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WeatherBug Launches New Weather Application for Google’s Android Phone

Earl — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 18:30:48 +0000

WeatherBug Launches New Weather Application for Google’s Android Phone
New Ad-Supported Application Integrates Interactive Functionality With Google Maps, GPS-Enabled Severe Weather Alerts, Customized Forecasts and More From the Largest and Most Precise Weather Network in the World

Last update: 1:12 p.m. EST Nov. 13, 2008
GERMANTOWN, MD, Nov 13, 2008 (MARKET WIRE via COMTEX) — WeatherBug(R), a leading provider of live, local weather information for consumers and professional users, today announced the launch of its advanced mobile weather application for the Android phone. Available through the Android Market on the T-Mobile G1 phone, WeatherBug’s new ad-supported Android application delivers precise neighborhood-level streaming weather information and images for thousands of locations, customized weather maps, daily weather videos, proactive location-based severe weather alerts from the National Weather Service and much, much more.
WeatherBug’s Android application for the G1 is available for free to T-Mobile customers and provides advertisers an opportunity to reach a broad range of tech-savvy consumers in a rich mobile environment.
“WeatherBug is committed to bringing advertisers cutting edge opportunities within the mobile spectrum,” said Michael Lombardi, vice president of advertising sales and marketing for WeatherBug. “This application complements our already robust mobile offering, which includes the iPhone and international opportunities, not to mention our on-deck presence with major carriers.”
With WeatherBug’s Android application, users can customize weather maps for multiple locations. For example, consumers can find the forecast for home or school, keep up with travel conditions for a loved one, and check-in on the weather at a favorite vacation spot — all from one customized screen. They can get detailed radar, live weather conditions, forecasts and the latest local and national weather outlook videos from WeatherBug meteorologists. Consumers can also view snapshots and time-lapse animation from more than 2,000 WeatherBug cameras.
“No other provider can match the pinpoint accuracy of our weather information,” said Chris Brozenick, vice president and general manager of mobile at WeatherBug. “Now, with our new application for the Android phone, we can combine the live, local nature of our weather information with easy-to-use interactive maps, and harness our network technology to enable proactive severe weather alerts that are sent out automatically. Consumers can have the added assurance of knowing they are protected from severe weather, such as thunderstorms, tornadoes or flash floods, whenever it is nearby.”
By integrating Google Map’s interactive functionality, WeatherBug’s Android application is fully customizable, enabling consumers to drill down to the street level by simply touching any area on the map for two seconds. Consumers can also layer temperature, radar and more on the same map.
The WeatherBug application is fully optimized to reduce battery use and offers an easy-to-use interface. For instance, users can readily check on weather conditions and set-up new locations by pulling the location information from their contact list. If they choose to add a location from the contact list, WeatherBug will simply use the address to look for a local WeatherBug weather station. Users can also effortlessly share the current weather information, forecast, alerts and photographs with friends and family.
Feedback on the WeatherBug Android application can be sent to http://tinyurl.com/5 68qas. To see a video demonstration of the features included in WeatherBug’s new Android application for the G1 please visit http://tinyurl.com/weatherbug-android.
For more information on the Android application, advertising sales opportunities or any of WeatherBug’s consumer mobile services please visit www.weatherbug.com/mobile.

Loopt will soon allow you to spy on your friends with Android

Earl — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 16:48:32 +0000

Loopt has just announced the development of their social networking application for Android. They are very excited t be able to bring this service to other platforms. Many of you may have had your first encounter with Loopt on the iPhone.

Loopt keeps you in the loop when it comes to knowing what your friends are up to. Looped has released two teaser photos of the application to spark interest. On the left you will see a map that displays all of your friends locations, on the bottom of the photo are pictures of your friends that are displayed. Just select a friend’s image and it will take you to where that friend is located.

The photo on the right shows you where your friends are, how far they are from your location, and what they are currently doing. With Loopt expanding from the iPhone to other platforms it shows great promise. We are excited to see it come to Android, This not only helps them but allows Android users to connect with a wider range of people.

[Via Android Community]

Facebook Mobile totals over 15 million users

Earl — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 16:14:01 +0000

According to the Facebook blog usage of Facebook mobile products has grown from 5 million to 15 million active users since the beginning of the year.

Types of Facebook mobile interaction are:

Facebook mobile site, m.facebook.com, works on nearly any mobile browser in the world
Extended mobile site, x.facebook.com, is for advanced mobile devices.
Facebook SMS allows you to receive notifications or update your status with text messages,
Device specific Facebook for Palm, Blackberry and iPhone.

When Facebook added ad the ability to comment on your friends’ status updates to the Facebook mobile site, they didn’t expect that we would receive nearly a million status comments in the first 24 hours.

[link Contributor Wireless and Mobile News ]

This number will definitely rise as more people adapt newer browsers that are on the android platform.

We’ll see what this does to myspace and their already lost lead.

Microsoft starts taking shots at Google’s Android

Earl — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 13:46:38 +0000

Android has been under a lot of heat lately from some of the leading mobile companies such as Sprint. Google’s Android platform seems to be an open target for negativity. Microsoft has jumped on the bandwagon with reports that they find Android to be financially unsound.

The other day Microsoft CEO, Steve Ballmer, spoke at Australian telecoms company Telstra’s annual investment day, he was quick to dismiss Google all together saying, “They can hire smart guys, hire a lot of people… but, you know, they start out way behind in a certain sense.” This comes as a surprise to me as Google has continued to outshine Microsoft in the past, overcoming them on many top ten lists.

Ballmer questioned Google’s ability to make money from this mobile platform as he went on to say, “I don’t really understand their strategy. Maybe somebody else does. If I went to my shareholder meeting, my analyst meeting, and said: ‘Hey, we’ve just launched a new product that has no revenue model!’… I’m not sure that my investors would take that very well. But that’s kind of what Google’s telling their investors about Android,”

In a perfect world for large companies such as Microsoft, making money is all that really matters in the end. What they don’t realize is that open source is not about raking in the money, it is about creating something and then allowing others to partake of it as they see fit. Google is getting many more search hits with the integration of search in Android. Ballmer argues that Google’s Android is doing well for its first generation of phones, but when it comes down to it, how will it do in the third and fourth generations? We want to know what you think about the comments made by the CEO of Microsoft, dismissing Android yet again.

[Via ZDNet]

Mobile software Monday: 11 3rd party applications from the Android Market

Earl — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 14:45:24 +0000

The T-Mobile G1 is showing up in the hands of those who pre-ordered one this week (mine is schedule for Tuesday arrival) and I have been seeing new applications appearing in the Android Market almost daily on my review unit. There are still a very limited number of games and I think only one or two were added since I started my review. I loaded up eleven applications (a couple of these just appeared yesterday) and took the below video of eight applications in action on the G1. I covered the Video Player in my full review since that was really an application that should have been included by T-Mobile and Google. As I stated in my full review you only get 128MB of onboard storage to load up applications and you cannot currently load them on the microSD card. With the eleven applications I tried, I only had 34MB of remaining memory. However, in looking at the space allocation settings it looks like your data is stored in this area too so if you have a ton of contacts and lots of calendar entries your space may fill up faster.

The eight applications shown in my video below include (in order of appearance in the video), Android Says, Accuweather, Plusmo Pro Football Live, PacMan, Bonsai Blast, Compare Everywhere, Ecorio, and QuickList. I also recently loaded up and tried Shazam, Wikipedia Mobile, and iMap Mobile. Several of these applications won prizes in the Android Developer Challenge and can be found in the ADC Gallery. I look forward to seeing ShapeWriter launch soon with its onscreen text entry method.

I enjoyed playing Android Says (Simon), PacMan (classic game), and Bonsai Blast and think the games are great for mobile game playing with good sound and graphics. I liked Accuweather a bit better than the iMap Mobile weather application because it seemed to give me more information (taking up more of the display) and longer forecasts. iMap Mobile has a cool weather icon in the notifications area for alerts, but even when I turned them off the notification kept appearing.

Plusmo Pro Football Live as fun to follow the NFL while I was at my daughter’s soccer game, its just too bad my Seahawks are so bad this year. I used QuickList several times as a way to take notes when a thought entered my head, but want a better note taking application. I never tried Compare Everywhere yet since I haven’t been shopping since I have had the G1. Shazam worked like a champ at identifying the song that was playing and then gave me options to search the Amazon MP3 store or YouTube for related information.

I tried Ecorio for my train commute, but it required the GPS receiver to be on all the time when traveling and I didn’t want to leave it on that long on my commute. It was cool to see updates from across the U.S. though and may have to play with this some more on my own G1.

The new Wikipedia Mobile (may have a different name, but I sent away my G1) application is a handy way to find things in Wikipedia and also just browse through interesting topics.

FYI, you can also download and install applications that may not yet be in the Android Market. Check out this video on the Phandroid site to see how to get the iTunes Remote on your G1. I also tried and installed the new ContactsSync application that lets you sync your Exchange contacts to your G1. Unfortunately, my IT guys just setup Exchange so I don’t have the ability to use this yet.

I hope that T-Mobile/Google or a 3rd party developer soon adds the ability to install applications to your microSD card because with the applications being one of the possible strong points of the new OS you really need the ability to load up what you want without restrictions.

So far all of these applications are free and we haven’t heard how you will be paying for them. You may pay through your T-Mobile account or via a credit card you input and store in your store account.

[via zdnet ]

Android Market Gouged Of Apps, But Mobile MySpace Gets Added

Earl — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 14:41:21 +0000

Something’s afoot with the Android Market, the place where Android users can go to find and buy software for their Android devices. Earlier today, the Android Market went from 50+ apps down to 13. Um, what happened,Google (NSDQ: GOOG)? Thankfully, MySpace has picked up the slack with a mobile version of itself.

In the HTC G1 that I tested last week, the Android Market was a neat little place to visit from the handset. There were four or five dozen applications in there. The Android Market, which functions similarly to the iPhone Apps Store, allows you to read about, preview, and download applications for the G1. There were lots of little apps in there that I thought were cool. Now they are all gone. Well, most of them, anyway. There are but 13 left.

Rather than a sinister plot, it turns out that Google has updated the Market with new software. Any application that didn’t meet the requirements of the new Android Market software won’t be available until they are updated. This will happen over time. So relax, G1 users, you’ll have plenty of applications to sort through when the device becomes officially available later this week.

Now, about Mobile Myspace. MySpace announced that its mobile application for Android is now live for those who already have an Android phone. The MySpace app includes cool features like instant photo upload from Android to a MySpace profile and the ability to check out tour schedules on band profiles. The MySpace app also is integrated with Shazam, allowing users to identify music and connect to the artist’s MySpace page.

According to the folks from MySpace, “With the launch of our Android app we are continuing our strategy of finding devices that we believe will resonate with our core audience where we can develop a deeply integrated mobile experience and add cool, exclusive, new features. MySpace has developed applications for Android, Sidekick, iPhone, is currently developing an application for BlackBerry, and has more to come! According to ABI Research, 70% of people who use social networks on mobile have visited MySpace.”

Users of the HTC G1, feel free to check out Mobile MySpace for Android, available in the Android Market. You can’t miss it. It’s practically the only app in there at the moment.

[via Informationweek.com ]

1.5 million T-Mobile G1 handsets already sold

Earl — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 06:20:39 +0000

T-Mobile has totally overshot their sales expectations for the G1. After selling out their entire stock of pre-orders for existing members in a very short period of time, HTC tripled the order and has sold out of that entire batch as well. That means that 1.5 million G1s have already been sold in pre-orders on top of the millions estimated to be shipping to stores for sales on October 22nd.

Selling such a high number of devices with an unproven software concept on a never-before-seen device is absolutely astounding. Google has a lot riding on this particular device, showing the world what Android can do could either make or break the platform as a whole. That is why Google has worked so closely with HTC and T-Mobile, to make sure that “the first shot in this battle is a killer”.

Google went all out on this device, making it fully search enabled. Though it does not go out to directly take on the iPhone, people continually compare the two. Google has shown its commitment to this platform in every way. One clear example of this is the Android Developers Contest where Google paid out $10 million to the winners. The twist is that Google will not be taking back a dime of this money in application sales. This will in the end lower the cost of applications, making this a win-win situation for developers and customers.

[Via Fool]

A dream comes true

Earl — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 12:56:22 +0000

Rumours had always been doing the rounds, spy shots kept appearing on tech sites and blogs, speculation was rife. But the HTC G1/Dream handset remained elusive. So while the world, and some of its geeks, waited with bated breath for the iPhones and N96s, the super geeks, waited for the Dream. This was a world where Apple’s iPhone had become the yardstick for every innovation in mobile telephony—the perfect setting for Google and High Tech Computer (HTC) to go for a ‘dream launch’.

Even before we go into the specifications, it is important to realise that the Dream is a developer’s… well, dream come true. It points in the direction the whole software business is slowly moving towards—open source. The applications on the Dream, unlike the iPhone, are not channelled through a single access point like the iTunes store and are, hence, not ‘regulated’. This means the much loathed third-party applications can and will work on the Dream.

The website of Android, the open source operating system of the phone, says it was built to enable developers to create mobile applications that “take full advantage of all a handset has to offer… An application could call upon any of the phone’s core functionality such as making calls, sending text messages, or using the camera, allowing developers to create richer and more cohesive experiences for users”. Because it is open source, Android “can be liberally extended to incorporate new cutting edge technologies as they emerge. The platform will continue to evolve as the developer community works together to build innovative mobile applications”.

All applications are created equal — is Android’s clarion call. Android promises to “not differentiate between the phone’s core applications and third-party applications”. With devices built on the Android platform, “users will be able to fully tailor the phone to their interests”.

Equally oustanding is Android’s breaking down of application boundaries. A developer can combine information from the web with data on an individual’s mobile phone to provide a more relevant user experience. A Google video shows how the ‘Apps without borders’ concept works. One engineer who has developed an open source library shows how he uses the camera to scan barcodes and then search products online. His application can also scan barcodes on business cards that automatically show contact name, number and email address, letting users save contacts without keying in the name.

Google and HTC spent three years developing the Android software and handset leading up to the launch last Tuesday. “Google makes software. They needed a hardware partner,” says HTC chief marketing officer John Wang. HTC believes working with Google gives it a “big advantage over other mobile phone makers”.

Handset makers Motorola, Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics are all, along with HTC, members of the Open Handset Alliance, a group of corporate supporters Google formed around Android. These companies are believed to be at work designing Android-based handsets, though none of them have announced anything yet.

Having taken the lead, HTC plans more such handsets. The Dream will be available in the US from October 22 for $179.

But HTC India manager Ajay Sharma says the same prices won’t be feasible here. His remark must be seen in the context of the disappointment centred around the pricing of the iPhone when it was finally launched in India. Sharma did confirm that the Dream would be coming to India by the end of the year. “People in India are familiar with Google services and the company hopes to capitalise on this. Applications on the handset might be customised for the Indian market. We also expect to see new apps being developed after the India launch,” adds Sharma.

Now for the phone. The Dream’s casing looks slightly plasticky. But, apparently, it has a rubberised tactile finish, which is supposed to make it pleasing to the touch and less likely to slip out of your hand. Besides the touchscreen, the QWERTY keypad and bottom panel of buttons, there is also a track-ball hidden in the bottom row for pin-point accuracy.

The Dream comes packed with all of Google’s most popular services. Stuff Magazine says the handset has a full HTML web browser with one-touch access to Google Search. It is powered by a full touchscreen user interface where you can scroll by swiping your finger across the page or zoom in on a specific section with a simple tap. There is also email syncing support —which covers a host of services beyond Gmail, a YouTube viewer and, of course, Google Maps. Google Maps with Street View is perhaps one of the G1/Dream’s most exciting features, as it allows you to search for a location, and then, provided it’s covered by Street View, use your handset as a virtual remote viewer for that location. This means you can pan your device around in the real world and see the Street View on your screen reflect those movements in real time. Though the Dream sports WiFi, 3G and EDGE connectivity, there’s no GPS to speak of—its mapping functions work via a built-in compass.

The Dream comes pre-loaded with a new Amazon.com application that gives customers easy access to Amazon MP3 digital music store with more than 6 million DRM-free tracks. Using the new application, customers are able to search, sample, purchase and download music from Amazon MP3 directly to their device, much like the iTunes store on iPhone. Whether this feature would be available in India is, however, a different question.

The G1/Dream also comes with the Android Marketplace (Google’s answer to the App Store), so you can start loading up all sorts of third-party applications. The difference is that Android being a much more open operating system, developers can allow their applications to run in the background even while you are running an OS application.

[via screenindia.com]

So the wait is on once more for an Indian launch. Whether the G1/Dream will be launched in all its open source glory and whether we will have a 3G network to run it on , only time will tell.

The Android App Market

Earl — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 16:42:14 +0000

[via the Washington Post]
Tuesday, September 23, 2008; 2:38 PM

When I was man-handling the Android phone at the T-Mobile press conference earlier today, I couldn’t help but notice that one of the icons was for the App Market?Android’s answer to the App Store on iTunes. The app market launches on October 22, when the T-Mobile G1 goes on sale, so I was curious to see what apps are already loaded on it.

I took the fuzzy picture at left with my iPhone (natch), and wrote down the names of the apps and what they do. I got a peak at the following apps, which were all listed as free:

AnyCut?Basically lets you program shortcuts using the keys on the phone. Shouldn’t this be part of the phone’s settings?

BreadCrumbz?lets you make a route on a map using pictures of landmarks to enhance the directions.

Cocktail?Tell it what ingredients you have at hand, it will come up with cocktails you can make. Yum.

Compass?What it sounds like. Great for hiking.

Contacts De-Duper?Don’t you hate it when you have the same contact listed more than once on your phone? This de-dupes them for you.

EcoRio?These guys were featured onstage. They help you reduce your carbon footprint. Looked like a ride share app to me.

Krystle II?A touchy, feely Tomigochi. This app turns your phone into a pet that you need to take care of and stroke, using the touch screen, of course. Gross.

Mandelbrot Map?Uses chaos theory to create maps with an “infinite view.” I should have downloaded this one.

Panoramio?Shows you photos on a map near wheer you are. Already integrated into Google Maps.

Photostream?A Flickr photo browser.

Pocket Seismograph?Was that an earthquake? Now, you can check for yourself.

Quicklist?A to-do list. Everyone needs one of those.

Radar?Shows where you are on a radar-like screen. Meh.

Ringroid?Create a ringtone from any song in your music library. Love it.

ShopSavvy?Also featured onstage. Uses the camera as a bar-code scanner to let you compare prices while shopping in a store.

Text-to-Speech Library?What it sounds like. Turns text into speech through the phone’s speaker.

Video Player?Seems like that should come with the phone too

Translate?Uses Google Translate to turn foreign words into your own language.

BlackBerry Apps Store Details Leaked

Earl — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 16:32:25 +0000

Based on this article Apple is going to have some crazy competition soon. Blackberry is a major player and can really shake things up for Apple and their “dictator” ways.

Research In Motion (NSDQ: RIMM)’s answer to the iPhone Apps Store and the Android Market will be called the BlackBerry Apps Center. Images of it leaked over the weekend and give us some insight into how RIM will compete to provide content for its devices.It is little wonder that RIM’s Apps Center will go live when the BlackBerry Storm — RIM’s first touchscreen device — hits the market. The iPhone Apps Store debuted with the 3G iPhone, and the Android Market will launch into a beta mode with the HTC G1 when it becomes available later this month. What does the Apps Center have in store for the Storm?

Well, like the other two repositories of content, the Apps Center will allow users to browse and download content. It will be available with the 4.7 version of the BlackBerry OS. The content will not come from or be approved by the folks in Waterloo. This is a big departure from the model being used by Apple and its iPhone Apps Store. Apple maintains all the control over what’s approved and what isn’t. The network operators have no say.

Instead, with the RIM Apps Center, all the content will be pushed by the network operators — in this case, Verizon Wireless. Verizon will be responsible for hosting and delivering all the applications. This allows the network operator to maintain some modicum of control over what’s available to its customers. That also makes Verizon responsible for any issues that customers may have with their applications.

Other aspects of the Apps Center will allow users to search for applications that are compatible for their device. Incompatible apps will not be shown. Users will be able to quickly browse a list of available applications and drill down to find out more information about each app before choosing to download it. Information, such as app updates and notifications, will be readily available.

Lastly, the store and applications are accessed via the Storm’s browser, not an on-board client.

With the Storm brewing on the horizon, I’d expect things to get windy and sweep into a Verizon (NYSE: VZ) store near you in the very near future.

[via informationweek]