In accordance to information gathered through AndroLib, Google android users have downloaded more than one billion applications. That's an amazing quantity, though this is actually an estimation and also hasn't been verified by Google.

What is not apparent is whether that is 1 billion distinctive applications that have already been downloaded, or if that consists of application revisions. For example, I have updated several of my Google android applications more than 10 instances within the previous year or so. Did those count as one or 10 downloads? AndroLib doesn't say.

One billion downloads is still a lot of activity. According to AndroLib's charts, the rate of downloads is increasing rapidly. It has a real-time view of the number of downloads, and that number has climbed by more than 100,000 downloads in the time it took me to write this post.

According to the stats. 61.4% of the apps are free. But with Google activating 66,000 new Android phones daily, and with the excitement created by the sold out Motorola DROID X, developers are set to create many more apps for Google's open source OS. Android is definitely catching up to the Apple App downloads.

via: androidlib

If you don't know what Uphone is, it's a brand name phone from Unicom in China, the biggest rival to the largest service provider in China, China Mobile. 

China Mobile has the Ophone that runs on a customied Android Platform called OMS, now the China's Unicom is doing the same thing h it's Uphone. 

China Unicom has plans for an appstore, which will be called Unistore. It will open to developers soon and will be ‘compatible with the Android Market'.

Reports indicate that at least three Chinese phone manufacturers are currently hard at work developing uPhone hardware. Releases are expected in Q3 or Q4.

source: tech.qq

Nice idea.  Next time you are in Town, and you got a great parking spot, but since you are leaving, why not save the spot for your fellow android device owners, by using this Open Spot app by Google

Open Spot works by letting people who are leaving parking spots share their spots with people who are searching for parking.

Start helping others find parking, and together we'll all save time, save gas, and reduce pollution. Like to keep score? The more open spots you mark, the more parking 'karma points' you'll get.

Couple of Frequently Asked Questions

* How large an area will Open Spot show me available parking for?

Open Spot will show you parking spots located within a ~1.5 kilometer (km) / ~.9 mile (mi) radius of your location. As you move, Open Spot will automatically refresh to show you parking spots within a ~1.5 km / ~.9 radius of where you currently are.

* How long are marked spots displayed in Open Spot?

Spots are removed from the map after 20 minutes. We know that 20 minutes is a long time for a parking spot to stay open, but we think that more information about available parking is better than less.

check it out folks, and download this cool app for android

ComScore reporting that Google Android's market is still booming, in just little more than 3 months, the Android Market share has increased 4% of the total smart phone market. That's pretty impressive.

Smartphone Platform Market Share

49.1 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones during the three months ending in May, up 8.1 percent from the corresponding February period. RIM was the leading mobile smartphone platform in the U.S. with 41.7 percent share of U.S. smartphone subscribers, followed by Apple with 24.4 percent share and Microsoft with 13.2 percent. Google saw significant growth during the period, up 4.0 percentage points to capture 13.0 percent of smartphone subscribers, while Palm rounded out the top five with 4.8 percent. Despite losing share to Google Android, most smartphone platforms continue to gain subscribers as the smartphone market overall continues to grow.

source: comscore

Some Google Nexus One owners  at XDA developers forum are getting another Over the Air update for Android 2.2.   We know that google gave only nexus ones an Android 2.2 updates last week, but it was pushing another another update yesterday.

We are not sure what this update will do or any improvements or features it added.  But you can follow this topics for any update.s

Posted by Jameslegg:

FRF91 OTA just turned up on my un-rooted nexus one - not sure whats included, I already had the FRF85B OTA update earlier this week to take me from my manually (but officially google sourced) beta builds of FROYO iAnybody else seen this?

Cheers
James

source: xda-developers

Great news for the semi popular Google Nexus One, since it's google's flagship device, there's not doubt they will be releasing the android 2.2 (froyo) update to its own phones first.

From Google's Blog:

Starting today, Nexus One users will begin to receive the Android 2.2 (codenamed Froyo) over-the-air software update on their phones. This update provides some great new features including support for making your handset a portable hotspot and support for Adobe Flash within the browser. For a complete list of everything we've included in Android 2.2, please see the Android 2.2 Platform Highlights.

In order to access the update, you will receive a message on your phone's notification bar. Just download the update, wait for it to install, and you should be all set. This update will be rolled out gradually to phones - and most users will receive the notification by the end of the week . We hope you enjoy these new features.

source: google blog

Kind of weird to say the least, the commercial features a guy's eyeball, with droid does representation. If you watch the video in slow motion, you will see the reflection of some of the specs come across the eye, such as "HDMI output".

The DroidLanding account tweeted: "REPORT: Droid X units have escaped! Get the stats on them at http://www.droiddoes.com . Forewarned is forearmed."

Here's the link http://twitter.com/droidlanding

And the bio says: "The next generation of does is coming soon, but you might get yours before that. Droid X phones are hidden across the country"

check out the video below

source: engadget

It's not surprising that Motorola Droid owns the majority Android market share, that's because they were the first android os 2.1 device to be released to the market.  The Motorola Droid has been in the market since November of 2009, backed by an overwhelming advertising and marketing campaign and bolstered by the tech frenzy of holiday shopping. It currently accounts for just over a third of all Android traffic.

Looking at the pie graph, it seems like HTC Evo 4G has been a big winner with only couple of weeks after the release date, it already occupied almost 2% of total market share.

I think Motorola will maintain the lead when Droid X comes out next month on Verizon.

Swype is pretty amazing technology when it comes to easy typing, I have personally experience it when I was at the CITA wireless.  Today, Swype is pleased to offer an (updated) Android Beta!

So no more hacked Swype keyboard, go ahead to their website (link below) and download it.

Here are the details:

* It will be open for a limited time - probably a few days
* In English, Spanish, and Italian - more languages to come
* Limited Features - some key features of Swype require OEM integration
* HVGA and WVGA Resolutions - don't worry we'll detect this automatically
* Limited End User Support - mostly via our forum

source: http://beta.swype.com/

Android device owners probably really excited to hear that Android Chief Any Rubin has spoken out regarding to Android updates.

Andy Rubin's statements

...Our product cycle is now, basically twice a year, and it will probably end up being once a year when things start settling down, because a platform that's moving - it's hard for developers to keep up. I want developers to basically leverage the innovation. I don't want developers to have to predict the innovation.

..We're at about 4 billion cell phones. About 1.4 billion Internet connected PCs - that includes desktop and laptops and everything else. Like 1.2 billion automobiles. Some 800 million TVs. And it's like, "OK, let's target the top four." Let's do everything we can to get the big ones. Remember, our business is volume, because it's an advertising business and we want to delight a lot of people. And how do you delight a lot of people? You get in the products that they use every day.

This is actually comparable to the iPhone updates, which's also once a year, but what's good about Android is that, since it's open source, the Handset Manufacturers are free to push out new phones that has the latest and great Android updates.  Doesn't have to be locked down like the iPhones.

source: techcrunch