by bintangkecil on Tuesday, February 9th, 2010 | News, Tech/Gadget | No Comments

Tuesday morning, Google launched Buzz; the latest Google product for sharing links, media, and status updates with your friends.

Google Buzz is integrated in Gmail. So, if you have a Gmail account, you can go to buzz.google.com to turn the feature on right now!

Buzz is more than a little bit like Twitter — and a whole lot like Facebook and FriendFeed. Anything you post is automatically sent out to the people on your Google Contacts list you interact with the most. All updates are real-time, and anything you share is open for comments. You can also post privately to a select group of friends.

During the Buzz press conference, Google expressed eagerness to integrate Buzz with the company’s existing properties (Wave, Latitude, Voice) the way it has with Gmail.

	No setup needed Automatically follow the people you email and chat with the most in Gmail.
	Share publicly or privately Publish your ideas to the world or just to your closest friends.
	Inbox integration Comments get sent right to your inbox so it's easy to keep the conversation going.
	Photo friendly See thumbnails with each post, and browse full-screen photos from popular sites.
	Connect sites you already use Import your stuff from Twitter, Picasa, Flickr, and Google Reader.
	See updates in real time New posts and comments pop in as they happen. No refresh required.
	Just the good stuff Buzz recommends interesting posts and weeds out ones you're likely to skip.

Google Buzz in Action!

Google Buzz for mobile

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by wildcherry on Thursday, January 28th, 2010 | News, Tech/Gadget | No Comments

Google revised the mobile Web site for Google Voice so that it’s easier to display the service’s most popular features on the iPhone’s latest operating system.

Among other things, Voice offers an alternative dialing pad, voice mail and international calling discounts.

Apple has refused to allow download of the Google Voice program to be distributed through the iPhone’s applications store since last summer on grounds that it would duplicate or alter important iPhone features. To get around that roadblock, Google is trying to entice iPhone users to rely on a mobile Web browser to access Voice.

Google says the overhaul will make the Web browser experience more like what users would get if Google were allowed to offer a downloadable app that could be installed on the iPhone.

Google already offers downloadable Voice apps for Research In Motion Ltd.’s BlackBerry phones and devices running on Android, an operating system developed by Google. The upgrade to the mobile Web site also makes Voice simpler to use on devices that run on Palm Inc.’s operating system.

Google’s Voice service had 1.4 million users as of October, according to a company disclosure to the FCC.

Download the Google Voice iPhone App now available on iTunes.com!

Tags: google voice, Google Voice App, Google Voice Iphone, Google Voice Iphone App, Google Voice Released, Iphone Google Voice

by gadgetqueen on Friday, November 13th, 2009 | Business, News, Tech/Gadget | No Comments

Google has acquired Gizmo5, a company that offers voice-over-IP software for mobile phones and computers, for about $30 Million intending to roll the company’s engineers into the team that develops the telephony application/controversy magnet known as Google Voice.

Whereas Gizmo5 offers Skype-like software for calling people over the interwebs, Google Voice is a special telephony thingy that lets you use a single phone number for multiple phones - and turn your voice mails into emails. “While we don’t have any specific features to announce right now, Gizmo5’s engineers will be joining the Google Voice team to continue improving the Google Voice and Gizmo5 experience,” reads a post on the official Google Voice blog.

Google Voice is itself the child of an acquisition. It was first developed by GrandCentral, a startup Google gobbled up in 2007.

Last month, during Google’s third-quarter earnings call, CEO Eric Schmidt told the world the company was pulling out its checkbook now that the recession is supposedly over. “We believe the worst of the recession is behind us and now feel confident about investing heavily in our future,” he said. The Gizmo5 buy marks the ad giant’s second acquisition in the four weeks since.

Google Voice sits at the heart of not one but two ongoing controversies. Google nemesis AT&T has argued that Voice violates Google’s beloved net neutrality, while Apple is under investigation by the FCC for rejecting Voice’s entry into its iPhone app store.

According to the Gizmo5 homepage, the VoIP service can already be used in tandem with Google Voice. Google has now closed Gizmo5 to new users, but existing users can continue to use the service. Existing users cannot, however, sign up for new call-in numbers.

Unlike Skype, the Gizmo5 network is based on open standards: the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) and Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP). XMPP is what underpins Google Wave, the company’s new-age communication and collaboration thingy.

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by wildcherry on Thursday, March 12th, 2009 | News, Tech/Gadget | No Comments

Google stepped up its attack on the telecommunications industry on Thursday with a free service called Google Voice that, if successful, could chip away at the revenue of companies big and small, like eBay, which owns Skype, telephone companies and a string of technology start-up firms.

Google Voice is the name of the updated version of GrandCentral that runs on Google’s infrastructure. At this time, the service is only available in the US to the existing GrandCentral users, but Google promises to extend its availability soon. The good news is that GrandCentral will continue to be free and you’ll only have to pay for international calls.

“Google Voice gives you one number for all your phones — a phone number that is tied to you, not to a device or a location. Use Google Voice to simplify the way you use phones, make using voicemail as easy as email, customize your callers’ experience, and more. Google Voice isn’t a phone service, but it lets you manage all of your phones. Google Voice works with mobile phones, desk phones, work phones, and VoIP lines. There’s nothing to download, upload, or install, and you don’t have to make or take calls using a computer,” explains the new help center.

Google Voice Blog mentions that the service added many new features: “voicemail transcription, SMS support, conference calling, GOOG-411 integration, low cost international calling”. Voicemails are now searchable, you can embed them in a web page and you can receive email notifications. Text messages sent to your Google number are automatically forwarded to your mobile phone and they are also available in the web account, where you can reply to the incoming messages.

Tags: google number, google voice, google voicemail, grand central, mobile