The concepts behind email and IM are fairly similar if not for the difference in length (usually). We type a message. Spellcheck (sometimes). Then send it to one or more recepients. They in turn type their reply,and then send it back. Maybe one of them will attach a file which is a document or a picture. While high-level,this is how it has always been. With the introduction of HTML5 Google is trying to revolutionize how we perceive email and IM with Google Wave. With Google Wave,you have all your contacts on the left,and conversations or threads in the middle. You discuss in real-time,with everyone being able to see what you are typing. You can drag people into conversations,or drag-and-drop pictures or music files to the conversation to instantly share them with the people in the conversation. It is something that I have just scratched the surface of,but find very interesting. For more information,head on to an excellent write-up by TechCrunch.
After using Gmail’s Inbox Preview Lab feature for a few days,I think it is time to recommend it to all of you. It’s a really great feature that has saved me some time during my day. As much as I love Gmail’s AJAX interface and simplicity,there is no denying that,like most other major online email clients,the interface can take a few seconds to a minute to load on a decent connection,and even longer on a very slow connection. Over the weekend I was in San Diego using one of the slowest connections I have encountered in recent times,while Gmail (and all other sites) would take 2-3 minutes to load. This feature easily saved me a bunch of time by allowing me to quickly see if I had any important emails waiting in my Inbox,before Gmail fully loaded. It will show a quick plain text snapshot of the first 10 emails in your Inbox (read or unread). This allows me to see if there is anything new or important,and close Gmail before it even fully opens.
Autodesk is a powerhouse when it comes to 2D and 3D design software for architecture,engineering,manufacturing,etc. So it’s no wonder,that when they decided to make a free software that allows you to design and furnish your apartment/house,they did an amazing job at it. A friend of mine was asking me for recommendations for a site to use to do something similar just a few weeks ago,and I had then recommended Floorplanner. It was I had used when I was laying out my new apartment,but had it’s faults. However,just after a few minutes with Autodesk’s Dragonfly,I love it already. It is so much easier to use,intuitive,smarter,and flexible than anything else I have used. You can easily snap objects to grids,it pulls up rulers for walls,and is aware of many different architectural elements that you may want/have. Next time I am looking to re-do my place (or move),I am definitely hitting up Autodesk. (Found on Downloadsqaud)
I’ve been a big fan of ImgBurn since I found about it a while back (months? year?),and am amazed how many people still cling on to programs like Nero or Roxio when there are faster,easier to use,and free alternatives out there. ImgBurn is very reliable,and can burn files,folders,or images of CDs,DVDs,HD DVDs,and even Blu-Rays. It’s Windows only,but definitely check it out.
Drop.io has been around for a bit,but I guess I was just a bit slow to the game here. After checking it out,I must say that it is an excellent tool to make working with a group of people a lot easier (I wish I had this back in college…). It’s a very easy-to-use interface,with a high level of functionality built in. I could go on trying to explain it,but I think the video above does a great job. To sum it up,it is a site where you can in real time work with other people to add a photos,videos,documents,links,email and even voicemail,and without any page refreshes,you can chat and comment on these items. It is a free service for 100 mb,and you can pay to get more space. What is really interesting is the new presentation feature that they released yesterday,where you can go into a Presenter and Particpant mode and have a free confernce call setup (with Drop.io),which goes up to challenge other applications like WebEx and Windows Live Meeting. (Found on DownloadSquad)
Are you using Gmail yet? No really,why? With the new feature Google just roled out,there should be no reason why you aren’t already using one of the best email interfaces out there (it may not be as pretty as Yahoo or Windows Live,but it sure is a lot faster than them and in my opinion works a lot better too). Gmail now has the ability to import all your email and contacts from your POP3 account and your Yahoo,AOL,Hotmail,or any other webmail you my be using. Details and guide can be found on the Gmail support page. (Found on Techcrunch)
Arthur Sabintsev over at LazyRussian.com has created a Firefox extension,called FacePAD that makes it a lot easier to download that album of photos your friend uploaded of your recent trip together on Facebook (I have no patience to individiually download 60 pictures per album). The extension essetially adds an option in the contextual menu when you right click on the album name,that allows you to download all the pictures in the album straight to your default download location in full size. Awesome. Demo video after the break. (Found on LifeHacker)
I’ve long been a fan of having my documents online,but never actually been able to execute with the idea. There is just a huge convienence factor of being able to work on a proper word processing or spreadsheet program on my local computer. It’s less hassle to open up the documents,and the interface is easier to work with in some ways for me. But on the flip side,I like the idea of having access to my documents from any computer anywhere in the world. I also like Google Docs ability to easily collaborate with other people,and perform real-time editing. Offisync is a new Office plug-in that attempts to bring these two worlds together by allowing me to work on documents in my Microsoft Office program,but save and access it with Google Docs. The clever thing it does is the tight integration it has between the document you are working on and Google Docs. You can control the folder structure in Google Docs,add/remove people,and share only certain files instead of your entire My Documents folder. While in private beta now,they also have some interesting features in the works. (Found on TechCrunch)
Google has trained many of us on how to structure our search queries in order to get the results we want. Let’s say I want to find data to generate a graph of the temperature in Italy for the past seven years. I am not going to try searching for graph of the temperature in Italy for the past seven years in Google. I might try something like temperature data Italy using only the keywords for what I am looking for. This works well in many areas,but also means that for people who don’t know what keywords to use,or when to use ’+’or ‘-’or “”in their queries to filter their results,they can find Google quite frusturating. Wolfram|Alpha seems to be a giant leap towards being able to find answers to factual questions,using real sentences and not keywords. It may not have access to the multitude of data sources Google has available to it,but it seems much smarter at presenting the results in the easiest way to understand to the viewer.
Beyond that,it seems to be also seems to be challenging Wikipedia,by being able to provide detailed information that I would usually go to Wikipedia for information on (molecular weight of caffeine anyone?). The site is still in private beta,but it is said to release sometime this month,so I am definetly excited to see what comes out of this. Is this the next thing in search? (Found on LifeHacker)
I wouldn’t say this is the pizza box of the future (I imagine something that will keep the pizza warm enough to eat,but not so hot that the cheese slides off into the box when I pick up a slice…make it happen) but it sure as hell is a lot better than what they use right now,and I can’t imagine that it would be significantly more expensive than the ones they use right now. I hope some company out there is talking to these guys right now. (Found on Digg)
