Free Google Maps Navigation App Coming to iPhone

Google working on bringing free nav app to other platforms than Android

Smartphones are highly converged devices that offer users the ability to surf the web, talk, text, and take pictures. One of the more popular uses for smartphones today is as GPS navigation devices. Most platforms have GPS applications that require the user to purchase the app or pay a monthly fee.

Google unveiled a free GPS navigation platform for its Android devices in October of 2009 that provided free GPS navigation services in America. The platform recently landed in Europe for free as well. Along with the move into Europe, Google has announced that it intends to extend its free Google Maps Navigation service to other platforms.

Those other platforms include the iPhone. Getting its free GPS navigation platform onto the iPhone would be huge for users. TomTom, Navigon, and other providers on the iPhone right now charge $60 or more for GPS applications and some like AT&T charge a monthly fee for GPS navigation.

The launch of Google Maps Navigation in Europe is a big deal; Europe was left out of the launch last year. UK users can get Google Maps Navigation on their Android device as a free update to Google Maps.

�Google Maps pre-caches the entire route,� said Mobile Maps product manager, Steve Lee. �It needs a data connection when you ask for navigation. But while driving to your destination, if you intermittently lose the connection, it will still carry on. As long as you stay on the route.�

The free GPS service will undoubtedly hurt paid offerings from companies like Garmin and TomTom in the UK. Google simply says that other providers had become stale and its offering will force them to innovate in the GPS market.

[via Daily Tech]

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Google Maps Navigation to devices running Android 1.6

Today google launched of Google Maps Navigation to devices running Android 1.6 (Donut) and higher, such as the T-Mobile myTouch 3G and the G1.

Google Maps Navigation is an internet-connected GPS system with voice guidance and automatic rerouting, all running on your mobile phone.

Using Google services over your phone's data connection brings important benefits to GPS navigation users, like using Google search (typed or spoken) to enter your destination; fresh map, business, and traffic data; and satellite and Street View imagery along your route.

so if you have a phone running Android 1.6, you can download an updated version of Google Maps from Android Market to use Navigation today. Google Maps Navigation is in beta and is currently available in the United States. Some features of Android 2.0 are not available on Android 1.6,

How set up Yahoo E-Mail on the Motorola Droid

How set up Yahoo E-Mail on the Motorola Droid
1. Make sure Wi-Fi is turned off
2. Press the E-Mail icon (the default Android E-Mail application)
3. Enter your Yahoo E-Mail address and password
4. Press �Manual Setup� in the lower left hand corner
5. For �Incoming Server Settings� set the IMAP server to �imap.mail.yahoo.com� and the Port to 143
6. For �Outgoing Server Settings� set the SMTP Server to �smtp.mobile.mail.yahoo.com� and the Port to 587
7. Check �Require sign-in� and press Next
8. Select how often your Droid will check for Email, and choose default options
9. Give the account a name and set your display name for outgoing messages

Done and done. You�ve now got Yahoo Mail on your Motorola Droid and it will work with the all-new �Combined Inbox� in Android 2.0. Beautiful.

[UPDATE: You do NOT need a Paid Yahoo Plus account for this to work... the example below is done with a FREE Yahoo Mail account:]

[AndroidForums.com]

Motorola Milestone/Motorola Android 2.0 launches in Europe with MOTONAV turn-by-turn navigation which is free for the first 60 days, but then a license fee kicks-in and loses free turn-by-turn navigation from Google, because in europe this feature turn-by-turn navigation from Google is not ready for primetime in Europe yet.

Motorola Milestone is is not exactly the same phone as Verizon Droid. In one way it�s better � Motorola Milestone comes with multi-touch pinch&zoom gesture support, which, for some reason, was disabled in Droid.

Motorola Milestone is the same old Droid with:

* WCDMA/900/2100, GSM 850/900/1800/1900, HSPA, GPRS connectivity
* Android 2.0 OS
* 3.7?; WVGA (480 x 854 pixels); 16:9 widescreen; PPI 267
* 5 megapixel camera
* Wi-Fi, GPS, Accelerometer
* 1400 mAh battery, And all other goodies original Droid had.

in Europe market will be Italy and Germany be the first markets to get Motorola Milestone
[handspreca]

Android 1.6 NDK is available for download

Android 1.6 NDK, release 1 is available for download Today is a companion to the SDK that provides tools to generate and embed native ARM machine code within your application packages. This native code has the same restrictions as the VM code, but can execute certain operations much more rapidly. This is useful if you're doing heavy computations, digital processing, or even porting existing code bases written in C or C++.

upgrading to this release is highly recommended. It provides the following improvements:

* The ability to use OpenGL ES 1.1 headers and libraries If your application targets Android 1.6, your native code can now directly call OpenGL ES 1.1 functions to perform graphics rendering. This will help those programs that need to send large amounts of vertex data to the GPU. Note, however, that activity lifecycle and surface creation must still be performed from the VM. This NDK contains a new sample ("san-angeles") that shows exactly how to do that with a GLSurfaceView object.
* The ability to target either Android 1.5 or 1.6 devices The NDK parses your project's properties to know which platform release it is targeting. It will then automatically use the proper headers and libraries to generate your native code. Any application that targets 1.5 will run on Android 1.5, Android 1.6 and any future official system release. Targeting 1.6 should, thus, only be done if your application requires new 1.6 features / APIs, like the ability to call OpenGL ES 1.x headers from native code.
* The ability to put your native sources under your application's project tree You can now conveniently place all your sources (C, C++ and Java) under the same tree, for editing or version control purposes.
* Many fixes to the NDK's build scripts The changes to the build scripts fix some annoying bugs and also increase host system compatibility.

Android 1.6 NDK download
[Android NDK forum]

ARCHOS 5 Internet Tablet with Android

ARCHOS comes prepackaged with a bunch of Applications and the company highlights 10� interesting to see which ones they chose: Deezer, Dailymotion, twidroid, ebuddy IM, droidin, quickpedia, ThinkFree Mobile, CraigsPhone, Move, High Paying Jobs. Interesting choices and nice ones at that.

ARCHOS 5 with Android has some awesome features including numerous hard drive options that will store up to half a terabyte and tons of multimedia love in addition to everything that is Android. But there are some downsides - two notable ones.

1. The ARCHOS 5 launches the mobile versions of sites by default since the webpages detect Android - a mobile browser - and assume that is the best way to display. Hopefully ARCHOS updates the default Android Browser to override the setting that indicates it is a mobile browser when loaded by web servers.
2. While the HTC Hero enables Flash for Android, the capability was probably licensed and ARCHOS has not licensed anything so we get the default Android abilities. Which means no flash. Which means no streaming video on the web. Until Adobe launches Flash 10 at least or this capability is made as a core Android function.

ARCHOS 5 Internet Tablet with Android is already allowing pre-order via Amazon!

* Archos 5 (Android): 32GB $379.99

* Archos 5 (Android): 160GB $329.99

* Archos 5 (Android): 500GB $429.99

Android 1.6 SDK is available for download.

Android 1.6 SDK is available for download. Android 1.6, which is based on the donut branch from the Android Open Source Project, introduces a number of new features and technologies. With support for CDMA and additional screen sizes, your apps can be deployed on even more mobile networks and devices. You will have access to new technologies, including framework-level support for additional screen resolutions, like QVGA and WVGA, new telephony APIs to support CDMA, gesture APIs, a text-to-speech engine, and the ability to integrate with Quick Search Box. What's new in Android 1.6 provides a more complete overview of this platform update.

Android 1.6 SDK requires a new version of Android Development Tools (ADT). The SDK also includes a new tool that enables you to download updates and additional components, such as new add-ons or platforms.

You can expect to see devices running Android 1.6 as early as October. As with previous platform updates, applications written for older versions of Android will continue to run on devices with Android 1.6. Please test your existing apps on the Android 1.6 SDK to make sure they run as expected.

Over the next several weeks, we will publish a series of blog posts to help you get ready for the new developer technologies in Android 1.6. The following topics, and more, will be covered: how to adapt your applications to support different screen sizes, integrating with Quick Search Box, building gestures into your apps, and using the text-to-speech engine.

[android-developers]

Google Search phones now available in Arabic and Hebrew

Google announced that its mobile search service now supports Hebrew and Arabic. With this addition of two left-to-right languages, the Search is now available in total of 40 languages for feature phones.

Google mobile new search results format provides more complete support for the universal search results familiar with on your computer. This means that News, Image, Blog, Video and Product Search results blend right into the results pages when available and relevant to your query. Also, many of the favorite Google Search features now appear in the first result in order to provide direct answers to searches.

In the same blog post, Google�s Zhen Wang reminds us that the new search results format provides more complete support for the universal search results we�re familiar with on our computers. This means that News, Image, Blog, Video and Product Search results blend right into results pages when available and relevant to your query�

T-Mobile launches Visual Voicemail app for Android!

T-Mobile launches Visual Voicemail app for Android! has been hard at work to bring Visual Voicemail to its Android smartphone user-base. The first wireless carrier to offer an Android smartphone has released a new Android app that finally makes Visual Voicemail a possibility. The app is now available as part of T-Mobile�s AppPack. Similar to the iPhone, Visual Voicemail on Android allows users to see voicemails in an inbox, complete with time of the call and the caller�s contact info.

The Visual Voicemail Android app is available, free of charge, through the Android Market. But, you�ll have to make a slight change to your T-Mobile Android data plan. Before downloading the app, you need to dial �611? on your T-Mobile G1 and ask the customer service rep to enable Visual Voicemail. Then, simply download the app and allow it to sync with your new Visual Voicemail settings.

read

Google Android OS 2.0 Donut

Google Android 2.0, codenamed �Donut� is now officially being distributed via the companies official code repository. The upgraded OS is designed to work on all existing Android phones and has some new features like multi-touch support, universal search, text-to-speech, automated backups and an upgraded camera application. New widgets for the homescreen include a toggle for Wi-Fi, screen brightness and more. One thing to note is that XDA�s cyanogen claims that Donut is not Android 2.0 but is more or less an incremental upgrade to the OS, like Cupcake was. You can download Donut now for your G1 or Hero devices.

read

Want a Free iPhone and $10,000 Prize? Pwn2Own it!

Pwn2Own is a hacking contest which in previous years demanded OS exploits on day one, allowed browser vectors on day two (how OS X was compromised last year � thanks Safari!), and opened the floodgates with 3rd party bugware on day three. First person to successfully hack a machine won it as a prize, along with a nice cash bounty for their troubles.

This year, Ars Technica says Pwn2Own is doing something a little different: they�re bringing in the mobiles!

Read the whole article @ The iPhone Blog

Get a Free iPhone! Yes, that is correct! Stay away from the hassles of earning enough to pay for it for you can get it the simple way .... straight to your doorstep! Free! Interested? Then find out how to get a Free iPhone!

Android vs. iPhone, Open vs. Closed, Love vs. Chocolate�

Our pal Casey over at Android Central, launching off the latest ruminations of GigaOm Malik, on the relative advantages and disadvantages of open source vs. proprietary software models, as straw-man�d into the current tech darlings from Google and Apple: the Android and the iPhone, says:

We can�t deny that the iPhone is wildly successful in spite of (or because of?) their closed, proprietary nature. It�s essentially the dilemma that iPhone users have been trying to find the balance to�the iPhone�s closed nature creates a clean, seamless and synergetic user experience but it often comes at the expense of the freedom of choice. You have to trust Apple enough to play nice and take a leap of faith with the direction of the iPhone.

Read the whole article @ The iPhone Blog

Get a Free iPhone! Yes, that is correct! Stay away from the hassles of earning enough to pay for it for you can get it the simple way .... straight to your doorstep! Free! Interested? Then find out how to get a Free iPhone!