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Posts tagged with "google"

Chromium for Mac Gets Spiffy Google Instant Integration

I love Google Instant: since Google launched its new real-time updating version of the search engine last month, I’ve been using it regularly and, yeah, I like it. A lot. I know many people are out there would like to revert back to the old “type and press enter” system but hey - this is where we’re going. Sorry if you don’t like it.

For as much as I love Google Instant, when I’m in my browser I don’t really fancy manually opening Google.com every time I need to fire up a new query. My searches start from the new Omnibar instead (Google’s definition of the address bar) because the Cmd + L shortcut is just too useful and fast. For this reason, I’ve been looking forward to the Google team baking Google Instant right into the browser and finally, we Mac users can have it: the Chromium trunk channel for Mac was updated earlier today to include support for Instant right out of the box. Read more

On Rules and Android “Openness”

Short version: every ecosystem needs rules. Otherwise, it’s a mess.

Long version: I wanted to briefly inform you about my take on Android’s purported “openness” and the need of rules and control on a mobile platform. Openness is good: everyone wants to be able to have a choice, choices make us feel in control of almost every situation. With computers, choices mean we can decide how to operate a machine. With mobile devices, choices have (sadly) come down to choosing whether or not you want to browse with Flash or find any kind of application in a marketplace. Read more

Google Goggles Now Available in Google iPhone App

Finally, I’ve been waiting for this: with a post on the official company blog Google has just announced that the Google Mobile iPhone app has been updated to include support for Google Goggles, the free service that allows you to search by taking pictures. An iPhone version of the popular Android-only service was first announced in June.

The app isn’t available yet in the US Store (I guess it’s still propagating). Check out the video below.

Update: the app is now live in the App Store. Update #2: I took a quick test, the app works great. Check out my screenshots below.

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Eric Schmidt Weighs In On Apple’s “Closed System”

Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt was invited on stage to TechCrunch Disrupt, where he gave a quite interesting 39-minutes speech about what Google is really all about, openness, user happiness and yes, Apple.

When asked about “openness” (around the 31:00 minute mark), Schmidt simply said that in order to define something that’s open, you have to take the opposite in consideration. The opposite is Apple, which relies on a closed system based on its own development tools, hardware, marketplace. Google’s Android is about “adding choices”, giving users the possibility to choose what to use on their devices and what not. Interesting enough, apps that come pre-installed by carriers are mentioned as “more choices”, too.

Check out the full video below.
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Chrome OS Installed On The iPad

Chrome OS is Google’s upcoming operating system based on the solid foundation of the Chrome web browser and is open source version, Chromium OS. Much has been said about Chrome OS being the OS “of the future”, as it’s entirely based on Chrome’s UI and easy to understand principles. Much has also been said about tablets getting Chrome OS by this fall.

It turns out that the first tablet to get Chrome OS is Apple’s iPad. Read more

iPad Users Getting Full Google Docs Mobile Editing

Together with the announcement that more than 3 million business have gone Google, the search giant has also confirmed that iPad users will get full mobile Google Docs editing soon. No release date for the new feature has been announced yet.

Right now, if you try to log in Docs from your iPad you only get a viewing interface - so this is great news for anyone who uses Google Docs (like us) every day. Read more