This is exactly what the problem is with Android application count [PICS] - General Topics

It's ridiculous just how much the Android market is infested with spam and crap apps. We need to get Google to introduce filtering and better sorting into the market.
Here's the full post including the new apps that I saw in the market this morning and the suggested fixes for Google: This Is Exactly What The Problem Is With Android Application Count – Google Needs To Fix It *Now*
Do your part - let Google know if you're unhappy with the way the market operates.

Related

Cyanogen shut down by Google

I cant believe this. Cyanogen just twittered this:
Sorry everyone, CyanogenMod in it's current state is done. I am violating Google's license by redistributing their applications.
More at: http://twitter.com/cyanogen
(Mods I know it should belong in General but the developer thread should know about it then the other ones. Forgive me)
You are taking it all wrong. He hasn't been shut down, wont be shut down, etc. Read the original statement. As long as you any apps that arent part of the source code repository you are not violating anything as far as google is concerned.
With a high-quality open platform in hand, we then returned to our goal of making our services available on users' phones. That's why we developed Android apps for many of our services like YouTube, Gmail, Google Voice, and so on. These apps are Google's way of benefiting from Android in the same way that any other developer can, but the apps are not part of the Android platform itself. We make some of these apps available to users of any Android-powered device via Android Market, and others are pre-installed on some phones through business deals. Either way, these apps aren't open source, and that's why they aren't included in the Android source code repository. Unauthorized distribution of this software harms us just like it would any other business, even if it's done with the best of intentions.
I hope that clears up some of the confusion around Google's apps for Android. We always love seeing novel uses of Android, including custom Android builds from developers who see a need. I look forward to seeing what comes next!
So lets please stop being chicken little and get on with the dev work. Not including certain apps is not going to make or break any rom as each user should be able to find the apps on their own.
The sky is not falling although my home did get flooded in atlanta last week.
Johnny Blaze said:
You are taking it all wrong. He hasn't been shut down, wont be shut down, etc. Read the original statement. As long as you any apps that arent part of the source code repository you are not violating anything as far as google is concerned.
With a high-quality open platform in hand, we then returned to our goal of making our services available on users' phones. That's why we developed Android apps for many of our services like YouTube, Gmail, Google Voice, and so on. These apps are Google's way of benefiting from Android in the same way that any other developer can, but the apps are not part of the Android platform itself. We make some of these apps available to users of any Android-powered device via Android Market, and others are pre-installed on some phones through business deals. Either way, these apps aren't open source, and that's why they aren't included in the Android source code repository. Unauthorized distribution of this software harms us just like it would any other business, even if it's done with the best of intentions.
I hope that clears up some of the confusion around Google's apps for Android. We always love seeing novel uses of Android, including custom Android builds from developers who see a need. I look forward to seeing what comes next!
So lets please stop being chicken little and get on with the dev work. Not including certain apps is not going to make or break any rom as each user should be able to find the apps on their own.
The sky is not falling although my home did get flooded in atlanta last week.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are aware of that the phone relies on ALOT on framework and other files. Have you tried to delete any of the Google Apps? The phone doesnt work without them. Also, open source replacements arent going to be pulled out of the air magically. Its going to take ALOT of work.
Are you sad all your stuff was ruined?
Johnny Blaze said:
You are taking it all wrong. He hasn't been shut down, wont be shut down, etc. Read the original statement. As long as you any apps that arent part of the source code repository you are not violating anything as far as google is concerned.
With a high-quality open platform in hand, we then returned to our goal of making our services available on users' phones. That's why we developed Android apps for many of our services like YouTube, Gmail, Google Voice, and so on. These apps are Google's way of benefiting from Android in the same way that any other developer can, but the apps are not part of the Android platform itself. We make some of these apps available to users of any Android-powered device via Android Market, and others are pre-installed on some phones through business deals. Either way, these apps aren't open source, and that's why they aren't included in the Android source code repository. Unauthorized distribution of this software harms us just like it would any other business, even if it's done with the best of intentions.
I hope that clears up some of the confusion around Google's apps for Android. We always love seeing novel uses of Android, including custom Android builds from developers who see a need. I look forward to seeing what comes next!
So lets please stop being chicken little and get on with the dev work. Not including certain apps is not going to make or break any rom as each user should be able to find the apps on their own.
The sky is not falling although my home did get flooded in atlanta last week.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
sure its not truly legal but i think its the way they have gone about it- and in the spirit of open source i fail to see how it affects them.....i thought their business plan was based on more people using the net, more people using their apps, and more people using google to search..... so surely he is creating more business for them?.....
I don't like where this is heading......
jealous
if i was google id be going mad too, seeing the new youtube and market on phones and its not supposed to be out yet.
maybe they will offer him a job
John Player said:
if i was google id be going mad too, seeing the new youtube and market on phones and its not supposed to be out yet.
maybe they will offer him a job
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I totally agree and I think those apps were the straw that broke the camels back...
Its all crap no one not even google can stop someone developing a rom with copyrighted
material on the internet.there are many ways to cover this up without being traced
Anyway what's stopping a simple script downloading google apps onto the device on boot? Nothing as android as source is open
spyz88 said:
You are aware of that the phone relies on ALOT on framework and other files. Have you tried to delete any of the Google Apps? The phone doesnt work without them. Also, open source replacements arent going to be pulled out of the air magically. Its going to take ALOT of work.
Are you sad all your stuff was ruined?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The frameworks, etc and files needed to run the os are part of what you can get from the repository. I set up my mac to cook my own roms so I do know whats there and what isnt.
I bootcamped back into vista, loaded adb explorer and removed market, gmail, youtube, and maps. My phone does work without them. If you need gmail then yes there would be an issue but only reason i have gmail is that it was required for me to get my G1 when it came out. Try it for yourself. You will be a lot less functional but your phone will still work.
Besides Google is kinda in a shaky spot. Win mo although not great is established along with RIM os, and Iphone so Android is still in the growing stage and to attract the business users it has to have no hiccups or possible easy exploits so I do believe they will do a lot of barking but very little bite. Probably if Cyanogen wouldnt have made it on engadget, yahoo, msn probably wouldve been left alone.
There are still better things to do with the os. The real dev work is what cyanogen and others do with the kernel, memory management, etc not the apps included with the rom.
PROJECT:OpenAndroid
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=564263 We are attempting to as a community replace all of google's parts with opensourced programs developed and written ourselves. If you have any thoughts or suggestions please let us know.
The issue is that right now if you want to create a useful ROM you need to include the Market app at a minimum.
Sure Gmail is easy enough to replace, and Maps can be downloaded from the Market. But wait, you can't download it from the Market because you don't have a Market app.
So until there is an open source way to access the Market the ROM development community for Android pretty much hosed.
Hopefully this is not heading to where I think it is heading to... Or I might just jump on the next iPhone and say bye bye to Google.
Actually just a though. Just make a way to for the end user to back the google apps and then after a flash to reload them back on after install. That is not violating their stoopid terms then lol. And then for any updates just providing where you can get the updated stuff directly from google. Like where to get market 1.6 and so forth just right from google. Again no violating anything google. Defiantly a sad day for android. Since they don't let tethering , more then 3 home, not having file system access (like win mo), and no ads (adfree) lol, and many of the other great things with out root. If Google sees this thru I am going to go back to Apple iPhone and to hell with Android. Google will loose alot of users out of this I think.
Just write apps to tie you in with Hotmail / contacts / calendaring / outlook and leave GMail totally out of it.... Google will change their tune about the usage of 'their' apps. Because really they get the most from it by keeping you tied in to their online services.
Wow! I dont even know what to think. It must be a cold day in hell. I really hope that Cyanogen and the devs here @xda can come up with a way around this. And to think that Cyanogen was making some serious headway with the development of his Roms, website, and YouTube channel. I am more or less in shock right now. I have all the faith in the world that you guys will come through this still developing the best the Android community has to offer. Just be patient...
And seriously?...you would switch to Iphone? Who the #UCK wants one of those pieces of $H1T.
NOT ME!!
I highly doubt google would actually follow through and take legal action on something like this. It would be a bad business move all around. I would expect the C&D are more about pleasing manufactures and carriers more then google being worried about their own code, in which case who can blame them as they are at a point where they desperately need to attract these companies in order to ensure the future of android.
Just received a pretty interesting article via Twitter.
http://bit.ly/2NjYST
Not my article, and not necessarily my opinion, but it's a good read.
Arrgghh..google..
Bubye google apps..lets just forget them!
Modified android is much important then google apps itself!!
Google, you are very ridicoulous!! You make your app avaliable free for other system, but for your own system? Even now you make gmail support exchange..
I think i hate google as much as i hate apple..lol..
spyz88 said:
You are aware of that the phone relies on ALOT on framework and other files. Have you tried to delete any of the Google Apps? The phone doesnt work without them. Also, open source replacements arent going to be pulled out of the air magically. Its going to take ALOT of work.
Are you sad all your stuff was ruined?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I beg to differ. The phone works without the google apps. I know. Thats what I had when I first got my HTC Magic 32A. For some reason, HTC did not include ANY of Google's stuff in it.
So, no market, no gmail, no maps, no youtube. It was boring as hell. but i still can do pretty much all i needed to do on it (emails, txt and calls).
Just had to imap/pop3 sync gmail using the HTC email client. One thing I hated was the fact that I need to rely on SlideME for my apps. SlideMe(at the time) had very limited apps.
So is including the market breaking the rules, if it is can someone setup a webpage alternative to download apps then just not include google stuff. Open street maps has better maps anyway so i use rmaps, google mail well plenty of email clients about. If we wait i am syre there will be alternative apps for the other google stuff.
Or, oh, I dunno, how about adding a default bookmark android-leak or something and let users download pirated apps? "To bypass the Google Market"? LOL... Basically Google wants us to know that including their apps for free (as in Cyanogen roms) is just like pirating apps, so we are the bad guys already anyway.
I really hope Google will not follow up with the C&D and further spread fear all around.
We are all Google's pawns by using Google apps, let them see our email, see our location, store our search preferences etc to "return better result for your searches" or really, target marketing. When we stop using Google apps (, and move our business to, gasp, Hotmail), they will like it better?
RotoRooted said:
And seriously?...you would switch to Iphone? Who the #UCK wants one of those pieces of $H1T.
NOT ME!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just saying I'm not happy with the news and I'm going to vote with my money when the next device comes along. I thought Google was the "good guy", but now I think Apple and Google both seem like they think they are the gods of the world anyway.

[APP] App Stats (for developers)

App Stats is an Android developer tool which allows you to check application stats and comments from one place. App Stats keeps you informed by notifying you when new information is available such as a new rating or additional comments. The lite version allows you to monitor up to three applications and includes advertisements while the pro version allows for essentially unlimited monitoring and is of course ad free.
Update to Pro (v1.3.0)
Now has a desktop widget =)
Update to Pro (v1.2.0)
Some developers may have a lot of apps to manage stats on such as games with lots of addon content or maybe live wall paper apps, etc. To help alleviate scrolling through a long list of apps, we have added in the ability to label apps and filter the apps list with these labels.
Also, you will find that you can now set per application notification settings. This lets you control when an app update notification is fired so you can now choose specific items to be notified about.
Notes
On certain devices you may not be able to see all of your apps without having root on your device. It is also important to note that if you can not see your app in the market on your device there is no way this app can circumvent that.
If you have any questions, comments or bug reports please contact me here or via our developer email which can be found on the market. (toxicbakery at gmail)
To download, use the attached image or search 'App Stats' on the market and we should be the first two results for pro and lite versions.
Known Issues
- Certain languages may no be available in comments, if you find one please let me know
Upcoming Features
- More graphing options
- Backup search against an app database to find missing data
- Have a feature request? Let me know what you want!
Need another feature? Just ask =)
I love it. But I think that $5 is a bit too much for the full version. I would have gladly paid $2 or $3 even, but anything more takes it out of impulse buy for me.
Don't think I'm bashing your choice, as a dev I understand your need to make money from it, but sometimes the sales you lose from a higher price are worth more than the extra couple dollars you'll make from the higher price.
Thanks for the input! I would have to agree with you that currently $5 dollars is on the high end of price however with the additional features we are working on we feel that it will be a fair price very soon. Depending on what features we end up being able to incorporate we may adjust the pricing.
We almost have the plugin finished that will assist in grabbing your market android id from tcpdump and once we perfect that then it will be possible to search 2.2 apps and copy protected apps when using legit android devices that are rooted. Once this is complete we will have the only app on the market that I know which can essentially hands free get all the needed info to make a 'true' market request that lets you see all applications. This is how sites like androidzoom and like function. Without this additional parameter other apps are limited to 2.1 and less non copy protected applications by design of the market itself.
After that we will be working on letting you attach admob accounts to your apps and possibly google checkout however google checkout looks iffy due to its seeming lack of being able to pull useful information such as 'total sales' etc.
That said, thanks again for the input and if you need help please email me at our developer email for fastest response.
-Ian
One thing that's highly annoying for an application which is not a game, a navigation system, or a media application: Asking for the fullscreen window feature.
Please consider removing it... I don't really see any need for it, and it just breaks the transitions between activities anyway (when you're not making the design consistent). Thank you.
Anyway, once polished up and the bugs cleared up, looks like a useful app
Thank you for the input! We removed the full screen requests on the detailed view and graphs view.
I'm unfortunately out of town currently however either tonight or tomorrow we will be releasing an update that adds in the functionality to search 2.2 and copy protected apps if you have a rooted device. This should alleviate the complaints some people have had about it not finding their apps.
Unfortunately right now having a rooted phone is the only way get the market key we need to make these 'fully enabled' searches due to how the market works currently. The other option is having users use TCP dump to grab the needed packet and then proceed manually with decoding it and running it though protobuf to get the key out.
A few other fixes and tweaks have also been put in place and after we release the updates the Pro version will be available again as we removed it due to a major bug in the licensing we didn't catch before.
Please keep the comments coming! If you don't like something feel free to post it or email us and we will do whatever we can to improve it.
Thank you again to everyone that has voiced their opinion, every bit helps!
Finally got the new version released!
To see copy protected or 2.2 only applications you will need to have a root phone that can already see those apps on the market. For example a 2.1 phone can't see 2.2 applications no matter what you do and theres no way to code around this, sorry.
Once installed, hit menu from the main screen and select settings. Simply hit the "Load Key" Button at the very top and hopefully after a few seconds a Toast should show up saying that the operation was a success.
I know for a fact this wont work on all phones. We tested it to work on a Droid and it works on a G1 with Cyanogen 2.2 rom however it will not work on an Eris. That said I'm sure it will fail to work on other phones but I will be working on figuring out the fix asap. If you are one of the unlucky ones with a phone that doesn't work, please email me or message me here and I will do whatever I can to get you setup!
New version is now out and good news! It appears, on our end, that root is no longer necessary to get copy protected and 2.2 applications. This change is still too new to confirm it works on all devices so please send us feedback on if you can see all of your applications without using the root feature.
As always please feel free to leave feedback!
New version released that will hopefully allow more users to successfully find all of their apps with less hassle. Also a few misc bug fixes and FC issues have been resolved.
Update to pro version released, main post updated.
Released new versions of lite and pro, updated main post.
About App Stats and its development
I am from Mobile application Development company in Singapore. I would like share this stats, today more users are available in through mobile apps. and mobile developments also increasing day by day. So this growth of development is lead the business strategy. Know from our Mobile app development how its useful for business environment.

Feature request for Android market: filter by Build.DEVICE: need your help

Hi pals
As many apps developers here on XDA what I develop and publish on Android market is device-specific.
(Free and Commercial)
Those apps
- require certain hardware features (like an Audio codec, Super AMOLED screen & driver), often related to additional Kernel features.
- can only support a limited set of devices but also Kernel versions.
And like everyone I'm really annoyed by 1-star comment.
"pure crap, doesn't work on my beloved phone"
Of course, it's not the majority, but its always increasing with the popularity.
It's annoying when its free apps, but when you decide to sell apps and try to give the best service, it becomes really bad.
And people disappointed is really not what you hope when you share your creation.
This is why I'll appreciate some backup from you by leaving a comment on this thread named
Missing filter by Build.DEVICE and ability to contact customers from comments
I propose the idea of filter by Build.DEVICE because it's useful for my app. You need additional filters too right ?
By custom ROM? By Kernel version? Explain you needs
− in this thread on official Market forum of course - writing your comment here is nice too.
We are all used to an unprecedented level of user support here on forums, by the hackers themselves or the community of users. This is really something special.
Its maybe a bit bold to say that, but I'm sure Android Market has a lot to learn from communities like ours in order to improve its consumer satisfaction... so lets show them how to
PS: sorry for inviting people to another page (Google's one) at the occasion.
This is, I guess the best way to be heard by them: by posting on their dedicated tool for requesting features (they'll read)
supercurio said:
I propose the idea of filter by Build.DEVICE because it's useful for my app. You need additional filters too right ?
By custom ROM? By Kernel version? Explain you needs
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Filtering by ROM / kernel is way too specific, but by device is great. I support this proposal.
this would be an incredibly useful feature for developers on XDA. since many hobbyist developers put an app that only works on the device they're developing it for, it would make sense to be able to whitelist or blacklist certain phones so they can be restricted to certain phones.
for instance, I'm sure the developer of RealHDMI (the Droid X HDMI mirroring app) would have loved this feature when people with EVO's were trying to install and were (not shockingly) unable to use it and giving the developer negative feeback. for a community such as this, I can't help but see how this could be an amazing addition to the marketplace.
I don't think its realistic. Google may well come round to a warning message (after accepting permissions perhaps?) saying 'your device is not supported'. This would help in situations such as the Android 2.1 Galaxy S's inability to play ball with Skype, and various games that don't support or fully support some chipsets, as well as your own, very real, problem.
Filtering per device will only pave the way for more fragmentation jibes and claims by Apple/Microsoft that Google are inflating number of apps available. We have to remember Google's priorities: PR > OEMs > Developers > Consumers > Facebook. They *need* to stop any fragmentation claims and *need* to boost app numbers in line with App Store, all to prevent counter PR.
HazzBazz said:
I don't think its realistic. Google may well come round to a warning message (after accepting permissions perhaps?) saying 'your device is not supported'. This would help in situations such as the Android 2.1 Galaxy S's inability to play ball with Skype, and various games that don't support or fully support some chipsets, as well as your own, very real, problem.
Filtering per device will only pave the way for more fragmentation jibes and claims by Apple/Microsoft that Google are inflating number of apps available. We have to remember Google's priorities: PR > OEMs > Developers > Consumers > Facebook. They *need* to stop any fragmentation claims and *need* to boost app numbers in line with App Store, all to prevent counter PR.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its not by ignoring facts and developer needs that you prevent fragmentation.

[NEW] New Android service: Get rss/atom notifications for App updates

Work-In-Progress
Domain is up
AppFeed.net
​
Coomon problem:
As many of you knows, there is no app or service for Android where users can request notifications of application updates, especially the price changes (mainly price drop), or updates for slow updating apps.
Solution:
My solution was to develop a website where users can add applications to a list, and get a unique RSS/Atom feed that notifies them whenever the apps gets updated (Price, Version, etc).
The feed can be added to any application that support it: Desktop Readers/notifiers (tested with Thunderbirds), Web-based readers (Tested with Google Reader).
I intended to add other forms of notifications, but later found that with the service if this then that I can create tasks that monitor my unique feed that do everything else: Email notifications, Twitter posts, or any other channel provided by the ifttt.com service.
Usage examples:
Some usage examples for such a service:
1) I like a paid app, but its cost is a bit high for me, so I add the app to my watch list to get notified if/when the app gets on sale, instead of having to check frequently or miss an opportunity to get the app during a great sale (happened to me few times already).
2) I like and played a game, and finished all levels, the developer promised extra levels, instead of leaving the game installed on my device and wait for updates, I can uninstall it and add it instead to my list and get notified when it's updated.
3) With Android Play Store auto update feature enabled, I miss most app updates, with notifications on selected apps I can see when those apps gets updated.
4) Other usages...
Status of the project
Currently this project is being developed and tested by just myself, and it seems to be working as expected. But to have a good service, I need some to extra help to test it better, to suggest features, etc.
What is mainly missing is some legal advice, such as a privacy policy and term of service, and on whether I can put up such a service (does Google allow this kind of service? knowing they do not provide API for the Google Play).
What is still missing the some text, I am not a native-English speaker so still trying to put things correctly.
Privacy
I take privacy issues very seriously.
To make this service work, I opted for using 3rd party sign-in (Google and Twitter), what is saved on the DB is a hash of the sso unique token, not even I can get the clear one. User name and email are required, and are saved encrypted in the DB (with AES), and get decrypted only during login to show your name on the top bar, nothing else.
Here is a screenshot of the main wishlist:
And here is what you get in the rss feed, through Google Reader:
Questions or Problems Should Not Be Posted in the Development Forum
Please Post in the Correct Forums & Read the Forum Rules
Moving to Q&A
lufc said:
Questions or Problems Should Not Be Posted in the Development Forum
Please Post in the Correct Forums & Read the Forum Rules
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My topic is more development than questions, maybe not an Android App but and Android service
Updated post #1.
project is going well, anybody is interested, please let me know (by leaving a comment), if I get enough feedback, I'll get a domain and host it somewhere, currently it is running on a personal domain.
Update:
Got a domain for my new service, and now it is up and running.
check the first post for link and info
Hi,
while using google for authentication, I am actually notified that your website wants to "manage your contacts".
What is the reason behind that?
Thanks a lot
ale
alanzed said:
Hi,
while using google for authentication, I am actually notified that your website wants to "manage your contacts".
What is the reason behind that?
Thanks a lot
ale
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For the authentication I use the HybridAuth library, and this is the minimum that I can ask for from Google for use the OAuth authentication, if there is anything less, I'll do it, but I can't find how.
Twitter authentication has just Read Only access (Minimum available).
Update:
Found the solution, now it doesn't ask for Manage Contacts...

[Q] I have just create a website for android apps statistics

I have just create a website for android apps statistics.
I find there is leak of statistics of android app comparison with other developer, so I create a website force on statistic that let you know rankings of you app, and how well is your app perform.
Android Analytics - Android Apps Statistics Website (androidanalytic.com)
But, I have several question, hope someone can help me.
1. What else feature that you want suggest me add into the website?
2. Anyone have suggestion for me to work on marketing / SEO?
Android Analytics said:
I have just create a website for android apps statistics.
I find there is leak of statistics of android app comparison with other developer, so I create a website force on statistic that let you know rankings of you app, and how well is your app perform.
Android Analytics - Android Apps Statistics Website (androidanalytic.com)
But, I have several question, hope someone can help me.
1. What else feature that you want suggest me add into the website?
2. Anyone have suggestion for me to work on marketing / SEO?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Suggestions:
- you can represent to 5 or top 10 apps as graphs in Apps Statistics and Developers Statistics
- you can put a description page describing how this tool could be used.
- put a about us page
Android Analytics said:
I have just create a website for android apps statistics.
I find there is leak of statistics of android app comparison with other developer, so I create a website force on statistic that let you know rankings of you app, and how well is your app perform.
Android Analytics - Android Apps Statistics Website (androidanalytic.com)
But, I have several question, hope someone can help me.
1. What else feature that you want suggest me add into the website?
2. Anyone have suggestion for me to work on marketing / SEO?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Working with startups can be both challenging and rewarding. For a small design/dev shop this can mean operating under strict time and budget constraints. On the other hand, nothing can be more exciting when millions of people use the product you created. That is why i wanna share my experience with you and recommend you to check web development service cause that guys can create everything and help you with some marketing/seo.

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