Walkie Tealkie with Mobiles

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FEBRUARY 24, 2011

Use your iPhone or Android as a walkie-talkie

With most people carrying around Smartphones these days we have many ways to communicate. There's email, SMS, chat, video chat, Twitter, Skype, Facebook and the archaic voice calls. So much of our communication is now done through text that some analysts fear we will eventually experience a societal loss of voice communication skills. But who wants to talk when you can text?

Instant voice communication or "push to talk" (PTT) technology is one option, and it's available on some mobile networks. If your phone or network doesn't include this feature, wouldn't it be great if there was a way to do it, especially if it was free?

Two great apps available for the iPhone and Android, HeyTell andTiKL, provide this feature and basically turn your phone into a high-tech walkie-talkie for cross-platform communication. I tested both using an iPhone 4 running iOS 4.2.1 and a Samsung Galaxy Tab running Android 2.2. The voice communication was quick and clear with both apps. Both have the same basic features, both are free with ads running in the app. They HeyTell app, however, has an expanded feature set with the ability to purchases more features from within the app.

HeyTell

The HeyTell app has a clean interface with minimal ad intrusion. When you launch the app you'll be asked to register using a phone number or email address and you can choose to enable push notifications and location awareness. To make your first "radio call" you need to add someone to your contact list. You can do this by choosing someone from your contacts or using built-in Facebook contact integration. When adding a contact you can send them an invitation via SMS or email, and they will receive a link to download the app and also a direct link to connect and begin the conversation.

      

Once connected, you simply push the orange "HOLD AND SPEAK" button and talk. Your message is recorded and transmits almost immediately to the receiver. The audio quality is excellent and sounds better than a normal voice call. You can use the speaker on your phone for the walkie-talkie experience or you can use the normal earpiece or a headset. During your conversation you have two views from which to choose. The Recent Conversation view shows a list of recent contacts and calls, and you can go back and listen to individual recordings later. This is great if someone gives you directions or a phone number.

In map view you see a Google map with pins marking your location and the last recorded location of the person with whom you're speaking (if  they have locations enabled). The map can be resized and moved within the app using the normal finger strokes for your device.

Once you make contact with someone you can save them to a Favorites list and also can block unwanted contacts. For account privacy you can choose from three levels:

• Low - Anyone who knows your email address or phone number can contact you
• Medium - Only your friends and their friends can contact you
• High - Only friends and people you contact or invite can contact you

Additional features can be purchased from within the app and they include a Voice Changer, Emoji icons, Message Wipe, and a Group Broadcast feature. The Group Broadcast is one feature that can make HeyTell function much in the same way traditional walkie talkies do and will work with up to 25 people.

TiKL

For the most part TiKL works in the same was as HeyTell. The interface isn't as clean and it has ads running at the top and bottom of the app. You select contacts the same way, using phone contacts or through Facebook integration and you can save Favorites for future communication. Pushing the Invite button on the iOS version of the app generates a text message with a link to the app. On the Android the Invite button gives you choices to share a web camera and through Bluetooth, Facebook, Gmail, SMS, and Twitter.

   

You make a connection by pushing the large icon of a person speaking. Both people will then hear a tone that sounds like a doorbell and the screen background will turn red, indicating an open connection. Each time you transmit the app makes a high-pitched "chirp" noise. This can't be turned off in the iOS version but in the Android version you can turn off the chirp, enable vibrate notifications and assign custom ring tones.

TiKL does not have a map feature and it does not record conversations for later playback. It also does not provide for a way to block unwanted contacts and there are no varying levels of privacy. Group calling is supported, however, without an add-on purchase. The voice quality is slightly better than that in HeyTell and the delay seemed slightly shorter in my tests. The app was very stable on the iPhone but crashed several times on the Galaxy Tab.

Which one works best?

I have a set of FRS radios that I use when at events and when traveling with my MINI Cooper friends. Although the radios are rated to work at ranges up to 18 miles, they barely work at one mile apart, so I welcome this functionality on my iPhone. Having this feature to use across the iPhone and Android platforms makes it even better.

Both these apps work very well providing instant voice communication and that walkie-talkie experience. The HeyTell app offers more features, more polish and the ability to add extra features making it the better choice on both platforms.

App Download Links

HeyTell	iPhone	Android
TiKL	iPhone	Android

Forms with Google

Using Google Forms to Create a Custom Signup Form

Posted by Amanda on Jul 31, 2009

In MailChimp v4.2, we’ve added a number of list import options, including Google Docs, Google Contacts and Google Forms. Google Forms is a powerful and free tool that you can use to quickly and easily create a custom signup form that links directly to your MailChimp account.

To begin, you’ll want to head over to Google Docs and login using your Google account information. Then, under the New Document menu, select Form. Go ahead and give your form a name and then include some information as to what the signup form is for or about.

From there, you’ll begin adding fields. By default, the blank form starts out with two “Sample Questions” for you to modify. For this example, we just added a separate field for First Name, Last Name and Email Address,and went ahead and made them all required fields. It’s also important to ensure that you select “Text” for the Question Type.

Once you have your fields created and organized the way you want them, you can work on changing the visual design of the signup form. Google Forms is pretty limited in this aspect, but they currently provide 69 different stock themes for you to choose from.

Since we’re creating a signup form for our burgeoning Picnic Club, we went with the “Picnic” theme. To see how this will look once it’s published, just click on the link at the very bottom of the Form Edit page. This will open a preview of your published form in either a new tab or a new window, depending on how you have your browser set up.

The second part of this tutorial is setting up MailChimp to import your signup form into a new list. First, login to your MailChimp account and click the Accountlink at the top left. This will take you to your account settings, and you want to click on Integrations.

Click on the first option: Google Analytics, Contacts, Docs and select Authorize Connection. This will take you away from your MailChimp account and over to Google (very briefly), and you will need to click Grant Access.

Once you click Grant Access, you’ll be taken back to your MailChimp Integrations page. You’ll see a green dot for your Connection Status, but may see a yellow dot representing Data Status. This is fine for now.

The next step is to head over to your Lists, and you want to click the huge orange button to Create a New List.

On the first page, you’ll need to go ahead and set up all the basic information, such as Sender Name and Permission Reminder. Next, select the Import My List option, and then select the source that you want to import from. In this case, Google Docs.

A dialog box will appear, telling you that MailChimp can connect to your Google Docs account. Just select the appropriate Form from the pull-down menu, and proceed with list import.

Ctrl+O, la combinación perfecta para abrir botellas

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Ctrl+O, la combinación perfecta para abrir botellas

from Gizmodo ES by Antonio Rentero

Desde Rusia con humor… y con buenas ideas para abrir botellas.
Sencillo y efectivo, este abrebotellas diseñado por Art Lebedev responde fielmente a la acción que suele suceder cuando en muchos programas de ordenador apretamos la combinación de teclas que nos indica. Y aún hay más.
CTRL + O
Con esa combinción de teclas no hay documento o carpeta que se te resista. Pero ¿y si pudiera extender esas órdenes a una botella de cerveza bien fresquita? Eso sí que sería un avance de la tecnología, y no Internet, que no sirve nada más que para perder el tiempo.

Con esa idea en mente os mostramos este diseño de abrebotellas que ya están tardando en vender en las tiendas de accesorios de informática. ─[Art Lebedev vía @JuanjoCaravaca]


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Google, Microsoft y Yahoo! apuestan por un estándar de etiquetas global para buscadores

Google, Microsoft y Yahoo! apuestan por un estándar de etiquetas global para buscadores

Publicado el 3 de junio de 2011 por Jaime Domenech

Google, Microsoft y Yahoo!, responsables de los buscadores más consultados en internet, han creado Schema.org, un proyecto que ayudará a mejorar la ordenación de los contenidos de las búsquedas.
La idea es poder encontrar un estándar global que ayude en aspectos esenciales para los buscadores, como puede ser el rastreo y la indexación de los datos de las webs.
Básicamente, el proyecto Schema.org tratará de definir un código común para las etiquetas que rastrean los buscadores, con el objetivo de que pueda ser editado fácilmente por los desarrolladores en sus páginas.
De esa forma, esos contenidos podrían ser localizados sin problemas por los distintos buscadores, y además, serán clasificados en las categorías más adecuadas en función de su temática.

Lo cierto es que Google ya emplea esas etiquetas estructuradas, pero lo quese busca ahora es que los principales buscadores unan sus fuerzas y se pongan de acuerdo para definir un estándar común, lo que parece que facilitaría mucho las cosas a los desarrolladores. blog comments powered by Disqus            

Google Apps dejará de dar soporte a los navegadores antiguos en agosto

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Google Apps dejará de dar soporte a los navegadores antiguos en agostoF.Manuel  

3 de junio de 2011 | 18:56

Google Apps es un conjunto de aplicaciones destinadas a la nube, que se ejecutan dentro de un navegador. En la medida que se van implementando nuevas funcionalidades a estos programas, crece la necesidad de disponer de navegadores que incorporen las últimas tecnologías.

Por este motivo se ha anunciado que, desde el 1 de agosto, Google Apps dejará de brindar soporte a navegadores antiguos, como Internet Explorer 7, Firefox 3.5 y Safari 3, y cualquier versión anterior a las enumeradas.

En estos navegadores más antiguos es posible que tenga problemas para usar ciertas funciones de Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Talk, Google Docs y Google Sites, y, finalmente, estas aplicaciones pueden dejar de funcionar por completo.

Con este movimiento, Google apuesta por HTML 5 y recomienda actualizar a las últimas versiones de los principales navegadores. Para el usuario doméstico no representa un gran inconveniente, normalmente tenemos actualizado el navegador.

El problema puede surgir en el entorno empresarial, ya que en éste se adopta un criterio más conservador respecto de las actualizaciones de software y HTML 5 de momento no es un estándar, sino un borrador.. blog comments powered by Disqus            

Samsung Series 5 Chromebooks launches two weeks early for limited customers

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Samsung Series 5 Chromebooks launches two weeks early for limited customers

The Samsung Series 5 Chromebook doesn’t officially go on sale until June 15th, but Google is apparently sending out emails to some of the people who signed up for the Cr-48 Chrome OS laptop pilot program letting them know they can purchase a Series 5 today.
Google’s partnered with Gilt, an invite-only luxury shopping site, so you’ll need one of those emails if you want to get your hands on one of the first Chromebooks. The laptop will also come with a limited edition custom-fit laptop sleeve.
Everyone else will be able to buy the Chromebook when it goes on sale next week for $429 and up.

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