Google Wants To Make The One App To Rule Them All

So Google has this crazy idea where your smartphone would only need one, single app.....Google's. It used to be that when we wanted information we had to go to a library or read an encyclopedia. Then it transitioned into sitting in front of our computers and typing our queries into Google. Today, we simply open up our smartphone and verbally ask it questions and wait for it to find us the answers. In addition to that, other things aside from information have started getting their own apps. Looking for a good restaurant? There's an app for that. Looking for new clothes? There's an app for that. Trying to check out the latest in world news? App. However, Google wants to change all of that.

According to recent reports, Google wants to extend its domination in the search engine world to smartphones. Google wants to give you a way to use apps without having to actually download them onto your smartphone or tablet and they want to start this as early as next week. Sounds crazy right? I mean how am I supposed to use an app on my phone if the app isn't actually on my phone? Google's solution to this is actually very interesting.

If you search for something, like a cheap hotel, using Google's app on a smartphone running the Android operating system, you will receive search results from all over the internet, like normal. However, there will also be information from apps like Hotel Tonight or Kayak. If you tap a button, Google will open the app so that you can book a room on the app even if you don't have it installed on your device. This sounds like a ridiculous pipe dream to some and pure ecstasy to others, especially those people who don't download an app until the very moment they need it and then are in a time crunch waiting for it to download.

Google is using some shenanigans, though. The company is actually streaming a video to your phone from the internet while the app runs on a computer far, far away. In addition to that, there's also a catch. At the moment, Google can only achieve this feat with these nine apps: Hotel Tonight, Weather, New York Subway, My Horoscope, Daily Horoscope, Visual Anatomy Free, Useful Knots, Gormey (a restaurant finder), and Chimani (a national parks guide). According to Lead Engineer for Google's Mobile Search and App Indexing Team Rajan Patel, "We feel like it's our role to make sure we have answers. In mobile, oftentimes that's in apps."

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So what does this mean for consumers like me and you? Well for starters it means a decrease in the time and hassle it takes to download an app and install it on your phone or tablet. You will also have the ability to use an app without having it take up space on your device. For Google, this could be an attempt to make mobile apps less relevant while also keeping Google at the forefront of smartphone users' minds. Even though Google is basically untouchable on the desktop market, the same can't be said for its mobile counterpart.

This is but one of Google's attempts to make mobile search better. Back in April the company changes the way it organized all websites and prioritized those that come up better on smartphones. In addition to that, Google has also been working on making information from inside an app more searchable on Google, known as deep linking. Google said that it now has over 100 billion links to information from apps.

Google streams these apps with technology it got from a startup called Agawi last year. In reality, you aren't really getting access to these apps from Google. Sure it feels as if you are in the program, but Google is actually streaming you an HD video that you can tap and scroll through like a normal app, according to a company spokeswoman. The only real  difference here is that in the Google version a banner runs across the bottom fo the screen that says "App streamed by Google".

This technology is currently only available on Android devices though Google did say that it will eventually come to iPhones and other Apple iOS devices though a timeframe has yet to be established.

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The 5 Best Apps You Don't Know About!

There are literally millions of apps on the market, and new ones come out every day. At this point, there are way too many to just gamble on them until you find the right ones for you. Hopefully, this list can help you find some super productive apps that will help you out in your everyday life!

Nintype: A super fast keyboard app

Nintype is an app that lets you type super fast by combining swiping motions and double tapping for double letters. It also has shortcuts for saved texts, emojis, hashtags, and any other shortcuts you set up. With this keyboard app, you can type more than 100 words per minute!

Cloe: Siri's smarter sister

Cloe is kind of like Siri. You can use it when you need to find an answer to just about any question. The main difference is that Cloe is actually powered by actual people. Sometimes Siri can steer you a little wrong, or give you something that isn't exactly what you were looking for. By interacting with a real human, the chances of that are slim. Also, you don't even need an app. It's not an app at all! You just have to sign up, and then you can text Cloe any time you'd like.

Workflow: Keeping  you from wasting time

Basically, Workflow is an app that can customize your phone to be more productive, in general. You can use it to completely skip tasks that waste time. You can tell your phone exactly what to do when it notices a certain action. You can schedule certain pictures to upload to social media, automatically call in to conference calls at the exact time they are scheduled, and pretty much anything else you can think of that will keep you productive.

Evernote Scannable: Grow your LinkedIn profile by scanning business cards

Basically, this app makes digital copies of business cards, receipts, and anything else. It pulls the information from these documents, finds the person on LinkedIn, and saves them to your contact list. Brilliant.

Duet: Use your iPad as a 2nd display for your Mac

If you have an extra iPad laying around, you can actually use it to be way more productive than you might have thought. Duet lets you connect your iPad to your Mac with the charging cable and actually use it as a second screen. This is especially awesome when you are doing photo editing, video editing, or music production. Nothing is cooler than having one screen dedicated to editing audio and another screen dedicated to an on-screen mixing board.

Lenovo Has A New Tablet Coming Soon That Aims To Keep You As Productive As Possible

I feel as if it's way too easy to get distracted nowadays, isn't it? I know I can tend to have a slightly lacking attention span every now and again. With all of the new technology that we have constantly coming out, and all of the social media that we use today, it can be hard to stay on track when business needs to be taken care of. 9 times out of 10, you more than likely use your tablet for entertainment and web browsing. There have been some tablets to emerge with the prospect of productivity in mind. Normally, these types of "productive" tablets have come with an attachable keyboard dock to make it more of a laptop. The keyboard would naturally add a sense of increased productivity. Lenovo plans on adding another to the "productive" tablet roster.

The new Lenovo ThinkPad 10, dropping in June, will offer some competition to the normal sized tablet market. The ThinkPad 10 is also aimed to be a more business oriented tablet.

The ThinkPad 8 launched back in January as a way to compete with Apple's iPad Mini. The new ThinkPad 10 is a 10 inch tablet that will be going head to head with the reigning champ; the 9.7 Apple iPad. Yes, most people who get tablets just find it to be a more mobile laptop, and they are quickly becoming more of the main computing device. It should come as no surprise that many consumers use it as such; Facebook, web browsing, eBooks, game apps, etc. That being said, Apple does have its own share of people who view the iPad as a business tool. It's this business crowd that Lenovo's new ThinkPad 10 is targeting. But to say that they will be able to go up against the tech giant has yet to be determined.

Spec wise, this tablet is pretty darn solid. Working with 4GB of RAM and an Intel quad-core processor means that you'll be able to take care of basically any business task. The new tablet comes stock with 128 GBs of storage space, as well as an 8 megapixel rear-facing camera and a 2 megapixel front-facing camera.  It will be offered in 4G LTE and 3G services. It also comes with a nice 10 hour battery life. The screen resolution sits at 1,920 x 1,200 pixels. While it may not be quite as good as the retina display models from Apple, it definitely isn't lacking in image quality.

Even with their upgraded displays, the new ThinkPad has something that Apple doesn't: the ThinkPad Tablet Dock. This nifty little dock basically turns your tablet into another desktop, should you need it. When docked, it offers the use of an external keyboard and mouse. Then, there is also always the option of using it as another monitor to help make things less cluttered on your normal screen. This type of docking station definitely adds a bit more of a "business-y" feel to the new ThinkPad.

Retail will be sitting at $599, so be ready to shell out a bit of cash if you choose to buy it. If you're still on the fence, you can rent the ThinkPad 8 and get an idea of what the new ThinkPad 10 will be like. It can only be expected that the new ThinkPad 10 will be directly modeled after the ThinkPad 8, so renting the 8 might not be a bad choice. At least then you can get a feel for what the 10 will be like!

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Microsoft's New Courier Tablet

Whatever concept you had of what was cool in the tech world just got pushed to another level thanks to a new tablet from Microsoft codenamed Courier. This new double-screen tablet works as a day planner only way cooler.

Speculations about whether or not you will be able to run down to your local tech store and pick this thing up is still unsure considering this is only one of many different tablet prototypes currently in development from Microsoft. However, with the Apple tablet rumors being thrown around and the similarity Courier has to the upcoming E-reader/netbook from Asus, the tablet concept seems to be gaining more and more interest from consumers.

Courier appears like it could completely revolutionize personal business devices. There aren't a lot of details about what Courier can do. What is known is that, unlike Apple's tablet, it comes in a book shape with two 7inch screens with a built in camera and Wi-Fi. Information input is varied going between multi-touch gestures like pinching and flicking to using a stylus for handwriting and drawing.

It is unsure how Courier will handle things like e-mail or if it comes equipped with a microphone or webcam for things like video conferences or VoIP. But Courier does look like an outstanding replacement to the traditional pen and paper way of planning. Courier appears to fuse the best of paper planning with the two pages and large writing space with the best of a computer's planning capabilities to manipulate and index data.

What may come as a surprise to some is that the Courier tablet is almost a complete opposite to what people expect from Apple's tablet. People expect the Apple tablet to be an expanded iPod Touch having a 9 to 10 inch multi-touch display, iSight camera, microphone, Wi-Fi and 3G capability and run with either another version of Mac OS X or the iPod OS.

People and analysts have been talking about the Apple tablet for over a year now and yet there is still no information leak that even compares to the size of the Courier leak telling us what the device is going to be able to do. All info in this post have come from different rumors floating around and not hard evidence. This could mean that Apple's product doesn't even exist. However, if it doesn't it, one will exist shortly now that Microsoft has thrown their hat in the ring and given some decent details about Courier.

One question many people will be asking Apple is "Why is this device even necessary? Why is it a better option than a laptop/smartphone combo?" Apple's tablet doesn't appear like it can replace either device and doesn't appear to be the same as a netbook either. So by now you may be asking yourself "What the heck is this Apple Tablet thing?" Well the answer is that it is an entertainment device used to watch video, surf the web and play games.

Courier, alternately, can be recognized almost instantly as a device that would be useful to someone. It takes your average, everyday two page paper planner and digitizes it for the first time ever. Courier takes advantage of data mash-ups by allowing you to flick your contacts on a map and find their location. You can also take notes easily with the reasonable screen size and you also have web access right at your fingertips. It also appears that Courier will have nothing to do with the Windows Mobile or Windows 7 Operating Systems. Instead it will have a completely new operating system designed specifically for the Courier.

But these details do not mean that the tablet market is going to be completely dominated by Courier or that Apple's tablet can not catch up. It simply means that the two devices are completely different. If you are looking into Courier then you are more likely looking for a smartly designed day planner which will more than likely be able to do things like play videos and other entertainment apps similar to a smartphone. If you want something more geared towards having fun then you are going to want to look more into Apple's tablet. Apple's tablet looks to have more entertainment value and a weaker enterprise value. These factors, business and fun, are going to be the deciding factors in which one you decide to buy when, and if, either one of these tablets comes out.