Google adds French, Italian, German and Spanish Voice Actions to Android Voice Search (video)

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  • September 16, 2011 at 4:50 am

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Google Voice Search for Android, European Voice Actions

Android users in Europe can now get talky with their smartphones. Google last year, had introduced Voice Actions as a way of controlling your Android device with your voice. We’ve already covered how you could perform all sorts of tasks, such as sending emails, calling contacts or searching, using your voice. Unfortunately voice recognition until now was limited to English (and mainly US English).

Google just released a new version of Voice Search for Android with voice actions in French, Italian, German, Spanish and specifically tailored British English. As usual, check the Android Market for the latest version of the app. To use, launch Voice Search by keeping the Android search button (the one that looks like a magnifying glass) pressed for a few seconds, or if you have the Google Search widget on your homescreen touch the microphone icon.

Google lists the following commands, though you could also try ‘listen to’ and ‘alarm’:

  • send text to [contact] [message]
  • call [business]
  • call [contact]
  • go to [website]
  • navigate to [location/business name]
  • directions to [location/business name]
  • map of [location]

A video of how it all works is after the break, yay!
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Google Goggles for Android can now run in the background, shames you with its knowledge

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  • September 14, 2011 at 3:46 pm

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Google Goggles for Android v.1.2 background searching

We’re sure that one of the first things you showed-off to your friends and family when you got your Android smartphone was Google Goggles. The app allows you to take pictures of artwork, landmarks and even everyday things and in true Google form, returns back information, such as the name of a landmark or a painting.

However, the true utility of the app was constrained by the fact that you had to launch Goggles with the sole purpose of using it to search for an object but with mixed results. Well, Google just did the smart thing and enabled it to run in the background, silently getting information on any photos that you take normally with your device’s camera. When it recognizes an object in an image, it will notify you through the Android notification bar.

Just a warning to anyone concerned about privacy, in order for Google to look-up your pictures these are sent to Google’s servers for processing. However this is an opt-in feature, that is you have to enable it first.

To try out the new background image search, launch the Market and update Google Goggles to the latest version. To enable or disable the feature at any time touch the option key while in Goggles and go to ‘Settings’ and ‘Search from Camera’.
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Samsung Galaxy Note includes support for GLONASS, bids ‘do svidaniya’ to slow GPS fix

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  • September 12, 2011 at 1:12 pm

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Samsung Galaxy Note with GLONASS support

So, here is something we missed when we initially looked at the new Galaxy Note; when we had another look at the official mini-site we noticed that Samsung has included support for GLONASS in addition to GPS.

GLONASS is a radio-based satellite navigation system, the Russian equivalent to the U.S.’s GPS. GLONASS was initiated during Soviet Union times but had then fallen into disrepair, it has since then been upgraded in various stages and can now begin to rival GPS — GLONASS is actually more accurate than GPS in northern latitudes because of the positioning of its satellites.

The biggest benefits, however, come when you combine both systems together, GLONASS and GPS; this allows a device to get more accurate positioning and/or faster fix, particularly in deep urban environments. This is because you suddenly have access to the US GPS 31 satellites and the Russian GLONASS 24 satellites for a total of 55 active satellites.

Below is a test that was ran showing the improvement in accuracy by using both systems together:
Better fix accuracy using both GPS and GLONASS

Now, the specifications for the Galaxy Note mention “A-GPS, Glonass”, so there is good possibility that Samsung can enable the device to use both, for better positioning. Well, we shall see soon, when the Note finally lands later this year.
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Motorola Droid Bionic now on sale from Verizon

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  • September 8, 2011 at 1:29 am

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Motorola Droid Bionic on Verizon launch

Drum-roll, please. The Motorola Droid Bionic has finally hit Verizon and is today available to order for $300 with a two year contract. We’ve been expecting the 4.3-inch, dual-core 1GHz, 4G LTE Android phone from Motorola for a while now and although it’s late to the party, we’re glad it’s finally here.

If you’ve been holding your breath for this, head over to Verizon’s page to order yours today; or you can wait just a bit longer for the iPhone 5 or even the Nexus/Droid Prime, which shouldn’t be too far off.
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Eric Schmidt confirms Android Ice Cream Sandwich to be released in October or November

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  • September 7, 2011 at 4:03 pm

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Android Ice Cream Sandwich

Well, well, well, it doesn’t get more official than this. Google Chairman and former CEO, Eric Schmidt, incidentally confirmed that the next big Android release, named Ice Cream Sandwich, should be coming this October of November. Eric Schmidt was at Salesforce.com’s Dreamforce conference in San Francisco when he incidentally mentioned the timeframe for the release:

We have a new operating system, internally known as Ice Cream Sandwich, for some reason, which is being released in October/November; which everyone’s really excited about.

Ice Cream Sandwich is the update that will supposedly unite the smartphone (Gingerbread) and tablet (Honeycomb) versions of Android into one. This will hopefully make it easier for developers to create apps for different screen sizes and resolutions. It will also give smartphone users all of the new Honeycomb features, allow tablets to connect to peripherals and hopefully a few tasty surprises. As always, Google pairs a new Android version with a Nexus smartphone and this time around all fingers are pointed to Samsung’s rumored Nexus Prime.

You can check out the whole keynote video after the break, just letting you know that Eric’s comment is at exactly the 30:27 mark.
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HP TouchPad running Android 2.3.5 with full multi-touch (video)

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  • September 6, 2011 at 4:40 pm

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HP TouchPad running Android with full multi-touch

Following HP’s discontinuation of the TouchPad and the ensuing fire sale of said tablet for as little as $99, a lot of lucky individuals managed to snap the nevertheless capable tablet. Although HP committed to continue to provide updates to webOS devices, few developers will be willing to port their applications to it, leaving ultimate users with few third-party apps to load onto their devices. Hence started the race of porting Android onto the TouchPad.

The most prominent team so far has been Team-Touchdroid, which regularly uploads videos onto YouTube with updates of their efforts. So far, they had been able to load Android but were lacking touchscreen drivers for any form of touch control. The latest video however, shows that the team has managed to get full 10-finger multi-touch support on a TouchPad running Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread. TouchPad owners anxiously waiting to see the results head over the break to view the video.
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Samsung Galaxy Note 5.3-inch smartphone benchmarked, deemed worthy (video)

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  • September 6, 2011 at 4:33 am

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Samsung Galaxy Note Quadrant benchmark

We’ve already expressed our excitement for Samsung’s mammoth new phone, the 5.3-inch HD Super AMOLED Galaxy Note, in our previous coverage. Well the good folks over at Techblog.gr got the chance to run the Quadrant benchmark on the device at the IFA show floor and got some unsurprisingly impressive results.

The Note runs on a dual-core Samsung 1.4GHz processor and managed to score 3,624 on Quadrant, ever so slightly better than even then 1.2GHz Samsung Galaxy S II score, putting it ahead of every other Android smartphone in terms of processing performance.

It’s important to note, however, that the Galaxy Note features a screen resolution of 1280×800 pixels, meaning that it pushes 2.7-times for pixels than the Samsung Galaxy S II (with resolution 800×480). That alone makes the benchmark result even more impressive. You can see the benchmark for yourselves at around the 4.5-minute mark on the video after the break

Of course, performance doesn’t come cheap, the Samsung Galaxy Note is expected to hit Scandinavian shores — Norway, Finland, Sweden and Denmark — first, in November, with a price tag of around 670-750 euros ($1,000). The phone is then expected to arrive in the UK a the start of 2012 but no US availability in the horizon yet.
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Amazon Kindle 7-inch Tablet, customized Android and $250 price tag

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  • September 4, 2011 at 6:57 am

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Amazon Kindle 7-inch Tablet Stuff-Review mockup

There has been a lot of noise around the internet, over the past few weeks, about an upcoming Amazon tablet which will be competitively priced and supposed to finally give the iPad some much-needed competition. TechCrunch’s Siegler blogged yesterday that he has seen and handled the device, which will be a 7-inch tablet simply named Amazon Kindle, but unlike Amazon’s other Kindle devices this one will feature a normal, rather than E-Ink, color touch-screen.

It will run a very customized version of Android with a user interface similar to what we are used to from Amazon, dark, blue with bunches of orange. Content, such as books, movies and apps is presented in a carousel format, à la iTunes Cover Flow.

The device is said to have a form factor similar to the BlackBerry PlayBook but no cameras whatsoever and no physical buttons on the front. The back has a rubber feel and the speakers are on the top of the Kindle tablet, if you are holding it in landscape mode, and the power button at the bottom. Based on the information provided, we’ve made a quick mock-up (see above) of what the Amazon Kindle tablet could look like.

The 7-inch tablet is said to retail for $250 and Amazon is targeting November for launch, while it’s ironing out the software side.

So here is what we know:
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Samsung announces Galaxy Note: HD 5.3-inch Super AMOLED screen and built-in stylus

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  • September 1, 2011 at 3:19 pm

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Samsung Galaxy Note: HD 5.3-inch Super AMOLED smartphone with stylus

Samsung has just announced a new Android device, the 5.3-inch Galaxy Note, which challenges our perceptions of what is a phone. This is the first smart phone to go past the 5-inch barrier, the Dell Steak featured a 5-inch screen but it has now been discontinued. The Galaxy Note however doesn’t feature just any type of screen but a surely gorgeous 1280×800 (that’s 285ppi) Super AMOLED (not Plus) screen together with a stowaway pressure sensitive stylus, named S Pen, which can be used for drawing and note taking. In fact Samsung will include a number of applications which will take advantage of the S Pen while also releasing an SDK for third-party developers.

The phone will need a lot of power to drive that kind of resolution, and that will be brought by an unidentified Samsung dual-core 1.4GHz processor powered by a large 2,500mAh battery. Despite the size, the phone will weigh 178g (6.3 oz) and measure 9.65mm (0.38 inches) thick.

The Galaxy Note will run Android 2.3 together with Samsung’s TouchWiz UI. Front and back cameras of-course with 2 and 8-megapixels resolution each, with the rear camera able to shoot 1080p video. The Note will support HSPA+ but we are hearing it will also be LTE-capable. We know that everyone will say its too big for a phone, but we like, no, we really like big screened phones, and we’d love to get this baby into our hands; hopefully we won’t look too silly talking to a big piece of slab.

Video after the break.
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Sense 3.5 UI demoed on video running on HTC Bliss, or not, still

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  • August 29, 2011 at 3:23 pm

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Sense 3.5 UI running on HTC Bliss

We first caught glimpse of screenshots of HTC’s update to its Sense UI, version 3.5, claimed to be running on an HTC Bliss. Well what’s next; a video of course, displaying a set of well manicured hands showing you around the new user interface. We still remain very skeptical however whether this is indeed Sense 3.5, as this seems a step back from the more comprehensive, better polished and less cluttered 3.0 we know and love. If it was our guess we’d still say that this looks more like an HTC Bliss or Asia specific skin rather than the new UI.

In any case, you can judge for yourselves, video is just after the break after all.
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How to: Control your Android phone with your voice using Google Voice Search Actions: setting-up and list of commands

FeaturedGuides

  • August 28, 2011 at 5:27 am

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Google Voice Search actions for Android

You may or may not know that you can control your Android smart phone using just you voice. Have you tried speaking to your phone yet?

Well we’ve compiled below a handy list of commands you can use to control certain aspects of your phone. You’ll be surprised how accurate and convenient this can be. But before you start testing the commands out, first make sure you have the latest version of Google Search installed. Open the Market from your applications and search for Google Search. Either install or update if you haven’t yet.

Now launch Google Voice Search, if you have the Google Search widget on your homescreen touch the microphone icon or else press and hold the Android search key (the one that looks like a magnifying glass) until the “Speak now” dialogue appears. Now speak your commands. If you are dictating text, Voice Search will present you with a closest match and highlight in blue, words it’s not sure about, touch those words and you are presented with alternative matches.
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HTC Sense 3.5 gets previewed on the HTC Bliss, or not

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  • August 26, 2011 at 4:40 pm

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HTC Sense 3.5 on HTC Bliss

The story goes like this, XDA.cn got it’s hands on the new HTC Bliss which apparently runs an updated version of HTC’s UI, Sense 3.5 beta, and they have taken a number of screenshots showing it off. We love the usability of the unlock ring in Sense 3.0 — which gives you the option of quickly launching four apps of your choice — and it seems logical that Sense 3.5 would build on top of that. Some work has been done in refining and polishing icons and widgets, the weather widget seems to now cover the whole screen.
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B&N update the Nook Color to version 1.3 with performance improvements and special interactive magazine editions

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  • August 23, 2011 at 2:21 pm

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Nook Color by Barnes & Noble

Barnes & Noble have just announced an update to their successful e-reader/tablet, the Nook Color. Version 1.3 will be begin to rollout to devices over the air during the week but you can update to the latest version immediately be following the steps outlined below. The latest update brings some performance improvements, better Wi-Fi connectivity and parents can now disable the web browser before handing the tablet to their kids.

When we reviewed the Nook Color we really enjoyed it as a device for reading magazines, even calling magazines the “killer app”. The latest update now brings special interactive editions of Nook Magazines — People, Time, Sports Illustrated, Fortune, Parents, and Fitness for now — which feature videos, audio, polls, quizzes and slideshows; imagine reading about a new exercise but also seeing a video demonstrating it.

Finally all you print subscribers to People, Time, Sports Illustrated, and Fortune can now get free Nook editions of these magazines. B&N is quick to mention that it has one of the largest collections of online magazines and that you can try all magazines and newspapers for 14 days for free.
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Google Maps for Android adds shortcut ‘Bubble Buttons’ for navigation and calls, here’s how to enable them

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  • August 17, 2011 at 6:44 am

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Google Maps Bubble Button shortcuts

So Google must have been reading my mind, because I have been wishing for a way to quickly jump from a Maps result to Navigation or just quickly call a business I’ve searched for. Google Maps v5.9 for Android, which was released yesterday, has added the option for two ‘bubble buttons’ which act as shortcuts to call or navigate to a result from the main map area. The feature has to be enabled manually first, so read on to find out how.

The latest version of Google Maps also brings voice and ring tone notifications for Transit Navigation as well as support for Transit Navigation on tablets.
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