Google Docs is Google’s version of Microsoft Office. Different from Microsoft Office, Google Docs resides on the web, is free, and offers great collaboration tools.

Benefits of Google Docs:

• It costs you nothing
• It’s fast
• If your computer crashes you don’t need to worry because your documents are stored securely on the web
• It’s easy to share documents
• If you write a document with a colleague or classmate, you can be sure to work from the latest revision
• It’s easy to create quizzes and polls for friends to respond to
• The options are easy to use

Those are just a few of the benefits.  It’s amazing how far it’s come.  I started using Google Docs back when it was called Writely and have loved it.

Some of the coolest features are:

• Voice Search
• View your route by Satellite
• View your route by Street View
• Real time updates (maps are current)
• Find businesses, restaurants, with Google Powered search

If you’ve ever tried to use a regular GPS, it takes a long time to try to type in your destination, with The Google Navigator, you just say it.

I have to say that the Satellite and Street Views are awesome.  You’ll be able to see exactly where you are.

The Navigator works on Android 2.0 devices.  Let’s hope 2.0 rolls out to the rest of us in the very near future, because I need this app!

Update: I purchased the Windows 7 upgrade the day it came out.  The upgrade went very well.  One tip though, you need to de-authorize your iTunes Account on your Computer (not the audible account, but the computer), or else Apple might think you’ve authorized a new computer when you upgrade.

Ad campaigns broadcast on television show various PC users expressing their previous frustration with Windows and then claim to have had the idea for Windows 7.  Come on, we all know it was my idea!

This update dubbed 1.6 and inspiring owners of the Android phones to go out and purchase donuts in celebration has a lot going for it, and really helps mature the OS, and especially the Marketplace (App Store) interface.

Although tagged as a “minor” update, there are some pretty awesome features that have been added to the phone.

• Updates to the quick search box
• Camera updates
• The Android Marketplace gets a great face lift
• Virtual Private Network ability
• Indicator for battery usage
• Text-to-speech engine that will blow your mind

More highlights from the Android Dev Page.

T-mobile announcement page.

Like 100,000 Golden Tickets awaiting to be sent to the lucky winners who will find in their email inboxes tomorrow an invitation to the revolutionary new service/product.

Google Wave will combine in-a-sense, email, instant messaging, blogging, sharing, etc.  Email will work much more like a conversation.

A ten minute demo of wave from the developer tool:

From the Developer Conference (the long video):

Hopefully, we’ll all get one of the Golden Ticket invites to start testing, exploring, and enjoying Google Wave.

Long press on your Android home screen and select Shortcuts and then select Toggle Google Voice (this is assuming that you have the Google Voice App Installed). You can now Toggle the following options on Google Voice when you press the shortcut:

1. Use Google Voice for all calls
2. Only use Google Voice for international calls
3. Do not use Google Voice for any calls
4. Ask to use Google Voice for each call

The Ask to use Google Voice for each call option brings up a little dialog when placing a call which lets you select to use your Google Voice telephone number or your regular telephone number for the call.  This is helpful if you’re calling mobile-to-mobile with somone on the same carrier allowing you to save on minutes.

Any takers? Well if not, search for the episode. Needless to say there have been many humans watching their Android and waiting for the update to 1.5.

Has watching and checking the phone every minute made the the weeks/months go by more slowly. Well, that’s all in the past for some, and soon to be for everyone (until donut comes out).

Android 1.5 aka “Cupcake” is finally out. The roll-out has started, and the T-mobile user forum has the manual link you can use if you choose to manually update your phone (does not require that you root your phone).

I got as far as putting the update.zip on my SD card, and then…I decided I would wait for the Over the Air (OTA) update to be pushed to my phone.  For the following reasons:

1. Visiting the link in Google Chrome provided a hefty security warning dealing with the certificate and URL destination
2. I didn’t want to go until the next update wondering if I just created a security problem on my phone (due to reason #1)
3. In conversation yesterday, referring to credit, I mentioned that things are more expensive to those who can’t wait (I didn’t want that statement to haunt me if I bricked or otherwise compromised the security of my phone just because I couldn’t wait ’til Monday…let’s hope I get it then).
4. Waiting provides an excellent lesson in patience for me.  If you’ve ever read Zen in the Martial Arts (a really good, short book bytheway), you’ll know it’s kind of “kung-fu-ie-and-all” (Kung Fu Panda) to master the anticipation and enjoy fully the excitement, when it is time.

Well, we’ve all felt it’s about time, but a little Zen practice will only help.  So yes, update.zip is sitting on my desktop now, but it is not on my phone, and I will wait for the OTA to upgrade.

For those who have received the update, here’s from the official Android.com page about some of the new features:

Update: 5/29/2009

I received cupcake this morning through the Over The Air (OTA) delivery at 1AM!

The link to the T-mobile Android Forums below provides a great list of the new features in Android 1.5:

http://forums.t-mobile.com/tmbl/board/message?board.id=Android_MR&thread.id=3

Below is a video from Google about SkyMap.

I didn’t know until I saw the video that the application came from Google. An absolutely brilliant application and one more reason to get an Android based phone such as the G1 with T-mobile. Soon, other phones will be released with the Android operating system installed so stay tuned.

What’s the catch? None really, Microsoft is offering RC version for testing. I downloaded it today and will begin testing soon. The download will be good for one year. After one year, the computer will start to automatically shutdown every two hours as a friendly reminder that it’s time to purchase the real version.

If you’re interested, use the link below to Microsoft’s website to start the download process. You can log in using a free hotmail.com email account to access the download.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/download.aspx

Be aware that the download is very big and comes in the form of an .iso or image file that you’ll need to burn to a DVD.

Also take note that you might not want to install this on your main computer unless you have really good backups as this is the release-before-the-release of the software.

So far, it’s worked great.  I have to admit, I’ve used Vista for quite a while now, and I like it (UAC turned off).  I’ve downloaded the beta for Windows Movie maker and other Windows Live tools, and we’ll see how those go.

The new version of Gmail for mobile devices is much improved. It works on Android, iPhone, and probably other mobile devices. The difference in this version is that Google Gears is employed to help make checking email much faster and offer the ability to perform tasks even when off line.

The new web app offers quick links at the top for Gmail, Calendar, Docs, and “more.”

Gmail in this new version lets you see conversations more easily and allows for bulk edits. The follow bar is interesting when you open a conversation to read.

Google Docs looks great in the new version. The display icons add a lot to the design.

An improvement that could be made (on Android) is to make the links that you click behave more like buttons rather than hyperlinks that receive the standard link box around them when activated or highlighted.

Below is a demo of the new features.