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Google’s two new announcements: integrating a Twitter-like service into Gmail and a goal of a real-time speech translation service shows what direction they’re taking the company: Into the space between you and every other human being on the planet. To be fair, these two developments are really far apart in their delivery dates. The Gmail status update could come as soon as tomorrow, whereas the the speech-to-text-to-speech translation system is still a ways out. You can definitely see just how much work Google needs to do by trying to read your Google Voice voicemail transcriptions. (Voice search works better on Android 2.1 because you’re talking slower and enunciating.) But both these features point in the same direction many of the company’s other products have been hinting at. Here’s a list of Google’s major products, in case you forgot, and which sector of communication they want to dominate. • Google Voice : This is a big one, and it’ll be the most natural interface for Google to slot in the voice-translation into. If you’re using it the way Google wants you to use it, you’re already piping all your voice calls and SMS through Google’s tubes. And refining speech to text gives them a good idea of your interests and what you’re talking about, allowing them to better serve up the relevant ads to you during calls. • Gmail : Having access to at least one end of everyone’s email conversations, outside of business emails, gives Google the ability to be a gateway for most of your written communications. But that’s not enough for Google, which is why they developed… • Google Wave : It’s email, message boards, chat rooms and collaboration software all in one, except every participant needs a Google account . This closes that “openness” loophole that email has, and forces everyone into Google’s biosphere. So this, and Gmail, should make sure that every medium-length communique passes through Google’s maw for analysis. But what about shorter and longer forms? • Google Docs: For longer documents. • Google Talk: For short blasts of instant messaging, video chats and some audio chatting. • Picasa and YouTube: Communication doesn’t have to be all text-based, you putting your photos and videos online count too. • Android and Chrome OS: By getting you down at the operating system level, Google can theoretically know every kind of communication you perform. It knows who you talk to, how you do it and when you do it. It can even shape the how by delivering the experience themselves. • Everything else. There’s Checkout, Finance, Maps, Reader, News and other apps, which fill in the other forms of communication or expression that aren’t quite covered by the major products above. One major missing piece is social networking, where Google basically failed before with its Orkut service (except for Brazil), so this new Twitter/Gmail hybrid might be their next entrance into the space. But why do they want these things? Why would Google want to be the middleman between you and the world? To sell you ads, of course. And don’t think Google is going to stop at just helping you talk over the internet or over the phone, they’re going to reach into meatspace as well. How? One step is making that speech-to-speech translation portable, so you can do a sort of near-field communication with someone else with the same device while at the same time being able to look them in the face. Then, blast you two with the appropriate ads on the billboard next to you.

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Google Wants To Control All Communication [Google]

  TMZ has obtained a copy of the full L.A. County Coroner’s report in the death of Michael Jackson , which until now was under seal. The document clearly states that Propofol was the cause of death and the manner of death was homicide. The conclusion is based on the following for things: 1. Circumstances indicate the Propofol and the benzodiazepines were administered by another. 2. Propofol was administered in a non-hospital setting without any appropriate medical indication. 3. The standard of care for administering Propofol was not met. Recommended equipment for patient monitoring, precision dosing and resuscitation was not present. 4. The circumstances do not support self-administration of Propofol. Dr. Conrad Murray will surrender today and face charges of involuntary manslaughter in the death of Michael Jackson.

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Official coroners report has been unsealed!

Netflix Watch Instantly fans could be due for a big upgrade, as CNET has heard the company will roll out 1080p and 5.1 surround sound later this year. No word on timing or any other details, but this could mean its moving to version 3 of Microsoft’s Silverlight streaming platform with its additional tweaks for adaptive streaming and hardware graphics acceleration . Also unknown is how much bandwidth would be necessary, but considering Microsoft already uses very similar technology for its 1080p Instant On videos on Zune Marketplace through the Xbox 360 while only requiring 3 Mbps and VUDU HDX 1080p videos only state a minimum of 4500 Kbps, a massive jump in available bandwidth might not be necessary if you already get clear 720p video. The last big hurdle? How much content will be available that way, Gizmodo points out only about 6 percent of current offerings stream in HD we’ll be watching carefully if the pace picks up going forward. 1080p, 5.1 surround sound coming to Netflix Watch Instantly in 2010? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 08 Feb 2010 18:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink

After Microsoft stated a week ago that it would look into reports of Windows 7 causing premature battery degradation , we’ve been staying up late at night with our frazzled lithium ion cells, reading them stories about Battery Heaven and generally trying to keep an upbeat tone around the Engadget HQ. Well, it turns out not everything is rosy in batteryville, but Microsoft says Windows 7 isn’t the one to blame. According to the company’s testing, the new tool, which reports when a battery is down to 40% of its designed capacity and suggests replacement, hasn’t reported a single false positive. Additionally, the tool uses read-only data from the battery, and is in fact incapable of tweaking the battery’s life span or internal data — it merely reports the data it receives, and stacks the theoretical design capacity up against the current full charge capacity. Microsoft attributes the reports of the tool dooming batteries to an early grave to the mere fact that many people might not have noticed the degradation already taking place in their batteries — most batteries start to degrade noticeably within a year. Of course, not everybody’s going to just take Microsoft’s word for it, and Microsoft itself will continue to look into the issue, but for now this sounds like a bit of a non-issue. The part about Windows 7 being less conservative with power use is a whole ‘nother issue, of course. Microsoft says Windows 7 battery ‘issue’ isn’t one originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 08 Feb 2010 17:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink

Jamie Lynn Spears has split from the father of her child. The Nickelodeon star – who gave birth to her daughter Maddie in 2007 when she was just 16 – has been in an on/off relationship with the father Casey Aldridge ever since, but moved back in with her mother Lynne Spears six weeks ago.

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Jamie Lynn Spears splits from Casey

Lindsay Lohan was allegedly beaten up by on/off girlfriend Samantha Ronson. The ‘Mean Girls’ actress – who has a turbulent relationship with the DJ – reportedly told a pal how the romance had, at times, been very violent, with Lindsay having the scars to prove it.

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Lindsay Lohan’s violent romance

Dr. Conrad Murray will reportedly plead not guilty to the involuntary manslaughter of Michael Jackson. The physician is expected to voluntarily hand himself over to the authorities later today (08.02.10) but will deny any involvement in the late singer’s death.

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Dr. Conrad Murray to plead not guilty

We knew Android 2.1 was coming for the Droid , but we’ll confess — we didn’t expect it to come this soon. Motorola is now reporting via its official Facebook page that it’s “happy to relay the 2.1 upgrade to Droid will start to roll out this week,” going on to tease that it “will have more information to share on other device upgrades later.” There’s no detail on what the Droid update will entail or whether it’ll roll out to every user this week (we doubt it), but by all indications, this is a promising sign that Moto’s keeping the pedal to the metal, we’d say. [Thanks, andrewcweaver] Motorola: Droid update to Android 2.1 ‘will start to roll out this week’ originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 08 Feb 2010 17:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink

Eva Longoria Parker accidentally told her fans to watch porn. The ‘Desperate Housewives’ actress – who signed up for a twitter account last week – was trying to urge her followers to look at a website about her husband, basketball star Tony Parker, but accidentally posted the wrong address.

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Eva Longoria’s Twitter error

Dr. Conrad Murray has been charged with the involuntary manslaughter of Michael Jackson. The doctor is due in court later today (08.02.10) to answer the charges, but is expected to plead not guilty to causing the death of the 50-year-old singer, whose passing last June was ruled a homicide by drug overdose last month, with the anesthetic Propofol – administered by Murray – considered the primary factor.

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Dr. Conrad Murray charged

So the good news here is that Google appears to have heard the cries for help, having taken a chainsaw to its brutal $350 “equipment recovery fee” that had been lumped on top of T-Mobile’s $200 ETF for subsidized Nexus One contracts canceled in the first 120 days. The bad news, though, is that it still exists at all — a hairy precedent for an industry being watched with eagle eyes by the FCC right now. The company has knocked $200 off the fee, bringing it down to $150; in other words, if you break your contract, you’ll pay the same ETF that Verizon now charges on its “advanced devices.” Whether that was a deliberate move to let ‘em say that they’re no more expensive than Verizon is unclear, but let’s be honest: $350 is extreme, $550 was highway robbery. At least we’re going in the right direction. Google’s Nexus One ‘equipment recovery fee’ slashed to $150, still a pain originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 08 Feb 2010 17:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink