Google doodles especially for your phone

While we’ve had oodles of Google doodles on our desktop homepage since Larry and Sergey created our very first in 1998, doodles on our mobile homepage have been few and far between. Today, we’re happy to announce that we’re bringing more doodles to your phone, beginning with Android 2.0+ and iOS 3+ devices worldwide. In fact, almost all of the doodles we show on our desktop homepage will now have corresponding mobile versions on these phones. When the doodles are available, just go to google.com in your mobile browser to see them.



Source: Google Blog

Optional attendees in Google Calendar

Time is one of our most precious resources. Despite their necessity, meetings tend to vary in importance for different attendees. John might be really interested in his team’s weekly meeting, whereas Jane, who is working on a unrelated project, may want to skip it.

Guests’ roles in meetings tend to vary as well. Some people have to be there to lead the meeting or help make decisions, whereas others are gathering information they may be able to digest just as well via the notes. Without knowing which attendees are crucial and which are optional, it can be difficult to know which meetings you really need to attend.

That’s where Google Calendar’s new “Optional attendees” feature comes in. With a couple clicks, you can openly communicate the importance of a meeting for each attendee. Click on the “Make some attendees optional link” above the guest list and then toggle the role of each attendee by clicking the icon next to his or her name. So far, this feature has helped us more effectively manage our own time on the Calendar team — we hope it does the same for you.



Source: Gmail Blog

New in Labs: Recently used emoji

When we added emoticons in Gmail, you responded with a nice big smile , but then you asked for more. So we added hundreds more emoticons through Gmail Labs. “But alas!” you cried. “How can I ever keep up with so many different choices? I am overwhelmed by the sheer immensity of emotion , amusement , and cute animals that Gmail has to offer." Well, don’t despair, fine purveyor of emoticons. There is now a solution: “Recently Used Emoji” in Gmail Labs, which keeps track of the ten most recent emoticons you’ve used, and saves them for easy access. To turn it on, just visit the Labs tab of Gmail Settings.



No more searching through dozens of cat faces for the one that says, “I miss you, but I’m still ambivalent about our weekend plans.” You can now triumph over the plethora of emoticons, and easily add a pile of emotion to any email that you choose — let us know how it goes.

Source: Gmail Blog

Introducing Google Earth Engine

A planetary-scale platform for environmental data & analysis.

Google Earth Engine brings together the world's satellite imagery—trillions of scientific measurements dating back more than 25 years—and makes it available online with tools for scientists, independent researchers, and nations to mine this massive warehouse of data to detect changes, map trends and quantify differences to the earth's surface.

Using this new tool, we've already begun helping scientists develop applications for detecting deforestation and mapping land use trends, and have started working with individual countries to develop their own applications.

View product videos or our Map Gallery to learn more or visit the Data Catalog to get started. Certain features, such as data download, are restricted to members of our trusted tester program.



Source:
Google Earth Engine
Google Blog

Send a Call From Santa

Growing up, December was always a favorite month of mine. School would let out for two weeks, snowflakes would start falling and I’d write my letter to Santa to remind him that I’d been especially good that year (and ask if he’d mind bringing me a few Ninja Turtles). He never answered those letters—he’s a busy guy, after all—but what if he could pick up the phone and call me instead? What if Santa had Google Voice and could easily call all the kids on his list?

Well, this year he can—with your help. If you know a kid (of any age) who’d like to hear from Santa, create and send a personalized phone call from the jolly man in the red suit himself at sendacallfromsanta.com.

There are hundreds of options to choose from, so you can send unique, customized phone calls to anyone you know, from your nieces and nephews to old college friends, over the phone (to U.S. numbers only) or via email, Facebook or Twitter.

If you or your kids have a special request or message for Santa, you can leave him a message at his Google Voice number: 855-34-SANTA. Although he’s too busy to return messages himself, you can always create one on his behalf at the Send a Call From Santa site.

Ready to spread some holiday cheer? Listen to a sample message, and visit sendacallfromsanta.com to send a message of your own.

And don’t forget—if you want to keep up with Santa as he travels around the globe delivering presents on Christmas Eve, you can track his journey on Google Maps, on Google Earth with the plug-in and on your mobile phone, too.

Source:
Google Blog
Send a Call From Santa

Google Voice

Teach your phone new tricks
Google Voice enhances the existing capabilities of your phone, regardless of which phone or carrier you have - for free. It also gives you:

• One Number
Use a single number that rings you anywhere.


• Online voicemail
Get transcribed messages delivered to your inbox.


• Cheap calls
Free calls & text messages to the U.S. & Canada. Super low rates everywhere else.


Google Voice is a telecommunications service by Google launched on March 11, 2009. A mistakenly-filed FCC report from October 2009 indicated that Google Voice had some 1.4 million users, 570,000 of which used the service 7 days a week. This has been confirmed by Google.

The service is configured and maintained by the user in a web-based application, styled after Google's e-mail service, Gmail. Google Voice currently provides free PC to PC voice (and, optionally, also video) calling worldwide. In addition, free PC to phone calls are currently available into North America (this service will remain free at least until the end of 2010).

Source:

• Google Voice


• Wikipedia

Kinect for Xbox 360

Kinect for Xbox 360, or simply Kinect (originally known by the code name Project Natal), is a "controller-free gaming and entertainment experience" by Microsoft for the Xbox 360 video game platform, and may later be supported by PCs via Windows 8. Based around a webcam-style add-on peripheral for the Xbox 360 console, it enables users to control and interact with the Xbox 360 without the need to touch a game controller, through a natural user interface using gestures, spoken commands, or presented objects and images. The project is aimed at broadening the Xbox 360's audience beyond its typical gamer base. Kinect competes with the Wii Remote with Wii MotionPlus and PlayStation Move & PlayStation Eye motion control systems for the Wii and PlayStation 3 home consoles, respectively.

Kinect was launched in North America on November 4, 2010, in Europe on November 10, 2010, and in Australia, New Zealand and Singapore on November 18, 2010. It was released in Japan on November 20, 2010. Purchase options for the sensor peripheral will include a bundle with the game Kinect Adventures and console bundles with either a 4 GB or 250 GB Xbox 360 console and Kinect Adventures.



Source:
Wikipedia
Xbox.com

Manned mission to Mars

Concept for NASA Design Reference Mission Architecture 5.0 (2009)

A manned mission to Mars has been the subject of science fiction, engineering, and scientific proposals throughout the 20th century and into the 21st century. The plans comprise proposals not only to land on, but eventually also settle the planet Mars, its moons, Phobos & Deimos and terraform the planet.

Preliminary work for missions has been undertaken since the 1950s, with planned missions typically taking place 10 to 30 years in the future. The list of manned Mars mission plans in the 20th century shows the various mission proposals that have been put forth by multiple organizations and space agencies in this field of space exploration.

In 2004 the U.S. administration announced a new Vision for Space Exploration naming a manned Mars mission as one of its milestones. No concrete plan has been decided upon, and the proposal is currently being discussed between politicians, scientists, space advocates and in the public. In 2010, a new bill was signed allowing for a manned Mars mission by the 2030s.

Source:
Wikipedia
NASA - Mars Exploration Program
NASA - Manned mssion to Mars in 2019

Windows 8

A roadmap timeline slide shown by Microsoft at the 2009 Professional Developers Conference shows that a product code-named Windows 8 is scheduled to be released sometime between 2011 (Beta) and 2012. Development and other aspects of Windows 8 have not been detailed in public, although job listings have mentioned improved functionality for file access in branch offices.

A Microsoft KB article confirmed that Windows 8 is the next version of Windows. The article has now been changed to remove references to Windows 8.

A leaked document from Microsoft indicates that Windows 8 might feature faster startup, an App Store, integrated web applications, improved digital media support (including AVC HD and 3D video), faster resumes from low-power states, and USB 3.0 and Bluetooth 3.0 support.[16][17] Windows 8 is likely to include facial recognition (due to the increase of webcams that are integrated into computers and its latest add-on to its Xbox 360 console, Kinect).

A Dutch representative posted on the company's blog that Microsoft is working on the next edition of Windows and that "it will take about two years before Windows 8 will be on the market".

Steve Ballmer hinted at UK Tech Days that Windows 8 will feature major improvements for touch usage.

On October 22, 2010, Ballmer stated that "the next generation of Windows, would be the riskiest product Microsoft ever made" but he did not add any details on why Windows 8 will be the "riskiest product". Also, some articles claim that Windows 8 has been renamed Windows Next. However, this has not been confirmed yet.




Source:
Wikipedia
Windows 8 Beta
Windows 8 News

Google over IPv6

Access Google services over IPv6

At Google, we believe that IPv6 is essential to the continued health and openness of the Internet – and that by allowing all devices on a network to talk to each other directly, IPv6 will enable innovation and allow the Internet's continued growth. Typical Google users do not need to do anything to prepare for IPv6, but we are working with network operators to support the transition.

In March 2008, we began offering Google search over IPv6 on IPv6-only websites like ipv6.google.com (IPv6 connection required), but other Google products were not generally available over IPv6.

That's why we created Google over IPv6. If you operate a network that supports IPv6, we may be able to enable Google over IPv6, letting you give users seamless access to most Google services over IPv6 simply by going to the same websites they usually use, such as www.google.com.

How it works

Google over IPv6 uses the IPv4 address of your DNS resolver to determine whether a network is IPv6-capable. If you enable Google over IPv6 for your resolver, IPv6 users of that resolver will receive AAAA records for IPv6-enabled Google services.

Normally, if a DNS resolver requests an IPv6 address for a Google web site, it will not receive one… …but a DNS resolver with Google over IPv6 will receive an IPv6 address, and its users will be able to connect to Google web sites using IPv6.

How to get started using Google over IPv6

To qualify for Google over IPv6, your network must meet a number of requirements. These include:

• Low latency, redundant paths to Google using direct peering or reliable transit


• Production-quality IPv6 support and reliability


• Separate DNS servers for your IPv6 users (not shared with IPv4-only users)


• Users who have opted in to IPv6 services and know how to opt out if they experience problems with Google services

If your network meets these requirements and you'd like to receive Google over IPv6, please see our FAQ for how to request access.
Source: Google

IPv6 - Internet Protocol Version 6

Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) is a version of the Internet Protocol that is designed to succeed Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4). IPv4 was the first publicly used Internet Protocol and has been in operation since 1981.

IPv6 is an Internet Layer protocol for packet-switched internetworking and provides an end-to-end datagram delivery service. The main driving force for the redesign of Internet Protocol was the foreseeable IPv4 address exhaustion. IPv6 was developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), and is described in Internet standard document RFC 2460, published in December 1998.

IPv6 uses a 128-bit address, whereas IPv4 uses only 32 bits (2^32 addresses). The new address space supports 2^128 (about 3.4×10^38) addresses. This expansion provides considerable flexibility in allocating addresses and routing traffic. It also eliminates the primary need for network address translation (NAT), which gained widespread deployment as an effort to alleviate IPv4 address exhaustion.
Source: Wikipedia

Introducing the Nokia N8

The Nokia N8 is the Nokia's first camera phone to have a 12 megapixel sensor and Nokia's first smartphone to run on the Symbian^3 operating system.

The Nokia N8 smartphone was made available at the official Nokia Online Store on September 23, 2010 and was released in select markets on October 1, 2010. The N8 became the product with the most amount of customer pre-orders in Nokia's history up to the point of its release.



Source:
Nokia N8
Wikipedia

View Thumbnails on Google search results - Xmarks Thumbnails

Xmarks Thumbnails adds preview images to your Google and Bing search results. See a thumbnail preview for each web site before you click. Works on Google and Bing search results in all countries. You'll also notice that Thumbnails adds more info to the search results, showing you what a site is about and how it ranks in its category.

Xmarks Thumbnails add-on is available for Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and Internet Explorer.
Source: Xmarks Thumbnails

Joomla

Joomla is a free and open source content management system (CMS) for publishing content on the World Wide Web and intranets. It comprises a model–view–controller (MVC) Web application framework that can also be used independently.

Joomla is written in PHP, uses object-oriented programming (OOP) techniques and software design patterns, stores data in a MySQL database, and includes features such as page caching, RSS feeds, printable versions of pages, news flashes, blogs, polls, search, and support for language internationalization.

Within its first year of release, Joomla had been downloaded 2.5 million times. There are over 6,000 free and commercial plug-ins available from the official Joomla! Extension Directory and more available from other sources.

Source:
Joomla.org
About Joomla
Wikipedia

G.hn Technology - ITU-T Home networking

G.hn is the common name for a home network technology standard being developed under the International Telecommunication Union (ITU-T) and promoted by the HomeGrid Forum and several other organizations. It supports networking over power lines, phone lines and coaxial cables with data rates up to 1 Gbit/s.

ITU Recommendation G.9960, which received Approval on Oct 9th 2009, specifies the Physical Layer and the architecture of G.hn. The Data Link Layer (Recommendation G.9961) was approved on June 11, 2010. The work was done in the ITU-T Telecommunication Standardization Sector, Study Group 15, Question 4. Over 20 companies participated regularly, representing a broad cross section of the communications industry including some of the world's largest telephone companies, major communication equipment companies, and some of the leading home networking technology companies.

Source:
Wikipedia
G.hn Technology

Google Applications

As customers begin to recognize large productivity gains with Gmail, Google Docs and the rest of Google Apps, they frequently ask when they’ll be able to use services like Google Voice, Reader, Blogger and AdWords with their Google Apps accounts. We’ve steadily added new functionality to Google Apps and recently added support for third-party apps, but we’re thrilled to swing the floodgates of new functionality wide open now. Starting today, customers worldwide can access a full spectrum of services from Google—including more than 60 productivity-boosting applications that extend far beyond any traditional software suite.

Coupled with the ability for administrators to provide different sets of applications to different groups of users, the possibilities for empowering workers in new ways are remarkable. For example, you could equip your marketing team with Picasa Web Albums so they can collect and share photos from customer appreciation events, and let that team publish your company’s blog with Blogger. Services like iGoogle and Alerts, on the other hand, may be broadly useful, and could be enabled for your whole organization.
Source: Google Blog

Google Instant - Search Result Instant Preview

Quickly compare results. Pinpoint relevant content. Interact with the results page.

With Google Instant you get results as fast as you type, but your search doesn’t stop there. Once you get results back, you choose a site to visit based on the information in each result—like the title, a snippet of text and the URL. Over time we’ve made steady improvements to our search results and snippets to help you pick a great page. Now we’re making a leap to image-based snapshots—a new kind of visual search result we call “Instant Previews” which makes it even faster to choose the right result.

Instant Previews provides a graphic overview of a search result and highlights the most relevant sections, making finding the right page as quick and easy as flipping through a magazine. To use it, click once on the magnifying glass next to the title of any search result and a visual overview of the page will appear on the right. From there, hover your cursor over any other result to see a preview. For those of you who’ve recently stopped using your mouse to search, now you can navigate to a result, hit the right arrow key to see the preview, and hit the down arrow key to keep browsing. Here’s a video showing Instant Previews in action:
Source: Google Blog

Google Code-in: Contest is Open!

We’re pleased to announce that today marks the start of the Google Code-in contest. Students who are at least 13 years old and not more than 18 years old and are currently enrolled in a pre-university school on November 22, 2010 are eligible to participate. Start claiming tasks to work on for our participating mentor organizations right now.

Tasks are sorted according to organization, difficulty level, type of task, and point value. If you are considering participating, take a look at the tasks list and see what you’re interested in claiming. You can comment on the task if you have questions about the task for the organization.

For successful completion of just one task you will receive a t-shirt and certificate of participation. For every three tasks you complete you’ll receive $100, up to a maximum of $500. Our 10 contestants with the most points at the end of the contest win the Grand Prize: an all-expenses paid trip with a family member to Google’s Headquarters in Mountain View, California!

The contest ends on January 10, 2011. So don’t delay, claim a task today!

If you have questions, please review our Frequently Asked Questions and the Rules page, or take a look at the video above. You can also join our discussion list and ask your question there.

Have fun, and meet you on the list or in Mountain View!

Source: Google Open Source Blog