Our mobile phones have become modern-day Swiss Army knives. An Android phone is a handheld computer, a music player, a notepad, a GPS navigation unit and more, all rolled into one sleek device that fits in your pocket. Today’s phones do so many things for us that sometimes we don’t even think about how we do them.
Even though our phones do all these new things, the most natural way of interacting with a phone remains what it always has been: speaking. And to that end, we’re pleased to introduce Voice Actions for Android. Voice Actions are a series of spoken commands that let you control your phone using your voice. Call businesses and contacts, send texts and email, listen to music, browse the web, and complete common tasks, all just by speaking into your phone.
To use Voice Actions, tap the microphone button on the Google search box on your home screen, or press down for a few seconds on the physical search button on your phone to activate the “Speak Now” screen. Let Mike LeBeau, the lead engineer for Voice Actions, show you in this video.
Would you like to test drive the latest version of Google’s Android OS without buying a new mobile device? Here’s how you can run Android on your PC for free with the Android SDK Emulator.
Android is the latest mobile OS to take the world by storm, but everyone doesn’t have access to the latest mobile devices. Thankfully, there’s an easy way to run Android on your Windows, Mac, or Linux computer. Google provides an Android emulator with their SDK, which is designed to let developers test their apps on Android before running them on handsets. We can use this to test drive Android on our computer, here’s how to do it.
Getting Started
The Android Emulator requires Java to run, so if you don’t already have Java installed on your computer, download it from the link below and install as normal.
Note: When installing Java, make sure not to install any crapware it tries to sneak in like the worthless Yahoo toolbar.
If Dell’s vision of a mainstream Android device for 2011 ends up materializing, we’re not sure we even need a high end anymore. Okay, that’s not true — we’ll obviously be power freaks to the bitter end — but the so-called “Flash” that we’ve just caught wind of (no relation to the Adobe product of the same name, as far as we can tell) looks to be a lovely piece of kit. Dell plans to fashion this thing out of a slice of “curved glass,” topping out at 11mm thick with a 3.5-inch WVGA LCD, 850 / 1900 / 2100MHz HSPA topping out at 14.4Mbps down and 5.6Mbps “or better” on the upstream, a 5 megapixel autofocus cam with image stabilization and smile / blink detection, 512MB of RAM and ROM with microSD expansion up to 64GB (Dell’s clearly assuming there’ll be 64GB microSD cards by next year), WiFi, TV-out, 3.5mm headphone jack, Bluetooth 3.0, and a Qualcomm MSM7230 core humming along at 800MHz.
As you might recall, the MSM7230 is part of Qualcomm’s next generation lineup of midrange smartphone cores, a series that looks to bring Snapdragon-class performance to the masses with HD video out capability and — hopefully, anyway — the performance you’ll need to make Flash 10.1 fly. Dell plans to load this bad boy with Android Froyo, presumably with the same kind of custom skin that it’ll start pushing with the Streak series this year; we’re seeing references to a so-called “Stage UI,” and we think that’s what it is. This one’s mentioned for a first quarter ’11 release on AT&T and globally, though it’s not clear whether it’ll be AT&T-branded or simply be offered as an unlocked device compatible with AT&T’s 3G bands — but either way, you can count us in. Don’t change a thing, Dell.
We’ve been rolling out new versions of Google Maps for mobile at a fast pace lately, and the first Google Maps for BlackBerry update of 2010 is a big one. For version 4.0, we’ve added new features to help you find places faster, post from those places with Google Buzz, star them for quick access, and more.
Search by voice
For starters, we’ve added Search by voice to all BlackBerry devices to save your overworked thumbs. Simply press and hold the green “call” button, speak your search, and see your results quickly appear without typing a single letter. Try it now for any search, like the name of my favorite hometown pizza place, “Punch Pizza in Minneapolis.” You can also search by voice for addresses like “802 Washington Avenue Southeast” or search for other another pizza place to try by speaking, “pizza restaurants.” Currently supported languages include multiple English accents and Mandarin Chinese.
Google has made investments in wireless networks, is testing gigabit-to-the-home technology, and is selling 60,000 Android smartphones a day — yet has no plans to compete with network operators, CEO Eric Schmidt told attendees at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on Tuesday.
“Google benefits from the adoption of broadband everywhere, in mobile networks and in fixed networks,” Schmidt said.
But its investment in WiMax network infrastructure, and its trials of FTTH (fiber-to-the-home) that can deliver a gigabit per second to each household, are not a sign that it wants to become a network operator itself, he said.
One of the most interesting things about the unveiling of the new Windows Phone 7 platform by Microsoft at the World Mobile Conference was the announcement that AT&T will be Microsoft’s “premier partner” in the United States. As much flack as AT&T takes from customers and media, it is still the “chosen one” for premier smartphone platforms.
Starting today, Nexus One users will begin to receive an over-the-air software update on their phones. This update provides some great new features, and fixes a few problems that some users might have experienced, including:
Google Goggles: this mobile application will now be available directly on your device by launching it from your All Apps menu. Just use your Nexus One camera to start searching the web
Google Maps: the Maps application with be updated to a new version, Google Maps 3.4, which will include:
Starred items synchronized with maps.google.com – access your favorite places from your phone or computer
Search suggestions from your personal maps.google.com history – makes it easy to search for places you’ve searched for before
Night mode in Google Maps Navigation – automatically changes your screen at night for easier viewing and driving
Pinch-to-zoom functionality: devices will now include a new pinch-to-zoom mechanism in the phone’s Browser, Gallery and Maps applications
3G connectivity: we will provide a general fix to help improve 3G connectivity on some Nexus One phones
In order to access the update, you will receive a message on your phone’s notification bar. Just download the update, wait for it to install, and you should be all set. This update will be rolled out gradually to phones – and most users might not receive the notification until the end of the week. We hope you enjoy these new features and look forward to your feedback.
One of the most innovative features of Google’s new Nexus One is the built-in voice recognition. But there’s one major limitation that Reuters discovered while putting the smartphone through its paces: the phone is a bit of a prig. Continue reading »
Jefferies & Company analyst Katherine Egbert told her clients last night that Redmond is getting ready to launch a phone based on Windows Mobile 7. “Our recent industry checks indicate Microsoft will be debuting its own phone sometime in the next two months,” Egbert said. “We expect the new phone to debut soon, at either the Feb 15-18 Mobile World Congress conference in Barcelona Spain, or possibly at CTIA in Las Vegas one month later.”
