android mini goes Mobile

android mini is now available in Mobile view.
No frills, fast-loading blogs at your fingertips.

Google Goggles - Put fun into Productivity

Google Goggles is another genius app developed by the Google team.

The app that lets you search the real world by taking a picture!

What does Google Goggles app do?
Goggles app allows the user to take a picture with you mobile device and it will search the related information for you.
For example, you take a picture of a Coca-Cola bottle, Goggles will search Google search engine for all Coca-Cola related websites.
Of course Goggles does more than that!

• Search Google search engine
• Scan QR Code
• Translate words and characters
• Extract data from business cards

Download Google Goggles from Android Market today and try it out!
It's free!

Google Docs - take your Office with you

Have you always wanted to access your word documents when you just stepped out of office?

Have you ever wanted to make changes to your calculation spreadsheet just before meeting a customer?

Have you ever wanted to leave that laptop in your office?

Now you can!

With Google Docs, your Office is the "Cloud", and you take it everywhere with you!

Best of all, it is the only Free full version document editor!

Since I started using PDA, my first being a Palm Zire, 7 years back, I have gotten used to having spreadsheets on-the-go for me to keep track of my finances. When I moved on to Windows Mobile, they all come with free Office Mobile. However, when I ditched Windows Mobile for Android, I had to find replacement. I had to download one of the paid Office apps to get the full features. Now, with Google Docs, I can still continue to use my paid Office app to sync with my Google Docs files. But for those who are not willing to pay for paid apps, Google Docs is your free solution!

Features

• Create, edit, upload and share your documents with the Google Docs app.
• Designed for Android to save you time finding your docs 
• Edits to your documents appear to collaborators in seconds
• Make quick changes to spreadsheets
• View your documents, PDFs, images and more.
• Upload and convert files to the Google Docs format
• Optical Character Recognition (OCR) - take a photo of printed text and convert it to a Google document
• Share docs with your phone’s contacts

How to maximise the use of Google Docs?

1. Log-in to your Google account on your desktop.
2. Go into Documents from Google menu.
3. Upload or Create your Spreadsheet (Excel), Document (Word), Presentation (Powerpoint), etc. into your personal Google Doc "cloud".
4. Do any editing using the web browser (no software installation required).
5. Save your file(s).
6. Download the Google Docs app from Android Market onto your mobile device.
7. Access your files from your mobile device.

Good

• Free full version Office app
• Easy to use
• No need to sync
• No cables needed
• Cloud computing = everywhere, anytime
• Share your documents easily

Caveat

• Works better on tablets
• Lesser formatting features compared to paid 3rd-party Office apps
• No 100% support file formatting

Android Market offers more ways to install Apps on your Android™

Every Android™ phone comes with Android Market app installed.
To download apps for your Android, you simply have to go into Android Market app and look up the app that you like.
There is now a new way to install apps on your Android.

Google’s Android Market website offers all the mobile apps for Android system that you can search from your mobile. With the rapid growth to Android apps, more than 4.5 billion apps have been downloaded and installed from Android Market to date. Everytime you run through the long search list on your Android Market app, you end up getting frustrated with the long list! Google understands your pain and have come up with a solution!

Search for Apps from the Web
Android Market offers many new ways to help you explore the Market:

1. Top Charts:
• Top Paid
• Top Free
• Top Grossing
• Top New Paid
• Top New Free
2. Category Search
3. Editors’ Choice
4. Top Developers
5. Related apps
6. Trending apps 
7. Of course, at the end of the day, you can simply use the search box to look up keywords.

Install from the Web
After finding the app that you like,
simply click "INSTALL" on the website,
and the app will be automatically downloaded onto your mobile device.
There is no need to scan QR Code or search from your mobile.

Manage your App from the Web
Click on "My Market Account",
view all your apps that you have downloaded from Android Market.


So how did Android Market Website do it?
Everytime you start using an Android device, you are required to log-in with a Google account. This account is usually your Gmail account. Your device is then tagged to your Google account. Google constantly sync what you have on your mobile device with the "cloud". Hence, when you access Android Market from your web browser, the website will automatically log you in based on your saved Google account and password. Put it simply, all your Android data is stored on the "cloud", just like your Gmail.

Try it today!
Explore what the Android Market can do for you!

Caveat: Android Market does not monitor non-Market apps. I will talk about installing non-Market apps in another post.

BitDefender Mobile Security - Give your Android device protection

BitDefender has officially released BitDefender Mobile Security, a powerful mobile security tool for Android. BitDefender includes features such as on-demand scanning, on-install scanning, and much more. The Open OS of Android OS has made the platform more prone to be infection with virus or malware. The new BitDefender Mobile Security is optimized to operate with minimum resources and hence preserving precious battery life. BitDefender also allows users to keep track of each application and display applications which attempt to access the Internet or sensitive data.

Features of BitDefender Mobile Security:

• On-install scanning
• On-demand scanning
• Security
• Anti-virus protection
• On-demand scan and virus removal
• Minimum resources consumption
• Event viewer- monitor important actions, status, and messages
• Always up-to-date

BitDefender Mobile Security for Android is free and available in the Android Market, and the app is compatible with Android 2.0 or later.
Download BitDefender Mobile Security for Android from Android Market.
From early words, the BitDefender Mobile Security indeed works to its claim that it does not drain battery life, and light on system resources. How effective the app can be used to detect malware remains to be seen, as while possible, the malware on Android is not yet on a broad-scale attack, yet.

HTC Incredible S - Android™ Smartphone

HTC Incredible S

(rehashed since April 2011)

HTC Incredible S is actually the 11th incarnation of HTC Android phones. Incredible S is actually built for Gingerbread (Android 2.3). However, the release version is Froyo, and schedule for FOTA update to Gingerbread. Since Google decided to choose Nexus One's original planned manufacturer, Samsung, to manufacture the 2nd Google phone,Nexus S. Sounds familiar? That is because Samsung is trying very hard recreate what their success of the Galaxy S onto the Nexus S. It is apparant that this wave of Androids decided to tag an "S" to the name. As a matter of fact, Incredible S is not the first of its kind, the Incredible S is an incarnation of the U.S. only version, Droid Incredible, which looks almost exactly like the Incredible S.

So what is the difference between HTC Desire S and Incredible S?

HTC Desire HD - Android™ Smartphone

HTC Desire HD

(rehashed since Dec 2010)

Read more

The latest Android™ smartphones from HTC are "spin-offs" from the original HTC Desire. They are HTC Desire Z and HTC Desire HD. Then there was the small form Androids, HTC Aria and Wildfire which came before HTC Desire along with HTC Legend earlier this year in 2010, which added to the earliest line-up of Dream, Magic, Hero and Tattoo. Both Desire and Legend are operating on Android™ 2.1 Eclair which is a newer operating system, compared to the earlier models. HTC Desire was actually the Google Nexus One in a HTC outfit. Just look at their similarities in form. If you didn't know, the hyped Google phone or Nexus One is actually manufactured by HTC. Apparantly, Google decided to choose Nexus One's original planned manufacturer, Samsung, to manufacture the 2nd Google phone, Nexus S. Sounds familiar? That is because Samsung is trying very hard recreate what their success of the Galaxy S onto the Nexus S.

So why the same name again? Is HTC trying to take us for a ride by improving on the internals of Desire and market it as a new phone?