Hasta La Gadget!

This article was written on July 09, 2008 by CyberNet.

When we recently read news of Google’s new Lively service, it kinda threw us for a loop because it just does not sound like something Google would do. Lively is like Google’s own Second Life, it’s a place to go for a 3D virtual experience. Users Download Lively for free (Windows only at the moment), and then use Firefox or Internet Explorer to exist in their virtual world. Websites and blogs across the web will be able to embed a Lively room on their sites that visitors will be able to enter. Google has also teamed with Facebook to allow people to enter there as well, and eventually it will work with MySpace too.

So what made Google decide to do something like this? Maybe advertising? That’s what we thought until Google confirmed that they wouldn’t be selling advertising in Lively. Perhaps it’s just to get more people using Google’s services which can ultimately result in more money for Google?

People will get involved with Lively by creating an avatar, creating various spaces that they can decorate, and visiting other rooms. They’ll even be able to have televisions in their rooms playing user-selected videos from YouTube. According to Google, “The Lively team wants to help people experience another dimension of the web. We hope you will use the product to express yourself with and without words, and to do this in the places you already visit on the web.”

With Google covering so many industries on the web, it leaves us wondering what they would possibly do next. We turned to Hitwise to see if they had any thoughts on this and it looks as though if Google wants to do it all, they’d turn to something in the automotive, government, or music industry next.

To get started, go to www.lively.com or checkout some of the rooms to see if any of them would be interesting to you. We haven’t decided if we’ll be creating a CyberNet Room quite yet, but we’ll let you know if we do.

Copyright © 2011 CyberNet | CyberNet Forum | Learn Firefox

Related Posts:

MyFive: Services Google Should IntroduceGoogle Latitude Update Interval for Android, iPhone, and BlackBerryNavman iCN 750 GPS Navigation System Takes PhotosIs Google Music Inching Closer?Life not THAT Great Working at Google?

We’d prepared ourselves for a drawn-out legal battle between Oracle and Google when we heard the former was suing the latter for Java-related copyright infringement, but fortunately for Android enthusiasts, not everyone was so resigned. A team of developers are working on an Android fork called IcedRobot (yep, that’s the logo) to separate the offending Dalvik Virtual Machine from the OS, hopefully circumventing this epic argument altogether. The project seeks to create a Java Virtual Machine (JVM) that is based on OpenJDK (an open-source implementation of Java), avoiding Oracle’s Apache Harmony, and to allow Android to run on just about any PC with the use of Hotspot, another device non-specific JVM using open-source Java. It’s a tall order, and the devilish little Android has already gained a healthy amount of tech industry skepticism, but we’re interested to see if these guys can make it work. Either way, we’re pretty sure we’ve still got years of legal volleying to go before Google and Oracle can play nice again — this ain’t no People’s Court, folks.

IcedRobot Android fork to sidestep legal battle between Oracle, Google originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 11 Feb 2011 06:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Linux for Devices  |  Mario Torre  | Email this | Comments

Mobile World Congress may not have its halls open quite yet, but that’s not stopping ViewSonic from giving the world a peek at what’s to come. First up is the V350 smartphone shown above, a dual-SIM creature with a 3.5-inch HVGA capacitive touchpanel, Android 2.2, five megapixel camera, a microSD card slot, WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1 and A-GPS to boot. By supporting a pair of SIMs, it allows jetsetters to carry two SIMs from two operators in order to take advantage of different plans and networks for voice / data in different countries.

Moving on, there’s a highly intriguing new tablet in the waiting — the ViewPad 10Pro. This 10-incher (shown after the break) is a “professional” slate with dual-boot functionality, enabling users to tap into Android 2.2 or Windows 7 Professional at their leisure. It’s also one of the first tablets to utilize Intel’s long-awaited Oak Trail platform, and it’ll ship with a 1024 x 600 LED-backlit capacitive multitouch screen, inbuilt 3G, WiFi, Bluetooth and a battery good for six or so hours of life. Finally, the ViewPad 10s — which was just unveiled at CES — is seeing a gentle update in Barcelona, with the ViewPad 10s 3G (predictably) gaining integrated 3G functionality. Mum’s the word on pricing and release, but as always, we’ll be prying for more once we touch down at BCN.

Continue reading ViewSonic intros dual-SIM V350 smartphone, Windows 7 / Android dual-boot ViewPad 10Pro tablet

ViewSonic intros dual-SIM V350 smartphone, Windows 7 / Android dual-boot ViewPad 10Pro tablet originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 11 Feb 2011 02:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

You may know that Immersion’s haptic technology is in everything from surgical simulators to game controllers, but we’re willing to bet you didn’t know it’s already baked into over 200 million existing devices — including every Samsung Galaxy S smartphone and handsets by Nokia and LG. Now, using Android handsets’ existing vibrator motors, a cheap software upgrade can inject force feedback into existing elements across the entire Android UI (2.2 and up), and with future devices — built with multi-dollar piezoelectric actuators that vibrate the screen itself — the haptic experience goes hi-fi. Now that it’s revealed that little easter egg to the world, Immersion wants you to build some apps, and to that end it’s releasing the MOTIV developer platform this March. Read all about it after the break.

Continue reading Immersion’s MOTIV development platform integrates haptics into Android, we go hands-on

Immersion’s MOTIV development platform integrates haptics into Android, we go hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 10 Feb 2011 09:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

According to Gartner’s latest mobile sales numbers, the rise of Android hasn’t been quite as meteoric as you might think — even with 888.8 percent growth in 2010. Last month, Canalys quoted Android as the top earner for smartphone platforms in Q4 of last year, beating out Symbian for the top spot, but Gartner says it ain’t so. In fact, IDC already quietly chimed in on the topic a few days ago saying that Symbian was still the smartphone OS “market leader.” Gartner’s numbers do show Android overtaking Nokia’s Symbian devices in unit sales, but it points out that the OS’ use across a variety of brands in Q4 actually “kept Symbian slightly ahead of Android.” Symbian ultimately outsold Android by more than 44 million units last year, but considering the little green robot’s astronomical growth in 2010, we’d say even super star is an understatement. Check out the PR after the jump to see how the rest of the competition stacks up.

Continue reading Gartner and IDC dispute Android’s dominance over Symbian in Q4 2010

Gartner and IDC dispute Android’s dominance over Symbian in Q4 2010 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 10 Feb 2011 05:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink TechCrunch  |  Gartner  | Email this | Comments