If you’re getting a tax refund this year in the U.S., and want to track the status of the refund, you can do so on your iPhone, iPad, or Android Device with an official IRS app, IRS2Go. The app is available as a free download in the iTunes App Store, and in the Android Market. Read more
Today, 40Tech is pleased to present a guest post by Tim Millett.
Google, which has received a deluge of apps for its own devices, has obviously decided to do some lateral thinking, and its App Inventor is a sort of assembly process for apps. This is the sort of thing where you can ask your IT Support to create a business app for you, for example.
App Inventor basics
Google hasn’t missed any tricks with App Inventor. Anyone can make his or her own apps. Google has included a tutorial, which is so simple it’s like LEGO. You literally upload your app elements, set up your app and download it onto your phone, pad or computer. Simple as that. It’s a very good idea for those who really need or want their own special apps, and a money saver, too, when you’re thinking about commercial apps.
Benefits for consumers
As a matter of fact, making your own apps is actually a very good idea for consumers. Commercial apps tend to be very generalized, and some, let’s face it, are less than dazzling. Some apps, in fact, are almost 1995 level technology. The graphics may be slightly better or worse, but they’re not too impressive by any standards.
Consumers who know how to make their own apps have more choices. Google App Inventor is so easy to use that even basic trial and error will only take up a few minutes. It’s also a good way of experimenting with what’s possible.
For example:
What apps would you like to have on your phone?
· Organizer
· Appointment book
· Cash book
· Invoice
· Professional electronic data
· File sharing
Well, if you want them, you can get them. You can see how useful this sort of technology really is. An all-in-one “office” isn’t impossible, either. Many business IT support app concepts are actually based on a series of task-specific operations, and the software isn’t particularly complex.
Apps evolution and Google App Inventor
Google App Inventor is likely to be a groundbreaker in many ways. Several thousand apps come onstream every day. The world is awash with apps, from brilliant to gruesome, and the world’s major platform operators, particularly computer and phone makers, are swamped. It could take a year just to check out all the apps currently available for an iPad, for example.
DIY apps are definitely a better option for the basic things. That’s a true indicator, because the normal track record for technology is that today’s advanced technology is tomorrow’s standard open source freebie. Given that mobile technology is now part of the infrastructure of society, App Inventor is likely to be the start of a revolution.
Give Google App Inventor a shot. See what you can do, and then check out what you need. You will definitely find that you can save yourself a lot of time roaming the net looking for apps, to start with. You may also find that you can make a better app than the stuff on the market.
Author Bio: Tim Millett is an Australian freelance writer and journalist. He writes extensively in Australia, Canada, Europe, and the US. He’s published more than 500 articles about various topics including IT Support and Business IT Support.
Lifehacker recently asked its readers how they’ve fixed Android’s biggest annoyances. We’d like to go one step beyond that, and ask you how you’ve customized your Android device, to make it all your own. This could include custom launchers, screen organization, workflow, Tasker profiles, and the like.
CES 2011 wrapped up about a week past, and from the the look of things, there is some pretty sweet new tech on the horizon. There are tablets, smartphone/laptop combos, tablet/netbook combos, concept cars/bikes, connected TVs, WiFi-connected refrigerators, unifying cloud storage services, and much much more.
After the jump, I’ve listed three of the things I’m most looking forward to, as well as links to a few articles from folks who were at the event. Have a read, be tantalized and amazed — and let us know what you are most excited about in the world of tech and gadgets this year!
There’s a reason this year is being heralded as the year of the tablet — and there’s a reason that this tablet stole the entire show. Motorola’s Xoom tablet was the only one at the show using the new, optimized-for-tablets Android Honeycomb. It’s packing a 10.1 inch display, 1280×800 resolution, 1GHz dual-core Tegra 2 processor, and front and rear cameras. It’s ridiculously fast, can take 720p video, and will have 4G capability in the second quarter of the year.
There’s no word on the price of this beauty, but it ought to give the iPad — possibly even the iPad 2 — a serious run for its money. Just the fact that it has all that power, supports Flash, and is on a network other than AT&T (Verizon) might be enough to sway some users. It is unknown whether there will be a WiFi-only version or not, or if anyone outside of Verizon will get a hold of it — but I hope that Motorola would be smart enough not to limit themselves.
Motorola came to win at CES this year, and their smartphone offering is, in a word, awesome! I own an iPhone and an iPad, and I thoroughly enjoy them both, but the geek in me is loving what companies like this are doing with Android. The phone itself is beefy (the dual-core Tegra 2 chip and 1GB of ram make playing 1080p video and Flash a breeze), but the coolest thing about it is the dock — which turns it into a laptop.
Seriously.
The phone just plugs into the back of the 2.4 pound laptop dock, and voila! You get an 11.6 inch screen with a compressed keyboard, a trackpad, and webtop software that lets you surf the full-sized web, even picking up where you left off on the phone. You can also access the phone’s interface, and run its apps in full screen. According to LaptopMag, you can even run Citrix Receiver, which allows you to basically run full Windows right there on the machine.
Very cool!
Real Networks is coming out with a cloud service to combine all cloud services. Unifi will allow you to aggregate your multimedia files — or whatever files — that are on multiple devices and online services. This would allow you to keep just one central online media and file library to organize, manage, and access all of your stuff. Its incredibly convenient, especially as we are moving more and more to the cloud. The interface looks pretty good, too.
Apparently, Unifi will be open for public beta in a couple of months, and Real Networks plans to offer the standard freemium model: 2GB of storage for free, with paid plans that climb up to 100GB. iOS and Android apps should be available around the same time as the beta lanch, with Windows Mobile 7 and Blackberry apps to follow. It ought to be useful for Google Chrome OS when it finally goes live, as well.
So those are the things that really stood out to me in CES 2011, but there were many, many more — good, bad, and weird. Here are a few links:
cNet: http://ces.cnet.com/best-of-ces/
LaptopMag: http://www.laptopmag.com/mobile-life/best-of-ces-2011.aspx#axzz1B4NBYH9c
enGadget: http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/11/best-of-ces-2011/
What tech are you most looking forward to? Anything you definitely did not like?
If you own an Android or iOS device – at least one with a camera – you can now regale all of your friends with how insanely smart you are. The new version of Google Goggles has been ripping up the web in the past few days, as people buzz about the ridiculously fast barcode scanning of the Android client, print ad recognition in (popular) magazines and newspapers, and – perhaps most importantly – the ability to solve even the most difficult Sudoku puzzles in barely more than a blink.
Why would Google Goggles need the ability solve Sudoku? Frankly… who cares? As with many of the things in this world that don’t make you any smarter, it’s fun! If you don’t believe me, check out the cute promo video below, courtesy of the Google clan.
If you decide to test the new Goggles’ Sudoku prowess, make sure you get a clear shot of the puzzle without any of the extra bits you might find on, say, a webpage. If you don’t you will most likely be presented with search results over the solve puzzle button. I was never able to make it work with shots of my iPad app, either. Ahh well. It’s good to apply your brain sometimes, yes?
Happy puzzling!
Google Goggles Gets Faster, Smarter, and Solves Sudoku [Google Mobile Blog]
