Google



Installing Google Apps on the Kindle Fire HDX? Just Don’t Bother!

Nate over at The Digital Reader had a post about installing Google apps on the new Kindle Fire HDX. Since I use GMail and other Google stuff and have the new Kindle Fire HDX, I figured ‘why not’. Turns out there is a basic reason – not all services work correctly and there are no notifications. As a result, my only recommendation is ‘just say no’. The method to installing everything comes in four steps: • Google Account Manager • Google Play Services • Google Service Framework • Gmail You add one, reboot the Fire the install the next, and…


Another Study Confirms That Google+ Is Worthless and Weak

I have seen people redefining the purpose of Google+ faster and more frequently than a politician doing the two-step when realizing their current position might impact the chance for re-election! And yet the truth remains – while Google continues to integrate properties with Google+ … the impact of the service is non-existent, less than any other social media site.



Google Introduces the HP Chromebook 11

While I was unable to successfully ‘go all in’, my family absolutely loves the Samsung 11.6″ Chromebook. It is perfect for writing reports, doing email, Facebooking, and web research; it has been in constant daily use since I got it. Now Google has announced the next version of their budget laptop – the $279 HP Chromebook 11.


Week #1 of My Chromebook Challenge … Was a Challenge!

Last week I said that I was going ‘all in’ with the Samsung Chromebook, even though I was already aware of a few limitations. There were limitations when I tried the same thing for the iPad and Android tablets and I persevered, so I plowed forward! Unfortunately some of the issues were fairly significant and fragmented my computing time badly! Setting up a Chromebook is as simple as logging into a web browser. And since I used Chrome almost as much as Safari, I have a full set of bookmarks all ready to go. Spending just a little time with…


Going ‘All-In’ With the Samsung Chromebook

Just like I did with several tablets last year, I am going to try to use the Chromebook as my ‘90% computer’. This means using it for all of my normal daily tasks except those I know it cannot do, such as PC or iPad gaming. With great portability, battery life, and ease of use, I anticipate great success! I already have a couple of challenges – the USB port is incompatible with my Garmin GPS watch, and I am still figuring out the WiFi configuration for my work network … but I am persevering, as I have most other…


Why Does Google Hate Windows Phone?

Whether or not you’re a fan of Microsoft’s Windows Phone operating system, there’s one issue both fans and detractors both recognize: there is a definite lack of Google support in the apps. It’s not just the lack of Google Maps, but also the lack of a Gmail app, a Google+ app, and worst of all, no official YouTube app. That last one has been the subject of a fair amount of drama as of late, with Microsoft creating an app, getting it blocked by Google, collaborating with Google, releasing a new YouTube app, and getting it blocked again. So what’s…


Do You Still Miss Google Reader?

It’s been over a month, and I still miss Google Reader. I’ve found a mostly-good replacement in using Mr. Reader on my iPad, NextGen Reader on my Lumia, and Feedly Cloud on a computer, but it’s not the same thing. My work PC can’t open Feedly Cloud, so I browse my RSS feeds while hunched over my iPad. Meanwhile, despite the long lead time between Google Reader’s announced shutdown and its actual end, it seems like Reader replacements are still half-baked and trying to find their way … which makes me fear for the future of RSS in general! By…


Thoughts on the ChromeCast

A few days ago Google let the ChromeCast out of the bag.  For those who don’t know, the ChromeCast allows you to send Netflix, YouTube and other content to your TV from your laptop, phone or tablet. More applications are sure to come, but people are already snapping up this tiny dongle so fast that Google has had to discontinue including 3 months of Netflix.  At $35 dollars it is a steal of a deal for what people can do with it. Some are saying that it’s a big game changing device.  I am not totally convinced that it is….


Serenity Plex Media Server Client for Android and GoogleTV Review

Since getting the Roku box, one thing I have loved about it was that I could use the Plex Media Server to stream my personal content at home to my TV.  Plex Media Server is a media streaming server available for Linux, Windows, and Mac; it is also supported on select Network Attached Storage(NAS) boxes like those available from Qnap, Synology, ReadyNAS, ASUSTOR and unRAID. Plex is an awesome piece of software that works wonderfully in conjunction with the Roku, however I am not always in front of my TV.  While Plex does have a web server built in that you…


Feedly Is Ready for the ‘Post Google Reader World’

If you log into Google Reader you will get the error message that Google Reader will be unavailable after July 1st. Checking your calendar you might see that date is fast approaching! Since Google announced it was killing off Reader there have been numerous articles about how to replace it with a different RSS feed reader. And in nearly every article there was a major complaint about every single alternative: none managed to replicate the simplicity and minimalism of Reader’s (old) interface while replicating the experience across platforms.


An Open Letter to Google and Matt Cutts: Panda and Penguin Are Broken, Please Fix Them!

Here is something I never thought I would be doing, posting an open letter to Google and to Matt Cutts that essentially begs them to look at what is happening to Gear Diary as a direct result of their Panda and Penguin algorithms; and yet, here we are. If it is happening to us, then I know it is happening to others; even though I am mortified about airing our private business in public, I respectfully submit:   Hello Google, We have been battling Panda since November. My site is not a scraper or spam site; we are a legitimate producer of…



Google Wants to Pretend It Is from the ‘Land of And’

As noted pretty much everywhere last week, Google introduced new stuff at Google I/O. They also had a keynote by Larry Page, and one of the things he said that was picked up widely was: Every story I read about Google is “us versus some other company” or some stupid thing, and I just don’t find that very interesting. We should be building great things that don’t exist. Being negative isn’t how we make progress. Most important things are not zero sum, there is a lot of opportunity out there. Many sites took this as a statement showing how Google…


Google Launches Spotify-like ‘Google Play Music All Access’

For a couple of years or more, there has been constant speculation about when we would see an ‘iRadio’ service from Apple, with some more reasonable speculation that by capitulating to streaming price demands they might have something by this June. Google has also been rumored to be working on a similar service, though more of an ‘on demand’ service like Rdio or Spotify than the Pandora-alike service Apple is reportedly working on. Well, today at Google I/O, they announced Google Play Music All Access. The service is pretty much identical to Spotify and Rdio, but is unique in one…


Gmail, Drive and Google+ Storage is Now Unified

One by one, Google added services that all involved storage.  It used to be 10 GB for Gmail, 5 GB for Google Drive and Google+ photos.  Now it’s 15 GB total for free accounts and 30GB total for Google Apps accounts.  Gmail, Drive or Google+ photos all count to the unified pool of storage.  Not a surprise that this has happened, as it just seemed to be the right way to go.  Some people use more for Gmail storage.  Some use more storage for documents.   Some upload a lot of pictures to Google+.  With a unified pool of storage,…


Huawei Ascend Mate Australian Launch Review

Huawei is making a splash in Australia with the launch of the new Huawei Ascend Mate, a 6.1-inch “phablet” to take on the Samsung Galaxy Note II. At the launch today in Sydney Australia, Gear Diary was able to spend some one-on-one time with the phone that Huawei describes as “Designed for a multimedia experience”. There is no question the Ascend Mate is a large phone, with a 6.1” IPS+ display dwarfing even its obvious rival, the Samsung Galaxy Note II. Just as surprising is the price, AU$429 when it launches on April 20, 2013. To put that in perspective,…


Careful, Google Is Listening

I had two very odd encounters with Google ads yesterday. It’s common for Google to push ads based on emails, as Microsoft helpfully pointed out in their “Scroogled” campaign. But usually those ads appear because of something in your email or search history. That doesn’t explain the ads I saw yesterday, as they were dead-on accurate to conversations I had held over iMessage and in person … not through Google. First, Sarah went out of town this weekend and left me a list of to-dos around the house. One of them was to straighten the large area rug in the…


Google Reader and Google Keep, You Get What You Pay For

Google Reader and Google Keep are two different services, but when placed side by side they offer a cautionary tale for anyone using the web. There has been a good deal of chat among the Gear Diary team on our backchannel, and  Judie, Mike, Carly and I have been further discussing the demise of Reader and the introduction of Google Keep among the four of us quite a bit. Here’s some of what we have to say… As Joel posted Wednesday, Google has just rolled out Keep, their Evernote and OneNote competitor. Evernote, as you likely know, offers users a…