Archive for category Google
And now for something completely different
Posted by orerfireced in Articles, Google, Twitter on March 11th, 2010
Since I’ve been working on Google Reader, I’ve told a lot of my friends about how great it is. And while some of them try Reader and find it really useful, many of them aren’t interested in taking the time to get Reader set up. That’s why today, I’m happy to announce an experimental product from the Google Reader team that makes the best stuff in Reader more accessible for everyone, while giving Reader users a new way to view their feeds. It’s called Google Reader Play, and it’s a new way to browse interesting stuff on the web that’s easy to use and personalized to the things you like. Best of all, there’s no set-up required: visit google.com/reader/play to give it a try.
In Google Reader Play, items are presented one at a time, and each item is big and full-screen. After you’ve read an item, just click the next arrow to move to the next one, or click any item on the filmstrip below to fast-forward. Of course, you can click the title or image of any item to go to the original version. And since so much of the good stuff online is visual, we automatically enlarge images and auto-play videos full-screen.
Reader Play adapts to your tastes — as you browse, you can let us know which stuff you enjoy by clicking the “like” button, and we’ll use that info to show you more items we think you’ll like. If you want, you can also choose categories, and we’ll personalize your stream to only show you stuff from those categories. And you don’t even need a Google account to use Reader Play. Of course, if you want to star, like, or share items, we’ll ask you to sign in to your Google account. Since Reader and Reader Play share the same infrastructure, any actions you take in one will be reflected in the other.
You might be wondering where we find all the awesome stuff in Reader Play. It uses the same technology as the Recommended Items feed in Reader to identify and aggregate the most interesting items on the web. If you sign in, Reader Play will also be personalized with items that people you’re following have shared in Google Reader, and items similar to ones you’ve previously liked, starred, or shared.
Since Reader Play is an experiment, it’s launching in Google Labs for now. To be clear, Reader Play isn’t intended to replace Google Reader: both Google Reader and Reader Play are about finding and reading interesting stuff online. In essense, Reader Play is a different view of Reader. It’s designed to be a fun and easy way to browse interesting items, while Reader is a highly customizable way to organize your feeds, keep track of what you’ve read, and much more. In Reader, you can switch to this view by clicking “View in Reader Play” from the feed settings menu.
Try Reader Play today and let us know what you think. Send us feedback in our forum or on Twitter, and check out our help article for more info.
Read more here:
And now for something completely different
Google Wave Adds Email Notifications [Notifications]
Posted by vosduholov in Articles, Google on March 5th, 2010
Google just turned on email notifications in Wave. That's great news if you've gotten your hands on an invite but haven't kept up with the going-ons inside—easy to do when you're not in the habit of visiting the site.
Using notifications is pretty simple stuff (click the drop-down next to your Inbox to see the dialog pictured above), and the implementation seems smart:
From the Notifications menu, you can select the frequency of your email updates. If you are an infrequent Google Wave user we would recommend the “immediately” setting, but you can change it at any time.
When you’re added to a new wave, or a wave that you are on changes, we’ll send you an email with a short summary of the text and links to go straight to your updated waves. Rest assured, we know waves can change a lot, so we will only send you one notification about a changed wave until you have logged in to look at it (i.e.: if a wave changes 10 times after we send the first notification, we won’t send 10 more emails). Waves you have open also won’t trigger updates.
Maybe you won’t need to run a completely separate Wave notifier to keep up with Wave after all.
Read more here:
Google Wave Adds Email Notifications [Notifications]
Upload and store your files in the cloud with Google Docs
We’re happy to announce that over the next few weeks we will be rolling out the ability to upload, store and organize any type of file in Google Docs. With this change, you’ll be able to upload and access your files from any computer — all you need is an Internet connection.
Instead of emailing files to yourself, which is particularly difficult with large files, you can upload to Google Docs any file up to 250 MB. You’ll have 1 GB of free storage for files you don’t convert into one of the Google Docs formats (i.e. Google documents, spreadsheets, and presentations), and if you need more space, you can buy additional storage for $0.25 per GB per year. This makes it easy to backup more of your key files online, from large graphics and raw photos to unedited home videos taken on your smartphone. You might even be able to replace the USB drive you reserved for those files that are too big to send over email. Read the rest of this entry »
Instant Answers in Google Suggest
Posted by taupAcourorce in Articles, Google on December 12th, 2009
Google’s search suggestions started to include instant answers for Math calculations, unit conversions, currency conversions, weather information, simple facts, local time, package tracking, word definitions and more. That means you no longer have to click the search button and open a new page to see the results: the answers are displayed instantly.
“This kind of information will appear in Suggest either above or below the suggested search terms for a variety of queries. For example, you can type “delta 140″ to see the flight status. You can also quickly discover the current time, figure out how many Euros you’ll get per dollar, or even brush up on metric conversions,” explains Google.
Most Popular How-To Features of 2009 [Best Of 2009]
Posted by vosduholov in Articles, Google, Twitter, apple on December 10th, 2009
We cover a lot of tips every day on Lifehacker, but we get our greatest pleasure from putting together in-depth, step-by-step guides. From Windows 7 to Hackintoshes and beyond, here’s a look back at our most popular how-to features of ‘09.
How to Do Everything with Windows 7
Windows 7 was a huge part of 2009, and the Lifehacker crowd was eager to try it out early on—but not necessarily ready to ditch XP or Vista outright to do so. This guide got you up and running with a Windows 7 and Vista/XP dual-boot system. Once you got it up and running, our complete guide to Windows 7 got you started with the most important parts of tackling your new operating system. We toured Windows 7’s best, most underhyped features, schooled you on its impressive list of cool new shortcuts, and detailed how to pull a little XP mode in Windows 7. It was a pretty good year for Windows users.
How to Build a Hackintosh with Snow Leopard, Start to Finish
The Apple tax is always a little higher than a lot of people are willing to pay, so this year’s guide to building a Hackintosh with Snow Leopard, start to finish, followed up by the simplified guide to install Snow Leopard on your Hackintosh PC, no hacking required made a pretty big splash.
How to Crack a Wi-Fi Network’s WEP Password
Whether you’re verifying the security of your own network or up to something a little more dubious in nature, this guide to cracking a Wi-Fi network’s WEP password with BackTrack—followed by this WEP cracking redux post that took WEP cracking out of the command line realm proved popular.
Google Wave First Look
Google Wave made a serious splash this year, and while a lot of people still aren’t sure how to best put it to use, there’s no doubt that there’s a lot of interesting technology going on there. We did our best to help you understand how you might use it yourself, starting with our Google Wave first look, moving onto a few best use cases for Wave, and rounding it out with a guide to Wave keyboard shortcuts, filters, searches, and more with our Google Wave 101 guide.
Clean Up and Revive Your Bloated, Sluggish Mac
Feel like your Mac isn’t the speedy little box it used to be? Our guide to cleaning up and reviving your bloated, sluggish Mac will get your machine back to running like a champ. (PC users, we’ve got you covered here.)
Prep Your Mac for Snow Leopard
Windows users had the Windows 7 release, Mac users had the Snow Leopard upgrade, and this guide detailed how to prep your Mac for Snow Leopard for a painless transition.
Build a Silent, Standalone XBMC Media Center On the Cheap
The future of home entertainment isn't in your cable box as you know it today—it's in powerful home theater PCs. There was a time when you'd need a big, noisy box next to your computer if you wanted to impress with your HTPC, but this guide to building a silent, standalone XBMC media center on the cheap turns an inexpensive, tiny nettop computer into a standalone XBMC set-top box.
The First-Timer’s Guide to Building a Computer from Scratch
Ever been interested in building your own PC from the bottom up but always been a little scared of rolling up your sleeves with computer hardware? Building a computer from scratch is easier than you think, and it’s also one of the most satisfying projects a tech enthusiast can tackle.
Programmer 101: Teach Yourself How to Code
Whether you just want to do some simple scripting or you want to start down the road to an entirely new skill set, our 101 guide for teaching yourself how to code is a great place to get started.
How to Fix Your Relatives’ Terrible Computer
If you didn't already fix every one of your relatives' computers over Thanksgiving, don't worry—the holidays are quickly approaching, and you know your the resident IT person for your friends and family. Our guide to fixing your relatives’ terrible computer can help.Photo by Justin Marty.
Cut the Cable For Good with Boxee and Apple TV
If our above guide to building a silent, standalone XBMC media center wasn’t quite your bag of chips, consider our step-by-step guide to cutting the cable for good with Boxee and Apple TV. You remember Boxee, right? They’re the killer media center folks who had to fight it out with Hulu all year, and they just updated with an impressive new look and feel. Photo by philcampbell.
Six Ways You Should Be Using Twitter (that Don’t Involve Breakfast)
Twitter may be taking the world by storm, but it’s often- and much-maligned by many of our readers. (47 percent of you say you’d never even use it.) Say what you will about tweeting, but if you’re not using Twitter for at least search, we think you’re missing out.
Properly Erase Your Physical Media
A whopping 40% of the used hard drives on eBay contain easily recoverable personal data. This guide details how to properly erase your physical media when you get rid of anything containing a hard drive so your personal data doesn’t end up in someone else’s hands. Photo by Robert Scoble.
The Definitive Guide to Finding Free Wi-Fi
Spend a lot of time on the road and out of the comfort of your home or office? Our definitive guide to finding free Wi-Fi can help you find some fast internet while you’re out of your home territory. Photo by °Florian.
The Beginner’s Guide to Creating Virtual Machines with VirtualBox
We play around a lot with various pieces of new software and even entire operating systems around these parts. Play it safe or just play around with our beginner’s guide to creating virtual machines with VirtualBox, a free, open-source virtualization tool.
Use Firefox to Fix the Web’s Biggest Annoyances
The web is an amazing place. It can also be an extremely annoying place. Skip the annoying flashing ads, turn off auto-playing movies and sounds, skip the auto-refreshing pages, and more with our guide to fixing the web’s biggest annoyances with Firefox.
How to Build a Web Site from Scratch with No Experience
Ever wanted to try your hand at building a web site you've been dreaming about—but have no experience with web development? We've been there (I was proud to release MixTape.me earlier this year), and this guide for building a web site from scratch with no experience will point you in the right direction.
You’re Backing Up Your Data the Wrong Way
Your data is the most important thing you've got on your computer—in fact, it's everything. If you aren't backing it up correctly, one bad move and all that information—and all those memories—goes the way of the dodo. If you're not sure if you're backing up the right way, this how-to will steer you in the right direction.
Ten Must-Have Gmail Filters Available for Download
If your inbox is overflowing and you feel like you’ve lost control, these 10 must-have Gmail filters will get you started slicing and dicing your inbox into a more manageable place.
An Exhaustive Guide to Saving Your Smartphone’s Battery
If you spend a lot of time outside your home or office, your smartphone is likely your lifeline to the rest of the world. Problem is, your pesky battery can die pretty quickly if you’re not mindful of how you’re using it. Follow our exhaustive guide to saving your smartphone’s battery and you may be able to squeeze a few more hours out of that gadget of yours. Photo by [177].
Make Free VoIP Calls from Google Voice
Soon free-calling functionality may be built into Google Voice (now that Google’s bought Gizmo5), but in the meantime, here’s how you can make free phone calls using Google Voice.
Hack Your Wii for Homebrew without Twilight Princess
If you’ve got a Wii and want to undertake a little homebrew fun, the Twilight Princess hack used to be the only way to go. Not so anymore, and our guide to hacking your Wii for homebrew without Twilight Princess walks you through how to go from zero to homebrew step by step.
Which Is Your Favorite Lifehacker How-To Feature of 2008?(polls)
Got a favorite Lifehacker guide on or off this list that we covered in ‘09? Let’s hear about it in the comments. If you’re feeling nostalgic, you can also gander back at the most popular how-to features of 2008.
Read more here:
Most Popular How-To Features of 2009 [Best Of 2009]
New Google Analytics Snippet Aims to Reduce Page Load Time
Posted by vosduholov in Articles, Google on December 3rd, 2009
Google released a new alternate Analytics snippet. Google writes that “Unlike a traditional installation, asynchronous tracking optimizes how browsers load ga.js so its impact on user experience is minimized. It also allows you to put your Analytics snippet higher in the page without delaying subsequent content from rendering.”
[Thanks Pd!]
[By Philipp Lenssen | Origin: New Google Analytics Snippet Aims to Reduce P ... | Comments]
Which Apps Do You Think Are Missing On Chrome OS?
Posted by Hassan Alsheikh in Articles, Google on November 22nd, 2009
A big target group of Chrome OS may be casual users – e.g. it seems to fit perfectly as operating system on the computers of an internet cafe (not the worst thing for Google, as that’s a place where many young people in many countries may use the internet most of the time). But what if you’re a creator working with your OS to develop software, retouch images, model 3D sceneries, compose songs, or cut videos? What about playing 3D games? The cloud already offers many apps like calendars, photo and video storage, spreadsheets, text editing and so on. But what are some of the more power hungry apps for which you haven’t yet found a good replacement in a web-based app? If you’d want to switch to Google Chrome OS in a year, what pieces of the puzzle are still missing for you?
On a related note, below is a demo video of Google Chrome OS. [Via Waxy]
[By Philipp Lenssen | Origin: Which Apps Do You Think Are Missing On Chrome ... | Comments]
Google’s Gizmo5 Acquisition Official Now
Posted by Deniparfos in Articles, Google on November 13th, 2009
TechCrunch had reported it recently and now it’s made official: Google has acquired Skype competitor Gizmo5. “[W]e’ve acquired Gizmo5, a company that provides Internet-based calling software for mobile phones and computers,” the Google Voice blog writes. “Gizmo5’s engineers will be joining the Google Voice team to continue improving the Google Voice and Gizmo5 experience. Current Gizmo5 users will still be able to use the service, though we will be suspending new signups for the time being”.
TechCrunch wrote, “Google Voice is a great VoIP and phone identity service, but they have no endpoint for calls. Gizmo5, which by the way already integrates with Google Voice, is a soft phone end point for Google phone users. In other words, you will be able to make and receive calls to your Google Voice phone number from your computer.”
[Thanks James Xuan!]
[By Philipp Lenssen | Origin: Google's Gizmo5 Acquisition Official Now | Comments]
VMWare Fusion 3 Makes Running Windows on Mac Almost Fun
Posted by howlPholveled in Articles, Google, apple, microsoft on October 6th, 2009
As we pointed out yesterday, more and more Americans are buying Macs, but going to the iSide doesn’t always mean you can leave Windows behind. Since 2006, every Mac that Apple sells has also had the ability to run Windows using Boot Camp.
However, for most users, the best way of using Windows on a Mac is using a virtualization program like VMWare Fusion, Parallels, or Virtual Box. These programs let you run Windows alongside Mac OS X all on the same machine. Read the rest of this entry »
Have You Gotten Your Google Wave Invite? [Reader Poll]
Posted by LoMaxamanPills in Articles, Google on October 6th, 2009
It’s been almost a week since Google Wave went live; we’ve toured Wave inside and out, tried to help folks get invites, and even pointed you to the first Google Wave search you should know. But can you use it yet?
Did You Get a Wave Invite?(polls)
So far the only people I know who’ve received their invites were people who were in the dev preview, people who were invited by someone at Google, and the rest of those who were part of the very early 100,000 invite pool. Which is to say, I don’t believe that anyone who’s been invited by another Wave user has gotten their invitation yet. I quickly sent out my Wave invites to my fellow Lifehacker editors as soon as I was in, but as of now none of them have received an invitation.
If you’ve gotten your Wave invite—especially if you were invited by someone who gained access to Wave just last week—tell us about it in the comments.