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Huawei Mercury arrives on Cricket in full Glory, available now for $250
What comes after Honor and Glory? Mercury, apparently. That's the American moniker of choice for Huawei's latest smartphone, which has just been launched on Cricket's network. Powered by a 1.4GHz single-core CPU, this Android-juiced handset boasts a four-inch FWVGA (854 x 480) display, packs 2GB of internal memory and sports an eight megapixel shooter, along with a VGA front-facing camera. The provider didn't offer many specifics on the software side, though the Mercury will support Google's full suite of mobile apps, while offering tethering support for up to five other devices. It's available now for $250 at select retailers, on Cricket's $55-per-month plan. Find more specs and information in the full PR, after the break.
Google's gingerbread Androids are fully baked, can the OS be far behind?
Continuing with our cookery theme this morning, we now have a full tray of scrumptious-looking gingerbread Android men, courtesy of Google Mobile's Twitter account. The whole world and his poodle already know that Gingerbread, Android's next iterative update that's presently expected to be given the numerical identifier of 2.3, is coming some time soon, but now Google's taken to fanning the flames of anticipation with some home cooking. What could it mean? Well, if you're an optimist, it means Android's about to receive its update imminently, but if you're a pessimist, you'll look at that Christmas-themed red and green attire and foretell of another month of waiting and thumb-twiddling. Either way, though, this seems to confirm Gingerbread is on track to land at some point before we welcome in 2011. Which can only be a good thing.
Google Mobile's pizza ad proves its point, ad nauseam (video)
Pizza. Pizza. Pizza. Pizza. Pizza. If you're speaking said word while using Google Mobile on a GPS-enabled smartphone, you no longer need to specify where exactly you want the app to search. Of course, we highly doubt you'll see too many germane results while speaking it from Easter Island, but that's just one of the million examples shown in the supposedly comedic video hosted after the break. We'd commend Google on its effort, but our appreciation waned after about 22.8 seconds.
GooTasks syncs tasks from Google
We all know that trying to sync up tasks from your Google account to your iPhone / iPad can be a laborious, if not impossible, task! And if you didn't know that, ... now you do. The only way to access Google tasks is through mobile Safari or another Web browser. Even Google Mobile App will direct you to the Web-based version of Google tasks, via Safari. And, as it stands, there is no way to access Google tasks on the iOS Mail.app either, only notes can be synced through that. No one's saying the Web-based version of Google tasks is such a bad thing, but if you're desperate to deal with your Google tasks through an app, with that app feel, shine and shimmer, then check out GooTasks. GooTasks is a straight forward and very simple app. It allows you to manage, create, edit, and delete Google tasks from various Google accounts and lists so that you can have all of your tasks in just one place. And it's free. I must admit, it's not all that different from Google's own mobile, Web-based version. The only difference that I could find is an offline mode, for use when you're off the grid. Naturally, your tasks will only sync once you're back online. GooTasks is made by French developer Runware. You can check out the GooTasks website in English here, but be warned, the iTunes App Store description is in French only. Another word of caution, GooTasks has an in-app purchase to upgrade to GooTasks Pro at £2.99. For the life of me, I can't figure out what added features you get from this, and I can't glean any further details from their website. So, play it safe, kids! If you're in the market for something similar to GooTasks, check out CalenGoo or GeeTasks, but these are paid apps. Or, why not make a little Web shortcut on your home screen? That way, with one touch, your tasks will appear before you -- just remember to save your log in details!
Google Calendar rolls out for mobiles
Google's rumored and real romp through mobile space continues with the announcement of its Google Calendar application's support for mobiles. The calendar seems to work perfectly, displaying a day by day view of your world and your plans for it, though, sadly, we couldn't find any way to remove events one they were added. Events can be added by typing a description of your appointment in the "Quick Add" box at the bottom of the screen. For example, typing "Pause for dinner today 16:00" (or 4 pm) adds that event to your calendar. This is a pretty handy tool if you rely heavily on your Google calendar or aren't into all that Windows Mobile Calendar syncin' business. Follow the read link to get to the goods![Via Mauricio Freitas]
Yahoo! "jumps ahead" of Google in mobile search
We're not quite sure how Yahoo! claims to have "jumped ahead" of Google in terms of mobile search, but upon investigation here, the Sunnyvale company has unveiled its new "local" search for the first time in the States, delivering locally relevant answers to mobile search queries instead of just relevant but global search results (like Google defaults to with its mobile search). It's true that offering customers search results that are specifically tailored to locality (Yahoo!) instead of a list of relevant but global URLs (Google) are more likely helpful for mobile web searchers, but we're not sure on if this really has Yahoo!'s oneSearch "jumping over" Google's mobile presence. In terms of usefulness, probably. In terms of sheer search volume, well... who knows.
Google gets psychic with mobile search patent
Google sometimes has the uncanny ability to know exactly what we're searching for and can cut through all the results muck sometimes. Not all the time, but nothing is perfect, right? Those Mountain View Mensas are ready to take that to the next level it appears, as Google has just applied for a patent filing that looks like possible precursor to a "Google Phone." If not a Google Phone, then at least a "Google GUI" for a phone. Heck, maybe this will show up in the iPhone upon release or as a software upgrade later. The Google patent appears to contain language and associated mobile processes (user input, of course) that can predict what a user is searching for or the words they are typing in a text message. According to the patent, Google's software takes into consideration the customer location, previous searches (search history) and even SMS history and the time of day when all this search info is requested by the customer. Before we belt out mobile AJAX in our minds, it's just a patent filing, so no dice yet on what this could mean for the future of Google's mobile efforts.[Via mad4mobilephones]
Google expanding mobile offerings
In a move sure to steal a few folks away from their carriers' WAP home pages, Google has added a system for customizing users' mobile screens independently of their desktop counterparts -- a good move, especially for those 99.9% of us without VGA screens on our phones. Separately, they've also announced a new version of their Java-based Google Maps Mobile app that adds support for live traffic and saving favorite locations. We've tried the new release, and yeah, it's gorgeous -- Moto bundling or not, Yahoo's got some catch-up to play.[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
