Android Paid App Support is here

After a long wait, the Android Market is now taking applications that cost money.

I've been waiting for this event with some interest. The Android platform has a lot of powerful features. Coupled with a phone equipped like the T-Mobile G1, it's a pretty good combination. The phone has more in the way of sensors and communication options than the average laptop. Together, they make a great platform for innovation.

Up to now, the main limitation for Android (at least in my opinion) has been the lack of support for paid applications. Most developers with great ideas aren't going to just release their applications into the world for free. The satisfaction of writing great software is nice and all, but being rewarded financially for your efforts as a developer is nice too. I think it's crucial, actually. I can't think of any other industry where anything good has been built and just given away for free.

So anyway, I was waiting for this with some anticipation. I was curious as to what I would see once paid-app support was added. Universal Translators? Apps that turn your phone into a neck massager? Something to attract and destroy mosquitoes while you're out camping? There are a lot of possibilities. I was thinking a whole raft of ground-breaking applications would appear along with paid-app support.

Boy, was I ever right! Browsing through the Entertainment section of the Android Market just now, I found no less than 12 different apps to play fart sounds. There's "Pull My Finger", "FartTools", "iFart", "PhartDroid", the list goes on and on. It's a veritable gold mine of digitized flatulence. Also, there are some apps that make gun sounds, one that swears, another that lets you develop your own "yo mama" jokes, and one that goes "waaaaaa."

If you ever doubted the potential of the mobile-computing movement, or the power of the Android platform, doubt no further. If Captain James T. Kirk happened upon an alien planet where this kind of technology existed, he would crap his pants. Actually, he would probably do a sensor sweep of the planet, determine that everyone had some kind of horrible stomach disorder, and lob a couple of photon torpedoes at the surface to put the population out of their misery.

Oh, also: I put a paid version of Ring Control out. It's called "RingControl (Full Version)", which I think has a nice ring to it. It does the same thing Ring Control the elder did, except it also lets you specify certain numbers to always ring the phone whether the phone is on vibrate/silent, and also has an option to keep the phone screen on during a call. The screen is dimmed, and you can shake the phone to wake it up to full brightness. I'm thinking of adding a feature to make farting sounds when you plug something into the USB port, just to keep it cutting-edge.