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Jun

Android Web Market Gets Google +1

Posted by David Ruddock in Android OS, Apps/Games, News

Google +1 has been quietly rolled out over the last few months to Google users - allowing them to "+1" (aka, "Like") pages found in Google search results. Today, +1 has been expanded into a number of other Google services, including the Android Web Market:

Pretty neat, right? ROM Manager likes are already piling up. It's very likely we'll see +1 expanded onto the Android Market app in the future, as Google tries to make +1 a part of everyday life for Google users.

Additionally, YouTube, Blogger, and Product Search all have implemented +1. Google has announced a number of partner sites that will have embedded "+1" buttons for content and products (eg, Best Buy, Reuters), similar to the way other social sharing features are incorporated (like Tweet buttons).

May

Lodsys Patent Trolling Starting To Target Android App Devs - OK, Now It's Personal

Posted by David Ruddock in Android OS, Apps/Games, Editorials, News

You've all probably heard bits and pieces of news about a company called Lodsys in the last couple of weeks, (they've been "patent trolling" iOS app developers) even if you don't really keep up on all things fruit-related. If you're not familiar with the story, let me give you a quick rundown.

Lodsys is what we affectionately refer to as a "patent troll" - a company that buys up promising and often vague or [overly] broad patents in a hope of using them to threaten to sue the pants off people that they know might be infringing on them. Let me say that again - they find a patent, find out how many people might be infringing it, and then decide to buy it.

May

Google Finally Updates Web Android Market With Screenshot Navigation And Rotation Capabilities

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Apps/Games, News

Last Updated: May 29th, 2011

Ever since the Android web Market was launched, one of my main gripes with its UI (let's not talk about content discovery here) was screenshot navigation. There were 2 basic problems - you could not click Next or Previous as those buttons did not exist, and the only way to close a screenshot close-up was by finding and clicking a tiny X button.

Most modern "lightbox"-style galleries already solved the aforementioned problems by adding easy navigation buttons and allowing you to click anywhere on the screen to dismiss the close-up. Today, Google quietly did just that, and then some.

Here are the 5 new features I just spotted that weren't there this morning:

the Next and Previous buttons finally allow easy navigation
clicking on the close-up of a screenshot is equivalent to pressing Next
left and right keyboard arrow keys are equivalent to Previous and Next (hooray!)
the X button is gone - you can now close any image close-up by clicking anywhere on the screen
in-line rotation buttons which let you turn those occasional sideways images the right way

Here, have a look:

Visit your favorite app in the Market and check it out for yourself.

May

Google Responds To PayPal Trade Secret Lawsuit - What Does It All Really Mean? An Explanation

Posted by David Ruddock in Android OS, Editorials, News

Disclaimer: I'm not an attorney. This is not legal advice.

The PayPal and Google lawsuit is just another one of Google's seemingly endless big-name legal tangles over the last couple of years. Why is Google litigation such a frequent topic?

At least in part, it's because Google has one of the most aggressive stances towards litigation of any member of the tech industry. Google's reputation for taking its battles to court has become almost notorious (well, except for the "Buzz" incident) - regardless of cost or, sometimes, likelihood of victory. Google's approach is one of the modern corporation - during the 1990's and 80's, when civil litigation was actually more prevalent, in-house counsels for major corporations often preferred to settle potentially high-dollar suits rather than risk wasting piles of cash on defending them, only to lose in the end.

May

Google Wallet And Google Offers Are Official, Pay With Your Phone Using NFC

Posted by Cameron Summerson in News

A few days ago, we told you that Google was most likely going to announce a mobile payment service using NFC. Today, that announcement is official, and it's called Google Wallet. Wallet is exactly what the name suggests: a payment service that aggregates all of your credit cards, coupons, loyalty cards, and more, into your Android phone. You can then not only use your phone to pay, but it will also enter your customer loyalty information automatically, as well as redeem any coupons that are loaded into your Wallet using NFC (near field communication).

Here are a few bullets about Wallet, how it works, and what to expect:

This service is going to officially launch this summer, but a beta program is already underway in San Francisco and NYC.

May

[Rumor] Throw Out Your Credit Cards And Grab A Nexus S 4G - Google May Be Rolling Out Mobile Payment Services Using NFC On May 26th

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Google, News, Nexus S 4G (Crespo4g), Rumors, Sprint

The tech world has been abuzz about NFC (near field communication) for the last several months, and it appears that Big Goog may be rolling out the mobile payment service that utilizes it in a couple of days. According to Bloomberg, Google has a press event set for May 26th, where the service should be officially announced. The initial launch is rumored to include five cities - New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Washington D.C.

Once implemented, the system will allow owners of the Nexus S 4G on Sprint to pay and use coupons with a simple wave-of-the-phone.

May

The Power Of Tasker - "Google Cal Widget & Auto Sat Nav" Is The Most Intricate And Amazing Tasker Script We've Seen So Far

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, Development, News

Last Updated: May 25th, 2011

Some call Tasker the most versatile application ever created for Android, and I'm inclined to side with them. The app can automate hundreds of actions and bundle them together in powerful scripts that do exactly what you want them to do (see our Tasker review). Want to silence your phone at night and then restore the ringer to a predefined volume in the morning? No problem. How about popping up a menu of music apps when you plug in your headphones? You got it.

However, the Tasker "task" that brandall from xda created today takes the cake when it comes to complexity and functionality.

May

[Tip] Search The Android Web Market A Lot? Do It Straight From The Url Bar Like A Boss With This Handy Trick (Firefox, Chrome)

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Apps/Games, Tips & Tutorials

If you liked my speedy QR code tips before, you're going to love the tip I have for you today. Ever since the Android web Market was launched, I found myself loading the homepage just to make a search approximately 17 million times a day, give or take a few. As you know, the web Market homepage is quite heavy, so loading it just to make a search, especially while tethering on a slow connection, was starting to get kind of annoying.

In an effort to save both time and clicks (hello, Carpal Tunnel), I've created a much handier way of firing up a search with only a few strokes and without the need for any tools outside of Firefox or Chrome.

May

Google Buys Up Modu's Patent Portfolio For $4.9 Million, More Android Protection Money?

Posted by David Ruddock in Android OS, News

Last month, Google bid $2 million for the patents of the now-defunct micro-cell phone company Modu, fueling speculation as to just what Google's plans would be with that intellectual property. Today, it was announced that the bidding process for the last remnants of Modu's legacy had ended, and Google was the winner (albeit by a narrow margin of $10,000), with a final offer of $4.9 million.

If you've never heard of Modu before, don't worry - the company came out of Israel, and was generally unknown to most of us in the US-of-A until it started having financial troubles. Modu was famous for developing extremely small smart/featurephones (like the little guy in the thumbnail), a market that all but dried up in the US by the time Modu was founded in 2007.

May

Google Rolling Out Music Beta Invites To Verizon XOOM Owners

Posted by Cameron Summerson in News, Verizon Wireless, XOOM

When Google announced its highly anticipated Music beta service at I/O last week, we were told that, aside from I/O attendees, Verizon XOOM owners would be among the first to get to use the service. Holding true to that, Google has officially started sending out the invites this morning.

As far as we know, this is exclusive to Verizon customers right now, with no word when owners of other models (or other devices) can expect to get the invite (aside from attendees with their Galaxy Tab 10.1's).

Have any of you received your invite yet? Drop us a line when you do and let us know how you feel about the service.