Google Sync was launched earlier this year and allowed you to sync your Gmail contacts and Google Calendar with your mobile phone. Google has now added a new feature to the service, something that users have long wanted: Gmail push support for the iPhone, iPod touch and Windows Mobile. To use Google Sync, you create a Microsoft Exchange account on your iPhone or Windows Mobile phone and updates are pushed directly to the Mail app, no third party software is required. If you want to enable push e-mail on your iPhone, you must also go to “Settings”, then “Mail, Contacts, Calendars” and set “Fetch New Data” to “Push”. This will negatively impact your battery life because a connection will be maintained with Google’s server at all times.

Push e-mail maintains an always-on connection with the e-mail server, which allows the server to “push” new e-mails to your client when they come in, giving you access to new e-mails second after they are sent, rather than having to wait for your client to ping the server and “pull” any new e-mails.

[Image from googlemobile.blogspot.com]

On 5 September, Google featured a Doodle on its homepage that had a UFO abducting the second “o” in “Google” and linked to the search results for “unexplained phenomena”. It also tweeted the following coded message:

“1.12.12 25.15.21.18 15 1.18.5 2.5.12.15.14.7 20.15 21.19”

In the message “1” corresponds to “a”, “2” to “b”, “3” to “c”, and so on and the message was decoded to say “All your o are belong to us”. The messages refers to “All your base are belong to us” from the European version of the Japanese video game Zero Wing, which was poorly translated into English and became an Internet meme.

Then on 14 September, Google featured another mysterious Doodle, this time of a UFO hovering over a crop circle. It also tweeted “51.327629, -0.5616088”, which are the coordinates of Horsell Commons, the location of the first alien landing in the novel The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells. While some correctly guessed that the Doodles were in celebration of the H.G. Wells’s upcoming birthday, Google did not officially comment.

[Images from googleblog.blogspot.com]

In July, Apple removed all Google Voice apps from the App Store. In response, the Federal Communications Commission sent letters to AT&T, Apple and Google. It asked AT&T and Apple about their individual roles in the removal of Google Voice apps and asked why they were removed. The FCC asked Google to provide more information about its Google Voice service and its relationship with Apple.

All three have since responded to the inquiry, but Google originally asked to have parts of its response redacted due to sensitive information about Google’s relationship with Apple, including information about e-mail, telephone conversations and meetings between the companies. People have since submitted requests under the Freedom of Information Act to gain access to this information. In response to this and Apple’s decision to release its complete letter, Google has now dropped its request for confidentiality with the FCC and its full response is available at wireless.fcc.gov/releases/9182009_Google_Filing_iPhone.pdf.

Previously redacted was Google’s response to the FCC’s second question:

“What explanation was given (if any) for Apple’s rejection of the Google Voice application (and for any other Google applications for iPhone that have been rejected, such as Google Latitude)? Please describe any communications between Google and AT&T or Apple on this topic and a summary of any meetings or discussion.”

The response details communication between Alan Eustace, Senior Vice President of Engineering & Research at Google, and Phil Schiller, Senior Vice President of Worldwide Product Marketing at Apple. During a meeting at Apple’s offices on 10 April, Schiller told Eustace that Apple was rejecting the Google Latitude app. Then on 7 July, Schiller and Eustace spoke via phone and Eustace was informed that Apple was rejecting the Google Voice app. Apple’s reason for rejecting the Google Voice app was that it duplicated the function of the iPhone dialer. Similarly, it rejected the Google Latitude app because it duplicated the function of the pre-loaded Maps app and included additional features that may confuse users.

The response states that there has been no communication between Google and AT&T on this topic.

Google has announced that it is partnering with On Demand Books to make 2 million of the books in Google Books available as paperbacks, reports The New York Times. On Demand Books is the maker of the Espresso Book Machine (EBM), a print on demand machine that can create a 300-page paperback book in under five minutes, which has been around since 2007 with an offering of 1.6 million books.

At first the EBM will be limited to offering books that are in the public domain, that is books that were published before 1923. However, if Google’s settlement with the Author’s Guild and the Association of American Publishers is approved, it could expand the number books available to the EBM by as much as 6 million. The settlement would allow Google to sell orphaned books, books that are still protected by copyright but which are out of print. Opposition exists for this settlement from people and groups who believe it would give Google a monopoly on the selling of orphaned books.

An Espresso Book Machine costs $100,000, but On Demand Books will also be leasing the machines. An EBM-printed book will sell for a recommended price of $8, from which $1 will go to On Demand Books and $1 will go to Google, who will donate the money it makes to charity.

[Image from flickr.com/photos/denverjeffrey/ – CC BY-SA 2.0]