The pair aren’t the only ones to be dissatisfied with the 15-minute grace period. Complex games in particular (which are often the most expensive) often require downloads of 100 megabytes or more, which are nearly impossible to download and install in the allotted time when using a 3G connection. Some developers have responded by marking their games WiFi-only in the Google Play Store (formerly the Android Market) but even then a less than optimal connection can create the same problem.

Google has a hard time balancing the needs of app developers and users. For example, most Android games can be played and completed in far less than a day, making the full 24-hour period something of an honor system. Google claims that changed the policy because “most users return an app within 15 minutes”. Recent changes to the Play Store have allowed developers to host apps up to 4GB, which should at least ease the burden on servers, bu that doesn’t really solve the time problem.

Harris and Sabatin are seeking class-action damages as well as attorney’s fees. Google has yet to comment on the suit.

[via PCMag]

Here are the Google Play representative’s words:

We’re working hard to bring the different types of media in Google Play to more countries, so that more of you can take advantage of the tools and deals we offer. There are many aspects to launching a feature like this internationally that take time to get right and mean more than just flipping on a switch. We’ll be announcing more availability for books, movies, and music as each rolls out, so stay tuned on this page in the coming months!

Negotiating licensing even in the same country is notoriously difficult. Getting digital deals for books, movies and music can sometimes take years, and many pieces of professional content have different publishers in different countries. While Google is certainly trying, it’s probably going to take quite a while for Music, Movies and Books to roll out on a country-by-country basis. Other digital distributors like Apple and Amazon have had the same issues, but they’ve got several years’ head start.

However, if you’re waiting for a particular app to be available in your country, it might be best to take the direct approach. Look up the developer on the Google Plus Store, then send them an email; odds are pretty good that they want to get as much exposure as possible, especially if they’re independent. More established and entrenched content like the BBC iPlayer or HBO Go is obviously not negotiable this way, but you’d be surprised how often a developer is genuinely excited to hear from users, or in this case, potential users.

Normally this isn’t really an issue – plenty of shady apps simply re-purpose an RSS entries and link to original content, including the News and Weather widget included in all versions of Android. But the problem with DailyComix is that it removes the comic images themselves from the RSS feed, then presents them without the advertising from the creator – usually their primary method of earning money. In the free version of the app, new ads are inserted, making the unscrupulous developer money in addition to the sales of the “Pro” version also offered in the Google Play Store. Popular webcomics like Ctrl+Alt+Del, Cyanide & Happiness, PvP, Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal, WonderMark and XKCD are all represented.

There’s no two ways about it: DailyComix is stealing content and making money off of it. As a subscriber to some of these comics, I know that not all of them actually publish the files themselves in the RSS feed, which means that the developer is actively procuring the files and reposting them. This isn’t the first time it’s happened in the Android Market (heck, you could probably find other comic apps that do the same thing on a smaller scale) but it is rather brazen, and the free version has already accumulated over 50,000 downloads. The developer has stated that he’s honoring requests from creators who ask him to remove their comics from the list, which is likely little comfort for those who have had their work exploited for months.

An easy way to avoid the controversy and make money for all parties involved would have been to include the ads that the creators place on their own RSS feeds and charge a nominal fee, without adding in more advertising. A lesson that many app developers (and Google itself) needs to learn is that repackaging someone else’s content for mobile without permission is still stealing.

That’s not all: developers who opt for ad-based apps are seeing significantly fewer returns from AdMob, Google’s in-house mobile advertising service. Many are reporting roughly 70% fewer returns, despite a steady or climbing number of clicks. While the number of replies in the Google Groups thread doesn’t necessarily guarantee that every European Android Market/Google Play developer is experiencing this, the widespread nature would seem to suggest that it’s affecting users in every country in western Europe.

Many developers mote that they rely on the income that the Android Market provides in either a full-time or supplementary capacity, and Google’s continuing silence on the matter is unacceptable considering that they take 30% of revenue on paid apps. We have to agree – for all of Google’s considerably charitable freebies, when it comes time to get someone on the phone (even for paying customers) it’s nearly impossible to do so. Depending upon Google’s terms of service for Google Play, Google Checkout/Wallet and Adsense, they may not actually be doing anything wrong, but they’re sure earning a lot of bad will across the pond.

[via Reddit]

Not everyone has time to keep up with the latest and greatest Android news, or know everything about all the updates to their smartphone and the Android ecosystem. Apparently more than a few people somehow agreed to the new Google Play update and after using it once, didn’t realize that its moved and has a new name. I’m sure many readers are probably laughing right now, but not every roots their phone, installs custom kernels, and knows the inner workings of these awesome little mobile devices.

For those that are new, not the most technologically advanced or what we’d call “tech-savvy” the icon in the picture above is what you should be looking for. The Android Market was previously just titled “Market” and the new “Play Store” is probably just a few rows or slight ways down the list from where the old used to be.

I find it funny that these type of things need to be talked about, but then again I’ve had to explain why you need a password on WiFi to my parents like 15 times — so it could be worse. So for anyone that is new to Android or seem to have lost the Android Market over the past day or so just look for the Play Store and you’ll be back to browsing apps, downloading games, or buying Adele songs and more in no time flat. Enjoy!

Now this isn’t actually a full on problem. The Android Market (Play Store) isn’t actually broken on Motorola devices with the latest Moto BLUR UI changes. Instead it appears to just be breaking a small part of it. In the image above you’ll see the Market icon circled. This is a custom Motorola feature that is always at the very top corner of the application tray. Instead of flipping through the various apps you have one click to access the market.

Once you update to the new Google Play and Play Store this icon no longer works. Becomes a broken icon and wasted space. When clicked we simply get an error that reads: “Application is not installed on your phone”. For anyone that maybe updated and is seeing this update don’t worry. The market is still on your device you’ll just need to find it in your app tray and launch it from there.

Basically the new Play Store update is breaking the permanent shortcut on Motorola devices. We recommend users manually add the shortcut or icon to their homescreens as the one at the top of your app tray seems to be broken with the latest changes from Google, most likely because the name change. Until Motorola releases a software patch this will probably have no fix unless our friendly developers can whip something up.

Is your Motorola phone market link no longer working after accepting the new Google Play Store update? Drop us a comment below.

[via Motorola Forums] — Thanks Nathan!

Of course, you wouldn’t be reading this site if you weren’t interested in the newest and coolest stuff. This being the case, we tracked down an early version of the new Google Play vending APK, handily updated by the denizens of XDA. Click here to download the APK file. You shouldn’t need root to apply the update – just install it via the standard non-market method.

The new “market” API is version You can see the new interface on our Galaxy Tab 7.7 above. As a centralized hub for all of Google’s content, “Play” makes sense, and aside from the name you shouldn’t have too much to get used to. Affected apps are getting a refresh too, like Google Music, now rechristened “Google Play Music”. Of course, all this raises questions about the much-ballyhooed Nexus tablet, also rumored to be called “Google Play”….

[via XDA]

Oh man, so many good deals I don’t even know where to start. They’ve selected 25 apps that all are only $0.49 right now and include some of the biggest and best apps and games for Android like SwiftKey, Shadowgun, World of Goo, Need for Speed, Soundhound, Dead Space and more. Most of these are usually more than a dollar too. Sadly this is not all international so try your luck and hopefully everyone can enjoy these deals.

It looks like Google will also be taking a similar approach to Amazon and offering a deal everyday similar to the free song of the day with Google Music, only it will be called the Play of the Day and will feature an app for only $0.25 cents — yup just a quarter. Today’s $0.25 Play is Where’s My Water — one of the biggest apps for Android over the past few months.

Google’s also offering $0.25 songs, Double Play deals on albums and more. Seriously you need to head to Google Play right now by clicking here.

This is all a part of something bigger coming soon but for now is essentially a consolidation or redistribution style for everything Google has to offer. Combining all their services into one huge area accessible from your phone, tablet, or computer. Even the old market.android.com now just takes you directly to Google Play. This change not only moves everything into direct and digital sales but is starting to show more of their plans with cloud storage.

Google Play will be replacing the Android Market on devices starting today and will roll out to Android devices running older versions of the OS in the coming days as well. For now mostly everything remains the same except for the logo, name and UI refresh. They layout is similar and they haven’t introduced anything too new, yet. We expect more details and announcements will be following soon but for now enjoy some pictures, Google’s neat video, and then head to the new Google Play from the via below.

[via Google Play]

For some unknown reason this game has achieved a huge level of success being the top free and grossing app for iOS in January and passing over 40 million downloads. The wait for this game to hit Android has been a long one but I can happy say that Android will be running from Monkeys and enjoying Temple Run come March 27th and it will be completely free.

Here is what Co-founder Keith Sheperd had to say:

We are excited to finally share the Android release date with our fans who have been so enthusiastic and supportive of Temple Run. By expanding to more mobile devices, we hope to provide the same addictive and fast-paced gameplay to an entirely new group of players.

So that’s it guys. No more rumors or suggestions of a February 9th launch or whatever the rumor was that had everyone up in arms. This comes from Imangi Studios themselves and remember, if you see Temple Run in the Android Market before March 27th most likely it’s a fake as we’ve seen a few of those the past couple of weeks.

Who’s excited for Temple Run on Android? I know I am!

Speaking basically, AIDE is a series of pre-compiled code sections combined with a text editor, compiler and tester. Putt all those functions together and you get A contained system for editing and creating Android apps. You can even compile the APK files right on your phone, literally crating an app with another app. This sort of thing happens all the time with more season desktop operating systems, but to my knowledge, it’s a first on a mobile platform.

It’s not quite as simple as the App Inventor: you’ll need basic Java skills to create anything more complicated than a test app. For those who need it, AIDE is compatible with the Eclipse IDE, and it admirably adjusts its interface for smartphones and tablets. Amazingly, the developers are giving away the app for free. Download it form the  Android Market here.

Most of us have experienced a long in-game download like Gameloft’s Asphalt 6, and then realized the refund period has already passed. In the Android Market, these expansion files are added to the 50MB size of your application so users know how much space the app will ‘really’ take up. There’s nothing worse than downloading an application just to find out you’ve run out of storage when downloading in-game content.

Most newer devices should download expansion files automatically, but for older ones it downloads them when you first run the application. The sooner developers take advantage of this extra space on the Android Market the better, because installation via its servers are very fast opposed to some others. Google has included some ‘Helpful Resources’ on their Android Developers blog for developers aspiring to implement these expansion files into their applications, so be sure to take a look.

[via Android Developers Blog]

The idea is pretty simple: the app launches multiple browser windows (“instances” in Android speak) that can run independently and concurrently with just about any other app. The experience is not unlike using a standard web browser on a desktop, if not quite so refined. The app works with all versions of Android 2.2 and later, though obviously it’s better suited for Honeycomb and Ice Cream Sandwich tablets than smartphones. You can buy it for an introductory price of just $1.49, half off today only.

As you might have guessed, OverSkreen comes from the same people who made Stick It!, an Android video player along the same lines. Naturally, OverSkreen is a lot more useful: it can handle anything that the stock browser can (though Flash support is only for Honeycomb and Ice Cream Sandwich. This seems like the perfect compliment app if you plan to do some desktop-style docked browsing.

[via Redmond Pie]

But there’s a hitch in the process. You shouldn’t buy this app. All the developer has done is repackage the Ice Cream Sandwich camera app from Android’s open source code and posted it on the Market. You can’t even access all of the features without having Android 4.0, somewhat defeating the purpose. Add to all this that the developer is sort of stealing Google’s content – it’s open source, yes, and there’s nothing illegal about redistributing it, or putting ads on it (or loading up a “premium” version for the low introductory price of a dollar). But it still strikes us as dishonest.

If you feel like a dollar and/or ads is a fair price to pay for something that’s free but hard to get to, go for it. But we recommend asking your friendly neighborhood Android dev to repackage the ICS camera for you – maybe even send them a couple of bucks for their trouble. Even if you don’t personally, someone will have another, similar app up on the Market before too long – with a truly free price tag.

One million copies of an app isn’t an unheard of achievement in the Android Market – Angry Birds has over fifty million so far. But Minecraft has an important difference: not only is it a paid app, it’s a full $6.99, double or triple the cost of most paid games available on the Market today. Taking Kaplan’s statement at face value, he must be combining sales from the Xperia Play version and copies sold via the Amazon Appstore and other third parties, since the current Android Market stats show no more than 500,000 in sales.

Developer Mojang isn’t letting the success go to their heads. Minecraft Pocket Edition has seen steady updates since its introduction, slowly adding familiar features from the desktop version into the mobile game to recreate the full open-world experience for its players. The latest update three weeks ago added the popular Survival Mode, plus wandering mobs of sheep and zombies. (No word on zombie sheep.) If you want to see what all the fuss is about, you can download the free demo in the Android Market – just don’t say we didn’t warn you.

OnLive is combining a couple of very old software technologies to do this: virtualization and remote access. First, the company sets up a virtual machine on its server, a copy of Windows running completely on software and likely next to hundreds of copies of itself. Next it establishes a remote connection with your Android tablet, then gives you control of the cloud-based Windows machine running inside its server. It’s a lot like setting up a remote connection to your own PC, without the PC.

Naturally they aren’t doing this out of the kindness of their hearts. The basic version isn’t useful for much, with access to Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Adobe Reader, plus 2GB of remote storage. Upgrade to the $4.99 a month plan and you get accelerated speeds and a full Flash-enabled web browser. The $9.99 Pro version adds another 50GB of cloud storage and the ability to load your own programs onto the virtual machine. OnLive Desktop Plus and Pro are not included in a subscription to OnLive’s gaming service.

Once you allow the developer access to connect to the Internet, they could potentially upload your pics to any server right under your nose. There is no information leading us to know if Android applications currently do this, but there is always that chance. Google has responded to the matter, and let us know that this feature was designed in the earlier stages of the OS when photos were stored on the SD card rather than the internal storage we find in newer devices.

In Google’s word’s they are “considering a fix”, so hopefully they take it as serious as the Google Wallet security incident. The Wallet application had an update just yesterday that supposedly blocks hackers from accessing your information, and I suppose it will take an equal amount of time for Google to tend to this issue. In my own opinion, this vulnerability trumps the Google Wallet issue – as it potentially affects everyone.

[via SlashGear]

It isn’t available for the public yet, but the House 4 Hack team from Johannesburg have been working for the past few days on perfecting it. They are using a Samsung Galaxy Note to test it, and are primarily trying to make use of the included digitizer pen. They first plan to have users trace an uploaded picture, and then the program can add depth to the trace. Other shapes should then be able to be placed upon the primary layer.

It doesn’t allow wireless printing for now, but instead users will upload their creations onto a USB and plug them into the 3D printer. This project was primarily developed to enter into a science fair, in hopes to allow school kids a chance to experiment with the program. It is much more complicating than meets the eye, and one of the guys working on Paint3D described what’s in store for its future in great detail. This is definitely worth checking out!

[via TalkAndroid]

Naturally Sonar is focused on search, but since that’s already integrated into Android, there’s a host of other, more browser-specific functions. Navigation by voice is now possible, with back, forward, bookmark and even whole URLs capable of being dictated – though the latter seems to work with basic home pages only. Sharing any website is easy, too, with hooks into Android’s share API for just about any major social networking or bookmark app. More complicated commands, like “Facebook search Mary Jane Watson”, are built in sparingly.

Check out Dolphin’s commercial for Sonar here:

Other minor additions to Dolphin Browser HD include small UI adjustments and tweaks to the Webzine feature (don’t worry, it’s not returning to that controversial privacy issue from a few months ago). After quickly trying it out on my Galaxy Nexus, it looks like the gestures for Dolphin’s trademark side panels have been refined, making accidental activations a lot more rare. With the latest update, Dolphin once again shows its place at the top of the 3rd party browser game, and makes a compelling case against the excellent stock Ice Cream Sandwich browser and Google’s own Chrome – most importantly, that you can use it on Gingerbread and Honeycomb devices.

Like previous sales, Google has tried to include an eclectic mix of artists in the promotion. That said, they’re leaning pretty heavily on pop, rap and R&B this time around. Albums from Drake, Rihanna, Katy Perry, Lady GaGa, Big Sean, Jay-Z, Van Halen, Maroon 5, Mary J. Blige, David Guetta, LFMAO, Snoop Dogg, Pink Floyd, Dr. Dre, Eminem, Taylor Swift, The Band Perry, Lady Antebellum, Ellie Goulding, Lana Del Rey, Amy Winehouse, Bob Marley, The Rolling Stones, Jay Dee, Dia Frampton, Elton John, Marvin Gaye and Selena Gomez fill out the ranks, plus NOW 41. (No Frank Sinatra or Willie Nelson? For shame, Google. For shame.)

Considering that most of these albums have 10 songs (giving you a cool average of $.30 per song or lower) and would cost at least twelve bucks in a retail store, it’s a steal if there’s anything you want. Remember that you can download and play Google Music form any PC or Android device, in addition to uploading up to 20,000 of your own songs or for  free. To play your Google Music from a third-party app, check out Cloud Music Sniper. Get on it already – there’s no telling when this one will close.

[via 9to5 Google]