Saturday, March 12, 2011

MobileCrunch

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Swype For Android Updated, Annoying Bugs Patched

Posted: 11 Mar 2011 12:57 PM PST

Back in the early days of Swype, shoehorning this crazy speedy, tapless-typing keyboard onto your Android handset was a matter of finding a compatible APK. Eventually, Swype started cracking down; they asked anyone hosting the leaked builds to pull them down, and implemented a login system to try and ensure that everyone using the Beta was actually supposed to be doing so. (Protecting their intellectual property? Who do they think they are, Metallica? Pft!)

If you’re already a part of the beta, a fancy new build awaits. If you’re not, it looks like they’ve temporarily opened the Beta registration process back up. Want to know what’s new in this latest beta build? Join us after the jump.

Here’s whats new:

  • Support for devices with QVGA, WQVGA, WSVGA and qHD resolution displays (along with the HVGA, WVGA, and FWVGA support it touted before)
  • The “Hidden Word Tip Window” (which used to pop up just about every time Swype uses a word that it learned manually instead of using the word it would have otherwise used) will now only pop up once after install.
  • Prediction accuracy will no longer drop over time (Hurray!)
  • You can now generate a new license during the install process, which should fix the early expiration issues some were having.

Like the builds before it, this one will expire in about 4 months. That shouldn’t be too big of a deal (Swype tends to release beta builds more often than every 4 months) — but be sure to mark it on your calendar so you don’t end up Swypeless. After a few months of Swype, the switch back to a standard keyboard is a tough one to wrap your head around.

Porto: Denmark Creates Text Message Postage Stamp

Posted: 11 Mar 2011 11:30 AM PST

Flickr’d

Are stamps the next thing to be made obsolete by the onward march of technology? Denmark will introduce something called the Mobile Postage beginning on April 1. It’s as it sounds: rather than slap a plain ol’ postage stamp on a piece of mail, Danish folk will instead send a text message to the post office, which will then send back a postage code. You then write this postage code on your mail, and off you go.

The code will cost 8 DKK (just shy of $1.50 USD), and will initially only be usable on letters up to 50g (~1.76 ounces). The Danish Post Office says that it has no plans to eliminate the plan old postage stamp, so no need to freak out.

Sweden said that it, too, was considering introducing a text message postage stamp.

Adobe Flash 10.2 To Hit Android Devices (Including the Xoom!) On March 18th

Posted: 11 Mar 2011 10:36 AM PST



When folks first cracked open their shiny new Honeycomb-powered XOOM tablets back at the end of March, they were in for a bit of a surprise: there wasn’t any Flash support. Turns out, one of the biggest features that this anti-iPad was sold on… wasn’t quite ready.

Well, it’s just about done now. Come March 18th, Adobe will be pushing out a new Beta of Flash 10.2, complete with support for the XOOM and any other Honeycomb devices that might trickle out.

Adobe got a bit tricky with their wording. Here, let’s do some quoting:

Today we are happy to announce that Flash Player 10.2 will be available for download via Android Market on March 18th. Flash Player 10.2 is a production GA (General Availability) release for Android 2.2 (Froyo) and 2.3 (Gingerbread) devices which meet the Flash Player hardware system requirements. It is initially a beta release for Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) tablets which requires Google's 3.0.1 system update.

That “it is initially a beta release for Android 3.0″ bit can be read two different ways: either 10.2 will be launching on March 18th in non-beta form for Android 2.2 and 2.3 but in beta for 3.0 devices, or it’ll ONLY be launching for 3.0 devices on March 18th with 2.2/2.3 support coming sometime thereafter. If I had to guess, I’d say it’s the first one — but we’ve reached out to Adobe for clarification just in case.

Other new goodies coming in Flash 10.2 for Android:

  • Hardware Acceleration for H.264 Video Decoding (Android 3.0.1+ Only)
  • Improved integration with the Android browser for better page scrolling (Android 3.0.1+ Only)
  • Hardware acceleration support for multi-core processors and handsets with dedicated GPUs
  • Improved on-screen keyboard support
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