Google updates Google Docs, now includes etherpad-like collaboration

Google has updated 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!

My Experience with Android

So 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.

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?

Google Unveils Its New Mobile Interface

Google 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.




The predictive search seems more snappy and you can now erase your query with one tap, which is very convenient.

It looks kinda Bingy to me, how do you like it? via [AppAdvice] via [Google]

Latest build of Chromium OS adds "cellular" option in network menu

Did 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.)

Hexxeh's Chrome OS "Zero" Build Released

http://chromeos.hexxeh.net/

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.

New 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:

Is anyone else seeing this?

Google Phone Confirmed

The existence of the Google phone was confirmed in this recent blog post on the Google Mobile Blog.  It had previously been tweeted by a Google employee as well, which may have been the cause of the announcement.

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 post 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.

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!)

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.