What do you do when you’re the developer of a popular Android app and it’s suddenly missing in action from the Android Market? You call on the friendly Android community for help. Big in Japan, the developer of ShopSavvy, is puzzled over the difficulty that many Android users are having while trying to find their app in the Android Market. Big in Japan has asked for help so they can get to the bottom of this problem, and here is their request:

Please visit the market right now. Look under All Applications and sort by popularity. Take a picture of that screen (screen grab or just a plain photo) and email it to support@biggu.com – let us know if ShopSavvy was missing.

We hope you get this issue resolved soon, Big in Japan, because ShopSavvy is a very decent app! Who among you have had similar issues finding ShopSavvy or any other app that vanished into thin air?

Source: talkandroid.com

As a joint venture, Garmin-Asus plan on bringing their Android smartphone to the market no later than Q1 2010. It may include GPS for geo-tagging photos, which seems fairly straight-forward since Garmin is involved. 

There was previous rumblings out of Garmin that they would have a phone ready for market sometime in 2009, but this now seems unlikely given this new announcement. For a world of Android fans thirsting for more handsets, it couldn’t come too soon. 

Source: AndroidCommunity

If anyone wishes to get an idea of how competitive the smartphone industry is, just consider the following:  1) The much-anticipated and hyped Palm Pre is launching June 6th on Sprint; 2) Not to be outdone, Apple is poised to announce it’s new iPhone(s) in a matter of days. Now, a representative for T-Mobile emailed us with a few tidbits of their own.

T-Mobile has sold over 1 million Android-based G1 phones to customers in the U.S. and points out that there are now over 4,900 apps available for download from the Android Market. Also, T-Mobile will soon announce a new Android-based device to early this summer with the promise of more details later this month. These are exciting times indeed! So how many of you are grabbing a new iPhone, snagging a Pre, picking up the next T-Mobile Android device, or just adding all three to your stable?

Source: Thanks, Lori!

How would you like to run Android on a tiny netbook in the near future? The folks at TweakTown spotted a Eee PC prototype at Computex Taipei 2009 and were able to get some additional details about this little wonder. Qualcomm calls this a “Smartbook”, and although Android appears a bit plain vanilla on there right now, it looks promising and handled smoothly on Qualcomm’s 1GHz CPU Snapdragon platform. What’s more, this platform requires very little power and no cooling is required, so we should be able to look forward to a very thin, very light “Smartbook.” Nice work, Qualcomm, and please hurry with the final touches so we can have an Android netbook!

Source: TweakTown

The HTC Hero has a great-looking Android ROM with gorgeous skins, and if you are rolling with your G1 and wish it were the HTC Hero, there’s a way to make it happen. We are by no means encouraging you to hack your G1 and we take no responsibility whatsoever if you end up bricking your phone, but the clever folks at xda-developers got their mitts on the HTC Hero’sAndroid ROM and have successfully ported it to a G1, complete with all kinds of customizations and enhancements not before found on the G1.  Accomplishing this feat requires flashing your device and a myriad of other steps, so be EXTREMELY careful that you get it right, or get someone more tech savvy that can get it right for you. When it’s all said and done, you could very well have a G1 with a new lease on life.

Source: Engadget Mobile

If there was any doubt that Android could be a serious business platform, ThinkFree, Inc. may have diminished some of that doubt with their announcement today that they are bringing mobile office applications to Android with their office productivity suite.  ThinkFree Mobile will include ThinkFree Write for word processing, ThinkFree Calc for spreadsheets and ThinkFree Show for presentations – all of which are compatible with Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.  ThinkFree Mobile is also fully compatible with ThinkFree Online, their online service for document syncing and sharing.

Kerry McGuire, Director of Software Alliances at ARM, says: “ThinkFree Mobile for Android is bringing a new level of choice to smartphones by offering a mobile office solution that satisfies the growing demand for mobility and 24/7 access to your documents.  ThinkFree has brought an innovative approach to the mobile office suite that enables a consistent office experience across both smartphones and netbooks. We are pleased to have their continued support as part of the ARM community.”

As a bonus, ThinkFree also offers 1GB of free online document storage, promising reliability and security.  If you happen to be at the upcoming COMPUTEX trade show in Taipei, Taiwan from June 2 – 6, you can drop in on ThinkFree for a demonstration.  It’s exciting to know that your Android-powered phone will be able to do some serious business!

How much is a year worth for having an Android-powered HTC Dream or Magic with Rogers in Canada? Try a cool $300 CAD – that’s the difference between a two or three year contract. On June 2, when these two new handsets are ready to roll out at Best Buy (and other fine retailers), you can allegedly have your Dream or Magic for as low as $149.99 CAD (!) with a whopping 3-year contract and minimum $45 voice and data plan. If you settle for 2 years, the price jumps up to $449.99, 1 year for $499.99, and no contract pricing is available for a mere $599.99 CAD.

If you’re willing to sell your soul (for the 3-year maximum), $149.99 is dirt cheap for getting your little green ‘droid groove going. We hope that the photographic evidence of Best Buy pricing is true, but don’t count on it completely until you are standing in the store and handing over your cash (or plastic). If you live in Canada, will you be venturing to Best Buy to pick up your Dream or Magic? If so, how much lighter will YOUR wallet or purse be?

source: EngadgetMobile