The folks over on Android Police must have spent some of their time rewatching I/O videos. While they were doing that, they spotted a potential leak during the “Structure in Android App Design” session. In it, it seems, Google quietly leaked screenshots of what looks to be a revamped interface for the Gmail app.

If this turns out to be a real product, and the presentation sure made it look like that, the app could soon get a new navigation drawer that should make using it quite a bit easier – especially for those of us who like to use lots of labels in Gmail.

Currently, Google uses what it calls a “spinner,” the drop-down menu at the top of the screen you’ve probably seen in numerous Android apps. Instead, as Google’s Jens Nagel showed during his presentation, the new design would use a navigation drawer that users can pop out from the left side of the screen.

Here is what this would look like:

It’s worth noting that Google showed a lot of mock-ups during this presentation. The Gmail screenshot looks pretty real, however. Google does typically vet these presentations ahead of time, so we will just have to wait and see if this is really a leak or just an example of what the Android team could do with navigation drawers in Gmail.

During the presentation, Google also showed a mock-up of what the Calendar app would look like with the new navigation drawer, but Jens Nagel explicitly noted that while they could use this as the main interface for Calendar, the sidebar does “look a bit underpopulated,” especially on a tablet. It would be odd for Google to use one interface paradigm for one of its main native Android apps and go with another one in the rest of its apps.

Here is the full presentation. The discussion about the new Gmail interface starts about 23 minutes into the video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=XpqyiBR0lJ4

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

A new report from 9to5Mac and its usually well-connected sources today adds a little more color to what we’ll be seeing from the big iOS 7 redesign rumored to be making an appearance at WWDC this year in June – and what we’ll apparently be seeing is a lot less color. The visual overhaul not only emphasizes so-called “flat design” (avoiding complicated textures in favor of bold, solid tones), but also features the use of many black and white elements across the UI.

The new report reiterates what we’ve already heard – that Ive is heading up a pretty extensive overhaul of Apple’s mobile OS, concentrating primarily on the visual aspects of iOS. Now, though, we get a bit more info about how and why Ive is targeting so-called skeuomorphic elements (those that mimic real-world textures) and additional details about specific elements of the OS that have undergone change, plus redesigned apps and even some new features.

Ive feels that the sorts of heavy textures used in the current iteration of iOS aren’t designed to last, and will quickly take on a dated look, according to 9to5Mac’s sources. Physical metaphors for digital design are a dead end, he apparently believes, and makes for a lack of harmony between and among individual iOS apps like Notes, Maps and Game Center. It’s true that other, more recent takes on mobile interfaces have focused more on unity, like Windows Phone, but it’s also true that from a success perspective, iOS has trounced Microsoft’s newer mobile OS; flat design may have the praise of the tech community, but it hasn’t necessarily proved itself in the consumer arena yet.

Other big changes coming to what people are used to on iPhone include the lock screen mechanisms, which will finally see the iconic lock screen re-envisioned with a “shine-free, black interface” says 9to5Mac. Round buttons will replace the grid for security code input, and notifications might get more useful thanks to expanded interactivity options made possible through multi-touch gestures.

Notifications in general will get some changes, ditching the linen texture background per the report in favor of something more black and white. More widgets are on their way to Notification Center, too, and we could see access included to regularly-accessed settings, including Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and the Airplane Mode switch.

The Home Screen gets a minor but notable visual refresh, losing the shine on buttons and system apps given flatter designs that don’t “pop” quite as much as the current versions. iOS 7 also apparently borrows a trick from Android, adding in panorama-style scrollable wallpapers that continue across home screens, instead of presenting the same static image for each. In general, common interface elements like the on-screen keyboard will undergo a flattening effect, ditching things like drop shadow and toning down the color in favor of greys, whites and blacks. This extends to core apps like Mail, Calendar, Maps and Notes, each of which have more uniformed, primarily white interfaces. Each also gets a unique olor for buttons and highlights, however, providing a strong visual cue about which you’re using while retaining a similarity of design across all the software.

New features reportedly include a standalone FaceTime app for iPhone, as well as Flickr and Vimeo integration, and better in-car tools connected to Maps and Siri for hands-free use. We’ll also see a lot of changes on the developer side, likely with the introduction of many new APIs to unlock more potential for apps, something which has become a common feature of iOS updates.

9to5 reports that we’ll see this arrive for the general public along with new iPhone and possibly iPad hardware this fall. The iPhone version of the iOS 7 redesign might beat the iPad version out of the gate however, as the report claims that Apple’s design and engineering talent are focused on pushing out the smartphone version first. Hopefully we’ll learn more at the WWDC keynote, which is coming up June 10, and where we’ll be reporting live.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Google is well known for its regular bouts of spring cleaning when it kills off a number of products in one fell swoop, but it also sometimes makes quick changes in between the bigger announcements. One of those has now hit its portfolio of SMS-based products aimed at users of lower end devices: Google has quietly closed down SMS Search.

People began to notice the service stop working on Friday, and asked about it in one of Google’s Product Forums (good thing those haven’t been closed down yet) and on Reddit. Jessica S., a Google employee, set the record straight:

“Hi everyone,

Closing products always involves tough choices, but we do think very hard about each decision and its implications for our users. Streamlining our services enables us to focus on creating beautiful technology that will improve people’s lives.

Thanks,
Jess”

For those of you who didn’t use it, SMS Search was a service Google had created that let users send search queries by text message to a short number, in this case 466453. The search results would also come back as text messages. These would not be links to further web pages, but actual information, playing on the many services that Google offers on its desktop search portal for things like currency conversions, weather and local listings. This was mainly intended for feature phones without data connections:

But the search could also be used on smartphones:

Google’s SMS services page hasn’t removed a link to SMS Search yet, it goes to a 404 page.
Trying to find a picture of how SMS Search looked, I came across (on Google) a link to its Canadian SMS Search page, which appears to still have an active link, but as Ghacks points out that won’t work because it uses the same short code number as the U.S. service did.

In some regards, you can see why Google would choose to axe SMS Search. The number of feature phone sales is on the decline worldwide as more and more people make the shift to smartphones.

In the last quarter of 2012, Gartner says the number of mobile phone sales worldwide was a 472 million units, compared to 478 million a year ago, but at the same time smartphone sales increased by 58 million to 208 million (it has yet to release its quarterly figures for Q1 2013).

It could be that Google is simply doing this to stay one step ahead of the times. Or it could be that, as with other products like Google Reader, it was not getting enough use of the service.

For now, Google’s other SMS products that let you check your calendar, update your Blogger blog, check your Gmail, and send and receive SMS text messages through Google Voice, appear to still be working; but users will inevitably start wondering if these will be next on the chopping block.

We’re reaching out to Google to ask and will update as we learn more.

Photocredit: SEORoundtable

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

If you’ve been using OpenTable to reserve tables at your favorite restaurants, the latest update for Android will help you discover new places to eat a little better and keep track of everything you have going on. It also got some of that Holo design lovin’.

The company announced the Android update today on its blog, noting a complete overhaul of its maps integration, fully leveraging Google Maps v2. The other major feature, that the company notes was a popular community request, is the ability to add a reservation directly to your Google Calendar. This feature is available for those using Android 4.0+. The plus here is that you can utilize Google Calendar to send out invites to your dinner, which is the best way to get those last reminders in. It’s pretty shocking that this hasn’t been available until now.

The new maps integration cuts down on clutter, OpenTable says, and you can now use the feature to explore areas away from where you are currently, which was a bit of an odd restraint in the previous version of the app.

Navigation is now much easier, allowing you to go back to the previous page or jump to your favorites, current reservations or a map view. The profile pages themselves got a facelift too, showing the overall rating for a restaurant immediately:

Some other quick tweaks include speedier menu and review loading and the ability to edit your reservation’s date, time and party size right on the restaurant page, rather than having to jump around. The company promises more Android-specific updates moving forward, after updating its iOS app last month to include a cool feature, Foodspotting dishes.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

If you’re anything like me*, your calendar is a mess. You actually have multiple calendars through which you try to keep track of various different meetings and you’re always bouncing back and forth between your email and your calendar, trying to keep track of whom you’re meeting when, trying not to double-book — and more often than not, failing.

There have been any number of calendaring and so-called productivity apps which have emerged over the last several months — apps like Donna, Tempo, Fantastical, and whatnot. But each of them seeks to simplify the process of keeping track of and getting to all your meetings. Few actually simplify the process of setting them up.

That’s where Atlas comes in.

Atlas is a mobile app not just for notifying you of when and where you have meetings, but more importantly, for setting them up. The app works by getting you through the gnarly process of setting meetings with an easy, step-by-step process for connecting you with other people.

Instead of bouncing back and forth between multiple browser windows — one for email, one for calendar — and trying to schedule things that way… And instead of sending multiple emails back and forth between meeting participants, Atlas provides a simple way to create meetings on your mobile phone, and then have those meetings imported back into the calendar program of your choice.

With Atlas, users simply create an event, and then invite people to participate in it. If users are looking at multiple possible meeting times, they can send a few which work and have the other participant pick which one works for them. The originating meeting creator gets to see a matrix of when everyone’s available and can then pick a time that works for everyone. In the meantime, while waiting on a final meeting time, those times are blocked off so that you can’t accidentally double book. Participants can also counter offer places and times and stuff, because they might know of a better sushi joint than the meeting creator.

It’s kind of like Tungle.me before, well, you know. Oh yeah, and it’s mobile first.**

Atlas isn’t trying to take over your calendar, which is nice. Instead it works with the calendars you work with. That includes GCal, iCal, YCal, and Outlook. It also works with newer calendar apps — you know, the Tempos and Sunrises and Fantasticals of the world.

Anyway, while Atlas has lots of cool features and will unsuck your calendar if you’re a power user, it might not be the best choice for everyone. Still, might be worth giving it a try because hey, anything is better than two browser windows and back and forth emails, right?

==
* And by God I hope you’re not, if just for your own sake…
** Because we were all born mobile nowadays, y’know.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Menlo Ventures partner Shawn Carolan searched for over five years to find an investment tackling the problem of email overload. Carolan, who led investments in Apple-acquired Siri among others, personally faced his own productivity challenges, and after not being able to find a startup that addressed all the problems he felt needed to be solved, he decided to build it on his own. Handle, which is launching today at TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2013, is Carolan’s brainchild.

Carolan, along with his co-founder Jonathan McCoy, describes Handle as an operating system for your life. There are 600 million knowledge workers who spend 20 hours a week processing emails. Many get to inbox zero several times a week but Carolan says that this achieving inbox zero by deleting, archiving and starring emails doesn’t solve the fundamental problem of prioritizing your inbox with simple interactions, and creating tasks from these emails.

Handle offers a rich web app as well as a companion native iOS app that integrates with Gmail (and soon Microsoft Exchange and Yahoo) to pull in your emails. In its current state, Handle is a much better and faster way to sort through emails and create tasks at the same time.

The app allows you to capture ideas, triage your inbox, plan a schedule for the day and focus on your priorities. The centralized UX feature is the ‘Handle bar,’ which Carolan says was inspired by Siri’s ability to simplify interactions with deep capabilities of a system. The Handle bar, which is patented, allows you to annotate emails with deadlines, snooze emails, create projects, cluster emails together and more.

Here’s how Handle works: Your inbox flows into a JavaScript web app, and you can respond to emails inline. The basic idea is to triage your emails quickly and efficiently also being able to create a task management list. In each email you can decide whether to flag, delete, create into a project, or archive. If you decide to flag to respond later, you choose whether to flag as must do, should do or want to do and Handle will create a prioritized list of emails you need to respond to. What makes this interesting is the speed at which you can triage your email. Each action can be done by simply pressing one key (i.e. click 1 for must do, 2 for should do and so on).

All of this triage takes place within the Handle bar. As Carolan explains, the Handle bar is one of the central UX elements to the application. The startup figured they could solve overload if every email you saw could be handled by expressing what you wanted done with it and it happened. Instead of dictating by voice or typing full words, Carolan and his team decided to derive intent within a few keystrokes.

And Handle creates a general list of tasks that needs to be done using this data. This ‘capture’ phase is similar to existing to-do lists, allowing rapid entry of current tasks. Handle also places your priorities on a daily working calendar, assigning tasks to time, in the proper order.

Carolan says that current email programs create a ‘blunt’ instrument for organizing our lives. Folders, mark as unread, and flag/stars/labels are as much as most people use. Handle makes it easy to add context to your tasks so you can execute on them more efficiently. For example, if there’s a task you want to do at home on the weekend, you can snooze it until Saturday to get it out of sight until then. Whenever a task is created in Handle, you just have to hit to expose all the possible metadata options and then continue typing.

Handle’s iOS app is designed as a simple way you can access your tasks and priorities, and is a pared down version of its web cousin when it comes to functionality. You can see tasks, and send notes to yourself to add to your task list. The app itself is not an inbox but eventually will become one in the future.

Currently Handle cannot replace your Gmail inbox (for example, Handle doesn’t have a search functionality yet). But in the future, it’s safe to assume that Handle will be building an arsenal of tools to allow you do much more than just triage emails and turn emails into tasks. Eventually Handle will serve as your calendar, and you’ll be able to combine your schedule of meetings with your Handle tasks. You could also envision Handle adding other types of messages into the inbox such as Twitter DMs, says Carolan.

In terms of revenue, Handle plans to implement a freemium model and will eventually roll out a pro version with enterprise features.

The startup has raised $4 million in funding from Menlo Ventures (Carolan is still advising the startups he supports at Menlo, and remains a partner but won’t be sourcing any new deals for the time being). The startup has quietly been testing the app with tech executives and have received positive responses. For example, David Fischer, VP of Advertising and Global Operations at Facebook says that Handle has made him much more efficient.

As Carolan explains, Handle is disruptive because no one has designed a solution for the full life cycle of a user’s day. While high-powered email clients want to help you get to inbox zero, many of these clients don’t allow you to also handle productivity and task management.

Handle aims to differentiate itself by focusing on the whole life cycle of email from capture, to triage, to planning, to focusing. Second, Handle spans the desktop and mobile. While mobile is valuable for triage, most of the important work still gets done at the desktop, says Carolan. Handle also natively integrates email and task functionality, without the need to forward emails to task managers.

He admits that it takes a little bit of time to get used to the shortcuts, the UI and general behavior around Handle. But he firmly believes that Handle is presenting a new way of thinking about modern work that maps to how the world’s most effective people get things done. As we mentioned above, Handle’s aim isn’t just to help you handle your professional email and tasks in a more efficient way, it’s designed to add productivity to your entire life. It’s not just for the executive, it’s also for the busy mom, or the college student.

Q&A

Sam Yagan: Are there any one of these features that are a gamechanger?

SC: It’s the package of features, called the Handle Habit. You need to use the features together.

John Frankel: Is this a product for enterprises or consumer?

SC: Initial product will be free. Over time, we imagine going after enterprise features over time.

Frankel: My suggestion is get to revenue early and find out what people will pay more for.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

There are definitely times where I feel like my social life has gotten a bit … not monotonous, but tied to a familiar pattern of bookstores, movie theaters, bars, and karaoke bars. That’s why I’m checking out a new site called SpotOn.it, which tries to break people out of their own personal ruts by recommending different types of events.

There are lots of other activity-recommendation apps out there (the most interesting to me has probably been Weotta). SpotOn.it is different because it integrates with your Google Calendar, from which it can learn two important things — what you like to do, and what your schedule looks like.

“Our tech is based off building statistical models off of how people spend their time,” said co-founder and CEO Smita Saxena. She noted that she and her co-founder and CTO Charles Feng both have a background in machine learning.

SpotOn.it is also crawling the web to gather information about different events and activities, and identifying the basic characteristics of each activity. (The service has a pretty broad range of sources, Saxena said, though it’s still working on getting local events information from print magazines — she described it as “the last frontier”). Put that together with your event information and it can recommend nearby activities that take place when you’re free and that are tailored to your interests.

You can also “like” activities and add them to your wish list (which is shared with other users) or your calendar. That, in turn, gives SpotOn.it more data for making personalized recommendations.

It sounds like there’s a pretty broad range of activities. For example, Saxena said that SpotOn.it has been in private beta, and that one of the big user groups is moms in the San Francisco Bay Area. So if a mom had an hour or two free with one of her children, SpotOn.it could recommend play groups nearby. I also signed myself up and got a pretty interesting range of activities that I could do this weekend — like tandem skydiving and visiting the GLBT museum. I hadn’t heard of most of them, but they all sounded like things I might enjoy. (Though, no, I’m not going skydiving.)

The service is free, and Saxena said that she plans to make money eventually by integrating local deals that are tailored to users’ interests. She also said SpotOn.it could integrate with other services through an SDK allowing those services to offer activity recommendations to their own users.

The company is a graduate of StartX, the incubator for Stanford students and alums.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Mobile personal assistant apps are all the rage these days. First there was Google Now for Android, but over the last several weeks we’ve seen a whole bunch of new apps pop up — apps like Donna, Osito, and Sherpa — all of which seeking to make our lives easier by simplifying how we organize our meetings, travel, and other personal information.

With that in mind, I sat down with my colleague Drew Olanoff to discuss why this is such a hot space and whether these apps deliver on their promise. On that latter question, we still think these apps have a long way to go.

As Drew says, all the technology is there — and yet, no one has really pulled it all together in a way that makes these apps truly smart. There’s also the issue of finding an app that fits everyone’s lifestyle. As he points out, his personal workflow is different from mine. Finding a way to make a personal assistant which suits everyone’s needs is a difficult process.

As for me? I like what I’ve seen so far from apps like Donna or Osito, but I don’t want an app that I have to enter information into to make things work. I want something that will scour my email and calendars, figure out where and when things are happening, and then from that information plan my calendar for me. No one quite comes close right now.

Check out the video above for our discussion on the topic, and let us know what you think in the comments.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

It was only about three weeks ago when the team behind predictive intelligence app Sherpa announced a hefty seed round and that it was rolling the app out to private beta users. Now it seems they’re all ready for prime time… with a few changes.

Since there’s already a glut of mobile apps named Sherpa floating around out there, founder and CEO Bill Ferrell thought it was high time for a bit of rebranding — to that end Sherpa has been renamed Osito, and it’s ready for you to download in the iOS App Store.

Here’s a bit of background in case you haven’t been keeping tabs on the app formerly known as Sherpa. Long story short, Osito is a predictive intelligence app that picks up on your location and scans your calendar and connected email accounts to display information about your day. While it’s easy enough to draw comparisons between Osito and services like Google Now (especially since there are some aesthetic similarities between the two), Osito’s biggest draw isn’t that it’s able to surface pertinent information on the fly.

Rather, it’s that the app is awfully smart at figuring out when it should display what it does thanks to its thoughtful reliance on location triggers. If it sifts through your email and happens upon a boarding pass for instance, you’ll only see it once you’re actually within range of the airport you’ll need to use it in. Osito’s work begins well before you set foot on the plane — in that particular case it will chew on your email to figure out when you should begin your trek to the airport and give you an idea of the weather you’ll encounter on your way there.

As a result of the three or so weeks that app has been open to private beta testers, Ferrell and rest of the team have added a handful of new features to the mix. This time around there’s improved support for hotels and accommodation information — users will get a notification the day before they’re slated to check in, plus another once the app detects that you’re near the hotel in question. The bigger change here though is that the app is more thoughtful about displaying what you should be doing next. Going back to the travel example, the app can now provide you with the ability to call taxis from within the app or display info on airport parking to help keep your sojourn moving smoothly.

“People like the information we’re surfacing,” Ferrell points out. “But they want it to be more actionable. Now we’re making sure to attach the right ‘next step’ buttons”

What really stuck me during my time fiddling with the app was just how rarely I actually had to fire up the app proper — Osito is plenty eager to display push notifications when it thinks you should be doing something, so you could certainly just let the app run in the background and react to whatever pops up. At this point Osito’s approach still feels like an understated one, and that’s just how the six person team likes it… for now.

“Our goal isn’t to be in your face,” Ferrell said. “That’s not the good stuff. The good stuff is sending you something when you actually need it.” That said, there have been more than a few internal conversations about what Osito will be able to do down the road — timely notifications are just the tip of the iceberg. Ferrell is awfully bullish on the concept of Osito as a platform and just not an app, and confirmed that the startup has been in talks with multiple potential partners who are interested in building experiences on top of Osito.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

In recent months, the iOS App Store has filled with “smart” calendars such as Sunrise, Tempo and Cue, but a new Tel Aviv-based startup called Calendo, despite its name, isn’t trying to directly compete with these types of applications. Instead of better managing your calendar for you, Calendo wants to help you fill it by making sure that you don’t miss out on events you would have otherwise attended.

The company is backed by $500,000 in seed funding, all from Saar Wilf, who previously founded and later sold Fraud Sciences to eBay for $169 million. Wilf is designated as the third co-founder/angel, alongside CEO Eran Back and CPO Dov Frank, both who have technical backgrounds and previous experience as startup founders themselves.

The startup had previously run a small, private beta test among friends and family, who used an earlier version of the app also called Calendo, but Back says that the feedback they heard during these trials is that people were more interested in having the app suggest activities.

“They wanted us to suggest things,” he explains. “They wanted something in the discovery space, more than the event organizer space.”

Back says that the users and his friends would complain about missing events – either because they were too busy to check Facebook, or hadn’t “Liked” the right page on the social network to receive the event update.

Calendo, which works on top of Facebook data, solves that problem. It starts off by establishing your interests in terms of the pages you currently like on Facebook (you can select/deselect these at will), but then it takes things a step further. Instead of only alerting you to events, parties, and activities associated with those pages, it tracks those your friends are attending as well.

Over time, the app learns to better tailor its event recommendations to those that fit your interests, the company claims.

When you see an event you want to sign up for, you can RSVP from Calendo itself, save the event to your iOS calendar, invite others, or share the event on Twitter or on your own Facebook profile.

In a few weeks, Calendo is adding support for Evenbrite and Meetup.com events, too, both of which are currently in testing. Longer-term, the plan is to pull in data from a number of other, smaller websites, in particular for things like music concerts.

Calendo plans to generate revenue by pointing users to ticket sales as more sources are added. However, Back says that if the app gained critical mass, it eventually could be used to help event organizers promote their events to the right  target audience. Because Calendo knows a user’s tastes and preferences, it would be able to makes these types of  recommendations.

Events are only the beginning for Calendo, Back adds. “We’re also examining things like trending restaurants,” he says, noting that this feature is also now in testing. “Movies, pubs, bars – things like that – this is the space we’re aiming for,” he says.

Calendo is a free download here in Apple’s iOS App Store.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch