Skype For Android Now Supports Video Calls, Works Over WiFi And 3G

Thanks to an update of Skype’s Android application, you can now make one-to-one video calls over both WiFi and 3G connections. You can download the Skype app from the Android Market or point your browser to Skype.com/m from your phone.
Note that your smartphone needs to be running Android Version 2.3 (and above) and have a front-facing camera. Supported handsets include the HTC Desire S, Sony Ericsson Xperia neo, Sony Ericsson Xperia pro and the Google Nexus S.
This is just the first phase, Skype says, so expect support for more devices soon.
Once installed, you can have video calls from your Android phone with your Skype contacts on iPhone, Mac, Windows PCs and even a number of TVs.
The Skype for Android app has also been given a new lick of paint.
There’s now a new main menu where you can navigate more easily through your contacts, access your Skype profile to change personal details, use the dial pad to make calls and see the balance of your Skype Credit.
A new mood message box at the top of the Skype app menu also enables you to share whatever you’d like to share with your contacts.
Finally, you can now send SMS messages from the Android app.
Neil Stevens, Skype’s vice president and general manager for product and marketing, says approximately 30 million concurrent users log into Skype at any given time and make up to half a million simultaneous video calls (at peak times as of June 2011).

StockTwits Comes To The Android

StockTwits, the finance community currently available on mobile via the iPhone, is taking its experience to the Android today.

Like StockTwits for the iPhone, StockTwits for the Android retains many of the same functionalities as the StockTwits community its, allowing users to access realtime stock quotes, financial news and the ability to bookmark stocks on a “Watchlist” or the ability to access stocks on the go.

StockTwits for Android users can also access a “Trending” view of stocks, highlighting the most discussed stocks in the community. This can be useful, as realtime information is increasingly more crucial to making investments.

StockTwits has $8.6 million in funding and is based out of San Francisco and New York. Those interested can
DownloadHerethe app here.

Difference between Facebook and Google+

Google sorted out the web and made it searchable; can it also create the connections between people that are making it social?
Google's latest attempt -- in development for more than a year -- was unveiled as Google+, and offered to a select group of journalists and analysts who will be able to share photos, links and status updates.
The major difference between Facebook and Google+ is that instead of having a massive friend list, users collect each other into groups, such as family, work and friends, called "circles." This context has been missing from Facebook and has gotten some people in hot water -- for example, those who post their wild weekend party photos that may be seen by family and colleagues. And on Google+, there are no friend requests. People do not need to agree to be friends with one another and can view updates without sharing their own.
While executives declined to say what their are doing with Google+ when it comes to advertising -- for example, will brands be able to create "circles"? -- they did say that +1, an icon launched recently that is now integrated into Google+, is operating with ads. The +1 service allows users to click on the icon, indicating they like that search result. Google+ follows the search company's failed attempts at the social web -- Buzz and Orkut -- and could be a huge deal for Google if people are willing to participate in yet another social network.
But the bigger play here is to harness the data about human connections generated by the social web and apply that to search and even display advertising. The rise of Facebook meant that a lot of this emerging activity was taking place inside a walled garden that was largely invisible to Google.
"Google rose to prominence because the web became open and they made it sourceable and discoverable, so this is a preemptive strike on Google's part," said Steven Rubel, exec VP-global strategy and insights for Edelman, explaining that as people spend more time inside walled gardens such as Facebook and mobile apps, Google loses its power to search and monetize that walled-off content. "Now they have a leg in the game in a world where people spend less and less time on the web."
Mr. Rubel may be right. While Google continues to be one of the most visited sites -- ComScore showed 180 million people visiting a Google property in May -- Facebook is catching up. But Facebook users spent an average of 375 minutes on the site during May -- close to 3 hours more than the 231 minutes they spent on Google.
Google+ will give Google a place for users to create their own content -- the stuff we're used to because of Facebook -- such as user conversations, their photos and the links they share, plus group text messaging and video chat. Since it belongs to Google, it will all be searchable and monetizable -- just the way Google likes it.
While people are not in immediate danger of losing the searchable, open web, the phenomenon can occur slowly over the next decade as mobile and apps become more and more dominant in how users consume information. "It's like a receding hairline," Mr. Rubel said. "You look in the mirror when you're 29 and think, 'Oh, it's not that bad' and wake up at 40 looking like Kojak."
Google executives said that getting social information on their users will improve Google products across the board -- by allowing personalization. Most of Google's most popular products such as search, maps and YouTube do not require a login, which limits what Google knows about its users.
But social has never been Google's bag. "It would take a seismic shift for people to take their social stuff to Google," said Deep Focus CEO and founder Ian Schafer, who said that the real earth-shattering use for Google+ is in mobile, not social networking. "The biggest implication for Google+ is mobile," Mr. Schafer said. "For example, for people to be creating content wherever people are and using that to deliver messages to them and close the loop on sales. The promise of Google+ is closing the loop on social CRM."
For advertisers and brands, the potential is immense. "A connection made with a brand in Google+ can eventually be tracked to a purchase," Mr. Schafer said. "If we can create relevant brand engagements with people and give them an ability to purchase the product at a later date -- whether that's three, six or 18 months later -- this brings us back to social ROI."
Indeed, metrics and analytics is one area where Facebook falls behind Google when it comes to advertising. When asked what she'd like to see from Facebook, Coca-Cola's head of integrated marketing and communications Wendy Clark said she wanted a good way to measure social media succes.

Google Unveils Facebook Competitor Google+

Has Google just launched its most ambitious project yet?
After years of rumors and hints, Google Tuesday launched a trial of its Facebook competitor, a social network called the Google+ project.
And the company clearly isn't shy about it.
In a blog post announcing the launch of the Google+ Project, Vic Gundotra, senior vice president of Engineering for the company, argued that the subtlety of real world interactions are lost online due to the rigidity of today's tools.
"Online sharing is awkward. Even broken. And we aim to fix it," Gundotra said. Getting there has been a massive effort, explained Wired.
"Emerald Sea, it is a result of a lengthy and urgent effort involving almost all of the company’s products," wrote Steven Levy. "Hundreds of engineers were involved in the effort. It has been a key focus for new CEO Larry Page."
To set Google+ apart from Facebook, which some recent reports have pegged at 750 million users, Google is claiming to have a better approach to privacy, taking on the hot-button issue that has burned both companies before.

Google Invests $102 Million More Into California’s Alta Wind Energy Center

According to an official company blog post today, Google is increasing its investment into California’s Alta Wind Energy Center (AWEC) by $102 million, bringing its total investment in the renewable energy facility to $157 million.

The AWEC is being developed by Terra-Gen Power, primarily. The first development within the massive facility is the Alta-Oak Creek Mojave Project. Google’s latest funding commitment would go to build an extension at the facility. The AWEC has a transmission line, the Tehachapi Renewable Transmission Project, dedicated to it which makes it distinct from many, large-scale renewable energy projects that have been proposed in the U.S.

Over the years, Cape Wind faced challenges winning public opinion and regulatory approvals due to a lack of a transmission line that can send power generated offshore back to Nantucket or Boston, two large markets nearby. In 2010, as reported by Reuters then, Google, along with cleantech investment firm Good Energies and Japans’ Marubeni Corp., agreed to take an equity position in Cape Wind’s transmission line.

This year, Google has invested about $700 million into renewable energy projects, according to press statements by Rick Needham, the company’s director of green business operations.

Google also recently dedicated funds to financing SolarCity residential solar development, and to other large-scale solar and wind projects including at Ivanpah a solar power tower project in Nevada, and Shepherd’s Flat, the wind farm in Oregon.

A hearty tax appetite is partly responsible for Google’s move to become a clean energy financier of this magnitude. Google will reap the benefits of many tax credits currently available to investors in clean energy in the U.S.

Supporting clean energy and new additions to the grid could also help Google maintain a stronghold in search and big data; users will inevitably search for and process bulk amounts of information about energy production and use via Google, its APIs and apps as new sources of energy get plugged into the grid, and as utilities are forced by regulators to report more carefully on their environmental impact.