Google today announced the acquisition of Gizmo5, a company that provides Internet-based calling software for mobile phones and computers.
Google did not provide any specific features for now. The company said that Gizmo5's engineers will be joining the Google Voice team to continue improving the Google Voice and Gizmo5 experience. Current Gizmo5 users will still be able to use the service, though we will be suspending new signups for the time being, and existing users will no longer be able to sign up for a call-in number.
"We've acquired a number of small companies over the past five years, and the people and technology that have come to Google from other places have contributed in many ways, large and small, to all kinds of Google products. Since the GrandCentral team joined Google in 2007, they've done incredible things with Google's technology and resources to launch and improve Google Voice," Wesley Chan, Group Product Managers Google wrote in a blog.
Google is already offering the "Google Talk" VoIP software. However, Google Talk does not support calls to general subscriber phones, and the Gizmo5 software fills this gap.
A 2x Faster Web
Google also today provided details about the SPDY. Pronounced "SPeeDY", it is an early-stage research project that is part of Google's effort "to make the web faster."
SPDY is at its core an application-layer protocol for transporting content over the web. It is designed specifically for minimizing latency through features such as multiplexed streams, request prioritization and HTTP header compression.
Google started working on SPDY while exploring ways to optimize the way browsers and servers communicate. Today, web clients and servers speak HTTP. HTTP is an elegantly simple protocol that emerged as a web standard in 1996 after a series of experiments. HTTP has served the web incredibly well. We want to continue building on the web's tradition of experimentation and optimization, to further support the evolution of websites and browsers. So over the last few months, a few of us here at Google have been experimenting with new ways for web browsers and servers to speak to each other, resulting in a prototype web server and Google Chrome client with SPDY support.
So far Google has only tested SPDY in lab conditions, Mike Belshe, Software Engineer at Google wrote in a blog. "The initial results are very encouraging: when we download the top 25 websites over simulated home network connections, we see a significant improvement in performance - pages loaded up to 55% faster. There is still a lot of work we need to do to evaluate the performance of SPDY in real-world conditions. However, we believe that we have reached the stage where our small team could benefit from the active participation, feedback and assistance of the web community," he added.
Google invites everyone who would like to learn more and contribute to the experiment to review an early stage documentation, take a look at Google's current code and provide feedback.
Monday, November 16, 2009
Google Docs, at the height of MS Office next year
If you have not yet replaced the Microsoft Office suite applications hosted by Google, then it can not delay. Indeed, this assertion Dave Girouard, president of the enterprise division at Google. In an interview obtained by the magazine Zdnet Asia, he explains that Google Docs is a service "far less mature than Google Mail or Calendar. He said: "We know we do not ask people to abandon Microsoft Office for Google Docs because it is not ready yet."
In contrast, Mr. Girouard said that the book will soon appear in real competitor to Microsoft. Indeed, over the next 12 months are between 30 and 50 new features that should be implemented as well, particularly as regards the performance of the suite online. Mr. Girouard states: "however I do not think that Office will disappear completely. He explains that the Microsoft would make such tools for professionals who require special features, like Adobe Photoshop target the specific needs of the designer.
Recently the Zoho editor, tools also offer hosted, has responded to about Ron Markezitch, vice president of Microsoft Online. The latter claimed that the alternatives offered online "false features" and could never replace Microsoft Office. Zoho was then registered the domain FakeOffice.org to draw some pictures for comparison tools offered by each. Google recently signed a partnership with the administration of the city of Los Angeles to deploy their applications to Google Apps with 30 000 employees, Microsoft had said then that the city would continue to use Office software.
In contrast, Mr. Girouard said that the book will soon appear in real competitor to Microsoft. Indeed, over the next 12 months are between 30 and 50 new features that should be implemented as well, particularly as regards the performance of the suite online. Mr. Girouard states: "however I do not think that Office will disappear completely. He explains that the Microsoft would make such tools for professionals who require special features, like Adobe Photoshop target the specific needs of the designer.
Recently the Zoho editor, tools also offer hosted, has responded to about Ron Markezitch, vice president of Microsoft Online. The latter claimed that the alternatives offered online "false features" and could never replace Microsoft Office. Zoho was then registered the domain FakeOffice.org to draw some pictures for comparison tools offered by each. Google recently signed a partnership with the administration of the city of Los Angeles to deploy their applications to Google Apps with 30 000 employees, Microsoft had said then that the city would continue to use Office software.
Windows 7 inspired by Mac OS X?
Since yesterday the web ablaze around a maintenance collected by CBP. The magazine asks Simon Aldous, Head of Partner Group at Microsoft who has made some relatively praise for Apple, particularly the operating system Mac OS X.
Mr Aldous explained thus: "One of the points that people raise a lot about Macs is the OS that is fantastic, it is very graphic and very easy to use. However, the head of Microsoft did not stop there, and even adds: "What we've tried to do with Windows 7 - for its classic format or multipoint - is to recreate the look and feel of the Mac level of graphics.
Of course, this quotation has not failed to be replicated in different communities specializing in Apple products but also on various websites generalists. The company will let Microsoft does tarnish his image this way? Certainly not. A few hours later, the firm contacted the magazine to rebut PCR block the remarks made by his employee and said: "Description of Windows 7 by Mr. Simon is wrong", adding that the Windows 7 is the result returns Opinion million users of Windows. "The interface of Windows 7 has been designed to facilitate the ownership of computers and build innovative technologies that Microsoft is making the market. For example, unlike Mac OS, Windows 7 supports multicast.
Many have noted the similarities between Windows 7 and Mac OS X, starting with Walt Mossberg, a journalist with the Wall Street Journal. Thus the new taskbar in Windows is often compared to the dock in Mac OS X. Can we still say that the first was inspired by the second? And if so, should we blame Microsoft to use an idea relatively simple and functional? If all agree that Windows 7 is a good system compared to its predecessor, the war seems decidedly OS endless.
Mr Aldous explained thus: "One of the points that people raise a lot about Macs is the OS that is fantastic, it is very graphic and very easy to use. However, the head of Microsoft did not stop there, and even adds: "What we've tried to do with Windows 7 - for its classic format or multipoint - is to recreate the look and feel of the Mac level of graphics.
Of course, this quotation has not failed to be replicated in different communities specializing in Apple products but also on various websites generalists. The company will let Microsoft does tarnish his image this way? Certainly not. A few hours later, the firm contacted the magazine to rebut PCR block the remarks made by his employee and said: "Description of Windows 7 by Mr. Simon is wrong", adding that the Windows 7 is the result returns Opinion million users of Windows. "The interface of Windows 7 has been designed to facilitate the ownership of computers and build innovative technologies that Microsoft is making the market. For example, unlike Mac OS, Windows 7 supports multicast.
Many have noted the similarities between Windows 7 and Mac OS X, starting with Walt Mossberg, a journalist with the Wall Street Journal. Thus the new taskbar in Windows is often compared to the dock in Mac OS X. Can we still say that the first was inspired by the second? And if so, should we blame Microsoft to use an idea relatively simple and functional? If all agree that Windows 7 is a good system compared to its predecessor, the war seems decidedly OS endless.
YouTube moves to the true high definition 1080p
YouTube announced yesterday the imminent availability of true high definition video platform on demand. Starting next week, it will be possible to actually display video in 1080p over 720p. YouTube HD was launched last December with the definition of maximum exposure. The files already submitted to YouTube will automatically re-encoded if the originals are preserved.
While high definition has begun to invade the consumer electronics with an intermediate definition of 1280 x 720 pixels, a growing number of devices now support the "Full HD" in 1920 x 1080 pixels, camcorders screens of computer. YouTube said however that a powerful computer is required, until finally takes Flash's party hardware decoding videos offered by many graphics cards, as do many software already.
But if the definition of a video is one of the most technical representative for its quality, the flow is equally, however YouTube has left silent on this point, only a sample video to get an idea. A 1080p video, two times better than another set to 720p, played at the same rate of 2 Mbps, and would bring no improvement in quality. Conversely, a rate doubled to 4 Mbps limit their viewing to a portion of Internet users have enough bandwidth. Video on demand requires a compromise. Meanwhile the democratization of Internet access via fiber optics, Blu-ray and 25 Mbps is still beautiful days ahead.
While high definition has begun to invade the consumer electronics with an intermediate definition of 1280 x 720 pixels, a growing number of devices now support the "Full HD" in 1920 x 1080 pixels, camcorders screens of computer. YouTube said however that a powerful computer is required, until finally takes Flash's party hardware decoding videos offered by many graphics cards, as do many software already.
But if the definition of a video is one of the most technical representative for its quality, the flow is equally, however YouTube has left silent on this point, only a sample video to get an idea. A 1080p video, two times better than another set to 720p, played at the same rate of 2 Mbps, and would bring no improvement in quality. Conversely, a rate doubled to 4 Mbps limit their viewing to a portion of Internet users have enough bandwidth. Video on demand requires a compromise. Meanwhile the democratization of Internet access via fiber optics, Blu-ray and 25 Mbps is still beautiful days ahead.
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