Awesome Google

Seen at Google I/O, the Google Holodeck shows Street View at high speed; it gives viewers the illusion of motion, which is fun as long as the safety protocols don’t go offline.

Tough to describe but nifty to use, Google Wave isn’t public yet; it’s essentially a real-time, open-source communications hub which mashes up chat, social networking, wikis and more.

Now available: Google Chrome 2 throws in a few nice features like autofill and a more flexible tab page, but stays true to its speedy roots by boosting JavaScript performance by 30%.

It has some stability issues, but we like how Stweet.com mashes up Twitter and Google Maps; it uses street views to lend even more of a voyeuristic quality to live tweets.

Their first Android cellphone, Samsung’s i7500 features a 3.2″ AMOLED touchscreen, 3G, a 5MP camera, Wi-Fi, 8GB storage and Bluetooth; it launches in June with Germany’s O2.

Fresh from the Googleplex, Google News Timeline provides a calendar-style view of news; its best feature is the ability to add custom queries from other sources and blogs.

Double trouble from the folks at the Googleplex: Mobile Gmail and Mobile Web Calendar have been significantly revamped thanks to HTML5 functionality and UI tweaks.

Google Earth 5.0 also comes with enhancements for the other (red) planet: Mars will get nearly-live imagery from the Odyssey and Reconnaisance Orbiter as well as 3D viewing.

Phone consolidator GrandCentral is back, this time as Google Voice; it’s still not available to the public, but has been retooled to be an email inbox for voicemail messages.

With support for over 50 cities (but with NYC conspicuously missing), the new transit maps layer for Google Maps makes it easier than ever to find bus, train and ferry routes.

Google Earth’s latest update for New York City looks darn near photorealistic; we seriously had to do a doubletake, especially compared to earlier versions of the Big Apple.

They’ll be collectible some day, so don’t pass up these free Gmail stickers from the Googleplex; you’ll get a glittery envelope icon, keyboard shortcuts and some funky unicorn thing.

Don’t let the name fool you — the Android Dev Phone 1 is simply a SIM- and hardware-unlocked version of T-Mobile’s G1, available to Android Market devs for a $25 setup fee + $399.

After last Friday’s false start, Google’s iPhone Voice Search app is finally available in the iTunes store; this intuitive app ditches typing altogether and lets you search via voice commands.

T-Mobile’s G1 phone is the first with Google’s Android OS. It has single sign-on for Gmail, YouTube and more, Amazon’s DRM-free MP3s, and HSDPA + EDGE; the U.S. gets it on 10/22.

Just launched: Google’s brand-new browser, Google Chrome. It aims to minimize memory bloat (you can selectively shut down tasks) and is lightweight, with a 500KB install file.