Awesome! Much easier to understand and users can now utilize the space as they please. More free space available for Drive is always a win!

New rumors suggest we won’t be seeing the Motorola X Phone or a new Nexus at Google I/O 2013, but we could see a refreshed Nexus 4.

While it would have made no sense to expect a new Nexus phone at Google I/O, the assumption was that the Motorola X phone would be announced. It’s the perfect time to avoid launching later in November/December, at the same time as Google’s own Nexus phone, which could be from any number of other companies.

Perhaps the Motorola X phone just wasn’t ready, or perhaps it is now being considered as the next Nexus phone.

As for the Nexus 4 LTE, I suppose it’s a nice option to have. Can’t wait to see what the battery life difference is, as that was one of the reasons Nexus 4 lacked it. We’ll also have to wait and see if it means Verizon compatibility. Seeing how poorly Verizon handled the Galaxy Nexus, I wouldn’t be surprised if the answer is no.

Google Babel is the rumored service that will be one chat service to rule them all. Combining Google Talk (Gmail chat, Google+ chat, iGoogle chat, Google Talk Voice, Google Talk Video), Google+ Messenger, Google+ Hangouts, Google Voice (SMS texts/phone calls), and who knows, probably some more into just one service, it would be a huge change from Google’s current mess of chat methods. The idea has been around and rumored for years, and as Google has slowly kept adding new services rather than merging old ones, the idea has seemed like more and more of a pipe dream.

Now, I’m not one to go crazy over rumors, but Droid Life has a “leaked” Google memo, and it claims tha- OH. MY. GOD. CAN THIS POSSIBLY BE REAL?! THIS IS WORD FOR WORD WHAT EVERYONE’S DREAM OF THE SERVICE WOULD BE.

I have trouble believing this specific leak, as it really does seem to be too perfect. It would fix Google Voice’s annoying multiple notifications on multiple devices, let me send pictures to friends from Gmail chat, have group conversations with people in both Gmail and Google+ messenger, give iMessage a run for it’s money via a service available on both iOS and Android, give Google Voice a new kick of life, and not to mention the whole simplification of Google’s many, many, many chat services which in itself is an incredible feat.

So is it real? After this many years of thinking Google was going to launch something like this, only to find them adding new chat services, I can not fathom a service like this actually existing and being so right on the first try. But, the evidence of Babel being real is becoming overwhelming, so when it does inevitably launch, let’s hope that it really is as awesome as as this memo claims.

And the name Babel? I don’t like it one bit, but all of the good names are already taken… by Google. Hopefully, if it does launch as “Babel”, it someday becomes just Google Chat.

Google Voice update! Not that it’s a big update, but ever since the Google Reader announcement to be shut down, I’ve been paranoid of losing everything tech I love. This at least means something is happening.

While the official changelog states it just improves texting, Android Police have already done the digging to find what changes are really happening. Prepare to start speculating wildly!

I think it all points to another app taking over Google Voice’s duties. Google is either baking in special support for its own app, or they’re going to start supporting a 3rd party Google Voice ecosystem about a million years too late. GV is going to at least partially readying to transfer data to something, we just aren’t sure what.

So is it just going to be better integrated into Android Key Lime Pie? Is this in preparation for Google Babel to take over? Only time will tell. Google I/O can you not get here any sooner?!

WebKit, the rendering engine used by many browsers, but most known for Chrome and Safari is being dropped from Chrome for a new engine based on WebKit called Blink.

While I’m a big fan of WebKit, the promise of Blink sounds great, with it helping to encourage web designers to use standards, but more importantly, I think Google is going to leverage Blink to really boost up the capabilities of what a “web app” is, and really help blur the line between how a web app and native app function.

Personally I’m trying to move “into the cloud” as much as possible, and while I certainly enjoy the benefits, I’ll admit that there still is a large gap between web and native apps in terms of loading and responsiveness. I look forward to Google removing this barrier.

Also: Opera has already announced that they will be using Blink over WebKit. Which brings up the point, why even bother announcing the swap to WebKit when they did? Why not just wait?

Nexus 4 gets a very minor tweak, but it fixes my biggest complaint. Nice.

Google Reader is shutting down.

The news of this honestly hit me very hard, I’ve been using Google Reader since 2005. It’s been one of, if not the website I love the most. I can understand Google’s thought process in seeing that obviously it doesn’t have a huge number of users, but personally I believe they underestimate just how important it is to those who do use it. I sincerely hope Google reconsiders.

But, the good news is that Google Reader was essentially just a shell around the actual content. I’ll have to find a new RSS reader that I like. Currently, I’m attempting to try out Feedly, and it seems very nice, but my problem is that I keep checking Reader instead out of habit.

I can only hope that this is being done due to Currents being on the verge of launching a replacement via a web interface. Currents is certainly a very attractive app, and the fact it only exists in that form and not a web interface is literally the exact opposite of Google’s beliefs. But, if this were the case, why not wait until it was ready, instead leaving us to scramble to competitors? I don’t see it happening, and being an RSS reader is already a feature seeming tacked on to the Currents app.

I will sincerely miss you Google Reader, it’s been a great 7 years. The way I use the internet is about to completely change.

This is one of my favorite features of Google, and I was bummed to find it missing in Google Now. Very glad to find out that it was just hidden!

Chromebook Pixel. Real? Fake?

I certainly hope it’s real, or that Google is working on something similar. I’d love to see a Chromebook that isn’t trying to be a second computer. As much as Chromebooks have improved, they just don’t compare to running Chrome on my MacBook Pro. Obviously there is a huge spec difference, but why not make a Chromebook that’s just powerful enough to run super smooth? Why have to settle?

Whats up with the touchscreen though? Seems unnecessary. And the ad is very un-Google-like. Yet the video is pretty well made… AHH! I can’t decide to believe it or not!

And a Mini DisplayPort and/or Thunderbolt port? So far those have been pretty Apple specific, though I suppose if they want to support large resolutions, HDMI wouldn’t cut it?

Chrome Beta for Android updated!

Yeah, yeah, that’s not rare, and pretty much the point of Chrome Beta… so what?

WHAT? THIS ONE’S GOT FLAGS!

Hit up chrome://flags (works in the browser version of Chrome too!) once updated and start playing with those options too out there for normal consumers or features that are still in the crazy experimental phase! FUN STUFF FOR NERDS!

There are not too many which work with the mobile version yet, but I’m sure more will come! How about a flag to swap the icon to the one without the word beta? Any flags you guys wanna see?

Uhhh… Wasn’t expecting my dream to come true so fast, it only took a few hours. Google must be very avid readers of this blog lawlz.

This is my biggest beef with Android, and it has nothing to do with the OS itself. I really wish Google was more restrictive in requiring updates.

Samsung, HTC, etc., are against the concept of Google owning Motorola, but at this point, forget the other companies, I hope Google just starts focusing on Motorola. Give the all rest the source code, make them keep up with Motorola. 

Also: Verizon sucks. I’m sitting here, with my Galaxy Nexus, a Nexus phone which I bought the day it came out, at the time only available at Verizon, and am now stuck with a Nexus phone currently three, count’em three, updates behind.

Google released this year’s Nexus phone, the Nexus 4, and it definitely warrants some attention. Google’s latest and greatest is looking to be a big hit and seems to already be off to best start any of their Nexus phones (though that’s not saying too much). I got to try one out as a friend was lucky enough to snag one. Didn’t get much time to play with it, but simply put, I’m a big fan.

What’s good:

1. It is the first Nexus that actually resembles the last one! Glad Google has stopped trying to re-invent its phone design. It has its differences, but overall looks very similar to the Galaxy Nexus. I would say that it’s almost to a flaw when looking at both’s faces, they are near identical. But, I’m a fan of that whole flat, black, seamless look so I’m not complaining.
2. The build quality makes it just feel better than the Galaxy Nexus. The edges on the sides made me associate it to the iPhone’s design philosophy rather than Samsung’s boringly plain, plastic, rounded sides.
3. The thing is blazingly fast. Both in terms of processing power, but also in terms of data speed. No 4G? No complaints here. My Verizon Galaxy Nexus’s battery is TERRIBLE, and I’ve already upped to the larger one. Oh, and I did a speed test on both, in a suburb near Chicago, my Verizon 4G LTE pulled in about a quarter of the speeds the Nexus 4 (T-Mobile’s HSPA+) did. Sigh…
4. Uhhh…. how about the INSANE price? $300 for the unlocked one! THE UNLOCKED ONE!

What’s not so hot:

1. The back of the phone. Sparkles? Ok… I mean they are more subtle than the pictures online made them look, so it’s not that bad, I certainly would prefer something else but they are nowhere near bad enough to be a dealbreaker. What is bad though is the material. It is way too slippery! Set the thing down on a flat surface and it might as well be an air hockey table. When I was just casually trying it, I couldn’t grab the home button and flick up to Google Now without moving the whole phone on the table.
2. Keeping the Galaxy Nexus look is nice, but at the same time, it does end up being a little bit… boring. I mean it is hard to complain when there isn’t anything wrong with the design, but it does just come off overall as a little unremarkable. Again, I love the simplicity of the all black face, but everything else just seems like standard, safe design. Perhaps the sparkles in the back were added for this reason.
3. Android 4.2. What the heck happened? It feels unfinished. Forget all the bug complaints, even if those were fixed, it still just is not a very polished update. Hopefully 4.2.2 will fix a lot of problems. Why not just release the Nexus 4 with 4.1? No one is buying it FOR 4.2, they are buying it knowing that they will be be the first to get 4.2. (I’ll be putting up a whole post soon about my thoughts on 4.2)

Overall, I can easily say this is a great phone. If I were in the market for a new phone today, this is what I would buy, no second thoughts. The Android 4.2 problem is my biggest complaint with the phone, and great news: It’s also the only one that is actually able to be fixed after you purchase it! And to say 4.2 is bad quite the overstatement, it is just not quite at the level we’ve come to expect.

If your cell plan is expiring soon, definitely check out this phone. Buy it unlocked, and hop onto one of T-Mobile’s super-cheap prepaid, contract-less plans!

EDIT: This rumor was determined to be made up. I altered some of the language in the post to reflect that, but I’m leaving this post up because I think the idea really is interesting and deserves thinking about.

There was a rumor for the 29th even, since proven to be made up, that Google is not only working on LG’s Nexus 4, but also a program to allow any company to create a “Nexus” phone, provided it meets certain requirements, such as running plain, stock Android, having hardware capable of running the next few versions of Android OS, and certain features such as NFC, etc.

The idea is a very intriguing one, both good and bad. Even though proven false, I think this is interesting enough to be worth looking into. Here are my takes on the pros and cons:

Pros:

1. When choosing a phone, consumers will have many more options. Fans of vanilla Android with dependable updates get more than one choice. Right now the Nexus phones come out one per year, either like it or don’t. Google picks the manufacturer, you just go with their flow.
2. Google can use this as an excuse to get Motorola cracking on a Nexus phone. Who can accuse them of favoritism when every other company has an equal opportunity? If Google used Motorola right now for a Nexus phone, shit would fly.
3. Perhaps an actually popular Nexus phone would exist. So far the Nexus phones haven’t exactly been the hottest sellers. With more phones out there, perhaps one would finally catch on in the eye of the general public.
4. Android’s OS version growth would explode. Imagine more than just 1-2 phones being up-to-date at any given point in the Android ecosystem! WOW, what a world to live in!
5. The phones aren’t able to differentiate via software. Hardware companies would have to compete via hardware, which is how it should be IMO. How about some Nexus phones giving iPhone’s camera a run for its money, or phones looking as sexy as possible with great battery life?

Cons:

1. There won’t be any one “killer phone” from Google. Right now for Android fans, it’s an event to see Google’s next Nexus phone. It’s a big deal, similar to Apple’s iPhone announcements. With multiple Nexus phones, the magic disappears a little bit. Will Google continue to bless one of them as the Android phone?
2. Hardware companies won’t like this. With hardware companies competing via hardware, their jobs got harder for sales. Suddenly buzz terms like phones being “smart enough to be social” won’t apply. Laggy skins on the OS that shoehorn in new “features” won’t be the main selling points.
3. Carriers won’t like this. Carriers don’t like phones having the same OS. It is hard to sell different phones at the same price when it is also very easy for the customer to tell some are clearly better than others. Carriers would request more differences in the OS.
4. These “Nexus” update terms might be vague. Obviously these phones would be expected to get updates faster, but exactly how fast is faster? Right now, faster than a year would be an improvement, but far from ideal. Look at Google’s own Galaxy Nexus on Verizon, even it lags behind the OS updates. How far behind would other companies get?
5. If a company like Samsung sells more Galaxy S IIIs than Galaxy Nexuses, then what is the point of making more vanilla Android phones? Right now, the advantage is that there is only one at a time. It doesn’t have to compete for that specific audience, but that would disappear with this program. Over time, the one company that makes the best Nexi could become the only company to make Nexi.

So… should the Nexi program exist? I believe the pros outweigh the cons. Two of the cons are for the carriers and companies, and the consumer benefits from those. Plus, pushing the importance for fast Android OS updates is always a good thing.

But… will the Nexi program exist? I’m not sure, but I’d bet against it. I see that the hardware companies and carriers won’t like it, so who exactly will be pushing for this and then pushing the phone’s sales? Only Google?