Hasta La Gadget!

Google is bringing the enterprise-friendly elements of its Apps platform into Google+ in order to help businesses collaborate on projects online. The company’s been using the service internally, but feels it’s time to launch, in Google tradition, a “full preview” with a free and open beta that’ll run until the end of 2013. The feature set includes private sharing, admin tools and, most impressively, hangouts directly integrated into Calendar, Gmail and Docs — letting you video chat with multiple colleagues while you draft that project proposal, or resignation letter. Apps chief Clay Bavor hasn’t mentioned how much the service will cost when the preview period finishes, but we’d be surprised if it was much more than what it currently charges if it’s trying to snare the Yammer and Salesforce crowds.

Filed under: Internet

Google offering Google+ for businesses, free until the end of 2013 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 29 Aug 2012 12:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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With Sony’s big IFA press conference out of the way, Samsung is next in line to show off its new (and oft-rumored) wares. That said, it looks like one of the company’s most anticipated products has gotten its share of spotlight ahead of schedule — PocketNow has come into possession of some Galaxy Note II press images, and some technical details to go with them.

First up, the rumors about the screen appear to be true — the new Note indeed sports a 5.5-inch display that runs at 720p, which is a bit of a bummer since the original had a higher resolution (1280×800) panel and higher pixel density to boot. C’est la vie, I suppose. That said, the new model is just a hair thinner than the original, but has put on an extra 2 grams in comparison.

Inside the little behemoth is a 1.6 GHz quad-core chipset of unspecified make (PocketNow thinks its an Exynos, I don’t see how it couldn’t be), and 2GB of RAM. A quick look around the back reveals a standard 8-megapixel camera, while a 1.9-megapixel counterpart sits just to the right of the front speaker. All of those components could make for some sketchy battery life, but the Note II crams a whopping 3,100mAh hour battery into its svelte frame to make sure users can doodle into the wee hours of the morning. Expect to hear about 16, 32, and 64GB variants during the official announcement, as well as LTE-enabled models for certain markets.

In fairness, these sorts of last minute leaks are nothing new for Samsung — half-decent photos and a full spec listing for the Galaxy Nexus appeared online just a half hour before the device was officially unveiled in Hong Kong — but it does put a bit of a damper on Samsung’s show. With any luck, the Korean electronics giant will pull something crazy (like an Android-powered camera) out of its hat to keep us on our toes.

Welcome to Engadget’s back to school guide! The end of summer vacation isn’t nearly as much fun as the weeks that come before, but a chance to update your tech tools likely helps to ease the pain. Today, we have printers on our minds and on our desks — and you can head to the back to school hub to see the rest of the product guides as they’re added throughout the month. Be sure to keep checking back — at the end of the series we’ll be giving away a ton of the gear featured in our guides — and hit up the hub page right here!

It’s safe to say that, at some point, you’ll need to print out a collection of assignments this fall. We’re looking to save the environment just as much as the next set of folks, but physical outputs are still required for a number of things — especially in the realm of academics. Now that WiFi has become a standard option on most ink-to-paper peripherals, the ability to print from mobile devices has become a hot commodity. A number of our selections offer just that, allowing you to get the job started without needing to be in front of a computer. Enough chatter, though… head on past the break to peruse our picks for the back to school season this year.

Continue reading Engadget’s back to school guide 2012: printers

Filed under: Peripherals

Engadget’s back to school guide 2012: printers originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 29 Aug 2012 12:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Despite its age and relatively primitive graphics, Okami is still one of the most beautiful, creative and artful games ever created. If you recall, the games protagonist is a wolf named Amaterasu. One of the other wolves in the game was Shiranui, who tragically dies in battle with the beastly Orochi. Artist Piquipauparro pays tribute to this beautiful and noble creature with what could be the most amazing bit of needle-felting I’ve ever laid eyes on.

This 12″ long, 8″ tall version of the white wolf was handmade from wool and a little bit of wire for structure. It’s incredibly detailed, and includes all of those whispy red streaks and a “fire cloud” mane to make it even more dynamic.

Check out bigger pics of this amazing bit of geek craft over on Piquipauparro’s DeviantArt page, along with some other cool creations as well.

[via Ian Brooks]

Today the Samsung Galaxy Note II appears to have been revealed before its final release time with specifications and high-res images appearing together. This leak comes from PocketNow where they’ve got two different iterations of the Galaxy Note II, one of them blue, the other white. This device will have a 5.5-inch 1280×720 resolution display which will be a massive HD Super AMOLED panel – that’s bright and sharp for certain.

This device will be popping up with a 1.6GHz quad-core CPU more than likely from Samsung itself – Exynos, that is, with 2GB of RAM inside. On the back will be an 8 megapixel camera, the front will have a 1.9 megapixel camera, and the device will be running on a massive 3,100mAh battery. This gigantic battery will not make the device thicker than its predecessor, but it will make it heavier.

This device will be released with a body that’s 9.4mm thin compared to the original 9.65mm body of the original Note. It’s going to be just 2 grams heavier than the first Note, and will be coming in 16, 32, and 64GB iterations. Thus far we have no news on the device coming to the USA nor do we know when it will be available anywhere in the world.

We’ll be seeing final details soon, we’re sure, with the device more than likely appearing later today at IFA 2012. Stay tuned for more information as it pops up!

Galaxy Note II leaked pre-IFA reveal is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
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