A few days ago (yeah I know we are a bit behind on posting this) several Google+ accounts were shutdown since they weren’t being used as personal accounts. Most of these shutdowns started around 3:00pm EST on July 22nd. Google is not only after business pages but those users with fake names on their accounts as well.

Google has promised business pages in a matter of time although no date is given and only a few business pages have been allowed so far. These testing business pages are held by Ford Tech, MTV and Mashable that we know of.

There have been many accounts suspended since and many more to come. To remove risk of losing your account, use your real name for the name and use the business or nickname in the nickname field provided.

UPDATE: Google Plus business pages have now been available and are created and attached to personal accounts much like Facebook does with their pages.  These pages can be used for blogs, businesses and other organizational use and have many added features over personal pages.  There is also the ability to create a vanity url although its a crap shoot whether you will get approved.

You can get a vanity url but you need to have a certain number of people that follow you (have you in their circles) and the number of +1’s you have aquired.  The number of followers and/or +1’s you need is not yet published anywhere that we can find.  You will need to request the vanity url and Google will determine if you deserve one and either grant or deny your request.

If you have a business page and have managed to get a vanity url approved please let us know how many followers you have so that we can get a general idea of how many followers or +1’s you need to do so.

Finally the Google Android Market will allow developers to upload different versions of the same app without creating separate listings. This means that when a developer uploads their app for the phone they can also upload the Tablet version. This should create easier and cleaner updating of apps on the market.  On top or this, app developers will no longer need to add change logs and update descriptions in so many different locations.

Multiple APK support gives you a variety of ways to control app distribution. For example, you could use it to create separate APKs for phones and tablets under the same product listing. You could also use it to take advantage of new APIs or new hardware capabilities without impacting your existing customer base.

The Market will now decide which app version you need based on screen size whether its the GL texture-compression formats or standard Android version. Now users will only see the app with comments and listing details without having to find the correct version for the device they are using.  This has been something that app developers and your average user alike will be able to appreciate.  No more downloading the wrong version of an app for your device.

Now that the Google Android Market allows multiple uploads with one listing we will likely see the Market grow even faster than it already is. Along with growth we may see many more apps available for Tablets in the near future since they will not have to be completely separate from the phone version in the listing.

Let us know as a developer if this new feature of the market has helped you in your current processes as well as how much easier things have been made for you.  As a user we would also be interested to know if this has improved your experience on the Android Market as far as finding the correct version of the app your looking for.

As we’ve mentioned earlier the International Trade Commission found HTC liable on two counts of patent infringement in its Android devices in favor of Apple. Even though the suit is against HTC by Apple, it could easily affect any Android Manufacturer nice the alleged infringements are core parts of Googles Android OS.

Google’s executive Chairman Eric Schmidt at Google’s Mobile Revolution conference in Tokyo criticizes Apple’s lawsuits. He states that Apple is jealous of Android’s growth and they are just trying to slow it down.

Schmidt’s Statements:

“The big news in the past year has been the explosion of Google Android handsets and this means our competitors are responding,” he said.
“Because they are not responding with innovation, they’re responding with lawsuits… We have not done anything wrong and these lawsuits are just inspired by our success.”

“We have seen an explosion of Android devices entering the market and, because of our successes, competitors are responding with lawsuits as they cannot respond through innovations,” he said. “I’m not too worried about this.”

When asked about potentially providing financial support should HTC lose, Schmidt said: “We will make sure they don’t lose, then.”
Schmidt made it clear that Google would be backing up HTC in their fight against Apple. While he didn’t specify how they would show them support, he did state that he was confident that HTC would prevail.

The U.S. Army has been testing Android, iOS & Windows Phone 7 for around six weeks now to see which one will suit them best. To keep development costs down they will be choosing two of the three phone operating systems. These two chosen device operating systems will be approved U.S. Army devices to be sure they only have to develop for two types of devices. We haven’t heard any word on how they feel about the Windows 7 phones although from the start they seem to be focused more on Android and iOS. Our assumption at this point would be that these two will be the final choices.

We don’t know for sure but Android devices being used throughout our governments military will be an incredible boost for Android manufacturers and carriers alike.  It only makes sense that the two major devices that will be chosen are iOS and Android although they will likely have concerns about both devices.

Android Security Concerns for the U.S. Army
The main concern over using Android as an approved device within our military is the fact that it is open source and there are already virus and malware hitting the personal use handsets.  This may of course be the largest concern for anyone but security is one of the most important aspects of military so we will see how Android pans out if its chosen.

iOS lack of customization for U.S. Army
While iOS seems to be the most secure choice for a mobile OS for our military it has one major flaw and that is its ability to adapt to what would be required by them.  iOS will likely be a choice out of the three although they will have to manage to get around the lack of custom setups.  On a side note we have heard quite a few instances of Apples iOS tracking and this could also pose a threat to it as a decision.

With all of this being said we are going to at this point assume that Windows phones will be tossed aside because lets be honest there aren’t many people interested in Windows phones and therefore the support and thorough testing that is required can’t be done with such a small user base.