What is Google Hiding? Tiny Pet Dinosaurs?

Google are so mysterious, man. Or are they?

So there’s this thing floating on San Francisco Bay. Luckily enough, making things sound ever so cool, it’s actually moored to an island in the Bay just off San Francisco called Treasure Island. That’s right, Treasure Island. 

Here is the island:

And here is the thing:

It’s a bunch of shipping crates stacked 4 wide, 4 high and 4 long and welded together. And it belongs to Google.

Up until a little while ago, this thing was a complete mystery. There was a front company called ‘By and Large’  who were eventually traced back to Google. But why were Google building it? What could be it’s purpose? Could it be for the launch of Google Glass? To house tiny pet dinosaurs? Or are google finally using their sea-water cooling data centre patent?

To be honest, the mystery of it all was pretty fun. We went out there to take a few photos ourselves, make a few stabs in the dark about it’s purpose and try to outstare the security guard there. Here’s one of our pictures:

And then, Google went and ruined all the fun/solved the mystery by releasing a statement saying exactly what the Google mystery barge is. Kinda.

This is what they said:

“Google Barge … A floating data center? A wild party boat? A barge housing the last remaining dinosaur? Sadly, none of the above. Although it’s still early days and things may change, we’re exploring using the barge as an interactive space where people can learn about new technology.”

And here’s what it is proposed to look like when it’s completed.

So, a clever publicity stunt designed around a pretty floating building where people can learn about technology. We’re thinking that when they say ‘technology’, they mean their technology. Namely, in all likelihood, Google Glass.

So we guess that’s still cool. Less full of dinosaurs than we would like, but whatever. They did say things could change, so we bet if we wish really hard, it could probably still end up being full of tiny pet dinosaurs for really special deserving people who want tiny pet dinosaurs?!

Sweet!

Images courtesy of   SF.funcheap, Sfgate & Nydailynews & Trendhunter.

Apple is now the most valuable brand in the universe

Who’s the most valuable company in the world? Who is?! Apple is! We always get Run DMZ in our head when we read that sentence for some reason. So, naturally, now you guys get to have it in your head…

There! Ok, so last week Apple was named the world’s most valuable brand. In the world. Technically, in the universe. Alf got nothing on you, Mr Cook.

We miss Alf.

Back in 2000, a company called Interbrand began compiling a ‘Best Global Brand’ survey of the top 100 brands worldwide. The company that produces that sweet, sweet, black gold, Coca Cola, has been number one every single year.

Until now. BUM BUM BUUUUUUUM

This year, Coca Cola has fallen to the number 3 position and Apple has taken place at the top of the brand castle, thank you very much.

Apple climbed from the number 2 position in 2012, and all the way from the number 8 position in 2011.

According to Interbrand’s report, Apple’s brand value has increased by 28% from last year, sitting at 98.3 Billion. That’s… a lot of apples.

Google, with 93.3 billion, placed 2nd this year, and 5 of the top ten were tech companies, a trend that should only become more clear in the years to come.

New YouTube Mobile App feature!

Youtubers!

Good news! Very soon you will be able to download video using the mobile app on your phone or tablet AND watch said video later, when you’re offline for some weird reason.

Cool huh? Well, it’s like a 6 on coolness. Could definitely come in handy, definitely good for flights and camping and space flights.

But… some commercial partners, such as the music video service Vevo, have the option and are taking the option to not participate. Wah.

The service will still be free, still contain ads, won’t work for movies or TV episodes that it currently rents, and the downloaded video will work to watch offline for up to 48 hours.

Thanks, YouTube.

Image courtesy of YouTube.

Anyone want google glass?

You guys have heard of Google Glass right?

The proposed future of wearable technology that will be the ultimate integration of life and computer?

The thing that has some people up in arms about privacy and we’re all going to become androids aaaaagh?

The thing that you think kind of makes people look a bit silly but you really want to try out anyway?

A wearable computer with an optical head-mounted display? 

Augmented-reality glasses?

This thing?

Yeah, that thing.

Up until now it’s kind of been something you hear about in the press, but don’t realllly see right? If you live in a Tech city, or know someone lucky enough and really into their tech, you might have heard of someone who has one. Or someone whose whose cousin has one.

It’s quite frustrating, actually, no matter what your opinion about the technology involved.

You still want to be able to play with the silly futuristic tech toy that you can’t even play with for who knows how long, especially because you’re a reasonable person right? You wouldn’t have an opinion on something until you’ve actually experienced it, tried it, right?

But Google are in control and it’s just stupid, why do we have to wait for soooo long?

Well, kids, the time of Google Glass in the public domain is getting closer. One person at a time, actually.

Google has begun inviting more people to try Google Glass out. Participants in the Glass Explorer program for early adopters have been sent an email from Google, inviting them to, in turn, invite one friend into the Google Glass Explorer program.

The invitations are limited to people who are U.S. residents, at least 18 years old and able to pick up Glass in San Francisco, New York or Los Angeles.

Around 8000 competition winners are currently taking part in the Google Glass early explorer program, as well as the various tech heads around that are lucky enough to be testing them out.

So…. Time to put your thinking caps on guys. There is the actual possibility in the world right now for you to be able to play with new and supposedly futuristic technology before most of the rest of the world.

A small chance, probably, yes, but still a chance!

All you need to do is to go and find one of the early adapter people, make an amazing impression on them so that they pick you above their family and friends, and hence start using Google Glass. Cake?

Go to it! And soon you too can look like this…

Images courtesy of  cnet.com and turnstylenews.com

iOS 7

Yesterday we were given a preview of iOS 7, and apart from the fact that we only saw a teensy snippet of one of our personal favs and the man mainly responsible for iOS 7, Jony Ive, the new iOS announcement exceeded even our expectations. And we had high hopes!

Now, this system update will not change your life drastically, it will not do your job for you or make you a more beautiful person, but what it does is promise to enhance your life, with it’s combination of a pared down and simplified beauty and increased functionality.

This seventh system update is the biggest change to iOS since the iPhone came out with the user interface changing pretty drastically as well as the addition of a number of new features.

As was predicted ( or leaked in a timely manner by Apple), the new iOS has none of the skeumorphic, life like graphics or icons as seen in the previous versions.There is a whole new color palette, completely new icons and the overall impression is a much cleaner, flatter, brighter and simpler user interface.

There is a translucent feel to the screen, which gives depth to the phone, even down to the wallpaper, which you can now see behind app icons, and that moves intuitively in relation to the motion in your hands.The typography, also, has been redesigned to be bigger, spacier and cleaner.

Apple has said that this is the future of iOS, that as well as being the biggest change to iOS since the original iPhone, it is a new beginning.And, well, we haven’t tested it out yet, but we like the way it looks. We like the new features, and we like the direction Apple is going with it.

Here are some new features that make iOS 7 super, double rainbow exciting.

Control center
Swiping up from the bottom of the device, you can find the all-new control center. This innovation provides quick access to preferences and settings. You will find switches for wifi, Airplay, a flashlight, do not disturb, brightness, airplane mode, and quick music buttons.

Weather, Messages, Calendar

Messages and the Calendar app have both been cleaned up and simplified. The updated weather app has animation representing live weather, (the lightening looked particularly cool) with the ability to see more details such as humidity, and scrunch all your favorite places together to see not only the weather in each, but the time in world clock format.

Multitasking

Pressing the power button twice will now give previews of apps that are open, rather than the small app icons that we see right now on iOS 6.

The phone will intuitively learn which apps you use most often and at what time. Background processing will then provide updated content, ready and waiting for the time that you use them.

This also applies with apps that send push notifications- when that happens, the phone will start processing updates because it knows that you will more than likely be opening that app soon.

The phone will recognize and take advantage of power efficient times, such as when it is connected to Wi-Fi, to update apps.

Airdrop
This is a new function, sadly only available on the most recent devices ( iPhone 5, iPad etc).

Airdrop makes it super easy to share photos, videos, contacts and other stuff between friends with iPhones. Connecting via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, you can simply click the share button and choose the recipient from those around you.

You can send whatever you want ( from apps that support Airdrop) and the person receiving can choose to save the item- it will then be located in the appropriate app. Photos in iPhoto, etc.

Safari

Safari is updated with a new full screen look and smart search tab, one tap access to favorites and better parental controls.

You also have the ability to see and browse your tabs from other devices.

Also… and this is kind of a biggie… no more eight tab limit! Oh my god apple, why did that take so long, but thank you, thank you.

Tabs are also now organized differently- vertically in 3D instead of horizontally, with the ability to reorder the tabs. To get rid of one tab you just swipe it to the left.

Photos and camera

The camera app now includes 4 camera options- Normal, square cropped, video and panoramic. You also have the option of a number of live filters to apply to photos.

The photos app has a brilliant way of organizing your photos using time and location to bundle your photos into ‘moments’, which are photos from the same time and/or place. These ‘moments’ can then be organized into ‘collections’, which are groupings of moments using that same organizational information.

You can also view your whole collection via year, see what locations you were in for each year, and scrub to find a specific photo.

Siri

Siri now has not one but two new voices, a more human like female and male voice!

A new interface, with sound waves to represent Siri when he/she’s processing, French and German capabilities and a whole whack load of higher intelligence makes Siri exciting again.

The results can now include photos within the app and has the ability to answer more questions more intelligently, with Twitter, Wikipedia and web search results from Bing integrated into the app. Interesting choice with Bing, but we’ll ride with it for a while…

Siri itself has also become more integrated into your device, and can perform functions such as turning the brightness down, turning Bluetooth on etc.

New app store
For starters, the new app store looks way better. Secondly, all of your apps will now update automatically, (down with those little red numbers!) and thirdly, we now have some new search options.

You will be able to search for apps based on your location, or or an event or festival you’re at. You can also now search for and find apps using age range, which is designed with kids in mind.

Itunes Radio
We have a whole other section on iTunes Radio, go here to read it ☺

Ios in the car
iOS will soon be integrated into your car by having your device display through the in-car monitors. A bunch of cars will begin to be integrated with Siri, Maps, messages and more in 2014.

The introduction to this was pretty broad, however there will be more details to come. The car manufactuors who will be including iOS in at least one of their models include Honda, Mercedes- Benz, Nissan, Volvo, Kia, Acura, Ferrari, Hyundai, Infiniti, Jaguar, Opel, and Chevrolet.

OK, so those are the big features. There are also a ton of different, smaller features in iOS 7, like the updated notification centre that can now be accessed from the lock screen, and synced across all of your devices, and the activation lock to try to prevent theft ( no-one can use your iphone unless they know your iCloud username & password.)

We think that iOS 7 is really pretty cool, especially considering that we’ll be getting at least a few more cool features in the hardware component around the same time (Fall this year). What do you guys think?

iOS 7 will be available to the public in the Fall. Demos for iOS 7 are available on Apple’s site- here.

First image courtesy of techradar.com, all others courtesy of Apple.com

Today is Google Day

Today is all about Google!

We realize that there is a lot of things in the world that are all about Google, but today Google had there big meeting thingy ( The 6th Annual Google I/O Developer Conference in San Francisco).

As always, we’re here to tell you all the things you might need to know, and all the things you didn’t even know you needed to know! (About new Google products and updates).

Frankly, it’s a lot of words, so we’ve organized it into bite sized, coffee break readable, lovely little Googly parcels of information.

Enjoy!

1. Google Hangouts (Integrated, multi- platform video & chat product)

2. Google Maps update and iPad App

3. Google Play Music All Access

4. Google Play Game Services

5. Updates and the future of the Google search engine.

The conference continues over the next three days, so we’ll be sure to keep you updated with all the goings on!

Image courtesy of Mashable.

2. Google Maps update and iPad App

This summer, Google will be releasing a new version of Google Maps, as well as an App for the iPad. The update aims to be ‘fully interactive and tailored to you’. Nice.

Google intends to do this by including the ability to see ratings and read reviews from Zagat when searching for restaurants, as well as gaining access to coupons and discounts for retailers such as Starbucks through Google Offers.

Within the app, you will have the option to ‘star’ a location on your map or write a review, which the map will remember and create ‘smart’ recommendations based on this activity.

The update includes access to live traffic information, with alerts of traffic incidents and dynamic re-routing capability, making sure you always get to work on time. Um…winning? Also helpful for getting home on time. Winning.

The new version will have an updated design as well as added functionality, with edge-to-edge maps on screen, as well as the addition of their new ‘Earth View’ which takes what’s great about Google Earth and places it nicely into Google Maps. 3D greatness, that is. Like our eyes.

This Summer will also bring about the Google Maps App for the iPad, which includes a feature called ‘Experience’ which is basically an indoor version of maps, in case you’re one of those ‘I get lost in shopping center’s kind of people’, which… there’s nothing wrong with. Just saying.
You can sign up now through your Google account if you want to try the new Google Maps on your computer, ( or, wait, be invited to try it I should say), but you’ll have to wait until Summer to try the redesigned mobile Apps and the iPad App.

We’ve asked for an invitation. We’ll let you know how it goes!

1. Google Hangouts (Integrated, multi- platform video & chat product)

2. Google Maps update and iPad App

3. Google Play Music All Access

4. Google Play Game Services

5. Updates and the future of the Google search engine.

Image courtesy of cnet.com

3. Google Play Music All Access

Google has today launched it’s new music subscription service, Google Play Music All Access, which (apart from being an annoyingly long name) is apparently aimed squarely at Spotify’s place in the market.

The service, like Spotify and others, aims to provide songs on demand that can be streamed to a computer, tablet or mobile device.

It’s built on the existing Google Play Music Store and recommends songs based on user preference, and then guiding the user towards similar music they might not have discovered yet.

You also have the ability to store 20,000 of your own tracks in the cloud alongside the All Access tracks.

Here’s the tricky part- Google think of this as a premium service and there is no free tier- it will cost $9.99 per month. Worth it? Maybe. Luckily you can check it out for yourself with a 30 day free trial.

If you get in early, Google is offering a discount if you begin the free trial by June 30. Those keen enough will pay just $7.99 per month.

Go to google.com/music and you’ll be invited to sign up if you’re keen!

1. Google Hangouts (Integrated, multi- platform video & chat product)

2. Google Maps update and iPad App

3. Google Play Music All Access

4. Google Play Game Services

5. Updates and the future of the Google search engine.

Photo Courtesy of Macrumors. 

4. Google Play Game Services

Another product released by Google today, with the very real intention of knocking another product out of top place, is Google Play Game Services (another annoyingly long name, get catchier Google!).

This one is designed to compete with Apple’s Game Center with the promise of integrating your gaming experience across all platforms and devices.

Available on Android, iOS and the web, the center has leaderboards, the ability to save to cloud, and real-time game playing against multiple users, ( this part- not so much available on iOS yet, sorry folks).

You can sign in using Google + the program will track your scores and saves across a range of devices.

The Google Play Game Service is available today across a smattering of games.

1. Google Hangouts (Integrated, multi- platform video & chat product)

2. Google Maps update and iPad App

3. Google Play Music All Access

4. Google Play Game Services

5. Updates and the future of the Google search engine.

Photo courtesy of Venturebeat

5. Updates and the future of the Google Search Engine.

Today, Google previewed what they are building in terms of the future of their search engine. As they correctly observe, people don’t communicate or gain knowledge based on key words. A lot of the time, its based on spoken, flowing, sentence based communication.

So this is what they’re working on. They see us in the future, asking (aloud) our computer/tablet/mobile/shoephone questions such as, “What is the weather like in San Francisco?”

Alongside the spoken and correct answer they see the search engine already creating answers to follow up questions, like the weather in other places nearby, how long it would take to drive to San Francisco, traffic conditions, event information etc.

Google is also building their ‘Knowledge Graph’ which as of today means that answers to your searches on Google will drastically improve if you speak Polish, Turkish, and Traditional and Simplified Chinese.

Your searches will also include more in-depth answers to questions.

Their example- ” What is the population of Canada?”

This search, as of today, will not only be answered by a number, but the history of Canada’s population growth and the ability to compare populations with other countries.

More information in the world, more knowledge in the world, can only be a good thing. Happy searching!

…Except for us. iPhone Antidote might just have Googled ourselves out for the day. We’ve been Googlified.  Now where are those shots?

1. Google Hangouts (Integrated, multi- platform video & chat product)

2. Google Maps update and iPad App

3. Google Play Music All Access

4. Google Play Game Services

5. Updates and the future of the Google search engine.

Photo courtesy of Moxieinteractive.