Disclosure: I use AppBrain.  I find it very useful to browse apps online & then easily sync/install on my Captivate.  Looks like they’ve been pretty hard at work filtering out the crap, though, & have some interesting things to say on the state of the Android Market.  Apparently, out of the total 70,000 apps that Google states are available, the number of craptacular apps has risen from 30% in March to 50% today.  Yep, 20% increase in 4 months.  Thankfully, they’re working to improve their search algorithm to filter these spam-tastic apps from their search results.  My question is: why isn’t Google taking up the lead on this?  Kudos to AppBrain for their efforts.

BGR has it on good authority that the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 will definitely be showing up at AT&T “Pretty Soon”.  Expected to sell at $199 with a two year contract.

• Size: 119 x 63 x 13 mm
• Weight: 135 grams
• Phone memory: Up to 1 GB
• Memory card support: microSD™
• Memory card included: 8 GB
• Operating system: Google™ Android Donut, version 1.6
• Processor: 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon™ QSD8250

I’m really impress by the TimeScape feature.  It integrates several social media providers into one place.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Several more videos are available at Sony Ericsson.

Centercode, the guys behind OnlineBeta.com, have just announced a new community: iPadBeta.com.

We’re pleased to announce iPadBeta.com, a new unique user community being offered by Centercode.  Unlike other communities we’ve announced in the past which use our software, iPadBeta.com is owned by Centercode and will act as a sister community to OnlineBeta.com, but focused specifically on the Apple mobile platform

Very similar to the OnlineBeta.com project, iPadBeta will allow users to sign up to test new iPad/iPhone/iTouch apps.  The site allows users to chat about the new product in forums, create problem reports and submit bug reports.

App developers will  have FREE access to a wealth of knowledge and, what I’m sure will be, a huge tester community.

App Developers are each given their own private projects which include bug and feature tracking, custom surveys, discussion forums, custom wikis, build distribution, tester participation monitoring, reporting, and much more.  iPadBeta.com will also recruit App Testers matching the Developers market; or they can invite their own friends and customers. Developers will also have access to market research materials on the App market, as well as the ability to request custom research.  These services are all offered at no cost, with no ads.

Head on over to iPadBeta and join in!

Well, it finally happened…  Way back in July, many speculated about a tablet coming from Apple, and now we get to see how close everyone came with their guesses.

Am I disappointed?  Well … yes and no.  It’s cool, it’s really f-ing cool.  It’s almost exactly what I expected from Apple,  but it’s not exactly what I wanted.

Oh, and can I just mention the name….  Uhm.  iPad just sounds like a feminine product.  I don’t know why, since crunchpad sounds like a great name and doesn’t bring tampax to mind, but I can’t shake the image….

Anyway — I can’t wait to get my hands on one for a little real-word play.  Maybe it’ll be enough for me — at the very least, it’ll make a great little news-reader and e-book platform.

Microsoft’s Mobile World Congress is just about four weeks away now, & WMPowerUser is heavily speculating (along with many others) that Windows Mobile 7 will be announced at the annual conference.  That’s announced, mind you; I don’t see any devices showing up with it on board until Q4.  Though WMPU has quite a compelling list of reasons, DigiTimes (which is known for being accurate on these sorts of things) is saying that it won’t be the new version 7 that will be trotted out, but yet another interim release, version 6.6.

Seeing as how we’ve just seen 6.5.3, plus its threaded email glory, hit the interwebz, & that DigiTimes says that 6.6 will be the same ol’ plus capacitive touch screen support, I can definitely see this line of thought playing out.  The disheartening bit in the DigiTimes piece is that WM7 may be sloughed off till 2011… but would anyone really be surprised about that at this point?

Guess we’ll see in four weeks….

Today’s the day that Google is expected to officially announce its Nexus One Android phone, custom built by HTC.  The details & rumors have been swirling for over two months now, & Google is expected to make some waves today, just two days before CES kicks off.  According to the link above, the press conference is scheduled to begin at 10am PST, so to tide you over until then, why don’t you read Engadget’s official review?  Lots of good stuff in there, including a side-by-side-by-side web browser loading times with the Droid and iPhone.

[editors note:  Personally, any phone that has cutting edge Text to Toast and a coffee warmer is on my christmas list.  Screw the iPhone, I'm an xPhone fanboy now!]

Click here to view the embedded video.

Mein gott!  It even does VHS!

Via Giz

TechCrunch has a full run-down on the Google Nav application that will ship with Android 2.0 (Eclair), along with a demo video.  If you couldn’t tell by the screenshot alone, this is one killer navigation app.  It includes plain English search, as you can see in the video below.  Oh yeah, & did I mention that it’s a free application to boot?  When, o’ when, will AT&T pick up some Android phones….?

Click here to view the embedded video.

Those lucky ninjas at BGR have had their Droid in-hand long enough to post an exhaustive “preview.”  I guess it really can only be considered a preview because the unit has yet to hit retail.  I mean, they cover pretty much everything there is to know about Moto’s new handset, & even give a conclusion.  If you were ever wavering about buying one of these bad-ass handsets, you’ll be fully on-board after you read this article.

DigiTimes is reporting that ASUS plans to launch an Android-based handset by the end of the year.  No details other than a fourth quarter launch.  Will it make it to the US?  What bands will it support?  Will it have a slide-out QWERTY?  More questions than answers at this point, but having another major OEM like ASUS entering the market will only mean a brighter future for Google’s smartphone OS.