This was posted a few places today but I thought I would host a copy for now. It was said to be for ADP1 and for Ion but the update-script says its for “Dream” hardware (G1/ADP1). This is the non-rooted Official rom for those who do not wish to wait for it. If you want a rooted version, wait for someone to create one.

Donut Android-DLs.com download link

Donut Google direct download link

This has gotta be the funniest video I have seen in a long time. Not only that but it does a fairly decent job at showing the frustration some of us are feeling with this Google Apps fiasco. This video was posted by Youtube user osokrayzay today.

Google Android developer Dan Morrill just released a response to the much talked about C&D (Cease and Desist order) that was apparently sent to the Android rom cook (maker of cyanogenmod) Cyanogen:

Lately we’ve been busy bees in Mountain View, as you can see from the recent release of Android 1.6 to the open-source tree, not to mention some devices we’re working on with partners that we think you’ll really like. Of course, the community isn’t sitting around either, and we’ve been seeing some really cool and impressive things, such as the custom Android builds that are popular with many enthusiasts. Recently there’s been some discussion about an exchange we had with the developer of one of those builds, and I’ve noticed some confusion around what is and isn’t part of Android’s open source code. I want to take a few moments to clear up some of those misconceptions, and explain how Google’s apps for Android fit in.

Everyone knows that mobile is a big deal, but for a long time it was hard to be a mobile app developer. Competing interests and the slow pace of platform innovation made it hard to create innovative apps. For our part, Google offers a lot of services — such as Google Search, Google Maps, and so on — and we found delivering those services to users’ phones to be a very frustrating experience. But we also found that we weren’t alone, so we formed the Open Handset Alliance, a group of like-minded partners, and created Android to be the platform that we all wished we had. To encourage broad adoption, we arranged for Android to be open-source. Google also created and operates Android Market as a service for developers to distribute their apps to Android users. In other words, we created Android because the industry needed an injection of openness. Today, we’re thrilled to see all the enthusiasm that developers, users, and others in the mobile industry have shown toward Android.

With a high-quality open platform in hand, we then returned to our goal of making our services available on users’ phones. That’s why we developed Android apps for many of our services like YouTube, Gmail, Google Voice, and so on. These apps are Google’s way of benefiting from Android in the same way that any other developer can, but the apps are not part of the Android platform itself. We make some of these apps available to users of any Android-powered device via Android Market, and others are pre-installed on some phones through business deals. Either way, these apps aren’t open source, and that’s why they aren’t included in the Android source code repository. Unauthorized distribution of this software harms us just like it would any other business, even if it’s done with the best of intentions.

I hope that clears up some of the confusion around Google’s apps for Android. We always love seeing novel uses of Android, including custom Android builds from developers who see a need. I look forward to seeing what comes next!

While I agree 100% that nobody should be stealing Googles hard work and taking away from their profit, I do not agree that this is what Cyanogen is doing. He is not aiming his roms at devices that do not come “With Google”. He is not selling his roms or the offending binaries within. He is merely reworking the roms meant for devices that already have these apps and placing them back in so the user who just had Google Market on their official rom still has it on their unofficial rom. It is my opinion that rom cooks like Cyanogen, JesusFreke and Haykuro are helping Android by getting users (like me) who would otherwise have given up on the locked-down/no-access versions of android to stick with it using a custom rom.

Googles response is not open for comments so it is going to stay a one sided story over there. Please feel free to let us know what your take on this is in the comments below.

HTC just announced via good ‘ole Twitter that a new upgrade for the Hero aimed at Orange users has been released. Read more and download the update here.

After my gripe last night about Khalid a friend Justin from nexsoftware.net informed me of a cool app that I must have missed. My Market is described as an overlay for the market that allows for much more refined searching. You have the ability to filter out results by author name or by keywords.

My Market filter list

My Market add new filter

Adding in “Sapphire” immediately removed the offending Top Pretty Ladies that were flooding in at a rate that seemed to be about 2 per hour. I then added some other authors to the list and watched the market clean itself up. While that alone is enough to make this app a great one, it does not stop there! There is a built in bookmarking feature, the ability to email a link to a friend and even an internal rating/recommendation system.

My Market app list

My Market app list

About the only downside I could see to this app is that it does not install the selected program itself and instead sends you to the real Android Market to finish the download/install. While this is not a huge disappointment, it does leave you wishing for a better implementation. Overall I would have no problem rating this application 5 stars. If you have not already, go check this app out on cyrket.com.

Apple banned him so he went underground. He used to go by Khalid Shaikh on the Android Market, but lately his apps have been showing up under the alias Sapphire Apps. His company name Perfect Acumen can still be seen in his package names and the annoying flood of his “Top Sexy Ladies <insert female celeb name here>” apps (which most users seem to view as spam) keep him from being hard to find. He packages a few pictures he finds on various websites into a slideshow and attempts to sell them for $5 each. The vast majority of his apps have a 1 star rating, and mostly because that is the least you can rate an app.

Khalid Shaikh Spamming the market with low rated apps

He currently has 178 apps listed on cyrket.com and was up to over 900 when Apple banned him from the AppStore. Google, it is time to stop Market spam and give us a filter option!

*Edit* While I was writing this (and after counting) Sapphire Apps posted 2 more apps to the Android Market. This puts his count up to 180.

*Edit2* 3 more apps were posted within an hour of this post. Grand total 183 and counting. At this rate, he might hit 300 before noon tomorrow.

I decided to try out Wordpress for the front page because Joomla updates were giving me a headache. I also want to find some software reviewers so having Wordpress will be easier when I decide to add authors. The old posts might not look all that great but I only put them on for archive purposes. Please let me know if you find any bugs and I will see what I can do about getting them fixed.

If you are an Android lover and would like to do software reviews for this site, please let me know by emailing admin at android-dls.com with a sample review that I can check out.

The results of the Droid Dev Challenge 1: Cupcake Widget are in. 18 widgets were submitted to be voted on and 2 were chosen as first and second place winners. The widget that won first place gets a prize total of $656 with the second place winner getting $164. While I could keep typing here forever to prolong the results, I will hold in my deep desire to be mean like that and just get on with it

First place goes to aniWidget from aniFree

Second Place goes to Weather from Android Apps

Thanks to all of the devs and those who donated. This will probably be the last contest here for Android-DLs.com but do feel free to check out the Android Bounty contest and AndroidandMe.com to get mobile Quake working on Android.

Well, it seems Haykuro has done it again. Rogers will be the second to release the Rogers software when their Android phone hits the market tomorrow (June 2nd). They were beat by a 17yr old who happened to finish his homework early and have some time to spare. They should change the back of the phone to say “WITH Haykuro” instead of the “Rogers” logo. This early release presents another first also: US G1 owners have a chance to use the Canada only rom before Canada gets to use it. Grab your copy of it here!

Now that is an odd mouthful. For those who do not understand what it means, Rosie is the home screen HTC wrote that shows all those nice widgets. Hero is the phone the wrote the nice UI for and haykuro is the one who got it all from them. I have reports from the man himself that while it looks great, the speed is a bit lacking. The HTC Hero has better specs than the G1 and therefore can handle it a bit better. No word yet on when/if there will be a release. Watch the video below for the latest on Rosie from haykuro.