People in Android

With Android 4.0 Google is taking a step in the right direction updating the contact manager into the new and improved “People” app. The biggest change is a set of APIs that integrates Android with social networks. This is important as you can then let your contacts maintain their own contact information, and you will then always have updated information available on your phone.

The second change is the most visuale one, as the user interface has also been completely revamped and viewing contacts has now become a much more visual experience. The People app will pull high resolution images of all your contacts straight from their Google+ account and display them in the contact list and in the in-call background. It seems that there is now yet another incentive to move your social circle over to Google+.

According to the API Overview of ICS when a new photo is pushed to a contact, “the system processes it into both a 96×96 thumbnail (as it has previously) and a 256×256 “display photo” that’s stored in a new file-based photo store”. Your contacts information is now also available to you no matter which app you are in. So, if you are in Gmail, viewing an email from your contact, you can click on their image to reply to the contact through any available channel, including through SMS, social networks and IM.

The first time I saw the new app demoed I went WOW, but when I got the Samsung Galaxy Nexus phone in my hands I went BAH! It is great to get your contacts to update information about themselves through their social profiles. But, why did Google have to limit the pull of high resolution images from Google+. Why doesn’t Google Contacts (the address book for Gmail) support high resolution images? Do you have friends actively using Google+? I don’t… So untill yesterday I had blurry pictures covering half of the screen when I ever was using People on my phone. A 96x96px thumbnail for incoming calls wasn’t pretty on incoming calls, and reminded me more of a C64 game.

A third improvement in People is that you can see your contact’s last updates on social networks, both Google+ and Twitter are supported out of the box. So what about Facebook, Google’s biggest competitor? Luckily, Google has made a plugin architecture available and there is already a third party solution available for you!

HaxSync – The Missing Facebook Integration

I have found an application that more or less solve my problem. HaxSync allows you to sync your Facebook friends with your Android 4.0 device. The sync is complete, with both status-updates and high resolution contact images in the People App! I bought the app within seconds and most of my contacts are now shown with beautiful high resolution images. But Google should integrate their services better ways…

How to configure HaxSync

1. Install the official Facebook App.
2. Go to System Settings → Accounts & Sync (Android Settings, not Facebook App Settings).
3. Click “Add Account” → HaxSync.
4. Click “Authorize HaxSync”.
5. Confirm Authorization
6. Wait for HaxSync to finish syncing.
7. You should now see your Facebook contacts in the Android People app.

So what happened?

Now MOO has come up with the great idea of doing Facebook cards. Well, they are just business cards pulling information from your Facebook page, but to get these cards you must have activated the new Timeline functionality (a blog entry I did in Norwegian).

To get the Facebook cards business started MOO is doing a promotion of 200,000 free packs of 50 cards is on a first come, first served basis. However the offer is capped at 5,000 orders per day (that’s 250,000 cards per day) in order, Moo says, to ensure a “strong ethos of customer service and to make it fair.” They even pay for postal fees. After the promotion the cards will cost £10/€15. Yesterday I managed to order my free pack:

I’ll be getting the set of cards beginning of February.

This first version of Airtight can only stream photos and videos, and do full mirroring of an iOS device. Streaming music is currently being “looked into” by the developers. And of course, anything protected by DRM is in this stage of development unsupported. Apple might look the other way, but AirPlay’s still a proprietary technology and this isn’t something Apple’s given its blessing to. If you feel like giving the app a try — work in progress, bugs and all — it’s available to download now for $0.99.

Another major new thing in Spotify is their app store, called App Finder. The new Spotify comes with an improved Last.fm support. It is now not only limited to scrobbling, it now also give you recommendations. There are also apps for newspapers that review music, and funnily enough the first Norwegian newspaper is already present:

The Dagbladet app is beautiful and I have both read reviews and at the same time listened to the albums being reviewed. Hats off for Dagbladet, as they have made one of the best apps available in App Finder and I hope that they will have great success with it. Another Norwegian app is Soundrop, but I’m still trying to figure out how it works

The songs on the album is descretly put on the left side of the review under the album cover, and you can easily add songs to your favourite list of music and to other playlists as you are used to.

Other applications to look out for are the one from Guardian and Rolling Stones magazine. They are both not in the same league as the one from Dagbladet, but both provide great music suggestions and that is what it’s all about in the end.

It is also possible to stream music from an iOS unit to the XBOX. The technology used is then DLNA. This is my first play with DLNA, so before I bought a DLNA app for my iPhone, I read a little bit about the technology.

You should know this about DLNA: Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) is a collaboration of the world’s leading consumer electronics, PC and mobile companies, and together they have created an industry standard connecting consumer electronics together. All you need to get started is a network – wired or wireless. The DLNA Certified devices will then connect, discover and communicate with each other over your network. The alliance aim to make it easier for consumers to use, share and enjoy their digital photos, music and videos. Chances are big that you already have one or two DLNA devices in your livingroom. Do you have a XBOX360 or a Playstation 3? What about your modern flat panel TV? Some smartphones also have DLNA support. If you have Windows 7 with Windows Media Player and Media Center (through the Windows Media Connect technology) is supporting DLNA.

The iOS devices do not come with built in DLNA support, but there are third party solutions available. I’ve tested AirMusic. It’s a great application for streaming music over Wi-Fi to your PS3, Xbox 360, or PC, and allows you to wirelessly listen to your tunes through your TV without using an AppleTV. As all DLNA devices, it is incredibly easy to set up – just ensure all of your devices are on the same Wi-Fi network, start AirMusic, and turn its functionality on. This will turn your iOS device in to a Mobile Digital Media Server (M-DMS) and let your game console, TV or PC act like a Digital Media Player (DMP):

After DLNA is turned on, on your iOS device, you can navigate to your music library on your console, TV or PC and your tunes will be there – it couldn’t be easier.

Although I use an AppleTV in our living room, I downloaded this application to try it with my XBOX360. The only downside I can find is that AirMusic won’t play older iTunes purchases protected with DRM. If you’re looking for a way to share your iOS library with your Xbox, PS3, or PC, I recommend you to purchase AirMusic!

With internet sharing (tethering) you can share your internet connection with up to 5 guest units, and the sharing is automatically getting disabled after a few minutes of inactivity so that you can save the battery life on your phone.

Remember to not use internet sharing when abroad (so called roaming). It can fast get very expensive!

internet sharing is found under Settings on your phone. The functionality is set up with a predefined password that I recommend you to change under setup. You can also change the broadcast name if you want to, but I recommend you to keep WPA2 as the security type for the wireless connection.

Other then fast-app switching, I have not find any new features (no Live Tile or push notifications). The version number has only gone from 1.13944.31667 to version 1.14329.14900.

You can download Twitter from the Marketplace.

But there’s now a new kid in town, a online portfolio site called 500px.com. It’s only aiming for your best photos, and is in my opinion not aiming to store your family or holiday photos. Nor does it have privacy functionality, like only letting your friends/family see a photo set. But except from that, I am really impressed. 500px has nearly mastered the essential features that I am looking for as a photographer wanting to share my work and explore the work of other photographers. It’s design makes it pleasant to browse through, and isn’t overwhelming by keeping features to a minimum. The vast majority of work displayed on 500px.com is high quality, similar to photos you would see in magazines or art galleries. Because they are targeting a professional level audience they are able to stand out from competitors.

500px is a company based in Canada so they are bound by Canadian Copyright law which is very close to US Copyright law. In other words, the terms of use is pretty much the same as for Flickr.

I’m for now only using their free account, and they are letting me upload 20 photos a week free of charge. The system is easy to use and works well, so long as you have a supported web browser. Safari and Internet Explorer work fine, but I have some issues with Chrome when it comes to navigating the portefolio view. The images are presented in a beautiful way, and there is great rating system for those who want to use that.

I have not had the chance to look at the PRO version of 500px (Awesome account), but you upgrade to many more services including unlimited everything, personal domains, etc. for US$50 per year.

The social nature of 500px will attract many people. The images posted on 500px are available for rating and comment. The rating system could be better in that you should be able to see who rated your images. You should also be able to disable ratings or block people that you don’t want to interact with.

500px has a basic search functionality, but this could probably improved to include search in the EXIF metadata. I would like to be able to search after photos taken with specific cameras and lenses. I also miss that you cannot add location to the photos you have taken.

I’ve saved the best for last. The reason why I started looking in to using 500px, was it’s iPad app. I have never seen photos been presented in a better way on a tablet. The first week I was only browsing through others photo, but the last days I have started uploading photos. Only bird photos for now. There is also unofficial 500px apps for Android.