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Archive for April, 2010
Twitter For Android Launches, Is Basic
Apr 30th
Twitter for Android just launched.
That’s awesome!
But, is it? Does it compete with the established brands such as Touiteur, Twidroid, even Seesmic? Well, it does sync your Twitter contacts with your Google contacts. That’s pretty neat. It does have list support, trending topics, search, location support, etc. And it surely has a nice design.
But I won’t use it. It’s just not all that usable for me. I will definitely mess around with it a bit more, but without things like multiple account support, colour tagging and in-app browser, it will likely sit unused, syncing the few people I share on Twitter with my contact list. Shame, too.
Check it out in the Android Marketplace.
Hit the break for another pic.
LG Aloha Now LG Ally, Looks Hot
Apr 30th
LG’s long-awaited entry into Android finally has a name, and the name is Ally. *crickets*
Awful name notwithstanding, the phone looks awesome and has may be released on multiple carriers in the US.
Specs after the break:
- 3.5-inch AMOLED 800×480 touchscreen
- 65,000 color display
- Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n
- GPRS, UMTS, HSDPA and HSUPA
- Android 2.1
- 1 GHz Snapdragon processor
- Sliding 4-row QWERTY keyboard
- 5.0-megapixel camera
- 720p HD DivX compatible playback
- Wi-Fi, GPS, DMB tuner (South Korea only)
(via Phone Dog)
iPhone Notifications: This Has Got To Stop!
Apr 30th
I, like many, were saddened to hear that absolutely no changes were announced to the iPhone’s notification system during the iPhone OS 4.0 keynote. Push notifications themselves are fantastic, and a great workaround for multitasking (despite OS 4.0 finally getting it) at the time. However now that I have just over a dozen push enabled applications, plus text messaging, I’m starting to realize that the honeymoon is quite over. The pop-over just doesn’t work. My complaints breakdown into three categories:
- Interruption
- Stacking
- Missed notifications
See what I mean, after the break.
Interruption
I’m right in the middle of playing a fast paced round of Bejeweled 2 when I get a notification from Facebook telling me that “Becky has written on my wall.” If I’m right in the middle of something intense, the notification may or may not pause my game (depending on how the developer set it). This leaves me quickly smashing the “Close” button to try and recoup my lost time. Alternatively, it could pop-over just a second before I tap where the “Open” button resides. My intention was to slide that blue jewel but instead, my progress is lost and I’m being taken away to Facebook.
Stacking
So I’m on the phone with my mother, we’re talking about my new apartment, the cat, and my plans to visit next. *boo doo doo!* I get a text message. *boo doo doo!* *boo doo doo!* *boo doo doo!* *boo doo doo!* *boo doo doo!* *boo doo doo!* *boo doo doo!* *boo doo doo!* *boo doo doo!* *boo doo doo!* *boo doo doo!* I get a dozen more messages from my brother, spamming my phone while I talk to our mother, on purpose (to annoy me). The prank continues until I cannot take it any longer, I must hang up the call and get back to her when my brother stops being a doofus.
I pull my phone from my face and see the text message alert. I hit close. The next alert pops up. I hit close again. Rinse and repeat until I’ve cleared all the messages. The pop-overs prevent me from clicking “End Call” for as long as I have a notification available. The same would be said for putting a call on hold, or changing to speakerphone. Talk about annoying.
Missed Notifications
This is probably the biggest point. Since notifications are one-off pop-overs, they get cleared if another notification pushes them out. If the notifications had a place to go, then this would be a problem. There are some notifications that I rely on that I’m missing because a robot on Twitter @replied me, pushing it away. Android has the shade, webOS has that pushy-screen thing. Never would I suggest that Apple blatantly copy one of these implementations, but iPhone users need something.
It is probably a pipe dream to hope that Apple will pull a fast on us before OS 4.0 is officially released. Currently, this notification Disastrophe is the only kink in my iPhone experience. I suppose there’s always next year, with OS 5.0…
Rogers Adds A Social View
Apr 30th
In the near future, Rogers will launch something called Social View. According to the company, it is “a built-in feature included on our exclusive selection of smartphones. In real-time, Social View brings together a user’s contacts from popular social networks like Facebook, Twitter and MySpace.”
In other words, on the existing smartphone portfolio the company has, including the Xperia X10 (Timescape) and the HTC Magic+ (Sense UI), Rogers is leveraging existing functionality and using it as a marketing tool. The phones listed already have the ability for Twitter, Facebook, etc., to stream constantly on the home screen, and their use is being consolidated into a product. This is called synergy. Smart move, Rogers.
Also, though the details are less known, the company has attempted to inject some well-needed price-friendliness into their growing plan line-up. Like Bell before them, Rogers has put together three Social Networking-oriented plans that do away with general data consumption and limit the phone’s data use to certain applications, such as Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, etc.
According to Android Guys, “The first of these plans is the ‘Unlimited Social Addict Plan’ which is directed towards Social View phones, although it is available for other smartphones excluding Blackberry. The second is the ‘Unlimited Socialite Plan’ for feature phones and is an entry-level plan. Last is the ‘Unlimited Social Master Plan’ which also is directed at feature phones and sits right above the Socialite Plan.”
Rogers, using these plans, is going to save tons of data bandwidth by limiting customers, who don’t explicitly need wide-based data access, to certain applications and features. With a Blackberry, it is simple to disable APN support (and therefore data access to the internet) and use their BIS-B servers to allow just email and certain other data ports.
Hopefully the plans will be significantly cheaper, too.
We will update you as more information becomes available.
Best Buy Options Pre-Orders for QUENCH, DEXT and Telus Pearl 3G
Apr 30th
When Best Buy wants something, it’s hard to stop them. They are ramping up efforts to get people to purchase cellphones through their new, ubiquitous mobile stores, Best Buy Mobile. And they also want people to get phones as soon as they are released. Which doesn’t make a lot of sense, but some may appreciate getting their phones on Day One.
They have begun taking pre-orders for the Bell DEXT, Rogers QUENCH, and Telus Pearl 3G. For a $50 deposit, you can get a call as soon as they become available, and have bragging rights over your friends about owning one of these three mid-level devices.
Check it out at Best Buy Mobile.
(from Mobile Syrup)
iPhone Tips: Time Savers and Mind Blowers 2
Apr 30th
Hot off the heels of the first iPhone Tips: Time Savers and Mind Blowers post, I’ve come up with a few more tricks that everyone should be aware of. Hit the jump to see these undisclosed shortcuts and tips.
When editing text, double tapping a word will select just a single word. Some people are aware of this. Few people are aware of quadruple tapping, which selects an entire paragraph. It takes a bit of practice to stop. One more tap and you’ll gain nothing. Pressing and holding on a link in Safari will bring up options to Open, Open in New Page and Copy (the link URL not the text). Press and hold on keyboard characters (letters and symbols) to bring up alternates. So for the correct spelling of latte, type l-a-t-t then press and hold the e, drag your finger over to the é key and release. Presto! Just be aware that these symbols will not show up in SMS messages to other people unless they also have iPhones. This tip also works with symbols, like the question mark to make an upside down question mark (¿) and when typing a web address, holding the period will bring up a “.com .net. .org” menu. To save images from Mail or Safari, press and hold the image, a box will slide up with the option to save the image to the camera roll. Again, I’m always looking for more tricks and tips to recommend to folks. So if there are some tasty ones I’ve missed, please drop me a line in the comments.
Quadruple tap for paragraph selection
Copy a link or open in a new window
Add accents to letters and get extra symbols
Save images from Safari or Mail
Apple Rejects Seal Hunt iPhone Game
Apr 30th
Matt Smyth, 28, of St. John’s, N.L., submitted a game to the Apple Canada App Store called iSealClub. The purpose of the game was simple: to club the heck out of cute, innocent, cartoon seals. Sure, in theory that doesn’t sound like the most wholesome game, but compared to a lot of the other crap in the App Store, it was surely not beyond reproach.
Apparently it was.
He received word a couple days ago that Apple had rejected his game, without any reason. He thinks it is because of the morally objectionable image of a person clubbing seals to death potentially causing a media uproar amongst seal activists in Canada. He made sure, however, that baby seals, for whom it is illegal to club, were not allowed to be hurt in the game. In fact, Smyth says the player loses points for clubbing a baby seal.
And what about if the hunter had just been using a gun? It probably would have gone through the App Store just fine.
Read up on more of this bizarre story at Canoe.
Uniwar : Cross-platform multiplayer gaming
Apr 29th
The list of my friends obtaining Android device is growing rapidly. Even though the iPhone is extremely popular, I’m getting outnumbered solely because none of the people I know are willing to switch to AT&T. I’ve been blessed with incredible games, both online and offline, for my iPhone and I feel bad for my Android wielding brethren. The gaming scene isn’t terrible, it just isn’t iPhone.
I’ve been trying to find a cross-platform game that we can all play, that is also decent. Believe me, options are limited. After some searching, I came across Uniwar. A kind of mashup between Advance Wars/Fire Emblem and StarCraft. It’s a turn based real time strategy game.
Hit the jump for more.
The game has three races which are identical to the Terran, Protoss and Zerg in terms of their archetypes. Various units are created with different attributes and abilities. For the most part, the focus will be on the rock, paper scissors effect between the units and terrain. Many units have unique abilities that devastate enemies, and since the battles are turn based, using them effectively is easier. There’s a solo mode, and story mode (which includes an expansive tutorial) for those not particularly into multiplayer or those looking for a better reason to hit the buy button.
The turned based nature is a boon for multiplayer, which was ultimately the reason I purchased this game. Offline pass and play is available. However, online (which is free with a quick registration) is where the game really shines. Players create an online username and can build friend’s lists, akin to Xbox Live. There is in game and out of game text chat and matchmaking. This is how the cross-platform multiplayer works since the devices cannot connect directly to each other. A middleman server handles each turn on a turn by turn basis. It’s a cheap work around, but it does work especially well for this type of situation. Games play pretty much identically online as they do offline, the only caveat being the wait times between turns. The style of the game suits a “play a few rounds when I have free time” style rather than a sit-down, six hour epic. One match could potentially last weeks if only a few turns are made each day…, and it requires the cooperation from both players. Thankfully, those unwilling to wait can play up to twenty online games at a time and up to eight players per game- totally anonymously.
As for some closing comments, the game has dozens of maps and will instantly switch between landscape and portrait depending how the device is held (I did run into a one tiny problem with that as pictured above). Uniwar is 99¢ on the iPhone/iPod Touch and $4.99 for Android. Why the great price difference, I can’t say. Unfortunately, the “high cost” (I say that with quotes because the game is absolutely worth $5) scared away all of my friends, making my search all for naught. That being said, I could not test the game on an Android device and cannot vouch for its quality…, I can say that at 99¢, the iPhone version is ludicrous to pass up. Android users shouldn’t think twice if they want a quality game with multiplayer. When I purchased Uniwar, it was $4.99 on the App Store and I am very happy.
Please, I’d love to hear if there are more cross-platform multiplayer games…, even if it’s between Palm HP’s webOS and Blackberry (as random as that might be).
Uniwar website
This application was paid for by GuruClark and tested on an iPhone. Presumedly the Android app is identical.
BlackBerry Super Apps
Apr 29th
Back in February at MWC 2010, Mike Lazaridis introduced the concept of ‘Super Apps‘ representing next-level apps that are fully integrated into core BlackBerry applications such as the inbox, calendar, address book, etc. I must admit, at first when I read about this ‘Super App’ statement, I kind of laughed about it like, “There you go again Mikey L.” Let’s face it, Mike Lazaridis has made his fair share of strange assertions.
After my initial doubt, I really started to think about this ‘Super App’ concept. It really does make sense. There are very few apps out there that take full advantage of the BlackBerry platform. Let’s take ‘Facebook for BlackBerry’ for example. The Facebook app pushes notifications into your Inbox, events into your calendar, adds your friends info & profile picture in your address book entries, and more. You can post to Facebook from your photo albums, emails, etc. This is an example of a ‘Super App’.
I have to tell you, I fully agree with Mike Lazaridis. Being someone who reads up on BlackBerry news daily, I have always been quick to try out new or updated apps and have also been just as quick to dismiss the majority of them. I never knew what to call it before, but I have always been looking for that Super App integration.
RIM is now conscious that the mobile world is now mainly app driven, and has given developers access to their ‘push’ technology and the proper developer tools to push out higher quality apps. Most developers, however, are still not taking full advantage of the internal APIs RIM gives them access to. As frustrating as it is for me, I’m sure it is ten times more frustrating for RIM. RIM is really stepping their game up with BlackBerry 6 and they want app developers to follow their lead.
This week, at WES 2010, the BlackBerry Partners Fund launched their third annual Developer Challenge. This year, the new focus is Super Apps. The stakes have been raised as well as the prizes. This is a great motivational tool to drive developers to be fully conscious of Super App integration, and it is sending out the message not to bother if you are not working on a Super App. Amen! Now that there is a new level of expectation for BlackBerry app developers, I am very excited to see what the future will bring.
Rogers Lets Slip (Or Shouts Loudly) That Acer Liquid E Will Ship With Android 2.1
Apr 29th
UrMagazine.ca is the Roger’s version of a trade magazine, showcasing the latest and greatest in their products and services.
In this issue, they profile the Xperia X10, which just launched, and the yet-to-launch Acer Liquid E. We knew this was coming to Rogers eventually, though judging by the timeliness of the piece, I’m guessing it’s sooner rather than later.
That being said, the Liquid E has already been released in other markets, and is equipped quite nicely, with similar specs to the Nexus One. It will come with stock Android 2.1 including Live Wallpapers. There is a Snapdragon processor inside, but it is underclocked to 768MHZ.
Check out the article at UrMagazine.
Read below for the rest of the specs.
STYLE
Touchscreen smartphone running Android 2.1
MESSAGING
Threaded SMS, IM, email, social networks
DISPLAY
3.5-inch (480×800 pixels)
CAMERA
5.0-megapixel camera, 20 fps video
STORAGE
microSD up to 16GB
CONNECT
3G HSDPA, EDGE, GSM, Wi-Fi 802.11b/g, A-GPS, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP
SIZE
15 x 62.5 x 12.5 mm; 135 grams
Touchscreen smartphone running Android 2.1
MESSAGING
Threaded SMS, IM, email, social networks
DISPLAY
3.5-inch (480×800 pixels)
CAMERA
5.0-megapixel camera, 20 fps video
STORAGE
microSD up to 16GB
CONNECT
3G HSDPA, EDGE, GSM, Wi-Fi 802.11b/g, A-GPS, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP
SIZE
15 x 62.5 x 12.5 mm; 135 grams
