Google has announced new features including Voice Search, Search by Image, and Instant Pages t an event called “Inside Search” at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco.
These new features will only be available through the Chrome or Firefox browsers by using plugins.
Read more: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/knocking-down-barriers-to-knowledge.html
WhatsApp Messenger is a cross-platform mobile messaging app which allows you to exchange messages without having to pay for SMS.
WhatsApp Messenger is available for iPhone, BlackBerry, Android and Nokia and allows communication between these different platform.
In addition to basic messaging iPhone, Android, Nokia and BlackBerry WhatsApp Messenger users can send each other unlimited images, video and audio media messages.
Read more: www.whatsapp.com
Tony Bradley writing on PCWorld is publishing “30 Days With Ubuntu Linux” a series of articles on how to get the best out of Ubuntu Linux.
The series starts in ernest on Day 2 which covers how to install Ubuntu Linux as a stand alone OS or dual boot with Windows and using an installation utility called Wubi.
Read More: http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/229187/30_days_with_ubuntu_linux.html
Google tomorrow will announce sales of the new Chrome laptop in a $20 a month “student package” that combines both hardware and online services, writes Quentin Hardy on Frobes.
The product is almost certainly a precursor to an enterprise offering. Google Apps, an online product with features similar to Microsoft Office (word processing, spreadsheets, calendars, and other productivity software) is sold to business for $50 a year. An inexpensive Chrome laptop could be added to that for a small premium, somewhat the way mobile phones are sold below cost when tied to calling plans.
Having students try out the product — at a price cheaper than buying a laptop for school — amounts to a shakedown cruise for the eventual product. If successful, it also seeds the market for future demand, as students move into the workforce with expectations of working in cloud-based systems.
Read full article; http://blogs.forbes.com/quentinhardy/2011/05/10/google-to-announce-chrome-laptops-20month/
Katherine Noyes writing on PCWorld, reviews methods of saving money and helping the environment with the article, “Save Money and Trees With Green Printing Tools”.
The article mentions Ecofont if you want to use less toner. GreenPrint a package that lets you preview print jobs and then remove unnecessary pages, such as blank ones or those with only images. Houdah Software’s ACTPrinter package that “prints” it to your iPhone or iPad and efficient printers and cartridge alternatives.
Read more: http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/226096/a_font_with_holes_and_other_green_printing_aids.html
Business Insider has published a useful article “How To Use Dropbox, The Best Free File Storage Service Around” for Windows, Mac, Linux, and Mobile.
The article walks you through how to sign up for Dropbox and use it to back up your files. There are also Dropbox apps for iPhone, Android, and BlackBerry.
Dropbox is software that syncs your files online and across your computers
Put your files into your Dropbox folder on one computer, and they’ll automatically appear on any of your other computers that also have Dropbox installed (Windows, Mac, and Linux too!). You can even download Dropbox apps for your smartphone or mobile device (iPhone, iPad, Android, and Blackberry). Dropbox gives you 2 GB of storage for free, but if you need more space you can get up to 100 GB for $19.99 per month.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-use-dropbox-2011-2
Dropbox Tricks: http://www.businessinsider.com/dropbox-tips-and-tricks-2011-2
Google has created a Stable Channel for Chrome OS, reports the Inquirer.
Google’s mythical Chrome OS has been in the works for quite a while, but the end appears to be near. The firm created a Stable Channel for Chrome OS last week. Stable Channel releases are the ones that will appear on devices and developers are now reporting that they can build Chrome OS from the stable channel. This is fueling speculation that Google will finally release the operating system at its Google I/O event in May.
Although Google has created a stable branch of its Chrome OS codebase, it is still not definite that it will chose Google I/O to release the operating system. However, the creation of a stable branch does show that Chrome OS is maturing and should be ready for release in the near future.
Read more: http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2044223/google-readies-chrome-creating-stable-branch
Stable Channel: http://codereview.chromium.org/6823087/
To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Linux Operating System, the Linux Foundation has produced an infographic and video showing the impact the open source operating system has had on the world.
Since its inception in 1991, Linux has grown to become a force in computing, powering everything from the New York Stock Exchange to mobile phones to supercomputers to consumer devices. The Linux Foundation is the nonprofit consortium dedicated to fostering the growth of Linux. Founded in 2007, the Linux Foundation sponsors the work of Linux creator Linus Torvalds and is supported by leading technology companies and developers from around the world.
www.linuxfoundation.org
Google have recently started to include more information from people you know—stuff they’ve shared on Twitter, Flickr and other sites—in Google search results.
Google have announced taking that a step further, enabling you to share recommendations with the world right in Google’s search results. It’s called +1—the digital shorthand for “this is pretty cool.” To recommend something, all you have to do is click +1 on a webpage or ad you find useful. These +1’s will then start appearing in Google’s search results.
Google said they will be slowly rolling out +1’s, starting in English on Google.com. If you can’t wait to start seeing +1’s, we’ll soon let you opt-in to the launch by visiting our experimental search site. Initially, +1’s will appear alongside search results and ads, but in the weeks ahead they’ll appear in many more places (including other Google products and sites across the web).
More: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/1s-right-recommendations-right-when-you.html
Google has announced Gmail ads that learn from your inbox. Users will be able to opt out of the new signals system on the Gmail settings page.
“Soon we’re going to try a similar approach to ads: using some of the same signals that help predict which messages are likely to be important to you, Gmail will better predict which ads may be useful to you. For example, if you’ve recently received a lot of messages about photography or cameras, a deal from a local camera store might be interesting. On the other hand if you’ve reported these messages as spam, you probably don’t want to see that deal.
Only a few users will notice the change to begin with, but as we improve it we’ll roll it out more widely. As always, ads in Gmail are fully automated-no humans read your messages- and no messages or personally identifiable information about you is shared with advertisers.”
More info: http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&ctx=mail&answer=1217362
Google has updated the Chrome browser logo with a non-shiny version.
The comes after an all-blue version of the new logo showed up for Chromium, the open-source foundation of Chrome, a week ago.
Google have also updated the Dev channel to 11.0.696.12 for Macintosh, Windows, Linux and Chrome Frame platforms, in which the following bugs were fixed.
New York Times Chrome app crashes on the Chorme Dev Channel (Issue 75563).
Sync login dlg is truncated (Issue 72490 ).
Status bar / target URL not shown when hovering over links(Issue 75268).
Several known crashes (Issues 75171 and 75443 and 75828).
Bookmark focus is not lost when moved away from the bookmark bar (Issue 75367).
Tooltips from browser tabs are persisting for too long (Issue 75334 ).
Content settings updates don’t reflect the current Incognito session(Issue 74466).
NewTabPage is not updating when a new theme is applied (Issue 74311).
fixed download requests in chrome frame which occur in response to top level POSTs (Issue 73985 ).
Chrome locks up on form submit, constantly duplicating autofill settings to blame(Issue 74911).
Dev Channel info: http://dev.chromium.org/getting-involved/dev-channel
Microsoft will launch IE9 on March 14th, at SXSW (South by Southwest Conferences and Festivals) in Austin, Texas, according to comments from Ryan Gavin, senior director of Internet Explorer business.
“Exactly twelve months from the first platform preview of IE9, on Monday 14 March we will celebrate the developers and designers who are making a more beautiful web for all of us. We will release the final version of Internet Explorer 9 for download beginning at 9 p.m. Pacific time.”
Microsoft released a public beta of IE9 last September, and followed that with a “release candidate,” (RC) a month ago.
Internet Explorer 9 features:
New Tab page
Notification Bar
One Box
Pinned Sites
Tab enhancements
Web-focused browsing
Windows 7 integration
Trusted
ActiveX Filtering
Add-on Performance Advisor
Compatibility View
Cross-site scripting filter
Domain highlighting
Download Manager
InPrivate Browsing
SmartScreen Filter
Tab isolation and recovery
Tracking Protection