The big advantage of Google’s new Voice app (which is already showing up for Voice users at Lifehacker HQ) is the direct contact access. Rather than having to store secondary numbers or use the somewhat old-school-looking Voice mobile site to pull up your contacts, Google Voice’s new webapp provides super-quick, as-you-type access to your Google Contacts.

Google Voice Arrives on iPhones with HTML5-Powered Webapp – Google Voice – Lifehacker

The system will be designed at first for low-cost laptops called netbooks, Google said in a blog post. The company is in talks with partners on the project and computers running the software will be available in the second half of 2010.

via Google to Challenge Microsoft With Computer Operating System – Bloomberg.com.

So far, it appears to be pretty speedy and handles all of my normal sites well.

http://www.google.com/chrome/

When’s the last time you looked at Google Docs? With all of the improvements, this is quickly becoming a handy alternative to Microsoft Office. Read more at Google Operating System…

“Google has finally released the presentation app. You can only import Microsoft PowerPoint files that have less than 10 MB and export a presentation as an HTML file with images. You can change the theme or the layout of a slide, but there aren’t too many options available. There’s also an option to create the first slide of a presentation from a document, but it only works for short documents.”

Jon Udell’s little wizard [direct link] lets you generate a bookmarklet for requesting a library book—based on the Amazon page you’re currently viewing. It’s clearly a flawless lifehack.

 Official Google Blog: 1-800-GOOG-411: now with maps

Just visit calendar.google.com from your phone, and you’ll see your agenda of upcoming events, complete with details like date, time, location, description, and guest list.

To do this on an existing spreadsheet, click the [Add Chart] icon.

“Your chart choices include columns, bars, lines, pie, and scatter, each with a handful of sub-types (such as 2D and 3D). You can specify what range of data to include in the chart and add labels and a legend. Plus, you can export charts in PNG format.”

Google Spreadsheets adds charts – Lifehacker

Skype Your Cellphone – Forbes.com

…the mobile phone does not need any special hardware and there is no need for a broadband connection or even a Wi- Fi connection. You simply download the iSkoot software from the iSkoot’s Web site. Then, when you want to chat over Skype, the call is routed over a regular mobile network which then connects to iSkoot’s servers. The servers bridge the call to Skype’s Internet network.

Note: I tried this just a few minutes ago and was extremely impressed with the ease of use and the quality of the call.