Author: TA

Google+ Hangouts go mobile, get live streaming and better search

Summary: All the focus may be on Google+’s new open door policy, but Google+ Hangouts also got a few compelling new features.

Everyone is so focused on Google+’s newfound openness to all comers that they’re glossing over the really cool new additions to Google+ that were also announced today: Hangouts for Android devices, the ability to live-stream and record video broadcasts, a handful of minor new sharing capabilities for Hangouts, and a better search box.

Hangouts, as a refresher, is Google+’s drop-in, drop-out videoconferencing component, where anyone can invite up to eight friends to click a link in their social news feed and chat face-to-face. Of all of Google+’s unique selling points, it’s easily the flashiest. And today’s announcements are only going to endear it to new audiences.

As of today, the Google+ app has for Android has been updated, granting any device with a front-facing camera and that’s running Android 2.3 or higher the ability to join an active Hangout from the stream, just as on the desktop. EDIT: Google also promises that iOS support for mobile Google+ Hangouts is coming soon.

But my vote for the addition that’s going to have the biggest impact is the new live broadcasting feature, dubbed “Hangouts on Air.” As you may guess from the name, it lets users broadcast the content of their Hangout to Google+ at large, letting the masses become a spectator audience. These broadcasts can also be recorded for later retrieval.

Right now, Google+ is limiting the number of would-be videocast personalities who can take advantage of Hangouts on Air, but the official blog entry seems to indicate that the door will open up wider down the line. The first-ever publicly-broadcasted Hangout will be with the Black Eyed Peas’ will.i.am on Wednesday night.

Google+ Hangouts, as they exist today, let you share YouTube videos and hold a group chat. But as of today, if you select “Hangouts with extras” once you’re in the green room, you get an early preview of the ability to share Google Docs, a Sketchpad for doodling, a name for the chat, or even your screen with everyone else in the room. Google says that it’s pooling feedback from these early additions to Hangouts.

The recently-released Google+ APIs have been bolstered with the release of the Hangouts API, opening the door for apps or games and, as Google’s blog puts it, “and who-knows-what-else” to be built on top of the videoconferencing platform.

Finally, Google+ has gotten an enhanced search bar that answers your query with “relevant people and posts, as well as popular content from around the web.” And Google is promising that the new search experience prioritizes results based on your interests – which sounds vaguely sinister – and that a search for, say, cooking, will return recipes and people listing themselves on Google+ as chefs.

And in terms of privacy, Google promises that the only G+ posts you can see from the search are ones that would normally be visible to you anyway.

So, yes, the big Google+ news of the day is the fact that it’s open for all. But it’s good to see that Google+ continues to develop some of its more compelling features for those who are coming in through that open door and that first wave of field testers alike. Of course, that assumes that there’s anyone interested in joining Google+ now who hadn’t already gotten their hands on the invites flying around.

via Google+ Hangouts go mobile, get live streaming and better search | ZDNet.

VMware Updates Desktop Products: Workstation 8 and Fusion 4 Released

In an unusual move, VMware has given us a twofer and updated both its desktop flagship products today. VMware is releasing VMmware Workstation 8 for Windows and Linux, and VMware Fusion 4 for Mac users. The Fusion update makes Fusion “more Mac-like” and finally allows users to virtualize Mac OS X under VMware Fusion. Workstation 8 is aimed squarely at developers and professionals working cloud and virtualization deployments, with remote access to virtual machines and support for up to 64GB of RAM.

VMware Workstation is VMware’s oldest product, and still very popular with developers and IT professionals who need to have access to virtual guests on their desktop.

New in Workstation 8
With Workstation 8, VMware claims support for more than 600 operating systems, from MS-DOS to Windows 7. But the real juice is for developers working with and deploying current operating systems into production in the cloud.

VMware sees users doing a lot of development on the desktop and then pushing it into the internal cloud. Workstation 8 allows developers to create their virtual machines, then drag and drop them to vSphere. Workstation 8 is big on sharing, too. The release has features that let developers share a virtual machine directly from the desktop to another user running Workstation 8. Alternatively, you can connect to a remote virtual machine with Workstation 8 if the machine is running on vSphere, vCenter, or another copy of Workstation 8.

With the remote access features, developers are not constrained by the hardware of their local machine. They can simply connect to remote machines with Workstation, ESX 4.x or later, and vCenter Server and run the guests on the more powerful system but display them locally.

This release of Workstation also beefs up performance considerably, allowing it to take advantage of up to 64GB of RAM. VMware admitted to me that they haven’t seen many workstation or desktop machines with 64GB of RAM, but they picture Workstation 8 running on servers for development teams that need to share VMs.

Workstation 8 also has better desktop hardware support for its guests, with HD audio, USB 3 support, and Bluetooth devices. The company has also bolstered the 3D performance of Workstation 8 in this release. See the release notes for all the features and details on Workstation 8. The upgrade price for Workstation 8 is $99, users of Workstation 6.x or 7.x can take advantage of the upgrade. Just starting with Workstation 8? The release is $199 and available immediately as an electronic download.

New in VMware Fusion 4
While Workstation is aimed at the IT professionals doing heavy duty development work, Fusion is largely targeted at Web developers and professionals who’ve switched to the Mac and still need access to some Windows apps. Fusion 4 offers support for more than 200 guest OSes, a bit less than Workstation but still a respectable set.

VMware Fusion 4, thanks to a blessing from Apple (finally) brings Fusion users something they’ve been waiting for a long time – the ability to virtualize Mac OS X. Developers who work on OS X will be able to virtualize OS X Lion, Snow Leopard, Snow Leopard Server, and Leopard Server in virtual machines. Note that VMware only officially supports virtualizing OS X on OS X Lion.

The release is also “more Mac-like” with a streamlined user interface and a better integration with OS X Lion’s full screen features and its gestures. You can swipe between a virtual machine and Lion with a three-fingered gesture. The virtual library display has been revamped, and the preferences for VMware Fusion now look more like the native system preferences on Mac OS X.

Fusion 4 also has an updated snapshot feature that lets you scroll through a timeline of snapshots of your VM. Note that Fusion has always had snapshots, this is just a prettier and more friendly way to display them.

Switchers will find a better integration of Windows applications into Mac OS X, particularly if they’re running OS X Lion. Fusion 4 will add Windows apps to the Dock, Spotlight, Mission Control and LaunchPad – but only the applications that you choose.

Like Workstation, Fusion has gotten a bunch of performance boosts and offers better 3D performance, virtual Bluetooth, and 5.1 HD audio.

With Fusion 4, VMware claims more than 90 new features (PDF) though some are less exciting than others. (For instance, VMware claims “run from any folder you choose” as a feature, and loading and unloading services and kernel modules on demand as two separate features.)

Fusion 4 is available immediately for download for $49, and a box set is with DVD and USB key (for those with no optical drive) is coming as well.

VMware has quite a bit of competition these days on the desktop front, with Parallels, VirtualBox and a number of other desktop solutions. What’s your pick for virtualization on the desktop?

via VMware Updates Desktop Products: Workstation 8 and Fusion 4 Released – ReadWriteCloud.

Disneyland Fireworks Show, September 10, 2011

Enjoy the Disneyland Fireworks show, from September 10, 2011.  The Video was shot from the Flag Pole are of Main Street USA!

Netflix Cracks Down on Sharing: One Stream Per Customer Unless You Pay More

Netflix streaming customers who happen to share their account with other family members are having a frustrated Labor Day weekend as Netflix completes implementation of strict new limits on the number of concurrent video streams available for viewing.

 

The Netflix Multiple Stream error
Netflix Multiple-Stream Error screen

Netflix has always unofficially had streaming limitations:

Some membership plans allow you to watch simultaneously on more than one personal computer or Netflix ready device at the same time. If you are on the 1 disc out at-a-time plan [or stream-only plan], you may watch only one device at a time. If you are on the 2 discs out at-a-time plan, you may watch on up to two devices at the same time. Members on the 3 disc plan can watch on up to three devices. The maximum is four devices simultaneously, and that is available for members on the 4 or greater discs out at-a-time plans.

But many of our readers have told us they have never had problems running two or even three concurrent streams at the same time on a “stream-only” plan… until recently.  What Netflix’s “official policy” was and what customers could actually do were two different things.

“Netflix never liked two streams at the same time on the same browser, but if you have several family members, two or three people could watch different shows on their own devices at the same time, but no more,” says Stop the Cap! reader Jared Ustel.  “As of this weekend, streaming customers can only watch one show at a time.”

Stop the Cap! was able to verify this ourselves this weekend.  Sure enough, while in the recent past we were able to support up to three video streams running at the same time, now it is just one.

This new restriction seems timed to coincide with Netflix’s recent price increases, which took effect Sept. 1.  Now, large families sharing a Netflix account will either have to reserve time to watch their respective favorites or:

  1. Pay considerably more for a combo disc-rental/streaming plan which unlocks a corresponding number of concurrent streams.  If you want two concurrent video streams, you will need to pay $19.98 a month, which also allows you two mailed DVD’s out at a time.  Three streams and DVD’s runs $23.98, four: $29.98;
  2. Sign up for a second Unlimited Streaming account at an additional $7.99 a month;
  3. Forget about Netflix.

While Netflix may have been hoping to cut down on the number of “shared accounts” with friends and distant family members, their policy change will hit families hard.

With the controversial Sept. 1 price increase effectively near-doubling the cost to watch video streams and rent one DVD at a time by mail, now may not be the best time to further antagonize loyal customers.

via Stop the Cap!.

10.7: How to download the OS X Lion Installer or any App Store app on Lion

There’s been a lot of talk about how to get the OS X Lion Installer after you installed Lion. The main purpose of this may be to get the Installer dmg to create a bootable Installer disk, as described elsewhere. Many missed doing that before installation, me included.

But actually this hint will work to force download any purchase on the Mac App Store.

There’s an easy method to force a download within the Mac App Store without any tinkering. It seems to be the official method, although I found no description of this in any of Apple’s documentation.

So here’s how to do it:

  • Open the Mac App Store.
  • Navigate to your Purchased page.
  • Hold down the Option key on your keyboard and click on your ‘OS X Lion’ purchase link (not on the ‘installed’ button).
  • You see the Lion product page. It should say ‘Installed,’ but that button is clickable. Hold down the Option key again and click on ‘Installed.’ If you don’t hold the option key it will tell you there’s already a newer version installed.
  • Enter your login credentials.
  • Download.

It’s important to hold down the Option key twice. Once on the Purchased page, once on the Lion page. You also can’t navigate to Lion directly, you need to open it from the purchases page. But if you follow this procedure you should find the Lion Installer within your Applications folder.

via 10.7: How to download the OS X Lion Installer on Lion – Mac OS X Hints.

Google May Be On The Verge Of Resurrecting “GDrive”

In 2006, Google was internally testing a project codenamed “Platypus”, an online storage service. When it was accidentally disclosed during an analyst meeting as “GDrive”, it quickly captured the web’s imagination. Google seemed on the verge of transforming their servers into our own personal hard drives in the cloud. Plenty of startups were working on this (and still are), but the presumption was that Google would be able to scale this beyond anyone else and do it for free, or very cheap. Google refused to talk about it, but story after story after story kept coming.

Then something weird happened: GDrive never actually launched.

It wasn’t until earlier this year that we found out what happened, thanks to Steven Levy’s book In The Plex. In 2008, GDrive was about to launch under Bradley Horowitz (now a lead on Google+), but Sundar Pichai (now the SVP of Chrome) convinced Google’s top executives not to launch it. The reason? He felt like the concept of a “file” was outdated (sounds more than a bit Jobsian) in the cloud-based universe that Google was trying to build. After some debate, the powers that be at Google agreed and GDrive was shelved, and the team moved over to the Chrome team.

End of story, right? Not so fast.

Something curious appeared this evening in the Chromium Code Reviews issue list. As first noted by Nick Semenkovich on Twitter, there was a ticket to add the URL drive.google.com to a list in the browser’s code. This URL (which is not yet live) lead to a Hacker News thread wondering: “Google Drive coming soon?“

Diving a bit deeper into the code reviews, what’s most striking is that drive.google.com doesn’t appear to be referenced anywhere besides this one exposed ticket. This suggests that it’s either no big deal, or that Google is keeping this very secret.

I don’t think it’s the former because the messaging in the one ticket indicates that drive.google.com has been added to the HSTS (HTTP Strict Transport Security) list alongside other key Google apps like docs.google.com and spreadsheets.google.com. Another bit of code puts it alongside Android Market and Google Analytics.

Google information security engineer, Chris Evans, completed the ticket this evening. And Chrome engineer Adam Langley approved it with the message “LGTM” (Looks Good To Me).

I reached out to Pichai (who again, is now a Google senior executive in charge of Chrome), but he declined to comment. A Google spokesperson would only say, “The team is always testing out new features, but we don’t have any details to share at this time.”

It sure seems like something is up. At the very least, Google does appear to be close to doing something with the drive.google.com domain. My best guess — which is pure speculation — is that it will be some sort of new Google app for syncing files over the web across a range of devices. PCs, Macs, Chromebooks, Android phones, iOS, you name it. Think: Dropbox.

But wait, doesn’t Google already offer cloud storage functionality as a part of Google Docs? Sort of. But since that functionality launched almost two years ago, it seems that very few people use it like they use Dropbox — hence, Dropbox’s $4 billion valuation and Box.net’s $550 million valuation.

Google is putting a lot of weight behind Chrome OS and Chromebooks. So far, it seems they haven’t exactly caught fire in the sales department. But they’re iterating fast, and one area of focus has been the file system (despite Pichai’s hope they wouldn’t need one — remember, they’re going after PC users here). One that is built into the core of the OS and tied to the cloud could be very useful to those hoping to switch from traditional PCs. That’s especially true now that Google is finally making their apps fully available offline as well, as they did with Gmail, Docs, etc, this morning.

More to come on this, I’m sure.

via Google May Be On The Verge Of Resurrecting “GDrive” | TechCrunch.

Gmail Offline – Google Launches Offline Versions of Gmail, Calendar & Docs

Google is launching a new Gmail web app and updates to Calendar and Docs, in an effort to increase its products’ offline utility.

Google users have called bringing Gmail, Calendar and Docs offline an essential step for improving productivity, Group Product Manager Rajen Sheth told Mashable. The problem, he explained, is that when users need offline access to their email or calendar, they really need it.

To that end, Google is launching a new Chrome app called Gmail Offline. Separate from Gmail itself, the new app is designed for accessing, managing and sending email while you’re disconnected from the web. “We can build on top of a lot of HTML5 standards, which gives us the capabilities to make it work offline,” Sheth said.

The HTML5 app looks and feels a lot like the Gmail app for tablets. That’s because Gmail Offline is based off the tablet version, which was designed to function with or without Internet access. It focuses on the key features users need to access while offline, including organizing, starring, labeling, archiving and responding to email. It won’t give you access to Gmail Labs features, but it will get the job done.

In addition to the Gmail Offline app, Google is rolling out the ability to access Calendar and Docs offline. The feature, available by clicking the gear icon at the top of the page, lets you view events and RSVP to appointments in Calendar and view documents in Docs. Offline document editing isn’t available yet, but Google promises to find a way to make it work. Part of the problem is finding a way to make sure document edits made offline don’t override edits made by online collaborators.

The apps are only available through the Chrome Web Store at the moment. If you try to use the Calendar or Docs offline features, you will be prompted to first install Chrome. Google says that it intends to roll out its offline apps to other browsers once they support the functionality.

via Google Launches Offline Versions of Gmail, Calendar & Docs.

Official Closing Date Announced For Sunshine Plaza – Disney California Adventure

We are reaching another major milestone in the ongoing expansion of Disney California Adventure park. On Monday, August 29, the Sunshine Plaza area will close to allow crews to start the transformation of the current park entry into Buena Vista Street, reminiscent of what Walt Disney encountered when he first arrived in California in the 1920s.

While the shops will close to make way for Buena Vista Street, guests will continue to enter the park through the new Pan-Pacific Auditorium-inspired turnstiles and follow a temporary walkway which will feature renderings of the future Disney California Adventure park and connect the turnstiles with the Condor Flats area. This area will be the temporary entrance and exit for guests during the transformation of the former main entrance stores to Buena Vista Street.

This entry and exit location will remain in place until Buena Vista Street opens in 2012. To see what’s in store when this area opens, take a look at the renderings below, which were shown this past weekend at the Disney D23 Expo in Anaheim.

via Disneyland News Today.

Show hidden files Mac OS X 10.7 Lion

To enable hidden files/folders in finder windows:

  1. Open Finder
  2. Open the Utilities folder
  3. Open a terminal window
  4. Copy and paste the following line in: 
    1
    		 
    defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles YES
  5. Press return
  6. Now hold ‘alt’ on the keyboard and right click on the Finder icon
  7. Click on Relaunch
You should find you will now be able to see any hidden files or folders. One you are done, perform the steps above however, replace the terminal command in step 4 with:

1
 
defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles NO

via MikeSel.info.

Another HTC Thunderbolt RUU Leaked, Version 2.11.605.0 Of Gingerbread

Just a couple days ago, an RUU version 2.10.605.1 was leaked for the HTC Thunderbolt. Well the gifts keep coming, and over at XDA, a user has leaked another RUU. The newest version is 2.11.605.0, and it is only pointing at the still imminent release of Gingerbread for all you extremely patient Thunderbolt owners.If you flash, you will lose root, and it will wipe your device.

If you want to save root, wait for a little while until a developer can work on it, and package it up properly. Be safe.

 

Download RUU

via Droid Life.

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