Google Nexus one coming to Verizon in March, Vodafone in April
As more people patiently wait for the supposed release of the Google Nexus One from Vodafone, new rumors have it that the official release date will be this coming April. This was said to be more realistic than the scheduled January release but pricing has so far been withheld.
Ballpark figures are telling us that Vodafone may offer the Google Nexus One for about €150 with a contract. Well you have a couple of months to confirm if this rumor is indeed true.
Labels: Android Phone, Google, Google Nexus one
Google Earth has landed for Android 2.1
After launching the Nexus One smartphone, Google realised that it would be a pity to let all that potential go to waste and put the 1GHz processor and 3D graphics to good use, by launching Google Earth for Android. This is the fastest version of the software, with smooth framerate and 800 x 480 resolution supported.
Together with this release, Google launched the Roads layer, already available in the desktop version of Google Earth. This option allows users to see the roads they’re driving on, placed on top of satellite imagery, for better orientation. Voice recognition is also used in Google Earth for Android, through a feature that looks like a pocket globe, responding to the user’s commands.
For example, saying “Eiffel Tower” or “a hotel in the San Francisco area” will take you to the desired results, thanks to the technology of Google Search by Voice and Google Local Search. Just like the other Google Earth versions, this software allows you to browse photos, places and businesses, while clicking icons for more info.
The software is available in the Android Market and supported on most Android 2.1 devices.
Via Mobile Phone News
Labels: Android, Android 2.1, Android OS, Google
Your mobile and desktop search history now in sync
Google announced today that when you do a search on your desktop computer, you can now easily repeat the same search on your mobile phone.
Google has launched in the U.S. "Personalized Suggest" for Android, iPhone and Palm WebOS. This makes it easy to repeat past searches on the go.
For example, before you depart for the airport, you quickly check your flight status by searching for "american airlines 19" using google.com on your computer. Later you can open google.com on your mobile phone, click in the search box, and choose "american airlines 19" from the list of search suggestions.
To use search history make sure you are signed in the same account on your phone and desktop and that "Web History" is enabled in your Google Account. Mobile users can turn on/off history by selecting "Save searches" or "Do not save searches" under Settings on google.com.
Labels: Google
Google Maps for Android Upgraded with Search by voice and Transit Directions
Google today released an upgrade to Google Maps for Android-powered phones. The upgrade includes new features and fixing a few issues with Google Latitude.
Users can now search Google Maps for Android by using their voice, making it easier to look up places while on the go. Just speak your query and Google Maps will find it. Google's voice recognition engine currently understands English in American, Australian, and British accents. Google has also improved their business listings to include store hours, prices, ratings, and reviews.
Google has also added transit and walking directions to Google Maps for Android. Data for public transportation is available for over 250 cities, including New York City and San Francisco. If you're looking for the best route on foot, use walking directions to take advantage of pedestrian-only pathways and to avoid one-way restrictions.
Google Maps for Android includes improvements to Google Latitude. Google has fixed an issue that caused background location updates to periodically stop for some of you. Now, once you select "Detect your location" from the Latitude privacy menu, your location will continue to update as long as your phone is on.
For more information visit Google Mobile Blog.
Read more...
Users can now search Google Maps for Android by using their voice, making it easier to look up places while on the go. Just speak your query and Google Maps will find it. Google's voice recognition engine currently understands English in American, Australian, and British accents. Google has also improved their business listings to include store hours, prices, ratings, and reviews.
Google has also added transit and walking directions to Google Maps for Android. Data for public transportation is available for over 250 cities, including New York City and San Francisco. If you're looking for the best route on foot, use walking directions to take advantage of pedestrian-only pathways and to avoid one-way restrictions.
Google Maps for Android includes improvements to Google Latitude. Google has fixed an issue that caused background location updates to periodically stop for some of you. Now, once you select "Detect your location" from the Latitude privacy menu, your location will continue to update as long as your phone is on.
For more information visit Google Mobile Blog.
Labels: Google
Google Maps v3.0.1 for Symbian and Windows Mobile Available
New Google Maps for mobile updates is now available, which will update your Google Maps to v3.0.1. The new version is available for both Windows Mobile and Symbian. It includes changes to the auto-restart location, backlight timeout, location updates and many other minor bug fixes and changes. You can download the new version directly from http://m.google.com/maps with your phone web browser.
Labels: Google
Google Maps Mobile Now Offers Business Direction
Finding directions from start point to end point just got better with Google Maps for Mobile now. Google has announced that the mobile software can guide you to restaurant, stores or points of interest instead of just the address. The additional changes is implemented on its server backend, which do not required a software updates on your mobile devices.
For example if you key in Starbucks as the End Point, Google Maps will first display a list of the nearby Starbucks for you to choose, and then display the direction base on the location you have selected. Best of all the service is free except your wireless data connection charge.
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For example if you key in Starbucks as the End Point, Google Maps will first display a list of the nearby Starbucks for you to choose, and then display the direction base on the location you have selected. Best of all the service is free except your wireless data connection charge.
Labels: Google
YouTube Client for the BlackBerry Storm
Google has released a YouTube client for the BlackBerry Storm, allowing users to get a YouTube experience on their BlackBerry’s first touchscreen handheld. Noticed that Storm’s web browser is good enough to browse YouTube, but a dedicated client usually offers more rich experience.
YouTube client’s features including:
* Browse millions of videos, including most viewed, top rated, and the day’s featured videos.
* Access your YouTube account on your phone and access your Favorites, Playlists, and your own uploaded videos.
* Upload videos directly from your phone and see them appear within moments on both the mobile site and YouTube.com.
* Favorite, share, rate, and comment on videos directly from the mobile website to other YouTube users.
* Find the specific video you’re looking for by easily searching for it.
* Discover “Related” videos for each video you watch on your phone.
Read more...
YouTube client’s features including:
* Browse millions of videos, including most viewed, top rated, and the day’s featured videos.
* Access your YouTube account on your phone and access your Favorites, Playlists, and your own uploaded videos.
* Upload videos directly from your phone and see them appear within moments on both the mobile site and YouTube.com.
* Favorite, share, rate, and comment on videos directly from the mobile website to other YouTube users.
* Find the specific video you’re looking for by easily searching for it.
* Discover “Related” videos for each video you watch on your phone.
Labels: BlackBerry, Google, storm
Gmail SMS Chat Delay for Bug Fixes
The SMS Chat feature, we reported yesterday was indeed available but was pulled later due to some bugs. Google product manager Leo Dirac has posted the info on Gmail blog, stating that the add-on will be back to the Gmail Labs list in 2 weeks time.
Here is a description of what it does
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Here is a description of what it does
you chat from your computer and reach your friends no matter where they are. Your friends who are away from their computers get your messages as texts and can peck out replies on their little keyboards. It was pretty cool for a few minutes last night when we were sitting around texting each other.
Labels: Google
Google Gmail Adding SMS Chat Capability
According to Webmonkey, Google has created an experimental feature to enable sms chat between your friends’ mobile number and you. The feature will be available for all Gmail users from Thursday evening according to the source. It can be activated through the Labs tab in Gmail settings section. I still can’t find the options in my Gmail account, it could be due to the reason that only US users are supported.
With this feature you can send sms to your friends, plus your friends can reply to you directly and you will see it in your Gmail account.
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With this feature you can send sms to your friends, plus your friends can reply to you directly and you will see it in your Gmail account.
Labels: Google
Google intros mobile Gmail 2.0
Google announced Gmail for mobile version 2.0 for J2ME-supported and BlackBerry phones. “Our focus for this version was to make the experience faster and more reliable,” as Software Engineer Google Mobile Team Derek Phillips wrote in Google Mobile Blog. “We rearchitected the entire client to push all the processing to the background, greatly improve the client-side caching scheme and optimize every bottleneck piece of code we came across.”
Features of the new version including:
* Multiple accounts management: easily switch between a Gmail and Google Apps quickly.
* Multiple mobile email drafts: save multiple email drafts.
* Powerful shortcut keys: use shortcut keys if you use QWERTY mobile phone
* Basic offline support: compose and read your most recent emails in offline mode.
Go to m.google.com/mail in your mobile browser to download it for your phone.
Read more...
Features of the new version including:
* Multiple accounts management: easily switch between a Gmail and Google Apps quickly.
* Multiple mobile email drafts: save multiple email drafts.
* Powerful shortcut keys: use shortcut keys if you use QWERTY mobile phone
* Basic offline support: compose and read your most recent emails in offline mode.
Go to m.google.com/mail in your mobile browser to download it for your phone.
Labels: Google
Google proved forecasts wrong
Google Inc. has proven proven the forecasts wrong after hurdling the Wall Street quarterly profit estimates. To be exact, Google’s total Q3 net income reached up to $1.35 billion, or $4.24 a diluted share, from $1.07 billion, or $3.38 per share.
The results are accumulations of international sales that shoot up to 41 percent. Googles authorities confirmed that even their sales in UK, the company’s largest market, has increased in sales by 7 percent compared to last year. Furthermore, Google has performed a major cost-cutting in terms of property and equipment purchases from $697 million for the second quarter of 2008 to $452 million on the third quarter.
Schmidt, one of Googles top officials, stated, “We are all in uncharted territory…. We are very realistic about the macro environment, but we are optimistic about Google’s future.”
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The results are accumulations of international sales that shoot up to 41 percent. Googles authorities confirmed that even their sales in UK, the company’s largest market, has increased in sales by 7 percent compared to last year. Furthermore, Google has performed a major cost-cutting in terms of property and equipment purchases from $697 million for the second quarter of 2008 to $452 million on the third quarter.
Schmidt, one of Googles top officials, stated, “We are all in uncharted territory…. We are very realistic about the macro environment, but we are optimistic about Google’s future.”
Labels: Google
Google’s Android Could Signal a Tipping Point in Smartphones
If Google’s ambitions for its recently-launched Android smartphone operating system are fully realized, the new OS will represent a tipping point in attitudes towards the whole concept of a smartphone. This tectonic shift will affect consumers, handset manufacturers and, most critically, mobile network operators.
According to ABI Research director Kevin Burden, “If Android is to become the ubiquitous mobile phone platform that Google and the Open Handset Alliance hope it will be, it will be because operators and handset OEMs recognize the value to their own business models of using standard platforms, not because wireless subscribers clamor for feature-rich phones, much less an Android-based phone.”
The current smartphone market accounts for only 14% of worldwide handsets. That doesn’t help Google’s aspirations to have a platform used by a wide population to whom they can market their services. Google needs to convince handset manufacturers to replace the real-time operating systems that now power the majority of mobile phones. In the smartphone market of the future, users won’t always be aware of what they’re buying: they will buy simply because they’re in the market for a phone, not specifically a smartphone.
The challenge is to convince operators that having more phones in their lineups and more subscribers using those phones based on standardized operating systems is good for them. Standardization delivers easier manageability at the technical level and greater ease in marketing services to all their subscribers.
“The smartphone market has been moving in this direction for some time now,” Burden continues. “If Android is a success, it may be the tipping point that marks the start of a profound change in the smartphone market.”
Read more...
According to ABI Research director Kevin Burden, “If Android is to become the ubiquitous mobile phone platform that Google and the Open Handset Alliance hope it will be, it will be because operators and handset OEMs recognize the value to their own business models of using standard platforms, not because wireless subscribers clamor for feature-rich phones, much less an Android-based phone.”
The current smartphone market accounts for only 14% of worldwide handsets. That doesn’t help Google’s aspirations to have a platform used by a wide population to whom they can market their services. Google needs to convince handset manufacturers to replace the real-time operating systems that now power the majority of mobile phones. In the smartphone market of the future, users won’t always be aware of what they’re buying: they will buy simply because they’re in the market for a phone, not specifically a smartphone.
The challenge is to convince operators that having more phones in their lineups and more subscribers using those phones based on standardized operating systems is good for them. Standardization delivers easier manageability at the technical level and greater ease in marketing services to all their subscribers.
“The smartphone market has been moving in this direction for some time now,” Burden continues. “If Android is a success, it may be the tipping point that marks the start of a profound change in the smartphone market.”
Send free SMS to your group via Google SMS chanels
It’s an innovation from Google India. They just introduced a new product called Google SMS Channels that lets users subscribe to news alerts, blog updates and other kinds SMS text messages. You don’t really need a mobile phone to do it, as there’s an option that lets you can send SMS messages via the web itself.
This service currently works only with with phone numbers of India but will be available for international users soon. Great.
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This service currently works only with with phone numbers of India but will be available for international users soon. Great.
Labels: Google
Google adds NYC mass transit to Maps for mobile
Take Google Maps for mobile in your pocket, so you can go wherever you want and make sure you won’t get lost. Yeah, it’s the main objective of this latest Google’s application. Google Maps for mobile with public transit directions is available (at http://m.google.com/nyc) for Blackberry, Windows Mobile, Symbian Series 60, and many Java-based phones.
So, don’t miss it!
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Now that Google Maps can give you subway, train, bus, and ferry directions in New York City, it’s a handy tool for planning a night on the town. But what if your plans change while you’re at dinner?
Luckily, Google Maps for mobile can give you the same public transit directions right on your cell phone! You can plan trips throughout the New York metro area, including turn-by-turn walking directions. With the My Location feature, most cell phones can automatically set the starting point for your trip, even without GPS. And satellite view and Street View (on selected devices) can show you a preview of where you’re going.
So, don’t miss it!
Labels: Google
Google Maps for mobile Gets Street View Add-on
This week Google have released a new version of Google Maps for mobile, adding the “Street View” feature. You can see the actual photo of your search result, for example a restaurant, on your phone directly by clicking on the Street View link after you got the search result.
According to Google,
You can also launch Street View from any address where we have photography, or simply by clicking on the map and selecting “Street View”. You can browse Street View overlaid on the map or in full screen, rotate your view to see more of your surroundings, and move along the street.
Apart from the Street View add-on, the Google Maps for mobile is now works faster and more accurate on the location. Review links on a business are now also available from the Google maps, allow you to check for review easily. The newest Google Maps for mobile is available now for BlackBerry and many Java-enabled phones here. See a demonstration video below.
Read more...
According to Google,
You can also launch Street View from any address where we have photography, or simply by clicking on the map and selecting “Street View”. You can browse Street View overlaid on the map or in full screen, rotate your view to see more of your surroundings, and move along the street.
Apart from the Street View add-on, the Google Maps for mobile is now works faster and more accurate on the location. Review links on a business are now also available from the Google maps, allow you to check for review easily. The newest Google Maps for mobile is available now for BlackBerry and many Java-enabled phones here. See a demonstration video below.
Labels: Google
Google Introduces Photostream Open Source Sample Application
Are you an Android developer? Google has added a new Android application called Photostream to the apps-for-android project. The Photostream is a photo browser which let you access and view your photos on Flickr. More importantly, the application serves as an illustrative example of several Android features and APIs for Android developer.
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Chrome coming for Android? Why not
Google’s new browser, Chrome, will make its way to Android, the company’s mobile phone operating system and software suite, as the co-founder Sergey Brin said recently. It’s a logical step and a common sence, I think. Moreover, Chrome and Android’s current browser both already employ WebKit, an open-source project for interpreting the HTML code that makes up a Web page and has ability to render it on a screen.
Despite the fact Chrome and Android were developed largely separately, Brin said in an interview at the Chrome launch event Tuesday. “We have not wanted to bind one’s hands to the other’s.” Chrome is said to be 10 to 15 times faster than Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari.
And how about the brand name? “My guess is we’ll have ‘Chrome-like’ or something similar,” he said.
I believe that the powerful browser would be one of important features of the smart-phone for the coming years.
Read more...
Despite the fact Chrome and Android were developed largely separately, Brin said in an interview at the Chrome launch event Tuesday. “We have not wanted to bind one’s hands to the other’s.” Chrome is said to be 10 to 15 times faster than Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari.
And how about the brand name? “My guess is we’ll have ‘Chrome-like’ or something similar,” he said.
I believe that the powerful browser would be one of important features of the smart-phone for the coming years.
Translate words no matter where you are using your iPhone
Are you going to the Beijing Olympics in China but don’t know how to speak words in Chinese? Do you want to see the Pisa or the Eiffel Tower in Italy but all you know is “oui”?
If you are an iPhone owner and a frequent traveller, then great news! The reliable application called Google Translate is now available for the Apple Inc.’s iPhone.
The creators of the Google Translate for the iPhone are David Singleton and Allen Hutchison. Both brilliant minds are software engineers. It was Allen Hutchison’s idea to create a version for Apple Inc.’s smartphone. He thought of making this version when he was planning for a trip going to Austria and Italy. When Allen Hutchison realized that he can’t speak Italian or German, he immediately took his iPhone and tried to log on to the Google Translate. Back then, Google Translate was not yet available for the iPhone, only for desktop users.
The Google Translate version for the iPhone was optimized for speed. It actually supports all the existing language pairs that are available in the desktop version of the Google Translate. Moreover, it saves all your past entries so that you can easily look at the translation whenever you need it.
Point your safari browser to http://translate.google.com to try.
Read more...
If you are an iPhone owner and a frequent traveller, then great news! The reliable application called Google Translate is now available for the Apple Inc.’s iPhone.
The creators of the Google Translate for the iPhone are David Singleton and Allen Hutchison. Both brilliant minds are software engineers. It was Allen Hutchison’s idea to create a version for Apple Inc.’s smartphone. He thought of making this version when he was planning for a trip going to Austria and Italy. When Allen Hutchison realized that he can’t speak Italian or German, he immediately took his iPhone and tried to log on to the Google Translate. Back then, Google Translate was not yet available for the iPhone, only for desktop users.
The Google Translate version for the iPhone was optimized for speed. It actually supports all the existing language pairs that are available in the desktop version of the Google Translate. Moreover, it saves all your past entries so that you can easily look at the translation whenever you need it.
Point your safari browser to http://translate.google.com to try.
S60 & Windows Mobile Gets Google Maps for mobile with Transit directions
Google has just released an updated version of their Google Maps for mobile to version 2.2. The version 2.2 is available for Symbian S60 (3rd edition or later) and Windows Mobile (2005 or later). The new version has already been released to Blackberry devices and Java-based software, they are adding the Transit directions feature to even more mobile devices today.
The Transit Directions is not available for all the cities though, check out this page for the list of supported cities. According to the google blog post
To get this latest version of Google Maps for mobile with Transit, simply point your mobile browser to google.com/gmm
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The Transit Directions is not available for all the cities though, check out this page for the list of supported cities. According to the google blog post
Simply bring up Directions from the main menu and you’ll see a second tab labeled Transit (or Public Transport), where you can request a route using only public transportation. You’ll receive a number of alternatives that take you (car-free) to your destination.
To get this latest version of Google Maps for mobile with Transit, simply point your mobile browser to google.com/gmm
Labels: Google
A G-PHONE BY GOOGLE?
After a lot of rumors spreading around saying that G-phone is dead, Google is speculated to be inventing a new G-phone brand of its own.
But the rumor may not be so wild after all. As a matter of fact, TechCrunch are now operating on it and are announcing that the GPhone may be paramount in class effort developed by Google to place the standard for Android devices that other manufacturers should try to outdo.
Before long, something that is twisted out to be the Google machine podium, which is mainly just an open resource mobile phone operating system, will enable any person with adequate technological competence to fabricate their own mobile phone. This will also give user entrance to the heart of the mobile phone without being constrained to its features.
Labels: Google