10
Oct
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Hallelujah: Google Finally Fixes High Resolution Contact Sync, Updates Web Contact Sync With Brand New UI

Posted by in Google, News

Folks, I can't believe it myself, but this day has finally come - Google seems to have finally sorted out all its backend and frontend issues with Google contact sync. Jelly Bean's 720x720 hi-res contact support was surely a nice addition, but ended up almost completely useless in our earlier tests: Jelly Bean Bumps Contact Photos To Hi-Res 720x720 But Google Sync Continues To Clobber It With Low-Res Mush.

As of today, all the problems I ran into before are resolved. Removing and re-adding an account on my Nexus 7 now syncs the contact photos in full resolution, whereas before they would either disappear altogether or end up washed out.

02
Jul
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Jelly Bean Bumps Contact Photos To Hi-Res 720x720 But Google Sync Continues To Clobber It With Low-Res Mush

Posted by in Jelly Bean 4.1, News

One of the most starred Android issues of all time, currently #20 of 21363 from the top with 1191 stars, is the absolutely awful quality of synced contact photos (issue #3870, opened in 2009). ICS attempted to resolve the issue by bumping the quality to 256x256 pixels, but Google sync would without mercy squash it right back down to blurry pixel dirt (96x96).

To recap, there are actually a couple of issues:

  1. Contact photos set in Gmail.com are downsized to 96x96. That continues to be the case, and this isn't really even an Android problem - it's up to the Gmail team to fix it.

09
Dec
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Google Adds 'Email Developer' Feature To The Web Market, Makes Addresses Public - What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

Posted by in Development, Google, News

I sure love these Google Fridays - the Android team tends to release quite a few little updates to the web Market that make us feel warm on the inside, and it turns out this week is no exception.

You can now email developers with a question or a bug report right from the web Market - a feature previously available only in the device Market. For example:

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The email url is a simple mailto: link, which should pop up your favorite email client (Gmail in my case). This change should most definitely increase helpful feedback to developers as well as provide users with an ability to ask pre-sales questions.

02
Jul
wp7contacts

Give Your Android Contact List The Windows Phone 7 Feel With WP7Contacts

Posted by in Applications, News

For every Windows Phone 7-inspired app, launcher, or theme we've written about, a half-dozen more, often clones, go unmentioned. But every now and then we find something we haven't seen before, and this is one of those times. It's called WP7Contacts, and as you would surmise, it's a contact manager inspired by Windows Phone 7.

wp7contacts

The features:

  • Sync contacts from SIM and Gmail
  • Add new contact or edit existing one
  • Search contacts by clicking search button. If one contact remains swipe up or click for edit contact
  • Sort contacts by clicking all under people. You can sort by phone or email
  • Chose own picture by clicking on the picture under the All/With Phone/With Email
  • Quick search by letter by clicking blue letters.

21
Nov
whoisit_1

Set Custom Ringtones And Vibrations For Different Contacts' Calls, Messages, And Emails Using WhoIsIt

Posted by in Applications, Development, News

WhoIsIt is a new twist on an old classic: setting custom ringtones for certain contacts (or groups of contacts). The twist is that you can assign custom ringtones and vibrations for Gmail, SMS, and MMS, on a per-contact basis. Not too shabby, especially for a free app. Other features include:

* Ability to setup VIP contacts for Gmail, SMS, and MMS
* Allow VIP contacts to ring / notify for Gmail, SMS, and MMS even when in Silent mode
* Announce incoming caller and SMS/MMS sender
* Define different volume / vibration profiles
* Widget for easily switching profiles
* Tasker plugin
* Disable LEDs on a per-profile basis
* Ringleader integration

whoisit_1 whoisit_2

At the moment, the app is still in public beta at version .92.