Earlier this week, I bashed Google’s visual voice mail service for its inability to transcribe my voice messages into understandable English. (OK, most of the article really focuses on a new flexibility in Google Voice, which I do like.) To be fair, poor transcription isn’t all Google’s …
Originally posted at Crave
Don't try this on game day, but the new Google Maps Navigation application will show you how to take a spin past Boston's Fenway Park.
(Credit:
Google)
You can almost hear the portable navigation industry swearing already.
Google is announcing plans Wednesday to release a new Android application called Google Maps Navigation. When combined with a GPS-equipped mobile phone running Android 2.0, it provides turn-by-turn directions powered by Google Maps and a slick user interface that combines features such as voice recognition and Google Street View. Google Maps Navigation, like seemingly everything that emerges from Google, will be free.
“Mobile platforms–Android and others–are so powerful now that you can build client apps that can do magical things connected to the cloud,” said Google CEO Eric Schmidt in a briefing for reporters at Google’s headquarters on Tuesday.
The standard Google Maps Navigation view.
(Credit:
Google)
Companies in the cell phone navigation industry have seen this day coming for quite some time. Right now, the beta application only works on phones that will use the Android 2.0 software, which is scheduled to be available very soon with the expected arrival of Motorola’s Droid phone on Verizon’s network.
Google’s Vic Gundotra appeared to demonstrate the application on the Droid: he wouldn’t confirm it, but it was a shiny black Android 2.0 phone running on Verizon’s network and bearing Motorola’s stamp, so we’re probably not going too far out on a limb here. (Update, 7:24 a.m. PDT: Says Google’s Wednesday morning press release: “The first phone to have Google Maps Navigation and Android 2.0 is the Droid from Verizon.”)
However, Google is working with Apple on bringing it to the iPhone, and it’s not ruling out licensing the software to makers of portable navigation devices used in cars throughout the world, said Gundotra, vice president of engineering at Google for mobile and developers. The process involving Apple is slightly different from the usual App Store submission process, because Maps is a built-in iPhone application, he said.
The application works like any navigation system that you may have used, but it combines Google Search and Google Maps functions that are normally only available on the desktop and brings them to the smartphone. Perhaps the most interesting and useful feature comes from Google Street View, allowing Google to provide a Street View image at every turn that the application suggests during your journey.
…
Originally posted at Relevant Results
Don't try this on game day, but the new Google Maps Navigation application will show you how to take a spin past Boston's Fenway Park.
(Credit:
Google)
You can almost hear the portable navigation industry swearing already.
Google is announcing plans Wednesday to release a new Android application called Google Maps Navigation. When combined with a GPS-equipped mobile phone running Android 2.0, it provides turn-by-turn directions powered by Google Maps and a slick user interface that combines features such as voice recognition and Google Street View. Google Maps Navigation, like seemingly everything that emerges from Google, will be free.
“Mobile platforms–Android and others–are so powerful now that you can build client apps that can do magical things connected to the cloud,” said Google CEO Eric Schmidt in a briefing for reporters at Google’s headquarters on Tuesday.
The standard Google Maps Navigation view.
(Credit:
Google)
Companies in the cell phone navigation industry have seen this day coming for quite some time. Right now, the beta application only works on phones that will use the Android 2.0 software, which is scheduled to be available very soon with the expected arrival of Motorola’s Droid phone on Verizon’s network.
Google’s Vic Gundotra appeared to demonstrate the application on the Droid: he wouldn’t confirm it, but it was a shiny black Android 2.0 phone running on Verizon’s network and bearing Motorola’s stamp, so we’re probably not going too far out on a limb here. (Update, 7:24 a.m. PDT: Says Google’s Wednesday morning press release: “The first phone to have Google Maps Navigation and Android 2.0 is the Droid from Verizon.”)
However, Google is working with Apple on bringing it to the iPhone, and it’s not ruling out licensing the software to makers of portable navigation devices used in cars throughout the world, said Gundotra, vice president of engineering at Google for mobile and developers. The process involving Apple is slightly different from the usual App Store submission process, because Maps is a built-in iPhone application, he said.
The application works like any navigation system that you may have used, but it combines Google Search and Google Maps functions that are normally only available on the desktop and brings them to the smartphone. Perhaps the most interesting and useful feature comes from Google Street View, allowing Google to provide a Street View image at every turn that the application suggests during your journey.
…
Originally posted at Relevant Results
Setting up Google Voice voice mail online.
(Credit:
Screenshot by Jessica Dolcourt/CNET)
On Tuesday, Google took another step toward bringing Google Voice to the masses, fulfilling the wishes of those who are curious enough to try Google’s brand of visual voice mail, but either too jealous of their mobile number to give it up for a Google Voice number, or too weary to go through the hassle of training family and friends on a new number.
Google now lets you access some key features in the Google Voice service using the number you’ve always had, and no longer forces you to sign up for a new Google Voice phone number. How? Google Voice can now take advantage of what’s called conditional call forwarding. I tried out the new feature today with success, and have some tips to share.
With Google Voice in charge of your missed calls, callers are directed to your Google Voice in-box instead of to the voice mail box that your carrier operates. There, friends can leave a message after hearing the greeting you recorded online. You, for your part, can listen to messages online or from your phone–in any order you’d like.
As promised, set-up was easy for this existing Google Voice user. In the Settings menu, under the Phone tab, click “Activate Google voice mail for this phone” next to any phone that you’ve associated with your account. Then, select your carrier (US-only for now) and dial the string of numbers and symbols you see into your phone. Then dial the number. This sets up call forwarding. While many high-end feature phones and smartphones do have separate menu settings for call forwarding, Google’s method of entering the forwarding code is faster and removes the guesswork.
New users have slightly more set-up involved. You’ll first choose if you want to use your own number or sign up for a new Google Voice account. Then you’ll need to enter your Google Account credentials or register an account before setting up your phone.
Using the conditional forwarding service is brainless–whomever calls you hears your Google Voice recording, which you can set up online. You may want to tinker in the settings to forward calls straight to voice mail, or else you could annoy callers with a full ring-through to your mobile voice mail and another ring through to the recorded number. However, leave the setting in its default mode and friends may be able to track you down on other numbers associated with your Google Voice number–if you use Google’s number and not your own mobile number.
Forwarding options can cut the time it takes for a caller to get to voice mail, or maybe track you down.
(Credit:
Screenshot by Jessica Dolcourt/CNET)
To send a call straight to voice mail, go to the Phone tab in the Settings menu of your online Google Voice account. Click Edit, then click to see advanced settings. At the bottom is a call forwarding option that you can switch to send straight to your recording.
…
Originally posted at The Download Blog
Back in September, we tested out a Google Voice app for Palm WebOS phones called gDial Pro. The free gDial Pro just recently updated to version 0.8.9, and is available now in Palm’s App Catalog. While gDial Pro still isn’t quite as integrated …
Originally posted at The Download Blog
Your BlackBerry may already have the free version of the Documents To Go viewer and editor loaded onto it. That’s fine for casual users, but professionals who annex their smartphones into their virtual office will want the advanced creating and editing features of the premium version (compare features…
Originally posted at The Download Blog
If you haven’t recently updated Google Maps for your BlackBerry, do. Earlier this week, Google bumped up its BlackBerry map app to version 3.2. As with Google Maps on Symbian Series 60 and Windows phones, Google’s BlackBerry map app now supports layers.
In the layers
…
Originally posted at The Download Blog
As if checking e-mail on your BlackBerry wasn’t addicting enough, there may be an accessory in the works that may just fuel your habit. CrackBerry.com has posted images of what it’s claiming to be actual renderings of a BlackBerry watch.
The site claims that …
Originally posted at Dialed In Podcast
Article updated at 5:00 pm to correct mIQ media sharing details.
Best Buy Mobile’s mIQ dashboard is easier on the eye.
(Credit:
Screenshot by Jessica Dolcourt/CNET)
Microsoft introduced its My Phone service last week, an online dashboard for managing and sharing the contents of your mobile phone. We liked some aspects, and critiqued some others. Ultimately, we wished that Microsoft had teamed up with its Seattle neighbor, connected services startup Dashwire, whose legacy dashboard did much of the same thing as My Phone does now, but did it better. Dashwire has since turned its standalone product into a platform. Best Buy Mobile snapped up a license and is now offering its own sync-and-share service, called mIQ (short for mobile IQ).
I know what you’re thinking: The T-Mobile Sidekick backup service just failed, and the blame is Microsoft’s. Why trust its My Phone service at all? But backup isn’t the point of these services. They’re about management. Moreover, comfortably managing the contents of your smartphone from a screen and keypad that’s larger than anything you can get on your smartphone. And if you delete a number or photo from the Web or phone, it’s gone. Neither of these services intends to save it, but they do intend to make it available online.
So now that that’s clear, it’s time for a throwdown.
My Phone and mIQ both download small clients to the mobile phone. From there, they bidirectionally sync the phone’s contents to an online dashboard. My Phone is limited to Windows phones, but mIQ is free for anyone with a BlackBerry, Symbian, or Windows phone.
Features
We’ll say right off the bat that Microsoft’s My Phone is richer in feature types overall compared with Best Buy Mobile’s mIQ. …
Originally posted at The Download Blog
Thanks to Dictionary.com, I won a contest this weekend. The challenge: who could find synonyms for a word fastest (it was “fancy,” as in “stop being so fancy about everything.”) I had Dictionary.com loaded on an iPhone; my colleague, the BlackBerry Storm browser. Had he had …
Originally posted at The Download Blog