Google

Google has released an update to their calling feature inside of Gmail, allowing users to make multiple calls. If you’re on a call and make another call, the current call will be put on hold and you can switch between the calls with the resume button. Even better, when getting an incoming call while on another you can put the current call on hold.

This new feature works on voice, video, and phone calls. If a call is placed to a physical phone number there can only be two calls at once. How long until you can conference calls and do everything else a phone can do?  Bye bye telephone!

In order to grow their social network, Google has put together a ‘celebrity acquisition plan’ reports CNN. The plan revolves around Google adding a verification process to Google+ for celebrities, keeping out the impersonators. This is very similar to Twitter’s ‘verified account’ feature many celebrities and public figures have taken advantage of.

Besides celebrity accounts, Google has been working hard on getting businesses to join their social network. Google opened up a registration for companies interested in getting a company page just a few weeks ago. Perhaps presence of celebrities and businesses will grow Google+ to new heights.
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Wall Street Journal is reporting Google is winding down their Labs website – a site where users can test new products. Last week, Larry Page said Google would put “more wood behind fewer arrows”, meaning they wouldn’t put as many resources behind smaller products. Some might consider Labs a smaller product. WSJ notes some popular Labs products:

Many popular products had their start in Google Labs, including Google Alerts, which send people email updates when the search engine indexes websites containing certain information or news; Google SMS, which allowed people to do a search on their mobile device by texting their query to “Google,” or 466453; and Google Maps, one of the most important Google assets, also got its start in the labs site, in 2005.

For those of you who use Labs this is a sad day … this is a new Google.

In order to acquire more patents, Wall Street Journal is reporting Google is in talks with InterDigital regarding an acquisition. In past weeks, Google lost the bidding war against Nortel, which would of landed the company numerous amounts of patents. Currently, Google has a small portfolio of patents which could lead to lawsuits over Android. For Google, the only logical thing is to acquire more. As CNet notes:

“We continue to be optimistic about the prospects for the company under its current business plan,” Terry Clontz, InterDigital’s chairman, said in a statement. “That said, over the past year we have seen the value of intellectual property rise substantially as major players in the mobile industry increasingly understand the strategic and economic value of this type of asset.”

As of now these talks with InterDigital are preliminary and no price has been set.  Apple is also rumored to be involved.

[vodpod id=Video.13491153&w=425&h=350&fv=webhost%3Dfora.tv%26amp%3Bclipid%3D13849%26amp%3Bcliptype%3Dclip]

Doesn’t seem like your normal CFO Role.  After 8 minutes of busses and food, it gets juicy…  Full transcript.

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If found in their data center’s servers, Google will now notify you if you have malware running on your computer when making a Google Search. Google announced the new feature today, and hopes to use their vast wealth of information to make this effective. Google explains:

Recently, we found some unusual search traffic while performing routine maintenance on one of our data centers. After collaborating with security engineers at several companies that were sending this modified traffic, we determined that the computers exhibiting this behavior were infected with a particular strain of malicious software, or “malware

Obliviously this won’t pick up every single piece of malware out there, but it’s a nice little addition to an already great search platform.

Google’s Eric Schmidt chats with the Wall Street Journal columnist Walt Mossberg at D9 conference in May 2011. Photo: Asa Mathat | All Things Digital

Interesting comments by Google’s executive chairman and former CEO Eric Schmidt at Google’s Mobile Revolution conference here Tuesday. 9to5Mac, our parent site, already reported how Schmidt bashed Apple for suing Android backers out of – in his view – pure jealousy at Android’s success and what he called “lack of innovation” on Apple’s part. However, Schmidt is “not too worried” about Apple’s patent infringement claim against HTC, but stressed his company will “make sure they don’t lose”. ZDNet follows-up with more noteworthy tidbits concerning Android and Google’s view of the mobile landscape.

Asia will be the next gold mine as Android devices become more affordable to the mass consumer, he said, countering claims by DigiTimes that an ITC ruling favoring Apple in its crusade against HTC had white-box vendors such as Huawei Device and ZTE, two of China’s fastest growing Android-device makers, reconsider Microsoft’s mobile operating system at the expense of Android. Asia is the world’s largest and most populous continent with the population of 3.88 billion people.

Within a decade consumers will enjoy 30 times “cheaper, better, faster” connection speeds on mobile devices. Google’s mobile first approach will prove key:

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Undergraduate students from universities across the U.S. and Canada spent a week at Android Camp, Google’s “Android Development 101” course. The program was somewhat like an internship. Students, most of which who are in school for computer science, spent the week at Google’s Mountain View campus and got hands-on help from engineers. Students were assigned teams and began to hammer away at creating an Android app. Google notes a few of the applications developed:

At the end of the week, each group presented its application to other Android campers and Google engineers. Applications spanned a variety of categories: recipeBEAR provides people with a list of meal recipes based on ingredients they have on hand; Blazin’ Contacts uses QR codes to automatically collect contact information from a large group of people and input it into your mobile device; OnTime combines Google Maps with the device’s alarm to help people gauge how much time they’ll need to arrive somewhere; The Shake Race, as you may imagine, was the most entertaining of the bunch—group members demonstrated the game by shaking their Xoom Tablets furiously to race their characters across the screen.

This new program is going to be annual for college freshman and sophomores. Sign-ups for next year’s camp will go up in November.
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Michael Dell hosting a hangout

GigaOm is reporting that Michael Dell, Dell’s CEO and chairman, wants to use Google+ Hangouts for customer service. Michael Dell has used Hangsouts more than a dozen times to connect with customers, showing he’s a fan of the service and he yesterday said on Google+:

I am thinking about hangouts for business. Would you like to be able to connect with your Dell service and sale teams via video directly from Dell.com?

As of now Google+ is in an invite only beta, so this idea couldn’t be executed yet. But this is certainly some good thinking.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cWYZculurU]

Can Google’s search UI get any better?  Yes!

Google Operating System is reporting Google is testing an infinite scrolling feature on their search page. As you can see in the video above — the navigation bar, the search box, and the search options sidebar stays fixed at the top as the user continues to scroll down. Google is also testing a new page preview UI, requiring you to hover over the magnifying glass to see the preview.

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Google gave all employees moving into the Zurich office apples with the Google logo engraved.
Source: Webilus.fr

It is hard to escape the buzz flying around Google+, the search monster’s latest social thing. It raised red flags at Facebook where Mark Zuckerberg summoned a hastily organized news conference that fell on def ears with general public. The presser was a classic case of over-promising and under-delivering as Zuckerberg’s “awesome announcement” turned out a yet another dull unveiling of way overdue features, such as group chat and Skype integration. But who would have though just a month ago that Google would put the fear of God into Facebook with what many consider an unusual take on social networking?

Nobody saw it coming when co-founder Larry Page took the reigns April 4 from Eric Schmidt. What a difference a few weeks make. An invite-only service closed for public in two weeks since launch signed up more than ten million users. And when it opens for everyone later this year, the hundred million milestone will be well within reach. Page, who once famously called Steve Jobs a liar, put the pedal to the metal from his first day as CEO by tying executive bonuses to their contributions to the company’s social strides. The move quickly earned him notoriety among tech watchers and his own employees.

But unlike Mark Zuckerberg – who may try to be, but is certainly no Steve Jobs on stage  (see why in the below YouTube clip) – Page has notably been keeping low profile while cunningly taking clues from Apple’s iconic leader. We were told about “moon shots”, to the dismay of many watchers (this author included). Page was stiffing innovation and focusing too much on corporate bureaucracy, many cried…

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYYfvf40ZVc]

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A new Chrome Extension called GTools+ allows you to customize Google+ to your liking. The extension features many customizations — like moving Chat to the Google Bar, adding an unread counter for Gmail and Reader, language translation for posts from your foreign friends, and the ability to keep the Google Bar at the top of the page when you scroll down. GTools+ is available on the Chrome Web Store. All of GTools+’s features:

- Unified Google bar, your personalized menu is possible on all Google services!
- Stick the Google+ bar always on top when you scrolling
- Prevent open in new tab or window when you click on link inside the Google+ bar
- Change the position of the chat for put in the Google+ Bar
- Change the color of the notification bubble in the Google+ bar
- Right click on the extension icon for go to the options page fastest
- Add a translation link in the context menu (auto detect the post language)
- Add notification for Gmail and Reader in the Google Bar.
- Edit the color of any notification bubble.

via Nirmal TV
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The Wall Street Journal is reporting Amazon will be selling a tablet by October, to compete with Apple’s iPad. While the details are sketchy as of now, WSJ is saying the tablet will have a 9-inch screen and will run Android. Oddly enough, the tablet will not feature a back camera. Lastly, Amazon won’t be building the tablet themselves, but will outsource to a manufacturer in Asia.

Amazon’s tablet will have a roughly nine-inch screen and will run on Google’s Android platform, said people familiar with the device. Unlike the iPad, it won’t have a camera, one of these people said. While the pricing and distribution of the device is unclear, the online retailer won’t design the tablet itself. It also is outsourcing production to an Asian manufacturer, the people said. One of the people said the company is working on another model, with Amazon’s own design, that could be released next year.

There will also be two eReaders before Christmas, one touch and one at a significantly reduced cost. Along with the tablet in October, there is word that we can be seeing another tablet designed by Amazon themselves in 2012.

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TechCrunch is reporting that Google is hiring numerous amounts of lawyers in order to acquire more patents. Currently Google only owns 701 patents, a very small number for such a large company. In contrast Microsoft was awarded 3,121 patents just last year. Google will continue to get slammed with lawsuits if they don’t acquire more patents.

On its Job page, Google is listing six open positions involving patents . TechCrunch points one out:

For example, the strategic patent licensing and acquisitions manager evaluates and values potential patent acquisition and licensing opportunities, and negotiates these deals (a.k.a. finds more patents for Google).

Perhaps Google will go after Richard “Chip” Lutton Junior, the chief patent counsel that just left Apple yesterday.

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If your Google+ profile is ever suspended for any reason, it won’t be the worst thing to happen because other services tied to your Google+ account could be rendered inaccessible as a result. As far as Google is concerned, Google Profiles and Google+ Profiles are the same thing and removing one for whatever reason will take down the other. If you intend on building your online identity on Google+, you should read the following guidelines carefully.

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Google+ is gaining momentum with each passing day but the search giant isn’t content with resting on its laurels. Google is aware that it’s facing an uphill battle if it wants to dethrone Facebook so they’re iterating and rolling out new features like crazy. Here’s a quick overview of the more notable enhancements coming soon to Google+.

Rohit Khare, who was added to Google social team following the Angstro acquisition in late 2010, announced that an address book uploader will be rolling out to everyone over the next few days. This will let you export your friends list from other social services in the standard CSV or vCard formats, without messing up your other Google Contacts.

By the way, bear in mind that the folks you put into your Circles are automatically added to your Google Contacts’ Other Contacts section. Previously this week, Engineering Manager for Gmail frontend Mark Striebeck mentioned “several Gmail/Google+ integrations” and he already arranged several Hangouts to discuss the topic. And you may have heard that Google+ features for businesses are coming, too.

Go past the break for more features and a couple of clips…

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Now that Android has become the leading mobile platform in the US and other key markets around the world, developers are taking notice and some no longer prefer releasing their apps on iOS first, followed by Android. For some, it’s a question of Android’s installed user base, the pace of the platform’s growth and the fact that ad-supported free model on Android matches the App Store’s 99-cent economy. For others like WhitePages, the decision comes down to cutting out a middleman in order not to be forced to spend time, resources and money on a lengthy approval process.

According to Ina Fried over at the Wall Street Journal’s All Things D blog, WhitePages’ new Localicious app will be released on Android first. Apple’s approval process “is just too difficult to time a launch around”, Fried writes, noting the iPhone maker’s stringent approval process had delayed the launch of a reverse phone lookup app from WhitePages for two months, a far cry from the Apple-advertised “95 percent of the apps are approved in two-weeks time”. WhitePages’ op-chief Kevin Nakao tells the blog:

I think we are going to see a lot of people start to ship Android first. You cant be held hostage. Marketing an application becomes increasingly important given the number of apps that are being published. Since apps can still get tied up in the iOS approval process, it makes this marketing planning almost impossible.

UPDATE [July 13, 2011, 10:20am Eastern Time]: Google itself is now advising developers to target Android first. According to MacWorld UK, Google Ventures partner Rich Miner is telling app developers funded by the Google-backed project that they focus on Android and then roll out apps on iOS later.

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hu-YsZNpkZs]

Remember WDYL, the Google-owned site affectionately named What Do You Love? It rolled out quietly last month to no fanfare as a glorified Google.com frontend to present search results across numerous Google products with pretty layouts. It has gotten some press time before most folks forgot about it so Google made this little video to remind us of the project and showcase the power of HTML5 and Google search.

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While most apps size up well on most of Android’s tablets and larger smartphones, the Android team has announced a new feature that will allow users to size apps that won’t quite fit their screen. Any Android app on the Market that doesn’t target a larger screen through code will get this new feature.

To enable this functionality, developers need to add one line of code:  android:xlargeScreens=”true”.

If a larger screen target can’t be found, Android will enable the feature in the bottom right of the device. Users can either select “stretch to fill screen” or “zoom to fill screen”. Since larger 1080P Google TVs run Android, this is a great feature to have. Also, does this  help or hurt Android fragmentation?
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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSmZ7hYY24U]

Regardless of your politics, this is interesting.  Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich talked with a group over Hangout — taking questions and even asking them. Among other topics, Newt talked space to the debt ceiling, and someone was nice enough to post a video recap. This is an incredible tool for politicians to use, and we expect more to hop on as the election nears.

via Vic Gundotra 
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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Pbo-d62ivY]

Google has announced that a new Android Market is coming to Android phones. Along with an overall redesign, the new Market will be receiving a Book and Movie tab. The updated Market is available for phones running Android 2.2 and up, and will be rolling out in the coming weeks.

Movies will be available in the U.S. for $1.99, where they can be downloaded right on the Android phone. We assume Books will be priced book-to-book, like almost all e-book stores. Movies and Books will be linked to your Google account, so all of your Android devices will be in sync. Check out screenshots after the break.

The new Android Market will be rolling out in the coming weeks to Android 2.2 and higher phones around the world. You don’t need to do anything – the update is automatic on supported phones. If you’re in the U.S., you’ll also be able to download the Videos app, rent movies, and buy books once you receive the new Android Market.

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