Posted by Michael van Ouwerkerk, Software Engineer, Google mobile team
Joe optimized Picasa Web Albums for the iPhone and Zak made it shine on Windows Mobile. This made me wonder about Nokia phones. Ever since S60 3rd Edition came out, phones like the Nokia N95 have had good web browsers. Why not give Picasa Web Albums on S60 some AJAXy goodness, with faster browsing and a slicker user interface as well? I investigated what it would take to make our existing design work on S60 and it turned out to be really easy! And since I'm Dutch, I also wanted to view this interface without needing to switch my account language to English. So we had it translated into 36 new languages. We also gave the toolbar an overhaul, adding simpler to understand icons. You can now get this new version of Picasa Web Albums on all S60 phones using a WebKit-based browser, as well as iPhone using Safari and Windows Mobile 6 Professional using Internet Explorer. As an added bonus we've also added support for Windows Mobile 6 Standard. Finally, based on requests we've had on this blog, we've added a zoom feature for the iPhone. When viewing a photo that was uploaded to Picasa Web Albums in high resolution, just tap on the zoom button -- the one with the magnifying glass. This will take you to a page with a high-resolution image where you can use those wonderful finger gestures for zooming and panning around in the zoomed area.
Head to picasaweb.google.com to give it a try, and be sure to let us know what you think! There's a good chance now that your phone and preferred language are supported.
Posted by Zak Cohen, Software Engineer, Google mobile team
When Joe Walnes showed off the shiny AJAX interface on the iPhone version of Picasa Web Albums I started thinking - can we make an AJAX interface work on new Windows Mobile devices? After all, Internet Explorer Mobile supports many of the advanced browser features that we used to build the iPhone version. Joe and I wanted to give it a try so we got to work. Today we're pleased to tell owners of Windows Mobile 6 touchscreen devices that you can now enjoy a much faster and slicker way of browsing Picasa Web Albums on your phone.
Working with Windows Mobile also meant that we could add some cool features using the newly announced Google Gears for mobile, which gives web applications the ability to work even when there is no internet connection available. This means that you can view albums of your choice offline. Gears also lets you add a Picasa icon to your Program Files folder so you can have faster access to your favorite photos. If you'd like to learn more about how we leveraged Google Gears for mobile, watch Dion Almaer's interview with Joe.
To try out Picasa Web Albums on your WinMo 6 touchscreen phone, just go to picasaweb.google.com on your Internet Explorer Mobile browser. Let us know what you think!
Posted by John Lagerling, partner team, Google Japan
Most of you were probably asleep at the time, but we wanted to let you know about an announcement we made last night with NTT DoCoMo, one of the leading carriers in the world: We're going to be working with DoCoMo to offer their 50 million subscribers a more accessible and useful mobile web experience. For starters, we'll be providing Google search via a search box on the top page of DoCoMo's i-Mode portal, and we'll pair ads with the search results whenever they're relevant to users. Beyond search, we'll also be exploring the possibility of bringing i-Mode users other Google mobile applications and services, like Google Maps, Gmail, YouTube, and Picasa.
At Google we want to provide users around the globe with access to the information they need -- whenever and wherever they need it -- and teaming up with industry leaders like DoCoMo helps us do just that. Read this press release to learn more about how we'll be working with them.
Posted by Lawrence Chang, Product Marketing Manager, Google mobile team
As the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show winds to a close, some of you may have wondered if any of us attended. Some of us did make it to Las Vegas, primarily in support of and to meet some of our partners who demo'd some pretty neat things that highlight and leverage Google applications.
I was excited to have a chance to go, so I took a video camera to capture some of the sights, sounds, and people that I met. You can play the video clips below in sequence, or select individual videos to view one at a time.
"Don't waste time while you're there!": If you've never been to CES and want to get a sense of what it's like, or, if you were there and want to compare notes, take a look at this.
Picasa Web Albums on BlackBerry: Mike Pegg of Google mobile chats with Trudy Koen from Research in Motion about a new Picasa Web Albums application that will soon be available for BlackBerry devices.
GOOG-411 'Map it' Feature and Thomson's new GE DECT 6.0 Phone: Jonathan Matus of Google Mobile tells us about the 'Map-It' feature integrating GOOG-411 and Google Maps on the iPhone. He then talks to Jordan Riggs of Thomson about Thomson's new GE DECT 6.0 phone, featuring a dedicated GOOG-411 button.
Google applications on the new Sony Mylo: Philip Boyle, a product manager at Sony, describes how to get to Google Search, Gmail, Google Talk, and YouTube on the new Mylo.
Good-bye to CES 2008: Some parting thoughts of mine as I leave the show.
Finally, we've created our own Google Mobile Blog YouTube channel where you'll be able to find all of the current and future videos we make.
Finally, based on requests we've had on this blog, we've added a zoom feature for the iPhone. When viewing a photo that was uploaded to Picasa Web Albums in high resolution, just tap on the zoom button -- the one with the magnifying glass. This will take you to a page with a high-resolution image where you can use those wonderful finger gestures for zooming and panning around in the zoomed area.
