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YouTube is quickly making its video-sharing platform an all-in-one editing tool with its built-in 3D graphics button and other attractive features, but now Google has taken the service up another notch with its new audio editing and mixing options.

The video above explains it all, but here is a quick run-down:

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Google released an update to the “TV & Movies” app for Google TV bringing with it a few new features including enhancements to animations and scrolling, the ability to remove channels from live TV shelves, and additional Dish Network content. The update will also now hide empty shelves by default.

Google also walked through a number of new features and improvements to the updated TV & Movies app on The Official Google TV Blog. Among the improvements is expanded information below content, and a new menu for getting additional details, star ratings, and favorites. The star ratings will provide suggestions based on your feedback, and Google outlined the streamlined channel layout.

When you add them to Favorite Channels you’ll instantly see what show is currently playing on each. Add all your favorite channels and you’ll have a one-stop personalized guide of just the channels you care about. You can also add favorite TV shows and movies to your queue so you can come back later and watch them on Netflix, Amazon, HBO GO and more.

A full list of what’s new in the update is below:
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A recent interview with Google’s cofounder Sergey Brin received a lot of attention due to his view that Apple and Facebook are the biggest threats to the open Internet. While Brin still recommends reading the full article here, he posted a note on his Google+ account today to clarify some thoughts that he felt were “particularly distorted in the secondary coverage” of the interview.

In the post, Brin clarifies that on the issue of app ecosystems, which are not as open as the rest of the Web, he does not think the “issue is on a par with government based censorship.” He also took time to clarify his view of Apple and Facebook, noting he has “always admired Apple’s products,” especially while using an iMac to type his post. He also called Facebook “a key tool for political expression.” Brin’s full post is below:

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Google announced it is introducing a new initiative today to reinvent online measurement for brand marketers.

“Today at the Ad Age Digital Conference we’re introducing the Brand Activate initiative, a new effort to re-imagine online measurement for brand marketers and—crucially—to help brands turn measurement into action, immediately,” explained Google’s Vice President of Display Advertising Neal Mohan on the Official Google Blog. “We’re working with the industry and supporting the IAB’s Making Measurement Make Sense (3MS) coalition on this project.”

The coalition is committed to developing brand-building online metrics and measurement solutions. Meanwhile, the Ad Age Digital 2012 combines marketing, technology, and media in one place: Chelsea’s Metropolitan Pavilion in New York City. The events start today and end April 18. It is a melting pot of the world’s biggest brands and newest startups.

The conference intends to “connect the dots” between Madison Avenue and Silicon Valley, while highlighting 700 high-level attendees, two days of keynotes, workshops, and networking with celebrated guest speakers.

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So, everyone is aware that Java platform maker Oracle is amid a courtroom grapple with Google over whether Java patents were infringed in the search engine’s mobile operating system Android, but not everyone is clued in to the defendant’s intriguing side of the story.

According to Google’s money slides (via ZDNet), the heart of Google’s defense is summarized in three clear-cut points: Java code was free and openly available to the public; Google did not violate any patents or copyrights when developing Android; and, Oracle is disgruntled due to its and Sun’s failed attempts to market a Java-based platform for smartphones.

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[tweet https://twitter.com/benjrubenstein/status/192310507179483137]

Google announced on the Google Chrome Blog today an updated version of the “Chrome for Android Beta” app that includes support for 31 additional languages and a few new features highly requested by users. The beta is now available to users in all countries with access to Google Play.

Among the new features is the ability to view the desktop version of a website, add bookmarks to your home screen as shortcuts, select default apps for opening links, and use Chrome with the system proxy for Wi-Fi.

As always, “Chrome for Android Beta” is available free through the Google Play store for Android 4.0 devices. Google also released a change log of fixes, changes, and known issues:

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LATEST UPDATE: Google’s App Status Dashboard, an official website that offers performance information for Google Apps services, claimed earlier today that Gmail’s status went down, but the problem is now resolved less than an hour later.

“Please rest assured that system reliability is a top priority at Google, and we are making continuous improvements to make our systems better,” contended Google.

The service interruption only affected 2 percent of Gmail’s user-base. DownRightNow, a universal monitoring service for the Web that is similar to Google’s Dashboard, described the outage as a “widespread service disruption” that started somewhere between 12:40 p.m. and 12:59 p.m. EST. The service interruption did not seem to affect mail pushing to third-party clients.

Those who tried to access Gmail.com directly found the following “Temporary Error (500)” notice with a “93” numeric technical code:

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Oakley could soon give Google’s Project Glass a run for its money.

The eyewear maker told Bloomberg that it is developing technology for integrating smartphone elements into its products. The science is only in the preliminary stage, however, as Oakley’s Chief Executive Officer Colin Baden (picture, left) would not even validate plans to launch such spectacles. He did explain his company’s stance on the project, though, while detailing how the public is yearning for a heads-up display:

“As an organization, we’ve been chasing this beast since 1997,” explained Baden. “Ultimately, everything happens through your eyes, and the closer we can bring it to your eyes, the quicker the consumer is going to adopt the platform.”

Colin then described a few features he would like to see in the product, such as voice-controlled display information in conjunction with a smartphone via Bluetooth. The company actually has a few patents in place that detail its vision (available here, and pictured above). Oakley’s augmented-reality glasses would obviously not be cheap for consumers— especially because its initial target audience consists of athletes and eventually the U.S. military:

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The creative mind behind the head-turning Old Spice advertising campaign just joined the Google Creative Lab.

Wieden + Kennedy’s Iain Tait is leaving his executive creative director gig behind and opting for a role that promotes Android, Google+, Chrome, and other Google-branded services. Aside from the slue of YouTube slapstick Old Spice videos, he is also known for his advertising work at Levi’s, Coke, and Nike.

“I’m going to be an ECD at Google Creative Lab in New York,” announced Tait in a blog post. “I can’t believe that I’m leaving W+K. And I can’t believe that I’m about to join Google Creative Lab. The whole thing is kind of unbelievable.”

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<em>Google Drive appearing in Google Docs during testing.</em>

Are you ready to ditch Dropbox? According to a new report, Google’s long-rumored file storage service Google Drive is set to launch next week. The Next Web said the service is likely to launch next Tuesday, and it will provide users with 5GB of free storage. Much like Dropbox, which currently trumps the industry, users will be able to store any file on the service’s servers for access anywhere. Being Google, however, Drive will most likely also integrate throughout Android and other services—as Apple does with iCloud, though it is a bit more limited. Drive will also launch with integration into other third-party services, according to a leak from last week. We will also look out for the announcement, because we hope this not another source wrong about the launch date.

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Many Google Glasses parody videos are swirling around the Web, but two Israeli-based filmmakers decided to up the ante with a take on “Battlefield 5.”

Nadav Pessach and Uzi Mor created the video above and hosted it on the “There is a Canal” YouTube channel. It features “Battlefield 5” in a much-idealized version of how some gamers expect Project Glass to one-day change the gaming industry. The Battlefield franchise is a series of FPS video games developed by the Swedish company EA Digital Illusions CE and published by Electronic Arts.

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A leaked video suggests Microsoft’s world-renowned productivity suite will soon feature cloud-like options in an effort to curb Google Apps’ growing market share with its alternate offering.

The 30-second promo above is hosted on YouTube by Within Windows. It emphasizes “Office 15” as the suite’s newly re-branded name. It also focuses on the accessibility of the next iteration through remote access to documents, which is enabled by a normal sign-in procedure. The cloud options will tracks and store all of a user’s virtual papers in Microsoft’s cloud-based Sky Drive service.

Microsoft Office is dueling many cloud-based productivity suites, such as Google Apps, and it is steadily losing market share. The downward spiral even caused the once-great Word processing giant to embark on a smear campaign against Google, where it lambasted the Mountain View, Calif.-based Company as a shady advertiser with alternative motives.

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Photographer Scott Kelby is gathering 15 world-renowned photographers together for an unofficial Google+ Photographer’s Conference.

“On May 22-23, fifteen of the biggest photographers, instructors, and social media magnates on Google+ are gathering in San Francisco for the first-ever Google+ Photographer’s Conference at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (in San Francisco), “announced the Google+ Photographer’s Conference page.

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The official Google+ page later reposted the conference’s announcement, but the social network clarified: “This is not an official Google event, but we are excited to see this launch! Hope you can attend.”

Registration information is below.

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A 30-year-old man used Google Earth to literally move mountains and find his long-lost family after nearly three decades of separation.

Saroo Brierley, 5-years-old, boarded the wrong train in 1986 and accidentally arrived in Calcutta, India. The boy found himself adopted one month later and then grew up in Australia. Roughly 25 years flew by without any way of knowing where he came from or how he could find his family.

With time, came technology. Using Google Earth, coupled with basic math to find the radius of Calcutta and the length of that fateful train ride, Brierley pinpointed his birth city.

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The trendy photo-sharing app “Instagram” for Android debuted in the Google Play Store nearly two weeks ago and has since increased the service’s user base by 25 percent.

It took Instagram 19 months to reach 30 million iOS users, but it quickly garnered 10 million Android users in less than 10 days.

Gramfeed, a third-party user tracking website, dug into Instagram’s API to determine Mr. Valentino Elbuti (valentinoelbuti) as the 40 millionth user. He recently signed-up and already has four filtered-images posted to his account.

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YouTube announced it is live-streaming “Coachella 2012” all weekend long on its video-sharing platform.

“Since 2001, the the Coachella Music and Arts festival has brought thousands of fans to southern California to kick off the music festival season in style.  For the second year, YouTube will be live streaming the action, with a three day broadcast of the festival, presented by State Farm,” explained Google’s Music Marketing Manager Tim Partridge on the Official YouTube Blog. 

Over 60 artists will stream during the event—from Gotye to The Black Keys. The show begins at 6:50 p.m. EST tonight on the Coachella YouTube channel.
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Google’s rumored alternative to Dropbox just got a name confirmation while suggesting third-party integration.

The Verge reported that online computing graphic tool Lucidchart implemented a link for integrating Google Drive to its control panel for automatic synchronizing to the cloud. The link quickly disappeared, but the leaked screen capture above seems to verify Google Drive’s name and a taste of what it can do.

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