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Posts Tagged Google (GOOG)

Don’t Pay $30+ For Droid Multimedia Dock — Get DockRunner Free

Dec 18

Posted by Sam Lustgarten in Android, Apps, Cell Phones | 1 Comment

asset-39480-qr-82When the Droid was first released, a couple of interesting accessories from Motorola followed suit. I was dismayed to find hefty, $29.99, prices for things like the Car Dock and the Droid Multimedia Station.

There’s no reason that some sort of magnetic, plastic dock should cost so much. And for what? The docks are nice, but hardly a necessity. In fact, if you want to mimic the Car Dock’s features, just press the Car Home app in Android 2.0.x. But until now, users haven’t been able to mimic the Multimedia dock feature.

motorola-droid-accessories

I was simply browsing the top app list in the Market, when I found an unassuming app called DockRunner. DockRunner is a FREE download and mimics the Droid Multimedia Dock (shown above on the left). The time, weather, music, pictures, etc. are all displayed and the phone thinks it’s in the dock!

Save yourself $30 and just download this simple app. Desperately want a cheesy, clunky, plastic “dock”? May I suggest making your own? Stay tuned for a DIY dock later this December!

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Top 3 News and Weather Apps for Motorola Droid

Dec 15

Posted by Sam Lustgarten in Android, Apps | 2 Comments

A few weeks ago we wrote an article on the Top 5 Android Apps for Motorola Droid. It was an all-encompassing look at our 5 favorites. But we left out a number of great apps. In the next few weeks we’ll be looking at a variety categories and publishing our favorites! This week, we’ll be looking at the Top 3 News and Weather Apps for the Motorola Droid.


As always, with the help of Twitter followers and Luke, we’ve created a list of the Top 3 News and Weather apps. What we found particularly difficult was collecting apps that would actually do everything we needed from a news and weather application. I continued to go to different apps for more relevant and specialized content. Tell us what you think in the comments below and enjoy.

  • USA Today – [Link to Site]
    • zpn.cs.pngUSA_qrWinner: Best All-Around News/Weather App
    • The 678kb USA Today app is powerful and fast. Flipping through the different panels of Headlines, Scores, Weather, Pictures, and Snapshots is a breeze. The application is set to update each time you start up the program and can be manually updated on the bottom of the screen. Weather is conveniently located in the banner with degrees Fahrenheit and basic weather logos. This program does headline news really really well with an elaborate array of: Top News, Life, Money, Sports, etc. By clicking the Weather tab, you’ll get a 5-day weather forecast.
    • Dislikes: Weather is by default, set to New York City. Doesn’t allow for background news updates. Refresh interval isn’t customizable. News articles are little snippets of what a New York Times article would be.
  • Google Finance – [Link to Site]
    • BCt.u.cs.pngfin_qrWinner: Best Financial News Source
    • Unlike it’s iPhone counterpart, the Droid doesn’t have companies like E*Trade developing stock and market apps. Fortunately, the Google/Android team has created the Finance app. The application is a bare-bones streaming quote checker for the market. Check anything you want and it will stream the latest quote. In a simple, 3-tab design, the Finance application can have your Google portfolio synced and you’ll see all your favorites in one easy to access tab. The “news” tab has a basic collection of overall market sentiment and news. Want to know what is happening today in the market and where your stocks are? Then Finance is for you. Finance comes with a little widget for the home screen that can load your personal portfolio write to your desktop.
    • Dislikes: It’s too simple. The streaming isn’t true streaming, just a periodic update from time to time with the most recent quote. Refresh intervals for the widget need to be quicker. A more graphical user interface could definitely make this application shine.
  • Weatherbug - [Link to Site]
    • nqD.cs.pngwb_qrWinner: Best Weather App
    • The Weatherbug application used to be an ad-ware filled mess of spam for Windows computers. Now you can get it for your Android phones! All kidding aside, the Weatherbug application is the most convenient, simple, and easy to use weather app for the Droid. Personally, I use it because it displays a temperature in the notification panel of my Droid. Even on restart of my phone, the Weatherbug application starts up and displays an accurate temperature to my location. I don’t need a fully featured weather application–just the barebones; current temp and high for the day. By sliding down the notification panel, I can see the current temperature again, but also see today’s high and basic prediction (e.g., “Partly Sunny”).
    • Dislikes: The actual application is buggy (no pun intended). The ads can be cumbersome in the free version. The user interface seems a tad slow and outdated.

What we still want to see:

  • New York Times – [Link to Site]
    • Unfortunately, there isn’t a New York Times application like the iPhone. The iPhone version is incredibly powerful and the user interface is truly intuitive. We’d love to see NYT wise up and develop for the Android.
  • NPR - [Link to Site]
    • This was previously mentioned in our Top 5 Android Apps article, and we have yet to see the application in the Android Market. Recent reports and news has suggested that NPR is fast on its way to having on for the store. Also, the goal is to make the Android app more feature-filled than its iPhone counterpart. We’ll see!

Please comment below or Twitter us if you have any other apps that we should take a look at or left out!

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What’s The Google Phone? Specs, Pics, and More!

Dec 13

Posted by Sam Lustgarten in Android, Cell Phones | No Comments

In a singular blog post, the tech news sources went crazy. The Google Mobile Blog, which covers most of Google’s progress on mobile platforms, released a post on their “dogfood diet.” The blog publicly announced a new device that would test the mobile gadgetry of Google and use the Android platform.

The new gadget will be tested by Google employees and in the meantime, the consumer will wait and see what they have up their sleeve. But like any device that is given to testers, those beta users snap shots, give feedback, and give us the insider information. What follows is a complete breakdown of the impending Google phone and what that means for soon to be competitors (i.e, the Droid and iPhone).

For starters, we’ll look at the original blog post that lit the fire:

At Google, we are constantly experimenting with new products and technologies, and often ask employees to test these products for quick feedback and suggestions for improvements in a process we call dogfooding (from “eating your own dogfood”). Well this holiday season, we are taking dogfooding to a new level.

We recently came up with the concept of a mobile lab, which is a device that combines innovative hardware from a partner with software that runs on Android to experiment with new mobile features and capabilities, and we shared this device with Google employees across the globe. This means they get to test out a new technology and help improve it.

Unfortunately, because dogfooding is a process exclusively for Google employees, we cannot share specific product details. We hope to share more after our dogfood diet.
Deciphering the jargon elicits a firm belief that this product will soon become a publicly acquirable Google Phone. What happens from here is Google employees will be testing this Android-equipped phone around the world and seeing what needs to be improved. The blog post says that “we cannot share specific product details, but the testers have already released a number of specs to WWW.

TechCrunch.com was one of the first to break the news. The site says that the impending Google Phone will be Google-branded and sport an entirely Google-designed interface with Android 2.1. Along with being an advanced Google phone, the Android device will sport 1GHz Snapdragon processor that has already been tweeted as being surprisingly fast and snappy.

While the phone is being built by phone manufacturer, HTC, the phone will be entirely develop and customized by Google. This is without a doubt, going to be more Google than Motorola’s attempt with their Droid. The phone’s name is still up in the air, with some calling it the Nexus One and other sources touting it as simply the, Google Phone.

49239592htc-phone88-2009-11-16-08.10.52-630x472

phone88_2009-11-16-07.51.361-630x839google-nexus-one-next-to-macbook-1260722607-630x669

TechCrunch says that the phone won’t be sold by any carrier, but rather be a SIM-unlocked phone for GSM carriers. This is where TC may have diverged from a reasonable path. Evidence like Verizon and Google’s news suggests that if a new, unlocked Google phone is released that it will be both CDMA and GSM unlocked, and ready for essentially any network in the United States and abroad.

The OLED touchscreen is bright and super-high resolution. The phone is thinner than the Apple’s iPhone and features a 5 megapixel camera, which is comparable to Motorola’s Droid. And from the camera pictures that we see, it looks like the camera is once again inadequate and just seems to take simple shots.

A new voice-to-text feature is supposedly on-board, which would allow for super accurate dictation of emails, texts, etc. Similar to Ford’s new Sync technology, your phone could be told to send an email to a person and then you could speak the body of the email.

Here at MarketMatador.com, we speculate that the new Google Phone may be advertised as a data only phone, with a hope that phone companies will quickly offer data only plans that allow voice calls through applications like Skype. Wi-Fi may be the standard method of use for the phone, similar to Apple’s iPod Touch.

HTCPassiongooglephone

There’s no doubt that this phone will throw a wrench to Apple’s future iPhone sales and also the Droid’s recent success. Expect the phone in the second quarter of 2010 for an unfriendly, unlocked, unsubsidized price of $550+.

Stay tuned for more information on the Google Phone as we receive it.

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Happy Holidays from Google — Get A Free Snail-Mail Postcard

Dec 2

Posted by Sam Lustgarten in Internet, Social | No Comments

If you haven’t done it already, head over to Gmail Holiday Card to get a free, yes free, postcard from Google. Google has been a proprietary company for years, but in a sort of ode to the old holidays and celebrations, Google is offering a free, snail-mail postcard for users.

card_pileSpread some holiday cheer, one card at a time.

Sure, email is great, but there’s something uniquely heartwarming about the kind of card that comes in the actual mail — especially for folks who don’t hear from us as often as they should, simply because they aren’t online.

So we’ve made it as easy to send snail-mail holiday cards as it is to send email. Simply fill out the form below and we’ll send one free holiday postcard on your behalf. Yes, through the mail and everything.

Source: http://twitter.com/google

Link: https://services.google.com/fb/forms/gmailholidaycard/

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Goodbye Radio — Hello Smartphones

Nov 28

Posted by Sam Lustgarten in Android, Cell Phones, Computers, Internet | 1 Comment

I’m rounding out my break from college and remarking at how different my day to day music listening is. Even I, a 20-year-old and of a younger generation, can realize the immense progression that we’ve seen over the past few decades. I remember wanting to have a radio in my own room — shocker! My thumb would abrasively rub against the left to right throttle of the band changer. Fuzz and interference would constantly persist. Quality became a factor and TV began to progress on the satellite level. Satellite radio followed in step. Unfortunately, they stepped into the wrong business at the wrong time; radio, even satellite radio, is dead.

sirius

Radio distributes content to a broad spectrum of people and shares news and music. Many frequent commuters have relied on radio for their early morning and post-work entertainment. Follow sports on ESPN, world news on NPR, and listen to the latest musical hits. There’s still an aesthetic appeal to all of this.

While radio continues to broadcast out to the greater world, the deconstruction and decentralization of all things radio is swiftly occurring. The younger generations have their iPods for starters, and when they grow to have today’s smartphones (Droid, iPhone, etc.), they’ll probably be getting their news from it too. “There’s an app for that” means more than the 100,000 some-odd apps, many a waste, but tens of thousands that can replace our previous needs with a car radio. The NPR app and DoggCatcher are perfect examples of this new web technology that’s replacing old audio media.

Many of today’s technology is ad-free or has very minimal advertisements. Pandora on both the iPhone and Android devices has nothing more than a little banner image. Unlike even the desktop version of Pandora, the mobile version doesn’t have intrusive audio ads. Why would I go back to dialing into a radio station and suffering signal strength woes? Pandora is just an example of what I’m filling my ears with every day.

Part of the reason I love my Droid is because I can’t download through the iTunes Music Store; the convenience would entice, and I’d be spending left and right on my iPhone. By turning on Pandora I save money and it’s personalized, which I don’t get by listening to my own music all the time.

Not to mention that podcasts are quickly replacing my TV watching and are perfect for casual walking. Download them over the air and have them in a couple of minutes. It’s the future, and I have it in my hands. I haven’t listened to the radio in years, and I’m predicting that they’ll quickly lose funding in the next 10 years and wash away. Hello smartphone, you’re my always connected computer!

Tell us if you’re using your smartphone to replace your radio and music player! Let us know in the comments below.

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Netbooks Are Going To Fly This Christmas Season

Nov 27

Posted by Sam Lustgarten in Computers | 1 Comment

The real question in my mind is if these small laptop devices really have a future. As I sit down at my grandparent’s kitchen table, I type on keys that are 92% of the normal size keyboard. I hardly notice a difference in the quality, boot time, and options. My HP Mini 311-1000NR has a 1.6 GHz Atom Processor, 1 GB of RAM, and a surprisingly large 160 GB HDD.

I’ve sold my MacBook, and until I splurge on some sort of powerful desktop or laptop, I’ve got this brand new netbook. My expectations are quite high and I need everything to work. I keep saying in mind, I have papers to write and things to do – it all just needs to work.

Picking up the 3.2 lbs Mini, I know that I have a powerful and sturdy device in hand. The keys are responsive and the QWERTY part of the keyboard is well sized and perfect for my keystrokes. The start time is a little slower compared to other netbooks, but I hardly notice it because I’m constantly having it hibernate.

I start up and log in to Windows XP Home, the computer is slow to allow any start to applications, but I get something open soon enough. It has a convenient on/off button for the WLAN card inside that has b/g wireless capabilities. Which begs me to ask the rhetorical question, “Are you kidding me?” There’s a child-like card inside what’s supposed to be an ultra-portable netbook. At least throw in Wireless-N. But the switch is effective and nice to have either way.


Connecting to a network, I realize the potential power behind a device like this; I’m connected! Connected anywhere and everywhere these days; internet and open Wi-Fi spots seem to pop up constantly. And I have an on-the-go device that can effortlessly slip into my backpack and go unnoticed because of its svelte weight and dimensions.

But here’s where I run into trouble. The device is essentially incapable of running Flash videos. This cracks me up, we’re in the tech age right now – how the hell can’t these laptops play Flash video? I’m not the only one. Comment after comment on a number of different netbooks talk about “performance.” It’s not real performance that’s an issue – I can multitask relatively well. It’s video that’s essentially unplayable and intolerable.

Downloading the latest episode of the Totally Rad Show in HD, I find that the video plays back, and gets better as the video goes along, but it’s still stuttering and the frames per second are barely cutting it. The HP Mini 311, featuring an HD-resolution screen can’t even playback quality HD content! Seamless playback was never an issue on my MacBook. How does a 1.6 GHz processor and Nvidia Ion graphics card fail so miserably?

The answer is complicated, but the basic idea is that Flash media is processor and memory intensive. In future updates there’s hope that it’ll be reduced. It needs to be reduced before it’ll run on devices like the Motorola Droid in early 2010. There’s actually an update coming later this year or next for Flash 10.1, which can be downloaded in prerelease form here. Playback is mildly improved and analysts say that the HP Mini’s enhanced GPU (Graphics Processor Unit) will help assist Flash to deliver even better videos.

The bottom line is that I love the simplicity and portability of netbooks. There’s tremendous potential behind them and a growing market. People will be buying more of these, and makers of Flash and other HD content will become better producers of content for these devices. Now after a little less than a week of owning the device, I looked at Amazon.com to see the latest prices on my device and comparable ones; I’m shocked, Amazon.com is offering the bigger brother HP Mini 311-1025NR for $479.99 (probably for a limited time). It comes with an added boost in hard disk capacity, RAM, and is fit with Windows 7 Home Premium.

If you need something that can handle video whatsoever, I’d recommend the HP Mini 311-1025NR. But if you’re looking at pure portability, look at some of the latest Eee PC’s.

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Google Wave Review and Free Invites!

Nov 25

Posted by Luke Newby in Computers, Internet | 1 Comment

We received several Google Wave invites a few weeks back. After testing Wave for a few weeks, the two of us see the potential in Google Wave. Sam and I have started several waves, exploring the many options, tools, apps, and gadgets that can be utilized and tinkered with. There’s plenty being said about Wave, but clarity is hard to come by.

Google Wave is a self-proclaimed, “tool for real-time communication and collaboration.” Within a wave, people can see real-time typing and communication, while simultaneously collaborating on projects. You can add any countless numbers of maps, videos, documents, pictures, and tools that may be required. Unfortunately, for the time being, Google Wave is invite only and in the preview stages of development, so many features are still inaccessible.

When starting a wave, it feels similar to chatting or instant messaging.  When in a wave, communication is made in individual text boxes. From there any of the users can start implementing any of the tools. For example I could add a map that shows where I am in relationship to Sam, or I could ask him a multiple-choice question (where I choose the questions and the answers). And if he needed to work on a document we could see who was editing what, and when.  From there we could save the wave and replay it at our leisure.

All of this makes Google Wave sound pretty darn amazing. But it is slow, painfully slow. We can only hope that that’s because of its current development stage. It makes playing around with Wave a timely process. Additionally when trying to add several of the gadgets the links appeared to be broken or unresponsive. Thankfully there is already an online book to explain Wave.  The book is a Wiki-like 8 chapter, multiple appendix, book that explains the vast amount of functionality and potential.

We are truly excited to see where wave will take the online communication world. Will it truly replace email? Not for a while, but eventually it will be a competitor. With open source development, the possibilities are endless.

We would love to hear any of your comments about Google Wave. If you already have it, tell what you think, if you still want it, tell us what you want to know. Reply to this post in the comments and we’ll enter you to win one of two free Google Wave invite giveaway!

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Top 5 Android Apps for Motorola Droid

Nov 17

Posted by Sam Lustgarten in Android, Apps, Cell Phones | 15 Comments

It’s been a couple weeks without my iPhone, I expected withdrawals; instead, I’m loving my new Droid. This device is powerful and when people ask what I think, I don’t know how to respond. You’ll like your iPhone, no doubt, but give this device a chance and you’ll go crazy over the Motorola Droid. But this isn’t a review, we’ve already done that.

I’ve been trying to hone in on the most important and vital apps for my new Android 2.0 phone. With the help of Twitter followers and Luke, I’ve come up with a great list of top 5 Android apps for my wonderfully powerful Droid. If you enjoy this, check out our Top 3 News and Weather Apps for Motorola Droid too!

  • Google Voice – [Link to Site]
    • GV_ScreenGVI’ve been addicted to Google Voice, it saves me something like $15 to $20 every month on texting and I can call ANY number with a secure, controllable line from Google. Google Voice may actually be more important, relevant, and usable than Google Wave. There’s so much potential with this technology. On an Android phone, unlike the closed off iPhone, you can have the Google Voice App take over all calls — even international ones! By taking over the device, any call that I make through the phone emulates my Google Voice number. No inconvenient Google Voice mobile website for me [on an iPhone], now I just make a phone call. The application transcribes my voicemails and allows for a visual form too. This visual system saves me yet another $2.99 — Verizon charges that for visual mail access.
    • Downsides: No messaging app support, SMS messages are not pushed (fetched at every 5 mins — fastest rate), must have a data connection to make phone call through GV number.
  • Pandora — [Link to Site]
    • Pandora_screenPandoraThis is nothing new, and it’s still the ultimate personalized radio. Pandora delivers a fantastic application and service to Android and iPhone. The experience is hindered by a basic ad on the bottom of the application, but it’s nothing compared to the ads and messages that Pandora places on its website. Pandora let’s you create personalized stations with a thumbs up/down voting system. It allows you to bookmark songs and artists for later viewing. The application also supports the adding and removal of new “stations” that can be based off of artist, song, album, etc.
    • Downsides: Advertisements on the bottom of application, improper Bluetooth support (doesn’t stop playing if Bluetooth headphones are disconnected), and still slow, despite the Droid’s processor power.
  • DoggCatcher — [Link to Site]
    • DoggCatcherDoggThere is no native application to download, subscribe, and listen to your latest podcasts. DoggCatcher is the perfect accoutrement to your powerful device. It comes at a price though, $6.99, which makes it one of the most expensive apps in the Market. In fact, it’s the only app that requires a purchase on this list. But it’s still well worth it and powerful. DoggCatcher lets you select and subscribe to your favorite podcasts, and unlike the iPhone (AT&T), you can download as large a file as you’d like. While burning through battery, it can download that 131 MB episode of Diggnation for immediate viewing. And if you don’t feel like burning through battery life, you can choose to have the device only download new episodes on Wi-Fi and/or while being plugged into power. Unlike Pandora, DoggCatcher responds to disconnects from headphones and Bluetooth, pausing where you are.
    • Downsides: Price tag ($6.99), no automatic downloads despite a subscription (still need to queue downloads), and small selection of suggested podcasts.

Read the rest of this entry »

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