A popular social network that has a strong following on the web and on the iPhone is now taking aim at the Android market. Brightkite, a slick little app that lets you check in at any location and share photos and notes with your friends, is available for free in the Android store as of this week. Current Brightkite users won't be disappointed with the Android version, and Android users will appreciate how it takes advantage of their device's location-based services.

The long-awaited app - there were reports over a year ago that it was in the works - takes advantage of Android's built in Google maps to let you visualize your friends' locations instead of reading them in a list. It also uses Android's notifications to alert you to any new activity in your friend stream. As an iPhone owner, I'm loathe to it admit it, but this looks even better than the iPhone version of the app. The maps, especially, are a great touch.

I really, really want to be Dutch right now. After taking a look at Layar, a mobile Augmented Reality browser that's currently only available in the Netherlands, I can't wait until similar technology is available in the rest of the world. Layar uses the camera and location-based services of your mobile device -- Android devices only, so far -- and overlays information on the camera image.

This is flying-car level tech, the kind of stuff that sci-fi nerds dream about, and it's got plenty of practical applications for the average user, too. Although Layar is still in its early stages, this is the technology that's going to make it possible to point your phone at a restaurant and see prices and reviews, or point it at a transit stop and see schedules. One the features Layar is pushing is the ability to create your own layers, so it could be used for everything from business to gaming. Every cool piece of tech has its downside, though, and I imagine advertisers are salivating a little bit about the possibilities something like Layar presents.

Android users can now search Google Maps using voice commands, and access Google Transit info from their mobile devices. To use the voice seach, just speak an address or a search term while you're using Google Maps for Android. Google says it currently understands American, Australian and British accents. They've also added store hours, prices, ratings and reviews to their results.

Google Maps for Android also now includes transit and walking directions for over 250 cities, just like Google Maps on the web does. Although it didn't make the headline of Google's blog post, the are also some improvements to Google Latitude, the new(ish) location-based service. You can now make Latitude update your location continuously as long as your phone is on, and use the new "Updates" feature to leave location-specific comments about the places you go.

Sharing your location via a mobile device is a great way to let friends and family know where you are, and encourage people you know to meet up with you. The challenge is in making it as easy as possible for the right people to see your location while hiding it from random Internet strangers. Glympse is a clever new approach to the problem, allowing location-sharing on a time limited person-by-person basis.

Using Glympse is as simple as picking a contact and a duration. Your contact will be able to see your location from their mobile device or computer for that duration of time. It's the simplest solution imaginable to a pretty complex problem. Right now, Glympse is only available for Android devices, but it's coming soon to Windows Mobile phones, iPhones and Blackberries.

If you've been waiting for all the goodies in the Android 1.5 release (titled Cupcake), wait no longer. According to the T-Mobile forums, the rollout officially began a few days ago.

If you aren't the patient kind, AndroidGuys shows you how you can take a few minutes and do the upgrade yourself without waiting for T-Mobile to initiate it for you.

The most highly anticipated feature in Android 1.5 is the on-screen keyboard. I've been using a hacked pre-release 1.5 version for a few weeks and I can say that on-screen typing is definitely as useful as I always thought it would be.

Other niceties in 1.5 include video recording (bringing G1 users up to spec with iPhone and Curve counterparts) some updates to the camera (blurry photos no more!) and a few simple visual enhancements which make you wonder why they weren't there all along.

Viva la Googlephone!

(Thanks David!)

It just became a really good idea to take your Google Android device shopping with you. Android now packs a barcode scanning feature that plugs into Google's Mobile Product Search database, so you can compare prices on items you find and see if it might be cheaper to buy online. The scanner currently works best with media like books and dvds, or with electronics, but more products are being added all the time.

To enable it, browse on your Android phone to Google.com, select "More" and then "Shopping" and Product Search. Then click on the Scan Barcode button. This should install the software on your device. To use the app once it's open, you can just point the red line over a barcode, and Android should do the rest. If it doesn't work for the item you want, you can still resort to old-fashioned keyboard search.

[via AppScout]

Google Calendar for iPhone and Android just got an important update that makes it a lot more viable as your main mobile option for keeping track of events. Specifically, you can now edit events directly from the mobile interface. According to the Official Google Mobile Blog, editing events in mobile calendar was the number one request from users on Google Product Ideas.

This move makes so much sense. It's nice to have a calendar you can check at a glance -- and with Google Calendar, you'll still see your recently viewed events even when your device doesn't have an Internet connection -- but it's a huge handicap if you can't change your RSVP status or other details about your appointments. If you were unsure about switching to Google Calendar because it lacked editing features, you might want to reconsider now.

Road warriors rejoice, Google has beefed up the engine that powers the mobile version of GMail. The rollout begins today, though only for users of the English version. If that includes you, make sure your iPod Touch or iPhone is running firmware version 2.2.1 or later or you'll still see the old version. Android users won't have any such concerns.

A number of slick new features have been added, including the "floaty bar" which follows you as you scroll through your inbox and provides quick access to archiving, deleting, and marking options. Say goodbye to repetitive scrolling when applying actions to multiple messages! The search bar has also been moved to the top of the interface to provide easier access.

Message display has been cleaned up a bit and the improved back end will help make coping with crummy network connections a bit less bothersome. The new engine - which leverages HTML5, Gears, and more aggressive cahcing - will also make it easier for Google to deploy new features and provide further performance increases in the future.

[via Google Mobile Blog]

Last.fm is apparently on a mission to tick off everyone who uses the service, one group at a time. Yesterday the company announced that it would begin charging for access outside of the US, UK, and Germany. Now Last.fm is killing support for unofficial clients that run on mobile devices.

The official Last.fm apps for iPhone and Android still work.

On the bright side, Last.fm plans to release a public API that will make it easier for developers to come up with third party clients for the service -- as long as they run on desktop computers. The API will ensure that only Last.fm subscribers can stream music. But the API will not work with mobile phones due to licensing agreements.

Responding to the predictable outcry of criticism, Last.fm updated its official blog post on the subject to suggest that some exceptions to the no-mobile client rule may be possible. But you'll need to get permission from Last.fm.

[via Gizmodo]

Userscripts can be incredibly useful. I've got several (like some of Jay's suggestions) installed in Firefox and can't imagine surfing without them.

Got an Android handset and wish you could utilize your favorite scripts in its browser? You might not have to wait much longer. Developer (and Google staff employee) Jeffrey Sharkey is hard at work on OilCan, which promises to do just that.

For now, you'll have to be satisfied with Sharkey's short Vimeo demonstration as OilCan is still in the proof-of-concept stage. It would be a fantastic addition to Android's browser should it be "eventually released" as a binary for the platform as Starkey states on his web site.

Thanks, Todd (@ronin691)!

I don't want to sound like a grizzled old Lou Grant smoking a cigar and tossing back belts of the scotch I keep in my desk for the days the news doesn't go so good (which is, incidentally, every day.) but there are some stories you just toss in the wait and watch pile.

Earlier today the word on the street was that if you even opened your browser on the Android mobile phone in your pocket, you had a 1 in 10 shot of opening the gates of hell, only to be swallowed whole into a fiery and lonesome abyss seconds later from which you shall never return. No pomp, no bells, no ceremony. Just a hole opening in the earth, swallowing you and all your little 'lectric bits and leaving your friends behind to argue over who was to take responsibility for your lunch tab.

Well, rest easy kids. Skip that extra blood pressure pill before bed and even grab the bacon in the morning with both fists because there is a good reason we didn't jump on the sky is falling, OMG WTH are Teh Patch3s!!!11 insanity earlier in the day. Google's Rich Cannings, Android Security Engineer who contacted Read Write Web summed up why the Android platform is a little less of a problem in the wild than some other OSes we've been conditioned to. Rich states in an email, ""Charlie Miller, a security researcher at Independent Security Evaluators, contacted security@android.com on January 21st regarding a bug in PacketVideo's OpenCore media library", continuing, "Media libraries are extremely complex and can lead to bugs, so we designed our mediaserver, which uses OpenCore, to work within its own application sandbox."

In fact, most parts of Android are designed with this sandbox method in mind. keeping the individual programs isolated from the OS and the other programs, and allowing message passing only through subscribed methods over which the user has ultimate control. I.e. If you don't give you Media Player access to your phone-book, it can't find the phone number for your aunt Millie in Rhode Island. The privacy breaches are generally more granular and contained, when they're able to happen at all.

Google's Rich Cannings lays it down a little more succinctly, "If the bug Charlie reported to us on January 21st is exploited, it would be limited to the mediaserver and could only exploit actions the mediaserver performs, such as listen to and alter some audio and visual media."

Regardless, Google says a patch has been prepared and has been pushed to the vendor (T-Mobile) for distribution. Given the (now) less critical nature of the bug users might expect less to see a rushed weekend patch job, and might see it more appropriate to patch a known and so far unexploited issue with limited scope on a more manageable schedule for the network.

If you love Last.fm and happen to have an Android handset, today's your lucky day: the popular social streaming audio service has released a client tailor-made for your device. More good news: it's free.

In addition to browsing and searching for artists and genres (and listening to them, of course), you can also find concert information and let your friends know whether or not you'll be in attendance.

As an added bonus, the app works in the background - allowing you to enjoy your favorite Last.Fm stream while staying productive with other apps.

To get the app installed, point your G1 to this page on the Android Marketplace.

[ via JKOnTheRun ]

A year later, the optimized version of the site is gone. Instead, iPhone user and Android users get treated to the same crappy mobile iGoogle interface that other phones suffer through.

So much for progress.

On Saturday morning, when the change went into effect, users started asking questions in the iGoogle discussions page withing Google Help. The response from Google employee Paul:

Hey everyone, I have an update for you. We've decided to direct iPhone users to the standard mobile iGoogle page. We've found that people hit iGoogle from lots of different phones -- we want to ensure you'll all see the same version.

Most or all of your existing content should translate over to the standard mobile version. The only exception would be any gadgets that aren't compatible with most mobile browsers.

Needless to say, the masses who love their iGoogle were not assuaged. This brought up a whole list of accusations that Google is saving the special iGoogle interface for Android users only and punishing iPhone users for not buying the Google phone.

This isn't quite true.

When the T-Mobile G1, the first phone running Google's Android mobile platform, was released two months ago, its greatest asset -- the physical QWERTY keyboard -- also wound up being the devices greatest deficit. Having a physical keyboard is great, especially for e-mail -- but being forced to open up the device every time you want to navigate to a new web page or perform a quick web search is a PITA. I'll be honest: it sucks hardcore.

As our brethren at Engadget pointed out last week, Google has already started work on a new branch of Android, codenamed "cupcake" - which will bring, among other improvements. an actual on-screen keyboard to the platform. SWEET. And although Nokia Internet Tablet owners can already install the latest hotness on their devices (obviously, at your own peril - I doubt it will harm your hardware, but this is still developmental stuff), as you can see from the video above, it looks like developmental G1 units have been able to successfully install some of the new hotness as well.

This is great, great news for Android, the G1 and future handsets.

[via Engadget]