Smarterware » Software

The “Only If We’re Offline Friends” Rule

Gina Trapani — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 22:51:35 +0000

I'm active on a LOT of social/sharing webapps: Twitter, Flickr, Foursquare, Tumblr, and to a lesser degree, FriendFeed, Delicious and Buzz. While most of my posts are public and open to everyone, on Foursquare and Facebook*, I only accept friend requests from people who I know and hang out with offline. Still, I feel bad refusing friend requests from people who listen to TWiG or read Lifehacker or this blog simply because I don't know them. What I really want, on every social network, is an optional friend request auto-responder, so that I could make it read, "You seem nice and I'm glad you want to be friends with me, but I only accept friend requests/follow back people I know offline. Sorry." (My Facebook page is open to the public, it's my personal profile that's offline-friends-only.)

(Updated) How to Transfer Google Voice to Your Google Apps Account

Gina Trapani — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 23:42:08 +0000

Update: Google Voice product manager Craig Walker confirms that the Apps transfer is NOT supported right now, and that it was only done for a small group of testers. Sorry, all. The good news? He says there will be a way to transfer your Voice account to Google Apps once the new GApps features that are being tested right now launch. In the meantime, I'm removing the link to the request form from this post.

Update: After I published this post, Google added very strong language to that form insisting that transfers to GApps accounts are NOT SUPPORTED (caps theirs). I'm not sure why it worked for Dustin and myself. Your mileage may vary.

Even though this request form says it doesn't work for Google Apps accounts, I can confirm that Google is transferring Google Voice from regular Google accounts to Google Apps accounts right now. Thanks to a comment by reader Dustin Boston, I gave it a try this afternoon and within the hour, my Google Voice number, texts, and voicemail was ported to my Google Apps account. If you try this, a couple of things to know:

You'll have to enter your 4-digit PIN into the request form. I forgot mine, had to reset it, got it wrong the first time, got a message saying so, reset it again, and then all worked. Write down your PIN. It's only 4 digits.
You'll have to re-record your Google Voice name and greeting(s). They don't get ported.
I maintain an Apps contact list, so this didn't really affect me, but Dustin recommends exporting your Google account contacts before the transfer so you can import them into your Voice account.

Here's the form to request the transfer [removed]. Even though it does say it doesn't work for Google Apps accounts, it did work for Dustin and myself.

This Week in Google, Episode 51

Gina Trapani — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 23:10:55 +0000

Leo, Jeff and I jawed about the new Android App Inventor, Picnik in Picasa, mobile local search, my 23andme results, and iPhone 4 in this week's episode. My tip of the week: setting up a rich text signature in Gmail.

Buy The Complete Guide to Google Wave, Get the Ebook Free

Gina Trapani — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 16:29:45 +0000

Copies of The Complete Guide to Google Wave have been selling like hotcakes, and unsurprisingly, the ebook has moved a lot faster than the print version. We've still got a stack of full-color, hold-in-your-hand paperback books just dying for a home, so we've got a special deal: if you buy the paperback book for $25, you'll get the ebook free, emailed to you on the spot for instant gratification while you wait for the softcover to arrive at your door.

The electronic version of the book is now available as both a PDF and an ePub file; you'll get both when you buy the paperback. We're also happy to announce that The Complete Guide to Google Wave is now officially available in the Kindle store, no awkward PDF-to-Kindle conversions required.

Best of all, thanks to a partnership with a local charity, when you buy a copy of the paperback book, you're helping to employ developmentally disabled adults here in San Diego. Meet the folks who will fulfill your order when you buy the book, thanks to NBC San Diego:

PWI is a fantastic organization and we're so happy to partner with them in this indie publishing venture. Thanks so much for supporting me, Adam, and the great folks at PWI when you buy a copy of the book.

The Complete Guide to Google Wave

This Week in Google, Episode 50

Gina Trapani — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 00:24:09 +0000

Jeff and Leo and I chatted about Droid X, Prince, Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) and the iPhone 4 in our latest episode of TWiG. Also, listeners are helping send an Android phone into space! My tip this week: Chrome to Phone, which pushes your open Chrome tabs to your phone with the click of a button, for browsing on the go.

Google Apps vs. Google Accounts Parity Coming

Gina Trapani — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 21:02:00 +0000

Google Apps users who want access to all the same products that regular Google Accounts have won't have to wait much longer. An anonymous tipster tells me a Google Trusted Tester program is underway right now, which "transitions" Google Apps accounts to full access to all GOOG products, including Voice, Reader, Buzz, Analytics, and more. Here's the official Help page which includes a visualization of the transition, in the screenshot here. (Here's a PDF, in case they pull access to the link.)

On this week's episode of TWiG, Leo, Jeff, and I were hoping aloud that there would be some way to merge existing Google/Apps accounts into one. It doesn't look like that will be possible. However, if you have a Google account that "conflicts" with your Apps account because you've assigned the same email address to both, GOOG will resolve the conflict by adding a +personal to your regular account's sign-in address. Stay with me here.

Here's what that means. If you have a Google account for sue@example.com as well as a Google Apps account for sue@example.com, after the transition you'll still be able to sign into your Google account using sue+personal@example.com. It's a bit confusing, and a little more work than the one-click account merge we'd hoped for. However, thanks in large part to Google's internal Data Liberation Front, many of Google's tools offer data export features. So, while it'll take some time, it shouldn't be difficult to export your data from your Google account and import it into your Google Apps account after this transition is done.

The only product I'm worried about? Google Voice. Since it's got my primary phone number associated with it, transitioning it from my Google account to my Google Apps account won't be a simple data export/import operation. I hope I'll be able to port my Voice number from my original account to my Google Apps account when all this goes down. No word on when exactly that will be, but the fact that it's in Trusted Tester phase means "pretty dang soon."

Update: Hooray!! You can currently request to port your Google Voice account to another Google account (though not a Google Apps account--yet?) Thanks, programzeta!

About the conversion: A visualization on what's changing [Google Accounts Help]

Froyo Over-The-Air Updates Hit Nexus Ones This Week

Gina Trapani — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 16:17:16 +0000

If you've got a Nexus One and have been patiently waiting for the OTA update to Android 2.2, this week's your week. Google says you'll get a notification by the end of the week for the update to 2.2. My sources tell me you'll get it even if you manually installed Froyo, as the official OTA version is a different build number. Here's the good stuff you get in Froyo; no word yet on other handsets.

The Software Buttons You Love Pushing

Gina Trapani — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 23:05:55 +0000

Spent several hours running around town doing tedious errands the other day in neighborhoods I don't know well, so I was thrilled to finally tap the "Navigate To->Home" button on my GPS when I was done. It got me wondering: what are the software buttons you just can't help but love to tap, click, or press? An informal poll on Twitter unearthed a bunch of good ones: your email's Out of Office "Enable" button, "End Call," "Mark All as Read," the power button, "Install Updates," The "OK" button next to "Deposit $xxxx?" ATM prompt, and "Done" on your to-do list. What else? The full list of replies I got are inside. Twitter replies

No replies found for status 16879783241.

Google Voice Open in the U.S.

Gina Trapani — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 17:32:45 +0000

Previously invitation-only Google Voice just opened to everyone in the U.S., offering free text messaging, multi-phone management, and voicemail features which, after more than a year of exclusive use, I couldn't live without. The three things I do on my mobile phone most--text, call, and check email--are powered entirely by Google at this point with Voice, Gmail, and Android. The Gmail/GVoice experience on Android is the main thing that leaves me cold when I look at an iPhone. It's just not as good. Here's more on how Google Voice makes the phone less loathsome (similar to how Gmail made email workable).

Android Tip: Swipe Up to Extend the Keyboard

Gina Trapani — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 00:31:51 +0000

Commenter seguetonowhere points out a useful Android keyboard feature I missed in my original Froyo rundown: if you swipe your finger over the top of the Android 2.2 default keyboard, it will extend two more rows out and show you keys for common punctuation and numbers. Click on the thumbnail to see the expanded keyboard.

This is a faster way to punctuate and/or add numbers than tapping the ?123 key or tap-and-holding the period key. However, as seguetonowhere points out, parentheses aren't included on the two extra rows of keys in the extension.

It took me a few tries to get the swiping motion just right, and this doesn't work with my favorite alternative swipey keyboard ShapeWriter/Swype/SlideIT. But definitely a must-know for Froyo users who use the default keyboard.

Other keyboard shortcuts: You can swipe to start voice input, configure multiple languages and swipe across the Spacebar to switch between them, tap and hold the dot and .com keys to reveal more choices (like .org, .net, .tv), and tap and hold the : -) key to choose from other emoticons, too.

Thanks, seguetonowhere!