Verizon is in trouble! The FCC has been called into investigate Verizon blocking access to certain tethering applications. This would violate the open access provision that was put on the Verizon’s C-Block 700 MHz spectrum that they won in the auction back in 2008.

Free Press filed the complaint with the FCC stating that Verizon had blocked access to tethering applications in the Android marketplace.

This being the case Verizon is violating the open access provision.

The open access provision states that that customers have the right to use devices and applications of their choice. By Verizon blocking the Android tethering ability, they are violating that right. By blocking this application, it restricts innovation and opens the door for other companies to follow suit.

Verizon’s spoke person Jeffery Nelson claims that Verizon has not blocked the application and that Google in fact is responsible for managing the Android Market. Developers are required to meet with strict guidelines, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t applications out there that don’t follow compliance. Therefore Google is basically responsible for deciding what apps make it to the market and what apps don’t. Nelson claims that Verizon hasn’t violated any of the FCC regulations but rather has helped bring devices and third party apps to the LTE network through their open development initiative and their plans are to continue.

Free Press which filed the complaint has yet to make any remarks on Verizon’s response, but a representative from Google did release, back in May, that on the Verizon and AT&T networks that customers could not download specific tethering applications from the Android Market. They say they’re not blocking customers from the app, but rather it is unavailable for download on some carriers. They also added that if an application is a direct violation of the terms and conditions of a contract, it can be requested that Google make the application unavailable. This is usually only the case if the app is likely to violate the terms of data usage or something similar.

Verizon says LTE smartphone users can use their free uncapped smartphone tethering app (with a $30 data service package). This is supposed to allow the customers LTE tethering without additional charges.

Source: Fierce Wireless

Geeks we know you’ve all been waiting on this and we also know the LG Revolution users have been lucky enough to have access to Netflix already. Finally for many others, your time is here to have this access too. The Netflix for Android app has just hit the Market and is apparently available for the HTC Incredible, Nexus One, Evo 4G, G2 and the Samsung Nexus S.

If you can’t find it in the market, go to market.android.com and send it to your device or click here.

Sources say the application is just the same as if you are viewing it on your home T.V. I’m downloading it now and giving it a try. Why don’t you do the same? If you have already, let us know what you think! Are you excited?

Source: Engadget

Google has enabled a feature that developers are sure to love. Much like iOS, developers can now offer in-app billing for their apps. This means they could offer you an app, then add levels or features and bill you for them from within the app. It uses the same checkout system as the Market itself and Google will get a 30% cut from all proceeds.

This new system will also let developers offer a “try-and-buy” feature. This means that you could download a free trial of an app from the Market that might be fully functional for xx number of days, or even a limited version of the app. Then after the trial is up, you could do an in-app purchase of the full version without having to re-download the full app.

There are several apps and games that are already using this feature.

Source: SlashGear

The title says it all! Google’s Android Market is now home to over 200,000 applications according to an independent Android app tracker AndroLib.com. Some may argue that Apple’s App Store for the iPhone, iPod and iPad may still be on the first position, with over 300k applications available for download for its users, but the Andriod Market is still consistently increasing. Soon enough you may just see Android in that number one spot!

Even more interesting would be the fact that the average number of downloads per second is over 103 and counting. All together, the tracker shows that the app store has recently passed the 2.5 billion downloaded applications mark. What an impressive set of numbers were seeing!

As Softpedia has already mentioned, none of the above figures were confirmed officially by Google and the actual numbers might be a little different than what AndroLib.com shows. This has happened before. Until we know for sure it does give us something to talk about and a reason to be proud of Android! After only being available for about two years now they seem to be doing very well. What do you think?

Source: BGR & Softpedia

Image: fonearena

First you may ask what is Adobe Air? We don’t want to confuse you with Adobe flash player so we will explain. Adobe AIR allows one to publish ActionScript 3 projects and run them as native applications (.apk) for the Android OS. These AIR applications can now be delivered to Android devices through Android application stores such as the Android Market.

Developers can write new code or reuse existing web content, either way. The source code and assets are reusable across the Flash Platform runtimes, Adobe AIR and Flash Player, giving developers a way to easily target other mobile and desktop environments. Click (here) to see video examples.

Reporters at Androidpolice.com have shared a snap shot of this program straight from the Android Market. See image below. Sources from twitter also shared that there aren’t many applications available that are compatible with Adobe AIR but to see a list of the 23 that currently are available, click (here).

Apps, apps, apps! With Google’s recent announcement that the Android Market has reached 38,000 applications, I decided to find out how many applications are in each of the major smartphone app stores. Remember that these figures are only for the number of applications in the official application store and do not include the total number of applications for a platform.

With no surprise, Apple leads the count with just shy of 160,000 applications at last count, while the aforementioned Android Market has 38,000. Claming a distant third in this size-only contest is Blackberry’s App World, which has 6531. Symbian is fourth with just over 3400 apps while following behind in fifth is the Palm App Catalog with 2169 applications. Falling dead last is Windows Marketplace For Mobile, with only 840 approved applications. For posterity sakes, the morbid Palm OS App Store has 2393 applications.

If the non-approved applications were to be included, my best estimate is that Apple would still be leading, with Android, Windows Mobile and Symbian vying for second place, and the rest of the field falling well back. It will be interesting to see if Apple can maintain this gargantuan lead as Android’s growth has been absolutely torrid. Also, will the paltry number of 840 increase to several thousand with the looming Windows Phone 7 launch later this year? Only time will tell!

Please note that for the Microsoft, Blackberry and Palm OS figures, I used a calculator to add up the total as they each give a break down of how many applications are in each genre, but not the total amount of approved applications. Also, as these stats are not officially given by the various companies, they are what I have found to be the most reliable count.

Special thanks to Mr. X, Mikee4fun, and psycho_maniac for helping with this post. Image from thewebsquad.com.