Google’s Own Youtube Channel Confirms Ice Cream Sandwich’s Oct. 11th Debut

Greg Kumparak is the Mobile Editor at Techcrunch. Greg has been writing for the TechCrunch network since May of 2008. Greg was born just outside of San Jose, and now lives in the East Bay of California. ? Learn More

If you had any lingering doubts that Samsung’s upcoming Unpacked event would serve as a launching pad for Ice Cream Sandwich (the next major build of Android), let them be cast away: Google has just gone and confirmed it themselves.

Early this morning, the Android Developer Youtube channel (which serves as the official video repository for Google’s Android Dev group) put up a placeholder page for the livestream of the October 11th event. Nothing too unusual there.

What is unusual, though, is the name of the placeholder. Rather than “Samsung Unpacked!”, or “A Special Event From Samsung And Google”, or anything else even somewhat vague, they just come right out and say it: it’s the Android ICS Launch.

Between Ice Cream Sandwich and the unveiling of the Galaxy Nexus (the device formerly known as the Nexus Prime), this event is absolutely shaping up to be one to watch. We’ll be there bringin’ back all the details as they break, so be sure to tune in next week.

Google provides search and advertising services, which together aim to organize and monetize the world’s information. In addition to its dominant search engine, it offers a plethora of online tools and platforms including: Gmail, Maps and YouTube. Most of its Web-based products are free, funded by Google’s highly integrated online advertising platforms AdWords and AdSense. Google promotes the idea that advertising should be highly targeted and relevant to users thus providing them with a rich source of information....

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Android is a software platform for mobile devices based on the Linux operating system and developed by Google and the Open Handset Alliance. It allows developers to write managed code in Java that utilizes Google-developed software libraries, but does not support programs developed in native code. The unveiling of the Android platform on 5 November 2007 was announced with the founding of the Open Handset Alliance, a consortium of 34 hardware, software and telecom companies devoted to advancing open standards...

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“Google’s Auto Correct Killed The Launch Of Our Android App”

Greg Kumparak is the editor of MobileCrunch.com, a mobile industry blog within the TechCrunch Network. Greg has been writing for the TechCrunch network since May of 2008. Greg was born in the outskirts of San Jose, CA, and now lives in the East Bay. ? Learn More

We’ve all dealt with the frustrations of auto-correct, from unintentionally declaring that you’re getting a divorce to having your bitter, angry diatribe suddenly mutate into something involving a lot of “ducking”.

Fortunately, these unwanted auto-corrections are generally little more than inconveniences. You laugh a little, backpedal as fast as possible (“I meant porkkkk”), and move on.

For one Dallas start-up, though, a rather sneaky autocorrect issue is the cause of all of the ultimate discoverability issue: no one can find their new app.

A few weeks back, Locai launched an iPhone app. Intended as something along the lines of Foursquare with a heavier focus on conversations, it found a reasonable amount of success — at least, enough that they were encouraged to launch an Android port.

And that’s where things got sticky. Locai launched their Android app… but even days later, it was no where to be found in the Android Market. After some investigation, Locai found the issue: somewhere on the backend, Google’s Android Market is autocorrecting all searches for “Locai” to “Local” without alerting the user. As a result, would-be Android users just can’t seem to find the app.

“Since everyone downloads apps by searching for them first this is a huge blow to us,” said Taylor Cavanah Locai’s founder. “We have brands and businesses lined up for a whole series of partnerships, events and promotions over the next several months. Now we’re facing losing a ton of users and investment as people are converted to download the app, but can’t find it.”

If you’ve got an Android device, you can run the search for yourself; even 500 items deep, Locai is no where to be found in a search for their own name. No Android device handy? You can test the search on the web-based Android market here.

Of course, there are tricks to force the Android Market to search for verbatim terms (searching for “Locai” [in quotes] or +Locai, for example) — but is this something that most users would ever even think to try?

Now, a week after launch and with downloads flatlined, Locai is stuck in a bit of a corner: do they change their name (thereby abandoning whatever progress with the brand they’ve made so far), or do they just sit back and hope Google is willing to implement a fix (like prioritizing exact matches before showing autocorrect results)?

Meanwhile, anyone who actually is looking for Locai for Android can find it right here.

Search for Locai:

Search for “Locai” (with quotes):

locai is a mobile platform helping young, social consumers get answers and start conversations while they are out. Users post questions, images, and polls at specific places and then share them with people there, friends who aren’t, and their social networks. Brands and businesses start conversations, collect data, and entertain customers by building on the platform.

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Google’s New HTML5 Chrome Apps For Gmail, Calendar And Docs Give Users Offline Access

Leena Rao currently works as a writer for TechCrunch. She recently finished graduate school at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, where she studied business journalism and videography. From 2004 to 2007, she helped lead Congresswoman Carloyn Maloney’s community outreach and relations efforts in New York City. She graduated from Columbia University in 2003, where she was... ? Learn More

As we reported at Google I/O in May, Google has been working on offline versions of their three most popular apps: Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Docs. Google previously offered offline access for Gmail, Calendar, and Docs but leveraged Gears. But Gears is no longer being supported by Google as Chrome gains many of the same features via HTML5. And offline-acces functionality was limited. Today, Google is announcing that it has rebuilt offline access for these applications, in the form of a HTML5 Chrome web app. Gmail offline will be available today, and offline for Google Calendar and Google Docs will be rolling out over the next week, starting today.

The HTML5-powered Gmail Offline is a Chrome Web Store app that is based on the Gmail web app for tablets, which was built to function with or without web access. After you install the Gmail Offline app from the Chrome Web Store, you can continue using Gmail when you lose your connection by clicking the Gmail Offline icon on Chrome’s “new tab” page. You can read reply, send, and organize email regardless of an email connection.

Rajen Sheth, Google group product manager, tells us that the Gmail app will synchronize mail whenever you have internet connection even if app isn’t open in a tab. Previously Gmail Offline was a plugin to browser, and Sheth says that the ability to sync without opening the actual app was a big goal for the Gmail team when building the app. Soon you’ll also be able to customize the amount of mail you want to be synced.

The Chrome Web Apps for Google Calendar and Google Docs let transition between on- and offline modes. When you’re offline in Google Calendar, you can view events from your calendars and RSVP to appointments. With Google Docs you can view documents and spreadsheets. Unfortunately, Google hasn’t added offline editing to Docs, but it working on this.

Offline access for Gmail and other popular applications is key to the company’s efforts in competing with Microsoft stronghold. The fact that Chrome now offers offline access is a big step in helping Chromebooks and the browser-based OS compete with Windows.

Google provides search and advertising services, which together aim to organize and monetize the world’s information. In addition to its dominant search engine, it offers a plethora of...

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