Just yesterday I was commending Google for something as seemingly trivial as changing the way we check our voicemail. Today there is something far more significant coming from the company. As if we needed another reason not to spend a fortune on TomTom’s iPhone app and kit, Google has announced their new navigation software called Google Maps Navigation.
Imagine having traditional turn-by-turn navigation GPS functionality combined with Google Maps. That is essentially what you will be getting with Google Maps Navigation. This means not only will you have things like voice guidance and automatic rerouting, but a host of other awesome features. Hit the jump for seven that Google seemed most proud of.
Google is one of those companies that seems to always be working on something awesome. I’m a huge fan of Google Voice, as it really simplifies my life. Well if you’re one of the lucky people that have gotten into the beta, they have added yet a new feature. You can now have Google handle the voicemails from your personal cell phone number.
Despite the fact that I have a Google Voice number, people still call my actual cell phone number. This means that I have two different places to check my voicemail. Now Google can actually take control of your voicemail, and adding all of the same great features that you get on your Google Voice account. Things like custom greetings based on who’s calling and transcribed voicemails make it worth while. Now if I could just get a real Google Voice app on the iPhone (I’m looking at you Apple) it would be perfect.
I use Gmail for all of my email conversations. Sure, I have a couple of other email addresses, but I just pipe them to a single one over at Google. I can still respond through Gmail and have it show as being sent from my other addresses, which makes it really convenient. With all of my email going through the one Gmail address, I’ve been waiting for an official Push solution. Sure, there are other 3rd party apps that can get the job done, but not until today have we had something straight from the source.
If you’re an iPhone or iPod Touch owner (running 3.0 software or better) you can now get your Gmail (plus contacts and calendar) pushed to your device. This means no more setting your phone to check for email every so often. The only real catch is that it uses Microsoft Exchange to get this done. Since your iPhone can have only a single Exchange account, you may be out of luck if you’re already using it.
For those wondering, I got this setup last night, and while it was a little slow at first, it’s working like a charm this morning. Emails are showing up only a few seconds after I see them on my desktop.
Here’s a short and sweet little tidbit from the land of Google. It seems that the search giant is now going to begin indexing documents shared within Google Docs.
Now before you freak out, this doesn’t mean that everyone’s private documents will be searchable. Rather, only those documents which you have expressly made public by using the “publish as web page” option will be indexed. Just one more reason why Google is awesome.
Google Voice is probably the coolest service you can get for your phone. Of course the hard part is still getting an invitation. Well for those of you already in, here’s another new feature that you might be excited about. You now have the option to forward text messages to an email address.
This feature is similar to what they already offer for voicemails. Only they (obviously) don’t have to mess with transcribing the message. You’ll also be able to respond to such text messages from your email. Since you can also choose to not have your SMS messages sent to your phone, you could avoid text messaging fees by simply using this new feature. Granted, that would be an annoying way to do things, but it is possible. Google Voice just keeps getting more awesome with each passing month. Now where are those invites that everyone is waiting for?
You’ve probably heard me mention Google Voice once or twice, mostly because I love the service. Almost every phone call and text message I receive these days is to my Google Voice number. With a handy app for my iPhone, I even call out using it. Unfortunately the only downside to the service is that it’s a rather exclusive club.
Earlier this week we reported that Google had purchased 1 million new numbers for the service. Well yesterday the precious invites that everyone has been waiting for went out. Some of them at least. I know a few people that signed up some time ago for an invite that didn’t receive an invite. Hopefully at some point they will allow current users to invite a few friends, similar to how the Gmail beta got going. One cool thing about the number picker is that you can actually type in words, letters or numbers that you want included in your Google Voice number. I wish they had that when I signed up.
I’m a huge fan of Google Voice, which was previously known as GrandCentral. I was an early adopter to the service, so I’m one of the lucky few that actually managed to snag a number. If you’re not familiar, Google Voice gives you a number that conveniently forwards to any phones you would like. It includes features like sending/receiving text messages, transcribing voicemails and more. The only downside to the service is that they haven’t given out new numbers in a very long time.
While Google hasn’t yet announced their plans to start handing out, we do have news that the search giant has secured 1 million new numbers from Level 3 (which is whom they’ve previously purchased numbers from). There’s little doubt that Google will soon start sending out invitations. It’s (currently) a free service, so if you’re interested, I’d head over to their site and get registered.
The first Android smartphone to hit the market was the T-Mobile G1. The device was met with enthusiasm by many fans of open source phones, but there were some teething problems with the new OS. It took Google and T-Mobile a bit to get things sorted and other smartphone makers and mobile carriers watched to see how the G1 did before jumping into the Android waters.
Now that the kinks are mostly sorted out of the Android OS, more and more new smartphones are being announced that would run the operating system. Strategy Analytics says that in 2009 Android will be the fastest growing smartphone OS with a predicted growth rate of 900% for the year.
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