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Google Apps Adds Groups, Takes on SharePoint

Posted by Harry McCracken on December 8, 2009 at 9:01 pm

Google is filling in one of the more gaping holes in its Google Apps Web-based productivity suite: It’s announcing that it’s adding Google Groups, a business-focused variant of the consumer service that’s been around since 2001.

Like the existing version, the Google Apps variant of Groups is built around searchable, unlimited-storage discussion forums. Businessfolk can create new discussions without the intervention of IT staffers’ engage in threaded conversations; share items such as word-processing files, spreadsheets, and video; and get updates via e-mail. But IT departments get the ability to manage discussions and establish policies for groups within the organization.

All this sounds like it’ll help Google Apps compete more directly with SharePoint, the Microsoft collaborative system that doesn’t have the name recognition of Word or Excel, but which is nearly as deeply entrenched in a lot of businesses. Maybe that’s why Google isn’t including this version of Groups in its freebie Standard edition at all: It’s only in the Premier edition ($50 a year) and the Education one (free, but only for schools). Users of Google Apps Standard edition can continue to create private groups in the consumer version of Groups.

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Synergy! PSP Minis on Your PS3

Posted by Jared Newman on December 8, 2009 at 5:49 pm

Sony’s PSP may be threatened by the iPhone and woefully behind the Nintendo DS in sales, but it’s the only handheld gaming device that has a console big brother and genuinely plays nicely with it, letting you stream movies and original Playstation games from the Playstation 3. That bond will strengthen later this month, when Sony brings PSP Minis to the PS3.

PSP Minis are a collection of cheap, small-scale games that debuted for the handheld in October. Many are ports of existing iPhone games, but unfortunately they’re more expensive, partly because they require an ESRB rating. Come December 17, an optional PS3 firmware update will turn on the emulator for PSP Minis, letting users play the games on both devices for no extra cost.

Sony’s way ahead of the curve on this idea, not only trumping Apple and Nintendo, but Microsoft as well. Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer has talked about the “three screens” of PC, mobile and television, but so far that vision hasn’t applied to gaming. Yes, you can purchase movies through the Zune Marketplace and watch them on either device, but the ZuneHD’s entry into gaming has been rather timid with just a handful of Microsoft-made, ad-supported games, and no talk of support on the Xbox 360. Earlier this year, it was rumored that Microsoft would release a gaming handheld that could transfer games from the Xbox 360, but that report hasn’t panned out.

I’ve come down hard on Sony in the past — the company is content to ignore the iPhone as it hovers in the PSP’s blind spot — but treating the PSP and PS3 as siblings in more than just branding is a good idea. More of this, please.

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Snow Leopard and Gears: The Possible Dream!

Posted by Harry McCracken on December 8, 2009 at 3:42 pm

I keep blogging about Google Gears and Snow Leopard, and I’m doing so once again, but this time with good news: A Google representative just pinged me to say that it turns out that the incompatibility between Gears and Snow Leopard isn’t due to any fundamental incompatibility. It stems from a good old-fashioned bug. Which Google is in the process of fixing.

Gears still doesn’t work in Safari under Snow Leopard, and Chrome for OS X lacks the built-in Gears that’s one of the benefit of Chrome for Windows. And the future of Gears is still murky at best. But if you use Snow Leopard and Firefox, you should be able to get access to Gmail’s offline features and other Gears-enabled offline tools in Google Docs, Zoho, Remember the Milk, and other services. Soon, I hope.

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Chrome for Mac–Finally!

Posted by Harry McCracken on December 8, 2009 at 2:08 pm

After what seems like a lifetime of waiting–but was really a little over fifteen months–Mac users can finally get their hands on a beta version of Google’s Chrome browser. Many of us have been running various rough drafts of OS X Chrome and its open-source cousin, Chromium, for months. But this is the first one that Google deems to be finished enough for wide use. And it’s part of a big Chrome news day that also includes betas of a Linux version and Firefox-like extensions.

But Chrome for OS X is missing some of the key features that make Chrome’s Windows version such a distinctive browser, including App Mode and built-in Gears offline technology. It also doesn’t yet support Chrome’s new extensions feature. And the user-interface doesn’t match the delightful minimalism of Chrome for Windows. It’s partially OS X’s fault, since Mac apps are required to have a traditional menu bar with several obligatory menus. But I still pine for the way Chrome for Windows brings the tabs up to the very top of the screen, and tucks all options into a grand total of two menus.

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D’oh! TSA Posts Airport Screening Procedures Online

Posted by Ed Oswald on December 8, 2009 at 11:23 am

The Transportation Security Agency accidentally posted its 93-page manual on airport screening procedures online, a mistake that has since been addressed although reports indicate the document is still widely available online. Making matters worse, the agency used redaction techniques that can be easily overcome.

Former Homeland Security Inspector General Clark Kent Ervin told ABC News that the event was “an appalling and astounding breach of security that terrorists could easily exploit.” He urged the TSA to launch an investigation into how the breach had occurred.

Among the topics covered in the document are items which do not have to be screened such as wheelchairs and orthopedic shoes, and countries from whose citizens must be screeened more closely than others.

TSA officials are claiming that the document is “outdated,” however critics argue that the screening process has likely not changed that drastically that the procedures detailed here are worthless to terrorists and other interested parties.

Certainly this breach is a threat to national security, and I tend to agree with those critics who say this one is pretty serious. 9/11 was a product of terrorists understanding the loopholes in our airport security procedures, and this breach now threatens to give our enemies insight into how we’re keeping them out.

Not good at all.

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Google’s Bloggy New Approach to News

Posted by Harry McCracken on December 8, 2009 at 11:16 am

At Google’s unveiling of its new real-time search yesterday, a questioner in the audience asked Marissa Mayer and other Google honchos whether the launch signaled the end of journalism. Um, no. Actually, Google is in multiple ways a force for good when it comes to the news. And here’s one small but interesting example: It’s working with both the New York Times and the Washington Post on something called Living Stories. It’s an experimental new way to organize multiple articles on one news topic–here’s Google’s video explanation.

What strikes me about Living Stories isn’t what’s new about the idea, but what’s (relatively) old about it: It takes reverse-chronological display and other presentation concepts from the world of blogs, and applies them to a specific ongoing news story. Here are the Living Stories currently available in Google Labs.

Makes perfect sense to me: Every news story worth paying attention to is an ongoing news story, and putting everything in one place with the newest stuff up top and older items summarized below makes enormous sense.

It’s jarring when you think about it: We’re a decade and a half into the online news era, and most online news sites still feel more like newspapers than unlike them–they’ve got a home page that feels like a front page, and sections that feels like…sections. Projects such as Living Stories (and the NYT’s Skimmer view, which officially debuted last week) are interesting takes on one of the many challenges that faces news organizations: Bringing all the goodness of newspapers online, then remixing it in ways to go far beyond what dead trees could ever do.

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Dick Tracy Watch from LG/Orange

Posted by David Spark on December 8, 2009 at 10:15 am

(This post is part of the Traveling Geeks tech tour of Paris. David Spark (@dspark) is the founder of Spark Media Solutions and a tech journalist that blogs at Spark Minute and can be heard and seen regularly on ABC Radio and on John C. Dvorak’s “Cranky Geeks.”)

At the end of the first day of the Traveling Geeks tour in Paris, we went to the demonstration labs of Orange, the European telco company. They showed us what they’re offering in the areas of IPTV and 3D TV. Completely unrelated, I saw a quick demo of a very cool Internet watch by LG that can do video conferencing. Cool phone, but you now need to find the second person who has that watch just so you can have a video chat. Same problem I have with my Nokia N82. It has video conferencing and I’ve never used it. I haven’t found a second person who has the phone. Check out the video. BTW, the quality is much better, but I shot it with a Flip video camera and it doesn’t have macro focus so that’s why it’s a little blurry.

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Offline Gmail Leaves Labs…But Doesn’t Arrive in Snow Leopard

Posted by Harry McCracken on December 8, 2009 at 9:17 am

(UPDATE: Google says it’s figured out how to make Gears work in Firefox within Snow Leopard.)

Gmail’s extremely useful offline access feature has graduated from Labs and is now “a regular part of Gmail.” Users of Google’s mail service can now read, compose, and manage mail even when they don’t have a working Internet connection. Well, many folks can–but not Mac users who are running the current version of Apple’s operating system, OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. Offline Gmail depends on Google’s Gears framework, and Gears doesn’t work in Snow Leopard.

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