Pathik Shah

Pay for Android and iPhone Apps via Paypal in the iPhone Appstore and Android Market

Great news for all Android lovers. With Android hitting 50,000 apps, news has leaked out that Paypal is going to integrate Paypal payments in the Android Market. This is an exciting development, as the only option to pay for Android apps earlier was Google Checkout, which in addition to not being available in most countries, pretty much sucks.

The addition of Paypal as a payment option should drive many more sales as almost everyone has a Paypal account (You can set one up with a credit card in a couple of minutes). This should make Android application development a viable proposition for most developers, atleast comparable to the Apple Appstore.

Paypal has announced that it will enable both application payment options as well as in-App purchases in both the iPhone Appstore and the Android Market.

Thanks, iPhoneclub.

Infibeam (Amazon’s Indian clone) has just started accepting pre-orders for its new eBook reader - Pi (which unironically seems to be a Kindle clone sans the keyboard).

It is priced at Rs. 9999.  The hardware specs seem to be almost similar to the Kindle except that it does not have a physical keyboard. The display is exactly the same as the Kindle’s – a 6″ E Ink. The battery is just a 1000 mAh Li-Poly battery though, compared to the Kindle’s 1530 mAh. It is just as compact as the Kindle 2 and much lighter.

It is powered by a Samsung S3C2440 processor and has 64MB of RAM.

It has 512 MB internal memory which can be expanded using a 4 GB MicroSD card. It supports the following file formats – PDF, EPUB, HTML, TXT, MOBI, DOC, JPG, BMP, PNG and MP3.

Shipping starts from 22nd February 2010.

Detailed specs after the break.

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Barnes & Noble Nook vs Amazon Kindle Comparision

Barnes & Noble Nook Tech Specs

The Nook is probably the best eReader to have hit the market so far. It is much better than the Amazon Kindle when it comes to hardware and with B&N bragging of a much bigger book collection than Amazon, Wi-Fi, PDF support, Android etc it seems to be a great deal.

It is priced at $259 - the same as the Kindle. However it has some features which completely PWN the Kindle. Here’s why it is awesome and why it may be my first eBook Reader.

1. Android

It is powered by Android which is very close to my heart. It may be a stripped down version but chances are that someone will hack it to support applications from the Android Market. It may also support video playback and internet browsing and everything else an Android device can do (just speculating).

2. Secondary Multitouch Display

It has a 6 inch E-Ink display; exactly the same as the one in the Kindle. Supplementing the main display is a smaller 3.5 inch multitouch color display for navigation. It also supports Coverflow – the book’s cover will be displayed on the secondary display.

3. Books, PDF support and ePub

B&N has a much larger book collection than Amazon and the Nook will support the ePUB format which also makes publicly available books from Google available on the Nook. The best incentive to buy a Nook though is the built in PDF support. You can load PDF books directly into the Nook and read them. Creating eBooks is also quite easy now. You can find many guides online about how to make an eBook, publish it and market it to an online audience.

4. Wi-Fi, LendMe, MicroSD

It also comes with Wi-Fi to download books where the 3G network won’t work (like India). Also using the LendMe feature, we can lend books to other Nook devices for upto 14 days. You can also read your Nook content on your iPhone, Blackberry, PC or Mac using the B&N application. It also has expandable memory (by way of MicroSD cards). It supports upto 16 GB MicroSD cards.

5. MP3 Player, Gallery

It has a built in MP3 Player and a 3.5 mm headphone jack. It also has a Gallery application for viewing images. You can also set custom screensavers. It also has a built in dictionary.

Just hoping it comes to India soon.

All the hype about the CrunchPad – a touchscreen tablet envisioned by Michael Arrington of TechCrunch was overshadowed by the rumors of the upcoming Apple Tablet in the last month. But it has made an appearance again in an article by Straits Times.

The CrunchPad, developed by Fusion Garage, a startup based in Singapore is rumored to release this November.

CrunchPad Specifications:

• Dimensions: 12.77 x 7.83 x 0.74 inches
• Weight: 1.2 KG
• Screen: 12 inch touchscreen display
• Processor: Intel Atom N270, 1.6 GHz
• RAM: 1 GB DDR2 RAM
• Software: Linux based OS, Webkit Browser
• Peripherals: 1 USB port (for keyboard or mouse)
• Connectivity: WiFi, 3G, Mobile Broadband
• Price: USD 399

It looks pretty stylish and has nice specs. However it has no usable internal memory; maybe only some form of persistent cache for the browser. All the applications it can run will be web based, in the cloud; you can’t use them without an internet connection. Hopefully they will add some more USB ports and some internal memory. Or atleast lower the price a bit. Otherwise, I don’t think it will stand a chance against the Apple Tablet.

More on the CrunchPad – Wiki – Engadget – TechCrunch