1. Google + Quickoffice = get more done anytime, anywhere
We're happy to announce that we have acquired Quickoffice, a leader in office productivity solutions.
Today, consumers, businesses and schools use Google Apps to get stuff done from anywhere, with anyone and on any device. Quickoffice has an established track record of enabling seamless interoperability with popular file formats, and we'll be working on bringing their powerful technology to our Apps product suite.
Quickoffice has a strong base of users, and we look forward to supporting them while we work on an even more seamless, intuitive and integrated experience.
We're excited to welcome the Quickoffice team and their users to Google.
2. Google Maps Travels Off-Road, Into the Sky, and Into the Pocket
Google unveiled new features to its mapping technology Wednesday, including an offline mobile version of Google Maps and 3D enhancements to Google Earth. The announcement comes just before Apple is expected to drop Google Maps from its built-in mapping application on the iOS platform and pursue advanced mapping development on its own. But Google didn't mention Apple as it rolled out some of the newest features to its mapping services. Google Street View cameras are now going places where wheels can't.
We're happy to announce that we have acquired Quickoffice, a leader in office productivity solutions.
Today, consumers, businesses and schools use Google Apps to get stuff done from anywhere, with anyone and on any device. Quickoffice has an established track record of enabling seamless interoperability with popular file formats, and we'll be working on bringing their powerful technology to our Apps product suite.
Quickoffice has a strong base of users, and we look forward to supporting them while we work on an even more seamless, intuitive and integrated experience.
We're excited to welcome the Quickoffice team and their users to Google.
2. Google Maps Travels Off-Road, Into the Sky, and Into the Pocket
Google unveiled new features to its mapping technology Wednesday, including an offline mobile version of Google Maps and 3D enhancements to Google Earth. The announcement comes just before Apple is expected to drop Google Maps from its built-in mapping application on the iOS platform and pursue advanced mapping development on its own. But Google didn't mention Apple as it rolled out some of the newest features to its mapping services. Google Street View cameras are now going places where wheels can't.
Linux operating systems comes with various set of tools allowing you to manipulate the Wireless Extensions and monitor wireless networks. This is a list of tools used for wireless network monitoring tools that can be used from your laptop or desktop system to find out network speed, bit rate, signal quality/strength, and much more.
4. Pocket TV is a mini Android computer in an HDMI dongle
After meeting its Kickstarter goal of $100,000, three-year old startup Infinitec has made its Android-powered Pocket TV available for pre-order for just $99. The device utilizes the relatively new "HDMI Dongle" set top box form factor used by the Roku Smart Stick, and it brings Android Ice Cream Sandwich to the television screen.
The Pocket TV is powered by a 1GHz ARM Cortex A9 processor with 512MB of RAM., has 4 GB of internal storage and a microSD port supporting cards up to 32 GB in size. It's also equipped with a mini USB port for devices such as keyboards or webcams.
Once it is plugged into an HDMI jack, it can be controlled with a standard infrared remote, which it ships with. It can also be paired with an Android smartphone or iPhone and be controlled from there, or from Infinitec's upgraded "Air Remote" which has a full QWERTY chiclet keyboard and Wii-like motion mouse control.
This product dwells in a grey area between form factors. It's not exactly mobile, and it's not exactly a set-top-box. Furthermore, because it's an external piece of hardware, it's not a smart TV, even though it enables smart TVs.
Yet, with the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) just wrapping up, we can see how useful a product like this could be as a rudimentary Android-powered gaming computer against the other alternative gaming providers like Gaikai, or streaming game services like OnLive.
And at just $99, the price is right for those looking to experiment with new Android form factors.
5. Audit your network with Spiceworks
Keeping track of what’s happening across even the smallest network can be a challenge. To put it mildly. Whether it’s your users misbehaving, or genuine hardware and software issues are cropping up, there’s always some problem to consider.
You don’t have to try and tackle this on your own, though. Spiceworks is a powerful free network auditing and inventory tool that will automatically scan your systems and alert you to what’s going on, and it’s suitable for everyone from regular home users through to large business networks.
A reasonably straightforward setup process sees Spiceworks install its service on your main PC, and after creating an account the program will scan your local setup, displaying the results in a highly configurable browser-based interface. A detailed map reveals all your networked systems, and you can zoom in on any of these to see its installed applications, complete with version numbers, licence details and more.
Spiceworks then repeats its scan on a daily basis, producing a simple timeline showing you what’s changed: new network devices found, applications added, hotfixes installed, whatever it might be.
The program can also detect and alert you to problems on your local system and across the network. Does a computer have no antivirus package installed? Is a key server offline? Is one of your systems running short on drive space? Maybe a printer is running short of ink? Spicework’s Monitors can help you find out.
The Spiceworks Dashboard keeps you up-to-date on all of these items, and a whole lot more. You can view panes showing you the latest Microsoft Security Bulletins, say, or new software patches; an RSS feed display makes it easy to keep up-to-date with other sites; and if you are using the program in a business environment then there’s even more functionality, from Microsoft Exchange support to Active Directory integration.
We did have one or two issues here. The “Latest Software Patches” widget didn’t always seem entirely up-to-date, for instance, and wasted space by including patches for applications we weren’t using; we’d prefer this to be relate to our installed software only. And we found a few annoyingly irrelevant links and ads, including one which asked whether we were ready to “Upgrade to Windows 7″ when it was running on Windows 7 Ultimate.
These complaints are all very minor, though, and on balance Spiceworks is a great tool, easy to use and packed with functionality: if you need a little network inventory help then you should definitely check it out.
4. Pocket TV is a mini Android computer in an HDMI dongle
After meeting its Kickstarter goal of $100,000, three-year old startup Infinitec has made its Android-powered Pocket TV available for pre-order for just $99. The device utilizes the relatively new "HDMI Dongle" set top box form factor used by the Roku Smart Stick, and it brings Android Ice Cream Sandwich to the television screen.
The Pocket TV is powered by a 1GHz ARM Cortex A9 processor with 512MB of RAM., has 4 GB of internal storage and a microSD port supporting cards up to 32 GB in size. It's also equipped with a mini USB port for devices such as keyboards or webcams.
Once it is plugged into an HDMI jack, it can be controlled with a standard infrared remote, which it ships with. It can also be paired with an Android smartphone or iPhone and be controlled from there, or from Infinitec's upgraded "Air Remote" which has a full QWERTY chiclet keyboard and Wii-like motion mouse control.
This product dwells in a grey area between form factors. It's not exactly mobile, and it's not exactly a set-top-box. Furthermore, because it's an external piece of hardware, it's not a smart TV, even though it enables smart TVs.
Yet, with the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) just wrapping up, we can see how useful a product like this could be as a rudimentary Android-powered gaming computer against the other alternative gaming providers like Gaikai, or streaming game services like OnLive.
And at just $99, the price is right for those looking to experiment with new Android form factors.
5. Audit your network with Spiceworks
Keeping track of what’s happening across even the smallest network can be a challenge. To put it mildly. Whether it’s your users misbehaving, or genuine hardware and software issues are cropping up, there’s always some problem to consider.
You don’t have to try and tackle this on your own, though. Spiceworks is a powerful free network auditing and inventory tool that will automatically scan your systems and alert you to what’s going on, and it’s suitable for everyone from regular home users through to large business networks.
A reasonably straightforward setup process sees Spiceworks install its service on your main PC, and after creating an account the program will scan your local setup, displaying the results in a highly configurable browser-based interface. A detailed map reveals all your networked systems, and you can zoom in on any of these to see its installed applications, complete with version numbers, licence details and more.
Spiceworks then repeats its scan on a daily basis, producing a simple timeline showing you what’s changed: new network devices found, applications added, hotfixes installed, whatever it might be.
The program can also detect and alert you to problems on your local system and across the network. Does a computer have no antivirus package installed? Is a key server offline? Is one of your systems running short on drive space? Maybe a printer is running short of ink? Spicework’s Monitors can help you find out.
The Spiceworks Dashboard keeps you up-to-date on all of these items, and a whole lot more. You can view panes showing you the latest Microsoft Security Bulletins, say, or new software patches; an RSS feed display makes it easy to keep up-to-date with other sites; and if you are using the program in a business environment then there’s even more functionality, from Microsoft Exchange support to Active Directory integration.
We did have one or two issues here. The “Latest Software Patches” widget didn’t always seem entirely up-to-date, for instance, and wasted space by including patches for applications we weren’t using; we’d prefer this to be relate to our installed software only. And we found a few annoyingly irrelevant links and ads, including one which asked whether we were ready to “Upgrade to Windows 7″ when it was running on Windows 7 Ultimate.
These complaints are all very minor, though, and on balance Spiceworks is a great tool, easy to use and packed with functionality: if you need a little network inventory help then you should definitely check it out.
6. Anon, but not alone: Anonymous helps its fallen brethren
Anonymous is an organization famous for its disorganization with no leaders or power structure. When it comes to helping those who are down, an outsider might expect that anons who fall behind are left behind. But when an anon is apprehended by the government for cybercrime, a support network springs up around him or her, thanks to the orchestrations of a subset of Anonymous called FreeAnons, the "Anonymous Solidarity Network." Members of FreeAnons help arrested anons in various ways, from sending them care packages while they're in jail to sending a volunteer to court to monitor their case.
The front-facing part of the FreeAnons networks consists of several sites dedicated to raising money for arrested or imprisoned anons like Topiary or Mercedes, as well as a general fund for smaller cases. The general fund, which has been accepting money since October, has collected only $3,780.88—a paltry sum considering the number of cases multiplied by the cost of bail and lawyers' fees (that amount represents "the majority of collected funds," Nancy Norelli, a Florida lawyer and the public face of FreeAnons told Ars). Norelli and Barton, an anonymous FreeAnons member (nick changed to protect the anon), told Ars that no one does much to promote the funds and solicit donations outside of the AnonOps IRC or a session on Radio AnonOps—the nature of the support cast doesn't exactly lend itself to a high-profile charity ball.
But time is a more frequent donation than money. Barton laid out a hypothetical case: "An anon gets into trouble and is arrested. We would gather information that would aid in their defense, might help them find an attorney. Work with said attorney in their fact gathering, [collecting] relevant information or evidence if needed, send our persecuted anon a care package, perhaps help them improve their quality of life by adding to their prison fund."
Anonymous is an organization famous for its disorganization with no leaders or power structure. When it comes to helping those who are down, an outsider might expect that anons who fall behind are left behind. But when an anon is apprehended by the government for cybercrime, a support network springs up around him or her, thanks to the orchestrations of a subset of Anonymous called FreeAnons, the "Anonymous Solidarity Network." Members of FreeAnons help arrested anons in various ways, from sending them care packages while they're in jail to sending a volunteer to court to monitor their case.
The front-facing part of the FreeAnons networks consists of several sites dedicated to raising money for arrested or imprisoned anons like Topiary or Mercedes, as well as a general fund for smaller cases. The general fund, which has been accepting money since October, has collected only $3,780.88—a paltry sum considering the number of cases multiplied by the cost of bail and lawyers' fees (that amount represents "the majority of collected funds," Nancy Norelli, a Florida lawyer and the public face of FreeAnons told Ars). Norelli and Barton, an anonymous FreeAnons member (nick changed to protect the anon), told Ars that no one does much to promote the funds and solicit donations outside of the AnonOps IRC or a session on Radio AnonOps—the nature of the support cast doesn't exactly lend itself to a high-profile charity ball.
But time is a more frequent donation than money. Barton laid out a hypothetical case: "An anon gets into trouble and is arrested. We would gather information that would aid in their defense, might help them find an attorney. Work with said attorney in their fact gathering, [collecting] relevant information or evidence if needed, send our persecuted anon a care package, perhaps help them improve their quality of life by adding to their prison fund."
7. Browse Like Bond: Use Any Computer Without Leaving a Trace with Tails [Video]
If James Bond logs on to a computer, he doesn't want to leave a bunch of files, cookies, or his IP address out there for someone to find. It might seem extreme, but sometimes it's a good idea to take the same precautions yourself. More »
If James Bond logs on to a computer, he doesn't want to leave a bunch of files, cookies, or his IP address out there for someone to find. It might seem extreme, but sometimes it's a good idea to take the same precautions yourself. More »
No comments:
Post a Comment