There were so many interesting but diverse news items in my reader this morning, my overtaxed brain could not come up with a viable context linking them together in a meaningful chain. So I decided to have a little yard sale here in the Studio, offering items as divergent as waffle irons, cigar boxes, drill presses, baby food grinders and exercise equipment.

The first and most exciting news blurb I saw was the announcement of the GPS on steroids, Google Maps Navigation for Android 2.0 Have you seen this? If I was Tom Tom, Garmin or Navigon, I would be shaking with Halloween fear. The free app (yes, I said FREE), offers the power of Google maps combined with turn-by-turn voice navigation and an overlay of your route over Google street view goodness. You can search in plain english and by voice, get traffic data, search for businesses along your route, and access a car dock mode, with bigger, simpler graffics for distance viewing. All I can say is “wow” about this little find. For workers who are perpetually on the go and live by their GPS, this new Google offering makes a very compelling case for Android over iPhone. Check out the details provided by Michael Arrington at Techcrunch here.

Next up is this cool little trick offered by Adam Pash over at Lifehacker – export your Facebook events to your Google calendar! I just love one-stop shopping, particularly when it comes to my calendar. Input it once and find it in a single, unified location. Simple, one-time set up and you are good to go to any Facebook event with a simple glance at GCal.

This one in from Jesus Diaz at Gizmodo: go get your shiny new Chrome OS now! While not yet a final version, there is still plenty to play with here, including the GNOME 2.24 desktop environment, Google Chrome 4.0.223 browser, Picasa 2.7 photo manager, OpenOffice.org 3.0 office suite, GIMP 2.6 image editor, Flash Player 10,0 plug-in and other little treats for all of your tricks. Free, Free, Free.

Final goodie for your plastic pumpkin: Brizzly, the slick Web-based Twitter client discussed in prior Studio posts, has now incorporated Facebook into its snazzy interface.  Click a little icon and switch seamlessly from your Twitter stream to your Facebook stream. It also offers filters for “home” and “recent”, so you can keep tabs on your live feed or stuff that you recently liked or commented on. Hit the jump here for M.G. Siegler’s take on the new feature. Send me an email at the comments link above if you want a Brizzly invite.

Whew! Holy Mixing Metaphors, Batman! My yard sale turned into a trick or treating adventure! Hope you enjoy the blurbs here as much as I enjoy those little tiny Milky Way bars!!!