Free courtesy of smashing magazine, a full GUI of android has come out free for download. Check it out! Its 1.5 but still extremely useful (I already have the PSD open while I’m writing this lol)!
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/08/18/android-gui-psd-vector-kit/
At this point what hasn’t google touched? (They even bought a bought a DNA indexing company)? Although the wii, ps3, webtv, netflix, tivo, apple tv and basically all media center pc’s have some of google tv’s abilities right now.. I think that google’s reputation and distributing power will be the secret formula to their already growing list of success stories. I’m excited to see their take on tv… Even more so on how they plan to monetize it!
More info at Google.com/tv
Watch out flash, quicktime, and .h264, there’s a new kid on the block… VP8! I have been reading about this for awhile, especially after google purchased On2. My eyebrows really raised up high when google released it under open source! What I can see happening though is flash and other 3rd party companies gobbling the codec up and integrating it right into their pre-existing codec platform… but that’s only speculation!
Take a look at what people are saying!
First in-depth technical analysis of VP8… seems a little weak but promising!
Open letter to Google regarding VP8 and youtube
And Of course Apple hates open source
Depending what side you are on, the future looks bright for us all (consumers/viewers/developers). A little healthy competition never hurt anyone, and I’m sure each codec will improve in their own way.
The motorola droid in all its glory!
Droid is here, and along with it comes new possibilities, experiences, and most importantly new apps!!! After getting the motorola droid and playing around with it for a month now here are my favorite apps! These are essential!
Well the apps where based on the following criteria:
You knew this one was coming. I use this program every single day… multiple times a day. It is extremely light, fast, and free!!!
This is where things get awesome with the droid. I purchased a top of the line GPS 2 years ago for $350, it is now obsolete with the droid. Not only that but the GPS app on the droid has 10x the features!!
Shop savvy in my opinion is half flare, and half functionality! What does it do? You can take a picture of a barcode and it will display the lowest prices in the area and online!! so cool!!!
Google goggles takes the shop savvy concept a little further. You can take a pic of anything and goggles will scan it, and then display listings, options, or ratings. It is new so I have found it works great with logos but not everything. It does plenty more though check it out here!
When you first get droid you will be torn between using the browser, or using apps to access certain websites. This is one of those times, and the app wins in this case. Twidroid is a light, no bs twitter app that is amazing – go get it!
I put “lite” up because these do cost money, however the lite versions are free. I have to say that the snes emulator is a little better then the genesis emulator but still they are both great! They even allow you to search for roms within the program! wow!
Well if you are a last.fm fan, or pandora fan grab one of these. Both are amazing – However if you don’t have a last.fm account grab the pandora app as the last.fm app relies heavily on your music taste from your pre-existing account.
This is an amazing app. Its easy to use, very robust, and free! Its exactly what you think it is lol.
For the diehard sports fan there is sportstap. Following your favorite team was never so easy!
you may think the droid can do anything.. but it really can’t. Try changing your ringtone, notification noises, etc and it will become immediately apparent. However, this program basically allows you to regain full control over your phones “noises” lol.
Here is something I stumbled upon the other day. It is a flash chart that shows the current relationship of SERPS between all major search engines. It even has a date feature that allows you to go back about 9 years!!! Very valuable information(and cool)!
seo relationships
A bit About Its release – So after a very sudden release of google chrome (via a very creative comicbook release – which is the image above lol), I have had some time to toy around with it and come to some conclusions about it without being caught up with all the hype. I’m going to break this up into three sections… Pros, Cons, and Final review with considerations that you and google should be aware off. In the end I think that we get another player in the deadly browser wars. One that is really going to make a impact on current Internet Explorer and Firefox users, at the very least it will definetly spur some healthy competition between browsers which is great for us all!
1. Homepage Helpers –
The most visited website HomePage/Tab is great for speedy browsing and the integrated Google search along with the “recent bookmarks” is very convenient for people who do a daily run of their bookmarks.
2. Trace Monkey -
Google hired a extremely specialized team of coders to create the javascript engine called “Trace Monkey” in google chrome. The end result is the fastest browser around that just zips through the internet.
3. New Tab System –
Improved Tab system that allows a higher resolution of the screen to be shown, and each own has its own processes…So if 1 tab freezes only that tab becomes unstable while the others remain totally fine.
4. Open Source –
Its Google! Therefore its open source! So lets sit back and see what developers can come up with that will improve your browsing experience!
5. ITS ONLY STILL IN BETA! -
Remember Google Chrome is still in Beta – So bugs and tweaks will be polished out soon!
6. Light, Sleek Interface –
Extremely light and simple Interface which anyone could use, Its so stripped down and anyone who’s browser looks like the picture above will be thrilled that its extremely clean and non cluttered.
1. Nothing Too Ground Breaking -
The most visited HomePage is great and all, but it isn’t all that original… Opera came with this awhile ago, and there are literally dozens of plugins out there for Firefox and internet explorer out there that do the same thing and more! Also its based off of browsing patterns… that means If I wanted to rearrange the sites that I have or remove some I cannot. This may leave some users feeling a little embarassed of there browsing habits when undesired site begin to pop up on the most visted.(porno etc lol) Also the bookmark managing is less than primitive and left me feeling… is this really it?
2. Trace Monkey is the Best… Only right Now though
Although Google Chrome is very fast new data is appearing that shows that the new Firefox engine “V8″that is soon to come out is actually faster than Chrome’s Trace Monkey!
Memory Usage –
We all hate programs that are memory hogs and I personally thought that Firefox was bad, but boy was I wrong! Look at this shot of my PC processes, it shows 5 multiple processes for google chrome. Thats 2 processes for every tab I open and a updater! Firefox only has 2 processes as the most no matter how many tabs I open up, however what google chrome gains with this is if one tab crashes the rest of them don’t. (But with tab recovery who cares?)
4. No Plugin Support –
Although Google is so open source there is one huge thing that amazed me about Google Chrome. NO PLUGINS! Plugins are essential to all modern programs, I simply cannot see anyone completely satisfied with the way Google chrome is right now….Its simply not ENOUGH! What plugins allow programs to do is give the power back to the people, and let them fill their needs way better, and way faster than solid 1.2, 1.3, etc releases based on user input ever could!
5. Peeping Google -more like peeing on your right to privacy? AMIRITE?
After a week or so after the launch, wild rumors about google collecting data about your browsing habits began to surface. After looking into many of them, I can say that this is kind of true. Google chrome’s TOS allows it to follow your browsing history and create a rich profile about you that is used to send advertisements to you via adwords, and can be sent (i.e. sold) to other companies, which is quite frankly BS.
Google Chrome is still in Beta, so we must give it a chance to fully bloom. However what Google Chrome has shown thus far is still quite amazing and in time may capture a large portion of Internet Explorer users and even FireFox users if they play their cards right. I think Its safe to say though that it needs to address the issues at hand properly, or it may just be dismissed by many who won’t care enough to switch over from FireFox, Opera, or Internet Explorer.
In the end I think I personally felt like, “This is it? Thats all?” from Chrome’s release but hopefully with some plugin support, and a rumored change in the TOS I will feel much more comfortable with google chrome. For now I’m stick with Firefox thank you!
DOWNLOAD GOOGLE CHROME NOW!!!
I lol’d at this when I uninstalled chrome!
