CNET Buzz Report: How to get a $149 HP TouchPad

via Molly Woods of CNET.com

The HP TouchPad is back from the dead (again) with a hot new price ... and a catch. Plus, Facebook is crawling with children, and the Internet is changing the world (again).

Google ready to roll out revamped Gmail service

By Jeremy C. Owens via MercuryNews.com

Google announced a new look and updated features Tuesday for Gmail, its popular web-based email offering.

The most obvious change for Gmail users will be the appearance of the inbox in "Conversation" view, which will include the email sender or recipient's profile picture beside the email if available. It will also have a more stripped-down appearance, Google User Experience Designer Jason Cornwell announced in a blog post Tuesday morning.

The search function within Gmail will offer more options, with advanced filtering features available from the standard drop-down box at the top of the inbox. The left panel of the inbox, which includes contacts available for instant-messaging, will be more customizable for users, Cornwell said.

Gmail's appearance will also change, but offer customizable design elements as well. Users will be able to vary the spacing on the page depending on what device they are using, allowing for a better view on the variety of mobile devices users now access the service. Google has also introduced new themes to the service, which add backgrounds and affiliated icons, with a series of high-reolution photos from istockphoto.

The changes will appear "soon," Cornwell said, but users can voluntarily switch to the new look later this week, when they will see a link offering the chance to "Switch to the new look" at the bottom right of their inbox screen.

Chromebooks on Amazon.com

Amazon.com: Chromebooks

Checkout the selection of available Chromebooks on Amazon.com.

Google Releases Chrome 15 and Web Store Redesign

by Lauren Indvik via Mashable.com



Google has released version 15 of its Chrome web browser, bringing the usual round of bug fixes and security improvements, as well as a redesign of its Chrome Web Store and tab pages.

Now when you open a new tab, you’ll be able to navigate quickly between web apps and your most-visited sites by clicking the arrows that come up on both sides of the browser window. You can also drag and drop your apps to rearrange them, or drag them to the bottom righthand corner to remove them, as illustrated in the video above.

The Chrome Web Store also now sports a more visual interface designed for better navigation and discovery of apps and extensions. Users can click on apps to pull up descriptions, screenshots, videos and reviews organized into separate tabs. Reviews are also now linked to the Google+ profile of each reviewer. For more details, check out Google’s blog post.

Google’s +1 Button Already More Widespread Than Twitter’s Tweet Button

by Todd Wasserman, Mashable.com

Google’s +1 buttons have only been out for about a month, but they’re already more common than the tweet button on major web destinations.

BrightEdge, an enterprise SEO platform provider, analyzed the 10,000 largest sites on the web and found a 33% surge in placement for Google’s +1 button during the past few weeks. The company foundthat +1 buttons are now on 4.4% of those sites, up from 3.6% in June. Meanwhile, Twitter’s plug-ins are displayed on 3.4% of the sites.

Both Google and Twitter trail far behind Facebook, whose plug-ins, most notably its “Like” button, are on about 20% of the sites’ front pages. Note: Although the chart below lists Twitter’s plug-in as a “Twitter Share,” BrightEdge CEO Jim Yu says it refers to the Twitter tweet button.

READ article on Mashable.com.

Spotlight on MyTouch 4G, Google+, and Harry Potter

Google invites NerdBoyTV to try Google+
Just got my invite from Google to tryout their possible "Facebook killer," Google+. This CNET video reviews some of the key highlights. You may want to sign-up to try it, too.



NerdBoyTV Smartphone Spotlight: MyTouch 4G
Because my longtime T-Mobile contract is coming to an end (and my teens have abandoned them for Verizon), I've been offered a pretty tempting offer to keep Brandon's service with the speedy MyTouch 4G. What do YOU think?



The Final Harry Potter Movie Coming!
If you haven't purchased your tickets for the 7/15 midnight showing of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2, you better hurry. I just bought mine yesterday and now the show is SOLD OUT. The movie trailer looks AWESOME!

First Look at Google's Facebook killer, Google+

Rafe Needleman looks into Google's latest social experiment, Google+, and how it's better—and worse—than Facebook.

Use Old Computer for Web Browsing w/ Google Chrome

In Episode #111 of NerdBoyTV, Ryan Yee describes how to salvage that old dual core desktop computer running (God forbid) Windows Vista and transform it into a sleek web-browsing speedster using Google Chrome.

Is Google's web-only ChromeBook worth it?

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Father's Day Gifts

In NerdBoyTV Episode #110, Ryan Yee shares terrific gift ideas for Father's Day, including RoyceWare, Google Chrome OS Netbook, AirCurve Play, and Electronic Rock Guitar T-Shirt from ThinkGeek. SEE video demos on NerdBoyTV's YouTube Channel.

Steve Jobs to announce Apple iCloud at WWDC in SF

In this episode of NerdBoyTV, Ryan Yee talks about Steve Jobs highly anticipated announcement of the Apple iCloud streaming music service at the annual Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC)on 06/06/11 at the San Francisco Moscone Center.

Android to get video chat via Google Talk upgrade

Android to get video chat via Google Talk upgrade - CNN.com: "Google is beginning its rollout of Google Talk video chat to Android devices.

Android device users will be able to use video and voice chat with any Google Talk contact using another Android devices (phones or tablets) or Google Talk on Gmail. The features will work of standard 3G, 4G and Wi-Fi connections.

According to the Google Mobile blog, these features are rolling out to Nexus S phones over the next few weeks along with the next over-the-air OS update. Video chat via Google Talk will be available on other Android 2.3 and higher devices soon.

Using the new features is simple. On your Android device, from the Google Talk contacts list, you'll see a video and voice chat icon next to each contact. Touch the button for the feature you'd like to use, and chat away.

Video can be paused while audio chat continues if you need to navigate elsewhere during a video session. During voice or video chat, text chats from that contact are overlaid on the device screen.

Video and voice chat first came to Gmail late in 2008 and to iGoogle in 2009.

See the original article at Mashable.com.

- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Google's Groupon Competitor Goes Live

Google's Groupon Competitor Goes Live - Yahoo! News: "Google Offers, the company’s long-awaited response to Groupon, has gone live with a beta program in Portland, Oregon.

Google promises “50% off or more off of places you’ll love,” on a signup page, and offers six options -- Portland, Oregon; Oakland/East Bay and San Francisco, California: and downtown, midtown and uptown New York City. So far, only Portland is offering a beta version of Offers, though no deals are available at the present time.

The program has been in the works since at least January, when Mashable got hold of a fact sheet on the service. According to that document, Google Offers will look and operate much like Groupon or LivingSocial and send an email with a local deal of the day to users. Consumers then have a specific time period (likely 24 hours) to act on the deal.

Google’s service comes after the company famously tried to buy Groupon for $6 billion. Groupon rebuffed the offer and is now readying an IPO that could be as high as $25 billion.

- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Apple to beat Google on cloud music: source

Exclusive: Apple to beat Google on cloud music: sources - Yahoo! News: "Apple Inc has completed work on an online music storage service and is set to launch it ahead of Google Inc, whose own music efforts have stalled, according to several people familiar with both companies' plans.

Apple's plans will allow iTunes customers to store their songs on a remote server, and then access them from wherever they have an Internet connection, said two of these people who asked not to be named as the talks are still confidential.

The maker of the wildly popular iPhone and iPod, Apple has yet to sign any new licenses for the service and major music labels are hoping to secure deals before the service is launched, three of the sources said. Apple has not told its music partners of when it intends to introduce its music locker, they said.

An Apple spokesman declined to comment.

- Sent using Google Toolbar"

SHOW #99 - NerdBoyTV: National Day of Unplugging

In this episode of NerdBoyTV, Ryan Yee jokes about how miserably he failed to stay off gadgets and the Internet for National Day of Unplugging. It's still a good idea, so if you missed this annual event, try it another day — no gadgets, no WiFi.

Google vs. Facebook For Control of Your Reputation

By Kashmir Hill - Forbes

"Much has been written about Google and Facebook’s war for control of the Internet (This 2009 Wired piece is one of my favorites). How hard have you thought about who you want to win that war? And how do you feel about it when you think of it as your Google search results page versus your Facebook profile in determining how you’re perceived on the Internet?

Right now, Google (and Bing and Yahoo) are our main gateways to get to the best the Internet has to offer (ideally), whereas Facebook is our gateway to what’s best on the Internet according to our friends. (Of course, given the escalating nature of the war, Google now plans to incorporate “social” into its search.)

The search giants’ algorithms’ dictation of discovery on the web has been much discussed and criticized recently — including here at Forbes. All the talk of search has me thinking about a topic near and dear to the Not-So Private Parts’ heart: our personal Google footprints.

Facebook gets criticized quite frequently for its exposure of our personal information. Yet, in many ways, we have so much control there. We can untag ourselves from photos. We can flag them for abuse and get them taken down. We can block people that we don’t want to have access to our information. We can set privacy settings high.

Google, by contrast, is the Wild West of reputation. I’m lucky. I get to control my Google search results for the most part, since I’m regularly churning out new material under my name and to search-optimized news sites. Most people are not so lucky, nor so prolific.

- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Obama has dinner with the WHOLE Internet!

Let's see, we have Obama sitting with Steve Jobs to his left and Mark Zuckerberg to his right (that's about $100 billion right THERE). Also apparently in the house, Google exec Eric Schmidt, Yahoo!'s Carol Bartz, Oracle's Larry Ellison, and Twitter's Dick Costolo. This is like a "nerd's" dream come true, huh? LOL

Google unveils Android tablet, takes aim at Apple

This week, Google showed off the latest version of its Android mobile operating system, Honeycomb.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

How Google plans to beat the iPad

CLICK to read msnbc.com: "Today we got the best look yet at Google's anti-iPad, the Android 3.0 Honeycomb tablet OS. Though much has been shared previously, it's finally clear what Google is doing to differentiate its tablets from the iPad — and what Google thinks works so well on Apple's platform that they're borrowing it for themselves.

Google knows that the home screen is the chief battleground for smart phones and tablets right now. When you go to the iPad's home screen, the icons just kinda stare up at you. Nothing comes to life until you've clicked on an app. On the Android Honeycomb tablet OS, the home screen can be alive with activity from various widgets, including stacks, grids and lists, all showing content that changes whenever updates arrive.

Even switching from one app to another from the home screen is a dynamic experience — like the latest desktop OSes, you can see an updated thumbnail of the app you're switching to before you click on it.

- Sent using Google Toolbar"

YouTube star is hetero bear wrestler on Google

Technolog - YouTube star is hetero bear wrestler on Google: "If you happened by Google’s top trends page Thursday night, you probably asked yourself, 'Who or what is Kevjumba and why is everybody asking whether he’s a heterosexual bear wrestler?'

Indeed. In yet another epic win for search engine gaming — and the secret powers of the mighty YouTube community — 'Is Kevjumba a heterosexual bear wrestler?' became the top Google search question.

Kevjumba for those of you who don’t live on YouTube — is a star on the video-sharing site, as well as a former 'Amazing Race' contestant. His real name is Kevin Wu and he recently ended a 2-month hiatus from his YouTube channel — which has more than a million subscribers — with a hilarity-packed 2:44 minute episode in which he shared what happened when he Googled himself.

Noting that Google auto-complete — which offers the most popular searches for the words you’ve already typed — suggested he finish his query 'Is Kevjumba' with 'gay?' the YouTube star charged his users help change that – to something funny.

- Sent using Google Toolbar"