Google Account Services

Your Google Account is good for more than just Gmail, and you can fine-tune the services you use with each account.

If you purchase apps in the Android Market, you'll use your Google Account and Google Checkout to complete the transaction. The default email account on your tablet is Gmail, and the default calendar is Google Calendar.

Here are a few of the Google services you'll get to know as you use your tablet:

Gmail is a free Web-based email service, arguably the best free email service out there. I'll go over Gmail in more detail in a later chapter.

Google Voice is a service that allows you to use a single phone number to forward your calls, create a visual voicemail message with speech-to-text, and make low cost international long distance calls. It's not officially available on tablets as an app; however, you can use the service on the Web to check your messages.

Google Calendar works a bit differently from Outlook's calendar. You have standard features like events and invitations, but Google Calendar is meant to be even more collaborative. You manage Google Calendar by adding multiple calendars and sharing them with others. For instance, you can have a calendar you allow colleagues to see but not edit, a calendar team members can all edit, and another calendar of fully public events.

You're probably already familiar with this mapping service. Google Maps is the engine behind most of your phone's geographically sensitive apps. Not only can Google Maps give you driving directions, but it can provide you with walking and public transport directions. This is invaluable when you're on the road.

Google Checkout is a tool for buyers and merchants to complete credit card transactions without revealing the credit card info to the merchant. It's a competitor to PayPal. You'll need to set up an account with credit card information if you want to purchase apps from the Android Market.

Picasa Web Albums is Google's answer to Flickr. If you want to upload pictures from your phone to the Web, this is the default location for sharing on most tablets. You may want to set up your account with albums and public or private sharing permissions if you need to share photos as part of your job. It's more efficient to upload photos to Picasa than it is to send them as email attachments, though you can do both. Picasa also has a desktop program you can use for syncing and editing photos.

Picnik is an online photo-editing suite. You can use either the free version or pay for extra features with the premium edition ($25 per year). It can take photos directly from Picasa Web Albums, Flickr, or Photobucket. Once you've finished editing a picture, you can save it back to your online photo album.

There's no Android app for Picnik yet, but it runs on Honeycomb tablets in the Web browser, and it seems ready-made for tablet users who want to paint with their fingertips.

Blogger is Google's blogging service. You can create ad-free blogs on Blogger for no charge. And there's even a specialized app for tablets, which means you can tap out blog posts with pictures and video from a single device.

Google Books is Google's e-book reading app and website. You're not limited to Google Books, but the app is installed by default on standard Honeycomb tablets, and the Google eBook Market icon is prominently featured on your tablet.

If you have any reason to take quick videos with your tablet, set up a YouTube account with your preferred username beforehand. You can upload videos directly instead of offloading them to your desktop computer first. You can also use a YouTube account to comment, rate, and add videos to playlists.