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Previous Apple engineer, Andy Rubin went on to co-found mobile computing outfits Danger and Android. He sold the former to Microsoft and the latter to Google, where he is now vice president of engineering. He’s also the guy quarterbacking development of Google’s Android mobile operating system and the Nexus One–the Smartphone with which Google hopes to fundamentally change the way people buy cell phones.

In conversation with All Things Digital’s Walt Mossberg Friday, Rubin talked about the mobile space, Google’s plan for an enterprise version of the Nexus One, and its vision for the way phones should be bought and sold. Walt starts off by asking Rubin about just how involved Google was in the development of the Nexus One.

Rubin replies, “We threw out crazy ideas to our partners at HTC, and they were pretty good about plucking the good ones out of the air and building them into the device.”

Walt asks about the new business model Google’s launched in concert with Nexus One. Was this something the company planned all along?

“This is the next phase of Android–taking the newest versions of the product, placing them online, and allowing consumers to purchase them directly,” says Rubin. “What we’ve learned is that there are more efficient ways of connecting consumers with the phones they’d like to purchase…easier ways.” Purchasing a Nexus One through Google, says Rubin, is a casual process. “No one’s breathing down your neck,” he says. “No one’s trying to upsell you.”

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Google Inc plans to sell its own cellphone direct to consumers as soon as next year, bypassing wireless operators in a rare strategic move, the Wall Street Journal cited sources as saying on Saturday.

Called the Nexus One and made by smartphone maker HTC, the phone will run on the search giant’s Android operating system — around which Motorola and other cellphone makers have built devices — and will be sold online, the newspaper cited persons familiar with the matter as saying. Cellular service will have to be bought separately, it added.

The Internet search leader may be sounding a challenge to wireless carriers such as Sprint and Verizon, as well as smartphone makers like Apple. It marks a departure for the leader in Web advertising, which has rarely sold devices directly to consumers, the newspaper said.

Google’s Android phones have won attention in the mobile industry lately, with Motorola and Sony Ericsson choosing to launch it with their new top models.

Analysts say the aim is to gain access to valuable consumer data that can be used to sell ads at premium prices, rather than to make money from direct hardware sales, as companies such as Nokia or Research in Motion do.

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Picasa is software that helps you instantly find, edit and share all the pictures on your PC. Every time you open Picasa, it automatically locates all your pictures (even ones you forgot you had) and sorts them into visual albums organized by date with folder names you will recognize. You can drag and drop to arrange your albums and make labels to create new groups. Picasa makes sure your pictures are always organized.

Picasa also makes advanced editing simple by putting one-click fixes and powerful effects at your fingertips. And Picasa makes it a snap to share your pictures, you can email, print photos home, make gift CDs, instantly share your images and albums, and even post pictures on your own blog.

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Google Chrome is a browser that combines a minimal design with sophisticated technology to make the web faster, safer, and easier. Google Chrome combines a minimal design with sophisticated technology to make the web faster, safer, and easier.

Type in the address bar and get suggestions for both search and web pages.

Access your favorite pages instantly with lightning speed from any new tab.

Don’t want pages you visit to show up in your web history? Choose incognito mode for private browsing.

Google Chrome warns you if you’re about to visit a suspected phishing, malware or otherwise unsafe website.

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Google has revealed first details of ‘Caffeine’, the codename for the newest edition of its powerful search engine.

The company says that Caffeine will be the “first step in improving the speed, accuracy and comprehensiveness of search results".

Web developers are now invited to test the new search engine and provide feedback.

Though the front-end of the engine will look no different to the one online today, the tech driving it will speed up indexing search results and create a larger index.

One clear outcome of this will be the reduction in time it takes for the search engine to find new content freshly-published on the web.

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