Episode 109 – The Future is Here

Another week gone by, and we talk about the future.

Show Notes

• In Other News
  • Motorola brings first patent suit against Apple as a Google Subsidiary, and is seeking an import ban. 
  • Author Harry Harrison dies at age 87. Harrison wrote such series as Bill, the Galactic Hero and the Stainless Steel Rat. 
  • Khan Academy Computer Science launches computer science tutorials. 
• The Future of Mobile
  • Will smartwatches help tablets replace smartphones? 
  • Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 Student Edition includes keyboard plus USB adapter – will tablets with attached keyboards be the future of mobile productivity?
  • Dunkin Donuts gets into mobile payments, follows Starbucks with iOS and Android apps. Mobile payments are the future…
• Platform News
  • Voice Search arrives in 13 new languages – Basque, Bulgarian, Catalan, European Portugeuse, Finnish, Galician, Hungarian, Icelandic, Norwegian, Romanian, Serbian, Slovak, Swedish. 
  • Motorola launches device unlock site, two phones and two tablets. 
  • Cyanogenmod 10 nightlies available for several devices. 
  • AOKP Gives State of the Union, Jelly Bean build coming soon. AOKP is looking for device developers.
  • Google launches experiment to bring AOSP to Sony Xperia S. What could this mean for future?
  • Google Enables Smart App Updates to reduce download size
  • Kickstarter campaign launched for Ubi, a plug computer running Android that communicates solely by voice.
  • Discover adds Google Wallet integration to their website. Add your Discover card to your wallet directly from the Discover website. 
  • Users chose Androids over iPhone, according to an internal Apple survey conducted in 2010…48 percent to stay with their existing carrier, 36% trusted the Google brand, 30 percent liked larger screens…27% prefered the Play Store, 26% wanted better Google services integration, etc. 
• App News
  • WWE launches official app. (Play Link)
  • Instagram updated, adds photo map and infinite scrolling. (Play Link) 
  • Pinterest for Android released (Play Link)
  • Flash Downloader helps you download Flash for Android now that it is out of the market. (Play Link)
  • Twitter bringing API changes that will probably affect Android apps. Time to switch to Google+?
  • Coming soon for Android, Fleksy, a new keyboard designed for blind and partially sighted users, but useful for many.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 47:15 — 32.4MB)