Don’t forget to submit your ADC2 apps by midnight PST on Monday, August 31! Remember that this is Pacific time in the US (GMT – 7) so be sure to convert the deadline into your local timezone.
Also, even if you’ve already submitted your apps, please double check and make sure that your app is in the “Submitted” state in the UI! If it says “Unsubmitted”, it will NOT be considered as an entry.
A company called FlyScreen has produced an application called FlyDroid that takes your phone’s sleep/lock screen and uses it as a portal to access the mobile web with various widgets and syndicated content. Check out what I mean in this video demo from one of the company’s founders:
You can even tweet directly from your lock screen and sharing/social features are coming soon! The app is currently in alpha but MobileCrunch has hooked up with the company to offer 1,000 free copies of the app – visit flydroid.com/fly/ and type in your email address with the code “techcrunch” and maybe there are still few copies left.
The app only works on phones using Android 1.5 and while its designed with HTC phones in mind it will work, albeit less smoothly, on the Samsung Galaxy. The company has posted a whole bunch of video demos showing off the various features of FlyDroid which I’ve embedded below:
Pretty awesome idea if you ask me. Simple… but awesome. It takes an otherwise completely useless screen and takes advantage of its frequent presence to do something useful, helpful, enjoyable, entertaining or whatever else you’re wanting. We’re going to give this a whirl… for those lucky enough to get one of those alpha invites, let us know how you like the app!
FlyDroid is based in Central Israel and first launched in 2008 at the TechCrunch 50 event in San Francisco.
O2 UK have finally added the long awaited Samsung Galaxy I7500 Android phone to their online store. The handset is available on a number of different pricing tariffs including 18 to 24 month network contracts.
The Samsung Galaxy features a 3.2-inch AMOLED touchscreen display, a 5 mega-pixel camera, and upto 40GB of storage (8GB internal with microSD Card support for upto 32GB.
The Samsung Galaxy I7500 is available free on an 18 month package priced £44.05 a month with 1200 free minutes, and 1000 texts.
[via shop.o2.co.uk]
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Samsung Galaxy I7500 Now Available FREE From O2 UK |
Samsung Galaxy O2 Android Phone: Samsung Galaxy
The Android buzzword lately seems to be “Augmented Reality” and the latest addition to the pack is an Augmented Traffic View app that allows you to view live street traffic on roads ahead, helping you decide whether or not to take an alternate route based on congestion.
The application is for Android users in Toronto and it utilizes 250 geo-tagged traffic cameras in Ontario. Here is a video of the application in action:
The concept is good but it seems much too complex in practice. And considering that texting while driving is a huge no-no, trying to locate the upcoming street views and using this app for its purpose seems like an intense distraction while driving that will ironically cause more traffic.
If this principle was embedded into more polished GPS turn-by-turn apps like Telenav I could see it working brilliantly. It could warn you of congested traffic and suggest alternate routes as it already does, but pop up a street view before you decide to recalculate. As a standalone app it has a lot of work to do.
That being said, you can’t knock the developers for putting together an app with a unique concept. Thhttp://phandroid.com/wp-admin/post-new.phpis is a first and hopefully the developers will continually improve and refine the idea and experience. And of course, for this to be widely used and effective, we would need to have other regions offering so many traffic cameras that are geo-tagged with API’s and whatnot.
The developers behind the application had this to say about the app via the YouTube description:
Sneak Peak at Toronto’s first Augmented Reality Application running on HTC Magic on Rogers (or any Android phone). See the Toronto/Ontario Traffic Cameras in a unique and exciting manner. Software supports an automated predictive tracking mode – see traffic cameras in the direction you are heading, well in advance, and real-time traffic maps.
Supports automated proximity Alerts (speed traps, red light cameras from your favourite POI source including PhantomAlert).
Ability to load your own custom POIs for viewing in the Augmented Reality mode!
Several other “hidden” features including the ability to see real-estate listings where you in the Augmented Reality mode (Alpha feature).Search the Android Marketplace in early August for “Augmented Traffic Views” to download to your Android phone, worldwide and it will be FREE!
Right now Augmented Reality apps are a novelty of sorts, but in the next year or two they will become much more practical as technology catches up to the ideas. It’s wonderful that Android and other open source initiatives allow developers to dream up the next big thing and produce it for the masses!
With the Motorola Android Event less than 2 weeks away, chances are the mysterious Motorola device that just passed through the FCC with T-Mobile bands, 3G, Wi-Fi and other distinguishable similarities is the T-Mobile destined Motorola Morrison!
If the phone making the rounds really is the Morrison, it comes with Model number T56KV1. We’re pretty sure this thing will be officially announced on September 10th and as of now the rumored launch date is October 21st. The timing seems spot on and we hope the rest is clockwork.
