Archive for: Mobile Applications
Hey, fuck the system. That’s the main premise behind Android and it’s open nature full of extremely talented hackers and developers, right? This is one of those moments that perfectly captures that — Skype for Android was exclusive to VZW handsets only. Finally, someone loosened their grip and allowed Skype for non-VZW Android-powered handsets with one big feature missing — 3G calling. Likely due to some stupid exclusive agreement which helps no one and just screws over countless Android fans, the Android devs didn’t stand by waiting and took matters into their own hands, specifically a talented Android dev by the name of Xeudoxous — his website here. If the mood strikes you, 3G calling capable Skype can now be had on your Android device.
The best part of it all is that you don’t have to root your phone to get access to this. All you need to do is point your phone’s browser right over here for the unlocked .apk. It’s great when common sense and the will of the community overcomes stupid, harmful business deals isn’t it?
- February 26, 2010 7:57 am
WebOS users, get ready. After today, your beloved webOS device is going to be a lot more useful thanks to the 1.4 update that is set to go live any time. Besides your typical bug fixes and performance tweaks, the biggest talking point of this latest update is the inclusion of Flash 10, bringing a richer mobile experience to the mobile internet junkies.
Worried about battery life? Don’t. As we saw yesterday, a Nexus One stress tested with Flash web pages and content for a solid 17 minutes only dropped 6% in battery. I’d say that’s pretty decent considering the 1GHz processor, massive high-res display and power hungry nature of Flash.
Is the above just a bit too vague for you? Oh OK. The webOS 1.4 feature update breakdown:
Fixes
- Incorrect network time sync
- Browser formatting issues
- Display issues when roaming
New Features
- Notification and messaging enhancements
- Calender editing enhancements
- Improved phone and calendar performance
- Phonebook Transfer (import & export)
- Flash! — Make it known that Flash on webOS is for now Pre only (sorry Pixi users). Looks like the hardware of the Pixi just couldn’t keep up. Furthermore, you’ll need to download an Adobe Flash plugin from the App Catalog. According to Palm, said plugin will “be available shortly”.
Some may be bummed about the Flash implementation. But hey, anything is better than nothing. And judging by Palm’s recent earnings statements, anything is certainly something they’ll take.
BGR
As fun, exciting, and simply cool as learning a second language is, some people just don’t have enough time or money to do so. Learning another language later in life after you’ve already spent an entire lifetime with one language is a pretty daunting task. The internet and digital devices in general have helped curb that learning curve and reduce the amount of time needed to learn another language. But the same problem exists — we are still having to “learn”, which takes valuable time. For the go go go business person or world traveler, becoming fluent takes too much time.
Thankfully, those same digital services that have aided us in learning languages have also aided us in translating. Using an online or pocket translator is obviously much faster as there is no learning to be had. Instead, capturing the speaker’s voice into some sort of device will then within a few seconds be turned into something the listener can understand. We have on-the-fly translation services available via desktop software, online, and on a few select *expensive* pocket-able hardware. If Google has their way however, we’ll soon be able to use it on just about any cellphone.
With over 6,000 spoken languages, getting the necessary code stuffed within a cellphone’s limited memory to quickly and accurately transcribe and translate one language to another is no small task. Google is up to the challenge however and has plans to have a basic working version of their “universal” language translator available for the mass market within the next couple of years.
Just think how many language barriers and other types of artificial walls due to different spoken languages could be torn down if talking to someone that spoke a different language was as easy as holding your phone up between the two of you. It’s pretty darn cool to think about. I just hope the whole process is more accurate than Googlve Voice and other similar services. As currently, sifting through my transcribed messages and accompanying deciphering shows that there is much work to be done.
Geeky-Gadgets > Times UK
For as popular and mainstream as it is, iTunes isn’t necessarily the “best” desktop music program more as it is the most widely supported. It’s worth pointing out that popularity and actual feature list/usefulness/design do not always go hand in hand. An easy example is can be seen in a couple of Nokia’s more recent handsets such as the N97 — chock full of features, but none of them are executed too perfectly. But that’s neither here nor there.
If you are in fact one of the many who uses iTunes to manage music and whatnot, you may recall that browser based previews launched back in late ’09. This feature allowed users to preview information about an artist, song, or album within a neat little browser window before being asked to open iTunes. Not anything major, but it’s the small things that count. Apple has always made it a staple point of theirs to strive for consistency among their products. Realizing that, having browser based previews come to App Store apps only seems like the next logical step.
From here on out, clicking on any iTunes App Store link will bring up the same preview window in your browser as it does for iTunes Music, giving users a quicker and more convenient method to quickly skim over any information they be searching for in regards to a particular app. At the same time, iTunes will now automatically launch in the background. Some may dislike this auto-launch of iTunes but overall it isn’t obtrusive or annoying. Then again, my MBP isn’t a slouch by any means. From the preview window, you can of course continue on with opening iTunes(if it hasn’t already for some reason) and go about your app browsing.
Again, it’s nothing earth shattering or revolutionary. But it’s nice, easy, and intuitive. Thoughts?
TechCrunch
Back in November, Verizon spent a truckload of money on marketing their new hot baby, the Motorola DROID. Several months later, we can see that the marketing paid off relatively well with Motorola enjoying some of the best income they’ve seen since the RAZR days with Verizon seeing an equally nice share of added income. Around that same time, a somewhat humorous though useless app called “DROID does” was submitted to Apple for sale in the App Store. The app did nothing, instead acting more as a “behind enemy lines” advertising billboard for the DROID and Verizon. No surprise here — Apple rejected it.
Forget the third time, the second attempt is the real charm. The “DROID” moniker has finally made it’s way to the iPhone ecosystem thanks to a new browser app called “iDroid Mini Browser”. While this browser replacement is rather light on features, it still manages to knock the socks off of the previous DROID themed app. Seeing as how the first Droid iPhone app was nothing more than a joke, this isn’t all too surprising.
Upon firing up iDroid, users will be greeted with a “Quick Links” screen with available slots for up to (9) favorite sites. Adding sites is a tad inconvenient however, requiring users to navigate away from the quick links screen to enter their web URL’s, http://xxxx and all.
One other thing that bugs me: People are calling it “the first tabbed iPhone browser”. Umm, the iPhone has had tabbed browsing since 2007. Because of the way the iPhone OS and Mobile Safari are designed, even thought the sudo tabs are separate windows without actual browser tabs being displayed onscreen at all times, the little window/tab button on the bottom right of Mobile Safari allows quick and easy window/tab browsing across multiple sites at the same time — the same exact thing a desktop-like “tabbed browser” does as well. Is it the first multi-tasking/tabbed browser? No.
Personal nitpicks aside, no matter the lengths Apple has gone through so far to keep “DROID” references from entering the iPhone ecosystem, it looks like they’ve finally been infiltrated.
Dvice
Make no mistake, RIM’s current BlackBerry browser sucks and sucks big time. It’s always sucked. Those who disagree obviously aren’t using the internet as it was meant to be used — flash, javascript, ajax, and so on. Flash is still a sticking point for many other mobile browsers in the market but the rest of that list is a rather common affair now.
After acquiring Torch Mobile last year, rumors and speculation of a completely revamped BlackBerry browser almost immediately began. After a solid two years of complaints centering around the archaic browser, it seemed RIM had finally opened up their ears to their customers. So what’s the current status on this new browser?
The latest info we’ve heard has the browser being completely re-developed from the ground up and based on Webkit — a far cry from the POS Java relic BB’s currently run. RIM is gunning to take it even further than “just a webkit” browser however. Previously leaked documents and other claims from various sources have RIM tightly integrating their BIS/BES services and server side technology into the mix (which any Opera Mini users should know…) greatly speeds up browsing speeds, rending accuracy, and manages to drastically cut down on bandwidth.
RIM is pretty damn good at doing some big things over limited bandwidth allotments so this frankenstein browser has to be good.
Even though I don’t use a BlackBerry day to day, I have connections and Berry’s available to test if need be. This new uber BlackBerry browser will certainly be one of the biggest updates for the BlackBerry OS in recent memory (if ever). Keep checking back for more info as the story develops.
Think RIM’s hybrid webkit/server cached browser combo will jump ahead of the competition (read: Android and iPhone browsers)?
Electronista
[Image Source]
Say it isn’t so?! FireFox Mobile (or Fennec as some prefer) could be out as early as February according to Camp-firefox.de. I don’t have too many bones to pick with the stock web-kit browser other than it’s lack of multi-touch out of the box as well as it’s less than smooth scrolling. But as far as rendering and speed goes, it’s isn’t too bad. So why the excitement for another browser?
More options is always a plus. Not to mention, after seeing the various early builds of Fennec on Nokia Maemo devices such as the N900, it’s hard not to be impressed, yearning for your very own copy of Fennec to grace your mobile handset (in this case, Android) of choice.
February is but a few days away so the wait to waiting more isn’t too far off. Excited for Fennec or think it’s over-hyped? Sound off below.
Unwired
BlackBerry users: Wishing you had some real mobile productivity on the cheap compliments of RIM? Do you have a library full of WMA music that you can’t get rid of for any rhyme or reason? Good news…maybe. A new rumor has cropped up that pegs BIS 3.0 as providing Open Office and WMA file support among other things. For the mobile road warrior in a suit, having Open Office on your Berry is a blessing of epic proportions. Likewise, not having to transcode (by the way…don’t ever, ever transcode music unless it’s from a lossless file to begin with) WMA files into other formats is a big time saver and stress reliever.
Hopefully this rumor holds out to be true as I know a few Berry users myself who would admire such revelations. Now if only the Berry toting population could get real, native, *full* Gmail support. 3.1 anyone?
Berry Review
SEGA!
That iconic SEGA voice of the early 90′s still rings lound and clear in my head. It seems as if just yesterday I was crowded in a corner of my room on the floor playing Sonic on my SEGA Genesis. *dreaming* Oh those were the days.
I’ve come a long way in only a decade as has the consumer electronics/gaming industry. It’s funny to think back to when I was awestruck by a black box playing games on a big tube TV with graphics power measured by “bits” and animals/humans being represented as literal blocks. And now we have mobile platforms such as the iPhone completely re-writing the book on mobile gaming.
I won’t lie, I enjoy my fair share (read: gigs) of ROM’s on my jailbroken iPhone for it keeps me entertained and able to pass the low points of the day. For as long as I can remember, this little time waster of mine and many others has been looked down upon by the various entities and groups responsible for putting out each and every video game. They say I’m a thief, you’re a thief. But what they’re really saying is “we’re” too lazy or greedy to open up support for other devices — until now.
SEGA is finally, finally seeing the light as new reports detail an official SEGA emulator for the iPhone dubbed “Ultimate Genesis”. As one can guess, a good of popular SEGA games will eventually make their move to the small screen with some of the larger titles debuting first. And of course, now that we can do the whole in-app purchase tango, growing your library of golden relics will come easier than ever.
You know, I really wish they had this when I was a kid.
Look for Ultimate Genesis to drop in the App Store within a few weeks with ROM’s going for on average of $5 a piece. Oh yeah!
Alley Insider
[Image Source]
