Google announced on Thursday that the company has begun to take a more active approach to keeping malware out of the Android Market. The search giant is using a new service called “Bouncer” to search through the Market for potential malware. Bouncer will scan new applications, ones already in the Market, and developer accounts for known malware, spyware, trojans and misbehaving apps. The service has been running for some time and between the first and second halves of 2011, the company reports a 40% decrease in the number of potentially-malicious downloads from the Android Market. The drop comes as security companies have been reporting that instances of malicious applications are on the rise. Google also said Android is designed to prevent malware from doing any critical damage. “In addition to using new services to help prevent malware, we designed Android from the beginning to make mobile malware less disruptive,” the company wrote on its blog. “In the PC model, malware has more potential to misuse your information. We learned from this approach, designing Android for Internet-connected devices.”

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Since the launch of the iPhone 4S, we have seen numerous Siri clones come and go. While Siri does have its flaws, the feature is unique, smart, user-friendly and at times, hilarious. Most alternatives promise these same features, unfortunately they never seem to deliver. Enter Evi, a Siri alternative that promises to bring users even more functionality than Apple’s digital personal assistant. The program is created by True Knowledge and uses the company’s Answer Engine to provide users with what it claims to be a limitless amount of information. The app is available for free in the Android Market and for $0.99 in the App Store, and that price covers the cost of using Nuance voice recognition (the same voice recognition technology as Siri), which the Android version does not feature require. Read on for more.

The company said the app contains “almost a billion facts” along with the ability to infer trillions if necessary. Evi also uses various sources, such as Yelp, third-party websites, traditional web searches and APIs to answer a wide range of questions.

The app is capable of delivering local data to users within the United Kingdom, which is something Siri cannot do. It also provides quicker information to users. For example, when asking “How do I make apple pie?” Siri is unable to provide a direct answer and will ask whether you want to search the web. Evi on the other hand is able to provide a list of recipes with web links. If you ask “Who was President when Queen Elizabeth II was born?” Evi determines who Queen Elizabeth II is, when she was born and then compares this against which U.S. presidents were in office over that time, delivering the results of both serving U.S. presidents during those years. Siri cannot do this.

In its current form, Evi is not capable of integrating with the iPhone’s Calendar and Reminders like Siri can, although support could be added in the future. Unfortunately, after downloading both the Android and iOS versions of this potentially great app, we were unable to connect to Evi’s servers. Although we couldn’t test the app, Evi certainly sounds like a worthy competitor to Siri — on paper, at least.

Read [AppStore] Read [AndroidMarket]

Imangi Studios, the makers of the hit iOS game Temple Run, announced via the company’s Facebook page that the game will be coming to Android. Temple Run is a Indiana Jones-esque ”runner” game that has users sprint through obstacles and escape the dangers of the jungle. To control the character, users perform gestures to make him jump, duck and move from side to side. The title is currently the top free app in the App Store, with over 20 million downloads and 7 million daily active users. The game also features in-app purchases that allow users to buy different characters and power-ups for higher scores, however payment is not required. Imangi Studios said that the game will be available some time in February.

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Google’s Android Market reportedly reached a new milestone over New Year’s weekend, surpassing 400,000 available applications for the first time. Mobile app watcher Distimo on Tuesday reported the feat, which it says was accomplished in about the same amount of time that it took Apple’s App Store — both on-device software catalogs reportedly took approximately 40 months to pass the 400,000-app mark. Distimo notes that the pace at which the Android Market is growing has accelerated recently; the Market took 31 months to reach 200,000 apps, but it needed only four more months to reach 300,000 apps and another five months to pass 400,000 available apps. The report also states that developers are embracing the Android platform more quickly than ever before as well, and Google now has more than 100,000 publishers with an average of 4.1 apps each in the Market. Comparatively, Apple’s App Store is currently home to more than 530,000 apps according to third-party monitor AppShopper. Two graphs highlighting the Distimo’s data follow below.

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Research In Motion’s BlackBerry PlayBook tablet became the first BlackBerry device to be rooted this past November, granting users access to the device’s file system and allowing a level of customization that BlackBerry users have not had in the past. As RIM enters into the cat and mouse game Apple knows all too well, PlayBook owners willing to root their devices now have access to the Android Market as well as the apps contained within. CrackBerry has published a complete how-to guide that details all of the software and steps required in order to install Google’s Android Market on a PlayBook tablet. While an upcoming PlayBook software update will soon bring official Android app support to the tablet, apps will need to be repackaged and made available in BlackBerry App World in order to function in RIM’s app player. Using the guide linked below, no such tweaks are necessary from developers, and users can have Android apps running on the PlayBook immediately.

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When it comes to mobile gaming, no one does it better than Gameloft. The French company is known for its visually stunning and in-depth game-play, having repeatedly raised the bar for mobile gaming throughout the years. Gameloft’s paid games range from $0.99 to $6.99, however, from December 29th through January 5th all of the company’s paid games can be had for $0.99. There is no catch and no gimmick; all games means all games, including the newly released first-person shooter Modern Combat 3: Fallen Nation, originally priced at $6.99. Other titles you may want to check out, should you have a compatible device, include Order & Chaos Online, N.O.V.A. 2 HD, 9mm HD, Adventures of TinTin, and BackStab HD. The sale begins tomorrow, December 29th, at 1:00 p.m.

[Via DroidGamers]

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Logitech on Wednesday announced that it’s rolling out the latest Google TV software to its Revue Google TV product. “Some of the key developments include more entertainment choices such as access to Android Market; faster and more comprehensive search and browse capabilities; a simplified user interface, and improvements to the Logitech Media Player,” Logitech’s vice president and general manager of the digital home group, Ashish Arora explained. The Revue has largely been considered a failure for Logitech. The company’s CEO Guerrino De Luca recently remarked that the product was a “mistake” that “cost [Logitech] dearly” and that his company will not introduce a follow-up device until it is clear that Google has worked out all of the kinks in its product.

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Google officially announced on Tuesday that there have now been more than 10 billion apps downloaded from the Android Market. As of July there had been 6 billion total application downloads, which means the Android Market is seeing incredibly fast growth. Google confirmed that its app store now has a growth rate of one billion app downloads per month and it wants to celebrate the success with Android smartphone owners. For the next 10 days, Google will offer several applications each day for just $0.10 a piece. Beginning Tuesday, Asphalt 6 HD, Color & Draw for Kids, Endomondo Sports Tracker Pro, Fieldrunners HD, Great Little War Game, Minecraft, Paper Camera, Sketchbook Mobile, Soundhound Infinity and Swiftkey X are each available for just $0.10.

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Google launched its Google Offers for Android application on Thursday, a new app that allows users to search and find local deals. The application is free and allows you to purchase any deal, such as “$15 for $25 to spend on outdoor gear at REI” (today’s special) right from your smartphone. Users can personalize the offers by visiting http://www.google.com/offers from a phone or a computer, too. For example, we have Google Offers set to alert us of any deals in uptown New York City so that we can be alerted of new coupons for local restaurants. Google Offers is live in the Android Market now.

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Applications downloaded to Android devices in the second quarter surpassed the number apps downloaded from Apple’s iOS App Store. New data from market research and intelligence firm ABI Research shows that Android overtook iOS by a substantial margin in the June quarter, having been responsible for 44% of mobile app downloads around the world compared to iOS at 31%. ”Android’s open source strategy is the main factor for its success,” said ABI researcher Lim Shiyang in a statement. “Being a free platform has expanded the Android device install base, which in turn has driven growth in the number of third party multi-platform and mobile operator app stores. These conditions alone explain why Android is the new leader in the mobile application market.” ABI notes that the shift can be partially attributed to Android’s rapid growth during the second quarter. Shipments of iOS devices grew just 9% between April and June compared to 15% in the first quarter, while global shipments of Android devices grew 36% in the June quarter compared to 20% a quarter earlier. Global application downloads this year are expected to reach 29 billion compared to just 9 billion in 2010. ABI’s full press release follows below.

Android Overtakes Apple with 44% Worldwide Share of Mobile App Downloads

SINGAPORE – October 24, 2011

In Q2 2011, Android overtook iOS to become the market share leader in mobile application downloads. The market shares of Android and iOS were 44% and 31%, respectively.

“Android’s open source strategy is the main factor for its success,” says Lim Shiyang, research associate. “Being a free platform has expanded the Android device install base, which in turn has driven growth in the number of third party multi-platform and mobile operator app stores. These conditions alone explain why Android is the new leader in the mobile application market.”

Recent quarterly shipment growth figures also explain Android’s ascent to the top app download position. iPhone shipment growth in Q2 2011 slowed to 9% from 15% a quarter earlier. In contrast, Android smartphone shipments increased 36% in Q2 2011, compared to 20% in Q1. Android’s install base now exceeds iOS by a factor of 2.4-to-1 worldwide; by 2016 this factor will grow to 3-to-1.

“Despite leading in total mobile application downloads, Android’s app downloads per user still lag behind Apple’s by 2-to-1,” adds Dan Shey, practice director, mobile services. “Apple’s superior monetization policies attracted good developers within its ranks, thus creating a better catalog of apps and customer experience.”

Global app downloads for year-end 2011 are expected to balloon to 29 billion, compared to only nine billion in 2010. Such stellar increases are largely due to the proliferation of smartphones around the world. The total smartphone install base is expected to grow 46% in 2011.

ABI Research’s “Mobile Applications Market Data” tracks mobile application downloads and revenues segmented by mobile operating system platform. The database includes historical data and forecasts for application downloads for all major mobile OSs. It also provides mobile application revenue forecasts and an overview of the major mobile application storefronts.

This study is a part of the firm’s Mobile Applications Research Service.

The total number of published applications in Google’s Android Market climbed past the half-million mark in September. According to data from mobile app market intelligence firm research2guidance, the Android Market surpassed 500,000 published apps last month, but over 37% of submissions have been removed over time for a variety of reasons. Apple’s App Store has had over 600,000 successful submissions to date according to the firm, while 24% of apps have been removed. “Although Apple regularly cleans up its store from inappropriate or outdated content, its active application share still exceeds that of Android,” research2guidance noted in a press release. “It is likely that the more rigid application submission requirements prevent developers from publishing multiple trial or low quality applications whereas publishers in the Android Market place a lot of market testing, trials, demo and malware content.” Research2guidance’s full press release follows below.

Android Market reaches half a million successful submissions

37% of published apps have been removed from the Android Market.

The actual total number of applications published on the Android Market leapt to over 500,000 in September 2011. In the meantime, the Apple App Store stands at just over 600,000 successful submissions: just 20% more. But over 37% of the applications published were later removed from the Android Market for various reasons, whereas the Apple App Store has removed just 24% of published apps in comparison, as of the end of September.

Although Apple regularly cleans up its store from inappropriate or outdated content, its active application share still exceeds that of Android. It is likely that the more rigid application submission requirements prevent developers from publishing multiple trial or low quality applications whereas publishers in the Android Market place a lot of market testing, trials, demo and malware content. Over 78% of the apps removed from the Android Market were free, which could mean that publishers put more effort into the applications they place with the pay-per-download business model, thus ensuring that it is kept longer in store.

The share of deactivated apps in the WP7 Marketplace today stands at just 13%. However WP7 Marketplace is a comparably young store and many publishers are still exploring its potential. Fifteen months after its launch (comparable to the WP7 store now), the Android Market similarly had 86% of its apps active and a significant application store clean-up didn’t get started until the end of 2010.

Android developers are significantly more productive than Apple’s. The average publisher on Android has placed more than 6 applications in the Market since launch, compared to just over 4 apps on average that have been published by iOS developers.

Over the past few months, the Android Market has been maintaining an exponential growth, but is still lagging behind the app store market leader, Apple. In Q3 of 2011, the number of active mobile applications in the Android Market stood at 319,161 compared to 459,589 in Apple App store.

Download our free Android Market Insights Vol. 6.

Apple’s iOS App Store is the world’s most popular on-device mobile app portal by leaps and bounds, but that doesn’t necessarily make it the best opportunity for developers according to Berlin, Germany-based market research firm research2guidance. Apple has a wide lead over competitors in terms of overall downloads and the number of applications in its App Store, but individual apps seemingly have a greater chance of success in rival offerings from Nokia, Microsoft and RIM. ”The ‘average app’ has a better chance to generate downloads on ‘non-hyped’ platforms,” the firm said in a press release on Wednesday. In the second quarter of 2011, the average application in Nokia’s Ovi Store generated 160% more daily downloads than the average iOS app in Apple’s App Store. Individual apps were downloaded from Microsoft’s Windows Marketplace 80% more often each day than from the App Store on average, and apps in RIM’s BlackBerry App World generated 43% more daily downloads than Apple’s offering. Software titles in Google’s Android Market were downloaded 5% less often each day compared to the iOS App Store, and Apple had HP’s webOS App Catalog beat by 95% last quarter. Research2guidance’s full press release follows below along with a chart outlining the firm’s second-quarter data.

Apps On Nokia’s OVI Store Had 2.5 Times Higher Download Numbers In Q2 2011 Compared To Apps on Apple App Store

The “average app” has a better chance to generate downloads on “non-hyped” platforms.

Despite all the hype around the major platforms Android and iOS, publishers are still overlooking the hidden potentials of the niche players. The Q2 2011 results of our smartphone application monitoring report indicate that those applications published on the less popular platforms, such as WP7 marketplace or Blackberry’s AppWorld, generate significantly more downloads compared to the Apple App Store.

Significantly lower competition, yet a sufficiently large user base that desires apps, are the major reasons for this.  Symbian still retains, by far, the highest potential user base. Even though its users are incomparably less active than iOS’s heavy downloaders, it still generates significant download volumes to Symbian publishers.  This is largely because whilst Apple boasts of its 400,000 apps, the OVI store contains less than a tenth of that number.

Looking into average numbers, the Android Market stands not far behind the Apple App Store.  This quarter, the average Android App attracted just 5% less users than iOS.  Competition is harsh.

However, going in for very small niche platforms may not be the best idea either. LG World! and Samsung’s App Store are struggling to generate user attention.  Although LG has less than 3,000 apps and as a result it is much easier to be discovered there, its user base is just too low.

Although the Symbian platform is seen by some developers to be clumsy and outdated, as well as Nokia’s transition to WP7 which has fuelled discussions as to when Nokia will give up its platform completely, the current status seems to be promising.  Recently, Nokia reported the launch of three new Symbian Smartphones and confirmed that these will not be the last of the products, nor updates, to be delivered on Symbian.

Find other important Q2 2011 market developments in the new volume of the research2guidance Smartphone App Market Monitor. The third volume of the report includes a special interest chapter on mobile retail market.

Nielsen on Thursday ushered in a new era of mobile device usage reporting brought about by customer metering software installed on thousands of iOS and Android devices around the U.S. Rather than relying on survey results as is typical in the industry, Nielsen is now able to directly measure consumer behavior with its metering software — installed on consumers’ devices with their approval, of course — and report extremely accurate data. This first report examines Android owners’ usage of apps and the mobile Web, and finds that time spent using apps is roughly double time spent browsing the mobile Web. More interestingly, Nielsen found that the top-10 apps in the Android Market account for a whopping 43% of app usage on Android devices. “Despite the hundreds of thousands of apps available for Android, a very small proportion of apps make up the vast majority of time spent,” writes Don Kellogg, Director of Telecom Research & Insights, on Nielsen’s blog. The top-50 apps in the Market account for 61% of all usage, which means the overwhelming bulk of Android apps account for just 39% of app usage. Kellogg continued, “With 250,000+ Android apps available at the time of this writing, that means the remaining 249,950+ apps have to compete for the remaining 39 percent of the pie.”

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Skype announced on Wednesday that its Android application now supports video calling on select devices. The application is particularly attractive because it allows mobile users to connect with other users on Mac, Windows, TV, iOS, or other Android devices. Skype says the app was built with a complete new redesign, too, which includes a new main menu, easier contact navigation, quick access to your profile, and more. There’s even a new “mood” message box that allows you to show what you’re up to or how you’re feeling. Skype for Android requires Android 2.3 and above, as well as a front-facing camera for video chat. It currently supports the HTC Desire S, the Sony Ericsson Xperia neo, the Sony Ericsson Xperia pro, and the Google Nexus S. Skype says it also has plans to roll out support for additional handsets in the near future. Hit the jump for a video demo of the new client in action.

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The original Google TV products were met by lukewarm reviews at best, and according to Geek.com, the search giant is hard at work on its new Google TV 2.0 product. Developers have been joining Google’s new “Fishtank” program to get early access to tools that will allow them to create compelling new content for Google’s next attempt at entering our living rooms. Google TV 2.0 runs a barebones version of Android 3.1 (Honeycomb) and there are reportedly only 50 developers partaking in the initial Fishtank program. Fishtank includes an Intel CE4100 reference platform with a beta version of Google TV 2.0 preloaded, and a wireless keyboard. Intel’s Sodaville SoC, part of the CE4100 reference platform, also includes support for 3D gaming and Flash. Geek.com noticed a new “dual-view” feature that allows users to watch TV and use the OS at the same time; and the user interface has the same glowing-blue Tron-like effects as the tablet version of Honeycomb. Developers are said to be up in arms over the “Live TV” application on Google TV 2.0 — many want to interact with the TV interface directly, but Google isn’t allowing that just yet. Will it be enough for Google to tackle Apple TV? We’ll have to wait and see. In the meantime, another shot of the box and a couple of UI images can be seen after the break.

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