New Android goodies from Google today. First, there’s the Chrome to Phone extension. You install it in Google Chrome and when you find a link, map, phone number, YouTube video, or selection of text on the web, you can send it off to your Android handset and it’ll open in the appropriate application immediately. Pretty straightforward. Handy, even.
Then there’s Voice Actions for Android. This looks very cool. Google’s built on top of its voice searching capabilities within Android to include enhanced voice command features that allow you to send texts messages and e-mails, look up and call nearby businesses, get maps of nearby places of interest, and launch various music services by artist, song title, or album.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGbYVvU0Z5s]
The engineer in the above video demonstrates the text feature by saying, “Send text to Bill Byrne. Let’s meet at 6:00 on 5th avenue outside the Guggenheim Museum,” and, boom, everything he said shows up as a text message ready to be sent off to Bill Byrne. Same basic idea with e-mail.
Both Chrome to Phone and Voice Actions are available now from the Android Market. Unfortunately, they require Android 2.2 so you’ll have to wait for your handset to get the update if it hasn’t already.
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