Lawmakers criticize Google Voice for rural call-blocking
Updated
The legal issues continue to grow around Google Voice, the company’s application for directing calls from a single number to multiple phones. The Federal Communications Commission is already investigating Apple’s rejection of Voice (or its “continued study,” to use Apple’s phrase). Now a group of… Continue Reading
Dell building an Android phone for the US (report)
It looks like computer maker Dell is building its first mobile phone for the United States, one that will use Google’s Android operating system. Since the phone will reportedly run on AT&T’s network, not only does this news add to Android’s roster of device manufacturers,… Continue Reading
AT&T: Just kidding! VoIP apps like Skype can run on our network
AT&T, the iPhone’s exclusive wireless carrier in the United States, said it has paved the way for Apple to let voice-over-Internet-protocol apps like Skype run on its 3G network instead of only on nearby Wi-Fi connections.
VoIP technology allows voice calls to be treated as data,… Continue Reading
Google lands energy device partner, doesn’t have to wait for smart meters
One of the biggest hurdles standing between Google and wide adoption of its home energy management system PowerMeter — a service that makes your electricity consumption and pricing data available on the web — is that it depended on the broad roll out of smart… Continue Reading
5 O’Clock Roundup: MIT bloggers, iPhone map ads, Facebook ad APIs
Google turns on ads for the iPhone map — Greg Sterling at Search Engine Land says, “the ads are pretty unobtrusive.” That was Google’s trick when they launched search engine ads, too.
By making their ads less visually disruptive, Google wins over irritated computer users like… Continue Reading
Google makes it easier to search for what’s really, really new
Google announced several refinements to its “search options” feature today, which give users more control over the kinds of the results they see in Google.
The most interesting addition, especially for folks interested in the potential of real-time search, is the ability to look at search… Continue Reading
Google Local Search for Mobile — now with less typing
Google announced an improved interface for its Local Search site for mobile phones today that should help reduce time spent futzing around with your phone’s keyboard. Both of the changes are basically tweaks, but they’re cool examples of connecting your normal web and mobile environments,… Continue Reading
The Internet sure likes talking about Google Wave
Anyone looking at Twitter or news aggregation sites recently knows there’s been a crazy amount of buzz about Google Wave, the new communication and collaboration service that Google is letting 100,000 people preview today. For example, it’s been one of the top two or three… Continue Reading
Ribbit injects voice into Google Wave release
Ribbit, one of the earliest web-based telephone services (acquired last year by British telecom giant BT), plans to ride Google Wave’s coattails — announcing the integration of several gadgets allowing voice calls, phone conferencing, text messaging and voicemail transcription into the search engine’s new, much-hyped… Continue Reading
Google Wave opens up tomorrow, but maybe not for you
Google is letting a few more people play with its new communication and collaboration tool, Wave, starting tomorrow. Specifically, 100,000 developers, Google Apps users, and other sign-ups at the Wave website will be getting access to a preview version.
That’s a lot of people, but many… Continue Reading
Google on the hunt for utility, device partners for PowerMeter
Earlier today, we spotlit an excellent blog post co-authored by Google CEO Eric Schmidt about how energy efficiency policies and enterprises will infuse the economy. The opportunity is so great that the search engine has staked out its own claim with the launch of its… Continue Reading
Google Sites now works with third-party applications
Google Sites, a tool for creating internal websites where your company can collaborate, can now work with the rest of your business software, Google says. The search giant is releasing an application programming interface (API) that lets applications move data in and out of the… Continue Reading
If I forgot your name, blame the Gmail outage
Well, that didn’t take long. Less than a month has passed since Gmail had its first big outage since leaving beta testing. This morning, it had its second.
The problems started sometime before 7:30am Pacific time, according to Google’s Apps Status Dashboard. Google says the problem… Continue Reading
Health care: It’s time for technology
This is part of a series of posts about cutting-edge areas of innovation. The series is sponsored by Microsoft. Microsoft authors will participate, as will VentureBeat writers and outside experts.
Here’s a sobering thought: I can walk into any local car dealership and buy a $30,000… Continue Reading
Could Google Sidewiki finally make website markup popular?
It’s an idea that’s been done before: Let people write notes about websites they visit, and then share those notes with others. Diigo has been doing it for years.
[Update: Google's reply to my email is included below.]
Google Sidewiki is different — it has the world’s… Continue Reading
Picasa adds face recognition, geotagging, albums
Picasa 3.5 is an update from Google to its photo collection software. It begs the question: If there’s anything big here, why isn’t it 4.0?
Name Tags are the feature Google wants you to notice this time. It seems dumb, but there’s a hook. Picasa wants… Continue Reading
Google says “You lie!” to Apple on Google Voice rejection
The word’s finally out.
Google said Apple did reject its Google Voice application for the iPhone because it “duplicated the core dialer functionality”, according to parts of an unredacted letter released by the Federal Communications Commission today.
That’s funny, because Apple just said last month that it… Continue Reading
Google unwraps ad placement system for images, video, Flash ads
Google, the Internet’s advertising monolith, has a plan it hopes will draw ad buyers to spend more on “display ads,” the pictures, videos, and interactive Flash games that pull your eyes away from dull old text and deliver your eyeballs to a marketer with a… Continue Reading
Google poaching Yahoo engineers in public
Mountain View’s largest ad network with a search engine attached is looking to hire more software experts. Specifically, Google wants to hire one or more “excellent Yahoo engineer(s) with solid experience in search.”
Normally, Silicon Valley companies hire recruiters to identify and solicit senior technical people…. Continue Reading
5 O’Clock Roundup: China may get more iPhones, TypePad goes real-time, stuff not about TechCrunch
Here’s the latest action:
China Mobile says it’s still in talks with Apple’s iPhone — China Mobile chairman Wang Jianzhou told attendees at the World Economic Forum that Apple’s iPhone deal with China Unicom, China’s No. 2 carrier that is a third of the size of… Continue Reading