Visit http://gaigalas.net/lab/googl, type in any URL and press “Shorten” to get your very own goo.gl URL!

Thanks for the tip Andry!

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Here’s the price: $199 unlocked in stores. $100 rebate online if you have an active and old Google account. That $100 rebate is either to buy it $99 online from Google’s online phone store, for using on Android Marketplace or for using on any Google Checkout stores. Can also be used for T-Mobile or AT&T pre-paid Data SIM card service at $29 per month, no contracts required.

From Reuters:

The phone, manufactured by HTC, has a number of code names such as HTC Passion, Dream or Nexus One and could be available directly though the Google website as early as January 5, according to the source.

Nothing’s definite yet. Until we actually see an official announcement from an official Google rep, I won’t bother adding to the rumor pool. What’s clear though is that this development will potentially leave other manufacturers and operators who’ve jumped on the Android OS bandwagon out in the cold. If the $199 unlocked price tag is true, why would you bother locking yourself to a two-year contract then?

I just hope that Google plans to make the Nexus One available worldwide. If they’re really pushing a mobile free from the restrictions of traditional service provider plans or lock-ins, I’d like to see the geography barrier fall as well.

What do you think? Do the rumors above hold any truth? I’m pretty loaded gadget-wise, and won’t spend in that regard for Christmas anyway, so it’s a wait-and-see game for me.

Post from: The Gadget Blog

This is big, because Mozilla and Google have had a historically strong relationship. Google has been the default search engine on Mozilla’s Firefox for many years now, and the browser has enjoyed exposure via Google’s push to attract converters from Internet Explorer—at least right until something called Chrome came around. In fact, the majority of Mozilla’s income for last year (around 97%) came from payments from Google and other big websites to be included into Firefox’s search engines by default.

In any case, what do you think of Schmidt’s “admission”? Personally, you can never fault a CEO for being honest, especially when he’s professed a willingness to follow the laws of the countries he operates in—like the Patriot Act in the US.

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This snapshot of the busy New York intersection has been accessible through Street View feature for quite some time now. From the first sighting to the publication of this post, more than 11 hours have passed. I’ve sent a complaint to Google; let’s see if they act on this potentially disturbing scene immediately, if at all.

On a side note, I’m now convinced that the faces of people captured by Street View’s cameras are automatically blurred out. The sheer manpower required to blur out faces manually notwithstanding, I’d imagine anyone working for Google seeing a dead guy would keep him from appearing, right?

Post from: The Gadget Blog

Flipswap will give anyone as much as $350 for their iPhone plus a guaranteed $25 bonus with Droid proof of purchase. By taking advantage of this third party promotion, your readers will not only be the first of their friends with the latest gadget – but they’ll still have enough left over to buy out their current smart phone contract or pick up a Droid Multimedia Station.

The specifics are simple: Trade in your iPhone by November 30th and use promo code “getdroid” at checkout to receive a $25 bonus credit. Include a copy of your DROID purchase receipt with your traded phone as proof of purchase to receive the bonus. You can visit www.flipswap.com/DROID to check it out.

Whoever came up with this idea is taking quite a risk, and most likely hoping the Motorola DROID is making a splash as enjoys distribution in the US courtesy Verizon Wireless.

Post from: The Gadget Blog

How many errors? On average, about one in three Google servers experienced a correctable memory error each year and one in a hundred an uncorrectable error, an event that typically causes a crash.

Older research showed that, for every 1 billion hours, a memory chip would fail on average around 200 to 5,000 times. Google’s project revealed a much higher ratio: 25,000 to 75,000 failures within the same time period.

To be clear, those numbers aren’t anything significant for the typical consumer. A billion hours is equal to more than 100,000 years after all, worth at least ten thousand lifetimes. Nevertheless, Google’s research should be useful for projects or businesses that have to rely on lots of memory chips to get the job. A prominent example is of course other companies that maintain their own data centers.

Of course Google couldn’t pass up the opportunity to market its own technical expertise, discussing the various technologies it uses to protect end-users from crashes caused by memory errors. Apparently “error correction code” and “chipkill” are just two of the things Google relies on to protect you from the evil data corruption. (Source, thanks to Sheree for the pic!)

Post from: The Gadget Blog

What is Google Wave?

The layout of Google Wave is similar to Gmail, with the addition of a third column on the right to display the contents of whatever wave is selected on the middle column, and it’s possible to drag-resize each column. Think of each wave as a conversation of sorts, but with the ability to add not only words, but pictures, videos, and other sorts of media to the virtual discussion. Users can even choose to frame the conversation in different ways, examples being running a collaborative Sudoku game, or setting up Yes-No-Maybe waves. There’s even the playback feature, which re-enacts the Wave as it happened, much like watching a recorded conversation unfold.

Additions to a “normal” kind of conversation are organized as threads, with replies visually tied to the whatever they’re replying to through the use of indentation. Everything happens in real-time, and it’s honestly a bit cool and scary at the same time, seeing replies to each other appearing as they’re typed. It’s more real-time than chat, and forces people to think before they tap a single key. The interface as mostly responsive, though I did notice slight slowdowns as I typed replies to my one and only Wave contact (more on that later). With a future userbase most likely in the hundreds of millions, let’s hope Google has a scalable plan to update what could be millions of waves concurrently.

First Impressions

So Google Wave claims to be all for communication and collaboration. How well does it do either? The real-time nature of a Wave definitely helps keep people connected. As I’ve written above, Wave is even more real-time than chat! The snappy interface updates itself constantly, keeping the user on top of any new developments. And while the contents of each Wave are listed completely for everyone involved to see, the Playback feature adds a new dimension to recall. Re-enacting the Wave as it happened makes it easier to place all developments within the proper context, and the Spacebar is a useful shortcut for those who like to skim through the time frame quickly.

Collaborative-wise however, it’s clear that the relatively little number of Wave users is a limitation. Having received my Wave account mere hours ago, I only have two contacts on my list: the person who invited me, and someone I invited. Currently I can only collaborate with those two, unless either contact adds me to a Wave with numerous participants, or I add users I encounter on existing waves to my contact list.

It’s also a bit time-consuming to follow lengthy Waves, at least those of the “normal” word-only kind, despite the Playback feature. I’m eager to try out numerous extensions that promise to add to the functionality of my future waves—these extensions basically change the way you and your contacts collaborate with each other—but for now I’ll wait until my invites are processed and I have more people on my contact list. Let’s crack the whip on getting those invites out, Google!

Share Your Invites Here

I’ve already used up all 8 of my invites to Google Wave, but if you’re looking for one, or are eager to share one, feel free to coordinate by leaving comments below. Please do not post emails verbatim (me@whatever.com). To protect yourself from spammers, use “[at]” and “[dot]” or something similar (me [at] whatever [dot] com). You are also free to share your thoughts on Google Wave as comments below.

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Courtesy Source

What are the implications? Well, I don’t think we’ll hear Google complaining. The Android OS is the company’s attempt to make its mobile presence more significant, and Google is traditionally about letting people do what they want with what they have (Google Voice vs. Apple, anyone?).

We will hear complaints from T-Mobile, as this hack potentially gives them less control over its subscribers, if any will remain at all. This will probably lead to other operators to rethink any plans to subsidize Android OS devices, as US operators love dictating what their customers can and can’t do.

In any case, click on the source for full instructions on rooting your Android device—and what precautions to take. A video summarizing that is below:

Source

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Courtesy Boy Genius Report

• Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE class 12
• Size: 68.6cc
• 103g grams weight
• Dimensions: 58 x 122 x 11.7mm
• Display: 3.5″ nHD 640×360 LCD, 18-bit, 262K colors
• OTA capable
• Microsoft Exchange support
• Google, AIM, Yahoo and MSN IM support
• 3 megapixel auto-focus, flash, 8x digital zoom camera with 30fps video shooting mode, built in photo editor
• USB 2.0, Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR
• A-GPS
• On-screen QWERTY keyboard, hardwriting recognition, multi touch UI
• MicroSD slot

Pretty thin and full-featured, if you ask me. And unless the version of Android to run on this gadget was changed significantly, future buyers should expect a responsive experience.

Given the intentionally blurriness of the product pic, I’m calling this an intentional leak. In any case, updates as they become official to follow.

Source

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Courtesy Joy of Tech

True or false?

Post from: The Gadget Blog