Archive for the ‘Internet’ Category
Corporate BlackBerrys to get Google Apps syncing
If your office has given you a BlackBerry for work purposes, you may soon be accessing your Google Apps Gmail, calendar, and contacts via the BlackBerry Enterprise Server.
On Friday, Google announced that some functionality in Google Apps, its suite of premium enterprise-level applications, will now give company-issued BlackBerrys some push and sync functionality.
The Google Apps Connector promises to push Gmail messages within 60 seconds, and sync in-box actions like assigning labels and archiving messages. You’ll also be able to search contacts from the company’s global address list, a huge bonus for mobile workers. Synchronization between the Google Calendar and the BlackBerry calendar is one-way in this release, with Google’s calendar populating your schedule on the phone. Google plans to include bidirectional calendar syncing in the future.
While the connector opens up syncing to some of the Google Apps, in this iteration it does not sync with Google Docs, the intranet site-hosting app called Google Site, and Google Video. You’ll still be able to view content through the mobile browser, however.
The Google Apps Connector for BlackBerry Enterprise Server (download) is available for free to corporate Google Apps Premier and Education Editions customers, and must be implemented by an IT administrator.
Check out more details in this Google blog post.
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CNETNews Corporate BlackBerrys to get Google Apps syncing http://bit.ly/DoKeS
Los Angeles gets its Google Apps groove
On August 11, Randi Levin, the chief information officer of the city of Los Angeles, stood before City Council members at a hearing of the information technology committee and made her case for why the nation’s second-largest city should adopt Google Apps.
“The ability to get whatever information the city needs, whenever they need it, on whatever device they need it on will fundamentally change the way the city works and enhance productivity greatly,” she said. “In a fiscal crisis it is difficult to find technology solutions that will save money without requiring a significant capital outlay to achieve those objectives.”
Security concerns have kept many government agencies and large corporations away from Google Apps. That is starting to change. A number of small U.S. cities are using the suite and there are Google Apps pilots in more than a dozen federal agencies. If Los Angeles signs on, it would join the District of Columbia as one of the largest government adoptions.
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CNETNews Los Angeles gets its Google Apps groove http://bit.ly/4ptPH3
Blockbuster, Motorola team up for mobile movies
After inking a deal with Samsung last month to deliver movies directly to your home, Blockbuster announced on Tuesday that its OnDemand service is also coming to your mobile phone.

Blockbuster OnDemand, to be available on “select” Motorola mobile phones, will provide users with access to “thousands” of films, the company said in a statement. Users of the upcoming application, whose release date is yet to be announced, will also be able to choose films for home delivery or reserve titles for in-store pickup.
According to Blockbuster, the Motorola deal is yet another element in its strategy of providing consumers with options to get its movies anywhere, at any time.
For its part, Motorola believes that offering Blockbuster movies on its handsets will help it regain some of its appeal. The company once sat atop the mobile-phone industry. Today, it’s a shadow of its former self. And it’s trying desperately to regain some market share.
That might be coming through Android-based devices. Motorola has already signed on to deliver Android phones. Blockbuster’s app might become a component in that strategy. But by competing with the iPhone and its many multimedia capabilities, Motorola and Blockbuster will be facing an uphill battle.
The iPhone features a YouTube app, providing users access to just about any video they want.
Apple’s handset also has iTunes, through which users can download their favorite films or television shows, then watch them on the iPhone while they’re away from home.
Rumors are also swirling that Netflix will be coming to the iPhone in the coming weeks. If that happens, the iPhone will become an even more attractive handset for those who want multimedia features. And both Motorola and Blockbuster would be facing an even more powerful juggernaut.
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http://news.cnet.com/8301-13506_3-10313303-17.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
Time Warner, YouTube ink distribution pact
This was originally posted at ZDNet’s Between the Lines.
Time Warner and YouTube said Wednesday that they have signed an online video distribution deal.
Under the pact, YouTube will distribute Time Warner short-form video content, including movie clips, television shows, and news. Time Warner properties–Warner Bros. and Turner Broadcasting System–will program YouTube videos via an embeddable player.
According to a statement, YouTube will get access to CNN news, the Cartoon Network, and shows such as “Gossip Girl.” Time Warner video will appear across Google properties. Time Warner can also create separate channels on YouTube and sell ad time. The two parties will split ad revenue.
Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes said the YouTube deal was a good way to monetize short-form content.
The deal appears to be a win-win. YouTube gets more professional content and Time Warner is allowed to sell ads and control channels.
Also see: Disney, YouTube forge video distribution pact; YouTube: Uploads don’t hurt our bottom line; Google moves to show YouTube has ‘a very credible business model’; The cure for YouTube’s ills: Charge for uploads.
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http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10313480-93.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
Simplify Photo for iPhone: Remote photo-viewing
When you want to listen to music from your computer or your friends’ collections on your iPhone, Simplify Music is one solution. On Wednesday, Simplify Media introduced a similar iPhone application called Simplify Photo, which provides the same service for pictures rather than songs.
After logging in, Simplify Photo for iPhone ($0.99) talks to the Simplify Media application on your desktop (download for Windows | Mac | Ubuntu). So long as you have the newest version installed (2.5), and the photo-sharing element selected (configure in the Options menu), you’ll be able to view the photos in your network. Networked images can include pictures from your multiple computers, and those that friend son your Simlify network have given permission to see.
The initial syncing will take a few minutes. After that, you’ll see a list of shared computers. Tap to see options and tap again to view photos by timeline, places (geotagged images show on a Google map), folders, events, albums, and faces, when available. You can also search for a specific photo in a search field.
Simplify Photo’s media is view-only for now; though ideally the app would also open up iPhone photos for computer viewing and friends. You can swipe through images in the viewer or can play a slideshow. As a perk, you can also save the picture locally to the iPhone. Unfortunately, and unlike the desktop viewer, Simplify Photo doesn’t yet rotate images by 90 degrees. The interface could also use some prettying up.
However, Simplify Photo is functional for existing Simplify Media users looking to view friends’ pictures, or their own, remotely.
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