Episode 89: The Librarian meets Jere Jones

By | April 1, 2012

Guru and Jere count down to their 99th episode.

Show Notes

  • Upcoming Schedule
    • April 16th is our Titanic Episode, in honor of the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic.
    • June 11th would be our 100th episode, episode 99. However, June 8-10 is SELF…
  • April Fools Test
    • Google launches Google Maps for NES
    • Gmail Tap replaces your phone keyboard with 2 buttons
    • RoboBonobo aims to provide a weaponized telepresence robot for Bonobos armed with Android tablets. Donate to the project on Kickstarter.
    • Blind man drives to Taco Bell in Google’s self-driving car
    • Google Voice…for pets
    • Canada decides to end minting of pennies in April. All payments in catch will be rounded to the nearest nickel. This will save an estimated $11 million a year
  • June 6th is World IPV6 day. Unlike last year, companies will turn on their IPV6 compatibility and leave it on.
  • Platform News
    • Flurry Claims Amazon App Store provides 3x revenue compared to Google Play but the data was for in-app purchases.
    • Google Play Store experiencing difficulties over the last week.
    • Amazon Appstore app updated, fixes notification settings, adds option for higher maximum download limit over cellular, etc.
    • Linus Torvalds provided a deposition about a newsgroup posting Motorola had located that predated a Microsoft patent on long filenames used in a compatible manner with short ones by three years. The patent was one of several being used by Microsoft to force licensing fees on Android handset manufacturers. A judge declared the patent invalid, but it could still be reversed by the U.S. International Trade Commission
    • WSJ claims Google will begin selling tablets directly to consumers.
    • iOS wins over more smartphone buyers as Android holds steady, however, 48 percent of both recent acquirers and smartphone owners had Android phones.
    • Google Play Movies goes live in France
    • European lawmakers to cap roaming data charges in EU member countries at EUR0.20/USD0.27 a megabyte.
    • Google Android Developer identifies an 8 month period between time of release and the launch of new devices with the software.
    • Lenovo to offer Enterprise App Store, which can be customized on a company by company basis.
    • U.S. Army deploys its own Android store.
    • James Kendrick of ZDNet asks if Android is even a platform
  • App News
    • DoubleTwist adds Google Music support and an alarm clock, only works for Google Music songs you’ve set for offline access. (Play Link)
    • Hyatt releases official app, view hotels and book your next stay. (Play Link)
    • Hulu Plus updated, select tablets now supported. (Play Link)
    • Seesmic updated, now with ads. Remove ads, combine views from accounts, with the $3 pro version.
    • Square updates credit card reader to add hardware encryption due complaints reader was being used for skimming.
    • Square renames and updates its Card Case App to Pay with Square. (Play Link)
    • Appbrain releases AppBrain Ad Detector. (Play Link)
    • Cerberus 2.2 released, adds ability to hide GPS icon, remote SMS send, speak command for SMS, etc.
    • AMC Theaters released Android app. (Play Link)
    • Handcent SMS 4.0 released, now with ICS support and new interface. (Play Link)
    • Babbel helps you learn a new language from your phone. (Play Link)
    • Ustream app downloaded 2.5 million times, new version released. Offers in app purchase for ad-free options. (Play Link)
    • Rite Aid launches app, lets you scan your prescription bottle to get refill. (Play Link)
  • Handwriting Note Taking Apps
    • Papyrus offers a notation app in beta for pen-based input. (Play Link)
    • Quill handwriting app (Play Link)
    • FreeNote, Note Everything. (Play Link) – Only app that is not a tablet only app
  • The Door to Door Geek recommends Talkatone as a free Google Voice/VoIP client. (Play Link)
  • Developer’s Corner
    • Google Launches Translator Toolkit to help developers provide localization for apps
    • Google releases class on Transferring Data without Draining the Battery