Here is a small but nifty update to Google’s search interface on tablets (both iOS and Android): just search for [weather] and a new tablet-optimized weather widget will show you the current weather at your location (or anywhere else if you add a city’s name or ZIP code to your search), as well as hourly and ten-day forecasts for temperature, precipitation, humidity and wind speed. Google officially confirmed this update on Google+ earlier today.
The new widget looks like the developers took their design cues from Android’s new Google Now feature. Earlier this year, Google launched a similar widget for iPhone and Android phones as well, but its design is significantly different and the feature set is limited to a three- or five-day forecast depending on the size and orientation of your screen. Just like the new tablet widget, though, the phone interface is also interactive. → Read More
In the midst of today’s news whirl, this tidbit slipped through the cracks; Part of the design team Cuban Council has apparently been acq-hired by Google, according to a note on their blog. Google has also confirmed the mini-acquisition in an email to TechCrunch.
“We’re very excited to share that some folks on our team will be joining Google to focus on design aspects of Google+,” reads the Cuban Council blog, titled “A New Voyage,” ”Having worked closely with a variety of Google product teams since 2005, we’re thrilled to have the opportunity to focus our creative efforts within the organization.”
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At its I/O developer conference last month, Google launched Chrome for iOS. Despite the fact that it’s being held back by Apple’s security protocols and can’t use its own rendering engine, Chrome has been among the most popular free downloads in Apple’s App Store since then. According to the latest data from online advertising network Chitika, Chrome for iOS currently has a market share of about 1.5% on its network. Safari, of course, continues to have a virtual monopoly on iOS browsing, but according to Chitika, Chrome continues to see moderate growth on Apple’s mobile platform. → Read More
Trolls, feel free to skip to the bottom of this column and post your comments immediately without reading a word. Actually, who are we kidding — you didn’t make it this far.
Everyone else, brace yourselves. You may want small children to leave the room. I’m about to do something I don’t do often — something I always said I’d do if the product deserved it. Something some people seem to think I’m incapable of: praise a Google product — an Android-based Google product, no less.
Is that enough build up for you? Okay. → Read More
No, really, what is Google? TechCrunch co-editor Alexia Tsotsis recently posted an interesting piece about Google’s focus, or rather the perceived lack of it. Google has its fingers in so many pies that there are quite a few angles from which to consider the above question.
The title of Alexia’s post says it all: “Remember When Google Was a Search Engine?” For consumers, Google is, or at least used to be, a search company. On the other hand, for investors, and cynics, Google is an ad network. That is, after all, where the money comes from. → Read More
Over the past day or so, a few lucky souls have managed to get their hands on Google’s much-anticipated Nexus 7 tablet, leaving the rest of us to wonder when our time would come. As it turns out, the answer is very soon.
After their Nexus support phone line tipped users off earlier today, Google has finally come right out and said it — the company has begun shipping those wallet-friendly tablets to all those who pre-ordered from them.
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MyTracks for Android is one of Google’s lesser known mobile apps, but it’s actually a pretty useful tool for those who would like to keep a record of their bike rides, runs, hikes and other outdoor activities. Google itself is actually using it together with Team HTC-Columbia during the Tour de France to track the team’s riders during the event. Today, the company is releasing version 2.0 of the free app, which introduces a new interface, as well as support for playing back data in Google Earth for Android, improved charts and additional statistics for evaluating performance trends. → Read More
You shouldn’t have to squint at Like and retweet counts to discover the best content your social network has to offer. So with one simple design choice, Google+ for iPad (and Nexus 7 ) has created a better tablet feed reading experience than Facebook or Twitter. As Google announced at I/O, on tablet, Google+ posts with more engagement are shown larger.
The Google+ iPad app launched today feel more like Flipboard, where surging seas of information turn into smooth sailing thanks to visual cues to what’s crucial. Browsing update after update doesn’t feel monotonous. In fact, it’s quite refreshing and addictive, enough so it might help Google+ finally shake that ghost town label. → Read More
Earlier this week, Josh Constine wrote an epic piece on Facebook, Google and Apple’s impending messaging war. As Constine explains, we have most likely reached “peak SMS,” that is, text messaging is on the decline and another form of messaging will take its place.
But as the major empires wage total war for glorious messaging spoils, there are far smaller, distant tribes that will make their own windfall of riches from the battle. Man I miss playing Age of Empires.
As these tech giants extend their reach even further, it is quite possible that users will seek to regain control over their information and embrace applications that quickly erase or encrypt their messages and pictures. Especially if the companies’ battle reduces their respect for users’ privacy—like Facebook’s aggressive email change last month.
The real gold mine for these impermanent apps is that they aren’t in the war. None of them can come close to these giants and none should try. But while the big three will likely engage in a winner take all battle, one or multiple apps can win side battles. → Read More
Good news, Android fans. A developer over on the forever awesome XDA Developers forums has figured out how to extract Google Now from Android Jelly Bean and port it over to devices running Ice Cream Sandwich. The process for doing so requires a slightly geeky skill set, of course. You have to have a rooted device and you’ll need to be comfortable navigating through the Android file system, for starters. But assuming that’s you, then you can be among the first to try Google Now in (nearly) all its glory.
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Waze, the Israel-based social navigation and traffic service, today announced that it now has 20 million users. That’s quite a milestone for any startup, but what makes this number so impressive is that the company also announced that it added half of its users in the last six month and continues to grow quickly. Just in the last month, the company said, it added 1.8 million new users to its community. All of these users, said Waze, have used the app to drive over 3.2 billion miles so far. → Read More
Here’s something that you’ll either want to buy immediately — or that will just strike you as a giant waste of paper. There’s no in between. Though I will venture a guess that Sergey Brin was going to get to this after he finishes with his Google Spectacles. From Crap Is Good, we’ve learned that two London artist/designers, Ben West and Felix Heyes, have created a visual dictionary, courtesy of Google.
In other words, the artists took an average dictionary and replaced every single word (that’s 21K words for those of you counting along at home) with the first Google Image result for that particular word. Crazy? Maybe. Slightly brilliant? Call it maybe. The result is a 1,240-page pic-tionary comprised of JPEGs and PNGs that will shock, confuse, and amaze. → Read More
Just because Google I/O is over, that doesn’t mean the Google+ announcements have stopped flowing. Yesterday, the company revamped its Google Places iOS app (it’s now “Google+ Local” and includes Zagat integration), and today, it’s integrating Google+ into its Chrome Web App Store. The integration presents itself in a section dedicated to social discovery of new apps, add-ons and games called “From Your Circles.”
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It used to be that you could go to the Google Apps front page and easily sign up for a free account. But now it is a bit different.
The Google Apps choice is not available anymore on the Google Apps home page. You can still get a free Google Apps account. But the only way to do that is by signing up for a 30-day free trial to its premium Goole Apps for Business service. What happens after 3o days? We’ve asked Google for comment. → Read More
Little by little, Google is slowly piecing together a more cohesive and complete mobile OS. Having the right hardware to drive Android doesn’t hurt either. While the Nexus 7 isn’t quite what I expected Google to roll out last week at I/O given the Motorola Mobility acquisition, it’s arguably the first real Android tablet to date.
With a $200 starting price, Android users and those looking for a smaller tablet now have a legitimate alternative to the Kindle Fire. → Read More
We’re on the cusp of a global conflict that will see the three most powerful consumer Internet companies fighting to win control of interpersonal communication. The war will pit Facebook’s unified Chat / Messages / Email vs Apple’s cross-device iMessage system vs. Google’s Gmail / GChat / Hangouts. If one emerges as the definitive victor, it could sway the future of digital human interaction.
Read on as we survey the battlefield, review the weaponry of each company, and assess who could win the epic message war and the fortune that comes with it. → Read More
Google is making a serious push with NFC on Android. As we detailed last night, Android product management director Hugo Barra revealed yesterday that Google is now shipping 1 million NFC-equipped devices every week. Beyond Google Wallet, the company announced some cool new features to Android Beam at I/O on Wednesday, including giving users the option to share video through NFC or pair their phones to other NFC-enabled devices just by tapping it.
Last night, Google showcased Beam’s new functionality with two apps, Paper Camera and Tagstand’s Task Launcher. Y Combinator-backed Tagstand, in particular, has been on a mission to make NFC more of a mainstream technology and is starting to pick up steam as a result.
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YouTube’s comment section isn’t exactly known for being a hotbed of in-depth intellectual conversations. One of the reasons for this, some would argue, is the fact that YouTube still lets people post comments using handles like ‘cutepuppies99′ without having to reveal your real identity. Starting today, however, you will have the option to use your Google-wide Google+-based identity that will show your real name (or at least the name you are using on Google+) to all YouTube users. → Read More
Google+ Events, Google’s alternative to services like Evite or Facebook’s Events, was announced at this week’s Google I/O conference. And it immediately went viral…but not in good way. You see, Google made a slight miscalculation in terms of the Events’ privacy settings. (Insert joke about Facebook envy.) By default, other people have been able to “invite” you to events, and these automatically showed up on your Calendar – even if you had not yet confirmed that you would be attending.
The result? Some users were getting invited to dozens upon dozens of unwanted events from people they barely knew. In the case of more popular users, they were inundated with hundreds of requests from their wide audience of online friends. The good news is there’s a fix for this in the works, and another which you can implement right now.
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Google I/O is in full swing, and stories have been pouring out at a fairly steady pace: Tony Stark Sergey finally demoed Google Glass, Google Drive passed 10 million users and is available on iOS, and we all got a look at Jelly Bean — to name a few.
Yet, overshadowed and buried in lengthy liveblogs is one piece of news that deserves some more attention — and it’s all about NFC. During yesterday’s keynote, Hugo Barra, the director of Android product management, revealed that Google is now shipping 1 million NFC-enabled Android devices every week. That’s pretty significant. → Read More
