Today Google finally released a Docs app for Android. It surprising that it took this long but the fact it’s finally here has been met with a lot of fanfare. The app allows users to create, edit, upload and share their documents. Edits appear the almost instantly for other collaborators. In addition to documents, users can view PDF’s and images. You can even upload new documents or take pictures of text and use Docs’ OCR to convert it.
To get started you will need to search for and download the new app from the Android Market. Surprisingly it’s not a featured page 1 app. In fact, it’s not even the first result for a search of Google Docs – it’s the second.
After it’s installed and you launch the app you will be greeted with the terms of service and some brief instructions about how to use your new app. You will need to click OK to continue, but first you may want to give a quick read-through of the tips for using Google Docs for Android.
Once you are past that then you will be greeted with main Docs screen that allows you to choose from All Items, Collections, Starred, Documents, Images, and More. More consists of Test, Spreadsheets, and Presentations.
There’s a lot to play around with here and I will be doing so over the next few days. It’s not a whole lot different from Docs on your PC, but there is likely to be some minor differences and stumbling blocks. Over the coming days we will be going more in-depth with the various features and letting you know what we find and how it works. In the meantime, if you are using it, tell us what you think in the comments.
I know you’ve seen it – someone using the “Push To Talk” feature on their company phone that essentially turns it in to a sort of high-tech walkie-talkie.
Aaron Cooper of Worth Avenue Group (my.worthavegroup.com) talks about the insurance coverage they provide for iPhones, iPod Touches, iPads, Cell Phones, e-readers, televisions, laptops, tablets and other high-value electronic devices. With so many high-value portable and other electronics devices, many with glass touch screens screens, insuring these devices can make sense. Their computer insurance even covers virus removal. They require that damaged covered devices be sent in to them.
Shortly after getting my HTC Evo phone, one of the initial apps I downloaded from the Android Marketplace was the Amazon Kindle app with the idea I’d probably check it out at some point. Weeks went by, and I pretty much ignored the app.
What a pleasant surprise I was in for. Reading a Kindle book on my HTC Evo is actually a good experience. The text is quite legible. The surprising part is that twice now I’ve carried the phone with me into restaurants and was able to easily read using the phone while eating. Of course, the HTC Evo has a handy built-in kick stand that allows the phone to sit on its side at an angle. I can eat and then periodically lightly touch the right side of the screen in order to make the Kindle app advance to the next page. The Kindle app even synchs the latest page I’m on back to the server, so if I open the book up again either on my phone or on my laptop, it opens up right at the exact page where I stopped reading.
When the iPhone came along in 2007, many people were immediately disappointed, including me, that it was tied at the hip to AT&T. In retrospect, that set the stage for what was to follow.
If a CDMA version of the iPhone exists, and the rumors are true that it will eventually show up for sale at Verizon, this has to mean that it’s already being tested. Will the CDMA iPhone pass the Verizon tests?
I remember it well. Back around October of 2004, I first heard the word “podcast” used on The David Lawrence Show via my XM Satellite Radio. It sounded interesting, and I wrote it down on my driver logbook cover with the idea of looking it up later. I heard David mention it again once or twice over the next few weeks. Finally, in early December of 2004 I finally got around to looking it up. I found Adam Curry’s podcast, realized what it was, and knew that I felt compelled to not only listen to podcasts but get involved as a podcaster myself. This was exactly what I’d been looking for for many years – a wide variety of content that I could choose, download, and control the playback/consumption of on MY terms.
The smartphone is a concept and an evolving device that has been around for a few years, though until now mass consumer adoption has been slow.