Ye Meri Life Hai - Chirag Mehta

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Tag: Google (page 4 of 11)

Google Latitude: Ready to Tell Your Friends Where You Are?

GoogleLatitude.jpgWhere you are is as important as what you’re looking for. That’s why more and more services are looking to location as a filter for providing relevant information when and where we need it. So it only makes sense that Google – a company known for its ability to deliver relevant information – get into the location-aware app game. Today, they jumped in with both feet by releasing Google Latitude, a way to keep track of your friends’ current whereabouts – and let Google have a view into your nomadic or sedentary habits.

Google Latitude allows you to share location-based information with friends. And it’s incredibly easy to get started. Simply install the app on your smartphone (no iPhone yet) or iGoogle. You have the option of sharing your location by dynamically updating the service using your phone or by manually updating your location on the Web.

view Complete Story @ ReadWriteWeb

Gmail Gets Offline Support, Finally

One of the longest-running requests for Google’s web mail service Gmail has been for offline functionality. Now, finally, Gmail users will be able to type up those emails inside an airplane. Google has just announced offline Gmail support via Gmail Labs – to start with for consumers and businesses using Google Apps, but regular Gmail consumers will get it over the next couple of days. The offline feature was built using Gears, Google’s offline web application API.

In its email to us, Google archly noted that Internet connectivity has started to happen even in airplanes – for example American Airlines announced last year that they will offer in-flight wi-fi service. Even so, many people (including this author) have been clamoring for offline Gmail for years. Google’s web mail competitors have been much swifter in offering offline functionality. In October 2008 we reported that Zoho Mail had gotten offline support, ironically via Gears. Yahoo Mail gave offline access to all free and paid Yahoo Mail users through the Yahoo Zimbra Desktop in July ’08.

It’s been frustrating for Gmail users, many of whom are early adopters, that Gmail has been so behind the times with this feature. Particularly when Google has Gears and has already used it to offline-enable Google Docs and Google Reader. So Google has been slow to use Gears in Gmail and Google Apps, but of course we’re pleased to see it being deployed now.

With its new offline access, Gmail will be able to be used inside the browser even without an Internet connection. Messages can be read, starred, labeled and archived and new mail can be composed, says Google. Messages ready to be sent will wait in the Outbox until the user is online again when the messages will be sent automatically. Google has warned though that “there might be some issues that aren’t completely ironed out” in the new feature.

The feature will be rolled out over the next couple of days, starting this afternoon for Google Apps users. You can enable offline Gmail by clicking ‘Settings’ in your Gmail, then click the ‘Labs’ tab and select ‘Enable’ next to ‘Offline Gmail’, and click ‘Save Changes.’ Then in the upper righthand corner of the account, next to the username, there will be a new ‘Offline’ link. Click this link to start the offline synchronization process (note that you will need to to download Gears if you haven’t already). For non-Google Apps users, you’ll have to wait a couple more days.

But wait, there’s more. Google is also working on an offline Google Calendar. There is no date for this release, but it too will be launched with Google Apps first.

GMail : Fast PDF viewing right in your browser

When I get sent a PDF, sometimes I just want to view it — I don’t always need to download and save it right then. So starting today, you’ll see a new “View” link next to PDF attachments you get in Gmail:


Clicking “View” quickly opens the PDF inside your browser, complete with the graphics and formatting you expect to see in a PDF. You may have seen this feature before, in Google Docs. It’s the way that we did uploading and viewing of PDFs online. Here’s a screen shot:

If you want, you can still view in plain HTML from a link at the top of the new viewer. And if you want to download, save, and view your PDFs later while offline using client software, you can still do that by hitting the “Download” link.

GMail – New in Labs: Tasks, Text Messaging in Chat

GMail

  • New in Labs: Tasks, Text Messaging in Chat
    • Tasks: Keep track what you need to do with a lightweight task list right
      inside of Google Mail. Just click and type to add new tasks, convert
      emails into tasks, and (most satisfyingly) check them off as you’re done.
      Once you turn on this Labs feature, look for the Tasks link to the left of
      your inbox under Contacts.
    • Text messaging in Chat: Send SMS text messages right from Google Mail. You chat from your comfy
      computer and reach your friends on the go; they get your messages as texts
      and can peck out replies on their little keyboards.

    To get started with these Labs features and more, click Settings and go to
    the Labs tab. Then select “Enable” next to the features you want to turn on
    and click “Save Changes.” Learn
    more

  • Spice up your inbox with Gmail Themes

    From minimalist grays to dynamic mountain landscapes, choose from over 30 options to personalize the look and feel of your Gmail account. To get started, check out the Themes tab under Settings.

    Learn more

    GMail Launches Voice and Video chat

    Since sometimes reading “lol” doesn’t deliver the same punch as actually hearing your friend laugh at your jokes, you can now use voice and video capabilities in your Gmail chat. From within Gmail, you can have an actual conversation with someone (seriously, out loud), or even chat face to face over video.

    See and hear family and friends right inside GmailGMail Voice Chat

    Here’s what you’ll need to get started:

    * Download the Gmail voice and video chat plug-in, quit all open browser windows, and install the plug-in.
    * Sign in to Gmail.
    * In the Chat section of your Gmail, select the contact you want to call. If they have a camera icon next to their name, you can make a voice or video call to them; just click Video & more.

    If your friend doesn’t have a camera next to their name in your chat list, you can invite them to download the Gmail voice and video chat plug-in from the Video & more menu in a chat window. Even if your friend doesn’t have a video camera, you can still make a voice call or a 1-way video call.

    Techinicalities
    Gmail voice and video chat incorporates Vidyo technology.

    Why VidyoTechnology ?
    Vidyo’s unique intellectual property leverages the recently approved H.264/SVC standard to create VidyoTechnology—an SDK that concurrently delivers a coded representation of source video signals at a variety of temporal, spatial, and quality resolutions embedded in a single bit-stream. The different bit-stream components and the VidyoRouter allow the system to dynamically adapt to varying network conditions such as packet loss, jitter, network bandwidth, network delay, and the like. Similarly, the use of multiple bit-stream components permits the flexibility to adapt to changing processing power at the video source as well as at the receiving endpoints.

    Firebug can make Google Mail slow

    If you are browsing gmail on firefox with firebug(error debugger firefox addon) GMAIL states a line at top “Firebug is known to make Gmail slow unless it is configured correctly.”

    Its strange !! Anyhow for the best Google Mail performance, google suggest disabling Firebug for www.google.com.

    To disable Firebug:
    1. Click the green or red icon in the bottom right corner of the browser window to open Firebug.
    2. Click the bug icon in the top left corner of Firebug and select ‘Disable Firebug for mail.google.com’.

    If you’d like to keep Firebug running, you may improve Google Mail performance by following these steps:
    1. Click the green or red icon in the bottom right corner of the browser window to open Firebug.
    2. Click the Console tab.
    3. Select Options.
    4. Un-tick Show XMLHttpRequests.
    5. Click the Net tab.
    6. Select Options.
    7. Tick Disable Network Monitoring.

    Hubert Chang – Third co-founder of Google ?

    Following story from IBNLive.com is interesting, someone after 11 years claims that he too is a founder of Google !! . Isnt that really surprising ?

    Also to add there comes in a Indian Born US Professor who links third founder Chang with Sergey Brin and Larry Page.

    So the story starts as follows ……

    A man, who calls himself Hubert Chang, has released a web video published on Vimeo, in which he has claimed that he is one of the co-founders of Google.

    However, his authenticity is being questioned as to why he waited 11 years to make his declaration.

    In the video, Chang has claimed that he helped Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page design the search giant in February 1997.

    “The design includes the search engine algorithm, the business model (also called AdSense and AdWords), the name of the company, the outline of the system architecture, a corporation culture like a grad school, and Google’s growing path,” Sydney Morning Herald quoted Chang, as saying.

    Google has already released a statement claiming that Chang”s claims are completely baseless, but it did not deny that Page and Brin had met him.

    Chang claims that he abandoned Google 11 years back because of his father’s desire for him to complete his PhD at New York University.

    Today, though, Google has a market capitalisation of 138 billion US dollars. And Page and Brin are worth 16 billion US dollars each, according to Forbes.

    Chang says that Page and Brin asked him in September 1997 whether he would like to put his name on the academic paper that first described the Google search system, but he declined the offer so he could focus on his studies.

    He said that the decision was difficult, uncomfortable and, in hindsight, unwise, but it “made sense” at the time.

    Chang says that it was Stanford computer science professor Rajeev Motwani, who first introduced him to Brin and Page.

    However, Motwani told InformationWeek that though he may have passed on a few emails but Chang’s claims were “completely unfounded in reality”.

    “After viewing this tape, some people might think I’m lying, some might think I’m crazy, some might be upset, while others will consider I’m honest. But the tape has to be made,” said Chang.

    Chang has also claimed that he did try to contact Page and Brin after finishing his PhD in 2002 but they ignored him. Chang claims that it may be because they were either busy, did not know how to position him or did not want to “fully acknowledge the past”.

    In the video he does not explain why he waited 11 years to come forward and neither did he respond to a request for an interview.

    On the other hand Google said that Page and Brin had “no recollection” of meeting Chang, “however, given the number of people they’ve met in the last decade it’s impossible to say categorically that they never have”.

    Google said: “Rajeev Motwani, the Professor and Director of Graduate Studies at Stanford, believes he may have shared some emails from Mr Chang with Larry and Sergey in 1997 or 1998. But in any case PageRank had already been developed by that time and was a working prototype.”

    Google Lively Video on YouTube

    Lively by Google is a new product available in Google Labs. Create an avatar and chat with your friends in rooms you design.

    Google Lively – Virtual World of 3D

    Google Lively

    Google Lively @ Lively.com

    Now you can be anyone or anything you want to be – online. With www.lively.com, even Google is stepping into the world of 3D. And it may be the answer to your wildest dreams.

    Download a simple plugin and voila, it is virtual reality at your fingertips. You can even join a room and choose your virtual character. But how’s this different from other virtual worlds like Second Life?

    Lively is accessed over your web browser, which means no large software downloads. And your personal room can be embedded into your own web page. It even works with Facebook and chat.

    Virtual Worlds Expert, Rahul Dutta says, “I hate it. It required way too much bandwdth to run properly and because it’s a new application and it crashes often. But I see what Google’s doing. They are trying to bring Web 3D or virtual reality into the mainstream.”

    www.vivaty.com and www.imvu.com all let you experience virtual reality. They both require you to download players but claim to work seamslessly with social networks. And since they have beeen around longer than Lively, the bugs are fewer and far between.

    Although all these applications are still being tested, what you see is a clear step from two dimensional to three dimensional characters changing the way you interact online.

    nJoy 3D World -:)

    Source : IbnLive.com

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