WINDOWS PHONE MARKETPLACE REACHES 25,000 APPS

Microsoft’s Windows Phone Marketplace is now home to more than 25,000 applications, according to the app tracking website WindowsPhoneAppList. That’s a rapid jump from the 18,000 applications that were available in May but it’s still a far cry from the competing app stores offered by Apple and Google. The Android Marketplace is populated with more than 200,000 applications, and Apple said in May that its iTunes App Store boasts more than 500,000 apps. The top-5 paid apps in the Windows Phone Marketplace are all games. Angry Birds is the most popular download, followed by Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episode 1, Plants vs. Zombies, Doodle Jump, and Pac Man Championship Edition DX. Microsoft has yet to officially announce having reached the milestone.

GOOGLE PULLS EMULATORS FROM ANDROID MARKET

If you're an Android gamer, chances are you've heard of Nesoid, Snesoid, Gensoid, N64oid, Ataroid, Gearoid and Gameboid: they're all video game console emulators developed by yongzh, and many ranked among the most popular paid apps on the Android Market. This week, they've got something else in common, too, they've all been abruptly removed.

Following a complaint from Sega, two emulators were nixed late last month, but we're hearing that Google has since revoked yongzh's developer privileges, just like PSX4Droid comrade-in-arms ZodTTD.

There is some speculation however that yongzh violated the GPL licenses of the open-source code he used as a base for his emulators violating copyright.

US SENATOR FRANKEN ASKS APPLE AND GOOGLE TO REQUIRE PRIVACY POLICIES FOR APPS

Senator Al Franken (D-Minn.) pinged Apple and Google Wednesday with a letter requesting that the two companies require apps distributed via their online marketplaces have "a clear, understandable privacy policy."

In the letter addressed to Apple CEO Steve Jobs and Google CEO Larry Page, Franken writes that such a requirement "would not resolve most of the privacy concerns in the mobile market.
"But it would be a simple first step that would provide users, privacy advocates, and federal consumer protection authorities a minimum of information about what information an app will access and how that app will share the information with third parties.

Noting that Apple's App Store and Google's Android Marketplace are by far the two largest online app distribution outlets in the world, Franken contended that the two companies were "in a unique position to influence the market for apps and protect users' privacy within the market."

At a minimum, Franken asked that Apple and Google require privacy policies for apps that use location tracking, technology that came under fire from privacy advocates when researchers publicized the existence of an unencrypted file storing location data on Apple's iPhones.
"Although I believe there is a greater need for transparency and disclosure for the collection and sharing of all personal information, at a minimum, I ask that you require all location-aware applications in your app stores to provide privacy policies that clearly specify what kind of location information is gathered from users, how that information is used, and how it is shared with third parties," the first-term Senator wrote.

RUMOR: AMAZON TABLET COMING THIS SUMMER

Amazon is said to be prepping a new tablet device that may launch as early as this summer. According to a report from gadget site gdgt, Amazon has chosen Samsung to help design and build the tablet, which may run Honeycomb or even a custom operating system based on Google’s Android platform. Rumors of an Amazon tablet have been around for quite some time, and Android was always expected to be Amazon’s OS of choice.

News that the company may be building its own OS on top of Android suggests it may forgo some of Google’s core Android services, possibly including the Android Marketplace, and instead use the device to foster adoption of the Amazon Appstore, Cloud Drive and other Amazon services. Of course eBooks — specifically, Amazon’s Kindle platform — are expected to be a major focus of the tablet as well, and Amazon will also likely use the new device to push its music and movie services.

Given the added weight and drastically reduced battery life of tablets compared to dedicated eBook readers like the Kindle, it is likely that Amazon’s forthcoming tablet will compliment the Kindle eReader rather than replace it.

ANGRY BIRDS RIO EXCLUSIVE TO AMAZON APPSTORE

The next installment in the aviary vengeance saga, Angry Birds Rio, will launch exclusively on Amazon's upcoming Appstore for Android. That does sound like it will eventually achieve universal distribution via the Market, but in the interim Amazon has scored a pretty big scoop in its efforts to attract users to its own app repository. We're also promised the Appstore is launching "very soon" and Amazon has just inaugurated an @amazonappstore account on Twitter to keep us abreast of when precisely that will happen.

MORE MALWARE DISCOVERED IN ANDROID MARKETPLACE APPS

We reported yesterday on Google pulling 21 apps from the Android Marketplace due to malware. Now, we are learning additional apps have been pulled for the same reason. Google has removed 29 more apps and more could be pulled. Google discovered the "DreamDroid" virus in the additional apps it pulled yesterday.

Unlike Apple's locked down App Store, Google's Android Marketplace is open for all, which allows for malware, virii and trojans to appear more readily. Google does have a section in its terms of service which addresses this issue, but the company relies on others to police its Marketplace and inform it of any offending apps.

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?

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.

WINDOWS PHONE 7 MARKETPLACE HITS 4,000 APPS

The Windows Phone 7 Marketplace has reached the 4,000 app milestone.  It took just 20 days to go from 3,000 apps on November 25 to reach the current count.  This is a slight slowdown from the 2,000 to 3,000 app mark which was done in 17 days.

If the additions continue at this pace Windows Phone 7 Marketplace will surpass the Palm App Catalog sometime in first quarter of 2011.  Palm currently boasts about 5,800 apps in its catalog which was launched in June 2009. [BGR]

WINDOWS PHONE 7 GETS JAILBREAK

Windows Phone 7 has been jailbroken, meaning apps outside of the official Marketplace will be available to download and use, just like those offered to iPhone users through Cydia.

The jailbreak is called ChevronWP7 with the developers stating as part of the release today:

Today we have an exciting breakthrough for the Windows Phone 7 homebrew community – the ability for anyone to unlock a WP7 device without a Marketplace developer account.

Unlocking allows the sideloading of experimental applications that would otherwise can’t be published to the Marketplace, such as those which access private or native APIs.

The jailbreak comes in the form of an executable file that requires a USB cable to install. It’s also fully reversible leaving your WP7 phone intact if you decide to revert back.

It’s early days yet, but a jailbreak so early in the life of WP7 means we could have a healthy unofficial set of apps available within a few months.

Download the jailbreak executable at ChevronWP7.

WINDOWS PHONE 7 MARKETPLACE HITS 3,000 APPS AND GAMES

Microsoft has announced they have hit the 3,000 mark for apps and games in the fairly new Windows Phone 7 Marketplace. In addition, they also stated they have 15,000 developers working on apps and games. In comparison, Nokia just announced they have over 400,000 new developers over the past year working on apps and games for their OS.

In fairness though, WP7 was just launched and a lot of developers take a wait and see stance before deciding to take the plunge on a new OS. [Engadget]