Googling Friday #26

Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of Googling Friday, a blog about all things in the world of Google. Got quite a few things to dig into so let’s get right into things.

Google brings Discussions to Docs

Google has really enhanced their group collaboration with Google Docs. They have added mentions and thread view. Quite obvious they took what was part of the late Google Wave and put it into Google Docs. To illustrate they have posted a video.


Pretty cool stuff I would say. They are also working to restore offline storage for the Apps users as well.

Steve Jobs Google’s first choice as CEO

About 10 years ago as Google was getting started, its founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin were in search of a CEO to give it some serious street cred and apparently their first choice was Steve Jobs. But Steve had just recently returned to Apple so they settled for Eric Schmidt...not a bad second choice really.

Sprint integrates Google Voice

Google and Sprint announced this week that you can now use your existing Sprint phone as your Google Voice number. Also if you have an existing Google Voice number you can setup your Sprint phone’s caller ID to show your Google Voice number when you call someone.



Latitude gets Check-ins: Review

Google has updated its Latitude mobile app to offer check-in similar to FourSquare and Facebook Places. I have used it and it does have a comprehensive listing of places nearby no doubt relying on its robust business search database whereas FourSquare is more of a user adds locations. Unlike FourSquare and Places though, it does not offer any deals at places you check into, nor do you get to become mayor or score points the more you check in like in FourSquare.

How to Advertise your Android Phone (or not)

Finally today, Sony Ericsson has a new Android-based phone called the Xperia Play. With so many different Android phones out on the market, how does one set theirs apart? Well leave it to Sony Ericsson to think outside the box with this ad.



Hope you enjoyed that little video as much as I did. See you all next week for another week of Google news.

Googling Friday #19

Howdy folks and welcome to another edition of Googling Friday! This is a blog for all things Google news related. Let’s see what is happening in their world this week!

Google brings mobile number porting to Google Voice

Google is now allowing you to port your mobile phone number to Google Voice. But it will cost $20 and may cost you an early termination fee with your cell phone carrier as it is the same as moving your cell phone number from say AT&T to Verizon for example. One user has stated it has been a nightmare for him with regards to his wireless carrier.

Google removes Flash-based app from Android Market

What? I thought only the “big bad Apple” did this? But apparently this is what Google did to an app called Kongregate which is based on a popular website featuring Adobe Flash based games. It was in the Android Market for less than 24 hours before being pulled by Google citing a violation of the Android Market Developer Distribution Agreement. Hmm, that sounds familiar, I guess Google can’t claim the moral high ground with regard to Apple on being an open marketplace after all.

Google unhappy with slow Android app sales

Despite healthy sales of Android devices, that has not resulted in app sales within the Android Market as opposed to the highly successful iTunes App Store for Apple’s iOS devices. Google is working on a plan to help that along.

Google brings cloud-based printing to iOS devices...sort of

Google announced this week that iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad users can now print to the cloud...providing they have a Windows-based computer...WHAT!...TechFAIL! Google does say they are working on Mac and Linux-based printing that will be “available soon”. Hey Google, how about when you announce something like this you have it ready for ALL clients? This is not 1999 for crying out loud!

Need a job? Google is hiring

Google announced on Wednesday that it is hiring for many positions not just at its Mountain View, CA HQ but also worldwide. So if you have a college degree particular in Computer Information Systems, then you might be in luck. For us folks that learn as we go without having that nice piece of paper from a university, no need to apply apparently...bigots!

Well, that is going to do it for this edition of Googling Friday. I apologize if I was a bit harsh on Google this week, but I do offer my opinion on these matters. No Google product review this week, but I will have one for you all next week. See you then!

Googling Friday #16

Hello everybody and welcome to the first Googling Friday on 2011. It has been a couple of weeks so let’s see what is happening in the world of Google.

Google looking to launch digital newsstand

The Wall Street Journal has an interesting piece on how Google is looking to launch a digital newsstand for Android devices similar to Apple and Amazon but offering to take less of a percentage of sales than the other 2. If Google really wants to do this right they could utilize their new Bookstore app as the distribution point offering it to iOS devices as well and not just Android. It wouldn’t benefit Google to be a closed platform service when they are known for their openness, an advantage they have over Apple.

Google makes free calling to US and Canada via Gmail for all of 2011

Google announced that calls made to the US and Canada via Gmail will continue to be free in 2011...YAY!! I was hoping this would be the case and it gives them an advantage over rival Skype in this area. The best way to take advantage of this is to sign up for a Google Voice account as it gives you a dedicated phone number. Oh if your not using Google Voice by now, then you really should cause you won’t need a long distance plan on your landline if you are still even doing such a thing.

Google looking at mobile payment system

Imagine going to the grocery store and buying groceries and simply waving your mobile phone at the register to pay for everything. Well, that is what Google is looking to do. I admit this idea has both a great potential and a security issue concern. But I will be interested to see how it plays out and deployed.

Google Translate Review

For this week’s review, I wanted to tell you about Google Translate. Pure and simple, you type in words in the language you speak and it will translate how to say it in another. They even support Latin which as a Catholic I am very happy about.



Pretty cool huh? It’s an easy interface and as you can tell from the picture, it even has a listen button so you even know how to pronounce it. Google Translate supports over 50 languages (sorry but Aramaic is not one of them). It is a free web-based service so go give it a try and it also works in reverse, you can copy and paste in a foreign language and it will translate it for you. Pretty cool!

Well, that is going to do it for this edition of Googling Friday. See you all next week!

Googling Friday #15

Hey everybody and welcome to another edition of Googling Friday. Let’s see what is happening this week in the world of Google.

Google Fiber Delayed

Google announced this week that it will be delaying its Google Fiber network to test communities. What Google Fiber does is bring internet speed up to 100 times faster than what most people have access to today. They have been experiencing with it on the Google campus as well as a beta test to 850 homes in Stanford, CT. Such a bold initiative in terms of speed, it is not surprising to see a delay in a rollout. Comcast announced a similar delay in my community to go all digital until February.

Have Santa call your Family and Friends

Google is promoting its Google Voice service in a creative way. By filling in some information, you can have Santa call your friends and family with a personalized message on how he is going to bring them a gift they are wanting (providing the gifts are part of the drop down list in the customization area). At the end of the message, the Google Voice service gets a plug. So go ahead and give it a try, it is quite fun!

Google Latitude Review

Google this week announced its Latitude app was in the iTunes app store. What it does is basically track your movements to share with your friends and vice versa or as I call it “Friend Stalker”. It is pretty cool but it does have a setting option to disable background updating for privacy concerns. That means the only time it would update your location is if you are running the app. So if you have an iPhone, go ahead and give it a try.

AppleTalk Thursday #1

Hey everybody and welcome to the first edition of AppleTalk Thursday. Over the past year or so, I have written a blog called Tuesday Tech Talk. When it first started out, it was all things technology. But as Apple and Google continue to grow with exciting products, it began to dominate Triple T. Earlier this year, I launched Googling Friday to talk about all things Google related and now this will be the blog to talk about the Macintosh and iOS devices like the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad as well as the AppleTV. This I hope will allow Tuesday Tech Talk to focus back on general technology and even offer more time to things not Apple and Google. So, that is my intro, lets get down to business!

Verizon and iPhone Update

Yes, another week of Verizon and the iPhone uniting rumors. One source saying Verizon may get the iPhone as soon as after Christmas as part of Verizon’s LTE “4G” network. Although it is just a rumor, it also offered plenty of details and an analyst at Asymco states that Verizon really needs the iPhone to help catch up with AT&T in smartphone sales. I think it is only a matter of time before Verizon gets the iPhone, just a matter of if it will be in January or late June-early July when the iPhone 5 arrives with a dual chip capability to run on GSM and CDMA networks as well as LTE.

iPad Biggest Tech Winner of 2010 and other iPad News

Business Insider has named the iPad the Biggest Tech Winner of 2010. This is not a surprise at all, since it launched in April, Apple has sold over 10 million units. It will be interesting to see what the iPad 2 brings in the Spring or maybe even earlier. Also of note, the iPad is now available from Best Buy’s online store. In addition, it is quickly catching up to the Kindle as an ebook reader. I’m sure Amazon doesn't mind that though as it offers a Kindle ebook reader app for the iPad which is what I use to read books with.

MobileMe to get a lot Better Next Year says Jobs

In response to an email regarding MobileMe,Steve Jobs stated that the service will be even more better in 2011. This has me curious enough to go ahead and continue for another year on the service.

Verizon FiOS coming to Mac and iOS in 2011

Verizon announced they are working on a Mac and iOS application for their FiOS TV service. It will require a Verizon internet connection, but they hope to have it launched in the early half of 2011. Are you listening DirecTV?

Google Voice updated to support iPad and iPod touch

On Tuesday Google updated its Google Voice application to support iPad and iPod touch devices. It has an option called Click2Call which you can choose which phone to ring to call out to.

Well, that is going to do it for this first edition of AppleTalk Thursday. Next week I will add some app reviews. See you next week!

Googling Friday #12

Hello folks and welcome to another edition of Googling Friday.

Edit your Google Docs on your mobile devices

Google announced this week that you will now have the ability to edit your Google Docs on your iPhone, Android, and iPad devices. I tried it on my iPhone just a few minutes ago and when you highlight say like a header, it creates an edit box within that same line of the header, so you can edit the header or add to it. This is welcome news and am looking forward to trying it out on my iPad. I am moving more of my documents to the cloud and a lot of times I am just taking my iPad with me instead of my MacBook to different places.

Google Voice for iPhone at last

On Tuesday, the official Google Voice app for the iPhone appeared in the iTunes app store. It offers everything the desktop client does at the same price as the desktop client (FREE!). I absolutely love Google Voice! It is our default long distance carrier now on our landline and has allowed us to drop our landline to the basic service like a dial tone.

Google Maps review

You have read here back in Googling Friday #7 of my thoughts on Google Earth, there is also Google Maps. What I like about Google Maps is if you have it say on an iPhone which is one of the included apps for it, it will show you as a moving blue dot and you are able to see just where you are even by walking. A case in point, when my wife and I went to Oxford, MS a few months ago, we were looking for Ajax Diner on the Square. By walking around the square and pulling up their location in Google Maps, we were able to quickly locate it and enjoy a nice lunch there (try the Southern Pecan Beer and the Deuce burger btw). I do find that it is often better updated than TomTom when it comes to rural areas. I was using the TomTom app on my iPhone to drive out to my friend Kenny’s place and it took me out to some backwoods country where the only thing missing was a banjo playing. Luckily, I switched over to Google Maps which accurately got me to his house. Needless to say, Google Maps has helped me out several times and is worth every penny it costs which btw it is free.

Well that is going to do it for this edition of Googling Friday. See you all next week!

Googling Friday #8

Hello everybody and welcome to a Googling Friday that almost never was. I was battling a WordPress bug that was preventing me from writing from BlogPress. Having found the suspect plugin, it was deactivated and deleted. So what is going on this week with Google? Lets find out.

Official Google Voice iPhone app on the Way

Apple has approved Google's official Google Voice application for the iPhone. Although approved, Google appears to be holding back for now to add some multitasking capabilities to it. But should be in the app store within the next couple of weeks.

Chrome OS

Last week, I used the Google Chrome OS for the first time. Using Parallels on the Mac, it has an option to install the Chrome OS. What is Chrome OS? Well, it is a browser based OS, which makes sense cause the Chrome OS is based on internet use and not much else. If you want to live in the cloud, then Chrome OS you will like. That being said, there are some hangups, for instance it crashes on FarmVille, not once, but every time I tried it. It does come with several sites built in, for example Pandora if you want to listen to some tunes. Of course it includes Gmail and Google Docs as well as Hulu, Facebook, YouTube, and Chess. The OS itself is free but the hardware it will be installed on will range in price. Google does plan to have it installed on some net-books and other systems. I'm hoping to see some improvements with how it handles certain sites like FarmVille, but maybe Zynga will address that issue when FV goes to HTML5. Only time will tell. For now though, I'm going to stick with Mac OS X from a desktop point of use.

Well, that is going to do it for this edition of Googling Friday. See you all next week for another installment.

Googling Friday #3

Hello folks and welcome to another installment of Googling Friday. Lets look at some Google news before we dive into this weeks Google app review.

Google brings Google Voice to Gmail

Google announced on Wednesday the ability to dial a phone number from within Gmail. It will appear on the right hand side within the chat list. As shown below:

Course what this means is you will no longer have to visit the Google Voice page directly to make a call and you can now directly talk to someone right from your computer and don’t need it to dial one of your phones first.

Now for this weeks Google app review, Google Calendar

Google Calendar

With Google Calendar, you can view your events and tasks from any computer connected to the internet. Also BusyCal has a desktop based calendar application that can interface with Google Calendar, iPhone, and iPads. Google Calendar has pretty much replaced iCal for me as my default calendar application. It is pretty straight forward and is part of your Gmail account with its own link at the top of your Gmail page. So check it out, I really like it.

Well see you all next week for more cool stuff from Google!

Googling Friday

Hello and welcome to what may become a weekly or bi-weekly blog on all things Google.

Brief history

Google started out as just a search engine way back in 1998. Today instead of saying “I did a web search” many people say “I googled (said topic)”. Today Google offers its own free email service known as Gmail, a photo sharing site known as Picasa, its own RSS Reader web app, and Google Voice which allows you to set up 1 phone number to ring multiple phones and the ability to place calls through it. It also owns YouTube which it purchased in 2006. Google is valued around $42 Billion with revenues of $23 billion as of 2009. So with a background done lets dive right into this weeks Google feature.

Google Voice

One of my favorite Google apps is Google Voice. This service recently went public to everyone, but my wife and I have been using it for quite sometime. What it allows you to do is have one phone number which you get to choose when setting up an account and use that number to be your primary contact, in turn you can choose which phones (home, work, cell) for it to ring based on which groups you set it up for.

Example, say you want your family to call the both the landline and the cell you can do that, you can also have your friends group contact your cell phone only. You can also text message from your desktop using your Google Voice number to other peoples cell phones.

But the biggest feature at least for my wife and I has been the ability to use Google Voice to call out using which ever phone you want at no cost within the United States and Canada. What this basically means is we can use our landline for Google Voice to call, once answered it immediately contacts the phone number you specified on the Google Voice app. Even though you are on your landline, you are not being charged for the call because of course Google called you first.

You may want to inform your family and friends of your Google number cause when it calls them and they have caller ID, it will show that number and not your landline or cell #. The quality of the calls are awesome! I can’t say enough about this service and if you are reading this directly from my website you will notice the Google Voice icon on the right side to leave me any feedback.

Well, that will do it for this first edition of Googling Friday. See you next week for another Google feature. Have a great weekend!

Tuesday Tech Talk #52

Hello folks and welcome to another edition of Tuesday Tech Talk. Excuse me for not putting out a Triple T last week as I was out of town celebrating my 38th birthday. Had a great time in Pensacola though!

iPhone 4

Since this is my first Triple T since the iPhone 4 went on sell, I thought I would spend a few minutes on it. In its first 3 days it managed to sell 1.7 million units worldwide. Then came the “death grip” stories. This forced Apple to look into the matter and discovered something that has plagued all iPhones, a false bar reading. Apple stated a software update will be out within the next few weeks for the iPhone 3G, 3GS, and iPhone 4 to resolve the issue. Now for the features, it shoots awesome 720 HD video! No, I do not have one but videos are starting to pop up on YouTube with videos shot with it. My favorite is 156 Turns. For now I will keep my 3GS one though.

iPad browser share passes Android market share

For you Android fans out there, put this in your pipe and smoke it! Not much more to say so I will leave it at that. I continue to enjoy my iPad of course.

iPad in a plane

SportsairUSA has made a new airplane called the iCub and part of the planes dashboard includes an iPad. You can use it to browse weather radar and other key things to flying.

Microsoft kills the Kin

Only 6 weeks into its release and Microsoft pulled the plug on the Kin. Yes I know, this will come as a disappointment to the tens of well 10’s out there that wanted one, but with the competition between the iPhone and the Android, the interest in the Kin was severely lacking. Course it could also have something to do with the fact that Microsoft lacks a creativity gene in its being and people see through that now.

New Six Billion Dollar Hotel opens in Singapore

Here is one for Steve Austin (not the wrestler/actor). 55 story tall hotel with a 650 foot swimming pool on the roof overlooking the skyline. Want a room? It will cost you about $520 a night...and people say we are in a global recession.

Google Voice goes Public

Good news if you have been waiting to use Google Voice but never got an invite, you longer need one. Google Voice assigns you a number you can give out to family and friends that will ring any phone of your choice, you can even assign certain contacts to certain phones. We have been using it to make long distance calls for some time now.

This Week’s iPhone/iPod touch/iPad apps

DC Comics (FREE) - Good news for fellow DC fans, the publishers of Batman and Superman and other awesome comics has its own reader app for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch. You can now read away from anywhere.

TomTom ($49.99) - I have been using Navigon’s MobileNavigator for some time now but after the 4.0 release, the current version of it no longer works but I hear an update is in the works. In the meantime I still had to travel to Pensacola so I bought TomTom for the iPhone and I have to say I really like it. Biggest thing I like is it has multiple voices to select from and of course it is 4.0 ready so I was able to bounce between it and Pandora with no hangups.

Well that will do it for this edition of Triple T, I can’t believe this is number 52! This officially makes 1 year of Tuesday Tech Talk for me and I look forward to many more to come.

Tuesday Tech Talk #36

Hello folks and welcome to Triple T #36. Quite a few news items I want to share with you this week so let’s dive right in!

iPad available April 3rd

Get that work overtime in folks to build that iPad fund! It is coming out on April 3rd and pre-orders start on Friday! If you are looking to get an iPad, what features are you looking forward to? I like the eBook reader function of it and how easy it is to access the eBook store from the library. But I also like the ability that iWork will have apps for it via Pages, Keynote, and Numbers. If your not interested in it but would like to see some features added to it and then may get it, what features would those be?

Google Docs for blog posting

So did you know you can use Google Docs to compose and publish to your WordPress based blog? It takes some tweaking but it can be done. The only drawback is the ability to set categories and tags from within Google Docs, for that you will have to do within WordPress. So I guess this means I have a suggestion for Google now. In the meantime I will continue to use MacJournal to write my blog posts.

WordPress blogs get near real-time updates

Speaking of WordPress, they just announced support for PubSubHubbub (PuSH). What does that mean in non-geek terms you may ask? Simply put it now alerts RSS feeds faster meaning they will show up in say Google Reader much faster than before.

Time Warner Cable offering its tubes to AT&T and Verizon

Interesting little article here on TWC teaming up with the telecoms for broadband support.

Apple purging the app store

I’m sure you have heard on how Apple is cutting down on certain questionable apps in the app store. Personally I don’t have a problem with this. A lot of these apps are simply glorified web apps.

This Week’s iPhone/iPod touch apps


Shazam and Shazam Encore - Ok this review is for my good friend Mary from Minnesota who asked me about it. Course if you just want to know what that current song playing at the coffee shop is, then the free version of Shazam will do you just fine. But if you want it to be a little more social network friendly then there is the $4.99 version of Shazam Encore (they also offer a (RED) version of the app as well. With that version you can share your tagged results and it integrates with your Last.fm or Pandora apps too when selecting on a tag for the song.

Trip Journal - If you are a world traveler then this app you will love. It allows you to tag locations with photos and notes. They just came out with version 4.0 and for a limited time it is 99 cents instead of the standard $2.99 price.

Buzzie - If you are really getting into Google Buzz then you will be happy to know there is an app for it now at a modest $1.99. It really is a nice interface and I like it better than the desktop version of Buzz actually.

Google Voice - Ok so technically a web app but a darn good one. Google found a way to circumvent the Apple/AT&T gate keeper (yet Skype has an app...figure that one out for me). Basically you can use it to initiate phone calls like you would on the desktop version. Did I mention I no longer have a long distance plan with AT&T on our landline?

That is going to do it for this weeks edition of Tuesday Tech Talk. Feel free to leave comments below or if you want to send some audio feedback, click on the Call Me button to the right (if you are reading this on my website.) and it will call you back to connect you to my voicemail. Have a great week!

Tuesday Tech Talk #15

Ok a couple of days delayed but here is this weeks installment of Triple T (Thursday still starts with T).

iHome iP88

I have found what I want for Christmas! The iHome iP88 has what I am looking for, an alarm clock with the ability to charge my iPhone and iPod overnight and wake up to whatever I want it to music on the iPod, AM/FM or have it on am FM frequency that transmits by SiriusXM radio to.

iPhone OS Update

iPhone OS 3.2.1 is out today. It has some bug fixes to it mostly and also a carrier update from AT&T (5.6).

Here are the fixes as stated by Apple:

This update contains bug fixes and improvements, including the following:

- Resolves sporadic issue that may cause iPhone to not wake from sleep
- Resolves intermittent issue that may interrupt cellular network services until restart
- Fixes bug that could cause occasional crash during video streaming
AT&T gives the thumbs up to VoIP apps

Finally! Oh but it has to be a 3G network which means since I’m still on EDGE in Tupelo I still can’t use it. Guess we will finally see the Google Voice app in the iTunes Store now.

This Week’s iPhone/iPod touch apps

Ping - Tried this one this week. Basically it’s like IM’ing or SMS without having to worry about logouts. Just setup a quick user account and get in touch with friends. I’ve been talking to my good friend Jeremy on it so far. It’s really cool and basic and as far as I can tell there seems to be no character limit like SMS or Twitter.

Really that is the only app I have tried out new this week. See you next week on another edition of Triple T.