If you have a BlackBerry and use the built-in Messages and Contacts apps, you can now search the email and contacts on your device using the new version of Google Mobile App.

Just type (or speak) your query - perhaps the name of the person who sent you the mail or a phrase from the text - and Google Mobile App will search through the emails and contacts on your device and return the results. You can quickly reply to an email or forward it on.



You can also quickly call, SMS, or email contacts by typing the first few letters of your contacts first or last name, and then pressing the corresponding button. Google Mobile App will suggest contacts as you type and you can scroll down to select one. Google Mobile App will promote the people you contact frequently to the top of the suggestions list.



To switch between on-device results (email and contacts) and web results (from Google), click on the link underneath the search box.

If youd rather Google Mobile App not search your email and contacts, you can turn off Phone Search in the options screen. Google Mobile App does not send information about your contacts or content from your emails to Google. This data is only accessed on your device.

Searching email requires BlackBerry OS version 4.5 or higher. Searching contacts is available on BlackBerry OS 4.2 and higher.

The new version of Google Mobile App also includes other improvements, such as the ability to use your BlackBerrys Wi-Fi connection to access the Internet.

To download Google Mobile App to your BlackBerry, visit m.google.com. Learn more in our help center.

Posted by Luca Zanolin, Software Engineer

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Today, we’re happy to announce Google Maps 5.3 for Android, which lets you see your Google Location History dashboard, check in at “home,” and add your own aspects for places when rating them.

Location History dashboard
If you’ve enabled Location History for Google Latitude, you’ve been able to visualize interesting trends in your location history with a personal dashboard at google.com/latitude on your computer. Now, you can also see your dashboard on your phone by tapping View location history from your Latitude profile. You’ll be able to see right on your phone how far you’ve travelled as well as an estimate of how much time you’ve spent at home, at work, or out.

If you haven’t yet, you can enable Location History from your computer or from Latitude’s Settings menu on your phone. Location History is 100% opt-in and is private to you and nobody else. You can always delete any of your location history from the Manage History tab or correct the estimated work and home locations from the dashboard on your computer.

View your location history dashboard from your Latitude profile on your phone and see estimates of where you’ve spent your time.

Check in at home
Now that you can see how much time you spend at “home”, you might want to let friends know when you’re there. Checking in at places using Latitude is another way to keep a history of places you’ve been and also lets you share when you’re there. I love letting friends and family know when I’m at a cafe or park, but sometimes I want them to know that I’m relaxing at home or made it back safely from a road trip. So now, I can start checking in at “home” in Latitude:

1. Check in from Latitude and tap “Home - Tap to set your location” at the bottom of the nearby places list if you don’t have one yet.
2. Use the estimated current address or enter in your home address yourself.
3. Once you’ve checked in at home once, “Home” will appear at the top of the list when you’re checking in near there.

Like Latitude and other check-ins, checking in at home is entirely opt-in. Your set “home” location is not searchable and only you can check in there. Just like any other check-in, you can choose with whom to share your home check-ins (along with your name and address info).

Add your own aspects for places
When you’re rating places on the go in Maps using Google Places with Hotpot, you could always quickly leave feedback on a specific aspect or characteristic of a place, such as the food or ambiance. Before, we’d automatically include aspects about places that were commonly mentioned in reviews. Now, you can add your own aspects for each place. So if you think a place has a beautiful view or great music, you can add it yourself and quickly share it with the world.

When rating places, you can add your own aspects like “music” for places and leave quick feedback.

To get started, update Google Maps from Android Market on devices with Android OS 1.6+ anywhere Google Maps and Latitude are already available.

Posted by Kenneth Leftin, Software Engineer, Google Maps for mobile team

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(Cross-posted on the Official Google Blog.)

Google Instant makes search faster by displaying not just predictions but actual search results as you type. This saves valuable time on a desktop browser, but wouldn’t it be great to have Google Instant on mobile devices, where each keystroke and page load is much slower and you frequently have just a moment to find the information you need?

In September we announced that we were working to bring Google Instant to mobile, and today we’re making a beta version available to most iPhone and Android devices in the U.S. To try it out, go to google.com in your phone’s browser and tap the Google Instant “Turn on” link beneath the search box (if you don’t see the “Turn on” link, try waiting a moment and then refresh the page).

Like the desktop version of Google Instant, when you type on your mobile device you’ll see predictions of what you might be searching for. If you type [anse], for example, you should see [ansel adams] along with other predictions. Results for the first prediction appear automatically, and tapping on the other predictions will display those results. Pressing the enter key or the search button skips the predictions and will display results for exactly what you’ve typed. Check out our demo video:



With Google Instant on mobile, we’re pushing the limits of mobile browsers and wireless networks. You will probably notice a big improvement in speed when you search thanks to a new AJAX and HTML5 implementation for mobile that dynamically updates the page with new results and eliminates the need to load a new page for each query.

Google Instant for mobile works best on 3G and WiFi networks, but since the quality of any wireless connection can fluctuate, we’ve made it easy to enable or disable Google Instant without ever leaving the page. Just tap the “Turn on” or “Turn off” link.

We hope you’ll enjoy using Google Instant for mobile as much as we enjoyed making it. It’s currently available for Android 2.2 (“Froyo”) devices and iPhones and iPods running iOS 4 in the U.S. in English. We’re working to support additional countries and languages and more devices in the coming months, so stay tuned.

Posted by Steve Kanefsky, Software Engineer

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Despite the massive popularity of the Chromecast, it still isn’t the correct device for everyone. Perhaps that is why were still seeing a host of set top boxes that run Android come out of the woodwork. Like this one that was just unveiled by a company called Satechi. “The Smart TV Box” as it’s being hailed by the company, is a tiny little Android powered TV Box that connects up to your TV and links up to your home network via WiFi or Ethernet, to give you what Satechi is saying is the “ideal solution for users who want to stream digital media onto their televisions.” Although there is already a large number of devices like this one in existence, the Smart TV Box from Satechi just might be the one for you. It boasts some attractive features and specs, and comes along with a matching price point to really sweeten the deal.

Like most other set top boxes, it gives you the power to access all of your home networks local media, and stream it right to the tv. Unlike most though, it uses XBMC(Xbox media center) software for the interface of all your media access, which to be honest is quite possibly one of the best media management apps and sources we’ve ever seen for Android. XBMC not only sports a sexy UI, but it also makes things easy to find, and they even have apps that can be installed onto your other Android devices. Spec wise, the Smart TV Box comes power packed with an unknown 1.8GHz processor, and it also comes with 2GB of RAM and 8GB of onboard storage to start you off with a place to keep some media, but should you be worrying about breaching that limit, it has two USB ports and an external SD slot for extra storage via the SD and flash drives, limiting your storage space to as much as you’re willing to buy.

To round things out the Smart TV Box houses a quad-core Mali 400-MO4 GPU, just in case you need some intense graphics processing. Its HDMI compatible and has Bluetooth support and Play Store access(WIN), as well as comes with a nifty little remote that isn’t to obtrusive and weird to handle. (At least by the looks of it) You’ll also find the respective audio port, and a micro USB port for service and support updates it seems. Overall, the Satechi Smart TV Box seems like a pretty great little set up if you’re looking for this sort of device to add to your living room, and you can have one for only $109.99. It’s now live for purchase, and you can pick it up either straight from Satechi or from Amazon.

Satechi Smart TV Box Streaming HD TV Digital Media Player XBMC Android 4.2 Quad-core 1.8Ghz 1080P with Wi-Fi (Silver)

Source: AndroidCommunity

Images: Satechi

The post Transform Your TV Into A Little Green Robot With The Satechi Android TV Box appeared first on AndroidHeadlines.com |.

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When a restaurant introduces a new special, they want the name to be memorable. Brothers Pizza in Cleveland and Akron, Ohio have done a masterful job with one coupon that they call their “oddest and most popular offer.” That’s the “12 boners and 4-skins” deal, where customers get a dozen chicken wings and four potato skins for $10.99. What did you think it was referring to?

Lest you think that this is some kind of mockup, it is not. They offered the same deal back in November, and put the coupon on Facebook.

What do you get with your wings? Toppings include the pizzeria’s very own “Raging Boner sauce, which is a culmination of our Bromade hot as [Hades] hot sauce mixed with our house hot sauce.” Sounds hot.

“Boners & 4-skins:” The Pizza Shop’s Penis Pun Coupon [Cleveland Scene] (Thanks, David!)

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

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