Tag Archives | Google

Google Sync Now Pushes Gmail to iPhones (and Windows Mobile)

Posted by Harry McCracken on September 22, 2009 at 10:33 am

Back in February, Google launched iPhone and Windows Mobile versions of Google Sync, a service that let you sync contacts and calendar items from Google’s services to your phone. It didn’t, however sync Gmail–which would have been especially nice for iPhone users since Apple’s Gmail support doesn’t push Gmail to the phone as soon as it arrives, but rather checks for mail on a schedule you set.

Today, Google announced that Google Sync now pushes Gmail as well as contacts and appointments, using the iPhone’s Microsoft Exchange support to do the job. Here’s the company’s little explanation in comics form (looks like Scott McCloud wasn’t available this time):

Google Sync

My instinct is to be skeptical of anything that pushes data to the iPhone, since doing so has historically been a really good way to suck your battery dry before the day is done. (Especially if it involves as much data as a busy Gmail account does.) But I’ve been happily using Google Sync’s contact-and-calendar features, so I’ll give the new Gmail feature a try. If you check it out, let us know what you think.

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Google’s Google Voice FCC Letter: Uncensored!

Posted by Harry McCracken on September 18, 2009 at 11:02 am

Last month, Apple, AT&T, and Google all responded to the FCC’s request for information on the circumstances regarding Apple’s failure to approve some Google applications for release on the iPhone App Store. The letters became public, and helped to explain what was going on. Except that Google chose to redact its answer to a really important question in the version of the letter released for general consumption:

Google Redacted

Several people filed Freedom of Information Act requests to see the unexpurgated letter, and rather than fight the requests, Google has decided to accept publication of the full letter. Here’s the section we didn’t see before:

Google letter to FCC

On one level, there’s nothing surprising here: In Apple’s own letter to the FCC, it said it hadn’t approved Google Voice largely because it “altered(d)” and “replace(d)” placed Apple’s own phone-related features with ones designed by Google. (Alter and replace probably aren’t the right words here: Google Voice would be an additional way to make calls on the iPhone, and Apple’s features would remain unchanged. But you get the idea.)

But here’s one bombshell: Apple’s letter denied that the company had rejected Google Voice and said that it was still “studying” and “ponder(ing)” the app. Google’s letter, however, says that Apple told it that Google Voice had been rejected, period. The real-world difference is pretty much moot, since an application that enters a permanent limbo of being studied and pondered is no more useful to the world than one that’s been rejected. But it still seems to be a fundamental disagreement on a matter of fact: Apple says it didn’t reject the app, and Google says it did.

Also interesting: Google says the matter went all the way up to Phil Schiller. That would remove the possibility that Google Voice ran into trouble because of hasty and/or inconsistent decision-making by lower-level employees involved in the App Store. Apple knew what it was doing.

Just how directly was Google CEO’s exodus from the Apple board tied to this disagreement? Your guess is as good as mine, but if Schmidt were still on the board today it would be particularly strange given the Rashomon-like situation that’s developed.

As I’ve said before, I want a phone that lets me replace standard functionality with new and useful alternatives. Apple says that doing so may confuse iPhone owners, but I have a hunch that most of them are smart enough to deal with it–and hey, if they’re baffled, they can always delete the app in question.

I continue to think that Apple will eventually come to the conclusion that a more open-minded approach to iPhone app approval is in its own best interest. I just hope it decides that sooner rather than later, and without further nudging by the FCC.

Accepting and releasing Google Voice in the form Google originally submitted it wouldn’t address the larger issues here, but it would be an awfully good start…

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Google’s Interesting, Useful, Odd, Imperfect Fast Flip

Posted by Harry McCracken on September 14, 2009 at 6:35 pm

Google Fast Flip LogoDid I just say that one of the differences between Bing and Google is that Bing is splashy and Google revels in its  plain jane interface? I lied. Google had a TechCrunch50 announcement of its own this afternoon, and involves a new Google Labs feature that has a high “wow, lookee there!” quotient: Google Fast Flip.

Fast Flip is based on Google News, and Google says it came up with it to address the fact that browsing through news sites is usually a slow process–not at all like the effortless instant gratification of flipping through a magazine or newspaper. Google has partnered with several dozen news sources–including the BBC, BusinessWeek, the Christian Science Monitor, the Daily Beast, Esquire, the New York Times, Newsweek, Salon, Slate, and TechCrunch–to create previews of their stories that live on Fast Flip but which display the first several paragraphs of the article in a form that looks like the originating site. You rifle through these previews by clicking left and right arrows, and the pages zip on and off-screen in high-speed, fluid animation–hence the “Fast Flip” name.

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Google Digs Video Games, Not Aliens. Cool!

Posted by Jared Newman on September 7, 2009 at 11:04 am

google-ufoIf you happened to use Google on September 5, you might’ve seen a UFO sucking up the second “O” in the company’s name.

When Google changes its logo, it’s usually to denote a holiday, or the birthday of a famous scientist or thinker. But this “Google Doodle,” as they’re called, had the ‘net puzzled. The answer started coming together when the company Tweeted a cryptic message that linked to a picture of the logo.

Translating the Tweet, “1.12.12 25.15.21.18 15 1.18.5 2.5.12.15.14.7 20.15 21.19,” into letters of the alphabet yields the following message: “All Your O Are Belong to Us.” From there, all it takes is a some encyclopedic video game knowledge (or in my case, cheating by reading this Telegraph story) to know Google was celebrating the 20th anniversary of Zero Wing.

This is the Japanese space shooting game turned European Sega Mega Drive release, whose butchered English translation resulted in “All Your Base Are Belong to Us.” The phrase turned into a viral phenomenon thanks to a video from the Something Awful forums.

Mashing up a bizarre techno track with supposedly real-world appearances of the game’s dialog, the video is nothing short of brilliant. I can’t say that All Your Base was the first viral video, but it was the first one that really caught my attention for the way it spread so thoroughly into pop culture, despite its obscure origins.

So, kudos to Google for acknowledging it.

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Google Chrome Turns One: A Few Questions and Answers

Posted by Harry McCracken on September 2, 2009 at 2:47 am

Chrome BirthdayOne year ago today, Google released Chrome, a day after the news–at once startling and inevitable-feeling–leaked that it had decided to get into the browser business. (Lest we forget, Chrome remains the only major software product ever to be announced via comic book.)

Back on September 1st, 2008, I hadn’t yet had the opportunity to try Chrome and knew very little about it, but was so excited about the news that I cranked out a post called Ten Questions About Google Chrome. A year later, it’s easier to answer most of them. Shall we? (I skipped recapping question #3, which involved me wondering whether Google had given Mozilla a heads-up it was working on a browser.)

1. Will Google stop promoting Firefox? It’s been known to use the Google homepage to tell IE users they should be running Firefox, and it distributes a version of Firefox with the Google Toolbar built in. You gotta think that it’ll redeploy some or all of its Firefox-boosting energies to drumming up interest in Chrome.

One year later: Yeah, it stopped promoting Firefox. The companies still have a mutually beneficial relationship, since Google remains Firefox’s default search engine, and revenues from the ads displayed with search results helps fund Firefox development. And you can still get Firefox–optionally–as part of Google Pack. But Chrome is now Pack’s default browser, and there’s no question which product Google is rooting for in Browser War 2.0. (Hint: It’s the one with “Google” in its name.)

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Down and Out With Gmail

Posted by Harry McCracken on September 1, 2009 at 1:35 pm

Gmail Sick[UPDATE AS OF 2:30PM TECHNOLOGIZER TIME: Gmail is back up, at least for me.]

Gmail is not feeling well today. I know because it’s the talk of Twitter. I know because an old Technologizer story happens to be Google’s first result for “gmail down.” Most of all, I know because both my primary work and personal e-mail accounts are on Gmail, and both are giving me an ugly Server Error right now.

I’m not sure how long this has been going on, but it continues as I write this, and it’s not a momentary blip–it’s an extended outage that appears to be affecting much if not all of Gmail’s users. I’m engaging in a little self-flagellation at the moment, since I’ve placed so much trust in Gmail (despite prior evidence it’s not perfect) that I don’t even use its IMAP capabilities to download mail via a traditional client. When Gmail’s not available, neither is my mail. (And important stuff it contains, such as the dial-in info for a conference call I’m supposed to be joining shortly.)

Sweeping Gmail blackouts remain relative rarities, but I’ve been increasingly frustrated with the service’s reliability recently. It often conks out on me temporarily, or behaves so slowly that it might as well be unavailable–and while the cause remains mysterious, I’ve experienced the same symptoms on multiple browsers on different PCs on a variety of networks.

Just this morning, I was soberly considering whether it was time to regretfully move on to something I might find less flaky. I’m still thinking that over, but today’s meltdown has convinced me that at the very least I need to be downloading my messages. I’m a mostly-happy Google freeloader, but the Gmail I’ve been using of late simply isn’t reliable enough to run a business on.

Which brings up today’s T-Poll:

Final note: Google has blogged about the downtime, and says that if you’ve already set up POP or IMAP access it should continue to work. It also says it’s looking into what’s going on and hopes to have more news soon. Once everything’s fixed, I hope very much that it errs on the side of telling us exactly what happened, even if it’s dry and technical…

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Google Wave Tiptoes Its Way Into Google Apps

Posted by Harry McCracken on September 1, 2009 at 12:13 pm

Google Wave LogoYou gotta think that if Google’s communications/collaboration uberapp Wave lives up to even half of its considerable hype and promise, it’ll be the signature application within Google Apps someday. For now, it remains in private beta and isn’t part of Google Apps. But Google is saying it’ll let some companies and schools into the beta this fall, and hopes to roll out Wave to all Apps users sometime next year.

Wave’s slow-motion debut is strikingly different from Google’s more typical modus operandi of springing new stuff on the world only when it’s ready to try (as it did with Chrome a year ago). It’s a necessary approach given that Wave is as much an ambitious developer platform as an end-user product. But I suspect that it also means that the Wave that makes its way to general release in 2010 may be significantly different from the one Google has demoed to date. Which makes Wave even harder to judge. We know that Google is excited about it, and developers seem enthusiastic. Now we just need to find out if real people understand it and want it.

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Sony Adds a Little Chrome to the VAIO

Posted by Harry McCracken on September 1, 2009 at 10:29 am

Sony ChromeIf you buy a new Sony VAIO computer, you’re going to get a new browser. No, Internet Explorer isn’t going anywhere. But Financial Times is reporting that Sony has signed a deal to preinstall Google’s Chrome on its PCs. Chrome-equipped machines are making their way to customers even as we speak.

I’m not sure whether Chrome is now the default browser on new Sony computers–the FT doesn’t explicitly say so, although Download Squad does–but it’s an interesting development. For years, Microsoft has benefited hugely from the fact that IE is the default browser shipped on most of the world’s personal computers. Some folks discover IE this way and continue to use it because they like it; many others keep on running it out of sheer inertia.

Sony is only one manufacturer, but the FT reports that Google says it’s working on similar arrangements with other companies. What if it were able to strike deals with, say, HP, Dell, and Acer? Maybe by cutting them in on the advertising revenue it gets from searches performed with Chrome’s toolbar and default homepage?

For a browser that’s nearly a year old and which is backed by the most powerful company on the Web, Chrome has failed to catch show explosive growth–Ars Technica says that around two or three percent of Internet users run it. (The Technologizer community is apparently a lot fonder of Chrome than the Internet at large–about eight percent of you visit the site via Chrome.) It’s still not entirely clear to me whether Google sees Chrome as a side project, a prank, or a core component of its mission. And it can’t pummel IE into submission until it’s caught up with Firefox (which, according to a new report, is used by more than 23% of all Internet users). But if any browser company is in a position to nudge IE out of its position as the world’s default browser, it’s Chrome.

Meanwhile, I kind of like the system Microsoft came up with to pacify Europe’s concerns over IE: a ballot screen that lets Windows 7 users pick whatever browser they prefer. Wouldn’t it be cool if Chrome, Firefox, Flock, IE, Opera, Rockmelt, Safari, and any other worthwhile browser that came along all got an equal shot at being the world’s most popular browser–based on quality alone?

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Six Useful Things You Can Do With Google

Posted by Steve Bass on August 27, 2009 at 11:21 am

Steve Bass's TechBiteYou use Google, sure, but if all you’re doing are searches, you’re just scratching the surface. Here are a few things you might not know about Google.

Life Magazine’s Old Photos

You might see it as a time waster, but I love digging through Google’s gazillion historic photos from Life magazine. Google lets you use the photos for personal use, so it’s terrific for grabbing an image when you need something cute in an invitation or newsletter.

Search Me a Special Search

Google has a search site specifically for Linux users and another for those of you who can’t get enough of Microsoft. Check out the rest of Google’s special search sites. If you like poking around with Web tools, Experimental Search gives you five new ways to search, each aimed at tightening and focusing on specific results.

Google Squared is another exciting experimental search tool. Stick in a couple of words, or a short phrase, and watch Google try to create a spreadsheet of results. For instance, try entering California dog parks or earthquake and volcano types.

Alert me!

Google sends me an e-mail every time it sees a new occurrence of “steve bass,” “earthquakes,” and keywords about my various hobbies and interests. If you haven’t tried Google Alerts, you’re missing out on a terrific service.

Thematic Google

I have a Google home page and the color scheme used to be white bread. I just switched to a very cool Jackie Chan theme and amazingly, my productivity soared (wife, please take note). Choose from truckloads of themes (click on Newest and Hottest for more). [Thanks, DolphinWoman.]


Number, Please?

It used to be easy to remember area codes. (“212” is New York, “312” Chicago, and “213” Los Angeles.) That’s history because area codes are added frequently, like every 20 minutes or so. Next time you’re stuck trying to figure out an area code’s location, give it to Google. Just type the three-digit code and you’ll get a top of the search answer.

There’s more: You can track FedEx, UPS, and U.S. postal service shipments just by sticking the tracking number into Google’s search field; do the same with ZIP and area codes, vehicle IDs, patent numbers, airplane registration numbers, and even UPC codes found on products.

Calculate this

You can use Google Calculator to crunch numbers and figure out conversions. Try entering 12*12 and see what happens; you can also run more complex equations, like G*(6e24 kg)/(4000 miles)^2. Google Calculator handles conversions of all types, such as ounces into tablespoons, dollars into euros, or GB to MB.

[This post is excerpted from Steve’s TechBite newsletter. If you liked it, head here to sign up–it’s delivered on Wednesdays to your inbox, and it’s free.]

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