MySpace offers free downloadable app for Android

MySpace jumped aboard the Android bandwagon with a free, downloadable application customized for the new platform.
MySpace Android allows users to upload photos, access band profiles and tour schedules, view comments on profiles and connect with other users. Members of the popular social-networking site can also exchange messages with others and update their moods and statuses, and can identify tunes with their phones with an integrated feature from Shazam, a mobile music discovery provider.
The News Corp. subsidiary hopes to build on the impressive traction it has gained in mobile. MySpace claims 2 million daily unique wireless visitors and recent figures from ABI Research 70% of people who use social networks on their phones have visited MySpace.
“We want to ensure that all users have access to their global MySpace network while they’re on the go,” said John Faith, MySpace’s GM of mobile, “and we believe Android is a natural fit for an optimized MySpace Mobile experience.” The application will be available through Android Market.
Meanwhile, Google and the Open Handset Alliance released the source code for Android, allowing anyone to download the code and build applications for the new platform. T-Mobile USA Inc. will begin selling the first Android handset, the G1, at a lone T-Mobile store in San Francisco tomorrow night, 11 hours before it is rolled out throughout the rest of the country.