Code Retard

Android Developer Challenge winners, Android Market is up and Accessories Store goes live

It’s been busy in the world of Android. In fact, so much has happened in the past week, we just had give you a little recap. Plus, there’s a few new things worth mentioning all you Android diehards are sure to appreciate. For starters, the winners of the Android Developer Challenge I were announced last week. Ten teams won $275,000 each and ten won $100,000 each for their interesting and useful application submissions. Just a few apps worth mentioning are cab4me, which helps you find a cab wherever you are GoCart, which allows you to scan product barcodes and compare product prices at local stores. There are many more, so be sure to check out the winners for yourself.

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Yeah, I read the download box when I installed it, said something to the nature of (only for Windows XP and Vista machines), but heck I installed it anyways – isn’t that what we all do? While most of Chrome works when I go and close the app, I get the nice error message above. Its still a beta app so I am sure Google is working on it? Also, I am not sure if it is limited to my machine or if its a more wide spread issue. If anyone else has gotten this message, please chime in. Good times!
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Its pretty easy to get Incognito working, all you have to do is hit the little page icon on the top of the bar and then select “New incognito window”. The short cut keys for this are “Ctrl+Shift+N”

This feature seems to be very similar to the new feature Internet Explorer 8 has called “InPrivate browsing” (also called the porn button).
Happy porn surfing!

Google Chrome Official Download starts today at around 11am. The link for the download is:

gears.google.com/chrome/eula.html?hl=en.

If you want to read up on all the new features/improvements google has to offer, check out their 30 odd page comic book.

http://www.google.com/googlebooks/chrome/index.html#

More Screenshots of Google Chrome:

http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2008-09-02-n72.html

PSP-Maps is a tool that allows you to browse Google Maps, Virtual Earth and Yahoo Maps with your PSP and its WiFi connection. You can move around the map, zoom in and out, cycle through the different available views, search for an address, load/save favorites, etc.

It includes a cache system so you can browse later the maps you have previously seen, even if you don’t have WiFi available. There is also a PC version if you don’t have WiFi at all, so you can build a cache on your computer and copy it to your PSP.

Technically, PSP-Maps connects directly to the servers to fetch the images, it does not use the provided APIs since there are usually in JavaScript and not convenient for a homebrew.

psp-maps-14

The rumor mill has been a buzz with news about a new Google phone to be released as early as September 17th, and as late as mid-October.

The phone is to be bases of the HTC Dream as pictured above. For early adopters, sources are reporting the phone will see for around $150, for existing T-Mobile customers only. Everyone will will have to wait until October and pay around 400 bucks.

If you’ve been using Gmail lately and looked at the bottom where it usually displays how much of your quota you’re currently using, you will notice a new line of interesting text indicating information about any activity that has occurred from any number of multiple sessions of Gmail you are currently signed on under. For example if you leave Gmail signed in on work and go home and sign on again, Gmail will now tell you that you are also signed on in another location. Read more »

Google recently launched a mobile friendly Google Talk chat web app aimed specifically for iPhone and iPod Touch users, in a nod to its rival Apple in the mobile platform space. You may have heard about Google’s open mobile platform called Android to which as far as anyone is concerned is just vaporware until it actually shows up in phones that consumers will want to buy despite Google’s attempts to attract developers to its platform. Not wanting to lose out on as a player in the mobile chat space, it looks like Google Talk won’t be waiting for Android to mature as users can now chat with friends while on the move simply by pointing their Safari browsers http://www.google.com/talk (to preview in your regular browser, point to http://talkgadget.google.com/talkgadget/m). Google Talk runs entirely on the webpage and requires no external software or downloads just like how Google Talk works in Gmail. Read more »

The famous Konami cheat code, known for unlocking more lives on Contra for the NES, now lives on in the most unexpected of all places… on Google Reader. If you haven’t used it before, Google Reader is a great online RSS feed reader that lets your speed read your RSS subscriptions from a single interface. A Google engineer who is an obvious gamer decided to add a little easter egg into Reader, swapping the left sidebar background with a dark hard-to-read turquoise one with a ninja and some Japanese text. Want to see it for yourself? Read more »

Yesterday, Google announced the introduction of Gmail Labs with a host of 13 exciting new applications to make your Gmail experience that much more enjoyable. To manually enable Gmail Labs without waiting for Google to roll it out on your account, simply log in to Gmail and direct your browser to https://mail.google.com/mail/?labs=1#settings then click on the “Labs” link under “Settings.” Read more »