Google Being Sued Over Android Location Tracking

Just a few days after news broke out that Apple is being sued for location tracking, it seems that Google is being hit with a similar suit as well. Apple quickly responded by saying it plans on sending an update that clears the location cache much more often, but we have yet to see how Google responds to the issue. But there is a major difference between Apple and Google's location tracking - Google has an opt-in feature that lets the user decide whether or not the location should be tracked; the big question is: is location being tracked locally either way? If this is so, they may have to do what Apple is doing and clear that cache much more often, if not get rid of it altogether if the user opts-out.

Source: The Register

Google I/O Schedules Are Now Available

Anyone going to Google I/O has been (im)patiently waiting for the sessions schedule to help us plan out which developer sessions we can go to. Well, with only 11 days until the big event, Google has released the schedules for your perusal. You can find them here:

• Sessions Schedule (pdf)
• Bootcamp Schedule (html)
• Office Hours Schedule (pdf)

If you're attending I/O this year, shoot me a comment below and let me know which sessions you plan on attending! I'm looking forward to meeting as many people as I can!

Source: Google Code Blog

Video Chat Now On Android Phones!

Google has just announced something all Android users have been waiting for for a long time - video chat! Unlike it's FaceTime counterpart, Android video chat is available on both 3G/4G and over WiFi. The new Gtalk OTA will be rolling out to the Nexus S over the next few weeks (as 2.3.4), and will show up on other devices in the near future. This is a very exciting development; we originally thought that video chat would be announced at I/O, but it seems like we were off! The video below will give you more info on video chat for Android.

Source: Google Mobile Blog

Two New Chrome Devices Surface

Before the CR-48, we saw many device rumors being thrown around. Now that Chrome OS seems to be right around the corner, it's obvious that more and more devices will pop up. Well, for now we see two devices - one netbook by the name of ZGB, and one that seems to be a touch-enabled device by the name of "Seaboard".

Let's start off with the ZGB. Most probably an ASUS Chromebook, chances are we're looking at a 12-15" device with a 1366x768 (16:9) resolution. Along with that, CrunchGear says that it should be an Atom processor due to an addition HDMI controller. Other than that, we don't have much info on the ZGB. Although this just seems like a CR-48 successor, this may be the first official Chromebook in the market - which is definitely a big deal.

Now for the big one - the Seaboard. It's been no secret that Google's been making Chrome a little more touch-screen savvy, so chances are they've been messing around with some touch devices to test it. The Seaboard has popped up in a few bug reports, and it looks like it's got some pretty amazing specs. The Seaboard packs a Nvidia Tegra II, an Atmel MXT Touch Screen, 2MB SPI storage (?), 1 GiB of DRAM, and two USB ports. I'm kind of disappointed with the lack of HDMI port, but other than that it looks pretty standard. It seems that no one's sure if it's a tablet or a touch-enabled netbook, so we'll have to see.

Now that Chrome OS is nearing it's first commercial appearance, I'm excited to see what kind of devices we're going to see. Netbooks are definitely on their way, but what if tablets show up? We may see some competition with it's Android tablet cousins. I'm interested to see how that would play out!

Source: CrunchGear & The Chrome Story

Speak & Translate With Chrome!

Google Translate is one of the best applications coming out of the 'Plex. With the mobile app, it has the power to have two people understand each other even when they both speak two different languages. A very important thing to have in today's internationally-connected world. Today, that same feature hits Chrome. By hitting the mic, one can speak and translate on their computer right away. After translation, they can even listen to the translation on the other end. I'm very glad this has reached desktops; it is a vital part of our global community.

Source: Google Chrome Blog

Google Docs Becomes Native For Android With Some Killer Features

Here's something I know all Android users have been waiting for - a native Google Docs application. With this app, you can create, edit, and share documents, just as you would with the web application. Along with those, the Android edition comes with a killer feature - photo-to-text. Using your phone's camera, you can take a photo of some text, and Docs for Android will convert it into a document!

Some other really cool features - if you open up a document from Gmail, it will launch it in Docs, something we've all had in the Gmail web application for some time. Search is also available in the app, so you can quickly sift through the piles of documents you have saved.

This is a very exciting addition by Google, albeit late. This should have been a core Android app straight from the start, but I guess it's better than never. This is a great start for a V1 of such a powerful application, and I'm excited to see what's next!

Source: Google Docs Blog

Android Developers Get Access To Their Sales Reports

In a constant rush to improve developer satisfaction, the Android team has launched a brand new feature that will put a smile on many faces. Developers can now go to their Android Market dashboard and access a monthly sales report for all of their applications. This detailed report will go into information about devices, type of currency, currency conversion rates, among other things. It can also be downloaded in CSV format.

Source: Android Developer Blog