Thursday 25 February 2010

​A smoother voice and video experience

We have spent the last few months focusing on three things: quality, quality, and quality! For those of you with the Google voice and video chat plugin installed, you have recently received an automatic update that contains:
  • A fix that reduces crashes on newer macs (Mac OS X v10.6.2 specifically)
  • A fix for webcam compatibility on Windows (including HP webcams)
  • Several fixes to increase plugin stability
  • Several fixes to the infrastructure used to set up and connect your video calls.

From users who have chosen to “Report quality statistics” in their chat settings, we can see a substantial increase in call connection rates and a big decrease in the call drop rate (see chart below). We hope that this will result in more enjoyable conversations with our software.

As with all software, working on improving quality is a never ending process, so we hope that you will continue to report any issues you have in our user forum, and we will continue to work on improving connection rates and call quality.

Thanks to all of you who use our service -- and especially those of you who report issues!

Posted by Jessan Hutchison-Quillian and Mikael Drugge
Software engineers



Google Voice, Explained

Google Voice is about giving you more control over your communications, through dozens of features — ranging from call screening to voicemail transcription to the ability to send and receive SMS by email.

While we've heard from users that they love our growing list of features, we're conscious of the fact that Google Voice can seem overwhelming to people trying it for the first time.

So we've created a short video that gives an overview of what Google Voice can do:



In addition, we've created a set of short videos that dive into more detail about ten features of Google Voice:
  1. Voicemail transcription
  2. One number
  3. Personalized greetings
  4. International calling
  5. SMS to email
  6. Share voicemails
  7. Block callers
  8. Screen callers
  9. Mobile app
  10. Conference calls
The videos show why you might want to use each feature and basic instructions for getting started. And each video focuses on just one topic so you can learn about the features that matter to you.

Finally, we just launched our own YouTube channel at youtube.com/googlevoice. You can view all of the videos mentioned above in a custom video gadget we built for this channel, which will help you keep track of which videos you've already watched.


We hope these videos help you get the most out of Google Voice.

Tip: Recovering closed tabs

If you've ever accidentally closed a tab with something important in it, or shut down the browser only to realize you needed one more bit of information about the webpage you were reading, despair not. Google Chrome remembers the last ten tabs or windows you've closed, and lets you restore them. You can get at these in several ways:

  • On the bottom of New Tab page, the most recent few are listed in the "Recently closed" section. You can even use this after restarting the browser, in case you accidentally quit with something important open.


  • If you right-click in the tabstrip, you'll see an option to "Reopen closed tab" or "Reopen closed window", depending on what you last closed. Using this repeatedly goes back through the remembered tabs and windows, from most to least recent.


  • If keyboard shortcuts suit you more than context menus, just use ctrl-shift-T to reopen a close tab or window.



Upcoming Webinar: How How Discount Office Items Increased Revenue 6% by Switching to Google Commerce Search

In late 2009, the Enterprise team here at Google launched a new tool, Google Commerce Search, to help online retailers improve site usability and raise conversions. We're excited to see results and metrics coming in that show the impact this new product is having. One company, DiscountOfficeItems.com, decided to switch to Google Commerce Search from a sluggish homegrown solution and almost immediately saw sizable lifts in revenue, traffic, transactions, and average order size.

Tim Horton, CEO, will join Nitin Mangtani, Senior Product Manager at Google Enterprise on a live webcast Thursday, March 4 at 10:00 a.m. PST / 1:00 p.m. EST to share his experience and answer questions about their decision to switch to Google Commerce Search.

You can read more from Tim Horton on the Google Enterprise blog. Event details:

How Discount Office Items Increased Revenue 6% by Switching to Google Commerce Search
Thursday, March 4, 2010
10:00 a.m. PST / 1:00 p.m. EST

We hope you'll join us for this live event!

Posted by Anna Bishop, Enterprise Search team


Google Docs: the tool for the 21st century classroom

Guest post: Tara Seale teaches 9th grade English in the Bryant Public School District and recently attended the Google Teacher Academy.

English teachers polled in the last decade of the last century about the one tool that they could not live without in their classrooms would probably select the overhead projector. In the first decade of the 21st Century, English teachers would probably choose a document camera, but in future decades, the tool will be web-based. I already teach in a web-based environment, and Google Docs is the web-based tool that has become the organizational center of my classroom.

I share assignments with my students as a view only file. Students make a copy of the file so they can annotate the directions. This is a weblink of an assignment: Expository Essay defining the word perseverance. This is an annotated copy of the assignment: Google Doc Annotated Copy of Expository Essay Assignment. No longer do I hear, "Mrs. Seale, can I have another copy of that assignment? I lost mine."

Docs also teaches organizational skills. Students create folders to keep up with assignments. The most important folder is the folder students share with the teacher. All graded writing goes into this folder, and it serves as a writing portfolio for the semester. I do not have to hunt student work; it is organized in a student folder. At the end of the day, I leave with just a laptop, no papers to lug around.

Each student folder is in a group class folder. The class folder contains each student's writing for the semester:

Each student's online writing portfolio folder is also shared with his or her parents. Parents can even comment on student work and participate in the revision and editing process.

For students, Google Docs is an invaluable tool in the writing process. Students do not need a flash drive to carry drafts to and from home. Also, students can share writing with peer editors. After peer editing, students move their final draft into their English 9 folder. As the final editor, I leave comments to assist the student in revising his or her final draft. It is satisfying to browse through the revision history and see that a student is considering each comment as they revise: Yea! They are really reading what I wrote! Usually, students do not read teacher comments that are hand written on paper, but it seems to work in Google Docs.

Recently, a student working at home asked if I could read her paper before she submitted it later that week. I left comments and asked questions on the Google doc as the student wrote and revised, and it turned into a successful tutoring session. Thanks Google Docs!



Editor's note: Google recommends you use Google Docs within the Google Apps Education Edition suite with your students.


Gmail Labs graduation and retirement

Posted by Mark Knichel, Software Engineer

We launched Gmail Labs over a year and a half ago as a playground where engineers can come up with new features and let your input help decide which are good ideas and which don't quite work out. Any engineer at Google can come up with feature, code it, and launch it quickly to tens of millions of users.

Labs started out with 13 features and quickly grew to 60, with even more on the way. We've received countless comments and kept an eye on our stats: some of these experimental features were adopted by millions and others trickled along with little usage. A couple have already graduated from Labs and we've already retired one: Tasks was the first to become a regular part of Gmail, Right-side Labels was retired when we updated the way labels work, and Offline Gmail graduated a couple months back. Today, true to the original intent of Gmail Labs, we're graduating six more features and retiring five.

Graduating:
  1. Search Autocomplete
  2. Go To Label
  3. Forgotten Attachment Detector
  4. YouTube Previews
  5. Custom Label Colors
  6. Vacation Dates
Retiring:
  1. Muzzle
  2. Fixed Width Font
  3. Email Addict
  4. Location in Signature
  5. Random Signature

These decisions were made based based mainly on usage, taking feature polish and your feedback into account. We've also tweaked some of the graduating features to improve them before making them default Gmail features. For example, we've combined Go To Label with Search Autocomplete, making it easier than ever for you to find what you're looking for.

Search Autocomplete and Go To Label
Start typing in the Gmail search box (English only for now), and Gmail suggests terms that might help you find what you're looking for — from contact names to labels and advanced search operators.


We've integrated Go To Label into this search box as well. If you have keyboard shortcuts turned on, type "g" then "l" and instead of getting the old "Go to label" pop-up, you'll be in the search box with the "label:" operator filled in for you. Start typing the label you want to go to, and autocomplete will take it from there. All you have to do is hit enter. If you want to send your cursor to the blank search field, the keyboard shortcut "/" will do it.

Forgotten Attachment Detector
From time to time, we all forget to attach a file and sheepishly send another email with the forgotten attachment. To help save you from that embarrassment, Gmail looks for phrases in your email that suggest you meant to attach a file and alerts you if it looks like you forgot an attachment.


YouTube Previews
If you're like me, your friends probably often email you links to YouTube videos. Instead of having to clicking on the link and wait for a new window to load before you can watch the video, Gmail now shows YouTube previews right below the message. All you have to do is click the play button and enjoy.


Custom Label Colors
Why settle for a restrictive palette when you can choose from over 4000 possible color combinations to help distinguish and organize your labels? Just click on "Add custom color" from the regular labels interface.


Vacation Dates
If you specify which dates you'll be away in advance, you won't have to remember to turn on the vacation responder when when you're actually on vacation. Set your dates in advance, and let Gmail do the rest.


Retiring features is always a tough decision — we invest in building and maintaining them and we realize some of you are probably fans of some of Gmail's lesser-used features. But Labs are experimental features, and from time to time they may break (that's why there's a quick way to disable them), or even disappear. Over the next few days, you'll see Muzzle, Fixed Width Font, Email Addict, Location in Signature, and Random Signature stop working and disappear from the Labs tab.

We'll keep working on new Labs to help make your Gmail experience even better, and we'll continue to graduate successful features and retire the ones that don’t work out to make room for new ones. Thank you to all the engineers who have worked on Labs features — especially Bruce, Darick, Jon (the intern), Ibrahim, Chris, Keith, Chad, Michael, and Marco! Please continue to send us feedback and remember that you vote for your favorite Labs features by using them and leaving comments.

3D Buildings get smart


The 3D buildings in Google Earth are a great way to understand an area visually, and they just got better at conveying information about the place itself. Currently, you can click on model that was created by 3D modelers using tools like Google SketchUp and Google Building Maker to open a balloon.

Today, we've added two new sections to those balloons: Photos of nearby places and Nearby places.

Not only can you learn more about the place from the balloon, but you can also dig deeper by following the links. Want to see more nearby photos and places? What to learn about the Ferry Building listed as a nearby place? Click the links in the balloon to explore further.

Next time you're exploring a city with 3D buildings, watch for the familiar glow as you hover over a building, and give it a click. You might learn something new about the place.




Rare PiX of 1965 War [Eagles-Pk 3326]

 

but alas… everything was lost by one stroke of a pen in Tashkent!!!

 

Google Voice, explained

While Google Voice has features that almost anyone would find useful, it's especially well suited for students. If you are anything like me when I was a student, you'll appreciate the automatic voicemail transcriptions, free outgoing SMS, and voicemail forwarded to your email.

If you're not very familiar with Google Voice, here's a short video overview that'll give you a taste of what it can do:


If you're liking what you see, head over to our new YouTube channel at youtube.com/googlevoice to see 10 more videos showcasing all that Google Voice offers:

Google Voice is currently available in the US by invite only. Request your invite at google.com/voiceinvite.

Posted Jason Toff, Google Voice team

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Info on TV - LCD / Plasma / LED / OLED / CRT

Common TV Types:

-       CRT (Cathode Ray Tube)

-       Plasma

-       LCD (Liquid Crystal Display)

o   CCFLs (cold cathode fluorescent lamps)

o   LED-lit (Light emitting diode)

§  Rear Lit (LED TV)

§  Edge Lit

-       OLED (Organic LED)

-       ‘True’ LED

 

 

‘True’ LED TV

This is a kind of display where LEDs are the primary component that produces the images displayed, ie rather than using an LCD panel in the television, a matrix of LEDs is used to produce the images that are displayed. However as it stands ‘true’ LED TVs aren’t really possible at the moment because of the size of LEDs. The use of LEDs in this way is limited to very large screens for advertising and public events etc.

 

 

LCD TV

The LCD panel is a matrix of liquid crystal through which light must be passed from another source to make it visible. When an electrical current is applied to the LCD panel the light can be deflected and altered to make the colors and images visible to the viewer. An LCD panel does not produce light. Depending upon the light source LCD has two main types, i.e. CCFL & LED-lit. LED-lit LCD has further two types/configurations i.e. rear-lit LED and edge-lit LED.

 

LCD – CCFL

Up to this point the job of producing the light which makes the LCD panel images visible has been done by cold cathode fluorescent lamps (CCFLs). It is these fluorescent lamps which are now being replaced by LEDs.

 

There are two main issues with CCFL LCDs.

1-      Sharpness: The inability of LCD TVs to produce truly dark black images. Producing perfect dark blacks is difficult if not impossible when using fluorescent lamps in LCD TVs. This because firstly the lamps must always be switched on, to produce areas of black on screen the light must be blocked by the LCD display so that it is not visible to the viewer. However this process is not perfect and some of the light leaks through making the blacks produced less than perfect. The result is the images on screen may seem slightly blurred or less sharp.

2-      Colour Spectrum: Less than perfect color saturation (a limited range of colors). In relation to color, the quality of the light produced by fluorescent lamps limits the range of color (although since the early days of LCD TV this situation has been improved by producing more effective fluorescent lamps).

 

LED-lit LCD (LED TV)

Use of LED (light emitting diodes) in LED TVs is to provide the light source for the LCD panel. Hence an LED TV is still actually an LCD TV, be it one which uses LEDs for the back(rear) or edge lighting. Consequently a more accurate term to describe an LED TV would be LED-lit LCD TV.

 

LED-lit LCDs are available in two configurations:

1-      Rear(back)-lit (Samsung brands it as “LED TV”)

2-      Edge(side)-lit.

 

LED-Rear-lit LCD TV

LEDs are smaller electrical components when compared to the size fluorescent lamps or tubes. This means that they can be placed to the rear of LCD panels to create an LED rear-lit LCD TV. Many LEDs are used in a matrix to provide the light required to light the LCD panel.

 

Advantages LED-lit over CCFL LCDs:

1-      Local dimming: LEDs can be individually switched on or off. This solves the problem of light leaking through the LCD display when black images are required, because rather than blocking the light through the LCD display the corresponding LEDs are switched off, this technique is known as ‘local dimming’. Dynamic contrast ratios of 2,000,000:1 is achievable through this technique.

2-      Enhanced Colours: The advantage that the use of LEDs has brought to LCD TVs is the improvement in range of colors, this is known as “color gamut”. The inherent properties of LEDs mean that the light produced by them is ‘whiter’ (using Red, Blue, Green LEDs) than that of fluorescent lamps (to be specific the light produced has a broader spectrum). The practical result is that LED-lit LCD TVs are capable of producing a wider range of colors that consequently enhance the images displayed so that the pictures look more natural and intense to the viewer.

3-      Power: LEDs are more energy efficient and so power consumption is improved by up to 40%, ultimately making them friendlier to the environment.

4-      Reliability: LEDs are also said to be more reliable than fluorescent lamps and their performance does not degrade. Over time fluorescent lamps performance decreases as they become dimmer and they can eventually fail totally.

 

Issues/Disadvantages:

1-      Cost: This technique is not quite so simple because it is too complicated and expensive to produce LED back-lit LCD TVs with enough LEDs that can be controlled individually.

2-      Static Contrast: Practically TVs with up to approximately 1000 back LEDs can be produced and the LEDs are controlled in blocks rather than individually. The result is that when images of light and dark are simultaneously displayed (static contrast) a compromise is made because some LEDs are switched on for light areas and others are switched off for dark areas and therefore some light will leak into the blacks from adjacent areas of light.

 

LED-edge-lit LCD TV

White LEDs positioned around the rim(edge) of the screen which use a special diffusion panel to spread the light evenly behind the screen.

 

Advantage:

1-      Thickness: The major advantage of using LEDs in edge-lit configurations is that because they are much smaller than fluorescent lamps the physical thickness of the television can be greatly reduced. Manufacturers such as Sony and Samsung have produced televisions that are only 1cm to 2.5cm in thickness. Hence Edge-lit LED TVs major advantage is that they are ultra thin and have slightly improved picture qualities.

2-      Cost: Because the technology of edge-lit LED TVs is less complex they are however cheaper than rear-lit TVs.

 

Disadvantage (Compared to LED rear-lit):

1-      Local Dimming: Due to placement of LED at the rim of screen, the benefits that comes from using LEDs in rear-lit LCD TVs (i.e. local dimming for improved blacks) is no longer applicable.

2-      Rear-lit LED TVs use RGB LEDs (red, green, blue LEDs) and edge-lit LED TVs use white LEDs. The significance of this is that the RGB LEDs used in rear-lit TVs produce the whiter light that improves color gamut and the white LEDs used in edge-lit TVs produce a color gamut which is comparable to that of fluorescent lamps used in conventional LCD TVs.

 

 

Conclusion:

With the success that LED TVs have seen in 2009, the television industry seems to be heading in the direction where LED TV will become the mainstream television, replacing conventional CCFL-lit LCD TVs. Currently Samsung produces TVs with screen sizes available from 32 inches to 55 inches, Samsung plan to expand this range from 19 inches to 65 inches and so catering for a wider audience. Although Samsung is also continuing with its plasma TV range. Sony however is only going ahead with its LCD TV range. All computer/laptop TFT (thin film transistor) panels are also essentially LCDs.

 

 

Plasma TV

A plasma display panel (PDP) is a type of flat panel display common to large TV displays (80 cm or larger). Many tiny cells between just two panels of glass hold a mixture of noble gases (xenon, neon, and helium). The gas in the cells is electrically turned into a plasma which emits ultraviolet light which then excites phosphors to emit visible light.

 

Plasma displays can be produced in fairly large sizes—up to 3.8 m (150 inches) diagonally. The display panel itself is only about 6 cm (2.5 inches) thick, generally allowing the device's total thickness (including electronics) to be less than 10 cm (4 inches). Currently, plasma panels cannot be economically manufactured in screen sizes smaller than 32 inches. Plasma displays use as much power per square meter as a CRT TV

 

Advantages:

1-      Slim profile.

2-      Achieves better and more accurate color reproduction than LCDs (68 billion vs 16.7 million)

3-      Produces deep, true blacks allowing for superior contrast ratios as compared to LCD.

4-      Far wider viewing angles than those of LCD (up to 178°); images do not suffer from degradation at high angles unlike LCDs.

5-      Virtually no motion blur, thanks in large part to very high refresh rates and a faster response time. (contributing to superior performance when displaying content with significant amounts of rapid motion)

 

Disadvantages:

1-      Earlier models are susceptible to screen burn-in and image retention (newer models have green phosphors and built-in technologies to eliminate this)

2-      Phosphors in older models lose luminosity over time, resulting in gradual decline of absolute image brightness (newer models are less susceptible to this).

3-      Generally do not come in smaller sizes than 32 inches

4-      Susceptible to reflection glare in bright rooms (due to use of glass to hold gases)

5-      Heavier than LCD due to the requirement of a glass screen to hold the gases

6-      Use more electricity, on average, than an LCD TV

7-      Do not work as well at high altitudes due to pressure differential between the gases inside the screen and the air pressure at altitude.

8-      More delicate to ship.

 

 

OLED TV - Future

OLED televisions, organic light emitting diode televisions to be exact, are the televisions of the very near future. OLED technology is far superior in so many different aspects, but it all comes down to one simple thing that put it ahead of the pack- backlighting. With the new OLED technology, there is no backlight to fail. Also, because there is no backlight to power up, operational costs are substantially slashed.

 

Without a backlight, the profile of an OLED television is much, much thinner than its comparable LCD or plasma counterpoint. The thickness can be taken down from inches to mere millimeters. In fact, OLED’s can be printed on just about any surface imaginable. The applications for this technology mean that very soon, televisions will be nothing more than flat, flexible, mats that can be rolled up and put away just like a poster.

 

The thin film that supplies the luminescence for an OLED television, is not only thinner than a backlight, it is also far more efficient because the pixels themselves actually emit the light. This important feature allows for true blacks (an LCD is never truly black because of the backlight) and vibrant, true to life colors that are the same no matter the viewing angle. There is no distortion even when the viewing angle is 180 degrees. Much better refresh rates are seen with this newer technology, and the fastest LCD at 2ms is crushed by the blazingly fast rates of less than .01ms that the OLED delivers. That’s 200 times better.

 

There are a few companies who are ready and willing to bring OLED televisions into the family rooms of the masses. Samsung, the front runner in the OLED industry, recently displayed both the first foldable screen made thinner than ever before seen, and the largest OLED television with an impressive 40 inch viewing area,

 

OLED televisions, thinner, brighter, more portable and more energy efficient are about to make both LCD’s and plasma televisions a thing of the past. One very interesting thing about the new OLED technology is that it has the potential to create transparent screens. Lukas’ ideas of futuristic screens in the popular movie trilogy (now a series) Star Wars can finally be realized with this amazing new technology. The next step with OLED televisions may even be flexible televisions that could be folded or even curved for a more genuine movie experience.

 

 

Reference:

http://www.sony-asia.com/productcategory/tvp-lcd-tv

http://www.samsung.com/mea_en/consumer/tv-audio-video/television/index.idx?pagetype=type

http://ledhdtvtelevisions.com/

http://hometheater.about.com/od/lcdtvfaqs/f/lcdtvfaq8.htm

http://reviews.cnet.com/4351-12658_7-6583301.html