Hasta La Gadget!

We know you’ve got questions, and if you’re brave enough to ask the world for answers, here’s the outlet to do so. This week’s Ask Engadget inquiry is coming to us from Ellio, who needs to control his wayward address book with something a little more useful than Gmail. If you’re looking to send in an inquiry of your own, drop us a line at ask [at] engadget [dawt] com.

“Hi there. I love Ask Engadget and I’ve got a problem I hope you can help with. I run my own business and deal with thousands of contacts on a regular basis. I need a more efficient way of cataloging their contact details than Gmail contacts or my OS X address book — since I’d like to be able to tag-search for people who work for the same company or in the same industry. Friends have suggested using a spreadsheet, but I’m sure someone’s invented a more efficient method than that, so any pointers you can give would be amazing, thanks!”

With a small army of contacts we have to marshall on a regular basis, we feel your pain Ellio. We’ve heard some things about Flexadex, but many of our staffers just muddle on through with Gmail. That’s why we’ll open the floor to our beautiful and clever commenters to find out what they use on a regular basis.

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Ask Engadget: best online rolodex? originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 08 Sep 2012 23:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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With a number of business “going Google,” the massive search company has launched the first set of Google+ features for businesses. With this “initial set” of features now available, Google is letting all Google Apps customers get an early look at them in a “full preview mode.” This preview allows businesses already using Google Apps to try out these Google+ features through the end of 2013 for free, with Google working to improve its offerings during that time.

There are three features Google is focusing on with this initial offering. The first is giving Google+ users the ability to share posts only with the other people in their organization. This means that users can share information with everyone else at their workplace quickly, without the worry that users in their other Google+ circles will see what they’re posting.

The second feature Google is focusing on is Gmail, Calendar and Docs integration with Hangouts. When a video meeting is initiated through Google Hangouts, users have the option of sharing a Google Doc with the rest of the people in the meeting, allowing “colleagues to write or edit a document together from anywhere.” Users can also join a Hangout directly from Gmail, and with today’s roll out, users can add a Hangout to Google Calendar and join the meeting straight from the Calendar entry.

Finally, Google has included a number of administrative features, allowing companies to set defaults for post restrictions for the entire company, or set up restrictions for Hangouts to facilitate private meetings within the company. Google will be rolling out these new features throughout the day, and promises more – including a mobile app – for the coming months. It will also be improving the offered features and adding new ones throughout this preview process. Stay tuned.

[via Google Enterprise Blog]

Google launches new Google+ features for businesses is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

E-mail isn’t typically known for generating the kind of rabid adoption that you see with, say, smartphones. Microsoft, then, may have some room to brag when Outlook.com produces similar numbers. Tucked in amidst news of the finished SkyDrive app remake is word that the new webmail service already has 10 million members in its first two weeks of action. That’s fast when you put it in the context of Gmail’s slow but steady growth, although the boasting doesn’t tell the whole story. As many with Hotmail spam addresses can attest, there’s a difference between signing up and becoming an active user. We wouldn’t be shocked if some of that 10 million was part of an early gold rush for the best names — no one wants to be stuck with janesmith197904, after all.

Filed under: Internet

Outlook.com hits 10 million users in just two weeks, gives webmail a kickstart originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 14 Aug 2012 18:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Welcome to Thursday folks, just one more work day before arriving at the weekend. Today we had next to nothing about the Apple vs. Samsung trial, except for the news that a similar South Korean trial has been frozen for fear of it becoming too similar to the one being held here in the US. The lack of Apple vs. Samsung news leaves room for far more interesting things, however, like space! The Curiosity rover sent back a color panoramic shot of the surface of Mars along with its first full resolution image, and it’s a pretty awesome sight. Sadly, it wasn’t all exciting news for NASA today, as the Morpheus moon lander failed during a flight test and exploded into flames. Luckily no one was hurt, but this is still a pretty big setback for the folks at NASA.

OUYA’s Kickstarter campaign wrapped up early this morning, and if you missed your chance to pledge, you’ll be pleased to know that the Android-based console is available for pre-order starting today. Google was hit with the largest FTC fine in history today over its breach of Apple’s Safari browser, and we tell you why Google’s new Gmail Search feature won’t result in your more private emails being shown to everyone in view of your computer screen. The Google Translate app for Android added image translation functionality today, and the makers of Cyanogenmod 9 have officially released the stable version for the Galaxy Nexus.

Apple Stores will now price match on the iPhone 4 and all models of the iPhone 4S, and a new Microsoft job listing seems to suggest that the next Xbox will be arriving within the next 18 months. The ASUS Transformer Pad TF300TL may be launching with 4G LTE capabilities in Germany and Austria within the month, Samsung has unsurprisingly denied any interest in acquiring RIM once again, and the Sony Xperia tablet suffered yet another leak today. Finally, the international community is considering outlawing cyber-attacks in times of war, the Nikon 1 J2 camera became official (and subsequently became available for pre-order), and HTC may be announcing a Windows Phone 8 device next month, so keep an eye out for more news on that.

As is typically the case, we’ve also got a handful of original articles for you to peruse this evening, with Chris Davies examining the problems with Windows 8 tablets, and providing a warning to those who think that they’re actually purchasing a product when they pledge money to a Kickstarter. Chris Burns has a review of the new Samsung Galaxy Beam, and he also goes hands-on with Google’s official Nexus 7 cover, so be sure to have a look at those. Enjoy the rest of your evening, everyone!

SlashGear Evening Wrap-Up: August 9, 2012 is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

During the course of the small event held in San Francisco today, Google’s Sagar Kamdar, Director of Product Management and Universal Search, took the stage and talked about the idea of including Gmail in Google searches. Kamdar pointed out that email is a natural extension for Google. “Gmail is almost larger than our web corpus and it continues to grow.” he said. Apparently Google is already experimenting with the functionality, and you can even get an early access to the field trial before it goes live.

Gmail in personal search results allows users to find email messages relevant to your search as well as contacts with their previous email. Google said that there’s also an enhanced flight tracking feature that basically allows you to get information and statuses for your flights. The trial is only available for users with Gmail accounts. If you’re interested, you can try it out here.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Hangouts on Gmail allows you to launch face-to-face-to-face chats, Google launches Gmail SMS in Africa, lets you forward emails as text messages,