New Google Nexus S Rumors Reveal OS, Carrier & More

Google Nexus S, the successor to the famed Nexus One has been doing the rounds for quite a while though we have not talked much about them in the past. Now a few pictures of the Nexus S are out in the wild that give us an idea about the phone’s features.

Firstly, the phone will indeed run on Gingerbread – aka Android 2.3 that is expected to roll out on December 6. Next is the fact that the phone will indeed be a Samsung make and will be tied to a T-Mobile network. Apart from this, the leaked Nexus S pictures also reveal a grey/black notification bar, a green highlights and a new squared-off launcher.

Apparently, the pictures were taken just a couple of days back and the word is that a launch is very much round the corner.

Google ChromeBook Launching Privately In December?

Earlier this week, we got word from the Google HQ that Chrome OS was behind schedule at the moment and so netbooks running Chrome OS may not be coming this year. However, this does not mean we will not hear anything at all about the new platform.

According to a fresh rumor, Google could be “dog fooding” its new ChromeBook computer to “friends and family” of its employees during the holiday season. Dog fooding is a term used inside Google for public testing of its unreleased products. You may remember that the Nexus One too was rumored to have been released among employees in December last year before the public launch happened in January.

Google is reported to have ordered close to 75,000 such devices and while not too much of specifications related information is available right now, we do hear it will run on Intel Atom Pine Trail processor and is being manufactured by Taiwanese ODM Inventec.

Android Gingerbread Launch Date Set For December 6?

It has been quite some time since we last heard rumors about the Gingerbread. Eric Schmidt had said sometime back that Gingerbread will be available “in the coming weeks“.

While that itself does not give us a complete picture, we now hear that the tentative date of release could be December 6. Why? Because Andy Rubin, the founder of Android and now the vice president of engineering at Google has confirmed his participation at the D: Dive Into Mobile event to be held at San Francisco on that date.

The Dive Into Mobile conference could be a great platform for Google to unveil, if not launch, Gingerbread to the public. Considering that this is not a really major update (it’s 2.3 and not 3.0), we really do not expect Google to come out with an exclusive media event anytime soon. Nevertheless, let’s hope there are at least some interesting pieces that Google will come up with in this update.

Record Voice Calls Over Gmail With New Record Button

Google appears to have rolled out a nifty little feature to their Gmail calling functionality that will let users record incoming voice calls with just a click of a button. This is pretty similar in functionality to the voice call recording feature that is available on Google Voice, only more convenient (Check out the chronology of all Gmail voice call news here.

Unlike Google Voice, where the user is required to press on a non-intuitive ‘4‘ to initiate a call recording, the feature on Gmail comes with a prominent record button above the dialpad that can be clicked on to start recording. Also, as it is on Google Voice, doing so will offer a notification to both parties that their call is now being recorded.

There are a couple of caveats at the moment though. Firstly, only incoming voice calls can be recorded. Secondly, this feature only works on those calls that are routed through Google Voice. That means, if the call is directly between two Gmail contacts, it may not work.

Do you see this functionality on your Gmail account yet?

Chrome OS Netbooks Release Date Not For Christmas

There has not been too much noise about the Chrome OS over the past few months and you can see why. Google CEO Eric Schmidt has revealed that the company is running behind schedule as far as the Chrome OS release is concerned. Consequently, we will not be seeing the release of any Chrome OS tablet or netbooks during the holiday shopping season. In fact, Schmidt has clarified that it will take “few months” before the new platform will make its public appearance.

Chrome OS will be Google’s answer to Microsoft Windows and Apple Mac OS X. The company already has a successful mobile platform in the Android and a successful foray into the desktop computing system may not be too damaging to the market shares of Windows or Mac immediately, but could quite easily kill the other popular open source OS – Linux.

Anyway, with this release getting delayed, we will have to wait for some more time before that could happen.

First Jailbreak Apps For Windows Phone 7 Roll Out

Just a week after we first heard about developers starting to get successful at jailbreaking the new kid on the smartphone block – Windows Phone 7 – comes the news that the first WP7 app for jailbroken handsets has now been developed. This application is courtesy Kevin Marshall; a Windows Phone 7 developer. Marshall has created an application that is a rudimentary copy of the Augmented reality based Google Goggles app. It uses information pulled from the camera into a publicly-available Silverlight toolkit to render information on to real-world objects.

A similar functionality is already available on LG Optimus 7 phone. However, the tools necessary to build such an app is not available for third party developers. Consequently, similar apps can be installed only after a jailbreak.

Check out a demo of this app in the video embedded below

Google To Buy Groupon?

Groupon, the daily deals website has been the subject several acquisition related rumors in the past. Earlier this year, we had word that Yahoo was in talks with the company over a possible acquisition. That apparently fell through. Now there is word that Google could be wooing the company in a bid to reaffirm its position in the local commerce market. According to reports, Groupon has a reported revenue of close to $50 million a month and that Google could be making an offer that is notably higher than the $2-$3 billion that was offered by Yahoo.

Though the revenues are pretty attractive, the Groupon management has apparently been actively talking to the potential buyer themselves. The reason, it is believed, is possibly because of possible uncertainties of the business model in the long run.

Anyway, let us wait and watch to see how these rumored talks pan out.

Edit Google Docs On iPhone, iPad & Android Soon

A few months ago, I had written about an iPhone application called iGoogDocs. The application enabled one simple task – the ability to edit your Google Docs on the move from your iPhone. This was still pretty nifty since the official Google Docs applications did not allow this functionality over mobile phones.

That could change soon though. The company has announced a new version of Google Docs for mobile shall be launching soon that will make it possible for users to edit their documents on the move. This shall be a web application which means users can access it over their mobile browser and shall be rolled out to English speaking users across the world on Android 2.2, iPhone and iPad. Support for other languages are coming soon though it is not clear when the feature will be enabled for other platforms.

You can check out a demo of the new Google Docs application in the video below.

How Big Is The Internet?

Google has an overwhelming presence on the internet and it is very unlikely that any of us remains untouched by their service yet. Even if you do not use their search engine, it is likely that you read blogs on blogspot, watch videos on YouTube, or read emails on Gmail. Despite this massive presence, do you know that Google has only tracked 0.004% of all data that constitutes the internet? Read on

Total number of people using the internet : 1.9 billion
42% of these users are from Asia
Total volume of data on the internet today : 5 million terabytes
Data volume indexed by Google : 200 terabytes (0.004%)
Total number of domain registrations : 193 million
46% of these domains are .com

Where does all this unindexed Google data lie? My assumption is that a good chunk of them must be secured information – email, document attachments,etc. But again, these alone cannot be 99.994% of the internet. What are your thoughts?

Google Voice For iPhone Releases

It has been a long frustrating wait for iPhone users who had been waiting to set up Google Voice on their iPhones. And finally 16 months after Google submitted their application to the App Store, Apple has finally cleared the app and it is now available for download at the App Store. If you can’t wait to read through this entire article before getting hold of the download link, well, it is here.

Some bit of history – Apple initially stayed the approval of Google Voice citing its similarity to the native iPhone dialling system. Also, the company stated that they had not rejected the app but were instead putting it on hold. Not only that, Apple had also pulled several other third party applications that were built upon the Google Voice system. All this had forced Google to take the web app route to reach iPhone users. Things seemed to be easing a bit after Apple was subjected to government inquiries over these anti-competitive measures. Today’s approval is perhaps a result of the pressure from the government bodies.

Nevertheless, early reviews are now in and users have been raving about this new application. If you have downloaded it yourself, don’t forget to tell us your experience in the comments.