Android Market reaches ten billionth download, sells Minecraft, Swiftkey X, others for a dime

Happy milestone, Android Market! It’s a busy place, full of hustle and bustle — so much so, in fact, that the applications plaza for Google’s mobile OS just had its ten billionth app downloaded. In honor of hitting this mark, it’s passing the savings on to you, placing (at least) ten apps on sale for ten cents. The sale will last for ten days (notice a theme?), so procrastinators will have a little extra time to decide which ones are worth a dime. There’s a few classics on the list, such as SwiftKey X, Minecraft, Asphalt 6 and SoundHound. Check the source link (or glance at the screenshot above) to see what else is available, as well as a press release straight from SwiftKey below the break.

Android Central

Android Market

Motorola Droid 3 official in China under Milestone 3 moniker, packs 4-inch qHD display

The Droid 3 is upon us! Well, it is if you live in China and don’t mind calling it the Milestone 3. A new XT883 model has just been made official by Motorola during China Telecom’s CDMA Summit, touting the tagline “the third Milestone” and a new five-row slideout QWERTY keyboard. The salient specs include a 4-inch touchscreen with qHD (540 x 960) resolution, a dual-core processor capable of driving 1080p video recording, an 8 megapixel rear camera with LED flash, up to 32GB of built-in storage, and of course, Android 2.3 as the shipping OS. A pretty compelling package, we think you’ll agree. It’s coming to China this summer, though Moto could still be crafty enough to squeeze the US launch in before actual units start shipping to Yao Ming’s homeland. Because, well, who’s ever heard of a Milestone coming before a Droid?

Intel ships 100 million Atoms, celebrates third birthday of netbook CPU

Intel’s Atom processor and the rise of the netbook have gone hand in hand, which has to this date resulted in a tally of one hundred million CPUs shipped by Intel. And though netboks are not quite the new hotness they once were, Intel is today celebrating the third birthday of its low-power processor and promising to keep it going for many years yet. That’ll happen thanks to a category Intel is calling companion devices, which includes clamshells of the old netbook ilk and tablets of all sizes and varieties. As if to prove that point, the company showed off a tablet that could boot into MeeGo, Android and Windows — choice is what it’s all about, according to Intel.

Martin Jetpack hits the 5,000 feet milestone, could come to market within 18 months (video)

OK, so the Martin Jetpack may not have gone into commercial production quite as soon as we’d anticipated, but there’s still hope on the horizon. Over the weekend, Glenn Martin’s flying machine successfully climbed some 5,000 feet above sea level, marking a new milestone in the 30-year, $12 million project. Remotely controlled by a tailing helicopter, the 250-pound craft used its two “superfans” to power itself skyward at about 800 feet per second minute, before safely parachuting back to Earth from a height of about 3,000 feet. As with its last test run, however, the Martin Jetpack was equipped not with a human being, but with a crash dummy. It may have been for the best, though, considering that the machine sustained some damage upon concluding the ten-minute flight. Nevertheless, Martin seems confident that yesterday’s test “brings the future another step closer,” and is hoping to deliver his brainchild to customers within the next 18 months — plenty of time for us to hawk enough family heirlooms to afford that $86,000 price tag. Soar past the break for a video of the jetpack’s big launch, or check out the source link for a more extensive interview with Martin and some background footage of his invention.

Google reaches 100 millionth Android activation, 400,000 Android devices activated daily

36 OEMs, 215 carriers, 450,000 Android developers all over the world, Google wants to say “thank you!” Android has recently crossed its 100 millionth activation milestone, and is also growing at its fastest pace yet: 400,000 devices activated each and every day. There are now 200,000 Android applications in the Market, which have accumulated a total of 4.5 billion installs, at a rate which Google actually says is accelerating. These figures have all been cited as a way to illustrate Google’s mobile momentum, which is evidently not even thinking about slowing down.

Samsung Apps store crosses 100 million downloads

Alright, so it may have a bit of an advantage being on both cellphones and TVs, but that’s not stopping Samsung from boasting that its Apps store has now joined the 100 million download club. That comes just ten months after it launched, and it looks like Samsung can largely thank Europe for reaching the milestone — France had the most number of downloads followed by Germany and Spain, and the three countries combined accounted for 40 percent of all downloads from the store, which now has more than 13,000 apps.

Motorola Milestone achieves Android 2.2 milestone at last, Froyo update ready for download

The road to Android 2.1 may have been a long and treacherous one for Milestone users, but the one to Android 2.2 wasn’t even certain of reaching its goal. Thankfully, Moto has managed to conclude its “exhaustive testing process” and is now making a Froyo firmware update available to Milestone users wishing to step their software up a notch. Flash Player 10.1, a faster browser and mobile hotspot capabilities await the intrepid updater, but Motorola warns that any DRM-locked media you have on your SD card will be lost. Weirdly enough, there’s also a caution that “users may experience some adverse effects associated with the upgrade which could include slower operation of some phone functions and applications.” Once you’ve read and understood all the warnings, smash the source link to download the new software.

Windows Phone 7 marketplace hits 10,000 apps, Microsoft WP7 updates still way outnumbered

It’s a milestone in the life of any OS: the day you reach that magical 10,000 app number. Windows Phone 7 is the latest kindred soul to achieve the feat, accomplishing the task in just over four and a half months — that’s faster than both the Android Marketplace and iTunes App Store. Microsoft’s been adding around 1,000 apps a week since it hit 5k right before the New Year, and as of late that rate’s been picking up. Congrats WP7 devs, you’ve officially issued more software updates than Microsoft itself. Your move Microsoft, we’re still waiting for copy & paste.