Along with all sorts of amazing updates to the android os, they have also made some new updates to how application updates work on the Android Market. Now when you update an app, you don’t have to download the whole file, just the parts that changes. Google hopes this will cut down your bandwidth and battery usage and that sounds like a pretty cool way to give you more out of a device you already own to me!

Google’s Social Streaming Media Device – Nexus Q

I must say to me this was probably the least exciting of the new products that Google released on the first day of Google I/O, but it is pretty neat all the same. Using this spherical shaped device, you can in effect allow all your friends to stream their own media from Google services directly to your device. It is setup for a party type queue. Everybody that you grant access to can use their own android device to queue their own music up on a shared playlist. It comes with a 25w amp and as cool as this sounds, it seems like it will never get off the ground with a $299 price tag.

New Google Tablet – The Nexus 7

The long awaited Google tablet is going to be available very soon. If you have been waiting for this one, it was well worth it. Asus has partnered with Google to create this very cool and very powerful 7″ tablet that will ship with the latest version of the Android OS (Jelly Bean). It would seem apparent that they are going to challenge the Kindle Fire market more than the Apple iPad with its smaller form factor. They are also going after a very competitive price point. The 8GB version will sell for $199 and the 16GB tablet will go for $249. When it comes to hardware this tablet offers a big quad-core Tegra processor and a 12-core GPU that should give this little mighty might enough power to run some amazing 3-d games and stream videos with no problems. Below you will find the original promo video, but you can learn even more about the Nexus 7 by watching the unboxing Nexus 7 video here.

Chrome For iOS Finally!

Here is another release that many Google fans have been waiting on for some time now. Their are so many browsers already available on the iPhone, but there is nothing like the  Chrome browser and who wants a slow browser on their phone? The speed of this browser is yet to be documented, but many who have already downloaded this #1 free app in the iTunes App Store have already reported faster page load times than the Opera browser or Safari for iOS currently offers. This browser is forced to use the same backend code that Safari uses per Apple’s so called security measures, but for some reason the page loads seem much snappier.

Using this cool browser you can also sync your open browser pages from any computer that you are currently logged into Chrome on. This means from the office to the car is seamless now and that is a cool feature. Also the ability to have many tabs open simultaneously without bogging down the browser seems to be another big thumbs up for those that need 20 tabs open to feel like they are browsing.

Skydiving With Google Glass

Google Glass has been a project in the works for some time and these space aged looking terminator glasses are getting one step closer to being something that is very awesome, but not quite there yet. The current Google Glass models only offer audio and video recording which was showcased at the conference when skydivers wore them as they plummeted to earth and people repelled down the side of walls. With these first person views that were streamed to a Google Hangout, really did turn some heads. They offered to sell some to developers for $1500 but they would not be shipped until early next year.

I am very excited about all the cool new stuff Google has showcased so far and there is still one day left in the Google I/O 2012 dev conference so it will be interesting to see what else they have in store too.

Let us know what you think about the Google news below!

Thanks for reading,

Nick Simpson

If you answered yes, then the TechBloq Team has a very pleasant surprise for you today. We have just happened to run across what we think is one of the coolest software tech nuggets we have seen in a very very long time. The BlueStacks application will allow you to run Android Apps on your desktop and if you are already using the Android OS on another device you can even synchronize your apps across your other devices and to your PC, how friggin sweet is that!

Do The Apps Work?

Surprisingly yes! All the apps that we have tested thus far actaually work and work well. The BlueStacks App Player, seems to have got it right. We are sure at some point, there may be some issues with apps that are looking for a gyroscope or accelleromitor, but the majority of all applications can get by with substituting your computers keyboard, mouse, monitor, microphone and camera for one that would otherwise be on the Android tablet or phone.

Do I have To have An Android Device To Use The BlueStacks App?

No, not at all. If you do have an Android enabled phone or tablet, there are some cool features that this makes available. However, you can run this Android virtualization app as a standalone program on any Windows computer.

Why Mobile Apps and Mini Programs Are Making A Comeback

They say all things are cyclical and the computer world is no different. In years past, people were trying to integrate everything and create large bulky apps that performed many different tasks. Now, the industry is moving back towards simplicity and Microsoft wants a piece of that pie. Microsoft has two different Windows environments that will ship with Windows 8 and you guessed it, one of them is a complete eco-system to run their “apps” many made originally for mobile devices running the Windows Phone OS.

Apple has almost formed a monopoly in this space, at least for paying app purchasers, but you will find that the Android marketplace has many applications that cost money for the IOS that are completely free to download. This makes the Android Marketplace and the BlueStacks App a very dangerous combination for both Microsoft and Apple. If you are looking for a way to break away from the herd and still have a huge selection of great apps, this may be just what you are looking for.

The mail system from Facebook has yet to officially roll out, but you can currently ask for an early invite to the Facebook email system if you are interested in checking out the newest Facebook features. Here is the address of the official Facebook email request page: http://www.facebook.com/about/messages/

Have fun checking out the new Facebook email and hopefully you get your invite soon. I for one am not sure if using a dedicated Facebook email address has any value for me, but there are many people who are very excited about this new feature. I am more interested in getting accepted into the Google CR-48 Notebook Pilot Program! If you are already using the Facebook email please leave a comment below and let everybody know what you think about this new service from FB.

This new Google authorized notebook will be sure to turn some head and raise the question “Do we really need a operating system at all?” to many users. The cloud based Chrome OS is about ready to hit the streets for real and only time will tell how earth shattering this news really is. There are a lot of consumers who have high hopes for Google making a serious move in the PC world and bringing affordable and usable computers to the masses once and for all.

The very nondescript look of the laptop is definitely a way to keep prying eyes from knowing what you are working with, but because they have already put images on the net, we don’t know why they did not at least slap a Google sticker on the back of it.

Google Cr-48 Chrome Notebook Screen Shots

Google Cr-48 Chrome Notebook

There are no complete spec sheets on what Google has put together yet. However, here is what Google is saying about the first ever official Google Chrome Laptop:

The Cr-48 is the test notebook we designed for the Pilot program. It’s the first of its kind.

It’s ready when you are, booting in about 10 seconds and resuming from sleep instantly. There’s built-in Wi-Fi and 3G, so you can stay connected everywhere, and a webcam for video chat. The vibrant 12-inch LCD display, full-size keyboard and oversized touchpad let you enjoy the web comfortably. And at just 3.8 pounds with over eight hours of active usage and a week of standby time, it’s easy to take along for the ride.

What did we leave out? Spinning disks, caps-lock key, function keys, and lap burns.

The Cr-48 is available exclusively to participants in the Pilot program.

More Information About The CR-48 Chrome Laptop

The official release of this new web operating system based laptop has not happened yet. There is more information on what is in the works, so if you want to learn all the ins and outs of this new laptop and want to see if Google will ship one to you for testing, check out the Google Laptop Pilot Program and see if you can be one of the lucky googlers to test it and get a free laptop to boot. Looking for more information on the new Google Chrome Cr-48? Let Google tell you more about the features on their new operating system by visiting their official project site here : Google Chrome Laptop Features

If you want to learn more about he new Google laptop just keep checking back here, we will be posting more information as we get it and will be posting plenty of screenshots if we get one for testing.

There is no more waiting for an initiation, now you can simply go signup at the site : http://voice.google.com You can choose to get a new phone number to tie to your account or you can use an existing mobile number for your service. Both have their advantages, so choose wisely!

So many are already aware of the new and very cool “free” service Google has started called Google Voice.   This was a great idea and many people are using this service to it’s fullest by taking advantage of the totally free phone number they give you, the customized answering service that can be used from the internet or email, call filtering to only redirect calls you want and much more.  All in all the Google Voice service is simply amazing and a great value even if they were charging for it. The ability to take your voice messages in your email after they have been magically translated into text for you should be a service on it’s own, but it is just one part of this great package Google is offering for free.

I was doing some research on free calling from the internet and was surprised to find how many services still offer totally free calling from your PC.  However, in my journey I ran across this post on 100% free voip phone service using Google Voice and Gizmo which really got me exited about using the free “Skype” like app called Gizmo and the free phone number from Google paired together to make a totally free functional intnernet phone.  However, once I tried to access the Gizmo website, I realized it was down.  So back to the search engine and I soon found this link on Google’s own website http://www.google.com/gizmo5/

So it looks like Google has already acquired this company and is planning on integrating it with their Google voice service. Once this takes place it will cost to make outgoing calls, pretty much like the service that Skype is offering. With heavy competition from companies like Vonage and my personal favorite Magic Jack, it will be interesting to see how Google fits into the new age of VOIP and how long before the telephone companies that we now know are gone altogether. You can read more about this on the Google Voice Blog here.

It looks to be a very fast loading setup that offers a image only page display until you have hovered over an image.  Once you click on an image, you are taken to the website where the image originated, much like before, but now the image is shown big and ready to view in a clean looking ajax shadow box effect over the website instead of being at the top of the page and small.  This really makes it easy for webmasters who are searching for graphics that have been “labeled for reuse” because it cuts one step out of the image download process, cool.

They will surely be tweaking this and making some other small changes. We all know that once they start changing something, they just can’t stop right?  Well, it is looking good so far if you ask me and I can’t wait to see what they are going to do next.  Just wanted to take a quick second to let everybody know that the world’s best image search, just got better.

Due to the many recent changes at Facebook.com there are a whole group of disgruntled users that have become organized and now are working on a new options for Facebookers.  The new “Un-Secure” features that Facebook has brought on board have made many of their would be loyal followers, pretty angry. This has lead to another shortcoming of this social networking giant.  Many users have found that it is a lot harder to delete your profile and what information that is made public on this social network than it should be.

Diaspora?  Never heard of it, well your not the only one, here is how this group defines their own existance:

diaspora - d?-?as-p(?-)r?, de-
origin: Greek, – “a scattering [of seeds]”
1. the privacy aware, personally controlled, do-it-all distributed open source social network.

Well the group that has now been organized and is working on new options has named their project Diaspora.  This new social networking architecture should offer some new options for any web developer and for anybody who wants to go social but have control.  The project is still in it’s infancy stages, but we think this may become a big hit because the concept of using industry standard api’s like Oauth and other portable application languages will make this new social engine very simple to integrate into any existing site and then share!

Check out the Diaspora Project Here

http://www.joindiaspora.com/project.html

Join this project now and help be part of the research and development of this amazing open source social networking project.  This can be very interesting if you are one of these who have been outraged at the recent facebook changes or if you simply like to be part of the decision making process.  Have fun!

The closest thing that these guys have to a true working social network is Youtube and it is a very large social gathering site, but their are many social networking features that this is simply not cut out for.  Orkut was Google’s last failed attempt at creating a social site worth visiting. However, this one never seemed to catch on and was rather archaic if you ask me. Google Buzz only seemed to over complicate what Twitter is already doing and their “Friend Connect” has yet to show any true usability.

So when Google finds their next model employee, be ready to see this company bring something new and something very impressive to the web.  It will be hard to tell if their new social networking engine will be a new stand alone product or if it will be a  product that integrates into existing Google services.  They do have the largest email user base in the world, so it makes a lot of since to simply add features to this system like they did with Buzz.

More about Google’s Hunt For a Social Networking Guru @ PC World

Please leave your ideas for Google’s new social networking concept below.  We love to hear what you have to say and are interested to see what you think Google’s next move should be.

The youtube network is the 3rd most popular website on the planet, only trumped by FaceBook and Google itself.  So this tells you one thing, internet users love video, love rich media and love funny videos.  Now that Youtube is allowing videos in HD to be upgraded plan on seeing a lot more indipentant film makers taking advantage of this platform to distribute their work and compete with the big boys.  You can also watch a selection of full featured films on Youtube now, so we may see them taking on a Netflix type monetization program very soon.

There is a whole section on Youtube that focuses on all they have achieved and their 5th year of operation, you can check it out here : 5 Years Of Youtube

The video empire online continues to grow and there is plenty of competition out there for Youtube, but it’s going to be hard for anybody to take the lead in this race.  Youtube has been upgrading and constantly trying to stay ahead of the curve in video sharing technology.  They have grown a massive community also.  Very few think of this site as a social network, but it really is the second largest social network on the planet.  Google has make a lot of great choices in their existence and choosing to take over and run this streaming video site has to be one of their best.  So go on, jump over and start enjoying the festivities with Youtube on their 5 year party!

xus_one_and_google_changing_strategy-300×245.jpg” alt=”nexus_one_and_google_changing_strategy” width=”300″ height=”245″ />Apparently Google has finally folded. They cannot pick up any steam when it comes to the online sales of their “supposed to be” flagship model, the Nexus One. This phone was Googles first stab at a cell phone and they initially thought that keeping it exclusive would help. It turns out no matter how many of their own ad words spaces they buy, it is simply not selling like it was anticipated online. The marketing pro’s have decided that it is now time to change the Nexus One and Google strategy and see if hey cannot really turn this huge mobile device investment around.

They are not totally giving up, they have just rethought their marketing strategy. They are going to pick out a few retailers and see if it does better online. This is an interesting change, but there will be no telling if this will spike sales for the Nexus One or maybe the heyday for this phone has come and passed already. There are many other android enabled cell phones on the market now and it will be hard to compete with these other phones that have already penetrated the market.

Google’s Own Words On This Situation

Here is what Google had to say on their official Nexus One blog:

When we launched Nexus One in January, we announced partnerships with Vodafone in Europe and Verizon Wireless in the US. We have news on both fronts.

In the US, if you’ve been waiting for the Nexus One for Verizon Wireless’ network, head over to http://phones.verizonwireless.com/htc/incredible to pre-order the Droid Incredible by HTC, a powerful new Android phone and a cousin of the Nexus One that is similarly feature-packed. It will be available in stores on April 29th.

Can They Still Breath Life Back Into The Nexus One?

We have never seen a company try to bring a product back from the dead like this, especially one that is not new any more. this may e a hail merry for Google. There has been no official mention of what cell phone companies will be to offer the Nexus One at or if there will be any exclusive offers for specific carriers. The cell phone competition has been heating up, so we expect to see these at a familiar $99 or $149 with a contract upgrade. The phone is currently being offered on T-mobile, Sprint and Verizon networks with a contract for $179 and $529 with no contract or if you want to take your nexus one to AT&T. They are going to have to give consumers some more incentive if they really want to boost sales. However, since their app store has been dwindling too, it seems that they may not have been ready to be big contenders in the mobile world at all.

The iPhone 4G will be released in another month or so and this would be the perfect opportunity for Google to give Apple some much needed competition on release date.Rich Text AreaToolbarBold (Ctrl + B)Italic (Ctrl + I)Strikethrough (Alt + Shift + D)Unordered list (Alt + Shift + U)Ordered list (Alt + Shift + O)Blockquote (Alt + Shift + Q)Align Left (Alt + Shift + L)Align Center (Alt + Shift + C)Align Right (Alt + Shift + R)Insert/edit link (Alt + Shift + A)Unlink (Alt + Shift + S)Insert More Tag (Alt + Shift + T)Proofread WritingToggle fullscreen mode (Alt + Shift + G)Show/Hide Kitchen Sink (Alt + Shift + Z)
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Apparently Google has finally folded. They cannot pick up any steam when it comes to the online sales of their “supposed to be” flagship model, the Nexus One. This phone was Googles first stab at a cell phone and they initially thought that keeping it exclusive would help. It turns out no matter how many of their own ad words spaces they buy, it is simply not selling like it was anticipated online. The marketing pro’s have decided that it is now time to change the Nexus One and Google strategy and see if hey cannot really turn this huge mobile device investment around.
They are not totally giving up, they have just rethought their marketing strategy. They are going to pick out a few retailers and see if it does better online. This is an interesting change, but there will be no telling if this will spike sales for the Nexus One or maybe the heyday for this phone has come and passed already. There are many other android enabled cell phones on the market now and it will be hard to compete with these other phones that have already penetrated the market.
Google’s Own Words On This Situation
Here is what Google had to say on their official Nexus One blog:
When we launched Nexus One in January,

cheap viagra

we announced partnerships with Vodafone in Europe and Verizon Wireless in the US. We have news on both fronts.
In the US, if you’ve been waiting for the Nexus One for Verizon Wireless’ network, head over to http://phones.verizonwireless.com/htc/incredible to pre-order the Droid Incredible by HTC, a powerful new Android phone and a cousin of the Nexus One that is similarly feature-packed. It will be available in stores on April 29th.
Can They Still Breath Life Back Into The Nexus One?
We have never seen a company try to bring a product back from the dead like this, especially one that is not new any more. this may e a hail merry for Google. There has been no official mention of what cell phone companies will be to offer the Nexus One at or if there will be any exclusive offers for specific carriers. The cell phone competition has been heating up, so we expect to see these at a familiar $99 or $149 with a contract upgrade. The phone is currently being offered on T-mobile, Sprint and Verizon networks with a contract for $179 and $529 with no contract or if you want to take your nexus one to AT&T. They are going to have to give consumers some more incentive if they really want to boost sales. However, since their app store has been dwindling too, it seems that they may not have been ready to be big contenders in the mobile world at all.
The iPhone 4G will be released in another month or so and this would be the perfect opportunity for Google to give Apple some much needed competition on release date.
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