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Eight Clever Ways to Take Advantage of Free Calling in Gmail

Kanaka Byraju — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 02:52:54 +0000

As you all know that Google made it possible to make calls using Google voice from Gmail. Other than making it possible, they made it free calling to USA and Canada. If you think about it, this feature is definitely helpful and imagine your family calling from India for FREE! Here is the post from Lifehacker explaining different ways to take advantage of this free calling feature in Gmail. Enjoy and leave a comment.

Get Caller ID from Your Computer

Let’s say you’ve got a landline set up with Google Voice and you don’t want to pay for caller ID. Or you just spend a lot of time staring at your computer. If you’re logged into Gmail, and someone rings up your Google Voice number, you can see who’s calling on your computer without digging your phone out of your pocket.

Transfer Calls to (and from) Your Computer to Save Cellphone Minutes

Assuming you’ve already added your Gmail Chat account as a number that can be reached through Google Voice (which also assumes you’ve signed up for Google Voice), you can transfer calls from your phone to your computer to save cellphone minutes. Here’s how it works:

1) If you’re logged into your Google account, go to theGoogle Voice phone settings page. At the bottom, you should see a new option for Google Chat (like in the image). Make sure it’s checked.

2) Now, when you’re in the midst of a call on your cellphone—let’s say you were talking to someone in the car, and now you’re home—just hit the * (asterisk) on your phone’s number pad to send the call to another Google Voice phone. If your Gmail account is open, your inbox should start ringing. Pick up in Gmail and hangup your cellphone.

The opposite works, as well—i.e., transferring calls out from Gmail to your cellphone. Oh, and remember: If you’ve got a decent Bluetooth headset, you should also be able to stay relatively mobile, even if you’re talking from your computer.

Find Your Misplaced Phone

Misplace your cellphone under a pile of clothes or deep in your couch cushions? If you left your ringer on but don’t have another phone on hand, just log into Gmail, dial your cellphone number, and follow the faint sound of ringing.

Use It for a Quick-and-Dirty Speakerphone for Group Calls

Google Voice is already pretty good at setting up conference calls (demonstrated in the video above). Now that you can call from your computer, you’ve also got a quick-and-dirty speakerphone perfect for the group of people sitting around a table on your coast.

Make a Quick Followup Call in Response to an Email

This is less of an “amazing new thing” than a nice, practical side effect of having one more thing integrated with your inbox. Say you get an email from a colleague. You want to send a quick followup, but it’s going to be a lot more appropriate talking than typing a reply. Dial the person up in Gmail and talk it out without disrupting your workflow.

Secretly Record Calls

Google Voice has handy recording function, but whenever you enable it (hit 4 to start and finish recording), Google Voice announces “This call is now being recorded.” Prefer to record a conversation surreptitiously? Calling from Gmail puts the audio on your computer, where you can use any number of tools to record your system audio on-the-sly. (For example, despite what I thought at the time, Whitson later told me he wasn’t aware I was recording the call in the video above.) File this under the know-your-state-laws category.

Prank Time

Speaking of neat things you can do now that your computer hardware is accessible for both inputs and outputs, consider this: If you set your onboard system audio as your default input device rather than a microphone, you can, say, play the caller a little song. That’s maybe a little boring. On the other hand, it’s even easier to navigate to your favorite prank call soundboard and have a little fun.

Make Free Calls Anywhere You’ve Got Free Wi-Fi

Your mileage may vary on this one, but anywhere you’ve got your laptop and free Wi-Fi—like, say, any Starbucks in the U.S.—you can fire up a free phone call to anyone in the U.S. or Canada and chat away. There’s a good chance that many free Wi-Fi hotspots don’t provide you with enough bandwidth to make high enough quality calls, but if you’re desperate to save on minutes (or just don’t have a phone handy), it’s worth a try.

Unmanned Aircraft looses control in D.C Area.

Bhanu Prakash — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 01:29:59 +0000

The next generation air warfare systems are all about unmanned Aircrafts. America is far ahead of all the countries in this new warfare (no surprise). FYI, Indian DRDO is making the below unmanned air-crafts.
DRDO Nishant
DRDO Rustom
Lakshya PTA

One reason why America is ahead of the other countries is “Testing”. While all the countries are only fiddling these on fake targets, America is testing these drones in Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan i.e. on real life war scenarios. Just give perspective, Pakistan alone provided a nice test bed for Americans since 2004 .

And guess what will happen if America tests an unmanned vehicle inside the country. ITS A MESS. A SCARY MESS.
US Navy said they lost control of an unmanned 30 foot helicopter looking aerial vehicle. The drone entered into the restricted air space, and was within 40 miles the capital. Imagine the situation in the control room

[To quote Gizmodo]

“The Times says that “the Navy did not describe the scene inside the ground control station as operators sought to re-establish communication with the drone,” but I’ll bet they were all like “oh shit oh shit oh shit.”"

Read the article from via NYT and don’t forget to comment.

WASHINGTON — The skies over the nation’s capital are crowded with presidential aircraft, military flyovers and the Delta shuttle, but this month a strange new bird was briefly among them: a United States Navy drone that wandered into the restricted airspace around Washington before operators could stop it.

Navy spokesmen could not say Wednesday if anyone on the ground was alarmed by the drone — officially an MQ-8B Fire Scout Vertical Takeoff and Landing unmanned aerial vehicle — which looks like a small windowless helicopter and was flying at 2,000 feet. The Navy did say that the drone got within 40 miles of Washington before operators were able to re-establish communication and guide it back to its base in southern Maryland.

Still, the Aug. 2 incident resulted in the grounding of all six of the Navy’s Fire Scouts as well as an inquiry into what went wrong. The Navy is calling the problem a “software issue” that foiled the drone’s operators.

Or, as Cmdr. Danny Hernandez, a Navy spokesman, put it: “When they lose contact with the Fire Scout, there’s a program that’s supposed to have it immediately return to the airfield to land safely. That did not happen as planned.”

Navy spokesmen said the Fire Scout, made by Northrop Grumman, was a little more than an hour into a test flight operating out of Naval Air Station Patuxent River on the Chesapeake Bay when operators lost its control link. The drone then flew 23 miles on a north-by-northwest course to enter Washington’s restricted airspace. A half-hour later, Navy spokesmen said, operators re-established control and the drone landed safely back at Patuxent.

The Navy did not describe the scene inside the ground control station as operators sought to re-establish communication with the drone.

The Fire Scout, about 31 feet long and 10 feet high, is a surveillance aircraft that can take off from Navy warships. In April, a Fire Scout was part of a drug arrest in the waters off Central America. According to the Navy, the Fire Scout relayed video of a suspicious fishing vessel to the Coast Guard and law enforcement officials, who moved in and seized 60 kilos of cocaine.

Colbert Educates Us at His Own For-Profit Colleges

Mohan — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 22:14:29 +0000

There is nothing better than comedy, a well delivered comedy to drive a strong point across. It applies to one of my pet topics: Focus on the fraud perpetrated by the for-profit colleges in US. In last night’s episode of Colbert Report, Stephen reinforces my arguments against the outfits who soak students with excessive debt for worthless pieces of paper as ‘degree.’ Stephen makes a connection that I could not make earlier – a connection between Goldman Sachs and the for-profit education

If you are in the market for a degree from College Inc., this is a must watch video.

The Colbert Report

Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Stephen Colbert University – Andrew Hacker

www.colbertnation.com

Colbert Report Full Episodes

2010 Election

Fox News

Rubber Band Economy

Mohan — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 01:34:59 +0000

What is a rubber-band economy? Imagine the rubber material to be hard cash (currency in circulation) – notes, coins etc outside the central banks and the vaults of depositary institutions.

Stretching it would mean that you have expanded credit. More stretch means more credit. More and more stretch – to the point that it breaks, that is the financial crisis in 2008! A run on the banks is nothing but the rush to cash, like rubber-band retreating to its material state. Then they grabbed the broken ends quickly, tied them with a knot. Will it work?

This is a good analogy. If you care to know what is happening in the US economy in relatively simpler language – listen to this conversation between me and Sumanth.

TG Tip: The Complete Guide to Saving Money on Textbooks

Kanaka Byraju — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 00:26:42 +0000

Textbooks are ridiculously expensive, and publishers love to pull tricks to force the purchase of new editions whenever possible. This school year, save loads of cash using these textbook-buying methods.

Photo by quirkyartist

In a nutshell, you’ve got four ways of obtaining textbooks; from most expensive to least expensive, you can: buy new, buy used, rent, or copy. Chances are you’ll need to combine a couple of methods based on availability and other issues you’ll encounter. Regardless of which method you’re employing, you’ve got plenty of ways to save money.

Buying New

Photo by GoCollege

The best strategy if you want to pay the most money when buying a new textbook: Go to your campus bookstore. Avoid this at all cost. There is rarely a situation where you can’t find a better deal through an online retailer like Amazon or even a local bookstore (although they may have to put in a special order). Whether you’re ordering online or in person, keep an eye out for coupons and deals to save a little extra.

If you do end up buying a brand new textbook and you want to make some of that money back, there are several places that will purchase your used textbooks. Your college bookstore is likely one option, but online textbook sellers like Amazon, Chegg, Barnes & Noble, BookByte, Cash4Books, and Alibris (which is Chegg-powered) are just some of your many options.

Buying Used

If you’re still set on owning your textbooks but don’t need a book that’s never been touched, buying used is a good way to save but comes with its own set of issues. With so many options online, you’ll want to pay attention to sites that have quality ratings or let you inquire about the quality of the textbook. While a mildly beat up book will serve you as well as a shiny new one, you want to be sure you don’t end up with a torn-up book spine or pages filled with cartoon penises. Also be sure to check the store’s return policy for those special occasions where you do, indeed, end up with a spineless, genital-ridden textbook and need a replacement. On the plus side, virtually every used textbook retailer is pretty careful about the used books they buy for resale, but once and awhile something will slip through the cracks. Additionally, in some cases you’ll find the best deals directly from another person and there won’t be an intermediary. It never hurts to double-check.

While a Google search will turn up a nearly endless supply of used textbook retailers, sorting through them all is a bit of a chore. Here is a semi-short list of your options:

Regardless of how you’re buying you’re going to want to find the cheapest price. Searching a bunch of sites individually can be a pain. CampusBooks and BigWords let you search several textbook stores at the same time for a real-time price comparison. BigWords also has an iPhone app for comparison shopping when you’re in, for example, your overpriced campus bookstore, though it’s missing a handy barcode scanning feature. CampusBooks has apps for both Android and iPhone with that feature. SnapTell (iPhone and Android), can also handle barcodes but will work from a photograph as well.

Renting

Textbook renting is becoming a more popular option these days, with Chegg sitting pretty as the (self-proclaimed) top textbook renting site at your disposal. Chegg lets you rent and return them, plus they’ll plant a tree for every rental. Chegg isn’t the only rental option you have, though. Valore, Textbook Rentals, BookRenter, Campus Book Rentals, andTextbooks.com are other possible options. Some colleges have even started renting textbooks directly. In some cases, they’ll even buy the book if they don’t have it available for rent. Check with your school to find out if that’s an option and plan ahead so they can order the book for you if necessary. If you’re going digital and want a rental option as well, check out CourseSmart. It’ll let you read online or via a copy-protected PDF. While they have iPhone and iPad apps available, support for other mobile platforms and eReaders is currently unavailable.

If you plan to sell your books once you’re finished with them anyway, you may as well rent. The important thing to remember is to avoid marking up the books or degrading their quality to much. If you do, you could end up paying a fee. Renting will save you money if you can take good care of the books, but since they’ll inevitably find a new home once you’ve finished you will need to keep them in the best shape possible.

Copying

Things get tricky when you want to copy. While you can potentially get a free textbook by photocopying or scanning the pages you need from your school library (or a friend), it takes a lot of work. If you have a day to get the job done (and you have free access to a photocopier or scanner), this may be a worthwhile option. Photo by DHagen

Photocopying is simple and sometimes serves as the best option. If you invest in a large three-ring binder, you can potentially store all your textbook pages in one place. You’ll want to contact your professors before classes begin to find out what chapters you’ll be covering so you can avoid copying more pages than you need (and wasting paper in the process). This can help you consolidate your reading material into a simple, smaller, and lighter solution. If you really want to be svelte and keep the weight out of your backpack, you can always leave textbook pages at home and swap them in as needed.

If you’d like to avoid the paper altogether and go digital, scanning textbooks is another option. This is an easy way to create PDF files that you can put on your laptop, ebook reader, or iPad, or sync with your Evernote account for free optical character recognition (OCR) of your textbook scans. For more information on digitizing books, check out our guide on digitizing your life and stay tuned for a guide to digitizing textbooks coming up later this week.

Getting the Right Book

Photo by r-land

If you’re not careful, you might end up spending good money on the wrong textbook. New editions generally reconfigure the chapters even if little new content has been added. While the book might still be usable it can be a pain to find what you’re looking for when the rest of the class has their book in a different order. Ensuring you order the correct volume(s) is also important, as each volume contains different chapters, and you can easily end up missing the material you need if you don’t check carefully. If you have the ability to contact your professors before classes begin, ask them for the book’s ISBN number to ensure you’ll find the right copy. If you can’t reach your professors, often the campus bookstore will have this information. If you’re really pressed, don’t feel you need to take the risk of buying the wrong book. Often you’ll find a copy of the book in the school library and can use that until you can get your hands on the right copy

[Via - Lifehacker]

Life, Liberty and the Pursuit

Mohan — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 02:51:06 +0000

Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. I want dignity before happiness – for, it precedes happiness. This disturbing news comes to you via Huffington Post:

More than a thousand people gathered Wednesday outside a metro-Atlanta shopping mall in hopes of being placed on a waiting list for federal housing assistance.

Fights broke out, children were reportedly trampled, and police had to stop the crowd from storming a nightclub being used by the East Point Housing Authority in East Point, Ga, reports the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Television station 11Alive reports that the line for Section 8 housing vouchers formed two days ago and grew into the hundreds Tuesday night. People even slept outside the cafe despite repeated assertions from the housing officials that the line was unnecessary and everyone would receive an application.

By Wednesday morning, the crowd had grown so large that East Point police began patrolling the area in riot gear and first responders were tending to people who were overheating in the sun.

This is America? Well, trickle-down economic at work!

—————————–

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The largest Multi-Touch trackpad ever

Kanaka Byraju — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 00:42:56 +0000

Along with hardware upgrades to their Mac Pro, iMac, and Cinema Display lines, Apple unveiled something entirely different for owners of their desktop computers: a fully functional, stand-alone “Magic Trackpad” that offers the same multi-finger control of the MacBook trackpad.

It’s likely the first move by a major manufacturer to push finger controls for screen manipulation on a desktop computer, and while most desktop users probably aren’t ready to ditch their mouse entirely, it will be interesting to see what develops, and if the idea of using a trackpad rather than a mouse takes hold.

Apple’s certainly designed their Magic Trackpad with side-by-side in mind, as the device lines up at the same angle as their Bluetooth keyboard. Read up on the Magic Trackpad at Apple’s store and at Gizmodo, and tell us whether your desktop experience could make room for a trackpad in the comments.

[Via - Lifehacker]

Obama Administration is “Incompetent”

Mohan — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 00:43:44 +0000

It really hurts me to say that I agree with Newt Gingrich, but I agree with him in calling Obama administration being “incompetent,” with respect to firing Shirley Sherrod.

It hurts me even more to agree with Fix News: “The fact is, Obama Administration forced Sherrod to quit.” True. Based on what? Based on some fringe elements taking her video-taped comments about a white farmer summer out of context. Mr. President, if you can’t even stand for your own people, what do you stand for? You are really afraid of that lunatic Glenn Beck, aren’t you? It shows, sir!

“If Obama Administration is this afraid of Glenn Beck, how do they deal with Iranians?” Well said Newt! Again, it hurts for me to say that you even got a point – which you rarely do!

I could not embed the video. Watch it here.

Old Lady’s Google Pac-Man Problem: Hilarious Tech Support Call

Kanaka Byraju — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 02:19:17 +0000

There’s just so much to love about this.

Concerned senior citizen calls tech support to have Google’s Pacman game disabled because it’s interfering with her studying. Techie tries to tell her it will go away the next day, and all she needs to do is close the offending tab. Old lady has no clue what he’s talking about. Techie hilariously spends 5 minutes explaining to her how to close the open Google tab.

But wait! It’s also really sweet. The techie is very nice throughout and the woman is so appreciative at the end.

Play Pac-Man here.

[Via - Huffingtonpost]

iPhone 4

Bhanu Prakash — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 21:32:03 +0000

Apple announced the iPhone 4 today. Many of you might have seen the pictures that were leaked to the gadget site gizmodo.com. The leaked pictures are indeed real.
The phone looks like chiseled by Swiss watch makers. Hardware is impressive. And Apple once again raised the bar. Seriously you could hurt someone with this all metal and glass device. I wish they sell it on Sprint. And whats up with that Antenna design ? My only complaint , screen size.

Here is the Tech summary for the geeks.
The processor A4 is the same one used by the iPad.
It has dual mic and dual camera.
The metal casing is actually an Antenna ( two Antennas in fact separated by a cut).
Apple combined the three chips into one (the ARM Cortex CPU + the video GPU + and the RAM ).
WiFi is 802.11n
You can create folders and organize the apps.
You can do multi tasking by pressing the home button twice.
Bing is added as a search provider along with google and yahoo.

Here is summary for the non geeks

The phone is ridiculously thinner than previous iPhone , probably the thinnest phone on earth.
The display is better.
The battery can get you thru a working day.
You can take photos in low light.
You can record HD video.
And you can make video calls with another iPhone 4 using WiFi.

So what do you think of the phone? Are you buying it ? What other phones are on you mind ? What are the most important features to you ? Are you affected by ATT recent data plans charges ?
Comments please ?

Here’s the woman Mohan garu cannot stand!

Chakravarthy — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 15:16:21 +0000

I know Mohan Garu often talks about how he disagrees with Ayn Rand.

Figured I post an Ayn Rand interview where you can see the personal side of Rand. She talks about Jimmy Carter, Aristotle, Plato, self-interest, charity, evils of sacrifice, middle-east oil, religion, atheism, god, and her husband who had just passed away. You get to see a rare personal side of Rand in the interview where she says she would die for her husband.

Ayn Rand Interview with Donahue-1

Ayn Rand Interview with Donahue-2

Ayn Rand Interview with Donahue-3

Ayn Rand Interview with Donahue-4

Ayn Rand Interview with Donahue-5

A Disaster of Mammoth Proportions

Mohan — Sun, 23 May 2010 23:59:45 +0000

Oily water is seen off the side of the Joe Griffin supply vessel at the site of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill containment efforts in the Gulf of Mexico on Saturday, May 8, 2010. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert); Source: http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/05/disaster_unfolds_slowly_in_the.html

BP oil spill in the Gulf is now humongous and is slated to surpass all human-made environmental disasters. How can Obama escape the consequences of this is beyond me. Here are a couple of more AP Photos:

For even more jaw dropping pictures, visit Boston Globe.

Introducing the Google TV

Bhanu Prakash — Fri, 21 May 2010 16:40:47 +0000

Okay, Teluglobers watch the video to see what this new Google TV is all about. If you are interested in knowing more about the event, I posted the Engadget liveblog below for your reading pleasure. This event happened yesterday May 20, 2010. The Google TV truly is a great package. Many companies attempted similar concept in the past including Microsoft (Mediacenter PC) and Apple (Yesss that horrible Apple TV). Both Microsoft and Apple failed. Microsoft wanted us to use the PC desktop rather than the TV stream from Comcast or Verizon FIOS. Apple choose the other way, the iTunes way. Apple wanted to use iTunes for everything ignoring the TV streams. Looks to me Google truly beat them all by thinking the right way. Which is leaving the choice to the viewer for choosing between the TV stream and Web (using Browser). In addition to Google’s smart engineers, Sony,Intel,Adobe and Logitech put their weight behind this effort. If Google can get Samsung and LG on board, this product is capable of changing our lives like the iPhone/ Smartphones did.

[Via Engadget]

10:45AM Eric Schmidt is wrapping things up. “We need you to take this platform and build extraordinary things that we haven’t thought of. We need your precious time.” A very exciting time for the medium television. Eric thanks everyone, we clap, music starts blasting, and it’s over! If you’re still reading, thank you!

10:44AM Howie watch: “There’s opportunities to expand this universe above and beyond. It’s evolutionary. It’s upgradeable. It’s active, it’s not only interactive, it’s proactive. It grows and it grows… it really is a very big deal.” Nothing special, we just like the way he talks.

10:40AM Can we turn on daytime television again?

10:39AM If ever I had a dream of being in a room with powerful CEOs talking, it’s long dead now.

10:38AM Finally, a WebTV nod care of Dish’s Charles Ergan… and that’s about it thus far. Never fear, we’ll keep you updated.

10:33AM A funny quip from Sir Howie. “When you beat Apple [with Sony Ericsson's phone in Japan], you dominate.” Man do we love this guy.

10:28AM Erich to Shantanu, “Why are we fighting for Flash?” Answer: It’s really about getting web content to any device. “As far as we’re concerned, this is really trying to create family harmony.”

10:27AM We’d like to take this moment, as our Managing Editor Nilay Patel would like to ask the world at large how is this any different than Web TV.

10:26AM It’s CEO Q&A time, which despite what you might expect, likely won’t be bringing any more news.

10:25AM Charles Ergan of Dish, Brian Dunn of Best, and “the most interestingly controversial person” lately, Shantanu Narayen of Adobe.

10:25AM Paul Otellini of Intel, Sir Howard Stringer of Sony, Gerarld Quindlen of Logitech.

10:24AM “Of the things we did… you saw the full potential of cloud computing,. You saw the ability to actually go from server to client — in this case the television — and you can even program it. Using the powerful tools we use every day.” The chairs have propagated. Up comes CEOs of the “significant partners” that made this happen.

10:23AM Eric Schmidt’s posse? A quartet of white chairs. And later on, hopefully some people to fill those seats.

10:22AM Eric Schmidt takes the stage.

10:22AM Early 2011 for SDK and APIs, it goes open source by that Summer.

10:21AM Partnership with Dish Network. Subscribers will be able to “seamlessly integrate content” into Google TV. Best Buy is the retail partner for, well, selling you the gear.

10:20AM All powered by Intel. The whispers couldn’t have been more dead-on.

10:20AM … and a new set of peripherals, but really, it’s Logitech. Are you surprised?

10:20AM A full line of integrated TVs and an integrated Blu-ray player. Second is from Logitech, a companion box.

10:19AM 3 Google TV devices. First from Sony, as the rumors have long suggested.

10:19AM Coming to market in a big way. Time to tout partners!

10:19AM Google will be open source to Android and Chrome source trees.

10:18AM We get teased about a translation app — closed captions for whatever language needed. A great idea, but unfortunately we don’t get to see much of anything.

10:13AM Listen and watch now includes video content.

10:13AM Listen for Android is getting a Google TV-sized upgrade… barring some further technical difficulties. It’s the Bluetooth, people!

10:11AM Built-in video, navigation, DVR implementation. At this point, we might as well ask that you at home also turn off our Bluetooth devices, just in case it’s causing unnecessary from so many miles away into this conference room.

10:10AM The NBA.com app is infinitely more interesting than anything we’ve seen. Something about sports organizations that seem to put on the best software demos as of late.

10:09AM A beta of YouTube Lean Back will launch in the next few weeks on the website.

10:08AM And like that, YouTube’s rental service just got a boost in relevance.

10:08AM His friend’s favorited videos go into your feed. Preferences feed into news feed. Channels, both pre-set or of your own making.

10:07AM YouTube Lean Back, the entire YouTube library “that you can just lean back and enjoy.” Okay, now we’re seeing some apps catered to the screen size. A personalized video feed “of the content you want to watch.”

10:06AM Hunter Walk, Director of YouTube, takes the stage.

10:04AM Google TV-specific SDK will become available shortly after launch.

10:04AM Going through browser-based market, trying to figure out if they’re pushing the app to the correct Google TV box. Turns out they are, and now Twitter is on GTV. Still not quite the best use of the screen real estate. Any chance we can see a more optimized demo?

10:02AM The mobile Pandora app runs “perfectly” on Google TV — except for the ugly scale caused by a larger screen size.

10:01AM “If you’re application doesn’t require phone-specific software, it should work [already] on Google TV.”

10:00AM Soon, Android apps will work on the TV. The mobile version of Android market works on Google TV.

9:59AM Time to delve into the software. Three portions: built on Android 2.1, with the ability to do OTA updates. Google Chrome browser. “We needed a fully web-compatible browser to browse what’s out there.” Third component: full Flash 10.1 plug-in.

9:58AM Tools will be released for developers to create their own experience.

9:58AM Two Android devices controlling same box. Rashi pushes video from his phone to Google TV. Conan O’Brien and Vic doing the string dance together — perfect for this crowd.

9:55AM GPU for advanced graphics / web viewing, dedicated DSP for audio hi-def and surround sound. Number four: input devices. All will include keyboard and “pointing devices.”

9:56AM GPU for advanced graphics / web viewing, dedicated DSP for audio hi-def and surround sound. Number four: input devices. All will include keyboard and “pointing devices.” He pulls out an Android device and uses voice search. Okay, now we’re more interested.

9:54AM Now on to the technology explanation portion. WiFi / ethernet built-in. Second: existing cable or satellite connected to Google box via HDMI.

9:51AM We’re now seeing Yahoo widge…erm, sorry. A Flickr feed.

9:51AM We’re not quite convinced this is in any way, shape, or form more convenient that using our mobile device — Android, even — to look up the same stats and have the full HD screen for Kobe.

9:50AM Okay, now we’re touting picture-in-picture… basketball game in lower window, standard browser in the main screen. “It’s just a simple feature.”

9:47AM Just so we’re clear: we’ve spent the last 15 minutes going through an internet search bar tied to DVR, and at least 10 minutes of that was just a crowd of thousands together watching daytime television.

9:45AM “What’s amazing is I just created my own [Elmo-centric] episode of Sesame Street.” You can’t do that on normal television.

9:44AM More demos of personalization. His son loves watching Elmos on Sesame Street. “He actively dislikes all other characters which makes watching a full episode kind of a pain.” Can directly search for Elmo — top result is a bookmark for Sesame Street online content tagged for the Tickle Me Red Monster.

9:43AM “If we’re going to show you interesting stuff on TV, we better avoid the YouTube ones.”

9:43AM Now searching for YouTube.com and moving to the site away from live TV — just in the nick of time!

9:41AM Home screen, a quick launcher to all favorite content and applications. Customizable. Amazon and Netflix worked to get embedded content.

9:40AM Trailer streamed over standard browser. One-button flipping back to live TV. Another friendly reminder that daytime TV is quite a scandalous affair.

9:39AM For users, it doesn’t matter where the content comes from… they just want it quick and convenient.

9:38AM Searching for House. Special search results for everything on TV (Fox and USA) and the web (Fox, Hulu, and Amazon).

9:37AM And now it’s working! Okay, back to work everyone!

9:37AM Okay, we really do have to turn off our phones to help make this work. Let that be a warning to you, next time you’re in a crowd.

9:36AM TV is great!

9:36AM … and Octomon. No, we’re not going to share.

9:36AM Just learned an interesting fact about Nicolas Cage…

9:35AM “We should, um, switch to the other box.” Apparently it’s been switched. Just a friendly reminder to turn all cell phones off. “I can’t compete with you guys.” More pleas to the other box.

9:34AM Bluetooth connectivity apparently causing further malfunctions in the demo, for all boxes on stage. But while we wait, did you know you can get a sectional couch 48 months with no interest?

9:33AM Searching 30 Rock. Episode coming on today at 9:30, where you can set your DVR to record right from the menu.

9:32AM MSNBC selected. Google results, TV results take you straight to the right channel.

9:32AM And finally, now we’ve got a search bar up top of the screen. The Quick Search box, for both TV and web. “As simple to use as Google search.”

9:31AM We’re not stuck on watching Sex and the City. Keyboard malfunction, but we did manage to switch to Al Roker, girls dancing, and The Hangover. Hey, at least we’re entertained while we wait.

9:30AM Current guide system isn’t great. “What time is next Giants game?” “What are the next Seinfeld episodes.” Sidenote: can we just say daytime ads are great!?

9:29AM Nothing taken away — only add and enhance. All guides and menus still work, even same remote control. A second controller being used — not the actual device, still working with partners to make the best input.

9:28AM Demo time.

9:28AM Less time finding more time watching, control and personalize what you watch, make your tv content more interesting, and make your TV more… than just a TV (cue dramatic sound effects for that last bit).

9:27AM Combining best of TV and best of web into one entity. And here we go: Google TV. Where TV meets web and web meets TV.

9:26AM Second limitation: they’re all closed. Third limitation: many make you choose between TV and the web. “The minute you make a user choose, you’ve lost them. Because they dont’ know how to go back!” Users will most likely choose TV.

9:25AM “I’ll admit, we’re not the first to try this.” An argument for why these predecessors haven’t worked. 1 (of 3) reasons: dumbing down the web. “In effect, you’re recreating the web.” And that doesn’t work. “We need to find a way to bring the entire web to the television.”

9:24AM Two worlds — web and the TV content. People do crazy things to combine these worlds… like getting a group together to watch a laptop screen. Yeah, we’ve done… a few hundred times. This week.

9:24AM “More and more TV happening on the web.” But the premiere entertainment device is still the TV.

9:23AM Turns out people love TV. “It just works — it’s easy, reliable, and gets you access to cool stuff. It’s become such a natural and predictable parts of our lives you don’t ahve to think of anymore.” Not a lot of tech that can say that. “That’s pretty comforting [to many people].”

9:22AM Americans spend five hours per day watching TV — “more now than in the past.” $70 billion dollars: annual advertising spent in the US alone on TV. “Still no better medium to reach a wider and better audience than television.” Third interesting fact: 4 billion TV users worldwide.

9:17AM Let’s not forget the giant boastful elephant in the room — admob and the FTC approval. Doubt we’ll hear either

9:21AM “A new platform we believe will change the future of television.” But first, we’re talking about the present. Statistic time!

9:21AM Google TV!

9:21AM Rishi Chandra, group product manager, takes the stage. “We’re gonna ahve some fun today.”

9:20AM And now we’re at the halfway point, says Vic, if you’re keeping track.

9:20AM “Those who are watching on YouTube, I’m sorry — better register earlier next time.”

9:19AM Vic is lauding the Sprint EVO 4G, how great it is. At this very moment, our Sprint 3G goes out — coincidence?? Everyone gets a HTC EVO 4G today. Wow!

9:19AM Let’s not forget the giant boastful elephant in the room — admob and the FTC approval. Doubt we’ll hear either of those Buzz™ words today. Vic’s offering $100 free advertising to go try out the new tools. Way too sweeten the pot.

9:17AM A click to call ad. Using location to give user the option to call direcTV in order to make a pitch. “Very popular,” Vic claims. Next up, a click to call with maps and directions (coming shortly available).

9:15AM New today: expandable ad format. Turns out users would like to stay within context of ad and not leave the page — the same argument we heard in Apple’s ad push. Flixter app with vampire diaries ad can play trailer from within the page.

9:14AM Contextually relevant ads. Kayak for traveling ad takes you deep into marketplace to nab relevant app.

9:13AM Real case studies time. Adsense for mobile apps — ADFMA (his abbreviation, not ours).

9:13AM Useful tools that indsutry knows, uses, and loves are working seamlessly in mobile environment. “Must be open to innovation — I don’t know what ponies are doing here… but sometimes you gotta be open and go with it.”

9:12AM Advertising. Google has a decade of experience under its belt. “We have 100,000 of advertisers.” If you have an ad, we have a place to fill it. It’s called inventory. “We can be your advertising partner.”

9:10AM Back to the present — again. All local music now available via streaming.

9:10AM Technology from recently-acquired Simplify Media will be used to sync your local music to an Android devices. Matt turns on the Android device — “Thank you for calling Fifth Floor restaurant.” Guess our time traveling escapades through this briefing aren’t over yet!

9:09AM Album downloading. “Why don’t you send music to the device” — changes voice — “to the internet.”

9:08AM Good ol’ matt finds the app. Vic explains how you used to buy, download, transfer. “Guess what,” says vic as we inch forward in our seats with antici- oh you know. They used the internet! Over the air installation.

9:07AM “Because matt is signed in, we know every android device he has.” Yeah, you can guess, that’s a lot.

9:06AM Another preview of what’s to come in Marketplace. It’s a web based client!

9:06AM “We want the best…highest quality apps.” That means they need some quality control. Demos “Crash it,” which as you may guess, crashes. Can now send troubleshooting information — application error reports — with complete back end data. Developers are clapping, press are trying to comprehend all the code.

9:05AM Now allow automatic updating for specific apps. Just an apt check mark.

9:04AM An Update All icon for your apps… how long did it take, really? “We’re kind of embarrassed you’re clapping to that.” So are we Vic, so are we.

9:04AM Need for Speed, now on SD card, launched and working just fine. “Okay, let’s move on,” but Matt refuses, too busy racing. Oh don’t play coy, Matt, we see you over there.

9:03AM Searching financial records within Mint, having the “Move to SD card” option (under Manage Application). Manual is an option, but apparently Android does this automatically when need be.

9:02AM People want to find apps more easily, search inside apps, auto update, and move apps to SD card. Care to take another bet on what Froyo’s about to improve?

9:02AM Fifth pillar: Market. Data shows users are installing more than 40 apps.

9:01AM “Much nicer [to work with Adobe] than just saying no”

9:01AM “As it turns out, people use flash.” Really, now? More iPad vs. Android comparisons, Vic’s daughter trying to visit Nickelodeon. And in either screen, no more Rugrats.

9:00AM Not quite a babel fish level but… oh, without a word, Vic just pauses to let people cheer on Flash Player 10.1 public beta and AIR developer pre-release

8:59AM Back to voice again — no more time traveling, we hope — “Can you help me find the nearest hospital?” It immediately translates (and speaks) the phrase in French.

8:58AM New tricks based on intentions. “Call fifth floor restaurant” — we assume that’s location-based. And it looks like the camera is working, so let’s take a step back.

8:58AM Del Dotto Vineyards works, too — okay, that’s impressive. Mandarin Chinese and Japanese support coming.

8:57AM “Pictures of the Golden Gate bridge at sunset.” I bet hey couldn’t do Primus lyrics!

8:57AM “We recognize that mobile devices … would use voice more than anything.” Just as a reminder of how fantastic our capabilities have done [with voice] over the last two years. Demo! “Pictures of Barack Obama with french president of the G 8 summit.”

8:56AM Camera APIs now in the browser, too. It’s good for Buzz, says Vic, but… then we don’t get to see it.

8:55AM My location now works in browser. “What about accelerometer?” Maps the web app does it, right in the browser.

8:55AM Also working with standards bodies to make browsers more versatile. Here’s a preview coming.

8:54AM “We think we can claim froyo has the fastest mobile browser.”

8:53AM “I wonder if you’ll be able to get that into the app store… OH WAIT, it’s a web app.” He’s on a roll, folks!

8:53AM “There’s an industry standard test that really exercises javascript performance on all times.” Once all 26 tests complete, the Android icon takes a lap. Care to take bets how this will end?

8:52AM Same javascript interpreter in chrome now in Froyo. You’ll never guess what’s happening. Demo time. Froyo, Eclair, and… iPad.

8:52AM The number one thing people use is phone, second messaging, third browser. Honestly, we thought phone would be lower. Someone behind us mutters “porn”. Har har.

8:51AM Activated via settings. It’s just a matter of pressing “portable Wi-Fi hotpost.” A notification icon pics. “Now you go to a device that doesn’t have connectivity — how about that iPad.” More laughter. Oh vic, you tease.

8:50AM Hey look: Tethering and portable hotspot. This crowd couldn’t be happier. The carriers? Well, that’s another story.

8:50AM Ditto for websites.

8:49AM “Boom!” goes Gundotra — directions go straight to the phone.

8:49AM Email? No. Text? You’re crazy! Specialized Android send-to-phone option? Of course!

8:48AM Demo time! Crhome extension in up right corner sends data to his phone — Moscone center to Google HQ.

8:47AM Cloud-to-device Messaging API. Cue the multitasking joke and a few cheers.

8:47AM There’s an API so that data will now be transferred, too

8:47AM “If you’ve used android and have gone to another device, you know android will back up your device… however, what android has not done is backed up the data associated with those applications.” Vic cites his weight watching app. He apparently really, really wants to know his progress.

8:46AM 2. Device admin APIs

8:46AM Number two: enterprise. In froyo, over 20 new features. First of that: new exchange stuff: auto-discovery, security policies, GAL lookup.

8:45AM Two games shown, top one (froyo) never dropping below 30 FPS. Thanks JIT!

8:44AM Dalvik virtual machine. “We can carry the entire ecosystem into new areas.” Only works if machine is fast — and Dalvik apparently. “In Froyo, we’ve added a JIT, just-in-time compiler.” 2x to 5x application speedup.

8:43AM Five pillars to discuss. First up: speed.

8:43AM Announcing Android 2.2, codenamed Froyo. Yum!

8:42AM Momentum over! How abrupt. Now it’s time for platform discussion.

8:42AM 50,000 applications — not the biggest number by far, but hey, every little bit counts. 180,000 developers.

8:41AM 1 Billion miles navigated. “There are some who say people don’t use search.” Data shows a 5x growth in the past two years, across all smartphones. “People love google search.”

8:41AM Second in smartphone sales, first in total web and app usage in the US. Someone’s having a pastry party in Google over these numbers.

8:40AM Our run rate daily activations has now pass 100,000 a day. “Go Android”

8:39AM 21 OEMs, 48 countries, 59 carriers.

8:39AM Looks like today’s theme is momentum. Unless they abruptly stop with that idea. Over 60 compatible devices are shown — there’s the bleacher all turned around!

8:38AM Andy’s second point: A “draconian” future where one company, one device, controls the future. Hey, why is everyone cheering?

8:38AM Andy talked the merits of a free mobile OS. “The operator should be able to compete on the strength of their network, [not the platform]… in the end, it would be the consuemr who would benefit.”

8:37AM He speaks of his first day meeting Andy Rubin, completely dumbfounded by his drive to make another mobile operating system. Obviously, that Rubin had the right idea.

8:36AM “Hope you enjoyed the party last night!” We didn’t, we’re lame. Vic welcome everyone watching on YouTube. Why not, us too!

8:35AM Vic Gundotra takes the stage, now having earned the crown for best speaker since Erick Tseng left for a more social industry.

8:35AM The music cranks and then… silence. Looks like we’re a go!

8:34AM To the left of us on stage lies the back of a miniature bleachers, with overstretching the top what looks like the heads of a sea of smartphones. Think they’ll be talking about mobile today?

8:25AM Scrawling across the backdrop is a sea of robots of all shapes, sizes, and colors. Google: we’re all about android equality.

8:23AM We’re in, after a mad dash to the coveted 7th row (press seating). The music is bumpin’, our seats our thumpin’, and… now we wait some more.

08:10PT Ah, got to love those change of plans — we’re now re-waiting for the magic gates to open. Should be any moment now judging by this Viking we’re standing by and his glaring impatience.

Yesterday’s Google I/O keynote brought about a number of big newsbits — a Chrome web app store, the open WebM video format, and so forth — but even more tantalizing were Vic Gundotra’s not-so-subtle hints at some major announcements coming at today’s keynote. Will we finally get some details on Android’s latest updates on the food roadmap?

Markets Sell off Today, Still Wall Street Wins

Mohan — Fri, 21 May 2010 01:52:22 +0000

The Senate just passed a stupid bill and called it financial reform. [via CBS Marketwatch]

The mammoth legislative package — which passed 59 to 39, with three Republicans voting for the bill — requires “too-big-to-fail” banks to install new capital restrictions and divest their derivatives units, sets up a government board to assign credit raters for banks’ structured finance securities, and instructs the government to conduct an unprecedented, one-time audit of the Fed’s emergency response programs.

I rarely find myself agreeing with “say-no-to-everything-democrats-propose” Republicans. But, in this case, they have a strong point. Glass-Steagal act should be brought back. If a bank holds our deposits, they SHOULD NOT BE dealing with exotic financial products, trading stocks, derivatives and other speculative junk. Period. This bill doesn’t do any of this. This is a LOUSY bill and Wall Street banks can celebrate the passage of this bill.

Banksters (Courtesy Jesse: http://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com)

Carnage!!

Mohan — Fri, 21 May 2010 01:35:38 +0000

Today (May 20, 2010) on Wall Street

The pounding continues in Asia (9:08 PM, May 20, 2010)

What is going on? Sovereign debt crisis, leading to disintegrating Euro, leading to major currency crisis. More on this on Friday, May 21st MMGL.