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Google Android smartphones aren't even in the same solar system of sales compared to the iPhone. No news there. But just how bad is it? Here's a big clue; take a look at the Android App store. One of the top Android app developers, Larva Labs, has pulled back the curtain to give us all a peek. It isn't pretty. Larva Labs sells the #5 and #12 top selling applications at the Android store, I don't know what kind of sales numbers one through four are pulling down a day. Larva Labs, however, is making a little over $60 a day in sales for both applications. So what's the problem? It's more than just the iPhone jugernaut. It's apparantly just a really bad store design. Larva Labs complains about the following: 1. The Android store offers no screenshots of the offered applications. 2. Buyers have to use Google checkout. This requires a credit card and a hassle factor for first time purchasers. 3. The system is just plain clunky, with lots of download and credit card verification delays. 4.

Man accused of keeping woman captive for 18 years told court about rape fantasies going back to the 1970s

Many users of Google's free e-mail service were stranded Tuesday afternoon when they logged on to find the service no longer working.

theodp writes 'Over at Intelligent Enterprise, Seth Grimes declares the Federal Government's USAspending.gov website a travesty, calling it 'almost a parody of a government-transparency site.' Among the faults cited by Grimes is a botched 'Federal Spending FY 2009 YTD' pie chart that graced USAspending.gov's home page. Not only were the sizes of pie segments not in proportion to the percentage labels (due to a Google Chart API error), the colors in the pie chart didn't even match the colors and values in the table immediately below the chart. Lucky for the Feds, Grimes didn't get a chance to look behind the curtain at the Federal IT Dashboard, where they forgot to remove a (commented) reference to a Google spreadsheet that states 'These totals are pretty poor numbers' (Google workbook). Oops!' of this story at Slashdot.

Internet Explorer continues to lose market share, but gains by Google Chrome threaten to slow Firefox down.

Gmail, Google's popular free e-mail service, was inaccessible to many of its 36 million users Tuesday afternoon, causing widespread chatter on Twitter and other social networks.

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Discovery comes as victim who was raped by Phillip Garrido in 1976 questions his early release from prisonPolice in California combing through the property of Phillip Garrido, the sex offender who snatched an 11-year-old girl and kept her captive for 18 years, have found a fragment of bone in the neighbouring yard and are now testing to ascertain whether it is from a human.Detectives have ended a five-day search of the intricate network of tents and cabins in Walnut Avenue, Antioch, in which Garrido kept Jaycee Dugard, and the two daughters he had with her, locked up and hidden from outside view. They brought in cadaver dogs, trained to sniff out corpses, to scour the next-door property following suspicions that Garrido may have been involved in the 1990s killings of eight prostitutes and two girls, aged nine and 15, in the surrounding area.Garrido is understood to have acted as caretaker of the neighbouring house until 2006, and lived some of the time in a shed in its backyard.Jimmy L

Search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Microsoft employ behavioral targeting, in which cookies collect information on users' Web browsing habits, to better tailor online ad campaigns for Web surfing consumers. This practice doesn't sit well with consumer and privacy advocates, which urged Congress to crack down on behavioral targeting and asked the Federal Trade Commission to set up a registry to help users opt out of such practices. - Consumer advocates concerned about what they see as the erosion of Web surfers' online privacy urged Congress Sept. 1 to crack down on behavioral targeting and asked the Federal Trade Commission to set up a registry to let users opt out of data collection. Search engines such as Goo...

Gay rights activists around the nation are challenging state bans on same-sex marriage — in state courts and through the legislature. Here, a look at how the legal battle is playing out, state by state.