Mobile game developer Gameloft has launched a new app store for its Android titles. It’s called Gameloft Live, and if that sounds a lot like Xbox Live, there’s good reason.

Like Xbox Live, the new Gameloft app isn’t just a store for buying and downloading games. It’s also a social hub that lets you send messages or chat with your friends, invite them to play games, or share your achievements. You can also create custom avatars for you account.

This isn’t the first time the company has taken inspiration from outside. Many of the top Gameloft games are blatant rip-offs of other titles. Order and Chaos, for instance, is a World of Warcraft clone, Eternal Legacy draws heavily from Final Fantasy, and NOVA is basically Halo for Android.

Even if you don’t care about the social aspects, Gameloft Live might be worth checking out. The company promises to offer exclusive discounts to members, and the service should make downloading and installing Gameloft titles on an Android device a little simpler. Some of the company’s many games aren’t available in the Android Market.

via EuroDroid

Android developer Koushik Dutta has proposed the creation of a CyanogenMod App Store. It would sort of be like Cydia for Android: a place where users can download apps for rooted Android devices or apps that simply aren’t allowed in the Google Android Market for one reason or another.

Google’s official app store isn’t nearly as restrictive as Apple’s, but apps are regularly pulled from the Android Market for violating Google’s rules – or for running afoul of wireless carriers.

For instance, there are very few video game console emulators left in the Android Market. And Koushik Dutta’s own app for tethering an Android phone to a computer to share a wireless internet connection was recently pulled at AT&T’s request.

While the app store would be named for the popular CyanogenMod open-source Android operating system, it would be available for any custom ROM developers to include in their software. The idea is that it would provide a place for developers to upload free and paid apps which aren’t available in the Android Market — and with over a million active CyangoenMod users, those developers would have a pretty large potential customer base on day one

The app store isn’t a done deal yet, but Koush has already posted a picture of the upload page he’s working on to his Google+ page.

I’ve never really gotten the point of the Apple Store app for iOS. I mean, do you really find yourself shopping for iPhones, iPads, and other Apple products so often that you need to install an app on your mobile device instead of just visiting the website?

But now it looks like Apple could be rolling out an update that will allow you to use the Apple Store app in a novel way in bricks and mortars stores. According to MacRumors, you’ll be able to use it for self-checkout.

In other words, you walk into an Apple Store. Pick up an item off the shelf and scan it with your phone’s camera and your iTunes Store account will be billed. You can now walk out with your item without ever going up to the cash register.

While you’ll be able to pick up cables, cases, and other accessories this way, big ticket items will still hang out in the stock room. You won’t be able to walk out with an iMac or a MacBook Air without asking for assistance. But you will still be able to pay on your device and just stop a staff member to help you collect your item before leaving.

I suspect that friendly employee standing near the front of the store might also want you to flash your digital receipt before you exit, but if the rumor is true, it’s a pretty remarkable way to blur the lines between digital shopping and real-world shopping.

Microsoft has started pushing out Windows Phone 7.5 Mango software. This means that sometime in the next week or so there’s a good chance existing Windows Phone 7 users will be prompted to download and install an update. There are plenty of new features coming in Mango, including tighter integration with Microsoft’s SkyDrive cloud services, improved social networking and music features, and turn-by-turn driving directions.

Microsoft is also making it easier to discover Windows Phone apps — even if you don’t have a Windows Phone device. Anyone can now browse or search for apps in the Windows Phone Marketplace using a shiny new web interface.

You can view featured apps and games from the home screen, and sort apps by free, top, and new. Clicking on any app takes you to a page where you can views screenshots, reviews, and more details. And if you do have a supported device you can login with your Windows Live ID to purchase apps from the website.

The process isn’t quite as smooth as Google’s. If you have an Android device, you can tap a button on the web and your phone or tablet will automatically start to download and install an application. But the Windows Phone Marketplace will instead send you a link via email or SMS. You have to click on that link to start installing the app.

It was nice while it lasted. Yesterday we reported that Android users around the globe had discovered that the Amazon Appstore was suddenly working. Today reports are starting to roll in that Amazon may have pulled the plug… for now.

The Amazon Appstore is one of the highest profile alternatives to the official Google Android Market. Amazon offers thousands of apps in a well-organized system, complete with user reviews, photos, and even a way to test drive apps in your web browser before you download them. You can also purchase apps from a desktop web browser and download them on any Android device with the Appstore installed.

Unfortunately at launch the Amazon Appstore was only available to residents of the United States. Yesterday people with international Amazon accounts reported that they were able to login and download apps. But now they’re no longer able to do so.

It’s possible that Amazon was running tests in advance of an international rollout. It’s also possible that this was just some sort of glitch.

Sure, Google’s Android App Store is a huge app store with hundreds of thousands of apps available for download on most Android phones, but Google takes a 30 percent cut of all revenue generated from app sales — and plenty of other folks involved in the Android phone space would sure like a piece of that action. So it’s not surprising that we’ve seen handset makers, Amazon, and other companies launch alternative app stores — some of which even come preloaded on Android phones and tablets.

Now Verizon is poised to be the first wireless carrier in the US to launch Android smartphones with an app search feature, powered by Chomp. Starting this fall, all Verizon phones running Android will come with Chomp preinstalled, as well as Verizon Apps store which will replace the company’s current V Cast service.

The good news is that Verizon Apps won’t replace the Android Market on Android devices. Instead it will ship alongside it, with Verizon banking on Chomp’s higher quality search results as a way to differentiate its app store from Google’s. Of course, the big question is whether the Verizon Apps store will attract developers, because an app store is only as good as the apps it makes available.

BlackBerry App World 3.0 is now available for download. It was expected to launch in August, but I suppose it’s better a little later than a lot late.

The new app store for BlackBerry applications supports BlackBerry OS 5.0 and up and offers a quick way to find, purchase, and install apps for BlackBerry phones and tablets.

The latest version brings a number of improvements, including

• A redesigned home screen with banners that rotate to show more highlighted apps
• New channels for apps, games, and themes
• Social sharing, allowing you to share apps from the details screen with your contacts on BBM, Facebook, Twitter, email, or SMS
• Manage your BlackBerry ID and payment information on your device
• Manage subscription content and receive notifications when a renewal payment is due

via @BlackBerry

Google is rolling out a new version of the Android Market which adds a number of improvements. The company likes to do phased rollouts, which means you may not notice any changes right away, but the folks at Android Police have posted a link to an installer file which you can use to apply the update today.

Here are some of the new features in the Android Market version 3.1.1:

• There’s support for Google’s +1 recommendations, so you can see how many people have +1′d an app.
• You can set a PIN so that you can enter that instead of your full Google Checkout information when making a purchase from your phone.
• You can now click to read which app permissions are required by an app before clicking the install button.

There’s also a new icon for the Android Market app.