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Google+

| FREE | Google Inc.

Google+ for Android App Melts With 'Ice Cream Sandwich' - Mobile and Wireless - News & Reviews - eWeek.com - Technology News, Tech Product Reviews, Research and Enterprise Analysis - eWeek

By: Clint Boulton 2011-11-01 Article Rating: / 2 Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) Oct. 31 said it has overhauled its Google+ for Android application, working closely with the company's Android team to help the app's design hew closely to the forthcoming Android 4.0 "Ice Cream Sandwich" operating system. Google+ for Android 2.1 offers a new user interface for posting, better notifications, and navigation and performance improvements. Users may add other users from a Circle from Circle profiles. eWEEK spent about 15 minutes with version 2.1, which will work for any phone running Android 2.2 Froyo and later. The app rendered photos more quickly than ever before and placed photos in attractive, tile-like rows. Photos in users' Circles also surfaced quickly and Circles loaded within two seconds. The UI appears a little crisper, too. "We worked closely with the Android team as they developed Android 4.0 (aka Ice Cream Sandwich) so you'll see the same attention to beauty and simplicity in our new design," said Google+ Product Manager Ben Eidelson in a post on Google+. See Eidelson's screenshots of the new app here. The new app also enables better battery life at a time when native apps can be a drain on smartphone power supplies, several bug fixes, and the ability to sign out of the app, IT administrators can now manually turn on Google+ for their corporate employees who use Google Apps for Business or the free version of Google Apps and who have set up their domain to automatically enable new services. One the desktop, Google+ Hangouts integration with Google Docs makes sense. It's unclear how good that use case will work on the mobile app. Regardless, Google+ for Android has proven to be nothing if not iterative. Version 2.1 comes three weeks after the last, more minor upgrade.  Download the new app from the Read More

Monster Job Search

| FREE | Monster Worldwide

Google Android Apps to Boost Your Job Search - IT Management - News & Reviews - eWeek.com - Technology News, Tech Product Reviews, Research and Enterprise Analysis - eWeek

By Nathan Eddy on 2011-10-07 As the world teeters on the edge of a new recession, it is more important than ever to take a look around and see what your employment situation looks like. Although the U.S. employment rate remains stubbornly high (at or over 9 percent), the technology jobs market is actually faring much better than most other sectors. According to a recent report by Web-based IT hiring specialist Dice.com, there's a shortage of talent for a particular skill in every geographic section of the United States, and if novices are looking to break into the tech industry, there's also an accessible entry point—developing for Microsoft's .NET platform. In addition, the jobs report found the number of available tech jobs stood at 83,567, with 50,486 listed as full-time positions, 35,907 were contract positions, and 1,603 were listed as part-time positions. But where to find these jobs? Well, if you're the owner of a Google Android smartphone or tablet, then heading over to the Android Market might be a good place to start. The site has several apps dedicated to helping you find a new career in a new town, as well as helping you polish your resume and keep your career path on track. In a single search, Indeed offers free access to millions of vacancies from thousands of company Websites, recruitment agencies and job boards. The Monster Android app makes it easy to keep up with the latest job opportunities when you're on the go. You can access your Monster account for resumes, cover letters, job applications and more. Because of this site's extensive reach, you could just as likely find your next tech job as your living room furniture. Search for jobs with advanced search options, use your current location to find jobs near you, and apply directly Read More

Google+

| FREE | Google Inc.

Google+ for Android Gets Reshare Feature, Bug Fixes - Mobile and Wireless - News & Reviews - eWeek.com - Technology News, Tech Product Reviews, Research and Enterprise Analysis - eWeek

By: Clint Boulton 2011-08-30 Article Rating: / 0 Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) has improved its Google+ for Android mobile application, adding the ability for users to reshare a post they like and making the application available in 38 languages. Google+ for Android  allows users of the social network to publish updates to their Google+ Stream and see the links, pictures and updates posted to the service by folks in their Circles. Users may also manage those Circles and view public posts from other Google+ users located nearby, and allow all the photos taken from their phone to be instantly uploaded to Google+. Google would go on to offer a Google+ for iPhone application, which rocketed to the top of Apple's iTunes App Store free application list in July. Google added support for Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) popular iPad tablet and iPod touch Web-browsing and gaming gadget a few weeks later. To reshare a post, users can tap the post as if they were going to +1 it or add a comment, tap a button in the upper right-hand corner of the application (next to the +1 button option), choose the Circle or Circles to publish the post to, add a comment (if desired) and tap post.  The application also now lets users create a new circle from the Circles destination. Google also made several bug fixes to + for Android. The company killed duplicate Instant Uploads, a problem that plagued HTC Android handsets such as the HTC ThunderBolt 4G. Google also fixed a "no name" flaw in its Huddle group messaging application, and enabled hidden one-to-one Huddles to reappear when new messages are sent. Also fixed is a known issue with the notifications count changing when switching from portrait to landscape mode. As users of Facebook for Android for iPhone or Twitter for Android and iPhone can Read More

Maps

| FREE | Google Inc.

Google Maps for Mobile Browser Updated for Android, iOS - Search Engines - News & Reviews - eWeek.com - Technology News, Tech Product Reviews, Research and Enterprise Analysis - eWeek

By: Clint Boulton 2011-05-23 Article Rating: / 1 Google has updated its Google Maps application for the mobile browser, adding new location-oriented features to provide a better experience for users of Android smartphones and tablets and Apple's iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. Now when users navigate to maps.google.com from their Android or iOS devices, and choose to share their location with that device, they will see the same features they've come to appreciate from the desktop version of Google Maps. These include the ability to search for what's nearby with suggest and auto complete; get driving, transit, biking and walking directions; view Place pages with photos, ratings and other data; click on icons for popular businesses and transit stations; and access starred locations and personalized My Maps. Google Maps for the mobile browser is not to be confused with the native Maps app for Android and iOS devices, which load immediately and are quite popular. Some 40 percent of Google Maps usage is driven through these apps, and as much as 50 percent on weekends, when people are trying to navigate somewhere. However, native apps aren't updated as frequently as some users would like, so it helps to go to the Web-based version of Google Maps for fresh material. "Google Maps for mobile browsers is platform independent—you will always get a consistent experience and the latest features without needing to install any updates, no matter what phone you use," explained Google software engineer Alireza Ali. The broader reason why this is important is that Google Maps is the central hub for Google's location-based services, which are evolving beyond local search to local commerce and deals. Google Places combined with Google Offers are the cornerstones of this effort. Visit the Internet Infrastructure Service Center to cast your vote on the infrastructure issues IT professionals Read More

Google TV Remote

| FREE | Google Inc.

Google TV Gets Android, iPhone Remote Control App - Web Services Web 20 and SOA - News & Reviews - eWeek.com - Technology News, Tech Product Reviews, Research and Enterprise Analysis - eWeek

By: Clint Boulton 2010-12-18 Article Rating: / 3 Google this week is issuing its first over-the-air upgrades to Google TV, enriching the Netflix application preloaded in the service and offering a Google Remote application to control the service. Google in October launched the ambitious Google TV service, which lets users surf the Web and TV channels using Google's Android-based operating system, Chrome browser and Intel chips. Many reviewers believe the service was half-baked and were concerned about the price points for the hardware needed to power Google TV. Google TV-enabled hardware such as the Logitech Revue companion box cost $300, while the Sony Internet TVs ran $1,000-plus, with Blu-ray players selling for $400 a pop. While the mixed reviews and price points cast a cloud on Google TV, the team is undeterred. As promised earlier, Google Dec. 15 launched its own Google TV Remote app for Android smartphones in the Android Market. The Google TV Remote app connects to Google TV through a user's WiFi network. While this app works like Logitech's Harmony Android app to let users change channels, adjust volume and access DVR content, users will also be able to use the app's voice search capability to find shows and movies by speaking into their Android handset. This app, which users can see a demo for here, is available on Android phones now and is coming to Apple's App Store for the iPhone soon. One of the more prominent applications preinstalled on the Logitech Revue box is the Netflix app. Users can play their instant Netflix content via the app, and fast forward, rewind, pause and remove movies. However, users must still put content in the instant queue from their Netflix account on a PC or Mac. That's changing soon. When Google's upgrades reach Google TV-owning households, consumers will be able Read More

Wolfram Alpha Search

| FREE | Varner Labs

Wolfram Alpha Unveils Android App - Mobile and Wireless from eWeek - Technology News, Tech Product Reviews, Research and Enterprise Analysis - eWeek

By: Nicholas Kolakowski 2010-09-29 Article Rating: / 2 Wolfram Alpha, a search engine designed to offer definitive—and usually numerical—answers rather than links, will launch a native Google Android application to accompany the upcoming T-Mobile G2 smartphone Oct 6. The application is similar in function and appearance to the versions already available for the Apple iPhone and iPad. The Wolfram Alpha App for Android is compatible with Android versions 1.6 and above, and reportedly costs $1.99. It includes a customized virtual keyboard with easy access to various mathematical symbols and Greek characters. It also takes advantage of Android's voice search capabilities and uses built-in GPS to provide local information such as temperature and weather. Type in the name of a particular food, and Wolfram Alpha offers a nutritional label tailored to fit the smartphone's screen. The search engine will also change to landscape mode if you turn the device on its side. Those features seem pretty standard-issue for applications of this type. But mathematicians and others in need of a mobile number-cruncher will likely appreciate the ability to rapidly type an equation, one-handed, and receive an answer within a few seconds. Wolfram Alpha first launched in May 2009, with the goal of offering a twist on traditional keyword-based search: As opposed to offering a list of hyperlinks in response to a search query, a la Google and Bing, Wolfram Alpha tenders a single answer or a list of statistics. Whereas typing "Dennis Hopper" into Google might result in a filmography, lengthy Web biographies and photos, Wolfram Alpha returns life and death dates and a timeline. Wolfram Alpha has received a number of updates, and its scope now includes time zones, certain European currencies, additional probability computations for cards and coins, and additional output for partitions of integers. Wolfram Alpha is the brainchild of Stephen Read More

Box

| FREE | Box

Box.net Android App Manages Cloud Content for Enterprises - Cloud Computing from eWeek - Technology News, Tech Product Reviews, Research and Enterprise Analysis - eWeek

By: Clint Boulton 2010-09-23 Article Rating: / 0 Box.net, whose software is used by more than 4 million users and 60,000 businesses to store and manage files, has built an Android application to help corporate road warriors manage content from smartphones. Available free Sept. 23 from the Android Market, Box for Android allows users to manage and share business content for smartphones running the operating system version 2.0 and later. This covers most of the smartphones released in 2010, including the entire Droid line of devices from Verizon Wireless, as well as the HTC Evo 4G from Sprint and Samsung's Galaxy S series, available from all major U.S. carriers. Box for Android users will be able to preview documents, media file and Web documents, upload photos, media and documents stored on their Android handset to box for safe keeping, browse files and folders, share Box links to files and folders via e-mail; and search for files. Searching for managed content is a big part of the app. Users will be able to filter search results by relevance, date updated, file size and name. Box.net CEO Aaron Levie explained in a blog post: "Because search is a cornerstone of Google and Android, we've built sophisticated search functionality into the application, with full text search capabilities for users on the business plan." After RIM's BlackBerry and Apple's iPhone, Android is the go-to mobile platform for businesses that want to allow their knowledge or sales workers to manage content on the go. Forrester Research predicted 10 percent of enterprises are expected to manage or support Android OS smartphones by the end of the year. As anecdotal evidence, Good Technology said it saw its mobile management software deployments grow 43 percent since adding support for the iPhone and Android last December. To help support this growing desire Read More

Kindle

| FREE | AMZN Mobile LLC

Amazon Kindle for Android App Updated - Desktops and Notebooks from eWeek - Technology News, Tech Product Reviews, Research and Enterprise Analysis - eWeek

By: Nicholas Kolakowski 2010-09-23 Article Rating: / 2 Amazon.com has added new features to its Kindle for Android app, emphasizing yet again the online retailer’s strategy of building out its e-reader software in addition to its Kindle e-reader device. The company finds itself locked in competition with not only other e-reader manufacturers such as Barnes & Noble, which markets the Nook, but also Apple’s iPad. Kindle for Android’s new features include the ability to search within an e-book via typing or voice; add notes and highlights to text, and have those notations sync between devices; and look up terms in Wikipedia. Users can also lock their screen in landscape or portrait mode, and view additional details about an e-book through social-networking site Shelfari. The free Kindle app is downloadable through Google’s Android Marketplace. Amazon’s update comes as the company prepares its holiday marketing push for the Kindle. The first 30-second spot of the Kindle’s new television ad campaign features a bikini-clad woman extolling the virtues of the e-reader—notably its $139 price-point—while the man beside her struggles to read his tablet PC’s screen in bright sunlight. The WiFi-only version of the Kindle retails for $139, while the next-generation version with 3G connectivity sells for $189. Amazon’s latest updates to the device include a higher-contrast e-ink screen, longer battery life, Wikipedia access, support for password-protected PDFs and a more lightweight body. Analytics firm In-Stat predicts that e-reader shipments will grow from around 12 million units in 2010 to 35 million in 2014. “Tablet PC shipments are taking off, fueled in particular by the Apple iPad introduction. Yet, there will still be a revenue opportunity for e-reader suppliers and OEMs since tablet PCs and e-readers target different consumers,” Stephanie Ethier, an analyst with In-Stat, wrote in a Sept. 14 research note. “Standalone e-readers will address the Read More

Wyse PocketCloud BETA

| FREE | Wyse Technology Inc

Wyse Brings PocketCloud App to Android Devices - Mobile and Wireless from eWeek - Technology News, Tech Product Reviews, Research and Enterprise Analysis - eWeek

Wyse Technology is expanding the use of its PocketCloud software from Apple handheld devices to Android-powered mobile phones. Wyse officials are putting the new version of the application, which was announced Aug. 31, on display at VMware's VMworld show in San Francisco. It was a year ago at the same show that Wyse officials first rolled out PocketCloud for the iPhone and iPod Touch. In April, Wyse extended PocketCloud to work on Apple's iPad tablet PC as well. Now the application is also available to users of Android-based smartphones. The software essentially lets users access the work environments on their PCs and virtual desktops from their wireless devices, and enables IT administrators to gain access to end-user machines through their Apple and Android devices. According to Jeff McNaught, chief marketing and strategy officer and chief customer advocate at Wyse, PocketCloud has become a top-10 application for business professionals in the past year, and has been installed by more than 110,000 users since it was first introduced. McNaught also said while PocketCloud initially was viewed by company officials as a business application, it was attracting interest in other areas. "We've seen a surprisingly large number of consumers buying the app," McNaught told eWEEK. Bringing PocketCloud to Android-based phones gives a rapidly growing market of new users access to it, he said. It makes business sense, given the rapidly growing popularity of Google's open-source mobile operating system. Some analysts say Android eventually will overtake Apple's iOS. For example, an iSuppli report released Aug. 5 predicted that handsets running Android will outsell those running iOS by 2012. Wyse also is launching PocketCloud 2.0 for Apple iOS devices, which includes new features such as easier setup and streaming video capabilities. New features in PocketCloud for Android and the enhanced PocketCloud for Apple devices were added Read More

Voice Search

| FREE | Google Inc.

Droid 2 Shines with Google Voice Actions, Chrome to Phone - Mobile and Wireless from eWeek - Technology News, Tech Product Reviews, Research and Enterprise Analysis - eWeek

by Clint Boulton Like the Motorola Droid, the Droid 2 weighs about 6 ounces, but doesn’t feel as heavy. It's still a porker compared to the HTC Droid Incredible, which shares the Droid 2's 3.7-inch screen but trims the virtual keyboard to weigh only 4.6 ounces. The device is 4.6 inches long, 2.4 inches wide and a half-inch thick. The Droid 2 keyboard's raised keys for easy typing is a vast improvement over the first Droid. Having a 3.7-inch screen compared to the power-hogging, 4.3-inch screens of the HTC Evo 4G and Motorola Droid X mean more live time for the Droid 2, whose 1400 mAh battery allows for 575 hours of talk time and 315 standby hours. Compared to the 8-megapixel super cameras of the HTC Evo 4G and Motorola Droid X, the Droid 2's 5-megapixel, dual LED flash lens seems almost pedestrian. However, photos were crisp and clean, as were the video-shooting capabilities. Droid 2 runs Android 2.2 and supports Adobe Flash 10.1, but a few speed changes were evident—something Google touted about the new OS. The device also sports a 1 GHx processor, blowing away the original Droid. What we really noticed were the new Google mobile applications, Google Voice Actions for Android and Chrome to Phone. See their widgets installed on one of the Droid 2's seven customizable home screens here. At this time, both apps are geared for smartphones running Android 2.2 only. Google's Voice Actions for Android lets users speak commands to operate the phone. The feature, an extension of Google's Search by Voice technology, is accessible via a widget in the Android Market. Simply say "Call Johnny's" and the Droid 2's dialer places the call. You can also text or see a Google Map of where the business is located. Here's the list of Read More