Yahoo, IMDb apps hit Android Market
The Android Market plays host to new mobile apps from Yahoo for its Mail and Messenger programs and one from online movie database IMDb.
Android users who want to to keep tabs on their Yahoo mail and learn more about their favorite movies should welcome the addition of a couple of new apps to the growing mobile marketplace.
Yahoo announced Thursday the launch of Android apps for its Mail and Messenger programs topped off by a new mobile-search widget. Available free at the Android Market, the new apps support Android 2.0 or higher and are optimized for the Motorola Droid, HTC Incredible, and Google Nexus One, according to Yahoo.
The Yahoo Mail app offers a variety of enhancements optimized for Android, said Yahoo. Users can e-mail contacts from their Yahoo address book as well as from the native address book. They can upload photos from their phone's camera or photo gallery, view and download attachments, and get push notification of new messages. Existing e-mail can be searched by sender, recipient, subject, and keywords. All messages, folders, and spam can also be managed from the app, according to Yahoo's mobile blog.
The Messenger app gives people the ability to instant-message their friends and send them photos from the camera or photo gallery, said Yahoo. They can check on the status of their friends and update their own status and availability. Push notifications will let users keep the app running in the background while they do other work, Yahoo said.
Finally, the new search widget displays a Yahoo search box on the home screen of the device, allowing users to search by text or voice. A Search Assist feature offers suggestions on search terms, while the auto-locate technology helps find local results depending on the user's location, according to Yahoo.
IMDb has launched its own app for Android, giving people the ability to search for and browse its huge database of movies and TV shows. Users can look for local listings of current movies and TV episodes, watch trailers, and pick up the latest gossip about their favorite celebrities.
The new mobile app is part of the company's "IMDb Everywhere" initiative in which it now offers mobile apps for Apple and Android devices and lets people view and share IMDb content through Facebook and Twitter.