The US Amazon Appstore will turn 3 this Saturday, March 22nd, and to commemorative this occasion, Amazon will launch a 2-week gift giving campaign for its customers. Beginning this week, Amazon will slash up to 60% off “some of the most popular titles in the store.”
The discounts will also extend to in-app purchases:
As an added bonus, for a limited time, customers who buy in-app items within select titles including Asphalt 8, Animal Voyage, Kingdoms of Camelot, The Hobbit, Sonic Dash, World at Arms and Despicable Me: Minion Rush will receive 50% back on the purchase price in the form of Amazon Coins.
There isn’t a main splash page promoting the celebration but you can kill some time at work today by playing with the confetti that Amazon is making rain down on the Appstore.
As of this morning, all Android users will be able to buy, spend, and earn Amazon Coins. In the past this online currency was only available on Kindle Fire tablets.
Customers will find that earning extra Amazon Coins is easy and fun, whether it’s by downloading specific apps or by reaching achievements within certain games.
Here is the fill list of Android app downloads that yield Amazon Coins. If you’re weary about this system you can get started with some free coins by simply downloading these free apps. You must have the latest version of the Amazon Appstore installed to see your current Coin balance.
You can save up to 10% on future apps by pre-purchasing Coins. Currently only available to customers in the US, UK and Germany.
Through the holidays, Amazon is offering a $5 App Store credit to anyone who downloads an app from the newest version of the company’s Android Appstore. The promotion will run from December 24th through December 28th. The $5 credit will be valid on any apps, games, and in-app purchases in the Amazon Appstore (via SlickDeals).
In addition to the $5 credit, Amazon is also offering more many paid apps for free over the next week. On December 25th, Amazon will be offering a “Free App of the Day Welcome Pack,” which includes things like a note taking app, alarm clock, and more. On the 26th, Amazon will be offering Office Suite Pro 7 for $.99, down from $4.99.
There was little question at some point, somewhere in their roadmap Pebble’s smartwatch was going to get a dedicated appstore. That day has arrived as a new company blog post indicates the new developer portal is now open. The app store will launch to the public in 2014 and be the “first-of-its-kind wearable application directory.”
Amazon’s Appstore received a nice redesign this past week and while it fell under our radar early on, it’s still very much a worthwhile update. For those of you who prefer purchasing your apps from Amazon alongside Google Play or who have found many gems with Amazon’s “free app of the day” it’s nice to see the company breath new life into the store.
Warner Bros has revealed the Man of Steel game for iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Android smartphones and tablets. The game will be available from June 14, 2013 on the App Store, Google Play and Amazon Appstore for Android. We’ll keep you updated
Amazon today announced that it will soon roll out a new virtual currency, known simply as “Coins,” that Kindle Fire owners can use to purchase apps, in-app purchases, and other content from the Amazon Appstore. Amazon said the service will launch for users in the United States in May and noted developers will still take their usual 70-percent revenue for purchases made with Coins. For the launch of Coins, Amazon will give away “tens of millions of dollars’ worth of Amazon Coins” to Kindle Fire users. This is definitely good news for developers who submit their apps by the April 25 deadline.
Amazon Coins is an easy way for Kindle Fire customers to spend money on developers’ apps in the Amazon Appstore, offering app and game developers another substantial opportunity to drive traffic, downloads and increase monetization even further.. Amazon will give customers tens of millions of dollars’ worth of Amazon Coins to use on developers’ apps in the Amazon Appstore—apps and games must be submitted and approved by April 25 to be ready when Amazon Coins arrive in customers’ accounts
After landing in the App Store for iOS users earlier this month and reaching over 20 million downloadsin just four days, the popular Temple Run 2 sequel from developers Imangi Studios has finally made its way to Android.
Rumors have been in the air for several months that claim Amazon will compete in the handset space with its own offering, much like it did with its Kindle Fire line of tablets. According to a new report from the Taiwan Economic News, the Internet retail giant has selected the infamous Foxconn to manufacture the handset. Additionally, Amazon is said to have ordered 5 million units and will launch the device at $100 to $200 sometime in the second quarter or third quarter of 2013.
The Kindle Fire line of tablets, which has software based off Android with many custom additions (and even more subtractions), has done wonders for Android’s tablet marketshare, helping the platform close the seemingly insurmountable gap with the iPad. Amazon was the first to offer a tablet at such a low cost, selling in seemingly big numbers. However, no specific figures have ever been given. With its large online marketplace and bevy of apps on its Amazon Appstore, we wouldn’t put it past the company to be a serious competitor in the handset game. (via Engadget)
Adobe just announced on its Photoshop blog that it is making the Photoshop Touch app available to Kindle Fire devices starting today for $9.99 in the Amazon Appstore. Adobe previously had version of the app available for other Android devices on Google Play, as well as an iOS version of the scaled down Photoshop app for Apple’s devices. The new app for Kindle Fire will be available on the 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HD, and the 7-inch Kindle Fire, and Kindle Fire HD models. The app is only compatible with devices running Android 4.0 and up, so it’s not available to first-gen Kindle Fire users.
We have worked closely with Amazon to enable Adobe Photoshop Touch on this device, and are proud to announce that it is available for purchase in the Amazon Appstore immediately for US$9.99… In addition, we are announcing support for the updated 7-inch Kindle Fire and Kindle Fire HD devices. This means that Photoshop Touch is optimized for both 8.9-inch and 7-inch screens, giving users a great experience on all recent Kindle Fire devices.
The Alphabet Car app is free today on the Amazon Appstore for Android as one of the online retailer’s Daily Deal specials. The word game normally goes for $2.99, and it has a 4-star rating or higher on both Amazon and Google Play. Folks can even receive a complimentary $1 Amazon MP3 Credit with this download. One claim per Amazon account, however, until Dec. 31.
The Tetris for Android app, normally $2.99, is free today on the Amazon Appstore as part of the online retailer’s “Free app of the day” series. Today’s free app —an iconic tile-matching puzzle video game originally released in 1984 via a range of platforms— is available to Android users in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, and Spain.
The Facebook-acquired, vintage photo-editing app Instagram is rolling out version 3.0 today for iOS and Android with a new Photo Map that highlights geo-tagged, filtered images.
“With every major release, we pick a theme – and for this one we’ve focused on the browsing experience. We’ve introduced a new and unique way to browse your photos and others’ photos on a map, which means you’re no longer constrained to browsing through page after page of photos,” announced Instagram on its official blog.
Once the update lands on the App Store and the Google Play Store, a Photo Map section will appear on all profiles. Instagram’s 80 million users can change between Grid and Chronological view modes and then zoom in and tap on photo stacks to navigate through all the geo-tagged images saved on an account. They can further delete unwanted pictures from their own stacks.
Additional user-interface refreshes include usernames now appearing in the app’s header, a multi-line caption box, and several performance enhancements to make the browsing experience, such as infinite scrolling in the feed and a new spam reporting system, more fluid and responsive.
“On newer devices, you should notice a marked improvement in speed while browsing. With that, we’ve introduced infinite scrolling in feeds so that you can quickly see more photos while browsing around the app. And finally, we’ve paid special attention to keeping Instagram a safe place. With improved reporting tools, users can now flag both photos and comments for review with ease,” Instagram explained.
The full change log:
– View your photos on a map (visit your profile and tap Photo Map to select which of your photos will be viewable on the map)
The next Kindle Fire is eyeing a July 31 launch date.
CNET just reported that Amazon’s next version of the widely popular Kindle Fire, otherwise dubbed the “Kindle Fire 2” or the second-generation Kindle Fire, would unveil next month. The publication cited “a credible source” but could not confirm the summer date, and it pointed to DigiTimes for specs, which claimed the rumored 7-inch eReader will release with a $199 price tag and 1,2800-by-800 pixel display at the beginning of the third quarter.
The DigiTimes article cited the usual sources in the “upstream supply chain” and talked about how Amazon would reduce the price of the current Kindle Fire to $149. It also speculated that Amazon’s long-rumored larger tablet is still on hold but that new e-ink Kindles with integrated lighting were expected to be released alongside the Kindle Fire 2 (or whatever Amazon chooses to call it).
Our source didn’t mention the higher resolution display but did say that the new tablet would have a camera and physical volume-control buttons (many users complained that the Kindle Fire only has on-screen volume controls).
Amazon officially confirmed this morning that it would open its Appstore to international users for the first time since launching in the United States last year. The countries in the initial international rollout scheduled for “this summer” include the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, and Spain. Amazon is inviting developers to visit its developer portal to begin localizing and preparing their apps for distribution in the new countries. It also noted developers would be able to select specific countries and set prices by market, but developers will by default have their apps made available internationally.
As part of the announcement, Amazon also explained it would introduce two new changes to the Amazon Mobile App Distribution Agreement that benefit developers. Most importantly, developers will now earn 70 percent of paid app sales starting July 1.
Google just unveiled a new feature in Google Play for in-app billing: Subscriptions.
In-app billing launched in Google’s marketplace a year ago to allow developers more opportunities for earning cash with apps. Approximately 23 of the 24 top-grossing apps now take advantage of Google’s money-making service, and Ibrahim Elbouchikhi, Google Play’s product manager, even told 9to5Google in a public statement that the total revenue produced from in-app purchases surpasses revenue from traditional app purchases. The executive further noted the feature is an extreme success, especially because it gives developers multiple monetizing options through “try-and-buy, virtual goods, upgrades, and other popular business models.”
Now, developers have another business model option thanks to today’s newly-announced in-app subscription feature within in-app billing. The feature is quite self-explanatory—users can purchase subscriptions to any type of extra content from an app using any Android device. Some examples of in-app subscription could apply to bonus game levels/maps or and recurring services like journals and magazines. The ability to sell monthly or annual subscriptions in any app is effective immediately, while users can also start buying right away.
“While making it easy for developers to offer a great purchasing experience, our subscriptions are also designed for flexibility,” Elbouchikhi explained. “Developers can use them to monetize premium dynamic content such as journals and magazines, but they can also use them to sell access to bundled products, game levels, music and video content, value-added services, or any other digital content.”
Verizon is expanding its LTE rollout by giving the green light on May 17 for many northeast cities in the United States.
PC World tested 3G and 4G wireless data transfer speeds last month for the top four carriers —both indoors and outside with multiple devices across 13 major cities in 130 testing locations— and discovered some surprising results: AT&T won the 4G crown. It clocked the fastest speeds in all but four cities when compared to other 4G network providers. With that said, AT&T may soon lose its place as Verizon vastly continues to increase LTE presence in the country.
Check out Verizon’s full rollout list with each presser linked below:
Amazon finally nixed AmazonWireless.com‘s beta mode by officially launching the website with two new advantages for the online retailer’s customers.
AmazonWireless first launch in July 2009 as a beta to ease the process of buying cell phones while allotting the best value for top devices. A new benefit for the website is “AmazonWireless Best Price Guarantee.” As the name indicates, Amazon now promises the best cell phones prices with service from the main carriers.
Amazon just updated the “Kindle” for Android app to support Kindle Format 8, and it brings a variety of children’s books, comic books, and graphic novels with vivid color and illustrations.
“Shop for over 1000 children’s titles such as Brown Bear and Curious George, and comics such as Batman and Superman. Plus, richer formatting in thousands of other Kindle titles,” announced the app’s description on the Google Play Store.
The new collection of reading materials compliment an already existing catalog of over 850,000 Kindle books and 100 different newspapers and magazines hosted through Amazon’s free application that does not need a Kindle slate. For those that already own a Kindle, Whispersync seamlessly beams a user’s last page read, and any bookmarks, highlights, and notes across all compatible devices.
Not entirely surprising, but worth a note: A new survey indicated Amazon’s $199 Kindle Fire tablet turned into a formidable competitor to the best-selling Android tablet series Samsung’s Galaxy Tab rather than Apple’s iPad. While the Fire did take some of the shine away from the iPad, Apple’s executives (and some analysts) are not terribly worried about the Fire’s long-term impact on Apple’s tablet sales. Mobile analytics firm Flurry, tapping device-specific ad impressions in its network, found that of all Android tablets sold in January 2012, the Kindle Fire and Samsung’s Galaxy Tab grabbed 36 percent market share each.
In fact, nitpicky types could argue that the Fire (35.7-percent) marginally edged out Samsung’s devices (35.6-percent). Another way to look at this data: These two tablet brands together accounted for nearly three-quarters of all Android tablets last month. This is in stark contrast to last November when Flurry recorded a 3 percent market share for the Fire versus a whopping 63 percent for Samsung’s Tabs…
The Android application for “Splashtop Remote Desktop” is free today at the Amazon Appstore —down from its normal price of $4.99.
The 2011 Consumer Electronics Show and The New York Times heralded the app that essentially lets users access their desktop through Android devices.
“With this app, you can control your home computer from your Android device via Wi-Fi or a 3G/4G connection,” announced the app’s description on Amazon Appstore.
Users can manage their Web browser with plug-ins and bookmarks, as well as PowerPoint, Word, Excel, and Outlook files. Splashtop Remote Desktop can also stream high-resolution video and audio from a PC or Mac to an Android device…
Rest easy folks…Amazon’s Kindle Fire no longer blocks access to Google’s Android Market website through the built-in browser. The Kindle Fire saw some criticism recently for redirecting market.android.com to Amazon’s AppStore. The move raised many eyebrows; however, yesterday’s OTA update addressed the controversial issue. Nevertheless, there is still no way to download applications from market.android.com. Users can only browse the catalog.
The concern at hand can be viewed as a matter of principal. Does one want a company regulating the content viewable? It might make the process less confusing for some users, but others question whether Amazon has the right to regulate. GigaOm pointed out that users still receive a security certificate warning, but at least Amazon has rethought this strategy. (via GigaOm)
As promised, Hulu Plus just hit the Amazon Appstore. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to be able to be downloaded for any devices (including my Galaxy Tab 7) besides the Kindle Fire (check Android market for full compatibility list). Strangely, even after “Whistper-synching” it over to the Kindle Fire, it hasn’t shown up.
Yesterday Amazon detailed a selection of apps to be available at launch and mentioned “several thousand more apps” will hit the Amazon App Store in preparation of next week’s Kindle Fire launch. Today they are putting in the groundwork by pushing out an update to the Amazon Appstore for Android app brining it up to version 2.0 and adding a few new features and an overhauled UI.
You’ll notice several UI improvements that bring it in line with the version of the store we’ve got a peek at on the Kindle Fire. Expect shades of grey to replace any hint of white from the previous version, and larger fonts throughout.
New features include in-app purchases and subscriptions, parental controls, and the ability to view any given app’s permissions before installing. Amazon is also promising faster installs and and load times, as well as the usual bug fixes. If you haven’t already, click here to install the Amazon App Store.
DigiTimes is reporting (viaAll Things D) that Amazon has once again just increased Kindle Fire orders, this time by a million units, to an expected five million units by the end of 2011. This follows the company upping initial orders of 3.5 million to four million units during Q3, as they prep for anticipated demand during the upcoming holidays. Expand Expanding Close
The US Amazon Appstore will turn 3 this Saturday, March 22nd, and to commemorative this occasion, Amazon will launch a 2-week gift giving campaign for its customers. Beginning this week, Amazon will slash up to 60% off “some of the most popular titles in the store.”
