Mono is an open-source implementation of .net and will be available for Android phones this summer. Project Manager Miguel de Icaza has presented “MonoDroid” at Mix10.
Archive for the ‘Mobile’ Category
-
Navigon released for Android Market – But be careful!
NAVIGON is a well known car navigation manufacturer and has now released Mobile Navigator for Android. NAVIGON Mobile Navigator was released before also for the IPhone and Windows Mobile smart-phones. There are several navigation applications out now for Android but none of them can be used on a regular basis. From the optical impression NAVIGON could be the first software for serious or semi-professional purposes.
There are special promotional prices for the market release: The regional version for Germany, Austria and Switzerland costs 49,95 Euros and the europe edition 74,95 Euro. You can use the “Try & Buy” option, which allows you to test the product for 30 days without obligations.
-
Google Maps with Multi-touch available in the Market
Recently the new version of Google Maps show up in the Android Market and asks for an update. The current version is called 3.4 and includes Multi-touch as amazing new feature for Map navigation. Now it is really convenient to browse the map using following functions and gestures:
- double tap to zoom in
- +/- buttons for zoom in and out
- tap & move for pan
- 2 finger pinch for zooming
Multi-touch should work on all devices. So not only on the Nexus One or Motorola Droid/Milestone but also on older devices such as Samsung Galaxy, HTC Magic, HTC G1 or HTC Hero (at least with custom Roms).
It really seems Google will no longer consider Apples “claim” for Multi-touch. In the near future it is expected that Google and 3rd party developers of Android will provide a lot of apps with Multi-touch capabilities (some examples like the browser are seen in the video). Reasons for buying an iPhone are smelting like snow in the sun.
Other new features for Android Maps are extended Lab functions. Following “experimental” functions are available:
- Map scale
- Terrain view
- Favorite categories
- Button for switching themes
- Direction arrow for current position
- Traffic layer including lables
- Button for my location
- Address info buttons
- Directions and distance
- Measurement tool
With the new version it should be also possible to use your Google My Maps Account.
-
Maybe the best Android 2.0/2.1 custom ROM for HTC Magic
Update (05.02.2010):
Now called OpenEclair (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=624545)
Update (26.01.2010):
Version 1.3.3 is out now (no wipe required for update). Watch this video to see ctso’s Intension ROM in action:
What is the best Android 2.0 or 2.1 custom ROM for a HTC Magic 32B phone? In my opinion it is the compilation called Intension. The latest release, with the Nexus One look currently is version 1.3.1 which can be downloaded here - http://bit.ly/8QQmTN. The main advantage over other Eclair version for HTC Magic is its enormous speed. With makes handling on a daily basis smooth and comfortable.
- Download - http://bit.ly/8QQmTN (md5sum: 280efe9aa80cf31607511f160a2c2653)
- Installation: Install like any other ROM, if you need help please search. Wipe before flashing all updates unless otherwise specified.
- Features:
- Compcache control (size+on/off) in SpareParts
- 5 Screen Launcher
- Nexus One voice input
- Apps2SD
- Live Wallpapers
- AOSP 2.1
- … and more
- Known Issues
- Assisted GPS Problems (Cell tower location)
- Facebook Contact Sync
The homescreen of this ROM:
The only thing I’m missing right now is the company calendar application and widget. I hope this will be added in one of the next releases. -
New delicious codenames for future Android versions
Google has decided to name different versions of Android according to sweet pastries. According to a recent interview by Erick Tseng Android’s next big interation will be known as FroYo. Froyo is the Short Term for “frozen yogurt” and another creative name in the Android version history:
- Initial Version = Android 1.1 – Release Date: 10.02.2009
- Cupcake = Android 1.5 – Release Date: 30.04.2009
- Donut = Android 1.6 – Release Date: 15.09.2009
- Eclair = Android 2.0/2.1 – Release Date: 26.10.2009/12.01.2010
- Froyo = maybe Android 2.5 – Release Date: expected in April/May 2010
So it will not be Flan for the “F” version of Android (alphabetical order), as most of you thought. So we will see when Froyo actually is officially released and what the “G” version of Android might be. Any suggestions for G? I think Android will success its sweet journey in 2010 at least until H. I think we will see a lot of usability improvements for the next versions.
Bon Appetit!
-
Google Earth for Android and more about Maps Navigation in Android 2.1
With the official release of the Google Phone Nexus One, also more software details can be discovered. There where a lot of rumours before the official press release from Google for the Nexus One. Most of them cover Hardware issues of the phone manufactured by HTC. Even though the hardware and form factor of the handset is stunning, I’ll talk only about the map software provided with Android 2.1.
First it can be discovered that Google Earth is now also available for Android. So beside the iPhone OS, Android is the second mobile platform, were Google Earth was ported. It is no surprise that tries to bring all their software and services on their promoted platform. A glimpse of the software can be seen in following promotion video (stating at 1:05 min)
Google Maps Mobile for Android is becoming Google Maps Navigation. The new version enhances navigation features and is pre-installed on the Nexus One. It can be assumed that this version will appear in the Android Market soon. View the video so see the new possibilities with Google Maps Navigation. Some highlights are:
- turn-by-turn navigation at street view level
- direction location can be various search terminologies
Of course this version includes all the other new features Google has launched in the past year, such as Google Latitude, layers, and labs.
More promotion videos: http://www.youtube.com/googlenexusone
-
The GIS Market Leader and Mobile GIS
ESRI is well known for providing professional GIS solutions from desktop to server. But they always struggling with mobile GIS. For a long time ArcPad was ESRI’s reference application when it comes to mobile GIS. ArcPAD tries to be the baby ArcGIS for mobile devices, with very limited functionality and cumbersome user interface. Of course mobile devices are very limited in their funktionality few years ago and the Windows Mobile platform is a still a hassle, but ESRI has difficulties finding their strategy for mobile GIS solutions both for expert and the broader community.
With their new ArcGIS server platform and REST based APIs ESRI also realized a technology for mobile use. It is easy to embed maps and layers in different environments including mobile phones, PDAs, tablet PCs etc. The following video shows a more professional way to use ArcGIS mobile and in the second part of the movie a demo is given on the iPhone where Base Maps from an ArcGIS Server are visualized within an iPhone App.
The demonstrations of new options for mobile workforces are based on ArcGIS Mobile 9.4, and will be available soon.
Now the questions is will this strategy become successful?
In my opinion ESRI has now a huge potential to gain ground in the mobile GIS world, also for a wide user group. Essential in my opinion will be the continuous development and extension of their ArcGIS Server APIs. For example it is expected to have direct Geodatabase read/write access with the JavaScript API in version 2.0, coming with ArcGIS 9.4. On the other side it is important to have easy to use client software for all major mobile platforms, including iPhone OS, Android, Blackberry, PalmOS and Windows Mobile. ESRI should provide “demonstrative” applications for different use cases ranging from experts (or data collectors) to “traditional” Google Maps users. It will be very important to open up building blocks for application building on mobile Platforms (very important Android and iPhone OS) so that developers could design and implement their own applications based on ArcGIS mobile. It should designed like ArcObjects building blocks on the Desktop and Server.
If ESRI can take this challenge for 2010 the GIS market leader will also play an important role in the mobile GIS sector.
-
Offline OpenStreetMap for Android (2 Alternatives)
Location based applications (LBS) or mapping applications are very useful especially if you are abroad or in a foreign country. Unfortunately roaming costs are still very expensive and most of these “travel” or mapping applications require Internet connection to download cartographic information. Nearly all Android applications which make use of street maps include the Google Maps related “Map View”. This means you have to enable your devices network connection through a GPSRS or WiFi connection (and current international roaming costs are expensive).
The obvious solution is to cache your map tiles before and save them on your SD card, then these tiles can be used later on without having an active Internet connection. Fortunately there are several applications which allow to download map data for later offline use.
One of the most famous application for offline mapping, OffMaps, is not available for Android phones but in this post I will describe two of them in more detail:
MapDroyd:
MapDroyd allows to download maps from different countries with a kind of download manager. All downloaded maps can be used in the mapping application offline. MapDroyd does not store cached maps like most other applications, it allows to download vector data in a special format called MicroMap. The compressed MicroMap format in theory is fully navigable. Map data source is OpenStreetMap (OSM), which represents detailed user generated street maps for most countries. Depending on the size of the country and the OSM detail level a downloaded map has a size from few 10 MBs to several 100 MBs. In the download manager it is also possible to set the zoom level, for the country to download.
List of features (from the Homepage):
- MapDroyd provides a built-in remote map browser that allows you to explore and download selected map files from our map server. The hierarchically organized map repository is checked against your locally stored map files and updateable maps are indicated with a yellow arrow sign. Files marked with a green check sign already exist in the newest version on your local storage card. You can either download maps directly to your device, or optionally just copy an external download link to your desktop computer.
- MapDroyd allows to rotate maps smoothly in any direction you want. Since we do not use pre-rendered images or (cached) map tiles like Google Maps or others do, MapDroyd can turn the map view into any angle required. MapDroyd does not rotate images - it renders maps on the fly! This is a very important feature for e.g. navigation applications. And MapDrowd draws all labels (city names, streets names, places, etc.) properly depending on your device’s orientation. MapDroyd includes an optional “auto-rotate” function that turns the map direction according to your real orientation (“head-up”).
- MapDroyd marks your last known location with a red cross sign and a circle indicating the accuracy of the last positioning method. The smaller the circle is the better your positioning accuracy is/was. Your position is updated whenever you change your location (“tracking feature”).
- You can choose between two different navigation modes: In the drag mode (default) you can pull the map in any direction you want by simply dragging the screen. In order to zoom in or out smoothly you have to click on the zoom buttons on the left and right bottom area, or, just roll your trackball up or down. In the rubber-band mode you simply tap the screen to reposition the map center. In order to zoom into a given region you draw a rectangle from the upper left to lower right screen corner. In order to zoom out you draw the rectangle in the opposite way, from the lower right to the upper left screen corner. In both modes you can roll the trackball to the left or right in order to rotate the map counter / clockwise. You can reset the map orientation to north using the main menu bar.
Homepage: http://www.mapdroyd.com/
BigPlanet:
BigPlanet is an map application, which allows to download cache tiles from various map services like Google Maps, OpenStreetMap or Yandex Maps.
List of features (from their Homepage):
- supports different map sources: Google Maps, OpenStreet, Yandex Maps
- cache of loaded maps – map tile is loaded only once and than saves in local file cache(so you can use app even without any network connection!). This feature allows you to save a lot of money(app don’t use expensive GPRS connection).
- bookmarks – just add you favourite places to bookmarks if you don’t want to find it each time when you use app
- zoom in by double tap (like in iPhone): You don’t need to use zoom controls from zooming – you can just double tap place you need.
- save map in given radius. Allows to save map around selected place. For example, you can save map around your home using cheap wifi connection and then use map offline.
Homepage: http://bigplanetmaps.wordpress.com/
If you know further map applications working offline, please let us know.
-
HTC Android Handset Collection 2010
Following pictures show an in-official selection of HTC Android phones coming to market first half of 2010. According to Androidpit.de the pictures including specifications were released during an internal presentation in Vienna. These 5 prototypes were introduced:
Codename: Legend
- Size: 111 x 57 x 11.4 mm
- Network: WCDMA/HSPA 900/2100 Mhz; GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 Mhz
- Maximum Speed: UL = 2 Mbps; DL = 7.2 Mbps
- Operating System: Android
- Display: 3.2-inch HVGA AMOLED capacitive touch screen
- Camera: 5.0 megapixel with auto focus with camera flash
- Internal Memory: 512 MB flash, 256 MB RAM
- Memory Card: microSD
- WLAN: 802.11 b/g
- Bluetooth: 2.1 with EDR
- GPS: GPS/AGPS
- Battery: 1300 mAh
- Special Features: Compass, G-Sensor, 3.5 mm audio jack, MicroUSB, FM radio, optical mouse, Microsoft exchange e-mail, Facebook, Flickr, Twitter and Friendsteam build-in, Google Services
- Chipset: Qualcomm MSM 7227, 600 Mhz
Codename: Salsa
- Size: 115 x 65 x 8.6 mm
- Network: WCDMA/HSPA 900/2100 Mhz; GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 Mhz
- Maximum Speed: UL = 2 Mbps; DL = 7.2 Mbps
- Operating System: Android
- Display: 2.6-inch QVGA flat touch screen (landscape)
- Camera: 3.2 megapixel
- Internal Memory: 512 MB flash, 256 MB RAM
- Memory Card: microSD
- WLAN: 802.11 b/g
- Bluetooth: 2.1 with EDR
- GPS: GPS/AGPS
- Battery: 1100 mAh
- Special Features: Ambient Light Sensor, 3.5 mm audio jack, FM radio, 4-row Querty, Microsoft exchange e-mail, Facebook, Flickr, Twitter and Friendsteam build-in, Google Services
- Chipset: Qualcomm MSM 7225, 528 Mhz
Codename: Tide
- Size: 114 x 53 x 13 mm
- Network: WCDMA/HSPA 900/2100 Mhz; GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 Mhz
- Maximum Speed: UL = 2 Mbps; DL = 7.2 Mbps
- Operating System: Android
- Display: 2.68-inch QVGA flat touch screen
- Camera: 3.2 megapixel with auto focus
- Internal Memory: 512 MB flash, 256 MB RAM
- Memory Card: microSD
- WLAN: 802.11 b/g
- Bluetooth: 2.0 with EDR
- GPS: GPS/AGPS
- Battery: 1130 mAh
- Special Features: G-Sensor, 3.5 mm audio jack, 12 keypad, Foodprints, HTC Widgets, Microsoft exchange e-mail, Facebook, Flickr, Twitter and Friendsteam build-in, Google Services
- Chipset: Qualcomm MSM 7225, 528 Mhz
Codename: Buzz
- Size: 105 x 60 x 11 mm
- Network: WCDMA/HSPA 900/2100 Mhz; GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 Mhz
- Maximum Speed: UL = 2 Mbps; DL = 7.2 Mbps
- Operating System: Android
- Display: 3.2-inch HVGA AMOLED capacitive touch screen
- Camera: 5.0 megapixel with auto focus with camera flash and face tagging
- Internal Memory: 512 MB flash, 256 MB RAM
- Memory Card: microSD
- WLAN: 802.11 b/g
- Bluetooth: 2.1 with EDR
- GPS: GPS/AGPS
- Battery: 1200 mAh
- Special Features: Application Sharing, G-Sensor, 3.5 mm audio jack, FM radio, Microsoft exchange e-mail, Facebook, Flickr, Twitter and Friendsteam build-in, Google Services
- Chipset: Qualcomm MSM 7225, 528 Mhz
Codename: Bravo
- Size: 112 x 56 x 11.7 mm
- Network: WCDMA/HSPA 900/2100 Mhz; GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 Mhz
- Maximum Speed: UL = 2 Mbps; DL = 7.2 Mbps
- Operating System: Android
- Display: 3.7-inch HVGA AMOLED capacitive touch screen
- Camera: 5.0 megapixel with auto focus with camera flash and high definition 720p video capture
- Internal Memory: 512 MB flash, 256 MB RAM with 16GB microSD card
- Memory Card: microSD
- WLAN: 802.11 b/g
- Bluetooth: 2.1 with EDR
- GPS: GPS/AGPS
- Battery: 1400 mAh
- Special Features: Compass, Proximity Sensor, MicroUSB, Search Button, Optical Joystick, DivX, Dolby, 3.5 mm audio jack, FM radio, Microsoft exchange e-mail, Facebook, Flickr, Twitter and Friendsteam build-in, Google Services
- Chipset: Qualcomm MSM 7225, 528 Mhz
-
Should a phone be pretty?
… this question asks Motorola and Verizon in their newest Droid marketing campaign. As Droid spots before it is a site blow against Apples iPhone and their AT&T service with following sogan:
Its not a princess, its a robot. A phone that trades hair-do for can-do. In a world of doesnt. Droid Does. http://droiddoes.com
Can anyone tell a non-native English speaking guy what “Racehorse duct-taped to a Scud missile fast” means?
Droid Marketing:
It was estimated that 250,000 Motorola Droid phones were sold in the United States, during the phone’s first week in stores. That statement’s estimation was questioned later , as some said Verizon paid for this headline to make the claim to help sell the Droid. Although the number of phones sold wasn’t confirmed , it was confirmed that , 20,000 phones have been returned because of defaulting features and technical issues.
Verizon explicitly promoted the Droid as an Apple iPhone-alternative. Launched on October 17, 2009 TV spots and an associated website made “entertainingly combative” claims listing features lacking on the iPhone, e.g. “iDon’t multitask,” only mentioning the name of the Droid in the final frame, reading “Droid Does.” At the official launch event on October 28, 2009 Verizon’s Chief Marketing Officer John Stratton described the campaign as a spoof of Apple’s iPhone ads, intended to “wake up the market.”
The American launch included an interactive experience called “Droid Does Times Square“ that allows people to control the Nasdaq and Reuters electronic billboards in Times Square by using voice commands (searching by voice is a primary Android feature). The experience is available in Times Square or via the Droid Does Web site.
The November 6, 2009 release date of the Droid came just under a month after Verizon and Google announced that they had entered into an agreement to jointly develop wireless devices based on the Android mobile platform. Verizon said at the time that it planned to have two Android-based handsets on the market by year-end with more to come in 2010. The other handset is the HTC Droid Eris, a modification to the HTC Hero, seen in shots of Google CEO Eric Schmidt holding one in a Verizon/Google press conference.
American exclusive software for the Droid includes Google Maps Navigation, an Amazon MP3 Store applet, and Verizon Wireless Visual Voice Mail management. [source Wikipedia]
Sponsored Links
Stats
