Technology Reviews - Latest Android, iOs devices

Why the iPhone 4S is the best smartphone in the Market? Read the Review

2011-11-13T16:22:00.001-05:00

Recently I've sold my Android smartphone my Samsung Galaxy S, an amazing phone, don't get me wrong i was really exited with that phone but after a year of use, i realized that i wasn't having enough support from the manufacturer "Samsung" neither the Carrier which loaded the phone with some crap-ware, anyway I was waiting for gingerbread update for a long time but it came, not the latest version of course, but the first version of it. I found myself really disappointed with this delay, frustrated, thinking why Google can unify and release a functional Os for all the phones or there? Is clear, a convenience situation for the manufacturer and the carrier which will stop selling the new version of the phone even if the old one could handle the update.

Is very funny how things work. Then I saw the Galaxy Nexus, a great phone will rise and my dependency of the manufacturer and the carrier will disappear, it will be like an iOs device but from Google, i was exited just to think about it and I found myself waiting for it.

The clock was clicking and i was using one of my backup-non-smartphone, a motorola razr L6, a great functional phone, it works. Then the new Razr was released and i was curious about it, so i went to a BestBuy and asked to see the phone. My first impression was like, Oh yeah this is thin then weh ni hold it with my hand I felt it was kind a big, and friends i have a big hands i couldn't visualized myself with that big flat plate in my pocket, and then I was started to think about the pros and cons of having it.

So this is what my logic says, yes it is Google, all my services photos, contacts, email, finance, news, and everything associated with my Google account will be there, that is great! Lets do it I thought and then the Cons started to show off, It doesn't have a native Google Android Os, which means it will always be behind of the upgrades, and the frustation will started again, also the battery life based on Engadget.com and Cnet.com is not really good. Those were the biggest things I have found for this new Moto Razr and for all others Android smartphones.

Other advantages that was really in the tp of my head was the speed, using LTE will be rocket like having my home internet only in my mobile device that will be in my pocket. That's awesome but again many reports have been saying that LTE is a battery killer, so why do you want something fast if you wont have time to use it? think about it.

So I was about to get it with that promise of Ice Cream Sandwich will be an update for that phone, but yeah right! really, but when? I needed an smartphone and I couldn't wait much longer.

In the other hand my wife was having several issues with her blackberry and i couldn't make a call or send a BBM without the phone shut itself down with out return.

I was thinking mmm, What phone can keep me up-to-date without compromise what i used to have?
The answer was clear then, an iPhone 4S, yes I switched and why? Simple, just because i could also use everything that i have with my Google account without the frustration of waiting for the Carrier to release a new version of the phone or a lack of support from the manufacturer like Samsung.

Here is my review of the iPhone 4S so far, but first let me tell you before my samsung Galaxy S I got 2 iPhone 4's and guess what I returned both because the Antenna Gate problem, it really didn't work as a phone. I have to tell you, I was scared to get the iPhone 4S because those kind of issues, at the end I got it and it's really something that no one has yet.

I'm talking about the features, of course the design on the first sight is the same, Apple fixed the antenna gate adding a new antenna design making the phone really charm, as a phone. The others factors that help me made that decision was the iOs 5 update, Apple did a great job using the new notification center, the iMessage is cleaver and better than any messaging platform, it means better than BBM (Black Berry Messenger), and why? because it handle the messages across all other iOs devices and yes it doesn't have voice notes, but it has video notes which in my opinion is better. You can send pictures too and the best it doesn't need a data plan only for it, like all the Blackberry devices in some countries for example, Canada.

At the beginning I was thinking to returned and get the Moto Razr and just because I used a lot the Google navigation app on my Android and now with an iOs I was thinking well iOs doesn't have a free navigation app, if i go remotely and I got lost I will return, I used to have that and it is a most have for me.
Every person have a different needs but eventually you can live with thing and it doesn't bother you.
But that is not the case for the navigation app, I was disappointed, not navigation, mmm and then and light in the tunnel, a free app called "Nav Free" and that was good. I was worry about spending $60 on a TomTom or a Garmin App for navigation, it felt like someone is stealing my money and before i had that for free, it didn't make sense and now I am glad that app exist.

Well so far so good, the app is great it send me in the right direction and with multiple languages but there was something else I hadn't tried yet, SIRI. I was really surprise and exited to have that amazing technology in my pocket , it is magical like a typical Apple phrase, but it is, SIRI simplify your time trying to interact with multiple apps or screens reducing significantly the time to do things like check the weather, write a text message, perform a call, create reminders, play music, respond and read emails and text messages, time, location (Only in USA for now), it gives you recommendations also for thing related with your scheduled life.

It was really clear to me once I've tried, the sweet Apple taste of a new technology that change our actual behaviours and turn it into the new thing, is really amazing.

As far as I can tell it is the best smartphone out there.

Now lets talk about the battery, as you know if you are a heavy user of mobile platform, watching videos, playing video games (If the video game is designed and developed properly), using social apps or location detection apps or using the phone as a hotspot, will drain quickly your battery. That will happen with all smartphone, Samsung, LG, Motorola, Apple, HTC, etc.

The iPhone 4S came with a battery software problem which was fixed with the version 5.0.1, this version fix and extend te battery life of your phone.

I have been using the phone the entire day today and now at 5:21pm the battery is at 86% of charge, that is a lot compared with the Samsung Galaxy by this time of the day I had 50% of the battery.

My other and final reason to avoid the Moto Razr was the decision of Adobe to kill Flash for mobile devices giving Apple a victory of standards and making no more sense to have a phone with flash, BTW yes it also drain the battery life.

But if you want to extend the life of your phone's battery you need to do the following:

- Check if there is not applications running with auto location check-in, if you have one of those my friend, shut that app down.
- Remove Facebook, as you can see the Facebook apps are not optimized and are getting all the information that it can from you phone, which demands data consumption and constantly performing request online , sucking your battery life. This one is critical is another phone with Facebook and without.

- On Android only beside Facebook, you have to uninstall Twitter, because it also do constant request to the server and drain your battery too. This doesn't happen on iOs devices due to the iOs-Twitter integration.
- GPS on all the time doesn't mean it is in use, but if you can see the GPD icon searching or active something is using it and you need to turn that app off.

Please try those 4 things and you will see a big different, for using social apps, don't worry you can use them with the browser, it will work fine on it.

Well that was a big mix of review with a user experience knowledge, I hope this will be helpful, so if you want to buy today a new smartphone you have to think about your personal needs, like keep contact with people, family etc, evaluate the features and tecnologie that will make you perform things better and not be loyal to something that in the long or short term will frustrate your expectations.

Here is just in case my top list if you want to buy a new phone today per platform:

- Apple: iPhone 4S

- Android: Galaxy Nexus
- Nokia: Nothing promising so far, the Lumia looks good only but lack of features that you can find on Android or iOs.

- Blackberry: hard to tell better wait to see what the BBX phones will have to offer.

And my personal choice, covering all my expectations and techy needs: iPhone 4S.

I hope you have enjoy this.

Gustavo Pineda
Sponsored by Tomahawk Media Technologies and Neoactiva.

HP Touch Pad a Playbook Copy? Now you can get it for $99 the cheapest tablet ever!

2011-07-26T18:35:00.001-04:00

I was looking for the new Apple Mac Book Air when I found the HP Touch Pad, and I started testing it.
For the external look : heavy, fat, a black version of the iPad 1.
Web OS: not so impressive, looks more like a Blackberry QNX for the Playbook with the difference of grouping windows or Cards in the same opened app.
Was really a not new experience, slow opening apps, crash sometimes with flash running on the browser, not very impressive design to compete against iPad, Playbook, and lack of applications.

In this Video I was reproducing a flash video and I went to another page and it hang out the audio, so it was playing the audio but not image, a software issue? or a Flash Player Issue?

In general I believe the manufacturers have to innovate and not to copy technologies from others because at the end of the day the users will go for brands that stands for quality, performance, support and features. Not so much for price.
iPad instead is the cheapest to manufacture because of the great supplier management, but not so much others which have a free OS (Android) but lack of competitive price plus simplistic user interface design.

Updated: WebOs is out, hp decided to kill a great Os and if you don't have a tablet yet this is your chance to get a decent model for only $99, yes the hp Touch pad is available for just CAD$99.

BestBuy has it check this link

Sponsored By Neoactiva

Editor: Gus Pineda

Alert - Study social apps are reducing your phone battery life - Find out How to avoid this.

2011-07-16T22:39:00.000-04:00

Social Media Applications reduce smart phones battery life
Ask yourself if your phone battery is really poor

This is a a research made since iPhone 4 was release it involved an iPhone 4 with iOS 4.x and a Samsung Galaxy S Vibrant with Android 2.3

Is really amazing how technology has changed in 10 years, before the e-mail was the revolutionary way to connect with people then the instant messaging came up and change the way we communicate.

Social media technologies emerged before 2004 but Facebook has the credit to be the known"Social Network". Why? because like any network, it connects one point to another and/or all together.

the SMS, text messaging also is one of the most important ways to communicate even after the boom of Facebook, is a technology that stay and merge. SMS is a native phone app that allow users to send simple text messages with out running background processes.

Talking about processes, this study took some time to figured out what was wrong with the poor battery life of my iPhone 4 and my Galaxy S.

Today I can say that the Operating Systems for both platforms are really good, of course Android has more advantages over iPhone but that is another topic to discuss.

Talking about the test, it was performed using both platforms with the Android Facebook native Application and iOS Facebook native app.
I install too Twitter mobile app for both platforms too.
Both applications were used sending several updates, uploading pictures, receiving notifications from both apps for a period of time of 6 months.

Both applications were updated during this time. But the issue continue.

The result of this study was the smartphones Android or iOS will reduced severally the Battery life using the native applications.

Apps Tested: Facebook,Twitter and Google +

After 6 hours the phones batteries got drained and don´t dare to use YouTube during these apps are running because this will accelerate the decrease of the battery life by 50%.

Those mobile apps have processes continuously running in the background taking use of your data and sending information to Facebook and Twitter back and forward, these drain the battery really quickly.

In the other hand Google + for Android is working like a charm! Surprise!
It has a simple developer answer, these apps (Facebook and Twitter) are not optimized for Android nor iOS.
So these will make you do a decision, delete the apps, test your phone next two days and see the results for yourself.

My finding are really amazing, I not longer using the iPhone 4 for not be an real smartphone, beside the antenna issue for me was a real deal, instead i bought an iPod touch 4.
My Samsung Galaxy S is now working smooth and the battery life has been really improved, by numbers, the phone stay with a great battery performance for more and 24 hours, even when i used it as a WIFI hot spot.

Recommendations, despite about what I have found I still using social media but not like before, I don´t mind to use it on demand and you can do the same to return the life of your phone. TO do this is really simple you have to go the Facebook or Twitter page using your Browser, then create a shortcut in your home and that´s it.
Before install a new App. you most read how this app works, give it a try and monitor the battery performance, if the battery start decreasing, uninstall it and report it. you can add it here so another users will have some awareness of those poor develop applications.

Don´t blame the manufacturer, blame the developer because they are responsible to make the applications runs without compromise performance of your hardware.

This is an Independent Study made by Gustavo Pineda
Sponsored by Neoactiva and TomaHawk Media Technologies.

Interactive TV how the future looks like?

2011-05-30T12:41:00.001-04:00

Google Tv, Samsung smart TV, Apple TV, all are trying to Win in this race, competing each other, emulating computers for living rooms, creating market places for applications, redundancy of apps that mimic the smart phone universe.
Got the point? This wrong approach is definitely making them fail, the TV user wants to be entertain, his/her level of interaction is simple, he/she only wants to watch the tv show that make sense to his/her social life.

They will be asking themself this questions:
Why I want an smart tv? Why do I need to download apps for it? Why do I have to write an email on a tv?
Then the if comes to the game. Why if I have a pc, or a laptop or an iPad? I dont want to do it on a tv.

Mobile devices should be the interactive part, connected to an standard system where the user can control and manage what the user wants to watch and when.

Google is doing it wrong, they should integrate android to manage the TV schedule and programming saving all in the cloud.

Apple is close but need more deal with the tv studios and create their own tv.

Sony has almost what it takes but is married with google making internet tv difficult to digest.

To make it clear interactive tv that has a real value doesn't exist yet, but soon we will see those integration and value of it.

GP
From my Android

Nexus S: Using the Best Google Android Phone

2010-12-10T21:51:00.001-05:00

Is this the best google phone ever? A definitive real creation that will stop android fragmentation? Or it is just an spontaneous response to the market but without organize the manufacturer disorder?
Apple has a failure phone witch is a winner on diversity no organize raze of phones, until google says is enough. Meanwhile apple is learning quickly an fixing issues, because they know what our takes to be on the top and how to stay there, cause they know it can't be fixed in a year or two.

Nexus S reborn as the phoenix from its ashes and it is stronger than ever and had to come to eat the apple.

By matt buchanan

Nexus S: Using the Best Google Android Phone

Android has never felt more alive than it does on the Nexus S. It's fast. It's cocksure. It's, well, really good.

Here's our quick impressions after an hour or so of dicking around with the Nexus S and Gingerbread.

View Full Photo Gallery »

Likey

• It's so fast. This is largely thanks to the software—after all, the processing guts are basically identical to the millions of Galaxy S phone already out there. It's the first time Android's felt as fast as the iPhone on modern hardware. There is no stuttering, no lag—just pure, nimble response, whether it's popping open an app or reacting to a touch. It's how Android should feel.

• That details matter. The orange glow when you hit the end of a list. The old school TV-style power down animation whenever the screen goes off. It's the details that make Mactards love Apple; it makes the experience feel complete and fuzzy, like wrapping yourself in a blanket of dead animal fur.

• The new UI. Google's famous for user testing a billion shades of blue. All brain, no vision. The new UI—with lots of orange and green on black, a flattened, more two-dimensional aesthetic that feels very 80s cyberpunk—feels like it was designed by a human being or two, not debated by a committee. It's a little gutsy. Some people will hate it. And it's still not fully wrapped around the entire Android experience. But I dig it, and what it's going for.

• It's the first time I haven't loathed typing on the stock Android keyboard.

• A note about NFC: You don't have to be inside of the tags app to read a NFC chip—the screen just needs to be on. Then you can go into tags later to see ones you've collected.

No Likey

• Why does the Nexus S feel so cheap? It's better than the average Samsung phone—the curve is nice and natural—but like most of the other Galaxy S phones, the look, feel and build quality just don't measure up to the parts or software inside. Glossy, chintzy plastic is just not appropriate here. Even the year old Nexus One feels markedly more expensive and future-y, like a quality, crafted piece of technology. Put another way in terms of feel and build quality: iPhone 4 > Nexus One > Nexus S. (Though the gap between the N1 and NS is much bigger than between the iPhone 4 and Nexus One.)

• The Contour Display is verrrry subtle. This isn't a dislike, it's more like a hype-buster. It's a fine screen, though it gets rather yellow with power saving turned on.

• Some aspects of Android could still use a little more love and care to feel less like a PC and more like a phone for humans. For instance! It's nice that the app manager shortcut is built into the main menu pop-up. But it's still a kind of weirdly incomprehensible list of stuff. Oh, and the music player still sucks!

• No built-in video chat. There's a front-facing camera, but you can't video chat using a native Google app. Speaking of, no dedicated camera button.

• A nitpick, but Samsung's stubbornness placing the lock button on the right side of the phone—instead of the top, like most phones—continues to annoy. The new arrangement of the four main Android buttons isn't optimal, either.

• Not enough Gs. Unlike the G2, it's not using T-Mobile's new HSPA+ network.

The 'Kinect hacks let you control a web browser and Windows 7 using only The Force (updated)' article with you.

2010-11-25T09:01:00.001-05:00

http://tinyurl.com/23ntdr2
This is afn amazing demonstration of how kinect will be use to control our computers on the near future, lets say your laptop will have a kinect embed plus your normal camara, this will aglow you to use multitasking and communicate at the same time, and combining this with voice recognition, mouse and keyboard will be no longer needed.

Great job MIT Labs

Sent from my Android

There’s nothing better than a good Tech Spree! Why? Because group buying is AWESOME!

2010-11-15T16:19:00.000-05:00

There’s nothing better than a good Tech Spree! Why? Because group buying is AWESOME!

Call everybody, they’re going to want in on this.

Starting tomorrow Tuesday, November 16, until Thursday, November 18, Future Shop is officially launching Tech Spree - a great new way to shop on futureshop.ca. Tech Spree empowers customers to leverage group buying power to obtain incredible prices on popular electronics. The Tech Spree is “on” only if the required number of persons commit wanting to purchase the item, so customers are encouraged to invite friends and family to participate. Customers may commit to one of the Tech Spree offers once. Limit of one of each Tech Spree per household. The deal is available only online and while quantities last. Because this is a “limited time offer”, Tech Spree deals are not eligible for our Lowest Price Guarantee.

What’s the Spree process?

Great question.

Find a TECH Spree deal you love. Pre-order it!
You’ll get a Pre-Order Confirmation Email - this just confirms that we’ve received your pre-order, it doesn’t confirm that the Spree is on yet! That’s your cue to share it with friends and family!
If the Spree is on you’ll get a Spree Confirmation Email! Sweet! Your order is confirmed. If the Spree expires without hitting the Spree Limit you’ll get a sad email that breaks the bad news. Your order is cancelled.
Your Spree order will be processed and you’ll receive a Shipping Confirmation Email.

Take a look at this page: futureshop.ca/techspree tomorrow for a complete list of deals and start spree-ing! Invite friends and family to a Tech Spree deal, and get the latest, coolest, and most fun gadgets and gear for unbelievable prices.

A real review of the iPhone 4 and why I decided to move to Android

2010-11-15T11:49:00.000-05:00

My technological journey with mobile devices 1995-2010

I remember that day, Apple will release the new iPhone 4, with the new iOs 4, it was the moment that I was waiting to change my Blackberry Flip, I told my wife lets go to the Apple store and see if the line is not too bad.

We went there, and we lined up, it was 7:00 am we stayed there all day about 7 hours, insane isn´t it?

I was really exited to get it , too many expectations, finally the smartphone that i was waiting since 1995.

Let me go back in time to tell you about my user experience background.

Back then I was using a Palm Pilot Pro at the university.

That moment was fantastic, then happened the separation of the creator of palm devices and he founded Handspring, i got the Handspring Visor.

It was awesome, i was wishing to used internet on that device by the time, one day I out it in my back pocket and the screen broke apart, it was a sad day for me.

Coincidentally Microsoft has had released the Windows CE, devices where HP and Compaq had the stage with the HP Jornada and Compaq iPaq

I replaced the visor with an iPaq... funny name isn´t it?

A great device, Microsoft did a great job with this Os, it was almost perfect, it didn´t has Wifi, so the only way to have internet on the iPaq was having it connected to your computer. Not functional, right? a mobile device that can´t be mobile it doesn´t make any sense.

So I played with it a bit and then I jumped to a Dell Axim.

the best PDA I ever had.

It had Wifi, 624Mhz processor, nice screen Windows CE 5, but limited internet experience, and by that time Windows CE supported Flash 6, here we are at the year 2003.

So far the best experience ever but with a small detail you can´t make a phone call.... frustrating.

Palm had created the Palm Treo the first smartphone.

It was Ok, I got my email all the time, internet wap based browser over a CDMA network, no Flash, some apps but very limited visual space.

After the Palm Treo there wasn´t many options, it was like 4 years without any innovation.

until Apple released the iPhone back in 2007.

It did look great but you got not all that i just described using my past devices.

I didn´t got the iPhone, I wait 4 generations in Apple time it means 3 Years.

Innovate is a difficult thing, but once you do it you are the pioneer, a leader in your niche.

Back to 2010, I was waiting in line with my wife then a guy behind me had a phone that I

couldn´t recognized, I ask him what phone is that, he told me a Samsung Galaxy S, I got it from Korea, he said, he showed me the phone and I was in shock.

I thought, the iPhone 4 has to be better than the Galaxy S, otherwise I am waisting my time here, it better be good, it better be good.

Finally at 5:00pm we entered to the store, I bought the iPhone full priced, the unlocked version, it was around CAD $725. Really expensive...

Well I got back home exited, and guess what I couldn´t get it activated, because the network was collapsed.

Next day I waked up, called my network provider and get the iPhone working.

Now comes the technical user experience:

The Screen: amazing
GUI: similar to previous iPhone Os, not to many changes.
Multitasking: disappointing, the current apps aren´t designed for this, if we can call multitasking to pause an app while the other is running.
That definitely is not a multitasking operation. it is a Fake multitasking.
Web Browsing: Limited set the WAP or mobile pages as a default. Not flash experience.
Facetime: limited to only Apple devices, furtunaltely there is an app called TANGO which saved the day for video calling between Android and Apple devices.
Design: Amazing, the Phone felt heavy and easy to broke because it glass faces.
Social experience: disappointing, if you want to share something, lets do it, imaging you are in a party and you take a group picture, the logic says I want to share it right away to my facebook wall or to my twitter, but in the iPhone is really painful, for instance, you have to take the picture, then close the app, and open facebook, then share from facebook the picture, in this process you has to spend at lease 5 or more minutes. this kind of behavior never happened using a Blackberry, or an Android device.
Limited access to apps that are not on your current version of iOS. you can see the app but you get an error message when you try to run it.
Antenna Gate: Awful, terrible you can´t handle the phone in many ways. the signal drops to NO Service, and you lose all connections. Also Weak signal is a problem of an antenna design.
iPod: if you ever have an iPod touch you will know it is perfect, hey you can get the best of the iPhone on the the New iPod Touch without having the phone experience.

Not all is bad for the iPhone 4 but the critical parts that stand from a PDA to a smartphone is the Phone Experience plus the user behavior based on common tasks.

All those bad thing lead me to return the iPhone 4 the first time, I thought , it is a factory defect.

And I gave it a second chance and I got it replace it with not luck, frustrated I returned again and waited until the Samsung Galaxy S was released.

And I can tell so far it the best Android Phone out there, now comparing it with and iPhone 4 it do what iPhone does and doesn´t, closing the cycle and giving you the best mobile internet experience, full web browsing, including Flash, social media capabilities it means you can share all that you want at the moment you generate the content, picture, experience.

Here is top five reason video why Android is better than iPhone

I hope this help you to make a good choice.

Gus Pineda

Nexus two apparently going out november 8th

2010-10-29T10:33:00.001-04:00

This is really good but google has to make a decision about the fragmentation of android.

For sure it is better than apple closed ios, but users don't want to have top noticed different versions with a less than a year.
So far since 2.0 has been realease 3 versions and the carriers are stoping the updates. It means you have the latest device but with an old Os... It s...
And now you will have to wait for months for an update.
Apple instead keep that simple, popular, and without complications when update time comes.

So Google an advice, revisit your update strategy, set equal parameters for phone manufacturers, and manage the update inhouse and send it directly to the users and the victory will be yours.

http://m.gizmodo.com/5676008/hands-on-the-nexus-two-by-samsung

Sent from my Android

Iphone 4 software fix doesn\'t work - The Inquirer

2010-07-15T14:37:00.001-04:00

Apparently Apple will release a Placebo software update tomorrow to try to fix the Antenna signal problems, guess what? it is not working read the following story.

http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1722845/iphone-software-fix-doesnt

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gepmaster@gmail.com has shared something with you

2010-01-04T10:22:00.001-05:00

This is an additional Release of Google that will happen tomorrow.
From the financial perspective Apple and Google are doing the best innovating and competing each other leaving Microsoft out of the mobility field.
Keep it in mind those two...

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/GadgetGuide/google-nexus-beat-apple-iphone/story?id=9458204

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The Windows 7 Family Pack will be available on October 22

2009-08-13T18:50:00.000-04:00

Microsoft Family Pack will be kicking the street on October 22

Microsoft has placed a $149.99 price tag on the Windows 7 Family Pack, which lets as many as three PCs in a single household upgrade to Windows 7 Home Premium edition. Users in Canada will pay $199.99.

Microsoft's official blogger Brandon LeBlanc confirmed the three-license pack last week, but did not include the price.

"We have heard a lot of feedback from beta testers and enthusiasts over the last 3 years that we need a better solution for homes with multiple PCs," LeBlanc wrote. "I'm happy to confirm that we will indeed be offering a family pack of Windows 7 Home Premium (in select markets) which will allow installation on up to 3 PCs."

Prior to LeBlanc's announcement, the three-license pack was rumored due to terms discovered in a leaked version of Windows 7 Home Premium Edition.

The Windows 7 Family Pack will be available on October 22, the same day the operating system is released to the public.

Windows 7 Family Pack

Additionally, Microsoft has announced Windows 7's Anytime Upgrade pricing, the scale for users who purchase machines with Home Premium or Starter Editions and wish to upgrade.

# Windows 7 Starter to Windows 7 Home Premium- $79.99

# Windows 7 Starter to Windows 7 Professional- $114.99

# Windows 7 Starter to Windows 7 Ultimate- $164.99

# Windows 7 Home Premium to Windows 7 Professional- $89.99

# Windows 7 Home Premium to Windows 7 Ultimate- $139.99

# Windows 7 Professional to Windows 7 Ultimate- $129.99

source: amazon.com

Google Wave-Preview

2009-08-12T20:28:00.000-04:00

Google Wave-Preview
Connected with my blog.
A very interesting interface, allow you to communicate with the audience  from different media.

Google release this application very close to their beta release to the public, with the premise of have one media of communication into differents environments it means with your cell phone you could wave and that will be posted on email, social media like twitter or facebook and also posted in you favorite blog.

Right now I am on that wave riding it to see where it goes!

Google Chrome has Themes and more to come

2009-08-10T20:08:00.000-04:00

"Finally Google Chorme has an official themes to you customized the look as your personality"

Go ahead enter and change that boring colors from google chrome.

For months different sites were trying to create some themes but this is the the rigth way to go, do not download from other site that is not Google.

This themes came just in the right time,very close to the lauch of Google Wave, which will be the sussesor of the email in few years.

Also this will be a taste of the themes that you could enjoy with hte Google Chrome OS, which will be launched this year, pretty exiting moments are coming in the technology world.

As I said in my twitter this is a great year for the top technology that we will see, windows 7, IPad ( Apple tablet), Google Chrome OS, IPhone G5, Google android enhanced ( A modifications of the hardware and the OS to make it more easy to use, something like the new Palm Pre, and a surprising Syncronization with Itunes)

Lets see soon new technology will arrived, hoping they (Ms, Apple, Google, Palm) will be thinking more in the users and capabilities than increase their wallets.

Nothing more for now...

Update:

Here is the link to apply the themes

And here you can download the last version of Google Chrome

Let´s Make a Huge Wave with Google Wave...

2009-05-30T14:04:00.001-04:00

What is about Google Wave?

Google Wave is a new model for communication and collaboration on the web, coming later this year.
Here's a preview of just some of the aspects of this new tool.
What is a wave?

A wave is equal parts conversation and document.People can communicate and work together with richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more.
A wave is shared. Any participant can reply anywhere in the message, edit the content and add participants at any point in the process. Then playback lets anyone rewind the wave to see who said what and when.
A wave is live. With live transmission as you type, participants on a wave can have faster conversations, see edits and interact with extensions in real-time.
Some key technologies in Google Wave
Real-time collaboration Natural language tools Extending Google Wave
Concurrency control technology lets all people on a wave edit rich media at the same time.
Watch the tech video
Server-based models provide contextual suggestions and spelling correction.
Watch the tech video
Embed waves in other sites or add live social gadgets, thanks to Google Wave APIs.

_____________

It is a collaborative new "Wave" to communicate with a share environment as I mentioned early this week Google Wave is the next Gmail Generation mixing Social networking with email, in real time, all the APIS are available and this will change the "Wave" to communicate, making internet a social experience with high interactivity that we never meet before.

Today I watched the Google IO keynote and my brain started to realize that swimming with sharks will be a nice experience... metaphoric speaking of course.

Those guys are making a huge work but there is more to come, Video interaction and recorded in a time line plus text and modification in real time will be on the top, also voice notes. Imaging, driving your car and fixing or making voice notes in an article in multiple languages at the same time while you also are sharing information or bloging and Twittering with my Google G2 or the next Generation G3 - a total sense experience.

Google has understand very well the social communication impact and that is why there is more and more to come. Certainly Facebook and Twitter are in a hot moment right now but... Google has been there since 2004 rocking the planet.

Communicate to people never has been easier until now, I remember the TV when I was a Child and was unidirectional communication , just receiving information. Now days Internet is the new "wave" to express yourself, and people is talking about topics that never talked before, sex, life, TV shows, internet, personal thoughts, news weather, etc.

"Mobile computing is helping us to do the same everywhere with everyone amazing EH!"

But as a users or developers we need to do more , create more and share more in that "Wave" we will be better person, friends, family and nothing could stop the information or the Truth of what is happening when is happening and who are the actors in the role of life.

Let me know when it's ready

Google Wave will be available later this year.

Gus Pineda

Sponsored by Neoactiva.com "Reinventing the web business"

Video Google Ion or G2 Second Gen of Google Phone and the next in Google G3

2009-05-30T13:26:00.000-04:00

Video Google Ion or G2 Second Gen of Google Phone

Product summary

The good:The Google Ion (aka the HTC Magic) has a sleek, attractive design with a gorgeous display, tactile controls, and an easy-to-use interface. Features include stereo Bluetooth, seamless integration with Google apps, Wi-Fi, quick access to music and application downloads, and a broad degree of customization. Call quality is excellent and the 3G speeds are zippy.

The bad:The Google Ion lacks full Outlook-syncing support and a standard 3.5mm headset jack. Video quality is uneven and the HTML browser interface could be refined. Camera-editing and personal-organizer options are slim, and the landscape keyboard isn't available in all applications.

The bottom line:The Google Ion is the Android device for which we've been waiting. A few complaints remain, but its eye-catching design and interface, improved features, and satisfying performance make us excited about Android's full potential.

See all products in the series

CNET editors' review

Reviewed by:
Kent German
Reviewed on: 05/29/2009

Ever since we first heard of the HTC Magic, we've been waiting on the edges of our seats for it to land at T-Mobile. After all, the Magic would be our second Android phone for review and we were eager to see if Google and HTC could improve upon their initial T-Mobile G1. Our curiosity peaked after a T-Mobile-ready Magic cleared the FCC two months ago, but hope turned to impatienceas the weeks dragged on. Instead of being the "Year of Android," 2009 was turning out to be frustratingly quiet.

But just as we were about to give up, a device called the Google Ion made the rounds at the Google I/O Conference. Essentially a Magic with slight cosmetic tweaks, the Google Ion shares most of the G1's features and adds the Android 1.5 "cupcake" update. The Ion won't be released into the wild as a mass market device, but we decided to give it a shakedown anyway, since it came equipped for T-Mobile's 3G service. And we're very glad that we did.

Rest assured that the Ion is an attractive smartphone with a load of features and an intuitive interface. Sleek where the G1 was clunky, the Ion improves immeasurably on its G1 predecessor. In all seriousness, it should have been the original Android device. We still have a few complaints, and some users may miss a physical keyboard, but the result is a powerful handset that can rival the iPhone on many fronts.

Design
The Google Ion is quite unlike HTC's earlier G1, and that's a good thing. While the G1 was rather large to accommodate its physical keyboard, the touch-screen-only Ion sports a sleek profile, glossy skin, and an eye-catching blue-and-black color scheme. It's an appealing device in all regards and we're glad to see an Android phone that actually looks cutting edge. At 4.65 inches tall by 2.19 inches wide by 0.65 inch deep and 4.09 ounces, the Ion has a sturdy, comfortable feel in the hand and it slips cleanly into a pocket or bag for easy traveling.

The Ion's real estate is dominated by a gorgeous 3.2-inch touch screen. The bright 480x320 pixel HVGA display shows colors, graphics and photos beautifully; it also offers a customizable brightness setting and an adjustable backlighting time. You can personalize the screen with a selection of wallpapers.

The user interface is similar to the G1's, which means it is fun, clean, and intuitive. Compared with the iPhone, there is a very slight learning curve, but it takes only a few minutes to know what goes where. And once you understand it, you shouldn't have to look at the user manual again. The home screen is made of three panels side by side, which you can move between by swiping your finger across the display. In a bold degree of customization, you can populate the screen with any number of shortcut icons that give instant access to the related applications. The Ion comes with a selection of default icons, but you can remove them or add more as you wish. Such customization and ease-of-use makes for one of the best cell phone UI's around.

On the whole, the touch interface is responsive. We could move through long lists easily by flicking our finger (to go quickly) or by dragging it up and down the screen (to go more slowly). We could also scroll around Web pages with relative ease. Just be advised that, like the G1, the Ion doesn't have an iPhone-like multitouch interface that allows you to zoom in by pinching your fingers. Also, while the Ion has an accelerometer, it doesn't work in every feature (see below).

The display offers haptic feedback, but only for certain actions. For example, a quick tap to open an application won't offer any feedback, but you will feel a very slight vibration if you press and hold (aka a "long press"). On the G1, a long press when inside an application would bring up a menu window with pertinent commands for that feature. The Ion, however, has a physical Menu key that performs that function. Yet, like the G1, you use a long press to drag icons around the display. Be advised that the Ion has a capacitive touch screen, so you must use your finger; a stylus or your fingernail won't work.

The main menu page is simple and intuitive.

Like on the G1, a tab at the bottom of the display will pull up the main menu, with the full set of features and application icons. It's an easy-to-use and attractive arrangement that's free of burdensome animation or graphics. You can scroll up and down by dragging your finger. Some features take a bit of digging, but enough options are surfaced up front. To close the menu, just press the tab again. At the top of the home screen is a dedicated Google Search bar. Pressing it once will open a full keyboard, though it's available only in vertical mode. Next to the search bar is a small microphone that opens a voice search feature.

We like the Ion's physical navigation controls.

Below the display are the Ion's only physical controls. They offer improvements over the G1 not only because there are more of them, but also because they have a sturdier feel. You'll find Talk and End/power keys, a Home button, the aforementioned Menu control, a Google Search shortcut key, and a back button. The keys are crammed into a relatively small area, but they didn't feel too cramped. We also like that the navigation trackball is larger and has more space around its perimeter. Pressing the trackball straight on selects icons and menu options.

The phone dialer interface is simple and intuitive. To reach it, you can press the Call button or you can go through the main menu. Round onscreen buttons show both numbers and the related letters. They were sufficiently large, but haptic feedback would be nice.

The virtual keyboard differs according to which feature you're using. As previously noted, the Google Search keyboard is available only in the phone's vertical mode. Though it should be fine for quick taps, the arrangement is rather crowded when banging out long messages. Indeed, we made quite a few mistakes when tapping. Fortunately, the messaging, e-mail, and browser applications both offer a landscape keyboard with a lot more room. To change between portrait and landscape keyboards, just tip the phone to the left and the Ion's accelerometer will do the trick. You won't get the same effect when tipping the phone to the right, but that's a quirk we can overlook. You can switch between alphabetic and numeric/symbol keyboards with a single tap.

We still don't get a standard headset jack on the Ion.

The volume rocker is located on the Ion's left spine. It's thinner than we'd like, but it's easy to find when you're on a call. The microSD card slot is located behind the battery cover. Fortunately, you don't have to remove the battery, too. Like the G1, you're forced to use a single microUSB port on the bottom of the handset for the charger, USB cable, and any wired headset. While it's not an issue for the first two peripherals, it is annoying that you can't use a standard 3.5mm headset without the included adapter. Sure, many users will, no doubt, use a Bluetooth headset instead, but it's nice to have the option to use both.

Features
Each contact in the Ion's phone book holds eight phone numbers, four e-mail addresses, an IM handle, a postal address, a company/organization name, and notes. You can save callers to groups and assign one of 52 polyphonic ringtones (including one called "Romancing the Tone"--ack). You'll be able to store an additional 250 names on the SIM card.

The Ion offers many of the same features as the G1. We won't go into details here, but we'll list them for review purposes. For a more in-depth look, see ourG1 review. Essentials include a calculator, an alarm clock, a calendar, text and multimedia messaging, and speaker-independent voice dialing. A few more organizer apps like a world clock and a to-do list would be nice, but they should be available as apps. And, of course, you can sync Google calendar and contacts.

More demanding users will like the presence of a YouTube app, Wi-Fi, USB mass storage and syncing, GPS with Google Maps integration, and Google Talk. The Android Marketplace, which allows you to download free and paid apps, is unchanged. We browsed through it a bit and again found it to be quick and easy to use. The Ion's music player isn't terribly fancy; it offers album art, but features are limited to playlists, shuffle, repeat and an airplane mode. You can load your own music on the Ion or you can buy music from the Amazon MP3 store.

Thanks to the Cupcake 1.5 update, the Ion offers stereo Bluetooth and autopairing, video recording and video playback. We knocked the G1 for lacking those options, so we're glad to see them here. The stereo Bluetooth pairing worked without a hitch and the video recorder, while devoid of editing options, is intuitive (see Performance). You can choose from two quality formats.

Other Cupcake additions include bundled widgets on the home screen, video uploads to YouTube, photo upload to Picassa, one-touch access to a contact card from call log event, copy and paste in the Web browser, the capability to use pictures in your favorite contacts menu, search within a Web page, a tabbed Bookmarks interface, a user dictionary for custom words, and a few user interface tweaks. We'll delve more into the 1.5 update as it rolls out to the G1.

The camera lacks a flash and a self-portrait mirror.

The 3.2-megapixel camera is a mixed bag. Though we were glad to see the video recording and playback, camera-editing feature were nonexistent. Also, while you have an autofocus, we found it as difficult to stabilize the Ion as it was with the G1. It's too bad, really, as we think that HTC had enough of an opportunity to refine the shooter from the G1.

The SS1's photo quality was good, but not great.

To view your shots, the Ion has an easily accessible Gallery app. As we mentioned, we had to be careful to avoid blurry shots, but photo quality was decent on the whole. Colors could be brighter, but there was little image noise. The Ion has 288MG of user-accessible internal memory; that's not a lot, so you'll want to buy a memory card.

The full HTML browser is also quite similar. As we said earlier, scrolling around Web pages was a painless experience and the accelerometer makes for seamless switching between portrait and landscape modes. Also, we like that onscreen icons allow you to zoom in and out without digging through too many menus. Yet, at the end of the day, we still think that the iPhone has the best Web browser. Not only does its multitouch interface make for easier zooming, but also you only have to tap the top portion of the open Web page to enter a new URL. The Ion, on the other hand, requires a multistop process (press the menu button, select "go," type in the URL and press "go" again).

Sadly, messaging options aren't improved from the G1. Though you get a native Gmail app, Google Talk, and access to most POP3 accounts, full Microsoft Exchange Server support is still lacking. Though some versions of the Magicpromise such capability, we couldn't find such support on the Ion. We could use the browser and Outlook Web Access (OWA) to check e-mail, but it's a rather clunky experience. Also, since the Ion doesn't appear to offer Outlook syncing for notes, contacts, or calendar, hard-core business users will be shut out from using it as a portable office. To date, the lack of full IMAP4 support remains one of Android's biggest flaws and we implore Google to correct it soon.

Performance
We tested the Google Ion in San Francisco using T-Mobile service. The Ion is a quad-band (GSM 850/900/1800/1900) world phone device that also supports T-Mobile's 3G network. Call quality was just short of amazing. We enjoyed crystal clear conversations and a strong signal. Voices sounded natural and we encountered no static or interference from other electronic devices. The volume level could be louder--we had trouble hearing in noisy places unless the sound was turned all the way up--but it was fine for most situations. All in all, we were quite pleased.

On their end, callers were also very pleased. In fact, some couldn't even tell we were using a cell phone. A couple people complained that they had trouble hearing us when we were in noisy environments, which makes sense considering we had a similar problem on our end, but the gripes ended there. Automated calling systems could understand us easily the majority of the time.

Speakerphone calls were decent. Like with the G1, audio was a bit garbled and fuzzy. It wasn't worse than with many other cell phones on the market, but it was a change from regular voice calls. The volume level remained a tad low, but we could hear callers without too much effort. We had to speak close to the phone if we wanted to be heard on the other end, though it wasn't a big deal. We tested the Ion with the Samsung SBH-600 stereo Bluetooth headset and had good call quality.

On the upside, the T-Mobile 3G connection was lightning fast under most circumstances. Particularly when using the browser, we noticed a positive change from the iPhone. T-Mobile 3G connection doesn't seem to penetrate as far into buildings as AT&T's does, but once you have it, you should be quite satisfied. Google Maps and YouTube videos took a bit longer to load, but we were pleased all around.

Like with the G1, the Ion's processor performed beautifully. The phone responded quickly to our commands when opening and closing applications and there was no lag time when navigating the menus. More importantly, we didn't experience any system freezes or crashes.

Multimedia quality was variable. Music quality was fine, as long as you used a Bluetooth or wired headset. Tunes over the single external speaker were tinny, but that's to be expected on almost any cell phone. Video quality was just OK. Clips that we recorded with the camcorder looked pretty washed out. Also, fast movements looked blurry. YouTube videos were pixelated almost to the point of being bothersome.

The Ion should have a rated talk time of 7.5 hours for GSM and 6.6 hours for 3G. The promised standby battery life is 17.5 days. According to FCC radiation tests, the Ion has a digital SAR of 1.22 watts per kilogram.

-----------

As I promise here is the Spectacular G2, it is an amazing device, and perhaps a real IPhone Killer, the only thing is the communication feature that Blackberry has, the IM BB, this feature is the sales driver of Blackberry, cause it will allow you to communicate with everybody at low cost. But Hey! Google can make it happen it will be just another bout with servers that will allow you to do the same with the Google network, so the next BB will be a G2 or the next Generation of Google Phone , the G3, with that feature I garanty that Google will be on the Top.

keep in touch...

Gus Pineda

CNET Reviews: Is a slimmer PS3 in the works? - CNET News

2009-05-14T13:43:00.001-04:00

This email was sent from gepmaster@gmail.com

Message from sender:
As I mentioned months ago in this blog Sony will launch a slimmer version of PS3, and Microsoft is planning the same with the Xbox 720

Is a slimmer PS3 in the works? - CNET News
URL: http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-18438_7-10239948-82.html

Rumors are percolating that Sony is prepping a slimmer PS3 and that the company might just trot out some info about it at E3 in June.

CNET: The source for computers and technology http://www.cnet.com

Multi-touch computing in here and is the new black

2009-05-09T20:38:00.000-04:00

Talking about touch, yes Apple will release soon a new Mac touch pad computer with a lot of gestures that will change the way we use computers. But no only Apple is in this race, Microsoft will release this year Windows 7, the main goal will be taking out the failure of windows Vista, and adding also new features that will be competing with Leopard, but that is not the end, Multi touch technology is in the air and new device like multitouch pads, and multitouch pad with keywords will be avaliable to support all this software.

Microsoft and Apple are generating technology for this and the hardware for PC is out there, like HP touchsmart, http://www.hp.com/united-states/campaigns/touchsmart/index.html

Imaging this computer with Windows 7 that will be great touching experience.

Dell release the Studio 19 great PC, but I don´t believe anymore in Dell, the service is terrible and the warranty s*cks.

Technology is ready we need to see and feel if the same experience that you can have in The IPod Touch or IPhone will be the same in your next PC is that´s so Apple Will gain more customers.

So far these is the best hardware that you can get.

Now you realize that "Obama" is gonna change everything..

2009-01-23T09:00:00.001-05:00

This morning I was searching interesting news about some moves of The President Obama, and it is funny but true, He got the popularity of a Rock Star, he is a Leader, he is Model figure and all their fans will be following his steps.

So then "I realize that this is going to change everything", we need to understand in the actual crisis the technology industry, and how this technology has to impact our life.

It not a surprise to see Companies with a financial strong arm in this economical crisis time, and think why? and you need to understand who are the chiefs in command.

Lets talk about it, first I found in a friend blog a great article talking about " Is Apple doing business in a different World?" this shown that apple is doing great in this crisis. In Fact Apple will continue doing it, Why? Because they are focus in quality, visual, esthetic, security and functionality. The most important objectives to achieve in the Technology Industry.

We need to add now the fact that President Obama is a MAC Guy, and his team is a MAC Team, this is related in another on CNET NEW article that said "Obama: Where are our Macs?" .

So Apple is doing great plus Obama supporting and Using Mac's, then you realize why this is going to change everything.

This is not rocket science to summarize that this behavior will motive Apple growth and people following Obama steps to be successful.

Another players have been call to be part of the CHANGE and those guys are the strongest in a solid Unix infrastructure, SUN Microsystems, those guys are the most serious company in Open source, with the most important technology and improvement in this field. Well guest what...

Mr. Obamawants to know: Why open source?

It means everything for Open source companies and for SUN Microsystems, this will impact their shares and will be one of the point in the White House agenda.

The best technologies together both in Unix environment, Sun and Apple.

And as I said before, Companies, and common people will follow the steps of their leader... and it is good.

We talk a lot about what is coming and how this will impact our life, and this will generate a positive effect in Apple and Sun and of course Google. They are the winners for the next 2 presidential period and maybe more.

So far we talk about the winners, now is time to talk about the company that is in trouble and the problem is obvious.

Microsoft, the major problem at this company is the Leadership, the Guy that is leading is an arrogant, rude and not intelligent guy, yes is Ballmer, he will step away soon or later, his leadership has been conducting Microsoft to a death end. the Other problem and the driver to the Microsoft slow down is Windows Vista, with several articles talking about how is great and how is fast and how will be , is just waist of time, yes it is Windows 7, a Windows Vista lite, no more than that, of course it has some improvements but it is the same Vista Kernel, in 2 years is impossible to create from the scratch a fully New OS, Sorry Microsoft, but your bad decisions has conducting you to lose field and Apple with all their features , stability and quality has gain what they deserve. I could said that it is a prediction Apple will be the standard in 10 years, Microsoft could be part of Apple helping them to create a desktop, and mobile environment with all the benefits of Mac OS with the usability of Windows.

In conclusion the Change process start and the impact will be good for some and bad for others.

Be prepared because all is going to change.

Gustavo Pineda

Facebook and CNN is not broadcasting... too much congestion Online

2009-01-20T10:26:00.000-05:00

I just log in and there are too many people connected trying to see online the inauguration day for Barack Obama, I can tell you it is taking time to see.

But his is a Great Moment for America.

Here is the link to trying to Watch

http://www.cnn.com/video/fb/facebook.html?stream=stream1

Finally the image appears, thanks to Cisco, CNN said that they will repeat all at 3pm, 5pm, 6pm

Enjoy...

Update.

Senator Kennedy

Mcain...

Cheney

Bush out of hte White house with Barack...

This is the biggest party of ever in America... 2.1 million people joint to this event...

Obama is the first president in use technology as social media , email everyday. For sure his government will be a great part focus in the cyber government.

It means good times for Technology companies, like Microsoft, Google Facebook....

Windows 7 beta download--Think better in MacWin OS

2009-01-12T14:13:00.000-05:00

Download Windows 7 Beta now [ January 9th, 2009 ] Posted in » Latest gadgets and Technology

At the Microsoft’s CES keynote in Las Vegas, a passionate Steve Ballmer announced the worldwide availability of Windows 7 Beta.

The much-anticipated successor to Windows Vista is available now as a download from Microsft’s official site and is not just for tech-heads to use. In fact, Ballmer enthused: “I encourage you all to download it!”

The actual full version of Windows 7 should be hitting shelves everywhere January 2010.

Ballmer commented in his keynote about Windows 7’s R&D, saying: “We are on track to deliver the best version of Windows ever, and working hard to get it right and to get it ready.”

To download, Windows 7 Beta, point your browser to http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/.

What is the purpose of downloading something that is not hte solution for windows vista?

the solution is more than another heavy OS.

The users want a OS that start when the computer is on, not a thing that you have to wait more than 45sg to load all.

It is a hardware problem... NO, it is a flaw in the design, and guest what... is the same kernel in windows 7.

THe solution is merge a MS efforts in usability and mixed with the Mac OS Team, generate a hibrid OS for both platform and win 50% each... it is a good deal think about it.

Ms has stock of Apple and Ithink that could be a great opportunity to unify and standarize the PC-MAc thing.

Remenber Customers /Users first.

Microsoft and Apple, make it big and simple make a MacWin OS and let the world be greatfull of that.

CNET News.com: Chrome gets Mac deadline, extensions foundation - CNET News

2009-01-12T13:36:00.001-05:00

This email was sent from gepmaster@gmail.com

Message from sender:
Google is getting field over Mac World, they used to do that and then they will getting all. Google is a smart, very smart company that want to be the owner of internet, and what the users want. it is to find an answer, for living, life, money, jobs, fun, entertainment, people, finance and finally stay all the time in our mind. Everywhere, It sounds like an apocalyptic book, 666 in your head, hand, everywhere. isn't it weird?. if you find 3 six in the Google name is or i don't think it is a coincidence. What do you think? is some of the guys of Google born in 6/6/96 or something? find it out...
In the Real terms, It can be true, but who knows. it is a strange coincidence.

Chrome gets Mac deadline, extensions foundation - CNET News
URL: http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10138388-2.html

Google has revealed its goal for releasing Mac OS X and Linux versions of its browser. Also, cutting-edge Chrome sports early work to enable extensions.

CNET: The source for computers and technology http://www.cnet.com

Macworld Expo 2009 no Jobs around but Tony Bennett was There...

2009-01-06T14:23:00.001-05:00

Liveblog: Macworld Expo 2009

By Brian X. Chen January 06, 2009 | 11:00:00 AMCategories: Apple, Mac, Macworld

(Hit refresh every two minutes for the latest updates to our liveblog!)

10:37am

Standing ovation for Bennett.

That's our show for Macworld 2009, says Phil. I want to thank everyone in my family, and the people at Apple. Enjoy the rest of the show.

That's it.

These are the sort of announcements that normally would have been in a press release.

10:34am

Singing "The Best is Yet to Come"

Message there?

It's a mortal lock he's going to sing "I Left My Heart in San Francisco"

And here it is.

As Apple says goodbye to Macworld..

10:30am

"This is a really big step for wireless music on cell phones." starting today

Ending on music, and in many of our keynotes, we try and make sure to remember why we do this.

It's fitting that we end our last macworld keynote with an artist who has some amazing music, and is a true legend. 15 Grammys, 2 Emmys.

Tony Bennett.

McClusky: We started iTunes six years ago.

Sold 6 billion songs.

10 million songs available.

75 million accounts.

iTunes is the largest music retailer in the US What's new for 2009?

Price: we've worked with the companies. Over the past six years, we've had jsut one price. Starting April, .69, .99, and $1.29.

Three tiered pricing.

More songs will be offered at .69 than $1.29.

Second thing: iTunes Plus.

That's how we offer DRM free music.

Also encoded better.

What's new: all the major labels. 8 million songs DRM free.

By end of the quarter, all 10 million songs on iTunes will be DRM free Every song in the catalog.

Third new thing has to do with the iPhone.

We've got the iTunes Music Store on the phone.

You can now use Wi-Fi and 3G for the Music Store.

Same price, same selection.

10:24am

Brian X. Chen: $2800 for the 17-inch MacBook Pro

Starts shipping late January.

10:22am

Mark McClusky: If this is the last announcement, this is a very underwhelming keynote.

Integrated battery, non removable.

Custom battery fabrication, non removable to it takes up all the space possible.

New chemistry, chip managed charging.

Claiming 8 hour battery life on the integrated graphics.

10:20am

They're going off on their environmental schpeel. They're saying the battery lacks harmful toxins. And because it lasts five years that's fewer batteries purchased and disposed...

10:15am

Brian X. Chen: It will have 3x the number of recharges 3x the lifespan compared to the industry standard.

Brian X. Chen: 320 GB hard drive, you can upgrade up to 256gb solid state drive.

And of course it works with the new LED cinema display (through the display port connector.

They've worked on the battery to "deliver the longest lasting battery life ever."

They're showing us a video on how they made a longer lasting battery. They had to make a bigger battery. The challenge was finding where to find the space to put it. They created a notebook with a 40 percent larger battery that lasted 8 hours on a single charge.

10:10am

Brian X. Chen: "At 6.6 pounds it's the world's lightest 17-inch notebook."

1920 x 1200 pixel resolution.

700:1 contrast ratio.

60% greater color gamut than the previous model

$50 Anti-Glare option.

Magsafe, firewire 800, ethernet USB, express card 34

There's no Firewire 400. That's notable.

It's got the glass trackpad just like the rest of the new MacBook family.

Intel Core 2 Duo 2.93GHz Processor. (Not a quad-core like some people were speculating.) Up to 8GB memory.

GeForce 9400M

Brian X. Chen: One more thing — the third thing is the new 17 inch MacBook Pro.

10:05am

Mark McClusky: OK, that's it for iWork. Will there be some hardware now? iWork shipping today.

iWork.com beta

Share docs and notify people. view docs online. add comments and notes. download a copy of a doc.

But seems like no real editing tools online.

This might be cool if there wasn't — you know — Google Docs.

I'm sorry, but a demo of commenting and notes on a document might be the most boring thing in the world. If I wanted to look at a document, I'd be at my desk, Phil.

10:01am

Brian X. Chen: Another new feature is Dynamic Outlines. Different fonts and image options to make dynamic looking outlines...

There are also 40 new templates for newsletters, posters, fliers, certificates, business letters and so on.

Third product in iWork '09 is Numbers '09.

Spreadsheet app (think Apple's equivalent to Excel)

A new feature is Table categories. There are new options to organize categories... There are some advanced chart options...Charts with multiple axes, trend lines, and bar graphs. (zzz)

He's done talking about iWork '09. It's $99 for Family Pack; $79 for a single user. You get iWork for $49 with the purchase of a new Mac.

There's also a new Mac Box Set to get iLife, iWork and OS X Leopard for $170.

The box set will ship in late January along with iWork and iLife.

10:00am

Leander Kahney: Oh no, Phil's doing spreadsheets. I'm totally falling asleep — Where's the hardware?

I want my AppleTV.

Mark McClusky: Done with iLife section: $79 upgrade. $99 family pack. Ship late January.

Remember when it was always "Shipping Today"

#2 announcement. New iWork.

The whole crowd just sighed.

Announcement 3: new HyperCard

Just kidding!

The phrase of the day: "Smattering of applause"

9:55am

Brian X. Chen: OK we're done with iLife, thank God. Let's hope we're moving on to hardware.

iLife '09 ships late January.

$80

Not hardware — they're talking about the iWork '09 suite, starting with Keynote '09 (a presentation tool)

Object Transitions is a new feature — just fancier transitions for slides. Keynote 09 also has some new presentation modes for charts. Nice looking 3D charts and animations.

Here's something cooler: There's a Keynote app for iPhone. So you can control your slide presentations via the iPhone.

You can see the slideshow on your iPhone and just move it around with your finger. The app will cost $0.99 in the App Store.

Next: new app Pages '09 — Apple's word processor.

There's a view mode where you can see just the document and all the other toolbars and everything disappear. (Gasp.)

Leander Kahney: Clever - GarageBand now has a new revenue stream — celebrity music lessons.

It's the iTunes model — extra media purchased online

$5 each — people are saying 'woah' like it's a bit high.

Mark McClusky: The energy level bumps up a little with the Artists Lessons in GarageBand. But it's flat in this room.

Done with iLife section: $79 upgrade. $99 family pack.

Ship late January.

Remember when it was always "Shipping Today"

#2 announcement. New iWork.

The whole crowd just sighed.

9:46am

Brian X. Chen: Now he's showing us Themes. Photo Album for example, goes in to a video and adds some transitions and effects that make your video look like a motion photo album — an album with little frames of video and turns pages to cut to new scenes.

They're wrapping up iMovie '09. Now they're talking about one last iLife app: GarageBand. Specifically one feature in the Garage Band music editor. The feature is called Learn to Play. You get a new user interface — you can learn guitar or keyboards. You see an instructor and below the instrument facing you.

So you load a lesson and an instructor walks you through the basics of playing an instrument. In the demo the instructor is showing us basic guitar chords.

You see where your fingers go and just follow the instructions.

Now for piano, they're also showing how to read sheet music.

So with Garage Band it includes 9 free lessons for guitar and 9 free lessons for piano. There are also lessons taught by artists. Some examples include John Fogerty and Colbie Caillat, Patrick Stump, Sting.

There's a built-in store in Garage Band. So that's where you would purchase the artist lessons.

9:39am

Mark McClusky: Damn, this is really slick. Much more powerful editing tools. Is it possible that I might actually edit some of my videos now?

If I was a theater director, I'd be screaming about pacing right now. We're 40 minutes in, and dragging a bit.

9:37am

Brian X. Chen: More interesting feature is video stabilization. When you apply it to a series of clips, iMovie analyzes each frame of your video and looks at the motion in one frame and the other and figures out where all the motion is.

Stabilization is a feature we see in professional video editing apps. It's kind of cool that it's in iMovie.

He also shows how to change video speeds (e.g. slow motion). Not a big deal at all. He shows off some filters, such as Aged Film, to automatically change the overall composition of your video. Those features were in iMovie before version '08. People were complaining that these features disappeared. So now they're back. Hurrah.

Leander Kahney: It's cool the stuff they are showing but presentation is pedestrian They don't have Jobs' natural enthusiasm.

Interesting though that they're trotting out engineers — they haven't done that for years.

9:31am

Mark McClusky: That's the end of the iPhoto 09 demo. Over 20 minutes.

First guest star: Randy Ubillos, the engineer who came up with the new iMovie to do the demo of the app.

9:29am

Brian X. Chen: iMovie '09. You might recall they rewrote iMovie in 2008. '09 is an upgrade of that version.

Summary of what's in this: Precision editor, Advanced drag and drop, Dynamic themes, Animated travel maps, Video stabilization.

Schiller says it's hard to talk about video, so he's demoing all this stuff instead.

Randy Ubillos, chief architect of video applications, is demoing it.

9:28am

Brian X. Chen: Next: New version of iMovie.

iMovie '09. You might recall they rewrote iMovie in 2008. '09 is an upgrade of that version.

9:22am

Brian X. Chen: Just an observation: All of this seems pretty processor heavy. You probably won't be able to handle this with a non-Intel Mac (e.g., G4 or slower G5). I'm guessing the system requirements are pretty hefty.

He's demoing the app. Pretty straightforward and repetitive. (Yawn.)

Mark McClusky: Biggest reaction of the day so far — slideshow themes. Admittedly, they look cool, but wow, really, prettier slideshows?

Oh my god, now he's going to demo it as well. We've been on this for 15 minutes.

For all of my making fun of it, this looks like a really lovely update. Face detection, geotagging, Facebook and Flickr integration.

9:20am

Brian X. Chen: So those are the two new features in iPhoto: Faces and Places. Whoops there's more.

Facebook and Flickr.

Direct integration into Facebook and Flickr. You can automatically upload a photo to Facebook for you to share with your friends.

And it even syncs the face detection tags. For Flickr you can do the same thing. What's also cool is Flickr has geotagging. So you can see the places Geotags in Flickr. Places.

Another new feature: Slidshow themes.

So with slide shows you can pick certain themes that fit with whatever you took pictures of. For example, the ballet theme plays Charlie Brown music. Besides that, the software uses face detection to determine how to position the photos. You can also save the slideshows directly to your iPhone. And they'll play back the same.

Another new feature is called Travel book.

It creates a digital scrapbook of your photos and geotag locations.

Mark McClusky: This is a long long walkthrough of new iPhoto features. What this tells me is that we don't have a lot of products to cover.

9:15am

Brian X. Chen: iLife: iPhoto, Garagband, iDVD, iMovie is the old stuff. What's new in iLife '09? iPhoto '09.

In iLife 08 you could view photos in events. A birthday party, a vacation you go on. It's turned out to be very successful; customers love it. We're adding another way for you to manage photos called Faces.

iPhoto 09 allows you to organize your photos by your favorite people. Click on Faces you get this corkboard with snapshots of all your favorite people. Faces uses Face Detection technology.

For example: Click on a picture, face detection detects the face. Then you type in the name. That's all you have to do to tell iPhoto whose face you want to track.

Also has Face Recognition. To find the same photo across multiple photos. If the face recognition incorrectly detects a face you can double click it and the software gets more sophisticated.

There's also a feature called Places.

iPhoto can organize your photos around where they were taken.

When you click on Places you see a map. That map has pins where all your photos were taken.

Places uses GPS geotagging technology.

Cameras with GPS devices such as iPhone embed a geotag into photos you take. That contains the latitutde and longitude of the photo you took.

Pretty sophisticated -- if you're in the Eiffel Tower, for example, it won't just say you're in France. It'll say you're in the Eiffel Tower.

These maps come from the Google Maps service.

So if you know how to use Google Maps you know exactly how to use this map.

In addition to street maps there's also satellite imagery.

9:07 am

Mark McClusky: The costuming is very different, blue dress shirt and jeans. Causal like Steve, but a little more formal.

But then we open with information about Apple retail stores. Not the sexiest material to draw in the audience.

"Today we're going to talk all about the Mac." Polite clapping, but not a lot of buzz. The first announcement: new iLife.

Hopefully we're building to a climax, because that's just not that earthshattering. On new iPhoto screenshots, there's Facebook and Flickr icons.

9:07am

Brian X. Chen: Each and every week now 3.4 million customers visit an Apple Store around the world," Schiller says. "That's 100 Macworlds each and every week going on in our Apple Stores. It's no longer that what's happening with these stores is just so important to us." "Today what I'm going to talk to you about is all about the Mac. Last fiscal year we had the biggest year in Mac sales. we sold 9.7 million macs. we're so proud of that and work so hard." "3 new things to tell you about" "1st number 1. An entire new version of iLife. iLife 09"

9:05am

Brian X. Chen: "It's an incredibly exciting time at Apple. There is so much going on across all of our businesses all around the world. You can feel it so many ways probably no better than all these incredible stores." He shows a slide of an Apple Store in Beijing China, Munich Germany, and Sydney Australia."

"Just look at the crowds of people lining up in that store. When I look at this photo and I look at that gorgeous glowing Apple I think, what other company's logo could you ever imagine in that photo? I can't think of any other company in the world to have a store that beautiful."

Brian X. Chen: Phil Schiller is on stage. "I can't tell you how excited I am to be the one delivering the keynote at this Macworld." 9:02am

Mark McClusky: Macworld's not just about the information — it's about the presentation of it. I'm going to do theater criticism of this year's non-Stevenote. Can Phil Schiller turn in the sort of performance that the Lawrence Oliver of presentations usually does?

Brian X. Chen: They're welcoming us. "Welcome to Macworld 2009. At this time we ask you to please take a moment to silence all cell phones and pager devices as a courtesy to all the attenders. Thank you very much." Pagers? Wonder how many doctors are here.

The Wired Liveblog Team is on the ground at the MacWorld Expo. Brian Chen is getting settled in. Mark McClusky will be providing theater critic type commentary. Leander Kahney will be providing various support in text and pic form. And here's the first few pics from Jim Merithew.

Apple will announce new products during a Tuesday morning keynote at San Francisco's Macworld Expo. Wired.com will be liveblogging the event on site.

Apple's vice president of marketing Phil Schiller (no, not Steve Jobs) will be delivering the keynote starting 9 a.m. PDT Tuesday. Wired.com's James Merithew, Mark McClusky and Leander Kahney will be there with yours truly, blogging up a storm. At that time, revisit this post to track our coverage and in-depth analysis.

In the mean time, read our pre-Macworld reports to get caught up on what's expected at the show.

iPhone Nano new generation smaller and powerfull

2009-01-06T14:15:00.000-05:00

iPhone Nano Rumors Gain Steam as Macworld Approaches

By John Read - Published January 2nd 2009 - 14:20

Speculation about a possible iPhone Nano, a smaller version of Apple's top selling mobile device, has been gaining momentum in recent months. Reports of manufacturers listing accessories for the iPhone Nano among their products have bolstered the rumors.

Case manufacturer Vaja recently listed the iPhone Nano on its website as one of the devices for which it makes cases. Apparently, after reports of this spread, the listing was taken down. Chinese case manufacturer XSKN also listed the iPhone Nano among the devices for which it manufactures accessories. North Carolina based Digital Lifestyle Outfitters (DLO) is rumored to have developed a dock for the iPhone Nano.

According to Michael Gartenberg, vice president of mobile strategy for Jupitermedia, "The iPhone nano rumor has been around for a while, but with two case vendors now advertising cases for a nonexistent and non-announced device, the rumor does get stronger... like the iPod, it's likely the iPhone will fragment into a family of devices at different price points and features at some point in the future." Although some believe their is no truth to the rumors, Gartenberg believes the manufacturers would need specs from Apple to develop any accessories. He also reminds us that "prior to the last revision of the nano, there were similar leaks of pending cases that proved accurate, giving credibility to the latest round of rumors."

These indicators, plus Apple's history of making big announcements at Macworld, make it likely that Apple will not disappoint in 2009. The Macworld Conference & Expo is scheduled for next week, January 5 -9, at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.

[via Mobile Tech Today]

10 Most Awesome iPhone Apps of 2008

2009-01-06T14:13:00.000-05:00

10 Most Awesome iPhone Apps of 2008

By Brian X. Chen 01.02.09

The iPhone alone is an amazing device. But it's the phenomenal App Store that's made the iPhone truly revolutionary, by giving thousands of independent developers the ability extend and transform the device with their creativity.

Not even half a year old, the store has surpassed a milestone of 10,000 pieces of software available. Since the beginning, Wired.com has paid close attention to the gems that shine among the dross.

We've plucked out a list of 10 apps — from mapping software to musical instruments to games — that deserve applause for their quality, innovation and breakthrough achievements. Here they are — Jay Leno style — with our top pick at the very bottom.

10. Stanza A book reader that grabs free titles from public domains, Stanza has " style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; color: rgb(0, 124, 165); text-decoration: none; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; outline-color: initial; ">soared in popularity — making the iPhone a worthy competitor to Amazon's Kindle. And if those free books aren't enough, Stanza recently expanded to incorporate a " style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; color: rgb(0, 124, 165); text-decoration: none; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; outline-color: initial; ">store to purchase commercial titles. The app did a good job pleasing Wired.com's Charlie Sorrel, who " style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; color: rgb(0, 124, 165); text-decoration: none; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; outline-color: initial; ">modified his Moleskine notebook so he could embed his iPod touch in it. (That way, he could read e-books at the cafe while exuding an aura of pretentious artiness, instead of pretentious geekiness.) " style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; color: rgb(0, 124, 165); text-decoration: none; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; outline-color: initial; ">Download Stanza (Free)

9. SayWhere You get used to typing on the iPhone after some time, but punching in addresses to look up directions is by far the biggest drag. DialDirections was the first to introduce speech-recognition capabilities to the iPhone with SayWhere, which translates users' speech into queries for Google Maps, Yelp, Traffic or Yellow Pages. It's a nifty app, especially for keeping drivers' eyes on the road rather than the iPhone's virtual keyboard. " style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; color: rgb(0, 124, 165); text-decoration: none; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; outline-color: initial; ">Download SayWhere (Free)

8. Tweetie Twitter, a new form of micro-blogging, became more legitimate when it " style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; color: rgb(0, 124, 165); text-decoration: none; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; outline-color: initial; ">broke the news of the deadly Mumbai attacks. And Tweetie is the best app we've found to follow your Twitter friends. The app neatly separates Twitter feeds into categories, and the interface resembles the bubbly iChat interface that most of us have come to love. It even lets you search Twitter and save those searches for later. A must-have for Twitterholics. " style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; color: rgb(0, 124, 165); text-decoration: none; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; outline-color: initial; ">Download Tweetie ($3)

7. NetShare This app is so cool you can't have it anymore. Nullriver's NetShare, an application that turns your iPhone into a wireless modem, disappeared from the App Store shortly after its release. Later, we learned " style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; color: rgb(0, 124, 165); text-decoration: none; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; outline-color: initial; ">Apple banned the app because NetShare violated AT&T's terms of service agreement. So only a lucky few (including some Wired.com staff) got the benefits of unlimited iPhone tethering, which normally costs about $30 a month, for a one-time price of $10. Bummer!

6. Shazam Everyone's familiar with this scenario: You hear a really catchy, unfamiliar song on the radio and you have no idea what it's called. You hum it to yourself repeatedly and attempt to memorize the lyrics, only to forget it after slamming a few shots at the bar. Shazam will never leave you struggling to recollect these thoughts again: Hold the iPhone up to a speaker playing the unknown tune and the app will identify it — album, artist and song title — just like that. " style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; color: rgb(0, 124, 165); text-decoration: none; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; outline-color: initial; ">Download Shazam (Free)

5. Ocarina The hottest music app in the App Store, Ocarina thought beyond the iPhone's touchscreen and found a unique way to use the handset's microphone. Blowing into the mic simulates the experience of tooting into a flute; you play around with four virtual "holes" on the screen to change the note. Ocarina users around the world can even hear what you're playing in a globe mode. It takes a while to get a hang of it, but Ocarina gives away just how creative iPhone apps can get so long as developers have enough imagination. " style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; color: rgb(0, 124, 165); text-decoration: none; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; outline-color: initial; ">Download Ocarina ($1)

4. TapTapRevenge You'd have to be living on a different planet (or a retirement home) if you haven't heard of Guitar Hero, the game that gets players to twitch their fingers compulsively along with the beat of their favorite songs. Developer Tapulous took the same idea to make an extremely addictive rhythm game called Tap Tap Revenge. Tapping blinking lights on a screen to catch tunes isn't exactly the same as rocking out on plastic guitars and drum pads, but it's still highly addictive. And Tap Tap Revenge is so popular it's even offering the option to download new tracks to tap to, similar to Guitar Hero andRock Band's music stores. " style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; color: rgb(0, 124, 165); text-decoration: none; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; outline-color: initial; ">Download TapTapRevenge (Free)

3. Trism Trism is such an addictive and appealing game that it blessed its developer Steve Demeter with $250,000 in profit in just two months. And deservedly so, because the game's really well designed and plays something like a Bejeweled with an accelerometer to move around the puzzle pieces. It wouldn't be fair to call it one game, either: There are three different modes to keep you hooked." style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; color: rgb(0, 124, 165); text-decoration: none; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; outline-color: initial; ">Download Trism ($3)

2. Pandora Whoa whoa whoa — free downloaded music on a portable device? You don't say. Pandora's alternative music distribution made this happen, and the app is cool as hell on the iPhone. Add a station for an artist you like, and the app will play that artist's music as well as similar tunes you might like. What better way to find new music with the wealth of new bands out there? " style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; color: rgb(0, 124, 165); text-decoration: none; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; outline-color: initial; ">Download Pandora(Free)

1. Google Earth When Steve Jobs called the iPhone "Your life in your pocket," he probably didn't expect Google to deliver the world in your pocket. Well, virtually. Displaying satellite imagery around the world in a 3-D globe, Google Earth is one of the most intense, mindblowing apps that truly " style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; color: rgb(0, 124, 165); text-decoration: none; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; outline-color: initial; ">shows off the powers of the iPhone. If you want to impress your grandmother with a demonstration of just how far technology has come since she was a girl, this ought to do the trick. " style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; color: rgb(0, 124, 165); text-decoration: none; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; outline-color: initial; ">Download Google Earth (Free)

Some key technologies in Google Wave

Real-time collaboration	Natural language tools	Extending Google Wave
Concurrency control technology lets all people on a wave edit rich media at the same time. Watch the tech video	Server-based models provide contextual suggestions and spelling correction. Watch the tech video	Embed waves in other sites or add live social gadgets, thanks to Google Wave APIs.