There's no Gphone just yet, but Google does want a big piece of your cell phone. In November 2007, the company announced its Android mobile operating system, and 34 companies are on board to develop applications for the cell-phone platform as part of the Open Handset Alliance. The open software platform is hoped to go head-to-head with smartphone software from RIM, Apple, Microsoft, Nokia, and Palm. Will Google be your next mobile OS?

What's that all mean? The big motivation for Google is that it will likely have its applications such as Gmail and Google Docs & Spreadsheets automatically built into a major share of new cell phones in the burgeoning market.

What's interesting and exciting is that the platform--likely based on Linux--will be open to all third-party developers. With any luck, that means that consumers will finally be able to choose exactly which software apps they want to use on their cell phones.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt claims that "as a result of this platform you'll be able to do amazing things with your mobile devices that you've never thought of." We'll get a first peek at the possibilities for programmers with an early look at a software development kit for Google Android next week.

Gmail and Google Talk users can now chat with their AOL Instant Messenger buddies through the Gmail interface, Google announced today. Rolling out to all English-based users by the end of the day, the new feature will let you seamlessly jump from chatting with a Google contact to an AIM buddy without having to use two separate chat clients.

The AIM integration feels native to Gmail. The AIM log-in panel is behind the "Set status here" upside-down triangle under the Contacts list. Click there, and if the feature rollout has hit your account, you'll see a "Sign into AIM" option on the drop-down menu with AIM's yellow running man icon next to it.

A new window opens when you choose to sign in, so be sure that you don't have a pop-up blocker enabled for Gmail.com. Enter in your AIM username and password, or hit the link at the bottom of the window to create a new AOL account, and you're good to go. AOL buddies will appear in the Contacts list, mixed in with Google Chat contacts. The running man icon for AIM contacts appears on the right side of the chat list.

Click on the "Set status here" triangle again, and you'll notice the AIM login option has changed to a logout. Once you've logged out, your AIM contacts disappear, although the next time you log in you won't need to re-enter your password. To use a different AIM account, you need to go to the Chat tab under Settings.

Gmail's label colors make them easier to read.

(Credit: CNET Networks, Inc.)

This integration comes right on the heels of Google Chat rolling out group chats and more developed smileys last week. Individual chat and the ever-important smileys are there, but any other ancillary AIM features you might be interested in require the full AIM client.

Google was cagey about whether Gmail will feature other chat protocols such as ICQ in the future. Jason Freidenfelds, a spokesman for Google, said only that he couldn't comment on whether they were looking at including other chat programs.

Another new feature that Google added last night was colored tabs for labels. This feature, previously only available through plug-ins like Better Gmail, lets users assign colors to labels to make it easier to keep track of them. From the Labels panel, click on the square next to the label and a drop-down menu of colors will appear. Select a color and your e-mail list will refresh, with the label name on e-mails now in vibrant life-affirming hues.

The new colors are easily accessible from the Labels menu.

(Credit: CNET Networks, Inc.)

Besides making it easier to see labeled e-mails, when you click on an e-mail that's been labeled you can now search for all e-mails with that label or remove the label from the e-mail directly from buttons next to the e-mail's subject line.

While colored labels aren't a killer feature, they're small touches that make the interface that much easier to use. Combined with the AIM integration and other recent changes, it's hard to understate the usefulness to users of the recently rewritten Gmail source code.

Yesterday I have recieved an invitation to be an alpha tester of Knocka TV.

Tried to register yesterday but got a screen that said - "Knocka TV is down for maintenance", allready not a good start.

After registering today, I can forgive them about yesterday. The site is designed properly, quite easy to control for the common user and the most important thing - it works very nice, the videos are smooth, the content is a bit small but hey - it is still an Alpha version.

Knocka is an Internet television network. It has "channels" of streaming content. Unlike video sharing sites like YouTube, users can't randomly select videos to play when they wish (except clips they've already seen in a stream), nor can they embed Knocka vids in other sites. Kncoka is a destination site, not a media library.

But even though Knocka can be watched in passive mode, like television, Interactivity and community are a big part of the Knocka equation. Viewers can text chat with each other in a window under a running show, and can engage in person-to-person Webcam video chats with their friends. And content is chosen through a combination of user voting and editorial oversight. On the current alpha site, users can vote on clips that play in the channels, and the voting will affect the rotation of a show: Good vote, more plays; bad votes, less. Eventually, Knocka will let its users further upstream in the editorial process. It will let users vote on videos in the submissions bin to help decide what makes it into the channels themselves.

Can the internet community create professional TV? That’s the core question behind the Knocka TV project. Knocka TV offers a stage for creative content produced by the community, supporting individual producers and small production houses in their original creation.

Knocka TV is a User Generated Professional Television Network (or in short UGPTN). It’s a democratic, interactive, and collaborative social television:

• Democratic: By casting your votes, you choose what’s on.
• Interactive: Live broadcasting on the internet will allow you to participate and at real-time affect the course of the program. Participate in live interactive shows, go live with your webcam, manipulate the program content in real time together with other viewers and much more.
• Collaborative: Everyone can participate in creating Knocka TV, from creating channels and programs to cooperating together in creating content.
• Social: While you watch Knocka TV you can chat, video conference and talk to your friends.

Here is a captured screen:

As I will test it and play with it a bit further I will post updates.