DChetty» Google

2013 South African Public Holiday List & Calendar File for Outlook & GCal

DChetty — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 08:33:09 +0000

Here is the full list of 2013 South African Public Holidays:

1 Jan – New Years Day
21 Mar – Human Rights Day
29 Mar – Good Friday
1 Apr – Family Day
27 Apr – Freedom Day
1 May – Workers’ Day
16 Jun – Youth Day
17 Jun – Public Holiday
9 Aug – National Women’s Day
24 Sep – Heritage Day
16 Dec – Day of Reconciliation
25 Dec – Christmas Day
26 Dec – Day of Goodwill

Here is a downloadable file of the 2013 South African Public Holidays for importing into Outlook and GCal.

2013 SA Public Holidays Calendar

Google Maps for iPhone – iOS6 compatible!

DChetty — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 13:27:30 +0000

So after the nightmare that is Apple Maps, Google have stepped up to the challenge of saving iOS6 users from terrible Maps experiences, by launching their own Google Maps app for iOS, which runs perfectly on iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad.

The Google Maps app, syncs with your Google account, allowing for seamless maps search history sharing between your desktop and other devices and the app. Offering free live traffic data and voice-guided turn-by-turn directions and best of all, the mobile app supports Streetview, Google Maps definitely shines as the best free mapping app for the iPhone once again. Heres the Official Google Maps for iPhone video:

To Download the app, go to the app store via your device and search for Google Maps. Or you can get Google Maps for iOS from the App Store here.

If you’re a developer, Google has also announced that they have concurrently launched the Google Maps SDK for iOS to allow you to integrate Google Maps into your apps, here’s the Google Maps for iPhone SDK Documentation.

Charles Dickens Google Doodle!

DChetty — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 08:35:55 +0000

For the celebration marking 200 years since the birth of Charles Dickens, the Google Doodle of the day is:

Here is a video about the Charles Dickens Google Doodle:

Google tips for students!

DChetty — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 14:01:04 +0000

Google is the window to the internet and understanding how to use Google effectively is a very empowering skill to have. Here is an inforgraphic with just a few tips to enhance your Googling skills.

Google Currents – The Flipboard challenger!

DChetty — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 12:25:45 +0000

Google, reknown for launching disruptive services, have decided to go head to head with Flipboard & Zite and have announced the launch of Google Currents on both Andriod and Apple’s iOS platforms.

Aggregating 100′s of sites into a single app with a gorgeous design, making it simple to consume content.

Watch the video for Google Currents here:

The new GMail design, leaked!

DChetty — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 11:14:03 +0000

The product launch video for the new design GMail has been leaked. Watch it here:

I’m most excited about the custom search changes and the ability to edit screen real-estate assignment to chat (which I don’t use within GMail) and labels, which I use a lot of.

Gmail Motion – The idiocy!

DChetty — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 09:07:50 +0000

One has to question Google’s thinking on launching this service on April Fool’s Day, but nonetheless, it actually does look legit.

Check out the video explaining how Human Computer Interaction has just evolved using motion detection technology and has now been integrated into Gmail:

Here is just a few of the popular commands and the motion gestures required to use them.

I must admit, that for the life of me, I don’t see how I will use this service as it just seems ridiculous to be standing infront of my computer at work doing things like this. I know that the Wii, XBOX Kinect and Playstation Move have made it ok to acting like a fool infront of a computer screen, but this is just a bit too far now.

I think that this service will be destined for the waste paper bin and join teh mound of useless technology that seemed revolutionary at the time, but is actually just not usable, like Google Buzz!

Google Chrome launches new logo!

DChetty — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 17:45:47 +0000

So when Google Chrome launched a while ago I quite liked their logo, but with the latest revision of the logo, I must admit that I am not entirely sure as to why they would replace the old logo with this newer uglier version of it.

What are your thoughts on it?

Google’s predictive technology heats up with Gmail Priority Inbox!

DChetty — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 13:59:31 +0000

So if you haven’t heard yet, GMail has launched a new feature called “Priority Inbox”. Its targeted at heavy users of mail and helps sift out the important mail from the less important mail.

In short, it keeps track of all the mails that you reply to, star, read, delete, etc and ranks the mail’s importance.

Here is a short video released by the GMail team to describe the service:

It then teaches itself based on your interactions with the system to become smarter in its predictions.

I might have my doubts about the algorithm’s success rate, but I love that it is now possible to group all unread mails into a single view without having to search using, “is:unread label:inbox”

Google Buzz – The next step!

DChetty — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 20:28:00 +0000

Google is reknown for launching brilliant services, offering it free to use with little if not any monetization model at all on the service, in then move on politely to kill the next big thing. They did this with mail with the launch of their GMail service, with Picasa, the photo management software and site, GTalk, the IM and VOIP service, etc. Disruptive technologies with high impact viral marketing from the geek world with their blogs, Twitter accounts and other sharing platforms work for Google.

Their latest offering is a stab at content sharing and uses GMail as a platform to house the technology and fuses the concepts of Google Wave, Twitter and GMail into a seamless inteface that is usable, easy to understand and practical.

The biggest advantage that it has to other services, is that all Google products use the same consolidated Contacts list. Google Buzz looks to integrate Twitter, Picasa, Flickr, YouTube, etc.

Here is a video released by Google to highlight the concept of Google Buzz:

GMail has really grown up since its launch as it now hosts mail, IM, docs, and now Buzz. Best of all, it’s available for mobile too!