Loopt, a mobile application, announced they are donating $1 for every check-in at Chipotle, Whole Foods or Panera Bread before the end of Sunday. The proceeds will go towards the relief efforts in Haiti and there’s no charge to the Loopt user either. Minutes later, I read that Gowalla, a competing app, will be launching a campaign called “Hearts for Haiti” on Monday, February 8th.

The Hearts for Haiti campaign will take place in the SF Bay Area at three specified locations — two Peet’s coffee shops and the Barenaked Ladies concert. When someone uses Gowalla to check-in at one of those locations during the event, $50 will be donated in to the Red Cross in that person’s name. Gowalla hopes to reach $20,000. In addition to Gowalla’s charitable efforts, the two Peet’s locations will also be donating 10% of sales towards Haiti efforts. Details on when to go where can be found over at the Gowalla Blog.

Continue reading to learn how Loopt and Gowalla work >>

As rumors and suspicions prove true, the Google Nexus One phone was announced today at the Android event. Already available sans service or with T-Mobile (but both seemingly unlocked), it will also soon be available for CDMA carriers (Verizon Wireless in the United States and Vodafone in Europe) in Spring 2010. AT&T users are able to use the unlocked Nexus One phone, but will not be able to use the radio feature trhough AT&T’s 3G network.

The Nexus One, closely designed in partnership with HTC, resembles an iPhone. Okay, maybe it looks a lot more like the DROID ERIS by HTC…

Continue reading more about the Nexus One >>

How are you saying good-bye to 2009 tonight? Sleeping like any other day? Dinner with friends? Clubbing with strangers? Counting down with Dick Clark (or is it Ryan Seacrest now)? Here at SoftwareNewsDaily, we wanted to say farewell by reminiscing our top 10 technology news stories of 2009. When I say “our” top 10 stories, I suppose it’s really more “my” top 10 stories. That’s okay, I don’t mind dominating the office opinion; they’ll agree with me. Counting down to the number one story, here are “our” picks.

Continue reading SoftwareNewsDaily’s Top 10 Tech news Stories of 2009 >>

Did you get your invite for the Android press event from Google?

That’s okay, neither did we. But the announcement of this January 5th event is dominating tech sites right now. Everyone is expecting Google to present the highly anticipated Nexus One phone. According to the Boy Genius, this Android platform phone will be “sold directly and only by Google,” under T-Mobile service.

Continue reading about Google’s Nexus One phone >>

Late last night, Google posted a new blog entry announcing their plans to develop a Google Chrome Operating System. A natural progression following their successful Chrome Browser, the Google Chrome OS will be their attempt to re-invent what an operating system should be. Their aim is to create a lightweight, open source OS that is designed around the web.

Just like the Chrome Browser, the Chrome OS will be focused on simplicity and speed. Google wants you to be able to start up your computer and be on the web in mere seconds. They want to re-structure the underlying architecture of the OS and go back to basics. Their goal is to keep the OS out of your way and to have it just work like it should. It will be safe from viruses and will perform updates automatically. They also want your data to live in the cloud, where it will be accessible from anywhere, no matter what happens to your computer.

Initially, Google’s focus will be on the netbook market. They have been quietly talking with manufacturers for the past few months to strike up OEM deals, and they already have netbook manufacturers on board. A completely different project from Android, which was designed for phones and mobile devices, the Chrome OS is being built for everything from netbooks to powerful desktops. Because it will be open source, this could dramatically lower the cost of buying a new computer.

Should Microsoft be worried about the Chrome OS gunning for Windows? Definitely. While it will take years for Chrome to gain any kind of major foothold in the OS arena, consumers definitely want more from their computers and are eager to try something new. Just look at all the hype surrounding the upcoming Windows 7 release. Vista was completely underwhelming, and it’s lukewarm reception left a huge hole in the OS market. Both Apple and Microsoft are releasing new operating systems this year, but neither one will deliver anything revolutionary. They are both just incremental improvements over prior versions. Google Chrome OS has a good chance of shaking things up and will generate plenty of buzz. Microsoft hasn’t ever really faced a serious threat to Windows. If anyone can change that, it’s Google.

Microsoft recently launched Bing, which was directly aimed at taking market share from Google search. It is only fitting that Google would immediately take a shot at the core of Microsoft’s business, Windows. I have a feeling these two companies will be battling on all fronts well into the next decade. As consumers, competition like this can only be beneficial, with new technology innovations and lower prices.

This announcement from Google was just a teaser of what is to come. They don’t expect to start shipping the Chrome OS on netbooks until the second half of 2010, but the open source code will be available well before then. This will give software developers lots of time to create new apps for the Chrome OS. Google’s goal is to have its applications based in the web, using the latest web technologies. This is the future of computing, and Google will be on the forefront.

For more details, check out the Official Google Blog. Stay tuned for more on the Google Chrome OS this fall.