MapQuest for Android brings free turn-by-turn navigation, OpenStreetMap support to Google lovers

Oh, sure — iOS had it first, but the Android flavor of MapQuest’s mobile app has OpenStreetMaps. How d’ya like those apples ? The aforesaid app has just found its way into the Android Market, and as with the iPhone version, it’s 100 percent free to download. Unlike most other alternatives, this one provides gratis voice guidance / turn-by-turn navigation, voice search, a map toolbar, walking / driving directions, live traffic flow information and a couple of “major” new adds. Those are OpenStreetMap (OSM) data — useful for allowing consumers to use the app internationally — as well as the ability to directly report errors onto the map. Check out the source link to learn more, and head on over to the Market (if you’re rocking v1.6 and up) to get your download on. Happy trails, as they say.

Continue reading MapQuest for Android brings free turn-by-turn navigation, OpenStreetMap support to Google lovers

MapQuest for Android brings free turn-by-turn navigation, OpenStreetMap support to Google lovers originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 17 Feb 2011 14:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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PlayOn app for Android 2.2 and above means Netflix, Hulu for all

There is another solution for Android owners disappointed that their phone or tablet may never support Netflix’s official DRM specs, now that PlayOn has unleashed a version of its mobile app (already on iOS) for the platform. The free app uses Adobe Flash so it’s limited to devices running Android 2.2. (Froyo) and above, but like Plex, coupled with a computer running the server software, it brings online video streams from almost any source including Watch Instantly, Hulu, ESPN3 and more over 3G or WiFi. Barring any kind of Roku-style bannination existing users should download the app and get going immediately, while new users can give the server a 14-day free trial before deciding whether or not to pay the $39.99 first year subscription fee — check out the press release and video trailer after the break.

Continue reading PlayOn app for Android 2.2 and above means Netflix, Hulu for all

PlayOn app for Android 2.2 and above means Netflix, Hulu for all originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 17 Feb 2011 13:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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NEC busts out an Android Netbook, the LifeTouch Note

NEC has debuted its first Android netbook, the humbly-named LifeTouch Note, in Japan. Spec-wise, the Note runs Android 2.2, has an NVIDIA Tegra 2 CPU, up to 8GB of memory, a 7-inch backlit (800 x 480 resolution) resistive touchscreen LCD, GPS, WiFi, SD and SDHC slots, and a 2 megapixel webcam. There will also be a 3G variety for a little extra cash, of course. Other than that, there’s no word of when this will be available in Japan, but we do know that it start at around ¥45,000 (that’s somewhere in the neighborhood of $540). Video demo is after the break, hit up the source for a huge, attractive gallery.

Continue reading NEC busts out an Android Netbook, the LifeTouch Note

NEC busts out an Android Netbook, the LifeTouch Note originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 17 Feb 2011 12:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceAkihabara News  | Email this | Comments

Swann DVR4-2600 kit is 4 cameras and 500GB worth of remotely-accessible home security overkill

Swann DVR4-2600 kit is four cameras worth of remotely-accessible home security overkill

We’ve seen IP cams before, inexpensive ones like the DCS-930L from D-Link that get the job done with no frills, rather fancier ones like the Logitech Alert system that offer a premium feel — at a premium cost. But nothing quite like this. It’s the Swann DVR4-2600, a system that comes with four separate cameras, each offering a “high resolution” VGA that are about 10 years past a time when VGA could reasonably be called “high resolution.” They do, at least, offer 65 feet worth of night vision and all-weather functionality. There’s also a 500GB DVR included that can be connected directly to a TV or accessed remotely from a plethora of mobile apps covering everything from Android and iOS to Windows Mobile 6 and Symbian. You can get e-mails whenever your prisoners guests move and, the pièce de résistance, the kit includes four theft deterrent stickers. If those don’t keep the crooks away, maybe the rottweiler* will. Full details in the PR below.

*Rottweiler not included.

Continue reading Swann DVR4-2600 kit is 4 cameras and 500GB worth of remotely-accessible home security overkill

Swann DVR4-2600 kit is 4 cameras and 500GB worth of remotely-accessible home security overkill originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 17 Feb 2011 10:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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New York City Intros Android, iPhone Condom App

nyc condom app.jpg

According to a recent study, your smartphone doesn’t make you quite as sexy as you might think. That said, if you are managing to get some, in spite of the overwhelming odds, as Steve Jobs would tell you, you’ll really get a better reception if you get a rubber bumper.

The New York City Health Department is celebrating Valentine’s week with the release of its New York City Condom Finder, a free app that will locate the five spots nearest to your location that offer up free jimmy hats (within the five boroughs).

Says NYC’s assistant health commissioner, Dr. Minoca Sweeney, “We want New York City to be the safest city in the world to have sex. A lot of people come here for that, so we want them to practice safer sex.”

The app is available now for the iPhone and Android.

Sony Ericsson Xperia family portrait at MWC 2011

Sony Ericsson shook up MWC before it had even begun this year by introducing the Xperia Play — the world’s first PlayStation Certified phone — alongside a pair of new members of its Xperia line of smartphones, the midrange Neo and QWERTY-sliding Pro. Taken together with the Xperia Arc that debuted at CES in January, this little bunch of Android Gingerbread runners will form SE’s principal attack on the ever-fickle smartphone consumer’s wallet this year. We can’t yet tell you which of them might be the one for you, but we can certainly provide a gallery stuffed full of side-by-side pictures to help you visualize the differences, both big and small, between the four new Xperias. Enjoy!

Sony Ericsson Xperia family portrait at MWC 2011 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 17 Feb 2011 08:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Developer gets Kinect working on Android, rains on Microsoft’s WP7 parade (video)

Developer gets Kinect working on Android, rains on Microsoft's WP7 parade

Windows Phone 7 is getting a lot of extensions this year and, while we wouldn’t say Kinect interoperability is anywhere near as important as third-party multitasking, it could be fun. Still, we haven’t seen proper Kinect interop, the sort that would see you controlling WP7 games with a Kinect — the sort that is apparently possible on Android. YouTuber HirotakaSter has managed to hook a Kinect up to Android hardware, what looks to be an Armadillo 500 FX development platform, and get everything to play nice. He’s using openFrameworks and, while at this point the software isn’t doing much other than showing a video stream from the camera, the possibilities from here are quite simply infinite.

[Thanks, Muhammad Ali]

Continue reading Developer gets Kinect working on Android, rains on Microsoft’s WP7 parade (video)

Developer gets Kinect working on Android, rains on Microsoft’s WP7 parade (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 16 Feb 2011 22:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dell’s 2011 smartphone and tablet lineup leaked: Android Ice Cream, WP7 sliders, and a slate running Windows 8

Wrigley, Hancock, Millennium, Gallo, Sterling, Rosemount, Silver Oak, Peju and Opus One. What are we rattling off? Oh, just the list of codenames from one of the largest leaks we’ve ever seen out of Dell. WPCentral and Android Central got their hands on alleged smartphone and tablet roadmaps for the entire year, detailing the company’s plans for devices running operating systems that have yet to be formally announced, including Android Ice Cream (yes, Ice Cream!) and Windows 8 as well as the tablet-friendly Honeycomb. Here’s the full rundown.

Smartphones:

  • Things look pretty boring (and by boring, we mean beautifully curvy) until approximately mid-April of this year, when the Venue Pro gets some “additional features and enhancements” which we’re pretty sure we can name.
  • Then, Q3 brings the Wrigley, what looks like a vertical QWERTY slider identifying itself as “Windows Phone 7 Next Gen,” and sporting a 1GHz CPU, 4-inch 800 x 480 screen, and a 8 megapixel camera with 720p video recording. Nothing out of the ordinary, as far as we know.
  • By September, things should get very interesting as Android Ice Cream will apparently be out, and Dell’s Hancock will scoop it onto a 4-inch qHD screen with dual cameras, dual-core processing and 1080p recording.
  • Starting Q4, would-be Hancock buyers will have a dual-core multimedia slate alternative, as the Millennium drops the keyboard for a larger 4.3-inch screen and DLNA support (though the front-facing camera is limited to VGA resolution.)

Tablets:

  • Dell’s Streak 10 won’t keep us waiting for long: come April, the Gallo will reportedly be chomping away at some tasty Honeycomb. But that’s not all — Dell lists a handwriting update for the Gallo in October or thereabouts. There’s also a Streak 7 update scheduled for July — we imagine that’s the point when Dell believes it can shoehorn Android 3.0 onto its older brother.
  • Meanwhile, Dell’s 10-inch Windows 7 slate, internally known as Rosemount, is slated for June, with a 1366 x 768 resolution that should allow for native playback of 720p video.
  • We can’t tell you what the Sterling is, but it’s likely a mid-sized one, as it’s slated to take over the Streak 7’s duties in or about October with Android Honeycomb on board.
  • Finally, come CES 2012 in January, we now expect Dell to drop three new tablets at once: the Opus One and Silver Oak running Android Honeycomb, and the Peju with Windows 8. (The Streak 10 / Gallo will apparently soldier on.) Numbers on the left of the charge suggest that the Opus will be small, the Silver Oak mid-sized, and the Peju large.

As noted at the head of the slide, all details here are subject to change, but we’re sure as heck a lot more confident that Dell plans to do something with all those tacky mockups. One more chart after the break!

Continue reading Dell’s 2011 smartphone and tablet lineup leaked: Android Ice Cream, WP7 sliders, and a slate running Windows 8

Dell’s 2011 smartphone and tablet lineup leaked: Android Ice Cream, WP7 sliders, and a slate running Windows 8 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 16 Feb 2011 17:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceAndroid Central (1), (2), WPCentral  | Email this | Comments

Google details some of the Honeycomb features coming to Ice Cream: action bar, ‘hologram’ visual style

Google has already confirmed that its Honeycomb and Gingerbread iterations of Android would be combined in the next version of OS — dubbed Ice Cream by all accounts — and it’s now also providing a few more details about what Honeycomb features will be carried over to smartphones. Speaking to Phone Scoop, Google Android Engineering Director Dave Burke said that the contextual “action bar” at the top of the screen on Honeycomb tablets will be used on phones as well, but that the system bar at the bottom of Honeycomb might not make the transition. You can apparently expect the so-called “hologram” visual style of Honeycomb to carry over though, along with the multitasking app switcher that provides a snapshot of each app running. That’s about all the details there are at the moment, but you can be sure we’ll be digging for more.

Google details some of the Honeycomb features coming to Ice Cream: action bar, ‘hologram’ visual style originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 16 Feb 2011 16:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Android tablets bring touchscreen connectivity to Indian bus riders — still no $35 slates in sight (video)

That’s right, that little green blob in the upper left hand corner of that built-in touchscreen is indeed the Android logo, and that display does indeed belong to a tablet of unknown origin, currently riding around on the back of a headrest on a bus somewhere in India. We’re not entirely sure who’s funding this project or which bus line the tablets can be found on, but the login screen you see here does give us a little bit of insight: “As per government policy, we need to record details of the person using the Internet on this device.” The service is apparently free and unlimited, and if this is a government program, it would be right in line with India’s democratic outlook on technology. Sure, Indian college students are still awaiting the storied $35 tablets, but we suppose if they have enough scratch to ride the bus all day, these headrest slates could do in a pinch. For a look at what Android tablets look like on public transit, check out the video after the jump.

[Thanks, Kartik]

Continue reading Android tablets bring touchscreen connectivity to Indian bus riders — still no $35 slates in sight (video)

Android tablets bring touchscreen connectivity to Indian bus riders — still no $35 slates in sight (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 16 Feb 2011 16:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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