This is our 1000th post! Thank you to all of our readers for helping us get this far. It’s proven to be a great experience for us; we hope you find it useful as well. Now back to your regularly scheduled blog post. — Aaron
In the upcoming week, Google is releasing a new feature in Gmail known as Priority Inbox. This tool, an addition to your existing Gmail account, allows email to be sorted according to importance. Google tags the messages of most importance to you (bills, notifications, notes from Mom) and marks them as the first to be read. You decide what is important and can makes changes as you go.
With the school year starting up again for most districts, we wanted to give our teachers a proper welcome back. So, in honor of the new semester, here is a link-happy list we compiled of the most talked about technology news of the summer.
Aaron shared several ways that educators are using iPads. In and out of the classroom, the iPad is a hit. Need textbooks? What about an assessment tool? Look no further than the iPad for a convenient solution.
Facebook added a new feature known as Places. This is a check-in service that uses your GPS location to let friends know where you are. This video from Facebook explains how to customize or opt-out of the service to fit your needs.
Network neutrality (or Internet neutrality) has frequented the news lately in relation to Google and their supposed change of position on the issue. This term refers to preserving the Internet in its current state with no restrictions, as an open network with content equally available to anyone regardless of their Internet provider or payment plan. Net neutrality will fall by the wayside if large corporations start teaming up (such as Google and Verizon) to create a tiered system. This would give Internet providers the ability to filter the content they distribute and require payment plans for differing levels of information.
Everyone loves Google, right? They’ve got the biggest search engine, the best e-mail program, Android phones, a great RSS reader, YouTube, and excellent social networking services. OK, maybe not the last one, but rumor has it they’re working on something. If you’re like some who think that Google’s getting a little big for its britches, though, and would like to explore your non-Google options, here are five services worth checking out:
1. Search: DuckDuckGo
DuckDuckGo is a new search engine that prides itself on its privacy features–read their privacy statement for more details–and “zero-click info,” meaning you can get a ton of information about your query without having to click links for further information. Check out their example query of back to the future or omaha population to see how they pull information from other sources such as Wikipedia (or WolframAlpha) to instantly pull in these data and display them for you, without the need for another click. This is especially useful on a mobile device–DuckDuckGo has a handy iPhone app ready for your next mobile search.
2. Maps: Bing Maps
Bing is Microsoft’s latest attempt to dethrone Google as search champion. They may not have Google beat in numbers, but they’ve got some features that rival or best Google in usefulness. Bing Maps is one such example. The birds-eye imagery is gorgeous, though you’ve got to use Internet Explorer on Windows to use Google Earth-like 3D imagery. Want more functionality? Check out Map Apps to add weather reports, cab fare estimates, and other useful tools to your maps.
3. Video sharing: Vimeo
Vimeo has a lot going for it over YouTube (which, as you may know, is owned by Google): You can upload longer video clips, it’s a much friendlier user community, and it’s less likely to be blocked by school district firewalls. That’s why we use it for our own video sharing needs. Just like YouTube, with Vimeo can upload clips and embed them in blogs and websites. Vimeo’s not the free-for-all that YouTube is–their free level of service is pretty generous, though. If your video sharing needs outgrow their free service, upgrade to Vimeo Plus for 60 bucks a year.
4. Images: Bing Image Search
Back to Bing: Google’s own image search tool had to play catch-up recently and rolled out several new features, but handy tools such as filtering image search results by size, orientation, color, and other factors were already available in Bing Image Search.
5. E-mail:
I personally use Apple’s MobileMe service for e-mail, but it comes at a price of about $100 a year. If you’re looking for a free alternative, check out Fastmail. From what I’ve seen the feature set is on par with that of GMail, and for $5 a year you can use it ad-free.
Whether you are preparing images for a presentation or just curious where that “Untitled-4.jpg” on your desktop came from, there are many free tools to help you out. Here are five of the most useful image services available.
1. Find an image to match your message
When you are looking to reinforce a slide with a visual aid, but not sure where to start, check out Behold. Using computer vision, Behold catalogs its images with categories including Animal, Silhouette, Face, and Night. This allows you to easily find images for any metaphors you can dream up.
2. Find source images
TinEye is an “reverse image search engine”. Instead of searching for a word or phrase, you provide an image and TinEye returns a list of similar images. This list typically includes larger, smaller, cropped, and modified versions of the image you provided. TinEye can be used to track where an image came from, how it is used, and how it has been changed. I have used it myself to find a higher resolution, presentation-ready original when all I have is a thumbnail.
3. Identify fonts
Even if you know nothing of kerning, counterspaces, ligatures, or leading, WhatTheFont can help you figure out what that font that logo is in. After providing an image and confirming which letters are used, WhatTheFont gives you a lineup of typefaces to compare against your original suspect. I find myself referring friends to this tool at least once a month.
4. Avoid retyping
If you are trying to reuse text out of an image without retyping every word in it, try TesseractOCR Mac. Thanks to proven technology and clipboard support, I find it to be both very accurate and easy to use. I use this daily with my computer’s text-to-speech software to give my eyes a well-deserved break.
5. Find similar images
In addition to an improved interface, Google Images can now search for similar images. To use this, hover over any image in your search results page and click the ‘Similar’ link under the image.
I discovered a few days ago that when attaching a document in Gmail, it can simply be dragged and dropped. Instead of attaching a document the old fashioned way (click “Attach a file” and search your computer), just click on your document and drag it over to your email. I believe this is limited to certain Internet browsers, such as Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox 3.6.
Google Apps is the term used to describe customizable Google products (think Gmail, Google Calendar, Talk, Docs and Sites) that can be accessed on one, personalized website.
The Standard Edition is free and offers the same amount of storage as regular Gmail accounts.The Education Edition is also free and combines features from the Standard and Premier editions. The Premier Edition offers additional storage for email and is available for an annual fee.
Additional questions about the Education Edition can be answered in Google’s FAQ section.
Google Apps (Gmail, Docs, Sites, Video, Groups, etc.) are available for anyone to use, for free. A few months ago the Department of Education in Oregon acted as the first state to switch all communication and collaboration tools to Google Apps for use in public schools. On Monday, Colorado and Iowa decided to jump on board as well.
Google Apps for Education allows students to build websites, email teachers, store documents in the cloud (allowing access at home, school, or public library), receive live feedback, and collaborate on projects in real time. Not only is the use of Google Apps helping each state to save millions of dollars, but it also reduces reliance on paper and increases collaboration. Jaime Casap, Google Apps Education Manager, states “It’s critical that students learn how to use the kind of productivity technology they’ll need throughout their lives, and Oregon is helping students across the state do just that.” Google Apps for Education programs are available for K-12 and colleges.
Google also offers a training center to get teachers and students started.
This video is actually a couple of weeks old, but maybe you missed it amid the hubbub of the E3 consumer electronics expo. If television and the web are really on a collision course with one another, Google may be leading the charge with Google TV. This new product/platform for integrating search and online video with traditional broadcast video (think of it as a souped-up TiVO) goes beyond the initial teaser video from last May by showing the ways one would use the system to locate programming, record it, talk about it on social media tools, or generally read more about it online. The narrator uses the keyword entertainment frequently, because that’s what sells, but what about education? Could a system like Google TV expand the reach capabilities of educational content?
Google I/O is an annual conference on web and mobile technologies. The “I/O” moniker has two meanings: Input/Output and Innovation in the Open. The former stems from the intended audience of geeky developer-types; the latter echoes Google’s commitment to the Open Source community.
For users, however, I/O can come off like a bone dry, jargon filled sales pitch. And after last month’s 90+ sessions and 180+ demos, most anyone would be overwhelmed separating the proverbial wheat from the chaff. Here are the five things that have the most potential to impact your life and daily routine:
1. Google TV
Google TV is yet another attempt to integrate TV with the web. What is different here is the number of vital partnerships that Google has made.
Later this year, Best Buy will be selling the first two Google TV products: a Sony HDTV with Google TV already inside it; and a box from Logitech to connect Google TV with any HDTV. After purchase of the hardware, there will be no monthly bills or service fees. No other prices have not been announced.
2. Chrome Web Store
Google Chrome Web Store will bring the almost pleasant experience of a mobile device’s application store to the desktop. Instead of a laborious research/signup/checkout process, one can easily discover and install new web applications; read reviews and ratings of web applications; pay for premium web applications with two clicks.
Better living through three little letters. API stands for Application Programming Interface. APIs are how a piece of software talks with another.
If Google Web Elements are an autograph, then Google APIs are an all-access, backstage pass. They are what allow web developers like myself to leverage Google’s software for our own purposes.
Some of the more interesting ideas and examples presented this year include the following:
Latitude: Thermostats that turn themselves on or off as you come or leave your home.
Prediction: Product recommendations based on the buying patterns of one’s existing customers.
Android: Speaking a phrase (e.g. Where is the hospital?) into your phone and having a computer translation spoken back.
Moderator: Collect ideas, questions, and recommendations from audiences of any size. The White House used this recently for Open For Questions.
Maps: Bicycling directions and fully customizable map styling have been added.
Font: This one could increase the diversity of typefaces on the web.
5. Android 2.2
Android is an operating system for mobile devices, tablet computers and set-top boxes. It is currently developed by an alliance of 60+ companies (including Google, HTC, Samsung, and T-Mobile). While it competes with the iPhone, Blackberry and Windows Mobile operating systems, Android is not as restrictive on what applications can be created and installed on a device.
The latest version (codenamed Froyo, as in frozen yogurt) is noticeably faster; allows apps to auto-update and remotely backup their data and preferences; supports the current version of Adobe Flash; and can create a WiFi hotspot using a phone’s cell connection.
