Category: Google

Tim Stevens, opening his Google Glass review at Engadget:

Smartphones are amazing things, but for those who have become addicted to messaging instant gratification, they are a bit unwieldy. This annoyance gets even worse as these devices grow larger and larger. Well, certainly one approach would be to relax a little and stop feeling so compelled to check for Facebook notifications every 30 seconds. Those fully immersed in the information age, however, will be more inclined to fix the physical inconveniences presented by the problem. A heads-up display seems like a natural fit, and thus we have Google Glass.

Continue reading ⇢

As rumored, Facebook launched “Facebook Home” today, an Android launcher that promises deep Facebook integration, right on the lock and home screens of Android phones.

(The HTC First was also announced, a Jelly Bean-powered phone on AT&T with Facebook Home built-in. However, the launcher is coming to other device soon.)

Facebook was smart about this. Instead of a skin or a new version of Android, this shouldn’t get Google too riled up. In fact, Facebook Home will be for free, on the Google Play store.

Continue reading ⇢

Adam Barth, Chromium software engineer:

Chromium uses a different multi-process architecture than other WebKit-based browsers, and supporting multiple architectures over the years has led to increasing complexity for both the WebKit and Chromium projects. This has slowed down the collective pace of innovation - so today, we are introducing Blink, a new open source rendering engine based on WebKit.

Huh.

Continue reading ⇢

With the original iPhone’s release, Apple released a second, less-shiny product:

An RSS web client.

Found at reader.mac.com, it was fairly simple. If you visited a RSS link in Mobile Safari, .Mac’s page would load up the feed on a nice looking page:

image via AllThingsD

Turns out, the page is still there. If you visit that URL on an iPhone, here’s what it looks like:

(As an aside, what it looks like on the desktop.)

Continue reading ⇢

Really sounds like the left hand at Google has no idea what the right one is doing. Shocking.

Continue reading ⇢

Earlier today, Google announced that Reader is going away on July 1.

This is a big deal, and just about everyone has something to say about it. Most nerds I follow are upset.

Marco Arment has an interesting take:

It may suck in the interim before great alternatives mature and become widely supported, but in the long run, trust me: this is excellent news.

As Shawn Blanc points out, there are several alternatives already in the works, and hopefully Marco’s vision of what will happen plays out.

Continue reading ⇢

While this isn’t surprising given Google’s lack of interest in the product over the last few years, it is frustrating.

Continue reading ⇢

Vlad Savov, explaining a feature of the new Sony Xperia Z Android phone:

What Sony does is as simple as it is effective: all background apps and data transfers are disabled when the screen is turned off, thereby eliminating the vampiric power draw of running processes you don’t need while the phone idles. You still receive phone calls and messages as usual, plus you can whitelist apps that you don’t want affected by Stamina mode, meaning that after a bit of tailoring you can run this as your phone’s default setting. Sony claims that enabling Stamina mode can quadruple the Xperia Z’s standby time, and my experience with the phone confirmed this feature is no gimmick. Leaving the phone to mostly idle for one day, I found it barely consumed 15 percent of its charge, and even that power consumption was primarily down to the few occasions when I turned it on and used it. Stamina mode will do little to help power users or avid mobile photographers, but for the vast majority of people — with whom the phone spends most of its time inactive — it can have a definite positive impact.

Continue reading ⇢

The Hitchcock one is my favorite.

Continue reading ⇢

The Verge has a great video of Joshua Topolsky trying out Google’s smartglasses. Here’s a bit from Steve Lee, Glass’ Product Director.

People want to be connected, and technology has enabled that. But a problem is that the technology creates distraction and takes you out of the moment.

[…]

How do we solve that problem? How do we get technology out of the way when you’re doing activities, but have it there when you need it?

Continue reading ⇢

Earlier today, Google took the wraps off the Chromebook Pixel, a notebook with a 12.85-inch, Retina-quality touch display, 1TB of cloud storage (for three years) and optional LTE.

Google touts its Chrome OS as the way forward:

Pixel boots-up in seconds and stays fast, requires almost zero setup or maintenance, and comes with virus protection built-in. Best of all, it stays up to date with seamless updates every few weeks.

At $1200, this machine flies in the face of previous statements made by Eric Schmidt. I guess since netbooks died out, Google decided to copy the MacBook Air, right down to the chiclet backlit keyboard, glass trackpad and its “machined anodized aluminum alloy” chassis.

Continue reading ⇢

This morning, Google rolled out a new webpage for its Glass project, which includes this video of people using the product.

Google Glass is insanely interesting to me, but that’s not to say I’d be interested in owning a pair of the $1500 smartglasses.

The idea of having an ever-connected device seeing what you see is about as from-the-future as you can get, but I’m not sure I’d want Google being in between me and what I’m seeing. The beauty of the iPhone is that you can leave it in your pocket.

Continue reading ⇢