ClintonFitch.com

Google today announced their strongest commitment to the environment and renewable energy with the purchase of 842 megawatts of power, the largest purchase ever by a non-utility company.  The purchase, a combination of wind and solar sourced energy, will power the companies data centers and goes towards their goal of having all of their energy use as a company come from renewable resources.

Purchases and commitments like this are not new for Google.  They have been using & promoting renewable energy sources since they opened up their first company owned data center in 2006.  With the purchase the company made today, they now have 2 gigawatts of energy from renewable resources.  As they put it, that is the equivalent of taking 1 million cars off the road.

Yesterday’s news of Google Play Music now offering ad-supported streaming music in Canada was certainly welcome news.  But at the end of that announcement there was a passing mention around podcasts.

We thought that would be awesome, so today we’re announcing that we plan to start offering podcasts on Google Play Music, giving podcasters access to millions of new listeners on Android phones and tablets.

Now this in itself isn’t new.  Google announced this same thing when they launched the streaming service here in the US.  In fact, it is the exact same language. Interestingly however, as I researched this last night (after building my Fi Lego set of course), there is surprisingly little information on this or when it will be coming to Google Play Music.  The one clear thing that is known is that content is needed and if you have a podcast you want to offer up then it is time to get registered with Google on it.

For those of us in the United States, we have had Google Play Music ad-supported streaming music for months.  Unfortunately for our friends north of the border in Canada, that has not been the case.  While the app has been available, it has not allowed you to stream audio content other than what you have uploaded to the service unless you subscribed to the unlimited service.  That changes today.  Now Canadians can stream music in Google Play Music on their Android phones and tablets free without having to subscribe.

As a Nexus 6 user, I have enjoyed using Google Contacts for managing my contacts and Google Phone as my dialer since Day 1.  These are, after all, the default apps that come on Nexus phones as well as several others.  Now everyone can uses these apps if they chose as the company has rolled them out as standalone apps in the Google Play Store.   I would say that this has been a long time coming.

Google began rolling out standalone versions of many of their apps at the beginning of this year and that has continued throughout 2015.  It is all part of an effort by the company to provide a “Google experience” through their apps and not simply mark them for Nexus use only.  Indeed I wrote on this very subject back in July and I firmly believed then as I do now that this is part of the larger strategy that will bring additional success with Android to Google.  Key to that is the fact that they can roll out updates like these today without requiring a new build of Android – or carrier involvement in that process. You can read why Google apps are so important to the future of Android at this link.

Google Contacts is a solid contacts manager

The updated version of Google Contacts is 1.3.07 for those keeping score and while the big news is the standalone distribution of the app, there are also some nice tweaks and improvements in the

Google Contacts for Android

release too.  The editing of contacts is now a bit more streamlined and you won’t have to do as many taps to add information or edit existing information.  It’s not a big change mind you but it is a change that long time users of the app will appreciate.  There are also a fair number of bug fixes and other improvements in performance to the app.

Fundamentally Google Contacts is much like any other contacts manager so those of you who are new to the app, don’t expect a lot of bells and whistles.  It gives you what you need and it is a solid performing app like many of the other Google apps.  Perhaps more importantly though, you will get to experience what Google really had in mind when they came out with these and Android.

Google Contacts is free in the Google Play Store.