Posts Filed Under ‘Mobile’
This Week in Google, Episode 51 ·
Leo, Jeff and I jawed about the new Android App Inventor, Picnik in Picasa, mobile local search, my 23andme results, and iPhone 4 in this week's episode. My tip of the week: setting up a rich text signature in Gmail. · July 15th, 2010, 2 comments
This Week in Google, Episode 50 ·
Jeff and Leo and I chatted about Droid X, Prince, Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) and the iPhone 4 in our latest episode of TWiG. Also, listeners are helping send an Android phone into space! My tip this week: Chrome to Phone, which pushes your open Chrome tabs to your phone with the click of a button, for browsing on the go. · July 9th, 2010, 1 comment
Froyo Over-The-Air Updates Hit Nexus Ones This Week · If you've got a Nexus One and have been patiently waiting for the OTA update to Android 2.2, this week's your week. Google says you'll get a notification by the end of the week for the update to 2.2. My sources tell me you'll get it even if you manually installed Froyo, as the official OTA version is a different build number. Here's the good stuff you get in Froyo; no word yet on other handsets. · June 29th, 2010, 12 comments
Google Voice Open in the U.S. · Previously invitation-only Google Voice just opened to everyone in the U.S., offering free text messaging, multi-phone management, and voicemail features which, after more than a year of exclusive use, I couldn't live without. The three things I do on my mobile phone most--text, call, and check email--are powered entirely by Google at this point with Voice, Gmail, and Android. The Gmail/GVoice experience on Android is the main thing that leaves me cold when I look at an iPhone. It's just not as good. Here's more on how Google Voice makes the phone less loathsome (similar to how Gmail made email workable). · June 22nd, 2010, 8 comments
Commenter seguetonowhere points out a useful Android keyboard feature I missed in my original Froyo rundown: if you swipe your finger over the top of the Android 2.2 default keyboard, it will extend two more rows out and show you keys for common punctuation and numbers. Click on the thumbnail to see the expanded keyboard.
This is a faster way to punctuate and/or add numbers than tapping the ?123 key or tap-and-holding the period key. However, as seguetonowhere points out, parentheses aren't included on the two extra rows of keys in the extension.
It took me a few tries to get the swiping motion just right, and this doesn't work with my favorite alternative swipey keyboard ShapeWriter/Swype/SlideIT. But definitely a must-know for Froyo users who use the default keyboard.
Other keyboard shortcuts: You can swipe to start voice input, configure multiple languages and swipe across the Spacebar to switch between them, tap and hold the dot and .com keys to reveal more choices (like .org, .net, .tv), and tap and hold the : -) key to choose from other emoticons, too.
Thanks, seguetonowhere!
This Week in Google, Episode 47 ·
Great conversation today on TWiG with our guest Chris Messina, who dropped knowledge on the history and differences between OAuth and OpenID--which in an age of "Facebook wants to own all your sign-ons," is an important discussion. My tip this week: to grab the Android Swype beta within the next couple of days while it's still available, as previously-recommended ShapeWriter is no longer in the Market. · June 16th, 2010, 35 comments
While last night's southern California earthquake shook up the Padres game, I was standing in a doorway downloading an Android app.
Twitter was down, the news didn't have anything yet, but I remembered Reto Meier, a Googler who did an Android talk at I/O had demo'ed an earthquake detection app. It's called Earthquake!, and it's got some very useful features, especially when you're worried about the earth cracking open and swallowing your home whole.
More screenshots inside--click to enlarge.
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iPhone 4 versus HTC EVO · Nicole Lee does the hard work so I don't have to: feature by feature comparison of the iPhone 4 and the 4G HTC EVO. As far as I'm concerned, the EVO's the better deal: bigger screen, more customizable OS, Google Maps navigation, Google Voice native app, tethering/portable hotspot, kickstand, Sprint 4G network support, expandable MicroSD up to 32GB, and removable battery. No-brainer. · June 8th, 2010, 13 comments
Steve Jobs announced the iPhone 4 yesterday in his WWDC keynote, and it's a gorgeous device with software upgrades that include multitasking, a video chat app called FaceTime, and more. I'm still a happy Android user, but I have to hand it to Apple. They continue to school the industry on aesthetics and marketing. Case in point: the FaceTime demo video.
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Android 2.2 (code-named "Froyo," the next alphabetical installment of dessert-named releases after Cupcake, Donut, and Eclair) is now rolling out to Nexus One handsets. If you're tired of tapping and re-tapping the System Update menu item and getting nothing, you can update your N1 to 2.2 manually. Lifehacker runs down how. This method worked perfectly on my T-Mobile Nexus One, but I hear reports it does not work for the AT&T Nexus One. The manual update method does NOT work for the Droid, EVO, or any other Android handset that I know of. (Correct me if I'm wrong in the comments.)
Android 2.2 has three marquee features: built-in tethering/portable hotspot capabilities, Flash support, and noticeably sped-up JavaScript performance in the web browser. (Update: Oh yeah, there's Microsoft Exchange support, too.) There are several more subtle interface improvements as well. Perhaps my favorite is the most simple: a revamped homescreen dock, which you can see at the bottom of the screenshot here. (Click to enlarge.) It gives you one-tap access to the three things you want to get to on your phone quickly: the dialer, your apps, and your web browser. Compare this screenshot to Android 2.1's homescreen.
Come on in to see more screenshots of my favorite Froyo features.
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Google Gives HTC EVO Phones to Google I/O Attendees · Not only did Google pre-mail Droid handsets to I/O attendees, today they gave the Sprint HTC EVO 4G out to conference attendees at the Moscone Center, with a 2GB Micro SD card filled with music. Awhile back I tweeted that I wouldn't accept "free" phones like these, since I cover Google on TWiG and at web sites and magazines where I occasionally freelance, and accepting a "gift" from a company I talk and write about so much seemed like a bad idea. But, I'm not a full-time journalist who has to operate under the kinds of stringent rules that a New York Times reporter does. I'm a developer and independent commentator, and I'm at this conference on my own dime--no press pass, no expense account. So, I'm going back on my initial word: I did accept the phones as part of the $400 ticket price to the conference, and I plan to use them to develop for Android. · May 20th, 2010, 22 comments
Yesterday's post generated some interest in an Android application that manages a todo.txt file, and I've got an itch to try my hand at a mobile app. So, I've just created a skeleton Java-based Android app called Todo.txt Touch. The source code is located on GitHub, and it literally does nothing right now, except list some faux tasks from an XML file.
Goal is to get the app to read a todo.txt from Dropbox (and eventually, other configurable cloud sources), sort and list tasks by context or project (like @phone, or @grocerystore) in tabs, mark items as done and move them to the done.txt file, and sync todo.txt and done.txt back to Dropbox in the background. Right now this is just an experimental, educational undertaking; I'm not yet committed to seeing this through to completion. There are already a gazillion decent task managers for Android, and I've got a full-time job, so I'm not sure Todo.txt Touch will be a long-term thing. But, it would be awesome to do a little collaborative work and learn a bit about Android development with a very basic app that does a very simple thing right now. Interested in joining in? Fork the project and talk to us on the Todo.txt CLI mailing list.
Steve Jobs on Flash · Steve Jobs' open letter "Thoughts on Flash" is a win for the open web, and a logical and well-articulated discussion of why Apple won't allow Flash on the iPhone and iPad. Hooray. But. While Jobs says he refuses to put his products "at the mercy" of a third party, that's exactly what Apple asks of all its iPhone app developers, to take the chance that Apple won't distribute their work for arbitrary reasons (they might "confuse" the user, they include porn, they duplicate functionality, they use unapproved hooks). Jobs' letter could be rewritten from a developer to Apple, and I hope someone takes the time to do just that. Turn this sentence from Jobs: "We cannot accept an outcome where developers are blocked from using our innovations and enhancements because they are not available on our competitor’s platforms." Into this: "We cannot accept an outcome where our apps are blocked from using innovations and enhancements because Apple doesn't approve." Just sayin'. · April 29th, 2010, 8 comments
New and aspiring Android users often ask me what apps I have installed on my Nexus One. The list changes pretty often--especially when Leo and Jeff recommend something good on TWiG--but for the most part I keep my Applications menu pared down to just the stuff I actually use.
Thanks to AppBrain, I'm now syncing my list of installed apps to the web for easy sharing and updating. Here's the complete list of what apps are installed on my phone right now. To the left you'll find a neat widget that shows their icons on a handset. Click on any icon to get more info about the app and what it does.
By publishing this list I'm coming out of the closet as cheap: not one of my apps cost anything! In my defense, I did indeed pay for the desktop version of PdaNet.
What other apps should I install or upgrade to the pay-for version? Post your suggestions--and your AppBrain list--in the comments. (Man I would love to see Leo's list!)
Ever since I installed a barcode scanner app on my phone, I see QR codes everywhere--so naturally I wanted one of my own. If you too are a barcode-scanning fool, point your phone's camera at this QR code and you'll get a link to my personal web site. Fun!
A QR ("quick response") code is a square barcode that makes getting URLs, location coordinates, any text or contact information onto a phone quickly. With a barcode scanner app installed, you just point your phone's camera at the code to read its contents. Here's what reading this QR code looks like on my Android phone, using an app simply called "Barcode Scanner."
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Commenter seguetonowhere points out a useful Android keyboard feature I missed in my original Froyo rundown: if you swipe your finger over the top of the Android 2.2 default keyboard, it will extend two more rows out and show you keys for common punctuation and numbers. Click on the thumbnail to see the expanded keyboard.
I'm 
