The summer heat is no competition for the red-hot Android Market, with Google announcing its App Inventor DIY kit, enabling anyone to easily make a mobile app. Moodagent also made its Android debut, while eBay expanded its mobile app reach to the UK, Australia and Canada.
Here are the week’s top apps for Android.
Making money
Google launched its App Inventor in closed beta this week, creating a lot of excitement around the new DIY tool for making Android apps. The idea is to make programming and development an easy task, so you can focus on the features, distribution and monetization of your mobile presence. Get ready for the Android Market to get flooded.
eBay’s Android app also made its way around the world, launching Australian, British and Canadian apps. Debuting at the same time as eBay’s iPhone app dedicated to mobile sellers, the virtual action house is pouring a lot of resources into a widespread mobile front.
Price Grabber is also making a big splash with the launch of its Android app. You can scan barcodes to search its network, aggregating products from thousands of retailers. From the free app, you can also read reviews, calculate total costs, save favorites and purchase items via direct links to merchant sites.
SalesTrackr has seen significant growth since switching from premium to “freemium,” which is encouraging for the business app market targeted toward Android users. Create invoices and send them out, manage your virtual warehouse and save files to your SD card. SalesTrackr has several key options for business users for factoring in things like tax exempt hours and more.
Talk to me
Trillian is on its way to the Android Market, with an upcoming app bringing all of your chat clients together. Use AIM, Google Talk, Facebook and others, all at once. You’ll get notifications for new messages and options to sync and sort your contacts. The app will also work on Android 1.6, giving users access to a pretty wide range of devices.
Vlingo: Words to Action has added a “SuperDialer,” enabling you to tell your phone who to call. The upgrade taps into your address book or mobile search, ringing up friends and businesses directly. The new feature comes free for existing users, but it may also encourage others to fork over the $9.99 to have voice-to-text and vice-versa for texts, emails and Twitter.
Lifestyle and utility
Moodagent syncs your phone’s music with its online catalog as soon as you first open the app. From there, the free Android app will create playlists for you based on your mood. Blowing off steam? Plug into the “angry” playlist. Feeling sexy? There’s a playlist for that too. Each playlist has 25 songs, and includes details and preference options for each song.
Shazaam has launched a premium version of its app in the Android Market, mimicking its latest move in the Apple iTunes Store. For $4.99, you get unlimited tagging of identified songs and music recommendations, while the free version will limit you to five per month. Get artist and song details, along with purchasing information through the app.
Evernote has added a feature to its website called “Trunk,” which offers recommendations on Android and iPhone apps that work well with the note-taking tool. This feature decentralizes from its own Android app, but builds up its network and user reach more rapidly. In the Evernote Trunk, you’ll find apps like Voice2Note and Seesmic, creating a candy store for productivity junkies.
The free SpillMap app is a tool for sharing information, in real time, as it pertains to the BP spill in the Gulf. Share text or voice notes, attach images or video, and send your message across the social web. You’ll also be able to view the stories shared by others, offering firsthand exchanges for those interested in or affected by the spill.
