There is one thing about GMail’s web interface that makes it stands out compared to other email solutions, and it’s the thing they’re both praised and criticised for in equal measure. Unlike most email clients, which stack your emails in chronological order and make no obvious links between the conversations they relate to, Google GMail has since the very start had a feature that groups all the emails in the same conversation together into one “thread”, making a whole conversation easy to find and read through in it’s entirety. This feature, called “Conversation View”, has split opinion. Threading enthusiasts say they spend less mental energy drawing connections between related messages and that their inboxes are much less cluttered. On the other hand, email traditionalists like many former Outlook users think conversation view just complicates something that has worked for years.
Today, Google has announced it is finally introducing a new option to cater for those in the latter side of the argument. Read the rest of this entry »
For the past four years now, over a million users – myself included – have been using XMarks, a brilliant free service that syncs bookmarks, passwords and other data between other computers – and browsers – automatically, only requiring that the XMarks add-on is installed on the computers and you log in to your XMarks account (which can be made automatic after the first time).
Today, however, I am sorry to report that there is bad news regarding the service. In fact, probably the worst news you could hear if you’ve made heavy use of the service. If you, like me, have been a loyal XMarks user until now, you either already have, or will shortly be receiving the following email which explains what I’m talking about: Read the rest of this entry »
The failure of security that caused the infection of more than 190 thousand users on Orkut has been fixed by Google. In a statement, the American company says the cause of this problem was a code in the ‘New Orkut’, which was modified by the developers of social network.
“We took swift action to correct a vulnerability to cross-site scripting (XSS) in orkut.com which was discovered a few hours ago. Our analysis of the script code does not reveal any malicious activity. The problem is now resolved, but continued studying Vulnerability to help avoid similar problems in future, “Google said in a statement.
The flaw led the users to be included in the community “Infected by Orkut Virus”, without any need for approval. The group came to be deleted by the site staff in the early afternoon, but the hackers recreated using the same loophole. Besides becoming a member, the user started sending malicious code to your contacts through the network message.
Users who were infected by the code should clear browser history and delete temporary files. It is further recommended that the password for access to social networking should be replaced.
Have you heard of the Shweeb? Me neither. But apparently, it’s a rather fun little tourist attraction located in Rotorua, New Zealand. Basically, it’s a monorail system. Unlike traditional monorails, however, this one has numerous cars, each of which can hold one person comfortably. What’s more, each car is pedal-powered, so the passenger is actively keeping the car going.
More than 30,000 people have hopped inside the Shweeb and raced around its track in Rotorua, with users stating that it feels “different” and “exhilarating”. The idea first came to a frustrated commuter trying to navigate the streets of Tokyo – “I tried cycling here but that turned out to be a pretty dangerous activity so the idea just occurred to me to be able to cycle over the top of it,” says Shweeb creator Geoff Barnett. And after spending six years combining monorail and cycling technology, the Shweeb was born. Unfortunately councils couldn’t commit to making an untested technology into a means of public transport, so instead it went to Rotorua, where it became an adventure tourist attraction.
Now though, the Shweeb may become a viable means of public transport after all – thanks to Google. Read the rest of this entry »
A year ago, Google announced Chrome Frame, a project intended to bring the standards support, HTML5 features, and speed of Google’s Chrome Web browser to Internet Explorer as a plug-in, rather than requiring users to download a separate application. Now, Google has taken the “beta” tag off and announced Chrome Frame’s first stable release, bringing Chrome’s features—and speed—to Internet Explorer 6, 7, and 8, without requiring users to replace their existing browsers.
We’ll have more information about this story as soon as it is available.
I have just discovered that a bug with the site layout currently being used by Technically Motivated does not work properly when viewed on the Wii Internet Channel – in particular, part of the left side of the content is cut off and cannot be seen, even when zoomed in or out. This bug is being investigated. Until then, we recommend not using the Wii Internet Channel to view our website.
If you have noticed a similar bug in other browsers, please post it in the Comments as soon as you can, as it may help us isolate and fix it.
Google has added another layer of security to its Google Apps service, which may make it more appealing to businesses still uncertain about joining the move to Cloud Computing. The new step to keeping accounts secure currently applies to the Premier, Education, and Government editions of Google Apps, with the feature coming to all Google Apps users in the next few months.
It can’t be more simple, yet it’s actually quite clever. When users sign up to Google Apps, one of the details they’re asked to supply is their mobile phone number. With this new step, when you log in to your Google Apps account, a random security code, which changes each time, will be sent to your phone, either via a text or voice call. To verify yourself and actually get in to your account, you will need to type the code you are given into the site. If the code is wrong, you won’t get in. It’s the same concept as those “Authenticators” banks and online games are starting to use in abundance, but it eliminates the need for any new gadgetry, and instead uses the one gadget practically everyone these days has – their phone.
What’s more, to make the feature less annoying, Google lets users tone down the security for devices they trust. If a user is on a trusted computer — their office system, for example — they can opt to have their verification code remembered on that computer, meaning they won’t be asked for a code for 30 days, instead of having to enter a new one upon each login.
One final point, for those Tech-minded people out there who may want to take advantage of this security in their own projects: it may interest you to know that Google has built its verification feature on the open source OATH standard, meaning users can customize it for their own needs or even apply it to non-Google applications.
In a blog post posted today, Dave Girouard – the president of Google Enterprise – stated that the company will soon offer the ability to edit Google Docs documents on Android devices and the Apple iPad.
Little information was given about the additional editing capability in the blog post, which instead seemed more focused on the news that more than 3 million businesses have “gone Google,” a term Google has coined for those using Google hosted services. However, reports suggest the technology may be predicated on DocVerse, which Google bought in March.
DocVerse allows users of PowerPoint, Word, and Excel documents to collaborate and save them to the cloud, as well as chat with the collaborators, and many other features. Although DocVerse originally provided up to 1 GB of free storage, with any additional files costing $0.25 per GB per year, the service would presumably be rolled into the Google Apps Premier Edition fee, or $50 per user per year.
Four New York University students who raised a bundle of cash to build a privacy-preserving alternative to Facebook sure have their work cut out for them.
The project in question, Diaspora, grew out of deep-rooted dissatisfaction many people expressed earlier this year in response to Facebook privacy changes that without warning exposed details many users didn’t want to share with world+dog. When the developers sought funding, according to The New York Times, they asked for $10,000. So strong was the discontent of some Facebook users that they ended up with donations exceeding $200,000.
On Wednesday, to show people just how far the project has come along, some of the open-source code planned to be used in a pre-alpha version of the website was made available to the public. However, only a few hours later, hundreds of security researchers and amateur hackers began identifying security flaws in the code that could seriously compromise those who used the service. Among other things, the mistakes make it possible to hijack accounts, friend users without their permission, and Read the rest of this entry »
As if no-one guessed already – Sony has officially announced plans to release 3D enabled games for its Move motion-sensing controller.
At the Tokyo Game Show, the Japanese consumer electronics giant revealed to the mass media plans to introduce 3D games to its PlayStation Move, while announcing 3D Blu-ray movie support for its PS3 console with a firmware update, which according to reports will be released on 21 September.
Opinions are divided, with others saying that 3D technology is both still in its infancy and an unattractive proposition to most consumers – a situation not expected to change for three years – and others claiming that it makes good business sense as a way for Sony to tout it’s OWN 3D TV sets. There’s also a belief that the Nintendo’s 3DS hand-held gaming device may steal Sony’s thunder, as its technology does not require special glasses. But Sony’s spokesman has refuted all anti-3D opinions, stating that the company is trying to promote the technology in content and that the 3D titles fall in same price bracket as their 2D variants. What do you think?