If you’re not a geek like me, you may have missed Google’s announcement of their new email management tool, Inbox. As soon as I heard about it I signed up for an invite, and eagerly awaited my chance to try it. A way to manage my email that works like Google Now? Sign me up! A few days later, I got the email telling me it was my turn. Hooray! I downloaded the app, chose the account I wanted to use when it opened, and got slapped in the face with this message:
I’ve been a Google Voice user since June 2009, when it was still invite-only and had the promise of doing to phones what Gmail did to email. When I finally got access I was excited, and even though I didn’t have a smartphone (which meant using Voice was cumbersome) I was happy with its performance. It was one of the driving factors behind my getting an Android phone, and at first things were awesome.
I’m a relatively recent convert to reading books. I wasn’t much of a reader growing up, and it wasn’t until I got my first eBook reader that I found a love for books. For me, reading on a screen is much easier than reading on a printed page. Then there are the added benefits of automatic bookmarking/syncing, lack of physical objects to store, instant delivery, and highlighting and notes that, for those of us with atrocious handwriting, are actually legible.
My Chromecast arrived yesterday! I was lucky enough to order it via Amazon Prime before they sold out, so I didn’t end up with a weeks-long wait. For those unfamiliar, Chromecast is a new device for televisions to stream content directly from the cloud, controlled by your phone, tablet or computer. It’s about the size of a USB thumb drive and plugs right into an HDMI port, allowing you to stream just about any content on the Internet, straight from the source.
There are no journalists
Jeff Jarvis argues that defining the term “journalist” creates boundaries that run counter to the purpose of journalism.
The NSA vs. Democracy
Intelligence services are by nature in conflict with the principles of democracy - transparency and accountability for and by the people. Ezra Klein makes a case similar to the one I made a few weeks ago, but with more charts and figures.
Google+ Turns Two: Why I’m Becoming a Convert
Google is celebrating graphic designer Saul Bass’ 93rd birthday today with a really neat Doodle - this time a video, as a tribute to his work in films. One of the things I love about Google Doodles is that, because they like to pick less well-known subjects, I often get introduced to new people and subjects with which I wasn’t familiar. Saul Bass is no exception. I recognize his work for sure, but I didn’t know him by name.
It’s official: Google Reader is dying. Citing declining usage, Google announced this afternoon that their RSS aggregator tool will be shut down on July 1st. It’s had a good run since its launch in 2005, but it’s time to shutter the proverbial doors.
Google also says Reader has a loyal following, which makes sense: it’s the best web-based RSS reader available, and everyone I know who uses RSS to keep up-to-date uses it.
This is a first for me on this blog: a post about a phone. I’ve written posts about specific devices (even ones that don’t yet exist) before, but I haven’t gone down the smartphone rabbit trail. I’m breaking that pattern.
On Monday Google announced their latest additions to the Nexus line. I already have a Nexus 7, so their update to that product wasn’t very interesting to me. Nor was the Nexus 10, despite its impressive specs, since I’m just not looking for a tablet that big (part of the reason I’ve not bothered with an iPad).
Google has just released the first video showing off what their long-rumored wearable augmented reality tech might look like. Simply put, it looks amazing. The idea that news, weather, communications, geographic-specific overlays, etc. can all appear seamlessly in front of your eyes as you go about your business is just about the ultimate in personal computing.
I will admit, it also seems super nerdy. However, so did the portable computer, the pager, the PDA, the cell phone, and numerous other technologies when they first came along.
Google announced today that they’re making changes to their privacy policy to make it simpler, and unify all the disparate policies for their various products under one canonical document. One of the things that surfaced out of the trimming down of language was that users are unable to opt out of Google using certain data in your profile to customize its other services to your interests. While it may sound like a Big Brother shift in Google’s mindset, the reality is far more mundane.
