Hasta La Gadget!

There should be little doubt that Google is planning on continuing their Nexus smartphone program well into the future – that much is clear. What’s not as clear is their release schedule and manufacturer choices – the pattern we’ve expected to find appearing several years ago with a new OEM for each device being doused […]

The Galapagos is one of the most biodiverse places on the planet, and it was key in Charles Darwin’s findings in forming the the scientific argument of evolution. You may never get to travel to the volcanic archipelago in person, but now thanks to Google, you can explore it through 360-degree imagery on Street View.

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So, while Google Glass: Explorer and Prescription editions are designed to sit on the right side of your head, wouldn’t it be great if the wearable was, you know, built into an actual pair of glasses? That’s the thinking behind Mountain View’s latest patent, which incorporates the device into a thick pair of specs. Compared to the current versions, this concept (pictured, after the break) splits the camera and display modules across the frame. Presumably, therefore, wiring would run inside the frame and across the nose bridge — and we’d hope that the greater real estate would also accommodate a bigger battery. While this particular design may never get further than a pile of paper on Sergey Brin’s desk, the near-sighted futurists among us can always hope.

Filed under: Wireless, Google

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Source: USPTO

This article was written on December 14, 2007 by CyberNet.

Ever since Google became… well… Google, we’ve known them as the company whose goal is to index and organize information from around the world to make it more easily discoverable and accessible. Never did I think Google would be the ones providing the content, but their new tool that they are calling “knol” changes things. Knol stands for a unit of knowledge, and it will be a place where experts are invited to write articles on a subject that they’re familiar with. Google says that not everything is written nor is it easily discoverable and they feel that it’s their job to help people share their knowledge.

Knol will be a place where people can go to get and share knowledge, sound familiar? It does sound like Google is attempting to take on and compete with Wikipedia, but there are many major differences. One of the first is that Google has said that they are not taking on an editorial roll whatsoever. Some people are already predicting the downfall of Wikipedia, but I’m not ready to go that far.  Knol is in the private beta stage and you can take part by invitation only. It’s too early to tell how powerful this tool will be in such early stages, but you can bet Google will do everything they can to get the experts writing so that the content can be indexed and Google can point search engine traffic to it. 

On the official Google announcement, they explain that anybody will be free to write, but that there will likely be “competing knols on the same subject.” This is where it gets interesting because ad revenue will be shared with the authors of a knoll.  Google says that “if an author chooses to include ads, Google will provide the author with substantial revenue share from the proceeds of those ads.” If someone writes a knol on a particular topic and they start to make money but then someone else comes along and writes something better on the same topic, the first person will start to lose ad revenue while the second person comes in and takes over.

If you take a look at the example knol below, you’ll see that they really make the author stand out.  There’s a picture of them to the right with a quick blurb about what they do, and then the very first thing you see at the top of the page is the name of the author once again. Perhaps Google feels that highlighting the authors will encourage more people to participate? You’ll also notice that users will be able to review the knol and leave comments, something that Wikipedia doesn’t offer.

While it sounds like an interesting venture for Google, is anybody else noticing that Google is trying to do everything and be everywhere all at the same time? It almost seems like they are losing focus of their main goal, and it almost seems as though this project is a conflict of interest. Of course Google doesn’t want to tarnish their reputation, but if I see a knol appearing at the top of the search results I’ll likely think twice about how it landed in that spot.

Source: Google Blog

Copyright © 2013 CyberNetNews.com

Back in 2012, Google acquired Nik Software, the developer behind the popular iOS photo editing app Snapseed. Google reassured Snapseed users that they would not be killing off the software, and released a version for Android as well. Now it looks like Google’s acquisition has started to creep into other Google products as well, and the latest is Google+ where users of the social network will be able to upload their photos as per normal, but will also be able to tweak and edit them using Snapseed’s photo editing features.

For Google+ users, you can check this out by hitting the “Edit” button over your image and you will be presented with photo editing options as pictured in the screenshot above. If you have ever used Snapseed before, the interface and the features should not be foreign to you, but for those using it for the first time, it is pretty straightforward and simple to use. It has been reported that the feature is gradually rolling out to users on Google+, so you might not have access to it yet, but presumably it won’t be too long before you are able to try it out. What do you guys think? Is this a great idea, and should Facebook be thinking about something similar as well?

Google+ Gets Snapseed Photo Editing Features original content from Ubergizmo.