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Synchronize Google Voice with Your GPS Location [Google Voice]

Ed. note: When we saw that Wichita-based coder Chad Smith had automated Google Voice phone ringing with GPS, we had to ask for details. With an Android phone, a $10 app, and some web server space, here's how he pulled it off.

Update: Don't have a web server? Don't want to pay $10 for an app to pull off a quirky hack? Chad was tipped off after this post first published that the free Google Voice Locations Android app uses cell tower triangulation to switch your ringing Google Voice phones on the fly. The developer admits it's a first-release beta with some kinks to it, but it's a free, stand-alone alternative.

About a month ago I purchased one of those awesome Nexus One Google phones and started tinkering to see what cool things I could make it do. I love the phone, and as many of you know, absolutely love Google Voice too.

I figure the only way Google Voice could be improved is if it magically knew where I am and made my phones ring accordingly—so that's exactly what I made it do.

You can, too, with an Android phone, the Locale app, and a web server. The overall goal: have Google Voice know which phones to ring, based on your current location or situation.

Requirements

  • Google Voice (if you lack an account, or a friend with an account with invitations, try requesting an invite)
  • Android phone w/ data plan and GPS
  • Locale for Android ($9.99—here's a barcode-scan-able QR code)
  • Locale GPS Plug-In (Free, QR code)
  • HTTP Poster and Locale Plug-In (Free, QR code)
  • Web server w/ PHP 5 (uses cURL and json_decode)

Google Shopper Prices Products by Image, Bar-Code, or Voice Search [Downloads]

Android: Google's already got Goggles for visual search, and Google Shopper's mobile site can run bar-code scans. Google Shopper, then, is a free app that combines some of those features together in one package for those who love to find a deal.

Unlike Goggles, which aims to provide a greater search by image functionality, Shopper only wants you to take pictures of "cover art"—books, CDs, DVDs, and other items with consistent images and iconography. It can also perform bar-code scans when it doesn't quite get the picture, and if neither of those are working, you can simply type in the name of the product, or just say it for Google's hard-working voice-to-text translator.

In a test on a few objects this morning, Shopper was pretty impressive when it came to books and CDs. It was fast and efficient, too, over a (T-Mobile) 3G connection, bringing back results almost instantly. In the example pictured up top, the result was slightly askew—an audiobook CD instead of a paper book—but the results included the right product. Those results arrive in the form of a simple item-store-price list, though, and could be a bit more helpful. For our money, ShopSavvy offers a greater convenience, when it works, because it provides local prices, gives directions to get to the store with the better price, and has a more robust history and wishlist functionality.

Google Earth Comes to Android Devices [Downloads]

Android: Google's globetrotting 3D mapping application Google Earth has been around for iPhone users for over a year, and today the killer mapping app makes its way to Android devices.

In addition to all the other features you've come to expect from Earth, the release also takes advantage of Android's voice-recognition capabilities, so you can say something like "Empire State building" and watch Earth zoom to your request. Unfortunately Earth is only available on Android 2.1 devices.

Google Earth for mobile [via Official Google Mobile Blog]

When It Doesn't Pay to Be Google's Guinea Pig [Rants]

Besides a killer algorithm and brand-name recognition, Google's greatest strength is its speed at releasing new products. We get to play with new, cool, and ever-improving tools for free. Recently, though, we've seen that being unwitting lab subjects can kind of stink.

Note: This subjective post isn't short, and lacks funny video embeds. It's a rant about a few aspects of an otherwise impressive firm that I would love to see improved. Want to skip to the rant-y part? Here's the gist.

"Labs" we love: Gmail & Google Wave

Google has practically reinvented how web applications and software are developed with their overriding love of "Beta," a term that used to indicate a product that was functional and mostly stable, but not quite something the company would stand fully behind or "publish," whatever that means now.

Gmail, arguably Google's greatest popular success (meaning not flush with advertising cash) outside of web search, started out as an invitation-only service on April 1, 2004, and rolled out to the public in February 2007. Even after those nearly three years of controlled growth, Gmail stayed "in beta" for two more years. Google ultimately admitted the "beta" tag had little, if anything, to do with where the product stood in the perceptions of its developers or users. While Gmail was still "in beta," the service also introduced a Labs section, where the type of people who explore their apps' settings could turn on cool features Google wasn't quite sure everyone would use, or like the looks of, but that the development team felt were pretty neat additions.

That strategy works. The sense of being in on the ground floor of a smart company's ever-improving product made evangelists out of the early adopters, and Google was spared the anguish of having to hear the masses' feedback on every keen idea their developers had—if you didn't like something, just don't turn it on. More than that, though, the constant tweaking didn't hurt the product's core offering. No matter what, your email arrives, a surprising amount of spam is blocked, and the search, filter, and label functionality are rock solid. If you want more, you could cherry-pick it from the Labs section or, as many of us did early on, find browser add-ons and user scripts to fill your needs.

For a lot of Google's other products, this model works just as well. Maps gets you from A to B, but it has its own Labs to play with. New features on Google's search and results pages go out first to a semi-random group of users, and some of the most bold changes that get finalized—SearchWiki, personalized searches—can still be turned off.

Let's not forget the news and hype value of roll-outs, regular iteration, and open secrets. This site is as guilty as any of giving Google a lot of attention for their little changes, because they're constantly occurring and widely covered—a chicken and egg dilemma we're well aware of. Even when Google wants to keep something "secret," it's at best half-hearted. They denied their development of a directly-approved-and-sold cellphone with misdirecting quotes, and asked thousands of employees at one of the world's most connected companies not to talk, tweet, or blog about the brand new phone they all received as a holiday bonus. Even if the Nexus One hasn't broken any sales records, it certainly grabbed attention and over-wrought headlines.

For Google Wave, a product that might actually be a potential revolution, a slow roll-out with eager test subjects makes sense. Developers and power users can report the problems and suggest solutions, see how their own dreams might fit in, and figure out real-world use cases. Aside from some initial "What's it do?" skepticism, the expectations of both Google and its users seem fairly compatible in the great Wave sandbox, and everybody's free to walk away with no harm done.

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