Google: 3 billion installed apps on Android

It took Google 20 months to reach the 1 billion apps installed on the Android platform. Five months later, the company had hit the 2 billion apps installed milestone. Now it's at 3 billion apps installed. At this rate, we'll probably see it hit the 4 billion and 5 billion marks next month.

During Google's first-quarter earnings call today, senior vice president for commerce and local Jeff Huber said the platform had grown from 2 billion apps installed to 3 billion apps installed in just two months. Huber also noted that app installs are up by 50 percent quarter-over-quarter (from Q4 2010 to Q1 2011) and that Android was seeing 350,000 device activations per day.

To put the 3 billion number into perspective, Apple saw 1 billion apps downloaded in April 2009. In April 2011, the company passed the 10 billion apps downloaded mark. That's three times more than what Google has now, but the growth is not at an increasing rate.

In short, because Android phone sales are growing so quickly, Google's app downloads are going to soon catch Apple's numbers. That's impressive, given that Google's Android Market has over 200,000 apps as of December 2010 while Apple's App Store has over 300,000 apps as of September 2010. It's also expected that the number of apps for Android will also pass the number of apps available for iOS.

Because Android is open, however, the platform's users can download apps from more than one app store. For example, Amazon launched its own Android App Store just last month.

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Google: 3 billion installed apps on Android

It took Google 20 months to reach the 1 billion apps installed on the Android platform. Five months later, the company had hit the 2 billion apps installed milestone. Now it's at 3 billion apps installed. At this rate, we'll probably see it hit the 4 billion and 5 billion marks next month.

During Google's first-quarter earnings call today, senior vice president for commerce and local Jeff Huber said the platform had grown from 2 billion apps installed to 3 billion apps installed in just two months. Huber also noted that app installs are up by 50 percent quarter-over-quarter (from Q4 2010 to Q1 2011) and that Android was seeing 350,000 device activations per day.

To put the 3 billion number into perspective, Apple saw 1 billion apps downloaded in April 2009. In April 2011, the company passed the 10 billion apps downloaded mark. That's three times more than what Google has now, but the growth is not at an increasing rate.

In short, because Android phone sales are growing so quickly, Google's app downloads are going to soon catch Apple's numbers. That's impressive, given that Google's Android Market has over 200,000 apps as of December 2010 while Apple's App Store has over 300,000 apps as of September 2010. It's also expected that the number of apps for Android will also pass the number of apps available for iOS.

Because Android is open, however, the platform's users can download apps from more than one app store. For example, Amazon launched its own Android App Store just last month.

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Flock browser has been killed off

Flock, the browser that specialized in providing social networking directly in its user interface, has been discontinued. An "Official End of Support Notice" has been posted to the company's website:

Support for Flock browsers will be discontinued as of April 26th, 2011. We would like to thank our loyal users around the world for their support, and we encourage the Flock community to migrate in the coming weeks to one of the recommended web browsers listed below.

Frankly, Flock never stood a chance at gaining significant market share, but it was quite the interesting piece of software, especially for those interested in using multiple social networks. Five years ago, we even interviewed Flock co-founder Geoffrey Arone about his initiative.

Flock was first released on April 11, 2005. Early versions of Flock used the Gecko HTML rendering engine by Mozilla, but version 2.6.2, released in July 2010, was the last of its kind. As of version 3, Flock was based on Chromium and so used the WebKit rendering engine. Flock was available as a free download for Windows and Mac OS X (at one point there was also a Linux flavor).

Given its roots, we're not too surprised that Flock is recommending its users to switch to either Chrome or Firefox. Both are updated much more regularly, with new versions released just last month: Chrome 10 and Firefox 4. Will you miss Flock?

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Flock browser has been killed off

Flock, the browser that specialized in providing social networking directly in its user interface, has been discontinued. An "Official End of Support Notice" has been posted to the company's website:

Support for Flock browsers will be discontinued as of April 26th, 2011. We would like to thank our loyal users around the world for their support, and we encourage the Flock community to migrate in the coming weeks to one of the recommended web browsers listed below.

Frankly, Flock never stood a chance at gaining significant market share, but it was quite the interesting piece of software, especially for those interested in using multiple social networks. Five years ago, we even interviewed Flock co-founder Geoffrey Arone about his initiative.

Flock was first released on April 11, 2005. Early versions of Flock used the Gecko HTML rendering engine by Mozilla, but version 2.6.2, released in July 2010, was the last of its kind. As of version 3, Flock was based on Chromium and so used the WebKit rendering engine. Flock was available as a free download for Windows and Mac OS X (at one point there was also a Linux flavor).

Given its roots, we're not too surprised that Flock is recommending its users to switch to either Chrome or Firefox. Both are updated much more regularly, with new versions released just last month: Chrome 10 and Firefox 4. Will you miss Flock?

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Android passes BlackBerry in the US

69.5 million people in the US owned smartphones during the three months ending in February 2011, up 13 percent from the preceding three-month period. For the first time, more Americans are using phones running Google's Android operating system than Research In Motion's BlackBerry, according to comScore. Having passed the iPhone in the preceding three-month period, this now means that Android has been crowned king in the US.
Google captured first place among smartphone platforms by moving from 26.0 percent to 33.0 percent of US smartphone subscribers, RIM fell to second place by going from 33.5 percent to 28.9 percent market share of smartphones, and Apple slipped to third despite its growth from 25.0 percent to 25.2 percent of the market. Microsoft, in fourth place, fell from 9.0 percent to 7.7 percent while the HP-owned Palm was still last and further slipped from 3.9 percent to 2.8 percent.
It seems that our prediction last month that Android would pass BlackBerry next while iOS would barely move has come to pass. All that remains to be seen is whether RIM will maintain second place or fall to third and let iOS take second.
Given how quickly the mobile market is growing, these rankings will not be maintained for very long. Windows Phone has a big opportunity with Nokia, and HP is planning on giving webOS quite a boost in the next few years.

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Android passes BlackBerry in the US

69.5 million people in the US owned smartphones during the three months ending in February 2011, up 13 percent from the preceding three-month period. For the first time, more Americans are using phones running Google's Android operating system than Research In Motion's BlackBerry, according to comScore. Having passed the iPhone in the preceding three-month period, this now means that Android has been crowned king in the US.
Google captured first place among smartphone platforms by moving from 26.0 percent to 33.0 percent of US smartphone subscribers, RIM fell to second place by going from 33.5 percent to 28.9 percent market share of smartphones, and Apple slipped to third despite its growth from 25.0 percent to 25.2 percent of the market. Microsoft, in fourth place, fell from 9.0 percent to 7.7 percent while the HP-owned Palm was still last and further slipped from 3.9 percent to 2.8 percent.
It seems that our prediction last month that Android would pass BlackBerry next while iOS would barely move has come to pass. All that remains to be seen is whether RIM will maintain second place or fall to third and let iOS take second.
Given how quickly the mobile market is growing, these rankings will not be maintained for very long. Windows Phone has a big opportunity with Nokia, and HP is planning on giving webOS quite a boost in the next few years.

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GeForce 267.24 beta brings Dragon Age II, Homefront updates

Nvidia has published a beta driver in the 265 family with a handful of updates for desktop cards ranging from GeForce 6 through 500 series as well as most modern notebook chips. The latest release doesn't bring any substantial changes, but you'll probably want to install it if you intend on playing two of this year's most anticipated games: Dragon Age II and Homefront.


Driver version 267.24 improves compatibility with Dragon Age II (due March 8) and adds a SLI profile for Homefront (coming March 15) along with fixing an issue that prevented the Nvidia control panel from being accessible via the Windows desktop. Version 267.24 also installs an updated HD Audio driver (1.1.13.1) and PhysX software (9.10.0514). Grab your download below:

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GeForce 267.24 beta brings Dragon Age II, Homefront updates

Nvidia has published a beta driver in the 265 family with a handful of updates for desktop cards ranging from GeForce 6 through 500 series as well as most modern notebook chips. The latest release doesn't bring any substantial changes, but you'll probably want to install it if you intend on playing two of this year's most anticipated games: Dragon Age II and Homefront.


Driver version 267.24 improves compatibility with Dragon Age II (due March 8) and adds a SLI profile for Homefront (coming March 15) along with fixing an issue that prevented the Nvidia control panel from being accessible via the Windows desktop. Version 267.24 also installs an updated HD Audio driver (1.1.13.1) and PhysX software (9.10.0514). Grab your download below:

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Google releases stable version of Chrome 9

Google has released version 9 of its browser. The update brings hundreds of bug fixes as well as many features that have been available on the Chrome beta and dev channels to users interested in using Chrome's latest builds. Chrome 9 also addresses 9 security vulnerabilities in the WebKit-based browser: one rated Critical, two rated as High, and six rated as Low.

The new Chrome version includes new features such as Chrome Instant (you'll need to enable it in the Basics tab of Chrome's options), which loads frequently visited web pages as soon as the user begins to enter the URL into the address bar. WebGL, a new Web technology for bringing hardware-accelerated 3D graphics to the browser, is now supported in the stable version of Chrome. Last but not least, the Chrome Web Store is now open to all Chrome users in the US (as opposed to just beta/dev/canary channel users), and Google has added a link to the store on the New Tab page, along with two sample apps.

The latest stable build (9.0.597.84) is available now for Windows, Mac OS, and Linux. Those who currently have Chrome installed can use the built-in update function under the About Google Chrome menu item.

The release is light on new features because Google is no longer concerned about using version numbers to mark a significant development milestone. The search giant recently promised to accelerate the release cycle for Chrome and push out a new stable build every six weeks. Chrome 8 was actually released in just over four weeks. Apparently users don't mind these frequent releases: the browser's market share is already at 10 percent.

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Google releases stable version of Chrome 9

Google has released version 9 of its browser. The update brings hundreds of bug fixes as well as many features that have been available on the Chrome beta and dev channels to users interested in using Chrome's latest builds. Chrome 9 also addresses 9 security vulnerabilities in the WebKit-based browser: one rated Critical, two rated as High, and six rated as Low.

The new Chrome version includes new features such as Chrome Instant (you'll need to enable it in the Basics tab of Chrome's options), which loads frequently visited web pages as soon as the user begins to enter the URL into the address bar. WebGL, a new Web technology for bringing hardware-accelerated 3D graphics to the browser, is now supported in the stable version of Chrome. Last but not least, the Chrome Web Store is now open to all Chrome users in the US (as opposed to just beta/dev/canary channel users), and Google has added a link to the store on the New Tab page, along with two sample apps.

The latest stable build (9.0.597.84) is available now for Windows, Mac OS, and Linux. Those who currently have Chrome installed can use the built-in update function under the About Google Chrome menu item.

The release is light on new features because Google is no longer concerned about using version numbers to mark a significant development milestone. The search giant recently promised to accelerate the release cycle for Chrome and push out a new stable build every six weeks. Chrome 8 was actually released in just over four weeks. Apparently users don't mind these frequent releases: the browser's market share is already at 10 percent.

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First version of OpenOffice fork, LibreOffice 3.3, released

The Document Foundation has announced the official release of LibreOffice 3.3, a fork of Oracle's Open Office open source office suite. The LibreOffice 3.3 release follows Oracle's Open Office 3.3, which came out in December. You can download it directly for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

While LibreOffice 3.3 is based on Open Office 3.3, there a number of key differences, including an improved Windows installer that bundles a number of extensions that typical users would not have bothered downloading from the extensions repository. It also fixes a number of bugs in Open Office 3.3, including memory and startup issues. If you want to know all the details in the new release, check out the official Feature list.

The LibreOffice project began four months ago, when the OpenOffice.org project announced it was renaming itself as The Document Foundation and was separating itself from database giant Oracle. LibreOffice may actually end up being a temporary name, as Oracle has been asked to donate the OpenOffice.org brand to the foundation. Initial supporters include the Free Software Foundation, Open Source Initiative, Canonical, Red Hat, Novell, the GNOME foundation, and Google.

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First version of OpenOffice fork, LibreOffice 3.3, released

The Document Foundation has announced the official release of LibreOffice 3.3, a fork of Oracle's Open Office open source office suite. The LibreOffice 3.3 release follows Oracle's Open Office 3.3, which came out in December. You can download it directly for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

While LibreOffice 3.3 is based on Open Office 3.3, there a number of key differences, including an improved Windows installer that bundles a number of extensions that typical users would not have bothered downloading from the extensions repository. It also fixes a number of bugs in Open Office 3.3, including memory and startup issues. If you want to know all the details in the new release, check out the official Feature list.

The LibreOffice project began four months ago, when the OpenOffice.org project announced it was renaming itself as The Document Foundation and was separating itself from database giant Oracle. LibreOffice may actually end up being a temporary name, as Oracle has been asked to donate the OpenOffice.org brand to the foundation. Initial supporters include the Free Software Foundation, Open Source Initiative, Canonical, Red Hat, Novell, the GNOME foundation, and Google.

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Mozilla hopes to release Firefox 4 next month

Damon Sicore, Senior Director of Platform Engineering at Mozilla, has announced that the company is almost ready to ship Firefox 4. On its mailing list, Mozilla has revealed it has around 160 hard blockers to fix, before proceeding to Release Candidate stage. Both the RC and the final version would arrive in February, according to Sicore.

Mozilla was originally planning on having Firefox 4 out by the end of last year, but it had to delay the release till 2011. Last month, Firefox 4 Beta 8 was released for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux 32-bit/64-bit, with support for 57 languages. Mozilla's roadmap says it still wants to release a Beta 9, a Beta 10, and at least one Release Candidate build before the final version.

Here is the full message, posted on mozilla.dev.planning:



Team,

We've worked tremendously hard on Firefox 4, and it's time to ship it. I'm seeing the same burst of excitement and activity that we've seen in the endgame of every release. Over the past several days, component leads have again reduced their blockers by identifying hard blockers and those we can live without. We've around 160 hard blockers remaining, and historically it has taken us six weeks to reach RC once we have 100 blockers left. We must press hard now.

To Finish:

1) We have to reach Release Candidate status as quickly as possible, ideally finishing the hard blockers by the beginning of February and shipping final before the end of February. We'll need your help to balance these targets against the need to build a high quality product.

2) Bug counts demand another beta. We'll drive the beta bugs to zero and ship another beta. If we can't get them to zero in reasonable time, we'll repeat, deliberately. It depends on how quickly we can drive down the list of hard blockers that need beta feedback. This is our top development priority, since it pushes the rest of our schedule.

3) We need *everyone* to help in testing. Specifically: Do not disable Flash, Silverlight, or other major plugins as we need as many people testing these as possible. Windows users: We need to know if you are affected by hardware acceleration causing crashes or other issues. Don't just assume that someone else has filed a bug already. Make sure. Ask someone if you don't know how. This is very important.

MOST IMPORTANT: We must ship the best possible product we can. If a blocker needs more time, tell release drivers and component leads immediately. If you disagree with a blocking call, say so loudly. Do not be timid. This is your product, we need you to own it.

I know you're all tired and stressed. You all do incredible work every day, and you've built an amazing product. Stay focused. Be nice to each other. Firefox 4 is gonna kick ass, and you should be fiercely proud of it.

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Mozilla hopes to release Firefox 4 next month

Damon Sicore, Senior Director of Platform Engineering at Mozilla, has announced that the company is almost ready to ship Firefox 4. On its mailing list, Mozilla has revealed it has around 160 hard blockers to fix, before proceeding to Release Candidate stage. Both the RC and the final version would arrive in February, according to Sicore.

Mozilla was originally planning on having Firefox 4 out by the end of last year, but it had to delay the release till 2011. Last month, Firefox 4 Beta 8 was released for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux 32-bit/64-bit, with support for 57 languages. Mozilla's roadmap says it still wants to release a Beta 9, a Beta 10, and at least one Release Candidate build before the final version.

Here is the full message, posted on mozilla.dev.planning:



Team,

We've worked tremendously hard on Firefox 4, and it's time to ship it. I'm seeing the same burst of excitement and activity that we've seen in the endgame of every release. Over the past several days, component leads have again reduced their blockers by identifying hard blockers and those we can live without. We've around 160 hard blockers remaining, and historically it has taken us six weeks to reach RC once we have 100 blockers left. We must press hard now.

To Finish:

1) We have to reach Release Candidate status as quickly as possible, ideally finishing the hard blockers by the beginning of February and shipping final before the end of February. We'll need your help to balance these targets against the need to build a high quality product.

2) Bug counts demand another beta. We'll drive the beta bugs to zero and ship another beta. If we can't get them to zero in reasonable time, we'll repeat, deliberately. It depends on how quickly we can drive down the list of hard blockers that need beta feedback. This is our top development priority, since it pushes the rest of our schedule.

3) We need *everyone* to help in testing. Specifically: Do not disable Flash, Silverlight, or other major plugins as we need as many people testing these as possible. Windows users: We need to know if you are affected by hardware acceleration causing crashes or other issues. Don't just assume that someone else has filed a bug already. Make sure. Ask someone if you don't know how. This is very important.

MOST IMPORTANT: We must ship the best possible product we can. If a blocker needs more time, tell release drivers and component leads immediately. If you disagree with a blocking call, say so loudly. Do not be timid. This is your product, we need you to own it.

I know you're all tired and stressed. You all do incredible work every day, and you've built an amazing product. Stay focused. Be nice to each other. Firefox 4 is gonna kick ass, and you should be fiercely proud of it.

Read More

Trend Micro releases Android security app, says iOS is more secure

Trend Micro, the world’s largest provider of security software for corporate servers, has announced Trend Micro Mobile Security for Android, to address "the burgeoning need for protection against cyber-attacks on Android-powered mobile devices." The software protects digital files and secures banking transactions on Android devices by identifying and stopping cybercriminals and online threats before they can attack.

The Android platform is the second largest mobile platform on the market today, so naturally, the security company was asked why it didn't target the biggest one: iOS. "Android is open-source, which means the hacker can also understand the underlying architecture and source code," Steve Chang, chairman of Trend Micro, told Businessweek. "We have to give credit to Apple, because they are very careful about it. It's impossible for certain types of viruses" to operate on the iPhone, he said.

Of course, Android's parent company has its own view of malware on the mobile OS. "On all computing devices, users necessarily entrust at least some of their information to the developer of the application they're using," a Google spokesperson said in a statement. "Android has taken steps to inform users of this trust relationship and to limit the amount of trust a user must grant to any given application developer."

Trend Micro lists four key features of Mobile Security for Android: safe surfing, parental controls (low, medium, or high filtering), download protection, as well as call and text filtering. The app uses the Trend Micro Smart Protection Network to make sure users receive instant browser protection wherever they take their Android mobile device. The call filtering feature lets the user define a list of phone numbers from which to block calls or texts.

"Trend Micro has a proven track record of being a long-time leader in the mobile security market, from protecting Windows Mobile 2003 devices to our recent Trend Smart Surfing iPhone application," Carol Carpenter, general manager of Trend Micro consumer and small business, said in a statement. "With the Android platforms rapid growth, cybercriminals will be rushing to take advantage of these mobile devices anyway they can. Trend Micro Mobile Security highlights our continuing goal of protecting our customers anytime, on any device."

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Trend Micro releases Android security app, says iOS is more secure

Trend Micro, the world’s largest provider of security software for corporate servers, has announced Trend Micro Mobile Security for Android, to address "the burgeoning need for protection against cyber-attacks on Android-powered mobile devices." The software protects digital files and secures banking transactions on Android devices by identifying and stopping cybercriminals and online threats before they can attack.

The Android platform is the second largest mobile platform on the market today, so naturally, the security company was asked why it didn't target the biggest one: iOS. "Android is open-source, which means the hacker can also understand the underlying architecture and source code," Steve Chang, chairman of Trend Micro, told Businessweek. "We have to give credit to Apple, because they are very careful about it. It's impossible for certain types of viruses" to operate on the iPhone, he said.

Of course, Android's parent company has its own view of malware on the mobile OS. "On all computing devices, users necessarily entrust at least some of their information to the developer of the application they're using," a Google spokesperson said in a statement. "Android has taken steps to inform users of this trust relationship and to limit the amount of trust a user must grant to any given application developer."

Trend Micro lists four key features of Mobile Security for Android: safe surfing, parental controls (low, medium, or high filtering), download protection, as well as call and text filtering. The app uses the Trend Micro Smart Protection Network to make sure users receive instant browser protection wherever they take their Android mobile device. The call filtering feature lets the user define a list of phone numbers from which to block calls or texts.

"Trend Micro has a proven track record of being a long-time leader in the mobile security market, from protecting Windows Mobile 2003 devices to our recent Trend Smart Surfing iPhone application," Carol Carpenter, general manager of Trend Micro consumer and small business, said in a statement. "With the Android platforms rapid growth, cybercriminals will be rushing to take advantage of these mobile devices anyway they can. Trend Micro Mobile Security highlights our continuing goal of protecting our customers anytime, on any device."

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BitTorrent to start certifying devices, launching an all-in-one client

BitTorrent has teamed up with the Information and Communications Research Laboratories at Taiwan's Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) to deploy new standards for consumer electronics. Manufacturers and developers will be able to apply a "BitTorrent Certified" label and logo to their products; chips, designs, and devices that get certified will promise a seamless consumer experience for playing BitTorrent content on Blu-ray and DVD players, digital TVs, tablets, and mobile devices. The BitTorrent Certified technology ecosystem will ensure compatibility amongst all devices, content, software, and application extensions.

"Today's generation of consumer electronics devices are more powerful than ever before, but they still lack cohesiveness and ease of use for content playback," Shahi Ghanem, chief strategist and executive vice president at BitTorrent, said in a statement. "Consumers shouldn't need to differentiate between codecs, file formats, bit rates, and other technology jargon. Content playback should just work – regardless of content type or source. BitTorrent's new development partnership with ITRI's Information and Communications Research Laboratories, one of the world's preeminent research institutes, coupled with close relationships with Taiwanese technology companies, will help us create a new generation of devices that offer consumers a simple promise: your files will play."

Sometime this quarter, BitTorrent will replace its mainline client (µTorrent will live on as the minimal client) with a new all-in-one solution for media entertainment that will be part of the BitTorrent Certified technology ecosystem. The new client will integrate search, downloads, and playback on multiple devices, according to TorrentFreak.

Earlier this month, the company announced that BitTorrent and µTorrent hit 100 million monthly users. On an average day, 20 million users from over 220 countries use either of the two BitTorrent clients, available in 52 languages, and 400,000 new clients are downloaded every day.

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BitTorrent to start certifying devices, launching an all-in-one client

BitTorrent has teamed up with the Information and Communications Research Laboratories at Taiwan's Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) to deploy new standards for consumer electronics. Manufacturers and developers will be able to apply a "BitTorrent Certified" label and logo to their products; chips, designs, and devices that get certified will promise a seamless consumer experience for playing BitTorrent content on Blu-ray and DVD players, digital TVs, tablets, and mobile devices. The BitTorrent Certified technology ecosystem will ensure compatibility amongst all devices, content, software, and application extensions.

"Today's generation of consumer electronics devices are more powerful than ever before, but they still lack cohesiveness and ease of use for content playback," Shahi Ghanem, chief strategist and executive vice president at BitTorrent, said in a statement. "Consumers shouldn't need to differentiate between codecs, file formats, bit rates, and other technology jargon. Content playback should just work – regardless of content type or source. BitTorrent's new development partnership with ITRI's Information and Communications Research Laboratories, one of the world's preeminent research institutes, coupled with close relationships with Taiwanese technology companies, will help us create a new generation of devices that offer consumers a simple promise: your files will play."

Sometime this quarter, BitTorrent will replace its mainline client (µTorrent will live on as the minimal client) with a new all-in-one solution for media entertainment that will be part of the BitTorrent Certified technology ecosystem. The new client will integrate search, downloads, and playback on multiple devices, according to TorrentFreak.

Earlier this month, the company announced that BitTorrent and µTorrent hit 100 million monthly users. On an average day, 20 million users from over 220 countries use either of the two BitTorrent clients, available in 52 languages, and 400,000 new clients are downloaded every day.

Read More

Hulu Plus launching on Android in the coming months

Hulu, the second largest Web video service in the US behind Google's YouTube, has announced that the Hulu Plus subscription service is coming to select Android phones. Specifically, only devices running Android 2.2 (codenamed Froyo) and higher will get Hulu Plus "in [the] coming months." Hulu plans on giving further details, including an official launch date and a complete list of Hulu Plus-enabled Android phones, in the next few weeks.

In addition, Hulu announced that Hulu Plus is now available on Vizio Internet-connected HDTVs, and is coming soon to Vizio Blu-ray players. Later this year, Hulu Plus will arrive on Haier Internet-connected HDTVs and Blu-ray players. The company says that the reason the rollout to new devices takes so long is because its team works on optimizing the experience of Hulu Plus for all new devices that are being supported.

Hulu Plus went official two months ago for $8 per month. Hulu Plus gives you access to a slightly larger content library and let's you watch Hulu on non-PC devices (like the iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, PS3, and Roku). Unfortunately, Hulu is still limited primarily to current broadcast shows from its three owners: Disney's ABC, GE's NBC, and News Corporation's Fox.

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Hulu Plus launching on Android in the coming months

Hulu, the second largest Web video service in the US behind Google's YouTube, has announced that the Hulu Plus subscription service is coming to select Android phones. Specifically, only devices running Android 2.2 (codenamed Froyo) and higher will get Hulu Plus "in [the] coming months." Hulu plans on giving further details, including an official launch date and a complete list of Hulu Plus-enabled Android phones, in the next few weeks.

In addition, Hulu announced that Hulu Plus is now available on Vizio Internet-connected HDTVs, and is coming soon to Vizio Blu-ray players. Later this year, Hulu Plus will arrive on Haier Internet-connected HDTVs and Blu-ray players. The company says that the reason the rollout to new devices takes so long is because its team works on optimizing the experience of Hulu Plus for all new devices that are being supported.

Hulu Plus went official two months ago for $8 per month. Hulu Plus gives you access to a slightly larger content library and let's you watch Hulu on non-PC devices (like the iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, PS3, and Roku). Unfortunately, Hulu is still limited primarily to current broadcast shows from its three owners: Disney's ABC, GE's NBC, and News Corporation's Fox.

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