Ring in the New Year with Bells and Whistles

Thursday, January 1, 2009 | 9:00 AM

Happy New Year!

One evening in Zurich, after a late night cake run, we decided that our iPhone app, Google Mobile App with Voice Search, could do with a little bling. The result of this is a few extra options hidden below the preferences on the Settings tab. Trust us, they're down there... it just might take some perseverance to get to the bottom of things. Just keep trying!

Does blue not go with your new belt? Use the Theme Color to style the app to work with any outfit or match the holiday season.

Tired of the standard beeps and boops during speech recognition? You can try out some alternate sounds made by our teammates in their sugar-induced stupor.

There are a couple of other options hidden in there, too. We had (a little too much) fun implementing these features and hope you enjoy them!

And don't worry. If you don't find them, just come see us at Macworld and we'll show you.

28 comments:

Trevor said...

It did take perseverance! But I kept on trying...and they were down there!

yumbrad said...

Perseverance, indeed, is the key. If you get frustrated enough, that's the point at which you're likely to find 'em :)

Nas Benali said...

Hahaha! nice one, Google!!!! You had me almost giving up, but I ended up finding out :)

Nick said...

Great way to hide it :-)

Anonymous said...

love the monkey!

John Ong said...

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KenH said...

It did take perseverance that's for sure! But I did it...I now have the additional menu!

HolyZ0d said...

I still dont see it

velorowdy said...

wänn ihr die sachä scho in züri uustüftlet - wieso hergott funktioniert dänn d'spracherkännig nöd uf schwiizerdütsch, oder wenigschtens uf tüütsch... sondern nur uf änglisch?? oder tüütsch ich mich da?

Gabe Tippery said...

Got it! Third time is a charm. No if only the "Open Links in App" would stop freezing my phone up. Not sure if this is limited to me just hoping it would go faster than it is or what. Anyone else?

Unknown said...

It worked in a short amount of time!

Anonymous said...

Got it on the first try! Pretty easy to find, especially if you have fast fingers.

Unknown said...

That is cool...I did almost were out my finger swiping though...

Siddharth Singhal said...

when the heck wud these apps be available without regional limitations...I mean its just because of google and yahoo free apps with regional limitations..I wud go jailbroken..
Atleast say something guys..

El Manzo said...

The 'open links in app' it's not working for me, the old safari is always popping up.... Too bad, that was pretty much the only hidden features I wanted :(

Arul said...

This app is not available in the India iTunes store! :(

The Phazer said...

Great.

Any chance of building in YouTube to this app, since the Apple YouTube application is beyond terrible?

Can Google pressure Apple to fix it, or build thier own app that would support channels, viewing a poster's other videos, subscriptions, searching by upload date etc etc etc?

Phazer

Unknown said...

Is Google App coming to Android? It seems strange that this and Google earth aren't available for the Android, which is a Google developed OS.

PLEASE... I'd love to have the Google App for Android.

Thanks, and Happy New Year!

Anonymous said...

I got it. First I thought it is some kind of joke, but I kept trying and it finally has appeared!

aandjblog said...

lol no kidding! I thought this was a big joke and that everyone but me was in on it. Can't wait to show my friends. :)

Brilldoctor said...

Could you please add voice search support for people with 1st gen iPod touch 2.2 software and an external mic

Anonymous said...

Cool little Easter Egg. Was actually pretty easy. Just continuously flick your screen up and you will get it in seconds.

Thanks Google, you are my best friend.

Beatleman523 said...

Now that they have mics for the 2g iPod touch, could you add voice search functionality for the iPod?

Evgör Mobilya said...

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Evgör Mobilya said...

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Anonymous said...

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Past Expiry said...

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Unknown said...

sweet little secret!