Sunday, November 14, 2010
12 Android Apps to Replace Your Other Gadgets
Android phones can do more than just answer calls and take pictures. Like digital Swiss army knives, they concentrate a lot of utilities into a compact, pocket-size device. Straight out of the box, your Android phone is a still and video camera, an address book, a GPS navigator, and even a phone.
But with the right apps, you can also turn it into a flashlight, a remote control, a barcode scanner, and a compass. Musicians will find that it makes an excellent tuner and metronome. And though it's already an alarm clock and a music player, it can get better at these tasks with the right software.
Here are 12 apps--all of them available from the Android Market and most of them free--that can turn your phone into an even better multipurpose device.
But not a perfect one. I'm still looking for the right Phillips screwdriver app.
Flashlight
Have you ever watched someone trying to read in the dark by the blue glow of their cellphone's screen? Have you ever been that person?
With Motorola's DroidLight, those days are over. Launch this app, and your phone's camera LED will come on and light the way. DroidLight's user interface is transcendently simple: An illustration of an old-fashioned, incandescent light bulb. Touch the bulb to turn the light on or off.
One caveat: Make sure that you go to another program or return to the Home Screen before putting away your phone. Otherwise, you might accidentally turn the beam back on, and it will light up the inside of your pocket until the phone's battery dies.
The DroidLight requires a camera with flash, of course; and it doesn't work on all such phones. It's most dependable on Motorola phones, but it does work on some others, as well. And since it's free, there's no risk in trying it.
Tape Recorder
Your phone has a microphone and a memory. Why shouldn't you be able to use it to record verbal reminders, conversations, and even live music?
Though there are plenty of recording apps for Android, I recommend the free RecForge Lite and its $6 big sibling, RecForge. (Until very recently, both versions went by the name AudioRecorder.) The lite version is fine if you're making recordings of less than 3 minutes each.
Either app gives you a host of options for handling the recording you want to make. At its default setting it saves recordings as .mp3 files, but you can choose instead to record .wav or .ogg files. Available sample rates range from low-fi but understandable 8KHz to CD-quality 44KHz, and you can choose to record in mono or in two-track stereo.
Once you've recorded something, you can attach an additional recording to the end, convert it to another format, or share it via e-mail, Gmail, Bluetooth, or text message. Don't get too excited about the Edit option on the menu, however: That's just for file manipulation; you can't edit the audio in RecForge.
Bear in mind, too, that in most places, recording conversations or performances without permission is illegal.
TV Remote Control
I wish I could recommend an app that would turn your Android phone into a universal remote control. But that won't happen any time soon. The problem is that phones don't emit infrared signals--the preferred interface between remotes and the devices they control.
There are a few of exceptions, all of them involving controls for devices that plug into your home network as well as into your TV. By turning on your phone's Wi-Fi connection, you can control the device over the LAN.
I gave the free Boxee Wifi Remote a whirl. If you've attached a computer to your television so that you can watch movies and TV shows via your Boxee account, this program will permit your phone to function passably as a remote control. It's reasonably straightforward and it works, navigating through the menus with simple on-screen controls, and it even uses your phone's volume control for Boxee.
Running Boxee involves entering text occasionally--for instance, if you want to search for a title or an actor. If you've ever tried to enter text with a conventional remote control, you know how much easier it is to use your phone's keyboard instead. And that's despite the fact that the Boxee Web remote got confused when I tried using Swype with it.
The developer told me that he has not yet tested this app with DLink's upcoming Boxee Box, but he thinks that it should work.
Since I don't own a TiVo, I wasn't able to test Tim Hoeck's TivoRemote. The app costs $1 and is supposed to work with Tivo Series3, HD, or Premiere DVRs.
Remote Keyboard and Mouse
You can control your computer from your Android phone, even if you aren't watching Boxee.
The free, open-source RemoteDroid uses your network and Java to ast as another keyboard and mouse for your Windows PC. Preliminarily, you'll have to install the Java SE runtime environment on your the computer and then run the RemoteDroid Server software. And of course, you'll have to turn on your phone's Wi-Fi and get it onto the network.
Once you've taken care of those steps, you'll find the user interface minimal but intuitive: You use the big rectangle as a touchpad; the two smaller rectangles are buttons; and (as you'd expect) the keyboard icon brings up the keyboard.
RemoteDroid doesn't support Swype, unfortunately. But it does let you lean back and control your computer without having to touch it. And if you hook up your computer to your TV, the app works with Windows Media Center.
Alarm Clock Plus is, quite simply, the best alarm clock I've ever used--including physical alarm clocks of the digital, analog, and wind-up varieties.
What does Alarm Clock Plus do that the others can't? Plenty. It lets you select not just a song but a playlist, from which it will play songs at random. That means you can select 40 or 400 songs that seem right for starting the day, and be pleasantly surprised every morning. You can have it start the alarm softly and slowly increase the volume. And if you have a really hard time getting up, you can preset it not to shut up until you've solved a math problem. That should get your brain working.
You can set alarms to play once, to play every day, or to play only the days of your choice (such as on weekdays).
With all these of options, Alarm Clock Plus can be a little daunting to set up. So when you create an alarm, work through it slowly, and then use the option for testing it. The requirement to proceed methodically may explain why Brent Rose had such a different experience with it than I did.
The full version of Alarm Clock Plus costs $1.79; but if you're willing to put up with some advertising, the free version works just fine.
Compass
If you're in a location where you can recharge your phone and get on a 3G network, you probably don't need a compass. But a compass is still a cool thing to have around.
Catch.com's free Compass displays a working compass on your Android phone's screen, complete with an arrow that always points north. And unlike a real compass, this one can point to due north as well as to magnetic north.
You get a choice of seven compass designs, from antique to GPS, and you can select from among various backgrounds.
The app has some cool tricks up its sleeve. For instance, you can save your current longitude and latitude as a place, and later you can bring up the place in Google Maps for directions back to it. If you're the sort of person who forgets where you parked your car--or who gets blindfolded and taken to secret hideouts a lot--this feature can come in handy.
Compass's accuracy is only as good as your phone's direction- and location-finding abilities. You may also have to move your phone in odd ways (such as in a figure 8 pattern) before you can get an accurate reading.
Notepad, Post-its, and Refrigerator Door
We all scribble things on pieces of paper--reminders, ideas, shopping lists. Then we leave them places where we'll find them or, more likely, never see them again.
You'll find plenty of note-taking apps in the Android Market, but the free AK Notepad won my heart. In the first place, it looks great on a phone's screen--mimicking yellow, lined paper. The sans serif font looks slightly handwritten while remaining highly legible. You can edit the title of each note separately from the note itself.
After creating a note, you can do much more with it than just leave it in AK Notepad. You can set a reminder to go off in 5 minutes, in a day, or on the day and time of your choice. You can pin an icon for the note (but not, unfortunately, a widget) to your Home Screen. You can save the note as a text file, or send it to someone via e-mail, Gmail, or text messaging.
Barcode Scanner
Almost every commercially packaged product has a barcode, which can tell you more than just the price of the product in that particular store--especially if you've installed Barcode Scanner on your Android device.
With the app running, point your phone's camera at a bar code, and it will decode it and offer you information about the product. You may find reviews, and you'll certainly learn where else you can buy it and whether you can get a better deal.
Barcode Scanner gives you three ways to look up each product that it identifies. Its own Product Search tends to find local and online stores that offer the same item. The Web Search looks up the code in Google, thereby finding a wider variety of information. And if you have the Google Shopper app installed, Barcode Scanner can use that--though in my experience, the results are identical to those from the Product Search.
The app saves all of your scans in a history, which is good, but it doesn't do much with that history. For one thing, it merely lists numbers, without descriptions, which is not very useful. Also, as near as I can tell, you can't delete anything from the history.
WWDiary is worth considerably more than you don't have pay for it.
Here you track the foods you've eaten in the course of a day, the exercise you've done, and the effect these have on your daily and weekly allotment of points. (In the Weight Watcher system, every food serving has points, from 1 point for a carrot to 19 points for a banana split. Based on your age, weight, and gender, you should accumulate no more than a specified maximum number points per day and per week--or you'll start accumulating unwanted reserves of cushiony lipids.) When you add a new food or a new exercise to your diary, you have the option of adding it to your Favorites list too, which simplifies adding the same things in future entries.
Specialized calculators help you determine the points associated with a food item or an exercise routine, as well as how many points you're allowed that day. You can also keep a log of your weight changes.
But don't bother with the widget--at least not at first. It simply tells you how much weight you've lost since you started using the app.
WWDiary is not officially affiliated with Weight Watchers, and it carries this disclaimer: "By using this program you agree that I am not responsible for any of your problems."
Portable Music Player
Android phones come with software for playing MP3s and other music files. But the preloaded player is pretty basic, and lots of better alternatives exist. My favorite is Maxim Petrov's PowerAMP.
As I write this, PowerAMP is a free beta. But the final version will be out very soon and will cost $5. That's a lot to pay for a program that competes with a bunch of freebies, but consider what you get for the money.
First, PowerAMP provides some awesome audio settings: a ten-band equalizer; preamp control; and separate dials for controlling bass, treble, and volume. All of these adjustments come up on a separate, highly graphical window, but you can turn any of them off or on from the main screen.
As on most other players, the main screen displays album artwork. But PowerAMP is sensitive to what you do with your fingers over that art. Flick left and it takes you to the next song. Flick right and you go to the previous one.
PowerAMP is intelligent about headphones, too. Unplug your headphones and the music stops. Plug them in again, and it restarts.
You also get your choice of three different widgets for viewing and controlling your music from the Home Screen.
Guitar Tuner
Country Joe McDonald once gave me his analysis of the difference between '60s rock and '70s rock: In the 70s, everybody's instruments were properly tuned. He credited this triumph of euphony to the invention of small, electronic devices that took the guesswork out of instrument tuning.
Cohortor.org's gStrings can turn your Android phone into just such a chromatic tuner. Using the microphone, it determines whether a plucked string or a note blown through a mouthpiece has produced the correct wavelength. You can optimize the program for a specific instrument, or you can shift its results to match the tuning practices of a particular orchestra.
The free version should work just fine for most people, but for a single Euro (the equivalent of $1.41, as I write this) you can get gStrings+, which provides more-precise results and--thanks to its relatively compact code--demands less power from your phone's battery.
My wife, a professional musician and music teacher, described gStrings as "Clearly a professional tuner for many instruments."
Metronome
By supplying a regular but adjustable pulse both visually and audibly, a metronome helps musicians keep a steady beat while they practice. You can set the beat to match the piece and your comfort level with it before you start playing. Sophisticated metronomes can accent downbeats to mark the beginning of each measure.
The full version of Zealy Technology's Metronome ($1) does all of this.The free demo is just that--a demo. You can't even change the tempo on it.
With the real program, you can do that and more. You can set the app to count out anywhere from 40 to 208 beats per minute, and to add a measure-marking ping on the downbeats.
You can play the beat audibly, display it as a blinking series of lights, and receive tactile feedback via vibration. Its vibrating ability means that you can operate this metronome while it's tucked in your pocket.
In fact, by turning off the light and sound, keeping the vibration on, and parking the phone in a pocket, a musician could use it during a performance and no one else would ever know.
But with the right apps, you can also turn it into a flashlight, a remote control, a barcode scanner, and a compass. Musicians will find that it makes an excellent tuner and metronome. And though it's already an alarm clock and a music player, it can get better at these tasks with the right software.
Here are 12 apps--all of them available from the Android Market and most of them free--that can turn your phone into an even better multipurpose device.
But not a perfect one. I'm still looking for the right Phillips screwdriver app.
Flashlight
Have you ever watched someone trying to read in the dark by the blue glow of their cellphone's screen? Have you ever been that person?
With Motorola's DroidLight, those days are over. Launch this app, and your phone's camera LED will come on and light the way. DroidLight's user interface is transcendently simple: An illustration of an old-fashioned, incandescent light bulb. Touch the bulb to turn the light on or off.
One caveat: Make sure that you go to another program or return to the Home Screen before putting away your phone. Otherwise, you might accidentally turn the beam back on, and it will light up the inside of your pocket until the phone's battery dies.
The DroidLight requires a camera with flash, of course; and it doesn't work on all such phones. It's most dependable on Motorola phones, but it does work on some others, as well. And since it's free, there's no risk in trying it.
Tape Recorder
Your phone has a microphone and a memory. Why shouldn't you be able to use it to record verbal reminders, conversations, and even live music?
Though there are plenty of recording apps for Android, I recommend the free RecForge Lite and its $6 big sibling, RecForge. (Until very recently, both versions went by the name AudioRecorder.) The lite version is fine if you're making recordings of less than 3 minutes each.
Either app gives you a host of options for handling the recording you want to make. At its default setting it saves recordings as .mp3 files, but you can choose instead to record .wav or .ogg files. Available sample rates range from low-fi but understandable 8KHz to CD-quality 44KHz, and you can choose to record in mono or in two-track stereo.
Once you've recorded something, you can attach an additional recording to the end, convert it to another format, or share it via e-mail, Gmail, Bluetooth, or text message. Don't get too excited about the Edit option on the menu, however: That's just for file manipulation; you can't edit the audio in RecForge.
Bear in mind, too, that in most places, recording conversations or performances without permission is illegal.
TV Remote Control
I wish I could recommend an app that would turn your Android phone into a universal remote control. But that won't happen any time soon. The problem is that phones don't emit infrared signals--the preferred interface between remotes and the devices they control.
There are a few of exceptions, all of them involving controls for devices that plug into your home network as well as into your TV. By turning on your phone's Wi-Fi connection, you can control the device over the LAN.
I gave the free Boxee Wifi Remote a whirl. If you've attached a computer to your television so that you can watch movies and TV shows via your Boxee account, this program will permit your phone to function passably as a remote control. It's reasonably straightforward and it works, navigating through the menus with simple on-screen controls, and it even uses your phone's volume control for Boxee.
Running Boxee involves entering text occasionally--for instance, if you want to search for a title or an actor. If you've ever tried to enter text with a conventional remote control, you know how much easier it is to use your phone's keyboard instead. And that's despite the fact that the Boxee Web remote got confused when I tried using Swype with it.
The developer told me that he has not yet tested this app with DLink's upcoming Boxee Box, but he thinks that it should work.
Since I don't own a TiVo, I wasn't able to test Tim Hoeck's TivoRemote. The app costs $1 and is supposed to work with Tivo Series3, HD, or Premiere DVRs.
Remote Keyboard and Mouse
You can control your computer from your Android phone, even if you aren't watching Boxee.
The free, open-source RemoteDroid uses your network and Java to ast as another keyboard and mouse for your Windows PC. Preliminarily, you'll have to install the Java SE runtime environment on your the computer and then run the RemoteDroid Server software. And of course, you'll have to turn on your phone's Wi-Fi and get it onto the network.
Once you've taken care of those steps, you'll find the user interface minimal but intuitive: You use the big rectangle as a touchpad; the two smaller rectangles are buttons; and (as you'd expect) the keyboard icon brings up the keyboard.
RemoteDroid doesn't support Swype, unfortunately. But it does let you lean back and control your computer without having to touch it. And if you hook up your computer to your TV, the app works with Windows Media Center.
Alarm Clock Plus is, quite simply, the best alarm clock I've ever used--including physical alarm clocks of the digital, analog, and wind-up varieties.
What does Alarm Clock Plus do that the others can't? Plenty. It lets you select not just a song but a playlist, from which it will play songs at random. That means you can select 40 or 400 songs that seem right for starting the day, and be pleasantly surprised every morning. You can have it start the alarm softly and slowly increase the volume. And if you have a really hard time getting up, you can preset it not to shut up until you've solved a math problem. That should get your brain working.
You can set alarms to play once, to play every day, or to play only the days of your choice (such as on weekdays).
With all these of options, Alarm Clock Plus can be a little daunting to set up. So when you create an alarm, work through it slowly, and then use the option for testing it. The requirement to proceed methodically may explain why Brent Rose had such a different experience with it than I did.
The full version of Alarm Clock Plus costs $1.79; but if you're willing to put up with some advertising, the free version works just fine.
Compass
If you're in a location where you can recharge your phone and get on a 3G network, you probably don't need a compass. But a compass is still a cool thing to have around.
Catch.com's free Compass displays a working compass on your Android phone's screen, complete with an arrow that always points north. And unlike a real compass, this one can point to due north as well as to magnetic north.
You get a choice of seven compass designs, from antique to GPS, and you can select from among various backgrounds.
The app has some cool tricks up its sleeve. For instance, you can save your current longitude and latitude as a place, and later you can bring up the place in Google Maps for directions back to it. If you're the sort of person who forgets where you parked your car--or who gets blindfolded and taken to secret hideouts a lot--this feature can come in handy.
Compass's accuracy is only as good as your phone's direction- and location-finding abilities. You may also have to move your phone in odd ways (such as in a figure 8 pattern) before you can get an accurate reading.
Notepad, Post-its, and Refrigerator Door
We all scribble things on pieces of paper--reminders, ideas, shopping lists. Then we leave them places where we'll find them or, more likely, never see them again.
You'll find plenty of note-taking apps in the Android Market, but the free AK Notepad won my heart. In the first place, it looks great on a phone's screen--mimicking yellow, lined paper. The sans serif font looks slightly handwritten while remaining highly legible. You can edit the title of each note separately from the note itself.
After creating a note, you can do much more with it than just leave it in AK Notepad. You can set a reminder to go off in 5 minutes, in a day, or on the day and time of your choice. You can pin an icon for the note (but not, unfortunately, a widget) to your Home Screen. You can save the note as a text file, or send it to someone via e-mail, Gmail, or text messaging.
Barcode Scanner
Almost every commercially packaged product has a barcode, which can tell you more than just the price of the product in that particular store--especially if you've installed Barcode Scanner on your Android device.
With the app running, point your phone's camera at a bar code, and it will decode it and offer you information about the product. You may find reviews, and you'll certainly learn where else you can buy it and whether you can get a better deal.
Barcode Scanner gives you three ways to look up each product that it identifies. Its own Product Search tends to find local and online stores that offer the same item. The Web Search looks up the code in Google, thereby finding a wider variety of information. And if you have the Google Shopper app installed, Barcode Scanner can use that--though in my experience, the results are identical to those from the Product Search.
The app saves all of your scans in a history, which is good, but it doesn't do much with that history. For one thing, it merely lists numbers, without descriptions, which is not very useful. Also, as near as I can tell, you can't delete anything from the history.
WWDiary is worth considerably more than you don't have pay for it.
Here you track the foods you've eaten in the course of a day, the exercise you've done, and the effect these have on your daily and weekly allotment of points. (In the Weight Watcher system, every food serving has points, from 1 point for a carrot to 19 points for a banana split. Based on your age, weight, and gender, you should accumulate no more than a specified maximum number points per day and per week--or you'll start accumulating unwanted reserves of cushiony lipids.) When you add a new food or a new exercise to your diary, you have the option of adding it to your Favorites list too, which simplifies adding the same things in future entries.
Specialized calculators help you determine the points associated with a food item or an exercise routine, as well as how many points you're allowed that day. You can also keep a log of your weight changes.
But don't bother with the widget--at least not at first. It simply tells you how much weight you've lost since you started using the app.
WWDiary is not officially affiliated with Weight Watchers, and it carries this disclaimer: "By using this program you agree that I am not responsible for any of your problems."
Portable Music Player
Android phones come with software for playing MP3s and other music files. But the preloaded player is pretty basic, and lots of better alternatives exist. My favorite is Maxim Petrov's PowerAMP.
As I write this, PowerAMP is a free beta. But the final version will be out very soon and will cost $5. That's a lot to pay for a program that competes with a bunch of freebies, but consider what you get for the money.
First, PowerAMP provides some awesome audio settings: a ten-band equalizer; preamp control; and separate dials for controlling bass, treble, and volume. All of these adjustments come up on a separate, highly graphical window, but you can turn any of them off or on from the main screen.
As on most other players, the main screen displays album artwork. But PowerAMP is sensitive to what you do with your fingers over that art. Flick left and it takes you to the next song. Flick right and you go to the previous one.
PowerAMP is intelligent about headphones, too. Unplug your headphones and the music stops. Plug them in again, and it restarts.
You also get your choice of three different widgets for viewing and controlling your music from the Home Screen.
Guitar Tuner
Country Joe McDonald once gave me his analysis of the difference between '60s rock and '70s rock: In the 70s, everybody's instruments were properly tuned. He credited this triumph of euphony to the invention of small, electronic devices that took the guesswork out of instrument tuning.
Cohortor.org's gStrings can turn your Android phone into just such a chromatic tuner. Using the microphone, it determines whether a plucked string or a note blown through a mouthpiece has produced the correct wavelength. You can optimize the program for a specific instrument, or you can shift its results to match the tuning practices of a particular orchestra.
The free version should work just fine for most people, but for a single Euro (the equivalent of $1.41, as I write this) you can get gStrings+, which provides more-precise results and--thanks to its relatively compact code--demands less power from your phone's battery.
My wife, a professional musician and music teacher, described gStrings as "Clearly a professional tuner for many instruments."
Metronome
By supplying a regular but adjustable pulse both visually and audibly, a metronome helps musicians keep a steady beat while they practice. You can set the beat to match the piece and your comfort level with it before you start playing. Sophisticated metronomes can accent downbeats to mark the beginning of each measure.
The full version of Zealy Technology's Metronome ($1) does all of this.The free demo is just that--a demo. You can't even change the tempo on it.
With the real program, you can do that and more. You can set the app to count out anywhere from 40 to 208 beats per minute, and to add a measure-marking ping on the downbeats.
You can play the beat audibly, display it as a blinking series of lights, and receive tactile feedback via vibration. Its vibrating ability means that you can operate this metronome while it's tucked in your pocket.
In fact, by turning off the light and sound, keeping the vibration on, and parking the phone in a pocket, a musician could use it during a performance and no one else would ever know.
Are you willing to trust Facebook with your email?
Facebook has called another press event, slated for next week—and based on the oh-so-subtle decorations on the invites, many believe that Mark Zuckerberg & Co. are poised to unleash a so-called "Gmail killer." But are we truly ready to turn our inboxes over to Facebook?
The latest word on Monday morning's briefing is that we'll get our first look at Project Titan—the code name for what is reputedly a secret Facebook project aimed at creating a full-on Web-based email client to rival such competitors as Gmail, Hotmail and (of course) Yahoo! Mail. (You've noticed that Yahoo! News—which hosts this blog—and Yahoo! Mail are owned by the same company, right?)
Inside Facebook headquarters, Project Titan is being called a "Gmail killer," TechCrunch reports. Many believe that the rumored email project could help explain the recent flap between Facebook and Google over Facebook's unwillingness to allow its users to export their friends lists—and their contact info—into Gmail.
Assuming the rumors are true—and remember, there's no official word from Facebook yet—what might we be talking about here?
Facebook already has its own bare-bones client for exchanging private messages with your Facebook friends, but it's pretty basic. You can't import e-mail from other clients or POP accounts, organize your messages into folders, or archive them for safekeeping; your only options are to mark a message as unread, report spam or delete.
On the low end, Facebook could simply add some of that basic functionality: the ability to create folders, checkboxes for selecting which messages go where, POP support and so on. It's also a good bet that Facebook users would be issued an email address, and Inside Facebook has some theories (would you get an "@facebook.com" email domain, "@fb.com" or something else?) on that front.
The smart money, though, seems to be on the possibility of something far more ambitious: a "full-fledged" email client that would truly compete with Gmail, Yahoo! Mail and other advanced Web-based email services that give you desktop-style features in a browser.
There's even speculation that Facebook's Project Titan could integrate with Microsoft's just-launched Office Web Apps, which could mean you'd be able to edit online Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents, all within your Facebook account.
In other words—and again, assuming all the Titan talk is for real—it would appear that Facebook is pursuing nothing more ambitious than to become your online nerve center, your home base, your first stop when it comes to scanning the news, checking in with your friends, corresponding with ... well, the world, and even doing something productive, at least when you're not whiling away the hours on FarmVille.
Are there risks to letting Facebook take over as your email client? Well, sure. Anyone who's already nervous about Facebook invading their privacy will find reason to fret about Facebook handling their email accounts. Will messages be scanned for keywords that would result in targeted advertisements? (Oh, wait—Gmail already does that.) What about Facebook developers—would they get access to your messages? (You never know, although Facebook's been much better lately about letting you slam the door shut on Platform app access to your info.)
But there are plenty of possible advantages, too. As TechCrunch points out, Facebook's engineers have made a science out of mapping your various circles of friends, and the site could use that expertise to create a "smart" inbox that organizes your messages according to who's most important to you—and who isn't. (I'd imagine users would be able to turn off their "smart" inboxes if they wanted to.)
Using Facebook for email could also mean the end of having to remember the current (or proper, depending on the occasion) e-mail address for your various confidants. For better or worse, it's increasingly feeling like the whole world's on Facebook, and while email addresses change all the time (because someone has changed jobs, moved to a new ISP or merely grown tired of their old email client), Facebook accounts tend to stay the same—making emailing someone a simple (and reliable) matter of just typing in their name.
Keep in mind, however, that Mark Zuckerberg isn't shy about touting his ultimate goal of "making everything social"—a quest that seems to translate, sooner or later, into making everything Facebook. Adding a full-on email client to Facebook represents yet another step in that direction, for good or ill.
In any case, this is all just conjecture. For all we know, Zuckerberg could have little more to announce on Monday (at 10 a.m. PT, by the way) than the ability to choose pretty background templates for your Facebook messages.
Something tells me we'll be getting a lot more than that come Monday, however—and given that, I'd like to hear from you.
If Facebook does unveil a new, Gmail-caliber email client, would you make the switch? Would you trust Facebook with your inbox, or are you wary of the privacy implications—or leery of Facebook in general?
The latest word on Monday morning's briefing is that we'll get our first look at Project Titan—the code name for what is reputedly a secret Facebook project aimed at creating a full-on Web-based email client to rival such competitors as Gmail, Hotmail and (of course) Yahoo! Mail. (You've noticed that Yahoo! News—which hosts this blog—and Yahoo! Mail are owned by the same company, right?)
Inside Facebook headquarters, Project Titan is being called a "Gmail killer," TechCrunch reports. Many believe that the rumored email project could help explain the recent flap between Facebook and Google over Facebook's unwillingness to allow its users to export their friends lists—and their contact info—into Gmail.
Assuming the rumors are true—and remember, there's no official word from Facebook yet—what might we be talking about here?
Facebook already has its own bare-bones client for exchanging private messages with your Facebook friends, but it's pretty basic. You can't import e-mail from other clients or POP accounts, organize your messages into folders, or archive them for safekeeping; your only options are to mark a message as unread, report spam or delete.
On the low end, Facebook could simply add some of that basic functionality: the ability to create folders, checkboxes for selecting which messages go where, POP support and so on. It's also a good bet that Facebook users would be issued an email address, and Inside Facebook has some theories (would you get an "@facebook.com" email domain, "@fb.com" or something else?) on that front.
The smart money, though, seems to be on the possibility of something far more ambitious: a "full-fledged" email client that would truly compete with Gmail, Yahoo! Mail and other advanced Web-based email services that give you desktop-style features in a browser.
There's even speculation that Facebook's Project Titan could integrate with Microsoft's just-launched Office Web Apps, which could mean you'd be able to edit online Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents, all within your Facebook account.
In other words—and again, assuming all the Titan talk is for real—it would appear that Facebook is pursuing nothing more ambitious than to become your online nerve center, your home base, your first stop when it comes to scanning the news, checking in with your friends, corresponding with ... well, the world, and even doing something productive, at least when you're not whiling away the hours on FarmVille.
Are there risks to letting Facebook take over as your email client? Well, sure. Anyone who's already nervous about Facebook invading their privacy will find reason to fret about Facebook handling their email accounts. Will messages be scanned for keywords that would result in targeted advertisements? (Oh, wait—Gmail already does that.) What about Facebook developers—would they get access to your messages? (You never know, although Facebook's been much better lately about letting you slam the door shut on Platform app access to your info.)
But there are plenty of possible advantages, too. As TechCrunch points out, Facebook's engineers have made a science out of mapping your various circles of friends, and the site could use that expertise to create a "smart" inbox that organizes your messages according to who's most important to you—and who isn't. (I'd imagine users would be able to turn off their "smart" inboxes if they wanted to.)
Using Facebook for email could also mean the end of having to remember the current (or proper, depending on the occasion) e-mail address for your various confidants. For better or worse, it's increasingly feeling like the whole world's on Facebook, and while email addresses change all the time (because someone has changed jobs, moved to a new ISP or merely grown tired of their old email client), Facebook accounts tend to stay the same—making emailing someone a simple (and reliable) matter of just typing in their name.
Keep in mind, however, that Mark Zuckerberg isn't shy about touting his ultimate goal of "making everything social"—a quest that seems to translate, sooner or later, into making everything Facebook. Adding a full-on email client to Facebook represents yet another step in that direction, for good or ill.
In any case, this is all just conjecture. For all we know, Zuckerberg could have little more to announce on Monday (at 10 a.m. PT, by the way) than the ability to choose pretty background templates for your Facebook messages.
Something tells me we'll be getting a lot more than that come Monday, however—and given that, I'd like to hear from you.
If Facebook does unveil a new, Gmail-caliber email client, would you make the switch? Would you trust Facebook with your inbox, or are you wary of the privacy implications—or leery of Facebook in general?
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Pet First Aid for IPhone
I produced a podcast about an app. for your IPhone. It is Pet First Aid for your IPhone. This is a very important topic for pet lovers and the information can be very useful. Please listen to my podcast and learn how useful and important this app. could be. The URL is: http://grammadee.podbean.com/
Monday, October 4, 2010
Scoring Points with Everyday Browsing
New Web services offer rewards for your Internet habits in hopes of encouraging you to spend more time on certain sites.
Two new Web services want to bring the equivalent of frequent-flier miles to everyday online activities, rewarding you for merely browsing the Internet and sharing links with friends.
The services, which launched this week at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in San Francisco, take slightly different approaches. But both have the same larger purpose: to help websites get visitors to stick around longer. It's a twist on the "check in" model pioneered by Foursquare, a mobile social network that offers virtual badges and other signs of status to people who regularly patronize physical-world locations.
One of the new Web companies, Badgeville, helps Web publishers build a "game dynamic" into their sites so that users earn points whenever they view or comment on a page. A publisher can also choose to dole out points to people who share material from the site on Facebook or Twitter--with more points allocated if their friends click the links back to the site. Badgeville, based in Palo Alto, California, has signed up 10 publishers, including Comcast Sports, the website of the Philadelphia Inquirer, and the tech news site TheNextWeb.
Badgeville CEO Kris Duggan says the service improves upon standard technologies that track the paths that users take through a site. Sites often try to tweak their design to encourage certain user behaviors, but Badgeville makes it possible to provide direct incentives to use a site in a particular way. "This really changes Web analytics," Duggan says.
The other new service, OneTrueFan, based in Boulder, Colorado, has its own take on "game-ifying" websites. It works across all sites, not just ones that have worked out a deal with the company. "We're going to become the reward program for the Web," says Eric Marcoullier, the company's cofounder. Users of OneTrueFan download a browser toolbar that allows them to check in to pages, see the points and virtual badges they have, and share their site "check-ins" using Facebook or Twitter. The toolbar also shows any given site's top-scoring user--the "one true fan." A version that publishers can embed into their pages will be launched next month.
Badgeville and OneTrueFan say that the virtual badges, the competition with friends, and the ability to get some perspective on your browsing habits will be enough to lure users. Both companies, though, are also working on plans to offer concrete rewards for online loyalty. For instance, Badgeville is talking with a magazine publisher about unlocking premium content early to users with a certain number of points or achievements. Marcoullier says OneTrueFan might offer event tickets, prize entries, or even established virtual currencies like air miles in exchange for points and achievements.
Speaking after Badgeville's launch pitch at the TechCrunch Disrupt event in San Francisco, Don Dodge, developer advocate at Google, was positive about the prospect of tempting users and publishers by making a game of Web browsing. "It's phenomenal to have paid customers this early," Dodge said, referring to the publishers that are taking part. "This speaks to how hot this area is." However, Dodge pointed out that Badgeville won't stick unless it can show publishers concrete returns on their investments. Publishers will want to see that Badgeville encourages people to spend enough additional time on a site to translate into additional ad revenue. Whether that is possible is hard to know until enough people have tried the service.
Two new Web services want to bring the equivalent of frequent-flier miles to everyday online activities, rewarding you for merely browsing the Internet and sharing links with friends.
The services, which launched this week at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in San Francisco, take slightly different approaches. But both have the same larger purpose: to help websites get visitors to stick around longer. It's a twist on the "check in" model pioneered by Foursquare, a mobile social network that offers virtual badges and other signs of status to people who regularly patronize physical-world locations.
One of the new Web companies, Badgeville, helps Web publishers build a "game dynamic" into their sites so that users earn points whenever they view or comment on a page. A publisher can also choose to dole out points to people who share material from the site on Facebook or Twitter--with more points allocated if their friends click the links back to the site. Badgeville, based in Palo Alto, California, has signed up 10 publishers, including Comcast Sports, the website of the Philadelphia Inquirer, and the tech news site TheNextWeb.
Badgeville CEO Kris Duggan says the service improves upon standard technologies that track the paths that users take through a site. Sites often try to tweak their design to encourage certain user behaviors, but Badgeville makes it possible to provide direct incentives to use a site in a particular way. "This really changes Web analytics," Duggan says.
The other new service, OneTrueFan, based in Boulder, Colorado, has its own take on "game-ifying" websites. It works across all sites, not just ones that have worked out a deal with the company. "We're going to become the reward program for the Web," says Eric Marcoullier, the company's cofounder. Users of OneTrueFan download a browser toolbar that allows them to check in to pages, see the points and virtual badges they have, and share their site "check-ins" using Facebook or Twitter. The toolbar also shows any given site's top-scoring user--the "one true fan." A version that publishers can embed into their pages will be launched next month.
Badgeville and OneTrueFan say that the virtual badges, the competition with friends, and the ability to get some perspective on your browsing habits will be enough to lure users. Both companies, though, are also working on plans to offer concrete rewards for online loyalty. For instance, Badgeville is talking with a magazine publisher about unlocking premium content early to users with a certain number of points or achievements. Marcoullier says OneTrueFan might offer event tickets, prize entries, or even established virtual currencies like air miles in exchange for points and achievements.
Speaking after Badgeville's launch pitch at the TechCrunch Disrupt event in San Francisco, Don Dodge, developer advocate at Google, was positive about the prospect of tempting users and publishers by making a game of Web browsing. "It's phenomenal to have paid customers this early," Dodge said, referring to the publishers that are taking part. "This speaks to how hot this area is." However, Dodge pointed out that Badgeville won't stick unless it can show publishers concrete returns on their investments. Publishers will want to see that Badgeville encourages people to spend enough additional time on a site to translate into additional ad revenue. Whether that is possible is hard to know until enough people have tried the service.
How to send free texts over e-mail
Text messaging is one of the popular ways to communicate these days. However, unlike most wireless carriers in the rest of the world, U.S. wireless companies tend to double-charge customers for texts: They charge both for sending texts and for delivering each text message. This can be annoying, especially for the vast majority of people who don't have smartphones.
If you're looking to save money on texting, or if you just think those double charges are silly, there are some ways to avoid them -- at least the charge for sending a text message.
While plans that include unlimited texting are popular, many budget-conscious cell phone users have plans with text-message limits -- and they face extra charges if they exceed those limits. Also, many phones (especially pre-paid ones) charge per message, and the cost for this can be steep. For instance, a T-Mobile prepaid plan charges "10 cents to send a text and 5 cents to receive in the U.S. and Canada; 35 cents to send and 5 cents to receive everywhere else."
Not only can you send a text message via e-mail from your computer, but also from any e-mail-enabled phone. Most phones, even inexpensive feature phones, can send and receive e-mail messages. Also, wireless carriers designate an e-mail address for any e-mail enabled phone -- so you don't need to worry about linking your computer-based e-mail to your phone service if you don't want to.
Sometimes, wireless carriers tack on fees to enable e-mail on your phone, so ask your carrier about this and make sure you know how to send and receive regular e-mails on your phone first.
To send a text message by e-mail you need to know which wireless carrier the recipient of your message uses. So ask the people your regularly send text messages to which carrier they use. Then, look up how you would reformat each of their phone number/carrier pairs as an e-mail address. Each wireless carrier has an e-mail-to-SMS gateway, with a special format to accept incoming e-mail messages and route them as text messages to cell phones.
Here are the formats for the four major U.S. carriers. In each of these, for "N" substitute the recipient's 10-digit phone number (include the area code -- but don't include hyphens or other space separating characters):
AT&T Wireless: N@txt.att.net
SprintPCS: N@messaging.sprintpcs.com
T-Mobile: N@tmomail.net
Verizon: N@vtext.com
MuTube has a more complete list of e-mail-to-SMS address formats, for carriers in North America and around the world.
Next, add entries to your e-mail address book (on your phone and on your computer or web-based e-mail service) for each person to whom you regularly send text messages, once you find out which carrier they're on.
Keep your messages brief. Text-message-length limits still apply, even though you're originating the message from e-mail. Carriers have different length limits for text messages, but Twitter's limit of 140 characters plays nice with most North American wireless carriers' texting limits.
If your message exceeds the allowed number of characters, the delivered text message may get truncated or split into multiple messages (perhaps resulting in multiple charges). Your recipients probably would not be pleased by this.
Write your entire text message in the subject line of your e-mail. Leave the message body blank -- and be sure to remove any automated signature text your e-mail program might supply.
Most e-mail-to-SMS gateways will transmit both the e-mail subject line and message body within the delivered text message. However, since you want to keep your message very short anyway, it's easier to just get in the habit of typing your text message in the subject line and deleting everything from the message body.
Before you send someone a text by e-mail, let them know you're going to try doing this, so they'll expect your message. Remember: The first time they receive a text that you send via e-mail, it won't be coming from your regular phone number. They may not recognize that it's from you, and might mistake your message for spam or an error and delete it without reading it.
Also note that when you send a text message via e-mail, if the recipient hits "reply," their reply message usually will get routed back to the e-mail account from which you sent it. It's smart to test this out, too.
Finally, remind your recipients to notify you if they switch to a different wireless carrier. People can port their phone number from one carrier to another -- but when they change carriers, the format for their e-mail-to-text address will change, so you'll want to update that information in your address book.
Getting set up to send text messages by e-mail involves a little bit of up-front work. And there are other drawbacks. Straightforward e-mail-to-e-mail messages don't always provide mobile push notifications, such as alert sounds, especially on feature phones. But the effort can be worth it if you text certain people frequently. It's useful if you want to be sure they get instant notification of your message wherever they are.
This strategy is especially useful to send text messages to groups -- such as parents of the kids in a hockey team, or a carpool group, or everyone in your immediate family. You could even use this strategy to publish text alerts to large audiences (such as a political candidate's supporters, or people who sign up to get local news alerts by text).
It's generally simpler to designate groups of e-mail addresses than groups of SMS recipients on your phone. Also, it's fairly private -- when you use e-mail to send text messages to a group, each recipient sees only your contact information, not the contact information for the other recipients.
If you must contact large groups of people via SMS, avoiding carrier charges for sending text messages can significantly improve the economics of group communication. And it's simpler and more reliable to send your group text alerts directly than to count on a third-party service like Twitter Fast Follow.
If you're looking to save money on texting, or if you just think those double charges are silly, there are some ways to avoid them -- at least the charge for sending a text message.
While plans that include unlimited texting are popular, many budget-conscious cell phone users have plans with text-message limits -- and they face extra charges if they exceed those limits. Also, many phones (especially pre-paid ones) charge per message, and the cost for this can be steep. For instance, a T-Mobile prepaid plan charges "10 cents to send a text and 5 cents to receive in the U.S. and Canada; 35 cents to send and 5 cents to receive everywhere else."
Not only can you send a text message via e-mail from your computer, but also from any e-mail-enabled phone. Most phones, even inexpensive feature phones, can send and receive e-mail messages. Also, wireless carriers designate an e-mail address for any e-mail enabled phone -- so you don't need to worry about linking your computer-based e-mail to your phone service if you don't want to.
Sometimes, wireless carriers tack on fees to enable e-mail on your phone, so ask your carrier about this and make sure you know how to send and receive regular e-mails on your phone first.
To send a text message by e-mail you need to know which wireless carrier the recipient of your message uses. So ask the people your regularly send text messages to which carrier they use. Then, look up how you would reformat each of their phone number/carrier pairs as an e-mail address. Each wireless carrier has an e-mail-to-SMS gateway, with a special format to accept incoming e-mail messages and route them as text messages to cell phones.
Here are the formats for the four major U.S. carriers. In each of these, for "N" substitute the recipient's 10-digit phone number (include the area code -- but don't include hyphens or other space separating characters):
AT&T Wireless: N@txt.att.net
SprintPCS: N@messaging.sprintpcs.com
T-Mobile: N@tmomail.net
Verizon: N@vtext.com
MuTube has a more complete list of e-mail-to-SMS address formats, for carriers in North America and around the world.
Next, add entries to your e-mail address book (on your phone and on your computer or web-based e-mail service) for each person to whom you regularly send text messages, once you find out which carrier they're on.
Keep your messages brief. Text-message-length limits still apply, even though you're originating the message from e-mail. Carriers have different length limits for text messages, but Twitter's limit of 140 characters plays nice with most North American wireless carriers' texting limits.
If your message exceeds the allowed number of characters, the delivered text message may get truncated or split into multiple messages (perhaps resulting in multiple charges). Your recipients probably would not be pleased by this.
Write your entire text message in the subject line of your e-mail. Leave the message body blank -- and be sure to remove any automated signature text your e-mail program might supply.
Most e-mail-to-SMS gateways will transmit both the e-mail subject line and message body within the delivered text message. However, since you want to keep your message very short anyway, it's easier to just get in the habit of typing your text message in the subject line and deleting everything from the message body.
Before you send someone a text by e-mail, let them know you're going to try doing this, so they'll expect your message. Remember: The first time they receive a text that you send via e-mail, it won't be coming from your regular phone number. They may not recognize that it's from you, and might mistake your message for spam or an error and delete it without reading it.
Also note that when you send a text message via e-mail, if the recipient hits "reply," their reply message usually will get routed back to the e-mail account from which you sent it. It's smart to test this out, too.
Finally, remind your recipients to notify you if they switch to a different wireless carrier. People can port their phone number from one carrier to another -- but when they change carriers, the format for their e-mail-to-text address will change, so you'll want to update that information in your address book.
Getting set up to send text messages by e-mail involves a little bit of up-front work. And there are other drawbacks. Straightforward e-mail-to-e-mail messages don't always provide mobile push notifications, such as alert sounds, especially on feature phones. But the effort can be worth it if you text certain people frequently. It's useful if you want to be sure they get instant notification of your message wherever they are.
This strategy is especially useful to send text messages to groups -- such as parents of the kids in a hockey team, or a carpool group, or everyone in your immediate family. You could even use this strategy to publish text alerts to large audiences (such as a political candidate's supporters, or people who sign up to get local news alerts by text).
It's generally simpler to designate groups of e-mail addresses than groups of SMS recipients on your phone. Also, it's fairly private -- when you use e-mail to send text messages to a group, each recipient sees only your contact information, not the contact information for the other recipients.
If you must contact large groups of people via SMS, avoiding carrier charges for sending text messages can significantly improve the economics of group communication. And it's simpler and more reliable to send your group text alerts directly than to count on a third-party service like Twitter Fast Follow.
Friday, September 24, 2010
Blogging With Multi Media
Writing a research paper was difficult for me as I am not very good at writing. Not to mention that I don't even know how to write one. I looked up what I could on the different styles of writing before I began. Which just goes to show how much the internet is used for all things. I wrote about the definition of multimedia and how it is used in so many applications today. With Facebook and all the other social network sites becoming so popular, it has become a way of advertising and educating people of all walks of life and is definitely the way of the future.
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