He specifically states that Skydroid isn’t going to be an exact replica of the new interface, but more or less just inspired by it. Usually, a homescreen replacement application doesn’t include any other functionality besides acting as your new homescreen. What Skydroid aims to do, is bake in around 20 applications into the app itself.

This new idea of bundling many applications together will help create a completely unique environment to the user. Not only that, but included applications will most likely be optimized to run at their maximum potential. Expect the first release to hit in late March to early April.

[via XDA Developers]

The problem has persisted for at least 24 hours for some users, and at this point it can’t be blamed on the 4G outage. It’s leaving new and upgraded users out in the cold without any sort of phone or Internet connection, an irritating prospect for a company that’s already battling considerable negative press. The Christmas holiday could be contributing some considerable load – millions of new Android devices were given away this weekend, so perhaps the strain on Verizon’s servers was too much. That probably isn’t any comfort to customers who have brand-new $300 MP3 players, at least for the moment.

Adding insult to injury, Verizon recently changed its payment terms to add a superfluous $2 charge for any online or phone payment. You have to pay, to pay, unless you’d care to set up an automatic recurring payment. Verizon is positioning the extra $24 a year charge as a “convenience fee”, further cementing their other reputation as the most expensive carrier in the United States. No doubt about it, December is turning out to be a long month for Big Red’s service department, not to mention public relations.

[via Phandroid]

The CVS drug information database and services is open to everyone using the application but for those seeking more options, and the management of refills you’ll need to be a CVS Caremark member and you can sign up at Caremark.com. Once a member you have access to many additional options outlined below:

- Refill a prescription
- Check prescription order status
- View a prescription history
- Easy mail service prescription refills
- Online new prescription requests
- Check drug coverage and cost
- Locate a network pharmacy

Caremark has been available for iOS for some time and is now finally coming to Android. While this isn’t Angry Birds or Fruit Ninja, the many people in the world needing prescription drugs will find the CVS Caremark Android application highly useful. Again all the details can be found over at Caremark.com and the official Android application is available in the market right now, get it by clicking here.

Now, the devil’s in the details for this nugget of information. Google didn’t release any actual numbers, but according to the new OS breakdown posted yesterday, we know that less than 2% of Android devices are currently running Honeycomb. Combine that with the fact that Android users are statistically much less likely to purchase apps in the first place, and you can see why developers might be hesitant to invest time and money into expensive tablet apps. Google is hoping to turn that thinking around.

In a comparison with iPad users, we know that Honeycomb users buy less than half as many non-free apps as their iOS counterparts, and pay less per app as well. There’s a bit of a chicken and egg situation going on, since they can hardly be expected to start shelling out $5 and $10 for apps that, in many cases, simply aren’t there. In any event, the new information that a paid Honeycomb app has a much higher chance of actually being installed on any given user’s tablet aught to spur at least some excitement, especially once developers get used the unified APIs for Ice Cream Sandwich.

[via SlashGear]

This applications will give you full control of your Canon EOS DSLR from your phone or tablet through USB. This only requires USB and you don’t need a computer or laptop, no rooting is required or anything either. Get out that EOS camera, your Galaxy S II and a USB cable and you are ready to go. (Host USB Cable only)

This is an early version released by popular demand and is still a work in progress and in its beta stages. From the video we will show you below it looks pretty awesome already so I can’t wait to try it out. He has added tons of features and more are coming soon. Make sure you read the full description in the market regarding the requirements as you need a special USB cable, your average USB laying around wont work. It also needs to be a USB Host Cable and the only devices currently listed as working are the Samsung Galaxy S II and the Motorola Xoom (with 3.1) but more should work or be coming soon.

Features include but are not limited to:

- Live View
- Auto Focus (tap Live View)
- Manual focus adjustments in Auto Focus mode
- Histogram
- Zoom control
- Grid display
- Bulb capture
- Continuous capture
- Extensive modification of settings
— Shutter speed
— Aperture
— Exposure Compensation and Bracket
— Flash Compensation
— ISO speed
— Auto-Focus Mode
— Focus and Zoom area (tap-and-hold Live View)
— Picture Style
— Drive Mode
— White Balance
— Color Temperature
— Auto-Lighting Optimizer
— Metering Mode

Note that available options depend on the mode you have your camera set to (M, Av, Tv, etc)

For even more details or to ask questions head over to the Chainfire DSLR controller XDA thread. You can also get the app available now in the Android Market.

[Thanks for the tip Rawat!]

they’ve just released the latest update and its available in the Android Market by clicking here. Local streaming of ALL of your data is absolutely free but to be able to stream on a mobile device or remotely stream from other locations will require the premium version much like other similar cloud offerings. Pogoplus is only a ONE time fee of $29 dollars so over the long run it’s actually a really good deal.

While the images provided neatly show the fancy new updated application running on the LG Revolution just ignore the fact they are showing it running on Android 2.3 Gingerbread as the Revolution only has 2.2 but at least it looks good right.

Here’s what’s new for Pogoplug on Android:

Pogoplug OneView™ lets you see all of your music, pictures, and movies across as many Pogoplug enabled PC’s or external hard drives as you want. Your files are all organized and deduplicated to give you one easy to use library for accessing, streaming, and sharing.
Gallery: View all of your pictures in a single gallery – *Exclusive to our Android app – navigate straight through your pictures with a flick using the new Filmstrip interface
Jukebox: Stream your entire music library right to your mobile phone. No worrying about storage limits – whether you have 2 songs or 20,000 – all of them will be available for streaming right on your Android phone.
Cinema: Stream high quality movies, optimized for your Android phone straight from your PC or external hard drive

Pogoplus is actually extremely simple and easy to navigate, I’ve been using it the past few days and really enjoy it so far. If you haven’t used this in the past feel free to get the application from the Android Market, then download the PC or Mac software here so you can get to streaming all that content.

I really like the fact that the software for PC and Mac is available for installation on as many computers as you’d like. Home PC, Laptop, parents or girlfriends house and wherever else you need your information and data. Being only a one time fee of $29 makes this a decent offering and I suggest you give the free version a try for a few days and see how you like it. Let us know what you think in the comment section below.

PogoPlus in Android Market
Pogoplus Computer Software Download

This offers not only a small form factor and color touch-screen, but portable and wearable internet connected devices running with apps from their custom app store that will enable users a wide array of wearable technology. Just imagine being able to screen your calls, emails, social updates and messages without getting out your phone all from a wearable device that is right on your bag, or strapped to your wrist like a watch. The possibilities are almost endless once users and developers start taking advantage of this.

The idea isn’t new but you can use it as a watch, a digital wallet, a heart rate monitor while at the gym or a calorie counter while on the treadmill or mountain-bike, the list really can go on and on. These modules have tons of features and here is a small list:

Features:
• Always-On Access – Dynamic activity feeds and alerts on a 1.4 inch display
• Full-Color Touch Screen – Rich visual experiences and effortless navigation
• Robust Connectivity – Connects to Internet via Wi-Fi; Bluetooth pairing
• Accelerometer and Magnetometer – Built in sensors for accurate motion tracking
• Web-based Management – Manage device and add applications through any desktop or mobile device

The 1.4″ display operates in dual-modes, either as a regular color screen like we all know or transflective backlight-free display so that it’s still readable yet will conserve battery power.

This is just the start here. The WIMM platform will come pre-loaded with all the core apps you’ll need as well as things like caller-ID, SMS notifications, weather updates, lost phone warnings, an entire library of custom watch user interfaces and covers, as well as things like a calender and more. This will all be controlled by the touch screen via taps, swipes and gestures. The SDK will be open and allow developers access and tools to build new and exciting “micro-apps” for the platform. OEM’s can then take this platform and build products for various area’s like medical uses, products for biking or working out, gym accessories and more.

This wearable platform will be licensed out to third-party companies and OEM’s from WIMM and they plan to have a standardized platform and size so devices, accessories and different 3rd party company products will all be interchangeable throughout the entire wearable platform.

The key point here is the “micro apps” running on Android that will be available via the Micro App Store for these devices as this is where the platform and developers can really shine and build specific applications to suit their needs. With an app market populated with some apps already in place, and the SDK being available starting in Q3 things should really be able to pick up fast. That along with WIMM being partnered with Foxconn who has given them access to over 100 of its engineers, as well as various developmental resources. Foxconn should be able to deliver not just wearable displays, but this entire platform to the masses quickly and be production ready when the time comes.

We should see more soon and the WIMM One Developer Preview Kit and SDK will be available in Q3 2011. We will have to wait and see if this will pick up traction and really take off. Check out the photos and video below for more information on this awesome and unique look on technology. Now lets hope it gets thinner quickly and I can get one for my mountain bike soon.

The Android Player allows RIM’s BlackBerry PlayBook tablet to make up for its less impressive app selection, by letting it access Android’s impressive app base. The magic is in a port of Android’s Dalvik virtual machine, which runs apks just like an Android phone.

The Android Player application and Virtual Machine are based off of Gingerbread 2.3.3. There are two big things to take away from this. First, this means the PlayBook will be capable of running almost all non-honeycomb apps (somewhat strange since its a tablet, but it is beta). More upsettingly, this means that a BlackBerry tablet will be running a newer version of Android then the vast majority of Android phones.

The idea to port the entire Android app selection to their tablet was a pretty brilliant idea on RIM’s part, and the more customers the merrier for Android developers. What remains to be seen is how performance will hold up on the tablet. Early reports describe it as laggy but usable.

Will we see Android apps ported to other operating systems if this is successful? Dalvik is based on the Java virtual machine, which was meant to allow the same binary run on different platforms. Could Android apps become common place on all mobile platforms some day?

[via N4BB]

You install Dropbox on all your computers and Android phones and you have access to everything you put in your Dropbox “cloud” anywhere you go. Right on your phone, or from your girlfriends parents house (or in-laws) right on the computer. Basically you can access any file you need from wherever. It is one of those tools available in the 21st digital century that you might as well use because you can.

Today they added some new features that I’m excited to finally have. Things like thumbnails in the file browser, folder deletion and tons of security improvements for those that use it for business documents. I use dropbox daily and if you are still carrying around that 16GB “thumb drive” you should should probably head to dropbox.com and sign up. Head over to the market for the Android app.

[via Android Market]

Just 48 hours ago Google unleashed the new Market to the world, and today they are talking numbers again. Susan Wojcicki, Senior VP of Advertising, today announced in the second-quarter earnings call that the Android Market now has more than 250,000 applications, with more than 6 billion downloads.

This is another huge number as they have now passed a quarter of a million applications (but still only have 12 for Honeycomb). Just to give you an idea on the market growth, a few Google employees tweeted back in October 2010 that the market had passed 100,000 applications. So in less than a year those numbers too have more than doubled just like the amount of activations has.

In case you don’t recognize the market shown in the picture above — that is the new Android Market and you can download it here. We also did a Market Hands-On and Review of the newest version and you should read that too if you have any questions.

To start I want to thank Spotify for granting me access to check out this amazing new service and for finally bringing it here to the U.S. as I have friends and co-workers that have been bragging about its awesomeness for months. Spotify is basically the new frontier in music in the cloud if I can call it that, like Google Music Beta you can access to all this music without wasting storage space, but with spotify it isn’t just songs you own, its the millions you don’t and they are right at your fingertips only a half a second and a single click away — utterly amazing! They are launching in limited beta so you better sign up for an invite, and quick. Here are the plans they are offering:

Spotify Free – With an invite, enjoy on-demand, buffer-free access to over 15 million songs on your computer, great social features, manage your own music files through Spotify, and sync with your Android or iPhone. Features occasional advertising.

Spotify Unlimited – all the special features of our free service but with uninterrupted, ad-free access to Spotify on your computer. All for only $4.99 a month.

Spotify Premium – the all-singing, all-dancing, top-of-the-range Spotify experience. Premium gives you access to all the music, all the time. Listen online or offline, on your computer, your cellphone and a whole heap of other devices. Enjoy enhanced sound quality and access to exclusive content, competitions and special offers. Premium costs just $9.99 a month (that’s the equivalent of a few fancy coffees).

Spotify is sort of like iTunes just way better, all those millions of songs you can actually listen to, not just preview. For $10 a month like shown above you’ll have access to almost every song your heart desires anywhere you have the internet. Your favorite music you can store locally offline in the device or computers cache. When you start the app it opens right to the picture shown above. Instantly check for new music, your inbox shows music friends and family can send your way, or quickly hit search and find that song you just heard last night. Star your favorite songs, access your playlists and more.

When searching it brings up almost instant results for everything you can imagine and you can them filter my tracks, albums, or artists. You can then choose just the song you were looking for or the entire album and hear new songs to love and enjoy. One of my absolute favorite features is you can select an artist and it will show you “top hits” so when your looking up a unique group like MGMT as I’ve done or a band you don’t know very well, you’ll see the top hits and immediately hear some of the good stuff.

SMALL TIP: I did search for Mumford and Sons and got zero search results, but search for Mumford & Sons brought all the music up. It gives suggestions but try different things if your first search doesn’t work, but that only happened once for me.

When a song is currently playing you have a easy to use and simply designed user interface for controlling everything. Artwork is shown and there is the slider up top, simply flip down the currently playing tab and instantly you are back at home to check inbox, search for new songs or find something from your playlist. Being able to switch between the app home and currently playing this fast and easy makes it super convenient.

FUN TIP: Swipe the album cover left or right to access the next or previous track. This is the most appealing visually when you’ve got a playlist of many different albums, but works on a single album too.

Buffering… what is that? Here on Spotify buffer times are seriously a thing of the past as songs begin instantly and sound great. I thought if I fast-forward a minute into the song it might have to play catch up but amazingly it just keeps churning out the song without skipping a beat. This was by far one of the things that really made me realize the power of Spotify.

The i button in the bottom left is an “info” button that keeps you on the now playing tab but throws some additional options on top to easy search the currently playing artist by name and album, they also let you star the song or quickly add it to a playlist for later listening. I added so many songs to playlists, then they all appear neatly and right on the PC when you sign on. Your iTunes playlists also will sync just to make things easy — I’m in love!

Like I mentioned the Playlists sync from iTunes and that is a nice touch, but creating your own with Spotify is just as easy and there is so much music to choose from I’m having a hard time deciding what to add into my playlist. Add single songs right from the “i” button while listening, or add entire albums to your playlist. On the PC you just click and drag for adding to the playlist. Everything is very easy and well designed.

I’m sure you are wondering about any and all settings, options and sound quality so I’ll cover that now. Lucky for us in the U.S. Spotify has already done plenty of testing and learning over in the UK because all the settings I was looking for they already had. You can completely push Spotify offline to save data, sync over 3G or W-Fi only — or both, clear cache and more. They also let you set the quality of streaming music.

The quality I found overall quite amazing. The mobile app by default sets audio quality to 96 kbps but this is because you are streaming over most likely a cell phone connection. they also allow a 160 kbps option for those that want a higher bitrate song. CD’s are 128 but most music these days I have are in 320 and iTunes sells 256 kbps. For me setting it to the higher setting of 160 kbps there was once again ZERO butter time, songs started instantly and now I’m wishing I had a higher bitrate option. Streaming in my truck over bluetooth was exciting and I think I’ll be throwing my iPod away this week.

To wrap things up I just want to once again mention how amazing the sound quality was. For being streamed over my 4G (and sometimes 2G/3G) connection here on T-Mobile things were extremely fast and stable. I actually NEVER had a song skip or freeze the entire time I’ve used it and that includes going 80 MPH on the freeway. When I get in my truck it syncs over bluetooth and I have the huge library of over 15 million songs right at my fingertips and luckily for me I don’t have to attempt to fit that on my 16GB MicroSD card.

Spotify makes services like Amazon MP3, Google Music Beta, and anything else “in the cloud” to an entirely different level with the huge library they offer. Spotify really has one-upped them all with this and so far I love it. The UI is fluid and easy to use, the widget may need a little work but so far it works great. The free account may be great for some, but the premium account is MORE than worth it to have both unlimited home and mobile access to the world of music.

Invite and purchase Spotify right now by heading to www.spotify.com

Luckily for me, I’ve been using it for the past few days and can say that so far I love it. Being able to access hundreds of thousands of songs in a matter of seconds, and have them stream literally instantly right over my Android phone or PC is awesome. We are still waiting for more details and they will most likely emerge tomorrow morning at 8:00 AM ET when Spotify officially announces its entry to the States. From what we do know it will be available by invitation and subscription.

Spotify is a new way to listen to and manage your music, discover new tracks and share songs and playlists with friends – music whenever you want it, wherever you are.

As soon as we get more details we will be sure to include them all for you. The app is currently available on Android but not for the U.S. so searching for it brings zero results for the moment. We can expect them to launch the Android app along with the service tomorrow morning so we are excited to see this take off. The desktop client is smooth, stable and works great. Being able to tag songs and add entire albums to my playlist, then listen to them in the car via my Android phone has been a blast the past few days.

For our last look at the Spotify Android app check out this story, we go over the new features last time it was updated. Stay tuned to Android Community because we will be posting a full review of the current service for Android as soon as we can tomorrow.

Instead of setting Twitter or your 3rd party client to update every 5 or 10 minutes and kill your battery, now it will push notifications to your device no matter what you are doing. When you get a mention or a DM you will instantly be notified. In your account settings, select “automatic refresh” and choose to receive updates and you’re done, it’s that easy.

Mutliple accounts have also been added so now you can easily check and tweet from as many accounts as you need. Being able to easily and quickly tweet from my personal account, as well as our @Androids account will be even easier now. This was a update that was much needed and users have been long awaiting for. The new Twitter is available in the Market right now.

[via Twitter Blog]

WhitePages currently has a popular app for Android called Caller ID that was also first to launch on Android because of the long and drawn out approval process Apple currently has in place, eventually iOS did get the app and it is now available for those iDevices as well.

I think we are going to see a lot of people start to ship Android first,” WhitePages Chief Operating Officer Kevin Nakao said. “You can’t be held hostage.”

Nakao went on to mention that even when Apple does approve an app they don’t give any sort of clear time frame, and that too makes planning a launch or any sort of event difficult to say the least. This all sounds pretty familiar and goes right along with recent comments by Android Co-founder Rich Miner basically saying developers should target Android first given its success.

When talking about the new Localicious app Nakeo made clear that its most distinguished feature from similar apps is the ability to search locally by neighborhoods and streets rather than a geographic location. This way users can find “What’s Good in the Hood” as WhitePages calls it, right around the corner rather then heading over the bridge or into the valley.

For those that want to find some tasty food and give Localicious a try, it is available now in the Android Market for free. All those iDevice users will have to wait til Apple deems the app worthy of their neighborhood.

Download: Localicious

[via AllThingsD]

Rich Miner heads up Google Ventures on the East Coast and was one of the co-founders of Android. With the continued growth of Android and the sheer amount of handsets and opportunity out there for developers the above statement has clearly flipped sides. He was on stage at MobileBurn 2011 this week and had some interesting comments regarding developing for Android.

Miner goes on to mention that Android was just a slide show presentation and idea when Google first acquired it, but now it has grown into such a huge and open platform with the availability for start-up developers to side load applications and test things out to before even sending their apps to the market. This gives developers, especially start-up devs the opportunity to fully test and refine their ideas and applications before they hit the streets.

He talked about a few other numbers and developing for Android, as well as mentioned two other Google Venture investments. It is an interesting read so feel free to head over and check out the full story.

[via AllthingsD]

If you saw the latest blog posting at GetJar they explain things quite well and put it all into perspective a bit. This is probably the best quote so I figured I’d share it with all our readers.

…GetJar won’t be subject to this kind of bullying. We’re not going to “Cease & Desist”. We were here long before Steve & Co. We were built by developers, to help developers. Not to help sell handsets or search results. In the words of Twisted Sister: We’re not going to take it! Steve Jobs isn’t our Dad.”

Amazon and their “Free App of the Day” has made them pretty popular as of late, but GetJar has been around a long while and started distributing free apps in like 2005, back when an iPhone or app store was just a crazy thought in Steve Jobs mind. Popular games getting huge attention specifically at GetJar’s “App Store” like Angry Birds and Cut The Rope might have been part of the reason for the recent attack by Apple but we don’t know what goes on inside those walls.

I must admit that I do like the reply from GetJar on the matter, they are standing strong and are throwing some tough words back at Steve & Co over at Apple. They state facts about when they started, and if the term “App Store” can even be owned as well as plenty of other details. It is worth the read so I urge you to check it out if you are interested.

[via GetJar Blog]

Along with the I/O keynote, the Google Mobile Blog was getting into all of the exciting changes to the market and I am here to go over them for those that might have missed it. My personal favorites are the new “Editors Choice” apps and “Trending Apps”. This will be a great way to find those popular apps you might not have known about, or ones that are taking off and in the trending list.

New top app charts – We’ve revamped our top app charts to be fresher and country-specific, so you get the most current, relevant results. We’ve also added top new free, top new paid, and top grossing lists, all right on the Android Market home page.

Editors’ Choice - These are some of the very best apps available for Android, as chosen by the Android Market staff. They span everything from games to productivity and beyond.

Top Developers - We’re also recognizing those developers creating the highest quality, most popular, and most notable apps available on Android Market. They’ll get a special icon on our Android Market website, appearing wherever the developer name is shown, starting today for an initial set of over 150 developers.

Better related apps – On the left side of an app page, you’ll now see two groups of related apps: apps frequently browsed by people who viewed this app, and apps that people tend to install alongside this app. For example, people who view ScoreMobile, my favorite sports score app, often also view other sports score apps, while those who install ScoreMobile tend to also install apps for specific sports leagues or teams. We’ll also show you related apps once you decide to install an app.

Trending apps – Finally, we’ve added a new section to the Android Market homepage showing trending apps – those apps that are quickly growing in daily installs. Look here to stay ahead of the curve and find new apps as they get hot.

I must say the Trending apps is a great idea, just like Twitter you can see what is trending and “hot” at that moment. So for people busy with work, or for some reason didn’t come to AndroidCommunity to get the latest news and missed that a popular new game was just released, you will now see those in the trending list if they get enough installs. Here is a screenshot from the I/O keynote showing some of the changes on a chart as well.

For a team like Google, that makes most of their huge sales numbers from being the best at indexing things like Google searches, and search results. I am pretty confident with saying I’m sure they have came up with a pretty good system or algorithm for showing us the latest and greatest apps. Things are starting to look up for the Android Market more and more, long gone are the days where the market is one of Android’s weakest links. Soon it will be one of the strongest.

[via Google Mobile Blog]

From the image shown above, clearly Android has taken off to new heights over the past year or so. Just in 2010 application installations from the market was over 8 times as many as 2008 and 2009 combined. That is huge growth, and we have been seeing plenty of reports about this lately.

From the charts above, shown at Google I/O this morning, Android has clearly not slowed down one bit in the application installs category. It looks like they are more than full speed ahead. Android Market application installs in 2011 has almost passed all of 2010 in just Q1 of 2011 alone. Showing that things are moving along just fine to say the least. By the end of Q2 2011 installs will have completely passed all of 2010, and by the end of 2011 things will surely be off the chart.

With Android 3.1 tablets starting to take off, and all the exciting phones on the way this summer in the U.S. and from multiple carriers across the world 2011 will be another huge year. I can’t even begin to imagine where we will be, and how amazing hardware will look by December. With the ever growing and changing market things will surely be exciting. Stay tuned for more from Google I/O.

First thing users do is download and install the DroidCam app from the Android Market. There’s a free version and a “pro” version which offers unlimited access for $4.99. While that’s going on, download the DroidCam app for your PC or Linux box (sorry Apple users) from here. Open the app on your phone and on your PC and select WiFi/Lan from the DroiCam Client options window on your PC. Note the IP address on the DroidCam app and input to the Phone IP window of the PC app. Restart your PC.

Once you restart your PC, you can open the DroidCam utility again. Then open Skype and it should automatically pick up the Android camera. You may also need to click on “Connect” button in DroidCam. It’s now ready to use!

[via Instructables]

See the photo above for the hard proof. That is the new Samsung Infuse 4G on AT&T, and it is allowing non-market installs. For now as far as we understand AT&T policy is still the same, and they do not allow the installation of 3rd party applications. So either this is brand new, just breaking. Or Samsung forgot to lock it down on the new Infuse 4G.

We don’t have a lot to go by yet for this, we are looking into it now and will report back as soon as we hear more. For more information on the Infuse 4G go here.