The original Foursquare app for Windows Phone 7 was killed off due to lack of features and a rather sub-par user experience, leaving mayors everywhere unable to verify their credentials for hard-earned discounts. Well fret no more, friends. A new version of the mobile check-in application has been released, showing off a retooled interface that takes full advantage of Microsoft’s panoramic UI. Among other features are live tile, tap-and-hold check-in, and a map that shows friends’ check-ins alongside nearby specials. Version 2.0, as it’s being called, is now available in the Windows Phone Marketplace — your Twitter followers have probably missed all of your Taco Bell Fourthmeal check-ins anyway.
Have you ever use Google Sites to publish articles to the web? Blogwhores rejoice, the search giant just added automatic mobile rendering to make your website more mobile-friendly when viewed on an iOS 3.0 or Android 2.2+ device.
A new setting to “Automatically adjust site for mobile phones” can be activated in the site management page, at which point pages designed for desktop viewing will be displayed in a much simpler web format, so readers won’t need to pinch-to-zoom just to see a page’s content.
Google also added mobile versions of the site list, site search, and browse sites categories, for easy access from your smartphone. There’s nothing ground-breaking here, but if you happen to run a Google Site or have a friend that does, it wouldn’t hurt to flip the switch on mobile viewing — your visitors will appreciate it.
If you’ve been waiting oh-so-patiently for HP’s $49.99 WiFi Mobile Mouse to ship, take heart — the aforesaid critter is now ready to free up one more valuable USB port at your workstation. As mentioned before, this ain’t your mum’s wireless mouse, as it makes use of WiFi technology — you know, instead of the tried-and-true Bluetooth. In other words, this bad boy doesn’t require anything other than itself to connect. HP promises up to nine months of battery life, offers five programmable buttons, a four-way tilt scroll wheel and adjustable sensitivity. Just think — you can finally choose to keep those remaining Four Loko cans chilled without resorting to an inbuilt trackpad.
Google Sync has pushed Gmail messages, calendar updates, and contacts to iOS since its launch in 2009, but this half-baked solution previously lacked some key functionality. Beginning today, users can finally perform mail server searches and confirm appointment requests from their iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.
This means that you’ll be able to search for messages in your entire mailbox, not just for emails stored on your device — a feature that first appeared with iPhone OS 3, but without Google Sync support. You can also respond to calendar invites from within the Calendar app. Fancy that!
A third update brings support for sending messages from other addresses listed in your Gmail account, though only the first two features worked when we took Sync for a spin this afternoon. (Curiously, Google omitted a “Send Mail as” screenshot on its blog, so this last update may not actually be available yet.)
This latest trio of updates is available for both gratis and Google Apps accounts, so head to the source link for set up instructions and the full feature rundown.
Apple’s iOS is great at displaying content already on a device, but transferring documents from your computer to your iPhone or iPad has traditionally been a tedious, inefficient process. SugarSync’s new mobile device management sets out to help change that, allowing you to send files directly to your smartphone or tablet using a simple web interface.
After selecting a connected device from the sidebar, you can click to upload content, booting it directly to your handheld. A push notification will appear, prompting you to download any or all of the files you uploaded, which will also remain in the cloud — so you’ll be able to access files synched with the SugarSync app from the Web, even when your device is offline.
The feature is rolling out for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch this week, and will be available for Android and BlackBerry soon. It looks like the concept of emailing documents to yourself just to access them on the go is about to follow iTunes sync and tethered updates to a permanent group home in the sky.
Google I/O second day has just ended, and there are bunch of new announcement by Google yet again. We’ll hopefully be able to look through all of them one by one. The first that we’ll be looking is the Google TV. Google TV didn’t actually go through a good launch last year, but Google isn’t giving up, and has slightly revamped the UI of Google TV. It now resembles Honeycomb quite a lot actually, because it’s based on it.
The new icon layout should make getting back to live TV a simpler process, while there’s also that large space above for widgets and support for notifications. Developers will be able to run their ADBs on devices later this summer, but prior to that it will have a “Fishtank” program for some developers to take home their internal test units to run apps on now — no hardware modification necessary.
The team also just announced that the source code to the existing Google TV remote app for Android is being open sourced, so anyone who thinks they can do better (it wouldn’t be difficult) can have a crack at building their own. Also available is code for the Anymote Protocol it runs on so developers can make tablet or phone apps that integrate with and control the Google TV
Other features mentioned included support for 3D, and game controllers using Android 3.1′s expanded USB compatibility. There were no product announcements before the session ended, and no word on the rumored and expected ARM base for new products, but the project manager confirmed new product announcements “later this year.” This will be crucial to the pickup of Google TV in the lucrative market.
Google’s music stream to Android handsets has been teased and leaked, but till now there’s still no sight of its launching ever since Google introduces it over at Google I/O last year. But now it seemed that Google will be getting a big step further into this act as the search engine giant has acquired mobile entertainment company PushLife, which has been developing a music app of its own for the Android and BlackBerry platforms.
Now, why will PushLife affect Google’s cloud-based music streaming service? Well, currently PushLife offers one-click purchases from an integrated music store, an overview of tunes you have both on your smartphone and on your computer (with the ability to access both sets on the phone), and automatic playlist syncing with iTunes or Windows Media Player libraries. There’s even more fanciness, such as recommendations based on the song you’re playing, artists bios and photo galleries, plus Twitter and Facebook integration.
This will definitely spear head Google’s Android music streaming service. The Canadian startup is believed to have cashed in to the tune of $25 million and will soon be shutting down its independent operations. What’s more Google I/O 2011 is approaching, so will we see a new announcement by then?
Mozilla just made Firefox 4 officially available for desktop, and surprisingly Firefox 4 for mobile is also already available, in release candidate form that is. Of course, the app has been beta for six months. According to Mozilla, this new build provides a better overall user experience with faster scrolling and improved Firefox Sync, along with other awesome features like Awesome Screen smart shortcuts, tabbed browsing, Firefox Add-ons, and Persona themes. Sounds very much like its desktop counterpart. Head over to Mozilla’s page for the Android and Maemo download links.
What will Mark Zuckerberg and Co be announcing tomorrow in their ‘Mobile Event’ press conference that’s going live within hours? Probably a refreshed mobile version of Facebook, or a proper Facebook app for iPad. Or even a Facebook Phone to have a friendly match with the iPhone. Might even be a VoIP service integrated into Facebook! Well, we’ll know once it goes live!
Google Instant coming to mobile already? That’s what some readers of Droid Life said. It seemed that Google has started sneaking out its Instant search option to Android phones in the USA. So far, reports include the original Motorola Droid, the Droid X, and HTC’s Droid Incredible. Lest you’ve been enjoying a lengthy holiday in the tropics, Google Instant throws up search results as you type your query, delivering either much faster results or a much more annoying search experience, depending on how you look at it. Reported operation so far aligns with our early hands-on, with Instant taking a bit of time to get its bearings, but the software is still at the beta stage, after all. Well, what are you waiting for? Let’s try it on your droid phone.
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