This is the kind of news that I like to hear. Google has just released their new music cloud beta. Google Music Beta is a free cloud-based music service that allows you to upload music to your own personalized online storage locker. They give you enough space to upload about 20,000 songs. Currently it is only available to US residents but I'm sure once it is out of beta it will be available to all. It currently is only in invite only status. So you have to go to Google and request an invite. It's kinda of how g-mail was when it first came out, which seems so long ago. This new service will also give you access to your music on any device like your computers, smart phones and tablets.
I personally have already requested to get this service. So I'm just waiting to hear back. I'm a big music fan so it would be nice to access my music at all times. Although, I hope they give the option to add more space because I'm for sure going to need it. I guess time will tell if this Google Music Cloud becomes a hit. What do you think? Do you think this is something that you would utilize.
It will soon be upon us the New Google Nexus S. The Nexus S is the next generation of Nexus devices, co-developed by Google and Samsung. It will have the latest Android platform (Gingerbread), paired with a 1 GHz Hummingbird processor and 16GB of internal memory only. It will make Nexus S one of the fastest phones on the market. It comes pre-installed with the best of Google apps and enabled with new and popular features like true multi-tasking, Wi-Fi hotspot, Internet Callling, NFC support, and full web browsing. With this device, users will also be the first to receive software upgrades and new Google mobile apps as soon as they become available. Another great feature about the Nexus S is that it's unlocked and will work with any GSM carrier. The Nexus S, which goes on sale Dec. 16, will sell for $529 as an unlocked phone without a contract. It will also be available for $199 with a two-year service agreement with T-Mobile.
Christmas is only 23 days away and you're still trying to find that perfect gift. How about getting one of these bad boys. The Logitech Revue with Google T.V. ($299). The one stop shop to turn your TV into the future of entertainment. Revue is a companion to your TV and not a TV itself, so it can be easily updated. Plus Google TV is an open platform, with developers creating more apps and functionality next year, so your TV will do more as Google TV does more. One of the great features of the Revue is the fact that your Smartphone can become your remote and even do voice search's for those that are lazy and don't want to type. I admit I'm one of them. You can even watch a video on your phone and then push it to your TV. The only drawback of this media hub so far is that Hulu doesn't work on Google TV yet, but that can change in the future. More than likely you will have to pay for Hulu Plus for it to work. There are way too many functions for this box so I have added some videos to show the demo of this hub.
In being that I'm an Android Phone user I'm getting excited to know that soon my Google Nexus One will have Flash capabilities. I will soon be able to watch and see different content on my browser that for so long has been denied. This update will make it so that users of Android will now be able to listen to my Playlists on the go from their phone browser. (self promotion anyone).
The update to Android 2.2 is to be released at Google I/O starting May 19. From the looks of the video in this post. It seems that the update will also have an updated launcher, Android tutorial, and global search box when the OS is revealed. So without a further a do. Check out the video below made by Ryan Stewart so you can see the wonders of Flash 10.1 playing on a Nexus One.
In being that it's 2010 we have seen that phones are now becoming more like little desktops in our hands. We have also over the years gotten use to having a camera built in to our phones. But now with high tech phones you can do more than just take a picture. In having a phone with the rich software applications that run on devices like the iPhone and Android, you get lots of cool new ways to put your cameraphone to good use.
Cameraphones are becoming a form of digital photographic memory, in which you can take a picture of basically anything that interest you. Now, with the right apps, you can also use your phone to scan barcodes and store them, and even translate and recognize text. You can even map out the location that you took the picture at and share it with multitude of social networks.
Google Goggles is a brand new application for Android phones that lets you search the web with an image. You just point your phone at an artwork, a book, DVD, or CD cover, a landmark, or a logo, and Goggles will return search results for that item. You can even point your phone at someone's business card, and Goggles can automatically add that person's name, address, phone number, email address and web site to your address book. Eventually, Goggles will be able to translate written text as well. So you could point your phone at a sign or menu in another language and get back Google Translate's translation.
What I am liking about the new cellphones like the iPhone and the Andriod is the barcode scanner which can scan a barcode on any product and give you prices from all over the web as well as retail outlets near you. Google Shopper is a similar application on Android: point your cameraphone at either a barcode or a book, CD, or DVD cover, and Shopper will show you prices and review of that product from around the web instantly.
Then their is the square bar code called QR Codes, are becoming a popular way to transmit information like web links and phone numbers directly to a phone without any typing. If your local coffee shop has a barcode in the window, for example, you could scan it on your phone and can instantly find reviews and more information without tapping a key.
Their is also a application that works on the Android that lets you store images of membership cards or big box store club cards that you use over and over again. Instead of crowding your keyring with your grocery, pharmacy, and movie rental place club card, take pictures of each one and store them in an image file on your phone. Then you can just have them scan your phone and Bam! You just saved tons of space on your key chain
Google is one of the best things that has happened to us in this 21st Century. Google has come a long way in it's growth and understanding of it's users and it is only going to get better. I would go over the history but it would be a very long essay type blog. So instead I found a video that will show the milestones of Google in 2 minutes.
Little Fact
The name "Google" originated from a misspelling of the word "googol",which refers to 10100, the number represented by a 1 followed by one hundred zeros. Having found its way increasingly into everyday language, the verb "google" was added to the Merriam Webster Collegiate Dictionary and the Oxford English Dictionary in 2006, meaning "to use the Google search engine to obtain information on the Internet.
So I am sure that you have all noticed the bar code doodle logo that Google is using today. They are using it for the celebration of the 57th anniversary of the invention of the bar code.
On that note, have you ever even thought about how the bar code was invented? This intrigued mind did and this is what I found out about the creation of the bar code.
Their research began in 1948 after Mr Silver, a graduate student at the Drexel Institute of Technology in Philadelphia, overheard a local food chain boss asking one of the institute's deans to design a system for reading product data automatically.
Mr Silver and Mr Woodland, a fellow graduate student and teacher at Drexel, first tried using patterns of ink that glowed under ultraviolet light, but it proved too expensive and unreliable.
Mr Woodland then came up with the linear bar code, and later replaced the lines with circles so that they could be scanned from any angle. The pair patented their “bull’s eye” design the next year.
The bar code was first trialled in 1966, and in 1970, the familiar Universal Product Code (UPC) design, still used around the world, was agreed on as an industry standard.
The first item to be scanned using UPC was a packet of Wrigley’s chewing gum at a supermarket in Troy, Ohio, in June 1974.
Neither inventor made a fortune on the idea because they sold the patent in 1952 for a moderate sum before it was commercialized.
Mr Silver never even witnessed the bar code’s success, having died in a car crash in 1962.
I have been hearing a lot about Google voice. So I was intrigued to find out what it is and what it does. What exactly is Google Voice? Is it a phone redirecting service? VoIP? Voicemail? All of the above? None of the above? So I did a little research and I am going to give you some insight to Google Voice.
Google Voice originated as GrandCentral, an independent company that hit the scene in 2005. GrandCentral allowed users to register a new phone number and direct it to ring multiple phones; it could also collect messages and act as your personal switchboard operator. This sounds boring on the surface, but it provided a number of cool features, such as the ability to listen in on voicemail messages as they were being left or to tell a specific number that your phone number is no longer connected (great for stalkers and crazed PR people, who are kind of like stalkers). Google acquired GrandCentral in 2007, and promptly sat on the project for nearly two years before it relaunched the service as Google Voice in March of 2009.
Currently the only way to get Google Voice is to get invited or either be a grandfathered GrandCentral user.
Features of Google Voice: One number for all your calls and SMS
