TCC Blog

iOS/Web: If you need a bit more info on traffic than your navigation app can give, Sigalert provides you with color-coded maps, detailed information about traffic flow, camera feeds, and up-to-date information about accidents and road construction.

Most navigation apps will navigate you based on the flow of traffic, and even show you where slowdowns are happening. Sigalert is better as a companion app, for when you’re planning longer routes or wondering whytraffic has slowed to a halt. You can tap on a freeway to see how fast traffic is going at each mile marker, as well as how much faster (or slower) the carpool lane is moving. It’ll tell you if there’s an accident or road construction, so you know to go around the traffic, and even show you traffic cameras if they’re available.

The app isn’t without downsides, of course. The map is pretty hard to use; you can’t really zoom in or pan around as easily as you can in something like Google Maps. Instead, it’s better for a quick overview before you go to the more detailed freeway list. Sigalert also has some pretty annoying ads, but you get used to avoiding them too. Overall, it’s not an app I’d want to use every day, but it’s great for those times when you know you’re going to hit some traffic and want to get around it easily.

Sigalert is a free download for iOS, and a free webapp for all mobile and desktop devices.

Sigalert

Sigalert for iOS

Google Drive, an almost mythological rumored web-based file storage tool, launched today.  Google describes it like this: “…a place where you can create, share, collaborate, and keep all of your stuff. Whether you’re working with a friend on a joint research project, planning a wedding with your fiancé or tracking a budget with roommates, you can do it in Drive. You can upload and access all of your files, including videos, photos, Google Docs, PDFs and beyond. ”

How shall I describe it? Let’s see, it’s a little Dropbox, a dash of Google Docs, all with the amazing organization and search power you’ve come to expect from the people who created Gmail. Read on to find out what’s awaits you on Drive.

Dropbox-Like Desktop Syncing

Like Dropbox, Google Drive has an app for Windows and OS X that will sync all your documents, videos, and other files with the cloud. There’s also an Android app for mobile access. They  Each user gets 5GB for free, and can upgrade to 25GB for $2.49 a month, 100GB for $4.99 a month, or even 1TB for $49.99 a month. If you upgrade, it’ll also raise your Gmail storage to that level. For those of you keeping score, that’s a lot cheaper than Dropbox. Oh, Dropbox, how I have loved thee. However I fear our time together may be coming to an end.

A Powerful, Search-Oriented Webapp

Drive’s webapp, though, looks pretty different from Dropbox—in a good way. When you log into the web interface, you’ll see that it looks a lot like Google Docs. You can search through all of your Google Drive files quickly and easily, filtering by document type, owner, activity, and more. What’s really cools is that drive will automatically use optical character recognition (OCR) to read your scanned PDFs and other files, so that you can search for text within those files, even if they’re just scanned images. It’ll also use Google Images to scan your images, so that searching for, say, “Eiffel Tower”, will bring up your photo of the Eiffel Tower you took last summer. I feel the severing of my relationship with Dropbox coming on…

The webapp also has a built-in viewer for tons of file types, including videos, Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator files (!!!), anything that can be opened and edited in Google Docs, and more. Google Docs has been directly integrated, as well, so all of your collaborative projects will show up in your Drive just as they so in Docs. It also integrates with Google’s other products, like Google+, Gmail, and more. And, it has an API, so we should start seeing integration with third party apps very soon.

Sorry, Dropbox, Google wins.

Check out Google official blog for their release announcement: Introducing Google Drive… yes, really 

If you’ve ever used SoundHound (or its arch rival Shazam), chances are good you were holding your phone out to identify a catchy song whose name you didn’t know. Now the company is introducing Hound, SoundHound’s little sibling, but one with a slightly different identity… singing not required. Read the rest of this entry »

So I was reading some posts on Reddit to find out what you lovely phone lovers are up to today, and I came across this gem.

Today’s winning comment from the Android Market goes to… this guy (above). Apparently, Dan doesn’t understand that when you install a launcher replacement from the Market and change your homescreen that it — well, changes your homescreen. Rather than take the time to repopulate his new homescreen (Launcher Pro) with icons and widgets, he uninstalled the app after 30 seconds. In one last effort to kick developer Federico Carnales in the shins, he would later reinstall the app just so he could rate it the app 1 star. Ahhhhh… Android newbies. Gotta love ‘em.

[via Reddit]

So you finally got updated to the latest version of the Android Market and not digging it? Can’t find anything you want? Look like crap on your device? It does take some getting used to. But for those that just can’t stand it, thankfully there’s a way to go back to the old version of the Android Market. You will need to have a rooted device and a little knowledge of ADB (Android Debug Bridge) or at least using Root Explorer.

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Got a new Google Android phone or Google Android tablet? You probably want to play all your music and video on it, but if you’re an iTunes user, you’ll find it’s not as simple as transferring your iTunes account.

DoubleTwist is an app for Android smartphones that allows you to access anything in your iTunes library for playback on an Android handset. BlackBerry phone users will find built-in support for iTunes, by the way. Download doubleTwist from doubletwist.com and allow it to access the Registry (click More details at the warning screen and you’ll see it’s Microsoft-certified). Read the rest of this entry »

Looks like eBay finally got the message that their app should be able to, you know… LIST items for sale on eBay. Novel concept, I know. Despite dragging their feet, they have actually enhanced the mobile experience to slightly top the desktop version by offering features that aren’t even available to the non-smartphone user. Read on for more details.

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Starbucks recently released a version of its mobile application for the Android platform. The Starbucks Card Mobile App takes advantage of the Starbucks Card platform, and will allow users to charge coffee purchases at 6,800 Starbucks coffee shops and 1,000 Target stores. The app also lets Android users manage their account, reload their card, check their reward status, and find nearby Starbucks locations. The free application works with Android devices running system 2.1 and up. Starbucks also announced that starting in July, users of all its mobile apps will be able to charge purchases to their Starbucks card at 1,000 Safeway locations.

Snag the app here: Starbucks for Android

I’m getting ready to suggest to someone that we upgrade the name of smartphones to brilliantphones. I just have to figure out who that someone is.

Anyway, as much as I know about smartphones, some things still amaze me regarding what they can do. I am going to talk about 2 free apps with add-ons that will help make some lives easier. That’s what I’m all about…an easy life, or at least helping to make yours easier. I’m afraid that ship has sailed for me!

Square

This is a simple way to accept credit cards without all the merchant account hassle…using your smartphone or device. It is available for iPhone, iPod touch, iPad and Android. The sign up takes about a minute and you get your free card reader in the mail.
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We’ve all been there. Does this sound familiar to you?

You’re at work and you realize you forgot to mow your lawn. You rush home in a panic. You miss several important meetings—or meetings that your company considers important, yet you’ve calculated how much it’d cost to build a lifelike dummy of yourself that lives in the conference room and has a head that automatically nods whenever it detects nearby voices.
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