Droidcon London is back, the largest Android conference in Europe!

Droidcon returns to London on October 25th & 26th for its fourth consecutive year! 1000+ talented developers and designers! 

And this year's Droidcon is a celebration of the 5 years of Android and a glimpse in the future of the platform! No worry we won't have any futurists - that's not what Droidcon is about!

 3 great keynote speakers will talk about where they're bringing Android in the next 5 years:

• Julie Uhrman CEO of OUYA. The first Android based gaming console was launched on Kickstarter earning funding ($8.5 million dollars!) and fans. The Kickstarter darling will ship to gamers in March 2013.
• Paresh Patel Founder of Vendscreen, whose Android vending machine is changing the way people buy... just about anything!
• Frederic Albinet Marketing Group Manager at Parrot, having flown the world with their phone controlled AR.Drone quadricopter, Parrot have launched their Asteroid series of Android based in-car entertainment devices

Champage corks were popping in Mountain View on Oct 1st as Google passed Microsoft to become the worlds second most valuable company - largely due to Android. Googles' stock rose 1 per cent finishing in New York with a share worth of $761.78 (£471.34) translating into a total market capitalisation value of nearly $250 billion (around £155bn). On the same day, Microsoft fell 1 per cent, closing out business at $29.49 (£18.25) with a lesser valuation of $247.2 billion (£152.9bn). It hasn't been reported what happened to the stock of any office furniture repair businesses in Redmond.

Pawn to Kings Bishop four. At least, that's how industry observers see the relentless march of the mighty Amazon and its various hardware/software/online activities. This time we see the Cloud Player coming to the UK, the software which has been available to the US on Android, iOS, macs and PCs for some time now. With the free versions, imaginatively called Cloud Player Free, you can store 250 music tracks for, err, free. From then on its a not-too-bad £21.99 per year.

Check out the full details at www.amazon.co.uk/cloudplayer.

Aston Martin - yes, that Aston Martin of James Bond fame - have announced the Aspire, a stylish gold/silver/black/white/rose gold Android 2.3 handset any secret agent would be proud of. Unfortunately for the rest of us, the $1,290 price tag for the basic models (rising to $1,590 when 24K gold is used in the cases) makes it live up to that Aspire name admirably.

There's a 3.2 inch HVGA display, WiFi, 3G, front and rear cameras and sports a MicroSD card slot for expansion.

Initially launched in Hong Kong, this is sure to have fans both shaken and stirred ;-)

Toys R Us have announced their Tabeo 7-inch tablet, which promises child-safe features for $150. Surrounded by a huge drop-safe bumper, there's a front facing camera, WiFi and Toys R Us even run their own app store, the "Tabeo Store", to complement the 50 proloaded games and apps it comes preloaded with.

Powered by a 1Ghz CPU, theres a decent amount of storage provided - 4Gb - but it also comes with a MicroSD card slot, which can handle up to 32G cards. It's no slouch in the Android department either, sporting ICS (Android 4.0) from the off. It's available for pre-order now but wo't ship until October 21.

All eyes in the mobile industry turn to Earls Court, London again this year as Apps World promises to be bigger and better than ever for its 3rd annual outing on 2nd/3rd October. Whilst covering all the major platforms, Android fans are promised a special treat with the launch of the Droid World track. This is a free to attend, 2 day workshop where leading Android developers, authors, technical evangelists, brands, handset manufacturers and operators will be delivering valuable developer advice and ideas around the world’s most popular smartphone OS. Join with them as they examine the latest issues in the Android ecosystem around app monetisation and discoverability in the Android App Market.

Just as Sony announced their new Google TV set top box, the Google TV site itself saw a major overhaul, all suspiciously happening just days before this years Google I/O. Not only that, but now the Google TV service is to launch in the UK - two years after its US debut.

Google TV has had a chequered past, and those following it from the start have seen many UI changes too. The most notorious problem was the Logitech Revue fail, and it's rather telling that there's now no mention of that anywhere on the new site at all. The timing is also interesting to industry watchers following that other tech giant dabbling with TV - Apple - since rumours are rife they're about to make a big move too.

Well - how about that! We've been working on something a little special for some time now, and today's the day we're proud to announce our new baby - the AACD programme. In collaboration with SteelyEye Digital Media, we're announcing the Android industry's first Accreditation scheme - the Android Academy Certified Developer programme. This is in the form of an online exam which has been developed and calibrated by a team of Android experts for over a year. The software driving the exam is the same the SteelyEye guys used when they were running the Symbian Academy, so it has a pedigree second to none. This is no cut and paste script kiddie affair - well over £2.5m has been spent perfecting it such that it adapts to the knowledge level of the subject as it progresses. This means no two exams are the same.

Despite the best intentions of the Android modding community, there comes a point at which it's just not feasibile to maintain older kit. Long-abandoned by the manufacturers and carriers, even the humble old first-gen hardware such as the HTC G1/Dream will eventually begin to gather dust as their newer and shinier models march forever onwards and upwards.

I've a soft spot for my G1. I really do consider it a piece of history - the first Android handset will always be special, and looking at the way things are heading, quite the collectors item once domination is complete ;-) Yet ... it's still very much usable, and certainly for far more than a mere backup phone. So I got to thinking ... what can it be used for today in a positive way? And I don't mean giving to someone as their first smartphone such as the folks or kids - although in my experince kids are certainly switched onto what's in and isn't in the Android world anyway, so that would likely get it thrown straight back at you with a loud "meh!".

Early in 2012 a mysterious object appeared on the lawns outside OTAMate's HQ. What did it mean? Were the Mayans right and this was some kind of 2001 omen? Nope - it was CozyBot! Designed by OTAMate and sold through our very own shop, this is the cool desktop phone holder every Android fan will love! When news of his arrival broke on Linked In there were so many hits to the site the servers crashed. He's been sold all over the world and had sightings in Brazil, the Philippines, Canada, Australia, the Czech Republic amongst many other countries including, of course, the US. Made from sturdy ABS shatterproof plastic, the CozyBot comes in two parts and is made to the highest quality manufacturing standards - even the color is the official pantone green.