A few weeks ago, Google hosted a last-minute press conference in San Francisco to announce its new, highly detailed 3D maps. While many of us expected the company to actually launch the maps then, Google never announced actual launch date. Today, the wait is over, as the new version of Google Earth for Android (version 7.0) now offers access to the new 3D imagery. You can download the updated Google Earth for Android app from the Play store now. → Read More
At TechCrunch we like to get the rest of the story. That’s why we go in-depth, hard-hitting, and close to the ground. Nowhere is that clearer than in this hardcore, hardball, and soft cheese interview with the folks from the Melting Pot, a popular fondue (from the French “What do we do with this old cheese? Melt it?”) restaurant that may or may not be in your general vicinity.
The Melting Pot has teamed up with Foodspotting.com, a popular site for spotting food, and, like a tempest-tossed couple engulfed by a sea of hot broth, both companies are clawing their way back into the public consciousness by offering a $100 gift card to lucky foodspotters who deign to spot their fondue. I’m not exactly sure how the contest works (presumably you take pictures of whatever fell into your gruyere) but $100 is nothing to sneeze at nor would you want to because sneezing into fondue can make quite a nasty sort of conglomerate. → Read More
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Outside of approved Googlers, a handful of folks have just been given a canned demo of Google Glass, including myself. I’m living in the future and the future is now! → Read More
Businesses using Google Apps should have an easier time managing complex tasks starting today with the launch of Kissflow from startup OrangeScape — it’s supposedly the first workflow-creator that’s “deeply integrated” with Apps.
OrangeScape is pitching this as an alternative to using email and spreadsheets to track approvals and other tasks, which can turn into a headache as the company grows and tasks get more complex. With Kissflow, businesses should be able to create workflows for things like expense reporting in five relatively easy steps: Naming the process, designing the form, defining the workflow, configure the permissions, then publish. → Read More
If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.
Built specifically for Google Play consumption, the Nexus 7 tablet built by Asus seems to be Google’s answer to both the iPad and Kindle Fire. So how does it stack up and just how buttery smooth is Jelly Bean? → Read More
TechCrunch has been throwing an annual summer party at August Capital since 2006, the point at which Michael Arrington realized it had gotten too big for his Atherton back yard. And this year we’re doing it again, on the same big sunny Sand Hill balcony at the venture firm’s headquarters. The party starts at 5:30 p.m. and goes til 9:00 p.m.
And, we’ll also be back with our fourth-ever CrunchUp earlier that day, at Fox Theater in Redwood City — with a new, more specific theme. TechCrunch has looked at The Mobile Web Wars, The Real-Time Stream, Social Currency and Mobile First in previous years. Now lots of developers and investors in Silicon Valley are focused on a big and newly-public company: Facebook.
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Google just announced that its Chrome for Android browser is now out of beta and available for download on Google Play. This new version, with the memorable version number of 18.0.1025123, marks the first time Google has released a Stable Channel version of Chrome for Android. Just like before, of course, Google’s advanced mobile browser will only be available on devices running Ice Cream Sandwich and up. → Read More
Earlier today we posted a story about what appeared to be a new direction for the New York Times: a Chinese-language news site, and a blogging account with Sina Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter. The New York Times has now confirmed its move into China and the authenticity of both. The Weibo account now has over 10,000 followers, and the site will be kicking off on Thursday morning, Beijing time.
According to the statement from the NY Times we’ve just received, the site will be launched as a beta version. “The site will grow in scope and functionality over the course of the next several months,” the statement says. A spokesperson has confirmed to me that it will sit outside of the paywall.
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Today Google announced the latest version of its mobile operating system: Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. It’s an incremental upgrade — a number of valuable features have been added, but there’s no real revamp to be seen. Still, these features are incredibly competitive, and in many ways threaten Apple’s latest mobile operating system, iOS 6.
Google’s voice transcription and search now has the look and feel of Siri’s UI, the camera app works in a more streamlined fashion with swipe to preview, and Google Now goes a step further than Siri to offer everything you need to know without you ever saying a word.
That said, here are the top five features of the new platform for your drooling pleasure. Check it out:
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Google Glass is real and will soon be shipping. Sergey Brin just took the stage at Google I/O, won the Internet with an amazing skydiving demo of the device and then announced that Google Glass is available for pre-ordering. Named Glass Explorer Edition, it’s available to those at Google I/O and costs a whopping $1500. Plus, the device will not ship until next year. But Google Glass is real. This is big. → Read More
Well, that was unexpected. Google’s Sergey Brin just stepped on stage at Moscone West to deliver a demo of Google Glass, and it involves a Google+ hangout conducted via their connected eyewear. Oh, and some guys just jumped out of a zeppelin.
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Today at Google I/O, Google announced it has 250 million total users, 150 million monthly users, and 75 million daily users, with more usage from mobile than desktop. It released an Android tablet version too, and an iPad version is coming soon. Both as well as Google+ for Android smartphones offer brand new navigation, a new ribbon bar, new notifications, and brand new profiles.
Google+ today launches Events, with a focus on beautiful invites, a deep integration with Google Calendar, and real-time automatic photo uploads through Party Mode. → Read More
The Google Play store already had thousands of movies for rent, as well as millions of songs from major labels available for purchase. It also had a pretty extensive collection of e-books — the largest in the industry, Google claims. But it’s bringing even more content to its Google Play store, with the added availability of movie purchases, TV shows, and magazines on Android devices.
That includes the ability to purchase movies — not just rent them — and have them available whenever users want to view them. In addition to movies, Google Play is adding TV shows, allowing users to purchase individual episodes or even full seasons of their favorite shows. While e-books have been popular, Google Play didn’t previously offer access to magazine titles, but it’s changing that through partnerships with some major magazine publishers. → Read More
Android users are about to get access to real-time notifications and data through a cool-looking new feature called Google Now. It’s one of the new features in Android 4.1 Jelly Bean unveiled this morning at Google I/O.
To explain how it works, Googlers demonstrated how Google Now might assist them in the course of a regular day. First of all, Google Now will remind you about appointments, and then it can use your travel preferences (like the fact that you prefer to take mass transit rather than drive) and real-time data to tell you exactly when you need to leave so that you arrive on time. → Read More
Today at Google I/O, Google announced Smart App Updates for mobile so users only have download changes, not an entire app over again to update. Smart App Updates are just 1/3 the size of a normal download so they save data and battery life, and are available from Gingerbread and above. For users of the new Android OS 4.1 Jelly Bean, app downloads are now encrypted. Meanwhile for developers, there’s Google Cloud Messaging, a free system for delivering Android notifications.
And to give you an idea of the scope of the Google Play media and app store, Google announced it now has more than 600,000 apps, over 1.5 billion app installs per month, and over 20 billion app installs total.
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When Gilt Groupe first reached out to tell TechCrunch about their brand new iPad app for their Gilt Taste vertical, we were suitably skeptical over whether it was really necessary that we cover it. Gilt is a very exciting company, to be sure — but at this point, another iPad app debut from another super slick shopping site is not exactly newsworthy. But it turns out that the launch of Gilt Taste for the iPad is absolutely news that a lot of people can use. → Read More
Some well-timed research out from NPD, just in time for Google gearing up for its I/O event, where it is announcing news about Google TV, new wireless devices and Android. The researchers say that TV consumption on tablets has more than doubled in the last year in the 14 markets that it surveys, and 70 percent of consumers now say they watch video on devices other than TVs. The device leading the charge — or change, as the case may be? PCs; tablets still accounting for less than 15 percent of TV consumption.
TV, meanwhile, still ranks as the single most-used device for watching television, accounting for the other 30 percent of TV viewing.
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Some big numbers for Google’s Android platform out of the company’s developer conference today in San Francisco: Android has seen 400 million device activations and is adding 1 million per day. That’s up from the 100 million number the company announced last year around the same time.
That’s 12 new Android devices every second, said Hugo Barra, who serves as a product management director of Android at Google. → Read More
Google I/O just kicked off at Moscone West in San Francisco, and it wasn’t long at all before Google’s Hugo Barra pulled the curtains back on the latest version of Google’s mobile operating system: Android 4.1 Jelly Bean.
The update was originally thought to be a major one (rumors at the time referred to it as Android 5.0), and it seems like quite a treat for Android users despite the minor version bump. So what has Google brought to the table this time around? Let’s find out together — I’ll be updating as new information and features are revealed. → Read More
Google is kicking off its annual Google I/O developer conference in San Francisco with its traditional keynote. Even though I/O is mostly a developer event, with many in-depth technical discussions scheduled for the next three days, the keynotes tend to offer a mix of developer- and consumer-focused product announcements and launches. This year, we expect to hear more about Google’s rumored Nexus tablet, its Amazon Web Services competitor, Google TV, Google+ APIs and, of course, the next version of Android. → Read More
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