Firefox for Android Gets a Speed Boost, But Still Needs Work [Firefox]

Firefox, the ubiquitous browser for desktops, has been on Android for a while, but well, it was pretty slow. An update that just went live brings it some much needed speed, but there are still some nuts and bolts missing. More »

You Can Now Build Virtual Lego in Chrome [Video]

If you were planning to have a productive start to your work day: forget it. Instead, you’re going to spend hours playing with Lego online, because Google has teamed up with the toy maker to release a simulator which allows you build its bricks in Chrome. More »

Google Build lets you play with Lego in Chrome

Ready to waste the morning away? Google has partnered with Lego Australia to allow users to build objects using the popular plastic blocks right from within their browser. You can choose from a multitude of different building blocks, and build anything that you can think up. Not only that, but your creation isn’t randomly floating around the internet, instead assigned a virtual plot of land in Australia using Google Maps.

Once you fire up Build you’ll be able to see a zoomed out map of Australia. As you search the continent and zoom in to different spots, you’ll see different creations from netizens that you can interact with or simply observe. If you want to go about building your own creation, you can choose your own plot of land or have the map randomly select somewhere in Australia.

After you’re finished, your final build is submitted to Google for approval, just to make sure anything naughty doesn’t slip through. Build has launched in Australia first, with New Zealand next on the list. After that, Google will open it up to even more countries so that you can build on more familiar territories.

[via The Next Web]


Google Build lets you play with Lego in Chrome is written by Ben Kersey & originally posted on SlashGear.
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Lego and Google Chrome team up, want to cover Australasia in your models and plastic bricks (video)

Lego and Google Chrome teamup, want to cover Australasia in models and plastic bricks

Lego has allied itself with Google’s Chrome browser, creating a web app that lets users craft their own houses, creatures and models, and then delicately place them across the whole of Australia and New Zealand. Celebrating 50 years of pre-teen Lego architecture in the Land Down Under, you can grab a plot of land from the source, start throwing some bricks together now and share your creations on the very public map and Google+. According to the Australia’s Daily Telegraph, Lego Build hopes to roll out globally through Chrome later this year, but one continent should keep us busy until Google’s I/O conference kicks off later this week.

Continue reading Lego and Google Chrome team up, want to cover Australasia in your models and plastic bricks (video)

Lego and Google Chrome team up, want to cover Australasia in your models and plastic bricks (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 26 Jun 2012 04:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink The Telegraph, Sascha Pallenberg (Google+)  |  sourceLego Build  | Email this | Comments

Google: Chromebooks now serve web-happy students in over 500 European, US school districts

Google Chromebooks now serve webhappy students in more than 500 European, US school districts

Whatever you think of the latest round of Chromebooks, school districts have clearly latched on to existing models. Over 500 school districts across Europe and the US are currently deploying the Google-powered laptops for learning the web way. Specialized web app packs and that rare leasing model are already keeping the material relevant and the hardware evergreen, but new certification for US ready-for-college criteria will go a long way towards making sure principals everywhere take a shine to Chrome OS in the future. That still leaves a lot of schools going the more traditional Mac or Windows PC route, with the occasional tablet strategy thrown in; regardless, we’re sure Google doesn’t mind taking any noticeable chunk of the market in a relatively brief period of time. We’ll see if there’s more reasons for Mountain View to get excited in a few days.

Google: Chromebooks now serve web-happy students in over 500 European, US school districts originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 25 Jun 2012 19:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink TechCrunch  |  sourceGoogle Enterprise Blog  | Email this | Comments

What the Girl From That Google Chrome Ad Might Say to Her Ex [Video]

Remember that Google Chrome ad where some guy named Mark is goes all-out to try to get a second chance with his ex, Jen? It’s sweet enough to give you diabetes. But every story has two sides, and Jen’s response—in this parody from UCB Comedy—paints a very different picture. More »

Chromebooks now available to enterprise and education customers with a pay-once option

Chromebook

Google made a big splash when it revealed plans to offer Chromebooks to enterprise and education customers under a subscription model. What’s not clear is how much of a splash it actually made in those markets. While the notion of paying a monthly fee for three years, instead of buying a machine up front sounds like a game changer, some people just like the comfort of the familiar. To that end Google is now offering those same customers the option to purchase a Chromebook (with a year of support included) in one lump sum — $449 for the WiFi model or $519 for the 3G to educational customers, while business are looking at $559 and $639 respectively. After that first year is through, customers have the option to sign up for a monthly support contract, at $5 a month for education and $13 a month for enterprise.

Chromebooks now available to enterprise and education customers with a pay-once option originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 23 Oct 2011 18:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink The Next Web  |  sourceGoogle Enterprise Blog  | Email this | Comments

Myriad’s Remarkz HTML 5 web annotation app hands-on

It wasn’t that long ago that Myriad gave us an exclusive sneak peek at its platform agnostic Android app emulator, Alien Dalvik 2.0. While we were there, the company gave us a glimpse of another project, called Remarkz, that piqued our interest. Remarkz is a slick little HTML 5 application that lets users annotate web pages with text and drawings and share the marked up pages via email, Facebook and Twitter. As opposed to using screen grab programs like Skitch or Jing, Remarkz keeps the web page links live and only requires adding a bookmark to get started. Additionally, a timeline feature lets you see when new notes are made on a page and who made them — giving it greater potential for use as a collaboration tool. True to Myriad form, it works on any platform (tablets, PCs and Macs) using any browser that supports HTML 5. It’s still in beta for now, but the app works pretty well despite a small bug here or there. Plus, given its egalitarian nature, Myriad hinted that we may see it on more screens (think big) in January at CES, which would up its cool quotient considerably. Interested? Check out a video walkthrough of the app after the break, and hit the source to start using it yourself.

Continue reading Myriad’s Remarkz HTML 5 web annotation app hands-on

Myriad’s Remarkz HTML 5 web annotation app hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 20 Oct 2011 22:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google thinks your digital books belong on a digital bookcase, digitally (video)

How to best view the Google Books collections? Why, a digital bookcase, of course. But this isn’t just any bookcase, it’s a giant spinning 3D helix of a bookcase, collecting more than 10,000 titles in 28 subjects. Users can navigate the WebGL Bookcase by spinning it around or swiping it up and down. Sure, it’s not the quickest way to locate a title amongst tens of thousands of books, but perhaps it’ll offer up some small consolation for those who miss browsing real-life bookstores. You can check out the experiment in the source link below — be forewarned, however, that it’s a bit of a resource hog.

Continue reading Google thinks your digital books belong on a digital bookcase, digitally (video)

Google thinks your digital books belong on a digital bookcase, digitally (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 18 Oct 2011 18:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Official Google Blog  |  sourceGoogle WebGL Bookcase  | Email this | Comments

Google announces Q3 earnings: $9.72 billion in revenue, $2.73 billion net income, 40 million Google+ users

Google’s just announced its third quarter earnings and, as expected, the company’s numbers are continuing on the upswing (even beating expectations). That includes $9.72 billion in revenue, which represents a 33 percent jump compared to the third quarter of 2010, along with $2.73 billion in net income, which is up from $2.17 billion a year ago. Somewhat notably, Google also choose to lead off its press release announcing the financial results (included after the break) with the news that Google+ has just passed the 40 million user mark — the company further notes that “people are flocking into Google+ at an incredible rate.” There’s not a ton of surprises to be found in the results otherwise, although Larry Page and co. sure seem to be busy hiring new folks — they’ve brought on 10 percent more employees in the span of three months (for a total of 31,353 full-time employees as of September 30th).

Update: During the company’s earnings call, CEO Larry Page confirmed that there’s now 190 million Android phones activated around the world, and 200 million users of the Chrome web browser (although it’s not clear how many of those are active users). Page also took a moment to post his remarks to Google+ during the call.

Continue reading Google announces Q3 earnings: $9.72 billion in revenue, $2.73 billion net income, 40 million Google+ users

Google announces Q3 earnings: $9.72 billion in revenue, $2.73 billion net income, 40 million Google+ users originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 13 Oct 2011 16:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceGoogle  | Email this | Comments