tech e blog

If you thought Google's Mountain View offices were incredible, then check out their Zurch headquarters, which look amazing to say the least. Click here for first picture in gallery.

Because, frankly, their new office is awe-inspiringly amazing: it's an exercise in lateral-thinking, creativity-run-wild interior design. Slides to the canteen, cable-car meeting rooms, beanbags, fake snow, a multitude of colors

Google has just updated their Japanese homepage with tabs pointing to their most popular applications (GMail, YouTube, News, Maps, etc.). Continue reading for the poll.

The four new tabs are named (approximately) "Featured," including Gmail, YouTube, News, Maps and Transit, "Various search," that hosts links to Image Search, Blog Search, Books and Google Desktop, "Useful tool," with Google Calendar, Google Docs, Google Reader and Google Toolbar and, finally, "More enjoyable," and YouTube once again, Picasa, Blogger and Google Earth

For anyone obsessed with Google's GMail, the one missing product offering is definitely a branded bar of soap -- pictured above. Unfortunately, it doesn't offer real world spam protection. No word yet on pricing or availability. Click here for one more picture.

Whether it's for sale or not, it’s an accurate symbol of the free Google email service, scrubbing your electronic missives of spam, offering a clean interface and keeping a cumbersome locally-installed email client from stinking up the place

Google's Jason Chen reports that they're "continuing to refine the UI that's available for Android. m5-rc14." It "replaces the previous placeholder with a new UI, but as before, work on it is still in-progress." Click here for first picture in gallery.

Developers can now create layout animations for their applications using the capabilities introduced in the android.view.animation package. Check out the LayoutAnimation*.java files in the APIDemos sample code for examples of how this works

From the video, Google's Android UI looks to boast smooth navigation and a host of basic functions, including GMail, web browser, as well as a calendar. Continue reading to watch. Click here for first picture in gallery.

[via PDAExpertos]

TechEBlog reader Chris just sent in this interesting screenshot that shows what happens when you reach Google Checkout's monthly payout limit -- a very good day indeed.

(Thanks, Chris M.!)

Sleek and stylish, the HTC Omni Communicator could quite possibly be the first Smartphone to run Google's gPhone platform. Unfortunately, technical specifications have not yet been released. We'll keep you posted as more information becomes available.

The first reason is that HTC's actually seen and commented on the internal Google prototype, even going so far as to consider developing a real version of the reference design. Unwired View matches up the description of the device to the leaked specs of the HTC Omni, which mesh quite well in both size, shape and functionality

That's right, Google has officially announced the gPhone software platform for cell phones, which will be found on handsets from LG, HTC, Samsung, and Motorola in 2008. Video after the break.

Those phones are going to be available in the US on Sprint and T-Mobile by the second half of 2008-plus, it's going to be available in China, Japan, Germany, Italy, and Spain on their respective carriers. The 34 members of the Open Handset Alliance developing this GPhone will throw in their expertise (example, Nvidia with their graphical abilities, Skype with their VoIPing) and offer the collective goods under an open source licensing agreement

Users without internet access for whatever reason, can use this snail mail version of Google Search, and it only takes 4-6 weeks to get the results. Fortunately, this service only exists in the mind of a miserable, internet-less person.

(Thanks, Brian L.)

Reader Jake sent in a video of little known ways to use Google search, which includes a hidden calculator, phonebook, and more. Continue reading for the clip.