Google expanded paid apps market to a number of new countries

This is something that many Scandinavian Android developers (including myself) have been waiting for almost too long time: Google has expanded the list of countries where paid apps are available in Android Market. This list includes now also Finland! More importantly, Google has also added new countries where developers are accepted to distribute and sell their applications via Android Market. The list of current locations supported for selling paid apps is published in here.

I am really happy that Finnish Android developers are finally given the possibility to sell their apps through the official Android Market. I am now more motivated to finalize my Android apps :)

doubleTwist multimedia player released for Android

doubleTwist Corp has released a polished audio and music player app for Android called doubleTwist player. The player seamlessly integrates with the doubleTwist desktop client running both on OS X and Windows computers. As you may already know, doubleTwist desktop client can be used to import and sync your iTunes music and playlists into your Android handset. The latest version of the client integrates also with Android market. I have been using doubleTwist for a while now, and I have been quite happy with it.

Get the player app while it is still free from here. The player will be enhanced with new features and widgets in future.

PayPal launches In-App Payment library for Android

Good news for Android developers who would like to make some money with their great apps: PayPal launches an in-app payment library for Android platform. Wow - just how cool is that? iPhone OS has provided an in-app purchase feature for over a year already, a feature that is sadly still missing from Android platform today. Some desperate developers have implemented even their own solution - which tends to be quite bad idea for several reasons, such as legal and security issues involved.

Fortunately, PayPal have been developing a payment solution for Android called Mobile Payments Library which they just announced. Android developers can utilise the library to integrate PayPal payments into their applications. With the help of library, the end users will be able to make purchase transactions without ever leaving the application. The main benefit for developers, is that PayPal takes care of those nasty legal and security issues.

Of course, PayPal's solution is still a third-party solution, and inherently not as good as a seamlessly integrated native platform solution like the iPhone's in-app payments system. I hope that Google will address this issue in very near future by providing a proper Android mobile payments service and related API(s). Meanwhile, I think that PayPal's technology provides a viable solution for those Android developers that are not able to deliver paid apps via Android Market (like us living in Scandinavia).

Android Market in new doubleTwist for OSX

As a fan of both Android and OSX, I was delighted to find out that the latest version of doubleTwist for the OSX features now also access to Android Market for Android applications. DoubleTwist lets users to browse Android applications using a nice user interface quite similar to one provided by iTunes for App Store. In addition, it is possible to download the desired applications via scanning the QR codes presented in the Android Market browser (of course direct syncing with a device would be nicer, but I guess that will be possible in future). If you do not own a Mac (d'oh) or if you do not want to install the doubleTwist for some reason, it is also possible to try out the new service via plain web browser at http://apps.doubletwist.com/.