It seems like every other day there’s a new story about some new virus, spyware, or other malware-ridden app finding its way into the Google Android Market, and potentially millions of Android phones and tablets. But just because the Android Market is the Wild West compared to Apple’s App Store walled garden where every app must be approved by hand, doesn’t mean Google doesn’t take malware seriously.

While anyone can publish an Android app to the Market in a matter of minutes, Google is taking steps to scan apps to detect malicious software automatically.

For the last few months Google has already been using a new scanner which is codenamed “Bouncer.” It looks at new apps as they’re uploaded and also scans existing apps and developer accounts to look for potential problems.

Bouncer looks for known malware, but also identifies behavior that could be an indication that something shady is going on. Google says the number of downloads of potentially dangerous apps dropped 40 percent between the first half of 2011 and the second half (when Bouncer was implemented).

So what do you think? Do you feel any safer? Or would you prefer if someone from Google examined each Android app manually before it was added to the Market the way Apple does? Because that’s not going to happen… it’s not how a company that doesn’t even offer customer support works.

There are hundreds of thousands of free and paid apps available in the Google Android Market. It’s easy to download and install any of them with just a few clicks — but Google doesn’t provide an easy way to bookmark apps that you might want to install later.

That’s where a free app called MarketMarks comes in. It can act as a sort of shopping list for Android apps.

Once MarketMarks is installed, just browse the Android Market and click the share icon anytime you find an app you might want to download in the future. Then choose MarketMarks from the share menu.

MarketMarks will create a list of apps you’ve saved. You can then tap any app in that list to bring up the Android Market page.

You can also organize multiple lists by placing them in folders, delete apps from your list from a long-press context menu, or move apps between lists.

MarketMarks can come in handy if you’re not sure whether you want to spend money on an app but you don’t want to forget about it. You can also use the app to bookmark apps that you don’t want to download over 3G so you can easily find them again when you get back to your WiFi network, or if you want to wait until you’ve cleared up some space on your device before downloading a new app.

via reddit

Game developer Gameloft is running a massive sale for the next week. Starting this morning at 10:00AM Pacific, all of the company’s games availabel from the Android Market will be available for 99 cents. The sale runs through 10:00AM PST on January 5th, 2012.

Some of Gameloft’s titles are always just under a buck, but some of the company’s higher-end games such as Order & Chaos Online and Modern Combat 3 normally run $6.99.

Gameloft is often criticized for their lack of originality (Order & Chaos is basically a World of Warcraft clone, Eternal Legacy is a Final Fantasy clone, and Starfront: Collision is a Starcraft clone). But their games are usually well designed, with excellent graphics.

Unfortunately not all of the company’s games are available from the Android Market, so not all of Gameloft’s Android games will be on sale, but titles including Asphalt HD, Texas Hold’em Poker 2, and The Adventures of Tintin should all be eligible.

via Droid Gamers

Google says users are downloading apps from the Android Market at a rate of about a billion a month — and the pace is speeding up all the time. The 10 billionth app download milestone was hit recently, and to celebrate Google is partnering with some top app developers to offer games for 10 cents.

There will be new apps on the list each day for the next ten days, but the lineup for day one already looks pretty great:

• Asphalt 6: Adrenaline HD
• Color & Draw for kids:[hone
• Endomondo Sports Tracker
• Fieldrunners HD
• Great Little War Game
• Minecraft – Pocket Edition
• Paper Camera
• Sketchbook Mobile
• SoundHound
• SwiftKey X Keyboard

Amazon may offer one free app each day in the Amazon Appstore, but this might actually be an even smarter move on Google’s part. Sure, developers aren’t going to get rich off of 10 cent app sales, but miserly Android users that are normally loathe to spend a dollar might be willing to grab 10 apps for a dollar which is a great way to get people used to spending money on apps.

Anyway, I’ve been hearing great things about Great Little War Game for a while, but I don’t have a lot of time to play games on my phone and tablets, so I’ve held off on spending money on it. Today I grabbed it for 10 cents and had a blast playing through the first level of the tutorial. Even if I never touch the game again, that was 10 cents well spent.

Google is expanding the Android Market to include music. You can now purchase songs and albums in 320kbps MP3 format from the Android Market on the web. An updated Android Market app for Android 2.2 and up is also starting to roll out.

This means you can now purchase music, movies, books, and apps from the Android Market. But while Google says there are 8 million songs available today and another 5 million on the way, the company still hasn’t signed a deal with Warner Music Group, which means that only 3 out of the 4 major US labels are on board. That means you might not find all the music you want from Google.

The good news is that Google will be offering a free song every day, curated music picks, and exclusive content through partnerships with artists including ColdPlay and The Rolling Stones.

Users will also be able to share songs with their friends on Google+. Your friends won’t just get a link to purchase the song or a 90 second snippet. Instead they can listen to the full track one time.

Google has been beta testing Google Music for the past few months, allowing users to upload as many as 20,000 songs for free. Today the company announced that Google Music is open to everyone in the US and no longer requires an invite. The online storage locker is still free for anyone to use, whether you buy music from Google or not.

Amazon also offers an online music service that lets you store your music in the cloud, purchase tracks, and access them across multiple devices. And Amazon’s service offers music from all four major labels in the US.

But Google is banking on Android Market integration, a curated experience with top music picks, and social sharing to stand out from the competition.

Google is holding an event on November 16th where the company is expected to launch a music store. But TecnoDroidVe has already managed to get a sneak peek at the Android version of the upcoming music store.

It looks like the music store will be built into the next version of the Google Android Market. In other words, Android phone and tablet users will have a one-stop-shop for downloading music, movies, books, and apps.

While the Android Market is choc full of free apps, you’ll probably have to pay for most of the music offered by Google. But it looks like google will have a “Free Song of the Day” feature where you can grab featured tracks for free.

That shouldn’t come as a huge surprise to anyone that’s been using the Google Music beta service. Google provides users with enough online storage space for up to 20,000 songs — but Google also regularly offers small collections of music which users can add to their account for free.

There have been rumors floating around for a few days suggesting that while Google has signed deals with some of the major music labels in the US, the company may not have locked up all the majors yet. A music store is only as good as its selection — and Google will be competing with Amazon MP3, 7digital, and a handful of other companies that already offer digital music stores for Android.

But there’s something appealing about having just one store to visit for music, movies, books and apps — especially if there are freebies available in each category from time to time.

We should know more about the new Google Music store later this week.

via Android Police

It’s been nearly a year and a half since Google introduced Google TV. The software for set-top-boxes which brings the internet to your TV set hasn’t exactly taken the world by storm. But an upcoming software update could make Google TV a lot more attractive.

Google TV is based on the Android operating system, but up until now it’s been missing one of Android’s key features: access to the thousands of apps in the Android Market.

Google TV 2.0 will add support for the Android Market. You won’t be able to run all of the apps in the Market, because most were designed for phones and tablets with touchscreen displays, not televisions and remote controls. But Zatz Not Funny has published some preview photos of the Android Market for Google TV and it looks like we can expect to find some news apps, games, social apps, and audio and video channels such as Crunchyroll.

Overall, Google TV 2.0 looks a lot more like Android re-imagined for a television screen than Google’s first attempt. I’m still not sure if that’s a good thing or not though.

What do you think? Do you want apps on your TV?

Update: It looks like Amazon has pulled the plug. International users are now reporting that they’re no longer able to download apps from the Appstore.

The Amazon Appstore offers thousands of free and paid apps for Android. It’s arguably better organized than the official Google Android Market, works on many devices that ship without access to Google’s Market, and promotes one featured paid app for free every day.

Unfortunately when Amazon launched the Appstore earlier this year, it was only available to users in the US. Now it looks like the company is starting to lift that restriction.

Android users in Australia, India, the UK, and elsewhere are now reporting that they’re able to install the Appstore on their mobile devices and login with their international Amazon accounts in order to user the service.

There still aren’t nearly as many apps available in the Amazon Appstore as there are in the Android Market, but if you have a device without Market access — or just want to be able to download the free app of the day, it looks like you may finally be able to do so outside of the US.

You can find instructions detailing how to get started with the Appstore at Amazon.

Related: 18 places to download Android Apps (that aren’t the Android Market)