Users on iOS devices can finally start using a Google app for Google Chats. Google’s new chat app, appropriately call Hangouts, allows you to do what you’ve always done with Gmail’s desktop experience: text friends, start videos, and share photos in seamless conversations across multiple devices.

Google took note of an important aspect about notifications when creating this app – you only get one alert per new item that’s synced across all of your devices. If your notifications get too noisy, you can turn them off and check back later. Perhaps the company has heard complaints about Google Plus notifications. Read more

Now that Twitter Music has slowly slipped away from the collective consciousness, Google is introducing its own radio and music discovery program. It’s call All Access and it costs $9.99 per month. At first glimpse it seems revolutionary and comprehensive.

Google’s radio allows you to do what most other radio services don’t – easily change the order of songs, easily remove songs, and add songs to personal libraries. There’s a lot of customization built in, but the most important key to digital radio isn’t necessarily the usability of the service, but the quality of the music itself. All Access is launching today so I did a quick search for my favorite new album, Vampire Weekend’s Modern Vampires of the City and it wasn’t available. Sure, I have it in my personal library, but what’s the use of paying for a music service that doesn’t have the music I want to pay for? Read more

Mashing a plethora of industrial design categories will give you exactly what you’d think – bright plastic shoes with iPhone holders. The iPhone Mashup Shoe does exactly what it was commissioned to do, but it feels gaudy from trying to be too much all at once. Who wants to reach down to their feet to answer a phone call?

Designer Alan Nguyen had this to say about the shoes:

A super fun project that allowed me to question the possibilities of fusing all three categories of Art, Fashion and Product Design with the use of 3D Printing.

Via Mashable

Smart phones can now be equipped to tackled your olfactory perception with this whimsical Japanese gadget from Chaku Perfume. The device is a small attachment to your phone that can transfer scents wirelessly for $60. Chaku’s representative suggested that the device can be used my music idols to transmit their scents during live concert broadcasts using the device’s app – Chat Perf.

For example, suppose you want to send a message to a friend via a social network, maybe because you know your friend is tired. You can use this to send a relaxing scent along with your message. You can also use it to add scent to the notification sound whenever you get a new e-mail. We also think this device could be used with games. It could have all kinds of applications, so for example, in a shooting game, shots could be accompanied by the smell of gunpowder.

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The biggest fear for non-Glass users have arrived, but it’s potentially for a good cause – Google Glass with facial recognition for doctors and hospitals. The creators of MedRef for Glass is hoping that the app will be great for hands-free care.

MedRec adds timeline cards and sharing contacts to Google Glass heads up display. These can be interacted with to lookup patient records by saying their name or taking a picture of their face. Care givers can then append photo and transcribed voice notes easily to get the most accessible and complete data possible applied to the patient’s treatment.

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Sony unveiled its new Xperia, and it’s remarkably waterproof. The phone can stay submerged under 5 feet of water for 30 minutes of HD photo and video capture.

The new Sony camera has a generous 4.6″ touch screen with a 13-megapixel camera that can be activated prior to submersion. Once the phone is underwater the screen loses its touch enabled features, but you can snap photos with a physical button. The camera key button also works in locked mode, enabling you to easily snap photos at any wet moment. This phone is definitely a contender for Go-Pro users who likes water activities. Read more

This fall, concert goers at OppiKoppi Music Festival in South Africa will have the option of getting beer deliveries via drones. In a recent video announcement, the organizers demonstrated a parachute style beer delivery from a hand guided drone, with intentions of GPS grids taking over the navigational control for the festival in August.

Current US law does not allow drones for commercial uses, but if FAA regulations are finalized by 2015, beer and burrito deliveries might be just the thing I’ve been waiting for. Also, drone package delivery services from Amazon.

Via Mashable

Mother’s Day is Sunday and the least you should do is call your mother - said Twitter. The social media site issued a witty public service announcement boasting about Twitter’s sharing platform quickly after Google’s Mother’s Day tribute this week.

Hopefully moms everywhere will enjoy breakfast in bed, a steady stream of thank-you’s and family fun. While moms are enjoying these and many other Mother’s Day traditions, it’s a safe bet they’ll also sneak a peek at Twitter. After all, moms (and moms-to-be) are doing everything from securing Twitter accounts for their babies to live-tweeting their C-sections to sharing funny motherhood experiences.

But even as much as moms love Twitter, we know that mom loves you the most.

While Google opted for a sweet, syrupy promotion for Google Plus, Twitter opted to tell users that social media doesn’t replace everything. That said, if you don’t have time to visit your Mom this Sunday, video hangouts with her on Google Plus is pretty great every day. Click here to compare the two ads. Read more

Google’s latest project with NASA, Times and U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) allows you to view time lapses of aerial photos – it’s a pretty animated, interactive time-lapse. The joint venture started in 2009 to cover every inch of the earth. In the process, the team ” sifted through 2,068,467 images—a total of 909 terabytes of data” and the results are high quality images devoid of clouds whenever possible.

Built from millions of satellite images and trillions of pixels, you can explore this global, zoomable time-lapse map as part of TIME’s new Timelapse project. View stunning phenomena such as the sprouting of Dubai’s artificial Palm Islands, the retreat of Alaska’s Columbia Glacier, the deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon and urban growth in Las Vegas from 1984 to 2012.

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Huggies have created a new electronic gadget for Brazilian parents and their smart phones. The owl-shaped, wireless device monitors humidity and sends an electronic alert to a smart phone when the baby’s diaper gets wet. The ad is not in English, but you can tell from the ad that the app also keeps data on when and how often your child pees in order to help you hoard just enough diapers.

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