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Happy Holidays from Google — Get A Free Snail-Mail Postcard

Dec 2

Posted by Sam Lustgarten in Internet, Social | No Comments

If you haven’t done it already, head over to Gmail Holiday Card to get a free, yes free, postcard from Google. Google has been a proprietary company for years, but in a sort of ode to the old holidays and celebrations, Google is offering a free, snail-mail postcard for users.

card_pileSpread some holiday cheer, one card at a time.

Sure, email is great, but there’s something uniquely heartwarming about the kind of card that comes in the actual mail — especially for folks who don’t hear from us as often as they should, simply because they aren’t online.

So we’ve made it as easy to send snail-mail holiday cards as it is to send email. Simply fill out the form below and we’ll send one free holiday postcard on your behalf. Yes, through the mail and everything.

Source: http://twitter.com/google

Link: https://services.google.com/fb/forms/gmailholidaycard/

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Goodbye Radio — Hello Smartphones

Nov 28

Posted by Sam Lustgarten in Android, Cell Phones, Computers, Internet | 1 Comment

I’m rounding out my break from college and remarking at how different my day to day music listening is. Even I, a 20-year-old and of a younger generation, can realize the immense progression that we’ve seen over the past few decades. I remember wanting to have a radio in my own room — shocker! My thumb would abrasively rub against the left to right throttle of the band changer. Fuzz and interference would constantly persist. Quality became a factor and TV began to progress on the satellite level. Satellite radio followed in step. Unfortunately, they stepped into the wrong business at the wrong time; radio, even satellite radio, is dead.

sirius

Radio distributes content to a broad spectrum of people and shares news and music. Many frequent commuters have relied on radio for their early morning and post-work entertainment. Follow sports on ESPN, world news on NPR, and listen to the latest musical hits. There’s still an aesthetic appeal to all of this.

While radio continues to broadcast out to the greater world, the deconstruction and decentralization of all things radio is swiftly occurring. The younger generations have their iPods for starters, and when they grow to have today’s smartphones (Droid, iPhone, etc.), they’ll probably be getting their news from it too. “There’s an app for that” means more than the 100,000 some-odd apps, many a waste, but tens of thousands that can replace our previous needs with a car radio. The NPR app and DoggCatcher are perfect examples of this new web technology that’s replacing old audio media.

Many of today’s technology is ad-free or has very minimal advertisements. Pandora on both the iPhone and Android devices has nothing more than a little banner image. Unlike even the desktop version of Pandora, the mobile version doesn’t have intrusive audio ads. Why would I go back to dialing into a radio station and suffering signal strength woes? Pandora is just an example of what I’m filling my ears with every day.

Part of the reason I love my Droid is because I can’t download through the iTunes Music Store; the convenience would entice, and I’d be spending left and right on my iPhone. By turning on Pandora I save money and it’s personalized, which I don’t get by listening to my own music all the time.

Not to mention that podcasts are quickly replacing my TV watching and are perfect for casual walking. Download them over the air and have them in a couple of minutes. It’s the future, and I have it in my hands. I haven’t listened to the radio in years, and I’m predicting that they’ll quickly lose funding in the next 10 years and wash away. Hello smartphone, you’re my always connected computer!

Tell us if you’re using your smartphone to replace your radio and music player! Let us know in the comments below.

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Google Wave Review and Free Invites!

Nov 25

Posted by Luke Newby in Computers, Internet | 1 Comment

We received several Google Wave invites a few weeks back. After testing Wave for a few weeks, the two of us see the potential in Google Wave. Sam and I have started several waves, exploring the many options, tools, apps, and gadgets that can be utilized and tinkered with. There’s plenty being said about Wave, but clarity is hard to come by.

Google Wave is a self-proclaimed, “tool for real-time communication and collaboration.” Within a wave, people can see real-time typing and communication, while simultaneously collaborating on projects. You can add any countless numbers of maps, videos, documents, pictures, and tools that may be required. Unfortunately, for the time being, Google Wave is invite only and in the preview stages of development, so many features are still inaccessible.

When starting a wave, it feels similar to chatting or instant messaging.  When in a wave, communication is made in individual text boxes. From there any of the users can start implementing any of the tools. For example I could add a map that shows where I am in relationship to Sam, or I could ask him a multiple-choice question (where I choose the questions and the answers). And if he needed to work on a document we could see who was editing what, and when.  From there we could save the wave and replay it at our leisure.

All of this makes Google Wave sound pretty darn amazing. But it is slow, painfully slow. We can only hope that that’s because of its current development stage. It makes playing around with Wave a timely process. Additionally when trying to add several of the gadgets the links appeared to be broken or unresponsive. Thankfully there is already an online book to explain Wave.  The book is a Wiki-like 8 chapter, multiple appendix, book that explains the vast amount of functionality and potential.

We are truly excited to see where wave will take the online communication world. Will it truly replace email? Not for a while, but eventually it will be a competitor. With open source development, the possibilities are endless.

We would love to hear any of your comments about Google Wave. If you already have it, tell what you think, if you still want it, tell us what you want to know. Reply to this post in the comments and we’ll enter you to win one of two free Google Wave invite giveaway!

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