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The Nexus Tablet rumor, in-app billing hits the Market and April Fool's headlines that weren't
#7 | 5:24 |
Wednesday April 6, 2011
Android Weekly
Wednesday April 6, 2011
Is the Nexus Tablet coming soon to a Best Buy near you? If rumor is to be believed, Google is partnering with LG to make a reference Honeycomb tablet. Much like the Nexus One and Nexus S set the bar for Android smartphones, a Nexus tablet would be a high-water mark that all other manufacturers strive toward. Also in this week's episode, the good and the bad of in-app billing hitting the Android Market. Finally we look at April Fool's headlines that weren't fooling around. Android Market on the BlackBerry PlayBook and an open source Android in partial lock down. Say it ain't so. Kate Abraham joins us with a review of the TipNSplit Android app. Be it known; if ever you go out with Kate, you won't get away without paying your fair share of the bar bill.
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Nexus Tablet the next Nexus?
This one falls squarely in the realm of rumor, albeit entirely plausible and believable rumor. Google is partnering with LG to make a reference Honeycomb tablet">Is the Nexus Tablet coming? In Mother Russia, Mobile-Review.com suggests it is. It's all conjecture gleaned from a Businessweek report saying that Google is holding Honeycomb close to its chest, delaying launch. This quite reasonably leads us to believe that a Google-branded tablet is coming. A reference design that sets the bar for Android tablets going forward. Just like the Nexus One and the Nexus S set the bar for Android smartphones. Mobile-Review suggests that LG will be the one to make the Nexus Tablet (or whatever it's called) and that we may see it as early as late summer or possibly early fall. As Google seems to be spreading the device love around with HTC and Samsung making the Nexus One and Nexus S, that seems reasonable too. Some of the LG tablets we played with recently at CTIA 2011 were solid offerings so we won't complain if indeed the Nexus Tablet comes out of an LG / Google love-in. We'll definitely be watching this one.
In-app billing comes to Android
As developers continue to try to figure out how to make oodles of cash from their Android Market apps, in-app billing rears its head to make it easier. In-app billing is a new feature available to Android devs, but one that's been in Apple's App Store for some time.
While it's early days yet, in-app billing typically prompts devs to offer up games and apps for free while entreating you to pony up for special features and add-ons. Often though, you get full-featured apps and games where any upgrades are entirely optional extras. For example, you could toil away in the free Smurfs iPad app, waiting it out to get "smurfberries" or do whatever you do in Farmville to earn whatever in-app currency they use. Or, you can spend a few bucks to speed things along. Or, and this is our favorite option of the three, you could just not play the Smurfs or Farmville games.
More practical applications would see at least a partial end to free and paid versions of the same apps in the Market. Rather than offering a paid app that, for example, syncs with your Google Tasks and a free one that doesn't, devs can just offer the free one and entreat users to pay for the sync upgrade. As Google doesn't play in the commercial music space, it also opens door for in-app music purchasing from the likes of Amazon.
The upshot: More free stuff in the Market. The downside? Some of these free apps will likely be hopelessly hamstrung.
April Fool's Day jokes that weren't
April Fool's Day is a bumper day for online news. ThinkGeek comes up with a bunch of product ideas like canned unicorn meat and those a little slow on the uptick invariably try to buy. Google pushes out a bunch of implausible news on the wire and again invariably, at least a few "journalists" get much needed reminder of the importance of fact checking.
That said, we compiled our top five April Fool's headlines that were completely real. And yes, they've been fact checked.
My favorite from the list: BlackBerry using Android apps. We'll delve into this a little deeper next week, but it's true. BlackBerry is leveraging the Android Market for the PlayBook. You won't be getting straight up Android apps though, and you won't be seeing the Android Market on your PlayBook (if indeed you buy one). Rather, devs need only submit their Android Apps to the PlayBook App World and they're apparently up and running. Few if any modifications required.
My least favorite: Google closing Android open source. Google is wrestling control of Android back and tightening its controls over manufacturer mods. That's mods like Samsung's TouchWiz and HTC's Sense, though no specifics have been mentioned.
It's good as it will help to clean up Android fragmentation. It's bad though as it will invariably stifle some of the interesting work that independent developers do.
TipNSplit
Free
This one falls squarely in the realm of rumor, albeit entirely plausible and believable rumor. Google is partnering with LG to make a reference Honeycomb tablet">Is the Nexus Tablet coming? In Mother Russia, Mobile-Review.com suggests it is. It's all conjecture gleaned from a Businessweek report saying that Google is holding Honeycomb close to its chest, delaying launch. This quite reasonably leads us to believe that a Google-branded tablet is coming. A reference design that sets the bar for Android tablets going forward. Just like the Nexus One and the Nexus S set the bar for Android smartphones. Mobile-Review suggests that LG will be the one to make the Nexus Tablet (or whatever it's called) and that we may see it as early as late summer or possibly early fall. As Google seems to be spreading the device love around with HTC and Samsung making the Nexus One and Nexus S, that seems reasonable too. Some of the LG tablets we played with recently at CTIA 2011 were solid offerings so we won't complain if indeed the Nexus Tablet comes out of an LG / Google love-in. We'll definitely be watching this one.
In-app billing comes to Android
As developers continue to try to figure out how to make oodles of cash from their Android Market apps, in-app billing rears its head to make it easier. In-app billing is a new feature available to Android devs, but one that's been in Apple's App Store for some time.
While it's early days yet, in-app billing typically prompts devs to offer up games and apps for free while entreating you to pony up for special features and add-ons. Often though, you get full-featured apps and games where any upgrades are entirely optional extras. For example, you could toil away in the free Smurfs iPad app, waiting it out to get "smurfberries" or do whatever you do in Farmville to earn whatever in-app currency they use. Or, you can spend a few bucks to speed things along. Or, and this is our favorite option of the three, you could just not play the Smurfs or Farmville games.
More practical applications would see at least a partial end to free and paid versions of the same apps in the Market. Rather than offering a paid app that, for example, syncs with your Google Tasks and a free one that doesn't, devs can just offer the free one and entreat users to pay for the sync upgrade. As Google doesn't play in the commercial music space, it also opens door for in-app music purchasing from the likes of Amazon.
The upshot: More free stuff in the Market. The downside? Some of these free apps will likely be hopelessly hamstrung.
April Fool's Day jokes that weren't
April Fool's Day is a bumper day for online news. ThinkGeek comes up with a bunch of product ideas like canned unicorn meat and those a little slow on the uptick invariably try to buy. Google pushes out a bunch of implausible news on the wire and again invariably, at least a few "journalists" get much needed reminder of the importance of fact checking.
That said, we compiled our top five April Fool's headlines that were completely real. And yes, they've been fact checked.
My favorite from the list: BlackBerry using Android apps. We'll delve into this a little deeper next week, but it's true. BlackBerry is leveraging the Android Market for the PlayBook. You won't be getting straight up Android apps though, and you won't be seeing the Android Market on your PlayBook (if indeed you buy one). Rather, devs need only submit their Android Apps to the PlayBook App World and they're apparently up and running. Few if any modifications required.
My least favorite: Google closing Android open source. Google is wrestling control of Android back and tightening its controls over manufacturer mods. That's mods like Samsung's TouchWiz and HTC's Sense, though no specifics have been mentioned.
It's good as it will help to clean up Android fragmentation. It's bad though as it will invariably stifle some of the interesting work that independent developers do.
TipNSplit
Free
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