Brandon Watson, a major player in the resurrection of Microsoft's Windows Phone OS, specifically in his work with developers, has taken a job with Amazon. Watson confirmed his departure Friday on Twitter, and ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley tracked down that he'll be director of the Kindle Cross-Platform Team. Foley says that makes him responsible for for all of the first- and third-party Kindle apps, which would include Android's own Amazon Kindle application.

Said Watson:

The rumors are true. The team is in great hands. I'll miss working on #wpdev. I will [miss] the community, but won't be a stranger.

With a high-profile name like Watson, who was one of Microsoft's biggest cheerleaders for the revived Windows Phone platform (and a hell of a nice dude -- I've met him a couple times), you can't help but wonder what else Amazon has up its sleeve. Amazon's running what is believe to be the most successful forked version of Android with its Kindle Fire e-reader/tablet, along with its wildly successful Amazon Appstore. And now Amazon's picked up some serious Microsoft talent. 

No doubt that if anyone has the traditional manufacturers looking over their shoulders a little bit, especially in the tablet space, it's Amazon. On the other hand, while the Kindle family (and Kindle Fire in particular) may be moving a bunch of units -- up 177 percent over last year -- maybe they looked at Amazon's profit and shrugged. Either way, things are getting interesting.

Source: @brandonwatson, ZDNet; via WPCentral

Brandon Watson, a major player in the resurrection of Microsoft's Windows Phone OS, specifically in his work with developers, has taken a job with Amazon. Watson confirmed his departure Friday on Twitter, and ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley tracked down that he'll be director of the Kindle Cross-Platform Team. Foley says that makes him responsible for for all of the first- and third-party Kindle apps, which would include Android's own Amazon Kindle application.

Said Watson:

The rumors are true. The team is in great hands. I'll miss working on #wpdev. I will [miss] the community, but won't be a stranger.

With a high-profile name like Watson, who was one of Microsoft's biggest cheerleaders for the revived Windows Phone platform (and a hell of a nice dude -- I've met him a couple times), you can't help but wonder what else Amazon has up its sleeve. Amazon's running what is believe to be the most successful forked version of Android with its Kindle Fire e-reader/tablet, along with its wildly successful Amazon Appstore. And now Amazon's picked up some serious Microsoft talent. 

No doubt that if anyone has the traditional manufacturers looking over their shoulders a little bit, especially in the tablet space, it's Amazon. On the other hand, while the Kindle family (and Kindle Fire in particular) may be moving a bunch of units -- up 177 percent over last year -- maybe they looked at Amazon's profit and shrugged. Either way, things are getting interesting.

Source: @brandonwatson, ZDNet; via WPCentral

UPDATE: The Android Team’s Dan Morrill has posted an explanation for the removal of the Galaxy Nexus and other CDMA devices from the official developer support page. This has nothing to do with Google Wallet (we never thought it did) and everything to do with the way the Android code is compiled for CDMA devices. In short, if a dev were to simply compile the pure AOSP source code for the Verizon Galaxy Nexus the build would be lacking in full telephony functionality. Google still plans to support the devices directly via software updates.

A quick visit to the Android developer support page reveals some startling news. It appears as if Google is dropping the “developer device” tag of once-listed CDMA models. The Samsung Nexus S 4G, Verizon’s Motorola XOOM, and even the LTE Galaxy Nexus have disappeared from the site, leaving us with a note explaining exactly which versions of these devices will be supported moving forward. For the XOOM, only the “wingray” WiFi-only version of the slate gets developer designation. The GSM “crespo” version of the Nexus S also retains support. For the Galaxy Nexus, the GSM/HSPA+ “maguro” build is supported, but only if it originally shipped with the “yakju” build of Android 4.0.

We can speculate as to exactly why Google has decided against the inclusion of CDMA developer devices, but the fact that Sprint’s Nexus S 4G didn’t make the cut should silence those ready to blame Verizon and Google’s past disagreements about Google Wallet. In reality, Google is likely looking to simply streamline support and GSM tends to be the more global-ready network technology. CDMA devices function on a very limited portion of the globe’s cellular networks (despite Verizon and Sprint, two of the world’s largest carriers, both utilizing CDMA).

Does the removal of these devices from the developer support page mean they won’t be treated to the quick Android software version updates typically associated with the Nexus line? We get the feeling OS updates will still reach these devices just as quickly, if only due to their stock user interfaces. It’s hard to imagine Google neglecting any member of their Nexus family, lest they want to send mixed signals. And we’re not looking to have our hearts toyed with like that.

[via DroidLife]

MIUI, the stylish ROM which transforms Android into an unrecognizable beast, will be getting open-sourced. That’s right, Chinese company Xiaomi has decided to make the source code for their ROM and applications available to the masses via GitHub, the same git repository that the CyangenMod team uses.

They will be open-sourcing individual applications and the ROM in its entirety, apparently. However, not all code is available at this time. They will likely publish more in the very near future, said MIUI. This is great news for everyone and while we’re not exactly sure what will come of it yet (different variants of MIUI is the logical expectation) we’re glad to see that any developer will be able to get their hands on it. [MIUI via AndroidGuys]

Read

RIM’s trying to get things rolling on the apps side of things and are enticing any and all Android developers to repackage their Android applications as Blackberry Apps to be used on the new Blackberry Playbook 2.0 update. The offer? A free Blackberry Playbook.

With RIM’s compatibility layer for Android applications developers can have their applications up and running on Blackberry in no time. RIM employs three methods for users to do so and they’re all very straightforward. Simply repackaging the APK into Blackberry’s format isn’t enough, though, if your application references Android in any way.

Changing a few strings of text to remove references to Android may be required but that’s probably a small price of time to pay for most developers. If you get your apps submitted by February 6th they’ll be included in the App World following the update but you have until February 13th to submit your apps in order to receive the free Playbook unit. Not a bad deal at all, I’d say. Get started here. [Twitter, Blackberry Dev Blog via Android Central]

The Samsung Galaxy Note for AT&T won’t be here until February 19th (presales begin on the fifth of this month) but its source code is already available for developers to download. This will allow folks to get started on creating ROMs well before its launch but don’t expect to see a lot of that happening before the device is in developers’ hands. If you want to take a look be sure to download the source at Samsung’s site via the link ahead. [Source, Via]

While the original Epic 4G never saw a truly stable release of CyanogenMod 7, the Epic CM team are making a lot of great progress with CyanogenMod 9. The Android 4.0-based ROM brings a stock Android offering for those who’d rather not deal with TouchWiz. An “alpha 0″ build was posted yesterday and it looks pretty good for its stats. The list of bugs and things not working is quite long but none of them are experiencing-breaking features. Take a look at the full list here. If all of that looks fine to you and you want to give it a shot just to see what’s on the way, grab the download links here. Take a look at a video review of this alpha above.

Those looking for some Ice Cream Sandwich love on their Nexus S 4G should listen up. A new build of Android 4.0 – 4.0.4, to be exact – has leaked online for rooted users. The build for this particular device and release is IMM26. It appears that the build is quite stable but it’s not yet known if this is the final firmware ready to be pushed out to handsets. Download links and instructions can be had at the source link ahead. Remember that you, and only you, are responsible for anything that happens to your devices – no one’s putting a swordfish up to your neck and making you flash it. [XDA via PocketNow]

We’ve seen Windows 95 running the on the Motorola Droid, but how about putting the golden child of 90s computing onto something a bit more powerful? Something like the HTC EVO 3D. Thanks to an APK made available by mnomaanw of XDA Forums, we now can. But it doesn’t stop there. Also bootable with minimal hassle are Windows 98 and XP as well as Linux. The specific method does require a bit of technical know-how, but full instructions are available on at the originating thread. You can get all the files you need there, as well. Booting into an alternative operating system will lose you a bit of phone functionality (and makes less sense in an age where smartphones can accomplish most of the same tasks). So which classic OS is it for you?

[via TheAndroidSoul]