Hangouts Easter Eggs

So, you're trying out the new Google Hangouts (which you can already enable in Gmail by the way) and you want something "cool" to show your friends... Google has you covered, as they didn't forget to include some curious hidden easter eggs in the new Hangouts.


For now, these only work on Google+ and the Hangouts Chrome Extension, which means we can't use them  in the mobile version neither during video calls, but... do try them out. You just need to type:

• /ponies - a pony running across the chat
• /pitchforks - angry mob
• /ponystream - several ponies (but showing up only in your own window)
• /bikeshed - changes the background color for everyone
• /shydino - shows up a little shy dinossaur
• konami code (up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, enter) - changes the local background (and if you have a chromebook pixel, it will also make the multicolored LED bar go into party mode for a while! ;)

The New Google Maps

Google's I/O opening keynote was filled with announcements (it took over 3h!) and there's lots of new stuff to go around, some of them available right now, as the new and improved Google+ and Hangouts messaging system (with a some drawbacks that we hope to see fixed soon). But today, I'll be focusing on the new Google Maps (which should only be deployed a few months from now, but you can request an invite to try it out sooner).

Google maps were/are incredibly useful, but they sure were becoming a bit old-looking. Google has now fixed that. The new maps are now given the scale they deserve, filling up the entire screen, and the results are show on hovering panes and in the map itself. As you select each result, the map changes accordingly, highlighting related information, while fading out less relevant info/roads/etc. One other thing that is sure to make lots of fans: you can now easily compare different transportation methods, so you can see how much faster/slower you'll be should you choose to take the bus/train/etc. The new maps also have integrated street view and google earth imagery - so you can see "everything"  without ever having to leave your browser window. It's also more intelligent, dynamically rerouting you during your navigation should a traffic jam popup on your preselected route.

The new maps will be available on the web, Android and iOS... and I can't wait to get it. (Some friends have already received the invitation for the new maps, but I'm still waiting for mine - I guess Google might be giving priority for intensive Google+ users... which... I'm not. But using blogger daily for several years should also count for something, right?)

Researchers Hijack Plant Photosynthesis to Generate Electricity

We're still waiting for a revolutionary way to generate clean and endless energy in order to let go of fossil, nuclear, and other "dirty" ways we currently use. And when it comes to solar power, why not look to the examples we have in our own backyards, that are the culmination of millions and millions of years of evolution: plants!

Plants may not look like much, but when it comes to solar efficiency, there's nothing close. A plant can achieve nearly 100% quantum efficiency, converting each incoming photon to an energy carrying electron - compare that to most common manufactured solar panels, that are just 12-17% efficient. So, researchers at Georgia University have decided to hijack the photosynthesis process and let the plant to most of the work, while they reap the benefits. By modifying some proteins, they've redirected the converted energy to the outside before the plant uses it to create glucose for itself.

This means that in the future, solar maintenance and green initiatives might end up requiring more gardening skills than the "technical" ones we currently used to. But as long as it gives us green, clean, and sustainable power... what's there not to like about it? Can you imagine using a solar power simulator where you input your power requirements and in return you get what kind of plants are most suitable for your location and how many you'll need to generate the required energy? It sure would give a much more literal meaning when it comes to "green energy", and it may happen sooner than we think.

For what is worth, I can't wait for solar power (and other "green" energies) to become the norm rather than the exception. In Spain, for the past few months, renewable energy generation has accounted for more than half of the total power generation - though most of it comes from hydroelectric plants, and just a few percent comes from solar power - but as technology evolves... Maybe in a few decades, we'll see solar power reaching the top spot when it comes to power generation.

Apple sued for Defective iPhone Power Button

We might be on the verge of a new "antennagate" incident for Apple, this time related to the iPhone 4 power button. Apple is being sued over faulty power buttons on the iPhone 4, which make it stop working roughly about a year of normal use - leaving it just out of the one year warranty period in several countries.

Apple is accused of knowing that there is a real problem with the power button mechanism, but that it kept quiet and did nothing while people bought it with 2 year contracts on operators like AT&T. Making its customers pay upwards of $99 to get it fixed, or resort to "assistive touch" features to use a virtual lock button and learn to live without a physical power button.

If the following YouTube video might serve as an indication, there are over 800,000 people that saw "how to fix the iPhone 4 power button". And I suspect that the same thing might happen even in newer iPhones (a friend of mine has alreade faced identical problems in both his iPhone 4S and iPhone 5!)

Is Apple about to face a new "power-button-gate" incident? Or... how do you feel about a $500-600 device failing due to poor engineering of the tiny mechanism responsible for the power button?

Google Unifies Cloud Storage and Gives you 15GB of Free Space

How would you feel if you paid for 100GB of cloud space on Google, but found your Gmail account was unable to receive any more data once it reached 25GB? You could have 100GB for Google Drive and Google+ Photos, but your Gmail account would be stuck on 25GB. Now, Google is finally cleaning up this fragmented storage system and will unify storage space among all services, giving you 15GB of total storage for free that you can use any way you like - whether you'll use it all on Gmail, or all for G+ Photos, or anything in between.

You can manage it all in the new storage management page, where you can see how you're using up your space, and you'll notice that the old 25GB option is now gone. Now you can either keep the free 15GB account... or will have to go to the 100GB option at $4.99/month. You'll also notice that while this option previously offered 100GB + 25GB for Gmail, you now get "only" 100GB... meaning you'll lose 25% of space for the same amount of money (though I do prefer that these 100GB can be used freely).

If you're a Google Apps user, you get 30GB of free space.

This change is being deployed right now, and might take a few weeks to reach you - but sooner or later you'll see your Gmail account stating you have 15GB of space to use. (And I imagine that this also marks the end of the ever growing space limit we had on Gmail).