Android Marketplace update brings new features
Google has announced that it is rolling out an update to the Android Marketplace in a move that should mean the store is easier to navigate.
“The Android Market engineering team has been hard at work on improving the Android Market experience for users and developers. Today, I’m pleased to announce a significant update to the Android Market client. Over the next two weeks, we’ll be rolling out a new Android Market client to all devices running Android 1.6 or higher,” said Eric Chu, Android developer ecosystem dude on a blog post.
According to the team, the new Market client introduces “important features that improve merchandising of applications, streamline the browse-to-purchase experience, and make it easier for developers to distribute their applications.”
Users who get the new update, which is virtually every Android phone out there will be able to quickly flip through the carousel to view promoted applications and immediately go to the download page for the application they want.
They’ll now also be able to find Widgets and Live Wallpapers thanks to a dedicated section while Related content, which makes it easier for users to quickly find apps of similar interest. Seems you can’t have enough weather apps.
To streamline the browse-to-purchase experience, users can now access all the information about an application on a single page without the need to navigate across different tabs.
Other new elements is a reduction in the time you can request a refund (15 minutes) and a stronger focus on allowing games developers the chance to make better games with more graphics support and the ability to make larger apps.
“With this release, we aimed to deliver features that are most requested by users and developers. However, we’re not done yet,” says Chu. “We plan to continue to rapidly enhance Android Market for both users and developers and make it the best content distribution service for the Android ecosystem.”
How-To: Install the Android 2.3 Gingerbread keyboard on your rooted device
Want to check out some new Gingerbread goodness, like… now? Well you’re in luck, as Peter Alfonso, creator and maintainer of the infamous custom ROM, “Bugless Beast”, has gotten it all tucked away in a nice, flashable zip file – the keyboard, that is. Thanks to Peter, you can now install the Gingerbread keyboard on your rooted Android device through recovery, and it’s very easy to do. Just hit the break to find out how!
- Download the zip file here
- Put the zip file on your sd card, preferrably on the root of the card
- Boot into recovery and flash the file like you would any other zip
- Reboot. When you get to a text field (i.e. – messages or email), press and hold the text input box, choose “input method” and then “Android Keyboard”
And that’s it! You’ll be loving on some 2.3 keyboard goodness. As always, it’s a good idea to backup your current default Android keyboard. It’s as easy as renaming the LatinIME.apk in /system/app, which can be done via ADB or something like Root Explorer. I like to rename these types of things to something like “LatinIME.apk.bak” to make it easily findable again.
As always, a few warnings.
- You should be running a 2.2 based custom ROM
- Auto correct is not yet fully functional
- Will not work on a 2.1 based ROM due to voice search issues
- If you are using a DROID X, be sure to go to mounts > storage > mount system and then back to install the zip file
Be sure to let us know what you think in the comments below! As always, TalkAndroid cannot be held liable for any possible damage to your device.
Dolphin Browser Mini Preview2 Now Available for Android
The team behind Dolphin Browser has been hard at work on a new version, which they consider an upgrade to the original Dolphin Browser. Unlike their Dolphin Browser HD, however, this new “Mini” version will be compatible with all Android devices.
Dolphin Browser Mini will support a slew of new features, like:
- A new “fresh” UI
- A faster browsing experience
- Infinite tabs
- A new menu “tool box” design
Hit the source link for more details, or download via the QR code below and check it out for yourself.
Playstation Phone Shown Off Again
Rumors of a Sony Ericsson Playstation Phone have been around for a while, and recently more and more leaks with pictures, videos and specs have started to appear online.
Well now we have another video for you to check out of this as of yet unannounced device and if the rumours are right we could even see an official unveiling on the 9th December?.
In this video you can see that the OS version is Gingerbread which is 2.3 also due to be released any day now along with the Samsung Nexus S, it also uses the name Zeus in the device information, we will see what the official name might be if this is not it.
The Playstation phone is a touch screen phone with slide out Playstation controls, no QWERTY here just keys for gaming and it looks like there is a specific application installed for gaming.
NFC certification program announced just in time for Android 2.3 Gingerbread launch
Call it coincidence if you want, but a December 7th press conference to launch the NFC Forum’s new Certification Program likely has something to do with NFC read / write support built into Google’s new Android 2.3 “Gingerbread.” An OS that could be officially unveiled as early as today according to a cheeky blog post by Notion Ink that includes this bullet:
“6th December is another big day for Android and you will find out how fast Notion Ink can work. (Eden is extremely compatible with 2.3).”
Recall how gung-ho Eric Schmidt was on the topic of Near Field Communication while demonstrating it using a still unannounced Nexus S with an embedded NFC chip at the Web 2.0 Summit. That was way back on November 16th when Schmidt promised a Gingerbread release “in like the next few weeks.” According to the NFC Forum, a device must be certified in order to display the official “N-Mark” (pictured) — a symbol for NFC that tells you where to touch in order to initiate NFC services on your device. So, Google… anything you’d like to announce before Tuesday?
Official Android 2.2 (Froyo) update emerges for Sprint's Epic 4G
Samsung may have missed its promised September (and November) ship dates for Froyo on the Galaxy S range, but at this point, we’re just pleased to see any progress at all. Sprint’s Epic 4G has just become the first US Galaxy S phone to nab an official Android 2.2 (v2.2.1, in fact) build, with the requisite files populating Google’s servers this evening. If you’ll recall, a near-final build actually leaked out around three weeks ago, but the DK28 version making the rounds at xda-developers looks to be the real deal. Head on over to get your update going, and be sure to let us know how everything turns out in comments below.
Android 2.x now accounts for 83 percent of all active Googlephones
The Chart above shows the amount of Android devices hitting the Android Market by OS version. Android 2.1 and 2.2 are now above a combined 80% of the total mix in deployed Android OS’s. The first chart is represented by data collected over the last 14 days, whereas the chart below shows the mix on 14 day increments along the x axis dating back from June 1ts 2010 until today.
This is interesting because it shows the growth in Android OS deployment as Android versions 2.x became more widely released to devices, as well as newly launched devices. As you can see, September saw a spike.
Creative ZiiO 7 16GB Specs
Toshiba TG01 slowly, surely gets hacked to run Android
It’s easy to forget about the TG01 nowadays, but bear in mind that Toshiba’s WinMo beast from last year was the first production phone in the world to use Qualcomm Snapdragon silicon. Oh, and it was under 10mm thick and featured a 4.1-inch WVGA display at a time when such specs were basically science fiction — so you’ve got to give credit where credit’s due. Anyhow, the phone’s far from obsolete — apart from that little WinMo issue, that is, so the good folks on xda-developers have started the time-honored tradition of transplanting Android onto it. Important stuff still isn’t working (the lack of calling capability is a big one for us, personally) but we’re guessing it’s just a matter of time before we see a solid, usable build in the wild now. HD2, watch your back!
Acer reveals 4.8-inch Android smartphone with 1024×480 screen resolution
Acer may be calling this “100 percent smartphone. 100 percent tablet,” but something just doesn’t add up there. That being said, we have to agree that a 1024×480 screen resolution on a 4.8-inch smartphone is downright drool-worthy. Clocking in at just a smidgen smaller than Dell’s Streak, this here phone (no finalized name has been bestowed quite yet) was just revealed at Acer’s Global press event in New York City. It was only shown briefly, demonstrating an unknown version of Android and the “evolution of Acer UI.” Specs wise, there’s a two megapixel front-facing camera, eight megapixel rear camera (with LED flash), 720p video recording, a six-axis Gyroscope + accelerometer package and LED edge lighting. Per usual, Acer’s keeping a lid on any pricing estimates, but it’ll be shipping out to gape-jawed customers everywhere in April 2011.
Update: We’ve got the full PR after the break, which informs us of the atypical 21:9 aspect ratio in use here as well as its “full metal body.” Curiously enough, it’s also rocking a curved back (is that a trend we spot?), Bluetooth 3.0, 802.11n WiFi, HSDPA support, a 1GHz Snapdragon processor and an HDMI output. Delicious, all the way around.
AIVAnet 