SEVENCLICK
Mobile Technology Evangelists

We were waiting for it, after so much gossip… finally, Google TV has been announced. And it rocks. Let´s review all the confirmed information:

THE CONCEPT

Google TV is far superior to Apple´s approach (do you remember Apple TV?), which was a kind of TV add-on or supplement. Google bets for a complete renewal of the television concept, which becomes an interactive service where you can search for plays and movies, search over the web, run your favorite apps, or even videochat… all from a fundamental place on people´s lives: your coach.

THE PLAYERS

There are some big players with Google to bring up this new era. Sony is the one building up the TV itself, Logitech will build up set-top-boxes (called Companion Box) to adapt traditional HDTVs to full-featured Google TVs, and will also provide the remote controllers; and Intel will provide its Atom processors to fuel up all with the necessary power.

THE TIMELINE

There are four proposed milestones:

1. TODAY: Google wants us to start optimizing web sites NOW. A Google TV website development guide has been published, mainly an open call to designers and developers to start opening our minds as this new channel has never existed before.
2. 2010 FALL SEASON: Launch of Sony TVs and Blu-Ray player as well as Logitech´s Companion Box. Most probably Google TV will be limited to US users at this time.
3. EARLY 2011: Launch of Android Market, Google TV SDK and TV Web API.
4. SUMMER 2011: All the project will be published as open source !

Logitech´s Companion Box

THE REMOTES

In my opinion, Remote Controllers are one of the key challenges for Google TV. Technology is mature enough on other aspects of the project to take the leap, but interacting with TVs with a practical control, that´s another story and I would dare to say it could determine the massive adoption on “non-geek” homes. Nintendo Wii controllers were probably the only innovation in this field over the years, but are not at all suitable for the task Google TV proposes.

Logitech is the ally selected by Google, and their proposal, if still not unveiled, mixes a compact keyboard, a remote control and a touchpad. There will be an Android app to use Android smartphones as remote controllers, and Logitech blog also suggest a variety of controllers as shows this image, including a video camera for video-chatting.

THE BEST: ANDROID ON YOUR TV

The best of it all is that Android will not be only in your pocket, but in your living room. Google TV technology is built upon Android. We as Android developers can´t wait to embrace this new concept of applications over 40 inch screens .  There is a Chrome browser too, running on top of Android, to navigate the web and play webapps.

Google TV will come with Netflix, Youtube and Hulu pre-installed, but any Android app not needing phone capabilities should work, in fact Google demoed the actual Pandora mobile app published on Android Market.

SO…

We had high expectations on this year´s Google I/O developer conference, but all have been surpassed. Still analyzing how Android 2.2 has raised the bar for Apple (which worths a separated post) , and now Google TV is coming. And will come to stay. I really believe this is the beginning of a new era. And Sevenclick is in.

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Related links

http://www.google.com/tv/

http://www.google.es/tv/developer/

http://discover.sonystyle.com/internettv/

http://logitech.com/google/GoogleTV

http://blog.logitech.com/2010/05/20/logitechgoogletv/

Caixa Penedès presents with SevenClick, TBS Group company specialized in mobile software development, its mobile eBanking system completely developed for ANDROID, Google’s mobile operating system.

This way, along with the iPhone solution and the electronic banking solution compatible with any mobile device of the market, Caixa Penedès customers will be able to access from mobile.caixapenedes.com a brand new access environment for ANDROID where they’ll be able to consult and operate their accounts, as well as visualize corporative, commercial and Social Activities information.

Global Position of Accounts and Credit Cards, Movements checking, external and personal transferences, mobile prepaid recharge and ATM localization through Google maps. These are some of the main features.And all of them for the first time specifically developed taking full advantage of those devices running Google’s brand new operating system.

Undoubtedly, a big step taking Caixa Penedès to the top of worldwide mobile electronic banking.

Press Note

As we announced, HTC invited SevenClick to attend the presentation which took place last wednesday in London. The secret surprise was twofold:

• HT SENSE. A brand new user interface created by HTC for ANDROID powered phones.
• HTC HERO. The third ANDROID phone by HTC.

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Last week  HTC Spain prepared a meeting to present its new devices for the upcoming months. SevenClick was part of the audience, composed by some of the most important people in Spanish blogosphere, with people from Xataka, PixelyDixel, etc…

Let’s take a look at the novelties.

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Can´t recall her name?… Google can help you, just use Google´s CADIE technology to search into your memories with your phone !

Nice April Fool’s joke, guys.

Link Google Mobile Blog |  Google Brain Search | CADIE | Google´s hoaxes

I criticized Google recently for not including Gmail Tasks as part of Google Calendar instead of a Gmail Labs add-on, because of the missed synchronization capabilities of tasks management.

Despite that this fact has not changed, I won´t be surprised when it would, as Google folks can´t keep quiet. Now it´s time for extending a synchronization feature already available for Blackberry, to a bunch of SyncML capable devices, including iphone/ipod touch.

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Gmail Labs developed Tasks a while ago, and now a mobile version has been launched. On higher-end devices like iPhone and Android-based ones, you can add/edit your own lists of tasks, and on the rest there is only one list. Note that your Gmail language must be set to english in order to enable Gmail Labs. If you have Labs enabled, try Tasks just entering http://gmail.com/tasks from your mobile.

Since Google announced synchronization capabilities with Outlook had been added to Google Calendar, a lot of people have been eagerly awaiting Tasks management included in Calendar, as now just events are supported (and therefore, just events can be sync´ed) and people have started using Calendar as a bridge synchronization for other apps (e.g. Thunderbird + Lightning).

Is a bit of a pain that Google have been working on Tasks to get it to mobiles, when they could have been working to get it into Calendar and then to mobiles. But hey, that´s my view, perhaps you will find Tasks on Gmail for iPhone super useful…

Link Google Mobile Blog | GMail blog

Thanks to appleBlog, we have get to an interesting post in DaringFireball, where they analize the use of private APIs on the implementation of the new voice search feature, on the last reselease of Google Mobile. This might set a precedent in the use of private APIs on iPhone.

More accurately, the point is the use of proximity sensor API. It seems Google is using an undocumented API call in order to know when the user talks on the microphone.

The way iPhone triggers voice activation is so smart:

1. Move the iPhone.
2. Trigger the proximity sensor next to the speaker at the top of the iPhone.

No problem with the first step. But it seems that threre is no way to know when second step takes place. I don’t know iPhone APIs in depth, so I won’t dare to talk about the technical analysis.

The important fact is that, in theory, use of undocument APIs are not allowed if you want your application on App Store. So, Google has been given permission to use it, or… someone in Apple did not realize they were breaking the rules.

The question is: in case Google actually got this special permission from Apple, will other less powerful companies have the same opportunity?

Via appleBlog
Link DaringFireball

iPhone´s Firmware 2.2 is already available for developers, and some future implementations are “leaked”. In this case, Google Street view is one of those.

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Gmail for mobile 2.0 has been introduced by an engineer on the Gmail for mobile team. This version of Gmail for mobile has been launched for J2ME and Blackberry phones. “Our focus for this version was to make the experience faster and more reliable.”, he said.

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