By Omar L. Gallaga

This morning, Google was expected to announce at the National Bike Summit in Washington, D.C., that is is adding bike routes to its popular Google Maps service.

The service will display in about 150 cities bike trails, roads with bike lanes and roads without bike lanes, but which are bike-friendly. Bicyclists will be able to submit their own corrections and routes, which will be reviewed and potentially added to the general database.

You can read my full story in today's edition of the Austin American-Statesman. Austin is one of a handful of cities that helped inspire the new service; a former Austinite started a petition site that garnered more than 50,000 responses urging the company to add bike routing to Google Maps.

By Omar L. Gallaga

Those of us who use Gmail have had more than a week to play around with Google's new social working hive full of hornets, Google Buzz. There are some things I really like about it (at launch it already had a large installed user base) and things I really don't (ack, get out of my inbox, Buzz messages!), but of this I'm certain: it needs universal commenting across social networks.

What does that mean? Let's take my account. I have Google Buzz connected to social networks and Web services including Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Google Reader and YouTube. Many of the people who appear in Buzz are people I already follow on Twitter, have friended on Facebook and engage with on those other social media sites.

Frequently, I'll see the same post two or three times from the same person. That's an inconvenience I'm willing to put up with -- it happened when I used to use the very similar FriendFeed -- but what would make my life much easier was if I could post a comment in Google Buzz about an item and have that comment appear in all those other places. If a friend posts an interesting Tweet, I'd respond to it in Buzz and that comment would appear as an @reply on Twitter, as a comment on the item on their Facebook page and a comment on Google Reader/Facebook/Flickr if that's where the content came from.

I post once, it appears in all those places (assuming that person's settings allows for this). As it stands now, if I post a comment on Buzz, I can only be assured that the person who posted it and a few other people on Buzz will see it. If I want people on those other sites to see the comment, I'd need to post separately to all those sites. I really don't like the fragmentary nature of posting a comment on Buzz right now.

Google launched a project like this (not specifically tied to social networking) called Sidewiki, but that has an even smaller audience than Buzz.

So come on, Google. Stop making me work so hard to comment on the Web. Make it happen.

'Pocket Sitar,' a new app for the iPhone and iPod Touch. (Image provided by publisher / MachCUBED)

By Omar L. Gallaga

With more than 140,000 apps in Apple's Death Star-like App Store, it's easy to get App Burnout and begin to believe that you've seen it all. Somehow, though, one new app always sneaks through my cynicism filters and seems suddenly indispensable.

For instance: an app for all those times that I needed a sitar, but didn't have the wherewithal to carry such an unwieldy instrument around with me (happens to everyone, right?).

"Pocket Sitar," released today for the iPhone and iPod Touch for 99 cents, features the lovely instrument, along with very brief instructions on how to play, links to videos you can view on the device and three octaves to experiment with.

It was developed with the help of Maestro Aloke Dasgupta. I'm no sitar expert, but the app seems solid, musically. It's very basic; the "How to" element of the app is just a page of instructional text, but the price seems right for the 1.0 version of a musical instrument app.

Now, if you can film yourself playing Norwegian Wood with this app and put it on YouTube, I'll be happy to post a blog entry featuring your musical talents.

By Omar L. Gallaga

(Screenshot from "Panic Button Emergency Locator," an iPhone application.)

The inspiring (especially for techies) story about a man who saved his own life under the rubble in Haiti with the aid of an iPhone application got me thinking about how we might use our phones during a similar emergency in the U.S.

There are plenty of applications that can broadcast a distress signal on an iPhone, Android phone or BlackBerry. But I'm wondering if that shouldn't be a standard feature on all phones.

In my mind, the perfect panic button application would have the following features:

• One-click or one-icon-press access to go into emergency mode.
• Would change the phone's settings automatically to conserve the device's power for as long as possible.
• Would continue to try sending an SMS, e-mail or voice distress message at regular intervals in the event of a network disruption or weak phone signal.
• Could be voice-activated in the event that you're unable to physically navigate your phone's menus.
• Would broadcast GPS coordinates to a Web site or service that family members or emergency workers could easily access.
• Could provide medical information to EMS workers who might arrive on the scene after you've lost consciousness.

I know there are plenty of applications that do one or more of these functions, but I can't find any that do them all or even come close. Does anyone out there know of something like this?

Of course, the thinking might go that if you can fire up a panic button app, you probably have the ability to text or call your way out of a jam yourself, but I'm thinking of an app that was so easy to use that even someone who doesn't regularly text or uses applications on their phone could figure it out.

And what about non-smartphones (or, so-called "Dumbphones")?

Whether you've seen anything like this idea or think it's ridiculous, let us know in the comments.

By Jessica Alpert

The topic of religion and technology is a big one. In my three-minute piece on All Things Considered, I wasn't really able to give listeners the whole picture but I hope I at least whet your appetite. I thought it might interest listeners to check out some of the websites and apps I mentioned on-air.

A few Sundays ago, I attended Church from my living room couch, coffee in hand. I listened to a worship service that reminded me more of a Dave Matthews concert. At one point, we were asked to raise our hands if this was our first time at Lifechurch. I clicked on the button and saw that fifteen other people had done the same thing. The whole service was infused with these interactive elements.

Then I found Koogle, a "kosher," Hebrew search engine for Orthodox Jews that omits websites Rabbis deem inappropriate. Speaking of search engines, Zabihah helps Muslims locate halal meat around the world and Shamash does the same for Jews trying to keep kosher.

Prayer beads go high tech with the iRosary App for the iPhone.

As I mentioned in the piece, Dave and Jackie Brown were motivated to make the iRosary when their daughter Isabella (who was six at the time) was diagnosed with a vicious form of cancer. They took turns taking care of her; Jackie would stay at the hospital Mondays through Fridays and Dave would take over on the weekends. They prayed a lot.

Continue reading "High-Speed Connection With God" >

Visual Information: Goggles at work, in a screenshot from Google's mobile Web site. (Google)

By Bill Chappell

If you're out walking around and see something new and interesting -- but kind of hard to figure out -- do you take a moment to phrase a Boolean-friendly query to unleash on passersby?

Of course you don't. You just point and say, "What's that?"

The trouble is, sometimes nobody knows. Well, now you can ask Google.

The company's new Google Goggles service lets you send it a pic from your cameraphone. The photo is then analyzed and turned into a search query, and you're given links that might explain that new/weird thing you're staring at. Since this is Google we're talking about, all that probably takes about a half-second to happen.

Here's the freaky part: Goggles was designed to be so smart, and so sensitive, that it could work on people -- like, a photo of you might bring back a link to your blog, or your Wikipedia entry, if you should be so fortunate.

If that sounds like a great tool for stalkers and privacy invaders in general, Google agrees -- or at least it does now. At the Le Web conference, company reps said this week that they need to get a better handle on "the implications of the facial recognition tool."

But even if Google won't provide those results to the public, there are likely to be some doubts about whether it compiles them for its own (need I say mysterious?) purposes. The other thing conspiracists should look out for: The service will remember your image searches for the past 6 months.

My main problem with it -- other than my total failure to come up with a funny riff on Google Goggles vs. Beer Goggles -- is that right now, the service is only available for Android phones.

The company says more versions are on the way. And oh boy, you can just imagine all the fun all those iPhoners are going to have when they can satisfy their curiosity... which, as you may know, is insatiable.

Goggles also has a photo-sharing component, letting you send images to Facebook and Picasa. It'll be interesting to see if they let you send stuff to Flickr -- I won't hold my breath on that one.

By Andy Carvin

Ever since the iPhone 3GS rolled out this summer with video recording capability, I've wondered how long it would take for a video streaming app to hit the App Store. Video streaming isn't completely alien to the iPhone -- Qik has had an app for jailbroken iPhones for some time now -- but no one had successfully gotten a full-blown streaming app past Apple's App Store gatekeepers. All of that changed yesterday with Ustream's rollout of their Live Broadcaster app for the iPhone. With this free app, any iPhone 3GS can record and stream live video to the Web.

As far as apps go, it's fairly straightforward. You give it your login info for an existing Ustream account, or create a new one. It then activates the iPhone's camera, with a big green "Go Live" button on the bottom right of the screen. Click the button, and whammo -- you're streaming video directly to your Ustream account. You can also set it up to send a tweet that you're broadcasting live. When you're done streaming, you can upload a copy of the video to Youtube or Facebook.

Yesterday, Eyder Peralta and I both downloaded the app and spent some time playing with it before deciding to stream a video showing how it works. Here's a copy of that video.

Some observations about the experience:

Continue reading "Ustream Launches Video Streaming iPhone App" >

By Omar L. Gallaga

Developed by Heatwave Interactive, the "iSamJackson" iPhone/iPod Touch app is due out in a few months. (Courtesy of Heatwave Interactive)

With more than 100,000 applications in Apple's App Store alone, you couldn't be blamed if you had a little bit of app fatigue. Isn't it enough already?

I was thinking the same thing, until this morning I found out that a new app due out in a few months allows you to hold the awesome vocal power of actor Samuel L. Jackson in your hand.

The "iSamJackson" app, developed by Austin's Heatwave Interactive, promises to give you a portable version of the Pulp Fiction star to carry around on an iPhone or iPod Touch. The app will include original recordings, "Humorous adages and sage advice," as well as a personality scanner and a soundboard, presumably for the prank-call inclined. No word yet on what it will cost.

If you've ever been cut off in line at the post office, or had to deal with a clueless customer support rep, you can probably imagine instances where an app that allows you to confront people with a virtual Samuel L. Jackson by your side might be extremely useful.

The only thing I could think of that might be more disarming is busting out the "I Am T-Pain" Auto-Tune app.

While it will be available to anyone who wants to buy it, some of us might wonder whether we're responsible enough to be trusted with the potentially dangerous weapon that is Samuel L. Jackson's set of vocal cords.

I'll let the man answer that himself: "YES, YOU DESERVE THIS APP AND I HOPE YOU USE IT WELL!"

By Omar L. Gallaga

YouTube is rolling out a video upgrade to its users -- over the next few days, the company said on its official blog, 1080p video will be available for viewing. The site currently tops out at 720p, which is 1,280 x 720 pixels. 1080p video has a resolution of 1,920 x 1,080.

Increasingly gone are the days when we could all complain that Web video looks crummy and lives in a tiny box when viewed on a big-screen TV. Most large HDTVs sold these days have a 1080p native resolution. As we'll discuss next week on All Tech Considered, our options for viewing Web content on our TVs seem to increase by the day and this is certainly one way YouTube plans to stay in that loop.

Of course, videos shot on camera phones are still going to look like garbage, so don't expect the 1080p magic wand to improve the quality of content that already looks terrible at lower resolutions. For videos uploaded at 1080p, however, you'll be able to fill up that big screen as soon as you can figure out how to get that computer to interface with that HDTV. Good luck to you.

(My favorite response about it so far is the Christian Science Monitor's headline which reads, in part, "Um, sure.")

Below is a sample 1080p video from YouTube (much smaller than 1080p, of course, but you can click on it to get to the larger version). My computer monitor won't even display it at 1080p because mine tops out at 1,680 x 1,050.

My worst nightmare. (iStockphoto.com)

By Viet Le

I don't have a baby, nor am I a baby person -- a cat person, yes... baby person, not so much. (Although, let me know if you come across a baby that purrs and can kill mice.) Knowing this, my wonderful friends who are parents like to prank me when I come over for visits, sitting their toddlers on my lap and then tee-heeing as they race out of the room leaving me alone with their babies. It's like they've tossed a grenade at me that could explode in tears at any moment. That's why when I read about the Cry Translator, a new iPhone app, my first reaction was "where have you been all my life?"

Continue reading "Don't Be A Cry-Baby" >

By Omar L. Gallaga

This bluebird asks, 'Would you like to buy a ringtone?' (clipart.com)

If you're as inundated with technology as I am, you may have forgotten that tweets didn't originally come from Twitter; they are actually sounds that birds make. Up in trees, I suppose.

Sprint is hoping to remind its customers with a new set of bird call ringtones, including such sure-to-be chart-toppers as "Downy Woodpecker" and "Kentucky Warbler." The 28 ringtones come in association with the Audubon Society and hurt my sensitive ears.

That probably means I should go outside more often.

You can preview the bird calls here, or text "BIRD" to the number 1111 if you're a Sprint wireless customer.

By Omar L. Gallaga

Google has done something quite amazing this week: it has created a hysteria for a product that people want, even if they don't know exactly what it is.

Google Wave is an online app that combines aspects of e-mail, instant messaging, the kind of collaborative editing you'd find on Wikipedia, document sharing and other info-rich features. At least, I think that's what it is. Like millions of curious others, I still haven't tried it out for myself, although this article on Lifehacker (with helpful screen grabs) explains Wave better than any other I've seen to date.

Unfortunately, Google has limited who can check it out to 100,000 invites it sent out to people who applied for a shot at the early look months ago (primarily developers who would build upon Wave by the time it gets to a wider audience).

A market of demand has emerged, with desperate Twitter users (apparently bored with Twitter itself) begging for a Google Wave invite, retweeting accounts that likely aren't affiliated with Google for a chance at one and even trolling eBay for a coveted invitation to the service. Announcing on a social network that you have a Google Wave invite has become an online victory lap performance akin to the dance-and-squeal American Idol contestants do when they find out they're going to Hollywood for the semifinals.

Google Wave is certainly intriguing, but people need to calm down. It'll get here soon enough to inundate the masses with information overload and to destroy (or enhance!) the world's productivity, depending on how many of us figure out how to properly ride the Wave.

Just a guess.

by Laura Sydell

AT&T says it wasn't us. The wireless carrier sent a letter to the FCC in response to an inquiry about Apple's decision to keep Google Voice out of its app store. The FCC is looking into whether or not AT&T and Apple are conspiring against competition.

Google Voice is an application that ties all your phone numbers into a single Google phone number. It lets users manage and make calls and send text messages at a cheaper rate than the AT&T phone service connected to the iPhone. It seems to have a VoIP ability and that means is you can make phone calls using AT&T's network without being charged by AT&T.

AT&T is the exclusive carrier of the iPhone.

About three weeks ago, Apple rejected the Google Voice app from its app store. At the time, Apple claimed that it was pulling the app because it duplicated features that were already on the iPhone.

Even if Apple didn't talk to AT&T before it pulled the plug on the Google Voice app, AT&T isn't really blameless here. Just read the letter that AT&T sent to the FCC AT&T says that there is a clause in their contract that requires Apple to pull down applications that use its network for phone services.

It is also interesting to note that on page 8 paragraph 2 of AT&T's letter to the FCC it says it is reviewing its ban on phone applications such as Skype or other VoIP.

Apple says it has not rejected Google Voice but it's just reviewing the situation.

It's an interesting case because it provides fodder to the critics of the current wireless system who say that the carriers have too much control over the devices that use their networks. Tim Wu at Columbia Law School believes that the carriers should not be able to control the applications users put on devices any more than the phone companies can tell you what kind of phone to put on your land line.

When I found out that USAA, a bank my wife uses, had a new Deposit@Mobile feature allowing you to deposit checks via an iPhone camera, I was incredibly excited.

Then I found out she only has a credit card with them, not a checking or savings account. Plus, she has no iPhone. Excitement dimmed. I really wanted to try it out and tell you about it.

Luckily, it is for situations exactly like this that we have Internet video: the YouTube clip above (from the company itself) walks you through the deposit-via-iPhone feature, which is nothing short of amazing. What else will we soon be able to do by camera phone? Will getting your picture taken at the DMV be a thing of the past? Perhaps you'll be able to qualify as a beauty pageant contestant with just a few keystrokes on your phone. Three words: whole-body teleporation!

It's stuff like this that makes me giddy about the future.

Edited, Aug. 13, to add: USAA tells me today that checks totaling $1.5 million have been deposited by customers via the iPhone app since it was released Tuesday.

By Omar L. Gallaga

If the only story you read about Tuesday's bombshell Google announcement that it is releasing an operating system next year was this very odd New York Times piece, you might already be convinced that Google will win an OS war in which it hasn't even begun to compete.

Lost among the breathless predictions of a shift in the PC market in the article is that Google's "Chrome" operating system -- which will expand its browser to be brains of smaller netbook computers -- won't compete against Microsoft and Apple on high-end PCs or workstations (so much for that IBM/Sun comparison) and that the Chrome OS won't be out until the second half of next year. That's an eternity in computer industry time; the landscape could change significantly in the time it takes for Chrome OS to get here.

I have a feeling the demand for netbooks -- smaller, underpowered laptops designed primarily for Web surfing -- might wane by this time next year, especially if Apple or some other innovator releases a better product that fills the middle space between full-powered laptops and increasingly powerful smartphones. A keyboard-less tablet with 3G Internet built-in? A super-compact laptop without all the performance of a larger PC? Maybe something like that.

Another thing that may work against Google's favor is that based on what we've seen with its Android phone platform, the Big G is not infallible when it comes to getting hardware partners to jump on board. It's been eight months since the first Android-based phone was released and we're only now starting to see others hit the market. I imagine Chrome OS will be similarly slow to take off and be embraced.

For an even more level-headed analysis of what might happen, check out Peter Glaskowsky's more sober take on Google strategy, posted on CNet.com. He raises some great points; this is a new, tough battle for Google and one that's not automatically theirs to win.

The bottom line is that Chrome OS is a long way off and may be late to the party, especially if netbooks fall out of vogue by the time it arrives. Stay tuned.

Further reading: NPR's story on the Google OS announcement.

By Bill Chappell

OS 3.0-equipped iPhones and other devices will be able to show their users candid photos of nearby scenes. Flickr

When you're planning a trip, the Web is a great way to get a feel for your destination -- whether it's a foreign country or the DMV across town

Google Maps can help you do that; so can Microsoft's Bing.

But many people want to know what a specific place looks like to a regular Joe -- not to a sophisticated car-mounted camera array. Google and Bing are working on that.

In the meantime, you can use a site like Flickr, searching around on its map for photos that the site's users have tagged to a specific location -- whether it's a park, a shoe store, or a coffee shop.

And as of Thursday, Flickr is making it easier for people to see those images while they're on the move -- provided they have an iPhone (with OS 3.0) or Android device. Flickr just released its "Nearby" feature, which splits a phone's screen to show a map in one half -- and photos in the other.

I haven't tried it yet, but the idea is a good one. And if you're reading this on an iPhone or Android phone, you can just go to the Flickr Mobile site and click the link titled "Photos taken nearby."

By Laura Sydell

Microsoft has been nervous about Google's growing power for a long time. The software giant hasn't really been able to make a dent in Google's colossal share of the search market. Now, Google is taking on Microsoft where it lives -- in the operating system business. Acer, Elitegroup Computer (ECS), and Asutek plan to introduce new low-cost netbooks that run on Google's operating system Android. The Acer netbooks with Android will be cheaper than the ones that run on Windows, presumably because Acer won't have to lease the operating system from Microsoft.

Google has also been challenging Microsoft with its cloud applications that provide online based document, spreadsheet, and other office applications.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer can't be feeling very happy about all of this. A few years ago he told me that "Google was a nice little company." Balmer explained that he meant that Microsoft had once been a nice little company and then they became the subject of anti-trust law suits. It was shortly after that comment that Microsoft began raising red flags about Google's growing power and pushing for anti-trust suits against the search engine giant.

Microsoft had its own announcement today. It's going to release its new operating system Windows 7 on October 22nd. Hopefully, consumers will be happier with it than they were with Vista, which had many computer users staring cross eyed at their computer screens.

By Krishnadev Calamur

Internet giant Google has unveiled its plan for a new tool that is a hybrid of e-mail, IM and document sharing. Dubbed Google Wave, the tool takes another stab at real-time online communication.

In his blog, Lars Rasmussen, the man who developed Wave with his brother Jens, says Wave is "equal parts conversation and document, where people can communicate and work together with richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more."

Google plans to make the code open source, giving developers the opportunity to help in its evolution.

The public can access the service later this year.

By Bill Chappell

There's a great phone app out there called Sports Tracker that never fails to impress my friends.

It uses GPS to track your workouts -- running or cycling, for instance. Afterward, it lists your average and maximum speed over the distance. It also charts speed, time, distance, and altitude.

Some of my bike routes, from the Sports Tracker site.

 

If you pause along the way, the program can pause with you. And it can handle laps and favorite routes.

Continue reading "The Best Damn Workout App Money Can't Buy" >