Android got off to a very slow start with the only handset being offered for a long time being the T-Mobile G1. Android has its share of early teething woes that were fixed for the most part with updates and patches. Android is now picking up steam in the market.

Analytic firm Strategy Analytics says that this year Android smartphone shipments will grow by 900%, making it the fastest growing mobile OS in the market. The second fastest growing Os is expected to be the iPhone OS growing 79% over the year.

Unless you live under a rock, you have heard of a netbook already. Netbooks are one of the sole bright spots in the computer industry amid the current poor global economy. The netbook market is posting significant growth as shipments of other more expensive notebooks and desktops are slumping.

Psion has been saying for over a year that computer markers shouldn’t be using the term “netbook” to generically describe the small, low cost systems we know and love today. The reason is that Psion apparently owns the trademark for the word “netbook” and has a machine that goes by that name.

Users of the T-Mobile G1 that have been hoping for some streaming radio action on their open source Google-powered device can rest easier now. Last.fm has announced that it is now offering its on-the-go music application on the Android platform.

The Last.fm application is available now on the Android Market. Features of the application include up-to-date concert information, streaming radio stations, personalized streaming radio, the ability to find similar artists and genre-specific radio streaming.

Google has officially announced the availability of Google Earth to use straight from your iPhone or iPod Touch, and so far reports are that it’s not too shabby. When a good data connection is available the geographical software streams to the device relatively quickly and not only makes use of the phones full display but also it’s functionality.

Multi-touch enables users to zoom in or out of a map with ease and even rotate the map on the screen. A compass in the corner helps keep your bearings. Tilting the iPhone will change the angle of the view to better see the topology of the current terrain, and “My Location” feature will bring the map right to your current location on Earth. Google also of course incorporated their search engine to find information on local businesses and the surrounding area, and built in Panoramio and Wikipedia to get articles and pictures from near your current locale.

Like lollipops or Popsicles, some of us like our software on a USB drive. So, looks like some German guy is offering a no-install, “lite” version of the Google CHROME BROWSER. Google on a stick if you will. On a USB flash drive. Carsten created a portable version of Google Chrome that has all the features of the main browser but requires no installation. Just unzip all the files and start using it. It will run directly from the USB stick on any Windows computer and all of your user settings like web history, cookies, etc. will also get saved to the same folder on the stick. The software is downloadable.

Google has decided to get into the browser business. Meet the Google Chrome browser. They will release the browser in beta, refining it as they go just like Gmail. Google’s plan is to simplify the interface while simultaneously improving it’s inner workings. Will it eventually take on IE, Firefox and Opera? It says Google doesn’t it?

It should be released by Wednesday, if you can believe the rumors and should be available on Windows only, while Mac and Linux versions will be available later. Some of the features include: A UI that places the tabs above the address bar, Incognito mode, which allows users to browse the web in privacy, without recording any your activity, and a new JavaScript engine for speed.

Fans of the hit show Weeds, and fans of marijuana for that matter, as well as Cheech and Chong fans will love this news. Marijuana is now legal in California as long as the sellers are licensed to provide the drug to those with a prescription. So it’s no surprise that people want to make the vendors of pot and the pot itself easier to find.

That’s where Potlocator.com comes in using Google Maps. Just type in your zip code and it will give you a map complete with color-coded pot leaves. That is if stoners can remember their zip code. It’s bound to be controversial and we here at the ‘Brick remain neutral as we only get high on gadgets, tech news and various geekery. Of course then there’s our daily caffeine buzzes, sugar highs from various junk food, that time I blogged for 5 days straight and saw god… Drugs are bad ummkay.

Google will be rolling out a new updated version of its hardware appliance. A device that helps companies and government organizations search through office documents on Google while attracting rats and cheese connoisseurs. The latest version of their Google Search Appliance can store up to 10 million documents in one box, with storage hardware from Dell.

Some other features are superior encryption for better security and Google Alerts will notify users when new documents are uploaded onto the network by others in the office. he dvice supports as many as 27 languages, with search results in 40 different languages. It takes up just a small two unit rack space.

The Sari is a traditional piece of clothing originally worn by Indian women. The Google Sari is a designer’s attempt at being clever. Of course, if Google doesn’t appreciate it, your Sari may turn into a genuine sorry. It’s from designer Satya Paul, who showed the Google sari in one of his recent shows. Very clever. Or maybe not. I can’t decide. I can’t wait for his next attempt, which is probably iPhone inspired and called the Safari Sari or something. Maybe a see-through sari called Microsoft Touch. That one would be trouble.

The folks at Google Maps have recently released a pretty cool upgrade to the mapping service incorporating geo-coded photos, entries from Wikipedia and even some real estate listings from local and national real estate companies.

The next time you use Google Maps to look up a location you will notice a ‘More’ button next to the ‘Street View’ and ‘Traffic’ buttons on the map. Click the ‘More’ and you’ll have a couple of options for both photos and Wikipedia. Selecting the Photos check box brings in small geotagged photos from Panoramio right onto the map. Checking the Wikipedia box, just as you would expect, brings up little “W” icons representing geotagged Wikipedia entries. Clicking on the Wikipedia entries then brings up an excerpt of the article and a link.

Google has announced the launch of App Engine, a new tool allowing developers to create web applications that can be hosted on a Google’s own infrastructure. The idea of making a hosted development environment isn’t necessarily new as Salesforce has had the Appexchange platform for some time now, along with a few others companies offering similar services. One of the major things that makes Google’s App Engine stand out from the rest however is that it’s free.

The App Engine platform is launching as a “preview release” with all the expected features of the service not quite complete yet. It’s also going to be available only to the first 10,000 developers that sign up, which at the point of this writing appears to be already full. (You can get on a wait list, though).

Google today has announced the roll out of a much anticipated feature for the online Google Docs - bringing them offline. Starting today a select group of individuals that have Google Gears will be able to save their online Google documents and have them available offline as well.

The online Google tools currently provide a great convenience with things like Gmail, calendars and online documents with centrally located storage that can be accessed from almost any browser with an internet connection. One of the downsides is that as soon as the internet connection is lost, so are the documents, email, etc. With this new feature, the documents will still be available through the browser when the internet connection is lost and it will continue to save changes, syncing up with the online storage the next time a connection is available.

Google late yesterday revealed it is working on what could easily be considered a competitor to the popular open-ended online encyclopedia Wikipedia. Google’s new offering is being called knol and it’s currently in closed beta testing.

knol, as Google describes it, means “unit of knowledge.” The idea behind knol is to let “people who know a particular subject to write an authoritative article about it.” Google said a knol on a particular topic is “meant to be the first thing someone who searches for this topic for the first time will want to read.” This seems to imply that when one searches on a particular topic the “knol” for that will appear as the first search result, though Google states it will “rank the knols appropriately when they appear in Google search results.”

iPhone owners can now take advantage of Google applications online through a new, easier to use interface that integrates the different tools into a single interface. The new interface is available for iPhone users through the Safari web browser and will come up automatically when they visit Google’s home page.

From the newly integrated page users can navigate quickly to applications including Search, Gmail, Calendar, Reader, Docs, GOOG-411, SMS, News, Photos, Blogger, and Notebook. According to Google the pages will download to the iPhone faster than before and comparable to using them on a desktop computer. This interface was made specifically for the iPhone but Google says that they will be “optimizing” its applications for use on other popular mobile devices as well in the future.

Today Google launched a new beta application that is a small twist on Google Mobile Maps called Google Maps with My Location. The new service runs on Java and is designed for use in mobile devices that may or may not have GPS capabilities to help map the current location of the mobile user.

When launching the new location service application, it can use the phones GPS if available to find your location and mark it on the map with a solid blue dot. If GPS is not available on the mobile device or its maybe being used in a location that cannot receive the GPS signal the service will use the information of the cellular tower that the phone is connected in order to find the general location of the user.