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Article Recap from the Week of Mar 27, 2009

Computers, Gizmo of the Day, Home Automation, Networking & Internet, Phones, Portable, Software, Tools, DIY, Home, Office / By /

Here’s our weekly summary of featured items from Gizmos For Geeks:

There’s a new feature from Google Labs that allows you to ‘unsend’ an email just after sending. Why oh why is the Sci Fi Channel renaming themselves to SyFy?

For noisy environments, you’ll be able to get a ‘throat microphone’ from Sanwa. Home improvement buffs may like the Ultimate Musical Doorbell and wanna-be musicians should take a look at the illuminated fret guitar.

Perhaps one of the more high-end, expensive items this week was the 3G WiFi router for Cadillacs. tikitag which was an item we featured from CES 2009 was renamed to ‘touchatag’ and got some new features as well.

For all of you who crave for faster broadband speeds, VDSL2 might have the answer with the possiblity of up to 500Mbps speeds through simple copper telephone wiring.

Finally, the most important article was that there’s a new virus making the rounds and you should update your AV definitions and security patches ASAP.

Source: Gizmos for Geeks.

How to integrate Twitter results into Google

Miscellaneous, Networking & Internet / By /

Twitter is all the rage these days, so much so that even politicians are tweeting. There are more people searching Twitter for ‘news’ events, granted that those stories are 140 characters max, and not backed up with any sources, etc. The bottom line is that Twitter is growing as an info source.

If you’re a researcher that now also uses Twitter as a reference, or perhaps just a Twitter-junkie, you’ll probably find this hack very useful.
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How to integrate Twitter results into GoogleRead More »

Sony eBook Store gets a 500k title boost from Google

Books, Music and Movies / By /

Sony announced today that they have, with Google’s contribution, added over half a million (500,000) free public domain books to their library for their eReaders. This collection consist of books whose copyright has expired, so most of these titles will have been published prior to 1932.

This brings the total number of titles in the Sony eBook Store to over 600,000 easily surpassing the 250,000 titles that the Kindle Store has.

While many see this as Google teaming up with Sony to compete with Amazon in the eReader field, I think Google probably saw this as an easy decision, choosing to go with the vendor that supported the e-book standard, EPUB. Kindle does not natively support EPUB, although it has a conversion tool that ships with the reader.

GrandCentral becomes Google Voice – unified messaging, the Google Way

Networking & Internet, Phones / By /

Sweet. I’ve been enjoying GrandCentral for some time now, but was wondering like everyone else what Google was doing with it for the past 2 years or so. Turns out they’ve been hard at work improving what was there and adding new features.

First a recap –

  • GrandCentral gave you 1 number that rang all of your ‘real’ #s: cell, home, work, etc.
  • screening of incoming calls
  • a single voicemail box with Web access to your voicemails;
  • caller-specific voicemail greetings
  • specify which phones rang when certain people called you
  • telemarketer blocking
  • off-times for certain phones

What’s new in Google Voice: …

GrandCentral becomes Google Voice – unified messaging, the Google WayRead More »

DJIA may kick out Citigroup and GM; add Google, Cisco?

Miscellaneous / By /

This rumor may hold a water: The Dow Jones Industrial Average may toss out General Motors and Citigroup due to their lackluster performance and low stock prices. But who to replace them with? The second part of the speculation is that it could be Google, Cisco and/or Apple.

I’m not so sure about Apple really being Dow worthy quite yet, but the important point in this is that still more tech companies are being tapped to represent the direction of industry in the US, and in a down economy to boot.

Google Mobile – Sync

Phones, Software / By /

Perhaps a bit like MobileMe is Sync from Google Mobile. This new application for your phone allows you to synchronise your contacts and calendar entries with your Google account. Operating via a ‘cloud’ this interaction takes place wirelessly, also adding sounds and vibration from your calendar alerts to your phone.

Sync synchronises your data with dual interaction, i.e. any changes made to your phone are applied to your Google account and vice versa. Whilst MobileMe is currently only available for Apple products, Sync can be used on a variety of phones wide enough to cover all the major types of up-to-date handsets, including iPhones, Blackberrys, Windows Mobile and Symbian devices.

This video provides a pretty good overview of its uses in just over a minute:

Google’s PowerMeter lets consumers tap into their power usage

Home Automation, Miscellaneous, Networking & Internet / By /

Google is currently testing a software tool dubbed the PowerMeter than can tap into the stats that ‘smart’ power meters monitor. It isn’t meant for the power companies so much as it is meant to enable consumers to monitor and shepherd their own usage. Currently, there are over 40 million US homes scheduled to get smart meters in the next 3 years. FAQ.

Here’s a screenshot of what the tool may look like:

What’s in it for Google? Well, it is being run out of their philanthropic arm, so they can argue that it is in the best interest of both consumers and the environment, but there can certainly be more. Robert Cringley believe it’s a precursor to Google becoming your ISP via the power line. Yes, networking over power lines. I think he may very well be right.

HTC’s 2nd handset running Android – the Magic

Phones, Portable / By /

HTC announced a new handset, named Magic, that will run Google’s Android mobile OS, like the G1. Sorry Yanks, but the Magic will be sold by Vodafone in Spain, Germany, France and the UK, and in some other countries by other carriers.

Some quick stats – 3.2-inch touchscreen, GPS, Wi-Fi, HSPDA 3G connectivity, and a 3.2-megapixel camera, video recording capabilities for the camera and a soft, on-screen QWERTY keyboard.

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