By Chris Scott Barr

Traveling during the holiday season isn’t always the most fun. With crowded airports and the risk of getting snowed in, many people will do their best to steer clear of flying when possible. Of course, if your loved ones are on the other side of the country, you don’t have much of a choice. Thankfully if you do get stuck in an airport this season, one company is making sure that at the very least, you’ll have internet access.

Google has announced that they are making free Wi-Fi available in 47 airports across the US. You can click here for the full list of covered locations. Google isn’t rolling out some sort of new wireless service, but instead paying the service providers to allow everyone free access. They are also matching donations made while at the airports (using Google Checkout) up to $250k. The contributions will go to your choice of charitable organizations. Also if you’re in one of these locations after November 16, you can submit a photo of yourself for a chance to win a number of different (and unnamed) prizes.

[ FreeHolidayWiFi ] VIA [ CrunchGear ]

By Chris Scott Barr

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.

The most recent map and business data
When you use Google Maps Navigation, your phone automatically gets the most up-to-date maps and business listings from Google Maps — you never need to buy map upgrades or update your device. And this data is continuously improving, thanks to users who report maps issues and businesses who activate their listings with Google Local Business Center.

Search in plain English
Google Maps Navigation brings the speed, power and simplicity of Google search to your car. If you don’t know the address you’re looking for, don’t worry. Simply enter the name of a business, a landmark or just about anything into the search box, and Google will find it for you. Then press “Navigate”, and you’re on your way.

Search by voice
Typing on a phone can be difficult, especially in the car, so with Google Maps Navigation, you can say your destination instead. Hold down the search button to activate voice search, then tell your phone what you want to do (like “Navigate to Pike Place in Seattle”), and navigation will start automatically.

Traffic view
Google Maps Navigation gets live traffic data over the Internet. A traffic indicator light in the corner of the screen glows green, yellow or red, depending on the current traffic conditions along your route. If there’s a jam ahead of you, you’ll know. To get more details, tap the light to zoom out to an aerial view showing traffic speeds and incidents ahead. And if the traffic doesn’t look good, you can choose an alternate route.

Search along route
For those times when you’re already on the road and need to find a business, Google Maps Navigation searches along your route to give you results that won’t take you far from your path. You can search for a specific business by name or by type, or you can turn on popular layers, such as gas stations, restaurants or parking.

Satellite view
Google Maps Navigation uses the same satellite imagery as Google Maps on the desktop to help you get to your destination. Turn on the satellite layer for a high-resolution, 3D view of your upcoming route. Besides looking cool, satellite view can help you make sense of complicated maneuvers.

Street View
If you want to know what your next turn looks like, double-tap the map to zoom into Street View, which shows the turn as you’ll see it, with your route overlaid. And since locating an address can sometimes be tricky, we’ll show you a picture of your destination as you approach the end of your route, so you’ll know exactly what to look for.

When it comes to Google, you rarely need to ask what the cost is. Like with so many of their other offerings, this one is also free. Unfortunately also like so many things Google produces, it is currently in beta. It will first appear on Android 2.0 phones, followed later by the iPhone and possibly other hardware. Something tells me that today isn’t a good day to be working at TomTom (or any other GPS maker).

[ Google ] VIA [ Crave ]

By Chris Scott Barr

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.

[ Google Voice ]

By David Ponce

Go to Google.

Type “I like”.

Enjoy.

VIA [ Geekologie ]

P.S. Who doesn’t do this?

By Chris Scott Barr

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.

[ Google ] VIA [ Dvice ]

By Chris Scott Barr

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 ] VIA [ Ubergizmo ]

By Chris Scott Barr

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?

[ GoogleVoice ] VIA [ TechCrunch ]

By Chris Scott Barr

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.

VIA [ Google Blog ]

By Chris Scott Barr

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.

[ Google Voice ] VIA [ i4u ]

By Shane McGlaun

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.

The second fastest growing OS for 2009 is predicted to be the iPhone OS with 79% growth over the year. Google is expecting big things from Android this year and the OS is set to hit the netbook market as well. Dell is working on Android netbooks and HP is considering the OS for its netbook line as well. The research firm says Android is in position to become a top smartphone OS over the next 2 or 3 years.

[ Strategy Analytics ]