Hasta La Gadget!

This article was written on July 22, 2008 by CyberNet.

A few weeks ago we wrote about a new feature, walking directions, that select people were seeing when using Google Maps. The good news is that Google has apparently unleashed the new feature for anyone that wants to use it, and from what I can tell it works pretty darn good.

When you are getting directions on the Google Maps page you should notice that there are “By car” and “Walking” options located immediately above the directions (pictured above). When it comes to getting walking directions it looks like Google tries to provide the most direct route possible, whereas driving directions try to get you to the destination by using the fastest roads.

The walking directions also adjust the time it will take to get to your destination based upon a reasonable walking speed. I’m not 100% sure what that speed is, but it looks to be about 3 miles per hour (0.05 miles per minute) give or take some. I looked around and 3mph is commonly referred to as the average walking speed for women, and for men it’s normally about 3.5mph. From my calculations Google is using the 3mph for their directions. I tested their walking directions out on paths that I’ve walked before, and the timing is generally pretty accurate.

There’s just one thing that I’m hoping for with this now, and it’s an option on the iPhone to get walking directions using the Google Maps application. This would be very handy when trying to navigate cities and unknown areas on foot.

Thanks Google! I’ll definitely be using these walking directions in the future.

[via Search Engine Land]

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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This article was written on April 01, 2008 by CyberNet.

Last November, Zoho announced that they were adding offline editing support to Zoho Writer using Google Gears. We mentioned how ironic it was that Zoho was using Google’s service (Google Gears) to make the offline editing support available, yet Google still wasn’t offering any type of offline editing or synchronization option for Google Docs. At last, Google has caught up to one of their competitors and they are now offering offline access for Google Docs.

Over the next few weeks, users of Google Docs will start to notice the offline capabilities added to their accounts. Of course just like Zoho, it is powered by Google Gears and users will be able to get access to their documents whether they have an Internet connection or not. When you make a change to a document while offline, the changes are then updated when you connect again, seamlessly. The announcement over at the Google Docs Blog points out how for now, offline access is only available for Docs and not Presentations or Spreadsheets. This leads us to question whether Zoho or Google will be the first to add offline support to their spreadsheet application?

Below is a video from the Google Docs team that explains how this all works:

All in all this is good news. Even Zoho commented about this and how Google’s announcement “illustrates the rapid progress being made in online applications, and how quickly they are emerging as viable competitors to the traditional desktop suites.” By traditional desktop suites, we’re sure they’ve got Microsoft Office in mind. Sridhar Vembu, CEO of Zoho also commented that in this situation, ultimately users are the winners thanks to all of the competition, which is true.

Had Zoho not gone along and implemented the offline functionality first, would Google have pushed as hard as they did to make it available for Google Docs? Another question is what does this mean for Microsoft Office, if anything? We’re doubtful that people will completely stop using Microsoft Office, especially if they already own it in favor of Zoho or Google Docs. A more likely scenario is that users will have a use for both and will use Zoho or Google Docs for some things while using Microsoft Office for others.

There’s no doubt that Zoho and Google Docs are doing well for themselves and provide each other with a little healthy competition.

Note: If you need help figuring out how to bring your Google Docs offline, checkout the Google Docs Help Center.

Thanks for the tip Omar!

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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This article was written on August 01, 2008 by CyberNet.

In the past we have said that it would be nice if Gmail offered the option to create a white list for messages from certain email addresses that should never be sent to the spam folder. We can’t really complain about Gmail’s spam filter because it does a fantastic job catching actual spam, but on occasion it will manage to take a “good” message and put it in the spam folder. If you’re expecting a message, it’s especially frustrating when it gets caught and you don’t think to go check the spam folder. Those days are over because now Gmail has added a new filter option to “Never send it to Spam.”

Here’s how you create a filter with the option to “Never send it to spam”:

1. Log in to your Gmail account and click “settings”
2. Next, click the “filters” tab and click “Create a new filter”
3. Specify the criteria that will be used for determining what to do with a message like who it’s from, who it’s to, the subject, etc. and then click “Next Step”
   
4. Choose your action – this is where you can select the option to never send it to spam. For example, in step three I entered Ryan’s email address in the “from field” and then chose my action to be “Never send it to Spam.” Anytime I receive a message from Ryan, I am now guaranteed that it will never end-up in my spam folder.
   

As Google Blogoscoped points out, we’re not quite sure how long this has been around but it’s definitely something we haven’t noticed before.

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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We’ve known the Android platform was fractured for some time. Stop a handful of Android owners on the street, and odds are at least one of them will be running an out-of-date version of the OS.

But we didn’t know it was this bad.

Santa Barbara-area entrepreneur Michael DeGusta created a chart on Thursday detailing the frequency of OS updates across the myriad devices running the Android software. The results are ugly.

Out of the 18 released Android phones DeGusta surveyed, seven of them haven’t ever run a current version of the Android operating system. It’s as if you were stuck perpetually running an old copy of Windows 98 on your desktop. And nobody wants that.

Further, over half of the devices surveyed stopped receiving support updates from manufacturers less than one year after initial release. Eighty three percent of the devices don’t even run Gingerbread, the most up-to-date version of the Android OS for phones. Gingerbread was released almost one year ago.

To create the chart, DeGusta tracked down every U.S. Android device shipped since 2007 to mid-2010, as well as the frequency of the software updates for each device. He took that information and paired it against the current release of Android at the time, showing which phones were up to date, and which ones weren’t. Green squares represent phones running the current version of Android at that point in time. Yellow, orange and red squares represent phones running versions that are one, two or even three or more versions behind the current one.

The chart details the serious issues device manufacturers face in keeping Android software current on their phones. Chart courtesy of Michael DeGusta

Juxtaposed against that of the iPhone’s version update history, Android’s track record is appalling. All four of the iPhones released in the measured period have been kept up to date on software releases.

Part of the disparity between the two platforms is a sheer numbers game. Apple had only four phones to worry about updating (now five, after the debut of the 4S), while Google — who licenses its Android software out to multiple manufacturers — must now deal with hundreds. Optimizing software integration with the many different specification sets across available Android hardware is an impossible task.

Not to mention the breakneck pace of Android’s software development cycle. In the four years since Android launched, the software underwent nine different software version launches. iOS has undergone half of that.

Take heart, Android users — there’s hope for change yet. At its I/O conference in March, Google and a host of partner manufacturers introduced an initiative which guarantees manufacturers will provide Android software updates to purchased smartphones for a minimum of 18 months.

“Expectations around phones have changed,” said VP of Android engineering Hiroshi Lockheimer when we spoke last week. “It used to be that phones didn’t get upgrades, and industry players are coming from that ‘non-upgrade’ philosophy. We’re trying to build awareness in the industry that things have changed.”

Still having a blast adding people into circles? Well hold on tight, because Mountain View just introduced some worthy upgrades to its social network. First up is a new feature dubbed “What’s Hot” which, much like trending topics on Twitter, highlights popular content being shared on the social network. Photography aficionados in the audience can gussy up snaps with more photo editing features dubbed “Creative Kit”, including a multitude of filters — some of which (for a limited time) pertain to Halloween. And finally, those of you who use Google Apps within an organization can now partake in all the Google+ fun — provided your IT admin isn’t a social networking-hating luddite. Links explaining all that and more await you below, but before you go, why not hop past the break for some vampiric renditions of Larry and Sergey, and a few other celebs.

[Thanks, Rich]

Continue reading Google+ learns about trending topics, photo filters and how to appease Google Apps users

Google+ learns about trending topics, photo filters and how to appease Google Apps users originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 27 Oct 2011 16:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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