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!

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.

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.

Click on the screenshot below to see Dooba Reviews in 3D.  Don’t stare too long without 3D glasses!

The tweak to the browser is a pretty good idea as it will get more people to download and install the browser.

You can download the Google Chrome 3D here.

Fortunately, there are now some pretty exciting games coming out soon that we’ve highlighted below.

Gold’s Gym Cardio Workout is a good game on the economical side of things.  If you’ve been using the Wii Fit, this game looks to be an enhancement of the same concept.  The game is compatible with the Wii Blanace board which is a big plus.  We’ve been waiting for some good exercise games to compliment the Wii Fit game.

EA Sports Active looks to be a very promising game.  Not yet released as of this writing, but you can catch a glimpse with the video demo.

What looks neat about this game is that you have more than just the Wii Remote and Nunchuck to toss into your television.  Seriously though, the game comes with an elastic stretch band and a leg wrap.  The Nunchuck is placed in the leg wrap and it lets the game know how well you’re running, squatting, etc.  Pretty neat idea.  The game is listed higher than the Gold’s Gym game, but with all the options and accessories, it looks to be quite good.

Below is the video demo of the EA Sports Active for the Nintendo Wii.  The Tennis exercises look pretty cool.

Obviously, if you want games to play with the Wii balance board, you need the board.  The board comes with the Wii Fit game which has Aerobics, Yoga, Balance Games, and Strength Training.  The game tracks how often you come back to use it and will give you praise if you come back often, and will also give that little nudge of guilt if you haven’t exercised in a while.  The Yoga exercises are pretty good.  We’re looking forward to more Yoga titles coming to the Wii and Wii Balance Board.

And of course, if you don’t own the Wii, you’ll need to get one.  We had a “fun” time trying to find a Wii to purchase last year.  We tried lots of different stores, tried meeting people in parking lots, etc. The best way, and the way we got the Wii, was by putting our cell phone number into the Wii listing page on Amazon.  Amazon.com then sent us a text message when the Wii was in stock.  Bingo!  We got the Wii!

ShopSavvy

• An incredible application.  It’s so fun to scan items in the store and find them cheaper somewhere else or on Amazon.com.
• If you want to see prices more quickly, turn off the location finder in the application.  That way the app doesn’t have to find out where you are and get local prices.

Power Manager

• Great for saving battery power.  I highly recommend it.  Another great benefit of the Power Manager is that you can easily toggle the Wi-fi, GPS, Cell Location, etc.
• The application has different settings that will take effect on your phone based on the battery level.  You can have it automatically turn off the Wi-Fi, etc.

Opera Mini

• This web browser is great for the G1.
• Pages are downloaded much faster because the images on the page aren’t displayed at full quality.  On the smaller screen however, they look just fine.

MyTracks

• Just ran this morning using MyTracks.  It’s pretty cool, but it took it a second to get a GPS lock on my location.
• The application tracks your position based on GPS and will store the route that you ran on Google Maps (you’ll need to be out in the open for the GPS to get a good lock).

Brain Genius Deluxe

• This application/game is a fun little way to beef up your memory skills.

SkyMap

• This application is great.  Go outside at night, point your phone towards the heavens and the application will show the constellations in the sky based on your location/time of year.
• The constellations are mapped out with names.
• This would have been handy when I was working on that constellation merit badge when I was 12!

Here’s a video demo of SkyMap that we found on YouTube.  The video is a little blurry, but you get the idea:

I’ve downloaded and tried a number of different applications, but ended up not using them very much and removing a number of other apps that always ran in the background but I never used.  How to find out what applications are running in the background, use the System Monitor application – very handy.

All these apps can be found by accessing the Market icon from your android phone.