Tag: Google

0

Sprint Teams Up With Google Voice | Epicenter | Wired.com

 

Google Voice is getting a lot easier for Sprint mobile phone customers to use starting Monday. The two companies are making it possible for customers to integrate their Sprint and Google Voice numbers, regardless of whether their phones are smart or dumb.

Sprint customers who don’t have Google Voice can now choose to use their existing Sprint number as their Google Voice number, without having to go through the hassle of porting it over to Google.

The move gives Sprint a marketing tool to win new customers — something Sprint will need if AT&T gets clearance to buy T-Mobile. The partnership also offloads some of the work in building new voicemail and phone features to Google, while the search and advertising giant finds a way to tie even more users to its web of software products.

It also marks the first time that a mobile carrier has partnered with Google Voice — which many had seen as a way for Google to eventually develop a phone service that bypassed traditional operators.

Google allowed any U.S. cellphone user to port their existing mobile number to Google Voice in January. That long-awaited feature makes it simple to switch to Google Voice because you don’t have train people to call a new number. However, the porting option is fraught with peril, due to the vagaries of cellphone contracts and mobile operator’s customer service.

The new Sprint partnership makes it much simpler to choose Google Voice. When you sign up, your Sprint number just becomes your Google Voice number without the hassle and expense of porting — or the need to download an app.

Once it’s set up, incoming calls to a Sprint user’s current number can also ring work and home numbers, as well as software inside Gmail. Those who switch also get low-cost international calls through Google Voice, call screening, voicemail transcription, phone number blocking, the ability to switch a call from phone-to-phone while in progress, free conference calling and per-person voicemail greetings.

Calls from Gmail and text messages sent using the Google Voice website, http://google.com/voice, will also display your.....Read more via Sprint Teams Up With Google Voice | Epicenter | Wired.com.

Will a $200 ASUS Eee PC finally ship with Google's help?

As hard as it tried, ASUS never could get its Eee PC prices down to $200 MSRP as promised way back in 2007 -- a time when Intel-based netbooks still shipped with Linux distros and "tablet PCs" ran a Microsoft OS. Fast forward to today and netbooks are being kicked to the curb for ARM-based tablets running smartphone operating systems. To compete, ASUS, a company that's become synonymous with netbooks, is planning to ship an unsubsidized $200 to $250 netbook running Android 3.0 or Chrome OS in June. According to DigiTimes sources, anyway, who tend to be pretty accurate with regard to Taiwanese companies. If true then expect to see it announced at Computex which kicks off in Taiwan on May 31st.

Will a $200 ASUS Eee PC finally ship with Google's help? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 17 Mar 2011 03:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink |  DigiTimes | Email this | Comments

Related articles

• $200 ASUS Eee PC could run Chrome OS in June (slashgear.com)
• ASUS to debut Eee Pad Transformer in Taiwan this Friday, Honeycomb confirmed (engadget.com)
• "ASUS Eee Pad Transformer Android Honycomb Tablet Made Official" and related posts (mobilewhack.com)

Android Honeycomb’s music app extracted, brings cloud sync and streaming to phones

Those who are familiar with Android Honeycomb might have already come across its music player's cloud syncing feature, though previous attempts to port said app to phones hadn't been successful. Whatever it was that kept crashing the app back then, it seems to have fixed itself -- after xda-developers member WhiteWidows slapped the leaked app onto his rooted EVO 4G, the phone started to automagically sync his tunes to his Google account. The modder then swapped in an empty SD card, but he was still able to stream music straight from the cloud after checking the "Stream music" option in the app. Pretty neat, eh? That said, we do wonder if Google will be able to handle the exabytes worth of high-quality Justin Bieber and Spice Girl tracks.

Android Honeycomb's music app extracted, brings cloud sync and streaming to phones originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 07 Mar 2011 22:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink MobileCrunch, Download Squad  |  xda-developers  | Email this | Comments

ComScore: Android leapfrogs BlackBerry among US smartphone subscribers to take first place in market share

Last time we checked in with ComScore's report on smartphone platform market share among US subscribers three months ago, Android was doing a little happy dance as it overtook iOS for the number two spot overall. Well, the cuddly green bots have self-replicated yet again, enough to overtake RIM this time thanks in part to a 5.4 percent decline on BlackBerry's part (down to 30.4 percent in January) coupled with a 7.7 percent boost on the Android side, moving up to 31.2 percent. We imagine ComScore's next report -- covering the period through March -- will see a little boost on the iOS side thanks to Verizon's iPhone launch, but RIM's knight in shining armor might be further out; we still don't know when QNX-based phones are going to happen, after all, and devices like the Monaco don't really seem like cure-alls.

ComScore: Android leapfrogs BlackBerry among US smartphone subscribers to take first place in market share originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 07 Mar 2011 16:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  ComScore  | Email this | Comments

Google Maps Navigation for Android adds real-time traffic re-routing

Google Maps Navigation becomes more of a threat to the traditional in-car GPS business seemingly on a daily basis, and they're taking another stab at it today with the addition of traffic re-routing capability in the Android app (which, while technically still in beta, is pretty darn solid) in both North America and Europe. Of course, Maps has had access to traffic information for a long time, so this is a natural progression -- and just as Google uses an interesting combination of sources (including phones) to cull that data, it's employing some smart schemes for re-routing that take into account both current and historical information about your route. The update's available today.

Google Maps Navigation for Android adds real-time traffic re-routing originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 07 Mar 2011 13:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Google Mobile Blog  | Email this | Comments

Sprint's Nexus website is 'coming soon'

Just to throw a little more fuel on the fire, it turns out that directing your browser to now.sprint.com/nexus takes you to a landing site where you're told that "this page will be ready soon." Certainly sounds more likely than ever that Sprint's preparing to launch its own variant of the Nexus S -- and if our sources are correct, it'll be called the Nexus S 4G, likely with both CDMA and WiMAX on board. Interestingly, both now.sprint.com/evoview and now.sprint.com/evo3d -- the other two devices in our rumor three-pack from earlier today -- redirect to Sprint's home page rather than giving you an HTTP 404 error, suggesting they're also real. CTIA kicks off in just over two weeks' time where these things are likely to be revealed, but who knows? Maybe they'll give us a little tease ahead of the show. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Sprint's Nexus website is 'coming soon' originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 06 Mar 2011 22:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink |  Sprint | Email this | Comments

Sprint announcing Nexus S 4G, EVO 3D, and EVO View tablet at CTIA?

The media -- yours truly included -- has been trying to figure out why Sprint has booked an insane two-and-a-half hour slot at CTIA later this month. That's not the kind of event you throw together just to rehash the devices you've introduced over the last half year -- something's up, and if our source is correct, they're up to something big. First, we're hearing that the carrier will launch the Nexus S 4G from Samsung, and judging from the name, the phone should be something akin to a Nexus S with WiMAX. It seems this one could be either the SPH-D600 or SPH-D720, both of which have recently received certification from the Wi-Fi Alliance, though the SPH-D720 is more likely; the D600 shows WPS support, which is available in TouchWiz-skinned devices but not in stock Gingerbread. You might recall that Sprint came very, very close to launching its own version of the Nexus One before dropping it in favor of the EVO 4G last year, so maybe they're ready to do the deed this time. Next, a couple that we don't have much detail on: the EVO 3D, which is... well, a 3D-capable EVO of some sort. 2011 is certainly shaping up to be the year of 3D phones and tablets, so that wouldn't be much of a surprise. The other unit in the mix is the EVO View, a tablet that we're guessing will shape up to be something of a CDMA-powered Flyer. If this all pans out, it's looking like Sprint could own this show. CES was a bit of a dud for them, you might recall -- the EVO Shift 4G was the only handset announcement there -- so they're overdue. [Thanks, anonymous tipster]

Sprint announcing Nexus S 4G, EVO 3D, and EVO View tablet at CTIA? originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 06 Mar 2011 15:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink |   | Email this | Comments

Google flips Android kill switch, destroys a batch of malicious apps (update)

When 21 rogue apps started siphoning off identifying information from Android phones and installing security holes, Google yanked the lot from Android Market, and called the authorities to boot. But what of the 50,000 copies already downloaded by unwitting users? That's what Google's dealing with this week, by utilizing Android's remote kill switch to delete them over the air. But that's not all, because this time the company isn't just removing offending packages, but also installing new code. The "Android Market Security Tool March 2011" will be remotely added to affected handsets to undo the exploit and keep it from sending your data out, as well as make you wonder just how much remote control Google has over our phones. Yes, we welcome our new Search Engine overlords and all that, so long as they've got our best interests at heart, but there's a certain irony in Google removing a backdoor exploit by using a backdoor of its own -- even one that (in this case) will email you to report what it's done.

Update: TechCrunch says there were 58 malicious apps and 260,000 affected phones in total.

Google flips Android kill switch, destroys a batch of malicious apps (update) originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 06 Mar 2011 13:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Phone Scoop  |  Google Mobile Blog  | Email this | Comments

Google Docs: now supporting mobile editing in 45 languages

Never mind the fact that you'll need to have a basic grasp of English to even understand this report -- if you're an avid user of Google Docs on your Android 2.2+ phone, you can now edit in 45 languages. Heck, even if you're not using Android, you can surf on over to docs.google.com with any iOS 3.0+ device and accomplish the same thing. Would it make it any clearer if we spoke slowly and removed all adjectives?

[Thanks, Calvin]

Google Docs: now supporting mobile editing in 45 languages originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 05 Mar 2011 09:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Google Mobile Blog, Google (1), (2)  | Email this | Comments

0

Sprint to get Nexus One!

WOOHOO!!!! Finally! I have been waiting on this announcement for months now.  I want to upgrade my phone to the 21st century.....my Motorola Q9c has been a good phone and served me well for the past few years, but let's admit it....it's so, so....last century! No touchscreen, no apps to speak of, just kinda there doing what it does best.....send and receive emails. And it surfs ok, and has a pretty good GPS, and plays music nicely, and gets Sprint TV. But I want more! I want apps to clutter up my screen, I want to be able to get oily fingerprints all over the screen, I want a bigger screen, I want a more powerful phone! Read more

0

Chatty Cathy

Ok.......I know that phrase probably out dates alot of you, but it is something most of you know alot about.....IM's. How many IM accounts do you have? I have at least 4......plus I have one I can't remember the login for and have no hope of getting it back Now everyone knows what a pain it is to have several Instant Messaging programs running at the same time........they eat memory as if you had 32 GB of the stuff, and the you have 2, 3, 5, maybe even 7 extra icons in your systray for all of them.

Wouldn't it be nice to have just ONE program to use to log into all of your "chatty cathy" programs? Some of you probably use Trillian to solve the issue and thee is nothing wrong with that, but admit it, Trillian has gotten to be bloatware too! I started looking about a year ago for one program to handle all of my IM accounts. I tried Miranda, Pidgin, PowWow and others before finally deciding on digsby!

Read more