Loïc, the guy behind the French Android portal Point GPhone, announced today his first Android game : Soccer. As its name indicate it’s a soccer game where you have to shoot free kick and compete against the best football teams in the world in different levels of increasing difficulty.

Once all levels unlocked, you will have access to a time attack mode that allows you to measure yourself against players from all over the world through an online leaderboard (the competition is fierce!).

The game is played in landscape mode, you will have to switch your phone yourself when the game begin anyway. Also I’m not sure why the release date is just after the Worldcup 2010 ?! A free soccer game might get noticed better during the event, and without a vuvuzela. Anyway Soccer is free and you can get it from Android Market.

The most awaited feature in Android Market have just been launched today offering to UK and US developers the ability to add priced applications. Developers from these countries can go to the publisher website at http://market.android.com/publish to upload their application(s) along with end user pricing for the apps. Initially, priced applications will be available to end users in the US starting mid next week. More countries will be supported in the coming months.

Eric Chu, Google Android Mobile Platform, send in email to Android Market Support:

We will also enable developers in Germany, Austria, Netherlands, France, and Spain to offer priced applications later this quarter.  By the end of Q1 2009, we will announce support for developers in additional countries. You can find more information about priced applications in Android Market at http://market.android.com/support/

The second news is that Google Checkout will be used as the payment and billing mechanism for Android Market. Developers who do not already have a Google Checkout merchant account can easily sign up for one via the publisher website. Currently only US and UK are able to sell their products using Google Checkout, so if more countries will be able to sell on Android Market this mean that Checkout will support more countries very soon.

Finally, Android Market for free applications will become available to users in Australia starting February 15th Pacific Time and in Singapore in the coming weeks.  You can now make your applications available in these countries via the publisher website at http://market.android.com/publish.

Truphone have just announced today the availability of their software Truphone Anywhere for Android-enabled mobile handsets , including T-Mobile’s recently released G1 phone. The application is available now as a download from the Android Market™ in the UK and the US only.

To coincide with T-Mobile’s announcement earlier this week of the availability of the G1 mobile phone in March 2009, a German version of Truphone Anywhere for Android is available and will be the first native language multi-communications application in the Android Market in Germany and Austria when it launches at CeBIT 2009.

Truphone Anywhere for Android delivers an all-in-one conversations hub that allows customers to take advantage of Truphone’s low international call rates, in addition to the cost of a local call (Operator roaming charges apply if the caller is abroad.).

As well as being able to make low-cost international voice calls, Truphone customers can also easily Instant Message their friends across a variety of networks including MSN, Yahoo!®, Google Talk™ and Twitter™ from within one Android application. Customers can also call friends anywhere in the world on Google Talk for the price of a local call, and similarly will soon will be able to Instant Message and call their friends on Skype™.

“We want to make it as easy as possible for people to have conversations with their communities around the world in whatever form they choose,” said Truphone CEO Geraldine Wilson.

She continued: “We passionately believe in devices like the Android and iPhone which offer easy user access to applications through the Android Market and the App Store. The G1 and the entire Android platform is an obvious and important distribution channel for us.”

Truphone is now available on Android, the Apple iPhone™, the Apple iPod touch™, Blackberry® and Nokia™ devices.

About Truphone

The first true mobile internet network operator, Truphone allows users of Wi-Fi-enabled mobile phones to make and receive regular telephone calls, and to send and receive SMS [text] messages, using only a Wi-Fi connection and the internet. It has users in 149 countries.

Truphone is the trading name of Software Cellular Network (SCN). SCN is privately owned, funded by both venture capital investment and angel investors.

Happy new year OHM readers ! Yesterday Android Market Support sent an email with important changes, mainly the support of new countries in the market download, a new country targeting feature, and the availablity of priced applications in Q1 ’09. Here is a briefing :

More Countries Support

The first news is that Android market will support additional countries download starting early Q1 ’09, and to be more precise European countries. Countries that will be initially supported include Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, and the Netherland.

The email mentionned also Asian countries support but without precising any country, this will be most probably in 2009.

Country targeting

In  Mid-January, Android Market will support country targeting; so that Android developers will be able to specify if an application is specific to a country or another. This feature will be available in the publishers website after update.

Time is very short, but developers can start thinking about making applications available to specific countries with default localization for example.

Priced Applications confirmed Q1 ’09

Finally another confirmation from Google that the Android market will support priced applications in early Q1 2009.

Developers from these countries will be able to sell on the Android market  in the following order :

1. United States and United Kingdom
2. Germany, Austria, and Netherland
3. France, Italy, and Spain

They should be ready to launch their applications and determine a pricing strategy for their apps. It seems that the Android market will support different pricing strategies.

More countries will be announced by the end of Q1 2009 according to the email.

Best wishes for the new year