Tag: Google Apps

Posted on

Android Instant Upload to Google(plus)

I created a Google+ account last week, in order to kick the tires a bit. I am going to hold off on a full review until I get some circles going, test the group video chat functions, etc.

I do want to mention one puzzling feature that Google has built into this thing.

Instant upload.

I don’t get it.

google plus instant upload
plus one google plus

This makes for super easy uploading of images to your profile. Android phone…cellular radio connection…there you go. This app will run a cron job to dump your photos to your Google plus profile. The default setting is to allow this when you set up the Google+ Android app, with all new photos dumped to a private (non-shared) folder on your G+ account.

I opened up my settings and let this one rip.

webcam shot to google plus via android
plus one intrusive

It took about 20 seconds for that picture to show up in my private folder. Cool implementation, but pretty impractical.

Issues I have with this:

* Increased data usage. Especially as unlimited plans are goners.
* Battery nukage. One more thing to kill -9.
* Location data. Real time seeding a DB with your lat/long.
* Duplicate media. Primarily for deletions…two is worse than one.
* Neccessary? USB cord…bluetooth…MMS…physical media…email…

Suffice to say, I will have this ‘feature’ disabled. Stay tuned for the full review, and holler if you would like an invite.

Posted on

Google Apps Chat

I’m all about Google. It is no secret that Android gives me the warm and fuzzies; I suppose that is the root of my affection. As I sit here, looking at my quickly-dying BlackBerry Pearl, I’m counting down the days until I can blog via my HTC Incredible. It will be, undoubtedly, incredible. Especially since I can have the Android holler at my Arduino, and vice versa. My warm and fuzzies just turned into warmer and fuzziers.

Enough about that. Today, we are talking Google Apps. Buy into the cloud computing revolution, my friends, as it is upon us. Google is far more than the search engine of times earlier:

google
I concur.

If you haven’t received the memo, there now exists Google Apps:

google apps
how 'bout them apps

Long story short, Google Apps allows you to free up system space by whisking your info into the clouds. Cloud computing is the future…no need to keep several TBs of data locally, when info can be collected and accessed via an online warehouse. Check out the Google Apps Marketplace, if you don’t believe me. Secure solutions for practically any info that was once married to one particular machine or server.

I stumbled across this site, after they asked me to blog for dough about them… Mavenlink is on the cutting edge of the Google Apps scene. Login with your Google ID, and you are given direct integration with Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Sites, et. al.

Now that Mavenlink is now integrated with Google Apps, sharing info is easy as whistling Dixie. As far as I can tell, the ease of and subsequent utilization of Google Docs alone would pay for itself in absolutely no time. Perhaps I’m jaded after far-too-long spent accessing user shared folders and fighting firewall rules, but I feel that documents in the cloud is a superior means of disseminating information.

Hit one of those links and see for yourself. I’m going to go look at some more Android spec sheets. So excited.