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Google Assistant will finally work with business G Suite accounts
Google has been steadily rolling out G Suite updates like AI grammar suggestions in Google Docs, streamlined two-step verification, new Tasks features and shortcuts to make Google Doc and Sheet creation faster. Today, at the Cloud Next '19 event, Google announced its newest batch of G Suite changes.
Google Calendar gets smarter and prettier
As part of the Google's continued push forward with Lollipop, Calendar is getting a major (and long-overdue) upgrade. Obviously that includes a Material Design facelift (which we can only assume will come to the web app eventually), but it also includes a metric ton of new features. The most impressive is its ability to mine your inbox for valuable information and automatically create appointments for you. Rather than suggest an event when you open your flight itinerary in Gmail, the new Google Calendar will just pull in that information -- including your flight number and check-in time. Best of all, those events are automatically updated, say if your flight is delayed or your pottery class is canceled. Assists are an other effort to save you time by suggesting locations, people or even events titles based on your behavior. As an example, Google says if you frequently go running with your friend Peter in Central park, typing "r-u-n" should automatically suggest "Running with Peter in Central Park" complete with a link to the location on the map and contact for Peter.
Show all Google Calendars on iOS and Mac
If you have been trying to get your Google Calendar to sync to your iOS device(s) or your Mac, but can't get all of your Google calendars to show up, I may have the answer: Unless you have a paid Google Apps account, use https://www.google.com/calendar/syncselect to select which calendars you want to sync via CalDAV. Within your calendar app (on the Mac or on iOS) you can always choose which calendar(s) to show, but when dealing with Google calendar, your other calendars will only appear if they have been enabled. (If you use Gmail over IMAP you may have gone through the process of choosing which labels appear as IMAP folders. The process of enabling CalDAV support for your calendars is something like that.) The biggest enemy that you will have in getting this to work is previous experience with syncing Google and iOS devices, especially because Google has been fairly sloppy with its instructions, all of which led me on a not-very-fun technological wild goose chase tonight. For more on those details, and what to watch out for, keep reading. (Spoiler alert: I've already given away the ending.) Even Google can't keep the instructions straight For as long as I can remember, Google Calendar on iPad or iPhone/iPod touch devices has had this annoying "quirk" - if you have more than one calendar, you have to go to a web page on Google's site and "enable" each calendars you want to use on each iOS device. "Sync Google Calendar with your iOS device" appears to be Google's most up-to-date instructions for setting this up, although it's hard to tell because there's no "as of" or "last updated" date anywhere on the page. At the top of the page are the basic steps on iOS for creating a new account in iOS 7, but the crucial piece of information comes at the very bottom of the page: "By default, only your primary calendar will be synced with your device. If you have additional calendars you'd like to sync, follow the instructions below." The next section is titled "Sync Multiple Calendars" and is hidden, for some reason, behind a collapsed JavaScript... "thing" that you have to click on to reveal the following: (begin quote) Visit the following page from your device's mobile browser: https://www.google.com/calendar/syncselect Google Apps users can go to https://m.google.com/sync/settings/ Select the calendars you'd like to sync, then click Save. The selected calendars will be displayed on your device at the time of the next sync. (end quote) The seemingly superfluous JavaScript and peculiar formatting are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the problems. Problem #1: Although the first line says, "Visit the following page from your device's mobile browser: https://www.google.com/calendar/syncselect", you don't need to visit it in your device's mobile browser. In fact, when you go to that page, at the very top it says: "Select calendars to sync to your iPhone/iPad/iCal*" and at the bottom of the page "* or any other CalDAV device." So it doesn't matter which browser you use. The good news is that Google no longer has you set different calendars for different devices, which you might remember if you have used Google Calendar with iOS devices in the past. Problem #2: The second line is more problematic: "Google Apps users can go to https://m.google.com/sync/settings/". First of all, it's not an actual link, in fact, it's actually wrapped in <code> and </code> for some reason. Let's call that "2a". 2b) But let's ignore the URL itself, because my bigger gripe is with the word "can" as in "Google Apps users can go to..." What does it mean they "can" go there? Does it mean that it's optional? They can use that URL or they can use the previous one? (HINT: NO! IT DOESN'T!) 2c) Although it sounds like that URL might be an optional one for Google Apps users, those URLs lead to two very different pages with two very different results. 2d) Remember back in "Problem #1" when Google claimed that you had to visit https://www.google.com/calendar/syncselect from your device's mobile browser, but you didn't? Well, turns out that you do have to use your mobile device's browser to see the settings at https://m.google.com/sync/settings/, otherwise it will tell you to go to http://m.google.com/sync which, in turn, leads you to http://www.google.com/sync/index.html. If you do go to https://m.google.com/sync/settings/ with a mobile browser, it will take you to https://m.google.com/sync/settings/iconfig/welcome which will show you a "Google Sync" page with the header "Manage devices" and a list of iPad and iPhones, showing the date the last sync for each device. There's no information about these devices, no actual device names, and there's no way to remove devices from the list. At the bottom of the page it says: "Bookmark this page so you can easily change your settings" followed by "Trying to manage Google Apps account? Configure your domain at m.google.com". If you have been using Google Calendar with iOS devices for a long time, as I have, you're probably very familiar with that page, and may have even followed Google's advice to bookmark it for future reference. I did. But if you actually do go to http://m.google.com, even on your mobile device's browser, it will actually take you to http://www.google.com/mobile/ios/, which, coincidentally, does not give you any way whatsoever to manage your Google Apps account. Dizzy yet? Confused? Welcome to partial backwards compatibility. Google has no one to blame for this mess except themselves. Most of this mess is a result of Google deciding to kill off Google Sync. Except not really kill it off. Quoting from Google Sync End of Life: "Google Sync was designed to allow access to Gmail, Google Calendar, and Contacts via the Microsoft® Exchange ActiveSync® protocol. With the recent launch of CardDAV, Google now offers similar access via IMAP, CalDAV, and CardDAV, making it possible to build a seamless sync experience using open protocols." Or, to paraphrase: "Look, we had to pay Microsoft to license Exchange ActiveSync, and we were doing it mostly for customers who weren't paying us anything. Well, turns out that paying for something that other people aren't paying you for, is, like, a total bummer, according to our accountants. So we did that for long enough to make sure that people were used to using our stuff, but now there's another way to do this that doesn't cost anything, and so we're going to use that instead, because open! And, also, you know, because paying Microsoft is a downer. But, don't worry, the new version is just as good as what we've always had. Oh, except for push. Yeah, that doesn't work with the free option. But it's totally free! And we don't have to pay Microsoft anymore. Did we mention that part?" Google tried to make this transition as seamless as possible: devices which were already setup to use ActiveSync could continue to use it, but no new devices would be able to use it. (At one point it was suggested that if you restored a new device from an old device you would be able to use it on the new device, but I have not tried that.) Also, people who pay for a Google Apps account could continue to use it. However, free Google Apps users (such as some educational users, non-profits, or personal domains which were grandfathered in before Google shuttered that program) could not, despite being "Google Apps" users. What we are left with is a confusing mix of outdated information (if you just search the web for information about setting up Google calendar on your iOS device), incorrect information (including some from Google itself), or just downright confusing information. This became a lot less theoretical for me when I tried to share my Google calendar with my wife. She could see it on her iPad, but not on her iPhone. When I went to https://m.google.com/sync/settings/iconfig/welcome while logged into her account, it showed an iPad has in sync as of today, but the most recent entry for her iPhone was over a year ago. I spent quite a long time time trying to figure out why the iPhone wouldn't sync properly, and, in fact, wouldn't even show the correct calendars. I was frustrated by the fact that https://m.google.com/sync/settings/iconfig/welcome does not show any device information besides the generic name (iPad or iPhone) and there is no way to delete a device from that list. I could add events to other calendars, even Google calendars, but my calendar stubbornly refused to even appear in the list. I even pulled up the mobile version of Google calendar in Mobile Safari on her iPhone and added an event through it, thinking that might somehow communicate to Google.com that this device was syncing. I could see my calendar in her account through Mobile Safari, but it would still not show up in her list of calendars. I even deleted the account from her iPhone, quit the calendar app, added the account back in, and tried again. Still no sync. Having reached the limit of my ideas, I went to see who else had dealt with this problem, and limiting my search results to only show me relatively recent search results, I came across a forum post which explained: "when you switch from using 'Exchange' sync on the iPhone to configuring a 'Gmail' account (which uses CalDAV), there are ramifications that Google doesn't do a great job of explaining." It then went on to suggest using https://www.google.com/calendar/syncselect or https://www.google.com/calendar/iphoneselect or https://www.google.com/calendar/hosted/YOUR.DOMAIN.HERE/iphoneselect instead. (In my experience, all three of those seem to lead to the same page.) That's when it (finally!) occurred to me that although I am using a "Google Apps" account, I am not using a paid Google Apps account, as I have one of the 'grandfathered' accounts. Remember way back up to "Problem #2b" above, where the page said: "Google Apps users can go to https://m.google.com/sync/settings/"? Yup, that's what threw me off, because that's (apparently) only true for paid Google Apps users who are still using the ActiveSync method of syncing their calendars. Paying for Google Apps gets you an extra email and calendar feature, but paying for a Gmail account does not. One last area of confusion I have seen is over "paid Gmail accounts." First of all, technically there aren't "paid Gmail accounts." You can pay for extra storage for your Google account which will be shared across Google Drive, Gmail, and Google+. These plans have changed drastically from back when you could get 20 GB for $5/year. But when it comes to "Google accounts" those are different from "Google Apps" accounts, and (as far as I can see) there is no way to pay for ActiveSync with a regular Gmail account, even if you pay for extra storage.
Google now lets you download your Gmail and Calendar data
Sure, if you delve far back enough into your Gmail history, you'll likely find some conversations you've been happy to forget, but remembering that job offer/email from grandpa/successful eBay bid is sure to brighten your day. Starting today, Google's rolling out the ability to export copies of your Gmail data in the MBOX format for backing up or moving to another service. And this new feature isn't just for nostalgia's sake; if you're transitioning to a new mail platform, you'll also appreciate that you can export Google Calendar info, in addition to preserving relevant Gmail correspondence. You can choose to download your entire inbox or narrow it down to particular labels -- the same goes for calendars; pick which ones you'd like or select them all. And if you want a thorough documentation of your history across Google products, you can also download an archive file that includes your data across Calendar, Drive, Gmail, Google+ and YouTube. Several of Mountain View's products are already downloadable via Takeout, but today's announcement adds much more functionality to that service. Hit up the source link below for more info.
iCaltoGCal.com syncs your iCloud calendar to Google Calendar
If you have ever tried to add your iCloud calendar in Google Calendar, you probably saw this error: "Could not fetch the URL because robots.txt prevents us from crawling the URL." That's because the https://www.icloud.com/robots.txt file tells "web crawlers" not to index anything under /calendar/ which is a good idea if we're talking about something like Googlebot, but should not apply when done in response to an interactive action initiated by a human. However, for reasons unknown, Google decided that Google Calendar should follow Apple's robots.txt instruction.[1] I have looked for a solution for this before, but today I found one: iCloud Calendar Proxy. The service could not be simpler: 1) Get your iCloud calendar URL from iCloud.com. 2) Paste the URL into the field at iCalToGCal. 3) Copy the new URL to Google Calendar. Boom! Now your iCloud calendar is available on Google Calendar. That's all you need to do, but there are a few provisos, a couple of quid pro quos you should know about. First of all, this process requires that your iCloud calendar be made public. Now, it doesn't seem likely that someone would accidentally stumble across your seemingly random 64-character iCloud calendar URL, but it's at least theoretically possible. You do not have to make the calendar public on Google.[2] You should also be aware that Google Calendar only updates "every few hours" and there is no way to manually update the calendar, so the Google version of your iCloud calendar might not always be up-to-the-minute. Still, until there's a better way, this is much better than nothing. iCalToGCal is offered for free by Jason Funk, but he does ask for donations to keep the server running. He also made "the sharing core of icaltogcal.com" available on Github, which means that you can set this up on your own server, assuming that it runs PHP. I set it up on mine in a matter of minutes, and then added the URL to my PHP script to Google Calendar instead of using the custom iCalToGCal URL. If you know any other ways to sync an iCloud calendar to Google Calendar, let us know in the comments. There are any number of reasons why Google might have decided to do this, including: 1) Wanting to avoid the appearance of doing something nefarious that Apple might object to, 2) wanting to make it more difficult for people to use iCloud Calendar and Google Calendar together with the hope that more people would choose to use Google Calendar instead of iCloud or 3) some other reason entirely. I generally try to apply Hanlon's Razor to these types of situations, but given the history of animosity between the two companies, it's hard to give them the benefit of the doubt. ↩ Unfortunately for me, it does not seem possible to share only the "busy/free" information via Google calendar, which was what I was trying to do. That's not really relevant to the technical aspect of this; I just mention it in case anyone else was thinking of doing the same thing. ↩
Sunrise for iPhone adds call, text, email features
Sunrise is a free iPhone app designed to make using Google Calendar easier and, through an innovative user interface that makes good use of gestures, it accomplishes that goal. Now the team at Sunrise Atelier has released version 1.1 of the app, adding new features and better integration with LinkedIn. The new version has added the ability to create recurring events, add notes to events and skip sending invitations to other attendees. But one of the most useful features isn't listed in the "What's New" portion of the app description. Ellis Hamburger at The Verge points out that now when you add new attendees to a meeting, tapping on their image points you to a contact card with useful information pulled in from Facebook, LinkedIn and Contacts. At the bottom of that card are three big buttons to let you call, text or email that person with a tap. Hamburger also says that the developers are looking at providing more integration soon to iCloud, TripIt and other services -- "but only once they're good and ready."
Readdle rebrands its Calendar app, adds free version
Readdle expanded its portfolio of excellent apps today with a free version of its popular Calendars app. The free version will replace the paid version of Calendars by Readdle, which is now known as Calendars+. The new, free Calendars by Readdle is a basic calendaring app that lets you manage your iOS and Google calendars. It doesn't have all the features of the paid version, but the major ones are still there. The free version lets you create an event with just a few taps and then drag and drop it to change the date and time. The app also supports SMS notifications and offline syncing. Customers who bought the paid version of Calendars will still enjoy the advanced features of the app. Calendars+ offers support for multiple event reminders, recurring appointments, event invitations and more. You can download the free version of Calendars by Readdle from the iOS App Store. Calendars+ by Readdle is available for US$6.99.
Google Calendar for Android becomes stand-alone app
Google has historically broken out preloaded Android apps like Gmail and Maps as stand-alone titles so that they don't have to be upgraded in lock-step with the main OS, but its Calendar app typically hasn't had that privilege. The isolation ends with a newly distinct Google Calendar that's treated as just another Google Play download. You'll need at least Android 4.0 or 4.1, which leaves relatively few differences between the download and what's already on your device, but that's not the point -- the change really lets Google move users on to the Jelly Bean app and beyond, even if their device makers aren't ready. Owners currently running Jelly Bean will still get a few extras, such as better support for non-Nexus hardware and a wider time range for calendar syncing. Hit the source link if you're game for that kind of futureproofing.
Google tests searches that include Calendar, Drive in results
Google has been testing an expanded search that includes Gmail results ever since August, and it's been enough of a hit that the company is swinging for the fences with an expanded test. The new version lets Gmail members find Calendar appointments and Drive files through the autocomplete results in the search box. Visit the main Google page and the results won't be quite as broad, but they'll include both the previous trial's Gmail information as well as Drive -- thankfully, tucked to the side rather than dominating the main page. Any individual, English-literate Google fans can join the new trial to get early access and find that long lost spreadsheet in the cloud.
Google offering Google+ for businesses, free until the end of 2013
Google is bringing the enterprise-friendly elements of its Apps platform into Google+ in order to help businesses collaborate on projects online. The company's been using the service internally, but feels it's time to launch, in Google tradition, a "full preview" with a free and open beta that'll run until the end of 2013. The feature set includes private sharing, admin tools and, most impressively, hangouts directly integrated into Calendar, Gmail and Docs -- letting you video chat with multiple colleagues while you draft that project proposal, or resignation letter. Apps chief Clay Bavor hasn't mentioned how much the service will cost when the preview period finishes, but we'd be surprised if it was much more than what it currently charges if it's trying to snare the Yammer and Salesforce crowds.
Jawbone Jambox gets Android app support, semi-ironic silent mode
Those who bought the regular Jawbone Jambox have had to look on at Big Jambox owners with envy over the past several weeks for more than just the obvious: the larger model was the only one to support the Android version of the Jawbone Companion app and give audible reminders of distinctly non-audio tidbits, such as Google Calendar appointments. The software side of the gap is now closing through a version 2.2 update to the original Bluetooth audio brick. Along with adding in that missing Companion support, there's now a slightly misleading silent mode -- it's just turning off audible control cues and voice prompts, not turning the speaker into a paperweight. If these and minor tweaks like subtler volume tones strike your fancy, the Jambox update is ready and waiting.
Google+ Events leaks out through Google Calendar, will let your knitting circle schedule a Hangout
Google has been on another one of its Google+ feature addition streaks lately, and it's so eager to please that it's spoiling other features early. More than a few people visiting Google Calendar have been given an introduction to "Events in Google+" in recent hours despite the extra component (and its splash page) being absent. From what we know, Events will provide the obvious Facebook-like option to create and track events among Google+ circles, but it will also let organizers slot in a Hangout video chat in advance as well as pool together photos and videos associated with an event. The Google+ app for Android has even been showing an empty button that's speculated to be a dedicated Events section. Google hasn't sent any official word as to when Events will go live, although we suspect it won't be long before everyone from photographers through to grandmothers knitting scarves can use Google+ to coalesce.
Google Search for iPhone gets the 2.0 remake, full-screen search and swipes aplenty
Google gave its official search app an iPad remake late last year, and now it's smaller iPhone and iPod touch devices getting the new UI's treatment. As of Google Search App 2.0, the smaller iOS devices see a big emphasis on full-screen navigation, with an automatic full-screen mode and a dedicated full-screen photo search making the most of the limited display real estate. You can now swipe back to search results like you could with the iPad, and it's overall much faster in the app to hop between different search types as well as web apps like Calendar or Gmail. There's still something in it for you if you've already been deep into the iPad port's interface, as the tablet and the iPhone alike can now save photos directly to the iOS camera roll. You'll need at least iOS 4.2 to live in Google's non-Android mobile universe, but those that measure up can leap in through the source link.
DIY hack uses Google Calendar to automate home heating system (video)
Sure, Google Calendar is helpful, but ultimately it's on you to get yourself to that meeting. Wouldn't it be nice if the utility could handle some of the to-do list itself? Hack A Day scoped out an example of it doing just that, after a home owner named Shane posted a video of his DIY system that uses Calendar to control his heater. First, he connected a USB-powered mbed microcontroller with an ARM Cortex M3 processor to the internet via an Ethernet cable. As it happens, the mbed also has a temperature controller and solid state relay for turning the heater on and off. On the software side, he took advantage of a feature in the Google API that let him sync the mbed's network time, with the mbed able to "see" in advance what temp changes are scheduled on the calendar. In other words, if turning on the heater is on the schedule, the mbed system knows it and makes it happen. In a brilliant act of disaster prevention, Shane also tweaked the on-board temperature controller to not go above a certain number of degrees. For more technical details, check out the video below and the photos at the source link.
Droplet and StackAR bring physical interface to virtual experiences, communicate through light (hands-on)
Light-based communication seems to wind throughout the MIT Media Lab -- it is a universal language, after all, since many devices output light, be it with a dedicated LED or a standard LCD, and have the capacity to view and interpret it. One such device, coined Droplet, essentially redirects light from one source to another, while also serving as a physical interface for tablet-based tasks. Rob Hemsley, a research assistant at the Media Lab, was on hand to demonstrate two of his projects. Droplet is a compact self-contained module with an integrated RGB LED, a photodiode and a CR1216 lithium coin battery -- which provides roughly one day of power in the gadget's current early prototype status. Today's demo used a computer-connected HDTV and a capacitive-touch-enabled tablet. Using the TV to pull up a custom Google Calendar module, Hemsley held the Droplet up to a defined area on the display, which then output a series of colors, transmitting data to the module. Then, that data was pushed to a tablet after placing the Droplet on the display, pulling up the same calendar appointment and providing a physical interface for adjusting the date and time, which is retained in the cloud and the module itself, which also outputs pulsing light as it counts down to the appointment time. StackAR, the second project, functions in much the same way, but instead of outputting a countdown indicator, it displays schematics for a LilyPad Arduino when placed on the tablet, identifying connectors based on a pre-selected program. The capacitive display can recognize orientation, letting you drop the controller in any position throughout the surface, then outputting a map to match. Like the Droplet, StackAR can also recognize light input, even letting you program the Arduino directly from the tablet by outputting light, effectively simplifying the interface creation process even further. You can also add software control to the board, which will work in conjunction with the hardware, bringing universal control interfaces to the otherwise space-limited Arduino. Both projects appear to have incredible potential, but they're clearly not ready for production just yet. For now, you can get a better feel for Droplet and StackAR in our hands-on video just past the break.
Google aids accessibility with ChromeVox reader, better YouTube captions and more
Engineers from Google have commandeered a booth at this year's CSUN accessibility conference and they're keen to talk up their latest efforts. For the visually impaired, there's now a beta version of a Chrome screen reader called ChromeVox (demo'd after the break), plus improved shortcuts and screen reader support in Google Docs, Sites and Calendar. Meanwhile, YouTube boasts expanded caption support for the hard of hearing, with automatic captions enabled for 135 million video clips -- a healthy tripling of last year's total. Check the source link for full details or, if you're anywhere near San Diego, go and hassle those engineers the old-fashioned way.
Protect yourself from being tracked by Google, Facebook, and others
There have been a lot of stories lately about websites trying all sorts of things to keep track of people and invade their privacy. First it was Facebook, and now Google. I protect myself from Facebook tracking me by using a Fluid browser for Facebook. Because I paid the US$5 to register the app, I can use separate cookies from Safari. Here's how I setup Facebook in Fluid. This is how I created the app: Once the app is created, launch it, and separate the cookies from Safari: And then set it so that any link off of Facebook will open in another browser (note: this is the default, you don't have to change anything to get it to do this): Fluid for Google I do a similar thing for Google, but it's actually more restrictive: no JavaScript and no cookies allowed: No JavaScript means no Google instant, which I loathe, no little popup telling you they are changing their privacy policy. The whitelist settings only let the browser bring me to Google sites, so any results I click on will open in my regular browser. I've been trying to get Google to open results in a new window for years and they always forget that setting. You can also change the User Agent which is sent to Google, which can change the format of the results. For example, maybe you prefer the iPad (oh, I mean "tablet") format. You can get that by telling the Fluid app to report itself as an iPad: Don't want a separate browser? How about a fast logout? Maybe you don't want a separate browser, but want to make sure that Google isn't associating your searches with your Google login. Well, assuming that Google hasn't found another way to track you even when you aren't logged in, you can make a bookmark shortcut to make sure that you are always logged out before you do a Google search. Just bookmark this link https://accounts.google.com/Logout?hl=en&continue=http://www.google.com/ and click it whenever you want to do a Google search. Or drag this link to your bookmarks bar: Safe Google Search "But if I'm always logging out of Google, won't I have to keep logging in to check my Gmail?" Logging out of Google is easy, but if you want to use Google services like Gmail or Google Voice, you'll probably want to be logged in. There are a couple of ways to work around that. Option 1: Use a different browser for Google - If you usually use Safari for your regular browsing, use Google Chrome for Gmail, Google Voice, etc. Option 2: Use Fluid or Mailplane for Gmail - I've been a Mailplane user since its days in beta, and it's my favorite way to use Gmail. Of course you could also use a Fluid browser instead. Option 3: Use an app instead - This may be too obvious to even suggest, but there are good alternatives for using Google's services in a web browser. You can use Mail, Sparrow or Postbox instead of Gmail, or BusyCal instead of Google Calendar. I vastly prefer GrowlVoice to using Google Voice's website (although there are some Google Voice settings you can't access except through the website, but they aren't ones you'll probably use often). Option 4: Log in to Google quickly using 1Password - If you use 1Password , you can make a "one click" bookmark for logging into Google/Gmail/Google Calendar/etc. Just drag the entry from 1Password to your the bookmark bar in your browser of choice. Brett Kelly did a nice write-up about that feature. "I don't trust anyone! I want to delete everything!" This seems like a huge overreaction, but in just a few minutes of casual web browsing, there are 44 websites which have stored cookies and other cache files on my computer. Are Google and Facebook the only companies out there doing nefarious things with tracking activity online, even if you've told Safari not to accept 3rd party cookies? That seems doubtful. Google and Facebook may be the largest companies, but probably not the only ones. So maybe it isn't a terrible idea. The question is how to do it. If you try to disable cookies, caches, and everything else from within the browser, you'll find a lot of sites just don't work. Instead, it's probably easier to just let the browser work as designed, but then clean up after it. There are two ways to do this: the manual, GUI way, or the automatic, scripted way. The manual, GUI way is to use the "Reset Safari..." That option will bring up a whole host of "cleaning" options: By default there's no keyboard shortcut for it, but you can make one in System Preferences » Keyboard » Keyboard Shortcuts. I use Command + Option + R: Note that you need to have that menu item exactly as shown: Reset Safari... with an ellipses ... not three periods. The automatic, scripted way doesn't allow for as careful or selective deletion, but you also don't have to remember to use it. You can automate it with a LogoutHook, which is basically a shell script which runs whenever you log out. WARNING! This script will run as root and is going to use rm -rf which is one of the most potentially destructive commands that you can run. If you make a mistake here, you could delete data, or render your computer unbootable. "Be careful" is an understatement. "Use at your own risk" is another. As always, make sure you have a verified backup before testing something like this. If you aren't sure what you are doing, stick with "Reset Safari..." Create a file anywhere you like. I recommend /usr/local/bin/logouthook.sh and make it executable chmod 700 /usr/local/bin/logouthook.sh and then tell it to clean up after Safari every time you log out. (Strange aside: if you quit Safari, delete Safari's "binarycookies" file, re-launch Safari, and try to access one of the sites which had stored information in the cookies file, Safari re-creates the 'binarycookies' file. That does not seem to happen if you delete the binarycookies file via LogoutHook.) Then you have to tell the system to use that script when you logout. You'll need to enter your administrator password:sudo defaults write com.apple.loginwindow LogoutHook /usr/local/bin/logouthook.sh Note that the script will delete all of your cookies, local storage, and local "database" files from sites you log into. Plenty of good sites use those technologies to make your web browsing faster, easier, and more enjoyable. Deleting them regularly may be more hassle than it is worth. One of the drawback is that you will be logged out of all the websites which use cookies to keep track of your logins. As always, there is a trade-off between privacy/security and convenience. If you do this, I highly recommend creating 1Password bookmarks for easy re-login for sites you use most often, or create separate Fluid.app browsers for them with separate cookies. What's the right answer? Truthfully, I don't know what the right answer is. For years I have thought that concern about 'cookies' was much ado about nothing, but given the motivation of companies like Google and Facebook to gather as much information about you as possible to sell to marketers, I'm less confident as I once was. Instead, I find myself wondering, why not accept a little inconvenience in exchange for increased privacy? If you do decide to use Fluid.app browsers for Google, you can find some great looking app icons at http://csi.nfshost.com/goodies/. There's also a Flickr group for Fluid.app icons.
Windows Phone 7.5 gets multiple Google Calendar sync, additional Gmail features
Google's improved how its calendar and email services interact with Windows Phones running the Mango update. Users can now cram up to 25 different calendars into the Metro OS's built-in calendar app. The setup's not exactly seamless; you need to navigate your Windows Phone to the Google Sync page, login and check the boxes found there. While testing on our phones, although one device was able to immediately sync, the other couldn't pick up on our multiple calendars. We had to delete and re-assign our Google account to the phone in order to get it working. However, once we did, the Metro styling lent itself well to multiple calendar listings, with the ability (like the web-based Google Calendar) to assign colors to each. At the same Google Sync page, you can now choose to enable the "send mail as" feature if you're using multiple addresses, with the option to delete unwanted emails instead of archiving. However, aside from replying from the same address that you received emails to, we haven't discovered a way to assign new mails to our multiple guises. We were able to send messages through our own Engadget mail account, although that's then used on all future missives. Despite these rough edges, it remains a welcome bit of extra functionality. Are we still longing for a dedicated Gmail app? Definitely. We just hope those devs don't drop the ball.
Gmail, Google Docs and Calendar finally regain offline access
Since the death of Gears we've been, rather impatiently, awaiting the return of offline access to our Google apps. Well that day has finally come -- provided you're a Chrome fan. The fine folks in Mountain View just unveiled a new app for their browser (which means it also works on Chome OS) called Offline Google Mail that will keep you connected to your all-important messages even when you can't get a connection. You'll notice the app looks a heck of a lot like the web app for tablets, and that's because that's basically what it is. There are some differences -- keyboard shortcuts work -- but at it's heart it's the same HTML5 browser app mobile users have been enjoying for some time. To install the offline version you'll have to uninstall the standard Gmail Chrome app, which is a little odd, but there's nothing stopping you from typing Gmail.com in the address bar. Docs and Calendar are also going offline. Starting today the feature will be rolled out to users over the next week. To activate it just look under settings for an offline tick box. At the moment Docs is view only when disconnected, but Google promises offline editing is coming soon. Hit up the more coverage link to install Offline Gmail now. Update: Google reached out to us and it turns out both can run side by side just fine. We were experiencing a bug that shouldn't effect most users since we hadn't let the Gmail app update recently.
TUAW'S Daily iPad App: Pocket Informant HD
WebIS Pocket Informant is an advanced PIM that has been around for years, transitioning from the Windows Mobile platform to iOS quite nicely. The iPad version of this calendaring and task management app is particularly notable for its wonderful layout and efficient use of the entire iPad display. One feature Pocket Informant was known for, even back in its Windows Mobile days, was its many settings and options. And, thankfully, these features are carried over to the iOS application. The settings menu on the iPad has options for General settings, Appearance, Today settings, Calendar settings, Task settings, Sync setting and Advanced settings. Under each of these headings are options to change colors, views, orientation, notifications and more. It's a field of dreams for those that like to tweak an app to their personal tastes. Pocket Informant HD has the appearance of daily planner and can be viewed in either portrait or landscape view. In either orientation, there are tabs on the right side which lets you switch from calendar view, task view, agenda view and settings. Each section has even more options in the top bar. From this bar, you can add an event or task as well as switch from days, month or week view. You can also display information from an individual calendar and use a search box to find a specific appointment or task. Despite all these options, everything is neat, orderly and pleasing to the eye. For those who adhere to a planning regimen, Pocket Informant HD supports Getting Things Done or Franklin Covey ABC/1-99 Prioritization of tasks. It also syncs with multiple Google calendars, iOS calendars and Toodledo. Some users may be overwhelmed by all the options and views available, but most users will be pleased by the power and flexibility of this personal information management app. At $12.99 Pocket Informant HD is pricey, but it's worth the cost for those that rely on their calendar to help manage their busy lives. %Gallery-129441%
