Google has just announced an update to the translate app for their Android mobile platform. The update includes an incredible (but still experimental feature that translates) spoken conversations.
So if you’re in Spain you can open up this app on your phone and speak English to it. The application translates what you said and responds in spoken Spanish. Amazing!
The feature is still experimental but has a lot of promise. The best way of understanding it is by viewing this demonstration video.
Google has created a site called How Google Works that explains how Google does what it does in very simple terms.
For example, the video below is a simple, 3 minute explanation of how Google search works.
Watch it.
Google has just released a new service. It is called Google Goggles and it runs on cell phones (not many people know that Google produces a mobile phone operating system).
Basically, you take a picture with your phone and the service gives you information about what you’re looking at. In this example the service recognizes the Golden Gate Bridge and returns information on it.
It’s a very early version of the service, but it also works on books, business cards, paintings, logos, and even wine labels! Take a look at the official site to get a better idea.
I’ve read a review of the service and it seems to work reasonably well. Amazing!
It feels a lot like magic! This could also be quite scary. Imagine a day when people can find your Facebook profile by scanning you with their phone!
Google have just released Google Maps SA. It’s awesome!
We’ve been able to see satellite images and some road data before. But now there is a lot of road data and you can get automatic directions!
The directions service works amazingly well. I’ve tested it with several routes that I often take and Google invariably got things right – even offering options!
For one test I typed in this exact input:
The service quickly offered two routes to Spier (N1 or N2).
It estimates time fairly accurately at about 40 minutes (N1 is slightly quicker even though it is slightly further).
It also offers step by step driving instructions for the route. Like a poor mans GPS. Simply amazing.
View the map yourself to see what I’m talking about.
The old ‘better than’ trick is a favorite of mine. Whenever I find myself using a product/restaurant/program/website/etc I pop over to Google and search for
‘better than [product]’
Going through the results pages will often reveal that there is a better product out there.
For example I just bought a Garmin heart rate monitor/GPS. After using the default software (Training Center) that comes with the device for a while I was thoroughly unimpressed and figured there must be a better alternative.
So I searched for ‘better than training center’ . After going through a few results I found the superb SportTracks software which is MILES better than Training Center and is also free.
Obviously this trick works better for some kinds of products (e.g. software) than others – but it is normally worth a try.
The same kind of trick can be modified using things like:
It’s a little old by now, but this is an interesting story about how automated news crawling wiped $300m off United Airlines’ market cap. Basically this is what happened:
Crazy stuff.