Google announces Google App Inventor, a simple-to-use DIY app maker.

Today Google announced a simple-to-use DIY app maker called Google App Inventor.

Google App Inventor brings Android development to non-programmers, employing a design scheme that relies on visual blocks rather than writing pages of code, the App Inventor -- In true Google style, still in Beta, of course -- has functions for just about anything you can do with an Android handset, including access to GPS and phone functionality.

I can imagine this would be fantastic in classrooms.

more information here: http://appinventor.googlelabs.com/about/
complete this form to apply for access: https://services.google.com/fb/forms/appinventorinterest/

.. from Android for Beginners

Google Looks to Emerging Markets for Android's Growth

Google plans to push its Android mobile software in India and China and is exploring ways for developers to make more money from applications, stepping up competition with Apple and Nokia.

To attract programmers to its Android operating system, Google may offer tools that help them sell subscriptions, virtual goods and other items from within applications on mobile phones, Andy Rubin, vice president for engineering at Google, said during an interview.

The company also aims to put its Android system on lower-priced phones made by Huawei and LG in parts of Asia and Europe, where it is taking on Nokia, the mobile market leader.

“The down-market opportunity is about to happen,” Mr. Rubin said. “It’s actually quite a revolution.”

Google is trying to get more of its software on mobile devices, opening up new opportunities to sell advertising, its main source of revenue. The total mobile ad market will grow to $13.5 billion in 2013, from less than $1 billion last year, according to the research firm Gartner.

Google lags behind Apple in mobile applications, which are a growing platform for ads and are helping to breed customer loyalty to devices. Android users have about 65,000 applications available, fewer than a third as many as Apple, which has more than 200,000.

Google is taking steps to hasten Android’s growth. By increasing its presence in new markets like South Korea, Google managed to drive up the number of users who activated Android devices to 160,000 a day in June, from 100,000 in May, the company said. The majority of the sales of Android-based phones were in the United States.

Gartner predicts that Android will pass Apple’s iOS system by 2012 to become the world’s second-most-popular mobile operating system behind Nokia’s Symbian.

Among the incentives for application developers, Mr. Rubin said, are making it easier to accept payments within the applications themselves or to sell subscriptions.

Most Android developers still make money from placing ads within their applications or from one-time fees. That makes it harder for them to earn as much as their Apple counterparts. Of the $4.4 billion that consumers will spend on application downloads this year, Apple’s App Store will receive at least 77 percent of the revenue, according to Futuresource Consulting in Dunstable, England. The Android Market application store will collect 9 percent.

While businesses like eBay’s PayPal already allow payments to be made within their Android applications, dealing with multiple companies increases the complexity, Mr. Rubin said. Since starting its in-application payments tool May 19, PayPal has been downloaded by more than 1,000 developers, said Osama Bedier, a vice president at PayPal. Most of the developers came from China.

In connection with efforts described by Mr. Rubin involving Huawei, a Chinese maker of wireless equipment, and LG of South Korea, Huawei released four Android phones and an Android-based tablet device in February.

Getting more of Google’s software on phones in China has the potential to increase ad revenue to help offset sales Google might lose if the Chinese government refuses to renew the company’s license to operate its Internet search engine there.

Smaller Chinese manufacturers, which account for about 10 percent of the global supply of mobile phones, are also adopting Android, seeking to gain market share with lower-priced devices.

Many pin their hopes on MediaTek of Taiwan, which supplies chips for lowcost phones sold in Asia, Africa and South America. The company has joined the Open Handset Alliance, the group that promotes Android, Google said. Devices based on MediaTek may cost carriers as little as $70 each, said Carolina Milanesi, an analyst at Gartner.

Today, the least expensive Android phones cost carriers about $200, while low-cost Symbian devices run to about $170, she said.

As more lower-priced phones reach the market, more carriers will offer the devices to consumers free.

That approach will help position Android against Nokia. While Nokia controls only a fraction of the U.S. market, it is the leading phone maker globally.

“As Android develops, the main vendor who is going to feel the pressure is Nokia,” Ms. Milanesi said.

In the first quarter, more than 41 percent of smartphones shipped worldwide were powered by Symbian. Almost 16 percent used Apple’s operating system and 10 percent ran Android, according to ABI Research, a consulting firm based in New York.

Google's 'superphone' launches in Australia

Google's much hyped Nexus One 'superphone' finally went on sale in Australia today with Vodafone Hutchison Australia snapping up the exclusive online rights to sell the handset.

The Nexus One will be available on a “first-come, first-served” exclusively through VHA's website for $0 on a $79 cap over 24 months.

The Nexus One is a Google-branded handset created in partnership with Taiwanese manufacturer HTC to showcase the Android eco-system, but its release has been overshadowed by flood of other high performance Android phones such as the HTC Desire.

Google closed down its US online store in May created especially for the smartphone after failing to market the device via the web, leaving analysts and technology bloggers questioning whether this might signal the end of the Nexus One.

In spite of this, Google last week released figures that revealed its Android operating system was winning ground from the likes Apple and Microsoft, with 160,000 new Android handsets being activated every day around the world, and over 65,000 apps now available to download from its market.

The Nexus One runs on version 2.1 of Android which is voice enabled and includes Google maps, interactive wallpapers, and enhanced social networking switching capabilities.


The handset is also expected to be the first phone to get the Android 2.2 (Froyo) update when it is launched.

VHA also announced today it would increase monthly mobile data allowance across most of its Vodafone and 3 contract plans with “anywhere from double to ten times the current data allocation, depending on the plan,” it said.

“It's great to be delivering even more value at a time when prices continue to rise on most other everyday items,” said John Casey, director of marketing.

Coinciding the with VHA announcement, Telstra cut the price of caps on its HTC Desire to $49 and $79, and increased the download limits to 200MB and 500MB respectively.

7-inch tablet from Aigo says hi! Look at moi!

According to new details surfacing in China, this 7-inch tablet from Aigo / Patriot will hum along on a 1GHz ARM Cortex A9 processor and feature NVIDIA's Tegra 2 graphics chipset.

There's also 512MB of DDR2 memory, an 800 x 480 pixel multitouch display, 4/16/32GB of inbuilt storage, a USB socket, microSD slot, HDMI output, inbuilt WiFi, optional 3G WWAN, audio in / out and a 3,120mAh battery. Android 2.1 will be the OS of choice.

.. More details when available.

Awesome Nexus One soft case

Perfect case for those that want a decent amount of protection for their Nexus one goodness, without the bulkness of some cases. This seems to be one of the better soft cases on the market at the moment.

Still feels like the Nexus-One with the case on which is unusual for most. Cut outs are perfect. Good if you keep your phone in your pants pocket because you dont have to struggle to pull it out.

Spend the extra ten bucks and get this case other than the cheap plastic one.

Paypal to offer In-App Purchases on Android & iPhone?

Apparently during an informal meeting at its Amsterdam headquarters, Paypal has announced it will be facilitating In-App Purchases in iPhone and Android applications.

According to Paypal Benelux Country Manager Dennis van Allermeersch, Paypal has managed to come up with a solution that is acceptable to Apple, Allermeersch noting: “We have found a way, Apple is OK with it”.

Android users will also be able to use Paypal as a payment method in the Android Market, adding an alternative to Google Checkout transactions.

At the time of writing there are very few details explaining how Paypal’s new service will work.

Paypal will apparently launch their In-App payment service in Q2 to the US, Canada, UK, France, Italy, The Netherlands and Australia.

Dell Looking Glass tablet : Tegra 2, coming your way in November

It was already rumoured that Dell was working on larger tablets, and tonight's huge leak brought us tons of info on the Looking Glass, a seven-inch big brother to the Streak 5 that's due out in November.

For starters, it's running Android 2.1 on a Tegra 2 processor, with an optional TV tuner module so you can watch ATSC or DVB-T programming on the seven-inch 800x480 display -- the same resolution as the Streak.

RAM is pegged at 4GB, with another 4GB of flash for storage and an SDHC slot for up to 32GB of expansion, and there's a 1.3 megapixel camera.

Dell Flash appears, will offer Android 2.2 'Froyo'

Apparently, Dell plans to fashion this thing out of a slice of "curved glass," topping out at 11mm thick with a 3.5-inch WVGA LCD, 850 / 1900 / 2100MHz HSPA, a 5 megapixel autofocus cam with image stabilization and smile / blink detection, 512MB of RAM and ROM with microSD expansion up to 64GB, WiFi, TV-out, 3.5mm headphone jack, Bluetooth 3.0, and a Qualcomm MSM7230 core humming along nicely at 800MHz.

The MSM7230 is part of Qualcomm's next generation lineup of midrange smartphone cores, a series that looks to bring Snapdragon-class performance to the masses with HD video out capability and -- hopefully, anyway -- the performance you'll need to make Flash 10.1 fly.

Dell plans to load this bad boy with Android Froyo, presumably with the same kind of custom skin that it'll start pushing with the Streak series this year; we're seeing references to a so-called "Stage UI," and we think that's what it is. This one's mentioned for a first quarter '11 release on AT&T and globally.. sometimes thereafter.

Dell Thunder surfaces, sporting Android 2.1 with 4.1-inch WVGA OLED

It's like Dell's making up for lost time with smartphones: while "Lightning" is the company's answer to Windows Phone extravagance, the Dell Thunder that's leaking out alongside sports Android 2.1, a 4.1-inch WVGA OLED screen and a heavily custom Dell "Stage" UI on top, which seems much different (and classier) than what we've seen on the Streak or Aero.

It apparently ties into Facebook and Twitter for social networking, and taps Swype for a touchscreen keyboard replacement, along with grabbing just a pinch of HTC's Sense good looks.

Dell's document also claims this has Flash 10.1 for watching web videos, along with a mention of an "integrated web video Hulu app."

Under the hood we'd guess there's the same Snapdragon chip that's powering the Lightning, but we don't have specific specs. There is supposed to be an 8 megapixel camera, however, and the phone will be sold in AT&T and world-friendly HSDPA versions around Q4 of this year, with an LTE model to follow near the end of 2011.