Image via Flickr The CBI

According to Citi analyst Walter Pritchard, who released a big report on Microsoft this morning, Microsoft gets $5 for every HTC phone running Android

Microsoft is getting that money thanks to a patent settlement with HTC over intellectual property infringement.

Microsoft is suing other Android phone makers, and it's looking for $7.50 to $12.50 per device, says Pritchard.

We knew hardware companies were paying Microsoft, we just didn't know how much. (In October Steve Ballmer said, "Android has a patent fee. It's not like Android's free.")

Via Businessinsider

The Wholesale Applications Community has been established to increase the overall market for mobile applications. Since 2010, operators and manufacturers have been defining the standard and communicating with developers. At the upcoming Mobile World Congress 2011, WAC is organizing a developers' event on Monday 14th of February. The official statement says:

…Listen to presentations from WAC experts and many of our 59 member companies and watch demonstrations of how you can use WAC device APIs to create great widgets. Hear about the commercial opportunities offered when you can upload your application once, have it distributed worldwide across many application stores and have a single point of settlement. Learn about the plans for WAC enabled devices being launched throughout 2011 and experiences of your peers in the development of WAC widgets….

Check out WAC website for more details and info on how to register for the event…

Google has just released a new version of YouTube application for Android. Some of the new features are:

• In-page playback: you can read the video description, browse related, rate or flag videos without having to interrupt video playback.
• Posting comments: you can post a comment while the video is playing, just like on the desktop website.
• Subscription updates: we've made it easier to access new videos from your subscriptions. If you are signed into your account, you will see all your subscription updates right on the home screen of the app.
• New full-screen UI: To enter full-screen mode simply rotate the phone. The new player controls make it easier to seek within the video, and you can pause or resume the playback by just tapping on the screen.

This new version works on Froyo and above and applies to 43% of Android users that have it. A good move from Google to update apps regardless of the system updates.

Check out the video demonstration on Nexus S.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AAFF9PN-WU

Source: IntoMobile

for easier download and installation ai.rs has provided you the following QR code.

Via Mozilla blog

If you are an active Android developer, you have probably already heard this: Google has expanded its support for paid applications selling and buying on Android Market.

Developers from following countries can now start selling their applications: Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Hong Kong, Ireland, Israel, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland and Taiwan. This brings total sum of countries that can sell applications on Market to 29.

Users from following countries can now buy applications from Market: Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Israel, Mexico, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Singapore, Sweden, and Taiwan. This expands Market to a total of 32 countries that can buy applications.

Google is also announcing that it will bring paid apps to even more countries in the following months. We're keeping our fingers crossed that Serbia will be in at least application buying category in the following expansion of Market.

Do you feel like you are robbed of some of the Android experience because your country is not yet in paid applications ecosystem? Do you think that Google contributes to software piracy by not expanding paid apps Market faster? Would introduction of vouchers (like those for iTunes) speed up expansion of paid apps Market? Drop a comment, and let us now what you think.

Source: Android Developer's blog

As the launch of Windows Phone 7 is getting near, more information surfaces.

We already had a dedicated WP7 post earlier this year, Engadget had it too. The chance is, if you're not living in EFIGS (English, French, Italian, German, Spain) speaking countries, you will not get the complete experience -- at least not from the start:

• Marketplace functionality will be limited
• No Xbox Live service
• No Zune support
• Only web and e-mail content could be displayed on native language without localized phone menus
• Just default keyboards for starters, no local characters
• No copy/paste -- global limitation

On top of that Windows Phone 7 UI will not be customizable in a way we are used at. No TouchWiz, Sense and other add-ons, the manufacturers will have to compete with hub upgrades and separate applications.

Two days ago a bunch of photos surfaced on Flickr (user Trioculus) from an interesting parade where the competition was buried (literally).

www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vmSXcHCtiE

Then it was the promo video. Could it really be official ?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=KY_SpE_F_5g

As far as the mobile applications go, things are getting really interesting. Apple is still at the throne with more than 250,000 apps, and Google is approaching fast (100k). BlackBerry now has more than 10,000 in their App World.

The question remains, what percent of them are just senseless pranks that just add to the count. The efforts of Google and Nokia to involve non-developers in the application creation could lead to even bigger mess on application stores.

The upcoming Windows Phone 7 unveiling and one more Marketplace will give us a chance to get lost in those hundreds of thousands of mobile apps.

Via: Engadget

An application is born just by combining building blocks and arranging components on the screen. We suppose that this will boost the growth of Android Market even faster. So, what are you waiting for, check out this location and apply for the App Inventor.

The manufacturers are ready, and we want our HD3 in full glory.

[View with PicLens]

The operating system will have fully integrated Adobe Flash support, and there will be a massive improvement in speed, with unverified benchmark tests reported by the AndroidPolice website showing a 450% increase in speed over Android 2.1 (Éclair).

According to TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington, the new version will enable Android phone owners to use their phone as a portable Wi-Fi hotspot, and it will also have USB tethering built-in, which will allow the phone to be used as a modem to share its Internet connection with laptops and other portable devices such as gaming consoles. It is unclear at present if the Wi-Fi hotspot and USB tethering features could be disabled by carriers or allowed only for an extra charge. (AT&T still has not enabled iPhone tethering.) It is also unclear which phones will run the new version. Google has not yet confirmed any details about Froyo except Flash integration, but industry analysts are confident features such as FM radio, enhancements of OpenGL ES 2.0, color trackball notifications and additional free RAM will be included. Froyo is also expected to allow Android phone users to automatically upgrade applications and to install applications on an SD card, which would allow them to install more applications than they could using only the phone’s small built-in memory. Froyo is expected to be launched officially at next week’s Google I/O developer conference in San Francisco.

Source: physorg.org