Phonebeez » Software

Google updates Google Maps, now includes walking navigation

bapagoh — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 05:10:19 +0000

Google just updated its Google Maps for Android to version 4.5 with some new features included. The most notable is the walking navigation which users can use it to find walking route. Another addition is a new Google Maps search bar. The new bar is always available at the top of Maps to be accessed quickly to search, open Places, toggle Layers, or pinpoint your current location

[via googlemobileblog]

Google announces “Voice Actions” and “Chrome to Phone”

bapagoh — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 02:42:18 +0000

Google has just announced 2 new cool applications for your Android 2.2 phones (yes, only Android 2.2) – Voice Actions and Chrome to Phone.

Voice Actions is an extended version of your current voice commands for Android and it comes with a lot more commands, including voice to email and SMS. The commands are listed below:

send text to [contact] [message]
listen to [artist/song/album]
call [business]
call [contact]
send email to [contact] [message]
go to [website]
note to self [note]
navigate to [location/business name]
directions to [location/business name]
map of [location]

Chrome to Phone is not exactly new. However, it is made official now by Google. Basically you can install the program in your Android phone, add the extension to your Chrome browser (or Firefox), then you can push a number of things to your phone from the browser. You can:

Send browser links from Chrome to your phone.
Google Maps links launch the Google Maps application on Android.
YouTube links launch the YouTube application on Android.
Selecting a phone number will automatically launch the dialer with the number populated.
Selecting text on a Web page will copy the clipboard to Android (long press a text box to paste on Android).

The video of the official Voice Actions is after the break. Enjoy!

[via google mobile blog]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGbYVvU0Z5s&feature=player_embedded

We don’t need Facetime, Fring can do video calls over 3G

bapagoh — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 03:24:00 +0000

Fring has just updated their iPhone program to take advantage of the front facing camera of iPhone. And what’s more, it can do video call over 3G.

And since Fring is available across multiple platforms, you can even have video calls to Android and Symbian phones.

Office Mobile 2010 released, free upgrade for Office Mobile 6.5 users

bapagoh — Thu, 13 May 2010 03:23:23 +0000

After the beta release last year, Microsoft has just released the official Office Mobile 2010, and it is a free upgrade for existing Office Mobile 6.5 users. It is now downloaded from Windows Marketplace.

In conjunction with the retail release of the full desktop version of Office 2010, Office Mobile 2010 bringing comprehensive Word, Excel, and PowerPoint editing capabilities to the pocket — on Windows Mobile 6.5.

The new version has SharePoint integration for grabbing documents from the office, a nifty Bluetooth controller mode for PowerPoint presentations, and so on…

Keen to try? Download it from the Marketplace now.

Microsoft Bing Navigation in action

bapagoh — Wed, 12 May 2010 06:37:02 +0000

Microsoft has just release and update Bing for mobile device which include a turn-by-turn voice navigation.

The big new feature is full voice-prompt text-to-speech navigation. Yes, it tells you the names of the roads you should turn on and even tells you which side of the street your destination is on. The video is bellow.

Opere Mini gets its way to Apple App Store

bapagoh — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 02:29:20 +0000

Has Apple relaxed its App Store policy for not approving apps that duplicate the functionality of iPhone?

The famous Opera Mini browser has just got approved for the App Store. This browser uses server from Opera to render web pages and thus achieve a superior speed for loading of web pages. For a long time Apple has been rejecting this browser to the App Store. And it is to many people’s surprise, it finally makes its way to App Store.

Has Apple changed its policy? Or somebody accidentally approved the app?

Download yours for your iPhone, it is available now.

[via engadget]

Quake 3 ported to Android 2.0

bapagoh — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 07:50:31 +0000

Are you a big fan of the old Quake 3 game? If you are and you own a Android 2.0 device, here is a piece of good news for you. Quake 3 has been ported and run successfully on Motorola DROID.

At the moment, the port is optimized to run on a device with keyboard like DROID. However, since it is open source and in future we may see it optimized for other device without keyboard like Nexus One. The game is reported to run at a speed of 20 – 30 fps now and will be even slower when the map is huge and detailed. I think the port will be optimized and run faster along the way.

If you are interested to run the game on your device, you can find more information from the project page here.

[via tweaker]

Google Earth has come to Android

bapagoh — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 03:29:18 +0000

After several delays, the Google has finally come to Android devices. It is now available in the market. However, it is for Nexus One only but will be available for most of the Android 2.1 devices later.

It is a huge application. The download takes about 5Mb and it will be blown up to about 22Mb after install. There are a number of layers available for Google Earth, including Places, Businesses, Panoramio, Wikipedia, Roads, Borders and Labels, and Terrain.

If you want this beautiful app that has been available on you desktop to be on your phone, download it from market or scan the QR code here.

New HTC Sense on Android 2.1 comes with pinch-to-zoom on home screen

bapagoh — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 04:00:47 +0000

You might be wondering what are the new features that the new HTC Sense on Android 2.1 may get. And here we have a nice video showing a good implementation of multitouch – pinch-to-zoom on the home screen and you will get all the home panel screen arranged in a 2-3-2 pattern. And you just tab on anyone of them to go straight to the panel. It looks like a nicer implementation of Nexus One’s long press on the bottom screen to get the 5 panels.

Below is the video demonstrating the new feature. You may want to skip to 6:60 mark as the front part of the video is showing the long startup and initial setup of the phone.

[via htcsource]

Google launches Buzz – to challenge Facebook and Twitter

bapagoh — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 05:00:41 +0000

Google just launched Buzz – a social networking tool with just about anything you can think of – status, share photos, share locations, etc.

Buzz is built into Gmail, some of you may have seen it in your Gmail already. And it is available for mobile users as well. Go to buzz.google.com, and you’ll be taken to a Web app that lets you see and create Buzz messages. You can see messages from people you “follow” or interact with often, or you can see messages from people nearby.

It is also integrated into Google Maps, download the latest Maps version 4 to your mobile phone and you will see “Buzz” layer available for the map (I am not able to do this in Singapore, any reason?) And using the voice search feature on Android phone, just say “post buzz” and you will be taken to the page to post your buzz.

Will this new effort from Google going to take over Facebook and Twitter? Only time will tell.

1.4 millions downloads of the free Nokia Ovi Map for the first week

bapagoh — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 04:53:04 +0000

People like free things, and it is proven again. The Ovi Map from Nokia has been downloaded for 1.4 millions times since it went free last week. An on average, it is one download every second.

The response has been so good that it’s exceeded Nokia’s expectations according to Anssi Vanjoki, Nokia Executive Vice President. And the countries that top the 5 are China, Italy, UK, Germany and Spain.

It is hard to resist when you are offered a free good stuff, even you might not be using it However, the move from Nokia can add more problems to the Navigation Device companies like TomTom and Garmin. They were already having problems since Google released the Google Map Navigation few months ago.

Well, the fittest and strongest will survive.

The press release is after the break.

[via engadget]

New Ovi Maps with free navigation races past 1 million downloads in a week

ESPOO – Nokia has today announced that since the launch of the new version of Ovi Maps with free walk and drive navigation, on Thursday 21 January 2010 just one week after the launch, there have been over 1.4 million downloads. The one million mark was reached already at the end of last week. “We’re averaging a download a second, 24 hours a day,” said Anssi Vanjoki, Executive Vice President, Nokia. “When we announced free walk & drive navigation we knew it would be a game-changer. The number of people now using their Nokia for navigation, and as a result looking for more location-aware software, is growing faster than even we predicted.”
The success of the new version Ovi Maps is a key part of Nokia’s strategy to lead the market in mobile maps, navigation and location-based services. By leveraging its investment in NAVTEQ, Nokia has been able to remove the costs associated with navigation for drivers and pedestrians and is quickly activating a massive user base to which it can offer new location features, content and services.

“This is great news for our 3rd party application developers. Within a matter of days there is an installed base of more than 1 million active users all potentially hungry for new and innovative location-aware apps,” continued Anssi Vanjoki. “For the operators too there is a growing opportunity to sell more data-plans and a complete navigation package to existing and new customers.”

As of 31 January 2010 the top five countries downloading the new version of Ovi Maps were: China, Italy, UK, Germany and Spain. The top five most popular Nokia devices installing the download were: Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, Nokia N97 mini, Nokia N97, Nokia 5230 and Nokia E72.

“There is a huge appetite for GPS navigation on mobile phones. We estimate there were already 25.9 million people actively using GPS navigation on their mobile phones at the end of 2009,” said Chris Jones, VP & Principal Analyst at research firm Canalys.

From next month, all new Nokia GPS-enabled smartphones will include the new version of Ovi Maps, pre-loaded with local country map data, with high-end walk and drive navigation and access to Lonely Planet and Michelin travel guides at no extra cost.

Ovi Maps covers more than 180 countries with car and pedestrian navigation for 74 countries, in 46 languages, and traffic information for more than 10 countries. There are more than 6000 3D landmarks for 200 cities around the world. Lonely Planet and Michelin guides have information on more than 1,000 destinations globally.

Apple rumoured to dump Google and use Bing as default search

bapagoh — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 14:29:13 +0000

This make sense as Google is becoming the common enemy of Apple and Microsoft.

With Google’s strong push of Android in the market and works from Google to integrate their services tightly to the platform, it will slowly capture the mobile search market and soon the mobile market.

And with the recent purchase of Admob (a mobile ads company) and release of its first Android phone, Nexus One, to the market, the big G has shown its interest to conquer the mobile market as well.

So it is obvious that Google is stepping into Apple’s iPhone territory. And Microsoft’s Bing has to find its way to more mobile devices besides its own Windows Mobile. The alliance between the two companies will slow down Google’s attack.

Well, we will see whether it will happen soon.

[via businessweek]