Archive for the ‘Smartphones’ Category

Mozilla this morning introduced the Alpha release of the next version of its mobile browser Fennec for Android and Nokia N900.
Fennec, which serves as the codename for Firefox mobile, comes with
add-ons and is also built on the same technology that powers Firefox for the desktop.

An earlier version had surfaced back in April this year.

Fennec Alpha for Android and Nokia N900 comes with Firefox Sync built right into the browser, which means your smartphone browsing experience should closely match the one on your desktop.

Thanks to Firefox Sync, Fennec is able to synchronize your Firefox
history, bookmarks, open tabs, passwords and form data between your
desktop and mobile. Just login with your Firefox Sync account info and
Fennec will recognize you.

Apart from that, Mozilla says the main focus of this release is to
increase performance and responsiveness to user actions. From the blog
post:

This is being implemented using two major technologies,
“Electrolysis” and “Layers.” This Alpha release includes Electrolysis,
which allows the browser interface to run in a separate process from
the one rendering Web content. By doing this, Fennec is able to react
much faster to user input while pages are loading or CPU intensive
JavaScript is running.

The upcoming beta release will start taking advantage of Layers to
greatly improve performance in graphic intensive actions like
scrolling, zooming, animations and video. We’re also working to
optimize these actions using the hardware-accelerated graphics
rendering capabilities showing up in today’s mobile devices.

No word on the launch date of that upcoming beta release, though.

Release notes are here.

Important: Mozilla says that Fennec, although compatible with
Android 2.0 and above devices, has been optimized for the Nexus One.

For more information concerning the purchase and setup of android based phones call 678pc at 678-404-1001 for a free estimate. 

678PC is located in Gwinnett County and services phones in all of Metro Atlanta. 

Sale of phones throughout the US

Having an Android along for your daily commute or occasional car trips can make the ride a lot easier, safer, and simply more fun. Here are our favorite Android apps to have on hand when it's time to hit the road.

Note: We've included links to each apps' homepage, which usually include a QR code for easy installing or Market search directions. We've also included a link to each app's page on AppBrain, where signed-in AppBrain users can easily beam the applications to their Android phone.

Note 2: For a look at the flip side of the mobile OS coin, check out the best iPhone apps for your car.

Maps, Navigation, and Car Mode

Maps, Navigation, and Car Mode all come with your Android (version 2.0 and higher), and they're all crucial to the Android-in-the-car experience. Maps is less useful when you have your hands on the wheel, but the ability to "Star" locations from your desktop or laptop browser, then quickly pull them up for directions on your phone, is very nice. Navigation, as we've previously detailed, is an entire turn-by-turn GPS navigation package, as long as you're not driving too far away from a data signal. The Car Mode makes pulling off Voice Actions and getting Navigation directions safer while your hands are occupied, and Maps' break-out app, Places, gives you a chance to see a simple list of nearby restaurants, gas, ATMs, or other spots. [Free on Android phones, but check Market for updates]

Vlingo or Voice Actions

If your phone's running Android 2.2, you can upgrade your phone's built-in Voice Search to the Google-built Voice Actions. And if you're double lucky, Voice Actions won't frequently crash on you, as it does currently on at least a few of the Lifehacker editors' phones. With Voice Actions, you can write texts or emails with your voice, search Google, activate directions or Navigation, find or call businesses—all after only touching the screen once, making it a very helpful and safe car tool.

If you're not on 2.2, or can't get Voice Actions to play nice, you want Vlingo. Actually, you might want Vlingo anyways, if only for the SafeReader function.

Vlingo's a third-party app that does pretty much everything that Voice Actions can do, but uses its own server to pass your voice commands along. It even offers its own keyboard with a dedicated Vlingo button for entering your voice in any text field (great for those stuck on much older firmware), and can take over the default action for holding down your Search button. Even if you like Google's own Voice Actions better, you can install Vlingo and use its SafeReader function. Set up the app with your email accounts, and it can read your incoming email, and text messages, out loud for you, whenever you've activated SafeReader from a home screen widget. Pretty amazing functionality, really, for a free app. [Homepage: Voice Actions, Vlingo] [AppBrain:Voice Search (Voice Actions), Vlingo]

Waze

Google's Maps & Navigation wants to get you where you're going through search, data points, calculations and voice recognition. Waze, too, gets you there with turn-by-turn directions, but it also wants you to run over cupcakes, share interesting spots and details about your trip, and help you avoid traffic jams, accident scenes, speed traps, and find good stuff through the power of social reporting. Anyone who's running Waze on their BlackBerry, Android, iOS device, or other phone while driving is feeding into Waze's maps and traffic data, and those who really dig Waze can compete on picking up power-ups, share traffic tips, point out free parking, and otherwise lend to the community spirit. [Homepage] [Waze]

Listen, Pandora, and NPR News

Your car is probably the one spot where you can really enjoy new tunes, get in-depth with your podcasts, and listen to the news uninterrupted. For Android owners with time to listen, Pandora, NPR News, and Listen are the best. Listen is Google's own podcast app, with great search capabilities, subscription syncing to Google Reader, and a pretty smart setup for deciding when to refresh and download your audio. Pandora is, of course, the very nifty streaming service that creates "stations" based on artists and songs you like, and it works just fine wherever you can get an internet signal. NPR's own app for Android can stream your local station and download entire show episodes, but also has a very handy ability to cherry-pick segments of shows like Morning Edition or All Things Considered, then queue them up in a playlist. [Homepages: Listen, Pandora, NPR News] [AppBrain: Listen, Pandora, NPR News]

GasBuddy

GasBuddy does one thing and one thing well—points out the places where you can fill up your car for less. On an Android, GasBuddy can map out or list nearby stations using your location, or search out spots where you're heading to. You also get details about the station, including an address you can navigate to. [Homepage] [AppBrain]

ParkDroid

In cities, at stadiums, and other places where you walk a long way from where you park your car, you might have once said, "Boy, I should draw a map!" Now you just open ParkDroid, tag your location with your GPS powers, then go about your day until you're ready to head back home. ParkDroid is more than just tagging, though. It pulls up paid and free parking locations from the web and maps them out, then also takes in free and paid parking finds from its users (unless you opt for "Private" when tagging). If you're parked at a meter, or need a time limitation, you can set that up in ParkDroid, too. [AppBrain]

If you need help purchasing an android based phone or setting up our existing one, contact 678PC at 678.404.1001 for a free estimate.  678PC is based out of Lawrenceville, Georgia and Services Gwinnett and much of Metro Atlanta.

HP, the soon-to-be-Palm-parent-company is moving quickly and strongly into Internet-enabled printers with its new ePrint Platform and four new “e-all-in-One” printers. These products will enabled users to send print jobs via the Google Cloud (Docs, Photos and Calendar), using new apps from partners like Crayola and Live Nation, and most relevantly for this community, “from any web-connected device – smartphones, iPads, netbooks and more”, according to Vyomesh Joshi, HP’s Executive Vice President, Imaging and Printing Group. The release goes on to very specifically mention the possibility of “an executive on a train sending a presentation from a Palm Pre or Blackberry smartphone to print and pick up at a FedEx Office Store.”

The Times piece, a feature on Vyomesh Joshi, includes a quote which could as easily be talking about future webOS development as printing:

“‘Now that H.P. is going mass-market with this technology, we will more actively program to it,’ said Steve Youngwood, an executive vice president at Nickelodeon.”

While this announcement is not expressly about putting webOS on printers, it shows that HP’s overall strategy of improving mobile data use from creation to production, a strategy for which webOS and the Palm smartphones will be a key component, is both moving ahead and getting positive attention.

For more information call 678PC at 678-404-1001

Google’s
made it official. They’re releasing an Android 2.2 for phones with
Flash support, web-synced apps and music, and faster performance, and a
whole new product, Google TV, that aims to integrate web content,
search, DVR, and regular old television.

Gizmodo’s covering the
Google I/O conference live, and they’ve got up-to-the-minute screens
and updates on what’s being revealed about Google TV, Android 2.2, and even a screenshot tour of Android 2.2 in the wild.
We’ll dig into the new Android OS from a user’s perspective, assuming
it gets released, later today, but in the meantime, there are a few
notable conveniences for users coming down the pike:

Android 2.2

• Speed: Google claims Android 2.2’s browser is the
  fastest mobile browser around, due in large part to its new JavaScript
  compiling engine. They also cite frame rates in gaming and other speed
  improvements around the system.
• Over-the-air apps installing: The app syncing
  comes through an update of the Android Market’s web page, which users
  can soon sign into, and the Market app on phones. You’ll be able to
  click an app in the (searchable!) Market and push it to your phone, and
  have the web Market know what you’ve got installed on your phone.
• An “Update All” button: A small, but very time-saving, addition to the Market app.
• Music and photo syncing: Your music stashed in
  iTunes, iPhoto, Windows Media Player, and other locations can
  synchronize over the web soon, through Google’s acquisition of SimplifyMedia (which caught almost everyone unaware).
• Flash 10.1 support: Expected, but now official. Interesting development for gaming and interactive apps—and a new platform for crash complaints.
• Built-in tethering and Wi-Fi sharing: Also expected, but very helpful. Remains to see which carriers will disable or push back on it.

Google TV is still being detailed as we write this post, so check out Gizmodo’s live coverage, or tune in live at the live YouTube stream and our Live Google Wave coverage.

Lookout Remotely Backs Up, Protects, and Manages Your Smartphone’s DataAndroid/Windows Mobile/BlackBerry: Nowadays, a lot of us store our whole lives on our smartphones. If your phone gets lost or stolen, free web service Lookout can back it up, locate it, and wipe it all from a web interface.

If you keep valuable or sensitive information on your phone, it’s nice to have a plan in case it gets lost or stolen, and Lookout can help you manage your data if that ever happens. Even if you don’t have sensitive information on your phone, though, Lookout can still be useful—just like on your PC, anti-virus and backups are always important in case anything happens.

You’ll need to download a quick app to your phone, which gives Lookout access to it (as well as displays the status of your backup and anti-virus on the go). Most of your work with Lookout will be done on your computer, though, from Lookout’s web interface. From any browser you have access to all of Lookout’s features: you can back up your phone, find it if it’s lost, wipe your data, and run virus scans remotely. It’s super easy, requires very little setup, and is an invaluable safety net if and when your phone falls into the wrong hands.

Currently, Lookout works with Android, Windows Mobile, and BlackBerry devices, although an iPhone version is also planned for the future.
Lookout

For advice about smart phone purchases, PC Syncing, or repair in the Gwinnett County area ( Lawrenceville, Snellville, Lilburn, Duluth, Buford, Suwanee, Loganville, Dacula, Norcross, Stone Mountain, and surrounding), please dont hesitate to call 678PC at 678-404-1001