Google has released Version 1.7 of Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook.

This version has Single Sign On capability enabled, users can log in with their Google Apps account and password, or instead use their company’s Single Sign On authentication if they have enabled that option. This would mean users can save themselves the hassle of logging in multiple times.

The next feature in 1.7 is “Delegation for Email and Calendar”. When you grant access to your account in Gmail, and share your primary Google Apps calendar, those messages and events are synced to the Outlook client. This would be useful if you need to assign a colleague or assistant to send email messages for you on behalf of your name. There would only be one level of access, which will allow your delegate full access to your email, but he or she will be unable to change or access your password. Your delegate would also be able to send and receive calendar invitations for only your primary calendar.

This delegation feature would be advantageous for users who are always caught up in meetings, but are perpetually required to reply to emails.

Have a go at this new version, and let us know what you think!

With the modernization of web apps nowadays, it’s been noticed that not all existing browsers can support updated features. As these apps rapidly evolve, users would naturally find it frustrating when hiccups occur in the midst of work. Google has then suggested for users to upgrade their browsers as soon as possible, to these browser versions:

Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0+
Mozilla Firefox 3.0+
Google Chrome 4.0+
Safari 3.0+

Google will start phasing out support for older browsers like Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0, starting March 1st. This will affect the functionality of Google Docs and Google Sites for those still using IE 6.0. Though you’d still be able to access these Google applications, not all features would be working.

Great news for front-end developers, catering to IE 6.0 isn’t exactly the most pleasant. No more cluttering your code or CSS with bug fixes, a toast to the end of that dreadful breathless moment when you view your layout in IE 6.0.

“a part of my soul dies everytime I happen to use a computer that’s not mine and the only browser on it is IE.” from MaryDellamorte on MetaFilter Weblog.

Hoorah!

Google Docs now offers an alternative for you to view your file list with thumbnail view :

I like the way this works, it’s easier to skim through your Documents list with a visual preview of your files. You could categorize your files and further group them into Folders, but if it’s still an overwhelming number of files then, just use the Search bar.

The Search bar is even more user friendly now, for the “spelling-challenged and typo-prone folks”, Google will suggest the right spelling for you, to help you in your search.

Lastly, my favorite update of this announcement is that Google has increased the maximum file size for its upload and store any file feature from 250 MB to 1 GB for each file. (It’s nice they listen to our feedback.)

Have a go at these updates and let us know what you think!

It’s a secret no longer, Google has officially announced that in the coming weeks users would be able to upload, store files in Google Docs in additional formats compatible with CAD, HTML, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe InDesign, RAW photos, ZIP or RAR archives.

Gone are the days where you have to do things the roundabout way, emailing yourself so that when you’re on the move you can access your important files. Essentially, users would be able to upload a file of up to 250MB to Google Docs. You would have 1GB of free storage online, without having to convert to a Google Doc format. Additional storage would be available at $0.25/GB/year.

This will streamline the work process for those who work often with large graphics and raw photos, you will no longer need to worry about file compatibility when collaborating with other users. Utilize this further by combining this feature with Shared Folders, for others to easily view, download, and print. Even if you were to forget your thumbdrive, there’ll be no need to worry as you know your file is riding safely on the cloud, readily accessible.

This will be available for Standard, Premier, Education, Team and Partner Editions. Though specially for Premier Edition users, Google Docs List API will be available to upload files to Google Docs, or users can purchase applications offered by third parties that enable you to migrate and sync your files to Google Docs.

While I was browsing through my Twitter feed over the weekend, I was delighted to find that WordPress 2.9 Carmen is now officially available and removed of its previous beta status. If you’re curious to know about its tag “Carmen”, it is actually named in honor of Carmen McRae, a jazz vocalist whose music was added to Last.fm WP release station.

As with other major releases, you can upgrade your version by accessing your Dashboard and going to Tools > Upgrade, or alternatively downloading from WordPress.org.

A video to give you better insight to 2.9 Carmen:

The cooler features to note with 2.9 :

1. Global Undo/”Trash” feature, this is a huge relief for me as I ponder my questionable posts and hit delete, only to realize I want it back. No need for shooting myself in the foot when I want to retrieve it, now that I can get it back from the trash. (Very useful for the indecisive.

2. Built-in Image Editor will be baked into WordPress 2.9 and would not require a plugin. You can crop, edit, rotate, flip and scale your images. (This I really like, you can’t hold my attention with just words. I like to naively believe that a “picture painting a thousand words” is a universally applicable preference.)

3. Batch plugin Update and compatibility checking, which means you can update your plugins at one go, rather than to do multiple clicks for each one. Other than that, WordPress utilizes its compatibility data to ensure your plugins are suitable with new releases of WordPress. Definitely more useful and less time consuming for Administrators.

4. Easier Video Embeds feature, where you just paste the URL of the video and it will magically be embedded in your post. (Supports YouTube, Daily Motion, Blip.tv, Flickr, Hulu, Viddler, Qik, Revision3, Scribd, Google Video, Photobucket, PollDaddy, WordPress.tv and more to come.)

These are most useful in my user-end books but there are more enhancements to view here.

Do take a look, and give us some feedback when you’ve tried out the features!

Some Christmas trinkets from Google to Google Sites users, released yesterday.

Google Translate element is now integrated with Google Sites to help visitors quickly translate a site with the click of a button. You can hit the button at the bottom right of the page to view the whole site in the language of your choice. This would come in handy as the holiday season draws near, with traveling being an imminent part of your celebratory plans. You can try it out here:

Before:

After:

The next would be the ability to preview PDFs attached to pages and file cabinets in Google Docs Viewer. No need for cumbersome downloads, you can view it within a browser, in an embedded viewer. Read more here and here. It will look like this on your site :

Lastly, you can set a default location for a page template. This makes it simpler for you to keep the pages of your site organized. For example, if you have a recipe template in your family site, set /recipes/ as default location for pages created from that template so all your recipes show up together within your site.

Hope these additions to Google Sites prove useful!

(Note : Creation of Google Sites is possible for both Google Apps Standard and Premier Editions.)

When I first started using Google Docs, I really appreciated the fact that i could collaborate with my colleagues easily while working on a document. I have on several occasions, unabashedly rattled on to my friends about how these details really made a world of difference in times when you face a barrage of work in the office. I save myself countless phone calls on the littlest edits that i make with a collaborative document, calls that you hesitate to make sometimes because you think ” Bah, this can wait.” (and end up forgetting anyway).

I have gotten so used to Google Docs that I see it as a necessity, not a bonus, for office suites to have such collaborative advantages. I like that Google Spreadsheets allows this

To be able to discuss actively while I am making edits, without having to move away from my computer or lift a hand to dial a number, that’s convenience. Till now, I still feel (almost) gleeful knowing that I can attend to other urgent emails during a meeting, and come back to my Google Spreadsheet, still knowing which particular segment my colleagues are referring to, since the co-editor’s presence is highlighted in different colors. To know my inattentiveness escapes unnoticed, is a relief.

This is why I’m glad to share with you that Google recently added co-editor’s presence for Google Presentation as well, albeit I must admit Google should have kept it consistent from the start. But no complaints now, Google’s always quick to update, so the next time you use Google Presentation, keep an eye for when your other editors are amending your slides.

And if you want them to keep their interfering, collaborating paws off your slide, Google Talk them.

On that note, you definitely need to Go Google!

Google is now offering Groups to its Google Apps Premier and Education Edition users.

Google Groups till now, has only been offered as a service to consumers. As one of the “most widely used applications”, introducing Groups to the Premier and Education Editions proves Google’s keen eye on stepping up the collaborative functions in Google Apps. This addition flouts the rules of speedy innovation, when compared to other companies’ long development cycles.

A picture to say it all, credits to ReadWrite Enterprise :

Google Groups allows “..employees within a company [to] create groups for their departments, their teams or their projects. Employees can use these groups as mailing lists, but they can also share documents, spreadsheets, presentations, calendars, videos and sites with groups, instead of many individual recipients. They can choose to receive communications directly to their email inbox, in a digest format, or in the Groups forum view, and can access all the information in the groups archive, without the intervention of an IT administrator.”

IT administrators however, would still need to activate Google Groups from Google Apps’ administrative control panel. They would be able to set group policies and manage group settings. From here on, users would be able to manage and monitor their own groups independently.

Here’s how the setup would look like for users:

Pretty straightforward, try it on Wednesday when it comes live, to increase your productivity at work!

Google unveiled some significant changes that they’ve made to their search services yesterday at their huge demo. But the biggest trick that they pulled out of their sleeve (which I found rather revolutionary), was the uncovering of Google Lab’s Google Goggles, a search to the world using images.

Gadgetell explains that it basically is a mobile app, where you can snap pictures of anything on your device and Google Goggles will analyze the picture taken and bring up any information on your image. So let us say you take a picture of a book, your mobile device would scan the picture and return Google search links that include information of the author, or places you can go to purchase this book. As with everything else, there are limitations, Google Goggles labs would not be able to help with pictures of animals, furniture and apparel. (It also only currently available for Android.)

A short video from Google that might help :

And a demonstration to give you an even better idea :

I say kudos to Google, as they never stop at innovation, with this continuous integration with mobile usage and their services. We already know there is an increasing prevalence in Internet mobile usage as mobile data traffic continues to surge in October , at the fastest pace in past seven months. Apple’s iPhone has changed our perception of utilizing the Internet on our mobiles. Since its concpetion in 2007, the melee of mobile vendors scrambling to rival the mobile Web experience has been countless, but Google Android is already threateningly close to superseding the iPhone. If Google continues to pull out these newfangled technological tricks, it’ll just be a matter of time before they dominate the mobile market.

Gmail Compose : To quickly compose an email with your Gmail account, the compose box is taken from the iGoogle gadget compose URL.

QuickSearch extension : To provide search straight from the browser, with options of different sites like Google, Wikipedia, Yahoo, YouTube etc. Search results opened in a new tab, minimizing varied windows.

Google Tasks for Chrome : To control Google Tasks directly from within Chrome, synchronized with your Tasks list.

Chrome IE Tab : To allow the user to run sites that are particuarly IE friendly from within a tab in Chrome. Includes ability to automatically open URLS in IE tab by specifying an IE filter.

Bubble-Translate : To allow real-time translation in a pop-up menu as well as the ability to translate webpages to your desired language.

Chrome Reader : To allow functionality like Google Reader, providing an instant-click subscription to blogs and websites. Click on Chromereader button and it’ll register in your Google Reader list.

Fittr : To enhance the photo sharing site, Flickr. Features like easy to view keyboard shortcuts, inline auto-completion of tags, clicking of an image to get a better view without changing pages.

Chrome-Metrist : To allow an easy login to Twitter, after installing, it will automatically lead to a pop-up configuration screen, with adjustable font size and an aesthetically pleasing interface.

Delicious : To replace the bookmarks bar with a cleaner,simple looking button, that will enable you to access your favorite bookmarks, clutter free.

Jamendo Radio : To enable the user to listen to music from Jamendo radio, which gives hours of free music. It offers a wide range of music from many albums and genres.

Go ahead, give them a try and let us know what you think!