Mig33, a popular social networking and cross platform chat client, has announced the launch of its first ever application for Android based devices.

Earlier, the application had a limited functionality beta version on the Android store. Based on the feedback received by the users Mig33 has released the new application, which is now called the mig33 V2.0.

It is a mobile internet based cross platform chat community, available across the globe. The idea behind the launch of mig33 was to reduce the cost of making calls and Messaging while keeping in touch with your near and dear ones. Mig33 uses mobile internet to transmit data to other devices running the same application free of cost or at a marginal cost to devices which do not have this application.

The new mig33 v2.0 application has a list of upgrades over its predecessor. Firstly, the whole interface of the application has been tweaked for faster performance along with that the user interface has been simplified as requested by the users of the beta application.

A scrolling message bar, called the snippet bar, has been added to the application that notifies the user about new and unread messages and chats. The new application also has the active chat feature which brings all the chats at a common place. So now users can connect to their chat buddies across various chat platforms using a single chat client.

The mig33 application is available on Android, java and almost all popular smartphone and feature phone platforms. Users can also access the mi33 services directly from the internet as well using the online version of the same application.

Nokia is inviting entries for the ‘Nokia -KKR Cheering Squad’. Ten winners will be inducted into the ‘Cheering Squad’ and will get to cheer the KKR team live at Eden Gardens during the home matches on May 7th and 22nd.

“The Cheering Squad will be given all the props they need to cheer the team, along with a Nokia N8 to capture and share their experiences at Eden Gardens with KKR fans on Facebook. The Cheering Squad will be introduced to Shahrukh Khan and the KKR team at the post match party in Kolkata on May 7th,” the company said in a press release.

To participate, KKR fans can log onto the Nokia India page on Facebook and leave their loudest and wackiest cheering ideas for the team. The most creative and popular ideas will decide the winners, who can share their experience on the Nokia India page on Facebook.

Announcing the contest, Viral Oza, director, marketing, Nokia India, said, “We always look for newer ways to connect with the youth. Keeping in line with Nokia’s theme of connecting people, the cheering squad will bring fans even closer to the team and motivate the team to do well. The innovative format will allow the chosen winners to share their experiences with KKR fans on Facebook.”

The contest is open for entries from the 27th of April and will go on till the 2nd May. Winners will be announced on May 3.

Kaspersky, the Internet security company, says there are 70 different types of malware which can potentially attack Android smartphones. The chief technology officer of Kaspersky, Nikolay Grebennikov told Bloomberg, that the Android operating system is being penetrated by malware faster than personal computers were being infiltrated at a similar stage in their development cycle.

“The growth rate in malware within Android is huge; in the future there will definitely be more,” Grebennikov told Bloomberg. The Android environment, as created by Google, is an open one. The moment a developer signs up, he or she is allowed to release software right away, no checks involved, unlike Apple which has created an elaborate approval process for the apps before they are released in the marketplace.

One month ago, Google was forced to pull 21 apps back from its App marketplace after reports came in they were downloading code without permission from the users. Google also has other protection in place, such as the ability to kill apps remotely, and running apps in sandbox, so the entire device does not face danger from malware. At the time when apps are installed on Android smartphones, the user needs to be informed the areas the app will have access to and the uses has to give permission before the app starts operating.

A Google official earlier said in a blog post, “We are adding a number of measures to help prevent additional malicious applications using similar exploits from being distributed through Android Market and are working with our partners to provide the fix for the underlying security issues.”

Soon the US Army will deploy its own mobile application store. Dubbed the Army Marketplace, it will initially feature 17 Android and 16 iPhone apps intended to help soldiers accomplish every day job-related tasks.

Apps included in the store have a wide range of utility. There’s a workout guide, an App for disaster relief that lets users create, edit, and search maps using Google Earth, and another that lets soldiers connect with the Army’s command post software in order to learn where firefights and bombings are occuring.

The Army Marketplace is also intended to encourage the development of new apps. In a forum within the Marketplace, Army personnel will be able to discuss potential apps. Ideally, the Army wants these apps to be developed in-house, but if not, it could contract third-party developers.

The Army Marketplace will not be open to the public. It is scheduled to be hosted on the Department of Defense’s secure server and access will require a username and password.

The US Army is also developing an Android smartphone especially for its soldiers, who will be allowed to access the Army Marketplace via a native app.

The Indian Air Force is in the process of deploying its own wireless network, and the Army and Navy will join soon.

Therefore, it won’t be difficult for them to have their own smartphone and application store.

This will prove to be icing on the cake as it will reduce the hassle in communication in a very cost effective way. Also, the phone is like the Swiss Army Knife of communication and computing.

GetJar, an independent App store provider, has re-launched its mobile website. The new site offers better social media integration, allowing users to log into the website to share details of their downloads and comment on the social network using their Facebook accounts.

GetJar also has new ‘Like’ and ‘Dislike’ buttons on its mobile store so customers can sort apps.

The decision to add Facebook Connect was partly fuelled by a recent survey conducted by GetJar, which found that only 21.6 per cent of app downloaders actually discover those applications in the stores.

While 8.8 per cent of respondents said they discovered apps through recommendations from friends, 53 per cent discovered them ‘online’.

However, of US respondents, 20 per cent said they discovered apps through friends and family.

GetJar chief executive, Ilja Laurs, said, “Now that users can share apps with their friends on Facebook, recommendations are really a bit old school.”

He added, “Our recent research clearly showed us that what consumers care about is what their friends are downloading and using, not what we as an app store think they should download.”

The new site also allows consumers to track their personal downloads with GetJar’s ‘My Apps’ feature, which consolidates the user’s downloaded app history and makes it accessible for reference.

GetJar’s new user interface comes as a great relief for those who want further recommendations or want to search apps on their own. The new mobile app store interface includes: Navigation tabs for fast browsing, improved search to find apps with ease, a ‘Top Apps’ section to identify popular apps and a ‘Just In’ section for the latest and greatest selection of apps.

The success of this new feature might see it being replicated by other application stores such as Apple’s App store and Android Market from Google. In fact, the model has been attractive for players, like Apple, that intended to use Facebook Connect in its Ping social music network from launch last year, but the feature was removed at the last minute after the tech giant failed to reach a deal with the social network.

Google has launched a new application for Android users. With the new Google Doc app, it is easy to filter and search content across any Google account, then jump straight into editing docs using the online mobile editors. The App also allows you to easily share items with contacts on your phone, right from within the app.

The Docs app also allows you to upload content from your phone and open documents directly from the Gmail. You can also add a widget to your home screen for easy access to three core tasks: such as jumping to your starred documents, taking a photo to upload, or creating a new document with one tap.

The application also has Optical Character Recognition (OCR) function, which allows you to take a photo using your phone’s camera and turn photos with text into editable Google documents.

Just create a new ‘Document from Photo’ or select the camera icon from the widget, and your converted document will appear in your documents list shortly after you snap the picture. You can also convert photos already stored on your phone by sharing them with the Google Docs app. OCR does a pretty good job capturing unformatted text in English but won’t recognise handwriting or some fonts.

The Google Docs app is currently available in English and works on Android 2.1+ phones. Try it out by scanning the QR code below or by visiting Android Market.

Ovi store has added a new application, known as Moodagent, especially for Nokia’s latest touch and type devices based on the S40 platform.

The application is a smart audio player that identifies different types of music and suggests the users according to their moods. Users do not need to tag music to any particular mood which is done by this application automatically, but the user has to select what kind of mood he is in on the application.

Users are free to use this application to play selected track if they do not want to use the mood song suggestion feature. First time users will need to have both patience and an active internet connection as Moodagent will catalog the music library and share the info with Moodagent’s online servers, which in turn tag the songs for different moods.

The price of the application has been kept as Rs 75, which is lightly on the higher side. However, it is available for free on iOS and Android platforms.

Users can download the application from the Ovi store on their S40 devices or can click here for downloading the application.