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Ask NerdGirl: No Hands Free, Parental Controls, or AVI support…

Posted Saturday, May 15th, 2010 at 1:00 pm by n3rdg1rl 8 Comments

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Today just seems to be a day of NO’s. All of my questions had negative answers and that’s so upsetting to me! After doing research for these questions, to find that Bluetooth support is so lacking and parental controls for the web browser are non-existent, I really got upset with my beloved Android! Before I flip a lid on Google, let’s see what Android Froyo (2.2) brings us with it’s announcement next week.

Hello

I wasn’t sure if your response hit the mark. I’ll assume it did and ask a further question in regards to Bluetooth support between android and systems found in cars. I can only speak to GM and Chevy vehicles pre-2011. They do not fully support Bluetooth from android. It will only allow numbers to be stated not names. Any ideas?

Thanks

Jarrid, I’m so excited about this development with GM (says the girl with a Contour and an Explorer). GM is going to be tying their OnStar system in with Android smartphones! Neither Google nor GM have officially announced this partnership so this won’t be announced before next year’s lineup, I’m sure, but I’m still excited.

The word on the street is that OnStar is going to be adding features to their program that will allow Android users to control features of their car from their devices. The options that Motor Trend is pointing towards are remote start, locking and unlocking your car, and other formally only in-car options. There are ton of mocked up screenshots of Moto DRIODs with different options people are hoping for if you look around on the interwebs.

The Chevrolet Volt, which is coming out later this year, is supposedly getting an upgraded version of OnStar. Maybe this will be a preview of the new Android-based features. None of this is really surprising since Ford already uses Windows based devices with their MyFord, and upcoming MyLincoln, using Microsoft SYNC. I’m just happy they went with Google and not Apple or BlackBerry.

Now to get back to answering what you were asking. There is no talk about how it would connect with the GM vehicles and as of now there are plenty of options. OnStar equipped vehicles already have CDMA and an interesting form of Wi-Fi built into them. Since 2009, I believe, Bluetooth has been at least an option in all of their cars. As I covered yesterday, it’s not actually the car that isn’t supporting the Bluetooth with Android, it’s Android not supporting the Bluetooth with the car. Android does not activate the Bluetooth before a call is connected. Therefore, truly hands-free isn’t a feature on Android at the moment. I’m hoping this is something that will be integrated with the release of Froyo (Android 2.2).

Is there an app that blocks internet sites like the iphone does where if a child types in an adult content site it won’t come up?

Erika Potter

Right now, Erika, this seems to be a wide-spread issue with parents of children with Android phones. There is no parental control software that works on the web browser. The only way to control web content right now is to remove the browser completely, which involves rooting your phone.

SMobile Parental Controls seems to be the only piece of software that I can find that works as a parental control. It’s $29.99, which seems like a lot for an Android app, but it allows you to track your kids actions on their phone from your computer. It tracks everything from installed apps to text messages to added contacts. You can even see where they are using the phones built in GPS. It just seems the only thing it doesn’t track is the Internet usage.

Nerd,

Is it possible to view .avi files on Motorola Droid?

Droyid

For some reason, Droyid, .avi files (including Xvid) cannot be played on any droids anymore. I say anymore because the Samsung Moment, when it was running 1.5, did have the ability to play .avi files. The only way to view your files will be to convert them to 3GPP (.3gp) or MPEG-4 (.mp4) file formats.

~n3rdg1rl

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