Here is a small but nifty update to Google’s search interface on tablets (both iOS and Android): just search for [weather] and a new tablet-optimized weather widget will show you the current weather at your location (or anywhere else if you add a city’s name or ZIP code to your search), as well as hourly and ten-day forecasts for temperature, precipitation, humidity and wind speed. Google officially confirmed this update on Google+ earlier today.
The new widget looks like the developers took their design cues from Android’s new Google Now feature. Earlier this year, Google launched a similar widget for iPhone and Android phones as well, but its design is significantly different and the feature set is limited to a three- or five-day forecast depending on the size and orientation of your screen. Just like the new tablet widget, though, the phone interface is also interactive. → Read More
Competition in the tablet space has been heating up for a while now, and it’s not just the big guys that are feeling the strain. Take the tumultuous story of OGT Mobile, for instance — they tried to make their mark on the industry by creating their own Android tablet, but just couldn’t see the project through.
I can’t blame you if you’ve never heard of OGT before — back in April 2011 when the company revealed the Eros tablet, it made a few waves thanks to its claims of being the thinnest Android tablet in the world. → Read More
Over the past day or so, a few lucky souls have managed to get their hands on Google’s much-anticipated Nexus 7 tablet, leaving the rest of us to wonder when our time would come. As it turns out, the answer is very soon.
After their Nexus support phone line tipped users off earlier today, Google has finally come right out and said it — the company has begun shipping those wallet-friendly tablets to all those who pre-ordered from them.
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MyTracks for Android is one of Google’s lesser known mobile apps, but it’s actually a pretty useful tool for those who would like to keep a record of their bike rides, runs, hikes and other outdoor activities. Google itself is actually using it together with Team HTC-Columbia during the Tour de France to track the team’s riders during the event. Today, the company is releasing version 2.0 of the free app, which introduces a new interface, as well as support for playing back data in Google Earth for Android, improved charts and additional statistics for evaluating performance trends. → Read More
Nielsen released another of their periodic looks at the U.S. smartphone market today, and aside from the revelation that two-thirds of U.S. phone purchasers went for smartphones in Q2 2012, the results are as you’d expect.
Android still leads the pack in terms of pure penetration — as of this past June, it accounts for 51.8% of smartphones in use (up from 50.4% in Q1 2012) with Apple’s iOS right behind it at 34%. Don’t feel too bad for Apple though, as they still have the highest manufacturer share by far (34% in Q2), with Samsung at a distant second. → Read More
Don’t let their recent quiet streak fool you — the team at Eric Schmidt-backed receipt aggregator/tracking service Slice have spent the last few months slaving away on revamped versions of their iOS and Android apps, and now that major update is ready for the purchase tracking masses.
With Slice 2.0, co-founder and CEO Scott Brady wanted to do more than just track packages and aggregate users’ purchase histories. Perhaps the most notable addition to the updated Slice mobile apps is a new personal analytics option that breaks down how much users have spent on what kinds of products, with options to drill into specific purchase categories, item types, and merchants. → Read More
Twitter finalized a major overhaul of its mobile site today aimed at users on feature phones and older browsers. In a blog post, the Twitter design team wrote that they built a “lighter-weight, faster client that looks and feels like twitter.com and our mobile apps.”
The new site is much cleaner and is very similar to the browser and app interfaces, allowing the company to deliver the best version of its product across more platforms. This comes on the heels of yesterday’s release of new Twitter mobile apps for iOS and Android.
The results of Twitter’s nine week project brings mobile support to thirteen different browsers for thousands of different devices. On the blog, the team writes about working to provide users with a “consistent experience on any device.” The new site can scale from screens as small as 240 x 240 pixels up to desktops. In an effort to accomodate slower networks and different browsers, the site is optimized for browsers with javascript turned off and offers page sizes that are up to 63% smaller than the old version. → Read More
Well, today’s shaping up to be a banner day for Kindle Fire owners. If the news of some nifty features for Kindle Fire games isn’t enough to get owners hot and bothered, how about a nice dose of Android 4.1 Jelly Bean?
Android developers and hackers have been working feverishly ever since Google released Jelly Bean to the Android Open Source Project repository two days ago, and it wasn’t long before a ROM for the Kindle Fire was pushed out into the world.
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Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, a market analysis division of WPP, has today published its latest figures on mobile device sales across a number of key markets, and it looks like something of a milestone for Android: this is the first time in ComTech’s recording of sales that Android has accounted for more than half of all smartphone sales in the U.S., the biggest markets in Europe, and Australia.
The sales, recorded over the last 12 weeks that ended June 10, put Android sales in a range going from 49.6 percent of all smartphone sales in Italy to 84.1 percent of all smartphone sales in Spain.
These numbers are a crucial barometer of how well Android devices are selling in the market: Google typically talks activations but not actual sales of handsets. Andy Rubin in June noted that Android device activations are now numbering at over 900,000 per day.
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Well, if you needed any more proof that the Galaxy Note will soon make an appearance on T-Mobile’s store shelves, take a gander at this.
TmoNews has discovered that a slew of Galaxy Note related documents can be found by searching for — what else? — “Galaxy Note” on T-Mobile’s website. Sadly, there’s no word yet on whether or not that rumored July 11 release date is still in the cards.
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Songza has long been one of my favorite music apps, and as an iPhone user, I’ve had access to all the latest and greatest features within it. But as I’ve mentioned the app to various friends and such, I’ve learned that Android has been missing out. But no more.
Songza’s core feature — Concierge — is now available within the Android version of the app. The update is now live, so if you’re interested in checking it out, go ahead and download the update. → Read More
Following the debut of indoor maps in Google Maps back in November, Google announced today that it’s adding the indoor maps for over twenty U.S. museums to its Maps app on Android. The museums added include the de Young Museum in San Francisco, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Cincinnati Museum Center, the Indianapolis Museum of Art, the American Museum of Natural History and 17 Smithsonian museums, the company says, as well as the Smithsonian National Zoo. → Read More
Does bigger always mean better? It depends on who you ask of course, but more than a few major smartphone manufacturers would probably say yes. Even the notorious hold-outs at Apple are rumored to be working on something a bit larger than their usual — in short, the race to be the biggest doesn’t show any signs of letting up.
In a market where big smartphones reign supreme though, Verizon and HTC seem to think that a smaller device can still captivate some jaded consumers. As a result they’ve put together the Droid Incredible 4G LTE, a poorly named device that manages to squeeze a surprising amount of power into a relatively small frame.
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I said in my review that the Samsung Galaxy S III is the phone you’ve been waiting for, and the same holds true in this latest episode of Fly Or Die. John and I took a look at the various specs, namely the NFC-style features and S-Voice, and we both walked away with a warm, fuzzy feeling.
To put it quite bluntly, the Galaxy S III is far and away the best Android phone you can buy today. Sure, the plastic back panel is a bit “chintzy,” as John would say, but that’s irrelevant when you look at the value in this phone. → Read More
I don’t know too many people who would look at the Galaxy Note and its 5.3 inch display and say “y’know, it would be great if this thing was just a little bigger,” and I now I know why. As it turns out, those people live in Korea, work for Samsung, and may have decided just that.
According to their usual unnamed sources, Korea’s MK Business News reports that Samsung’s Galaxy Note 2 will sport an even larger 5.5-inch display when its unveiled at Germany’s IFA 2012 trade show in August. → Read More
Good news, Android fans. A developer over on the forever awesome XDA Developers forums has figured out how to extract Google Now from Android Jelly Bean and port it over to devices running Ice Cream Sandwich. The process for doing so requires a slightly geeky skill set, of course. You have to have a rooted device and you’ll need to be comfortable navigating through the Android file system, for starters. But assuming that’s you, then you can be among the first to try Google Now in (nearly) all its glory.
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Amazon’s Kindle Fire has done a remarkable job carving out its own niche in the tablet space, and it seems a sequel is already barreling down the pipeline for a release in the coming months. That new tablet may not be alone though, as rumblings of yet another Amazon hardware project have started up once again.
After conferring with their sources, Bloomberg reported late yesterday evening that Amazon is working on a new smartphone that they hope will go toe-to-toe with the iPhone and Android smartphones. → Read More
There’s an argument to be made that Samsung’s Galaxy S III is the best Android phone on the market today, but that doesn’t mean that its formula can’t be improved upon.
Case in point: now the Galaxy S III has wormed its way around the globe, Samsung is preparing to launch a version of its flagship handset that outshines the both the international and U.S. models, thanks to some craftily combined hardware. → Read More
Noom Weight Loss Coach, an Android app that has seen over 5 million organic downloads, has just undergone a major redesign. The usual wheel on the homescreen has been replaced with a task list that shows all of your progress and goals at a glance. The exercise function has also been revamped to seamlessly integrate the pedometer into everything you do, letting you track your steps with your phone.
The app has added rewards and motivational features to increase engagement, along with a few new food tracking abilities. The idea is that you shouldn’t have to input very much information — just the bare necessities — and Noom will do the rest on its own to help you lose weight. → Read More
Rumors and questionable leaks of Motorola’s next Atrix device have been making the rounds for what seems like ages, but Motorola finally put all that speculation to rest last night. The company recently revealed the new Ice Cream Sandwich-powered handset on their website, albeit with a notable lack of fanfare.
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