Android World: AndroidGuys

Saturday, August 25, 2012

AndroidGuys

Five for Friday: Android apps from our favorite restaurants
Get guaranteed screen protection from Cellhelmet
More Galaxy Stellar details slip out, Samsung choosing Amazon over Google Play?
Is 7-inch E FUN Nextbook worth $130 of your money?
Leak: official Jelly Bean update for the T-Mobile Galaxy SIII
POLL & PRIZE: How long do you go before charging your Android?
LG teases new quad-core Snapdragon device with site & video
T-Mobile Galaxy Note reaching end of life already?
Virgin Mobile debuts new “Happy Accidents” campaign [VIDEO]
Review: Motorola Atrix HD
Adobe Connect Mobile 2.0 brings added hosting controls to Android
Is Google’s new app policy just a bunch of lip service?
Telenav debuts HTML5 turn-by-turn navigation for Android
Behind the Curtain: A conversation with Stitcher
Sony Mobile to relocate headquarters, trim 1000 jobs

Five for Friday: Android apps from our favorite restaurants

Posted: 24 Aug 2012 02:17 PM PDT

It’s Friday and that means we’re ready to go grab a burger after work and relax a bit. Who are we kidding? We like to do this any day of the week. Nevertheless, we big fans of good and/or fast food and we love nothing more than to have an excuse to use our phones. With that in mind, we decided this week’s list would be centered around some of our favorite dining establishments.

We’ve put together a list of five apps based on restaurants that we love to frequent. No, these aren’t your four star and five star hoity toity joints. These are places where we can pick up a good cheeseburger or a buffalo wings and maybe some cheesecake.

We know there’s a ton of other restaurant and dining apps out there and understand we’re going to miss a lot of favorites. To that end, we ask that you tell us your preferred apps for lunch or dinner.

This week: Android apps from our favorite RESTAURANTS

In-N-Out Burger

Hungry for a Double-Double®? Download the ONLY official In-N-Out Burger locator app. Created by the In-N-Out Burger company, this simple-to-use guide utilizes the same map technology you're already familiar with to instantly locate your nearest In-N-Out Burger location—with a simple tap.

Sure, we dig being able to locate a nearby In-N-Out Burger, but we appreciate being able to track our gift card balances. Everyone knows to hook us up with gift cards and we like knowing how many orders of fries are left. Show your love with more than a dozen wallpapers and a special ringtone and access that not-so-secret menu of other great menu options.

Download In-N-Out Burgers

Friday’s

With our new mobile app, you can find a Friday's®, check out our killer drink and food menu, get special offers and find out what's going on any night of the week. And with our My Friday's Tab SM powered by Tabbedout®, you can start a tab, keep tabs on it and even pay directly from your phone when you're ready to call it a night. You'll even find some of our bartenders' best tips on life…and living it up.

How can you have a Five for Friday restaurant list and not mention Friday’s? We love the gorgeous look of the app and the menu is as simple as it gets. Our favorite feature here is being able to open a tab, add items, and pay the bill all from our handset. Get some bartender advice and track your Stripes reward card.

Download Friday’s

Five Guys Burgers & Fries

Now taking orders from your Android! Skip the line! Find the closest Five Guys Burgers & Fries restaurant, place your order, and pick up your food today.

Again, how can we even consider a five deep food list without this app? No frills and easy to use, this one hunts down your closest location and place orders. Dress your burger up, add some fries and go pick it up! We’ll take double cheese and bacon.

Download Five Guys Burgers & Fries

Chili's

Bold food demands a bold app! With our new app, you can find a Chili's restaurant, browse the menu, get coupons, and even order To-Go directly from your app! You're never too far from a Chili's and now it's easier than ever to order To-Go!

Locate the nearest restaurant, browse the menu, save a few bucks, and more with the Chili’s app. Connect with the chain and you’ll be in the loop with the company Facebook and Twitter. What’s more, you can join the email club or watch videos from Chili’s.

Download Chili’s

B-Dubs

B-Dubs® is the first-ever app from Buffalo Wild Wings—a mobile destination where you can find one of our restaurants within your area. You can also use the app to swear your undying devotion to your favorite wings, beer, sports™. Fight for Fandom allows fans of B-Dubs to compete with friends, family and others to determine which wings, beer or sports reign supreme.

As much as we like burgers and fries, we’re even bigger fans of buffalo wings. The official app for Buffalo Wild Wings doesn’t have much in the way of viewing the menu or placing orders, but it’s sharp and easy to figure out. Log in and select your favorite sauce, beer, and sports team and then Fan Up. Essentially just a way of bragging on your picks, it could lead to discovering that next new fave.

Download B-Dubs

Your turn!

What’s your favorite place to eat, that also has an Android app? What do you like most about it? Leave a comment below and share with the class!

Five for Friday: Android apps from our favorite restaurants was written by the way cool dudes at AndroidGuys. Follow at Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube!

Popular PC time management game, Legends of Atlantis: Exodus, is now FREE to play on Android! Features 50+ strategic levels, achievements, bonuses, power-ups, and more!

Get guaranteed screen protection from Cellhelmet

Posted: 24 Aug 2012 12:04 PM PDT

Choosing a screen protector for your Android smartphone or tablet can sometimes be a risky game to play. Do you go with a low-priced accessory and take your chances? Heck, even the more expensive stuff doesn’t necessarily mean you’re protected forever. If only these things came with a guarantee of some sort.

There’s a new Indiegogo project up right now that might be just the ticket. It’s called cellhelmet and it is exactly that – a guaranteed screen protector. As of right now, there are 20 days left until the project ends and folks can get protection for as low as $12 (3-pack).

Each cellhelmet protector is guaranteed for one full year, which starts the day your product is received. Each pack is specific to your exact device and must be registered within 30 days.

About that guarantee

So what actually happens if or when you scratch your phone after applying a screen protector? In most cases, you’re out of luck. With cellhelmet, your glass is replaced at no cost at one the 39 facilities across the country. You’ll have your baby back within a few days and all will be right in the world.

NOTE: There is a handling fee if there ever should be a claim filed. It is not much, $25 for phones and $35 tablets, but this means you are still getting a whole new screen for less than $50.

Shipping for the cellhelmet screen protectors begins in September so be on the lookout for these. In the meanwhile, head to Indiegogo and learn more about the project. While you are there, secure yours for a few bucks and sleep soundly at night.

Get guaranteed screen protection from Cellhelmet was written by the way cool dudes at AndroidGuys. Follow at Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube!

Popular PC time management game, Legends of Atlantis: Exodus, is now FREE to play on Android! Features 50+ strategic levels, achievements, bonuses, power-ups, and more!

More Galaxy Stellar details slip out, Samsung choosing Amazon over Google Play?

Posted: 24 Aug 2012 11:35 AM PDT

For such a mid-range device, information about the Galaxy Stellar has been more abundant than usual. First we saw it in some leaked images, with the name “Jasper,” and then a leaked inventory sheet outed the Stellar name. This past Monday, we got a few more details on the device, along with several other Samsung goodies, and now Droid-Life has found some more juicy information. According to the image, the Stellar will be priced at $99 (after a $50 mail-in rebate), which seems reasonable for a device of those specs.

Here’s where it gets interesting. According to the information, the Stellar will come preloaded with something called Starter Mode, and will apparently be packed with Amazon App Store. It’s unclear at this point as to if Amazon is the primary app store on the device, instead of the Play Store. It’ll be interesting to see where this goes as we uncover more information. Still no release date for the Galaxy Stellar, but we’ll keep searching.

So in the meantime, who else is getting curious about the Stellar? Do you think Samsung will actually replace the Google Play Store with Amazon App Store? Sound off in the comments!

More Galaxy Stellar details slip out, Samsung choosing Amazon over Google Play? was written by the way cool dudes at AndroidGuys. Follow at Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube!

Popular PC time management game, Legends of Atlantis: Exodus, is now FREE to play on Android! Features 50+ strategic levels, achievements, bonuses, power-ups, and more!

Is 7-inch E FUN Nextbook worth $130 of your money?

Posted: 24 Aug 2012 11:24 AM PDT

E FUN’s latest Premium Special Edition Android tablet, the Premium 7SE, runs $130 and can be found all over the place. The 7-inch tablet runs Android 4.0 and comes with GetJar App Store for downloading apps and games, Barnes & Noble NOOK, Astro, OfficeSuite, and a host of other apps.

Hardware details include a 1GHz processor, 512MB RAM, 4GB internal storage, microSD expansion, and 3200mAH battery. No, it’s not half the stuff you get for the $199 Nexus 7 but it be just enough for most users to get started. Would you consider something like this for yourself or someone you know?

Go Back to School with E FUN's Nextbook Premium 7 Special Edition Tablet

Perfect for any student, the 7" tablet features Android Ice Cream Sandwich and Barnes & Noble NOOK Store

WEST COVINA, CA – August 21, 2012 – E FUN, a consumer electronics designer and manufacturer of fun, easy-to-use lifestyle products, has announced the next model in its new Premium SE Series of Nextbook tablet computers, the Premium 7SE for back-to-school. The 7" tablet features a user-friendly five-finger multitouch capacitive color screen and Android Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0.3 operating system. It comes preloaded with the Barnes & Noble NOOK Store™, GetJar App Store and a 14-day trial of Net Nanny parental controls software.

"The Premium 7SE is the perfect tablet for students going back to school," remarked Jason Liszewski, managing director and vice president of sales for E FUN. "It is light, portable and ultra-functional for taking notes, accessing the Internet, sharing information through email and social networks, reading eBooks, and much more. The Premium 7SE is an affordable computing choice for students of all ages."

Features of the Premium Special Edition Series include Flash 11 support and over-the-air (OTA) firmware update capabilities. Additionally, each model has a front-facing camera and 1080p high-definition video player for quality viewing of favorite movies, music videos and more.

The Premium 7SE has an 800×480 screen with 16:9 ratio and a G-sensor auto-rotate orientation feature for landscape or portrait viewing. To keep all of a user's files safely stored, it has 4GB of built-in flash memory as well as ports for a microSD card and mini-USB 2.0 for expandable memory. Its built-in Wi-Fi connectivity allows users to watch YouTube videos, listen to music, receive and send e-mails, or simply browse the Internet.

The Barnes & Noble NOOK Store provides access to over 2.5 million titles, including new releases, bestsellers, classics, children's books, magazines, newspapers and more. Users can choose from 25 free preloaded eBooks or download their favorite titles. The Premium SE Series also come with the GetJar App Store included, the world's largest independent app store that offers 350,000 mobile apps for Android.

The Premium 7SE is available nationwide with a price of $129.99. Additional models in the Premium SE Series include the Premium 8SE and Premium 10SE. For more information, see http://nextbookusa.com/product_landingpage.php.

About E FUN
As its name implies, E FUN is a designer and marketer of fun, lifestyle e-products that are easily accessible. While appreciated by techies, E FUN products are primarily designed for consumers who desire the latest technological products, but are more concerned with what they do, not how they do it. E FUN's ongoing product innovation focuses on making electronics and computing more fun! Initial products offerings from E FUN include the APEN digital pen and Nextbook Android tablets. E FUN is headquartered in West Covina, California.

For additional information regarding E FUN's brands, please visit APEN at www.apenusa.com; and Nextbook at www.nextbookusa.com.

Is 7-inch E FUN Nextbook worth $130 of your money? was written by the way cool dudes at AndroidGuys. Follow at Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube!

Popular PC time management game, Legends of Atlantis: Exodus, is now FREE to play on Android! Features 50+ strategic levels, achievements, bonuses, power-ups, and more!

Leak: official Jelly Bean update for the T-Mobile Galaxy SIII

Posted: 24 Aug 2012 11:01 AM PDT

No, you didn’t read the title wrong. Following reports that the international version of the Galaxy S3 will be getting Jelly Bean on August 29th, an XDA user has posted a Jelly Bean ROM for the T-Mobile USA variant of the device, and claims that it’s the real thing. There are some minor issues with the ROM, involving WiFi calling, but for the most part it’s what we’ll eventually see from Magenta.

We’re not going to beat around the bush, so if you’re interested in giving this gem a shot, you can head on over to the XDA thread and download it (at your own risk, of course). No word from T-Mobile on an official date for the Jelly Bean release, so this will have to satisfy Galaxy S3 users for now.

So, who’s downloading the leaked update? Are you excited for some official Jelly Bean on your S3? Leave your thoughts in a comment below!

Source PocketNow

Leak: official Jelly Bean update for the T-Mobile Galaxy SIII was written by the way cool dudes at AndroidGuys. Follow at Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube!

Popular PC time management game, Legends of Atlantis: Exodus, is now FREE to play on Android! Features 50+ strategic levels, achievements, bonuses, power-ups, and more!

POLL & PRIZE: How long do you go before charging your Android?

Posted: 24 Aug 2012 10:03 AM PDT

As people who typically spend our days glued to a PC or near an outlet, we are always keeping our Android handsets and tablet charged up. Come weekend, though, things are a bit different. Whereas we usually have near 100% juice come Tuesday dinners, Saturday sees many of us dipping into the red by bed time.

How long do you go,on average, before you plug your smartphone in to add some juice? Take a moment and let us know in the poll below. We know not every day is the same, so pick the one that’s most right for you. Once you’re done, go to the comments and tell us your story. What phone are you using? Do you have an extended battery?

Hardware

The Atrix HD feels excellent in hand. It strikes the perfect balance between solidity and lightness, while the Kevlar backing and sticky stripe around the sides offer a great feeling of grip. The microSD and SIM slots are stored away behind a plastic flap near the bottom of the left side that does a decent job of blending into the body. The particular pearl white color model that Motorola sent us looks awesome, with the dark grey of the Kevlar and side-stripping contrasting beautifully with the white. The speaker is also plenty loud and clear, for ringers, music, and speakerphone. Motorola also put a coating on the exterior and interior of the device that, according to Motorola,

If there was an oddity, it was the positioning of the volume and power keys all on the right hand side. The pearl white color looks awesome, with the dark grey of the Kevlar and side-stripping contrasting beautifully with the white.
This is great for a left-handed person, as they’d have easy access to multiple buttons with multiple fingers, making controls and screenshots easier. A right handed person would have to use their singular, lonely thumb. Either doing it Samsung style (with the power on the right and the volume on the left) or like everyone else (with the power on top) seem like better choices. Not a showstopper by any stretch, but a definite odd choice in design.

Screen

Moving onto the screen, I’ll just say it’s gorgeous and the touchscreen is quite responsive. Colors pop very well and there’s plenty of detail. Pictures and video both looked fantastic, with pixelation being absolutely zero. The only downside is that it was almost impossible to see in direct sunlight even at the highest brightness setting, which is a definite bummer if you plan on using your phone outdoors at all.

Camera

I’ll start the camera portion on a positive note: I was impressed with how clear the front camera was. It handles tricky lighting situations well and without the grainy textures you get from many front-facers. It’ll be great for those that video chat on a consistent basis or like to take vanity shots.

The main camera, by comparison was…unimpressive. In pictures, shadows stayed dark, shadowey and ambiguous, while whites were overbearingly bright, washing out all of the nearby colors, particularly in less than ideal lighting situations. And “less than ideal” covers quite a bit on the Atrix HD camera. Really, the only place where the camera fares well is outdoors in the light. Indoors, or even in the shade outdoors, the camera just doesn’t deliver. Video recorded smoothly, but with the same lighting and color issues as still shots. It’s possible that it’s simply software that isn’t optimizing pictures properly, and if they fix it later with an update, fantastic. For now though, that’s not the case. If you’re a big photo bug, I’d recommend a different choice in device with a better shooter.

Software

Motorola has shipped the device with Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) on board, the norm these days, with their own UI elements plastered on top.

Before we get into the UI itself, I feel obliged to say that it’s refreshing to see on-screen navigation buttons on a non-stock Android device. I like the look of them, and in my experience, the on-screen buttons tend to be a bit more responsive than capacitive or hard-style variants. Plus, for those that do the rooting thing like myself, on-screen nav buttons are yet one more thing that you can customize and make your own. I’m a fan.

While some of the on-board applications (Calendar, Browser, Gallery, and Google applications) and software elements are basically just stock Android or stock with a slight skin, Motorola and AT&T have added their bits of customization. Some of these are useful and some of these are useless fluff.

This especially applies to the non-removable AT&T crap that the carrier has decided to burden the user’s device with: AT&T Code Scanner, AT&T Family Map, AT&T Navigator, AT&T Ready2Go, AT&T Smart Wi-Fi, and LiveTV. Granted, some of these apps may be useful for certain customers, but the option to uninstall would be a nice friendly gesture by the carrier. Many of Motorola’s extra apps (excluding Smart Actions, more on this later) by comparison are completely uninstallable. Nice.

Motorola left their mark on the general UI of the software in a few distinct areas. First would be the lockscreen. While Google limits the shortcuts of the stock Android lockscreen to general unlocking and camera, Motorola has given the user four options: Camera, Phone, Messaging, and then the general unlock. There’s also a quick toggle for turning silent/vibrate on and off. All in all, Motorola did a good job here of adding some great features but keeping the Android 4.0 feel.

Launcher

The replacement launcher that Motorola used works well for the most part. Down at the bottom you have four replaceable app shortcuts with the button for the app drawer in the middle, like stock Ice Cream Sandwich. The four stock buttons do offer a quick feature that’s actually convenient and useful by showing relevant information if you slide up on the icon; for instance, if you slide up on the phone icon, it shows recent calls.

The launcher default home page is the one on the far left. And that’s all it can be. Period. There’s no way to change which page is your home screen… just inefficient.
The launcher starts off with one screen. Swiping over to go to the right automatically opens up a new launcher page creation screen, giving you the option to choose to create a completely blank launcher page or select one of several pre-created pages. This is a good option for those that are less tech savvy or just jumping into Android for the first time, and it was a good thought of Motorola.

Where it gets odd for the launcher is that the default home page is the one on the far left. And that’s all it can be. Period. There’s no way to change which launcher page is your home screen. When it comes down to it, this is just inefficient. If I have five pages, that’s four pages I have to swipe through to get to the last page. Personally, I would prefer the center page as the home, in the middle of the action as it were, though regardless of preference, giving the user the choice (like the TouchWiz and Sense launchers) is the best policy. Now, you can double tap the home button which will bring up all of your screens and from there you can select which one you want to bring up…but for most users this isn’t natural. Again, like the power and volume buttons placement, this is more odd design choice than deal breaker. And heck, if it’s that big a deal for you, download a third party launcher.

Why would you replace this keyboard with an inferior one only to theme it to look exactly like the stock Android keyboard?
Speaking of third party launchers…I’m going to go on a rant here about the stock Motorola keyboard (and manufacturer soft keyboard replacements in general). Guys, Android’s stock keyboard for ice cream sandwich is pretty darn fantastic. It offers excellent error correction, runs fast and smooth, and gives users a wide range of customization options. Why would you replace this keyboard with an inferior one only to theme it to look exactly like the stock Android keyboard? If you’re wanting to use a keyboard that has added features or want to theme it to better match your UI, that’s one thing, but this replacement makes no sense. The main thing that got me, beyond correction accuracy, was that it doesn’t automatically correct contractions, something that should be a given nowadays. For me, this was solved by downloading the stellar SwiftKey 3.

Beyond the couple of problems listed above, the software worked mostly very well, moving quickly under the power of the powerful processor beneath the hood.

Connectivity/Battery life

My signal with AT&T was hit and miss. At home and when I went to visit my folks in Dallas, my signal was excellent as were my data speeds. AT&T’s LTE data speed can definitely cook, with my peak speed being over 45 MB/s down and over 21 MB/s up. Where I work in San Antonio, however was a black hole of death where calls and texts would barely go through, though this is just a trouble spot for AT&T. When I got signal though, callers were clear and said the same of me. The dual-microphone setup also did a good job with basic noise cancellation in light wind and decent background noise.

Battery life was also hit and miss. The idle time was pretty good, hitting almost 3 days if I just left it alone. Heavy to moderate use though was another story. In these situations, I was typically needing a charger just after lunch time. Given the huge battery that was squeezed into the still svelte Droid Razr Maxx, the 1780 mAh power pusher in the Atrix HD seems tiny. Given a bigger battery, I’m sure battery life would be a lot more impressive.

Conclusion

The Atrix HD is definitely a good deal for the money if you’re on AT&T. It does very well as a phone in clarity and reception (at least where AT&T is concerned), and really that’s what a phone is for. Beyond that, it hits the spot in build-quality, with only a few real nitpicks. The same goes for the software, most of which can be corrected with third-party downloads. Battery life is also questionable, but for those that don’t stay on their phones all day like I do, this may not be a concern. The only area that the Atrix HD really fails is the camera, and because of this there’s a decent segment of people (those that use their camera as their primary point-and-shoot) that I just couldn’t recommend this for. If this is something that Motorola can fix with a firmware update and end up doing so, I would definitely recommend this phone.

Review: Motorola Atrix HD was written by the way cool dudes at AndroidGuys. Follow at Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube!

Popular PC time management game, Legends of Atlantis: Exodus, is now FREE to play on Android! Features 50+ strategic levels, achievements, bonuses, power-ups, and more!

Adobe Connect Mobile 2.0 brings added hosting controls to Android

Posted: 24 Aug 2012 06:58 AM PDT

Adobe this week announced release of Adobe Connect Mobile 2.0 which brings expanded hosting capabilities and control to the mobile experience. Those of you business users with Android tablets and smartphones will find that the 2.0 app gives full meeting administration, new sharing options, and more control over presentations.

Features of Adobe Connect Mobile 2.0 include:

Complete meeting administration: In addition to existing hosting controls (begin/end meetings, manage attendance, manage attendee roles – Host, Presenter, or Participant, etc.), hosts can now fully control meeting recordings, audio conferencing, and video.
Share content from the cloud or device: Share presentations, videos, images and other content stored in your library in the cloud; in the image library; or on the device drive* itself (*Android).
Enhanced presentation controls and interactivity: In addition to existing presentation controls (presenting content, advancing slides, taking shared notes, running polls, etc.), hosts can now whiteboard with the tip of a finger, change layouts, and foster interaction with a range of emoticons.

Download Adobe Connect Mobile 2.0 (Google Play)

Adobe Connect Mobile 2.0 brings added hosting controls to Android was written by the way cool dudes at AndroidGuys. Follow at Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube!

Popular PC time management game, Legends of Atlantis: Exodus, is now FREE to play on Android! Features 50+ strategic levels, achievements, bonuses, power-ups, and more!

Is Google’s new app policy just a bunch of lip service?

Posted: 24 Aug 2012 06:20 AM PDT

Remember early this month when Google advised they would be taking a more proactive approach to removing shoddy or spammy apps? Designed to keep the the Google Play Store a little cleaner and more user friendly, this was to be Google’s way of getting in the way of those apps that violate the new terms of service. Executed properly, it would go a long way toward user satisfaction and keep us from seeing look-alike apps or titles with intrusive ads.

So, how are things going in the few weeks since the update? According to Appbrain, Google hasn’t done much at all along this front.

A new blog post on Appbrain tells us that if Google is in fact cracking down, it’s making a minimal impact on the overall numbers. They found that nearly 58,000 apps have been unpublished from Google Play over the previous 2.5 months, or around 728 per day. Looking at August 1 on, it shows that things haven’t changed much.

Too early to call it

It’s worth pointing out a few things as it relates to the Google policies and even Appbrain concedes things are not fully in place. We’ll have to revisit this a few months later, but here’s a handful of factors to consider:

The policy applies to all apps effective August 30th, however it was immediately in place for new apps or updated apps since August 1st
The chart above reflects all removals from Google Play, even those pulled by the developer.
AppBrain only tracks apps published in the US, so if a developer decides to restrict app to not be available in the US, it gets counted this as an unpublished app too.
Some developers may be wary of attempting to circumvent the system and shied away from publishing apps in the first place.

Is Google’s new app policy just a bunch of lip service? was written by the way cool dudes at AndroidGuys. Follow at Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube!

Popular PC time management game, Legends of Atlantis: Exodus, is now FREE to play on Android! Features 50+ strategic levels, achievements, bonuses, power-ups, and more!

Telenav debuts HTML5 turn-by-turn navigation for Android

Posted: 24 Aug 2012 06:18 AM PDT

Earlier this week Telenav launched an HTML5, browser-based, voice-guided GPS navigation experience for Android and Windows Phones. Initially an iOS-only service, Scout for Apps is the first HTML5 turn-by-turn GPS navigation of its kind. With this announcement, it’s now possible for developers to embed said navigation into their own apps, much as they would a video. Not only that, but developers can keep the same branding, look, and uniform design that users expect.

Beyond the Android announcement, Telenav has also released a website widget that anyone can to a website to provide visitors the ability to instantly launch the same great, trusted GPS navigation. Called Scout Drive Button, it’s another first in the space and can be easily and freely integrated into sites without any coding background.

Scout for Apps Now Live on Three Platforms: iOS, Android and Windows Phones

Scout for Apps remains only GPS navigation service that developers can embed within their own mobile apps or websites
Telenav also introduces new website widget for small businesses and developers

Sunnyvale, Calif. — August 22, 2012 — Telenav®, Inc. (NASDAQ: TNAV), the leader in personalized navigation, has extended Scout™ for Apps to Android and Windows Phone platforms. Launched first on iPhone in March, Scout for Apps is the first HTML5, browser-based, voice-guided, turn by turn, GPS navigation service for mobile phones.

"Mobile users have sent us feedback that they have switched to our partner apps due to the addition of free navigation," said Shannph Wong, chief architect at Telenav. "Now that we have developed the service to work on Android and Windows Phone devices, we expect this trend to continue."

Scout for Apps gives developers an easy way to offer consumers free, voice-guided, turn by turn, GPS navigation directly from their application or website. Developers can integrate the service by simply adding one line of code, making it ideal for social, travel and shopping apps, or any other app or website that includes points of interest, places or addresses. Scout for Apps is also the only GPS navigation service that developers can embed within their own mobile applications, just like embedding video into a website, allowing them the ability to keep their users within their own branded app throughout the entire navigation session.

"No other service will allow developers to provide GPS navigation within their own app," continued Wong. "This is a major difference between Scout for Apps and any other GPS navigation service on iOS, Android or Windows Phone."

Scout Drive Button: GPS Navigation for Websites
Today, Telenav also launched the Scout Drive Button, a widget for anyone to add onto their website to provide visitors the ability to instantly launch voice-guided, turn by turn, GPS navigation to their store, restaurant, salon, dentist office, etc. Mobile users can click the button from their phone and navigation will start from their mobile browser, without the need for a separate GPS navigation or mapping app. The Scout Drive Button – free for website owners and mobile users – is easy to add to a website and does not require any coding skills.

If website visitors click on the Scout Drive Button from their computer rather than their phone, Scout will offer the option of sending a link to launch navigation on their phone via a text message or mobile email. The Scout Drive Button eliminates the need to write down directions, print out maps, or copy and paste the address into another GPS device or application.

"Most websites include a long laundry list of written driving directions or picture of a map that are static and hard to use," continued Wong. "With our Scout Drive Button, businesses can offer a sophisticated and reliable experience to their patrons. This is a technology that will change the way businesses share driving directions and help their customers before they even arrive at their store."

Website owners can personalize the Scout Drive Button by typing in their address into the widget, then copying and pasting the automatic code into their website. They can also easily modify the size and choose from different graphic options. The Scout Drive Button is available at www.telenav.com/scoutdrivebutton/.

More information on Scout for Apps is available at developer.telenav.com.

About Telenav, Inc.
Telenav's mission is to help make people's lives easier, less stressful, more fun, and more productive while they are on the go. Our personalized navigation services help people make faster and smarter daily decisions about where to go, when to leave, how to get there, and what to do when they arrive.
We aim to be everywhere people need us. Our partners are wireless carriers, automobile manufacturers and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), app developers, advertisers and agencies, as well as enterprises large and small. Our partners include AT&T, Bell Mobility, Boost Mobile, China Mobile, Ford, MapmyIndia, NII Holdings, QNX Software Systems, Rogers, Sony, Sprint Nextel, Telcel, T-Mobile UK, T-Mobile US, U.S. Cellular, Verizon Wireless and Vivo Brazil. You can also find us in mobile app stores and on the web at www.telenav.com and www.scout.me.

Follow Telenav on Twitter at www.twitter.com/telenav or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/telenav.

Telenav debuts HTML5 turn-by-turn navigation for Android was written by the way cool dudes at AndroidGuys. Follow at Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube!

Popular PC time management game, Legends of Atlantis: Exodus, is now FREE to play on Android! Features 50+ strategic levels, achievements, bonuses, power-ups, and more!

Behind the Curtain: A conversation with Stitcher

Posted: 23 Aug 2012 09:25 PM PDT

You’ve probably learned this by now, but we’re huge fans of podcasts, talk radio, and other “educational” stuff that seems boring to the kids. Thanks to a myriad of Android apps and platform capabilities, we’ve fallen deeper in love with that type of content.

One app that we’ve really come to appreciate over the last year or so is Stitcher Radio. In fact, we’re such big fans of the app and service that we couldn’t pass on the opportunity to speak to their team. We recently had the pleasure of talking to Todd Pringle, VP of Product Management, where we learned about the special ingredients that go into their sauce.

Thank you for taking the time to chat us up. Please, introduce yourself!

I joined Stitcher about a year and a half ago to lead the Product team – my background is in consumer web and mobile products at both big companies like Netscape and eBay as well as smaller start-ups. I’ve always had a particular interest in the intersection of media and technology and have loved working at a company that is bringing disruptive change to one of our oldest media businesses.

Not all of our readers are familiar with Stitcher. Can you briefly describe the service?

Stitcher is personalized internet radio for the world beyond music. We let you create custom Stations from over 10,000 on demand radio shows, podcasts and live radio streams. Basically we want listeners to be able to enjoy their favorite programming on the go and on their own schedule instead of a traditional radio schedule.

What is it that you want Android, or mobile users, to know about Stitcher?

We’re committed to delivering a great user experience – we’re constantly listening to users and observing behavior through data to make the product better. We think traditional radio listening is far from a great user experience currently because it lacks basic features users have come to expect when consuming media like on demand listening, personalization and discovery of new content. Our goal is to create an experience that changes the way people listen to radio. In doing so we also believe we can help a brand new set of content producers build viable businesses in this new radio medium. At the most fundamental level, we feel like keeping people informed about their world and entertained is an exciting and worthwhile mission.

How do you differentiate from the myriad of other podcast and radio apps on Android?

Podcasting apps tend to go really deep around a specific set of features for power podcast listeners at the expense of the average listener. The word “podcasting” scares off a lot of potential users given some of the historical complexity of consuming them. It’s not really about the format anyway, it’s about the content so we try to keep it focused on that and deliver an experience that can get someone who’s never listened to a podcast using and enjoying the app while still providing some of the key functionality podcast listeners expect within a “podcast” app. The other major differentiator for us is discovery – we’ve pioneered talk audio content recommendations and built a reputation for helping listeners find new shows they love. On the radio app side, there aren’t any other major apps with a laser focus on non-music content – most are either heavily music focused or are simply taking existing live radio streams and porting them to mobile devices.

Have you worked with Amazon for distribution? If so, what can you share?

Amazon’s a relatively small but a growing distribution channel for us. We’ve had our app in the Amazon App Store for a while and early this year we added support for Kindle Fire. Our view in general is that Amazon is a continuous innovator and understands how to deliver great consumer experiences – they’ll continue to improve their Store and products like the Fire, and we’ve been early to the game with them for that reason. From a development perspective it’s been easy for us to support given that the platform is Android and we already had an existing product that could be optimized for the Kindle Fire.

Can you tell us about Smart Station and how it learns from me?

We launched our “Listeners also like” recommendations last year and it’s been extremely well received – this is the feature that displays shows that listeners of a show you’re listening to also like so you can discover new favorites. Smart Station takes our recommendations a step further – it creates a station for you that is personalized to you specifically. We do this via an algorithm that factors in things like what you’ve listened to most, what you’ve favorited, and what you’ve thumbed up or down. We constantly adjust our recommendations based on your behavior and our tens of millions of listening hours from everyone else to help you find relevant new shows.

What challenges have you faced in working with Android?

The flexibility the Android platform provides is both an opportunity and a challenge. Much like other Android developers, platform fragmentation at the OS and hardware level has been at times difficult for us to navigate. The fact that our application is one that relies on media playback functionality is an additional level of complication given that some manufacturers customize and ship their own media players that we are often trying to rely on.

Is there something in the platform that prohibits Stitcher from realizing a particular feature or service?

Not that we’ve come across to date. In general we find that we’ve been able to do everything we’ve wanted to and that we can do on other platforms (and some things we can’t on other platforms). The only drawback as noted above is that fragmentation can often cause design, development, and QA cycles to take a bit longer/require additional resources.

You guys recently announced some Facebook integration tools. Can you tell us a little bit about the update?

Since initially incorporating Facebook Timeline into its iOS app earlier this year, Stitcher has seen 400% new user growth and 300% fan page growth. Now on the heels of this successful iOS integration, Stitcher is released an update to their Android app enabling Facebook Timeline integration for all Android users. Android users are now able to login with Facebook and seamlessly share what they’re listening to, liking, and adding to their favorites with their Facebook friends. Via Facebook, Stitcher users can find out what their Stitcher friends are listening to as well, helping them discover great new shows. Please find more in the FB developer spotlight here: https://developers.facebook.com/blog/post/2012/08/08/developer-spotlight–stitcher/

Let’s talk about usage and growth for a moment – Where does your usage come from? Is it a half-half mix?

The vast majority of Stitcher’s listening (90%+) is via mobile devices. We’ve historically focused our efforts on mobile as the most common use cases for radio listening tend to be on the go. While we have a web based desktop version, it is currently undergoing a major redesign.

Wow! That’s an insane amount of mobile use. Where are your new users coming from?

Also 90%+ driven by mobile.

Again, a crazy figure. So, is there anything cool coming down the road from Stitcher?

We’re going to continue to innovate on discovery – helping users navigate the vast library of content out there, dive deeper into social – we inherently believe that a lot of talk content is the type of content listeners love to discuss with friends or like-minded listeners, and take technologies like transcription that we’ve applied in the Election Center and test application of it across all of Stitcher’s content to improve things like search results and allow users to jump directly to segments of interest.

How does a user get in touch to provide feedback?

There’s a feedback feature in our app that will come to us or users can just sent their ideas to feedback@stitcher.com. The more the better!

Behind the Curtain: A conversation with Stitcher was written by the way cool dudes at AndroidGuys. Follow at Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube!

Popular PC time management game, Legends of Atlantis: Exodus, is now FREE to play on Android! Features 50+ strategic levels, achievements, bonuses, power-ups, and more!

Sony Mobile to relocate headquarters, trim 1000 jobs

Posted: 23 Aug 2012 05:21 PM PDT

Sony Mobile has just announced that they will be moving its headquarters, laying off workers in the process to streamline the organization, all while restructuring their business focus. Sony has mentioned that it is going to accelerate the work it is doing to integrate its Xperia line of smartphones with the rest of Sony’s product portfolio. In relation to the operational structure changes, Sony Mobile plans to reduce its global headcount by approximately 15 percent (approximately 1000 personnel, including consultants) throughout the financial years of 2012 and 2013 (i.e. by the end of March 2014) as the company seeks to increase operational efficiency, reduce costs and drive profitable growth. The company is going to relocate its corporate headquarters from Lund, Sweden, to Tokyo, Japan, where most of Sony’s business units are.
Sony expects these organizational changes, including the layoffs, to be completed by March 2014. Stay tuned in to AndroidGuys and we will let you know if we hear anything more on the subject!

Via Phonescoop

Sony Mobile to relocate headquarters, trim 1000 jobs was written by the way cool dudes at AndroidGuys. Follow at Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube!

Popular PC time management game, Legends of Atlantis: Exodus, is now FREE to play on Android! Features 50+ strategic levels, achievements, bonuses, power-ups, and more!

Android World

Saturday, August 25, 2012

AndroidGuys

AndroidGuys

This week: Android apps from our favorite RESTAURANTS

In-N-Out Burger

Friday’s

Five Guys Burgers & Fries

Chili's

B-Dubs

Your turn!

About that guarantee

Leave a comment and win a Power-Skin!

Hardware

Screen

Camera

Software

Connectivity/Battery life

Conclusion

Too early to call it

No comments:

Post a Comment