This post was published 4 months 25 days ago which may make its actuality or expire date not be valid anymore. This site is not responsible for any misunderstanding.

Everybody’s favorite search giant has released a tour du force today with three killer announcements. First up is the official announcement of the “Droid” Android phone on Verizon with Android OS 2.0.

On November 6th Verizon Wireless will be selling the Motorola Droid. To go for $199.99 on a 2-year deal, the DROID is one hell of a steal considering that its specs include a 3.7″ WVGA capacitive display, sliding QWERTY keypad, 5 megapixel camera with autofocus and dual-LED flash, 720×480 video capture at 24 fps, GPS (the DROID is the first device to feature Google Maps Navigation which provides free turn-by-turn voice navigation), Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Exchange support, 6.4 hours of talk time and a pre-installed 16GB memory card — all running on top of Android 2.0. [via]

That one hell of a feature set! Wonder if Windows Mobile, Palm and RIM should be scared?

The internet is filled with get rich schemes, lies and other false information. Today it was quickly reported (and just as quickly disappeared) that El Goog made public a beta of the much anticipated Chrome OS available. Sadly, it was a hoax!

Hosted at what seems to be a legitimate Google server, you quickly find out that the site that claims to be official is actually a hosted page on Google and not run or maintained by the company itself. Plus the fact that the downloads are hosted on a LaCie server – I call fake! [via]

Lastly, Google seems to be out to hurt EVERY GPS company out there. With the announcement of Android 2.0 they announced the availability of voice controlled tour by turn navigation in Google Maps.

This new feature comes with everything you’d expect to find in a GPS navigation system, like 3D views, turn-by-turn voice guidance and automatic rerouting. But unlike most navigation systems, Google Maps Navigation was built from the ground up to take advantage of your phone’s Internet connection.

Among the features included in the application:

- Up-to-date map data: Automatically includes latest map data from Google, which is constantly being refined by Google and by users submitting corrections
- Plain English search: Locate destinations by entering business business name or landmark; no address needed
- Voice search: Speak destinations and Google Maps Navigation will automatically interpret and plot routes
- Live traffic data: Indicator warns of upcoming traffic issues
- Search along route: Find businesses along path of travel
- Satellite view: 3D view of route to aid in understanding directions
- Street View: first-person perspective of route and destination images

I have to say that is THE killer app for Android. Also buried in story is that Google plans to release the same features on the iPhone.

Google is working with Apple on bringing it to the iPhone, and it’s not ruling out licensing the software to makers of portable navigation devices used in cars throughout the world, said Gundotra, vice president of engineering at Google for mobile and developers. The process involving Apple is slightly different from the usual App Store submission process, because Maps is a built-in iPhone application, he said. [via]

Watch out Navigon and TomTom… Big Bad Google in hot on your tail!