Android

Now that I’m between smartphones, I’m really paying attention to everything going on in the Android space like never before.  On June 9th, TV Guide added to their tastiness by producing an app for Android phones that will provide us with listings and entertainment news [MarketWatch].  I like the idea of having my listings on an Android phone.  I had that on my iPhone and used it often as a quick reference.  Now, if they could just tie in the DVR function from their web app they’d really be on to something big.

In a timely move FIFA has also released a World Cup app.  It’s not live video, but it will let Android users keep up with World Cup news [Phandroid].  Boy does that having me chomping at the bit for a new phone.

EVO 4G owners have live World Cup coverage through Sprint and now Verizon has announced that they are making VCast available on their Android phones as well [Engadget].  $10 seems cheap for that.  How long will it be before the only reason to go home is to sleep and let the dog out?

You might want to track these down using the app search function at the new Phandroid service or previously reported DoubleTwist.  Shoot now you can just do a Google search and find apps in the results.  Try “TV Guide for Android”.  For me the app came up as the third search result.  It is head spinning to think that not so very long ago one had to open the iTunes Store in iTunes to find an app.  I’m happy to see Google following Apple in making info about their apps searchable on the web.

iPad

While the iPad appears to have been set aside by Apple until its OS updates later this year, there is also some brighter news.  Documents to Go has come to help all of us who use Windows OS’s and Apple iPads.  It offers some basic editing of Microsoft Office documents.  Even sweeter it can sync those documents with a couple of my favorites, Google Docs and Dropbox.  Frankly, I’m kind of regretting having dropped the coin for iWorks now [TiPb].

Reuters is stoking the Hulu to iPad flame.  First Netflix then Hulu?  The only thing that could be better would be Boxee.

Google

If you use Google Wave to talk about cyber happenings, Google has just made that a bit easier.  Use their bookmarklet to start a wave about the site you are currently visiting.  Then invite your friends to join you in Waving about it.  Webmasters can add a Wave This button that even copies and pastes a YouTube video into the Wave to kick things off. Try it here to see what happens.

Shoot, Google Wave is even kicking off a World Cup site.  Check out the new way to trash talk your opponents.

Gmail and Buzz continue to improve.  By going into one’s settings we can now enable Google Map previews.  I got an email for a meeting with the address yesterday and there in the bottom corner appeared a little Google Map showing me where to go [Gmail Blog].

While Qik on the Evo and FaceTime on the iPhone 4 (as well as Skype overtures) are grabbing headlines, Google has quietly made their video chat service a little more accessible by making the connection an easily visible icon instead of buried in a menu.  If you haven’t installed the plug-in, Google will prompt you to do so and then return you to your video chat [Gmail Blog].

Microsoft – Connecting Windows 7 to the cloud

Windows Live Essentials is hooking up.  Smartly, MS is connecting not just to Microsoft services but also to popular photo, video, social, email, and blog services.  Windows Live Sync promises to keep your documents synchronized offline on multiple computers as well as the web.  I’ve been impressed by how quickly MS has caught up with Google in areas like Windlows Live Photo Gallery versus Picasa.  This and their killer Office Web Apps is another big advance.

My wife’s Eris appears to be more powerful in its capabilities than my old iPhone 3GS.  Where the iPhone shone was in the intuitive, easy, responsive user interface.  The Windows Live approach seems to suffer a little from a confusingly complex non-intuitive interface relative to Google, but, like Android, they are edging toward the threshold where their power will be easily navigated by neophytes (and lazy guys like me).  There is a potential here for me to shift my usage toward Microsoft.  If I was just starting working in the cloud and across multiple computers, Microsoft might even be my first choice.  I’m pretty deep into Google so MS has some inertia to overcome due to their late arrival in the cloud [The Windows Blog].

Oh, and did you know that Windows Live Mail was just a re-badged Outlook Express?  I didn’t.  I thought it was a fresh, all new, product developed from a clean sheet of paper [The Windows Blog].  I like that they’ve decided to drop the little text promo at the bottom of our mail as well [The Windows Blog].

Apple

Yes, I know Steve Jobs gave his as-usual excellent marketing pitch at WWDC this past Monday.  But I couldn’t wait to talk about it so I covered that in a previous post.  Congratulations Apple on nearly catching up with the battery eating HTC EVO 4G.  How sad that the two best phones are on the two worst carriers.  The good news for Apple is that the iPhone 4 is definitely prettier and their battery life embarrasses Android phones.

Yelp!

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Yelp! is a shameless flatterer.  If you thought it was cool to be mayor of Starbucks on FourSquare (really?) now you can also go for the title of King by checking in on Yelp! also.  I don’t get this, but a lot of people I like are really into it so I thought you might want to know [TechCrunch].  I just read Yelp! for the reviews.  If I happen to become King, so be it.

The menu is easy to navigate and attractive.  What could be better?  Well, it would be better if the view offered high definition.  In a random look at two shows I normally view in HD, only SD was offered.  I expect they’ll do a better job of preventing people from using backdoor techniques to download the source video very soon.  The good news is that now I receive notification when full episodes of all my shows are available for streaming.  If you are an early adopter, let me know your experience in the comments.  Will this be enough to wean you from the cable/satellite?