Window Phone developer guru Brandon Watson joins Amazon Kindle team

Brandon Watson, a major player in the resurrection of Microsoft's Windows Phone OS, specifically in his work with developers, has taken a job with Amazon. Watson confirmed his departure Friday on Twitter, and ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley tracked down that he'll be director of the Kindle Cross-Platform Team. Foley says that makes him responsible for for all of the first- and third-party Kindle apps, which would include Android's own Amazon Kindle application.

Said Watson:

The rumors are true. The team is in great hands. I'll miss working on #wpdev. I will [miss] the community, but won't be a stranger.

With a high-profile name like Watson, who was one of Microsoft's biggest cheerleaders for the revived Windows Phone platform (and a hell of a nice dude — I've met him a couple times), you can't help but wonder what else Amazon has up its sleeve. Amazon's running what is believe to be the most successful forked version of Android with its Kindle Fire e-reader/tablet, along with its wildly successful Amazon Appstore. And now Amazon's picked up some serious Microsoft talent. 

No doubt that if anyone has the traditional manufacturers looking over their shoulders a little bit, especially in the tablet space, it's Amazon. On the other hand, while the Kindle family (and Kindle Fire in particular) may be moving a bunch of units — up 177 percent over last year — maybe they looked at Amazon's profit and shrugged. Either way, things are getting interesting.

Source: @brandonwatson, ZDNet; via WPCentral

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Official Formspring for Android application available now

If you're one of the more than 28 million users of Formspring, you'll notice that there has been a lack of an official application from the social network. That all changes now as the official Formspring for Android application is available right now in the Android Market. 

It offers a pretty full experience, allowing you to ask and respond to questions from your contacts on the go. Sharing photos is also built in, and that pretty much covers everything Formspring is about. If there's room for one more social network on your Android device, hit the download links after the break. A word of warning though, it force closes at every time of asking on the Galaxy Nexus so you'll have to wait for an update to join in if you're using one.

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O2 UK network security blunder exposes customers’ phone numbers to websites

If you're browsing the web on your phone or tablet on O2 UK, then the network could be exposing your phone number to every website you visit. O2 customer Lewis Peckover recently discovered that when you're browsing over 3G on O2, your handset's phone number is often included in the HTTP headers sent to each website you visit, in plain text.

HTTP headers are information exchanged between your browser and the web server before a page is loaded. In theory, the way O2 includes your phone number — alongside more mundane information like your IP address, browser and OS — means that any website you visit could easily find out your number. It's worth pointing out that the header used by O2 to send phone numbers — "x-up-calling-line-id" — isn't one that's routinely logged by web servers. However, just a couple of lines of code would allow a malicious site to find your phone number just by having you visit a website on 3G.

Lewis Peckover has set up a site to allow O2 customers to see whether they're affected. We've tried this with an O2 SIM in our Galaxy Nexus, and sure enough, there our phone number was in the list of "headers received". If you're on O2, make sure you've got Wifi disabled on your device, then click here and see if you spot your phone number among the HTTP headers.

This isn't an Android-specific problem, however due to the fact that it's a network-level issue, it'll affect Android phones just the same as any other device that's browsing over O2's data network. For this reason, just about anything that connects via HTTP over O2's network could potentially access this information. For its part, O2 says it's "investigating" the issue, and while this is a big deal for O2 customers, the fact that this is a network-level problem should mean that a fix will be relatively quick and easy to deploy.

More: Lew.io; via: ThinkBroadband

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Angry Birds Seasons: Year of the Dragon now available

Following on from last week's announcement, Rovio has released the latest instalment of Angry Birds Seasons. In celebration of the year of the dragon his latest batch of levels have a Chinese New Year theme about them, and the mighty eagle has even transformed into the mighty dragon for the occasion. Rovio's also made the mighty dragon free to use throughout this latest chapter, meaning you'll be able to unleash the wrath of the dragon to destroy levels without paying a penny.

If you don't already have Angry Birds Seasons installed, you'll find Android Market links after the jump.

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Android Central Editors’ app picks for Jan 14, 2011

Guess who's back?! Sorry about last week folks, we know you want your apps and all but we were busy getting ourselves ramped up for CES 2012. Either way we are back in action this week so let's hit the break together and check some out!

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Samsung Galaxy Nexus versus Nokia Lumia 900

Take the best Android smartphone and put it next to the best Windows Phone. Know what you get? A couple of big-ass phones. Hit the break for a quick look at the Samsung Galaxy Nexus against the Nokia Lumia 900.

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FYI: NFL Mobile finally working on the Verizon Galaxy Nexus

Good news, everyone! The NFL Mobile app is finally working correctly on the Verizon Galaxy Nexus. The app actually got its update fix last night, but the login was still borked for a lot of people. (Or at least us, and we count double.) Anyhoo, all is well, you should be able to log in, and just in time for the playoffs. Huzzah.

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Power and data cables, Prime availability [From the Forums]

One more day and then 2011 is all said and done. The real question after that though will be 'What's your new years resolution?' and will you actually keep it? My new years resolution will be to help out some more in the Android Central forums and give back to the community. If you're looking to help out some folks as well, check out some of the threads below:

• HTC Rezound Forums - Rezound Power and Data cable
• HTC Vivid Forums - I am considering the Vivid
• Galaxy Nexus Forums - Device feels… sluggish?
• Droid Bionic Forums - Would you repurchase?
• ASUS Transformer Prime Forums - Availability of 64GB Prime?

If you're not already a member of the Android Central forums, you can register your account today.

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What Android gifts did you receive this year?

The gift-giving season is winding down to a close, and we're all enjoying the time with our loved ones, warm holiday comfort foods, and maybe some cool Android goodies.  Did you get a new Android phone?  Or a tablet?  Maybe you got a Google TV unit of some sort or another, or your stocking was full of accessories.  Sound off and share with us (we're like your extended Android family) to let everyone know what great stuff you got this year. 

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Kindle Fire Version 6.2.1 brings performance boosts, more options

Amazon has just posted release notes for the Amazon Kindle Fire Version 6.2.1 software update (Version 6.2 dropped just a few weeks ago), which has promised to address a number of nagging issues. Included in the update are:

• Enhancement for fluidity and performance
• Improved touch navigation response
• Adds the option to choose which items display on carousel
• Adds ability to add password lock on Wifi access

In a few quick minutes of testing, the touchscreen definitely is more responsive, and the UI does seem to be more fluid. 

You can sit back and wait on the update to push out to your Kindle Fire if you want. Or you can update manually. We've got instructions for that after the break.

Source: Amazon

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