Google held their “cool new mobile features” special event today. Two main features were announced: Voice Actions and Chrome to Phone.

It looks as though the speculation of an Android Video Calling application or “Find My Phone” app didn’t come to fruition. However, Voice Actions are a welcomed surprise. Voice Actions allow the user to simply speak what they want their Android device to do. Possible Voice Actions include:

send text to [contact] [message]

listen to [artist/song/album]

call [business]

call [contact]

send email to [contact] [message]

go to [website]

note to self [note]

navigate to [location/business name]

directions to [location/business name]

map of [location]

Check out the video below for a full demonstration of this awesome new feature.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPPcTN5sdX4&feature=player_embedded

The downside? Voice Actions are only available for devices running Android 2.2 Froyo. This limits the device range to the Motorola Droid 2, which was launched today with Voice Actions preloaded, and the Google Nexus One, which was recently discontinued. However, many Android devices are slated to receive a Froyo update. This includes the HTC EVO 4G, Motorola Droid and Motorola Droid X among many others. Check for it in the Android Market once your device is updated with Android 2.2 Froyo.

The second Google announcement today was that the Chrome to Phone app, which has been available since May, is now official and available to all users running Android 2.2 Froyo. What does this app do? If you have the Google Chrome web browser on your Mac or PC,  websites can be pushed from the computer to your Android device. Additionally, websites such as YouTube and Maps open in their respective apps. Though not quite as exciting as Voice Actions, it is still a unique and useful feature. Chrome to Phone is currently available on the Android Market for Android 2.2 Froyo users.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oyCWEUqNvY

Via USA Today, Gizmodo, Engadget

Voice Actions and Chrome to Phone Now Available for Android 2.2 Devices is a post by Carter Sprunger from Notebooks.com.

I was able to get a few minutes of hands on time with the new Google Nexus One at a press event last night. Not long enough to form any huge opinions on the device, but enough to know that it is a sexy phone and it has a few nice touches over my Motorola Droid.

For more details on the Google Nexus One check out our Nexus One Review Roundup.

CES: Google Nexus One Hands On Video is a post by Josh Smith from Notebooks.com.

In case you haven’t heard, Google launched their own Android powered smartphone yesterday called the Google Nexus One and it has been getting wide coverage, even being hailed as a super phone by some. While the inclusion of a 1GHz Snapdragon processor and a shiny upgrade to Android 2.1 make it one of the most enviable Android powered phones on the market, even without a hardware keyboard, we went digging and found the best Google Nexus One reviews to help you make up your own mind about Google’s iPhone competitor.

Google Nexus Reviews:

To kick things off, here is a look at Engadget’s first impressions; from there we’ll dive into full on reviews of the Google Nexus One

Engadget: “Now, of course everyone seems to have one question about the device — is this the be-all-end-all Android phone / iPhone eviscerator? In two words: not really. The thing that’s struck us most (so far) about the Nexus One thus far is the fact that it’s really not very different than the Droid in any substantial way. Yes, we’d say the design and feel of the phone is better (much better, in fact), and it’s definitely noticeably faster than Motorola’s offering, but it’s not so much faster that we felt like the doors were being blown off.” – Joshua Topolsky

TechCrunch: “I’ve been using the Nexus One with TMobile since mid-December as my primary mobile phone. This is the best Android powered phone to date. It’s also the fastest and most elegant smartphone on the market today, solidly beating the iPhone in most ways. In this rapidly evolving market there is sure to be something better just around the corner. But if you are looking to buy a high end smartphone right now, this is the phone for you. The Nexus One is the Android signature device.” – Micheal Arrington

All Things D: “The Nexus One finally has the right combination of hardware and software to give Android a champion that might attract more people away from their iconic iPhones and BlackBerrys. It has a larger screen than Apple’s phone, and is a bit thinner, narrower and lighter—if a tad longer. And it boasts a better camera and longer talk time between battery charges.

Also, because it will be available on the large, well-regarded Verizon 3G network, the Nexus One could tempt American iPhone users, tired of problems with AT&T (T), to switch.” – Walter Mossberg

WIRED: “Probably the best feature in the Nexus One is the ubiquitous voice recognition. Just about every time a text field appears — in search, in maps and even in e-mail — you can press a microphone key on the virtual keyboard and just say what you want to put in the field. If you take it easy and enunciate your words as if speaking to a fairly dense child, a reasonably accurate transcription of your words will appear on the screen. There are the usual cosmic misunderstandings, but expanding voice recognition is a welcome step toward our eventual liberation from Lilliputian physical keyboards and unforgiving soft keyboards.” – Steven Levy

New York Times: “Finally, the Nexus just doesn’t attain the iPhone’s fit and finish. The buttons under the screen (Back, Menu, Home, Search) are balky, often ignoring your finger-presses completely. One of the animated wallpapers freezes the phone with a message that says: Sorry! The application Android Live Wallpapers has stopped unexpectedly. Please try again.” (Note to Google: I did. The same thing happened.)” … “But maybe it doesn’t matter if the Nexus One isn’t nirvana. Google says it’s only the first Google phone of many, with one store to sell them all.” – David Pogue

GigaOm: “Usability & Extensibility: Looks, they say, aren’t everything. And they’re right. If anyone has ambitions to beat the iPhone, then they need to bring their A-game, emphasizing ease-of-use and seamlessness when it comes to the user experience and from a software standpoint, simplicity. Here the Google Phone misses the mark.” – Om Malik

NexusOneBlog: “The display screen on this phone is simply incredible. There has yet to be any device out on the market to date that looks as crisp and clear as the Nexus One. The difference is like taking a look at a 30” television and trying to compare it with a brand new 46” Sony LCD. The Nexus One boasts a 3.7” (diagonal) widescreen, WVGA AMOLED screen, delivering at 720×480. Picture quality is very impressive. … Responsiveness to touch on the screen is definitely on par with the iPhone. There are no delays when touching apps and moving from screen to screen.” – N1

Engadget: “Industry politics aside, though, the Nexus One is at its core just another Android smartphone. It’s a particularly good one, don’t get us wrong — certainly up there with the best of its breed — but it’s not in any way the Earth-shattering, paradigm-skewing device the media and community cheerleaders have built it up to be. It’s a good Android phone, but not the last word — in fact, if we had to choose between this phone or the Droid right now, we would lean towards the latter.” – Joshua Topolsky

Even if the Google Nexus One isn’t the superphone Google is claiming it will be it certainly cements the company’s support for the Android platform, which some tech analysts were concerned about given the upcoming Google Chrome OS. As an Android user, I can’t wait to see the software refinements of Android 2.1 come to the Droid and the additional apps that will come as the Google Nexus One attracts more users to the Android OS.

Google Nexus One Review Roundup is a post by Josh Smith from Notebooks.com.

Hot on the heels of the Google branded Nexus One Android phone it’s leaking out that Google may be making another move into the hardware arena and launching a Google Netbook in time for the 2010 Holidays.

According to several sources including TechCrunch and PC World, Google has gone beyond simply working with companies like Acer, who expects to be the first to launch a netbook running Chrome OS, and is actively working on creating a Google Netbook in order to better compete with Apple.

Specifically PC World points out that, “By developing hardware that is specifically designed to maximize the potential that Android and/or the Chrome operating system are capable of, Google can manage the user experience and help ensure the success of those platforms.” We can only hope that this desire to closely control the user experience doesn’t lead to an Apple-like tight grip on all aspects of the netbook. At the very least we won’t have to deal with Steve Job’s hatred of buttons.

So far no detailed specs are known though TechCrunch claims that Google has submitted a detailed request for proposal to at least one manufacturer. Arrington, no stranger to speculating, ponders whether a Google Branded netbook would run on an Intel processor or skip it in favor of an ARM CPU; a move that would leave Intel on the wrong end of a Google movement.

For consumers it’s hard to tell exactly what this will mean; with many manufacturers’ reportedly already working on a Google Chrome powered netbook for 2010 there will be more options than the official Google netbook which should lead to different features and prices. If you have been looking at getting a netbook this month you should likely take the plunge; a year is a long time to wait and netbooks are cheap enough that if you sell a year old netbook next year you should still got your money’s worth. That and the fact that you can run Chrome OS on many netbooks right now!

Get Ready for a Google Branded Netbook in 2010 is a post by Josh Smith from Notebooks.com.