Best of Google TV series : How to Get Your Family on TV

Ambarish Kenghe (AK), Product Management Team says

As the holidays get into full swing, I am spending more and more time with my extended family, getting in to all kinds of fun. Like any self-respecting embarrassing dad, I love capturing these precious moments by making tons of great little videos and taking even more photos. I no longer need any fancy equipment to do this – most smart-phones now take great photos and videos (I love my Nexus S, if you're interested.)

The best part is that we can all slump on the sofa and re-live the best moments on my TV whenever we want, because it's powered by Google TV. In the not-so-distant past, your family would only get on TV if they were (un)lucky enough to get onto a TV show. More recently, you would have to find the right lead, plug your high-end camera into your TV and navigate though impossible menus and settings.

Now, you don't need any fancy equipment to do this, either. My preference is to do a little editing, then save the best photos and videos to a Picasa Web Album, which I can do straight from my phone. Using the Gallery app on my TV, which syncs to Picasa, I immediately have a slide-show on a 46" photo-frame right in the living room. We've had a lot of fun using Picnik to add silly effects to our photos.

I tend to upload the very best videos to YouTube, so that the world can share my family insanity. Watching these in Leanback mode on TV makes it feel like we've almost got our own TV channel – it's even in HD, which is pretty incredible for something recorded on a phone.

The most important point is that you don't need to use the same services I do. Because Google TV has a full web browser, it can access any website you want to use. For example Flickr looks great on the big screen and Vimeo Couch Mode is optimized for viewing on Google TV.

When I say you can get your family on TV, I mean all of them, wherever they are in the world. If you have the Logitech TV Cam, you can video chat with friends and family on the big screen (no more huddling around a tiny laptop screen).

see also http://googletv.blogspot.com/2010/12/how-to-get-your-family-on-tv.html  http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/gmail-for-android-better-priority-inbox.html

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Good news for android users! improved priority Inbox and compose

Paul Westbrook, (Gmail for Android team) says

When we first released Gmail in Android Market back in September, we said that you'd be getting new stuff faster, and we meant it. After getting thousands of comments on that release, we made a bunch of updates based on your feedback and today we're launching Gmail for Android 2.3.2.

Priority Inbox

First of all, you told us that you love Priority Inbox and expect much better support for it on your phone. Now you can see important messages in a new Priority Inbox view.

This view includes all important messages in your inbox, regardless of whether you've read them or not. You can archive and delete conversations or mark them unimportant from there. You'll notice the importance markers you're used to seeing in the desktop version of Gmail, and you can also change a conversation's importance using the menu. To switch between inboxes or labels, try tapping on the current label.

Ever wanted to know that you got an important message without taking your phone out of your pocket? Now you can set up your phone to notify, vibrate, or ring on just your new important mail (check out Menu > Settings > Priority Inbox).

While Priority Inbox on your Android phone doesn't have all the features offered in the desktop version of Gmail, we think this is a good start and plan to add even more functionality moving forward.


Improved Compose

Since our last Market update, we adopted a few features related to composing messages from the desktop version of Gmail. Many of you asked for a better way to switch between replying to the sender to replying to all. Now, you can easily switch between reply, reply all, and forward while composing your response.

 

If you moved to Gmail from another webmail provider and want to continue to send email from that address, now you can send from any address you've configured in the desktop version of Gmail.

In addition, you can now respond to messages in-line.

 

You won't need to wait for Gingerbread to get these updates. This version of the Gmail app works for Android 2.2 (Froyo) and newer releases in most countries. (Not sure if your device is running the right version? Check here.) Get the update from Android Market (just scan the QR code below, or click here if you're on a phone) and check out the new Gmail. And don't forget to send us your feedback from within the new version of the app (from your Inbox: Menu > More > About > Feedback).

see also: http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/gmail-for-android-better-priority-inbox.html | http://googlemobile.blogspot.com/2010/12/gmail-for-android-better-priority-inbox.html

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Dont worry about time zones! google calendar can help you!

Oleksandr Kyreiev, Software Engineer from gmail blog

Dealing with time zones can be a headache. Whether you're a regular traveler or trying to plan ahead for your weekend in Paris, it's often difficult to keep track of time differences. We've heard your feedback and are pleased to announce a new addition to Google Calendar: event time zones.

With event time zones, you can specify the time zone for a given event. So when you're home in Florida, you can more easily set up dinner with your friend in Paris for the following week. Events will appear on your calendar according to the current time zone you're in, and when you change to your destination time zone they'll be in the right place. Just click the "Time zone" link to the right of the date and time fields on the event page. You can even set up events which start in one time zone and end in another, ideal for those of you who fly often.

source: http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/event-time-zones-in-google-calendar.html

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Google Wave until Dec 31, 2010!

original posted by David Wang, Software Engineer, Google Wave Team (from google wave blog)

As we announced back in August, we are not continuing active development of Google Wave as a stand-alone product, but have been working hard on the open source Wave in a box project and on making waves accessible through Google Docs.

We wanted to let you know that we will keep wave.google.com running past December 31, 2010 until a suitable replacement to host all your waves is available. In the meantime, you can now use the new export feature to download a zipped version of up to ten waves at a time. Learn more in the Google Wave Help Center.

Additionally, Wave in a Box, the project to make it easy for anyone to host their own wave server, has made significant progress on both functionality and community growth. Just last week, the Apache Software Foundation accepted Wave into its incubator for new projects.

Thanks yet again to all our users for giving Wave a try with your schools, businesses and organizations and to the developers who are working on the next steps for the open source project!

Wave on,

see also: Waving in 2011 (from google wave blog) |  A Priority Inbox update: time savings, new features, and your feedback (from gmail blog)

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