1. Firefox Version 8 Available Ahead of Official Release
While many Firefox users are still working with version 7, Mozilla has now made version 8 available, and this version is definitely the next major iteration of the browser. Although Mozilla's official release date is November 8, you can get Windows, Mac and Linux versions here.
2. Google+ Pages: connect with all the things you care about
In life we connect with all kinds of people, places and things. There’s friends and family, of course, but there’s also the sports teams we root for, the coffee shops we’re loyal to, and the TV shows we can’t stop watching (to name a few).
So far Google+ has focused on connecting people with other people. But we want to make sure you can build relationships with all the things you care about—from local businesses to global brands—so today we’re rolling out Google+ Pages worldwide.
People + pages, better together
Google+ has always been a place for real-life sharing, and Google+ Pages is no exception. After all: behind every page (or storefront, or four-door sedan) is a passionate group of individuals, and we think you should able to connect with them too.
For you and me, this means we can now hang out live with the local bike shop, or discuss our wardrobe with a favorite clothing line, or follow a band on tour. Google+ pages give life to everything we find in the real world. And by adding them to circles, we can create lasting bonds with the pages (and people) that matter most.
For businesses and brands, Google+ pages help you connect with the customers and fans who love you. Not only can they recommend you with a +1, or add you to a circle to listen long-term. They can actually spend time with your team, face-to-face-to-face. All you need to do is start sharing, and you'll soon find the super fans and loyal customers that want to say hello.
A number of pages are already available (see below), but any organization will soon be able to join the community at plus.google.com/pages/create.
All American Rejects
Anderson Cooper 360
Angry Birds
Barcelona Football Club
Burberry
Dallas Cowboys
Good Morning America
H&M
Macy's
Modelland
The Muppets*
Pepsi
Phoenix Suns
Save the Children
Special Report with Bret Baier
Toyota
Train
WWE
X Games
Zen Bikes
* You can join Kermit and Ms. Piggy for a live Hangout on the Muppets’ Google+ page today at 4:30pm PT!
Direct Connect from Google search
People search on Google billions of times a day, and very often, they're looking for businesses and brands. Today's launch of Google+ Pages can help people transform their queries into meaningful connections, so we're rolling out two ways to add pages to circles from Google search. The first is by including Google+ pages in search results, and the second is a new feature called Direct Connect.
Maybe you're watching a movie trailer, or you just heard that your favorite band is coming to town. In both cases you want to connect with them right now, and Direct Connect makes it easy—even automatic. Just go to Google and search for [+], followed by the page you're interested in (like +Angry Birds). We'll take you to their Google+ page, and if you want, we’ll add them to your circles.
Direct Connect works for a limited number of pages today (like +Google, +Pepsi, and +Toyota), but many more are coming. In the meantime, organizations can learn more about Direct Connect in our Help Center.
With Google+, we strive to bring the nuance and richness of real-life sharing to software. Today’s initial launch of Google+ Pages brings us a little bit closer, but we’ve still got lots of improvements planned, and miles to go before we sleep. So stay tuned.
3. Awesome New Tab Page Is a Widget-Friendly, Windows Metro-Inspired New Tab Page for Chrome [Chrome Extensions]
Chrome: Like the name suggests, the Awesome New Tab Page extension adds a new New Tab page to Google Chrome. The result is a Windows 8 Metro UI-inspired new tab page that's fully customizable with apps, widgets, bookmarks, and so on. More »
4. Sometimes, Whatever Works Is Good Enough [Productivity]
Sahil Lavingia is a young developer who's made a lot of impressive projects, and along the way, he's learned a lesson that a lot of perfectionists can benefit from: Sometimes, whatever works is good enough. That doesn't mean you can't and shouldn't strive to do things well (even things you tell yourself you suck at), but you shouldn't let perfection get in the way of actually doing something. Here's his take: More »
5. Optus NBN Pricing Includes Free Hardware
Optus this morning announced its consumer plans for accessing the National Broadband Network (NBN). It joins Exetel, iiNet and Internode in offering NBN services, but how do its prices stack up? The hardware is free, which is nice, but there are some fiddly rules around peak and off-peak usage. (more…)
6. Could Siri Seriously Sting Google?
Siri, the voice recognition technology on Apple's new iPhone 4S, has attracted buyers by the millions with its ability to handle complex search queries. Siri's personified as a somewhat sassy female personal assistant, but at least one person finds her downright disturbing: Google Chairman Eric Schmidt. At a U.S. Senate antitrust hearing in September in which Schmidt testified in front of Congress, he said Apple's voice-activated search technology could prove to be a "significant development" in search technology and could become tough competition to traditional Google searches.
7. Linux, Open Source & Ubuntu: 10 Linux Distros Every IT Manager Should Know
The ability to customize Linux to run on various types of hardware and to suit specific user needs means there are more flavors of Linux-based operating systems available than Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream. While administrators generally stick with the well-known ones, such as Canonical's Ubuntu, Attachmate's Novell SUSE and Red Hat Enterprise Linux for their servers and desktops, they are beginning to see other flavors sneaking into the enterprise. A recent Dell KACE study found that IT departments are supporting more operating systems than the company standard because employees are increasingly using personal laptops and devices to access enterprise applications and resources. "No single device is used dramatically more than others, meaning that IT must be aware of a wide range of operating systems and devices that connect to their systems," Dell KACE researchers wrote in the report. Approximately 14 percent of personal laptops being used in the enterprise run a Linux distribution. In addition, 23 percent of personal tablets and over half of the personal smartphones in the enterprise run Android, according to the report. In this slide show, eWEEK lists some of the Linux-based operating systems and distributions that every IT manager should be familiar with.
While many Firefox users are still working with version 7, Mozilla has now made version 8 available, and this version is definitely the next major iteration of the browser. Although Mozilla's official release date is November 8, you can get Windows, Mac and Linux versions here.
2. Google+ Pages: connect with all the things you care about
In life we connect with all kinds of people, places and things. There’s friends and family, of course, but there’s also the sports teams we root for, the coffee shops we’re loyal to, and the TV shows we can’t stop watching (to name a few).
So far Google+ has focused on connecting people with other people. But we want to make sure you can build relationships with all the things you care about—from local businesses to global brands—so today we’re rolling out Google+ Pages worldwide.
People + pages, better together
Google+ has always been a place for real-life sharing, and Google+ Pages is no exception. After all: behind every page (or storefront, or four-door sedan) is a passionate group of individuals, and we think you should able to connect with them too.
For you and me, this means we can now hang out live with the local bike shop, or discuss our wardrobe with a favorite clothing line, or follow a band on tour. Google+ pages give life to everything we find in the real world. And by adding them to circles, we can create lasting bonds with the pages (and people) that matter most.
For businesses and brands, Google+ pages help you connect with the customers and fans who love you. Not only can they recommend you with a +1, or add you to a circle to listen long-term. They can actually spend time with your team, face-to-face-to-face. All you need to do is start sharing, and you'll soon find the super fans and loyal customers that want to say hello.
A number of pages are already available (see below), but any organization will soon be able to join the community at plus.google.com/pages/create.
All American Rejects
Anderson Cooper 360
Angry Birds
Barcelona Football Club
Burberry
Dallas Cowboys
Good Morning America
H&M
Macy's
Modelland
The Muppets*
Pepsi
Phoenix Suns
Save the Children
Special Report with Bret Baier
Toyota
Train
WWE
X Games
Zen Bikes
* You can join Kermit and Ms. Piggy for a live Hangout on the Muppets’ Google+ page today at 4:30pm PT!
Direct Connect from Google search
People search on Google billions of times a day, and very often, they're looking for businesses and brands. Today's launch of Google+ Pages can help people transform their queries into meaningful connections, so we're rolling out two ways to add pages to circles from Google search. The first is by including Google+ pages in search results, and the second is a new feature called Direct Connect.
Maybe you're watching a movie trailer, or you just heard that your favorite band is coming to town. In both cases you want to connect with them right now, and Direct Connect makes it easy—even automatic. Just go to Google and search for [+], followed by the page you're interested in (like +Angry Birds). We'll take you to their Google+ page, and if you want, we’ll add them to your circles.
Direct Connect works for a limited number of pages today (like +Google, +Pepsi, and +Toyota), but many more are coming. In the meantime, organizations can learn more about Direct Connect in our Help Center.
With Google+, we strive to bring the nuance and richness of real-life sharing to software. Today’s initial launch of Google+ Pages brings us a little bit closer, but we’ve still got lots of improvements planned, and miles to go before we sleep. So stay tuned.
3. Awesome New Tab Page Is a Widget-Friendly, Windows Metro-Inspired New Tab Page for Chrome [Chrome Extensions]
Chrome: Like the name suggests, the Awesome New Tab Page extension adds a new New Tab page to Google Chrome. The result is a Windows 8 Metro UI-inspired new tab page that's fully customizable with apps, widgets, bookmarks, and so on. More »
4. Sometimes, Whatever Works Is Good Enough [Productivity]
Sahil Lavingia is a young developer who's made a lot of impressive projects, and along the way, he's learned a lesson that a lot of perfectionists can benefit from: Sometimes, whatever works is good enough. That doesn't mean you can't and shouldn't strive to do things well (even things you tell yourself you suck at), but you shouldn't let perfection get in the way of actually doing something. Here's his take: More »
5. Optus NBN Pricing Includes Free Hardware
Optus this morning announced its consumer plans for accessing the National Broadband Network (NBN). It joins Exetel, iiNet and Internode in offering NBN services, but how do its prices stack up? The hardware is free, which is nice, but there are some fiddly rules around peak and off-peak usage. (more…)
6. Could Siri Seriously Sting Google?
Siri, the voice recognition technology on Apple's new iPhone 4S, has attracted buyers by the millions with its ability to handle complex search queries. Siri's personified as a somewhat sassy female personal assistant, but at least one person finds her downright disturbing: Google Chairman Eric Schmidt. At a U.S. Senate antitrust hearing in September in which Schmidt testified in front of Congress, he said Apple's voice-activated search technology could prove to be a "significant development" in search technology and could become tough competition to traditional Google searches.
7. Linux, Open Source & Ubuntu: 10 Linux Distros Every IT Manager Should Know
The ability to customize Linux to run on various types of hardware and to suit specific user needs means there are more flavors of Linux-based operating systems available than Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream. While administrators generally stick with the well-known ones, such as Canonical's Ubuntu, Attachmate's Novell SUSE and Red Hat Enterprise Linux for their servers and desktops, they are beginning to see other flavors sneaking into the enterprise. A recent Dell KACE study found that IT departments are supporting more operating systems than the company standard because employees are increasingly using personal laptops and devices to access enterprise applications and resources. "No single device is used dramatically more than others, meaning that IT must be aware of a wide range of operating systems and devices that connect to their systems," Dell KACE researchers wrote in the report. Approximately 14 percent of personal laptops being used in the enterprise run a Linux distribution. In addition, 23 percent of personal tablets and over half of the personal smartphones in the enterprise run Android, according to the report. In this slide show, eWEEK lists some of the Linux-based operating systems and distributions that every IT manager should be familiar with.
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