All Articles Tagged Google

Christina Warren from TUAW wrote on Twitter that Google recently dumped the iPhone optimized version of iGoogle and now simply redirects users to a generic mobile version instead.

Update: Here’s Christina’s story on DownloadSquad.

What in Google’s green earth could they be thinking? One of our readers, Jesse, wrote in to share this forum post from Google employee, Paul:

“Hey everyone, I have an update for you. We’ve decided to direct iPhone users to the standard mobile iGoogle page. We’ve found that people hit iGoogle from lots of different phones — we want to ensure you’ll all see the same version.

Most or all of your existing content should translate over to the standard mobile version. The only exception would be any gadgets that aren’t compatible with most mobile browsers.

We’ve got several articles in our Help Center about the mobile experience on iGoogle, which you can find in our Help Center [link].”

Lowest common denominator much?

Jesse also let us know that Jailbreak users have a workaround: spoofing their browser via the Cydia app, Useragent Faker.

So is this Google playing it fair, playing favorites for Android (which still has functioning Gmail in its iGoogle mobile according to Christina, unlike the iPhone or BlackBerry), or just doing the mobile equivalent of re-coding all sites to standardize on the original version of Netscape?

Rejoice iPhone Gmailers, for Google has yet again bestowed goodness upon us! According to the Official Gmail Blog (via iPhone in Canada):

manually configure IMAP using the “Other” menu option by following the instructions this video [...] From then on, the iPhone’s little trashcan icon will archive your mail. You might notice that messages you archive on your phone are actually being added to a new “Deleted Messages” label in your Gmail account — but they’re right in “All Mail” and searchable, just the way you want them.

If you’re a hardcore Gmail user, let us know what you think of this, and how it’s working for you!

Those rapscallions at Google sure do seem to be having fun with the iPhone. Not only did they pull a fast one on Apple by using private API’s to work their lift-the-phone-to-activate-voice-search magic, they snuck a little super-swipe activated easter egg in for the rest of us! Says the Google Mobile blog:

One evening in Zurich, after a late night cake run, we decided that our iPhone app, Google Mobile App with Voice Search, could do with a little bling. The result of this is a few extra options hidden below the preferences on the Settings tab. Trust us, they’re down there… it just might take some perseverance to get to the bottom of things. Just keep trying!

Spoiler alert! Tap the cog icon to go to the settings screen, then swipe up over and over again to make the Bells and Whistles menu appear. From there, you can pick a new theme color, choose Chicken or Monkey as a sound, turn on a Live Waveform, and choose to Open Links in App.

Pimping out your Google Mobile App? Tell us your new fav combination!

(Thanks to sting7k in the forums for the spot!)

I’m sure that a few of you, like me, have been avoiding using the Google Search Bar in Safari in favor of the Google app. Avoiding it not because the Google App is that awesome (it is), but because the search results page in Safari that comes up when you use the Google Search Bar wasn’t optimized for Safari, but instead looked like the regular desktop page.

Well, quick tip if you’ve been avoiding that bar: it’s been mobile optimized while you were away. No need to avoid it anymore. The above search results screen shot shows what the new (to me, anyway) results page looks like. Chad emailed in (with more than a few exclamation points) showing the same.

Treat this Public Service Announcement like all PSAs — if you don’t care, move along, nothing to see here, threat-level orange, and all that. But If you’ve been keeping away from that search bar, it’s time to come back home.

Google has dropped the iCal bomb. That’s right. Buh-bye third party intermediaries, hello built-in Google Calendar support for Apple’s open source CalDAV standard:

The Google Calendar team is proud to announce the public release of our support for the CalDAV protocol. You can now use Apple iCal with your Google Calendar, so you can work even when you’re offline, sync almost instantly, respond to invitations from others and see the free/busy data of your friends and coworkers.

You can get both the setup program and the download from Google code source. (Now if we could only get some similar Google love for CardDAV as part of a Google Contacts revamp…)

If anyone has a chance to try it out, let us know how it works for getting your gCal into MobileMe or onto your iPhone (I’m — right now very sadly — transitioning to the HTC FUZE for the Round Robin, so let me live vicariously through you!)

Street-View is probably the single most visually impressive feature in iPhone OS 2.2 — you can almost hear the next iPhone TV ad being revved up with it already! Problem is, it’s almost hidden away like an easter egg. If you’re still having trouble finding it, The iPhone Lens wants you to know you’re not alone. More than that, they’ve set up a handy how-to to get you up and viewing streets asap.

[This is an official Smartphone Experts Round Robin post! Every day you reply here, you're automatically entered for a chance to win an iPhone 3G, Case-Mate Naked Case, and Motorola H9 Bluetooth Headset! More below!]

Google’s Android is the future of smartphones. At least, it’s one of the possible futures. Alongside the iPhone, it’s the OS I’m most intrigued by, and that the two companies have chosen such different strategies in tackling the future only makes it ever so much more exciting.

The iPhone is an ordered, iconic device made entirely by Apple, with all the integration and fit and finish — and frustratingly capricious omissions — that only a single guiding mind can achieve. Android, by contrast, is chaotic and communal, designed by Google to free developers and fit a multitude of tastes and form-factors — with all the possible confusion and derivation open source has to offer.

Which one is “better” is a ridiculously impossible question to answer — each platform has its strengths and weaknesses and each user their own unique needs and preferences. Frankly, we’re fortunate to live in a time where there are so many truly awesome devices from which to choose. (Even a few years ago — and yes, I’ll say it, pre-iPhone shockwave — things were far, far more bleak.)

For my part, all I can really do is tell you how I use a smartphone, and how well the Android G1 fits that usage bill.

I really need to point out, up front, that the G1 is a beta device. There, I said it. Unlike Windows Mobile or Blackberry OS, which have been on the market for years and years, and the iPhone OS which is already on 2.x, Android has just hit the market with all the promise and problems that inevitably go with that. The Android device I experienced this week will absolutely and without question be blown away by whatever Android device(s) hit the market next year. So, it’s not a fair comparison for Android from the get go, and I beg everyone to remember that when I lay… er… get into it below the fold.

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UPDATE: iPhone dev extraordinaire Erica Sadun investigated over at Ars and found the following: Google is both linking to Private Frameworks and using unpublished APIs. While the latter is likened to jaywalking, the former is apparently a ban-worthy offense. Yikes. Check out her complete investigation for more. And now that it’s public, the question shifts to what if anything Apple will do about it? Cave to Google over a killer feature and betray the confidence of other developers, or yank Google’s app, alienating a huge (if guilty) partner and likely creating another furor among users?

Original post:

Is Google using private (i.e., not publicly available via the official iPhone SDK) APIs to create the silky-smooth “raise the phone and talk” activation for their new Advanced Voice Search feature in the update Google Mobile App? That’s the latest question Daring Fireball’s been looking into, and here’s what they’ve found so far:

If you use something like the command-line strings utility to examine the UIKit framework, you can see that there’s an undocumented (and therefore private to Apple) method named proximityStateChanged. And if one were to strip the FairPlay DRM from the current Google Mobile application binary — which, of course, you wouldn’t do, because you’re not supposed to strip FairPlay DRM, but I’m just saying if one were to do this — a class dump of the application binary would show that Google Mobile does in fact implement proximityStateChanged.

DF posits three possible explinations: 1) No one at Apple noticed the private API usage, 2) Apple noticed but turned a blind-eye, or 3) Apple approved the use of a private API. Citing sources, DF claims #3 to not be the case, and perhaps that’s why Google promoted the feature so heavily, and stirred up interest so high Apple would feel pressure to approve it (though we wonder if Steve Jobs’ Apple ever feels that type of pressure?)

By contrast, DF states #1 is not without precedence, while #2 would be grossly unfair to other developers, and either way, users may suffer if Apple makes changes to their private APIs (which is one of the reasons to keep them private after all).

So what do you think? Which scenario is most likely? And what would you rather, that developers (Google or not) use officially unsupported features if it means better apps but also apps that might just break when the next firmware drops?

Update: The App Store is now pushing out the update. Enjoy!

NOTE: If you don’t see the microphone icon immediately in the top right corner, tap the Settings button at the bottom right, and switch the slider to “Enabled”.

Original post:

Well, it’s definitely later than last Friday, but it doesn’t look like anyone, including Apple, delayed this long: Google’s Mobile App (iTunes link) now includes the much talked about Advanced Voice Search feature… sorta.

According to Jeremy, iTunes isn’t pushing the update yet, and you actually have to delete the app first if you’ve already installed it in order to get the latest, greatest, chattiest version on your iPhone. (Yup, you read correctly, this isn’t a new App, but an update to Google’s existing iPhone search App.)

Of course, I don’t have an iPhone right now, but if you do, try it out, ask it just how tall Everest really is, and let us know what kind of response you get!

And for you privacy advocates out there, is the coolness factor of this enough to give Skynet, er… The Matrix, um… Google access to your voice ID?

(Thanks to Trevor, Josh, Craig, Bob, for sending this in!)

[This is an official Smartphone Experts Round Robin post! Every day you reply here, you're automatically entered for a chance to win an iPhone 3G, Case-Mate Naked Case, and Motorola H9 Bluetooth Headset! More below!]

Okay, fair enough, I’m having a little fun up there, but with the Smartphone Empire Experts Round Robin officially under way and my iPhone frozen in carbonite for the next month, the G1 could be my only hope!

I’m still trying to figure out if this is the ‘droid I’ve been looking for, however. Do I understand the awesome power of the open-platform of the Google? Or is it more concept now than device, twisted and confusing?

Check out the video, then head on over to Android Central to help me out. Every day you post, you get entered to WIN one of FIVE smartphone prize packs! And you can enter each site’s contest, so don’t forget to help turn Casey back to the iPhone side as well!

May the forums be with you!

Prize details after the jump…

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