Earlier this week, Google launched the Google Mac Developer Playground, a place where Google Engineers can showcase their Mac-oriented projects. In addition to their regular duties at the Googleplex, many Googlers get something called 20% time where they are allowed to work on projects of interest to them. Many spend their time working on open-source Mac projects, and this new site is a place where these projects can be shared with the world.
Right now, the Mac Developer Playground includes six “Tools & Demos”, the latest headlines from the Google Mac Blog, and a “Recent Changes” section that gives you info on the latest happenings at the Playground. Some of the tools are fully supported, while others are simply demos and still need some work. Tools & demos shown on the site include: Statz, GData, MacFUSE, iPhone Disk, Cover Story, and Quartz Composer Patches.
Google, who once focused predominantly on the Windows platform, seems to be paying a bit more attention to the Mac lately. Just this week they unveiled a customized search interface for the Apple iPhone, and in late November they unveiled Google Desktop for Mac OS X, which allows you to run Google Gadgets as Mac Dashboard widgets.
It will be interesting to see what new developments Google will make that work with various Apple products, and I for one, can’t wait for new features to use with my iPhone. It’d also be nice if they did something to work with AppleTV… (hint, hint)
