Hasta La Gadget!

Buckled early and sprung for TomTom’s iPhone GPS app, did you? If so, that very app just got a lot better today, as version 1.6 has brought TomTom’s Map Share — a crowdsourcing aspect that’ll keep your maps more up-to-date than you ever thought possible. Map Share enables iPhone users to make changes instantly to their own maps and to benefit from free map updates made by the TomTom community and verified by the company itself. That means that users will now be able to edit street names, set driving directions and block / unblock streets directly on their maps, and if you’re kind enough, you can share those updates with the rest of the TomTom community. Furthermore, the app will automatically check for new verified updates (including turn restrictions, speed limit changes and crossing changes), so the previously tried-and-true “my maps were old!” excuse will sadly no longer work. Give and take, as they say.

Continue reading TomTom’s Map Share update brings crowdsourced navigation to iPhone GPS app

TomTom’s Map Share update brings crowdsourced navigation to iPhone GPS app originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Dec 2010 02:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You might have heard how careless some third-party apps can be with your personal data, but it may not yet have hit home — offenders can include must-have programs like MySpace and Pandora, too. The Wall Street Journal tested 101 popular apps for iPhone and Android and discovered that over half transmitted unique device identifiers (UDID) to a flock of advertisers without so much as a prompt, and that some (including Pandora) even transmitted a user’s age, gender and location to better target their marks. Now, before you boycott your favorite music apps, you might want to hear the other side of the story, which is that all this data is typically processed in batches and anonymized so that advertisers can’t necessarily separate you from the crowd. However, the worry is that there may be little stopping nefarious individuals from creating a database that links your UDID to all this other data you send out. It’s a juicy proposition for targeted advertising, sure, but also potentially real-world crime, so we doubt this will be the last we hear of UDID privacy scares.

Wall Street Journal says apps may violate privacy, fingers MySpace and Pandora originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 18 Dec 2010 18:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Version 2.0 of Amazon’s Kindle for Android software has snuck out tonight, bringing with it access to the company’s library of newspapers and magazines, the ability to purchase content in-app, and the freedom to choose where you want to store the app itself, which is now happy to reside on your microSD card. Other additions include social networking updates of your reading progress, the appearance of chapter titles in the reader status bar, zoom for images and graphics, and the volume keys doubling up as your page turners should you wish them to do so. The updated app’s available in the Market now — you know what to do with that QR code, right?

Kindle for Android updated with periodicals and integrated web store, can be installed on SD card originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 17 Dec 2010 06:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Augmented reality and optical character recognition have just come into their own, beautifully intertwined into an instant translation app for the iPhone. Download Word Lens, pay $4.99 for a language pack, then point it at a sign and watch as it replaces every word with one in your native tongue. It’s a little bit like Pleco, but without the whole language learning stuff. We just gave it a spin, and while it’s not quite as accurate as this video claims, it’s still breathtaking to behold — especially as it doesn’t require an internet connection to do any lookup. Sadly, it only translates to and from English and Spanish for now. Still, Babelfish, eat your heart out.

Update: Looks like it only works on iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4 and the latest iPod touch for now.

Word Lens augmented reality app instantly translates whatever you point it at originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 17 Dec 2010 00:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google’s famous penchant for keeping things in beta doesn’t seem to have changed lately, as the company’s App Inventor for Android is still keeping its Greek lettering, but at least access has now been opened up for everyone to enjoy. The switch from private to public beta isn’t the most significant thing in the world — up until now you just had to ask for an invite to get one — but we’re sure amateur Android coders and experimenters will appreciate not having to go through that extra step. The App Inventor’s sitting in Google Labs right this minute, waiting for you to magic up (no coding skills required!) a finely crafted solution to modern living of your own. Hit the source link to get your mouse pointer dirty.

Google App Inventor opens up access to everyone, clings on to beta tag originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 16 Dec 2010 05:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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