Apps

Report: FCC inquires into Apple, AT&T rejection of Google Voice app

Already having raised the ire of some developers and customers, the decision to disallow the Google Voice application on Apple's App Store has also attracted the attention of the FCC.

According to a Dow Jones Newswire report, on Friday afternoon the FCC sent letters to Apple, AT&T, and Google. The federal inquiry asks Apple why the Google Voice application was rejected from its App Store for the iPhone and iPod Touch, and why it removed third-party applications built on the Google app that had been previously approved. The federal commission also asks whether AT&T was … Read more

Wave of new Android apps coming in August

Starting Saturday, August 1, we'll begin to see many new applications appearing on the Android Market. We reported several weeks ago on the second Google Android Developers Challenge (ADC2), and August 1 is the day submissions begin. The official launch of the MyTouch 3G on August 5 should also reveal some new apps.

To be eligible for ADC2 and a chance at the $2 million dollar prize, applications must be submitted during August. Because any app that was published to the Android Market prior to August 1 is ineligible for the contest, several developers have chosen to conduct private … Read more

Google Voice finds a rival in 3jam

If you're itching to try Google Voice, but haven't received one of the coveted private beta invites, a Menlo Park, Calif., company called 3jam is offering an alternative.

This week, 3jam announced an open beta of its new voice forwarding and transcription service that bears a striking resemblance to Google Voice (covered here).

There are differentiating factors, though. Google Voice for instance, gives you a single central number that all your other numbers forward to--cell phone, work line, home phone, and VoIP. It employs call screening and machine-facilitated visual voice mail transcription. Using it, you can block calls, … Read more

Final Post: Looking Forward

In this final post, I would like to say a little about what I look forward to in my Pre experience and express my appreciation for this opportunity to share my experience and ideas about the Palm Pre.

What I Look Forward to Most

As I have said and implied in many of my posts, I love my Pre. I have had mostly positive (mostly very positive, actually,) experiences with the phone since I got it. It works with me seamlessly for the most part and has allowed me to stay in contact with the world in ways I either could not or could not enjoy with my Blackberry Pearl. I am thrilled to be a Pre user now, and I expect many positive future Pre experiences.

Like any good consumer of technology, however, I am always looking forward to the next fun technology-mediated experience. So, in that spirit, I would like to note a few, as yet un-had, experiences I am looking forward to with my Pre:

External Notification Light

The feature I think I would most like to experience on the Pre in future is being able to tell that I have a message without having to wake up the phone to check over and over again. Ideally, the home button might light differently for different kinds of notifications--for example, blue for voicemail, red for SMS, and green for email--but I would be thrilled if it lit up at all to indicate there was a notification I needed to review.

Visual Voicemail

I hope this is in the works 'cause this would be a great feature on the Pre--one I have have only heard about as a cell user and never experienced except for my limited experiments with Google Voice. The Pre is a phone that already excels at messaging and notifications in many ways, but without visual voicemail and (another missing feature I mention below), there are limits to how excellent the phone can be for messaging.

Forwarding SMS/MMS Messages

As it is, I do a lot of SMS and MMSing and I love doing both of these on my Pre, but I really look forward to being able to forward SMS/MMS messages.

Copying and Pasting More Easily

Yes, there is a way to copy/paste currently. But it doesn't work in all fields (received SMS's, for example) and it's kind of a pain to have to hold two keys down and drag. I don't do it very often because it's a bit too complicated, but I would do it a lot if it was made more easy. WebOS 1.1 has apparently got an easier method enabled in Memos--a way that involves some tapping for whole word and paragraph selection. This is the kind of thing that qualifies as "more easily" for me.

Moobila turns your ideas into iPhone apps

Here's an interesting solution for anyone who has a killer idea for an iPhone app but doesn't know the first thing about software development: Moobila turns your idea into an app and markets it on the App Store.

Actually, the company specializes in turning existing corporate software into iPhone apps, thereby eliminating the need to train or hire programmers.

But Moobila also provides an opportunity for budding entrepreneurs to see their ideas turned into potentially money-making software. You pay for the development; you keep whatever revenue it generates.

Want to see a few proofs of concept? Moobila has … Read more

Sherpa debuts early on the Android Market

Sherpa is a new location-based service from Geodelic that was set to launch with the T-Mobile MyTouch 3G on August 5. Luckily, however, the app got an early release to the Android Market and it's now available for download.

Users will find a well-polished app that allows them to quickly obtain information that is relevant to their location and tailor it to their liking. Simply open the application and Sherpa will begin displaying locations and information around you based on distance, relevance, and personal interest. Users can browse the results in a slick-looking carousel view, top-down Google map, or … Read more

No joke: 'Funny or Die' coming to iPhone

Update: Article updated 7/31/09 at 8:50 am with more details about the app's projected release.

Good news for humorists--a dedicated mobile app for comedic video site Funny or Die will be coming to your iPhone, eventually.

Web content platform Babelgum announced on Thursday an exclusive wireless deal with Funny or Die to bring videos from the latter to mobile applications like the iPhone. Look for a Funny or Die app to hit Apple's iPhone App Store sometime in the very near future. Babelgum tells us it submitted the software to Apple for consideration on Thursday.… Read more

Selling the Pre: Happy Pre Users Offer Ideas

As this test drive winds down, I find myself wanting to provide some closure to these posts. And how better to provide closure than to look forward?

So, in the spirit of moving forward with the Palm Pre, I have collected the following ideas based on happy Pre user experiences. Some of these are pretty great.

Maybe Sprint/Palm should have another contest for the best Pre marketing idea?

PreCentral member "Meriweather" describes one possible TV commercial:

Have a series of ads that play on the use of cards and multi-tasking--an arena where Palm has an advantage over the iPhone. For example, an ad with a street magician saying, "pick a card, any card" to a throng, and you pan in, and he flips through a series of apps on the Pre, showing calendar, Pandora, email, photos, TV, whatever you want to show off. People in the crowd are oohing and aahing, and shouting out, "we want pandora", "play a video" "check email", etc. Then the magician says, "no problem we can do all of them. All at the same time." The crowd cheers, except one guy with slumped shoulders, who slinks away.

"Ronlongo" describes his idea:

How about an ad where they show all of life's things going on all over the place (meetings, tasks lists, emails, etc.) like a jumbled chaos maybe as separate (but live) images moving around at random on the screen and the actor going crazy trying to manage and remember it all.

Then swap to another actor. Suddenly all the activities resolve into a deck of playing cards again with live pictures on them. For example, one depicting a meeting at work going on, another showing Little Pete's baseball game, etc. the actor shuffles through the cards with ease managing them with complete ease. The meeting card depicts the meeting come to an end and the actor discards the card.

Finally the actor pulls all the cards together into a stack. Touches the top of the stack (where the Pre's power button is) and the stack resolves into a Palm Pre.

Twitter on the Pre

There are a pair of twitter applications in the App Catalog already for the Palm Pre. Tweed is the more popular of the two with 81,431 download and a four star rating at the time of writing. Spaz is the other with 25,314 downloads and a three star rating. In an effort to compare the two and also to investigate the overall ability of the Pre to integrate with Twitter, I took both for a test drive.

Up first is Tweed. The default page shows a standard Twitter-style home page. You then have the option to change to trending topics, favorites, direct messages, replies, just your own tweets, bookmarks or the public time line. It is a bevy of options and should provide all that your heart could desire in terms of selection criteria of tweets.

For uploading photos, you have a choice of TweetPhoto, TwitPic or yFrog. You can even pass on your current location as a tinyurl via the Pre's GPS capability. Pretty nifty.… Read more

Apple cautions iPhone users about jailbreaking

Apple published Thursday a support article cautioning users about jailbreaking the iPhone (as well as other Apple handheld audio devices).

Unlike the company's recent filing to U.S. Copyright Office that suggested that jailbreaking the iPhone might pose a national threat and be the cause of AT&T's unreliable service, the article states that "customers who have installed software that makes these modifications have encountered numerous problems in the operation of their hacked iPhone."

This means that if you get your iPhone jailbroken, for example, you will cause yourself, not others, problems. This is such a relief for me.

The problems that Apple mentioned include:

Device and application instability: Frequent and unexpected crashes of the device, crashes and freezes of built-in apps and third-party apps, and loss of data Unreliable voice and data: Dropped calls, slow or unreliable data connections, and delayed or inaccurate location data Disruption of services: Services such as Visual Voice mail, YouTube, Weather, Stocks as well as push-based third party applications have been disrupted or no longer work on the device Compromised security: Security compromises have been introduced by the modifications that could allow hackers to steal personal information, damage the device, attack the wireless network, or introduce malicious software or viruses Shortened battery life: The hacked software has caused an accelerated battery drain that shortens the operation of an iPhone or iPod Touch on a single battery charge Inability to apply future software updates: Some unauthorized modifications have caused damage to the iPhone OS that is not repairable… Read more