There’s no shortage of places to download apps for Google Android devices. But a new app store called FirePlace Market takes a different approach than most by focusing on apps for people that have rooted their phones or tablets.

There are only a handful of apps available from Fireplace Market right now, but they include popular apps that require root access such as Titanium Backup and Set CPU.

The app store has a pretty barebones look and feel, but you can browse apps by category, search for apps, or view a list of all apps. There’s also a built-in package manage that lets you launch or remove apps from your device.

Fireplace Market 2.0 came out this week, and it includes a new homepage, interface improvements, and other updates.

You can download and install Fireplace Market on any rooted device running Android 2.1 or newer. You can also follow the development thread at the xda-developers forum or submit your own apps for inclusion.

Amazon has rolled out a new version of its music app for Android. The update lets you control music playback from the Android 4.0 lock screen so that you can skip tracks, play or pause audio, or perform other actions without unlocking your device.

The Amazon MP3 2.4.0 change log also suggests there’s a new layout optimized for tablets, but there still appears to be an awful lot of wasted space on my HP TouchPad screen.

The new app also has a new grey and orange color scheme which brings a little Kindle Fire flavor to pretty much any phone or tablet running Android 4.0 and up.

Amazon MP3 is both a music player and a music store. You can stream music purchased from Amazon over the internet or download it to your device.

Version 2.4 of the app also adds personalized recommendations to the Amazon MP3 store, based on your purchase history. Recommendations are only available in the United States.

Amazon MP3 is available as a free download from the Android Market.

Research in Motion’s next major version of the BlackBerry operating system is dubbed BlackBerry 10 — and while the company hasn’t shared all that much information about the new OS, the folks at CrackBerry have snagged some details (and photos).

BlackBerry 10 will be designed to run on both phones and tablets, and in some ways it’s expected to look a lot like BlackBerry PlayBook OS. But according to a leaked document, the smartphone version will feature a user interface designed to fit on smaller screens.

So what’s new in BlackBerry 10? It looks like here are a few highlights:

• Home screen widgets which provide at-a-glance information from weather, music, phone, or other apps
• Video chat
• iOS-like folder icons which show some of the apps hidden in the folder

Overall BlackBerry 10 looks a lot more like Android or iOS than earlier versions of the BlackBerry smartphone operating system. That’s probably a good thing for a company that’s trying to keep up with the competition — but it’s not yet clear if it will be enough to convince anyone to put down an iPhone and pick up a BlackBerry again.

PowerAmp is a music player for Android that provides a powerful alternative to the music app that comes with most Android phones and tablets. It can play a wide range of audio formats, has a 10 band graphic equalizer, supports gapless playback, and a number of other features.

Now the developer has added a few new features including lock screen controls for devices running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. This lets you pause or resume audio playback or skip tracks without unlocking your device.

PowerAmp 2.0 also includes notification controls for devices running ANdorid 3.0 and up, support for multichannel FLAC audio files, and support for HTC Beats/SRS audio.

There are also a number of bug fixes and translation for Japanese, Polish, Korean, and Chinese.

You can download a free trial version of PowerAmp from the Android Market. A full license costs $4.99.

via Droid Life

Popular blogging platform WordPress has offered mobile apps for Android, iOS, and other mobile operating systems for a while. But up until recently there was no simple way to install the apps on some of the most popular Android tablets: The Amazon Kindle Fire and Barnes & Noble NOOK Color and NOOK Tablet.

That’s because none of those devices comes with access to the Google Android Market. Instead they have their own app stores. Now the folks at WordPress have announced that you can download the official WordPress app from the Amazon Appstore and B&N Shop.

Both the NOOK and Kindle apps are available as free downloads, and both let you create new posts for your WordPress blog, upload photos, edit existing posts, manage comments, or view statistics.

Basically WordPress for the NOOK and Kindle is the same WordPress 2.0 app that’s already available for other Android devices… but now you can download it outside of the Android Market.

Or you can always root your NOOK Tablet or Kindle Fire and install the Market.

The developers behind the popular CyanogenMod version of Google Android may be hard at work on CyanogenMod 9 which is based on Google Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. But there’s also at least one more CM7 release on the way — and according to the latest changelog, some Android 4.0 features will find their way to Android 2.3 Gingerbread in the next release.

CyanogenMod 7.2 Release Candidate 1 is due out soon, and the changelog shows many of the new features, including:

• Ice Cream Sandwich transition effects
• Ice Cream Sandwich rotation effects
• Ice Cream Sandwich telephony fixes

Other updates include a number of bug fixes, calendar improvements, a T9 predictive phone dialer, and lockscreen updates. CyanogenMod 7.2 will also add support for additional phones and new features for specific phones, including support for tv output on Samsung Galaxy S phones.

The system requirements for Android 4.0 are a little different than those for earlier versions of Android, so some phones that can run CM7 won’t officially be supported when CM9 is released. So it’s nice to see that some of the latest features will still find their way into CM7.

via reddit

HTC has unveiled some more details about its plans to launch Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich for some of the company’s most recent smartphones.

In March, the HTC Sensation 4G, HTC Sensation XE, and HTC Sensation XL should get software updates. Later this year we’ll also see updates for these phones:

• Amaze 4G
• Desire HD
• Desire S
• EVO 3D
• EVO 4G
• Incredible S
• Rezound
• Vivid

Noticeably absent from that list is the original HTC Sensation smartphone. When the company first plotted its roadmap for ICS updates late last year, the Sensation was one of the phones listed. But now it’s nowhere to be seen.

Fortunately independent developers are already taking up the slack. Several unofficial builds of Android 4.0 are already available for the Sensation. You can find more details about these custom ROMs at the xda-developers forum.

The Nokia N9 is one of the only phones ever to ship with the MeeGo Harmattan Linux-based operating system. Pretty much the only reason to choose the N9 is if you want to give the dead operating system a try. But if you don’t want to be stuck with MeeGo, it looks like an alternative may be on the horizon.

A group of developers have been working to port Google Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich to run on the N9, and it looks like some serious progress is being made.

The goal is to create a dual boot solution so that users can run both MeeGo and Android on the phone.

The Nokia N9 has a 3.9 inch, 854 x 480 pixel curved AMOLED display, a 1 GHz TI OMAP 3630 processor, and an 8MP camera with a 28mm lens. It’s a nice piece of hardware — but unfortunately it never went on sale in the US.

via Maemo forum and The Verge