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Wyoming wholly commits to Google apps, adds more flair to state's firsts
Milestone-maker may not be the first words that come to mind when you think 'Wyoming,' but consider this: the state lays claim to the first ever national park (Yellowstone), the first national monument (Devil's Tower), and to being first for women's suffrage. Not content to rest on its laurels, Wyoming Governor Matt Mead put on his early adopter hat and marched all ten thousand civil servant soldiers into the Google cloud. It's a major first for both parties, and might even help Google ease the federal government's earlier MS-favoring snub. By switching solely to Google Apps for Government, Mead says the move will save his great territory significant coin, not to mention getting everybody under the Gmail umbrella like Los Angeles did back in 2009. Unintended consequence of the move? The inefficiency of, oh, about nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety-nine workers whiling away their days on Gchat. Check below for official video of the address.
Google Apps is moving on, you'll need an HTML5 browser to go with it
HTML5 beckons the world with its dashing logo and also, we suppose, all the clever little things it can do. Desktop notifications in Gmail and folder-dragging in Docs already refuse to work with anything less -- and before long that will apply to the entirety of Google Apps. Come August 1st, you will find that Gmail, Calendar, Talk, Docs and Sites are all unsupported unless you're using either the current or last major release of Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome or Safari. An older browser won't suddenly stop working with Google Apps, but it will begin a steady descent into oblivion. Hey, being popular means you don't have to be nice.
Gmail now stores up to 25,000 contacts for the insanely popular
Are you quietly proud of the girth of your social circle? Do you think having 146 Facebook buddies is impressive? Snap out of it, saddo. Some Gmail users have thousands upon thousands of contacts in their list -- so many, in fact, that they've been begging Google to increase its 10,000 limit. The Big G has now obliged these jabbering fiends, yanking the limit up to 25,000 and also boosting available cloud storage to 128KB per contact instead of 32KB. We imagine this could be of some help to business users perhaps, or those nice strangers who send out stock tips. But for the rest of us, the gesture is about as inconsequential as the professionally good-looking.
Google preps Android for its corporate interview, adds new encryption and security measures
With over 300,000 devices activated per day, Android's clearly firing on all cylinders from a consumer standpoint, but much like the famed Cheez-It wheel, some would argue that the OS isn't quite mature enough for unabashed enterprise use. Being a corporation itself, El Goog's obviously been toiling around the clock to change that, and it's taking three major strides today. An updated version of its Google Apps Device Policy enables employees to secure a lost or stolen Android 2.2+ device by locating it on a map, ringing the device, and resetting the device PIN or password remotely via the new My Devices website. Furthermore, Apps admins now have an option in the control panel to "Encrypt Data on Device," which will now include requiring encrypted storage on Android 3.0 tablets. Finally, Google Apps Lookup is acting as a type of internal blackbook, allowing users to easily sift through colleagues and contact them through one form or another. So... hired?
Ripxx ski app out now for Android, still has no idea what the street value of this mountain is
The closest we have ever come to a ski race is the worn out VHS copy of Better Off Dead we still have in the back of our closets somewhere, but if you're an Android-lovin' ski bunny jealous of all the attention Ripxx has been giving the iPhone, you're in luck. That's right, your fave open source smartphone OS has its very own version of the Ripxx Ski and Snowboard app. Version 1.1 features over 200 mapped out resorts, GPS tracking, stats recording (including speed, distance, and vertical drop) and more. Not bad for $5, eh?
Google suing US Department of the Interior for Google Apps snub
Google has filed a lawsuit in the US Court of Federal Claims against the US Department of the Interior for being what it claims as "unduly restrictive of competition." Apparently the DOI wrote up procurement requirements for a hosted email and collaboration solution (it's currently hobbling along with 13 different platforms for its 88,000 users) that specifically stated the software had to be part of the Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite. Google thinks there should be a competitive procurement process for the $59 million contract, allowing for potential alternatives to Microsoft (like Google Apps, for instance). The DOI says it's up for open competition on the contract, but it's "standardized" on Microsoft tech. We'll have to see how this plays out.
Mailplane 2.2 adds several key features
Mailplane, the native Mac app for Gmail and Google Apps email, has been updated to version 2.2, adding several new features and improving on others. Leading the charge is support for the recently-released "Priority Inbox." You can now tell Mailplane to open either your regular inbox, Priority Inbox, or a custom label. My favorite new feature is the ability to drag a Mailplane URL directly from the title bar. I use this with BusyCal's URL field if I need to connect an email with a meeting. It works for conversations or searches. TrueNew support has also been added. I hadn't heard of TrueNew before, but it's pretty nifty if you're in the habit of leaving unread messages in your inbox. TrueNew shows you your total unread count plus what is truly new since the last time you took any action on your inbox so that you can see what is truly new (hence the name). There's more, including another plug-in, which you should know about even if you don't use Gmail or Mailplane.
Syphir gives you more Gmail filtering options
Syphir first attracted my attention when they announced that they were using OAuth for Gmail (meaning that you did not have to provide your login information to Syphir in order to use it). They have a $3 iPhone app that receives push notifications, but it will work without the app or even if you -- gasp! -- don't have an "iDevice." Note: I'll refer to this as "Gmail," but it works equally well for Google Apps. I'll also refer to sending the iPhone notifications, but it works just as well on the iPad. The app is mostly just there to receive the notifications, so you'll probably never notice the pixel doubling. What does Syphir do? It lets you create "Rules," which are like filters in Gmail, but Syphir has some extra features that Gmail doesn't offer. After setting certain criteria for the Rule, you can have Syphir archive, mark as read, star, delete, apply a label, remove a label, alert the iPhone, or delay the email. Read on for more details...
Google Apps phone-lock issues with iOS 4
In a strange twist with what appears to be a security issue, users of Google Apps who set up their accounts using the Microsoft Exchange settings (aka ActiveSync) may find that their iPhones have been set to auto-lock in one minute. I confirmed this after reading a comment from TUAW reader BigB who mentioned it in another post. Apparently this is due to the security certificates that Google uses with its Exchange servers. The servers can force security options on compatible devices, which your iPhone becomes once it is running iOS 4. To be clear: if you have a regular Gmail account and set it up using Exchange, this auto-lock requirement will not be triggered. But if you use Google Apps for your personal domain, it may. Also: Google Apps users have also reported problems setting up their iOS 4 devices. Mine kept telling me that the server (m.google.com) was unable to be verified even if you followed the instructions. Since I knew my information was correct, I went ahead and saved it. Email began syncing not long afterwards, but apparently the issue is still cropping up intermittently for some users.
Google Apps Marketplace opens for business, for business
Google's certainly made some enterprise inroads with Google Apps, and now it's opened the door for other cloud-based service providers to build on that success: it's launching Google Apps Marketplace to sell third-party web apps that integrate with the Apps suite. The apps are sold as a subscription, with both monthly and annual pricing, and the billing is all handled by Google. Since it's all targeted at the enterprise, the apps themselves are pretty dry -- we're talking notables like Intuit Online Payroll, eFax, and TripIt -- but it's pretty easy to see how Google could build a similar consumer-level marketplace into Gmail and Google Calendar sometime in the future. And then? Skynet. Video after the break.
Enhanced Gmail Plug-in for BlackBerrys arrives, but only syncs one way
Lackluster Gmail support has been a real pain point for BlackBerry users, and we've really been hoping that this new "Enhanced Gmail Plug-in" would solve all that. It's out as of today, and we've certainly gotten some improvements, like support for archiving messages, marking spam and managing labels / stars. Unfortunately, these new management features are only live synced one way, from the phone to the Gmail server, so many of the actions that take place desktop side won't be reflected on the phone once that particular message has been picked up by the BlackBerry Internet Service. There's also the small problem of installing the thing: we haven't been successful so far on two different BlackBerries, and you have to make sure to uninstall the existing Gmail Plug-in. Meanwhile, in BlackBerry Enterprise Server land, the Google Apps Connector has now gone live, which means Google Apps users get push Gmail and what seems to be much tighter Exchange-style syncing. Let us know if you get either of these things working with your particular setup. [Via Boy Genius Report] Read - Enhanced Gmail Plug-in now available Read - Google Apps Connector for BES now available
Google Apps coming to Clearwire customers via new partnership
Don't look now, but it seems Google is teaming up with wireless broadband provider Clearwire in order to bless its customers with the Google Apps communication suite. Though no definitive date was provided, Clearwire will "soon" begin migrating its users to Gmail / Google Calendar sometime during the first half of this year, and furthermore, these same folks will also have access to Google Talk. Beyond all that, however, is quite a bit of lovin' coming from both sides, and Clearwire's chief strategy officer Scott Richardson even went so far as to say that he "looked forward to expanding its working relationship with Google." Quite the interesting tag team, wouldn't you say?
Google Hosted Mail Notifier
I found a widget back in January that did a ho-hum job of checking your Google hosted email (via Google's Apps for Your Domain service), but it doesn't always behave, and for RAM-conscious users a widget simply isn't the way to go. Fortunately, the Google Hosted Mail Notifier has risen to the challenge of providing a simple menubar item for checking your Google Hosted email, complete with customizable Growl alerts, choices in time intervals for checking mail, sounds, HTTPS connections and more. It works really well, though I wish it used a different icon than the official Google Notifier to help differentiate it from the pack. Still, for a donationware app from Troels Bay, the same crew who brought us the Google Reader Notifier (and please, show the dev some donation love), this is a great piece of work.
