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Google provides free in-flight wi-fi

Posted by Patrick Lambert Categories: Google, Transportation, Wireless / WiFi,

free in-flight google wi-fi

Google announced on their blog this morning that they have teamed up with several airlines to provide free Wi-Fi service while in the air during the holidays. When you fly AirTran, Virgin America, and Delta between November 20 and January 2, you will have access to the Internet at no cost, thanks to Google. This is not the first year they've done this during the holidays, and it wouldn't surprise us to see people converge on those airlines to save on Internet access while on the move.

Google TV review

Posted by Patrick Lambert Categories: Google, Home Entertainment, Product Reviews, Software,

google tv review

Google launched into the TV arena last month with their very own platform, Google TV. With it, they hope to compete with the likes of Apple TV, Roku, and of course, your cable connection. Unlike its competitors however, they haven't made a hardware device, but instead a platform which device makers can integrate into boxes which you connect to your TV, or into TVs themselves. This platform boosts to bring the best of the web and TV together, into a system where you can add features, search for shows and do so much more. But does this Google TV deliver?

Click to continue reading Google TV review

Several Chrome OS notebooks coming for the holidays

Posted by Patrick Lambert Categories: Google, PC / Laptop, Rumors,

Chrome OS tablet

DigiTimes yesterday reported that several vendors have plans to bring Google's Chrome OS to some of their devices as early as this holiday season. Sources say that Google will have its own branded Chrome notebook by the end of this month, with HP and Acer following in December. It's apparently an attempt by the device makers to test the waters. Chrome OS is Google's way to make a device that's more web centric, with little to no on-board applications, and all your data residing in the cloud.

It's worth noting that Google is now playing in this field with two different operating systems: Android and Chrome OS. With Android being an obvious success in the smartphone market, and coming out on many tablets these days, I for one am skeptical as to the marketshare a device based on Chrome OS can gather.

Google introduces Place Search

Posted by Patrick Lambert Categories: News, Social Media,

Today Google introduced a new service on their official blog, the Place Search tab on their home page. Not so much a completely new service, more like a merging of several offerings, this tab shows search results in a way that is more intuitive and useful for when you're looking for specific places.

When you enter search terms, such as "pizza Chicago", Google will try to guess when you're looking for a specific place instead of a website. When that's the case, the results page will be more optimized towards local search. Not only will you see a list of web sites, but now a map will be prominently shown, as if you had done the search inside of Google Maps, and it will also include reviews, links to specific business listings, images, and so on.

While it's being introduced as a new feature, I see it more as an extension of their current search, Maps, Images and location data. Still, it should make search more intuitive, and now that the company is competing with Facebook Places, Foursquare, and other such social sites, they need to keep innovating to stay relevant.

Is this the Playstation Phone, or a new platform altogether?

Posted by Patrick Lambert Categories: Handhelds, Rumors,

Playstation phone z-system

Earlier this week Engadget came out with some exclusive pictures and various facts about what everyone is now calling the Sony Playstation Phone.However, there are many details that indicate that this can't be a so called "PSP Phone". Some of those details, like the fact that it's running Android, came out right at the front. Since the PSP isn't running on Android, that means each game would need to be converted or ported over, which seems unlikely.

Another such detail came out today, and that is the platform that this new phone seems to be using, something called "Z-System". There isn't much known about it yet, but several people have pointed to the label in one of the leaked shots, and it does seem to indicate that this is Sony's attempt at starting a new platform. Whether it will be successful is a matter of debate, but it's obvious that Sony is struggling with the mobile Playstation brand, as the PSP and PSP Go haven't exactly been runaway hits. Maybe a phone that runs ports of Playstation Portable titles on an Android device running the Z-System layer is just the kick in the pants that they need?

Android is…dead?

Posted by John Kilhefner Categories: Toys,

Vampire Android

No, this has nothing to do with our Windows Phone 7 review, so don’t go selling your Google stock just yet. What we have here is a three inch limited edition vinyl collectible in the form an undead vampire Android mascot. This collectible will have a rotating head as well as movable arms, and a Halloween-themed window box. A vampire Android desktop wallpaper can also be downloaded for free to get you in the blood sucking mood this 31st. Get your hands on a dead Android this Halloween at 2pm EST.

Click to continue reading Android is…dead?

Google launches Latin translator

Posted by John Kilhefner Categories: Productivity,

Google recently updated their blog with a post titled “Veni, Vidi, Verba Verti”. Being that there are not too many Latin speakers around, I am sure you were confused by this, and even more so by the subsequent foreign text. However, by using Google’s new translator you can make sense of it all in just a matter of seconds. For instance, the title translated to roughly “I Came, I Saw, I Translated the Words”.

Click here for the Latin Google post, and here for Google Translator. Here is the Google post in its translated entirety:

“That language barriers be torn away and the knowledge of the world is made accessible and useful, translation systems of many languages of the nations were created by us. Today, we announce the first language translation system by which no native speakers now make use of: the Latin. Being but a few speak Latin daily, year by year more than a hundred thousand American students receive the National Latin Exam. Besides many people all over the world study Latin.

This Latin translation system rarely be used to translate e-mails or understand the subtitles of YouTube videos. But many that are ancient books of philosophy, of physics and of mathematics are written in Latin. But many thousands of books are in Google Books, who have whole passages in Latin.

Translating by machine from Latin is difficult and our grasp of grammar not without error. The Latin is unmatched because most of them Latin books have already been written and only a few of the new shall be hereafter. Many have been translated into other languages and these translations we use to train our translation system. Since this system translates books well similar to those from whom he learned, our ability to translate famous books (such as The Gallic War Caesar ‘s) is already good.

The next time you find a Latin passage or you need help with the Latin writings, try this.”

Google’s Taking Over TV, Too

Posted by K.C. Morgan Categories: HBO, Internet, News,

It’s official: Google is in charge of the modern world. The Internet giant recently signed a deal which brings together HBO, Netflix, Pandora and the NBA under a new banner: Google TV.

It’s all part of Google’s multimillion-channel TV system, which will launch in the fall. The system runs on Google’s Android OS, making it possible for Web viewers to watch content on their television sets. And next fall, Google’s going to present Google Mind, which allows users to plug their brains directly into their computer systems. (We’re just kidding about that last bit … or, are we?)

NBC Universal, Time Warner and Twitter will also be involved, offering apps which will allow users to access content from their TVs. HBO alone plans to offer 600-plus hours of programming (which just about covers the first two seasons of The Sopranos), and the NBA has created an app which will keep viewers updated on games and scores in real time. Google is hinting that even more news will unfold in the next few weeks.

Google TV official site now live

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Google, Home Entertainment, Internet,

The launch of Google TV is right around the corner, and Google’s finally gotten their act together and put out the official web presence for the new platform/service. It includes a nice tour that shows off exactly what you can expect, and how they are trying to change the TV experience. Definitely worth watching once, if only to get a look at how the TV space is starting to heat up.

T-Mobile G2 Android smartphone first to use HSPA+

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Smartphones, Google, Handhelds, Wireless / WiFi,

Okay, so we know that T-Mobile launched their super-fast HSPA+ network recently, and up to this point, only data-specific devices are able to take advantage of those increased speeds. However, that’s about to change with the impending launch of the T-Mobile G2. Yup, the G1, the first Android phone to hit the market a couple of years ago, is finally getting its successor in the G2, and it’ll be the first phone to support HSPA+ speeds. It will be available next month, and it’ll be built by HTC (which means it should be awesome.) Here’s a statement from T-Mobile on the news:

“T-Mobile is proud to have launched the world’s first Android-powered phone, the T-Mobile G1, which captured the imagination of developers and consumers alike nearly two years ago. Now, we are readying its successor - the T-Mobile G2 with Google. Delivering tight integration with Google services, the G2 will break new ground as the first smartphone specifically designed for our advanced HSPA+ network, which delivers today’s available 4G speeds. In the coming weeks we’ll share more details about the G2, including information on how current T-Mobile customers can get exclusive first access. Visit http://g2.t-mobile.com to register for updates.”

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