While we all eagerly await the release of the first smartphones running the highly-anticipated Google mobile operating system, Google Android, (not expected for many months yet) owners of many of the devices poised to be Android powered devices' top competitors (ie. BlackBerry, iPhone, etc.) can already enjoy many of Google's best and newest features on their smartphones. In fact, as one web reporter put it, thanks to the ability to integrate all these apps into his BlackBerry, as far as he's concerned he already owns a Google smartphone. The following are some of the finest mobile apps Google has made available:
Search: Enjoy quick and laser-sharp web searches with that same ease and convenience that has made Google a household word. Plus, Google will even localize your listings, organizing your results based on your location.
SMS: Google then makes searches on your mobile phone even easier by giving you this program that lets you perform Google searches via text message. What's more, Google SMS saves and organizes your SMS searches for easy referencing in the future.
Every man is a creative cause of what happens, a primum mobile with an original movement.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
Google Maps: Simply one of the best (if not the best) location-based programs around (MapQuest be damned). Not only can you get directions from anywhere to anywhere but you can see a satellite view of all maps, find out real-time traffic info, get public transportation directions, find the nearest business or public utility of any type of your choosing, and even map your present location.
Notebook: Read and write quick memos to yourself on-the-go.
GOOG-411: Just what it sounds like, a 411 lookup service for your mobile phone courtesy of Google. Not only can you get the contact info (phone number, address, URL) of any person or business, but you can then dial, SMS text message, browse, or map that info instantly at the press of a button.
What will our children remember of us, ten, fifteen years from now? The mobile we bought or didn’t buy? Or the tone in our voices, the look in our eyes, the enthusiasm for life—and for them—that we felt? They, and we, will remember the spirit of things, not the letter. Those memories will go so deep that no one could measure it, capture it, bronze it, or put it in a scrapbook.
—Sonia Taitz (20th century)
Reader: Read all the latest RSS feeds and news feeds to which you subscribe (and browse and subscribe to countless others) all from one convenient place.
Google even helps you view YouTubevideos with a Java-based version specifically for mobile phones, with many of YouTube's most beloved community features built in. Google also enables you to use Blogger to post and read blogs (with photos) through your smartphone. Plus you can access and sync with your existing Gmail accounts, Google Calendars, Picassa photo albums, and Google Docs. Not all Google apps are as yet available for all devices, however. BlackBerry users, for example, are as of yet the only ones able to use mobile Google Sync to sync up their BlackBerry calendars with their Google calendars. But not all BlackBerry users (ie. BlackBerry Curve users) can enjoy mobile YouTube. To browse all the Google mobile apps available for you on your specific smartphone, simply enter mobile.google.com into your smartphone's web browser.