Kinoma Notes

One of the apps we use every day is Kinoma Play’s Google Reader app. It’s a fast, easy way to keep up with your favorite sites, and the full-text searching makes it incredibly easy to find posts on the exact topic you want no matter what feed or folder they’re in.

The reason we keep the word “Beta” painted on is that Google hasn’t quite settled on its “API”, which is what software developers like Kinoma use to access your Google Reader feeds. That means that they can change it anytime without notice.

That’s exactly what just happened, and so today we have a shiny new update of the Google Reader app for you!

Cool! Anything else?

Yes! In a word, speed. The app now opens instantly, and you can start using it even while it’s syncing with the Google Reader service.

How to update Kinoma Play’s Google Reader app

Go to Kinoma Play’s Home screen, then choose Get Apps > Google Reader and update.

Questions? Comments? Suggestions?

We’d love to hear them. Come talk to us in our community forum.

We’ve got a small Flights app update for you today. To get it, just go to Kinoma Play’s Home screen, then choose Get Apps > Flights and update.

Since “sharing” is central to Kinoma apps, Flights lets you share flight info with one touch using SMS or email. This update fixes a bug where shared flight info could be different than what was displayed in Kinoma Play.

Questions? Comments? Suggestions?

We’d love to hear them. Come talk to us in our community forum.

YouTube recently made some unannounced changes that broke YouTube support in some of our products.

Happily, updates for the affected products are available right now! They’re so easy to get that you’ll be YouTubing again in minutes. Here’s how…

How to update Kinoma FreePlay

To update immediately, go to Kinoma FreePlay’s main screen, show the menu pod and select Player > Check for Updates. Otherwise, you’ll be notified about the update automatically.

How to update Kinoma Player 4 EX and Kinoma Player 4

If your Palm smartphone or handheld has an internet connection, just choose Check for updates from the Media menu. Otherwise, you can update from your PC.

Questions? Comments? Suggestions?

We’d love to hear them. Come talk to us in our community forum.

Whew! Another week, another free update for Kinoma Play customers. How do we do it? Magical elves. It turns out Kinoma Play is what they do when they’re not making Christmas!

Yelp

The easiest way to find the best local businesses — everything from restaurants to dentists to mechanics and lots more — is now built right into Kinoma Play.

Fun fact: Yelp is Kinoma Play’s first location-aware app! If your phone supports GPS, just choose Nearby to find everything near you, or check “Use GPS Location” when you Search. In another first, Yelp is the first Kinoma Play app to feature tap-to-dial. Once you find the business you can call it, map it and even share it via SMS and email.

A full feature focus article on Yelp is coming soon. Until then, don’t let that stop you from diving in and enjoying Yelp today.

Google Reader

Recently we introduced a great feed reader app called News to Kinoma Play. A great addition to be sure, but then we heard from Google Reader users who wanted to play, too.

Google Reader users, your wish is granted. Not only can you able to read your subscriptions (including Starred and Shared items), but the Search command uses Google Blog Search to let you search the content of all blogs (vs. just blogs you’ve subscribed to)!

Following in Google’s footsteps, we’ve labelled this first release a “beta” so that we can get it to you ASAP. If you use Google Reader with Kinoma Play, please let us know what you think.

Flights

The new Flights app lets you search for flights and review U.S. airport delays. It couldn’t be simpler:

Once you find your flight, you can see its departure and arrival information. Then with a touch, you can share that via SMS and/or email, or choose Track Flight to add it to the main Flights screen.

What do you think?

We’re super-excited to bring you Kinoma Play’s first location-based app, and new features like touch-to-call. Enjoy!