Android Atlas

Android Market 1.6.

(Credit: Screenshot by Scott Webtser/CNET)

As I said last week, fragmentation with the Google Android operating system is beginning to frustrate Android developers. And according to a recent report by Skyhook Wireless, the issue isn't going away. Though developers are excited about the future of Android, the platform may face significant challenges if it does not soon improve options to monetize apps and take steps to protect against the risk of fragmentation.

According to the study, four out of five surveyed developers are finding it difficult to get their apps noticed in the current Android Market. Also, more than half polled (57 percent) are less than happy with their profits so far. The gripes found in the survey seem to point a finger at the way the Android Market is designed, not so much at Android directly. To these developers, the platform holds promise, but the current way of doing business simply isn't enough to satisfy the masses.

One potential reason for the lack of profit might be all of the free applications available. For the first few months of its existence, the Android Market offered only free applications and then opened up to paid selections. It's possible that Android users got too comfortable in the initial phase and are simply content with the free apps that offer most of the same functionality found in paid titles.

The lack of a desktop client also makes it difficult for developers to give potential customers enough information to make informed decisions. With only 325 characters and two screen shots to use in the Android Market, it's simply not enough room to convince people to open up their wallets. There are no clickable links, or videos, and good luck squeezing the change log in the notes if your app has seen a recent update. Yes, the market was changed with Android 1.6, but so far only three handsets in the United States have the new look portal. More than half of all Android handsets still have the old market application.

Skyhook also suggests that developers feel Google Checkout is a hindrance to better sales. Roughly two in five claim they'd sell more apps if the Android Market allowed for carrier billing or another system. So far, T-Mobile and Sprint have already jumped on board with carrier billing and at some point in the near future both will allow users to have apps added to their wireless bills.

(Credit: Phandroid)

Oh, you knew someone was going to do this. So let's just get it over with. And though some might think of this as a battle between the Droid and the iPhone for the nation's morality, let's be open-source about it: someone's trying to make a lot of money from cell phone porn.

A company with the obtusely childlike name MiKandi has launched a mobile app store that will exclusively cater to adults whose brain food consists of content that reflects their age. Yes, the sort of stuff some prefer to refer to as porn.

MiKandi's publicity material naturally avoids this term, referring to the more PC phrase "adult only." However, there is a little kink in its offering. According to Android fanperson site, Phandroid, the MiKandi Market apps only work with Android phones and not with Apple's more morally minded handsets.

Cupertino steadfastly sticks to its policy of refusing to allow apps filled purely with adult content, though some might dispute whether its definition of "adult" isn't occasionally a little idiosyncratic.

Not for a moment would one suggest that Verizon or Motorola or the deities at Google are necessarily in favor of porn apps. However, MiKandi is attempting to take advantage of the fact that the Android system is more open than the iPhone's.

So while the Android Market itself doesn't offer porn, nothing on your Droid phone prevents you from using MiKandi's services. The wise people at Phandroid do, however, offer stern warnings about MiKandi's workings.

Despite attempting to use MiKandi's services, purely for scientific purposes, Phandroid failed to actually secure access to any mature content. Remember, children, this sort of thing will always be a somewhat risky business.

Google coupons now available on the go.

(Credit: Google)

Google has been giving companies in its business listings ways to offer digital coupons to visitors since 2007. It wasn't until this week, though, that Google could bring the same coupons to mobile users.

It works like this: Businesses add a coupon to their listing in Google's Local Business Center. When you search a Google local listing from your Internet-enabled phone, any available coupons show up. As with other mobile coupon sites and applications, you'll simply present your phone face at the check-out stand. The checker will enter in the coupon bar code and you'll get your discount.

Google's mobile expansion of its digital coupons brings the search and advertising giant in direct competition with coupon providers like Coupons.com, Coupon Sherpa, Cellfire, and Yowza. With the exception of Yowza, which is a mobile-only application for the iPhone and iPod Touch, each service has a mobile coupons site and at least an iPhone app. Yelp has also jumped into the mobile deal business by letting businesses place special offers to Yelp users on Yelp.com and in its iPhone app.

Users' biggest complaints with mobile coupons tend to boil down to one thing: variety. While national chains are easier (and generally more effective) for a coupon service to sign, millions of other shoppers may prefer discounts for local or specialized brands, restaurants, and stores. Any business model that can capitalize on a self-service coupon sign-up for local and national businesses should have the upper hand.

So long as mobile shoppers navigate to Google's site from their cell phone browsers, Google's coupon business should grow. After all, Google isn't creating a brand-new business for digital deal distribution, but extending one that's already in place.

The Twitter service with the cutesy raccoon mascot is making a new home on BlackBerry and Google Android phones. The free Seesmic, like its proliferate rivals, lets you read, manage, and compose Twitter messages much more flexibly than you can do from Twitter's Web site. We crash-tested both mobile versions as soon as we heard the news.

Seesmic on Android
Seesmic 1.0 for Android is available from the Android Market app, which is located on the smartphone. It takes up just over 1MB. The interface spreads four tabs along the top in both landscape and portrait mode, one each for the timeline, replies, direct messages, and your profile. There's also a ribbon on the screen that you can tap to refresh the feed. Click to open a tweet and you can save it as a favorite, retweet, or reply as a public "@" message or as a private posting. From the menu button, you can refresh, compose, or tinker with the settings.

Although Seesmic's Android interface is much more stripped down than its desktop AIR app for Windows and Mac, the app manages to remain flexible by giving you a choice over the kinds of notifications you'd like to receive, and over the partner services you'd prefer to use to send a photo, video, or shorten a URL.

Sure, it's blurry (blaming the BlackBerry camera), but squint hard enough and you'll see that Seesmic associated a picture with my account that's not actually my face.

(Credit: Jessica Dolcourt/CNET)

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As Google Android is for the smartphone market, Chrome will be for the Netbook industry. At least, that is Google's hope. The company views its two platforms as not necessarily replacements to existing operating systems, but rather as alternatives. And as part of its quest to get users on the Internet and connect to their services, Google created Android and Chrome.

Much of today's mobile applications run in the cloud, pulling data from a server as opposed to loading files from a device. If you have an Android handset, you know about the constant sync between your phone and the Google cloud. Indeed, contacts, e-mails, and more are literally updated by the minute. Chrome looks to be an extension of this idea, but designed for larger screens.

With Chrome, there will be no need to worry about whether an app is compatible or updated because it will not reside on any hard drive. Instead, everything comes from the cloud. At first, people might think they'd miss out on some of the day-to-day function of their desktops, but a closer look will show that much of what you do offline can be replicated when online. Google Docs, Calendar, and Reader all have replaced native apps on my desktop. Android does this very well with devices like the Archos A5 media tablet.

What's more, there's the added benefit of not needing to carry USB drives or flash memory. I can create a document in the cloud and leave it there. Even often-accessed files like photos and music can be held for you. Photobucket can host all your images and the recently announced Google Music Search can help you find the music you want.

This is fantastic news for developers because they can create applications that work on all major platforms at once. Just write it for a WebKit-based browser (Android, iPhone, WebOS) and you're done. There will be no need to learn multiple languages and you'll no longer have the "which platform to write for" dilemma. Google already has committed to start building apps to run in the browser for Android, iPhone, and other handsets. They even showed off a concept of Gmail running in airplane mode on an iPhone.

Other companies are following suit. Adobe recently unveiled its Photoshop application for Android. The title includes an autouploader that sends your pics to Photoshop.com's cloud storage. For a preview as to how this could work, check out Aviary. It has been offering cloud-based photo editing for desktops and laptops for a few years.

Google also announced today that data connections on Chrome Netbooks will come from 802.11n wireless cards. Yet, it wouldn't surprise me to see notebooks integrated with 3G or 4G capability running on Sprint's nationwide Clear network by the time the devices go on sale. Google has invested in Clearwire and has agreements in place for mobile advertising and search. This partnership also will see devices based on Android being deployed on the network.

What frequent drivers need is a way to search for information while cruising without taking your eyes off the road. That's what Robert Acker, president and CEO of Aha Mobile, thought when creating his yet-to-be-released application for iPhone and Android.

Before they put foot to pedal, drivers will set up a dashboard of buttons, each representing an audio channel for everything from the traffic report for the road you're on, to a search for nearby bathrooms and cafes, music channel, and your Facebook news feed. As we saw in Acker's demo at the Under The Radar start-up event in Mountain View, CA, pressing a button triggers a robotic voice that reads out the information you've selected.

The demo wasn't long enough to gauge the app's efficacy, but it's clear that application-makers like Aha Mobile are looking for ways to bring search capabilities found in a navigator to those without.

Aha Mobile will partner with providers like Yelp to match its content to your location. Expect to see an iPhone app in the next month or two, followed by one for Android. Aha Mobile is also working with carmakers to explore a radio implementation or other in-dash solution.

(Credit: Fring)

There is a handful of VoIP apps for Android that can make free calls over Wi-Fi and 3G, and as of Wednesday, the list grows by one.

Fring 1.0 is an all-in-one communicator that pairs support for chat services like Yahoo Messenger, Google Talk, and Twitter with voice services like Skype and SIP. Fring also offers a low-cost service for placing international calls.

Weighing in at a little over a megabyte, Fring for Android mirrors Fring's features on other mobile platforms, like Windows Mobile, iPhone, and Symbian. The main difference is the design. Fring for Android takes advantage of the Android's Menu key to switch among open chats. The app is simply laid out, which makes it easy to initiate chats or calls to contacts in your buddy list. The strength of your data or Wi-Fi connection will affect call quality, of course.

Truphone for Android, already in version 2.0, is Fring's biggest competitor, with IM support for Skype, Google Talk, Yahoo, MSN, AIM, and Twitter. Truphone doesn't market itself as a VoIP app, however, since it can also place low-cost international calls over its own network, and since it doesn't plug into existing voice services like Skype's voice calls or SIP.

(Credit: Vringo)

Vringo isn't one to let its video ringtone application languish in beta. After about a month and a half after Android users could begin playing around with the beta, the Vringo app for Android (story) has popped into the Android market.

Unlike the standard ringtone concept, where you assign the ditty you hear every time a certain contact phones you, with Vringo, you select the media that plays on your buddy's handset. In other words, when you call a friend who also has Vringo installed, they'll see the video ringtone you've chosen to represent you. Think of it as a singing, moving profile picture.

The Vringo download is free, and so are most vringos. You can also make your own video ringtones on Vringo's Web site, or upload videos from the Android phone.

Vringo is available for Android phones, except one. Samsung Galaxy-toters are currently out of luck.

I get really excited when I see devices like the Android-powered Vega Tablet that debuted last week. The moment I read the announcement, I started thinking of all the ways it could enhance my life.

And where would I use it first? In the kitchen, of course! After a minute or so I realized that there are five Google Android applications that I use on a semi-regular basis with my T-Mobile G1 that would be greatly improved by a device like the Vega.

Grocery List

(Credit: Screenshot by Scott Webtser/CNET)

Cooking Capsules allows me to watch cooking shows on my handset so I can whip up a romantic dinner for my wife. I can also search through the Taster Collection videos and watch step-by-step instructions on how to create such delicious dishes as a tofu stir fry or chocolate pots de creme.

While this and the other apps would look nice on my handset, I would simply love to see them on my kitchen counter on a screen large enough to view across the room. The idea behind Cooking Capsules is fantastic, but I've found myself getting close to dripping marinades on my phone twice already.

I downloaded a free application called Grocery List which is exactly as it sounds. Beyond creating a list of items to pick up the next time I am at the store, Grocery List also allows me to swipe my finger across items and check them off as I go.

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