Is there something like yellow pages for pda that doesn't require data network? - General Topics

Having gps is great and all but not being able to get the address for the place i'm looking for isn't. Is there a yellow pages program or something similar, like directory assistant that doesn't require data connection? as in all the information is already stored on the phone.

Google SMS
auto3251 said:
Having gps is great and all but not being able to get the address for the place i'm looking for isn't. Is there a yellow pages program or something similar, like directory assistant that doesn't require data connection? as in all the information is already stored on the phone.
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There's Google Text. Text your request to 466453 (i.e. Google), and you will quickly get an SMS reply with answers or suggestions.
The only way to have the info stored on your own personal phone that I know of would be to have Garmin or TomTom or iGuidance or similar.

cushcalc said:
There's Google Text. Text your request to 466453 (i.e. Google), and you will quickly get an SMS reply with answers or suggestions.
The only way to have the info stored on your own personal phone that I know of would be to have Garmin or TomTom or iGuidance or similar.
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i don't have unlimited text so google text is not good.
tomtom only stores location for like gas stations, restaurants, banks etc... i can't look up for instance the nearest macy's.

auto3251 said:
i don't have unlimited text so google text is not good.
tomtom only stores location for like gas stations, restaurants, banks etc... i can't look up for instance the nearest macy's.
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Click to collapse
I'd think if you're going to Macy's you could afford 46645 text messages.

illuminarok said:
I'd think if you're going to Macy's you could afford 46645 text messages.
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was just using it as an example.
anyone know of any programs? electronic style yellow pages would be nice.

TANSTAAFL
auto3251 said:
was just using it as an example.
anyone know of any programs? electronic style yellow pages would be nice.
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Well, there are electronic yellow pages! But it involves data, and that means somehow you are going to have to pay for it! Data network is the best way because you are accessing something that is constantly being updated. If you could even find a cheap database to put on your phone storage, it would instantly be out of date if you weren't tying in to a data network.

This is what I'm looking at getting for my XDA now.
I downloaded Google maps which works fine with the WiFi and I can find everything on there like I would on my PC however it wont work with the GPS and the only thing I can do with the GPS is find my current location, which loses its novelty after the one time you actually do it.
There are some talks on various forums of people who have downloaded Google maps onto their phone and saved the maps so they don't have to connect the any data session to gain access, however it seems to be a lot more complicated than it sounds so I'm looking for a more simple way before I decided to give up and use this method.
Look here: http://forum.mgmaps.com/viewtopic.php?t=670&sid=70fb39ede8c9bf8fc9bcdb06e5eb8b57

Ok, so simply put, you want an address book on your phone of all addresses in a certain area, both business and residential.
Even with a SD Card of 2gb+, I doubt you would still have the room to store the information.
You could possibly see if anyone makes custom POI (Points of Interest) for your GPS program. At the very least it might give you the address of some locations and you can find the place you are looking for by deduction.
You could try sync your phone in the morning of your travel, provided you know where you are going that day, cache the information, and clear it on your next update.
Alternatively, you could try any program that downloads a whole website for offline viewing, but like I said, your phone just won't hold that much information (as I am sure you are aware), but you may be able to do this if the area you are interested in is only small, like the size of a town etc.
If I come up with anything that is actual USEFUL, I'll let you know.

Back on my post its been posted here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=351001

Related

Is there Live Tracking Software?

I'm looking for live tracking software. Something that shows the location of another phone on a moving map. I know that there are tons of apps to send coordinates via sms or show it on a web site. What I am looking for is software that shows the other phones location on a map just like a navigation program shows your location. I am assuming that it would use a data connection and that's fine I have unlimited on all three phones. It would be extra cool if it would show my location too. I remember seeing commercials where older (non-PPC phones) would do this.
PS. pay or freeware, it doesn't matter.
try glympse its free, you can find it on marketplace or http://www.glympse.com/ this seems like what your looking for. it works great, you can send a glympse to anyone and they can see you live as your move. It works best when you load the link using skyfire so you can see the actual website version . But if the other person has glympse installed they can see you move in real time that way too.
I haven't used it, but from what I've read, Google LATITUDE will do that.
SecretAgentMan said:
I haven't used it, but from what I've read, Google LATITUDE will do that.
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latitude only sends updated gps information every 2 minutes. glympes send out information in real time and also tells you how fast the person your tracking in mph
i use GPSToday from geoterrestrial.com, depending on your settings and the availability of a cell signal you can update at 1 minute intervals with a fairly high degree of accuracy. i enjoy having my wife track me from home as im out roaming about.
ottomatic28 said:
i enjoy having my wife track me from home as im out roaming about.
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Click to collapse
rescu2000 said:
I'm looking for live tracking software. Something that shows the location of another phone on a moving map. I know that there are tons of apps to send coordinates via sms or show it on a web site. What I am looking for is software that shows the other phones location on a map just like a navigation program shows your location. I am assuming that it would use a data connection and that's fine I have unlimited on all three phones. It would be extra cool if it would show my location too. I remember seeing commercials where older (non-PPC phones) would do this.
PS. pay or freeware, it doesn't matter.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try GPSToday (free)
http://www.geoterrestrial.com/
or download straight to your device at http://m.geoterrestrial.com/
After installation you can create a private group from one phone, and invite the other 2 phones to join it. Then all 3 phones can see each others location on the map and also share points of interest/pictures etc, privately.
The group map can also be viewed on the desktop after logging in at the website.
Another GPStoday user here. It also Geotags your photos and you can write log files.
SecretAgentMan said:
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Google Maps Latitude tracks everybody I have on my friend's list and I use CoPilot Navigator 8 and it has the capability of sending via text right down to the coordinates your location; good enough for me!

[Q] Any simple/no-frills gps tracker which sends data to own website?

Hi,
Does anyone know if there's any GPS Tracking software which can send httppost data (or other form of data transfer) to a custom website?
I want it to send the regular gps data, such as Date/Time, Longitude, Latitude, Height, Speed and Heading (or whatever is available).
I can write my own web software in php/mysql - but I haven't got a clue about how to write my own android app.
I don't want any fancy maps displayed, I just want the software to acquire gps fix, and send it at user set intervals (example every 1 minute) to my own custom web application.
I had previously been using software on my old Nokia 5800 which sent it to a 3rd party server and I could import the data via xml (see here: http://madstu.net/tracker/ ) but I haven't found any such solutions for Android yet.
Any help would be appreciated
Stu.
You could probably do this very simply with one service and an activity to set the interval and some status. You should look at some android tutorials and you can probably do it in less than an hour.
thanks, yes this is what I've been learning. I created a hello world app by following a tutorial, but I'm afraid that might just be my limit!
Sent from my Defy using Tapatalk
You can use Run.gps for your job.
You can customize it to send data to custom server. In section 6.2.1 in the manual explains how you do it.
Regards
Thanks, I've been trying this since this morning and it seems to work on and off, I will continue to trial it though until I find something better/simpler
Never heard of run.gps, but I do this exact thing in Tasker. I am a long time user of TrackMe, a Windows Mobile tracking client, however I didn't really use the client that much but I've made extensive use out of the web server that went along with it. Data goes into it from several possible sources, and I have several things that extra data out of it (Google Earth to visualize, even geotagging photographs, etc).
I have a long outstanding "offline mode" that's missing from its functionality, ie: you don't want to upload, or it fails to upload so it stores the data for later and uploads it when it can. I really want to put this in some day, but it's semi-complicated and honestly editing complex tasks on my phone is tedious Otherwise it's fully functional and for me works great. Let me know if you're interested.
Yes I'd be very interested in this, please.
Like you said, the "offline mode" would be awesome too, I'd previously used Viewranger on my old Nokia 5800 which had this offline option and worked well.
Cheers
MadStu said:
Yes I'd be very interested in this, please.
Like you said, the "offline mode" would be awesome too, I'd previously used Viewranger on my old Nokia 5800 which had this offline option and worked well.
Cheers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you using the TrackMe web server? Otherwise, what I have won't be of all that much use.
khaytsus said:
Are you using the TrackMe web server? Otherwise, what I have won't be of all that much use.
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No, But I have my own server. How is the data sent? I can customise my web software to receive whichever variables are sent.
MadStu said:
No, But I have my own server. How is the data sent? I can customise my web software to receive whichever variables are sent.
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Click to collapse
Fairly straightforward, API calls.. Not really documented anywhere I'm aware of, but here's an example.. But it could be easier to adapt the Tasker profile rather than your softwae?
/trackme/requests.php?a=upload&u=user&p=password&lat=dd.ddddddd&long=dd.ddddddd&do=2011-02-06%2009:10:00&tn=Tripname_Date&sp=0.0&alt=279.0&ang=0&db=8&comments=Optional%20Comments&bs=98
So while it's not difficult, I'd say if you already have a POST/GET type API there, it's probably easier to adapt the Tasker profiles. If you're still interested, I'll export and sanitize and put 'em here.
Yeah I could just edit to match mine. I'm very interested in your sanitized profile(s) though. I've been playing with it and can't get it to work.
Thanks
After some more playing I've done it
Thanks for letting me know about this. Works well and I've got to start automatically when I open up the awesome MM Tracker app

[Q] Using Pushpins in Maps

Have had HTC7Pro for a few days now and generally impressed.
However;
How exactly are the pushpins in Maps supposed to work?
This site from Microsofts Windows Phone area, http://www.microsoft.com/windowsphone/en-GB/howto/wp7/web/use-maps-to-find-a-place.aspx seems to be the only thing that I can find, here or out on the Web, that isn't related to Developers.
In Google Maps of old, I had around 100 pins stored locally (on the phone rather than up in the cloud or on the wider web) for places all over the UK.
I need this to hand as my work often finds me traveling from and to various repeated locations such as Building Sites, Suppliers and (especially) Guest Houses.
It appears that the only way to have a location stored "on the phone" is to pin it to the Start Screen as a link to Maps. As you can imagine, this is going to be very impractical with that many potential places to store.
Is this the case? I don't really want to have to resort to downloading address information for Hotels (which could be stored in Contacts, I know) and other places of Interest every time I want to get directions in Maps. Building Sites are not generally even available through the Internet due to there very nature. The address for them could be stored as a note in One Note I suppose.
Whatever, all these work arounds are just that. Long Winded and unintuitive. Hopefully I am doing something wrong with the Maps application and some one can point me right. If not, bugger!
Just wanted to say thanks. I didnt even know we had pins in bing maps.
Your welcome, Stillriza, even thoughthe pins are no where near as functional as I would like.
That page you linked is basically the extent of the functionality of Maps at the moment. I don't think there is much more.
I'm waiting for the day when it sync's pins to the cloud, so I can look up stuff online, and jump on my phone and have my saved pines or favorites show up on the map.
Otherwise at the moment, Maps is very basic.
That's what I figured prjkthack.
Basic, however is not an issue for me. I despise "turn by turn" sat nav totally. A 2D map is, in my opinion the way to go. I find that when I arrive at my destination I have some idea in my mind as to where I actually am. This is unlike using turn by turn which, find to be akin to driving down some anonymous "pipe", oblivious to my surroundings.
I do think that Maps looks and generally behaves far better than Google Maps on my Blackstone did, although I admit that this may be largely down to hardware limitations on the older handset.
I just wish the pins were more functional.
Ah well, maybe for the update.
Of possible interest to Orange customers in UK. Their "Orange Maps" app, free from Marketplace but subscription required on most tariffs, addresses the Push Pin issue.
It does have issues of it's own however, when compared to Bing Maps. Not least, as a third party app, it switches itself off when the phone "sleeps" or takes a call, or anything else, and has to go through the start up procedure again to relaunch it. It does offer to recall any ongoing routes however which at least means that you don't have to reset the route every time.
Also, it appears, so far, that it does not allow the phone to go to sleep when it is actually following a route. This is better than Bing maps can manage at the moment.

[Q] Found open wi fi at work

Hi there people, I'm new to all this and have just got an LG Optimus One.
I was having a play with it last night at work and found an open wi fi connection. If I was to use this would it be traceable back to me?
Had a quick look around your site and I think I will be spending quite a bit of time here. Rooting (!) sounds like fun and I maybe giving it a go later.
It could be a honey pot(it could be recording everything)... I wouldn't use it for anything private... logins, passwords etc..
It's very hard, if not impossible, to be traced when using an open wifi. Unless of course the traffic is monitored, as stated by the previous poster, and you provide personal information through the connection. Otherwise, the access point only records your phone's MAC address, which cannot be used to personally identify you.
Thanks for the reply.
I don't think its a honeypot(?)
I work in warehouse in a rural area and it gets pretty quiet at times - especially on night shift and weekends. The 3g reception is poor. I was hoping to be able to browse the web (maybe 420/adult sites) as well as app market and downloads to help pass the time and save my data allowance.
I'm not too genned up on computors and I don't know what an 'administrator' would be able to see on a report. Would they be able to see specific sites and would they be able to pin it down to a certain device and its owner?
loonytoon, thanks. You replied while I was typing.
So it' ll be pretty much anonymous if I don't login to anything?
S_punkE said:
loonytoon, thanks. You replied while I was typing.
So it' ll be pretty much anonymous if I don't login to anything?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yup, pretty much.

[Q] Triumph, Google Voice, and mac basic questions

I've put off getting a smartphone as long as possible, but did enough research that I think the Triumph on Virgin's $35 plan with Google voice is a smart way to go. I still have some questions about this new OS, programs, and environment, and really like the smart people on this forum, and hope you won't mind a few questions.
-What’s the best VOIP app for working with Google Voice? I've come across GrooVe IP, but would like reassurance whether it's the best option. I'd like to make calls over wifi, but I'd also like to know whether Virgin Mobile's 3g coverage is fast enough for voip (generally...). I wouldn't want to do this routinely as I'd be afraid they'd throttle me. But I would like someone who knows to share their opinion.
-How do I find out my wifi signal strength? 3G strength? GPS strength? Or even just where I can learn what the icons on the top bar stand for, and what their range is? There must be a good app for this, and I'd love a recommendation.
-If I wanted the option, how (specifically) would I switch from making a voip/data plan outgoing call to the regular phone cell plan? Would Android be smart enough to do this automatically without a wifi signal? Or would I need to change a setting in Google Voice? Any thoughts most appreciated.
-How do I find what apps are running (in background?)? Percentage of system resources, and how to kill them? I’m guessing there are apps for that. Does Android kill a process when you return to home screen? What are some of the general rules?
-I have a mac. I’m guessing most of the programs that let you manage files, root the phone, install Cyanogen mods, etc, are PC based. I found Android File Transfer, but am not clear on it's limits. Are there better options? What will the AFT program be good for? [Emulating PC’s is a pain I would rather avoid, but I have been thinking of running virtual box to donate some processing time to the Large Hadron Collider, so I might be able to run some of these PC programs]. Any advice most welcome.
-Any skins or options to turn the google apps into light text on dark background? (I'm aware of and have used the option in Gmail). I hate black text on white background. I'm kooky that way.
This Android phone is good looking, the plan costs much less than a thousand a year (which I refuse to pay), and I LOVE the Google voice options to turn your text and calls into computer files which you can archive as you wish. The Google voice activation / text / search is far superior to iAnything, voip/wifi is the balls, and I think a lot people who've been holding off from getting a smartphone will jump on this combo, and this thread may help them. Many thanks...
dcnblues said:
-How do I find out my wifi signal strength? 3G strength? GPS strength? Or even just where I can learn what the icons on the top bar stand for, and what their range is? There must be a good app for this, and I'd love a recommendation.
-How do I find what apps are running (in background?)? Percentage of system resources, and how to kill them? I’m guessing there are apps for that. Does Android kill a process when you return to home screen? What are some of the general rules?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
With respect to these questions, I'm not an expert, but I'll provide a list of programs I use.
For WiFi signal strength, I'd recommend Wifi Analyzer from the Market. For 3G strength, I'd recommend Cellumap. For GPS Strength, GPS Status + Toolbox or GPS Test.
The manual for the phone can be found on either the VMUSA or Motorola web site. It will explain some of the icons. Although when using the phone, I often see stuff not explained in the manual.
For examining the phone's processes, I recommend SystemPanel from the Market (paid for version has history), and/or Android Status.
There are people that tell you NOT to kill anything on the Android OS manually. I use 1Tap Cleaner and Advanced Task Killer from the market if I see the phone behaving a bit sluggish. Android OS loads stuff in memory readying it for future use. How it does so (intelligently) I don't know. I see stuff being partially loaded I never use. I have never had a problem using either program.
YMMV
GrooveIP works great over 3g...I dunno how much we will be able to use it once they start capping data..bastards
dcnblues said:
-What’s the best VOIP app for working with Google Voice? I've come across GrooVe IP, but would like reassurance whether it's the best option. I'd like to make calls over wifi, but I'd also like to know whether Virgin Mobile's 3g coverage is fast enough for voip (generally...). I wouldn't want to do this routinely as I'd be afraid they'd throttle me. But I would like someone who knows to share their opinion.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
GrooVe IP is actually the only thing i've bothered to use because it worked well enough, I havn't put it to test over 3g... In the future, you can root the phone and update it to sprint PRL (Their towers instead of VMU) - People have reported up to like 6-900kbps doing this... I would suggest to not factor this last suggestion in yet as you won't be extremely comfortable with your first smart phone being messed with (But a possibility nonetheless)
dcnblues said:
-How do I find out my wifi signal strength? 3G strength? GPS strength? Or even just where I can learn what the icons on the top bar stand for, and what their range is? There must be a good app for this, and I'd love a recommendation.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i will back the suggestion of wifi analyzer, it will map out locations of wifi/cellular tower, it gave me beef on another phone that ran @ 600mhz but this one is 1000mhz.
dcnblues said:
-If I wanted the option, how (specifically) would I switch from making a voip/data plan outgoing call to the regular phone cell plan? Would Android be smart enough to do this automatically without a wifi signal? Or would I need to change a setting in Google Voice? Any thoughts most appreciated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
With grooveip and google voice it will ask you on all outbound calls after you press dial: Would you like to make this call with.... A) non-Google Voice B) Google Voice (same story w/ sending an sms except it will ask when you create the sms because google voice has it's own sms application, keep in mind w/ gvoice you can forward calls to your google chat account (and that's what makes grooveip ring instead of forwarding the call to your cellular number[i think])
dcnblues said:
-How do I find what apps are running (in background?)? Percentage of system resources, and how to kill them? I’m guessing there are apps for that. Does Android kill a process when you return to home screen? What are some of the general rules?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
there are tons of application managers and task killers, I recommend to ignore all of them.... Someone brought a Samsung Prevail(Boost mobile Galaxy) into work the other day(Radioshack) - Anytime they killed tasks their touchscreen went out till reboot.... Android is supposed to self manage tasks and processes... realistically you just have to make sure not to leave your bluetooth wifi and gps on all the time... Also taking the screen brightness down a fuzz from max will help batt life tremendously... Android will suspend a process and kill an activity when you return to homescreen.... What I mean by that is that if you're in the browser and you hit home then you go back to the browser, you're on the same page still... but likely not to have any of your text still there if you were in an input field.... (This is probably an inaccurate example due to programmers being able to add a save activity state [this is something that when you for example hit back or hold the home button down to switch applications will store your current information, so when you're editing the text field it will save that data, THEN kill the activity/suspend it so that when you return it is still there, but the process is not draining the battery down at the moment.])
One of androids key attributes is the quick application switching via holding down the home button but some applications like pandora will run 'ongoing' so that you can multitask, while others will suspend so that you can save battery.... Kind of as a rule of thumb, unless it is monitoring or actively outputting it will be suspended.... so apps like pandora and wifi tethering continue to function when you switch applications because tehy'er ongoing whereas a note editor application would suspend itself untill it's brought back to focus because how are you going to type without it forefront?
dcnblues said:
-I have a mac. I’m guessing most of the programs that let you manage files, root the phone, install Cyanogen mods, etc, are PC based. I found Android File Transfer, but am not clear on it's limits. Are there better options? What will the AFT program be good for? [Emulating PC’s is a pain I would rather avoid, but I have been thinking of running virtual box to donate some processing time to the Large Hadron Collider, so I might be able to run some of these PC programs].
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First off nice LHC Mac joke I take it we're running the server edition cause hey, more is never enough.
I honestly can't tell you much from the mac POV other than that it would hopefully work the same as the linux instructions but i kind of expect version/dependency differences... to be fair this triumph is rootable by application ran on the phone (Which you can GMail to yourself and download as attatchment, bluetooth, wifi shared folder, usb mounting, or download directly to the phone..) The custom recovery is installed via drag and drop on USB Removable Disc so it's not nearly as bad as some of the other phones would be,
dcnblues said:
-Any skins or options to turn the google apps into light text on dark background? (I'm aware of and have used the option in Gmail). I hate black text on white background. I'm kooky that way.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Feel free to, they exist, I would however suggest against them... I walk to work a lot and it's a pain in the ass to read those emails when you have the sun on the screen; granted everything is harder this was damn near impossible... Nonetheless check for the black apps listed in xda/android/themes and apps... I'll link soon. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1206774
dcnblues said:
This Android phone is good looking, the plan costs much less than a thousand a year (which I refuse to pay), and I LOVE the Google voice options to turn your text and calls into computer files which you can archive as you wish. The Google voice activation / text / search is far superior to iAnything, voip/wifi is the balls, and I think a lot people who've been holding off from getting a smartphone will jump on this combo, and this thread may help them. Many thanks...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would like to point out that with the GVoice extension/app for google chrome
you can continue your SMS conversations that way... I recieved one of the CR48s and this has been AWESOME for me.
As far as voip services, I have found using 3g too slow. That said I do recommend sipdroid. It will setup a pbx account for you using your google voice number. Upon connecting to wifi, sipdroid will start running allowing you to make and receive calls.
Sent from my MOTWX435KT using XDA App
Thanks guys for the very useful help. I'm kind of burned out on all the research, and kind of bummed that this red-hot, billion dollar business seems to be run by such morons. SO many unnecessary complications to offering consumers simple, workable products and services.
This has been a great help.
bigvandal said:
GrooveIP works great over 3g...I dunno how much we will be able to use it once they start capping data..bastards
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm actually kind of grateful to Virgin Mobile for the $35 dollar plan. I can communicate via voice to text, for a fair price, so until I have a real problem, I'm not going to call them bastards. Until I have a problem, of course...
I do hate the BS in advertising 'unlimited' plans, but having them smirking in their headquarters as they say to themselves 'but we didn't say at what rate...'
On the other hand, people downloading movies over cell frequencies aren't exactly providing solutions to the problem either...
rubbachicken said:
GrooVe IP is actually the only thing i've bothered to use because it worked well enough, I havn't put it to test over 3g... In the future, you can root the phone and update it to sprint PRL (Their towers instead of VMU) - People have reported up to like 6-900kbps doing this... I would suggest to not factor this last suggestion in yet as you won't be extremely comfortable with your first smart phone being messed with (But a possibility nonetheless)...Android is supposed to self manage tasks and processes... realistically you just have to make sure not to leave your bluetooth wifi and gps on all the time... Also taking the screen brightness down a fuzz from max will help batt life tremendously... Android will suspend a process and kill an activity when you return to homescreen....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dude, thanks very much. For this and all the information. Colossally useful.
Groove IP is actually having a problem today due to some change in the Google servers. Hope it's resolved soon as I'd like to get this running.
Quick confirm: Triumph is LCD and not AMOLED, Correct?

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