Google Maps for Andriod has been bumped to version 4.7 which now includes Google’s Hotspot recommendation system. Hotspot allows you to discover new places based on findings and opinions from yourself and your friends. Below is how Hotspot will integrate into your Android device:
Rate places on the go — Now you can write and publish ratings and reviews from your mobile phone. We make it quick and easy with a new rating widget designed for rating places on the go. Install it from your homescreen by going to Menu > Add > Widgets > Rate Places. You can also post ratings and reviews directly from any Place page. So, when you polish off the crispiest carnitas taco you’ve ever eaten, you can pull out your Android phone to celebrate the event and give that taqueria the public love it deserves.
Get Google Maps 4.7 for Android 1.6 and above everywhere Maps is already available. Just search for Google Maps in Android Market (or tap here from your phone).
By the way, if you’re an iPhone user, good news: we’ll soon have a Places app that allows you to rate and get place recommendations as well. Alternatively, you can rate and get place recommendations from your phone browser (iPhone and Android) in the US. Just visit the Places tab at google.com as we roll out over the next day.
Opera has now brought their browser offering, Opera Mobile beta (version 10.1) to the Android Market. The “beta” tag points out that you may experience the occasional bug here and there, but hopefully no major issues are revealed with this build. The Opera Mobile beta browser for Android features tabbed browing, Opera’s speed dial, long-click menus, password support and Opera’s famous “Opera Turbo” data compression with allows for faster loading times.
Opera Mobile beta version 10.1 for Android devices is available in the Android Market at this link and via AppBrain right here. QR code below…
Give it a shot on your Android device and let us know how the Opera Mobile beta browsing experience is treating you.
Looks like another world-class mobile browser will be landing on the Android platform…Opera. It’ll be dropping on November 9, so be checking the Android Market to see when it shows up to be downloaded. If it’s anything like their desktop version, you Android users out there should be in for a treat. Tabbed browing and quick rendering sound good? Hit us up in the comments if you’re grabbing this as soon as it pops into the Market.
Rent.com launched their new BlackBerry app for those in apartment hunting mode and for renters as well. Pretty nifty as you can search for apartments, contact property owners and much more right from your BlackBerry device. More information below…
If you’re on the hunt for a new house, apartment or just some space to rent or buy then the perfect BlackBerry app for you is now available in BlackBerry App World. Rent.com has come up with a great application with a ton of features built into it. Let’s look at the description:
The free, user-friendly app lets users search for apartments, call or e-mail property owners and manage their favorite listings, right from their mobile phones. The app automatically syncs with each user’s Rent.com account and apartment-hunters can even attach their own photos and notes to listings to help them remember the details of a property after they visit. Plus, once you find the apartment of your dreams through Rent.com, you can report your lease through the app in order to claim your $100 Visa debit rewards card.
Pretty cool app for those on the go and possibly rushing to find a place. It’s never really an easy task so anything that helps with that process is just fine in my books.
Click Here To Download The Rent.com App from BlackBerry App World.
Stupendous news for you mobile smartphone users out there…Google Instant is now available for many devices! Woot! Instant Search enables instantaneous results as you type (not just predictive text). It’s available for most iOS and Android devices. More details from Google below:
The power of Google Instant, now in your pocket
Thursday, November 4, 2010 | 1:01 PM
(Cross-posted on the Official Google Blog.)
Google Instant makes search faster by displaying not just predictions but actual search results as you type. This saves valuable time on a desktop browser, but wouldn’t it be great to have Google Instant on mobile devices, where each keystroke and page load is much slower and you frequently have just a moment to find the information you need?
In September we announced that we were working to bring Google Instant to mobile, and today we’re making a beta version available to most iPhone and Android devices in the U.S. To try it out, go to google.com in your phone’s browser and tap the Google Instant “Turn on” link beneath the search box (if you don’t see the “Turn on” link, try waiting a moment and then refresh the page).
Like the desktop version of Google Instant, when you type on your mobile device you’ll see predictions of what you might be searching for. If you type [anse], for example, you should see [ansel adams] along with other predictions. Results for the first prediction appear automatically, and tapping on the other predictions will display those results. Pressing the enter key or the search button skips the predictions and will display results for exactly what you’ve typed. Check out our demo video:
With Google Instant on mobile, we’re pushing the limits of mobile browsers and wireless networks. You will probably notice a big improvement in speed when you search thanks to a new AJAX and HTML5 implementation for mobile that dynamically updates the page with new results and eliminates the need to load a new page for each query.
Google Instant for mobile works best on 3G and WiFi networks, but since the quality of any wireless connection can fluctuate, we’ve made it easy to enable or disable Google Instant without ever leaving the page. Just tap the “Turn on” or “Turn off” link.
We hope you’ll enjoy using Google Instant for mobile as much as we enjoyed making it. It’s currently available for Android 2.2 (“Froyo”) devices and iPhones and iPods running iOS 4 in the U.S. in English. We’re working to support additional countries and languages and more devices in the coming months, so stay tuned.
Check out the video of Google Instant in action below and let us know if you’ve fired it up and enjoying it.
Looks like Google has updated their mobile interface to include app searches for both iPhone and Android. Pretty nifty, eh? This will be great in allowing users to take a detour around the somewhat slow searching times encountered in the App Store and Android Market.
Give it a go and let us know how you like it. Have a great Wednesday from everyone here at The Sauce Report.
Good news for you Android users out there…Opera Mobile for Android devices will be released within a month. Available for all Android versions, Opera Mobile also includes two new features. The new features are Hardware Acceleration and Pinch to zoom. This is without a doubt the next generation of mobile browsing. What is Hardware Acceleration?
Hardware Acceleration allows Opera Mobile to run at lightning speed. Navigating a page will be faster than ever, and the improvements to the UI will be momentous. All this is made possible by taking full advantage of the power available on your phone. Hardware Acceleration allows us to do amazing things like full pinch to zoom for all sites. It also allows us to have a more fluid interaction with the phone, improving your browser experience! What is Pinch to Zoom?
The current versions of Opera Mobile and Opera Mini have two levels of zoom. One for the full page width and one for zooming in to read the text. With Pinch to Zoom you will be able to choose your own level of zoom just like in Opera Desktop. Text will now be rendered at a per character level and zooming in will be a fluid zoom from page-width down to the text you want to focus on.
It’s always nice to have options for your browsing experience on Android and I’m sure Opera will bring the goods to Android. I primarily use the stock Android browser on my Droid X but I’ll be sure to put Opera Mobile through the paces and report back with my findings. Opera Mobile for Android will be available in the Market and at m.opera.com within a month.
The news was announced via Up North Web which is Opera’s software global press day. You can check it out here.
I’ve had my Droid X for about 3 weeks (which I love) but my dilemma is finding a quality web browser that suits my needs. Do I stick with the stock browser? Dolphin HD? Skyfire? Fennec? Opera? There are many choices in The Market and your decision depends on how you’d like to implement your browser. Do you like flash video? Skyfire may be for you plus it has very fast rendering times in benchmark tests. Dolphin HD is a quality browser due to the extensive amount of plug-ins that can enhance your browsing experience. Let’s face it: The Android browser isn’t perfect. While performance is improving with each update (Android 2.2, in particular, boosted the speed of the browser with a new Javascript engine), it’s a fairly bare-bones browser compared with some of the others available in the Android Market.
Fennec is still pretty much in developmental stages but its potential for swapping data with the Firefox desktop browser already places it towards the head of the class. I believe it comes in at a staggered 11mb so and lags at times. This browser is definitely not for everyone. Not a big fan of bloatware here. Fennec will sync your bookmarks, history, tabs and passwords with the Firefox browser. Big win right there!!!
Opera Mini is a tabbed browser that makes the best of low-bandwidth or poor data-coverage situations. Using server-side compression, Opera strips out all the Web page junk your mobile device doesn’t need, while still retaining as much of the page’s appearance as is practical. The result is a good-looking page that loads quickly, even in low-signal areas. This happens without making your phone do the heavy work, so your phone doesn’t slow down at all.
Much more information can be seen here to include mobile browser speed tests.
Opera has announced a small update to their mobile browser with version 5.1 on board. The latest version is optimized for phones with limited memory. Opera offers some examples, including the Nokia 5130 XpressMusic, Nokia 6300, and Nokia 2700. It’s also optimized for smaller screen sizes for devices such as the Sony Ericsson K550i and W810i. Opera Mini compresses data by up to 90 percent to help avoid ‘out of memory’ errors. The software is available from Opera at this link.
Give us a shoutout in the comments and let us know if you see any improvements on speed, page rendering, etc.
The folks over at YouTube announced they have launched a HTML-5 friendly website for your video viewing pleasure. YouTube’s refreshed mobile web site, m.youtube.com, now offers faster performance and an improved touch-friendly user interface. Many of the popular elements of the full YouTube website are now available on the mobile site, including search suggestions, support for like/dislike buttons, and the ability to create playlists.
Give it a shot and let us know in the comments how well it works on your mobile device. Have a great Thursday folks from Kelly, Philip and yours truly at TSR.
