the life and times of endenizen » google

First, an announcement from today: the next version of Android. Better performance, wifi tethering (!), ‘update all’, and more! I can’t wait to get this. These are much-needed updates that make the platform much more powerful. Check out the embedded video below for details.

[Via: Google Announces the Next Version of Android.]

Next, an announcement from yesterday: easy web fonts! The previous solutions to non-web-fonts-on-the-web involved rendering images, embedding flash objects, or using canvas (when it was available). These methods might have gotten the job done, but they were difficult to implement and each had its share of drawbacks.

Along comes Google Font API and all those problems disappear. Now you can easily use real fonts without adding complexity. Best of all, it’s cross-browser (even IE6!) and works just the way it should: just set the font-family in css. I’ve already added a new font to my blog which you can see in the screenshot. It really was as easy as they say:

<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="http://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Tangerine">
<style>
  body {
    font-family: 'Tangerine', serif;
    font-size: 48px;
  }
</style>

(Note: I’m not actually using Tangerine. I tried it, and it’s gross.)

[Via: Making Good Typography on the Web Easier: Google Introduces Font API and Directory.]

Caught this on BoingBoing. Looks like Google Maps is more helpful than I previously thought. It’ll even tell you how to get to France from Boston in only one step. All you have to do is “Swim across the Atlantic Ocean”.

I guess I already knew that, but at least now I can incorporate it into the rest of my driving directions for a complete guide. I just hate having to keep multiple maps with multiple sets of directions. It’s too confusing. And in that case I’d also have to get reverse directions. Swimming across the Atlantic Ocean, while I wouldn’t recommend it, is quite trivial to reverse.

Oh, and don’t forget to bring a waterproof bag with a passport and a set of clean clothes. You’ll thank me later.