Songify Hits Android
If you've been jealous that iPhone users get all the cool auto-tuning apps, you're in luck today. Smule's popular Songify app has hit Android, and it's available as a free download. The app auto-tunes regular speech into music, as made popular by the Gregory Brothers. I can't wait to see how well I sing.
Vertical Search
You knew Google had a bunch of separate search engines hidden within the main search, right? Did you know what those search engines were called? They're vertical searches. Some of the vertical searches are obvious, like image and book searches, and some are completely hidden until you just happen to need them.
Appcessorize It
Ann appcessory is a physical object that interacts with apps on your phone or mobile. In January tons of companies introduced fitness appcessories, and we're just now seeing many of them come to the market. I've listed a few of them for comparison. Maybe not every mom would be thrilled to get one for Mother's Day, but it's something to look at for the jogger and gadget fan in your life.
Galaxy Nexus on Google Play
I wanted a Galaxy Nexus phone as soon as Google introduced it. I didn't, however, want to switch to Verizon Wireless to use it. I also didn't want to pay a huge amount of money to buy an imported GSM phone. Thank goodness, I can finally get my unlocked GSM Galaxy Nexus.
It turns out that Google learned a few lessons from trying to sell the Nexus One online, and they're giving it another try. You can buy a new phone direct from Google Play. At $399 for an unlocked phone, it's not a bad price.
Google Drive
Last week, Google introduced a virtual storage app called Google Drive. Rumors of the GDrive had been around for years and years. Google Drive doesn't offer more space than competing virtual storage options, but it does better integrate Google Docs features if you were using them anyway.
Don't Forget to Wave Goodbye to Google Wave
If you were one of the (few) people who used Google Wave and had some really useful waves, you've got until April 30th to either archive or export them. Rizzoma will let you import your waves directly into their server using your Google Account. The company aims to take Google Wave's open source platform and continue developing it into something amazing. I hope they succeed.
Sharing Groups of Google Docs
Back when Google Docs was started, sharing files with a group of people was hard. You had to change the preferences on each item individually. A couple years ago, Google refined the system to make it easier to share an entire folder of docs. Today, sharing a folder (Collection) of files, documents, and other items is dirt simple. Here's how you do it.
YouTube Loses Viacom Appeal
Remember that battle? It seems so several years ago, because it was. Anyway, Viacom appealed the summary dismissal of the case. They won the appeal which comes with the grand prize of getting to drag this thing through courts for longer. They haven't won the case. They've just won the right to duke it out in court and spend even more millions in legal fees.
Ironically, the main reason they seem to have won the appeal is because YouTube was occasionally concerned that users might be posting infringing material. The DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) "safe harbor" provision protects sites from being held responsible for acts their users commit in some cases, but they have to be ignorant of the copyright violations and act promptly to remove them when notified of the violation. Viacom argued that YouTube should have known better, and they pulled out a few key employee emails to back up their case.
Google Goggles Made Real
It still makes me a little giddy that I can write about these things. Self -driving cars. From a search engine company.
Google is determined to make all those things we dreamed about as somehow being part of the future. Yesterday, they quietly announced another one of those robot car projects. Project Glass. This time it's the future of glasses. Augmented reality may end up being this year's 3D TV idea and be more hype than hope, but I think this one will end up happening someday. Whether or not we buy our augmented reality goggles from Google remains to be seen, but we'll be buying them from someone.
NASCAR to Get Self-Driving Cars?
I'm calling this one April Fool's, but it's an unusually plausible release from Google today, and the release date is actually late on March 31 on my end. They claim they'll be qualifying self-driving cars in NASCAR races. While this would be a great demonstration of Google's technology, I really doubt NASCAR fans would want to see their sport turned into nothing but a robot driving contest. The timing of a weekend announcement for something this big is also highly suspect.
Meanwhile, Chrome Multitask is definitely a joke. Check out some other great April Fool's Day jokes from Google, past and present.

