GOOGLE'S ANDROID WEB MARKET CHECKS TO SEE IF APP IS COMPATIBLE WITH YOUR DEVICES

Google has already made some tough moves to tackle fragmentation, but it's clearly still wary of the problem. It's just tweaked the Android Market web store to show users which apps are compatible with which of their gadgets. Of course, compatibility screening was already in place for users who accessed the Market from within their device, but this update should still be of use to those who surf the web store, especially if they're rocking multiple handsets or a phone-plus-tablet combo.

GOOGLE LAUNCHES MOVIE RENTALS IN ANDROID MARKET

Google just announced movie rentals in the Android Market at its I/O conference. Chris from the Android services team just hit the stage at Moscone and demonstrated renting movies on the Android Market from your phone, tablet or PC with a single click. "Pinning" mirrors the experience with apps and books, you can select it on your PC and download to the device in the background for offline viewing.

Movies are live in the market right now, support on all Android 2.2 or higher devices is expected "in a couple of weeks" and tablets will get support bundled with their upgrade to Android 3.1. On the PC, it ties back to the recently expanded YouTube rental service with the same restrictions (30 days to watch, 24 hour window once you start watching) and pricing, making that per-movie VOD price a bit easier to swallow with its cross-platform support and we even spied a few HD selections for $4.99.

ANDROID MARKET IN-APP BILLING NOW AVAILABLE

Google said they were coming this week, and here they are -- Android apps can now have their own miniature storefronts for in-app purchases galore. You'll find Tap Tap Revenge, Comics, Gun Bros, Deer Hunter Challenge HD, WSOP3 and Dungeon Defenders: FW Deluxe accept your credit card for microtransactions starting this very instant, and Android developers can start building similar functionality into their own creations right now. Head on over to our source link for instructions on how to shake those extra coins out

LEAK: AMAZON APP STORE PRICES AND APPS

A few days ago we reported that the ever-so popular game Angry Birds would be launching for Android through the Amazon Appstore, not the Android Market. Rovio, Angry Birds’ publisher, decided to offer the new Angry Birds Rio game exclusively to the Amazon Appstore. However, there is no Amazon Appstore yet. But thanks to German site Androidnews.de, we got a glimpse of what the app store may look like thanks to a discovered URL that perhaps accidentally went live.

Frank of Androidnews.de added “/apps” on the end of the Amazon.com URL, and found that, if logged out of Amazon, a list of Android apps appeared for him to browse through. Frank reported seeing 48 apps, whereas Androidguyssaw 49, some of which differed from those that Frank saw. Amazon has since taken down the http://www.amazon.com/ apps link.

Amazon is known for offering great deals. Its MP3 store is often cheaper than buying music from the iTunes Store, and it seems Amazon may offer some discounts on Android apps as well. Androidnews.de put together a spreadsheet comparing the two stores’ prices. We see a large difference with Vignette, which will cost $2.49 in the Amazon Appstore or $4.02 in the Android Market, and Sacan2PDF Mobile 2.0 which will cost $3.99 through Amazon and goes for $6.44 through the Android Market.

GRINDR NOW AVAILABLE FOR ANDROID

After 2 years of promising an Android version of their popular app, Grindr is now available. The app is similar to the iPhone and Blackberry versions. You can get the app in the Android Marketplace.

GOOGLE RESPONDS TO ANDROID APP MALWARE

On March 1, news broke that dozens of malicious applications had made their way to Android Market, each infected with a rootkit that could grant hackers deep access to Android devices that installed them. Google removed the malicious applications from Android Market within a few minutes of being notified, but has otherwise remained silent on the situation.

Google has now confirmed that 58 malicious applications were uploaded to Android Market, and that they were downloaded onto around 260,000 devices before Google removed the apps Tuesday evening. That number sounds alarmingly high, but Google believes that only device-specific information, namely the phone’s IMEI number, was compromised — and that no personal data or account information was ever transferred. Given that these apps were getting root access, this could have been a lot worse. Now the cleanup begins.

Beginning tonight, Google is going to invoke a special ‘remote kill’ function that allows it to remove these malicious applications from any affected Android devices with no action required from the user. Google will also be issuing a fully automated Android Market security update to infected devices that should remove the rootkit (again, no user action will be required). All affected users will be receiving email notifications about the situation as well.

Unfortunately, while Google can remotely fix affected devices, it can’t automatically patch the security hole that made the exploit possible in the first place. That’s because the hole exists on the system level, so it requires a system upgrade to resolve — and it’s up to the carriers and hardware manufacturers to deploy the fix. Google is issuing a patch and informing its partners that it is urgent, but who knows how long it will take the carriers to push it to users.

As if to underscore this problem, Google says that the exploit was actually already fixed in recent versions of Android, and that it only affects version 2.2.1 and lower. Unfortunately the vast majority of Android devices are still running older versions of the OS because of the aforementioned sluggish carrier updates.

Beyond these software updates, Google says that it’s taking steps to try to prevent similar malicious apps from making it onto Android Market.

GOOGLE PULLS VISUAL VOICEMAIL FROM ANDROID MARKET

The Visual VoiceMail app, which has been downloaded about a million times (literally), has just been pulled from the Android Market. When developers at PhoneFusion asked the reasonable question, "why," they were simply directed to section 3.3 of the Android Market Developer Distribution Agreement:

If you want to collect fees after the free trial expires, you must collect all fees for the full version of the Product through the Payment Processor on the Market... All fees received by Developers for Products distributed via the Market must be processed by the Market's Payment Processor.

The service allows users to purchase premium features through the company's website, something that many other apps do and that is certainly not new to Visual VoiceMail. What's next remains to be seen, but sadly Google is saying PhoneFusion must re-submit the app with a new name -- losing all the positive reviews it's racked up.

ANDROID MARKET ADDS EBOOKS; MOVIES & MUSIC TO COME

Google's Android market has gone live with the URL http://market.android.com/books/. Users can purchase ebooks directly from the Android market and have them delivered to their handset wirelessly.

There are two additional URL's that Google has not gone live with yet...http://market.android.com/movies/ and http://market.android.com/music. This should make those that were disappointed that a music service was not announced at the recent Honeycomb event. No timing on when these additional two services will launch, but we speculate Google is still in negotiations with the content providers. Once agreements have been reached, Google is sure to make them active.

TWITTER 2.0 FOR ANDROID RELEASED; NEW INTERFACE

Today via a blog post, social networking site Twitter announced an update to its Android client to version 2.0. The new code offers a modified interface along with a handful of feature improvements and additions, including:

•Use without having to sign-in
•Single window layout
•@mentions are now included in the replies tab
•Autocompletion of usernames
•Universal search
The update is sitting in the Android Market, waiting for you to download it.

GOOGLE RELEASES OFFICIAL BLOGGER APP FOR ANDROID

Google has released the official Blogger app for Android. Bloggers using Google's blogging service can now post and upload photos/videos using their Android powered devices. The app is available now from the Android Marketplace, so go grab it and get blogging.

RUMOR: ANDROID MARKET DISCRIMINATING AGAINST CUSTOM ROMS

There is a rumor floating around that Google's recently launched Android Marketplace website is not recognizing devices running custom ROMs. Engadget ran a test where the Marketplace successfully recognized a Desire Z running a factory install of Froyo (v2.2), but failed to recognize an HTC Hero running a custom version of Froyo from FroydVillain.

The Hero was logged in and syncing from the same Google ID just used to access the Android Marketplace on the device.

Is anyone else out there having problems with the new Google Android Marketplace?

RUMOR: ANDROID MARKET COMING TO WEB AND GOOGLE MUSIC LAUNCHING

Androidandmeis reporting that at Google's Android 3 Honeycomb event tomorrow, they will be announcing a web based Android Market and unveiling Google Music.

This is all rumor at the moment and Google of course is staying quiet until the event tomorrow.

SONY READER APP LAUNCHES ON ANDROID

The Sony Reader app for Android, promised for December 2010 release, has finally appeared in the Android Marketplace. The app allows users, besides reading ebooks, to automatically syncs previously purchased books, and like the e-readers, it also supports ePub and PDF formats. In addition, you can easily highlight text and adjust font and brightness settings right from the page you're reading.

Sony has confirmed the app will only work with handsets that run Android 2.2 and higher, which is incredibly ironic considering most Sony Ericsson handsets are, you know, still stuck with 2.1.

The iPhone version, according to Sony, is in review by Apple and should be in the App Store soon.

ANDROID MARKETPLACE GETTING READY FOR GOOGLE TV

Google has stated that the Android Market would become available on Google TV-enabled products some time in early 2011, and it looks as though a launch is now imminent. In an update pushed through this morning, Google has added a new filtering option that checks whether or not the device accessing the Market has a touchscreen. As all currently available Android devices are equipped with touch-friendly panels, we’re likely looking at one of the first steps in the process that will bring Market access to Google TV devices. Google has not yet confirmed that the new “android.hardware.touchscreen” filter is directly related to Google TV, but the writing is certainly on the wall — or screen, as it may be. Hit the break for a screen shot showing the filter in question and if you’re a Google TV user, get ready for the nearly endless possibilities third-party development affords.

KONGREGATE ARCADE APP REMOVED FROM ANDROID MARKET

Google has removed the Kongregate Arcade game app from the Android Market after just one day. The reason: it apparently violates the non-compete clause in the terms and conditions developers sign to distribute Android apps.

Kongregate is one of the largest Flash game portals on the Internet and owned by GameStop. It offers in the region of 13 million games online, and a growing percentage were to be offered through the Kongregate Arcade App.

It looks as though Google has seen that the Kongregate Arcade app is offering access to those games and assumed it’s a competing app store operating on Android devices, which isn’t allowed.

Kongregate’s CEO Jim Greer disagrees as the games are only cached to a device while being played. At no point is a game stored on the Android device’s main storage. He also points out that by the same definition the Kindle app would also break the non-compete clause.

It’s unclear why Google has decided to take this action for what seems to be an app that offers no real threat to the Android Market. Greer assumes the decision was made by someone in the Android Market review department of Google, and not a senior member of the management team who didn’t like what he/she was seeing.

GOOGLE TO REQUIRE RATINGS ON ANDROID APPS IN MARKETPLACE

A recent post by Google seems to indicate that the company will require application content ratings on all present and future applications listed in the Android Market.

“Please use our application ratings to help users determine whether your application and its content is appropriate for them,” reads the post. “This includes all the content in your app, including user generated content and ads, and content that your app links to.”

Applications can be rated all, pre-teen, teen, or mature and Google notes that “hate speech” is not permitted in the Android Market; Google is also mandating that applications that use location not be categorized for all users. [BGR]

ANDROID MARKET SURPASSES 100,000 APPS

Google has confirmed via Twitter the Android Market has surpassed 100,000 apps available.  It has only taken seven months to go from 30,000 to 100,000+ and three months to get there from 70,000.  Apple of course is still the king with over 300,000, but at this rate Android is hot on Apple's heels. [Engadget]

OVERCLOCK YOUR DROID X OR DROID 2

Finding that your Motorola Droid X or Droid 2 just isn't fast enough?  Now you can overclock that 1Ghz processor to make it run faster, very easy with DX/D2 Overclocker.   This app condensenses everything down to a simple menu with a few presets.  Just open it up, tap what you want and apply the settings.  The app even comes with a stress tester to make sure your device can handle the extra voltage without any issues.  DX/D2 Overclocker can be purchased in the Android Market for $0.99.  You do have to have your Droid rooted beforehand though to use this app. [Gizmodo]