Skype Enables Video Calls on 17 More Android Devices

 by Stan Schroeder

Skype announced in June one-on-one video chat for Android, but the feature was only available on a handful of smartphones. Now, the company has launched Skype 2.1 for Android, extending the support for video chat to 17 new Android smartphones and tablets.

The full list of devices that now support video chat includes: Acer A5, HTC Desire (2.2), HTC Desire HD, HTC Evo 3D, HTC Evo 4G, HTC Flyer, HTC Incredible S, HTC Sensation, HTC Thunderbolt – Verizon (2.2) (U.S. only), LG Revolution – Verizon (2.2) (U.S. only), Samsung Droid Charge – Verizon (2.2) (U.S. only), Samsung Galaxy S, Samsung Galaxy S II, Samsung Galaxy Tab, Sony Ericsson Xperia mini pro, Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY and Sony Ericsson Xperia ray.

If your Android device is not on the list but runs Android 2.2 and above, you can still enable video calling in your Skype settings with the new option, “enable video calling.” If it’s not working, then it means your device does not meet the minimum requirements for this feature.

The new version of Skype for Android also brings a number of performance enhancements and bug fixes; gohere for a full list.

Team Android Tablet adds players

By Mark Milian, CNN
(CNN) -- The Android cabal is reuniting in a new territory.In the burgeoning tablet computer market, Google and its legion of hardware partners appear to be recreating the conditions that helped crown the Android operating system king of the hill in smartphones.


Two newer members demonstrated firm commitments to Team Android Tablet last week.


Sony Electronics plans to launch the S1 and S2 tablets, both running Google's Android, in the fall. Those devices will be Sony's first major tablet products. And together with Adobe Systems, Sony is hoping to breathe life into Android's tablet marketplace with a $200,000 competition for application developers.


"We understand that the Android market today hasn't been exactly what it was forecasted to be," Phil Molyneux, the president and operating chief for Sony Electronics, said during an interview with reporters on Wednesday.


While the total number of Android apps designed for phones continues to skyrocket, into the hundreds of thousands, apps designed for tablets remain a relative rarity. The total, by some estimates, is less than 300.


Compare that to some 90,000 apps made for the Apple iPad or even the 300 available for Hewlett-Packard's just-released TouchPad, which uses the proprietary webOS software. An abundance of apps is crucial to a platform's success, most operating-system providers agree.


A Google spokeswoman declined to make a representative available for an interview. At the company's developers conference in May, Google unveiled a new version of Android that would help app makers design their software to work on most Android phones and tablets.


"We know that high-quality apps are the lifeblood for Android," Android executive Mike Cleron said on stage.


Even Google's partners aren't satisfied in that respect.
"Consumers want more apps for Android tablets," Sanjay Jha, chairman and chief executive officer of Motorola Mobility, said in a recent earnings call. Motorola sold fewer than 250,000 units in the first few months, a far cry from the 300,000 iPads sold on its first day and the 25 million sold in the first 14 months.


Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang told the technology website CNETthat Android tablets have several problems, including pricing, marketing and app availability.


Over the next four years, Android tablets are forecast to gain market share but fail to overtake the iPad, according to a recent report from Gartner Research. Meanwhile, Google had already overtaken all smartphone competitors for dominance in that industry, less than four years after the launch of the iPhone and three years after the release of the first Android device.


But Android's rise to prominence in smartphones, likewise, did not start with a big bang.


However, its challenges were different then. The first Android smartphones were sold by smaller cellular carriers like T-Mobile USA, and there weren't many devices to choose from. It wasn't until Verizon Wireless threw its weight behind Google, with the Droid campaign, that Android blasted off in the United States and then elsewhere.
Consumers shopping for a tablet today can choose from a bevy of Android devices. Samsung Electronics has been producing tablets in various sizes since last year. The needle didn't move much when Motorola debuted the Xoom for telecom giant Verizon.


Industry analysts and executives are struggling to answer the question: Do consumers want tablets, or do they want iPads?


It's a question worth asking, and this discussion is similar to the portable-media players vs iPods debate. The answer in that case, as Microsoft and others learned, was the latter. People wanted iPods. Samsung isn't coming close to unseating the iPod Touch with its Galaxy Player, based on Android software.


Electronics manufacturers aren't waiting idly to find out the answer to the iPad-or-Android tablet question. They are banding together and again, betting on Google to turn the tides.


Toshiba released the Thrive last week. Amazon is working on a tablet, and the Wall Street Journal reports that it will use Android. Research in Motion's BlackBerry PlayBook tablet will eventually be able to run Android apps, RIM executives have said.


Many players will rely on the success of Android as a means to break into the tablet market, but they are still looking for the impetus that gets consumers onboard.

iOS Device Users Are Buying 61% More Apps Than a Year Ago

by Stan Schroeder

Apple device owners are buying a lot more applications than a year ago and they’re willing to pay more for them, a recent report from Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster suggests.
The average iOS device owner will download 83 apps in 2011, a 61% increase over 2010, according to the report. Furthermore, the average selling price for apps is up 14% year-over-year in 2011, after an 18% decline in 2010.
Munster estimates that the surge in the average selling price is due to increase demand for iPad apps, which are more expensive on average than iPhone apps.
The numbers are unofficial, as Apple doesn’t often release detailed data about app sales, so take them with a grain of salt. Recently, Apple announced that iOS users have downloaded 15 billion applications from the App Store, netting developers more than $2.5 billion, with Apple’s cut being more than $1 billion.

HTC launches 1.5GHz, 7-inch Android 2.4 Flyer into the tablet wars

By Vlad Savov

Boy oh boy, HTC is entering the tablet arena with quite a bang. The company has just taken the wraps off its brand new 7-inch Flyer Android tablet, which touts a 1.5GHz single-core CPU, 1GB of RAM plus 32GB of flash storage, an aluminum unibody construction, 1024 x 600 resolution, a tablet-optimized version of Sense, and... what's this, a pressure-sensitive capacitive stylus! The HTC Scribe trademark we saw floating around in legal waters turned out not to be the branding for a tablet, it's actually the name HTC gives to the technology enabling what it calls a "groundbreaking pen experience." Other details include a 5 megapixel camera on the back paired with a 1.3 megapixel imager up front, a 4000mAh battery rated to last for four hours of continuous video playback, and memory expandability via a microSD card.

The Flyer will ship in Q2 2011 with Android Gingerbread 2.4 on board. HTC says it'll be indistinguishable from 2.3 as far the end user is concerned, though we all know it won't be quite as good as the 3.0 stuff. We're told not to worry, however, since the new version of Sense being introduced with the Flyer will be the focal point of the company's software offering. As far as HTC is concerned, Sense matters more than the underlying platform, and the reason Honeycomb isn't the shipping OS here was explicitly stated as HTC not having enough time with the latest Google code to customize it to the full requirements of Sense. Guess that settles that.

There are a couple more software enhancements, both marking the introduction of the fruits of HTC's recent deals: OnLive cloud gaming will be coming with the Flyer in the form of an app you open up to access the web-connected bored-relieving service, while that Saffron Digital acquisition has turned into an HTC Watch app for movie streaming and downloading.

We spent a bit of quality time with a Flyer unit recently, although we weren't allowed to turn it on, and our early impressions are rather mixed. On the one hand, we do appreciate the ruggedness and durability that's afforded by the one-piece aluminum shell, but on the other, the Flyer is quite the chunky beast in your hands. We'd imagine strapping in such an extra-speedy processor is the main culprit for its extra girth, though the Flyer is, ironically enough, not terribly light either. We found it heavier and generally a lot less polished from a design perspective than Samsung's Galaxy Tab. Anyhow, HTC should have functional units for us immediately following its MWC presser this morning, and we'll be delving in deeper with this super-specced device. Hang tight!

Show full PR text

HTC UNVEILS HTC FLYER™, THE FIRST TABLET WITH HTC SENSE™

Aluminum unibody design with touch and pen interaction make HTC Flyer unique

First tablet with HTC Watch™ video service, HTC Scribe™ Technology and OnLive® cloud gaming

BARCELONA, SPAIN – Mobile World Congress – February 15, 2011 – HTC, a global leader in mobile innovation and design, today announced its first tablet, the HTC FlyerTM. HTC Flyer blends HTC's trademark design language with an all-new HTC Sense user experience that has been reimagined for the tablets. Using an intuitive and innovative approach to tablets, HTC Flyer combines natural touch and pen interaction. HTC also announced HTC Watch, a new connected video service that will debut on HTC Flyer tablet, and will collaborate with OnLive, Inc. to launch the first cloud-based mobile gaming service on a tablet.

"Clearly, smartphones have transformed our lives but as we observed how people use smartphones, computers and other technologies, we saw an opportunity to create a tablet experience that is different, more personal and productive," said Peter Chou, CEO of HTC Corporation. "We are progressing down a path as an industry when people will no longer be in a single device paradigm, but have multiple wireless devices for different needs; this is the direction we are moving."

Encased in a sleek aluminum unibody, the HTC Flyer tablet exudes the iconic style and build quality HTC is known for. It is also ultra-light, weighing as little as a paperback book, and compact enough to fit in a jacket pocket only. With a seven-inch display, lightning fast 1.5Ghz processor and high-speed HSPA+ wireless capabilities, the HTC Flyer tablet is perfect for those who have been waiting for a tablet that is both compact and powerful.

HTC Sense for Tablet
HTC Sense revolutionized smartphones by placing the person at the center of the experience. HTC Flyer's tablet-focused HTC Sense experience focuses on surprising and delighting people with its gorgeous 3D home screen. A unique carousel of widgets puts a user's most important content and information at the visual center of the experience. The HTC Flyer tablet also offers uncompromised Web browsing with Flash 10 and HTML 5.

HTC Scribe Technology
Touch interaction lights up the HTC Flyer tablet experience, but it also offers a groundbreaking pen experience. With the new HTC Scribe Technology on the HTC Flyer tablet, people can rediscover the natural act of writing. HTC Scribe Technology introduces a wave of integrated digital ink innovations that make it easy and natural to take notes, sign contracts, draw pictures, or even write on a web page or photo.

HTC Scribe Technology on the HTC Flyer tablet transforms traditional note-taking into smart note-taking by integrating natural onscreen writing with thoughtful and integrated innovations. A feature called Timemark enables you to capture the audio of a meeting in line with your written notes, so tapping on a word in your notes instantly takes you to that exact place in time in the audio recording of the meeting. Notes are also integrated with the calendar so when there is an appointment reminder you are automatically prompted with an opportunity to begin a new note or in the case of recurring meetings, to continue where the last meeting left off. In an industry first, the HTC Flyer tablet also features built-in synchronization with Evernote™, the world-leading notes application and service.

Streaming Mobile Movies with HTC Watch
The HTC Flyer tablet premieres HTC Watch, HTC's new video download service. The HTC Watch service enables low-cost on-demand progressive downloading of hundreds of High-Definition movies from major studios. The intuitive, natural design of the HTC Watch service makes it easy to find the latest movie and video content, while advanced technology on the back-end enables instant playback over the HTC Flyer tablet's high-speed wireless connection.

Mobile Cloud Gaming with OnLive
HTC takes mobile gaming to an entirely new level by being the first mobile device in the world to integrate OnLive Inc.'s revolutionary cloud-based gaming service. OnLive is leading in the home gaming market by letting people play top video games on their televisions and computers without the need to buy expensive gaming hardware or software. When integrated fully, the OnLive service will enable customers to pipe the OnLive service through the HTC Flyer tablet's broadband wireless to their television sets, or let them play directly on the tablet. When integrated on the HTC Flyer tablet, people can play a variety of games, including hits like Assassin's Creed Brotherhood™, NBA 2K11 and Lego Harry Potter™.

Availability
HTC Flyer will be available to customers globally during Q2 2011.

About HTC
HTC Corporation (HTC) is one of the fastest growing companies in the mobile phone industry. By putting people at the center of everything it does, HTC creates innovative smartphones that better serve the lives and needs of individuals. The company is listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange under ticker 2498. For more information about HTC, please visit HYPERLINK "http://www.htc.com/"www.htc.com.

New rumor hints RIM tablet to run Android apps

by Don Reisinger

Research In Motion is developing software that will allow its upcoming BlackBerry PlayBook tablet to run Android applications, sources tell Bloomberg.
Citing three unnamed sources, the news service reported that RIM originally tried to use third-party software that would allow its tablet to run Android applications. But after finding nothing suitable, the sources said, RIM decided to work on the solution in-house. The software it's developing will provide access to the Android Market, Bloomberg says.
RIM unveiled its BlackBerry PlayBook last fall. The tablet boasts a 7-inch touch display and runs BlackBerry Tablet OS, a new operating system developed by QNX Software, a company that RIM acquired last year.
RIM itself hasn't made any indication that it will bring Android apps to its platform. At its event unveiling the BlackBerry PlayBook in September, RIM offered details about its own developer program for companies to create programs that run natively on its operating system. The platform supports applications developed in HTML5, Adobe AIR, Flash, Java, and native code.
But that hasn't stopped the rumors from piling up.
Last month, mobile blog Boy Genius Report first reported on the possibility of Android apps coming to the BlackBerry PlayBook. The publication cited sources that said RIM will use the Dalvik virtual machine employed by Android devices to get apps to run on the products.
However, Bloomberg is reporting that RIM opted against using Dalvik over concerns that it could get entangled in patent skirmishes between Google and Oracle.
CNET senior associate editor Nicole Lee pointed out last month when the Boy Genius Report story surfaced that it seems rather unlikely RIM would undermine its own app efforts and offer Android programs on its tablet. And until the company says for sure that this is happening, it's best to consider Android apps running on the upcoming tablet little more than a rumor.
RIM did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

HP TouchPad Takes Aim at the Competition [VIDEO]

by Christina Warren

At HP’s webOS event Wednesday, the company officially unveiled the next generation of webOS devices, including the new tablet, the TouchPad.
The TouchPad is HP’s big move into the white-hot tablet space. Looking at the specs and the form factor, it’s clear the TouchPad has taken a lot of cues from Apple’s iPad, while still giving the device a flair of Palm panache.

Physically, the TouchPad aligns with the leaks Engadget obtained last month. Cross pollinate an iPad and a Palm Pre and you get the TouchPad.
Check out this video from HP’s site:





The TouchPad’s physical dimensions should be very familiar to iPad owners:

• 1.6 lbs
• 13.7 mm thin
• 9.7-inch 1024×768 display
• 1.3-megapixel webcam for video calling
• Stereo speakers

When we go under the hood, what we see looks similar to the Motorola Xoom and the rumored specs of the iPad 2.
The TouchPad includes:

• Dual-core 1.2 Ghz Snapdragon processor
• 16 or 32GB of storage
• 802.11 b/g/n for Wireless
• Bluetooth 2.1
• 1 GB of RAM

3G and 4G versions of the device will hit the market after the Wi-Fi model arrives and feature on-board GPS.
On the accessory front, HP will be releasing an innovative Touchstone dock that acts as both a cables-free charging station and a stand.
For the expected release date, HP says “summer” and is staying mum on the price for now. WebOS looks great on a larger device and we look forward to seeing what apps head its way.
What do you think of the TouchPad? Let us know!

What can the Motorola Xoom do for Google?

By Christopher Dawson

I’ll admit it. I’m not a big football fan. I just can’t get into it. And the Superbowl? Unless the Patriots or the Seahawks are in it, I’m only watching for the commercials. OK, even if the Pats or the Seahawks are in it, I’m still watching for the commercials. Which largely stunk this year. Great. One that I couldn’t help but like, though? Motorola’s ad for the Xoom. It made me chuckle. It made me say, “take that, Steve.” It even made me want a Xoom.




I’m not sure you could get a more direct attack on Apple and their iOS ecosystem. Maybe if a Xoom exploded in Steve Jobs’ hands, but otherwise, this commercial took no prisoners.
Will the Xoom be an iPad killer? Probably not. The iPad is simply too entrenched. However, as the first major foray into the Honeycomb-powered tablet market and, arguably, the strongest competitor to the iPad, the Xoom is an extremely important product to Google. Google, after all, sells neither phones nor tablets. The Nexus One retail debacle took care of that one. They don’t even sell their mobile OS. It’s open source. And yet, Google repeatedly identifies mobile as absolutely critical to their strategy.
Google instead relies on OEMs rolling out truly compelling hardware running Android with compelling apps and compelling interfaces to ensure that millions of people are searching via Google while they’re mobile and to make sure that their AdWords platform is reaching as many mobile customers as possible. The Xoom hits all three areas of compelling. It doesn’t have to be an iPad killer. It just needs to be a worthy iPad competitor.
What can the Xoom do for Google? It can be good enough that people no longer automatically think iPad when they think tablet. A well-done SuperBowl ad doesn’t hurt anything either.

Android 3.0: Five Features Your Enterprise IT Manager Will Love

By Eric Lai

Android 3.0 HoneyComb is Google’s attempt to make Android tablets finally competitive with the hot-selling iPad. That primarily means goodies for consumers and developers. But there were some notable features that your IT admin or CIO will love.

Some enterprise features, like strong support for security certificates, remain missing. But the ones added may still be enough to help jumpstart mass adoption of Android tablets in the enterprise. Here they are, ranked from most to least important.

1) Full disk encryption. For protecting data from prying eyes, when passwords and PINs aren’t enough. HoneyComb will not only offer encryption, but it will also allow IT administrators to set policies that force corporate workers to use it (since some workers might skip encryption for performance and battery life reasons).

RIM has long offered device encryption, though BlackBerries have historically not stored much data locally (which is why RIM also offers encryption of data while it is in transport, i.e. sent through the network). So HoneyComb still doesn’t match BlackBerry out of the box, though it does beat iOS 4. iOS’s “Data Protection” feature only automatically encrypts data in its Mail app. For other app data, iOS developers must rewrite their apps to enable encryption. On the other hand, there is no shortage of third-party software that enable policy-based disk encryption on iPhones and iPads (including, full disclosure, the market-leading Afaria software offered by my employer, Sybase).

The downside of encryption, as mentioned above, is a drain on both CPU and battery, though it’s unclear how much. Google does warn that those running encryption for the first time should be plugged in or have a full battery. What’s also unknown: the type and strength of Honeycomb’s encryption, and if/when this feature will migrate to smartphone-oriented versions of Android.

2) Stronger passwords. Android 3.0 offers security-focused administrators three key features: 1) ability to make passwords expireafter a certain time period; 2) ability to mine the password history so as to force users to pick new ones; 3) ability to force users to use complex characters to strengthen their passwords.

3) App compatibility between smartphone and tablet. While Android 3.0 includes many features to make the OS run sweetly on larger-sized tablets, it remains ” fully compatible with applications developed for earlier versions of the platform, or for smaller screen sizes,” according toGoogle’s developer site. “Existing applications can seamlessly participate in the new holographic UI theme without code changes, by adding a single attribute in their manifest files.” This is a boon for developers of all stripes, but especially enterprise ones. That’s because developers of games and other consumer apps where the user interface is a key competitive advantage will still need to rewrite their apps as the screen size shifts. Apart from analytic dashboards, most enterprise apps are more data-driven than UI-driven. Rewrites won’t be needed in most cases.

4) Better user interface. Thumbnails at the bottom of the Android screen that displays all of the running apps, which you can easily switch among. Easier cutting-and-pasting of text. More subtle notifications (bottom right of screen, rather than smack-dab in the middle, passively-aggressively demanding to be acknowledged ala the iPad). Tabbed browsing in Google Chrome. Need I continue?

5) Web-based Android Market. Strictly speaking, this is not a part of Android 3.0, it just happened to be announced the same day. And strictly speaking, nothing’s yet changed for enterprises. What has happened is that users can choose/buy apps via the online Android Market, and then download them straight to their device over-the-air. Contrast that with an iPhone or iPad - if you buy an app via iTunes on your PC, you’ll have to physically tether your Apple device to your PC and sync. Not Apple’s most elegant solution.

The important thing is this: by shoring up the consumer side of its house, Google is now free to focus on improving app distribution for enterprises. Right now, businesses appear to have only two alternatives: 1) post their app on the Android Marketplace or some otheroverly-public app store, and then invite their employees to go and download the app; 2) Point users to a company Web server hosting that file.

Problem is that neither of these channels allows IT managers toproactively push apps and needed updates to employees over-the-air. BlackBerry Enterprise Server has been able to do this for years, whileApple introduced this feature last summer in iOS4.

Google will need to offer this soon to be truly competitive in the enterprise, or some third-party vendor will need to pick up the slack.

Can Honeycomb tablets gain ground by being "just as good" as iPad?

By Sam Diaz

The Google executives were still on stage at the Android Honeycomb event yesterday when a reader of our live coverage chimed in to respond to some chatter about Honeycomb not offering anything to make it better than the iPad. His comment was simple but it stuck with me. He wrote:

If it’s as good and not Apple, I’m fine with it.

Clearly, this reader isn’t a big Apple fan - so he has other motivations. But that got me thinking about whether the Motorola Xoom - the first tablet to be powered by Android 3 (aka Honeycomb) - needs to actually be better than the iPad. Is “just as good” enough?

After all, being “just as good” as the iPhone is how I initially saw Android smartphones. Don’t get me wrong. The iPhone is an amazing product and one that I wanted desperately - but wasn’t willing to do the AT&T thing. Now, I’m a big fan of the Android OS and have no desire to switch to the iPhone, regardless of which carrier it’s on. Never do I feel like I’m compromising my smartphone user experience because my device is powered by Android instead of Apple’s iOS.

Now that we’re moving into tablets, it needs to play out the same way. Google needed to make sure that the Honeycomb experience would be just as good as the iPad experience - and from what I’ve seen it is. And, based on some of my own personal metrics, it’s actually better.

Flash is still a big deal. Android tablets will run Flash while iPad doesn’t. And as much as Steve Jobs wants all of us to hate Flash as much as he does, it really does make me stop and pause. Flash exists in my world and I can’t just not have it - especially in a tablet.

The same goes for expandable storage. I never liked that Apple prices its devices - all of them - based on storage capacity. I love the microSD card in my Android phone - that’s where I store my music and photos. And with Xoom coming in with 32 GB of internal storage and the ability to expand to 32 GB more, it’s a one-up over the iPad.

Still, none of that matters if Google and partners don’t get the pricing right.

We still don’t have any pricing information for the Xoom. If Google or the partners don’t come in lower than the iPad, then it’s going to be an incredibly tough sell. If this experience is the same and the pricing is the same, then they’ve just handed the people who were on the fence over to team Apple. After all, the iPad is already a proven winner. Why would anyone pay the same money for a crapshoot that might or might not live up to the hype? I cannot overstate this: Pricing is key.

Certainly, the forthcoming release of iPad2 will be something to watch, especially if there are significant changes to the device or software. But if Google can build a following with tablets the way it has with smartphones, it can be go head-to-head with Apple - forcing both companies to compete on innovation, as well as pricing.

And when that happens, the consumers - all of us - are the ones who win.

Google announces Web-based Android Market

by Marguerite Reardon

Google has announced a new Web-based Android Market online store that will make it easier for people to get to new applications for their smartphones and tablets.

The announcement was made today at an event where Google is showing off the new Android 3.0 software known as Honeycomb, which is designed specifically for tablets. Google also used the event, held at company headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., to take the wraps off the new Web-based Android Market. Up to this point, Android users could only discover and download apps from the Android Market client installed on their devices. Now, users will be able to get to the apps from any Web browser.

Google demonstrated the new Web-based Android Market, and the page itself shows a lot more detail than the Android Market client. It offers better pictures for promoting applications as well as ways to promote other applications alongside the one the user selected. Screenshots and user reviews are prominent.

The Web-based store also adds a social-networking element to the app store experience. It allows friends to recommend cool apps to each other. The store is also connected to Twitter, which allows people to tweet application purchases or recommendations to their Twitter followers. The tweet contains a link that will take followers directly to the Web store. The phone experience is slightly different, when you click on the link from the phone, it opens the same page but in the Android Market client on the phone instead of the Web store.

Google also showed how it has improved search within the Android Market. You can search within the Web store for applications, and Google has added some new refinements to the search experience to sort by device type, popularity, or reviews. Free apps can be accessed with one click. Searching apps based on compatible devices should help address problems with fragmentation within the Android application community.

The Web site is live here.

Google also announced that it will offer in-app purchasing for app developers. This will allow developers to sell virtual goods inside Android apps. Apple's iOS devices have had this capability for a few years now.

Adding in-app purchasing should be easy for developers, Google executives explained. The company brought up Bart DeCrem from Disney Mobile to show off some new applications the company is bringing to Android. DeCrem demonstrated playing the game Tap Tap Revenge on a Nexus S, which runs on Android 2.1 or higher. He showed how you can play and purchase a Bruno Mars song from within the Tap Tap Revenge application. Once the transaction is done, the user can move into the game part.

Disney had worked on this application for several months, but it added the in-app purchasing code only five days ago. This demonstrates how quickly and easily developers can add the in-app purchasing to their applications. Google will release developer documentation today as well as sample code for in-app purchasing.

Honeycomb
While the big news of the day had to do with the Android Market, Google also showed off its tablet-oriented Honeycomb software. While many of the features have already been made public by Google and its hardware partners, the company took the opportunity to show off how the tablet-optimized software will work.

As CNET's tablet reviewer Donald Bell has said previously the Android Honeycomb OS "charts exciting new ground for tablets, bringing some dearly needed differentiation from the Android smartphone experience."

The first device to use the new software will be Motorola's Xoom tablet, expected to debut later this month. Motorola's tablet won CNET's Best of Show award at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last month.

Google's overall vision is that services and apps will be tied together among all Google Android phones, tablets, and Google TV in the future, according to Google Android leader Andy Rubin. One of the biggest problems that Android has faced over its short lifetime is fragmentation. The open-source software is used by different hardware makers and software developers can add bits and pieces of their own special sauce to the software. What this has meant for consumers is different applications that work on different devices.

Google's cloud-based services, including the new Web-based Google Market, will help fulfill this vision. But Honeycomb will also play a role. One of the things that Honeycomb is supposed to do is to make it easier to develop applications that work both on tablets as well as smartphones.

To demonstrate this point Hugo Barra, director of mobile products for Google, show how the game Fruit Ninja could be played on the Honeycomb tablet without any modification to the app. Fruit Ninja is a game built and released for Android smartphones before Honeycomb was built.

But CNET Reviews editor Donald Bell wasn't entirely impressed.

"Kinda skirted the legacy app compatibility question by demoing Fruit Ninja," he wrote during the live blog. "Scaling a game isn't the same thing as scaling an app designed for a 4-inch screen."

Indeed, scaling apps designed for smaller screens to tablets and vice versa is a challenge, especially when the hardware and other software enhancements among devices differs greatly. But Honeycomb is clearly a step forward when it comes to ushering in Android tablets that will compete with Apple's iPad.