Andy Rubin on Monday announced that the Google’s Android partners are currently activating an average of 850,000 each each. The activation rate continues to increase rapidly, and it is now up a whopping 250% year-over-year. In December it was reported that 700,000 devices were activated each day. Google also announced that the Android Market is now home to 450,000 apps, a mere 50,000 shy of Apple’s iOS App Store, and more than 1 billion downloads are being served each month to over 300 million Android devices worldwide.

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We reported yesterday that T-Mobile will be eliminating its FlexPay plans, and we’ve now received a screen shot of an internal T-Mobile document that confirms the carrier’s plans to drop FlexPay. In its place, T-Mobile will be introducing a program that lets customers with unsatisfactory credit sign up for postpaid-like plans by leaving deposits up front. These deposits range from $50 per line to $400 per line, and will be based on the customer’s credit rating. Full deposit amounts will need to be paid at the time of activation and deposits will be refunded in their entirety after accounts have been in good standing for 12 months.

Thanks, justfinethankyou!

We just got a report that Best Buy’s new line activation system for T-Mobile is down, and apparently has been for almost a week. One of our readers wrote in to let us know he has been trying to purchase a Google Nexus S with a new T-Mobile line of service, but has been unable to due to Best Buy’s activation issue. After repeated calls to store representatives, one admitted that they are not able to activate his Nexus S with a contract, and that he’d have to pay full retail for the device. We’ve pinged Best Buy for comment, but has anyone else had trouble out there trying to buy a Nexus S with new line of service?

Thanks, Nevan!

Droid-Life is reporting that retailer Best Buy is expecting to receive Verizon LTE device sometime this fall. The information comes courtesy of a document (seen above) that reads: “New activations for Verizon LTE devices: BEAST will support the new Verizon LTE (4G) devices coming into the market this fall.” This sounds great to us, and we have our fingers crossed that a certain device will be on Verizon’s 4G short-list.

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One of our Apple sources has just informed us of something very interesting. Way down deep within iOS 4 is a pretty intriguing block of code. Our source says that the code queries the device, and if the device is either a CDMA iPhone or iPad 2, the device will auto-activate, thus bypassing the need for iTunes. We’re told this block of code has appeared every year consecutively before a major iPhone / device release, removed right before launch. This allows the products to be field tested by carriers (or partners) without having to activate the handsets or devices. Whether Apple has done this to make sure AT&T or other carriers looking at activation logs don’t find anything, or just for the sake of simplicity isn’t clear.

Lastly, we’ve been told from a separate source that the platform code of the CDMA iPhone is N92AP (Daring Fireball’s John Gruber has said it was N92), and the platform code for the next-gen iPod touch is N81AP.

Sprint seems to be having a great deal of difficulty dealing with all of the rabid EVO 4G fans. Throughout the day we’ve been getting scattered reports sporadic crashes of the activation system, but now we’re hearing that the entire thing has bit the dust and that lots of customers are being sent home with partially activated EVOs. What’s the situation where you are?

Have you been watching all the Palm Pre coverage in recent months with jealousy, just waiting for the right time to strike? Well boys and girls, that time may be now. From now until October 10th, Sprint has effectively knocked $100 off the price of a shiny new Palm Pre for customers coming over from another carrier. Here’s how it works: Purchase a Palm Pre on a 2-year contract before October 10th and port a number in from your old carrier. That’s it. Within your first three months of service, Sprint will issue a $100 service credit to your account. Call it a welcome present, call it an attempt to boost sales or call it whatever else you want — the bottom line is that you can now effectively score a new Pre for $99 after MIR and a service credit. Any takers?

UPDATE: Consider us amazed. As quickly as Sprint’s offer appeared, it’s now off the table. Sprint’s official comment: “After further internal review today, the offer of a port-in service credit of $100 to new customers who buy the Palm Pre has been pulled, because it was put into the system in error.” Umm, ok. Sprint says it will honor the promo for anyone who managed to snag a Pre during the brief period of time before the promo was pulled.

Thanks, E!

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Ruh roh, Shaggy. According to an unending stream of tips flowing into our inbox, iPhone / iPod touch activation servers just bit it, big time. Apparently Apple and AT&T underestimated the wave of Apple handset users dying for OS 3.0 and the swarm was just too much to handle. If you’re trying to reactivate your phone post 3.0 update, sit tight and things should be back online soon. Oh, the agony.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

All you potential iPhone 3G buyers who loathe the thought of having to go into an AT&T store to activate your newly purchased phone can rejoice today as AT&T has finally enabled home activation for the iPhone 3G. This time it is not some convoluted pre-activation process, this is the real deal. Buy the phone online, receive it at your home or office, and activate the phone via iTunes from the comfort of your computer. While we haven’t spoken to any of our ninjas to confirm this yet, we did speak to three customer service reps as well as someone in the office of the President – each confirming that at-home activation is a go. Note that for the time being, it looks like only new account and new line activations apply. Those looking to upgrade your current equipment will still have to head down to a store. Happy iPhone 3G home shopping y’all!

[Via Gadgetell]

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We just got a tip from an Apple retail store employee letting us know that the rumors about in-home iPhone activation are true. The only catch is, this isn’t the old system of activating iPhones. It’s merely something to help reduce the amount of time it takes to activate and sign up new or existing customers in the store. Basically you can pre-activate at home by entering in your cellular contract details or social and billing information if you are a new subscriber. From there, you head into the Apple store, (and maybe AT&T store, but we’re not sure yet) tell them you got mad street credz, and purchase your phone. The iPhones will still be “unbricked” at the retail location. No iPhones leave the stores without being officially activated. We also heard from the same source that some Apple stores in the U.S. received 4GB iPod Nanos but they were quickly recalled, and that the rumors of the 8GB iPhone being discontinued are probably untrue and just related to the power adapter recall. We were told all the new shipments they are getting now have the new and “safe” power adapters.