Tag: Google

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New Chrome Extension adds voice search, just say “Ok Google”

google voice search chrome extensionUnifying controls is the name of the game!

Now across all of Google’s products you can initiate a voice search with the phrase “OK Google”. Installing a Chrome plugin will enable this new feature.

Take heart you security conscious folks, the feature is held primarily to whenever a Google search tab is open, but even on a Google search tab, it’ll stop listening after five minutes. I personally think persistent observation is creepy, so I’m happy to see there are user activated controls to keep it in check.

google voice search listening chrome extension

Download the extension for your Chrome browser, and maybe it’ll come in handy while your hands are messy this Thanksgiving! I always seem to need to search for something when my hands are covered in gunk…

Google Voice Seach Hotword BETA

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Acer refreshes $299 C720p Chromebook, adds Touchscreen, doesn’t raise price!

Acer C720P_touch_handThe mobile computing landscape is getting ridiculously competitive. Chromebooks, Netbooks, Tablets, proper latptops, and hybrids. The bang for buck ratio is disrupting-ly low. An incredible number of options for a variety of usage scenarios.

Acer is sweetening their Chromebook offering. The c720p is a refresh of their C720. The hardware is almost exactly the same, even down to the somewhat mediocre TFT LCD panel used on the screen. What’s nice however is they’re adding a touch panel to that screen. What’s even nicer is that touch panel isn’t going to increase the price. The C720p will retail for the same $299 that the original did.

Not too shabby.

ChromeOS doesn’t particularly need touch, but playing with it on my Windows 8 laptop, I think we’re just entering an era where adding touchscreens will be the norm. We’re all sort of learning to just interact directly with things on our screen. When I’m really tired, I have to remember that my desktop does not have a touchscreen… You’ll still see finger prints on my monitors though…

Sporting an 11.6″ screen, an Intel Celeron processor, 2GB of RAM, and 32GB of flash storage it looks like it could be a decent seller this holiday season. Expect to see lappys shipping mid December.

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Google confirms camera RAW support is coming to Android. So what’s that mean?

htc one mini camera test video samples somegadgetguyBlah blah blah abstraction layer… Herp derp blerp API’s…

Long story short, Google is trying to improve the software / hardware relationship our smartphone cameras rely on. This should expand the tool set developers have at their disposal when making photo and video services. Google specifically is discussing better multi-shot tech which should improve sport and burst modes and deliver more flexible HDR settings. An HDR photo depends on a series of pics taken quickly at different exposures. Other smart modes could be improved too, like the ability to take a series of shots to remove distracting elements from your photos.

All well and good from a consumer app-y position, but the idea of delivering RAW files could be really interesting for people who really want to control their photo output, even from their phones.

Continue reading “Google confirms camera RAW support is coming to Android. So what’s that mean?”

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One Today brings charitable crowd-funding to your smartphone – 1 new cause every day.

WP_20131122_19_11_06_ProWhat could you do with $1? Probably not a lot right.

Well what could 100 people do if they each chipped in a dollar? A thousand people? A million?

It’s the spirit of giving, and it’s important that we check in from time to time. Our tech can be used for trivial things and terrific things.

When it comes to crowd-funding, million dollar projects take up most of the mind share, but we haven’t completely exhausted the idea of bringing a crowd of people to contribute money to an idea. One Today is one possible solution for finding and funding.  A new project is highlighted every day, and users can decide whether they wish to contribute a dollar.

Projects run the gamut of social causes, from protecting coral reef, to fighting malaria, or contributing to the World Food Program. A new cause every day is served up right to your phone.

The idea of small, painless transactions makes a lot of sense. Even a relatively small group can quickly build a significant amount of capital. To that end, just as you might easily share a picture on social networking, One Today provides participants with easy tools to help spread the word on causes they care about.

Google One Today

One Today on Google Play

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Google Wallet Card now Available for Everyone

google wallet cardGoogle has found itself in a sticky situation when it comes to Wallet. While trying to move forward with Tap+Pay NFC functionality, it ran into security road blocks with the major cell phone carriers who were developing their competing ISIS payment system.

Recently, Google has evolved what Wallet is. Starting with a more PayPal-like money sending service tied to GMail, including membership and rewards cards, and now moving Wallet out of its digital app situation and into your real-world um… wallet.

Now you can grab a Wallet card, which ties to your online Wallet account. If you have funds in Wallet online, you can use your card anywhere Mastercard is accepted to pay for goods and services. You can also use it to make cash withdrawals at ATM’s. As other online payment systems have started making inroads into the general shopping experience, none of them have been able to rival old fashioned plastic, so this Mastercard compatibility is pretty key.

It’s a handy end-run around the Tap+Pay fiasco, though I do hope we can see some of the NFC functionality return to non-Nexus handsets outside of Sprint (currently the only carrier supporting NFC Wallet). The timing on this is also critical as we’re about to see Amazon’s payment system go wider with a new set of developer API’s allowing smaller merchants to use Amazon’s one-click payment system on other sites.

(via Google Wallet)

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T-Mobile selling 16GB Nexus 5 for $449. Should you buy it?

Nexus 5Google’s newest pure Android phone is officially a part of the T-Mo roster.

Lil’ Magenta is listing the new Nexus 5 for $449 if you want to buy it outright through the carrier. If you’re buying the phone upfront though, it might make more sense to buy it direct from Google Play where the handset will cost $100 less.

Why you MIGHT want to buy it through T-Mo is if you’re looking to subsidize and pay for it over time. A  down payment of $41.99 is required, but then your monthly payments are only $17 over two years. I’s certainly an option, but if you can afford to buy it outright, that’s the better deal.

Full PR after the jump.

Continue reading “T-Mobile selling 16GB Nexus 5 for $449. Should you buy it?”

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New YouTube options for channel owners, merging comments with Google Plus.

YouTubeIt looks like YouTube will be rolling out some new useful features for its channel owners in hopes to curb the trolls when comments are made on a channel.  There is nothing like going to see what new content your favorite YouTube channel has posted and seeing rude or degrading comments that may discourage the channel owner and friends of that YouTube channel. After all it is the internet and trolling is inevitable. Could this be the end of the Wild West like trolling? Possibly.

YouTube will be giving channel owners more options to moderate and block comments while a new sorting system will move the most relevant discussions to the top making for a better engagement with your subscribers. The new options can be customized for each YouTube viewer. Each YouTube user will be able to start a new conversation which will only be seen by their friends on Google+,their subscribers and an option to follow a particular thread by Gmail.

With these new options in place you will have the ability to block certain words to help keep a family friendly environment on your YouTube channel with another option of auto approving comments from your favorite subscribers and friends on Google+. I believe these new options will make for a better YouTube experience.

Official YouTube Blog

Some Gadget Guy YouTube Channel Continue reading “New YouTube options for channel owners, merging comments with Google Plus.”

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Ask Juan: Why is Google Text-to-Speech a separate app now?

Screenshot_2013-11-07-10-38-28Starting today you’ll start seeing an app to update you’ve probably never seen before: Google Text-to-Speech.

This is Google’s software engine which drives all of the speech capabilities on your phone. Every time your phone talks to you, it’s using some kind of software library to translate text into that helpful robotic voice which gives you turn by turn directions in Google Maps or answers your questions in Google Now.

This is a service which until now was built into Android and only updated whenever an update for the OS was pushed to phones and tablets. Like the  Google Keyboard, now this service lives on its own in the Google Play app store.

Google has had issues with device and feature fragmentation, and other companies often install their own TTS engines, which is why Samsung and LG phones have a slightly different “personality” than their Nexus counterparts.

Let’s take a look at the what the service does, and what it sounds like!

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