Google TV

Google is reportedly joining a growing list of companies who are looking to bring Internet content to users' living rooms. According to the New York Times, the company has lined up some big partners -- including Intel and Sony -- to create an Android-based platform that will make browsing sites or using smartphone-like apps on TV sets as easy as changing the channel.

The new platform is being dubbed Google TV and would be available as a set-top box or as part of a Web-capable television. The company is expected to release a developer tool kit in a few months, hoping to encourage people to create apps for Google TV with the same enthusiasm they have been creating Android smartphone apps.

Until this day TVs remain one of the most relevant screens in people's lives. After years of failed attempts to bring web content to the living room, there are now several decent solutions for streaming online videos, rent premium content and browse the web from your couch. However, nobody's really figured out how to build something that's successful enough to be declared the preferred living room device. While Google no doubt sees this as a great opportunity to sell more ads, it remains to be seen what they can bring to the market that hasn't been done already.

Sources:

1. TechSpot

2. Softpedia Gadget

Google Earth for Android

Google has announced the arrival of Google Earth for Android, a program that was revealed during the Nexus One's launch. Google Earth for Android brings the full functionality of Google Earth onto Android device. It allows you to navigate through three dimensional images of the world, zooming into roads or flying Superman-style over mountains and lakes.

The Google Earth app, interestingly, has been available on the iPhone for some time (it's apparently one of the few Google creations in which Apple has not yet banned). The Android version of the app, while slightly delayed in its arrival, does add some bells and whistles available only for Android fans.

One of these is a newly created Roads layer for Google Earth mobile. As its name suggests, the Road layer allows you to snap road labels on and off of any satellite image, bringing Google Maps-like functionality right into the Google Earth app.

Google Earth for Android also features a new search-by-voice option. You can say either a destination name -- "Eiffel Tower", for example -- or just a general search term such as "hotels near Lake Tahoe." The Google Earth app will translate your words into text and zoom into the appropriate geographic area to display the results.

Many Android users have noticed that Google Earth for Android is not showing up within the App Market on their phones. There is a reason. It is available only for phones running Android 2.1, which limits it to the Nexus One at the moment.

Contrary to some social media speculation, though, the new Google Earth app is not a Nexus One exclusive. As other Android phones receive the 2.1 upgrade, they too will again access to the application (officially, Google says "most devices" will be able to run Google Earth once they are running Android 2.1).

Other pictures:

 

Sources:

1. Google Earth

2. Google Earth (YouTube Video)

3. PC World

Microsoft & Yahoo Deals: True Competitor for Google?

No doubt, Google’s domination in search engine business has put their competitors to think of how to stop it. According to Hitwise data , Google’s market share is more than 71%. One of ways to stop the domination is dealing between Microsoft and Yahoo. After postponed due to regulatory approval since summer 2009, finally regulators in the U.S. and European approved the join search businesses of Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Inc. However, this join business will significantly heat up the search engine business competition.

Microsoft and Yahoo (both major Google’s rivals in multiple businesses) announced that both the U.S. Department of Justice and the European Commission have approved an agreement between the two firms to have Microsoft's Bing search engine power Yahoo's sites. The companies disclosed that a joint engineering team will begin adapting Bing for the Yahoo site "in the coming days" and that they hope the engine is added to the Yahoo site, at least the United States, by the end of this year.

The partnership, which includes Yahoo selling premium search advertising services for both companies, is a direct attack on rival Google, which has long dominated the search market. Google spokesman Adam Kovacevich said "There has always been robust competition in our industry, which keeps us on our toes and benefits users," wrote Kovacevich. "We compete against a number of alternatives, including traditional search engines, vertical search sites, social networks, and other forms of online and offline advertising."

"I think that this will ramp up both competition and innovation. Yahoo and Microsoft now have one common enemy -- Google. And they will devote all of their energies toward making their search a more attractive option both for users and advertisers," said Dan Olds, an analyst at Gabriel Consulting Group. While most analysts agreed that the Microsoft-Yahoo search plan doesn't present a short term problem for Google, Olds said the search giant should keep a close eye on on their longer-term actions.

"Google's the leader in search, just like Microsoft's the leader in operating systems and PC applications," Ezra Gottheil, an analyst at Technology Business Research said. "Knocking off the leader is difficult. It's not like Microsoft has been underspending on search. Bing needs to be significantly better to grow faster." Allen Weiner, an analyst with Gartner, Inc., doesn't expect the Microsoft-Yahoo combination will cause any panic withing Google's walls. "Is Google worried? Not in any way, shape or form," said Weiner. "It's a company that's not short on hubris. Even if they have any minor degree of anxiety, I think they're in the don't-let-them-see-you-sweat mode. I don't think they're motivated by a lot of externality."

Read also: Competition between Apple, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo



Sources:
1. Computer World
2. Hitwise

Google 1 Gbps Project Across USA

After introducing their ‘superphone’ Nexus One, Google is now planning to build and test ultra high-speed broadband network in a small number of trial locations across the USA. With the project, Google will deliver internet speed 1 gigabit per second via fiber-to-the-home connections, which is more than 100 times greater than what most Americans have today.

The service is targeting to at least 50,000 and potentially up to 500,000 people. In their Official Google Blog, they announce target and goal of the project:

• Next generation apps: Google want to see what developers and users can do with ultra high-speeds, whether it's creating new bandwidth-intensive "killer apps" and services.

• New deployment techniques: Google will test new ways to build fiber networks, and to help inform and support deployments elsewhere.

• Openness and choice: Google will operate an "open access" network, giving users the choice of multiple service providers. Google will manage network in an open, non-discriminatory and transparent way.

Now, start to imagine what you can do with 1 gigabit per second.


Sources:
1. Official Google Blog
2. Google 1 Gbps Project (YouTube Video)

Google Tablet PC!

Google has been seriously competing Apple in smartphone and tablet PC markets. Google’s ‘the superphone’ Nexus One has shown its superiority to Apple iPhone 3GS in features and technology. And now, Google Tablet seems would have possibility to crush the Apple iPad’s.

A concept of Google Tablet has been quietly showed up on Chromium Projects website. Chromium Projects is the project of Google’s Chrome OS User Experience; it is an open-source project that aims to build an operating system that provides a fast, simple, and more secure computing experience for people who spend most of their time on the web.

Google Tablet will run with Chrome OS, in 5-10 inches touchscreen display. Some pictures indicate that Google is still experimenting with several different UIs. Glen Murphy (Google Chrome’s UI lead designer) says “these concept images as well as concept in-action video show what the team building the Chrome OS are brainstorming for future projects. Note that there will possibly be multiple “Google Tablets”, given that Chrome OS won’t be tied to a single device, similar to how the Android OS was implemented”.

 

It is also shown in a video that browser windows are treated as objects which can be readily manipulated in the screen for the best use possible depending on the site you are at. The video also shows Google Tablet will support multitasking.

 

 

Sources:

1. Chromium Projects

2. The Chrome Source

3. Slash Gear

4. Google Tablet Concept (Video)

Apple, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo: Comparison at Macro Level

Who is the biggest player among Apple, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo at macro level?

We all see how the tech giants of today are competing with each other. For reference, Nick Bilton of the New York Times has put together a segment-by-segment comparison between America's tech heavyweights, which does a fine job of pinpointing who competes with whom and where. It can be seen the gaps in coverage more intriguing than the overlaps, though, with Microsoft's only unticked box -- mobile hardware -- raising habitual rumors of a Pink phone. Apple's absence from the provision of mapping services might also soon be at an end, given the company acquired map maker Placebase in July of last year.


Sources:
1. Engadget

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