Android – Iphone – Applications

So the folks out at Arkon sent a box full of their grip products for me to review, and admittedly, when I saw these, I was a little nonplussed.  Who really needed another way to carry your cell phone around?  Well, I quickly ate my words when I tried out the Arkon Travelmount Deluxe Mini Windshield or Dashboard Mount.

It’s basically exactly what it says on the box, featuring a big suction cup and multi-position arm to let you hang your phone in most any position.  Mount it to the dashboard or the windshield, and then proceed to swing it around in most any direction you care to while keeping your hands firmly planted on the wheel. It’s geared toward larger phones–smartphones and superphones–like the iPhone or Blackberry models.

Volunteering for the role of “test phone” is the Sigma Quadband from Chinavasion, which as I’ve mentioned before, both looks and operates a lot like a Blackberry.

Bonus points immediately go to this phone mount’s sheer capability.  Not only did I try it with the Sigma, but also with a TomTom GPS. It held that too, owing to the mount’s expandable side grips, which you’ll see pictured below, that are activated with the push of a button. The suction cup is spectacularly useful, and does a terrific job of staying in place.  You’ll notice that I’ve mounted this to my kitchen window, and it’s holding in place spectacularly well.

Here’s the best part–this sells for twenty bucks out at Arkon’s web site, so if you’re looking for a way to, say, keep your GPS phone in plain sight while driving, then this will do a great job and do it at a great price.

The Good

Low cost

Great utility

The Bad

It’s just a phone grip

Score 8 / 10

written by simonivan \\ tags: accessories, arkon, arkon-holder, auto, chinavasion, Iphone, kitchen, leather, leather-case, mobilewhack-com, permanent-link, phone, suction cup, words

Facebook has acquired Chai Labs, a technology platform company where publishers can easily create search-friendly websites. Chai Labs customers include NBC Local, Associated Content, and Travel Ad Network. The acquisition price is rumored to be about $10 million.

Chai Labs was founded by Gokul Rajaram, who was an executive with Google AdSense before that. Chai Labs raised about $2.4 million in funding. Chai Labs advisors include Marc Andreessen, Reid Hoffman, and Joe Kraus. The three advisors were also angel investors in the company.

[AllThingsD]

written by popol842 \\ tags: angel-investors, chai labs, easily-create, facebook, gokul rajaram, hoffman, reid hoffman, three-advisors, travel

In 2005, Google almost acquired Riya.com, a consumer-oriented image recognition company. Riya had the ability to recognize clothes, watches, earrings, etc. from an image and show you similar items through online retail channels. Google decided to walk away from Riya. Riya re-emerged as a company called Like.com shortly after.

Like.com raised almost $50 million since 2006 and makes around $50 million per year now, according to TechCrunch. The acquisition price is rumored to be higher than $100 million. Like.com was co-founded by Munjal Shah and Burak Gokturk.
[TechCrunch]

written by janyton \\ tags: ability, almost-acquired, burak gokturk, like.com, million-per, munjal-shah, riya, riya-riya, through-online

If you ever used Vlingo, then you should know that it is now available for free.

Similar to Google’s free Voice Actions, it is a voice command service. Vlingo CEO Dave Grannan says that he is glad for the change, and it will work for Android 2.0 or above.

I believe that even though it is free, but there is a “Plus” license that will probably cost more.

Source

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• android apps
• how is Vlingo work for android

written by rockingevil \\ tags: article, cellular-phones, from-the-usual, obama, permanent-link, phones-launched, sale, search, seo, tagging, vlingo android app, voice, voice actions

The Dell Streak is promising to be one very oool handheld device, and it is sad that it has been delayed so long for the United States.

Ready for some good news? Dell is thinking of shipping the Dell Streak with Android 2.2 (Froyo) inside like the Droid 2. Too bad my Source doesn’t have a release date for this, but I’m sure it will be out soon.

Source

Incoming search terms for this article:

• Dell streak Froyo US
• dell streak spec

written by nhiepphong \\ tags: article, dell, europe, froyo, permanent-link, states, streak, streak-locked, tagging, united-states