Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

Bill Gates promised frequent updates way back when they were doing the final testing of IE7. Yet somehow, it’s been almost two years before they finally released the beta mode of Internet Explorer 8 just today. Some will hurrah, some will cringe, some won’t care one way or the other. But...it’s out...and along with actually seeming to be an improvement over the previous version...it’s pretty clear that the folks at Microsoft are also using their latest browser as a clever little way to try to take over some Google ground.

I admit, I’m a diehard Firefox user. And when I checked out IE8 beta, I immediately recognized the same thing others seem to be seeing. The Smart Address Bar is very similar to the Awesome Bar in Firefox 3. When you start to type in the address bar, it tries to guess where you want to go, based on where you’ve been before. Although I have to give it to Microsoft, their Smart Bar seems to do the job even a little better. It shows history items, autocomplete suggestions, and your saved Favorites all in lists that you can collapse or expand with just a click. Also, you can delete an address from the Smart Bar with just a click as well, which is really handy for any addresses you may have in there that were typed incorrectly or if you have bookmarks you just don’t use anymore. 

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Mystery has surrounded the whole HTC Dream G1 launch from T-Mobile since word broke about the Android-powered Dream. There has been speculation running rampant about what the first Android headset is going to look like. Websites had mock-ups showing different views of what people thought it might be. There was even a video. Well, apparently, there have been photos leaked “from a trusted source” of what the G1 is going to look like...and there are a few things people didn’t see coming.

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With Android hitting later this year, you’d think Google would be content with it’s place in the cellular phone market.  Apparently they aren’t satisfied with just an OS.  A Reuters report shows that Google is in talks with Verizon to use Google as the default search engine for Verizon cell phones.

This probably seems like a small move at first.  But, the plan as of now apparently means adding a Google search bar to the homepage of Verizon phones.  It’s not clear what that could mean, but if it is the main screen on the phone, it could make for quite a few extra dollars for Verizon when people with data plans accidentally use it.  The plan would also have Google and Verizon sharing revenue from search ads when it is used on a Verizon phone.

The only small thing that could be bad with the deal so far is Google want to save the information from cell phone charges.  Google wouldn’t use that information against us, though.  Will it?

Read [Reuters]

Although its still just in the rumor stage, it does seem accurate enough and follows up nicely with T-Mobile’s recent confirmation and the FCC approval. It looks like the T-Mobile Android-powered HTC Dream will be available for customers beginning on October 13, with pre-orders running from September 17 through October 3 for current T-Mobile customers, and the handset will be available in black, brown or white.

In addition to the release date, some pricing information has also come to light, and it seems to be set pretty fairly. It is rumored that the HTC Dream will be $199 with a two-year agreement. In addition to the $199 price, which will apply for new customers, it was also mentioned that the price for any current T-Mobile customers looking to upgrade will be slightly less expensive at $150.

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Developed by the Canadian company Idee, the TinEye search engine is a fantastic new breakthrough in the realm of search engines that allows users to search for their photographs anywhere on the Internet.  Users are able to actually search for a picture by uploading it, and then having the program run a pixel by pixel search across the ‘Net. All found instances of the image are flagged, regardless of whether it has been cropped, merged or digitally altered in any way.

Leila Boujnane, CEO of TinEye, has the following to say about their program.

“TinEye does for images what Google does for text. We are not limited by words, Google can only find an image if a particular search word is in proximity to it. We have the ability on a large scale to tell somebody where one of their images has appeared and how it’s being used.”

The program is also not limited by the quality of the input image according to Boujnane.  She states that “anything you would consider a preview image or low resolution image would work. I can take a photograph of a picture in the Louvre with my mobile and upload it to TinEye and it would dump me on the page of that Wikipedia page related to that painting.”

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Google seems to be advocating a lot of things recently, with the latest being their “Free The Airwaves” campaign.  Free The Airwaves is about asking the FCC to free allow anyone to use unused airwaves that currently carry analog TV signals.  About 3/4 of these waves are currently unused, and Google wants to leverage these waves for the good of everyone.  Its idea is to use it for cheap and easy wireless internet access, of course.

FCC engineers will be testing the airwaves that could carry Wi-Fi, with the ban on using the “white space” airwaves possibly coming by the end of the year.  This would be great news for just about everyone.  There are still places in the United States that don’t have access to broadband (shocking to realize sometimes, I know), and these waves should already be there anyway.  It should just be a matter of buying a device that can connect to the airwaves.

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Earlier today we saw T-Mobile give their official confirmation that the Android powered HTC Dream would be available sometime between October and the end of the year, of course they have yet to confirm an exact release date.

The lack of a release date was most likely being held up be the FCC and waiting for the final approvals to come in, well the good news is the Dream has shown its face and passed the FCC requirements. With that we can only hope that T-Mobile is more inclined to offer a better release date sometime in the short-term future.

The FCC listing does confirm that the HTC model will be the Dream as the handset was labeled the “DREA100.” Otherwise not many specs were made available other than that it has Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR and runs on the 850/1700/1900MHz bands. Of course, like I would bet many of you are, I am more interested in pricing. I guess the wait now begins.

Read [FCC] Via [Engadget]

This does not come as a huge surprise, after all we have seen many recent reports with the same timeline, but its still nice to have some official confirmation.

While they still are not offering up a specific launch date, T-Mobile has confirmed that the first Android powered phone would be available “before Christmas” but may come as early as October. They also mentioned that the handset would be coming from HTC, and although they did not confirm a specific model, it is believed to be the HTC Dream, and it will feature both a full touchscreen along with a full slide-out QWERTY keyboard.

At this point we can only hope that the Android powered Dream lands closer to the October end of the time frame, if nothing else the earlier launch would make perfect sense to make sure the fully benefit from the holiday shopping season.

Read [Yahoo! News]

It looks like the much anticipated mobile phone powered by Google’s Android Software will finally be pushed through, and if we are lucky it might come upon us as early as October or later just in time for Christmas. The New York Times is reporting that HTC will be pushing out a new mobile handset powered by Google Android and also went on to mention that the Google phone will be released by none other than T-Mobile.

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Despite previous statements declaring that their online service would be offering live video streaming some time this year, a source inside now states that YouTube won’t be going live after all. There goes the business plans of several planning to make a buck off the live streaming idea, like the somewhat cult-popular lifecast justin.tv. Some outsiders have thought this was the next expected step for YouTube, being that they make a killing in the market for pre-recorded Web video. Even Steve Chen, Co-Founder of YouTube, lent plausibility to the leap to live streaming when the idea first hit the public’s ear by telling Pop 17’s Sarah Meyer’s “Live video is something we always wanted to do but haven’t had the resources to do it correctly, but now with Google, we hope to launch something this year.” Well, that was in February, and it isn’t happening, and sources say it won’t be happening next year either.

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