something in the way

Unofficial Android app count reaches 50,000+

AndroLib has reported that the total number of applications on the Android Market has exceeded 50,000; this number is a wee bit bigger than what Google itself has reported during a Q1 earnings report. Jeff Huber, Google’s senior VP of engineering reported the number to be a respectable 38,000, which stands as Google’s “official” count.

“We’re sticking to 38,000 for now. We’ll announce when we do our next formal count.”
-Google, to Android Central

50,000 seems to be quite a big over-estimate if Google is sticking to their lower figure; however, I could see the numbers getting easily inflated due to the amount of not-quite-apps on the marketplace. Any search for “Beautiful Widgets” or “Better Home” will give you a sea of entries that are just for skins, which just make finding the original app that much harder. This flood is one of the main critiques of the marketplace, and something I believe needs to be fixed ASAP to bring us a more functional environment to find apps.

Android brings new life to old iPhones

Small newspost to round out the night, but it has been announced a member of the infamous “Dev-Team”, Planetbeing, has managed to port Android’s Mobile OS to the Apple iPhone.

The iPhone Dev Team is responsible for a number of tools that circumvent the iPhone’s security, and the fact that they’ve been able to throw Android on the iPhone is kind of a big deal. As far as I know, this is the first time anyone’s been able to throw a completely different manufacturer’s OS onto the device.

Whether this is just a side project (which is still in alpha, by the way) or something that opens up a realm of multi-booting possibilities, it’s great to see Android being worked with in new and creative ways.

Google drops Android 2.0 SDK

One day after we called out Google for holding onto the Android 2.0 SDK, it magically appeared on their website. Developers can now grab the new SDK from the official Android site.

Hightlights of the Android 2.0 platform include:

Contacts and accounts

Multiple accounts can be added to a device for email and contact synchronization, including Exchange accounts. (Handset manufacturers can choose whether to include Exchange support in their devices.)
Developers can create sync adapters that provide synchronization with additional data sources.
Quick Contact for Android provides instant access to a contact’s information and communication modes. For example, a user can tap a contact photo and select to call, SMS, or email the person. Other applications such as Email, Messaging, and Calendar can also reveal the Quick Contact widget when you touch a contact photo or status icon.

Sync support for contacts from multiple data sources including Exchange. Handset manufacturers can choose whether or not to include Exchange support in their devices.
New way to hover on a person to see more info and select communication mode (for example, phone, SMS, email).

Email

Exchange support.
Combined inbox to browse email from multiple accounts in one page.

Messaging

Search functionality for all saved SMS and MMS messages.
Auto delete the oldest messages in a conversation when a defined limit is reached.

Camera

Built-in flash support
Digital zoom
Scene mode
White balance
Color effect
Macro focus

Android virtual keyboard

An improved keyboard layout to makes it easier to hit the correct characters and improve typing speed.
The framework’s multi-touch support ensures that key presses aren’t missed while typing rapidly with two fingers.
A smarter dictionary learns from word usage and automatically includes contact names as suggestions.

Browser

Refreshed UI with actionable browser URL bar enables users to directly tap the address bar for instant searches and navigation.
Bookmarks with web page thumbnails.
Support for double-tap zoom.
Support for HTML5:
- Database API support, for client-side databases using SQL.
- Application cache support, for offline applications.
- Geolocation API support, to provide location information about the device.
- <video> tag support in fullscreen mode.