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Amazon offers $25 Appstore credit with all Verizon Android phones (one week only)
Remember when new mobile phones didn't come bundled with free app purchases? Hopefully you do... because that was just yesterday. Beginning now (and for this week only), Amazon Wireless is offering a $25 Appstore credit with each Verizon activation. Now this really goes without saying, but you'll need to choose an Android device to get this freebie. In other words, choosing the Octane or Cosmos Touch won't get you far, but if you'd planned on donning green and red anyway, Amazon's offer seems mighty appealing. The deal ends May 1st, so act quickly if you hope to score those free apps.
HTC Merge coming to Alltel, preloaded with Amazon Appstore on Cellular South
The elusive HTC Merge has been on our radar since last fall, and while it's been officially announced, played with, and FCC approved, carrier availability has been all but a mystery -- until now that is. Alltel is presently taking pre-orders for the Merge with a price of $125 on contract (after $50 mail-in rebate) and a ship date of April 5th. Meanwhile, Cellular South is launching the Merge "next month" for an undisclosed price, but will offer the handset pre-loaded with the Amazon Appstore for Android -- a world first. Strangely, there's still no indication when (or even if) the device will emerge on Verizon. Just a quick recap: the Merge is a global smartphone (dual-mode CDMA / GSM) with a slide-out keyboard, 3.8-inch touchscreen, and 5 megapixel autofocus camera, running Android 2.2 with Sense UI. Hit the source link below for Alltel's pre-order page, and jump past the break for Cellular South's press release. [Thanks, Chase M.]
Amazon.com lets you play with an Android virtual machine, try apps before you buy them
When Amazon's Appstore rolled out last week, we glossed over one detail that merely seemed neat. Today, we're inclined to say that Test Drive may be the most significant part of Amazon's announcement that day. Basically, Test Drive allows US customers to take apps for a spin at Amazon.com, with all the comfort that their tried-and-true desktop web browser brings -- but rather than sit you down with a Flash-based mockup of the app, Amazon is giving you a taste of bona fide cloud computing with an Android virtual machine. In other words, what you're looking at in the screenshot above isn't just a single program, but an entire virtual Android smartphone with working mouse controls, where you can not only try out Paper Toss, but also delete it, browse through the device's photo gallery, listen to a few tunes, or even surf the web from the working Android browser -- as difficult as that may be without keyboard input. Amazon explains: Clicking the "Test drive now" button launches a copy of this app on Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), a web service that provides on-demand compute capacity in the cloud for developers. When you click on the simulated phone using your mouse, we send those inputs over the Internet to the app running on Amazon EC2 - just like your mobile device would send a finger tap to the app. Our servers then send the video and audio output from the app back to your computer. All this happens in real time, allowing you to explore the features of the app as if it were running on your mobile device. Today, Amazon's Test Drive is basically just Gaikai for mobile phones -- its purpose is simply to sell apps, nothing more. But imagine this for a sec: what if you could access your own smartphone data, instead of the mostly blank slate that Amazon provides here? %Gallery-119809% [Thanks, Ryan]
AT&T planning access to Amazon Appstore, sideloading still an open question
Angry Birds developer Rovio announced on its Facebook account a few hours ago that "AT&T is also working on enabling purchases from the Amazon Appstore soon," which would mark a pretty big move on AT&T's part since they've been firm in their resolve to keep apps from outside the Android Market ecosystem off their branded Android devices -- a frustrating (and arguably illogical) stance, to say the least. Well, first the good news -- AT&T has confirmed to us that they are, in fact, setting up access to Amazon's store: "We're working to give our Android customers access to third party application stores. This requires updates to our systems and finalizing arrangements with Amazon. We will share more info with our customers in the near future." The bad news is that AT&T's having any discussions with Amazon about this at all, which would seem to indicate that they're planning on making an exception to their Android Market policy for the Amazon Appstore rather than simply enabling sideloading on devices altogether and calling it a day. We suppose this could involve a round of firmware updates that drops the Appstore in ROM, but that seems like an awful lot of work considering how much red tape is involved in pushing even a single update for one handset on a major carrier. More on this as we get it; hopefully, AT&T subscribers will have their Angry Birds Rio fix soon enough. [Thanks, Thomas]
Amazon Appstore for Android goes live, welcomes newcomers with free Angry Birds Rio
In spite of Apple's grumbling, Amazon's proceeding full steam ahead with the rollout of its Appstore for Android. The switch has just been flipped and early adopters will be welcomed with a free copy of Angry Birds Rio, whose Android launch Amazon scooped all to itself. Beyond day one, Rio will be a $0.99 app, but others will take its place as the online retailer is aiming to serve one usually-paid app for free each day. A total of around 3,800 applications are available at launch and you'll be able to get on board via either a dedicated Appstore app on Android (sideload link available below) or Amazon's web interface. The latter offers you a 30-minute Test Drive facility, where you can try out a program you might fancy for your phone before purchasing. Service looks to be US-only for now -- sorry, international users. Update: The web Appstore has gone down. Don't panic, we're sure it's just teething troubles and not a smiting by the Cupertino ninja collective. In the mean time, the app still looks to be working okay.
Apple sues Amazon for App Store trademark infringement
You had to know this was coming. Apple, which is already engaged in a heated battle with Microsoft to prove that it deserves the sole rights over its "App Store" trademark claim, has filed suit against Amazon for "improper use" of the same. Amazon's Android Appstore seems to have been intentionally contracted to a single word to differentiate its name, but that difference isn't enough for Apple, which has asked a California court to grant a ruling preventing Amazon's use of the moniker and asking for unspecified damages. Apple claims it reached out to Amazon on three separate occasions asking it to rename its software download offering, but when faced with the lack of a "substantive response," it decided to take things to court. Its big task remains unchanged -- proving that the term App Store is something more than a generic descriptor -- and this was a somewhat inevitable move given Amazon's choice of name. The legal maneuvering, as always, continues.
Amazon Appstore for Android briefly exposed, shows off some aggressive pricing
It's gone now, but for a brief while, navigating your way over to amazon.com/apps apparently revealed a little bit of magic and wonder that's going into Amazon's upcoming Appstore for Android. That alone isn't too interesting -- it really just looks like any other Amazon page, it seems -- but what is interesting is that the company appears ready to make good on its promise to undercut the Market in some places and offer exclusives in others. Notably, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare: Force Recon isn't showing up in the Market, which is a pretty big title... and of course, Rovio will have an Angry Birds exclusive in there pretty shortly, too. As much as the idea of having to visit multiple app stores on a platform seems like a lot of trouble, the ability to cross-shop is something that we take for granted in the "real world" -- and Amazon knows a whole lot about putting other retailers in the hurt locker. This could get interesting fast.
Android Angry Birds Rio exclusive to Amazon Appstore
A retailer exclusivity agreement has been announced for a promotional game, potentially limiting its ability to reach users and promote the movie, but also increasing the promotion for the retailer. Amazon announced that it will be the exclusive carrier of the Android version of Angry Birds Rio, meaning that the movie tie-in title will not be available on the Android Market at launch, but will instead be downloadable through the Amazon Appstore. What? "Amazon Appstore?" The retailer is launching its own digital marketplace for Android "very soon," and you would do well to familiarize yourself with it, because it'll also be home to "exclusive" debuts for ad-free Angry Birds and Angry Birds Seasons.
Angry Birds Rio will be exclusive to Amazon Appstore on Android launch
Think you'll be heading to the Android Market to get your next fix of Rovio Mobile's insanely popular Angry Birds? Think again. The next installment in the aviary vengeance saga, Angry Birds Rio, will launch exclusively on Amazon's upcoming Appstore for Android. That does sound like it will eventually achieve universal distribution via the Market, but in the interim Amazon has scored a pretty big scoop in its efforts to attract users to its own app repository. We're also promised the Appstore is launching "very soon" and Amazon has just inaugurated an @amazonappstore account on Twitter to keep us abreast of when precisely that will happen.
Amazon Appstore for Android launching this month?
We've already had some indication that Amazon's own app store for Android devices would be launching fairly shortly, and it now looks like it could be coming as soon as this month. That word comes from the seemingly in-the-know ad network Millennial Media, which tweeted earlier today that the Amazon Appstore for Android is "launching this month," and linked to a blog post that details what's in store for developers. Unfortunately, that post doesn't actually contain a ton of specific details, but the ad network apparently sees the store as a "great opportunity," particularly when it comes to the additional exposure apps would get through Amazon.com. In case you weren't aware, Amazon's also been maintaining an official developer blog for the Appstore (yeah, it's all one word), which does provide quite a few technical details for those interested -- check it out at the link below.
Amazon opens Appstore Developer program, is obviously doing an app store
It was no secret that Amazon was working an Android app store, including some early work with developers, but Amazon's "Appstore" (see what they did with the space there?) Developer Portal just went live. So, no doubt that this is happening, if there was any left in your mind, and we've got a nice stack of details on the store to tide us over until Amazon launches this thing. Amazon is looking to strike a balance between Apple's ultra strict store rules and Google's unvetted mayhem, and will be examining and testing each app before it goes onto the store. Amazon is also going to control pricing, with developers allowed to set a "list price" that Amazon will riff on, adjusting the price based on magical algorithms. There's the standard 70 / 30 split, and Amazon promises that the developer will get no less than 20 percent of the list price. Apps will be promoted to folks browsing Amazon.com just like how Kindle books pop up among physical goods, and can be "pushed" to your device similarly. It's all very intriguing if it catches on, which seems particularly likely on non-blessed devices that don't have access to Google's Market (like the bevy of WiFi-only tablets, the market Amazon claims to be targeting), and developers who want to get in on the action can fork over $99 today to get started.
