Available in the Android Marketplace, FastCustomer allows you to skip the wait involved with calling a company’s customer service line. After you select which company you’d like to talk to, FastCustomer will call you when an actual customer service rep is available — no longer do you have to sit through thirty minutes of elevator music. Luckily, there are close to 2,500 companies available. FastCustomer is also available on the iPhone.
According to a report from Experian Hitwise, Google+ has seen a 3% decrease in traffic over the past week. But don’t let this worry you, as Google+ has seen a 9% traffic increase from Gmail. Maybe Google+’s hype has worn off, but it’s great to see Google+’s integration across their services is paying off. We obviously expect numbers to go back up again when the service goes public — whenever that may be.
Google has updated Google Maps for Android to version 5.8, which sheds focus on Places. Users can now upload pictures of Places and add new Places that aren’t yet listed. Most interestingly, Maps now gives you the ability to favorite places in the My Places tab. Go ahead and grab it in the Market now.
What’s in this version:
- Personalize Place pages by uploading pictures from your visit
- Manage your starred and recently visited Places in the ‘My Places’ tab
- See descriptive terms for Places in search results and Places pages
- Add a new place to Places when checking in
Google has released an update to their Shopper app conveniently giving users information on daily deals, including Google Offers. The update adds a “Offers” and “My Offers” tab at the bottom, along with the Shop tab you know and love. The Offers tab displays deals in map view that are available in your city. The deals you find can be saved in the My Offers tab for later use. Businesses can publish deals through Google Places. If Google Offers is available in your city you can redeem your purchased offers in the My Offers tab. Check out the update in the App Store.
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SprintFeed is reporting that the Evo will be given the end of life status, along with a few other phones on Sprint’s network, this fall. The White Evo will cease in September, and the black Evo and Samsung Epic will cease in October. The Evo was a breakout phone for Android and 4G technology, but it is certainly understandable as Sprint puts better phones in its lineup. Check out the rest of the phones in the image above. Anything you’re sad to see go?
Robert Scoble has posted some highlights of his talk with Google VP +Vic Gundotra regarding the Google+ name fiaso. Gundotra told Scoble Google deleted Google+ accounts that spell their names in “weird ways like using upside-down characters, or who are using obviously fake names, like “god” or worse.”
There have been reports that Google has had a couple missteps in their deleting process. Gundotra says Google is working on making this a smoother process:
He says they have made some mistakes while doing the first pass at this and they are learning. He also says the team will change how they communicate with people. IE, let them know what they are doing wrong, etc.
Bradly Horowitz, Google’s VP of Product, had much more to say on the matter including some “myth busting” (below):
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BGR has received an exclusive photo of a Samsung Android slider headed to AT&T. There aren’t many details regarding this device, other than the fact it has a QWERTY keyboard, four-button layout opposed to three, and will be AT&T’s flagship Android device. Will this accompany the AT&T Droid Bionic varient we showed yesterday?
Update: BGR has posted photos of the Galaxy S II headed to AT&T. Check it out after the break.
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IntoMobile is reporting an AT&T varient of the Verizon Droid Bionic might just be on its way. If you don’t know what you’re looking for the above image doesn’t exactly tell you much. IntoMobile explains:
The small code following the version number is what to look for. You can see three mentions of the MB860 and one of the MB865. Well, a quick Google search for MB865 will return results for the Motorola Atrix 4G but if you do a search for MB865, you’ll get results for the Droid Bionic.
The GSM Bionic will likely be a slightly bigger version of AT&T’s popular Atrix. The Atrix already has the qHD display and dual core processor. It also got a Gingerbread update this weekend.
Due to their wide variety of popular Android devices, Samsung “may have” surpassed Apple in smartphone sales according to Boston-based Strategy Analytics. In Q2 2011 Samsung is estimated to have sold between 18 – 21 million smartphones, while Apple sold 20.3 million iPhones, and Nokia sold 16.7 million. Certainly, they are at least #2.
Much of Samsung’s success is credited to sales of the Galaxy S II which has been booming overseas.
It’s far from official that Samsung has surpassed Apple, but at any rate they’re becoming a close competitor. We can’t wait to look at these numbers again when the Galaxy S II hits U.S. shores, but then again, the iPhone 5 is reportedly on its way too.
While we’ve already reported Google will release business profiles for Google+, VentureBeat is reporting these business profiles will be getting some pretty cool features.. besides a company page. The new features include analytics and more sharing features, while consumer accounts will be left without. Business profiles are due out in the coming months in an open beta, while VentureBeat says analytics and sharing features will be due out around Q3 2011.
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Here’s a new idea for Google+ — musician Daria Musk is hosting a concert over a Google+ Hangout. Currently, Hangouts are limited to ten users so Daria is streaming the event on the website HangoutParty. Go ahead and enjoy some good music!
via Robert Scoble
Google has acquired PittPatt, a company focused on facial recognition in photos, reports Wall Street Journal. While the terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, Google will be receiving PittPatt’s brainy employees. PittPatt was founded by three “image analysis” and “pattern recognition” specialists whom have PhD’s from Carnegie Mellon University. PitPatt’s technology could go into a number of products — like Google Goggles or Google+.
Something worth noting is what Google’s Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt had to say at AllThingsD’s D9 conference in May regarding the matter of facial recognition:
Schmidt says he does have some concerns about the limits of technology, including combining face recognition with other technologies. Google, with Goggles, had moved pretty far down that path, but has stopped because of the implications.
“We built that technology and we withheld it,” Schmidt says.
People could use the stuff in a bad way in addition to a very good way.
A spokesperson told WSJ:
We’ve said that we won’t add face recognition to our apps or product features unless we have strong privacy protections in place, and that’s still the case
Sprint announced on their blog that they will be unveiling an update to their Nexus S 4G. The update will include tweaks to increase data speed, Wi-Fi connectivity, speakerphone audio quality, and adds TTY support for the deaf and hard of hearing. The update will be dubbed Android 2.3.5 and will be available Monday, July 25th.
Engadget has exclusively received the update to test data speeds. As you can see in the screenshot above, speeds were improved — even enough Engadget says the speed change is noticeable.
It seems like each day doesn’t pass without Google redesigning one of their products to match the Google+ look. While Google redesigned News yesterday, Place Pages have now been added to the list. The redesign matches the overall Google+ look so there’s not much explaining there, but the way Google now handles reviews is worth noting.
As TechCrunch reports rather than stealing reviews from sources like TripAdvisor and CitySearch, Google now uses reviews form its users. The business above originally had 1,110 reviews but is now down to 171 reviews after the redesign. Google notes:
Based on careful thought about the future direction of Place pages, and feedback we’ve heard over the past few months, review snippets from other web sources have now been removed from Place pages. Rating and review counts reflect only those that’ve been written by fellow Google users, and as part of our continued commitment to helping you find what you want on the web, we’re continuing to provide links to other review sites so you can get a comprehensive view of locations across the globe.
We’ve also heard there was some legal input into this as Yelp and others were crying foul to the Justice Dept.
To cope with fragmentation of their Android OS, Google has revealed on the Android Developers Blog they are now allowing multiple APK support. Historically, Google only allowed one APK file that would in some cases work on only a number of phones.
With multiple APKs, Developers can now build their apps for different screen sizes, processors, and other hardware capabilities. When a user downloads an app from the Market, they will be automatically assigned the APK that best matches their phone. On the Market all of the versions of the app will be aggregated into one for ratings, reviews, and listing. Google notes what devs need to know:
To support this new capability, we’ve updated the Developer Console to include controls for uploading and managing APKs in a product listing — we encourage you to take a look. If you’d like to learn more about how multiple APK support works, please read the developer documentation. As always, please feel free to give us feedback on the feature through the Market Help Center.
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We have already seen snippets of code revealing Games is headed to Google+, but this morning it has been confirmed. SlashGear reports on the Google+ help page there is talk about a Games stream, where users can find updates from shared games. Google+ Games will have a sharing aspect, and the Games stream will sum up what your friends have shared from within those games.There is no word on when this will be available.
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Engadget is reporting that Dell has pulled the 5-inch Android tablet/phone Dell Streak in order to perform updates. Dell’s PR crew wouldn’t say anything, but a customer support agent was happy to declare that the Streak hasn’t been killed — just receiving an update. The agent also told Engadget it’s an issue in the Android OS. While you can’t order it now, the Dell Streak should be back on shelves early August.
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For reasons yet undefined, Google Books has been removed from the iTunes App Store. Was Google in violation of Apple’s new in app purchase terms of service? Is this because Harry Potter is coming out next week?? We’ve reached out to Google and Apple for answers.
Google has released a redesign for Google News, an aggregated source of news content around the world. The redesign looks very similar to the Plus-esque design we’ve seen across all of Google’s properties — sporting the black bar at the top, more whitespace, new colors, and redesigned search box at the top. Specifically to News, in the left margin users can sort through top stories and categories, in the middle top stories are displayed, and to the right you’ll find recent stories.
[youtube=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4oafKRykUg”]
Google’s Christian Oestlien announced on Google+ tonight that company pages on Google+ will be coming in the next few months to everyone in an open beta. Oestlien says “tens of thousands of businesses, charities, and other organization” have applied since registration started almost two weeks ago. Originally, Google was going to use a select group of businesses chosen from their registration.
While you wait over the next few months, Google doesn’t want you to create a page for your business — rather use a person to represent your business. Google has already closed down Mashable and numerous other businesses. Shh…
A bunch of Droid 3 reviews hit the web today, and most conclude that the Droid 3 isn’t looking too hot. The Droid 3 is Motorola’s second iteration of the original Droid, which some might say is the reason Android is where it is today. The Droid 3 is available on Verizon Wireless, packing a 1 GHz dual-core processor, QWERTY keyboard, 8-megapixel shooter, 4-inch display, and Android 2.3. You can snag the Droid 3 for just a mere $60 (plus activation). So what’s the verdict?
The Droid 3, with its top-notch keyboard and high-end specs (save for its 3G radio), is a phone we wouldn’t mind using on a regular basis, but we’re sensing something grander lurking just beyond the horizon.
Motorola DROID 3 review spoiler: this phone is the biggest piece of shit
Verizon’s Xperia Play hit stores May 16th for $199, but in just two months the device is already seeing a $100 price cut. The Xperia Play is now available on Verizon for just a mere $99! While users like to game on their smartphones, perhaps a smartphone devoted to it just isn’t sitting right. If you’re interested, we suggest you take advantage of this now.
This is my next is reporting an upgraded Defy, dubbed Defy+, is on its way to AT&T. The Defy is currently over at T-Mobile and is a very compact Android device, which can suffer punishment like being dropped and dunked in water. So obviously, a Defy+ excites us. What doesn’t excite us? That heaping serving of Motoblur
The Defy+ is sporting 850 / 1900 / 2100 HSPA bands which would make it appropriate for AT&T and Canadian carriers. The device’s specs are pretty similar to the original Defy’s, but the Defy+ features Android 2.3.3 and a 1GHz OMAP 3620 upgraded processor. Being dubbed with the ‘+’, we assume this device will be improved in some way. There’s no information on pricing or availability.
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Business Insider is reporting Google has acquired social group startup Fridge. Fridge was apart of Y-Combinator, and announced it was closing its doors last week. Last night, Fridge told BI that they have been acquired by Google for an undisclosed amount.
Specifically, Fridge was acquired for Google+. Fridge’s four man team will begin working on the product starting next week, and we assume since they are a social group startup, their primary focus will be around Circles.