This year is Google’s tenth anniversary and as part of their celebrations they have created a Google search that is so 2001…
In other words they are using their 2001 search database, and virtually everytime you will need to use the Internet Archive to see how the web looked back then.
It’s quite fun to use and see the sort of results that you got back then compared to today.
I did say in my previous post.
I wonder how long it will be before it comes to the UK.
Well according to the BBC it will be in the UK in time for Christmas on T-Mobile.
The T-Mobile G1 handset will be available in the UK in time for Christmas.
The first device to run the search giant’s operating system will feature a touch screen as well as a Qwerty keyboard.
It will be available for free on T-Mobile tariffs of over £40 a month and includes unlimited net browsing.
Other features include a three megapixel camera, a ‘one click’ contextual search and a browser that users can zoom in on by tapping the screen.
I think it has potential, but is it going to match the iPhone?
I don’t think it will have the buzz that the iPhone had. However the applications that the Google Phone could have and the way that they are installed on the phone means that it may have more potential as a learning device than the iPhone.
Well it’s out there now.
Google unveiled their phone, it will be from (in the USA) T-Mobile and is made by HTC.
Not much to look at is it?
The key with this phone, is don’t look at the phone, look at the operating system.
Images from Engadget who attended the event and who say:
We finally, finally got our mitts all over the very first Android device, the T-Mobile G1 — hanging out in the crowd, waiting for the official announce, naturally — and so far we like what we see. The phone is surprisingly thinner than we thought it would be, and it feels pretty solid in your hand (though they’ve opted for an almost all plastic device, no metal here). The keyboard seems usable and reasonably well thought-out, and the slider action is like butter, with a nice little swoop for good effect.
I wonder how long it will be before it comes to the UK.
Think of the potential of learners being able to use Google Docs whilst on the move.
In the US today sees the unveiling of the widely anticipated Google Phone.
The BBC reports that
The first mobile telephone using Google’s Android software is due to be unveiled on 23 September.
It will be available on the US network of T-Mobile and is expected to be on sale in October.
The first device to run the search giant’s operating system will be a handset from Taiwanese firm HTC called the “Dream”.
No price for the phone has been given yet but it is expected to be below the important $200 (£107) price point.
So why the interest in the phone?
Well as the BBC article goes on…
Google announced its plans for the Android phone software in November 2007 with a declared aim of making it easier to get at the web while on the move.
More and more people are using their phones less for making phone calls and more for using the web whilst on the move. Apple’s iPhone showed that you could use the web on the move, will Google’s Android do more than just the web?
The Official Google Blog has a really insightful and interesting posting on the future of internet video. One interesting statistic is that thirteen hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute!
What Google think is that:
In ten years, we believe that online video broadcasting will be the most ubiquitous and accessible form of communication. The tools for video recording will continue to become smaller and more affordable. Personal media devices will be universal and interconnected. Even more people will have the opportunity to record and share even more video with a small group of friends or everyone around the world.
I am not even sure it will take as long as ten years!
The new compact MP4 Flip’esque cameras that are now available make it even easier to shoot and upload video.
At ALT-C I was broadcasting video live from my phone over the internet, I recorded, edited and uploaded a video in 30 minutes in a workshop.
I wanted to share my video of the ALT-C and I was very able to do so and in HD!
In my last posting on Chrome I mentioned Moodle issues with Chrome which I had picked up from Kev Hickey’s note on Jaiku.
I have now installed Chrome (on Vista running in VMware Fusion on my iMac) and is running smoothly and very fast as well.
Tried out the Gloucestershire College VLE (we run Moodle 1.5.4) to see how it worked.
Logged in fine, but as you can see in this screenshot when you try to post a disucssion topic (or a wiki page or a lable, etc…) you don’t get the WYSIWYG HTML editor.
Now if you know your HTML you could format that way, but with a wiki page, are all learners going to know HTML, I think not (as does Kev).
The problem is twofold.
Firstly Chrome uses the same backend browser, WebKit, that other browsers such as Safari uses. You have exactly the same issue when accessing Moodle in Safari – which is why I always use Firefox on my Mac when editing the VLE and adding discussion topics on the VLE.
So why doesn’t the HTML editor in Moodle work in WebKit?
This is the second problem, the HTML editor is an old editor which has been discontinued. Newer HTML editors exist which do work in WebKit browsers such as Safari and Chrome.
The answer from browser developers appears to be, update your web sites and applications!
Eventually things will work fine, as Moodle 2.0 uses the newer TinyMCE HTML editor which does work in WebKit browsers.
So if you are using Moodle you may want to avoid Chrome until your Moodle installation is upgraded to Moodle 2.0
Google have gone and released a browser of their own, Chrome.
Windows only at the moment, so I have not yet installed it.
Looks interesting.
Alas I have heard that Moodle does not work with Chrome, so that’s one thing I will be checking out.
BBC reported on how Google is making it even easier for people to interact online.
Google has joined the drive to make the web more social by introducing tools to enable people to interact with their friends.
Of course this means that educational and learning sites can use the same tools making it easier for learners to interact and engage with each other.
This may mean of course that learners from other “places” and “institutions” will interact and engage with each other.
Some institutions will see this collaboration as a “danger” or “cheating” and therefore block the sites. Whilst others will engage with this process and look at how it could impact on learning and enhance it and the changes that may be needed to be made to assessment models.
The new upgrades to the iPod touch do make it much more useful to learners who want to use it to “learn while mobile”.
It’s the best email you’ve ever seen on a handheld device. View rich HTML email with graphics and photos displayed inline, as well as PDF and Microsoft Word and Excel attachments.
Whether it’s the best is down to personal opinion…
However now that it can receive and send e-mail (outside webmail) and view Word and Excel attachments (no mention of PowerPoint) and PDFs (okay save that presentation as a PDF) means that it is now possible to read more stuff on the iPod touch then you could before.
I quite like the idea of the Maps feature, whether it will actually work in practice is a different story.
As you can e-mail notes this means that learners will be able to send their tutors answers to questions, etc…
Currently downloading and installing the 165MB software update and then I might buy and install the new apps.
Excellent blog article on though Twitter is winning the battle in the numbers game, Jaiku will win the war once Android starts shipping.
What if Google where to build Jaiku into Android as the standard phone Address Book? As soon as Android devices started to ship, Jaiku (whatever form it takes in the future) would gain hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of users rapidly.
Read the full blog entry, makes for interesting reading.
Personally I much prefer Jaiku over Twitter, the RSS and the comments allow for me a much deeper richer experience, more importantly as well it allows for interactivity much more easily than Twitter. This for me is why Jaiku has more potential for e-learning than Twitter.
However, ever since Google bought Jaiku, sign-ups have been restricted, let me know if you want an invite, and there have been quite a few 504 errors with Jaiku slow and unresponsive at times.
Hopefully with a day off tomorrow for Jaiku (what am I going to do) Jaiku will get even better and more reliable.
Follow me on Jaiku, though as you might expect I am also on Twitter.
In case you were wondering, android is an open source mobile phone platform.
