T-Mobile expands app picks on Android Market

Effective Wednesday, T-Mobile customers with a Google Android phone running version 1.6 of the operating system will begin receiving an update to their Android Market. After installing the update and opening the Market, users can access a "T-Mobile Top Picks" section that showcases applications there were selected by the carrier. Besides being innovative, these applications can a great jumping off point for new users looking to personalize their handsets.

So far, there are 20 applications listed in the Top Picks. Though a quarter of the titles were developed by T-Mobile, most of the apps are free. The only paid titles are Absolute Fitness, FaceIT, FlightStats for Android, and Gem Miner: Dig Deep. Two included applications, Pandora Radio and Aloqa, are consistently ranked among the top rated and most download in the Android Market.

T-Mobile offers customers even more recommendations with the carrier's "AppPack." Serving as a filter for the Android Market, AppPack lets users browse apps that have been handpicked and tagged by T-Mobile. After launching with roughly 10 apps in its list, it expanded to include more than 30 yesterday.

The nice thing about AppPack is that it can run in the background and receive updates. Users will receive occasional notifications of new apps and will be directed to the Android Market to download them. With both Top Picks and AppPack, T-Mobile's aim is to introduce apps to people who might not have come across them otherwise.