The next Nexus phone from Google and Samsung, the Galaxy Nexus, will start shipping in November with new features like an improved Gmail experience and the ability for the phone to unlock by simply recognising a user’s face.

They are part of Google’s new Android 4.0 operating system, codenamed Ice Cream Sandwich, which will feature for the first time on the Galaxy Nexus, according to a Google show-and-tell in Hong Kong this morning. …

For a long time now we’ve been envious of our American friends, who could make calls to mobile phones and landlines from their Gmail account. We can now enjoy that as well, as Google brings that feature to 150 countries in 35 languages, along with the obligatory cute video explaining the service. …

Stand aside, browser wars; a new battle is heating up between Microsoft and Google and this time, the battlefield is email.

Google fired the first shot by launching a new website called Email Intervention, designed to help you stage an intervention among your friends who still use that outdated email address from the 1990s. The accompanying video featuring an “intervention specialist” is cute, funny and completely in Google’s cheeky style.

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Some 100,000 to 150,000 Gmail users had their messages, chat logs and other personal settings wiped clean early today, due to a serious glitch that would likely cast doubt about the reliability of similar cloud-based services.

Google acknowledged the issue at 4:09am local Singapore time and started investigations into one of the most serious outages to hit the Web mail provider so far. More than 7 hours later, the service was said to have been restored for some users, while others can expect a resolution “in the near future”. …

Techgoondu had the chance to be at unConference 2009 held yesterday at the Biopolis, thanks to the kind folks at e27 who had put together an excellent program that brought together some of the top forward-thinkers in the region. Here’s a recap of what I felt were the highlights of the event:

Panel discussion: Innovation in Asia and where is it heading? …

It’s one of those things that make you go: “why didn’t I think of that”?

Google has come up with another useful tool for its growing Gmail user base, by letting them conveniently talk to their contacts via a video or audio link.

As we know, users can already IM or chat with people over Gmail, using its built-in chat function. The nifty part about this is that you can chat with someone instantly if he/she is online, rather than shooting e-mails to and fro cyberspace.

Now, this is taken further with video and voice chat. If you, like I, already use Gmail, this is a no-brainer to add on, especially if you already got a laptop with camera + microphone built-in.

To install the Google application, you’ll need to open up a chat window, click on options and select the option to do voice/video. It then installs a plugin necessary for the new service.

My only gripe – for an otherwise excellent free service – is that this wasn’t installed automatically into the system. But I’m not really complaining, if it makes it so much more intuitive to chat with anyone on the e-mail list (permitted by you of course).

It’ll be another reason why I am keeping my IM pretty private (I have only a dozen contacts coz I don’t like to add people I end up blocking anyway). I can talk to people on Gmail without exposing my IM list, which can pop up all over the desktop.