Recently in Google Category

I was happily surfing the Web reading the Google News Top Stories when I saw a headline that said "No public viewing at Neverland, but Michael Jackson may get laid". Say what? I had to do a double-take. Then I couldn't help but laugh at how funny this headline was.

No public viewing of Michael Jackson getting laid? Bummer, I'm sure that could have been a pay-per-view event. It's The 40 50 Year Old Virgin movie come to life! Course that might be a problem unless it's some sick necrophilia action going on. Then again, Michael Jackson did play the undead / zombie in Thriller.

Ok, we'll let Michael Jackson Rest in Peace, though I'm sure he too would have laughed at this Google News headline.

Check out a screenshot of it below. Click for Full-screen. Look on the right-hand side. I drew an arrow as well as a box around it. The article in question can be read here. The full article headline is "No public viewing at Neverland, but Michael Jackson may get laid out at Staples Center". Obviously, the Googlebot abbreviated in a very bad spot. Perhaps a human editor might be in order, Google?

Lastly, since Google News changes the Top Stories home page often, you too can view this news story (in its funny abbreviated form) by clicking this Google News search link. It's abbreviated there too.

What if you could do Skype VoIP & video conferencing on the Google Android? Sounds pretty damn cool, doesn't it? Especially given all the media hype surrounding the new iPhone 3GS. I already tweeted my displeasure that the new Apple iPhone 3GS doesn't support Flash and also tweeted my annoyance that Apple didn't put a front-facing camera for video chat support using Skype. Thus, while the iPhone supports a native Skype app, it only supports VoIP and not video chat. And don't expect video chat anytime soon either. As Skype Journal remarked, "iPhone programmers can use the webcam to store video to a file, but won't be able to write apps that manipulate or route the stream. This means Skype for iPhone won't be able to add video calling any time soon."

Well forget about the damned new iPhone! I have a method that "should" enable Skype video chat on the Google Android mobile phone.

How do you ask? Well, first we need to "cook" in a Flash player into Google Android's ROM, since Flash support on the Android isn't officially released yet. But we're not waiting on Google, so let's get cookin'!

Here are the steps to get Skype video chat working on the Google Android:

1) Download the HTC SuperHero V2 ROM for the Google Android
2) To keep memory freed up and automatically install apps to SD, go download this. (direct link to .zip file here)
     Download a2sd.zip, unzip put the unzipped file onto your C drive
     Open command prompt and type these:
     adb remount
     adb push c:\a2sd.sh /system/bin
3) Upgrade to the latest SPL & radio by heading over to this page on android-unleashed.com
4) Launch Skype Flash application and make a video call to another Skype user.

Where the heck is the "Skype Flash" application you ask?

Oh, I'm sorry, I can't tell you that. I want to test this first to make sure it works & capture some screenshots to put here as proof.

Sorry to be such a tease, but I want to be the first to get a Skype video chat call to work on a popular mobile phone platform. Stay tuned though!

P.S. Check out the SuperHero V2 Official Release Change log:

• Cleaned up things to make space, updated boot.img thanks to Detox
• Drawables from ophone were added
• Slightly themed in many places by me & L3wish
• Flash player is back
• Multitouch browser
• Updated libs from ophone
• Led code implemented in init.rc by detox will not be used untill leds are fully working thanks to shasty for the led coding.
• All updated from beta 2 but now optomized to run very smooth and stable.
• Htc chirp still not working will update soon.
• Automatic apps to sd is pre loaded but not used unless you want just add the ap2sd.sh to bin

Release notes & how to upgrade ROM Via:
herog3.wicholandia.com
and
android-unleashed.com

GVdialer is an intriguing mobile application for Google Voice, supporting iPhone, BlackBerry, Android, Microsoft, and Symbian. GVdialer enables you to use Google Voice with your mobile phone while enabling some cool features. For instance, you can present your Google number as your Caller ID on outgoing mobile calls, thus keeping your mobile number private. This also gives you a one number identity to share with people.

Using the app installed you can dial directly from your phone's contacts, speed dial, call log or keypad, and GVdialer will automatically connect the call using Google Voice.

Even cooler you have Google Voice feature access including instant access to Google Voice's voice mail, Inbox, and GOOG-411.

As seen in the iPhone application, GVdialer lets you configure when GV would be used, i.e. on all calls, international calls, domestic calls, or ask on every call.

It costs $9.99, but definitely worth checking out

The Official Google Blog today announced some improvements to Google search results that could dramatically affect your web traffic.

First, they are have deployed "a new technology that can better understand associations and concepts related to your search". They claim it will offer more useful related searches.

Second, and more importantly, they are now returning longer snippets/excerpts in the search results depending on the context of your search. To give more context, the snippet shows how the words of your query appear on the page by highlighting them in bold. Normally, the excerpts per search result is 2 lines, but now some return 3 lines. This has huge implications for SEO, because now the 1st page of search results in your full-screen browser will display 1 or 2 less search results before you have to scroll. Any time you have to scroll to see something, that's less eyeballs on the initial page, which means less web traffic. Now being in the top 7 search results on Google has become even more critical.

Here's an example and The Official Google Blog explains, "Suppose you were looking for information about Earth's rotation around the sun, and specifically wanted to know about its tilt and distance from the sun. So you type all of that into Google: [earth's rotation axis tilt and distance from sun]. A normal-length snippet wouldn't be able to show you the context for all of those words, but with longer snippets you can be sure that the first result covers all those topics. In addition, the extra line of snippets for the third result shows the word "sun" in context, suggesting that the page doesn't talk about Earth's distance from the sun"

Nerd Vittles has another cool Asterisk recipe that combines Google Voice, voicemail transcription (via Google Voice), free calling, and of course Asterisk. Nerd does some packet sniffing and determines that Google Voice, powered by Grandcentral, is using SIP. What's most interesting is that Nerd determine that your SIP connection and your Google Voice phone bill is only protected by a 4-digit PIN. Yikes! That's not good.

Anyway, here's a teaser of Nerd's awesome recipe:

what we want to do is examine some ways to integrate the Google Voice feature set into our existing Asterisk implementations. The potential benefits are enormous. There's free calling in the U.S., free distribution of inbound calls to multiple phone numbers scattered around the country, free SMS messaging and delivery by email, free transcription of voicemail messages into text-based emails, free conferencing, and free GOOG-411, a voice-activated service that let's you find nearby businesses by saying where you are and what you're looking for. For today, we've set our sights on the Google Voice feature set which is easiest to integrate into existing Asterisk systems: free voicemail message transcription, free calling in the United States, and free GOOG-411 directory assistance. For lack of a better term, we call it... Googlified Messaging™.

Well, what are you waiting for? Go read the entire recipe and tutorial. Great stuff!

Want to tell someone your location simply by adding location info to your email signature? Well, Google has been on a location kick of late, with the latest location feature adding a new "Append your location to the signature" option that appends your current location (determined by your public IP address) to your email.



If you want more accurate location detection install Gears that supports the location module. Gears leverages Wi-Fi access point signals for a more accurate location reading.

Just be careful when checking the location box. You don't want to be telling your wife you're in one place when really your not.

p.s. I wonder if Google Talk, their VoIP client will soon add this, then Google can indicate where you are from that as well.

Some interesting news from D2 Technologies worth sharing. It's worth mentioning that D2 offers the mCUE mobile convergence software solution, which combines a communications user interface with the company's vPort MP VoIP software platform targeting OEMs and service providers to help deliver integrated Fixed Mobile Convergence (FMC) and Unified Communications (UC) functionality.

Their news today involves WiMAX, femtocells, and fixed mobile convergence (FMC). Many predict (myself included) that 2009 will be the year of WiMAX, FMC, and femtocells. Though I think femtocells won't really getting going until late 2009.

At CES D2 Technologies is announcing a significant upgrade to its flagship embedded VoIP software, vPort, supporting processors from market leaders such as Cavium, Freescale, LSI, Ralink, AMCC, Ikanos and TI for OEMs developing the latest in dual mode and IP phones, CPE communications products and other mobile devices.

Here's the news...

D2's vPort optimizes support for video calls, high definition audio, Windows® CE/Mobile applications and remote security management.

D2 Technologies, the market leader in embedded IP communications software platforms, today announced the next generation of its flagship vPort product line, enabling OEMs and service providers to cost-effectively and quickly deliver to market the most advanced mobile and CPE communications products. vPort 2.0 now provides optimized support for the development of femtocells, mobile internet devices (MIDs) and mobile handset products. It also offers significant technology upgrades that support WiMAX, the Windows® CE and Windows® Mobile platforms, IMS, video calls, remote management of end-user devices via TR-069 (an application layer protocol) and the Secure Real Time Transport Protocol (SRTP), and high definition audio through additional wideband CODECs.

vPort 2.0 merges the best of existing and emerging technologies to deliver a wealth of communications services in any mode (voice, video, IM chat, email, SMS, etc.) over any network (WiMAX, WiFi, cellular, IMS, broadband, PSTN), giving service providers, enterprise users and general consumers the widest choice of connectivity platforms.

A leader in embedded VoIP performance, efficiency and platform support, vPort enables networking, signaling and voice processing functions to execute as an integrated solution on a single processor. Through this upgrade, vPort now offers the broadest application support and most advanced features of any embedded VoIP software on the market, and allows manufacturers to quickly meet consumer demands for communications products such as IP and dual mode mobile phones, triple- and quadruple-play devices, advanced VoIP adapters/gateways and other mobile devices.

Key vPort 2.0 product features include:
• Broadest range of IC and core processor support for market leaders such as Cavium Networks, Freescale Semiconductor, LSI Corporation, Ralink Technology, AMCC, Ikanos Communications and Texas Instruments
• New CODECs including GSM-AMR support for femtocells
• Increased embedded OS support for WinCE/WinMobile, VxWorks, Linux, Android
- OS Abstraction Layer allows quick porting onto new and proprietary OSs
• Unified and IP communications at its core:
- VoIM and multi-protocol support (SIP, GoogleTalk, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ)
- Presence based functionality
- Video call/chat capability
• Complete suite of NAT Traversal software including STUN, ICE, and TURN
• Full SRTP support including RFCs 3550, 3711, and 4568
• Remote management integration with TR-069 and TR-104 SW modules
• Industry leading voice quality, CPU (MHz) optimization and service provider interop

"By enhancing vPort, D2 is helping customers quickly respond to the increased market demand for VoIP-enabled devices in new application areas, on new platforms and with advanced features," said Doug Makishima, Vice President of Marketing and Sales at D2 Technologies. "We are now conducting demos with our key partners and OEM customers, and expect commercial availability of vPort 2.0 toward the end of Q1 2009."

Raketu today released its Raketu Mobile for Google's G1 Android mobile adding VoIP support to the Android phone. Raketu already supports iPhone, Nokia, WinMobile and BlackBerry mobile phones

The new service allows anyone with a G1 using roaming data services or WiFi to connect to the Raketu mobile services to make phone-to-phone calls, send sms-text messages and email, send and receive instant messages, store and share pictures, and more, all without a download.

HTC's Touch HD is arguably the best touch-screen Windows Mobile-based phones you can buy. In fact, even before the HTC Touch HD, I always felt HTC mobile phones were the best Windows Mobile phones you could buy. I own an older HTC-based "Apache" XV6700 Windows Mobile with a cooked ROM upgraded to Windows Mobile 6.1 and I'm still pretty happy using it. I still consider my xv6700 one of the top 5 Windows Mobile phones available. Installed on it I have a standalone Youtube player, TCPMP Media Player, Opera Mini, HTC Streaming Media Player, Java (Jbed), Skyfire browser, and more. It does the job and I especially like the slide-out keyboard. I'm not into the iPhone touch-screen's keyboard or the new Blackberry Storm for that matter. I find tactile keyboards work best for typing lengthy emails.

Comparisons between the new HTC Touch HD and the Apple iPhone will no doubt be made, since they both offer large touch-screens. In fact, the Touch HD beats the iPhone's screen with it's 3.8" WVGA (480 X 800 pixel) screen vs. 3.5" (320 x 480) for the iPhone. It beats the iPhone in size and resolution! In addition, unlike the Apple iPhone, Windows Mobile apps can run in the background, which is important for IM & VoIP apps like Skype. You have to jailbreak your iPhone if you want to enable background processing. What's up with Mr. Steve Jobs? He can be anally retentive sometimes when it comes to "controlling" Apple products.

I've been playing around with fring for awhile now. I like fring which I like to call "the Swiss army knife of mobile VoIP and IM", since it works with Skype, SIP, MSN Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, Google Talk, ICQ, and AIM. Because it supports SIP, I'm able to configure fring to work on Asterisk-based systems to be able to make and receive phone calls.



Receiving calls to my '149' SIP extension (see screenshot) works great on my Windows Mobile 6.1 Verizon XV6700 (Apache) phone. in fact, VoIP using fring even works over a cellular data connection, unlike the Apple iPhone which blocks VoIP over cellular and I'm sure you heard about Nokia announcing they will no longer support VoIP. Om Malik wrote about this last week. As a gadget freak, people have been telling me I should dump my Windows Mobile for an iPhone. So let's see here, no VoIP on popular Nokia phones, no VoIP on the popular Apple iPhone (except over Wi-Fi). Further, you can't even run Skype on the iPhone. Tell me again why I should dump my Windows Mobile phone for an iPhone? Ok, I know, I know, it has a cool multi-touch interface and some other great apps. I'm getting an iPhone to test/play around with, but I already know I won't like it's VoIP capabilities.

Getting back to fring, my one complaint about it is that it doesn't support DMTF (touchtones) for traversing voicemail, ACDs/IVRs, etc. So it's useless if you want to call your credit card company, bank, etc. I'm shocked they don't support it yet. There are other VoIP apps for Windows Mobile that support DTMF, such as Talkonaut, so I'm not sure why this is such a technical hurdle for fring. It's the one thing that stops me from using fring more regularly. One other minor complaint is that it doesn't have a quick redial button. Other than that, fring works fantastic. I can make Skype VoIP calls, SIP-based calls, and of course the built-in IM support for the top IM providers. Take that iPhone!