Archives for "April, 2010"
Official Twitter for Android now available
First we hinted, then we confirmed, now we install. Today Twitter announced that their Android client is now available for download. Full impressions are coming soon, but we wanted to share with our readers that the app is out.
Unfortunately, the official Twitter requires Android 2.1 or greater.
Twitter also shared that they had a great time working with the Android team. In the near future, Google will be open sourcing the code used in this app so that developers can create new experiences using the Twitter APIs.
My guess is we see Twitter fully integrated in Android 2.2 (similar to Facebook and 2.1). Twitter for Android adds the ability to sync all your existing accounts and updates under the Android accounts setting.
LG Ally commercial leaks, Verizon launch pending soon
A new Iron Man 2 promo featuring the upcoming LG Ally has been leaked on YouTube. The commercial shows a group of friends using the new LG Ally as Iron Man flies around in the background. Iron Man 2 is scheduled to launch May 7th, so we could see this phone on Verizon in a couple of weeks.
Why would Verizon launch another Android phone so close to the Droid Incredible? Early rumors suggest the LG Ally might feature a 1 GHz cpu, but we now hear this phone will be targeted at the mid-range. A source who wishes to remain anonymous told us the Ally will include a 600 MHz ARM11 CPU (my guess is the Qualcomm MSM7227).
More details should be coming today. At the end of the video users are directed to visit LG.com/ally, which redirects to lgim2.com. The Iron Man 2 site says, “Check back on April 30th for the complete LG Iron Man 2 experience”.
The Motorola Shadow re-emerges
The Motorola Shadow burst onto the scene in the waning hours of 2009 with a specs list that read like a geeks wish list and some colorful renders that further whet the appetite. Rumors abounded that it could be the follow up to the then new Nexus One. Motorola threw flames on the fire when they confirmed during their Q4 earnings call that they would be offering “at least one direct-to-consumer device with Google.
As is often the way with these things the information dried up and the Shadow drifted back into the inky blackness of the internet with only the true die hards keeping the spark of interest alive.
So we fast forward to yesterday when a smartphone identified as the Motorola MB810 receives its WiFi certification. That name is significant as the Motorola Sholes Tablet (or the MOTOROI as it came to be known later) is the MB710. This suggests an upgraded version of the MOTOROI which lines up nicely with everything we know about the Shadow.
Additionally tying the MB810 to the Shadow is a tweet from @androiddevicespy on March 12th simply saying “cdma_shadow/MB810/cdma_shadow/verizon #android.” That user tweets nothing but Android…
Official Twitter for Android App Now Available [Twitter]
Official Apps2SD support “coming soon” to Android
Android’s dirty little secret may finally be put to rest soon. Ever since the G1 was released, users have been asking Google to provide a solution which would allow them to store applications on their microSD card. Google finally confirmed they were working on the issue when they launched the Nexus One and now it looks like the fix is in.
The infamous Issue 1151 on the Android Google Code page has been updated from assigned to future release. A Googler named San who made the status change left the following note.
Apologies, but I’m not permitted to disclose scheduling information – suffice to say
it’s coming soon 
Sorry for being vague, and thank you for your continued patience – I sincerely
appreciate it.
Happy friday SanAndroid engineer
I don’t know what Google’s definition of soon is, but they are hosting their biggest developer’s conference next month in San Francisco. We already predicted Android 2.2 and Flash 10.1 would be unveiled during Google I/O so there is a small possibility we could see the apps2SD solution in a couple of weeks.
[Thanks Tom for the tip]
New Android Market rolling out, developers gain feedback experiment
I was browsing AppAware this morning and noticed many clients were reporting a new version of Android Market was being pushed out. We asked our Tweeters if they noticed anything new and no one could spot anything different.
After logging in to our Market developer console, I spotted a new feedback experiment that looks ready to roll out. Not a lot of information is available at the moment, but it looks like devs will be able to get reports when their app crashes or freezes.
Just last week someone leaked screens of a new Market client that featured automatic updates, but I have not seen that feature implemented yet. Who knows, maybe I’m just lacking the latest version (I’m at 1713). If you want to check your Market client, go to Settings > Application settions > Manage applications > Market.
Look for another update as we gather more information.
Flash 10.1 and Froyo are scheduled for a June release
Adobe CTO, Kevin Lynch, wrote a brief blog post on Adobe’s site yesterday as a response to Steve Job’s load of explanation for why they are not using Flash on their mobile devices.
The closing paragraph contains the nugget of information that we are interested in.
We look forward to delivering Flash Player 10.1 for Android smartphones as a public preview at Google I/O in May, and then a general release in June. Kevin Lynch Adobe CTO
So we finally have confirmation of our speculations regarding the big unveiling coming at Google I/O. Pairing this with Andy Rubin’s statements that support for Flash 10.1 comes in Froyo we can reasonably conclude that Froyo will debut alongside Flash at I/O and that the release of both will be coming to some Android users in June. Still up in the air is who those users will be and of course the exact date.
Now as we all know (and as they will proudly tell you) the N1 users are likely to be the first existing users to upgrade to it, with Droid Classic (Yes I just made that up) users possibly being in the mix there as well. But there…
GeoQuiz: Learn about the world, brag about your score
GeoQuiz by Brain Cafe is a multiple-choice quiz game that purports to ‘test your knowledge of the planet Earth and all its wonders’. Sleek and well-presented, GeoQuiz is part game, part visual tour of Wikipedia.
Open up the app and you’re greeted with a bright, simplistic menu screen more reminiscent of an iPhone app than your typical Android game. Pick a category (choose from topics like ‘People’, ‘Capital Cities of the World’ or ‘The Great Explorers’) and you’re taken to a simple game screen with a question on the left and a set of four possible answers on the right. Whether you pick right or wrong, an information screen will pop up explaining the facts behind the question. Thoughtfully, there’s a Wikipedia link to the relevant topic included with every answer.
Complete a quiz and your score is saved in the app’s records. Feeling the need to brag about your intellect? You can even tweet your score and time from within the game.
The Good:
- It’s pretty. From high-res menu photos to bright buttons and crisp transitions, GeoQuiz comes across as clean and attractive.
- You might learn something. Most answers include detailed information about the facts behind the question,
…
Yelp: Businesses, restaurants, reviews.
As a college student, I frequently find myself scrambling for the nearest food option, bank, or gas station. When the frenzy that is my life slows down and I have a spare moment, I enjoy exploring the city and finding new restaurants.
Yelp, an application based on the popular website, allows me to accomplish these goals with its easy to navigate menus and great search functionality. I have the option of choosing to browse through a variety of categories (ex: Restaurants, Coffee, Banks, Gas, etc), to search for a specific type of item (ex: tacos, Mexican food, etc), or simply to search for a certain restaurant (ex: McDonald’s … although I wouldn’t recommend it). Yelp offers the ability to search locations close to you using the phone’s GPS, or to input an address or city, in case you want to search for places elsewhere. Furthermore, once in the list of items, Yelp allows you to filter by price, or if it’s late at night, to display only those locations that are currently open.
But the best part is Yelp’s extensive library of reviews. Nearly every restaurant I browse through has tons of reviews as well as user-submitted pictures, allowing me…
Droid Does Incredible TV campaign
Motorola and Verizon spent a combined $100 million to advertise the original Droid and it resulted in the best selling Android device to date. The Droid is now the second best selling smartphone (behind the iPhone) and accounts for up to 17% of AdMob’s U.S. smartphone requests. Even the latest platform version breakdown from Google suggest that the Droid could account for up to 30% of all Android handsets that access the Market.
We were wondering if the Droid Incredible would receive the same treatment and it appears a similar campaign is in store. Verizon has already launched an Incredible mini site and the first ad spot just appeared on YouTube. We have also spotted Incredible ad banners on many of our favorite tech blogs.
Keep an eye our for Incredible ads and let us know what you find.
From Verizon Wireless: Forget what you thought you knew because you’ve never seen a DROID like this. The DROID INCREDIBLE, nothing short of its name.
Made by Symmetric Web
Distributed by Smashing Magazine