App of The Day: WunderWalk

2014-11-17 17.25.09Via LifeHacker:

Wunderwalk creates walking tours based on a short set of interests or activities: looking for,  hungry for, thirsty for , or shopping for.

There are many benefits to walking, like boosting your creativity and renewing your productivity. WunderWalk plans interesting and useful paths for you to walk along. You can also try out friends’ or strangers’ WunderWalks.

The app plans out the most time-efficient path according to proximity and ends close to your starting point, which is a useful automatic calculation. It also shows you a phone number for each location and connects with Foursquare to show you more information.

WunderWalk

WunderWalk | Google Play

WunderWalk | iTunes App Store


Can Blu, a tiny Florida phone maker, beat Samsung?

Someone was reading The Verge and found this information on Blu and their new phones. What do you think?  Full article here.

UPDATE:  Here is the Blu phone on Amazon

One cheap, high-end, unlocked smartphone at a time

By David Pierce

DON’T MISS ANY STORIES FOLLOW THE VERGE

Blu Life View

 

Sammy Ohev-Zion starts our chat with an economics lesson. It costs every company about the same amount to manufacture a phone, he says — the price of an Nvidia processor and a Sharp display is consistent whether HTC, Nokia, or Motorola is signing the check. But those costs are only a small piece of the price you wind up paying when you walk into a Verizon store and buy that phone — which either costs upward of $500 or requires a hefty two-year contract. You’re also paying for Samsung’s nine-figure marketing budget, HTC’s HR department, or Sony’s huge New York City skyscraper. What if you could buy the same high-end phone from a company without all that cruft and overhead? How much would it cost?

Ohev-Zion, CEO of Blu Products, a relatively unknown manufacturer based in Miami, Florida, says it would cost $299. That’s how much the company’s latest flagship phone, the Blu Life One, costs unlocked from Amazon or a handful of other retailers. It’s a 5-inch HD phone with a 13-megapixel camera and stock Android 4.2 (save for a Blu wallpaper), in a thin and light body that appears to hold its own next to the Galaxy and Droid devices of the world. $299 also buys the Blu Life View, with a gigantic 5.7-inch HD display, a 12-megapixel camera, and even a 5-megapixel front camera. It’s not surprising that Blu’s phones bear more than a passing resemblance to the iPhone and a handful of Android devices, but neither is it an accident. Ohev-Zion and Blu are betting that people want a good phone, but that they want a cheap phone more than they want a Samsung phone.

‘THE SAME THING, CHEAPER’ IS A PRETTY PROVEN BUSINESS MODEL

There’s some evidence that Ohev-Zion’s confidence isn’t totally misplaced. Take Warby Parker, for instance: the companycircumvented an entrenched supply chain of designers, manufacturers, suppliers, and retailers, and in doing so found a way to sell equally high-quality eyeglasses for a much lower price. Or consider Nicky Bronner, whose father’s connections helped him getUnreal Candy into CVS, Target, and elsewhere — he tweaked the formula of candies like Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups to only include natural ingredients, and found a huge and willing audience as soon as he had a place on shelves. Vizio may be Blu’s best analog, though. "Vizio is the #1-selling TV brand," Ohev-Zion says. "Why? Because people understand, ‘listen, it’s the same technology and I’m getting a much better value without the enormous, billions-of-dollars overhead.’" (Incidentally, Vizio seems to have noticed this too — the company announcedits first line of smartphones at CES.)

……..

But Blu is growing — from 70,000 units in 2009, its first year, to 4.1 million last year — and it’s growing in key areas. A third of the company’s 300 employees are stationed around Latin America, where they’re selling both feature phones and smartphones to a region that is only slowly adopting mobile technology. But as Latin American phone use grows, so will Blu: "we’re in a supreme position" in the region, Ohev-Zion says. "We’re the only ones."

Via Announces The APC 8750, A $50 Android PC

From MaximumPC while I ponder a DIY Build-Your-Own PC I saw this:

If you’re getting sick of waiting for a slice of your very own Raspberry Pi mini-PC, fear not; the cavalry will soon be arriving thanks to an unexpected rival: Via, the longtime mobo makers. Yesterday, the company announced its Pi-like "APC 8750" board, a $50 Android-powered PC complete with processor, memory and a host of I/O ports.

The Via APC fits into any mini-ATX or micro-ATX case even though it’s based on a new "Neo-ATX" form factor, measuring in at just 17cm by 8.5cm. This particular Android 2.3 Gingerbread variant has been optimized for keyboard and mouse input. The mini-PC sports 4 USB 2.0 ports and HDMI, VGA, Ethernet, micro SD and audio/mic connections for all your interfacing needs.

Hardware-wise, the APC rocks an 800MHz VIA processor along with a memory combo of 512MB of DDR3 and 2GB of NAND. The system is capable of pumping out 720p graphics via its HDMI port; that, combined with the Ethernet connectivity, may just make the APC 8750 an attractive little $50 media streamer for Netflix lovers and HTPC enthusiasts on a budget. The Raspberry Pi, however, can stream a full 1080p feed and comes with its own power supply — something the APC 8750 lacks.

Via claims the APC 8750 consumes just 4W when idle and 13.5W under max load.

Interested? Head on over to the APC website, where you can find out more about the $50 Android PC and sign up to receive an email notification when the diminutive board launches. Via expects the APC 8750 to start shipping in early July.

Keeping My Eyes on Republic Wireless

republicwirelessFrom Geek.com:

The mobile networks in the US are designed to prevent new competition from entering the market. The US isn’t likely to see a new carrier to deliver a service that functions the same way that the current traditional carriers do. In order to succeed, a radical concept needs to be deployed. Republic Wireless hopes to deliver that radical concept, by offering unlimited everything for $20/month. The catch? The service is designed for you to use Voice over IP and your local wireless network whenever you can.

Today’s Android App: AirDroid

AirDroid is a fast, free app that lets you wirelessly manage & control your Android device from a web browser Over-The-Air.

Now I don’t have to constantly click on the Droid to check what it is doing.  I just loaded it and I am texting off the browser window with no problems.  This is looking very, very good already.

 

No Lock Android App Disables Your “Slide to Unlock” Keyguard

Convince I am that I am the last to find the answer to some problems. I texted my peer Android users about this annoyance, the “slide to unlock” feature, but they were unaware of this app, if you are, test it out.

After all, the tiny power button seems to ensure not turning it on by accident.

No Lock addresses this issue and provides a handy 1×1 widget.  You could find the same feature on Tasker, but I haven’t purchased that yet.

qr code