Android Market to require content ratings on apps

A recent post by Google seems to indicate that the company will require application content ratings on all present and future applications listed in the Android Market.

“Please use our application ratings to help users determine whether your application and its content is appropriate for them,” reads the post. “This includes all the content in your app, including user generated content and ads, and content that your app links to.”

Applications can be rated all, pre-teen, teen, or mature and Google notes that “hate speech” is not permitted in the Android Market; Google is also mandating that applications that use location not be categorized for allusers. There are several other category pre-requisites. Hit the jump to have a look at all of them.

Nokia’s Ovi Store now serves 3 million downloads each day

Nokia is certainly not the first cell phone company that comes to mind when the topic of App Stores is raised. The market for mobile apps continues to explode globally, Nokia is quietly proving it still has plenty of gas left in the tank.

Nokia announced a new milestone for its Ovi Store Thursday morning: 3 million downloads per day. The impressive milestone comes with just 18,000 content titles currently available in the Ovi Store for Nokia’s most popular devices. It also comes just over two months after the 2 million daily download mark was reached. This rapid growth rate is showing no signs of slowing, as interest in Symbian continues to build on both sides of the app equation — users and developers. Nokia needs to appeal to both groups in order to maintain success with the Ovi Store, and so far the company’s efforts are working. In the last year, over 400,000 new developers have joined Nokia’s developer program, and the Finnish company’s Qt development tools have been downloaded more than 1.5 million times.

Best Android Apps & Games

When I first got my Android phone (HTC Hero), I wanted to know what apps to download, but there is just too much and some of them isn't that good. So here I give you all my favorite and best Android apps that can run on any Android 1.5 or later. All apps are available on the Android Market for FREE.

Top 10 Best Apps 

01. Opera Mini
02. Buzz Deck
03. Facebook
04. Retro Camera 
06. DStv Guide
07. Photoshop
08. Layar
09. Shazam
10. Zedge

Top 10 Best Games

01. Bonsai Blast
02. Fishin'2 GO Lite
03. Guitar Hero 5 Demo
04. Jewels
05. Pinball
06. Raging Thunder Lite
07. Throttle Copter
08. Tic Tac Relax Lite
09. Toss It
10. Wave Blazer Lite

Other great apps and games I have:

- Advanced Task Manager 
Manage all your tasks

- Astro
View all storage cards folders

- Barcode Scanner
Scan any Barcode and get info

- BestTube
View and download YouTube videos

- Bump
Share info when bumping each others phones

- Compass
Use a real Compass

- CopyCat Lite
A game where you can test your memory

- CNET News
Technology news on your phone

- Engadget
Technology news and reviews on your phone

- Facebook Chat
Chat instantly with your Facebook friends that's online

- Foursquare
Share places you've been, and get points

- Gist
View your Facebook, Twitter and RSS Feeds at one place

- Google Sky Map
View the planets around you in space

- MagicMarker
Draw with neon colors on your screen

- Mippin
View all magazines, blogs and news articles at one place

- MXit (South Africa Only)
Instant Messaging application

- News24 (South Africa Only)
News, Sport, Weather, Entertainment

- PicSay
Edit your photos

- Ping Pong Lite
The classic game, with motion movement

- Pull My Finger
Play a fart sound, or set your own time

- Ringdroid
Trim your MP3 song for a ringtone

- Snake
The classic Snake game

- Solitare
The classic Solitare game

- Sudoku Free
The classic Sudoku game

- Sweet Notes
Create notes to store

- Tech Buzz
View all the latest Technology blog posts

- Wapedia
Search Wikipedia on your phone

- YouTube
View videos from YouTube on your phone 


Email me and share your Android applications, for me to download.

Android Market surpasses 100,000 apps: can't stop, won't stop growing

The company itself has today confirmed the passing of that line via Twitter. For those keeping count, it took but three months to go from 70,000 to 100,000 and seven months to go from 30,000 to this point.

Of course, Apple's still holding down the lead in terms of sheer numbers with close to 300,000, but there's no question that the Android Market has nearly everything a boy (or girl, for that matter) could want.

Widgetbox Mobile Launches, Create Mobile Web Apps

Forget Android, iOS and the rest of the mobile operating systems. Sometimes you don't need to spend weeks building the sleekest mobile apps for native environments. And depending on your business, something a little bit more quick and simple can do the job just fine. That 's the theory behind Widgetbox Mobile, a new offering from the team behind ClickTurn ads, which will theoretically allow businesses to build and manage mobile web apps in minutes. "There's a new category of users who view the app store as not the best option for them, " says Widgetbox's CEO Will Price.

Older Versions of Android Are Recei

Over the weekend, older versions of Android started receiving automatic updates for Market, bringing it into line with the Froyo look and feel of it. If you haven't already, fire up the Market and take a look, as chances are you haven't spotted it yet. (There was no alert to this update due to its automatic nature). You can now add a widget to your homescreen for the Market, and browse apps via the new tabs.

Windows Phone Marketplace will have 2000 apps at launch of Windows Phone 7

Today is the official launch of Microsoft's latest mobile operating system, Windows Phone 7, and that means the rest of the day is liable to be chalk full of news, opinions and commentary about the software and hardware that will make up the backbone of a make-or-break effort on Microsoft 's part to regain any semblance of credibility in the mobile market. That's not to say there isn't still navel-gazing and rumor-mongering to do, though.

According to a tipster writing to Engadget, one good piece of news when it comes to Windows Phone 7 is that when it launches, there will already be 2,000 applications waiting to be bought and downloaded from the Windows Phone Marketplace. Okay, that's just a drop compared to the overflowing ocean of content provided by Apple's App Store, but given how important apps are to a smartphone's success these days, Microsoft at least is trying to make a strong showing out of the gate. Ultimately, though, what will matter isn't whether Microsoft launches with a small but respectable app library … it'll be whether or not developers continue to make new content for
the marketplace. Until Windows 7 Phone handsets actually start shipping, that will continue to be the big unknown … and no matter what Microsoft announces today, only time is going to tell.

Google adds 20 countries to Android market, 18 more in the works

Yesterday, Google announced that "developers from 20 more countries can now sell paid apps on Android Market." The additional countries include: Argentina,
Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada,
Denmark, Finland, Hong Kong, Ireland, Israel, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland and Taiwan. Paid
application support for developers is now available in 29 countries; Android Market users from 32 countries can purchase applications. Google also noted that over the next 2 weeks, "users in 18 additional countries will be able to purchase paid apps
from Android Market. " Soon also for South Africa