tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-62930626851212900802024-03-13T09:27:07.591-04:00Living in a Google WorldJonathan Fredericksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18228007774186087684noreply@blogger.comBlogger41125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6293062685121290080.post-3724229774124556072010-12-15T16:48:00.002-05:002010-12-15T16:49:44.101-05:00The Cr-48 and Chrome OSI feel so lucky right about now. I came home today to find that I'd gotten a Cr-48. I have, of course, followed Chrome OS from the beginning, so I'm glad to have the chance to try out the first real Chrome OS laptop.<br />
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What surprised me about it, really, was the overall polish of it. I'd compiled my own copy of Chromium OS about a week before the announcement to run on my netbook, and while it was much more complete than it had been when I first started testing these builds, it was still nowhere near the level it's at now. The animations are smooth and everything just feels snappy. Of course, the Cr-48 was designed with Chrome OS in mind, so that's to be expected... but even so, it's always nice to see that things work better than you thought they would.<br />
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Would I replace my desktop computer and netbook? No, of course not. There are things I do on my computer that Chrome OS simply can't do. For me, this laptop is a quick web browser with the ability to connect remotely to my rack server and desktop at home. But then again, people like me aren't really the target market for these sorts of devices.<br />
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At school today, I realized just how helpful a laptop like this could be for someone who isn't quite as tech-savvy as most people who would be reading this blog. My guidance counselor was in the room preparing to talk to the class. She had a presentation that she wanted to display, so she signed into the laptop and checked her "My Documents" folder. It wasn't there. She then proceeded to open up Outlook because she had emailed it. The Outlook setup screen popped up.<br />
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She was on a shared school laptop.<br />
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It's things like this that remind me of the huge gap between the tech-savvy and the tech-clueless. Believe me, most people fall into the latter category. Maybe a purely cloud-based setup could benefit them. There will always be people who need local storage, so Google's vision of a world completely in the cloud is a bit off, but that doesn't mean Chrome OS is a complete failure.<br />
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That said, I don't think the OS will catch on as quickly as Google would like. For one thing, people have a tendency to resist change and complain when things aren't exactly as expected. The poor sales of Linux netbooks reflect this - they didn't have a start menu and a big blue bar at the bottom, so they were brought back to stores at an alarming rate because people just couldn't figure them out.. Maybe Google's marketing will be able to overcome this. We'll just have to see what happens.<br />
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Before you techies bash it, though, step back and think about this: does everyone you know have a basic understanding of how computers work? Do the people in your life understand the difference between local storage and web storage? Is the big blue "e" synonymous with the internet for them? Ask around sometime. You might be surprised.Jonathan Fredericksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18228007774186087684noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6293062685121290080.post-23616579623487008722010-08-09T19:56:00.000-04:002010-08-09T19:56:41.300-04:00Google and Net NeutralityLet me make one thing clear: I am not a Google fanboy. I love it when Google releases open source software... but that's mostly because it's open source, not because it's Google. So when Google announced that they've been in talks with a major ISP about the future of the internet, I was a bit uneasy. (Oh, yeah, and I do hate ISPs. And telcos. Yeah. Verizon's both.)<br />
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So basically Google and Verizon want net neutrality for the internet as it is today... but only for wireline providers. Oh, and they want to fragment the internet by allowing ISPs to offer extra services to their customers in addition to internet access. Alright, so some are already doing this (think Epix and ESPN3). It may not really be anything new, but I really don't think it should be encouraged. A few services are fine, but what we're talking about here is essentially dividing the internet based on your service provider.<br />
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Think of it this way. If you feel your ISP is charging too much or has substandard service, what can you do? Well, if you're lucky, you can switch to another ISP. This is one problem with them: there isn't enough competition. In most cases, you could at least switch to DSL from cable or vice-versa. But once you've switched, you're back up and running with exactly the same access you had before. It might be a little faster, it might be a little slower, but you're on the internet.<br />
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Now imagine the world as Google and Verizon would like it. You want to switch ISPs? Alright, but you can't get to the videos you used to watch. Oh, and maybe your health care monitoring, smart grid, and advanced educational services might not work too. See the problem here?<br />
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Ideally, as Internet Service Providers, their job should be simply to provide you access to the internet. This would effectively turn them into dumb pipes, and they are fighting to prevent this from happening. The reality of the situation is that they do want to lock you in by any means necessary.<br />
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Oh, and let's not forget that the net neutrality portion of this would not apply to wireless providers. They would continue to keep blocking access to whatever they want, slowing down whatever traffic they want, etc. It's a mess now, and this won't make it any better.<br />
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I realize this is a bit out there, but imagine what would happen if AT&T customers could only call other AT&T customers. Same for every other carrier. Nobody would switch carriers because their friends and family all use that carrier, and their friends and family wouldn't switch because they wouldn't switch. You already see this happening with their "in network" free calling, but to entirely segregate the different networks would increase this lock-in exponentially.<br />
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It's much like the current situation with VoIP and IM services. AIM, for example. If you use AIM, there's a good chance you use it because your friends use it. You won't leave because then you won't be able to IM them. There are open IM services (Google Talk, other Jabber/XMPP services), but they go largely unnoticed by the general public because they are either locked in or are not aware of an alternative. In most cases they don't know how these services are more open than what they use, nor do they care, because they've been using it for as long as they can remember and it's what they're used to.<br />
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The situation is similar with Skype, though they are starting to see competition... Apple for one. (And if Apple does actually make FaceTime an open standard, I will applaud them for that, but given their history with such things I seriously doubt that will happen.) But for the most part they are the dominant video chat service, and attempting to get any long-time Skype user to even try anything else is a rather difficult task.<br />
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In fact, the internet was like this at one point. Just take a look at early online systems to get an idea of where the internet could be headed. Granted, traditional websites are here to stay - people aren't going to abandon standards entirely, and they are the best way to reach the most possible users. But who is going to be making deals with the ISPs? Content providers. There's a good chance that, if this goes through, internet media will be split between ISPs, much like it is with TV. If you want this content, you have to pay for it separately from this ISP.<br />
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If this is how the internet ends up, I seriously hope it ends with the content providers. We do <i>not</i> need health care monitoring systems locking us in to a single ISP. But let's not see this go through in the first place. It's simply a bad idea. Sorry, Google, but I'm not with you on this one.Jonathan Fredericksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18228007774186087684noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6293062685121290080.post-77860840618282304592010-07-02T00:51:00.001-04:002010-07-02T00:51:51.436-04:00Google Voice desktop app leaked to TechCrunchToday, TechCrunch got the Google Voice app. It may never be released officially, but they have it, and it works really well. So I say... let's make sure Google knows that we still want the app. Tweet about it, blog about it, whatever, but let's make sure they know.<br />
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<a href="http://techcrunch.com/2010/07/01/exclusive-video-of-unreleased-google-voice-desktop-app">http://techcrunch.com/2010/07/01/exclusive-video-of-unreleased-google-voice-desktop-app</a>Jonathan Fredericksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18228007774186087684noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6293062685121290080.post-10136943595161130442010-06-23T19:37:00.002-04:002010-06-23T23:55:47.571-04:00[UPDATE] Darchstar is about to release a FroYo ROM for the HTC Hero<s>I've been following this in IRC... and Darch is just about to release his FroYo ROM. Check back for updates. :P</s><br />
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The rom's out, but I would advise against flashing it if you don't know what you're doing. As such, I won't post a link quite yet. There are a lot of things that can go wrong at this point.Jonathan Fredericksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18228007774186087684noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6293062685121290080.post-46284607507217102712010-06-22T16:05:00.000-04:002010-06-22T16:05:54.868-04:00Google Voice now available to the publicThat's right, Google Voice is finally available to anyone who wants it. No more begging for invites! (So please. People. No begging for invites.)<br />
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We'll see what happens from this point on... whether or not Google will start charging for it... but the one thing we know for sure is that they're hard at work on Gizmo5 integration. It's likely we'll see a desktop client (probably Windows-only, but I do hope there's a Linux version) and a web-based client in Gmail.<br />
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To all the new users... I think you'll love Google Voice, <i>especially</i> if you're already an Android user. There's an app in the Market, so if you are an Android user, make sure you check it out.Jonathan Fredericksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18228007774186087684noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6293062685121290080.post-12984573680214377132010-06-18T16:32:00.001-04:002010-06-18T16:34:37.053-04:00Google releases the Google Command Line Tool, a command-line based interface for several Google servicesGoogle just released the Google Command Line Tool, which provides access to Blogger, Calendar, Contacts, Docs, Picasa, and YouTube from a command line. I know I'll probably be using this... well, all the time. So much faster to add YouTube videos or calendar entries like that.<br />
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Granted, most users of these services won't care, since they're generally not Linux users and would hate to try and use a terminal... but hey, for those of us comfortable with it... perfect!<br />
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<a href="http://google-opensource.blogspot.com/2010/06/introducing-google-command-line-tool.html">http://google-opensource.blogspot.com/2010/06/introducing-google-command-line-tool.html</a><br />
<a href="http://code.google.com/p/googlecl/">http://code.google.com/p/googlecl/</a>Jonathan Fredericksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18228007774186087684noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6293062685121290080.post-76779807880514567182010-06-07T21:18:00.000-04:002010-06-07T21:18:14.669-04:00Cloud Print coming in a few months; HP introducing cloud-aware printersHP is set to release a new line of cloud-aware printers compatible with Google Cloud Print shortly. The press release lists the basic model (HP Photosmart e-All-in-One) for release later this month at a price point of $99.<br />
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Google plans to release Cloud Print itself in the coming months, according to a blog post on their Chromium blog. They have begun testing the service internally.<br />
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<a href="http://blog.chromium.org/2010/06/update-on-google-cloud-print.html">http://blog.chromium.org/2010/06/update-on-google-cloud-print.html</a><br />
<a href="http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/press/2010/100607b.html">http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/press/2010/100607b.html</a>Jonathan Fredericksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18228007774186087684noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6293062685121290080.post-44070600215319095122010-06-01T18:00:00.001-04:002010-06-02T21:43:40.014-04:00[UPDATE] OI. Spam comments.So I've noticed an abundance of spam comments lately. Whenever someone comments here, I get an email. It gets very irritating getting spam comments from a blog that I rarely post on anymore (though I'd really like to change that). So. I'll be looking into switching the comments system over to, say... Disqus, maybe? I dunno. Until then, comments will be disabled. Sorry about that, but... yeah.<br />
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UPDATE:<br />
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The new comments system has been added. The one I mentioned above... Disqus seemed to work well on other sites I've visited, so... let me know what you think. (If anyone still reads these, that is.)Jonathan Fredericksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18228007774186087684noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6293062685121290080.post-76735119983772699602010-05-28T04:39:00.000-04:002010-05-28T04:40:19.407-04:00Sony and Google combine to provide entertainment servicesSony and Google have formed an alliance to provide a range of entertainment services that will combine Google's open-source Android operating system platform with Sony's technology and product design.<br /><br />Through this alliance, Sony aims to leverage the accessibility of Google's Android platform to further optimize its product development processes. As the first step in this process, Sony will introduce 'Sony Internet TV' incorporating the 'Google TV' platform. Through this interface, consumers will be able to search and access content from their TVs and across the internet. The 'Sony Internet TV' is scheduled to first launch in the US in the fall of 2010 featuring both TV model and set top box-type unit incorporating a Blu-ray Disc drive.<br /><br />Howard Stringer, chairman, president and CEO of Sony, said: "The combination of Sony's industry-leading product design, engineering and development expertise with the flexibility and growth potential of Google's innovative, open-source Android platform will provide consumers with a world of new and exciting Internet user experiences. Through this alliance, Sony will deliver new levels of connectivity and Internet integration across our range of assets and product categories."<br /><br />via (NewsWire | Published 25 May 2010)Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6293062685121290080.post-90965647834995158412010-05-21T20:20:00.000-04:002010-05-21T20:20:25.882-04:00Oh how I wish I could be at Google I/OWell, it's been an interesting two days... FroYo announcements, Google TV, WebM (yes!), and free phones for attendees. Sadly, though, I couldn't be there. I couldn't even watch the live streams. So that would be why I haven't been able to post about any of it really - from the school network, both YouTube and Blogger are blocked. Sorry.<br />
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But those free phones make me so jealous...Jonathan Fredericksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18228007774186087684noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6293062685121290080.post-17848242583493106982010-04-12T14:53:00.002-04:002010-04-12T19:39:33.077-04:00Google TabletAlso Google is apparently building an Android tablet. Supposedly Eric Schmidt casually revealed it to friends at a party. Make of that what you will.<br />
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<a href="http://neowin.net/news/google-confirms-tablet-won039t-run-chrome-os">http://neowin.net/news/google-confirms-tablet-won039t-run-chrome-os</a>Jonathan Fredericksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18228007774186087684noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6293062685121290080.post-48783849505979630742010-04-12T14:18:00.004-04:002010-04-12T14:24:28.918-04:00Google Docs Updates with a Drawing Editor, Real-Time Collaboration, and Speed<a href="http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2010/04/new-google-docs.html">Here</a> is the link to the official Google Docs Blog and <a href="http://lifehacker.com/5513760/google-docs-updates-with-a-drawing-editor-real+time-collaboration-and-speed">here</a> is the link to the Lifehacker.com summary.<br /><br />Here is a video as well from the blog<br /><object><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/6_hJ3R8jEZM&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/6_hJ3R8jEZM&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always"></embed></object>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6293062685121290080.post-82454809807915053972010-04-12T12:34:00.002-04:002010-04-12T19:24:41.568-04:00Google updates Google Docs, now includes etherpad-like collaborationGoogle <s>has updated</s> will be updating Google Docs with some new features, including real-time etherpad-style text transmission in the document editor. I can't post a link due to the fact that I'm posting from my phone, but the blog post can be found on the official Google blog, so go check it out!Jonathan Fredericksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18228007774186087684noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6293062685121290080.post-67604955306726332422010-04-02T20:17:00.001-04:002010-04-02T20:17:32.602-04:00My Experience with AndroidSo I realize I haven't posted here at all recently. I've been really busy with school and all... but during that time, I've finally been trying out Android, which I wasn't able to do in the past. And let me tell you I really haven't had a very good experience with it.<br /><br />The first Android phone I got was the Samsung Moment. It overheated... a lot. The battery drained in a little over two hours. So I decided to switch to the HTC Hero. I've been having similar problems, though the battery does last much longer. So my question to you Android-lovers is this: have you had similar problems? Has flashing your phone with a nice new ROM helped at all?Jonathan Fredericksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18228007774186087684noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6293062685121290080.post-9672910337858838792010-02-09T10:04:00.000-05:002010-02-09T10:04:19.468-05:00Google Unveils Its New Mobile InterfaceGoogle unexpectedly rolled out a brand new look for its mobile interface this morning. As you can see above, it features the slightly more modern look that Google rolled out in Gmail and Voice lately.<br /><br /><center><br /><img style="width: 320px; height: 480px;" src="http://wp.appadvice.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/photo.jpg" border="0" alt="" /><br /></center><br />The predictive search seems more snappy and you can now erase your query with one tap, which is very convenient.<br /><br />It looks kinda Bingy to me, how do you like it? via [<a href="http://appadvice.com/appnn/2010/02/google-unveils-its-new-mobile-interface/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+AppAdvice+%28AppAdvice%29&utm_content=Google+Reader">AppAdvice</a>] via [<a href="http://www.google.com/">Google</a>]Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6293062685121290080.post-42058160335873158342010-01-24T00:45:00.002-05:002010-01-24T00:45:52.059-05:00Latest build of Chromium OS adds "cellular" option in network menuDid any of us not expect this? Regardless, the latest build of Chromium OS has cellular data access in the network menu. Not sure if this works yet, as I'm only running the browser portion of the OS inside Ubuntu (and don't have a cellular modem anyway), but the option is there. (I suppose it was only a matter of time.)<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_2CHzyMUPW2E/S1veISqA-rI/AAAAAAAAASY/v1XZc3CLQyQ/s1600-h/chromeoscellular.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="201" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_2CHzyMUPW2E/S1veISqA-rI/AAAAAAAAASY/v1XZc3CLQyQ/s320/chromeoscellular.png" width="320" /></a><br />
</div>Jonathan Fredericksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18228007774186087684noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6293062685121290080.post-42167311028167267432010-01-11T18:11:00.000-05:002010-01-11T18:11:01.038-05:00Hexxeh's Chrome OS "Zero" Build Released<a href="http://chromeos.hexxeh.net/">http://chromeos.hexxeh.net/</a><br />
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I'm about to try this out. Older builds haven't worked very well for me so far... and I was about to go build my own up-to-date version, but I noticed this one had just been released. Much faster that way, and he's got some nice little patches added in as well.Jonathan Fredericksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18228007774186087684noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6293062685121290080.post-4867489689787146232009-12-25T01:34:00.001-05:002009-12-25T01:35:12.085-05:00New Windows Chrome Icon?Now I'm not sure if this is happening for everyone, but when installing Google Chrome on a new Windows 7 machine, the Chrome icon looks like this:<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_2CHzyMUPW2E/SzRcI4cQeBI/AAAAAAAAARE/Pvr18B8aJLM/s1600-h/newicon.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_2CHzyMUPW2E/SzRcI4cQeBI/AAAAAAAAARE/Pvr18B8aJLM/s1600/newicon.PNG" /></a><br />
</div><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_2CHzyMUPW2E/SzRdAXbCJXI/AAAAAAAAARI/CulnZ-096ro/s1600-h/newicon2.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_2CHzyMUPW2E/SzRdAXbCJXI/AAAAAAAAARI/CulnZ-096ro/s1600/newicon2.PNG" /></a><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Is anyone else seeing this?<br />
</div>Jonathan Fredericksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18228007774186087684noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6293062685121290080.post-60212609920639348872009-12-12T17:29:00.000-05:002009-12-12T17:29:16.806-05:00Google Phone ConfirmedThe existence of the Google phone was confirmed in <a href="http://googlemobile.blogspot.com/2009/12/android-dogfood-diet-for-holidays.html">this recent blog post</a> on the Google Mobile Blog. It had previously been <a href="http://twitter.com/lhawthorn/status/6586495573">tweeted</a> by a Google employee as well, which may have been the cause of the announcement.<div><br />
</div><div>The phone will be made by HTC and will be Google-branded. It will be sold unlocked and it will have a 1 GHz Snapdragon processor and an OLED screen. If TechCrunch's <a href="http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/11/18/the-google-phone-may-be-data-only-voip-driven-device/">post</a> from around a month ago is correct, it will be a device that uses VoIP for voice rather than the carrier's voice capabilities. This would likely be Gizmo5 if it is true, and in that case there's a good chance Google will start charging for the service.</div><div><br />
</div><div>If this device will actually be sold (and isn't just exclusively for Google employees), it could seriously change the balance of power in the mobile space. Right now, most mobile users seem to remain blissfully unaware of the existence of unlocked phones. Google has the power to change that. If the phone is cheap enough to be competitive with other (subsidized) smartphones, it could just make people consider unlocked phones as an option. Carriers now have more control than handset makers, but that could easily change. If people stop buying subsidized phones and the price of unlocked phones comes down, the carriers will actually have to make people like their service and their pricing. (What a concept!)</div><div><br />
</div><div>It's something I've thought about a lot lately since I've been looking at all sorts of phones and carriers. The major problem right now is that all the carriers (except maybe Sprint) charge extremely high amounts for family data plans with smartphones. If this can help bring prices down, I'm all for it.</div>Jonathan Fredericksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18228007774186087684noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6293062685121290080.post-6937019161946121732009-12-07T23:30:00.000-05:002009-12-07T23:30:18.850-05:00Google To Open-Source EtherPadAccording to PC World, Google is set to open-source EtherPad, a real-time collaboration webapp. They recently acquired the company behind this application, AppJet. It seems EtherPad users liked the service enough to make Google listen.<div><br />
</div><div>For those who don't know, EtherPad allowed users to collaborate on a single document in real-time, much like Google Wave does. (And by that I mean instantly.) Each user's edits are clearly marked. It's like Google Docs meets Google Wave, really.<br />
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</div><div>New pads can once again be made from the EtherPad home page, and this will be the case until the code is completely open-sourced.</div><div><br />
</div><div>Things like this are why I really love Google.</div><div><br />
</div><div><a href="http://etherpad.com/ep/blog/posts/etherpad-back-online-until-open-sourced">http://etherpad.com/ep/blog/posts/etherpad-back-online-until-open-sourced</a></div></div>Jonathan Fredericksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18228007774186087684noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6293062685121290080.post-47293796356440154182009-12-07T11:12:00.000-05:002009-12-07T11:12:04.398-05:00New BloggerI almost forgot to announce this, but that post below reminded me. As you may have noticed, I didn't write it. So I'm pleased to announce that this blog now has another writer, Eugene Niemand. He's going to be a big help... and I hope this blog will continue to grow in the future.Jonathan Fredericksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18228007774186087684noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6293062685121290080.post-88586044362572438212009-12-07T10:32:00.005-05:002009-12-07T10:50:51.649-05:00Google Goggles mobile visual searchHave you ever seen something and wish you could get more info in as snap (pardon the pun) or you see something and think WTF is that. Well there will be an App for that, namely Google Goggles.<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">It was only a matter of time before Google came out with a visual search product. Google Goggles is geared towards the mobile market and allows anybody with the ability to snap a photo to receive relevant information via <a href="http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/12/google_goggles_mobile_visual_search.html">Make Magazine</a></span><br /><br />Now the question is how long will it take Google to catch up with other similar applications? Most services I have seen only does bar code scanning so Google is one step ahead in that aspect, seeing that you can search for any image, so if you take a picture of Big Ben in London or The Statue of Liberty it will return results based on that. <br /><br />I can think of a plethora of uses for this, product reviews, history of places while walking, more info of say a Polar bear while visiting the zoo just to name a few. Here is a short video that demonstrates Google Goggles.<br /><br /><object width="340" height="340"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/i6tT3JGV1iY&hl=en_GB&fs=1&rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/i6tT3JGV1iY&hl=en_GB&fs=1&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="340" height="340"></embed></object>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6293062685121290080.post-64208252670287592402009-12-04T16:01:00.003-05:002009-12-04T16:02:54.186-05:00Google Has Acquired AppJet. What Does This Mean?<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Google has just acquired AppJet, the makers of a web-based real-time collaborative document editor called EtherPad. The employees who worked on EtherPad will be joining the Google Wave team. What does this mean? Well, I'd guess the reason for this is to make Google Wave a whole lot faster. One of EtherPad's main selling points was that it was really fast.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span> </span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">After all, Wave in its current state ends up being very slow and clunky after 150 or so posts in a wave. If this acquisition can help that, this is very good news. Once that problem is taken care of, it seems like it'll almost be ready for a final release.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span> </span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><br />
<a href="http://etherpad.com/ep/blog/posts/google-acquires-appjet"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">http://etherpad.com/ep/blog/posts/google-acquires-appjet</span></span></a>Jonathan Fredericksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18228007774186087684noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6293062685121290080.post-44389880148069267902009-12-03T18:06:00.000-05:002009-12-03T18:06:07.222-05:00Chromium on Linux - Bookmarks Sync Now Enabled By DefaultLooks like today the daily builds of Chromium have the bookmarks syncing feature enabled by default. No more running it with --enable-sync at the end. Finally!Jonathan Fredericksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18228007774186087684noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6293062685121290080.post-4863498395826709052009-12-03T17:01:00.000-05:002009-12-03T17:01:05.108-05:00Google Public DNSWell, isn't that interesting. Google just released a DNS service.<br />
<br />
http://code.google.com/speed/public-dns/<br />
<br />
I've been an OpenDNS user for a while now, but this is interesting, so I decided to try it. It's not really configurable like OpenDNS is, but for the average user that doesn't matter. But will the average user realize the benefits of such a service? Will the average user even care? Not likely. That's what Google needs to work on if they want to make Google Public DNS catch on.<br />
<br />
There's also, you know, all that extra data going through Google. I know some people that wouldn't like that idea.Jonathan Fredericksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18228007774186087684noreply@blogger.com