Flash player 10 coming to Android in October

One of the many glaring omissions still not featured on the iPhone is support for Flash. Rumors keep circulating that Flash will be coming to the iPhone, but that has failed to happen and unless something big changes this isn’t the year of flash for iPhone fans.

Adobe has announced it will be released the beta version of Flash Player 10 for smartphones in October. The player will be offered for Android, Symbian, Windows mobile, and webOS, notice iPhone OS is missing.

Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen said that ARM, NVIDIA, Broadcom, Intel, TI, and Quallcomm are all optimizing the player for their products right now. Narayen said, “Multiple partners have already received early version of this release and we expect to release a Beta version for developers.”

[via MobileBurn]

Search by voice and transit directions come to Google Maps on Android

Today we're releasing an upgrade to Google Maps for Android-powered phones. We've added a whole host of new features and fixed a few issues with Google Latitude.

You can now search Google Maps for Android using your voice, making it easier than ever to look up places while on the go. Whether you're searching for an address, a business, or nearby windsurfing spots, just speak your query and Google Maps will find it. Our voice recognition engine currently understands English in American, Australian, and British accents. After you search, you'll see a map of places. To help you decide where to go, we've improved our business listings to include content such as store hours, prices, ratings, and reviews.

We also added transit and walking directions to Google Maps for Android. You can now get directions using public transportation in over 250 cities, including New York City and San Francisco. If you're looking for the best route on foot, use walking directions to take advantage of pedestrian-only pathways and to avoid one-way restrictions - just in time for summer!

Google Maps for Android includes some big improvements to Google Latitude. We fixed an issue that caused background location updates to periodically stop for some of you. Now, once you select "Detect your location" from the Latitude privacy menu, your location will continue to update as long as your phone is on.

You may also notice a new experimental feature called Updates that lets you communicate with friends and post messages. Start Latitude and click the "Updates" tab to shout out updates at friends when they're at interesting locations, start a conversation when you're at your favorite restaurant, or just add more details to your Latitude location for your friends to see. Your friends will also need to download this new version of Google Maps for Android in order to use this experimental Updates feature -- they will not get your messages otherwise.

Unlike past Android software updates for the T-Mobile G1 or HTC Magic, the new Google Maps release won't be automatically pushed to your phone over the next few days. Instead, the upgrade is available for download in the Android Market. Just search for "Google Maps" and install today.

By Ole CaveLie and Chandan Pitta, Software Engineers

Glympse time-controlled GPS tracking hits Android [Video]

Fresh to the Android Market and set to take on Google’s Latitude is Glympse, another way of sharing your location with friends, colleagues and family. Glympse attempts to tackle the problem of ongoing privacy present in many location-based apps; that is, you may want to let someone know where you are for a certain period, but not forever.

Generally, location-sharing software works in one of two ways: either a one-off alert, which usually sends out a set of GPS coordinates either by SMS or email, or an ongoing connection as in Google Latitude. While Latitude does allow for privacy settings, such as turning on and off tracking on a per-contact basis, it’s something the user needs to remember to switch.

What Glympse offers, instead, is a range of time-controlled tracking invitations. These can run from a single instant, through minutes and several hours. No special software is required by the recipient; instead they merely receive a link which takes them to a web-based map; the sender can also prematurely end or extend the invite. The Glympse app is currently available through the Android Market as a free download, but the company is planning Windows Mobile, iPhone and BlackBerry versions. More details at their FAQ here.

[Thanks notxel21!]

Dell demo Android OS 1.5 Cupcake on Mini 10v netbook [Video]

Android OS 1.5 Cupcake hasn’t even had its official release onto G1 handsets in the US, but that hasn’t stopped Dell from experimenting with the open-source OS on their latest netbook. The Dell Inspiron Mini 10v packs the usual mixture of an Intel Atom N270 processor, 1GB of RAM and a 120GB hard-drive, but Dell normally fit it with Windows XP Home.

In this video demo, however, Dell’s Doug Anson shows the Mini 10v running three different platforms, including Cupcake. There’s little detail, sadly, but he does say that it’s a “small, snappy” OS and that it “runs fairly nicely”.

Sadly Anson also reiterates that Dell have no “announced product plans with the Android environment”, but the fact that they’re testing it and with seemingly decent results does bode well for the future. The Inspiron Mini 10v retails from $299 in the US, and is available to order now.

The Iterative Web App - Gmail for Mobile Gets Labels

Monday, May 18, 2009 11:32 AM

On April 7th, we announced a new version of Gmail for mobile for iPhone and Android-powered devices. Among the improvements was a complete redesign of the web application's underlying code which allows us to more rapidly develop and release new features that users have been asking for, as explained in our first post. We'd like to introduce The Iterative Webapp, a series where we will continue to release features for Gmail for mobile. Today: Labels. --Shyam Sheth, Product Manager, Google Mobile.

You asked for it, and we listened. We've added labels to Gmail for mobile on Android-powered devices and the iPhone. Labels in Gmail allow you to use color-coded tags to manage your inbox.



To label an email, select a message then tap 'Label as..." from the drop-down menu on the Floaty Bar. In the pop-up menu, select the label(s) you would like to use and tap 'Apply'. Please note, you can add and remove existing labels to your emails in Gmail for mobile, but labels can only be created, renamed and deleted in the desktop version.

To label your emails on the go, point your mobile browser to gmail.com on your iPhone or Android-powered device. To make it easy to check your Gmail, try creating a home screen link. The new Gmail for mobile supports iPhone/iPod Touch OS 2.2.1 or above, as well as Android-powered devices, and is available for US English only.

Posted by Heaven Kim, Product Marketing Manager, Google Mobile

Do more with Google Latitude!

When we launched Google Latitude a couple of months ago, we were flooded with feature suggestions. One frequent request was to allow you to share your location with even more people and not just your Latitude friends. Today, we're launching two applications that do just that!

• Google public location badge lets you publish your Latitude location on your public website or blog. You can just embed the standard badge -- like this or you can use the KML or JSON feeds directly. Read more about the badge on our Blogger Buzz. When you enable this application, your location will be shared publicly and you will not be able to control who can or cannot see it. For your privacy, you may choose to share your best available location, share only your city-level location, or simply never enable the badge.

• Google Talk location status (beta) lets you share your Latitude location with all your Gmail chat and Google Talk contacts. It will automatically update your status message to your current city as you move, and anyone who can chat with you will be able to see this location status. Of course, you can easily change back to your custom status message at any time.

Visit google.com/latitude/apps to enable these applications. They are two separate apps, so you can select which one(s) you'd like to use and customize exactly how you'd like to share your Latitude location. You must be an existing Google Latitude user; if you're not already, you can sign up here!

Please note that we take your privacy very seriously, and your location will not be shared with any application without your consent. Both apps adhere to the same terms and conditions -- you must explicitly opt in to the application and of course, you can always disable an app by going back to the app's page.

These applications are only available in the US for now, but they'll soon be ready for all the same languages and countries that Google Latitude supports.

Hope you enjoy these, and stay tuned for more Latitude goodies. Also, we love feedback, so please tell us what you think in our Help Forum or suggest ideas for apps on our Product Ideas page (be sure to include "Latitude" so we can search for them!).

Posted by Rohan Seth, Software Engineer, Google Mobile

Android 1.5 ‘Cupcake’ released

Android Community is hearing from multiple T-Mobile G1 users that Android 1.5 “Cupcake” is being pushed out as an OTA upgrade. The system update, which was released officially to developers earlier this week, will be rolled out to handsets throughout May, according to one report.

Cupcake 1.5 brings with it an on-screen QWERTY keyboard, necessary for the new breed of Android devices which lack hardware keyboards, such as the HTC Magic and Samsung I7500 (which will have the new version out of the box). Other improvements include direct photo and video uploads to Picasa and YouTube, respectively, together with various behind-the-scenes improvements such as faster browsing courtesy of new JavaScript and webkit engines. Video demo here.

Reports are telling us that the update is reaching users in the US and Europe. The Android 1.5 system update is a 44MB file, and as yet there’s no way to artificially trigger its download, only wait for your carrier to push it OTA. Keep track of progress in this forum thread.