Archive for the ‘Android’ Category

Steam Mobile for iOS And Android

Published by technicalguy on January 27th, 2012 - in Android, Apple, SmartPhone, Technology

steam-mobile

Steam, the online games and gaming community, has released to Beta a Steam app for iOS and Android. The app is live in the Android and iOS app stores.

Steam Mobile sports a set of features that should be familiar to PC gamers, including gaming news feeds and the ability to browse the extensive catalog. It additionally provides up-to-date information about games on sale. It’s also very geared toward communication, as it allows you to keep in touch with your fellow Steam buddies by poking through their profiles or kicking off a mobile chat session.

5 Tricks for your Samsung Galaxy S

Published by technicalguy on January 13th, 2012 - in Android

Here are 5 built-in features of your Samsung Galaxy S phone you may not know about.

 

 

  • Screen Brightness – slide your finger left or right across the status bar at the very top of your phone
  • Move Between Screens – pinch any screen you are on to get a view of them all, then select the one you want.
  • Back To Home – from any page, press the button at the bottom of your Galaxy phone to go back to the home page
  • Add an App To Any Page – move to the page you want and press the applications button, then press and hold the app you want to add to that page.
  • Move an App To A New Page – press and hold the app icon, then slide your finger left or right to move to a new page

These features work with my Samsung Galaxy S phone with Android version 2.3. They may also apply to other Android phones – you’ll just have to try it.

Here’s Samsung’s Galaxy S Live Show for more tips.

Launch Your Mobile App On A Sunday

Published by technicalguy on December 25th, 2011 - in Android, iOS, SmartPhone, Software, Technology

Want to know what day is best to launch your app? Here’s an interesting study – even though I’m not sure how many developers wander by this site. However if you like these types of statistical studies you will find this one intriguing.
mobile-apps

Mobilewalla studied apps released in the iTunes App Store and Android Market over a 17-week period between May 16th and September 8th, 2011. During this time, there were 91,754 iOS apps released into the iTunes App Store and 122,220 apps released into the Android Market. (more…)

Skype For Android – Now Picture And Video Too

Published by technicalguy on December 21st, 2011 - in Android, Technology

skype for android

Finally, Skype has updated their Android app with support for picture and video messages.

The functionality works over WiFi and 3G, so now you can send holiday photos to your Skype contacts over the Christmas period. The update also provides a fix for Tegra 2-powered devices to help with the lower battery life and video quality issues, G2x owners will want this.

Interestingly, Skype’s Dan Chastney also notes a handful of new devices have been whitelisted for Skype video calling, including the unreleased Motorola DROID4. This suggests that Verizon’s next QWERTY-packing handset will be hitting shelves soon.

 

 

The new version of Skype For Android is available in the Android Market so grab it now.

 

Facebook Timeline For Mobile Web and Android

Published by technicalguy on December 19th, 2011 - in Android, Social Media, Technology

Mobile Timeline 2 2 3

Facebook has released Timeline to the entire world, and now you can access some of its features from Facebook for Android 1.8.1 and the HTML5 mobile site m.facebook.com. You can scroll through Timeline posts, photos, and third-party app activity reports. Sometimes you can open the apps themselves. However you cannot change the privacy settings of your posts.

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Search & Move Files Between Your Android, PC & Mac

Published by technicalguy on December 19th, 2011 - in Android, Backup, Small Business Technology, Technology

wyse pocketcloud

Wyse Technology is launching a new app for Android users today called Wyse PocketCloud Explore, which will allow you to search for files you have stored on any phone, tablet, PC or Mac. The app works in conjunction with a software client installed on your computer, so you can perform universal file searches, then view the files, rename them, move them into folders, share them or download them to your device.

The software lets you perform unlimited copying and moving of video, image and audio files between your Windows or Mac computer and your Android device. Meanwhile, other files types can be opened or edited in your preferred Android application (e.g., QuickOffice). You can also choose to email the file via Android’s email client.

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Facebook For Android Has More Users Than iPhone

Published by technicalguy on December 18th, 2011 - in Android, Social Media, Technology

Facebook for Android

For the first time, the Facebook for Android mobile app has eclipsed the daily active user count of Facebook for iPhone. The Android app launched in September 2009 more than a year after the iPhone app. Both are developed by Facebook and the Android app this week started to pull away with 58.3 million DAU compared to the iPhone app’s 57.4 million, according to the AppData tracking service.

With the Android device base growing at 550,000 activations per day and Timeline now available for Android but not yet for iPhone, I expect this gap to widen.

facebook for android
Facebook for Android‘s monthly user count of 85.4 million still lags behind the iPhone app’s 99.1 million MAU. However, this stat isn’t as important as DAU, or stickiness — the percentage of monthly active users that return daily. Android’s stickiness is 68.2%, compaed to iPhone’s 57.9%. This could indicate that Android devices appeal to a younger, more Facebook-engaged audience, or to more hardcore technology users in general. The iPhone’s role as a fashion and status symbol may be drawing less engaged users.

Another explanation for the Android app taking the lead is that Facebook released an official iPad app in October which now has 5.5 million DAU. Though many users likely switched from using the unoptimized iPhone app on their iPad, some probably came from unofficial third-party apps.

Until Facebook for iPhone is updated to support Timeline, some of the app’s users some may stray to the HTML5 mobile site and slow the app’s growth. Meanwhile, Facebook for Android 1.8.1′s ability to access Timeline can help the app grow its lead. For reference, Facebook for BlackBerry has 29.9 million DAU, and Facebook for Windows Phone has 360,000 DAU according to AppData.

User counts of the Facebook apps matter because they can influence where Facebook devotes mobile development resources. For years, features were first released for the iPhone version, possibly because its higher user count made it more of a priority. If the Android app becomes significantly more popular, Timeline might be the first of many features it gets early. [Update: This could set an example for other companies to develop for Android first as well.] And that could sway people choosing what phone to buy.

This is a coming of age moment for Android.

Nook for Android

Published by technicalguy on November 9th, 2011 - in Android, Nook

I tried to download the Nook reader for Android, however I got the message: “the item cannot be installed in your device’s country”. This is for my Bell Samsung GT9000M smartphone.

What’s up Barnes & Noble? Why can’t I read books and magazines here in Canada?

There’s also a lot of comments on the Marketplace page for the Nook for Android update. There seems to be issues with accounts not being recognized and books not being able to be read.

You may want to hold off updating your smartphone until these problems have been resolved.

Don’t you wish your Android phone could…

Published by technicalguy on November 7th, 2011 - in Android

A great article over at Frankie’s Blog lists five things he’s like to see Android devices do.

He has some great ideas and as an Android phone user, and technician, I have an Android phone because I want the freedom to use it the way I want – not the way I’m forced to. (more…)

Android Ski Apps for Vancouver

Published by technicalguy on November 5th, 2011 - in Android, Vancouver

The first sprinkling of snow was visible on the Vancouver mountains this morning. Winter and Ski season is coming to Vancouver. If you have an Android based phone there are a number of Vancouver based Android apps to help you get to the slopes and back. (more…)

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