Tag: google buzz

Google Maps Updated to 4.2.0 with Biking Directions and Sharing

Posted
by
Kyle McInnes
on June 2, 2010, at 12:45 PM
in News
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8 Comments

Google Maps for BlackBerry has been updated to version 4.2.0 and now includes biking direction, a navigation shortcut and sharing. The biking directions provides you lanes and trails, just in time for summer. The bike navigation layer gives you bike-only trails, roads with bike lanes, or roads that are good for biking but lack a dedicated lane. You can turn on this layer form the Layers menu and pick your own route. You can also add the Terrain layer and decide either to climb or avoid any large hills on the way home.

Google maps also includes a new search result page and the ability to share places by email, SMS, Facebook and more. From the search results page, you can choose to “Share this place” and send that place’s info such as address and phone number, to whomever you choose. If you want to meet a friend, this is an easy way to send them details of your current location and meet up fast.

These new improvements to Google maps are pretty awesome and it makes you wonder how other mapping companies are going to survive in the market. How is a company such as TeleNav going to compete when Google collects such a vast amount of data and makes it all entirely free?

Thanks for the tip, Tim!

Google Buzz with Location Now Available on Native BlackBerry Browser

Posted
by
Kyle McInnes
on May 27, 2010, at 5:30 PM
in News
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3 Comments

When Google announced Google Buzz for mobile it was only available on BlackBerry with a workaround that involved using Opera Mini. Now, Google Buzz has an XHTML version which can be accessed from your BlackBerry browser. This new mobile version allows you all the basic Buzz functionality such as the ability to view the stream of buzz posts, post publicly or privately, comment or like a post, and more. But wait, there’s more! If you enable location in your BlackBerry browser, you can get to the Nearby view, where you’ll find geo-tagged posts near you. In addition, you can tag your post with your location.

To enable location in your browser, open the browser and go Menu > Options >General Properties > Enable JavaScript Location support. Happy buzzing!

Visit Google Buzz from your BlackBerry at buzz.google.com.

Tip sent in by our good friend Brett. Thanks!

Google Buzz Available on Blackberry with Third Party Browser

Posted
by
Brett Freeman
on February 13, 2010, at 6:42 PM
in News
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29 Comments

GOOGLE/SOCIAL

Got a Blackberry, but can’t get your Buzz on? Well there is a work-around. The trick is to not use the native Blackberry browser. Instead, use either Opera Mini (I’m using v5 beta 2) or the latest Bolt release as they both handle the javascript correctly. Previously, when you attempted to open the site from a non-supported platform, Google would simply notify and there was nothing more that could be done. At the bottom of the alert, Google now offers an option to ‘Continue on an unsupported device.’ Try it from the native browser and you won’t see much as it can’t handle the javascript and rendering properly. However, use Opera or Bolt and you’re good to go. Assuming you have either of those (2) browsers installed, here are the steps:

1. Navigate to https://m.google.com/app/buzz
2. Click on ‘Continue on an unsupported device’
3. Click on ‘Menu’ in upper left corner.
4. Login using normal Google credentials
5. Follow me on Buzz to test it out.

True, location features will not be working until we get a native Blackberry app, but I suspect we’ll see one soon enough.

[Simultaneously posted on my Posterous blog]