Google opens the floodgates, open-sources Android

Making good on a promise it made at the very beginning, Google has today announced that the source code underpinning its Android platform for mobile devices is available for free to anyone who wants a crack at it. The code is being provided through the newly-announced Android Open Source Project, which will give the public at large the opportunity to make contributions to the platform's all-important core -- a first for a mobile operating system with true mass-market appeal. Theoretically, the move should position Android to benefit from a fairly democratic, speedy evolution, and it'll also give anyone with a few spare chips lying around the chance to build a smartphone of their own without shelling out a dime in licensing fees. We're really looking forward to seeing Android pop up on a whole bunch of devices for which it was never intended -- but we have to admit, in a sick, totally twisted sort of way, we're looking forward to some truly deranged individual porting Windows Mobile to the G1, too.
[Via: Engadget ] [Tag: android, breaking news, BreakingNews, google ]

RIM readies BlackBerry Application Storefront and Application Center

Big surprise here and all, but we hear RIM is actually thinking of crafting an App Store of its own in order to not get lapped by the likes of Apple and Google. Made official today was Research In Motion's plans to introduce a pair of "major distribution initiatives" for BlackBerry applications: the BlackBerry Application Storefront and the BlackBerry Application Center. The former is slated to launch in March 2009 (translation: forever from now), though developers can begin submitting their apps and content beginning in December. Similar to Apple's initiative, RIM will give devs the ability to set prices and retain 80% of all revenue from sales, and it will be giving the rest of the dough to working with PayPal for transactions. Of course, enterprise admins can still maintain control over what apps can be downloaded onto company phones, but you know you can sweet talk the boss into relaxing some of those restrictions. The Application Center is a carrier-customized, on-device tool for providers to host specific programs for customers. Details on deployment (and more importantly, app screening) are all but nil, but considering we've got until March before we can even use the Storefront, we can wait. Angrily.
[Via: phonescoop ] [Tag: app store, application center, Application Storefront, ApplicationCenter, applications, ApplicationStorefront, apps, AppStore, blackberry, BlackBerry Application Center, BlackBerry Application Storefront, BlackberryApplicationCenter, BlackberryApplicationStorefront, RIM, software, Storefront ]

Apple working on streaming your iTunes library to your iPhone?

Apple's experimented with allowing iTunes to stream over the internet as well as your LAN in the past and quickly removed the feature (probably due to RIAA pressure), so we're not placing too much stock in this, but AppleInsider's unearthed a patent that seems to describe a way to stream music over the 'net to your iPhone / iPod touch. The goal is to prevent you from having to selectively sync content to your device -- instead, you'd sync just the metadata and stream whatever you wanted direct from your machine as though it was all stored locally. There are some obvious problems here -- it wouldn't work if you didn't have service (or over EDGE, really), most home upstream connections aren't that fast, etc., etc., -- but it's certainly interesting, and a welcome addition to local storage if it ever makes the scene. In the meantime, how about working in some of those new UI elements from the Remote app into the iPod app?
[Via: Macrumors ] [Tag: 3g iphone, 3gIphone, apple, iphone, iphone 2.0, iphone 3g, Iphone2.0, Iphone3g, ipod, ipod touch, IpodTouch, itunes, patent, rumor, rumors, streaming, touch ]