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Google reaches 100 millionth Android activation, 400,000 Android devices activated daily
36 OEMs, 215 carriers, 450,000 Android developers all over the world, Google wants to say "thank you!" Android has recently crossed its 100 millionth activation milestone, and is also growing at its fastest pace yet: 400,000 devices activated each and every day. There are now 200,000 Android applications in the Market, which have accumulated a total of 4.5 billion installs, at a rate which Google actually says is accelerating. These figures have all been cited as a way to illustrate Google's mobile momentum, which is evidently not even thinking about slowing down.
Mac App Store generating error messages instead of app purchases? Here's the fix
Oh, this ain't cool. According to the roughly gazillion complaints we received this morning upon the launch of Apple's Mac App Store, users are seeing the ol' "unknown error occurred (100)" message when first launching the store after the upgrade. According to TUAW, it's a problem with the iTunes Terms and Conditions -- which some users aren't getting prompted to accept, hence the error message. What should you do if you get the error? Quit the store and reload it. If that doesn't work, folks are finding that rebooting and then launching the store again does the trick.
Apple's Mac App Store goes live
Well it's official boys and girls -- Apple's Mac App Store is live as of this morning, and available to use and abuse via a Snow Leopard update (version 10.6.6 to be exact). The OS X application market takes the company's wildly successful iOS App Store to its logical conclusion, bringing an orderly, structured app buying experience to desktops and laptops across the globe. The Store will launch with over 1,000 titles, including Apple standards like the iLife suite broken out into separate parts (iPhoto, iMovie, GarageBand) selling for $14.99 each, Pages, Keynote, and Numbers for $19.99 apiece, and the bank-breaking Aperture for $79.99. Of course there'll also be third-party apps present at launch, including Autodesk Sketchbook Pro, Pixelmator, Cheetah 3D, and Flight Control HD (yes, a port of the iPad version). The software itself will be a separate application that functions much like the App Store, providing update notifications and a universal installation process. That process, mind you, will be part of the requirements for getting your application into the store, along with Apple's famous content policies -- so we're sure we'll see some irate devs with painful rejection stories. Or maybe not. We know that the company is planning on getting lots of familiar developers into the Store, but we also know that some of what Apple is looking for may not gel with, say... Adobe's installation procedures (or worse). Regardless, right now the number of apps available is small, but you can expect it to grow fast now that every Mac user will get a crack at this software. We're going to be doing a much deeper dive on the experience and report back -- until then, if you're using it, let us know what you think in comments.
New Xbox update to shrink some hard drive installs
Posters on Cheap Ass Gamer who keep track of Xbox 360 hard drive installs noticed that those who'd been admitted to the dashboard update preview program were seeing games take up markedly less space than before (a fact later confirmed by Digital Foundry). How much smaller? Well, DF noticed that King of Fighters XII and Raiden Fighters Aces went from 3.4GB to 703 and 484MB respectively, post update.By DF's approximation, the update allows the system to be more efficient in selecting what non-essential data it puts on the hard drive. Though that results in a big savings in some cases, there are exceptions. Fable 2, for example, is no smaller post-update, leading us to assume Lionhead needed every inch of the disc for all that GOTY material.
Skate 2 has 2GB install
It looks like the 'installation saga' persists into 2009. Skate 2, which is due for release next week in both North America and Europe, will feature a 2GB install. It's not certain whether it's mandatory or optional, but MTV Multiplayer suggests you should clear up some space nonetheless -- that is if you've been eyeing more time on the digital half-pipe. A demo for the game is said to appear on the store update this week, so perhaps if you've got space for a demo ... you've got space for the install.
HDBeat Flickr Wednesday: More flat panels!!!!
Each week here at HDBeat, we are grab some of the best, new setups out of our Flickr pool to be featured here on our homepage. This week it is More Flat Panels!mestjern: Set up an HDTV outside so I can watch Football from the pool. Should probably take some other pictures of it to show it off. It was a freakin pain to hang it up on brick.
