Google Announces Two Seriously Awesome Android Features
By: Hillel Fuld
It is no secret that despite BlackBerry and Symbian’s overall dominant global numbers, the two hot players in today’s game are iPhone and Android, or Apple and Google. RIM’s attempt to jump into that game with the new Torch was a nice attempt, but as a good friend wrote in his post, it was a mistake for RIM to even try to compete in that space. So, Apple and Google are going at each other for market share, but that is not all they seem to be fighting about.
Maybe I am nuts, but I am starting to see a pattern here. Google announces feature, Apple announces it a week later, then the blog posts start about who does it better. Oh, by the way, that order is not specific, it has happened the other way too. In any case, the latest examples of this pattern are of course over voice and wireless syncing abilities.
I am pretty sure this is the order in which the events occurred but I might be wrong. Google enables voice searching capabilities and begins supporting it in Android. Scoble interviews a small startup called Siri that enables voice searching abilities on iPhone, and predicts that they will be bought out soon. Apple acquires Siri for $200 million. Android comes back (yesterday) with some seriously amazing voice capabilities for Android 2.2.
Of course, this is not the only front on which this battle is taking place, but according to many, voice is a trend that will only get bigger, so this might be the most important of them. Another ongoing battle between the two mobile giants seems to be developing in the wireless syncing space. While Google is of course well known for their cloud based… everything, there are constant rumors about Apple enabling wireless syncing for their devices.
The newest announcement by Google is the new Chrome to Phone extension that pushes URLs or Maps from your computer to your phone. As MG Siegler so accurately put it, you cannot help but think of Jack Bauer and 24 with Chloe sending information to Jack’s handheld in almost every episode. Truth be told, this new feature, in all it’s awesomeness is also available on the iOS platform with an app I wrote about a few weeks back.
Firefox Home available on iPhone syncs your computer’s Firefox with your iPhone or iPod Touch and enables you to continue accessing the information on the go. It might not be quite as awesome as Chrome to Phone, but I cannot help but see the resemblance.
In any case, check out the following two videos of the new Android features, and tell me they are not something straight out of the future. Would love to hear your opinion on these features. You can leave a comment below or hit me up on Twitter.
Update: As my friend Ouriel Ohayon points out, the Chrome to Phone also has its competition with his very own PasteFire for iPhone. Check it out here.
