>> Rock Band goes country. The Nintendo DS becomes a book reader. And Google falls off the wagon with hard liquor. It's Thursday, December 11, I'm Natali Del Conte and it's time to get Loaded.
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>> Google has changed its policy about selling AdWords for alcohol companies. They used to not permit this at all, then in October they started selling ads for beer and wine only. Now they will allow ads for hard liquor. Be careful there Google, that's how it all starts. First, there's beer and wine, then the hard stuff, next thing you know they'll be on the heroine. In other Google news, the company has launched Street View for the Nokia S60 and all Windows mobile phones -- way to catch up. It has of course already been available on Android, BlackBerry and the iPhone. Google also added the ability to send text messages from Gmail, which is very cool. Lets you remind your significant other to buy milk without opening your phone. All you do is type the phone number into the search box at the top of the chat window and hit Send SMS. You can also add a phone number to a contact name in your address book, so you don't have to keep keying in 10-digit numbers. Google launched this back in October, but it didn't really worked, so they pulled it. It works now, though and if you wanna try it go to the Labs tab to turn it on. So what if the Kindle sold out, the Nintendo DS is hinting you can use that as a book reader. In the United Kingdom, Nintendo has partnered with Harper Collins to offer classic literature on the Nintendo DS, such as Shakespeare, Dickens and the Bronte sisters. They'll all be available for 20-pounds a pop. Readers will be able to read page by page by simply swiping their fingers across the screen. Bebo got a makeover this week. The social network which was recently purchased by AOL now functions a lot more like Friend Feed. It has something called a social inbox, which aggregates social feed across the web for multiple accounts. You can also instant message with your AIM account inside the network. Check your email from AOL, Gmail, Yahoo and Microsoft Exchange and watch more Time-Warner video. One thing Bebo is not doing is jumping on the universal login system bandwagon like MySpace and Facebook. One of Tom Merritt's Top 5 predictions for 2009 is that Android will be a big hit.
>> Up to Number 3: Android will outsell iPhone. The openness of Google's Android platform and the unleashing of several devices on multiple carriers will make Google's phone OS top dog.
>> It looks like Tom will be right because he usually is. Reuters is reporting that 14 of the world's largest mobile phone and chip makers have joined the open handset alliance in order to develop for the android platform. These companies include big hitters, such as Sony Ericsson and Vodafone. Now whether Tom is right about them actually outselling the iPhone or not remains to be seen, but one thing is certain, we will definitely see a lot of Android phones next year. Verizon Wireless is already talking about 4G. The company said they plan to rule out their LTE or Long Term Evolution Wireless broadband service within a year. That would be fast. Most of us didn't think we'd see 4G until 2011 or 2012. Not that I'm complaining. I'm just a bit dubious as to whether or not they can pull it off. Let's hope they do. Virgin Mobile has launched a new service that lets you send text messages to nobody. It's called Sent Forever and basically, it's a way for you to send your thoughts into the void. You can choose a recipient or you can just choose to send out your deepest and darkest ponderings and it will travel through British telecom satellites. It makes your messages so much more profound. If you wanna do this, go to sentforever.com/virginmobile. It's basically the high-tech way to send a message in a bottle. Rock Band has gone a little bit country. The newest downloadable songs to launch on the game will be a bundle of country songs from artists, such as Brooks & Dunn, Brad Paisley and the Dixie Chicks. The songs all launch on December 16. Now even though the game's name is Rock Band, it has carried other genres for a while. But our video game editor Jeff Bakalar informs me that this is a sign of the beginning of the end for Rock Band. He hates country music though. Those are all your headlines for today and that wraps ups your week of getting Loaded. I would also like to wish a happy birthday to Loaded viewers Devin, Victor, Stanley, Menander and Gatlin [presumed spellings]. Also don't forget that if you've missed any episodes this week, you can catch up at loaded.cnettv.com. Thank you for watching. I'm Natali Del Conte, and you've just been Loaded.
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