release date have been given at this time, but the launch is definitely on the near horizon.

We told you that Instagram was coming to Android last week, adding that the app’s co-founder believes the upcoming Android version is “better than the iPhone app” in some ways.

How will the two apps stack up? We’ll let you be the judge!

So you just bought yourself a new Android tablet, and you wish you’d gone for the iPad. Well, that’s too bad. But you’ll be pleased to hear that you can still get your hands on the iPad’s home screen, thanks to Espier Launcher HD.

Those clever Chinese people are great at copying anything. Fake iPhones. Fake Louis Vuitton bags. Fake Gucci sweaters. Fake Disneyland. The list is endless. We’ve even seen quite a few fake Apple Stores pop-up in China over the years. Some even looked like an exact replica of the real thing. Well now some clever Chinese citizens have moved on and are now opening up fake Android stores. The only problem is, Android phones don’t sell so well, so they sell genuine iPhones and iPads