Welcome to Around SPE, where we highlight the big news of the week from around the network in a format that’s more than just a list-o-bullets. This week we’re putting the spotlight onAndroid Central, which saw a fairlyhefty redesignon Wednesday night. Search, registration, commenting, navigation, the whole shootin’ match is all much improved.

We’re also proud to announce that Android Central made a donation to Olin College to help students there develop mobile applications (with a special focus on Android, naturally). You can find outmore information about the class here, or better yet — go check out theapplications already in developmentthis early in the semester!

In Android news, we caught word thatAmazon was selling the Black G1 for a measly $97.99.Then it got even better withCostco offering the G1 for $79.99, a whole $100 off!Why the discounts? Recession? Pressure from the HTC Magic? Finally, the long awaitedCupcake update is supposed to come to Androidby April.Paid apps came to the UK Android Market. Andwe wondered whether the T-Mobile G2(aka HTC Magic) was going to show up at CTIA.

Now for the roundup of the week’s news from our other SPE sites!

CrackBerry.com

As we march through March, the BlackBerry world is yet again in a state of anticipation. On the app side of things, Facebook users are waiting for version 1.5 to be released, which thanks to aleak over the weekendmany device owners running OS4.6 are already taking advantage of. RIM also promised that we’d see the rollout ofBlackBerry App Worldthis month, which should happen at CTIA in the weeks ahead. On the device front, CDMA users are getting stoked over the BlackBerry “Niagara” 9630, which must be getting closer to an official announcement aseven moredevice photoshave hit the net. And in the area of entertainment, Vodafone and McLaren got together with a couple of F1 & BlackBerry Storm fans to put out what has to be one of the sweetest pieces ofcorporate viral advertisingto hit the interwebs in a while.

Nokia Experts

When Matthew Miller isn’t busyappearing on the radio to talk about Nokia, he’s keeping a close eye on Nokia’s doings in the US. The latest: Nokia still doesn’t seem to have worked out a solid strategy for a US invasion. Their bigComes With Music announcementsand newmusic-centric phonesall seem pointedlynotbound for US release. Could US carriers be giving Nokia the brush-off because they’re not interested in giving up any potential revenue to the Scandanavian giant? (signs point to yes). Regardless, the futureSymbian roadmapshould hold our interest even if US Carriers are yawning.

(Also: belated happy birthday and get well soon, Matt!)

PreCentral.net

This past week Palmpulled in enough cash to survive through the Pre launchamidst a PR mini-assault that included both acall in to Howard Sternand ayawner of a webinar. We did manage to glean some info from the presentation, however, including thedetails on Sprint’s Palm Pre service planesand a look at abrowser that appears to be 4 times faster than the iPhone’s.

Oh, and did you see thePalm Pre appear on Jimmy Fallon?. We did and let us tell you, it was the perfect antidote for having to watch Palmbacktrack on Roger McNamee’s Palm Pre Hyperbole.. Hey, nobody’sPrefect.

The iPhone Blog

Previously ontheiphoneblog.com: Apple’s iPhone 3.0 Preview Event kicks off this Tuesday, March 17 at 1pm EDT/10am PDT. TiPb will be providing live meta-blog coverage, so be sure to check thefront pageand join us. Rumors includeMMS, Tethering, alsonew SpringBoard (home screen app launcher), Cut and Paste, Push Notifications, and Compass functionality, and aPremium App Storefor +$20 apps. Be sure to hit our iPhone Forums and let us knowwhat you want to see in iPhone OS 3.0!

Meanwhile Apple updated us toiTunes 8.1withiTunes DJ, and debuted anew iPod suffle. The App Storerejected Tweetie 3.1, a Twitter client, but thenchanged their minds. AndGoogle shut down Infinite SMS.

TreoCentral

TreoCentraland its sister sitePreCentral.netreported that Palmannouncedthey were exercising their right to remarket about 18.5 million common shares underlying 49% of the units of Series C preferred stock and warrants acquired by Elevation Partners in January 2009. Plus, the underwriters will have the right to purchase an additional 2.8 million common shares from Palm to cover over-allotments, if any. TreoCentral also talked about the8K SEC filing(warning of lots of risks) Palm did to accompany their announcement.  Dieter and Mike talked up lots of interesting Palm stuff in their latest PalmCast,Episode 61, including their eulogy to thePalmOS, chatting aboutRoger McNamee’s hijinks, and the Sprint Treo Pro and Internet Explorer Mobile 6.

WMExperts

We ended the week at WMExperts with a full review of the all new consumer-level smartphone on AT&T, thedual-sliding Matrix Pro.  The Matrix might not be the device for power-users, but it’s an interesting form-factor (and solid upgrade) for consumers. Our real excitement, though, was the announcement that GrandCentral has returned as Google Voice.

Slightly bigger news for WinMo fans is that Microsoft has announced developer details surroundingWindows Marketplaceand the details are good, but not jump-out-of-your-chair great. Check out ourpodcast for some analysis.

This is a story bythe iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored byThe iPhone Blog Store.

Around SPE for 15 March, 2009