Srcasm

In this day and age of mobile phone, PDAs, Flip Video cams and EyeFi cards, everyone and their mother is connected to the world wide web (even my mother texts now…  guilt in multiple forms.)  This also means that location-based services are even easier to work with today than they were only a year ago.

Tools like Brightkite and Loopt allow a user to both tell everyone where they’re at and pinpoint people and places close by.  Now I’m happy to see sites moving to a more granular location system.

When I searched for a car two years ago, I went onto Cars.com and searched for cars in my area.  This meant “within 10, 20 and 30 miles” were my options.  This is fine when searching for something in the area, but what about if I want to know the closest restaurant to eat at while downtown at New Work City?  This is where granularity comes in.

GoMobo.com allows restaurants to setup online ordering for their customers directly from their mobile phones or the web.  While I believe this is a fantastic idea (especially for my late-night Wawa trips), something they’ve taken one step further is how they show restaurants near you.  It’s no longer large areas around a point, I can go as close as .25 miles away from my location.

While up at NWC, I could see restaurants that are actually within walking distance, not those that I’d spend an arm and a leg taking a cab to.  I could see places to grab some grub that would deliver, not those that I had to go schlep over and pick stuff up at.  This is superb on a number of fronts but in my mind it’s the way of the future. 

Now that you’ve found me to the square meter (GPS), tell me what’s near me to the square block.  Now, who wants to order from Cafe Español?

It’s not very often that I become envious of my friends with iPhones.  I mean, sure it’s slick, has the Apple name on it and works really well but it’s not all it’s cracked up to be (no pun intended for you cracked LCD users).  For me, the full, Qwerty, real keyboard was important.

In my line of work I send a lot of emails.  I also text quite a bit.  When it comes to writing paragraphs of information or a blog entry, a real keyboard helps me to both type faster and more accurately.  With the onscreen keyboard of the iPhone, I would need to constantly look at it to make sure my fingers are where they’re supposed to be.

Today however, I’m excited for those iPhone friends/fiends that are now using the Google Voice Search for the iPhone.  From what I’ve seen and heard the interface is simple to use, works really well and the best part — The voice recognition is done on the phone so it’s much faster than most traditional voice recognition products (TellMe and Vlingo come to mind).

Fret not my Google Android friends, I have two things to let you know:

1. Since Google Android is made by Google, I’m sure that the G1 and Android will have integrated voice search in the near future.  It only makes sense to add this and an onscreen keyboard to the device (please?).
2. You can search with your voice for certain things by using a tool like TellMe.  Call 800-555-TELL and you can say any number of things that you’d like (including movie times, weather and directions).  It’s kind of cool — Just not as cool as an integrated G1 app.  Go figure.

One can only hope that Google will come to their senses and start rolling out software for the Android OS when they do others.  I mean, it is their baby!

It sounds dirty, I know but it’s really not — It’s amazingly dirty and helpful at the same time.

Graham Stewart over at Graha.ms designed the first “tether” app for the G1 and the Android OS.  Better than that, it’s cross-platform compatible so Windows lovers, Mac heads and Linux gurus can all browse the web through their phones.

I say “tether” because it uses SOCKS proxying right now but I’m sure he won’t let us down and he’ll set it up for a full NAT app that allows all applications to use it to get out to that vast world wide web.

I don’t want to re-post his directions because when he goes ahead and makes the application even better, I’d have to update this blog (and we all know how consistently I do that) but shoot over to his page, download the app and let me know how it works for you.

Note: One thing to do in Firefox — Enable SOCKS DNS look ups by typing about:config into your address bar and changing network.proxy.socks_remote_dns to TRUE by right clicking and choosing Toggle.  You should be all set.  Enjoy!

These are a few more of the good, the bad and the ugly that I’ve found with the G1 on my quest for finding the perfect phone.

• The keyboard feels a little wobbly if you’re pressing against it.  I know, you’re not supposed to do that but still, I have a fear it’ll snap off.  It should be okay as I have the $6/month TMobile insurance if it does.
• Only one Google account can be logged in at one time.  This can be a pain as I use 3 separate accounts at any given time.  Personal, webby goodness and consulting.  For now, I have to check the other two account either via IMAP or the mobile Google site.
• The camera does not offer any options while snapping pictures.  While the auto-focus works well, there is no digital zoom, white-balance settings or themes to apply to photos.
• Strangely enough, while on a phone call, the phone can and will timeout and lock the display.  While it does not hurt the call, it does force me to have to unlock the phone when I get off the phone call.  It’s a bit strange.
• In addition, while on a call, the screen times out and goes black.  To bring it back on, you need to press a button.  A nice addition might be to recognize if the angle of the phone changes dramatically it turns back on.  I believe the iPhone does it already.
• Updating applications is as simple as one click (not to be sued by Amazon’s 1-Click) but there does not seem to be a global updater.  On a Mac or a PC, there is an updater that lets you know that new applications/fixes are available.  I haven’t seen this automatically pop up yet.
• While streaming a video from http://6abctogo.com, I turned the phone on it’s side and the video flipped orientation.  This is a nice feature that the iPhone does in most applications that would be a nice addition to the rest of the Android OS.
• The integration with Google Talk is incredible.  When I am signed on with the G1 and my desktop and receive an IM, I get alerted on both devices.  If I read it on my desktop, it gets marked as read on the phone and the alert disappears.
• Google has said that they will be releasing an Input Method Framework so that an on-screen keyboard can be released early next year.
• Google Street View on the G1 is one of the slickest implementations I’ve seen on any device.  Using the compass and the accelerometer, you can walk around in circles and see what you would see on the street.  While this is not amazingly helpful when it comes to navigating, it is very cool to show your friends.

If you’ve known me for more than about, oh 5 minutes, you’ll know that I’m always connected to the internet.  I live, breath and eat bits (not my cat) and bytes for breakfast and I love to chew on the latest and greatest Web 2.0 awesome-taffy that I find every day.  That’s why I was so excited when I found the greatest Twitter app for Blackberry (or Nokia, Sony Ericsson or any Java-capable mobile device) AND a great Twitter desktop app too boot.

Twibble (by spider labs GmbH in Hamburg, Germany) brings simplicity, convenience, power and control all into one tiny mobile application.  Not only does it work properly (auto updates, vibrate/alert on direct messages and @replies) but it also provides some pretty awesome additional features that I haven’t seen in the mobile Twitter application realm (at least not for Blackberry):
 

1. Send a tweet via your data plan or SMS! — Why is this important?  Well, sending a tweet takes data.  For many people, they don’t have unlimited data plans so being able to send via SMS could save some moolah.
2. GPS/Location awareness — Twibble can not only update your status or your location based on your GPS coordiantes but it also has built in support to map where your Twitter friends are.  Simple click on a user and choose to locate them on a map and off it goes.
3. Auto-refresh — This feature sounds simple but I have yet to find a Blackberry Twitter app that properly refreshed both tweets, DMs and @replies automatically in the background.
4. Hotkey support — While using Twibble, you could navigate the large and comprehensive menu structure or you could use some of their hot keys.  Press 2 or “R” and you’ll form an @reply to the person, 3 or “D” will direct message the current user you’re highlighting and 1 or “T” starts a brand new tweet (which can then be sent via SMS or data)!
5. Data savings — Not only does Twibble help to save data by Tweeting via SMS, it also only retrieves the latest tweets.  Some applications refresh all three timelines (making 3 API calls) to get your DMs, @replies and latest updates.  Twibble doesn’t.
6. Integrated twitpic support — While posting a tweet, you can select an image off of your phone and upload/refrence it automatically in your tweet.  Nice for the on-the-go web reporter.

There are a bunch of other neat features that Twibble mobile provides and you can check them out on the product page.  What I was surprised to learn was that Twibble also made a desktop Adobe AIR client as well.  This client is cleanly designed, supports multiple accounts and follows some of the same shortcuts and features that Twibble mobile has.  This makes the transition from desktop easy and fun.

Personally, I would pay for this app (maybe $10-$20) becuase it’s that good.  What do you think of Twibble?  What are some other clients that you have used?