I used Opera mini 4 or whatever the previous version was and I didn’t like it. I then tried Dolphin browser. I did like it, but I quit using it since it was buggy at times. I had to fall back on the default browser, which though I like, was missing something. I downloded the new beta of Opera mini 5 and I love it. It’s easy to work with multiple tabs and it loads pages pretty fast. The only disappointment for me is, there is no option to share pages. Oh! I forgot to add pinch to zoom to the disappointment. If they add those two, then it’s rock solid browser.
Archive for the ‘Droid’ Category
Microsoft Tag for Android
Posted 04 Mar 2010 — by Arun
Category Droid
Category Droid
I finally downloaded a Microsoft apps onto my Droid. Microsoft Tag is now available for Android. Microsoft Tag is more like a barcode reader. According to Microsoft, From your mobile phone, simply snap or scan a Tag image anywhere you see it – in editorials, advertisements, product packaging, signs and storefronts – and gain instant access to Websites, videos, reviews, schedules, contact information, social networks, discounts, promotions and more! All you need to do is download the free Tag reader on your web enabled camera phone and when you see a Tag, snap or scan it to interact with the world around you in new ways!
You can download Microsoft Tag by searching Microsoft Tag in the Android market. I installed it today, but haven’t gotten a chance to scan anything. Will try it soon.
Technorati Tags: Microsoft Tag, Android, Droid, Barcode, Scanner
Gesture Search for Android from Google
Posted 04 Mar 2010 — by Arun
Category Droid
Category Droid
Google Lab has introduced a new feature called Gesture Search for Android. Once you install the application from Android Market (search for Gesture search), Start it and it’ll inform you how to activate the search. I installed it and tried few options and it worked great. It showed the search results from contacts, bookmark, applications, music tracks etc.
You can search by entering multiple characters and you can delete the last character by swiping from right to left at the bottom of the screen and you can delete the entire search query by swiping from left to right. It’s pretty cool. Give it a try. The only issue is, it works only with devices running Android 2.0 or later, so majority of Android phones are ruled out.
Credit: Google Labs.
Technorati Tags: Gesture Search, Google Lab, Android
Kwaak3 – Quake 3 for Android
Posted 25 Feb 2010 — by Arun
Category Droid
Category Droid
Kwaak3 is a project that ports the famous Quake 3d to Android. Most of the code were written in C. Kwaak3 is currently not available in Android market, but the developer said it should be there soon. You can still install Kwaak3 from the developer site. Some of the Kwaak3 features include
- Audio
- Hardware floating-point on Neon-capable devices
- Input: keyboard, touchscreen and trackball
- OpenGL 3D rendering
- Game uses ARM optimized libcgamearm.so / libqaarm.so / libuiarm.so
- Networking
Kwaak3 was tested by the developer on Motorola Milestone, but the game is optimized for any Android device running Android >= 1.6 and has a physical keyboard. This eliminates Nexus One and other phones which are purely touch based. To install and run the program, check the information here.
- Movement: a/s/w/d, up/down arrows
- Look: touch screen, trackball and left/right arrows
- Shooting: Alt / D-pad center / tap on screen / trackball
- Tilde (quake3 console): search button
- Escape: back button
For more information, visit kwaak3 site.
Credit: Kwaak3.
Technorati Tags: Kwaak3, Quake 3d, Android, Motorola, Milestone, Android Market, Nexus One
Google Earth now available for Android 2.1
Posted 22 Feb 2010 — by Arun
Category Droid
Category Droid
Google Earth is now available for Android, but what sucks is, it’s available for Android 2.1 only. That means anyone who’s not using Nexus One won’t be able to install it, including Droid users. According to Google, this is their fastest mobile version of Google Earth yet, with a smooth framerate and 800 x 480 resolution. Google Earth for Android also contains the Roads layer, which lets you get a better sense of where you are with road labels drawn on top of the satellite imagery.
Google Earth also supports voice commands. With Google Earth for Android, Google has brought together Google Search by voice with the power of Google Local Search to make it easier than ever to navigate the globe and find whatever you are looking for. As with other versions of Google Earth, you can also browse photos, places, and local businesses.
I don’t understand why they can’t release it for Android 2.0. As reported in the web, it seems like Google gives special preference to Nexus One owners before they release it to others? Next step, release Android 2.2+ to Nexus One owners and any new application released after that will support Android 2.2+ only and others won’t get Android 2.2+ for few months?
Credit: Google Mobile.
Technorati Tags: Google Earth, Google, Android Market, Droid, Nexus One, Android 2.1
Google Shopper for Android released
Posted 19 Feb 2010 — by Arun
Category Droid
Category Droid
Google has released Google Shopper for Android, which helps you find prices, reviews, specs etc. Google shopper is powered by Google product search. Here are some of the features of Google Shopper:
- Scan the barcode of products to get more information about it.
- Shopper saves your history and lets you star your favorites for later.
- Find a product by simply pointing your camera phone at the cover art of a book, CD, DVD, or video game.
- Voice search – Say the name of a product and find it easily in Shopper.
- Find something you want to share? Click on the share link to post to Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, Instant Messaging, etc..
You can install Google Shopper by searching for Google Shopper in Android market.
Technorati Tags: Google Shopper, Android, Barcode
Use your Android phone as remote control for Ubuntu Linux PCs
Tesla is a open source media player remote control App for Android phones that can interact and control music and video players on Linux distributions like Ubuntu. Tesla needs wifi connection to work. It currently supports Rythmbox, Totem, VLC and Banshee. With Tesla you can
- Control the volume for just the media player, or the whole system
- Ability to shut-down your PC by remote control
- Pause your music/video automatically for incoming calls
Tesla requires OpenSSH server installed on your PC. The remote control apps uses the SSH to interact with the PC over the wifi connection.
Tesla is currently not available in Android Market, but the developer is planning to add it to Android Market once version 1.0 is released. The program is also not compatible with Windows or Apple.
Follow the instructions here to install Tesla. You have to enable “installing apps from unknown sources” on your phone. You can disable this once you install Tesla. You also need to have OpenSSH server installed in your PC and started.
Technorati Tags: Tesla, Android, Rythmbox, Banshee, VLC, Ubuntu, Windows, Apple, OpenSSH
Firefox for Android coming this year
Posted 17 Feb 2010 — by Arun
Category Droid
Category Droid
Firefox mobile will make the Android debut sometime late this year, according to TechRadar. Sullivan, Mozilla’s VP of mobiles, pointed out that the reason for the delay was based on the underlying code:
“Android has been built on a Java platform, whereas [Firefix Mobile] is based on C and C++ code. Until last year when [the Open Handset Alliance] released the NDK (native development kit) which allowed native code as part of the app, it was simply impossible.”
I’m waiting to give Firefox a try. I tried Opera for Android and I wasn’t impressed. I also tried Dolphin Browser for Android. I was impressed with it, but it was kind of buggy for me. especially while opening links from other applications. If you are within the browser, then it works great, especially with the hand gestures. I hope when Firefox is released, they would support pinch-to-zoom functionality like Dolphin Browser.
Technorati Tags: Firefox Mobile, Android, Dolphin Browser, Opera, Java
USB hack connects Droid to printers video cams and other USB devices
Posted 11 Feb 2010 — by Arun
Category Droid
Category Droid
The Register reports:
A reverse engineering expert has disclosed a way to make his Motorola Droid host USB-enabled devices, a hack that allows the smartphone for the first time to directly connect to printers, video cameras, TV tuners, and a wide variety of other peripherals.
Using a charging cable that plugs into a car’s cigarette lighter, a micro-USB cable, and a USB extender cable, he devised an improvised micro-dongle and connector cable. Getting the Droid to work with a Linux-enabled USB device is as simple as turning the smartphone off, connecting the cable to the host and peripheral and turning the Droid on. As soon as the Motorola logo disappears, you’ll need to unplug the micro-dongle.
Once your Droid is booted – voila -it should now work with the device. You can even pull up a terminal and look at dmesg to see the usual kernel notifications that appear when new USB devices are connected.
To change peripherals, you’ll need to reboot the smartphone. What’s more, leaving the micro-dongle plugged in too long causes the port to get stuck supplying power to devices but not actually recognizing them.
Here is the link to the blog with details on how to do that.
Technorati Tags: Motorola, Droid, USB, The Register
Android 2.1 coming to Motorola Droid
Posted 09 Feb 2010 — by Arun
Category Droid
Category Droid
Motorola announced in it’s Facebook page (picture below) that it’ll start rolling out Android 2.1 upgrade for Droid starting this week. It’s a good news. This will bring Droid to the same level as Google Nexus One on the software side. Android 2.1 got some good new features like Live Wallpaper, new widgets, speech to text enabled for most of the applications, Google Earth Apps for Android 2.1, Multiple accounts in the inbox, five home screens instead of 3, Cooliris – a new cool photo viewing app etc.
Update: Motorola now says the update is coming soon, but not this week.
Technorati Tags: Android 2.1, Google, Motorola, Droid, Cooliris