Google held their developer and press event today to show off the upcoming Google Chrome operating system. The source code for Chrome OS is open source and available as of today, so theoretically, you can build your own Chrome OS. However, the actual release isn’t planned until late in 2010.
Some takeaways from the live stream that I watched:
The Verizon Droid is soon to be returned to the kind folks there who sent me this evaluation phone so it’s time for a video look at the phone. The Droid is the Android 2.0 slider that is thin and light, and sports an industrial design bent. In the video I show the responsiveness of the Droid, the hardware and give a feel for the web browsing experience. I also show the camera function, including how long it takes to focus and shoot.
I have been impressed with the Droid, and will be sad to see it go. It is a very capable smartphone compared to the many I have tried. I find it is easily the best phone on the Verizon network currently.
I’m on a bit of a camera kick this morning. Just after I scored a $299 Panasonic 1080p camcorder from Amazon today, I caught Sal Cangeloso’s thoughts about BorrowLenses.com – a camera lens rental service. I’ve been using my Canon EOS Rebel T1i for months, but only with two lenses. The standard 18-55mm kit lens is a good starter lens, but I’ve added a Canon 50mm f/1.8 prime lens as well. I’m in the market for a fast telephoto, but they don’t come cheap and that’s where BorrowLenses comes in.
For one week, Sal rented a Canon EF 85mm f/1.2 II USM for his digital SLR at the cost of $74 plus shipping and optional insurance. While that might sound like a large sum for a week’s worth of use, this particular lens would cost you $1,900 to purchase. So with that perspective in mind, I think the rental rate is quite reasonable. Some of the telephoto glass I’ve been longing for will easily set me back over $1,000. And if the lens doesn’t really meet my needs, I’m either out that $1,000 or I have to deal with selling it at some discount. From where I stand, a small up-front rental fee is cheap insurance to ensure that I like what I’m planning to buy. Note that some brick-and-mortar camera shops offer lens rentals, so BorrowLenses isn’t necessarily unique. However, Sal’s experience appears very positive, which is good enough for me.
Yesterday, Google introduced a Gmail Labs feature that tells you if your friends are online using an Android device. I can definitely see some benefit to this — before even sending an instant message to someone, you gain a little context of that person’s mobility. And that can help dictate the message scope you send. If I know that someone is on their handset, for example, I try to keep my IM conversations shorter and I also give them more time to respond. I’ve found that if I don’t make that adjustment, the chat conversation gets laggy and both parties are typing over each other because we’re “out of sync.”
The obvious flipside here is one of privacy. I don’t think it’s a big deal that people know that I’m on an Android handset as opposed to a computer of some type. The whole point to instant messaging is the “instant” nature when you want to communicate with friends — if you don’t want people to know you’re online, simply don’t sign in. Or better yet — go invisible. But I’m curious if you see this as a huge red flag. Bear in mind that you can turn this feature on or off in your Gmail Labs settings, so ultimately you have control. Your IM buddies can see the standard availability dots or they can see the little Androids — it’s up to you. Thoughts?
I was working away this morning, minding my own business, when a tweet sent to me and @Gartenberg got me thinking. The Twitter conversation was about reading e-books, and @AppGeniusBar asked us the question that got it all started:
@Gartenberg @jkendrick Have u imagined spending at least 12 hrs without feeling the need for an electronic gadget in ur hand?
I thought about this for a bit, and the answer hit me over the head (or in the hand). I have reached a point in my gadget usage that the gadget simply doesn’t matter. It’s the task I am doing at the time, in this case reading e-books, that grabs all of my attention. It is a testament to how far mobile technology has advanced that I have so many choices in the gadgets I use to do things. As I replied to @AppGeniusBar:
When I’m reading an e-book, and I read 2 – 3 a week, the gadget is simply the vehicle. It’s a book to me, just like paper kind.
That statement couldn’t be more spot on — I do not think about the gadget, I am simply reading a book. The same holds true with all the other tasks I do with a gadget, it’s the task that matters, not the gadget. Sure, it’s nice having a cool gadget that lets me do things I need to do, but when I’m actually doing them I do not think about the gadget at all, as long as it lets me complete the task at hand. This may sound only logical, but for someone like me who is always looking for the “next big gadget”, this was eye-opening. The gadget doesn’t matter, it’s what I do with them.
Using Gmail on a Mac? Then you may already know about Mailplane — if not, and you’re looking for an email client to use with Gmail, Mailplane is worth a look. The standalone software integrates seamlessly with multiple Gmail accounts and can make email wrangling far less of a chore. Version 2.1 is fresh out of beta and adds useful features like support of offline Gmail using Gears and image insertion within the text of your mail. Don’t forget that Google recently added a feature allowing you to tame your offline email — you can specify which folders appear offline and how much of that mail you really want to tote around. Also included in this release is support for multiple rich text email signatures.
Mailplane is $24.95, although this upgrade is free to all Mailplane 2.0 users and there is a free 30-day trial available. Still not sure what this setup adds over Gmail in a browser? Have a look at the two-minute walk-through for a better idea. Although I prefer a browser over most third-party apps, Mailplane is one of the few exceptions in my personal toolbox.
Did you buy one of those geeky Smartpens from Livescribe and are now looking for more things to do with it? There’s an app store for that. The Smartpen is a digital pen that captures handwritten notes in a format that can be used in a variety of ways. The new store has apps that range from simple games like Hangman to foreign language dictionaries. A quick look around the store shows quite a few apps for 99 cents, and others ranging up to $30.
Travel phrasebooks seem to be all over the store, a smart application for the Smartpen. I see phrasebooks in Japanese, French, German and Spanish, to name a few. Note that apps can be purchased only by customers in the U.S., UK, Australia and Canada only, according to Livescribe. Livescribe is actively looking for developers to build apps for the store. The Smartpen and supplies can only be shipped to the U.S.
The U.S. Thanksgiving holiday is drawing nigh, and the folks at Truphone are giving free calls for the day in celebration of the giving spirit. The promotion runs on Thanksgiving day, Nov. 26, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. EST. All calls to a U.S. mobile or landline will be free to any caller if made with the Truphone application.
“Thanksgiving is a day when family and friends come together to celebrate and catch up across the U.S.”, said Geraldine Wilson, CEO of Truphone. “For those people who can’t get home for the holidays, often because distance is too much, a telephone call to let them know how they are is the next best thing. With this initiative, we are allowing people who can’t be together to catch up on this special day.”
This is not confirmed by Lenovo, but more details about the ThinkPad netbook rumored for a January release have appeared on the web. The ThinkPad X100e is unusual, not just for being a ThinkPad netbook, but for the AMD processor it’s reported to use to run things. The 11.6-inch screen pushes the netbook classification a bit, but the $449 price if accurate is firmly in netbook territory. The specs are very ThinkPad-like, and that dual trackstick/trackpad is definitely ThinkPad material.
Here are some of today’s phone conversations I enjoyed reading or viewing on the web, along with some brief thoughts:
Google’s real phone is yet to come? (TechCrunch) — That’s the alleged inside scoop from yesterday, although today the rumor was softened a bit to include VoIP and data only. All in all, the truth is likely somewhere in the middle. After developing Android for the past two years and working with partners on over a dozen handset, Google isn’t likely to tick them all off by creating their own handset. They’re actually in the same boat as Microsoft with Windows Mobile licensing at this point and it would be difficult to reverse course.
Sprint’s Hero is more super now (BGR) — The Android totin’ Hero on Sprint’s network has new firmware ready for delivery. It’s not a major update, but word on the street says there’s better battery efficiency due to an SMS fix. The new version is 1.56.651.2, so check for it — it’s an over-the-air update, so it could hit at any time for Sprint customers.
Palm’s Pixi costs less than five lattes (Engadget) — Amazon might be the best place to pick up a Pixi right now — $25 with a new plan and this skinny webOS handset it yours. At this point, it might as well be free. The question is: even at these prices, will it be a hit for Palm? Early reviews generally agreed that the phone was a little sluggish — both due to the processor and the variability of Sprint’s EVDO, since there’s no Wi-Fi radio. At this price, even with those niggles, the Pixi could still be a good first smartphone. It’s like the webOS Centro, no?
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