Google Products on the T-mobile G1
Thinking about getting the G1? Here is an an overview of Google products on the world’s first Android-powered phone, the T-mobile G1.
To learn more, click this link: http://www.google.com/mobile/android/
T-Mobile G1 aka HTC Dream Running Android Official
Posted by Chris Leckness on 09/23/08 in Google, HTC, T-Mobile
It’s been a long time in the works, the G Phone as it was once called makes it’s 1st debut. When Google was 1st rumored to hit the cell market, it was believed that the GPhone (as an iPhone competitor) would be a single phone. We learned later that it was a platform that google was working on. That platform has developed over the last year and it finally hits the streets today in the form of the T-Mobile G1. The G1 is what we know in the blogosphere as the HTC Dream. It’s here. Another player in the Mobile Phone Market. Read on for the press release…
Introducing the T-Mobile G1 with Google, the first phone powered by Android, an innovative mobile software platform. Available for T-Mobile customers spanning two continents, the T-Mobile G1 combines full touch-screen functionality and a QWERTY keyboard with a mobile Web experience that includes popular Google services such as Google Maps Street View, Gmail, YouTube and others.
Google To Challenge Microsoft’s Browser Dominance
Posted by Steve Laser on 09/1/08 in Google, Microsoft, Mozilla
The browser wars will heat up Tuesday as Google will make their brand new browser beta, called Chrome, available for download in more than 100 countries. This download is only available for Windows, but they are working on versions for Mac and Linux.
This latest torpedo aimed at the mother ship Microsoft, comes just a week after Microsoft released it’s own Internet Explorer 8 beta. IE is used by 75% of surfers, with Firefox a distant second at 10%. Google just re-upped its advertising partnership with Firefox through 2011.
“The Web gets better with more options and innovation,” Sundar Pichai, Google’s vice president of product management, and Linus Upson, Google’s engineering director, wrote in the posting. “Google Chrome is another option, and we hope it contributes to making the Web even better.”
I project the winner to be consumers.
HTC Dream Spy Shots and Android has an App Store?
Posted by Chris Leckness on 08/31/08 in Android, Google
Everyone is all excited about Android in hopes that it will provide an Apple-like experience without having to buy Apple. I don’t like Apple personally, but the iPhone is a well done device. I am not one of those that are super excited about Android, but I do look forward to other competitors forcing Windows Mobile into innovation. This week there has been a nice amount of Android news…
- Spy Shots of the HTC Dream have surfaced, nice ones.
- FCC info on the HTC Dream
- Android to have an Application Store
read on for more info…
Android Shedding Features
As the deadline for a working Android phone rushes towards us and the HTC Dream is apparently all ready to take up the hardware duties, the actual OS from Google is facing the realities of a competitive and time sensitive market. Not EVERYTHING in the marketing Powerpoint may be able to crammed into the actual release.
In order to rollout the release on time, Google has announced that certain previously promised features will need to be removed from the initial version, namely formal Bluetooth implementation, and Google Talk, Google’s instant messaging software.
Google said that despite being taken out of the API, the first Android phones will still have essential support for Bluetooth hands-free devices. Since the companies building the actual hardware, such as HTC, won’t have access to the API for Bluetooth in the OS, apparently that functionality will have to be added completely by Google independent of any hardware. Google has stated the Bluetooth functionality will be added to a later release.
Asked about the Bluetooth removal, Android engineer Nick Pelly wrote the following:
The reason is that we plain ran out of time. The Android Bluetooth API was pretty far along, but needs some clean-up before we can commit to it for the SDK. Keep in mind that putting it in the 1.0 SDK would have locked us into that API for years to come.
The concerns about Google Talk apparently had to due with security issues which could not be adequately addressed before release. According to sources, these concerns included such heavyweights as the exposure of private information on the Web and the lack of security technologies to prevent the widescale spread of a virus via Google Talk.
The removals are effective as of the new .9 Beta release, and will carry over into the 1.0 release.
(Source – PC Magazine)
Did I but Dream a Dream?
The Boy Geniuses are reporting on some video which has surfaced on YouTube that claims to be the HTC Dream running Android, in awfully blurred but reasonably identifiable smartphonealicious action. Nothing even remotely like confirmation is out there but it looks consistent with rumors, and the Android functionality seems legit compared to what we have seen before. Auto-rotating screen, Sidekick style QWERTY, pretty good touch-screen…check, check, check. It seems awfully large to me, but who knows.
Take a look for yourself and see…is this just a YouTube pipe dream or Apple’s worst nightmare?
gOoops (Beta)
It has not been a good few weeks for Google.
First of all, as has been reported here and all over the net, Android developers have been expressing unhappiness for several months with the fact that Google has been very slow with giving them updated versions of the potentially game-changing software. Last week they found out why.
It seems that a Google employee accidentally sent word of a new SDK release to a public mailing list for Android developers. However, the message that the SDK was available at a private download site, was only intended for the winners of a development contest and not for all developers. Now Google had promised that ALL developers would get the same chance to create applications for their revolutionary OPEN SOURCE mobile phone OS. Apparently that was not the case at all. When the outrage followed, the poor, Send button challenged Google employee (assuming he still IS a Google employee) apologized, and while doing so admitted he had sent the message to the wrong list. It had been meant to go to the secret, private list for privileged developers…not to the unwashed mob of little people. These contest winners who were on the special mailing list then publicly stated that yes, they had had access to all the SDKs that the developer forums were abuzz with demands for, but they had stayed mum due to having signed a non-disclosure agreement to hide updates from other developers. Google had also stayed silent, when it wasn’t telling the forums that there were no SDKs, this wasn’t the Android they were looking for, and to move along, move along.
Open source? Looks more like Closed Shop to me.
Google now faces a potentially massive walkaway by developers to other platforms such as Apple’s iPhone, where they clearly let any and all developers who follow the rules write apps for the new Apps store. Not only are the developers angry that they have not been given a fair chance to create applications for the OS, but they are upset over Google’s duplicitous behavior. The industries great expectations for Android are beginning to fade as the OS is looking more and more like vapourware. It may not matter, as the 3G iPhone software may make Android superfluous anyway. [Read more]
Android Faces More Delays
It seems that Google is getting a crash course in “Too Many Cooks” as the warm fuzzy expectations for several Android-based phones hitting the market by the end of 2008 are meeting cold hard reality. Reports are that several of the service providers they were counting on to make big splashing releases this year can’t keep up with Google’s aggressive roadmap.
Reuters reports the following (sourcing from the WSJ)
Deutsche Telekom’s T-Mobile USA expects to deliver an Android-powered phone in the fourth period, but Sprint Nextel Corp (S.N) will not be able to, a person familiar with the matter said, according to the Journal.
China Mobile, the world’s largest wireless carrier with nearly 400 million subscriber accounts, likely will have its launch delayed until late this year or early 2009, the Journal reported, citing sources.
Android also has not won broad support from large mobile-software developers, and some said it is hard to develop programs while Google makes changes as it finishes its own software, the Journal reported.
It seems that Google is still accepting feature implementation requests from developers at this late date, which is causing a lot of slippage in releasing the gold version of Android. If the OS is not finalized, then naturally everything gets delayed as no developer wants to release an application for an RC then have it broken by the final software.
This open, communal effort towards programming can work in a campus environment, even a ginormous campus as Google now is…but when there are multiple powerful companies each with their own roadmap and agendas, each pushing their own requirement, not so much. I know Google always loves to hear what I think, so my advice to them is to stop futzing and release already. Anything that is not ready now, leave for the first update. If they let it drag into 2009 before the first Android handsets actually appear they are going to lose a lot of the buzz they are counting on.
These days, windows of opportunity are small, even for Google.
Android, WinMo 7 Devices in the Next 6 Months?
Meraj Chhaya over at PhoneReport had a very interesting sit down with Kevin Chen, a general manager at HTC during the Touch Diamond release in South Africa.
First of all, Mr. Chen stated that HTC is going to have an Android based device released before the end of 2008 but refused to give out any details of the nature of the device or clues about what features to expect. Both the date and the reticence is pretty consistent with all I have heard about Android thus far. Google is clearly hoping to pull a Steve Jobs-style rabbit out of their hat when they finally release, only without all the leaks. This one frankly goes into my “believe it when I see it” file, especially as I have a feeling that Android’s release will end up being something of a non event…more like Symbian then iPhone and therefore not sexy enough to catch the US consumer market’s attention.
The big news, as far as I am concerned, is that Chen has stated that HTC WILL have a Windows Mobile 7 device out in Q1 of 2009. This is consistent with the leaked HTC roadmap saying a WinMo device will be announced by the end of 2008. Of course, no details about the device but HTC devices are the hottest WinMo phones in Europe and Asia bar none, so expect something impressive with a definite ready-for-business feel to it.
Do I believe it? Yes, I do. Q1 09 would be the perfect time for Windows to shake things up with a major step forward in Mobile Software. The 3G iPhone buzz will have died down and the next iPhone feeding frenzy will be a few months away at least, so the stage will be Window’s to take. Also, if ANYONE is going to come out with a hot, early WinMo 7 device, it will be HTC.
I am excited to see what they come up with for this major milestone in the WinMo roadmap.
Opera extends "Gears" Support
Posted by Jay Donovan on 05/29/08 in Google, Opera, Press Releases
…from Opera.com
Opera Software announced today it will support Gears in its desktop and mobile browsers. The inclusion of Gears in Opera’s main browsing products supports Opera’s vision of transforming the browser into a full platform for applications, regardless of device.
“Opera will have full support for Gears on mobile when they launch this year,” said Charles Wiles, Product Manager for mobile web apps at Google. “Opera Mobile 9.5 will be a great example of a high-quality browser on a mobile platform that supports Gears. This marks the coming of age of the browser as the platform for application development on mobile devices.”
Ok, great. What the heck does this mean?
Well, if I understand correctly (and by all means if I have this wrong, someone comment and let me know) Gears allows the browser to run offline applications that are stored locally on a device or a computer (i.e. it installs a local server, database, etc). This means the browser could hold the interface of a local application that does not require an Internet connection.
Yahoo!, MySpace and Google to Form Non-Profit OpenSocial Foundation
Posted by gasusan2005 on 03/25/08 in Google, Press Releases, The Internet, Yahoo
Community Organization to Assure Neutrality and Longevity of Specification for Building Social Applications Across the Web
Yahoo!, MySpace, and Google today announced they have agreed to form the OpenSocial Foundation to ensure the neutrality and longevity of OpenSocial as an open, community-governed specification for building social applications across the web. Yahoo!’s support of OpenSocial and role as a founding member of the new foundation are landmarks for the rapidly growing specification which will now offer developers the potential to connect with more than 500 million people worldwide.
The OpenSocial Foundation will be an independent non-profit entity with a formal intellectual property and governance framework; related assets will be assigned to the new organization by July 1, 2008. The foundation will provide transparency and operational guidelines around technology, documentation, intellectual property, and other issues related to the evolution of the OpenSocial platform, while also ensuring all stakeholders share influence over its future direction.
Google Search plug-in for Windows Mobile
Posted by gasusan2005 on 03/19/08 in Google, Windows Mobile 6
From Official Google Mobile Blog:
A few weeks ago, we launched a plug-in for Symbian devices that put a Google search shortcut onto the phone’s home screen. This shortcut reduces the time it takes for you to get answers from Google by eliminating the initial search steps (e.g. finding the browser application, opening it, and navigating to Google.com before entering your query). The same plug-in has been available for BlackBerry devices since last December. Today, we’re making this available for Windows Mobile devices too.
If you’re a Windows Mobile user, browse to mobile.google.com on your device to download the plug-in and start searching faster than ever. Once you do, we think you’ll find it so much faster and easier that you’ll start conducting more mobile web searches than you ever had before. How do we know this? Well, when we look at the combined usage numbers for BlackBerry and Symbian versions of this plug-in, we see that users are able to get Google search results up to 40 percent faster. And, BlackBerry and Symbian users with the plug-in installed search 20 percent more than those without it.
Source: Official Google Mobile Blog
Sync your Google Calendar with your Microsoft Outlook calendar
Posted by gasusan2005 on 03/5/08 in Google
Access your calendar however and whenever you want. Check your Microsoft Outlook events on the go with Google Calendar. View your Google Calendar information offline through Microsoft Outlook calendar
To begin syncing, follow the steps below:
1. To download Google Calendar Sync, visit http://dl.google.com/googlecalendarsync/GoogleCalendarSync_Installer.exe
2. Once a dialog box appears, click “Save File.” The download should open automatically. If it doesn’t, manually open the download from your browser’s download window.
3. Click “OK” to confirm that you’re aware this is an executable file.
4. Read through the Google Calendar Sync Terms of Service, and click “I Agree.”
5. Continue to follow through the Installation Options and click “Install” to finish the set-up process.
Once Google Calendar Sync is installed on your computer, the Google Calendar Sync Settings window will appear:
In the Settings window, enter your email address and password and select the Sync Option you prefer. For more information on each Sync Option, please visit Google Calendar Sync: Options
You’ll also be able to set the time interval for syncing to occur. Please keep in mind that 10 minutes is the minimum time interval allowed.
After the initial set-up, you can access the Google Calendar Sync Settings window again by double-clicking on the calendar icon in your Windows System Tray.
[Editor’s Note: Works like it states! Already synced mine!~ Susan]
Source: Google Calendar News
Shifting Google Gears to mobile
Posted by gasusan2005 on 03/4/08 in Google
From Google Mobile blog:
Ever use a mobile web application and suddenly lose your cell connection? That’s happened to me many times. If you’ve shared my pain, you’ll be excited to know that we’ve launched Google Gears for mobile, which lets users access Gears-enabled mobile web apps offline. Initially available for Internet Explorer Mobile on Windows Mobile 5 and 6 devices, mobile web app developers have already started integrating Gears for mobile into their online services.
For more on the vision for Google Gears for mobile and its origins, watch this video.
Google Introduces Google Sites
Posted by gasusan2005 on 02/28/08 in Google
Google today introduced Google Sites, an application that makes creating a team web site as easy as editing a document. With Google Sites, people can quickly gather a variety of information in one place — including videos, calendars, presentations, attachments, and text — and easily share it for viewing or editing with a small group, their entire organization, or the world.
Creating and editing a set of pages in a Google Site requires no knowledge of HTML or web design skills. People can start a new page with one click. Adding content is as easy as clicking the edit button. Sharing is as simple as sending an invitation. All content is instantly searchable, and Google Sites is accessible through any web browser.
Anyone inside an organization can begin using Google Sites by signing up for Google Apps™ communication and collaboration services through Team Edition — without having to burden IT for support. After verifying their business or school email address, people can instantly invite others to join, or easily identify people within their organization already using Google Apps.
With Google Sites, people can create a wide variety of sites, such as:
- an intranet to centralize company information;
- a team site to manage a project;
- a profile site including an individual’s resume, areas of expertise, and goals for the quarter; and
- a virtual classroom to post homework assignments, class notes and other resources.
Google Sites is secure and scalable. Users have full control over who can own, collaborate and view pages, and view version history for each site. Google Sites is built to scale to any sized organization — from a five person start-up to a 50,000 person enterprise or university — and requires no hardware or software to buy, install, or maintain.
Additional features include the ability to:
- Embed content from other Google products, including YouTube™, Google Docs™, Google Calendar™, and Picasa™
- Upload files of any type
- Customize a site’s look and feel
Google Sites is based on JotSpot™ technology and available in the Team, Standard, Premier, and Education Editions of Google Apps. If your business or school doesn’t use Google Apps, please visit http://sites.google.com and sign up for Team Edition with your work or school email address. Existing Google Apps administrators can enable Google Sites immediately from the Google Apps control panel.
Source: Google press release
