Android Evangelist

After getting a taste of the big leagues during the playoffs last year, MLB At Bat is officially entering its rookie season on Android and BlackBerry phones.

MLB released the app Wednesday to their respective app stores, Android Marketplace and BlackBerry App World. At Bat was previously only available for Apple’s iPhone and iPod Touch. At Bat for Android and At Bat for BlackBerry includes live streaming audio–both home and away feed choice–scoreboards, box scores, and pitch-by-pitch or play-by-play updates, along with updated video highlight reels. The biggest difference between the version of At Bat available for Android and BlackBerry and the one for the iPhone is that there’s no option for live streaming video. iPhone and iPod Touch users get one free live streaming video per week.

The iPhone and iPod Touch At Bat app also got a pre-season tune-up. MLB released an updated version Tuesday, to coincide with the first day of spring training. The price for all three versions of the application is $14.99. That’s $5 more than last year, when At Bat for iPhone cost $9.99.

The price hike is due to more content and features being available for the 2010 season; it was released before the regular season begins and includes all news and scores from spring training. New features for the iPhone version of At Bat include a whole season of MLB.TV access for subscribers (last year that feature wasn’t rolled out in the mobile app until July), the choice between home and away broadcasts, a video highlight library that’s searchable by player or team, push notifications, and favorite team shortcuts. The iPhone version also has the option to do background audio streaming this season. Since the iPhone doesn’t run multiple apps simultaneously, if you want to continue listening to a game in the background while checking e-mail or browsing the Web, the audio will automatically be switched to stream through Safari.

MLB’s Android, BlackBerry apps step up to the plate | Circuit Breaker – CNET News

TechCrunch.com
Wednesday, March 3, 2010; 7:47 PM

In December 2008, Microsoft surprised a lot of people by releasing an iPhone app ? Seadragon Mobile. A month later, they ensured the move wasn’t taken as a joke or gimmick by launching another app, Tag, into Apple‘s App Store. Now, they have a few, including an app for Bing. And starting today, they’re doing the same for Android.Tag for Android is the first Microsoft-made app launched on the mobile platform. This is notable, of course, because Android is the mobile platform by Microsoft’s chief rival: Google. Still, as we saw with the iPhone, Microsoft has no problems getting its technology out there, even if it means using rival platforms. Aside from Android and iPhone, Tag also currently works on Windows Mobile, J2ME, Blackberry and Symbian S60 phones.Microsoft’s Tag technology allows you to use your phone as a mobile barcode reader. You simply point your phone’s camera at a tag (think: a smaller QRCode), snap a picture, and the Tag program will interpret it. This can be used to place things like coupons in physical locations, for example. Other companies, including Google, are working on these mobile barcodes as well. In fact, just prior to the Nexus One unveiling, all Google employees were given the device with a special barcode on the back that other Android devices could scan to get that person’s information.Despite the high level on animosity between Microsoft and Google, it’s great to see that Microsoft isn’t above creating apps for the increasingly popular Android platform. Microsoft made its own big mobile headlines last month with the unveiling of Windows Phone Series 7, a complete reboot of its mobile strategy, due to launch later this year. That move should help Microsoft better compete with the current hot mobile platforms, Android and the iPhone.The Tag application is available today in the Android Market; it’s a free app.

Microsoft Launches Its First Android App. Yes, Google’s Platform. – washingtonpost.com

Google announced an experimental application for its Android mobile operating system, which allows you to search your phone using written gestures. Instead of bringing up the keyboard, users of the newer Android phones can just draw letters on the screen to search through contacts, music or apps.

When a spoken search query using search by voice is inappropriate, the new Gesture Search for Android phones should come in handy. Just open the application and draw a letter with your finger on the screen. Results for the respective query will then be brought up on the display.

Google Android Phones Can Now Search With Written Gestures – PCWorld

Innocomm Technology, a young smartphone developer, plans to launch its first handset with Google’s Android mobile operating system and an analog TV receiver in the middle of this year, a company representative said Tuesday.

The new device should come as a warning to a number of mobile phone makers. Innocomm is one of a new breed of smartphone design houses aiming to provide high quality, low-cost handsets to mobile phone network operators around the world.

The specifications of the Innocomm Shark, as the handset is called, put it in a category of smartphones that might cost US$500 or $600 retail, but it will actually sell for a lot less than that when it comes out in May or June, according to Chuck Huang, a sales manager at the company.

"What we do is sell a high-end smartphone at a low-end price," he said, adding that network operators will likely offer it for free with reasonable service contracts.

The Shark has a 3.2-inch touchscreen, 8-megapixel camera with flash, includes GPS, and supports a range of wireless technologies, from 3G mobile telecommunications and HSPA (high speed packet access) data service to 802.11b/g Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.0.

READ MORE >> Innocomm Shows Android Smartphone With Analog TV – PCWorld