Monday, October 27, 2008

Microsoft gets official with Windows Azure cloud OS, platform

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/433969825/

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops, Networking

Steve Ballmer himself first dropped word of this one earlier this month, but Microsoft has now finally gotten official about its new cloud computing operating system, and its name: Windows Azure. What's more, the OS is apparently just one component of Microsoft's larger Azure cloud computing platform, which will eventually be fully rolled out alongside Windows 7, and will encompass Microsoft's existing Live services, SQL services, and .NET services, among other things. If that's got you excited, you can find plenty more details at the link below, and even a few SDKs ready for downloading.

[Via Pocket-lint]

Microsoft gets official with Windows Azure cloud OS, platform originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Oct 2008 16:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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More changes to Gmail contact manager

source: http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2008/10/more-changes-to-gmail-contact-manager.html
Posted by Benjamin Grol, Product Manager, Google Contacts

After hearing consistent feedback that you wanted more control over your contacts, we've changed the way Gmail suggests contacts to you. Up to this point, if you emailed someone five times, we'd automatically move them into My Contacts. Now, we'll no longer automatically add contacts to your My Contacts group. Instead, you can go to Suggested Contacts, select the contacts you'd like and move them into My Contacts. All of your contacts -- whether they're in My Contacts or Suggested Contacts -- will continue to show in auto-complete as you're composing messages.

As part of this change, we're moving previously auto-added contacts back into Suggested Contacts. Only contacts that you've edited, imported or added to a group will remain in My Contacts. This will provide everyone with a clean slate and, we hope, a better point for syncing contacts with mobile devices (for example with Android). We'll be rolling this change out to everyone over the next few days.

We realize there's a lot we can do to make Gmail contacts even more useful, and the feedback we received last time we updated the contact manager was helpful, so keep letting us know what you think.

Gmail for mobile: faster, smoother, and now in more languages

Source: http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2008/10/gmail-for-mobile-faster-smoother-and.html

Posted by Peter Baldwin, Software Engineer, Google mobile team

When I joined the Gmail for mobile team a year ago, the mobile client worked like a web application designed for networks that were always available. This was fine on a fast and reliable network, but when you hopped on the subway, network reliability could be a big problem. Today, we're happy to announce Gmail for mobile 2.0 for J2ME-supported and BlackBerry phones. For this version, we changed our fundamental assumption about the network. We re-thought every action that you might perform with the app and tried to solve for the case where there is no signal. We wanted to make the mobile client faster and more reliable and added some other new features along the way.

If you haven't tried Gmail on your phone in a while, try this new version and let us know what you think. Gmail for mobile 2.0 is designed to be more reliable in low signal areas and provides basic offline support for phones like the Nokia N95, Sony Ericsson W910i, and BlackBerry Curve. You can now log into multiple accounts (including both Gmail and Google Apps email accounts) at the same time. Switching between them is as easy as a few button clicks or just hitting + j on phones that have a QWERTY keyboard. We've also added support for multiple mobile drafts, undo (using the menu or the z shortcut), and sending mail in the background (no more staring at the "Sending..." dialog until it finally gets sent). Be sure to check the help page from Gmail for mobile's main menu for a list of all keyboard shortcuts.

To download Gmail for mobile version 2.0, just go to m.google.com/mail in your mobile browser.

Parlez-vous frança! is? ¿Ha bla usted español? Gmail for mobile 2.0 supports over 35 languages, and the application language will automatically match your phone's language setting.

A picture is worth a thousand words

Source: http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2008/10/picture-is-worth-thousand-words.html

Posted by Darren Lewis, Gmail engineer

Here on the Gmail team, we're always thinking of ways to help you communicate. Back in the day, we put chat right inside Gmail. Then along came group chat and more emoticons. And when we realized that late night communication had its downsides, we created a state-of-the-art lucidity test for after-hours email. Anyway, the black and white days of text-based emails have had their day. Following the evolutionary path blazed by colored labels, we present, in all their technicolor glory, emoticons in your mail.

No more will you have to settle for a ;) when you can have a

. Out with the "XOXO" and in with the

. And of course, when the bad news smells really bad,

transcends all words.

So raise your

and welcome in the colorful new world of Gmail

P.S. For those of you who love our chat smileys,
we've also added a whole new set for your enjoyment.

T-Mobile G1 Security Flaw Found, But It's All Under Control, People [Android]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/432072131/t+mobile-g1-security-flaw-found-but-its-all-under-control-people

A group of security researchers, including former NSA computer security expert Charles A. Miller, has discovered a security flaw in the G1's web browser. The flaw could allow a hacker to trick a G1 user into visiting a malicious website that could install some nasty bugs on the smartphone (or com). Google was made aware earlier this week, and is working to release a patch to fix the flaw, but Android's architecture inherently limits such a flaw's potential damage.

The flaw affects only the G1's browser, and the "sandbox" nature of Android limits the potential damage to only that one program. Interestingly, Miller is just now releasing the (admittedly limited) information to the press, stating that he feels smartphone users are not adequately aware of how risk-prone their devices can be. Google is a bit annoyed at Miller's forthrightness, implying that "they believed that Mr. Miller had violated an unwritten code between companies and researchers that is intended to give companies time to fix problems before they are publicized."

Google, T-Mobile, and HTC are all working together to fix the flaw, but Google is emphasizing that the overall security of the phone is just fine, and a patch will be released as soon as possible. [New York Times]