Digitizd Tech Blog: Internet, Gadgets, Apps, Websites, & More

Kindle Fire Dominates U.S. Android Tablet Market

Posted on January 28, 2013 by Chris Poindexter Chris Poindexter | 2 Comments

The Kindle Fire dominates the Android tablet space in the U.S.

With all the buzz about Samsung’s Galaxy Note “phablet” it may come as a surprise to learn that the Kindle Fire still accounts for the single largest group of Android tablet users, that according to data from Localytics.

Nook is a distant second at 10 percent and, at present, the Samsung Galaxy family is running third with 9 percent.

The news is relevant to Android app developers who will want to put getting into the Amazon app store high on their ToDo list. Google Play is unavailable to Kindle Fire owners and the Fire doesn’t come with the usual suite of Android apps, which may leave some users missing their Google goodness. Google Play apps can be side-loaded onto a Kindle Fire but the apps don’t always work right.

The fact that Amazon has been able to carve out such a large niche for themselves in the Android tablet space without Google Play is pretty impressive in its own right, but the lack of coordination between app spaces in the Android universe means that Apple will continue to face only fragmented competition.

Posted in Apps, Gadgets, Uncategorized | Tagged Android apps, android tablets, Kindle, Kindle Fire, U.S. Android market | 2 Replies
5 Free Technology Options for Recording Phone Calls

Posted on January 28, 2013 by Guest Author Guest Author | 2 Comments

Have you ever made a call to an insurance company or customer service line and heard that “this call may be recorded”? Have you ever wanted or needed to record a phone call yourself, whether it was a phone interview or a business-related conference call?

Start by checking your local laws
Before you start recording phone calls, you should first check your state’s laws regarding recording phone calls (in some places you have to inform all parties involved). Once you’re ready, try some of these free services.

1. Free Conference Calling

Do you need to record a conference call for your business? Give Free Conference Calling a try. This free service records your call and makes it available in an MP3 format within an hour. This is useful for those who need a copy of the call for reference or team members who couldn’t participate in the live call and need to listen to it on their own time. Simply provide the playback number and access code, and they can listen to it anywhere, anytime.

2. Oreka

Oreka is a free, open-source software that allows you to record phone calls. It is designed for business use and records using VoIP (Voice Over IP). The open-source format allows you to receive updates, add-ons and plug-ins. Once you are done recording, you can retrieve the file online.

3. Google Voice

Google Voice is a phone management service that allows you to make phone calls using either the Internet or your regular phone. You can tie all your phones together with one number to make things easy. By pressing the number ’4,’ you can record any call. Once complete, your file will be sent to your Google Voice inbox.

4. Skype

Skype is an inexpensive way to make calls to anywhere in the world. If you are placing a call to another Skype user, the call is free. With your choice of an add-on, recording Skype phone calls can be simple, and you can store the audio directly onto your computer. You have the potential to get good, clean audio. Of course, it all depends on the quality of your equipment and Internet connection, but recording online can reduce the hums and buzzes that one might encounter when dealing with a regular phone system.

5. Cell Phone features

Some cell phones have a built-in facility to allow call recording. This might be the easiest way to store a recorded phone call. If your phone has this feature, and you want to record the conversation, you will generally have to initiate the call. Once the call is in progress, just select the ‘options’ or ‘preferences’ button and tell the phone to begin recording. It will stop recording automatically once the call has ended, or you can manually stop recording at any time.

If your phone doesn’t have this feature, there are call recording apps available for iPhone and Android.

Whatever your reason may be for recording phone calls, these tips and services can help to make your job easier, and you’ll always have the files for future reference.

About The Author:
Karen Goor is a Customer interaction specialist at Nice, a firm specializing in call recording strategies.

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Replies
Five Android Apps To Tickle Your Funny Bone

Posted on January 24, 2013 by Chris Poindexter Chris Poindexter | NO COMMENTS

If you can’t laugh you’ll go crazy – by Etamme

It seems ironic that there’s really nothing amusing about bumping your funny bone which is the ulnar nerve, one of the largest unprotected nerves in the human body running along the ulnar collateral ligament. How it got associated with laughter might have been a play on the words “humorous” and humerus, which is the big bone in your arm. Either way it’s usually not laughter that spews out of your mouth when you bang your elbow while it’s in a flexed position.

But enough with the anatomy lesson, this is about applications that are really funny and don’t involve electric shocks running up your arm, unless you’re into that kind of thing. These are apps that are good for killing a few minutes, maybe taking quick break when things are getting stressful at work or to pick up a slow-moving get together with friends. Life is better when you can take a minute and laugh.

It’s tough to narrow it down to just five of anything in the fast moving Android application market, especially one where fashion can make what’s hot today turn not so hot tomorrow. Consequently, I looked for the funny and highest rated, rather than those that appealed to my somewhat cynical and jaded sense of humor.

LOL Pics by Tap Tap Entertainment

The pictures range from locker room humor to the subtle and cerebral, heavy on both cats and Chuck Norris visual jokes. It compiles pics from many of the web’s top funny picture sites and allows you to choose by category or upload your own funny pics to see if the rest of the world shares your perverse sense of humor.

Funny Jokes by Swiss Codemonkeys

There are, literally, tens of thousands of jokes at this site from every imaginable genre. You can mark your favorites, upload your own jokes and tag those that either spam or inappropriate. The draw of FJ is more than the humor, though there’s plenty of that, it’s also the community. Some of the users have complained of late that site is increasingly drawing trolls and the less savory elements of the internet but it’s still funny.

Fat Booth by PIVI and Co

Anytime you get tired of diet and exercise just whip out your copy of Fat Booth to see what you’ll look like with a few extra pounds. It can also lighten up a party but just be aware that a lot of people wrestle with body image issues. Have fun but don’t use it to be mean. The same company also makes Stash Booth and Old Booth, if you’re looking for an app you can deploy a little more freely in social occasions.

Funny Kid Cams by PhotoMobileApps

Because the only thing better than dressing your kids up in dorky costumes and taking pictures of them is being able to skip buying the costume! Funny Kid Cams is pure gold for building up a collection of blackmail photos you can use to maintain your grip over them through the rebellious teenage years. Sure you can smoke if you don’t mind me posting this picture of you as a cute little pea pod on Facebook. You don’t mind me doing that, right?

18,000 Cool Jokes by Cramzy

Another huge joke sites on every imaginable subject in hundreds of categories. Don’t open this app unless you have at least 10 minutes on your hands because it tends to be addicting. The strength of this app are the regular updates and categorization on just about any topic you can imagine. The app will also rate jokes on a daily, weekly and monthly basis so you can see what’s trending in humor.

And there you have it, five easy ways to raise the value of the humor variable in your life equation. After all, laughter is the ultimate defense mechanism against the crazy.

Posted in Apps | Tagged funny android apps, humor, humorous apps, joke apps, jokes | Leave a reply
Archos Takes On iPad Mini With Stylish 80 Titanium

Posted on January 21, 2013 by Chris Poindexter Chris Poindexter | NO COMMENTS

While it may lack the stylish sophistication of Apple products under the hood, it’s hard to beat the $169 price tag on the Archos 80 Titanium tablet rolled out at CES this year.

The 80 Titanium features Android 4.1 Jelly Bean riding on a dual core 1.6 GHz central processor, backed up by a quad core graphics processor and 1 GB of RAM. The stylish 8 inch aluminum tablet has front and back cameras and a high definition IPS capacitive touch display supported by 1080 video decoding.

Inside the trim tablet packs 8 GB of internal storage with a microSD expansion slot along with micro-USB and mini-HDMI ports.

Besides the 80, Archos will be fielding the 101 Titanium with a 10.1 inch screen with comparable features.

While the 80 Titanium is a nifty tablet at a great price a lot will depend on whether the function supports the form. One of the early comments was that it feels sluggish, which is a real handicap in a hardware space where speed rules. We’ll see if Archos can amp up the responsiveness on the production models which would make these little gems a home run.

Available in March.

Posted in Gadgets | Tagged 80 titanium, Android jelly bean, android tablet, archos | Leave a reply
Three Awesome ToDo Apps To Organize Your Life

Posted on January 18, 2013 by Chris Poindexter Chris Poindexter | 1 Comment

Technology is usually a wonderful thing. I say “usually” because technology can make life more efficient, which can have unintended consequences. When life is efficient it moves more quickly and that means there is more to do and more to forget.

Our ancestors did not have that problem. Life moved at a slower pace, dictated by the rhythms of nature and progression of the seasons. You never met a farmer who forgot to sow his fields in the spring or who was out of town at the in-laws at harvest time. The human brain evolved to be good at survival and reproduction, not to juggle 500 tasks in a given week.

So modern life is, in many ways, an unnatural act for all of us and our poor brains, evolved to receive input at a slower pace, struggle to keep up. Fortunately technology provides ways to help manage our increasingly busy lives by providing applications that can help us keep track of those myriad details and remind us it’s time to do something.

There are many, many apps out there for time management and it’s a little arbitrary to reduce it down to just three. The criteria I used were that the app needs to sync between all your devices and, since we live in a highly collaborative world, needed to include the ability to network with other people.

Any.DO is an impressive little application with a robust set of features. It’s available for Android or iOS and packs all that usefulness into a tiny, intuitive interface that’s easy to use. Key features include sync with GoogleTask, voice recognition, repeating/recurring tasks and gesture support. Just swipe-right to mark a task complete or grab a task and rescheduled just by dragging to a new time slot. What I like about Any.DO is that it’s fast and intuitive. A reminder app doesn’t do you any good if you don’t use it.

I have to admit that part of the reason I like this app is the name is brilliant, but it wouldn’t be on my shortlist if it didn’t deliver. If you’re life is busy, I mean like Kim Kardashian busy, you will really appreciate ToodleDo’s rich feature set and ability to sort and reorder tasks, change priorities, due dates and mark tasks as optional. Optional tasks automatically fall off your schedule after the due date. Part todo list, part project manager, ToodleDo is robust enough to let you manage small projects or a plan for world domination.

For a long time Android fans could remind themselves with an inner smirk that their friends with fancy-schmancy iPads couldn’t use Astrid. You can wipe that smirk off your inner face, those days are gone now as Astrid is available on Android and iOS. Astrid gets points for being fast, useful and has a Chrome plugin available, it also gets points for being the most improved on my list. Set tasks by voice, manage tasks by email and enjoy nearly seamless integration between your desktop and phone.

My only concern with Astrid is the emphasis on premium features. If you want attachments and some of the team management tools, it’ll cost you. That’s why Astrid is now at the bottom of my shortlist. It’s a great little app for time management, but if they continue ramping up the pressure to move users to the premium version, it will fall off my list altogether.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged android, IOS, life management, organizers, time management, ToDo apps | 1 Reply
If My Great-Grandmother Could Have Only Imagined…My MP3 Player

Posted on January 17, 2013 by Adam Thompson Adam Thompson | 2 Comments

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Many, many decades ago, my great-grandmother once dazzled passengers on a Mississippi riverboat with her piano and vocal skills. More importantly, she dazzled the man who would become her husband…and my great-grandfather.

In the grand scheme of things, it wasn’t so long ago that music was not a readily available commodity like it is today. In the days of yore, if you wanted to hear music, you needed an instrument and someone who knew how to play it. The stunning beauty of a world-class symphony orchestra was a luxury many might never have the opportunity to enjoy.

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

How little could she have imagined that a century or so later, her great-grandson would have a device about the size of a belt buckle that could contain and play back music from an entire orchestra! How surprised would they be to see me press a button and listen to a song of my choice from the best orchestras and music groups in the world?

Do you ever stop and reflect how incredibly amazing modern technology is? We enjoy luxuries that in centuries past the most powerful king in the world would have eyed with envy.

Posted in Fun, Uncategorized | Tagged Music | 2 Replies
News Organizations Can’t Use Twitter Photos Without Permission

Posted on January 16, 2013 by Chris Poindexter Chris Poindexter | NO COMMENTS

This photo was released under a Creative Commons License – By Andy Arthur via Flickr

In a ruling that could have wide impact on social media photography, District Judge Alison Nathan of the Southern District of New York ruled that two news organizations violated the rights of photographer Daniel Morel when they used photos he posted on Twitter without permission.

While the ruling upheld the rights of the photographer, the ruling simultaneously limited the damages Morel could collect.

The case between Morel, Agence France-Presse and the Washington Post has been watched with interest as it is the first that explores the commercial use of images made available through social media. It was the AFP that sued Morel to get a ruling on the legality of using such material after Morel accused them of copyright infringement. The AFP claimed Twitter’s terms of service gave them the right to use the images. The judge disagreed and granted Morel’s request for summary judgement.

More interesting still is the fact that Twitter was not a litigant in the case, a spokesman for the company claiming that Twitter users own their own photos.

The judge did say that rebroadcasting the images by retweeting those posted by users was fair game and allowed under Twitter’s terms of service.

The AFP, Washington Post and Getty Images all declined comment.

The ruling comes in the wake of the disastrous attempt by Instagram to modify their terms of services to allow a similar behavior. Although Instagram hastily retreated from their position after a massive user backlash, the number of daily users of Instagram has dropped nearly in half over the last month.

Posted in Live Digitally | Tagged instagram, news agencies, twitter, twitter photos | Leave a reply
The Easy Way To Install Chrome On Ubuntu

Posted on January 11, 2013 by Chris Poindexter Chris Poindexter | NO COMMENTS

Ubuntu is my usual desktop and has been since version 4.1 came out. That’s not any slight towards Windows, I do keep a Windows box around for specialty tasks like video editing. I just like Ubuntu better because it’s awesome for customization and automation and my PCs running it stay fast and agile.

Two trends conspired to give Ubuntu wider reach in the OS market and that was the relative unpopularity of Windows Vista and the trend toward cloud services. In many ways your browser has become more than a software tool for rendering pages, it’s become a portal to your online working world.

That trend toward the browser as a platform instead of an app also unleashed the Android floodgates as the underlying OS was no longer as relevant to your online experience. Suddenly tablets and smartphones were no longer just a convenient device for killing a few minutes in the airport lounge or the doctor’s waiting room, they were production tools that became valuable necessities to the working world.

When I hear people talk about Ubuntu, sometimes I’ll hear people say things like they like it, but don’t want to be limited to using Firefox. I think what they’re really saying is they like Chrome better and need the integration with Google apps and services and installing software on Ubuntu, or any Linux platform for that matter, can sometimes be a little intimidating to figure out.

A lot of howto articles start out with “Open a terminal….” and there goes half the audience. So, I’m going to show you an easy way to install Chrome and you won’t need to open a terminal window at all.

Step 1 – Download Chrome

Go to Google’s Chrome download page and you should notice they already know you’re using Ubuntu, though on the next page you will need to know whether your computer is 32 or 64 bit. If it’s relatively new, it’s probably 64 bit.

Accept the terms and you’ll notice the download dialog that asks where to put the .deb file. Deb files are the packaging Ubuntu uses to make sure that applications come with all the other programs, called dependencies, they need to run properly. It’s all automatic so you don’t have to chase down obscure programs from strange websites.

Download the deb file to your Desktop or Downloads directory, I find it’s easier to use the Desktop.

Step 2 – Launch The Ubuntu Installer

Right click on the deb file and you’ll see a long menu appear. At the top it says Open With Ubuntu Software Center.

Step 3 – Click “Install”

Your Ubuntu Software Center will open and all you have to do is click the Install button over to the right.

And that’s it. See, that was easy, right? No terminal windows, no long commands, no downloading strange programs and trying to figure out where they’re supposed to go.

Now you’re all set to rock on Chrome and enjoy not only your online productivity apps but you can also manage all your must-have android apps right in the same interface! Now you’re making Ubuntu do some seriously cool tricks.

Technology is a blast when everything works right. Have fun.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged chrome, installing Chrome on Ubuntu, Ubuntu | Leave a reply
Samsung Rocks The Galaxy

Posted on January 8, 2013 by Chris Poindexter Chris Poindexter | NO COMMENTS

Samsung has outpaced even the mighty Apple after introducing the Galaxy Note II phone/tablet also called a “phablet”, which kind of sounds like something you wouldn’t want your sister to walk in and find you doing. Putting aside the strange name and that weird fixation with your sister, Samsung’s sales momentum is outpacing even the iPhone 5.

Apple rolled out just one new phone last year while Samsung blitzed the market with 37 variants, many with specific tweaks for both particular regions and market segments. The financial markets were shocked when Samsung posted an 89 percent increase in profits over last year.

While Apple fans may be a little chagrined at the pace of new product introduction, the success of the Galaxy Note II is definitely good news for the Android market. Competition is a wonderful thing and the response that Samsung’s success will certainly prompt from Apple can be nothing but good news for consumers.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Samsung Galaxy, Sansung Galaxy Note II, smartphones | Leave a reply
5 Things I Love About Chrome (And 3 I Don’t)

Posted on January 4, 2013 by Chris Poindexter Chris Poindexter | NO COMMENTS

A slick, unobtrusive interface and tab panel is why I prefer Google Chrome.

Browsers have come a long way since the days when Mosaic was your only option and the big new feature was the ability to display images in-line with the page text! Wooo! Today browsers offer an amazing array of options for customization, theming and personalization.

In my opinion Google’s Chrome leads the pack in customization and plugin availability, long ago closing the gap with Firefox add-ons while offering a slick, minimal, and highly customizable interface.

Like any other war, the opposition also advanced. Microsoft made big improvements to the look and security of Internet Explorer and Firefox found a way to duplicate some of Chrome’s more popular features. Where IE falls down is the user’s ability to customize the browsing experience. For too long Microsoft was stuck in the world of ActiveX while Firefox and Chrome ran with the more popular plugin model.

Here are five reasons why Chrome has earned a place as my default browser.

Integration

But Google has been able to push Chrome with one massive advantage that even Apple hasn’t been able to match: The ability to integrate the browser with other apps and services from Google. Google’s focus on the browser as an extensible gateway to the internet is the key to pushing advancements in integration between the browser, desktop and cloud services.

By far the biggest plus is nearly seamless integration between the web and Google Apps. That’s why I believe Google will continue to dominate, particularly on mobile devices.

Simplicity

Another point in Chrome’s favor is the minimal interface. There’s just one bar across the top for web addresses and searching. Even Firefox with most of the menus disabled still has a menu row for browser functions above the address bar and a separate area to enter search queries. It doesn’t seem like much but there’s a lot more page real estate in Chrome. The browser stays out of the picture and I like that.

Awesome Tab Management

Grab tabs and move them around, pull them off the tab bar to open up a second instance of the browser, grab that new instance and stick it back on the tab bar. Yes, I realize Firefox does that too but the implementation just seems smoother in Chrome.

The New Tab Panel

This is one feature Firefox was smart enough to copy and I give Mozilla credit for not being too proud to admit a competitor had a better idea, but the implementation isn’t quite as smooth as Chrome.

In-Browser Translation

A very handy Chrome feature for anyone doing a lot of research online, particularly in the sciences. The little window at the top asking if you Google to translate this page is wonderful step saver.

For all the love there are some things I don’t like about Chrome.

Peculiar Scripting Errors

Web development is hard when you have to support different browsers on different platforms but you would think a company with the resources of Google could make their own pages work on their own browser. Yet, almost inevitably, if I run into a page that loads blank or has portions that don’t load, it’s one of Google’s own services. A peculiar and embarrassing oversight for a company that otherwise has taken over the world.

Support Still Lags

The last time I had a problem with a Microsoft service I talked to a real person who helped me straighten things out and made some very good suggestions for improvement. I have only spoken to a real person at Google one time and that was a paid Google Business implementation back in 2010. Until that time I had a conspiracy theory that there were no real human beings at Google and that it was merely a front for intelligent machines working to take over the world.

Integration With Their Own Services Is Incomplete

Okay, maybe I should give Google more credit. After all, the first versions of Chrome to come out were not good to put it mildly, but the development team has been spinning out excellent upgrades ever since. Still, there is so much more they could be doing.

The integration with Google Plus, Maps and Drive could be vastly improved. It seems absurd I have to keep going back to Firefox for FireFTP! All the pieces are there but it’s just not coming together. Likewise the integration with shopping sites and Google’s own payment system is similarly incomplete.

It seems odd that I have to return to Firefox for an in-browser FTP client.

Perhaps Google is deliberately slow-walking some of these changes to avoid anti-trust issues or, more likely, they’re focusing the big integration efforts on mobile apps and devices. All I know for sure is I would have a less productive experience online without Chrome but the things it won’t do are sometimes really annoying.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged browser as web portal, browsers, chrome, desktop integration, Google Chrome | Leave a reply