A few days back we reported on Waze, the user-generated driving maps application available for Android devices. At that time, it was in alpha testing only for certain California residents. We’re happy to announce that the Waze alpha is now available to everyone.
If you haven’t heard of it yet, now is the time to check it out. Quite possibly the hottest new app for Android just released it’s live public alpha Tuesday night. Waze is everything you like about your Twitter, your radar detector and your GPS thrown into one sweet application. Waze works by constantly updating a live map with notifications from other Waze users. Essentially, this lets you know before you even get there if there are speed traps, police, construction problems, heavy traffic, and other accidents and incidents. Check out the official site and blog for further information.
Garmin Asia Pacific marketing director Tony An has purportedly stated that a “bunch of new handsets from Garmin powered by Google’s Android platform are set to ship sometime in the second half of 2009″. While this is the only news we have regarding functionality, you can be sure they will include at least as many features as the nuviphone as well as some top-notch GPS functionality. Apparently, the manufacturing process will be contracted out to a compant like HTC, although no specific word on which company is yet available. More news is sure to come on this one.
EDIT: Not so fast, says Garmin. Apparently a statement is being worked on right now to debunk the claims made by DigiTimes this morning. So much for getting our hopes up. We’ll keep you posted when the statement is released.
EDIT 2: Wired seems to have picked up the story as well and is still spinning it as confirmation from Garmin that an Android phone is in the works, although it’s not clear whether they are aware of Garmin’s reaction to DigiTimes’ post. Engadget seems to have the story straight, stating:
The company says that “the story contains a number of inaccuracies in both sales figures and product rollout schedules,” and while it does say it has “an Android-based phone under development,” it also reminds us that Nuvifone won’t be it; instead, Garmin’s first modern entry into the world of telephony will be based on a proprietary build of Linux, as was originally planned.
A new application called AndNav2 brings free real-time and turn-by-turn navigation capabilities to your favorite handset (the G1, of course). The release is public alpha, so be wary of bugs, but free is free and the developers sure look like they know where they want this project to go. Audible directions are also available with the included Text2Speech library. Apparently, small advertisements embedded in the application facilitate the free nature of the app, but they seem to be relatively non-intrusive. Address search, POI lookup and contact entry are all supported in the alpha. Check out a video below:
Sure there are some great applications in the Android Market for stay up-to-date with sports, but Google once again has to trump them all and release the killer app - Google Scoreboard. Straight from Google, Scoreboard allows you to: “Access daily sports scores for Football, Baseball, Basketball, Hockey, Soccer, and College Sports. Get Live in-game notifications for your favorite teams.” Check it out in the Android Market, it’s totally free.
Visa has broken new ground for Android with it’s recent release of the Visa Mobile application. As the first of it’s kind for Android, we’re bound to see some updates and changes in the near future. But for an initial release, the application offers some valuable features for Visa cardholders. These include instant alerts on your handset so you can track charges to your card as they occur and quickly realize if someone is using your card. You’ll also have access to “Offers” which can be redeemed at locations quickly identifiable by the included Store Locator.
The “Offers” and “Locator” features are nice, but of primary importance for most cardholders is the ability track purchases made with your card in realtime. Check the video after the break for a great demo of the application.
The Google Android Market is now live. What’s the Android Market? It’s sort of like the App Store for the the iPhone. But for cellphones running the Android OS. Right now, that means the T-Mobile G1. Because the G1 isn’t locked down as tightly as the iPhone, you’re free to install applications that don’t come from the Android Market. Handango and MobiHand have already launched their own Android stores with free and commercial software.
But if you prefer to go through the official channel, the Android Market now has about 50 applications including WikiMobile for mobile access to Wikipedia, SplashPlay for learning to play the guitar, and iSkoot for making Skype VoIP calls on your Android phone. There’s also a weather map program called iMap and a mobile client for streaming music service iMeem.
There are still far more applications for iPhone, Symbian, Palm, or Windows Mobile devices than there are for Android phones. But considering today is day one, these are already some pretty impressive apps.
All of the apps available in the Android Market today are available as free downloads. Starting Monday, developers will be able to upload their own software after paying a $25 application fee. And next year Google will allow developers to sell commercial applications in the Android Market.
[From: DownloadSquad]
Silverlight, Microsoft’s rich Internet application browser plugin, may soon be seen on Android handsets. The news comes from Microsoft’s Scott Guthrie who told TechRadar.com “[The] Google phone is slightly different. It’s more of an open platform, that is something we’re going to continue to look at. Certainly as it’s gotten deployed and if sales are good we’ll definitely keep our eyes out and look at that in the future.”
Apple made a confusing and more-than-likely bad decision to keep Adobe’s comparable Flash plugin off of the iPhone for unknown reasons. This also kept Microsoft’s Silverlight from appearing on the iPhone as well. If Silverlight or Flash are seen on Android phones before the iPhone, it could possibly be a killer blow to iPhone sales.
Visa has begun developing an application for the Google Android platform that will allow users to pay for items using their cell phones, and receive updates on bank account information directly from their handsets.
This technology isn’t Android-specific, as it is currently being prepped for the Nokia 6212 coming out early next year. But Android offers the most promising platform for such technologies by far. The application will take advantage of Google’s built-in location based services and direct customers to the nearest Visa-enabled retailers.
Through this technology, Visa will be able to target users more specifically by storing purchasing data to customize reccomendations to that users’ tastes. Google will also find this profitable as it creates another unique, useful and functional selling point for the Android platform.
A Croatian start-up company called Shout ‘Em has created quite the killer app for Android - the first mobile phone-based social network platform. The Shout ‘Em platform allows quick, low-cost start-up of small social networks for companies, friends and others who do want the power of running on mobiles without the risk associated with such a venture. The goal of Shout ‘Em is to “…provide tools and services so that [a mobile social network] service can be started with minimized risks and investments. It also helps [the] customer to stay focused on branding, promoting and building up a community and not to worry about technical details, scalability and reliability.”
Shout ‘Ems claims to have iPhone, Windows Mobile and Symbian clients also in the works. Guess that leaves out LiMo, eh?
It all sounds very businessy, but they also claim that it’s built for everyone right down to the end-user. They’ve put some money where their mouth is by already creating a user demo for the Android emulator (available in the Android SDK). Jump on over to Shout ‘Em’s download page for an awesome demo video.
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