30
May
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[New App] Brilliant! DropSnap Instantly Syncs Newly Taken Photos To Dropbox

Posted by in Applications, News
Last Updated: February 8th, 2012

Photo syncing is not a novel idea at all - there are countless solutions that do it on a regular basis, but instant photo uploading the moment it is taken is something I've been looking forward to for a long time. And now it's here, thanks to Chris Soyars, aka ctso - one of the senior CyanogenMod developers.

Chris's new app, DropSnap, has a very simple purpose - get your photos synced up to the cloud the moment you take them. I'm not exaggerating - it really is that fast (of course, depending on your data connection). For example, on Wi-Fi, freshly snapped pictures were synced to Dropbox and back to my computer before I could open my mouth and say "Android rocks".

14
May
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PSA: AIM and Google Talk Can Now Talk To Each Other; All 9 AIM Users Are Essited

Posted by in Google, News

Last week, TechCrunch posted a little announcement that got all 9 people who still used AIM (AOL Instant Messenger) very excited, as all their buddies had already left the dying empire and migrated to Google Talk, and AIM was starting to get kind of boring without them. AOL to the rescue - the company (or whatever is left of it) quietly announced that starting sometime this week, AIM and Google Talk users would be able to become BFFs again, all without switching away from their respective clients.

As of this morning, the integration of the 2 networks is a go.

AIM users can now add their Gtalk buddies by their Gmail email account - for example, What_Would_We_Do_Without@gmail.com.

08
Mar
mag google

Google Instant Previews Are Now Mobile

Posted by in News

If you have used Google in the last few months, you may have noticed a new feature that allows you to see a small preview of a web page in search results without having to click on it. This feature, Google Instant Previews, is now available on Google mobile versions of Google search.

From the Google Mobile Developers' Blog:

"For example, if you’re looking for a webpage that has both photos and descriptions, you can use Instant Previews to quickly identify these pages by navigating across the visual search results with a few swipes of your finger. Or perhaps you’re looking for an article, a step-by-step instructions list, or a product comparison chart—with Instant Previews, you can see easily spot pages with the right content without having to navigate back and forth between websites and search results.

01
Feb
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Metro PCS Drops LG Optimus M From $229 To $149 In A President's Day February Promotion

Posted by in LG, MetroPCS, News, Optimus M

After yesterday's launch of Optimus V on Virgin Mobile USA for $150, MetroPCS, another prepaid carrier, just followed the same suit and dropped the price of its own Optimus variant, the Optimus M, from $229 to $149.

The $80 President's Day price drop consists of an instant $30 discount and a $50 mail-in rebate, valid on purchases made from February 1st (that's today as of 5 hours ago) and February 28th. Free 2-day shipping is included with all phone purchases.

A quick spec recap: the phone comes with Android 2.2, 600MHz processor, 512MB of RAM, 512MB of ROM, 3.2" 480x320px screen, Wi-Fi b/g, Bluetooth 2.1 with EDR, 3.2MP camera, and a 1500mAh battery.

26
Jan
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For Developers: Google Releases ADT For Eclipse v9.0.0 And SDK Tools r9, Now Offers Near-Instant AVD Restarts [Hands-On]

Posted by in Android OS, Development, News, Tips & Tutorials

If you are a developer, you will want to fire up SDK Manager right now and perform an update. Besides the Honeycomb SDK preview that we'll talk about separately, Google also unleashed the next version of Android Development Tools, or simply ADT, for Eclipse as well as SDK Tools r9. I've been using ADT versions 9.0.0 preview 1, 2, and 3 for a number of weeks now, and I can tell you that 9.0.0 is a huge step up to where a serious set of development tools needs to be.

What's New?

Numerous improvements to the Visual Layout Editor, "go to declaration" hyperlink support for quicker navigation around declarations, near-instant AVD restarts (holy crap!!!

11
Dec
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Google Instant For Android 2.2+, iOS 4 Now Available In 28 Languages, 40 Countries

Posted by in News

Google's mobile blog released some impressive numbers today in regard to the availability of Google Instant for mobile: the service is now ready for Android 2.2+ and iOS 4 devices in 28 different languages and 40 countries.

instant_de (1) instant_henri (1)

If you're a non-US Android (or iOS) user and want to check availability for your locale, simply go to the Google homepage on your device. If "Instant (beta) is off" appears hit "Turn on", and you'll be set to go.

Commenters, if you'd like to confirm the languages/countries that Google Instant for mobile is now available to, please do so below!

Source: GoogleMobile via Engadget

24
Nov
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Yelp Android App v2.5 Introduces Check-in Offers

Posted by in Applications, News

Yelp's mobile app on Android just got an update to version 2.5, introducing just one feature - check-in offers. Check-in offers are new to Yelp but not new in the industry - 4square pioneered the concept, followed by Facebook and SCVNGR. Yelp introduced mobile check-ins in July of this year.

The basic idea is whenever you check into a business using the mobile app, you may be presented with a discount coupon in one of these 3 categories: % off, free item, or fixed discounted price. Just show the coupon at the register to claim the item - no printing or planning necessary.

04
Nov
Google-Instant2

Google Instant Rolling Out For Froyo Devices, Enter Keys Start Feeling Unloved

Posted by in News

Launched to much hyperbole back in September, Google Instant is now making the transition from your desktop browser to your mobile device. Those of you graced with the goodness of Froyo can now experience the same mind-melding AJAX tomfoolery on your handset as you do on a computer. As in the desktop version, Instant is an optional function and you can easily switch it on and off right from the search page. You may have also noticed that it requires significantly faster internet connection speeds to work properly, so in the case of a mobile device you're probably best sticking to using it only on WiFi or in strong 3G/4G areas.

21
Jul
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2x Tips: A Brilliantly Easy Way To Generate QR Codes In A Split Second... And An Even More Brilliant Way To Do It Even Faster

Posted by in Tips & Tutorials

In today's Android-enabled world, QR codes play quite an important role because, face it, who wants to type that long, pesky URL on your phone's keyboard when you can just quickly scan an image and have the URL decoded in a split second?

Why do I say with such confidence that QR codes are now a commodity? Have a look at this awesome chart AppBrain posted yesterday. See Barcode Scanner, whose primary purpose is to scan QR codes? A whopping 63.8% of Android users have it installed on their phones - in fact it's the #3 most installed application.

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Every respectable Android site uses QR codes in one way or another - sites like AppBrain offer a QR code on every application page, and when we do app roundups, like this 8 Great Apps Every Rooted Android User Should Know About one, we try to include QR images as well.

18
Apr
HTC Droid Incredible

HTC Droid Incredible Now Available For Preorder From VZW.com For $199 And No Mail-In Rebates, To Be Delivered on 4/29

Posted by in HTC, Incredible, News, Verizon Wireless

Today Verizon finally made their newest superhero Android phone - the HTC Droid Incredible, available for preorder from VZW.com, a day after Best Buy opened up its own preorder site.

So why should you order online instead of buying it in a store where you can pick it up right away on the release date of April 29th?

Well, first of all, this monster of a phone which sports a blazing 1GHz Snapdragon processor and an 8MP camera, will cost you $299 and come with a $100 mail-in (this mail-in crap should die already - this is 2010 last time I checked) rebate in the store.