Google's Nexus S goes live

Nexus S is the next generation of nexus devices co-developed by Google and Samsung. The latest Android platform (gingerbread) paired with 1 GHz Hummingbird processor and 16 GB of Memory makes Nexus S one of the fastest phones on the market. It comes with pre-installed best Google Applications and enabled with new popular feature like true multi-tasking, Wi-Fi hotspot, internet calling, NFC support and full web browsing.This thing is all but official anyway, but for what it's worth, Google's now got its own product page live for the upcoming Nexus S from Samsung. Here's the rundown: 4-inch WVGA display, triband HSPA with AWS support (no HSPA+, seemingly), 5 megapixel camera, NFC, 16GB of onboard storage, 512MB of RAM, available on T-Mobile. It's also got a gyroscope as do the standing Galaxy S phones along with something being called the "contour display" (which matches up with rumors we've heard), integrated VoIP support, and Android 2.3 Gingerbread. Interestingly, the phone's quoted as having nothing more than a 1GHz Cortex A8-based Hummingbird processor, seemingly shooting down rumors that this thing would be rocking the Orion dual-core setup.

Google Chrome Roll out December 7, likely unveiling Chrome OS netbook

A rumored Google event on December 7 could herald the long-awaited Google Chrome OS netbook, but the initial launch might be smaller than expected.



Google is seemingly hosting an event that possibilities “sensational news about Chrome” and, according to Engadget, that means an official unveiling of its Chrome OS netbook. Earlier rumors of a launch in November have already fallen through, but a launch in just days would coincide with Google’s latest update to Chrome. The netbook itself purports to have an interesting list of features, most notably a Cloud-based operating system, and according to early reports, the netbook can boot up in mere seconds. Interestingly enough, Google doesn’t seem poised to flood the market with the device; on the contrary, the rumor is that only 65,000 of the first iteration of the device will be made available to their “close friends and family.” If this is true, that could certainly raise some eyebrows, especially considering the chunk of the market Apple and Samsung now have. The longer Google waits, the more of a handicap it may be imposing on itself when the netbook does finally launch. However, Google may already have lost.

Google Chrome 8.0 was pushed through with little fanfare, but the added inclusion of a Web Store (essentially Google’s App Store or Marketplace) delivers more circumstantial evidence in support of the netbook announcement. It has long been announced that this Web Store will allow app vendors to create content not only for the Chrome web browser, but the operating system as well. With nothing but (substantial) rumor to go on, it’s too soon to tell whether any of this will be enough for Google to distinguish its device from competitors. However, if Google does have an ace up its sleeve, it appears we’ll find out this coming Tuesday.

Google Earth launches new version, improves clarity

Google Earth has just released Google Earth 6 into its interactive digital atlas. Now you can explore your childhood home, or scope out your next vacation spot with superior realism. Google Earth 6 brings superior realism in two ways. It integrates Street View and 3D trees for the first time. It’s also easier to browse through historical images as well. Google Earth has traditionally only allowed users to fly over spaces to view the landscape and surrounding features. With the overview of a full integrated street view, you can journey from East to West in a fully integrated street view experience, no flying over necessary.



Google Earth 6 also includes dozens of beautifully detailed 3D models of different types of trees, from the Japanese Maple to the East African Cordia. Trees are being virtually “planted” in Google Earth, with more than 80 million already placed in many popular destinations. To enjoy these leafy additions to Google Earth, make sure you turn on the 3D buildings layer on the left side panel.



The latest version of Google Earth makes it much easier to discover historical imagery. When you are searching in an area where historical imagery is available, the date of the oldest imagery will appear in the status bar at the bottom of the screen. If you click on this date, you’ll be taken back in time to view imagery from that time period. From there, you can search through all the historical imagery available at that location, or simply close the time control and return to the default view.



Google has posted a great video showing the new features on this release on their blog post announcing the news.



Have you tried out the new Google Earth? Let us know what you think of it in the comments below.

Google Cloud Connect takes place on Microsoft Office

Google has launched Cloud Connect for Microsoft Office, allowing Office users to back up and sync their docs, spreadsheets, and slideshows on Google's cloud network.



Yesterday, Google took its another shot at Microsoft Office. In a blog post, the search company revealed Google Cloud Connect, an add-on to Microsoft Office 2003, 2007, and 2010 that allows users to automatically upload and sync their documents as Google Docs in the cloud, allowing access from any computer with an Internet connection. “Once in the Google cloud, documents can be easily shared and even simultaneously edited by multiple people, from right within Office,” writes Shan Sinha, group project manager for Cloud Connect. “A full revision history is kept as the files are edited, and users can revert to earlier versions in one click. These are all features that Google Docs users already enjoy today, and now we’re bringing them to Microsoft Office.”



Within a few hours, Google filled its early testing spots as thousands of businesses signed up. When it is released, Cloud Connect will be a huge hit at Microsoft, who opened up APIs to its Office suite a couple years ago under the promise of greater openness. Google is using those APIs to create a product that teaches users how to live without Office by moving to Google Docs. Microsoft has not issued a response.



The technology for Cloud Connect comes from DocVerse, a company Google acquired earlier this year. In the last year, Microsoft has made a concerted effort to make its Office products more cloud-based (meaning stored on the web and accessible from anywhere). In October, it announced a huge deal with the city of New York and in July it made its Office 2010 web-apps free for anyone to use. Google appears to still have the upper hand on cloud-services, but 2011 is another year.



Google Cloud Connect is not currently available for Macs.

Google closing 800-GOOG-411 Directory assistance

Always used Google's 1-800-GOOG-411 voice recognition-based directory assistance service? It's due to shut down November 12.

Back in 2007 Google launched 1-800-GOOG-411, a telephone directory assistance service for the U.S. and Canada powered by voice recognition technology. Now, the company has announced it will be shuttering the service on November 12, 2010—it’s seemingly assisted its purpose, which was to serve as a technical foundation for what ultimately became Google’s voice input technologies, including Voice Search and Voice actions.

Google launched the voice-powered directory assistance service as an honest entry into the phone-based information services market, but the company was very open about its other agenda with the service: gather as much voice data as possible so it could train its phone-based speech recognition technology. For speech technology to be accurate, it needs to build its systems from a large number of speakers using a variety of different sounds, accents, and pronunciations—and, for Google, it’s even better if those calls come in over the low quality of a telephone voice connection. Google anonymously recorded calls to the GOOG-411 service and used them to refine its speech recognition technology.

Google will still provide directory assistance services for non-smartphones: folks can sent a text message to GOOGLE (466453) with the name and location of the business they want and get a text back in response. Gmail also has new phone-calling features built in, and smartphone owners can get a free voice search applications from Google via Google Mobile. 

Google Proposes $8.5 Mln Buzz Lawsuit Settlement

Google has proposed paying $8.5 million to settle a lawsuit over privacy violations when it launched its Buzz social network.

Internet giant Google has proposed paying some $8.5 million to settle a lawsuit over privacy violations that occurred when it launched its Buzz social networking service earlier this year. Some 30 percent of the proposed settlement money would go towards legal fees associated with the case, $2,500 each would go to the seven Gmail users who brought the suit, and the remainder would be split amongst organizations that promote online privacy and privacy education. Google admits no wrongdoing in the settlement, which still must be approved by a judge.



Complaints about Google Buzz centered on making the service an opt-in option—instead of something automatically enabled for Gmail users—and giving users control over who the service put them in contact with. Initially, Google Buzz automatically generated a social network using contacts in users address books and corpus of Gmail messages, effectively publishing a list of Gmail users’ most-frequent contacts. Although the service was useful for some people, well-publicized cases of privacy violations include journalists having sources exposed, employees having their jobs put in jeopardy from social contacts with competitors employees, and private information suddenly being distributed to abusive ex-spouses.



As part of the settlement, Google would agree to engage in more use education about the privacy aspects of Google Buzz.



After launching Buzz and enduring a deluge of complaints, Google moved rapidly to revamp its privacy settings and initial startup experience, revising the startup experience, making privacy settings more accessible and adding additional controls.

WSJ: T-Mobile wants to sell Huawei Ideos

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that T-Mobile is “in talks to distribute Huawei Technologies Co.’s new Google-powered smartphone this holiday season.” The phone in question, dubbed the Ideos, was revealed yesterday in Berlin. The phone is an inexpensive, 2.8-inch touchscreen, Android 2.2 device that Huawei says will be a powerful and accessible Android handset. The WSJ quotes a person familiar with the matter and explains that “an agreement would give Huawei an opening into the U.S. market and T-Mobile a low-cost smartphone.” The suggested retail price for the Ideos is between $100 and $200 off-contract.

Logitech Revue: Hands-On Impressions

Check out our hands-on first impressions of Logitech’s Revue, the first set-top box featuring Google TV.

Having conquered online search, webmail, and even online video, Google now wants to stick a blue, red, yellow and green flag in your 42-inch TV. Last spring, the company announced Google TV, a competitor to the likes of Apple TV, Windows Media Center and even free software like Boxee. The first hardware company to pick up Google’s latest experiment? Logitech, with its Revue set-top box.

The Revue won’t hit stores until this fall, but we have a hands-on sneak peek from a loyal reader who found a fully functioning Revue on his doorstep, courtesy of Logitech’s Revue beta test program. Keep in mind that his impressions aren’t our own, and the box remains in beta testing, but it looks like Google TV and the Logitech Revue box it rides on have a promising future in the next few months.

Hands-on First Impressions

A nondescript box was waiting for me on my porch when I got home yesterday.

Inside: the Logitech Revue with Google TV.

I had been one of the many chosen to do beta testing on it, and frankly, was pretty excited about it.

Unboxing

The unit un-boxing was a bit anticlimactic, as they had not worked out all the details on advertising and packaging, everything was literally brown-box style.

Specific contents were as follows:

• 1 Revue unit

• 1 two-part power cord

• 1 HDMI cable

• One keyboard

• 1 IR remote blaster unit

• Basic, incomplete instructions 

Setup

Connecting the box was easy, although I did actually screw it up the first time. Simply insert the Revue unit inline between your cable box and whatever it was plugged into before. For me, it’s an amplifier. For most, it’s a TV. From there, the Revue literally walks you through everything else. The 12-step process includes asking the details of your Google account, your physical location, TV, cable box, amp, and more, then confirms that the information you have given it correctly programs the unit. One of the great things about the Revue, right out of the gate, is that it has the Logitech Harmony technology built into it. So if it’s in your home and it has a remote, the Revue can probably run it now. I actually have a nice Harmony in my place already, and have put the Harmony controls on my Droid Incredible as well, so it’s pretty much overkill, but who cares?

Covering the Basics

On to the good stuff. Once you’re set up, everything you do will be linked in some way to the cloud via your Google account. But really, this is not even an afterthought. Many of the things that are presented to you in the onscreen menu are similar to what you would find on a PlayStation 3, or even some of the newer televisions that have online capabilities. Facebook, YouTube, and other online services are all at your fingertips, so I will not dive too far into these features, as they’ve become more common.

One Filter to Rule Them All

So what’s so special about Google TV? Well its ability to filter television, for starters. The “What’s on TV” menu is absolutely amazing. Every program on TV can also be broken down to subcategories. Movies, cartoons and animation, drama, horror, the list goes on. With one simple click, you can tell it to go find them. It will list them, what channel they are on, the remaining time, and if you highlight one, an in-depth description pulls up on the side of the screen.

Search and Record

Still can’t find what you’re looking for? No problem, there is a search button right on the remote keyboard that comes with the unit. Want to record what you’re watching or missing? There’s a button for that too. And with Google Chrome, and a clearly Android-based OS, this just keeps getting better.

Can a Keyboard Kill the Remote?

This keyboard, if you want it to, will completely replace all remotes. It just takes a little getting used to, with no traditional 10-digit keypad to plug in channels. But a built-in touch pad and a one-touch picture-in-picture feature make multi-tasking simple. Sending a Facebook note about how your college team is smashing your buddy’s team in the last three seconds is pretty much a no brainer, right on the TV.

Final Impressions

When you get right down to it, this thing has infinite possibilities, many of which are not unique to this product alone. But let’s face it: You don’t buy a Swiss Army knife because it has a corkscrew. You buy it because it haseverything, and a few of those things just can’t be found in most other places.

The cloud revolution is well under way, people. And if you’re not in it, you’re probably still scratching your head, staring into the sky, watching it float by.

So put away your Motorola Razor with the big clicky buttons, and catch up, because (at least for the moment) Google is king, we are its subjects, and the Logitech Revue has just put the best damn roadmap to its kingdom in our hands.

Google and AOL Ink Five-Year Search Deal

Google and AOL have inked a new five-year deal to let Google continue powering the search results served up by AOL.com.

Internet giant Google and struggling online portal AOL have announced a new five-year deal that will see Google continue to provide search results for AOL’s network of content and services; however, the new deal will be expanded to include mobile search capabilities and YouTube.

“Today is another important step in the turnaround of AOL,” said AOL chairman and CEO Tim Armstrong, in a statement. “AOL users will be getting a better search and search ads experience from the best search company in the world—Google.”

Under the new deal, AOL video content will appear on Google’s YouTube video site, and AOL will share revenue with Google from advertisements that appear alongside search results on AOL’s sites. AOL will also bring Google search to mobile platforms as it “renews its focus” on mobile apps and content. Specific financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

For the most part, the agreement perpetuates a deal between the two companies that has been in place since 2005, back when Google put $1 billion into AOL in exchange for a a 5 percent stake in the company. (Time Warnerbought out Google’s share of AOL last year for less than a quarter of that price as part of spinning AOL back out into a separate company.)

Google Sued Over Nexus One 3G Connectivity Problems, Misleading Claims

On Tuesday, Google was slapped with a breach of contract class action lawsuit alleging that its Nexus One smartphone failed to maintain 3G connectivity and that the Mountain View company not only made misleading claims about the product’s capabilities but also failed to adequately support customers in search of answers.

Plaintiff Nathan Nabors of Florida is seeking damages and class action interest on behalf of residents of his home state as well as California who have bought the Nexus One since its January debut.

The only defendant named in the suit is Google – in other words, manufacturer HTC and exclusive 3G carrier T-Mobile USA are not included in the suit. The potential size of the classes is not specified in the complaint.

The suit says Google basically failed to warn customers they would not receive faster 3G connectivity, even in areas where T-Mobile USA said such coverage was available. In addition, customer support from Google, to which T-Mobile referred customers with 3G connectivity issues, came up short.

Among other customer service failures, Google denied the problems with the phone were its problem, even as the named plaintiff was missing calls, according to the suit.

Breach of warranty claims aside, the suit also says Google violated the Communications Act by making false and misleading claims about the Nexus One.

For your reference: Google killed the Nexus One on July 16 after shutting down its ballsy but ill-fated Web store, which enabled people to purchase the Android smartphone directly, bypassing the carrier. As MG pointed out recently, it’s having a bit of a good afterlife, though.

A Google spokesperson was not immediately available for comment on the class action.

Google adds support for indexing SVG-image file format

It is a well known fact that Google is a huge supporter of open standards. And to further increase this support, Google recently announced on their blog that they will be indexing SVG (Scalable Vector Graphcs) documents on the web from now on. This will allow users to search for content which is inside SVG documents when they make a Google search.



SVG is an open format based on XML for vector graphics with support for interactive elements. It is a preferred image format for use in Wikipedia's articles. Google will be indexing SVG content both, as a standalone file as well as SVG tags embedded directly in HTML. The feature is currently live in the present Google's search engine and files will be added as they get crawled.



For WebMasters who wish to host SVG files on their websites, but not to include them in Google’s search results, Google allows them to do so by using the “X-Robots-Tag: noindex” directive in the HTTP header.

Google Buys Social Gaming Outfit SocialDeck

Google's acquisition spree isn't letting up: Google just bought social game company SocialDeck for an undisclosed amount.

Internet giant Google is continuing its string of acquisitions—and is showing more signs of investing heavily in social networking and entertainment—by acquiring SocialDeck for an undisclosed amount. SocialDeck makes casual games for the iPhone, BlackBerry, and Facebook, with plans to expand to the Android platform. Neither Google nor SocialDeck have commented on how Google plans to integrate SocialDeck into the company, but Google’s interest may be in SocialDeck’s Spark platform, which can coordinate players across social games on multiple platforms, enabling iPhone users to play with users on Facebook, for example.

“We started this company with the goal of connecting friends through social games on all kinds of exciting newmobile devices,” SocialDeck wrote on it’s Web site. “We’ve been amazed and humbled by all of the stories and experiences our customers (you!) have shared with us.”

The company hasn’t announced whether its current stable of games will continue to be supported or (in one case) offered for sale.

SocialDeck marks Google’s fifth acquisition in recent weeks: it’s also picked up social game developer Slide, virtual currency firm Jambool, social news startup Ångströ, and online retailer Like.com.

Google: 1,000,000 Gmail calls in 24-hours

Gmail voice and video chat makes it easy to stay in touch with friends and family using your computer’s microphone and speakers. But until now, this required both people to be at their computers, signed into Gmail at the same time. Given that most of us don’t spend all day in front of our computers, we thought, “wouldn’t it be nice if you could call people directly on their phones?”



Starting today, you can call any phone right from Gmail.













Calls to the U.S. and Canada will be free for at least the rest of the year and calls to other countries will be billed at our very low rates. We worked hard to make these rates really cheap with calls to the U.K., France, Germany, China, Japan—and many more countries—for as little as $0.02 per minute.



Dialing a phone number works just like a normal phone. Just click “Call phone” at the top of your chat list and dial a number or enter a contact’s name.

Google Now Lets You Make Phone Calls from Gmail

Google has incorporated voice-over-IP calling into Gmail, with international voice and video chat.

Not satisfied by just dominating most of the world, Google continues to expand into every possible field that a human being might use to gain or transmit information. Google has a strong hold on the e-mail market, the search engine is the number one website in the world,Google TV is on the way and now Google has its eyes on the Internet telephone field currently dominated by Skype.

If you have an email account with Gmail, you may have noticed a new “call” button on the side of your screen, just below the “chat” IM function. The pop up banner pointing right to it with the lines “Free calls to the U.S. and Canada in 2010”, and the “Insanely low rates for international calls”, is kind of hard to miss too. In other words, Google wants people to know that they are now players in the voice-over-IP field, and they want your business.

Once you install the new program that takes just minutes, users will have voice and video chat immediately available. The rates will be cheaper than a standard landline, and according to Business Insider, the metered rates are lower than Skype’s in most countries. Google’s software does not yet offer an unlimited calling plan though, as Skype does.

Once you are ready, you will be able to manually dial any number you want. You can also choose anyone in your contact list and dial them with the click of a button- assuming they also have the Google voice and video chat up and running.  All you need is a microphone and you are set.

Google has released this handy video to teach you how to use a phone, if you were confused.

Mashable’s iPhone App Updated with New iOS 4 Features

According to a recent blog post from Google, Earth for Android will now allow for experiences of the submarine variety.

The latest 1.1 version of Google Earth for Android includes features that will let you delve into the mysterious depths of the ocean as well as the more terrestrial spaces of the planet’s surface.

Google first dove underwater with its Earth product early last year. At that time, the company announced it would partner with organizations such as National Geographic to create a sort of Street View of the seas.

Earlier this year, those partnerships came to fruition with Ocean Showcase, a dazzling new feature that highlighted surf spots, shipwrecks, marine research and more.

It’s fascinating to see the underwater aspects of Google Earth coming to handheld devices, as well.

“For example,” writes Google product manager Jenifer Austin Foulkes, “check out the landscape and terrain in Monterery Bay Canyon, which is larger than the Grand Canyon, by zooming in on Google Earth below the ocean surface just off the coast. Once underwater, you can use the ‘look around’ button to tilt the view and see the extent of this great undersea canyon.”

Facebook Projected to Overtake Google

If current projections hold, within 18 months, Facebook will overtake Google to become the most visited website in the world.

In just over six years, Facebook has gone from an upstart social network living in the shadow of MySpace, to the second most trafficked site on the Internet. Within the next 18 months, it might be the biggest website in the world.

According to the website Alexa.com, sometime in early 2012, the social networking website will surpass Google as the top site in the world. If the rate of growth for both companies remains constant, both Facebook and Google will be visited regularly by more than 50 percent of every person on the Internet on a daily basis.

Currently, Google is holding steady at around 150 million unique visitors per day, while Facebook is around 125 million: an increase in 25 million from this time last year. Google is also growing, but has plateaued a bit since hitting 150 million.

Facebook recently hit a milestone when it announced in July that it officially had 500 million active users registered on the site. While the number in general is remarkable for several obvious reasons, of equal note is the growth Facebook has seen, not just in unique visitors per day, but in the number of people that are even now signing up to create accounts. In the last seven months, Facebook has seen a 25-percent increase in the number of registered accounts, from 400 million to 500 million.

Facebook has also seen remarkable growth in its “Facebook pages,” which include both fan pages, as well as corporate pages run by businesses. According to the blog Eyes and Feet, the Facebook fan pages have increased from 4 million to 16 million as more and more business create professional Facebook pages to reach consumers.

Of course these projections don’t factor in things like over saturation, or any potential changes to either site that could raise or lower the traffic to each, but barring unforeseen events, Facebook will soon dominate the internet.

Google Testing Dynamic Search Results

Google is testing search results pages that change on-the-fly as users enter text...and acquires visual search service Like.com.

Despite progress being made by Microsoft’s Bing—which is now starting to handle queries for Yahoo—Google is showing few signs of sitting on its laurels in the Internet search arena: the company has recently confirmed it is testing dynamic search results pages that change their content on the fly as users type and refine their queries. And the company is continuing its acquisition spree, pulling visual search engine Like.com into the fold for an undisclosed amount.

A Google spokesperson has described dynamic search results pages as one of many “experiments” with search interface the company might be running at any given time: SEO consultant Rob Ousbrey is generally credited with being the first to document the occasionally-sighted feature. The dynamic search results page changes as users type, enabling them to refine their queries on the fly without the hassle of executing several searches. The idea is to let users get to the information they want faster: search engines have long offered query suggestions and refinements as sidebar links or as drop-downs from their search boxes; dynamic queries would take that one step further if rolled out as a standard feature. However, one downside to dynamic queries might be responsiveness: folks on high-latency or low-bandwidth connections might find the feature’s attempts to constantly fetch new results make Google sluggish and difficult to use.

On a related note, Google has acquired Like.com, which has focused on developing visual search technology focused on ecommerce of so-called “soft goods” like fashion, shoes, clothing, and accessories. “We’ve developed technology that lets us understand visually what terms like “red high-heeled pumps” and “floral patterned sleeveless dress” mean and created algorithms to understand whether those pumps complement or clash with that dress,” Like.com writes on its Web site. “We see joining Google as a way to supersize our vision and supercharge our passion.” Financial terms of the deal weren’t disclosed; Google apparently plans to integrate Like.com into its own commerce efforts, like Google Product Search.