Courtesy of Google Street View
Here’s a first look at Google’s Street View, a feature of Google Maps. This definitely adds more value and it’s a welcome feature as it opens up the possibility of turn by turn navigation based on Google Maps. Some interesting things to note tho – faces and vehicle license plates have been blurred out, although it will probably not take long before gems (interesting pictures) will be discovered 
Have a go at it online – it’s pretty addictive!
Google recently launched Mobile Sync (in beta), a free service which synchronizes contacts and calendar entries /alerts between mobile phones and computers, with changes pushed to all devices. Currently, the service supports the iPhone, Blackberry, Symbian and Windows Mobile platforms. For more details, check out Google Mobile Sync.
Google has released an offline mode for Gmail via Google Gears, which lets users read their emails offline and even send email (cached until an internet connection is available).
To enable this functionality, log into Gmail, click on settings, and enable ‘Offline’ in the ‘Labs’ tab as shown.
Additionally, Google has also introduced Measurement Lab (M-Lab) – an open, distributed server platform for researchers to deploy Internet measurement tools. The M-Lab has many features for testing an internet connection, but one particular feature – ‘Glasnost’ has everyone talking. Glasnost allows anyone with a Java enabled browser to test if their ISP is manipulating BitTorrent traffic. All results are made public in the spirit of full disclosure.
23rd September - New York. Google’s Open Handset Alliance, along with T-Mobile and HTC launched the T-mobile G1, the first Google android phone at a press conference. Key features of the platform include it’s open source nature, tight integration with Google’s online services with mention of gmail push capability.
Google’s founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin made an appearance discussing how cool the phone is, with the capability of any geek to program it, with the freely available SDK. Arriving on roller blades, the duo spoke about the android marketplace and emphasis was placed on the open source community and the prospects of future development.
Some features of the device include :
- 3.2-inch TFT-LCD flat touch screen 320 by 480 resolution
- Full QWERTY keyboard.
- Instant access to Google services
- 3.5G HSDPA and Wi-Fi network connectivity
- Android Marketplace
- 3.2 megapixel camera with auto focus.
- microSD slot
No mention of launches in Asian countries yet, but Google and T-Mobile have announced October availability in the US and then to the UK. Unfortunately, there will be no A2DP yet and no support for Exchange or internet sharing with your laptop. Looks like this is going to be a long wait for us in Singapore, but what’s interesting is how this will affect the mighty iPhone.
