Realty World Northern California & Nevada

Google has announced a social sharing project called Google+ to compete with the seemingly unstoppable Facebook. It seems BIG. Big enough to make Facebook worried? Not sure about that but there are some VERY creative features with Google+ that I am really excited about and can’t wait to give it a try.

“Circles” is how Google handles the topic of selective sharing of your content. You can organize everyone according to their real-life social connections (ie. Family, Work, Friends, Motorcycle Buddies, Mountain Bike Buddies, etc.). Sometimes you want to only share your content with just a select “Circle” of people (and in a much faster and easier fashion that with Facebook). Your contact information, location, and relationship information can be selectively visible for certain circles as well allowing for a lot of privacy options.

“Sparks” is a way for you to find news videos and blog posts on subjects by keywords. Additionally, you can engage with others in discussions.

“Hangouts” is a pretty neat video conferencing system. It allows up to 10 simultaneous people to come and go as they please and join the hangout.

“Instant Upload” is where you share your photos. But Google goes further and lets you (with your permission) sends every picture you take on your phone to a private album in the cloud. Then later you can share them as you see fit. GPS location is an option as well.

“Huddle” is a group text messaging system that works with your “Circles” of people so it’s easy to keep everyone in the loop in a discussion.

Google+ Overview

In my previous post titled “Google Chromebook has Arrived” I described the Google Chromebook which should debut to the public on June 15, 2011.

I’ve heard stories from a select few that Google shipped out a prototype pilot program for the Google Chromebook named Cr-48 as far back as December 2010. I wasn’t holding my breath to be selected for the pilot program but I can’t say I hadn’t secretly hoped that I would have a magical box appear at my doorstep.

Well, it took a little over 5 months but my “magical” box arrived! The saying goes “Better late than never” and I can’t agree more!

The Google Cr-48 prototype is very impressive (especially given that it’s not a final release product).

The first thing that I noticed is the entire body is made of a rubber-like matte black plastic of some sort. It feels solid and smooth. The screen hinges back and is held with a magnetic latch which is very Mac-esque. The Cr-48 is less than 1″ in thickness and is 3.6 pounds with a 12.1″ 1280×800 matte screen. There’s a VGA video out, a single USB port, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and an SD card slot.

I love the keyboard layout. Gone with the CAPS lock and in its place is a button which opens up a new tab and shows you your installed apps. All of the function keys above the numbers row have been replaced with usable buttons like Back, Forward, Reload, Full Screen, Switch Window, Brightness Up and Down, Mute, and Volume Up and Down.

I pressed the power button and a Google Chrome logo appears. Sooo nice! A few seconds later up comes the simplistic, yet artistic, introduction to the Google Chrome OS. After going through the very informative and helpful hints, I am prompted with a Google Account login prompt. I enter my google account and BAMN I’m in the OS and all of my bookmarks appear (because I sync my bookmarks using Google Chrome).

As I had mentioned in my previous post, the Google Chrome OS is basically the Google Chrome web browser with added items to give you the rest of your OS features (ie. clock, battery strength indicator, Wi-Fi network items, etc.).

One big surprise was that the Cr-48 pilot program users are given 100MB of data usage using the Verizon Wireless 3G network for two years! I attempted to sign up for my account but encountered an error and it stated to retry again later. Hopefully this pans out and I can get it setup for further testing!

The second big surprise was that there is a file system with local storage. You can download files and it is stored locally for use in a different app.

The performance of the Cr-48 is not stellar and I noticed some sluggishness while opening up my Google Apps email as well as any websites that require more processing power.

All-in-all I am VERY excited to have been chosen as a part of the Cr-48 pilot program. Google, I thank you!

Google has announced that it will be debuting the Google OS running on Samsung and Acer notebooks called “Google Chromebooks” on June 15, 2011.

What does this mean (exciting!) and why is this of any importance?

First off, the Google OS is a completely different approach to computing. Rather than having the computer’s operating system run all of the applications and store all of your data, the Google OS runs with the the Google Chrome web browser engine at its core and all applications or “programs” are done on the web and your documents and photos are saved to the web.

This also means there’s no more waiting for a computer to turn on. There is no more waiting to log into your account while every application loads while you sit patiently until you feel you can finally click on something without pissing off your computer. Chromebook takes Less than 10 seconds from start to finish.

There will be two models available (similar to the Apple iPad phenomenon) where one version is a Wi-Fi only model and the other is a Wi-Fi plus 3G model. The Wi-Fi only will require the use of a wireless network at a house or business (or a mobile hotspot) and the Wi-Fi plus 3G will require a mobile broadband contract with a cellular provider.

Always Connected

Because everything you do is stored on the web, you don’t need to worry about how much hard drive space you have. Additionally, and even more important, since your documents are stored on the web, you no longer need to worry about backing up your data. If you lose/break your computer, all you need to do is replace/fix your Chromebook and sign in. All your programs and documents will be there.

Same Experience Everywhere

Amazing Web Apps

I should warn that the Google Chromebook is not for everyone. You can’t run Photoshop (yet) and certain websites that aren’t Google Chrome compatible will still cause you headaches (some MLSs in particular). A favorite “feature” of mine is the removal of the “CAPS LOCK” key on the keyboard. It has been replaced with a button to launch a web search.

However, it is interesting to see how well this is received. I can’t wait to get my hands on one to give it a try.