Families for Android Announced

We are now starting to see apps with some serious cross-platform capabilities. I’ve mentioned an iOS app in the past, Families, (Families 1.1.1 is the latest) for iPhones, iPod touches, and iPads. While other applications such as MobileFamilyTree and Reunion would allow you to carry your genealogy data from your Mac OS X installations of Reunion and MacFamilyTree, Families was unique in that it worked with your iPhone/iPod touch/iPad and a Windows install of Legacy Family Tree, keeping your data in sync and allowing you to move back and forth between Windows and iOS. It was the only one of its kind.

Today, TelGen Limited, the company behind Families for iOS, has announced a new version of Families, and this time around, it allows you to synchronize your data between a Windows install of Legacy Family Tree and Google’s Android platform.

Here’s the full press release:

FAMILIES APP NOW AVAILABLE FOR ANDROID York, UK, 31 Jan 2011

TelGen Limited is pleased to announce the release of the first version of Families for Android. This app provides the same functionality as the popular Families app for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad, but now on the Android platform. The app works in conjunction with Legacy Family Tree, the leading Windows-based genealogy software from Millennia Corp. You can now transfer your complete family tree, including pictures, to your Android smartphone, and view and edit the information wherever you are. Any changes you make can then be synced back to your Legacy file on your PC.

Families supports the following functionality:
* Multiple family files
* New family files can be created from scratch
* Family View, Pedigree View and Descendant View
* Index, searchable by Given Name, Surname or RIN
* Events
* To Do Lists
* Master and Detail Sources
* Locations and Addresses, with geolocation via Google Maps
* Alternate Names
* Pictures, including the ability to add pictures from camera or photo album
* Portrait and Landscape mode on all views
* Handles very large family files

Families for Android can be purchased from Android Market for £8.99 or equivalent in other currencies.

For more information see http://www.telgen.co.uk/families or email families@telgen.co.uk

Google Android 2.3 – Launching with Nexus S

Google has announced that with the release of their latest phone, the Nexus S (a Samsung device), they are also launching Android 2.3. Obviously Android 2.3 won’t be available immediately for everybody, depending on the hardware and carrier, but it’s still a big deal.

Some of the highlights of Android 2.3
* UI (User Interface) refinements – simplified, plus enhanced performance.
* Better/faster text input and editing, including reshaped keys to increase accuracy
* One-touch word selection and copy/paste.
* Improved power management
* Improved control over applications
* A New and updated set of standard applications
* Support for multiple cameras
* See the link below for more details

Read:
* Google.com/Nexus (Nexus S)
* Android 2.3 Platform Highlights

Evernote 3.4.0 Released

My favorite (currently) note-taking app for the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad was updated a few days ago. Evernote 3.4.0 has been released with quite a few fixes. As always, it’s free. Evernote is a note-taking application that spans across several platforms (Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, iOS, Android) and allows you to keep your notes in sync across all platforms.

What an update this is! For those genealogists who use their iPhones to make audio recordings, the audio recording portion of Evernote has been greatly enhanced, including bumping the limit up to 90 minutes. You can also select multiple images from the camera roll to add them to a note.

Thate changes/additions I’m interested in, from within Safari and Mail you can now directly send PDF and text information into Evernote through the “Open In” option.

If you are running iOS 4.2 and are configured properly, you can also print notes to a printer on the network, from within Evernote.

Changes
* Select multiple images from your camera roll at once and add them to a single note or make multiple snapshot notes
* Audio note recording limit increased to 90 minutes, great for lectures and interviews
* Audio recordings can now be played, paused and replayed from within the note
* Audio note playback can be controlled via the dock player, headphones or other external controls
* Send PDFs and text from Safari and Mail directly into Evernote via the “Open In” option
* 3rd party developers can configure their apps to send PDFs, images and audio into Evernote
* Print notes directly from Evernote to a network printer (in iOS 4.2)
* Numerous bug fixes and improvements

You can read the official Evernote blog entry here or check the official Evernote website.

Requirements
* iOS 3.0 or later (iOS 4.2 for printing over the network)
* Languages: English, Catalan, Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Swedish

If you already have Evernote installed, you can just go through your normal update process. If you don’t, you can download it through the iTunes Store (Evernote link)

Note that this is only for the iOS platform, and that Evernote for Android has note been updated with this release.

GedStar Pro for Android Announced

In case you are a Palm user (or former Palm OS user) and have been wondering what happened to GedStar, wonder no more!

Rather than make the transition to webOS 2.0 and continue on HP/Palm hardware, GHCS Software has made the transition to Google’s Android platform.

This is a major deal for the Google Android platform as there hasn’t been much in the way of genealogy software for Android – a couple of family tree/GEDCOM browsers called AGeneDB and Family Bee. GedStar will be the first fully-featured genealogy app for the Android platform. According to the press release below, everything from the Palm version has been ported to the Android version.

There is a Windows/PC program that will allow you to take your genealogy data and information directly from The Master Genealogist or Legacy Family Tree (if you use either of those) and sync it up with GedStar Pro for Android.

Press Release and future enhancements:
Read more

Article: Sharing Roots With an iPhone App

Maurine Pool of the Orange County Register has written a nice article about genealogy and iPhones titled “Sharing Roots With an iPhone App.” She happened to Google “iPad genealogy app” and came across GedView, which she purchased. In fact, GedView is what got her to purchase an iPhone 4. She was not going to purchase an iPhone until she had a genealogy application.

She spoke with David Knight who develops GedView, and he mentioned that there is interest in other platforms such as Google’s Android and HP Palm webOS:

The iPhone 4′s features were tempting enough, but the GedView app got me into the Apple store.

The guy who developed GedView, David Knight, says more than 7,000 have been sold through Apple’s iTunes.

This app’s a reader really, not a full-blown program and is only available for iOS devices. Knight says he has received inquiries and is considering making GedView avalilable for other platforms such as Android or WebOS-based (Palm Pre) phones.

She mentions the major reason why so many of us like having genealogy apps on mobile devices such as iPhones:

I knew I wanted to share information with these cousins. I didn’t want to print out a lot of charts and sift through them when I could be socializing. I wanted to have ALL that information magically appear as I stood around sipping tea and listening to family tales.

She also discussed how important the higher-resolution camera on the iPhone 4 is, as well as loading 200+ photos into the iPhone’s photo app.

Maurine’s article is a good read if you’re curious about what typical genealogists are doing with their iPhones.

Full article: Orange County Register

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