Google looks out to include Paypal payments for Android Apps

If you want to pick up a new app on an Android-based smartphone, you have one option with which to pay for your new purchase: Google Checkout. At least, for now—sources indicate that Google is chatting with eBay's PayPal business to bring the latter as a secondary option for smartphone-based payments.

While that doesn't necessarily help the speed of the transaction—Google Checkout is, after all, is still a fairly convenient method for purchasing applications—it does help Google attract users who, for whatever reason, have simply opted not to use Google's single payment service for their purchases.

Integrating Paypal would open up Android phones to the service's 87 million active accounts, which would surely go a long way toward increasing the propensity of a user to pick up a new application on a whim—especially if the Paypal service is integrated into the mobile operating system in a similar style to how purchases work on Apple's App Store.

"As an Android user, I'd certainly be more inclined to buy apps from the Android Market if PayPal was a payment option," writes Intomobile's Marc Flores. "Make it a one-click feature and perhaps I'll even go nuts loading my EVO 4G with new applications."

Neither Paypal nor Google are discussing the alleged talks, which may or may not lead to a finalized deal between the two companies, reports Bloomberg.

According to the research firm Gartner, Google's Android operating system is now the most popular piece of smartphone software in the United States. Sales of Android-based devices rank third of any smartphone in the world in 2010 thus far, nestled behind RIM and Symbian's respective sales of 11.2 million and 22.3 million units. Apple's iPhone sales rank fourth at 8.7 million, or a market share of 14.2 percent to Android's 17.2 percent.

It's quite a turnaround from this same time period one year ago, when Apple commanded 13 percent of the market to Android's 1.8, and Symbian carried the majority market share at 51 percent. Microsoft's Windows mobile phones continue to lag with only 3 million units sold in 2010, a market share of a paltry 5 percent (itself, a decrease from 2009's 9.3 percent)

I think that if such a move is true from Google's side, it could make the Android a popular one!

Five Reasons Why Android Will Beat iPhone and BlackBerry

While many iPhone users are reporting high satisfaction, it doesn't matter for the long term. The Android platform will crush all other smartphones in both its sheer number of users and vendors.

Neither Apple nor RIM will give up without a fight, but the writing is on the wall for business owners who don't want to be saddled with the 2013 version of the Sony Betamax. RIM is already facing big challenges from the countries like India and S Arabia.

1. Android Rules the Market by Numbers

Sure, Google CEO Eric Schmidt self-servingly told Reuters that 200,000 Android handsets were selling every day--but third-party surveys also routinely show that the platform's momentum is steadily increasing. Thirty-three percent of smartphones sold from April to June were Android handsets, and the system is outstripping RIM (at 28 percent) and iPhone (22 percent), according to the NPD Group. In other words, the American people are voting with their wallets and choosing Android handsets.

2. More Selection and Promotions

The top five Android phones--Motorola Droid, HTC Droid Incredible, HTC EVO 4G, HTC Hero, and HTC Droid Eris--have numerous carriers, including Verizon Wireless, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile, according to NPD. Because of the competition among carriers, promotions like Verizon's buy-one, get-one-free, and cut-rate prices will continue to play a significant role in the Android market. For a company having to buy a dozen or more smartphones, this means some serious savings.

3. More Room for Variety and Ideas

While iPhone applications are well-touted, many of Android's apps come straight from Google's gifted engineers, such as Google Goggles, which has image recognition software that can retrieve walking tours or menus. But its apps aren't limited to engineers. Google also developed the open-source App Inventor that allows anyone to create an application for Android. Scary? Perhaps, but the system is definitely open to new ideas--perhaps even one your business can create.

4. Android Is the Innovator

Since Android was developed by Google, many believe that it has a little more tech credibility than other operating systems, but that shouldn't be the only reason to buy an Android smartphone. The idea should be that Android is still relatively new and has some maturing and growing to do before it reaches its apex. Android is still not like the iPhone's walled garden, but it's becoming more functional and user-friendly.

5. Android 2.2 Froyo: A Gift to Your IT Department

No more worries about syncing with Microsoft Exchange, because it's all been ironed out with Android 2.2. The system's new security features, such as remote wipe for administrators, lock-screen timeouts, and minimum password settings, will put critics of previous Android handsets at ease.

While not everyone will love the Android platform, it will soon become the country's mobile OS of choice. You can either choose to embrace it or be prepared to defend why you're holding onto its less popular rival.

Windows 7 gets you what you expected!

Windows 7: The next client release of Microsoft will be available in 32 & 64-bit versions.

Here are some things that you asked for in your Desktop OS:

1. Faster-Your system starts up, shuts down and resumes from standby faster, and your laptop’s battery lasts longer!

2. Touch- Multi touch, ink and gesture support along with handwriting recognition allow you to create exciting new input capabilities. Managing large number of windows is much easier, with intuitive touch gestures to view multiple windows at once and remove unwanted windows.

3. Faster Browsing- Build for the web with IE8, add rich media with Silver light and extend to rich client with WPF – using the same platform and tools

4. Explore and Share - With Windows 7 and Windows Live, you can easily manage your documents, pictures, movies and music, regardless of which PC they are stored on, and share them with your friends and family.

5. Search- Windows 7 includes all performance improvements from Windows Search 4.0, so search and indexing are much faster.

6. Less Crashes- A new feature in Windows 7, Fault Tolerant Heap, mitigates the most common causes of heap corruption, significantly reducing the number of crashes you will experience!

7. Power Saving - Windows 7 easily adapts to your activity. To save battery power, Windows 7 automatically reduces display brightness after a period of inactivity, much like mobile phones do today.

8. Watch complete DVD on battery- Windows 7 will use less power in playing a standard-definition DVD than all earlier versions of Windows, so you are more likely to watch a complete movie with a single battery charge.

*Courtesy of information: Microsoft