Google’s Christmas Marathon

Google has updated the majority of its services and mobile apps in the past couple of weeks - it almost seems Google wanted to make Christmas presents to all of its users. Even though not all services (like the music identification feature in Google Search) can be enjoyed everywhere in the world, there are plenty of new nice features for everyone. Here are my favourites:

Mobile apps:

• Calendar app: finally Google has come up with a calendar app people really want to use
• YouTube app: remote control addition for Google TV/PC
• Google Drive: much improved editing of spreadsheets
• Gmail app: swipe and pinch features adding more user friendliness
• Currents: the magazine app is now a real competitor for the like of Flipboard
• Google Earth: new 3d tours
• Google Play Books: read aloud, dictionary, translation and notes (finally a competitor to the likes of the Kindle app and iBooks)
• Google Now: lets you know how much exercise (walking, running, cycling) you have done (though this one probably still needs a lot of improvement it has a potential to decrease obesity)
• Android camera: addition of photospheres (360 panoramic images); here is a Christmassy example
• Google+ app: user interface improvement to an already excellent app; addition of communities and photospheres

The web and the cloud

• YouTube: create slideshows from uploaded/imported (Picasa, Google+) photos
• Chrome: Save to Drive from the web (images, texts)  addon for the Chrome Browser
• Google Drive: improved Google Presentations/Slides (as it is called on my Chromebook) with a very handy presentation mode; integration of third party webapps
• Gmail: attach files from Google Drive (up to 10GB - this one is a real killer feature)
• Google+: communities: even though you can create communities with circles, this one comes more naturally

To heighten the Christmas spirit, Google has furthermore created its own Santa Tracker, both as a web app and as a mobile app:
http://www.google.com/santatracker/
Google Play Link

To mind Google has more than deserved the title of most innovative tech company awarded by The Economist (both in 2011 and in 2012).

I would like to finish my Christmas post with a “Happy Christmas to everyone!”

YouTube TV and remote control

Google has made some changes to and extended its /leanback service. It has been renamed to youtube.com/tv and offers all your personal content such as subscriptions and playlists as well as suggested content. 

Moreover, it is now possible to remote control the screen/player directly from within the mobile YouTube app. Thus, saving you the trouble of downloading the separate YouTube Remote app.

You have to pair you mobile device each screen once (settings>pair devices). After entering the code you can use your mobile device as remote control. If you have several screens configured you have to make sure you chose the right one for intended output.

Even though Google probably has intended this feature mostly for use in home entertainment with smart TVs, it turns out to be quite useful in the classroom. Teachers can now pause, stop and replay videos from any position in the classroom without having to sit behind the PC all the time. Of course, the volume can also be controlled.

Getting Google eBooks outside the US

For the time being Google only offers its eBook app in the United States. However, if you own an Android device it is not hard to install it. Obviously, you cannot do so from the Android market, but you can still download the books.apk file from the Internet (try Googling it). Once you have found it, it is really easy to install it: send it to yourself via email and you will be able to install the attached file on your phone (the Gmail app even has “install” instead of the usual “download” option for attached apk files).

As an eReader the app is rather poor: there is no dictionary and no possibility to take notes, which makes it not the best app to be used in class. However, it allows you to synchronize your reading across devices (PC, tablet, phone) and you can pick up reading from where you last left disregarding where you read the book.