Stuart Cummings

Thursday, 11 August 2011

Chromebooks are like fine wine!

(via G+) Chromebooks are like fine wine!

This post from the Google Enterprise Blog about Chromebooks getting better over time brought a wry smile to my face. Why? Because I'd just had to boot up my Windows 7 laptop after it had been unceremoniously rebooted overnight thanks to a MS update, never mind that I had an important process running and now have to start al over again.

http://l.stu.gs/o3M31l

Official Google Enterprise Blog: The computer that keeps getting better...

Monday, 8 August 2011

This tale of a lost and found Android phone on ars technica is fascinating

(via G+) This tale of a lost and found Android phone on ars technica is fascinating and serves as a reminder how much we rely on our tech these days. http://l.stu.gs/pzzjbk

How Plan B found the Droid I was looking for

Thursday, 4 August 2011

Google Apps Blog update

Use new Google spreadsheets charts in your documents and drawings

Posted: 03 Aug 2011 09:00 AM PDT

Today, we're releasing a few new types of charts, plus a feature that allows you to copy your charts from spreadsheets into documents and drawings. Sound good? Bet your bar chart it does. Let's show you how it works.

Start by creating a chart. Then, select the chart by clicking on it once, which will display the chart's name. Click the chart name or the arrow next to it to open the dropdown menu of chart actions. From the menu, select Copy chart.

Next, open the document or drawing where you'd like to insert the chart and position the cursor where you'd like the chart to go. Use the Web Clipboard dropdown menu, as shown below, to locate your copied chart.

As you hover the mouse over the menu item for the chart, a thumbnail will be displayed. Clicking on the chart item will paste it into the document as an image, which can then be resized, aligned, etc. Here's an example of a chart pasted into a document:

Note that the chart snapshots are just that -- they are images of the chart at the time of copying and therefore do not update as the spreadsheet data changes. If you need to update a chart, just copy and paste it again.

The name of the chart shown in the Web Clipboard menu is the same as the chart's name in the spreadsheet, which you can easily change from the default name, "Chart 1." To rename a chart, select Edit chart from the chart's action menu, and enter a new name on the Customize tab. This is particularly handy when working with charts from multiple spreadsheets.

We've also introduced a few new types of charts to Google spreadsheets. We now support candlestick charts and combo charts (which allow you to show columns, lines, and area lines all on the same graph). You can also use the GeoMap chart to insert a data-driven map of the world, a continent, or a country into your spreadsheet. Our TreeMap chart, meanwhile, should be exciting for the statisticians and logicians among you.

We hope this makes creating great documents easy as pie (charts, of course).

Posted by: Ben Margolin, Software Engineer

Calling from Gmail now in 38 languages, with lower rates to over 150 destinations

Posted: 02 Aug 2011 09:01 AM PDT

Posted by Pierre Lebeau, Product Manager

We're always trying to make it easier for people to connect—whether that means sending an email, chatting or video chatting, you can reach the people you care about from right inside Gmail. Last year, we made it possible for those of you in the U.S. to call any mobile phone or landline directly from Gmail and starting today, we are making this available to many more of you who use Gmail outside the U.S. by offering calling in 38 new languages.

You can now buy calling credit in your choice of four currencies (Euros, British pounds, Canadian dollars or U.S. dollars) and there are no connection fees, so you only pay for the time you talk.

To help reduce the cost of staying connected, we're also lowering our calling rates to over 150 destinations around the world. For example, it's now only $0.10 (or €0.08) per minute to call mobile phones in the U.K., France or Germany (landlines are $0.02/min), $0.15/minute to call mobile phones in Mexico and $0.02/min to call any phone number in China and India. The complete list is available on our rates page.

We're rolling out this feature over the next few days, so if it's available in your country you'll see a little green phone icon show up at the top of your chat list and you'll be ready to make calls (you'll need to install the voice and video plug-in if you haven't already). If you're a Google Apps user, your domain administrator must have Google Voice and Google Checkout enabled in the administrator control panel in order to be able to use this feature.

Calls to the U.S. or Canada placed within those countries will continue to be free at least for the rest of 2011. Calls to the U.S. or Canada placed from outside these countries will be charged $0.01 per minute (or €0.01, £0.01, C$0.01 per minute).

Wednesday, 3 August 2011

So that survey about IE users having lower...

So that survey about IE users having lower IQ turned out to be a hoax. The media were quick to jump on it though and are looking a bit sheepish now! Still, it would be interesting to do the survey for real don't you think?

View or comment on Stuart Cummings's post »

*I think I'm going to check out of Foursquare...

I think I'm going to check out of Foursquare.

I've decided that the hassle of checking in at various places just isn't worth it. Sure it was fun for a while to collect points, badges and mayorships, but in the end there's just nothing in it for me.

If I lived in the USA or in a big city where there were loads of special offers it might be worth the effort. Even the joy of being mayor of my local pub has worn off now, so that's it.

I welcome the relief of not trying to outscore friends and being able to appreciate a venue for it's own merits rather than how many points it's worth.

View or comment on Stuart Cummings's post »

Google Apps Blog update

This week in Docs: Copying drawings and better right-to-left table support

Posted: 01 Aug 2011 11:02 AM PDT

This week in Docs, we have a couple of new features that we hope make your life easier (and more visual). Read on.

Copying and pasting drawings across docs
Starting today, we're adding support for the web clipboard to the embedded drawing editor so that you can work with drawings within documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. This means that you can now copy shapes from one document and paste them into existing drawings in another doc. You can also use the web clipboard to move a drawing from a document into the standalone drawing editor.

To try this out, open a new document and go to Insert > Drawing to create a drawing in the embedded drawing editor. Click the web clipboard icon and Copy shapes to web clipboard.

Open another doc that you want to paste the drawing into. Click the web clipboard icon and hover to preview the available items -- then, click to paste when you've located the drawing you'd like to use.

Better support for right-to-left tables
We've also made an improvement to tables that will be useful for Hebrew and Arabic users. If you've enabled right-to-left controls from your docs list settings, you'll now have an option to create tables that are visually right-to-left. This means that the first cell in the table will be in the upper right and that tabbing through the table will move you to the left and down. You can modify a table's directionality from the table properties dialog.

We hope you enjoy these new features. As always, let us know what you think in the forums and stay tuned for more updates in the next This week in Docs blog post.

Posted by: Aharon Lanin, Software Engineer

Sunday, 31 July 2011

Google Apps Blog update

Gmail Snooze with Apps Script
Save your friends from outdated email—help them switch to Gmail
Review your mail forwarding and delegation settings
Your initial feedback on Gmail’s new look

Gmail Snooze with Apps Script

Posted: 29 Jul 2011 12:48 PM PDT

Posted by Corey Goldfeder, Software Engineer

Editor's Note: For a more technical description, see the Google Apps Developer Blog

At Google, we all use email very heavily -- for communicating with other Googlers, for task management, and to mail around funny pictures of kittens. Because of the volume of email we all deal with, a lot of Googlers subscribe to the "inbox zero" philosophy where we try to keep our inboxes empty except for the messages we currently need to deal with.

What is Gmail Snooze?
One feature that some of us really wanted was for Gmail to let you "snooze" an email. Snoozing means archiving an email for now, but having it automatically reappear in the inbox at some specified time in the future. With Apps Script you can extend Gmail to add this functionality and a lot more yourself.

How to set it up
Even if you don't know how to write a script, it's pretty simple. Go to Google Docs and create a new spreadsheet, then choose "Script Editor" from the "Tools" menu. Paste in the following code:


var MARK_UNREAD = false;
var ADD_UNSNOOZED_LABEL = false;

function getLabelName(i) {
  return "Snooze/Snooze " + i + " days";
}

function setup() {
  // Create the labels we'll need for snoozing
  GmailApp.createLabel("Snooze");
  for (var i = 1; i <= 7; ++i) {
    GmailApp.createLabel(getLabelName(i));
  }
  if (ADD_UNSNOOZED_LABEL) {
    GmailApp.createLabel("Unsnoozed");
  }
}

function moveSnoozes() {
  var oldLabel, newLabel, page;
  for (var i = 1; i <= 7; ++i) {
    newLabel = oldLabel;
    oldLabel = GmailApp.getUserLabelByName(getLabelName(i));
    page = null;
    // Get threads in "pages" of 100 at a time
    while(!page || page.length == 100) {
      page = oldLabel.getThreads(0, 100);
      if (page.length > 0) {
        if (newLabel) {
          // Move the threads into "today's" label
          newLabel.addToThreads(page);
        } else {
          // Unless it's time to unsnooze it
          GmailApp.moveThreadsToInbox(page);
          if (MARK_UNREAD) {
            GmailApp.markThreadsUnread(page);
          }
          if (ADD_UNSNOOZED_LABEL) {
            GmailApp.getUserLabelByName("Unsnoozed")
              .addToThreads(page);
          }          
        }     
        // Move the threads out of "yesterday's" label
        oldLabel.removeFromThreads(page);
      }  
    }
  }
}

Then click the "Save" button and give it a name. In the dropdown labeled "Select a function to run," choose "setup" and click the blue run arrow to the left of it. This will ask you to authorize the script, and will create the necessary labels in your Gmail. Then go to the "Triggers" menu and choose "current script's triggers." Click the link to set up a new trigger, choosing the "moveSnoozes" function, a "time-driven" event, "day timer," and then "midnight to 1am." Click save and you're done.

Using the Snooze Label in Gmail
To "snooze" a thread, use Gmail's "Move To" button to move the thread into the "Snooze for X days" label and archive it. Every night, threads will move up through one day of the queue, and at the appointed number of days they will reappear in your inbox, unarchived.

Because this is an Apps Script, you can edit the code any way you like. If you'd like different snooze times or for unsnoozed messages to get starred, you can easily change the code. And if you have an even better idea for how to use Apps Script to improve Gmail, you can post it to our Gallery (Script Editor > Share > Publish Project) to share with the world.

Save your friends from outdated email—help them switch to Gmail

Posted: 27 Jul 2011 01:33 PM PDT

Posted by Peter Harbison, Product Marketing Manager

I switched to Gmail the first month it came out, mere seconds after receiving an invitation from a friend and two years before joining Google. Since then, I've invited hundreds of people, most of whom have happily made the switch to Gmail and never looked back.

But I have one friend, Andy, who's the straggler in the group. A couple months ago, I sent out an email about a barbecue I was having. On the "To:" line, there were 15 Gmail addresses and then Andy. He stuck out like a sore thumb. Shortly thereafter, Andy was complaining to us about how much spam he got. That was the last straw.

My friends and I sat Andy down and talked him through how to import his contacts. We answered his questions, guilt-tripped him a little, and a few painless minutes later we were done. Andy had Gmail.

We all have a story like this. On the Gmail team, we affectionately refer to them as "email interventions." We hear about them all the time: the cousin who finally switched from an embarassing address like hottie6elliot1977 to a more professional elliot.d.smith@gmail.com, a co-worker who helped his dentist switch after he heard her grumble about having to pay for IMAP access, etc.

It's for these folks we created emailintervention.com, a site that makes it easier than ever to help your friends and family make the switch.

Staging an intervention is simple:

Visit emailintervention.com
Sign in and automatically identify who from your contacts has yet to make the switch, or just enter a friend's email address manually
Choose from one of three intervention message templates ("straightforward", "concerned" or " embarrassed"), and add your own intervention video if you'd like
Send a customized email and follow up as needed

Your loved ones are counting on you. Even if they don't know it yet.

Review your mail forwarding and delegation settings

Posted: 26 Jul 2011 02:05 PM PDT

Posted by Saurabh Sharma, Product Manager

A number of Gmail settings are the kinds of things you can set and forget — like mail forwarding and delegation. When I was in college, I used filters to forward bills I received via email to my parents (lucky them!). That was useful for a few years, but not so much now that I've been paying my own bills for a while.

It can be pretty easy to forget about all the settings we've enabled years earlier. So, for about the next week, if you use Gmail's forwarding or delegation features you'll see a message at the top of your inbox each time you sign in. The notice asks you to review your settings and confirm they're still what you want.

If things look right, you're good to go. The message will stop appearing in about a week. If you see any unfamiliar accounts or forwarding setups you no longer need, review your settings and change them as appropriate. Note that any unfamiliar accounts may indicate that your password has been compromised and you should change it immediately.

Your initial feedback on Gmail’s new look

Posted: 25 Jul 2011 03:02 PM PDT

Posted by Mark Striebeck, Engineering Manager

A few weeks ago, we released a preview of Gmail's new look via two new themes. We asked you to try them out and send us your feedback. So far, less than 5% of Gmail usage is happening through these themes, but we're getting some good feedback on what's working and useful advice about what to improve from you early adopters.

What you like

The clean and minimalist look of the new design
Seeing a consistent "look" across Google products

"The new Preview theme is wonderful! It's clean and crisp, easy to read and really focused on the one thing that matters most in Gmail — the mail! Thanks!"

What you want to change

Too much whitespace and not enough information (though interestingly, many people reported that they appreciated to lower information density after a while)
Not enough contrast
Darker theme options

"Even with the 'dense' version, I still have listings of about 30% fewer messages. The lack of visual differentiation between content and UI chrome is also harder to process (e.g., where does the conversation list end and the toolbar begin)."

We're working on improvements for the final release, but it is very encouraging that a visual update like this was generally greeted with such a positive response. If you haven't tried out the new themes yet, give them a go and tell us what you think.