Android Archives - Page 4 of 12

Boston Startup: Toursphere Your No Hassle App Tour Guide

Ed Gandia of Atlanta, nailed it on the head when talking about Toursphere’s Boston Tourguide app to the Boston Herald. Gandia said “In tours there’s always that annoying person in the crowd asking too many questions.

The other part of that is there’s always that person in the tour, besides the guide, that seems to know everything about the location, buddy either get a job as a tour guide or GTFO.

Those are just some of the problems that South Boston based startup, Toursphere, is solving. Toursphere is exactly what you’re thinking an app that takes you on a tour, in this case in Boston Massachusetts. Toursphere’s Boston Insider’s tour takes tourists on a tour of historic downtown Boston by some of Boston’s notable celebrities like Dicky Barrett of the Mighty Mighty Bosstones. Author Michael Patrick MacDonald has also gotten into the narration for Toursphere.

Tour apps are getting heavily criticized in most cities that use them. People seem to think they have no personality and are dull and mundane. That’s not necessarily the case with Toursphere.

While some appreciate a chummy tour guide who’s hitting you over the head with barely funny jokes and “charming” personality, others think that app guided tours are great.

One of the main benefits to an app guided tour is the ability to go at your own pace. I mean imagine taking a tour down Beacon street and deciding that you want to try some cute little coffee shop, or cupcake shop, and you want to do it now. The tour guide isn’t going to stop, however you can always resume the tour later.

Admittedly, Toursphere isn’t for everybody, however people in other cities are flocking to Toursphere and founder/CEO Rob Pyles. Pyles has created an electronic system where other companies can create their own tour guide apps easily. That system has already been implemented in Chicago, Miami, New Orleans and Washington DC as well as other major cities.

I travel a lot and at sporadic times. I also don’t like having to fork over $40 for a tour and then have to tip the guy. I’m more of a tour at my own pace kind of guy, so Toursphere would definitely work for me. Pyles has developed a monthly subscription rate for businesses that utilize the tour app, making it free for the user. Free is good. Boston is all about Free-Dom you know that Tea and all that, yeah you can hear more about that on the tour.

Linkage:

Find out more about Toursphere here

Source: Boston Herald

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Virginia Startup: SynkMonkey Keep Your Friends, & Your Plans In Sync INTERVIEW

We are all very aware of how difficult it is to keep plans in sync when it comes to life on the go running through a smartphone. Whether you’re a group of high school students, fraternity brothers or even golfing buddies, keeping your entire group “in sync” can be a challenge.

Now there’s of course Facebook and Facebook events but one of the huge disadvantages to Facebook is how hard it is to get distracted. I couldn’t tell you the number of times I needed an events address or to ping a friend for somewhere to go and then got sidetracked from my other notifications or even my wall. On the iPhone, iPad or Android phone this can be a wreck.

Enter Charlottesvile Virginia startup SyncMonkey. They combine three very key and important elements in events, activities and staying in sync. Those elements are calendars, mapping and friends. Using this app over traditional event apps keeps you in close contact with everyone that’s supposed to be there.

We got a chance to talk with Hunter Murchison of SyncMonkey about their excited startup, application and some big news, that they’re finally ready for Android. Check out the interview after the break and check out these great interviews, after this one.

Toronto Startup: Angel Tracking Gives Parents A Piece Of Mind INTERVIEW

AngelTracking is a new app startup out of Toronto Canada. The app is the latest from app development startup Berobo, who’ve already produced a lot of apps for Android, and Blackberry. This newest app, AngelTracking, allows parents to monitor their children’s smart phones in a variety of ways. Theres casual monitoring and then full blown, we’ll send you every text and email monitoring, which me hit a nerve with the privacy advocates.

AngelTracking offers real time stats, real time location and even “surveillance”. If you just want to keep up with your kids whereabouts because you’re concerned about their safety, AngelTracking may be for you. If you also want to see all their photos, messages and emails and get alerts as they travel throughout the city, AngelTracking can do that too.

While the verdict is still out on how well “privacy” nuts will adopt to this kind of surveillance tracking, we got a chance to interview the team behind the app. The interview is below the break:

Charlotte Startup: Rawporter Strikes Exclusive Deal For Libyan Coverage

Citizen Journalism startup Rawporter has reported some very exciting news themselves. The Charlotte based startup has announced that they’ve teamed up with freedom fighter and journalist Matthew VanDyke, who will provide 1st person perspective of the newly liberated Libya, for Rawporter users around the world to use for footage.

“Weʼre excited to participate in this incredibly unique opportunity, Matt is genuinely trying to make a
difference and weʼre extremely proud to assist in his efforts to bring more visibility to Libya while it
undergoes a massive transition,” said Kevin Davis, co-founder. “Weʼve been building a powerful
platform to help people share their stories and this is a great example of our vision being put into
practice.”

Rawporter will have a page (http://rawporter.com/pm/matthewvandyke) dedicated to Mr. VanDykeʼs videos and photos that anyone can view or purchase. Any proceeds from video and photo sales will be donated to a fund for the family of a journalist killed while reporting in a conflict zone. Additionally, Rawporter will be subsidizing a portion of Mr. VanDykeʼs expenses so that he can focus on his mission and worry less about logistics. Mr. VanDyke will attempt to make himself available to respond to assignments if possible but wants to reinforce that there will be significant limitations on his time.

“Citizen journalism played a key role in the Libyan civil war. The videos captured by Libyans in the early days of the revolution were broadcast through the internet and helped mobilize international support for the war. I believe that Rawporter is an innovative company that will facilitate the dissemination of Arab Spring footage from Libya, Syria, Egypt, Bahrain and elsewhere. Their technology will also assist in the broadcast of revolutionary footage from beyond the Arab world that is essential to attracting the attention of the international community to support struggles for freedom worldwide. My partnership with Rawporter is another opportunity for me to contribute to the cause of freedom, as well as another cause I care deeply about – journalism and freedom of the press. I hope that my participation can help expand Rawporterʼs market and give another way for the voices of the oppressed to be heard,” said Matt VanDyke.

Rawporter offers a unique app for both iOS and Android phones that allows users to participate in the action and supply “citizen journalistic” videos and photos for news outlets, media sites, blogs and more to use across the Rawporter network.

Adding this partnership with VanDyke solidifies Rawporter’s commitment to full fledged journalism in addition to their innovative platform.

Linkage:

For more information visit rawporter.com

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South Carolina Startup: 52 Apps Will Produce 52 Apps This Year

Here’s a story that’s just screaming “everywhere else”. Two students who actually hail from Arkansas, Brandon Lee and Chris Thibault are two ambitious young entrepreneurs who have built a startup app studio with a twist. Their startup is working out of an incubator at USC where Thibault was a student.

Their development company, called 52apps, is set out to produce 52 high quality apps over the next year. They hope to produce each app in just five days, presumably cheating the startup culture and taking weekends off, which is ok considering they are also students.

While the 52apps concept isn’t entirely new, the way they’ve set out to find app ideas has an interesting twist. The startup held almost a “pitch” event Friday evening. At the event they took app suggestions from all walks of life at an event with a stage, pitches and brainstorming.

Lee and Tthibault heard a ton of great app ideas at their “Idea Day” that was held immediately following a launch and kick off event for their University of South Carolina, Columbia, based company,

These two aren’t guys who just decided to become app developers in College. Both Lee and Thibault are BFFs from high school, who developed their first app while they were till in high school, with the ambitious idea to make math homework easier and more automated. They were able to achieve that as part of a goal to stop taking backpacks to school.

52apps is just one of 32 resident startup companies at a fairly new incubator at UNC.
“These are two- to three-month projects,” said Steve Leicht, who serves as 52apps’ chief executive and part of the management team put together by the incubator and Columbia venture capitalist Don Tomlin, said Tomthe statee.com. “These folks pull it off in a week.”

The duo has already put out their first iOS app under the 52apps umbrella. The app, called Tap Notes, sells for $2.99 in the iTunes app store and helps students, and business professionals take notes, and record conversations for the notes that can be accessed at specific points rather than having to listen to an entire conversation and then pulling what you need.

Lee and Thibault report that they’ve received over 30 great ideas so far and will start developing straight away.

Linkage:

Check out 52apps at 52apps.com

Source: thestate.com

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Auburn Alabama Startup: GolfJoust The Perfect FREE Father’s Day Gift

Auburn Alabama is known for their Auburn Tigers championship football team, Bo Jackson, Cam Netwon and being the alma mater of Apple CEO Tim Cook. It’s not known (yet) for it’s thriving startup scene.

There’s a startup in Auburn hoping to change that, and they are Verge Pipe Media. Verge Pipe Media is a media engagement, social, app developer who’s signature product Golf Joust is turning heads on the golf course because it’s easy, different and a lot more fun than just a boring old score keeping app.

The Verge Pipe team is headed by CEO and founder Don Crow and COO Meredith Singer. Crow had a seasoned career at America Online and has a firm background in media. Singer also has a background in media having worked in television and interactive media throughout their career. They came together last year to work on both Verge Pipe Media and their first major project GolfJoust.

Their office in downtown Auburn is screaming startup culture despite the fact that they’re just a smidgeon older than the 20 something sect of startup founders springing up across the country. That doesn’t matter though, when you walk in there’s of course orange and blue accents, but high top wooden desks, macs everywhere and the classic big ass table in the middle of the office for brainstorming sessions, meetings and lunch. It’s here next to Auburn’s oldest used bookstore and a stone throws away from campus that the magic happens.

You may be asking yourself just how magic can a golf app be. After all Golf Joust is their first signature product. Well Crow and Singer along with their developers have come up with a golf app that combines golf, scoring, daily deals, social networking and gamification into one complete package.

With Golf Joust you keep your score and as you play more rounds you move up through knighthood. You stay social within your golf group (typically of four) and also golfers near you and the entire network.

There’s challenges, badges (for good and bad) and even the ability to get deals from clubhouses and golf courses.

They’re even working on an element of Fantasy golf where you can play against your favorite PGA players at your favorite PGA courses. I really hate paraphrasing EA sports but Golf Joust really lets you get in the game.

Crow and Singer are constantly brainstorming more and more things that they can add to Golf Joust and they aren’t afraid to get out in the trenches. They regularly spend days out on the golf course promoting Golf Joust. Crow admits that while he expected easy adoption from golfers 18-25 their next biggest segment is in their early 40’s like himself.

Crow explained that many people love the game of golf but know their limits and levels so utilizing Golf Joust and then adding the ability to play against their favorite players makes it even more fun. But the social element makes it ripe for “crap talking” against golfing buddies. You can even give badges to your fellow knights when they hit the double bogey.

So while we would never advocate giving someone a free gift for Father’s Day, introducing your dad, or the golfer in your family to Golf Joust for Father’s day may get a thank you for many years to come.

Linkage:

Check out Golf Joust at their web page here

Here’s your download link for the Google Play Store

Here’s Golf Joust in the iTunes Store

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HTC One S Coming To Cincinnati Bell On June 25 For $299 With A $100 Mail-In Rebate

HTC’s One series will be branching to more and more carriers as the months pass, and Cincinnati Bell is the latest carrier to get one of these awesome devices. The One S will be hitting Cincinnati Bell on June 25 for $299 on a 2-year contract. However, a $100 mail-in rebate will be present with the purchase so it’s really only $200 spent. This is a pretty good deal for the One S, as it has some great specs for anyone looking for a high-end Android smartphone.

The HTC One S has a 4.3-inch qHD screen, a dual-core 1.5 GHz Qualcomm S4 processor, and an 8MP camera that shoots beautiful photos thanks to HTC’s ImageSense software present in Sense 4. The One S runs Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich so it will have the best looks and experience Android can offer right out of the box. Anyone in Cincinnati looking to pick one of these up? Let us know in the comments, and be sure to visit your local Cincinnati Bell store on June 25.

Toronto Startup: Kytephone Is A New Android UI Just For Kids

A Toronto startup, that was also a member of the winter Y-Combinator class, is hoping to lure parents who are equipping their children with Android powered smartphones. The startup is called Kytephone and it provides a new “launcher” or “UI” to Android phones that it is installed on, with parental controls, great kid friendly graphics and access to apps and functions that children of any age could use.

The best part about Kytephone is it’s customization ability. What Kytephone does, is it allows parents to lockdown certain things on their children’s Android phones. In some cases it could be for younger children so they don’t go off and dial 900 numbers by accident and in other cases it can be customized for tweens or teens to restrict access to features that could get them in trouble.

Kytephone allows the parent to customize access to just about every function of an Android phone. For instance Kytephone could be set up for a younger child, say 4-7 who could use the Kytephone UI to make calls to mom, grandma and brothers and sisters. They could also have access to the phones camera for taking pictures, and maybe a few games.

For tweens and teens, Kytephone allows the parents to set parameters for texting times, and even game playing times. When time is up, the child could be restricted to just texting mom and dad, and they may have to wait until the next day to finish that level on that game they played for an hour.

Kytephone has also found that some of their users are installing the Android app onto phones of senior citizens and elderly folks who may not want the bells and whistles of a full fledged Android smartphone.

There are all kinds of companies out there that are offering some sort of software, similar to Kytephone however it seems that in customization and design Kytephone may have a leg up. In fact one of the competitors, Play Safe, has very similar functionality to Kytephone because their founder, Beakit.com reports, was in the Y-Combinator class with Kytephone co-founder Renat Gautaullin.

Kytephone has since graduated out of Y-Combinator and moved back home to Canada where they are part of the RyersonDMZ Incubator.

Overall Kytephone seems a little more customizable and a lot more robust than competing products. It’s also not tied exclusively to a carrier which means down the road if a user got a new Android phone on a different carrier they could just download Kytephone again and reuse it.

Kytephone is available free in the Google Play store. Gautaullin reports that they are working on some premium features, like timers to close off certain types of apps like games, and other things in the pipeline.

Linkage:

Find out more about Kytephone here

Download it here in the Google Play Store

Source: Betakit

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Sony Xperia Ion Will Be Hitting AT&T On June 24 For Only $99

For AT&T subscribers looking to get the next taste of Sony’s Xperia brand, the Ion will be hitting the carrier on June 24 for only $99. We saw this phone for the first time a few months back and things haven’t changed much now with the official spec release. Sony is still in the business of making very sexy devices, but again, this Xperia will be crippled at launch due to its Android version of 2.3.7. That’s right folks, over 7 months after the release of Android 4.0 ICS, Sony is still releasing a phone with Gingerbread with no word on an ICS update. Sad.

The device’s specs, however, are pretty good as it will easily be able to compete with most high-end devices. It will be Playstation certified, runs on a 1.5 GHz dual-core CPU, and has a beautiful 4.6-inch screen. A more broad list of specs is below:

4.6″ (measured diagonally) 720p HD Reality Display with Mobile BRAVIA® Engine for unbeatable HD viewing
HD imaging excellence from Sony: 12MP camera with Exmor R™ for Mobile camera sensor, 1080p HD video recording, 1 MP 720p HD front-facing camera
Easy multi-screen connectivity with HDMI and DLNA®
1.5Ghz dual core processor
16GB internal memory with microSD™ expansion slot supports up to 32GB
PlayStation Certified for high quality mobile gaming

Of course, this device will have to compete with the likes of the HTC One X and the Samsung Galaxy S III, both which have better specs and ICS. The Xperia Ion does have that low, $99 price tag though, so at least Sony isn’t over-selling it. The Sony Xperia Ion will be available for $99 with a 2-year contract on June 24.

My Xbox Live App For Android Finally Released, Retains Windows Phone Metro UI

I for one have been mighty jealous when my Android device was left out the OS’s that got Microsoft’s My Xbox Live app. iOS and WP7 users have been enjoying this app for quite a while now, and today Android users finally can as well as Microsoft published the app to the Play Store earlier today. On top of its availability supporting most versions of Android, it is actually a really good experience throughout.

Android has a UI implemented into the SDK now that a lot of apps are starting to follow after, however, that didn’t stop Microsoft from keeping their Metro UI that we have seen in WP7 and Windows 8. The font has stayed the same as in WP7 as well, and the lower case letters and swiping UI is constant throughout the app. You can edit your avatar’s clothes, send messages, view your achievements and set beacons from your mobile device so your friends will know what games you’re looking to play when home. Overall, I am pretty pleased with the turnout of the official My Xbox Live app for Android, and anyone with an Xbox and an Android device should hit the download below and check it out.

Play Store link

Verizon Ushers In Share Everything Plans With Data Shared By All Smartphone Lines

Verizon made a lot of people’s nightmares come true today with their recent announcement of “share-everything” plans, which is specifically a change for most people in the data area of their plan. While some are still grandfathered into unlimited data, Verizon made a pretty big and unhappy splash a while back when their CFO claimed that unlimited data plans would soon be out the door for good for everyone.

This is probably the first and largest step towards doing so: shared data plans. Now with the company making all lines report their data usage to one big pile of GB’s, families will begin to limit their data throughout in the same way they have done previously with minutes and texts. $40 is the cost you will be paying up front every month for every smartphone on the plan, and every line will have unlimited minutes and text messages. Once you get that taken care of you will decide how much data you will want to pay for per month. While some may actually save money on these new plans, a lot of people, especially smartphone users who stream a lot of content (aka the entire Android community) will take a pretty big hit with these new plans. While Verizon hasn’t officially forced everyone over yet, we are definitely getting closer. Check out the pricing for the new plans below:

$50 for 1GB shared data
$60 for 2GB shared data
$70 for 4GB shared data
$80 for 6GB shared data
$90 for 8GB shared data
$100 for 10GB shared data

So is anyone excited for these plans? Maybe some. Let us know in the comments how you feel about Verizon’s new Share Everything Plans and if you will be getting on one anytime soon.

Andy Rubin Denies Claims Of Leaving Google For CloudCar Startup

Today Robert Scoble, a very tech-engaged icon who never shies away from a good rumor, posted an update on his Google+ that claimed that Andy Rubin, the founder of Android, would be leaving Google. Yes, Google I/O is just a few days away, and yes, Rubin leaving would mean a huge overhaul of I/O and likely result in an event no one would have predicted, but Scoble posted it nonetheless. Scoble claimed that Andy would be leaving to take charge of a startup called CloudCar that Rubin is closely tied to, but this has been proved to be false. Rubin did give CloudCar space in his startup incubator, but that is as far as the relationship goes at this point. Now, maybe Rubin wouldn’t have left before I/O, and it’s likely that such a parting would take place after Google’s key annual event, but still this news would have sent shock waves through the foundation of the Android/Google community.

However, posting his eleventh tweet since joining Twitter, today Rubin announced that he had “no plans to leave Google” after all. Rubin didn’t stop there though, no, his eleventh tweet had to have more substance–more pizazz. He also dropped the 900,000 number for Android activations per day, a number which is higher than the previous 850,000 that was revealed at MWC. This not only proves that Android’s growth is still climbing, but it also gives us an understanding of something else Rubin may have been trying to imply. Why would he leave Android now, at its peak. Well, maybe because of the famous “what goes up has got to come down” logic, but Apple has definitely proved that wrong thus far. Either way, Rubin is here to stay…for now, that is.

Exclusive: Hands On With Nyko PlayPad Pro

Nyko, the brand known for its third party controller for consols such as the XBox360, Play Station 3 and Wii is coming to Android with its PlayPad Pro which we got a hands on with at e3. From someone who doesn’t game any more, The PlayPad Pro won me over as a must have accessory to play games on my Android tablet. The controller, looks to be based upon the Xbox360 one pairs to your Android tablet running 3.0 and newer via Bluetooth.

Hot Or Not Yankee Group Says Kindle Fire Is Fizzling

The Amazon Kindle Fire was one of the hottest items last holiday season. The 7″ Android powered tablet sold like hotcakes leading into the 2011 holiday season. It was considered the only table to come close to challenging Apple’s iPad and as recent as two months ago it was revealed that the Amazon Kindle Fire sold more than all the other Android tablets combined.

Well the Yankee Group has released a new report called “2012 US Tablet Landscape: An All-Too-Familiar Story”. In that report it shows that Apple’s iPad line still commands 51% of the US tablet market.

What’s more disturbing though is that the Amazon Kindle Fire has “cooled with consumers” since it’s release in Q4 2011. The Yankee Group research suggests that everyone who wanted a Kindle Fire now has one. More importantly, consumers who said they wanted a Kindle Fire have gone down from 11% in 2011 to just 6% now.

PC World reports that in a recent ChangeWave Research poll found that of 2900 respondents 41% of Kindle Fire users were “very satisfied” with the device, which is down by 15% since ChangeWave’s earlier survey in February 2012.

IDC also echoed the trend by reporting that Amazon’s tablet shipments declined dramatically. In Q4 2011 Amazon Kindle Fire commanded 16.8% of the market with 4.8 million units sold. Now they are sitting with just 4% of the market share.

Amazon is expected to release a follow up to the Kindle Fire, and it may possibly be the familiar 10″ form factor. PC World suggests that the Kindle Fire 2 get here as fast as it can.

Source: PC World