Android Smart phones

[Klaus]

Google renamed the "marketplace" today to Google Play (yuck). But they are giving everyone a reach around with cheap apps today...

How do you soften the blow of upending everything users are familiar with and introducing a totally new app and media download store? Offer some great deals to go along with it. Along with the “7 Days to Play” promotion, Google has slashed the price on a selection of games and applications including popular titles Shadowgun, Osmos HD, Sprinkle, and World of Goo. Each is now priced at a bargain $0.49 for a limited time.
That’s not all, though. Here is a full list of other titles included in the sale:

World of Goo
Jamie’s 20 Minute Meals
SHADOWGUN
Osmos HD
TuneIn Radio Pro
I Just Forgot - Little Critter
Sprinkle
Need for Speed Hot Pursuit
Asphalt 6: Adrenaline
Dead Space
Business Calendar
SoundHound ∞
mSecure - Password Manager
NFL Flick Quarterback
N.O.V.A. 2
Quell Reflect
Endomondo Sports Tracker Pro
Flick Golf Extreme
They Need To Be Fed
Paper Camera
ZOOKEEPER DX TouchEdition
SwiftKey X Keyboard
Camera ZOOM FX
It’s Tyrannosaurus Rex!
Pocket League Story
Sniper Vs Sniper: Online
Colosseum
Homerun Battle 3D
You really can’t beat that. I think I’m

Link

[Chadwick]

Placing this here for my future reference:

Fix for Android to Exchange Activesync Problem where Phone will not push calendar items to Exchange.

First be sure when entering Items on phone to select exchange as the sync account for the item...

1. Delete Activesync account on phone
2. On phone: "Menu", "Settings", "Applications", "Manage Apps", "All" Tab....Delete ALL calendar data (up to 3 different flavors of applications).
3. Close all apps and restart phone
4. Add activesync account back in to phone.

If this does not work. Do all of the above except after data has been deleted and before adding the account back to the phone categorize all calender items in outlook on desktop, wait for server sync, then uncategorize all items.

[Klaus]

Good info. I am sure I will need it someday. We just upgraded to Exchange 2010 and all our Android phones have been working flawlessly (unlike on 2000).

[Klaus]

One of the last iPhone only apps had been released for Android (the largest mobile platform currently)....... So if you want to take your 8-12 megapixel photos and make them look like cheap old weathered 70's film prints here you go....

https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...tagram.android

[Eric]

I was at a conference last week and they were discussing how smartphones are changing the world (durr) but there were some interesting theories.

First, they discussed a future where we don't have an actual phone at our desks because our smartphones will seamlessly bounce networks. Meaning when you're close to your office, your smartphone becomes your office phone number (but will still ring when someone dials your mobile number), and when you walk outside it switches to the 3G or 4G (or whatever) network. Once you get home (or to any wifi) it associates with your that wifi and then all office calls get routed to your smartphone (if you want this). The cool part about this is that your unified communication (UC) and presence will actually show not just the "dumb ball" (green = available, yellow = away, red = unavailable, etc.) but also an icon to show that you're either in the office, travelling, at home, etc. Anyway, theory #1: smartphones are eliminating deskphones.

And yes, you Droid guys can rejoice in the 50% share that you have, 30% iphone, 15% BlackBerry, and (lol) 5% Windows Phone. The publisher of CIO Magazine joked "Every SmartPhone user is a mobile user, and 95% of people have SmartPhones now, so that means everyone is a mobile user".

Oh and another shot at Microsoft: apparently now that M$ bought Skype they're trying to really push the whole Softphone, where your computer is your phone. A different panelist joked "Softphones? Someone should tell Microsoft that Softphones died 10 years ago. When I walk away from my desk am I supposed to carry my laptop around with me?"

Another big idea behind not having a desk phone is only having 1 business phone number. None of this "Here's my office line, and my cell phone, and my home phone, and my boat phone and my cabin phone..." That way you don't have to give anyone your actual mobile number, and changing your mobile number isn't a big deal since all of your business contacts only call 1 number to reach you. Makes sense, especially for sales guys. Also, if a sales guy leaves the company and all of his clients are calling his cell phone instead of his office number, you can imagine the negatives with that. If a sales guy leaves the company, I can simply route all of his calls to his replacement and not lose business.

Theory #2 that I got a kick out of is the idea that someday the tablet will be replacing the workstation. Meaning, you walk into your desk and all that's sitting there is a docking station. You either pull out a bluetooth/wireless keyboard or (hopefully) they have some sort of keyboard solution that projects to your desk (or something fancier hopefully!). With the current tablet solutions that are available I don't see it happening yet, but the interesting theory was this: when you think of tablets, who do you think of? Apple and Google. If the workstation is being replaced by tablets, and the producers of the OS of the tablets are Apple and Google, where does that leave Micro$oft? Hence, Windows 8, Windows Tablets this year, etc. Could this be where Microsoft finally stops being the dominant OS? Again, I see tablets being huge for convenience and travel, but for "work" I think people still need workstations.

Theory #3 was that Unified Communications, Presence, Instant Messaging and Text Messaging will eventually replace email. I chuckled when I heard it but the reasoning here is that this is how "young" people who are entering the workplace communicate. Email is old, expensive, slow, and antiquated technology. These young professionals don't email, they chat, im, text, Facebook message, status updates, Tweet, etc. If companies want to entice the young talent, they'll want to evolve and start using the tech that they are using. I chuckled, but meanwhile I'm rolling out Lync 2010 this year, just rolled out a new IP phone system that has presence on it last year, and plan to do more with collaboration/UC/IM in the future.

Final buzzword of this conference was BYOD. Bring Your Own Device is getting huge, as IT organizations really only need to support the Android and iOS operating systems since BlackBerry/RIM will be completely out of the smartphone game in a couple years. That one took me by surprise since 100% of our business smartphones are BlackBerries (our parent company won't allow Droid or iPhone compatibility). We're set to disconnect from our parent company's network in the next 12 months, so I'll be supporting iPhones and Droid, but I'm not sure if I'm ready to allow people to just walk in and say "Hey, I just bought this phone, let me get my mail and calendar on it." Then again, the joke was that iPads weren't allowed in the environment until last Christmas when the CEO walked in and said "Hey look what the wife bought me, can I get my mail on it?"

Anyway, some interesting stuff! (Well interesting to me anyway!)

[Klaus]

Very interesting. Thanks for sharing. I do think MS is playing catch up right now on pretty much every platform. It's kind of sad as I really liked MS products - heck I had a Windows Mobile "smart phone" for a year that was smaller than a iPhone and had a stylus. It was not what-so-ever finger friendly like iOS and Android (and why windows mobile failed). Now MS is launching Windows 8 that is built for tablets (I tried the beta) but you install it on your PC and click on the tiles/blocks. This will mark the first Windows release I am not excited for....

I see the one phone solution in our future. I was able to get a SIP client installed on my phone that connects to our company phone system and it works really really well if you have good wifi coverage. The integration is what is missing. There is no seamless switching yet.

IOS and Android are now safe for the corporate environment IMO. They both support remove wipe etc and if your company doesn't allow them but does allow blackberry they are just lazy or haven't tested it yet. And yes I believe the bosses wife story is usually how changes happens in most organizations.....

We just moved to Exchange 2010 (but we are still on Office 2003) and I have yet to get the instant messaging stuff working. But I do see that as a good upgrade to improve communication in the office. Emails are old and slow and unless I don't want to hear back right away I prefer other communication options.

Since this is a Android thread I will mention a couple thing I have enjoyed with Google's latest integration projects..... Chrome was launched for Android 4.0 phones a couple months ago and it really is the nicest browser on the market (and I have tried a ton). If you use Chrome desktop browser and sign into your google account it fully integrates with your phone. If you have a page open on your desktop a tab will open on your phones chrome. All bookmarks are synced and your history is there too. Google Voice is a early adopter of the one number solution. You get a GV number and it rings your desk phone and your cell when someone calls it. Voicemail is shared and transcribed and synced into your phone. With Android 4.0 GV is integrated in the phones call log and contacts (no more going into a separate app to view VM and play them). And of course Google+ while not the most used social network out does show promise with the Hangouts feature that more and more companies are using for free video conf.

[Jomama]

Theory #3 was that Unified Communications, Presence, Instant Messaging and Text Messaging will eventually replace email. I chuckled when I heard it but the reasoning here is that this is how "young" people who are entering the workplace communicate. Email is old, expensive, slow, and antiquated technology. These young professionals don't email, they chat, im, text, Facebook message, status updates, Tweet, etc. If companies want to entice the young talent, they'll want to evolve and start using the tech that they are using. I chuckled, but meanwhile I'm rolling out Lync 2010 this year, just rolled out a new IP phone system that has presence on it last year, and plan to do more with collaboration/UC/IM in the future.

They left out that they also cant communicate worth a shit with the written word...... Might not be evident with the typical mindless "who cares" shit that is communicated in status updates, but nobody is communicating complex ideas in leet speak..

[Klaus]

Google Drive was released today. Basically, it's a copy of dropbox or skydrive. There is a PC version and a Android APP. 5GB is the amount you get for free.



Google Play Link http://t.co/ftlReMlD

[Chadwick]

They left out that they also cant communicate worth a shit with the written word...... Might not be evident with the typical mindless "who cares" shit that is communicated in status updates, but nobody is communicating complex ideas in leet speak..

Amen. And when the first building or bridge falls down or the first NASA rocket or 787 augers in because some young engineer communicated a critical design element through gtalk in leetspeak we will have a wake up call in the merits of official written communication.

[Klaus]

Interesting concept.