My favorite app on Android, Gmail, got a significant update today, with full Priority Inbox support, the ability to send from a different address than your native account, and my favorite, the ability to reply to specific bits of text inline. The update is Android 2.2 and up only. To get it, click here from your phone or scan this QR code.
Firefox 4 beta users: the two most popular "Better" Extensions I put together, Better Gmail 2 and Better GReader, are now compatible with the Firefox 4 beta. Download them now. I haven't had much time to dedicate to the Better extensions lately, but I'd love to create Chrome versions as well as get the less-popular siblings up to date (like Better YouTube and Better Flickr). If you've got the time or inclination to help make that happen, let me know in the comments or on the mailing list. Thanks in advance.
This week is the last chance for big companies to make 2010 product announcements before things slow down for the holidays, and Google's not letting the opportunity pass them by. Yesterday they announced the Google eBookstore (here's the Android app) and Gingerbread's flagship handset, the Nexus S, which will be on sale on December 16th. (Nexus One users, the over-the-air Gingerbread update will hit your handset in "the next few weeks.") Today, Google announced the Chrome Web Store and their ChromeOS prototype netbook, the Cr-48. Being a laptop girl who loves her keyboard and hasn't personally fallen for the touchscreen tablet craze (no iPad or Galaxy Tab here yet), the Cr-48 is exciting: full-size keyboard, built-in 3G that's free-to-cheap with reasonable pay-for-what-you-use plans from Verizon so you're always online, pure webapps (no native apps) and no spinning hard drive. Needless to say, I applied to be a tester in the pilot program. The boldest thing Google asserted at today's Chrome event: That you can do ANYTHING in a webapp that you can do in a native app. Truthfully I'm dubious--how do you compile code on the web? Is there a web-based Eclipse?--but I'm willing to give it a try. What did you think of the last bits of 2010 Google goodness? There will be much to discuss on tomorrow's episode of TWiG.
Developer Sarah Mei's most significant contribution to the Diaspora project: changing the "Gender" dropdown to a text field. It pissed off at least one person, who argues the text field is less usable than the dropdown, causes inconvenience to the majority to accomodate the minority, and will make it harder for the software to figure out whether to refer to its users as "he" or "she." Programmer-me sees these points, but human-me knows how alienating it can be when software doesn't allow you to accurately describe yourself. (I often still have to put my name in the "husband" field when filling out forms for married couples.) This is all to say, once more: nice work, Sarah.
I Google places I want to go or need directions to or want to research on my phone constantly, so I'm really digging the newly-launched Google Hotpot, a ratings and recommendations engine for Google Places. Most iPhone-toting tech writers will miss the killer app in this whole product: the Android homescreen widget, which lets you rate the place you are currently in with one tap, no application launch required. The downside to Hotpot's social component is that you have to build a whole new friends list of people whose recommendations you want to see. Gawd, I'm tired of making friends lists. Here's my entire writeup at FastCompany.com: Google Hotpot Powers Local Recommendations (Watch Out, Yelp).
Been using 0Boxer in my Gmail account since it launched a few weeks ago, and damn is it addictive. Here's my writeup of how 0Boxer makes email drudgery fun over at FastCompany.com: 0Boxer Awards Badges, Points for Clearing Away Email.
Hit a big milestone today! We released the first beta of ThinkUp, the PHP/MySQL webapp that archives your social media interactions in a database you control. Download it here.
Following eight alpha releases over the past eight months, I'm so proud that the ThinkUp community and the software product itself has reached beta. The beta represents hundreds of commits by over 20 thoughtful developers scattered across the globe, and countless conversations on the mailing list, in Wave, on Skype, IM, and on GitHub. It's amazing how far ThinkUp's come since its early days as a solo weekend project.
This release includes an easy, three-step installer, multi-user and account support, full search and export of you and your friends' posts (something even Twitter doesn't offer for those of us over the 3,200 tweet limit), the beginnings of Facebook integration, and neat data visualizations courtesy of Google Maps and the Google Charts API.
Here's a quick screenshot tour what what we've been working on in ThinkUp, and how you can get involved with the project.
Congratulations to Kevin for publishing his first book, and to our publisher 3ones for continuing this iterative, collaborative tech book publishing model that we started with The Complete Guide to Google Wave.
I look forward to watching this book evolve as Android does, and also, asking Kevin all my hardest Android questions.
When it comes to storing passwords, I've been a KeePass fan and user for years now, but when Leo Laporte told me he uses LastPass, I had to check it out. I don't love the idea of syncing my password file to a third-party web site--I'm that paranoid--but it is a total pain to cart around my KeePass database file. Now that I've tried LastPass, I'm sold--well, for my lower-security logins, anyway. This week's Work Smart video covers the security vs. convenience tug-of-war you have to put up with when deciding on any password system, and why LastPass is a solid choice.
Google Instant promises to save you up to 5 seconds every time you search the Web, but you'll only see those savings if you know how to take advantage of its new real-time mind-reading. Here are the must-know keyboard shortcuts for zipping your way around Google Instant predictions and results.
Google Instant is rolling out to Google.com now, but it's not available in your browser's search box--yet. (Executives confirm Google is working on that, as well as making Google Instant available on your mobile phone.) So, to get started using Instant, you must visit Google.com in Chrome, Firefox, Safari, or IE 8. Begin typing your search term into the text box as usual, and then:
Tab to auto-complete: As you type your search term, Google Instant fills in text predictions in grey following what you've entered. Press Tab to accept the next word and add it to your search automatically. For example, when you enter fast c, and Google Instant suggests fast company, press Tab to accept the second word. The Tab key in this example saves you 5 keystrokes. (Hit escape to pull back the drop-down.)
Lots of geeks like to spend some time on a three-day weekend doing fun, spare-time coding. If you've been curious about ThinkUp and have a little extra time this Labor Day weekend, come on down! ThinkUp's come a long way so it's easier than ever to dive in, try it out, and experiment.
Here are four ways you can help make ThinkUp better, whether you've got a free 30 minutes or 3 hours this weekend:
Test ThinkUp's new easy installer. Running git, wrangling MySQL scripts, and creating symlinks is no longer required to install ThinkUp. If you've got a web server with PHP and MySQL, we've got a dead-simple web-based installer file that should have you up and running in just a few minutes. Download the latest .zip distribution of ThinkUp, extract it to a web-accessible folder on your web server, load its URL, and go. We need as many people to try out the installer on as many different web hosts and setups as possible, so let us know on the mailing list how your installation went.
Document ThinkUp's new installer. The ThinkUp wiki still has the old, long, scary list of steps required to install the app in it. Dive into the wiki and update the Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux/Dreamhost installation instructions. If you've got screenshots, add those too!
Create new data visualizations. Now that you're running ThinkUp and have a database of all your posts, replies, links, and friends, how do you want to visualize that data? Suggest or build a cool new way to visualize social data inside ThinkUp, like our new Google Map of post replies.
Dive into plugin development. Those of you with more time and experience can help us extend ThinkUp. We made this application an extensible platform, so almost all of its functionality is in the form of plugins, and we need help there. The Twitter plugin could be ported to use the new Site Streams beta. Our Facebook plugin uses the old Facebook Connect instead of the new OpenGraph. We need a Bit.ly and a Google Buzz plugin. If you've got experience with APIs, we need you. Check out ThinkUp's example "Hello ThinkUp" example plugin to get started.
Have a great Labor Day weekend, and we hope to hear from you on the ThinkUp mailing list.
Yesterday on TWiG, Leo and Jeff and I discussed Facebook integration in Ping--Leo didn't know it was there, but looking at the screenshots on Apple's site, before I got the iTunes 10 download, I said it was there. But even though the Ping web page reads "Find even more music fans...by connecting to your Facebook account" right now, Kara Swisher reports that Steve Jobs told her there's no Facebook in Ping because they wanted "onerous terms that we could not agree to." So, I stand corrected. Ping is a completely walled garden.
Hit a big milestone today! We released the first beta of ThinkUp, the PHP/MySQL webapp that archives your social media interactions in a database you control. Download it here.
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