Calling all Russian Overclockers! Russian OC Challenge Announced!

Russian overclockers have been called to arms by OC Club in Russia who have just announced their ‘Overclocking, Tweaking and Performing’ OC Challenge. Sponsored by GIGABYTE and GeIL, the competition runs from December 9th to 29th, and will comprise of three stages centered around extreme memory overclocking performance.

Prizes include GIGABYTE X79-UD7 and X58A-OC motherboards, as well as a range of high-end GeIL DDR3 memory kits.

For more details head on over to the competition website here.

You can also find more information about the event on the OC Clucb site here.

DRAM prices favor an upgrade, but how much does a solid rig need? Tell us on Facebook

The price  of DDR3 memory has continued to fall, to the extent that even the most scrooge-like PC builder would be tempted to deck out his PC with a bit extra. Right now on NewEgg a 4GB Kingston HyperX Blu DDR3 1333 module can be yours for a mere $19.99. Fancy something a little more adventurous? How’s about a 4GB CORSIAR Vengence DDR3 1600 for just $25? Or perhaps you’re man of real taste and distinction; try a pair of Muskin Enhanced Blackline modules rated at speeds of up to 2333MHz, for only $99.99! Has the world gone potty?

Well, no. But as far as consumers are concerned, it’s really good time to invest in some extra memory for your PC, as Peter Scott, writing for Fudzilla earlier this week explains:

“Here’s some food for thought. A year ago a single Kingston ValueRAM 4GB SO-DIMM module cost €54 and two years ago it retailed for a saucy €243. Now it sells for just €14 and change.” – Peter Scott, Fudzilla

But while it is tempting to add some more RAM your PC, there is inevitably also a limit to how much your PC actually needs. I’ve found that opinions vary greatly. Many Windows 7 users feel that memory bottlenecks cease to be problem at around 4GB. Most self respecting power users however are not content without 16GB. One fly in the ointment of course, is software. 32-bit operating systems are inherently limited to an absolute max of 4GB memory (you may only see 3.25GB), so it’s only those of us that are enjoying the 64-bit revolution that can explore the realms 4GB of RAM and beyond. Then of course it comes down to what you do with your PC. Applications that manipulate large cumbersome data sets will need a far larger memory footprint, while HD video and photo editing suites can indeed hog a whole lot of memory.

To help us get to a clearer picture of RAM usage, we’ve decided to ask the experts, which of course is you - the GIGABTE fans who read our blog and follow us on Facebook each day.

Please go to our fan page and tell us what you use in your rig. And don’t forget to give us a ‘like’ if you haven’t already.

Facebook RAM Survey.

Image source.

Scheduled Release track features update 11/29/11

The following features are now available to domains following the Scheduled Release track:
- No new features to announce

The following features are intended for release to these domains on Dec 6th:
- No new features to announce

Release track:
Scheduled*

Editions included:
Google Apps, Google Apps for Business, Government and Education

*Scheduled Release track: Domains with ‘Scheduled Release’ option enabled in the administrator control panel. Learn more

New look available for Gmail, Calendar, Docs and Sites! Find out more at whatsnew.googleapps.com/new-look

whatsnew.googleapps.com
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The next stage in our redesign

Six months ago we started rolling out a new look and feel for Search, News, Maps, Translate, Gmail and a bunch of other products. Our goal was to create a beautifully simple and intuitive user experience across Google.

We’re now ready for the next stage of our redesign—a new Google bar that will enable you to navigate quickly between our services, as well as share the right stuff with the right people easily on Google+.

Instead of the horizontal black bar at the top of the page, you’ll now find links to your services in a new drop-down Google menu nested under the Google logo. We’ll show you a list of links and you can access additional services by hovering over the “More” link at the bottom of the list. Click on what you want, and you’re off.

To find out more about the new Google bar, take a look at this video or read our Help Center article.



Making navigation and sharing super simple for people is a key part of our efforts to transform the overall Google experience, which is why we’re very excited about this redesign. Enjoy!

Posted by Eddie Kessler, Technical Lead

Go indoors with Google Maps 6.0 for Android

Google Maps for mobile had its sixth birthday earlier this month and we’re celebrating by releasing the next generation of Google Maps for Android, which is first to get indoor Google Maps—announced moments ago on the Official Google Blog. We also have two other great additions in this release: a new way to switch between features in the toolbar and a new Places home screen.

Mapping the vast indoors

When you’re inside an airport, shopping mall, retail store, or other public space, Google Maps 6.0 for Android brings the freestanding map directory to the palm of your hands -- helping you determine where you are, what floor you're on, and where to go indoors. For example, in this busy travel season, you can use Google Maps 6.0 to help you find your way around airports.


Detailed floor plans automatically appear when you’re viewing the map and zoomed-in on a building where indoor map data is available. The familiar “blue dot” icon indicates your location within several meters, and when you move up or down a level in a building with multiple floors, the map will automatically update to display which floor you’re on.

See the full announcement for more details or to demo indoor Google Maps, start here.


Mall of America in Minneapolis before and after, with a floor selector

San Francisco International Airport before and after, with 3D tilt
Switching between features gets easier

When you open Google Maps for Android, you can do many things: view your location on the map, discover where to go with Places, get GPS turn-by-turn directions with Navigation, check in to share your location, and more. We wanted to make it easier to hop from one feature to another; so, we’ve added a drop-down menu to the top toolbar for quick access.

New drop down menu to switch between features
We hope this menu helps you get to your favorite parts of Google Maps faster or shows you some features you haven’t tried yet.

Discovering what’s great nearby with the new Places home screen

The new Places home screen includes popular searches for your current location, so you can find the best spots in any area you travel.

Redesigned Places home screen with popular searches for your area
To start using Google Maps 6.0 for Android, download the update from Android Market. This update works for Android OS 2.1+ devices everywhere Google Maps is currently available.

Posted by Chikai Ohazama, Product Management Director

A new frontier for Google Maps: mapping the indoors

“Where am I?” and “What’s around me?” are two questions that cartographers, and Google Maps, strive to answer. With Google Maps’ “My Location” feature, which shows your location as a blue dot, you can see where you are on the map to avoid walking the wrong direction on city streets, or to get your bearings if you’re hiking an unfamiliar trail. Google Maps also displays additional details, such as places, landmarks and geographical features, to give you context about what’s nearby. And now, Google Maps for Android enables you to figure out where you are and see where you might want to go when you’re indoors.



When you’re inside an airport, shopping mall or retail store, a common way to figure out where you are is to look for a freestanding map directory or ask an employee for help. Starting today, with the release of Google Maps 6.0 for Android, that directory is brought to the palm of your hands, helping you determine where you are, what floor you're on, and where to go indoors.



Detailed floor plans automatically appear when you’re viewing the map and zoomed in on a building where indoor map data is available. The familiar “blue dot” icon indicates your location within several meters, and when you move up or down a level in a building with multiple floors, the interface will automatically update to display which floor you’re on. All this is achieved by using an approach similar to that of ‘My Location’ for outdoor spaces, but fine tuned for indoors.


Mall of America in Minneapolis before and after, with a floor selector


San Francisco International Airport before and after, with 3D tilt

We’ve initially partnered with some of the largest retailers, airports and transit stations in the U.S. and Japan, including:

• Mall of America, IKEA, The Home Depot, select Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s, Daimaru, Takashimaya and Mitsukoshi locations and more. Watch an IKEA demo here.
• Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL), Chicago O’Hare (ORD), San Francisco International Airport (SFO) and Narita International (NRT), among others.
• JR and Tokyu Corporation

For a detailed list of participating locations, please visit our help center. And this is just the start--we’ll continually add new indoor maps to public buildings across the world. If you’re a business owner interested in getting your location’s floor plan included in Google Maps, visit maps.google.com/floorplans.

We’re thrilled Google Maps continues to provide you with new and helpful perspectives—whether you’re rushing through the airport or finding your way around a mall. To visit our website and learn more about indoor Google Maps and other features, start here.

Posted by Brian McClendon, VP of Engineering, Google Earth and Maps

(Cross-posted on the Lat Long Blog)

Magic moments in Egypt’s parliamentary elections, thanks to the web

Today more than 50 million Egyptians started heading to the polls to cast their votes for an independent Parliament, many for the first time in their lives. The revolution in Egypt, which captured the attention of the world beginning in Tahrir Square on January 25, 2011, made this possible by opening the floodgates of political participation.

With the free flow of information online, people can connect and engage in a open dialogue about the future of Egypt. The web is enabling many new voters to become better informed on their choice of candidates, and letting politicians reach electors in new and exciting ways.

Getting information about the new rules and the new players is no small feat for Egyptians: there are nearly 11,000 candidates vying for 498 seats across 27 governorates nationwide during a multi-stage election that started today and lasts until March 2012. We’re doing our best to organize information to make it easier for voters to find everything they need in one place. For example, millions of Egyptians have learned where they can vote through our landing page, www.google.com.eg/elections.

We’ve also worked to give a voice to thousands of candidates to reach voters through interactive video. The YouTube Townhall includes nearly 400 videos posted by candidates and political parties explaining where they stand on issues from education and the economy to health care and political reform, sparking vibrant conversations in cafés from Alexandria to Aswan.

We’re helping voters and politicians connect not just in Egypt, but throughout the entire Middle East and the world. For Tunisia’s recent parliamentary elections, we partnered with startup news portal Tunisia Live to offer a training workshop in Tunis on Google tools and social media for politicians. In France, we set up a special YouTube site for the upcoming parliamentary elections.

The Internet is playing an increasingly significant role in Egypt. It’s bolstering civic engagement and becoming a powerful mechanism for information sharing—crucial to helping the nation make the tough transition to democracy.

Posted by Samir ElBahaie, Head of Public Policy and Government Affairs for Google Middle East North Africa

Five tips for stress-free holiday shopping

Today, on Cyber Monday—the biggest online shopping day of the year—digi-savvy shoppers will take to the web to get ahead on their holiday shopping. You’ve managed to avoid the Black Friday crowds, but are your online shopping skills up to snuff? Just in the nick of time, here are five tips on how to use Google tools to save time and money this holiday shopping season.

Tip #1. Avoid the lines and parking nightmares—shop from your couch with Google Catalogs
Today we’re announcing a version of Google Catalogs for Android tablets, available for free in Android Market. Now shoppers can browse Google Catalogs on both iOS and Android tablets. With over 125 of your favorite brands and 400 issues across a myriad of categories, Google Catalogs puts all your favorite print catalogs right at your fingertips. You’ll find pages of gift and decorating ideas and get a head start on your holiday shopping list.

Browse Pottery Barn’s Christmas 2011 catalog on Google Catalogs - now available for Android tablets.

Tip #2. Let Google Product Search do your research for you
With so many brands, models and features to choose from, sometimes finding the perfect gift—especially when it comes to electronics and gadgets—can be overwhelming. Google Product Search gives you detailed product information, reviews and price comparisons for all the gifts on your list.

We recently launched a new comparison feature for electronics that lets you quickly see how a particular product stacks up against other similar models and brands. For example, on the Nikon D3100 product page, you can now see—at a glance—feature comparisons between the D3100 and other Nikon models as well as cameras from other brands. Read more about other recent Product Search updates on the Google Commerce blog.

A quick comparison shows the differences in resolution and other camera features.

Tip #3. Bring Google Shopper along as your mobile shopping assistant
Have you ever found yourself standing in a store, trying to decide between, say, two blenders, and wishing you could consult an expert? Google Shopper can help. Wherever you are, this free mobile app for Android and iPhone lets you scan a barcode or search by voice or text to get detailed product information, read reviews and compare prices online and at local stores. You can also use Google Shopper to see if a product is in stock nearby.

Research, share and find products near you with Google Shopper.

Tip #4. Take advantage of holiday savings with Google Offers
Before you hit main street for a shopping extravaganza, check out Google Offers for great deals on local places to eat, shop and play. Google Offers has teamed up with a number of great retailers this holiday season, making it easy to save while you shop. You can also find and buy great deals from Google Offers with the free Android app.

Tip #5. Simplify your online and offline shopping experience with Google Wallet
Save time and money by shopping with Google Wallet — a smart, virtual wallet that stores your payment cards, offers and more on your phone and online. When you shop with merchants that accept Google Wallet online just use your Google Wallet username and password to complete your purchase—there’s no need to pull out your credit card or enter your shipping address with every transaction. If you’re at the register at stores like American Eagle, Macy’s, Gap, Inc or any of our other merchant partners, take a minute to try the Google Wallet app, available on Nexus S 4G for Sprint, to tap, pay and save.

I hope these tips and Google tools help to make your shopping experience a little easier (and fun!) this Cyber Monday, and throughout the holiday season.

Posted by Stephanie Tilenius, Vice President of Commerce

(Cross-posted on the Commerce blog)

Celebrating innovation in digital journalism

Journalism is changing fast as media businesses adapt and experiment with ways of gathering and reporting the news in the digital age. Here’s news of two contests we’re sponsoring to help stimulate innovation in digital reporting.

IPI News Innovation Contest
We’re pleased to congratulate the first three winners selected by the Vienna-based International Press Institute in its News Innovation Contest. The prizes are part of a $5 million global contest launched by Google last year.

Today’s winners, who will receive grants totalling $600,000, are:

• World Wide Web Foundation for its Voice-based Citizen Journalism project in France, the Netherlands and Mali. The project will enable voice-based citizen journalists to gather and deliver news in rural areas through community radio and mobile phones.

• Internews Europe for its crowd-sourced journalism project in five African countries. The project aims to promote expertise in crowd-sourced journalism techniques to contribute to press freedom.

• Journalism Leaders Programme at the University of Central Lancashire, for its digital media training programme for the U.K. and Turkey. The project will focus on training in data journalism skills and the fundamentals of digital business aimed at disseminating learning to the wider news industry.

This is just the first round of the contest. In 2012, the IPI will consider a new set of proposals and award the remainder of the grant. More details are available at www.ipinewscontest.org.

GEN Data Journalism Awards
In Hong Kong, at the News World Summit hosted by the Global Editors Network, we're announcing a partnership on a new data journalism contest. GEN’s Data Journalism Awards will celebrate the best examples of this new form of journalism from established news organisations and newcomers.

The winners will be chosen by an international jury and prizes awarded at the next GEN conference in Paris next year. Details on how to take part are at http://www.globaleditorsnetwork.org/djawards/.

We look forward to seeing the impact these initiatives will have on digital journalism and hope they will encourage continued experimentation at every level of the media.

Posted by Peter Barron, Director, External Relations, Europe, Middle East and Africa

(Cross-posted from the European Public Policy Blog)

Google Catalogs is now available for Android tablets

For many of us, the arrival of piles of catalogs marks the start of the holiday shopping season. But what if you could have all your favorite catalogs in one place, with the latest issues always available at your fingertips?

Starting today, Google Catalogs is available for Android tablets, as well as the iPad, giving you a new way to shop from the comfort of your couch. With rich product images, videos, and the ability to curate your own personal collages to share with friends, Google Catalogs makes browsing your favorite mail order catalogs easy, fun and interactive.

Google Catalogs features more than 125 brands you know and love like Nordstrom, Williams-Sonoma, Nike and Sephora. The app currently has over 400 digital catalog issues to browse across categories such as mens & women’s apparel, jewelry, gifts, gourmet, toys, kids, gadgets, sports & athletics and outdoor adventure.

Download the free Google Catalogs app for Android available in the US from Android Market or the iPad from the App Store today. To learn more, visit www.google.com/catalogs.

Posted by Abigail Holtz, Business Product Manager, Google Catalogs team

The evolution of search in six minutes

This summer we posted a video that takes a peek under the hood of search, sharing the methodology behind search ranking and evaluation. Through this methodology, we make roughly 500 improvements to search in a typical year. As we often discuss, that’s a lot of change, and it can be hard to make sense of it all.

Following up on our last video, we wanted to share with you a short history of the evolution of search, highlighting some of the most important milestones from the past decade—and a taste of what’s coming next.

Our goal is to get you to the answer you’re looking for faster and faster, creating a nearly seamless connection between your questions and the information you seek. That means you don’t generally need to know about the latest search feature in order to take advantage of it— simply type into the box as usual and find the answers you’re looking for.

However, for those of you looking to deepen your understanding of how search has evolved, the video highlights some important trends:

• Universal Results: With Universal Search—which returns results like images, videos, and news, in addition to webpages—we’re helping you find all different kinds of information in the same place. We’ve continued to make search more comprehensive, enabling you to find products, places, patents, books, maps and more.
• Quick Answers: Today on Google you’ll find more than just a list of links to websites. You’ll find Quick Answers at the top of the page for a wide variety of topics, including flight times, sports scores, weather and dozens more. As our technology gets better, we’re beginning to answer harder questions for you, right on the search results page.
• The Future of Search: We’ve also been focused on developing faster ways to search and save time, whether we’re shaving seconds off searches with Google Instant or helping you search from your phone with Voice Search. Searching should be as easy as thinking, and the future looks bright!

As part of making the video we also created a timeline of search features. It’s not the first timeline we’ve done, but I think this one does a nice job of categorizing the different kinds of Universal Results and Quick Answers we’ve added over the years:

The timeline depicts the approximate dates when we launched particular search feature enhancements. You can also download a larger image by following this link.

It’s been exciting to be part of the evolution of search over the past decade, and we’re thrilled about what’s in store next. If the past is any indication, we don’t know what search will look like in 2020, but we wouldn’t be surprised if it looks nothing like it does today.

Posted by Ben Gomes, Google Fellow

(Cross-posted on the Inside Search blog)

GIGABYTE Extreme OC Workshop (Brisbane)

TeamAU boys (deanzo, dinos22, sniperoz & deanzo) just finished the latest GIGABYTE Extreme OC workshop in Brisbane. Eva2000 also made a brief appearance on the first day. It was a really fun event in which enthusiasts from Brisbane were passed over control of some seriously souped up rigs running 7Ghz+ with AMD Bulldozer and GIGABYTE 990FXA-UD7 motherboards.

Kudos to AMD, GIGABYTE, CORSAIR, UMART and Atomic mag for backing the event.

Linus returns with GIGABYTE X79-UD7 unboxing

Having previously unboxed our G1.Assassin 2 and X79-UD5 motherboards, we knew it would only be a mater of time before Linus would treat us all to a journey around our high-end X79-UD7 board. And it would seem that he’s impressed with what he seeing too, opting to go with the UD7 for his new upgraded extreme rig.

You can learn more about the X79-UD7 board on our website here, with more info about our X79 series of boards here.

GIGABYTE caught overclocking at Atomic Con 2011

GIGABYTE was among a group of hardware vendors in attendance at Atomic Con 2011 at Monash University, Melbourne last weekend. Atomic’s David Hollingworth took his camera crew over to our GIGABYTE Extreme Overclocking stand where he found, perhaps not surprisingly, some fairly extreme overclocking going on. Check out the video below:

Read the full article over on AtomicPC.com.au

DatenDialog - Big Tent goes to Berlin

In May, we held our first Big Tent conference near London, where we debated some of the hot issues relating to the Internet and society with policy-makers, academics and NGOs. The term "big tent” not only described the marquee venue but also our aim to include diverse points of view.

After the U.K. success, we decided to export the concept. Yesterday we welcomed more than 200 guests in Berlin, Germany to the second Big Tent event, entitled DatenDialog.

This dialogue about data tackled the issue of online privacy from a variety of angles. It was appropriate to hold it in Germany, which is a pacesetter both in its concern about privacy and its ideas for safeguarding personal data. During the one-day event, we debated questions such as: what does responsible collaboration between the tech industry and the data protection authorities look like? Do we need new regulation to manage the Internet and the large amount of data produced in the online world? Who is responsible for educating users and how does the tech industry make sure it builds privacy controls into its products?

Speakers included the German State Secretary for the Interior Cornelia Rogall-Grothe and the Federal Data Protection Commissioner Peter Schaar, alongside international authors and bloggers Cory Doctorow and Jeff Jarvis who appeared via live video chat from the U.S.



The debate was always lively, sometimes polarised—Cory likened amalgamated data to nuclear waste while Jeff appealed to governments not to regulate for the worst case—but all seemed to agree that it was a worthwhile and timely exercise to explore these important issues.

You can watch the highlights soon on our Big Tent YouTube channel, and stay tuned for more Big Tents on a range of topics around the world in the coming months.

Posted by Wieland Holfelder, Engineering Director, Germany

(Cross-posted from the European Public Policy Blog)

Shuffler.fm By Shuffler Media

Shuffler.fm is a audio magazine compiled by tastemakers on thousands of music blogs, sites and magazines. Channel surf through the music web, the web is your player and bloggers are your DJs..It compiles a audio magazine curated by thousands of music bloggers in real-time who filter all the music information overload and give you daily a curated stream of music. Only the best, new and even unheard music coming straight from the hottest and hippest music blogs sites and magazines.
Compatibility-iPad. Requires iOS 4.3 or later.
Awesomeness rating-8.1/10
http://itunes.apple.com/in/app/shuffler.fm/id456966147?mt=8

 

Autodesk ForceEffect By Autodesk Inc.

Bring engineering to the point of the problem with Autodesk® ForceEffect™, an Autodesk Simulation mobile engineering app for analyzing design concepts in the field or in the office. Unlike the traditional approach of using paper, pencil, and a calculator to develop equations for design options, Autodesk ForceEffect does all the simulation and engineering calculations for you right on your mobile device, enabling you to quickly and easily simulate design options during the concept phase to determine the viability of a design.(itunes description)
Compatibility-iPad. Requires iOS 4.0 or later.
Awesomeness rating-8.2/10
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/autodesk-forceeffect/id476321600?mt=8

NYTimes The Collection By The New York Times Company

The Collection, an iPad app from The New York Times, creates a new way for tablet readers to experience The Times's fashion and style coverage. With an elegant, immersive and highly visual user interface, this app is a one-stop destination for all things fashion from across The Times. The Collection builds on exclusive coverage from Styles, T Magazine and The International Herald Tribune and adds slide shows, video and updates from The Times’s fashion blogs. The Collection app is free to download and all content will be free through December 31, 2011. After this date, some content will remain free but only New York Times subscribers will have unlimited access to the app.CONTENTS FREE FOR A LIMITED TIME ONLY!!
Compatibility-iPad. Requires iOS 4.2 or later.
Awesomeness rating-8.3/10
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/nytimes-the-collection/id476636675?mt=8

Fotopedia Japan By Fotonauts Inc.

This app lets you see beautiful photos of japan.Also offers interactive maps, social media sharing, beautiful slideshows, wallpapers and a “Trip Builder” to help you create your own trip.While nearly all photopedia apps are paid ones, this one is free ,so get it.Its really worth a try.INTERNET CONNECTION REQUIRED.
Compatibility-iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 4.0 or later.
Awesomeness rating-8.1/10
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/fotopedia-japan/id476323468?mt=8

Snoopy’s Street Fair By Beeline Europe

In this taptastic adventure you’ll decorate Charlie Brown’s neighborhood and fill it with a wealth of wonderful stalls and attractions. Recruit your favorite PEANUTS characters including Sally, Linus and Lucy, just to name a few.While the rest of the gang is busy with the fair, Snoopy brings his own brand of mischief to the game. Depending on Snoopy’s costume he’ll pounce on piles of leaves, help redesign stalls dressed as Artist Snoopy or, in the case of his Beagle Scout costume, collect marshmallows with his beagle scout troop in tow. Each costume will also unlock a themed minigame including a lemonade making game, a color mixing game and a marshmallow roasting game.(itunes description)
Compatibility-iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 3.1 or later
Awesomeness rating-8.0/10 
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/snoopys-street-fair/id474517295?mt=8

Jimi Hendrix: The Complete Experience By Sony Music Entertainment

Does the sound of Purple Haze fire you up? Or does Foxey Lady have you playing air guitar to the classic riffs? Expertly made for the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch in conjunction with Experience Hendrix LLC, this interactive app is the most innovative Jimi Hendrix experience available anywhere.(itunes description).A truly wonderful app which everyone will enjoy.INTERNET CONNECTION REQUIRED.
Compatibility-iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 5.0 or later.
Awesomeness rating-8.7/10
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/jimi-hendrix-the-complete/id477975150?mt=8

Bullet Time HD By Kiloo

ONLINE MULTIPLAYER GAME ONLY.Its a shooting game .Upgrade your character as you progress and you can also customize him.Really good graphics but not for those looking for anything new.
Compatibility-iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 4.3 or later.
Awesomeness rating-7.6/10
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/bullet-time-hd/id475307808?mt=8

TED: Match Match Original HD By SJ Games Co., LTD.

Its the uncover and match game .Flip the question marked blocks and look for the matching pictures.Match and clear all the blocks before the screen is filled up with the blocks.
Compatibility- iPad. Requires iOS 3.2 or later
Awesomeness rating-7.6/10

The Three Little Pigs - Zubadoo Animated Storybook By Zubadoo Media Limited

This one's for the kids .Its a normal picture storybook and not interactive .But its free!!
Compatibility- iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 3.0 or later
Awesomeness rating-7.4/10
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/the-three-little-pigs-zubadoo/id440719551?mt=8

GIGABYTE X79-UD7 wins beats the competition to claim ‘Editors Choice’ award at Motherboards.org

Expert motherboard review Mr Ramirez over at motherboards.org has published his in-depth review of our latest Overclocking motherboard, the GIGABYTE X79-UD7 board, and it looks like there’s plenty to shout about. Picking up the ‘Editors Choice’ award, the X79-UD7 put on quite show in the benchmarking dept, where it pushed past against some pretty stiff competition:

“Let me start by saying that with the X79 boards that we’ve tested so far this board has given us the highest scores in most of our benchmarks. In some of our tests the difference was pretty apparent. In particular we got nearly a 300 point difference in 3D Mark 11 and an increase of .63 in Cinebench. This board has shown that it was made to be pushed and it’s no doubt that this is exactly what Gigabyte was going for.”

In conclusion Mr Ramirez gives the X79-UD7 his full endorsement, which I am happy to reproduce here:

“…what Gigabyte has done is given every feature you can think of to really put this board in the stratosphere. With the addition of the WiFi and Blue Tooth card alone this is an amazing board but with everything else Gigabyte has thrown into it this board is just head and shoulders above the others that we’ve tested so far. In my opinion this board is everything that the enthusiast market has been waiting for.

If you’ve been waiting to get in on the X79 this is the best choice that we’ve seen so far and you won’t be disappointed. With all of the incredible features and amazing performance this board is definitely an Editor’s Choice here at Motherboards.Org.”

Catch the full review here on Motherboards.org and full details and specs of the X79-UD7 here on our site.

massman playing with GIGABYTE X79-UD7

It’s that time of the year folks when new hardware arrives and everyone is trying to figure out new bios settings, performance quirks and how to get rid of some early bios bugs.

Massman from HWBOT got his paws on the new X79-UD7 and has started doing just that. It’s an interesting read and a work in progress. Go check it out here.

Video: Linus unboxes the GIGABYTE G1. Assassin 2

Not content to rest on his laurels with his epic deconstruction of our GIGABYTE X79-UD5 board, Linus is again the focus of our attention as he unboxes the top of the line X79 series gaming board; the GIGABYTE G1.Assassin 2 motherboard.

 

 

Great job again Linus. Sweet.

Check here for the G1.Assassin 2 product page. Here for all things GIGABYTE X79 series.

Scheduled Release track features update 11/22/11

The following features are now available to domains following the Scheduled Release track:

Gmail:
The ‘Manage this domain’ link for administrators has moved from its current location at the top right of the inbox, to the bottom right corner of the inbox, just underneath ‘Last account activity’. This link will not show if Tasks or a chat mole is open. If an administrator account switches to Gmail’s new look, the ‘Manage this domain’ link moves to the 'Settings' gear menu in the upper right of the Gmail inbox.

Gmail Contacts:
Browse the Google Apps directory from within Gmail Contacts

Users can browse the entire Google Apps directory for their domain from within Contacts without having to search. This is especially useful when a user doesn’t know the exact name or spelling of the person they’re looking for or wants to see a complete list of contacts for their domain in alphabetical order. Just click “Directory” in the left sidebar from within Contacts in Gmail to get started.

Docslist:
Ability to restrict the download of non-Google file types in Google Docs. This restriction can be applied to .ppt, .pdf, video, and image files.


The following features are intended for release to these domains on November 29th:

- No new features to announce

Release track:
Scheduled*

Editions included:
Google Apps, Google Apps for Business, Government and Education

For more information:
http://googleappsupdates.blogspot.com/2011/11/browse-google-apps-directory-from.html

*Scheduled Release track: Domains with ‘Scheduled Release’ option enabled in the administrator control panel. Learn more

New look available for Gmail, Calendar, Docs and Sites! Find out more at whatsnew.googleapps.com/new-look

whatsnew.googleapps.com
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Interactive weather results, now in 34 languages

Earlier this year, we introduced interactive weather information in mobile search results and now this feature is available in 33 more languages. Now when you search for ‘météo’, ‘tempo’, ‘날씨’, or ‘weather’ in your language, you’ll see the current temperature, humidity level and wind speed for your location. You’ll also get an overall forecast and the weather outlook for the next few days. To see weather conditions at various times throughout the day, move the slider across the next 12 hrs; that way you’ll know if you’ll need a light jacket in the afternoon or perhaps an umbrella in the evening.

Give it a try by searching Google for ‘weather’ in your language on your Android or iOS mobile device.

Posted by Sungjoon Jung, Software Engineer

Lego robots and their young inventors come to Google

“He makes his way down the field, finds his target, aims—can he make it before time runs out?”

Nope, we’re not at a sports game, but rather watching a robot, made of Legos, and built and programmed by a team of young students, compete at the FIRST® LEGO® League (FLL) robotics tournament. Last Saturday, November 19, marked our sixth year hosting a qualifying tournament at Google headquarters. This year, 16 Bay Area teams made up of 9-14 year olds participated, energizing our campus with their enthusiasm and even a spontaneous conga line or two.

I’m a software engineer with a longtime personal interest in LEGO robotics and, even more, in getting kids excited about doing science and technology. When fellow Google engineer Albert Bodenhamar and I heard about the tournament awhile back, we put together a team of volunteers at Google, got in touch with the FLL regional coordinators—the nonprofit group Playing at Learning—and held our first tournament. Now we host the event every year, with a cadre of 25-30 Googlers, spouses and friends who spend the day volunteering as judges and referees and help with all of the set-up and logistics.

The center of the action during tournament day was the two ping pong-sized tables where these homegrown robots raced against the clock to complete various physical tasks, all related to the tournament theme of food safety. The tables were covered with small “props” the robots would need. For example, at one point, the robots had to scoop up, carry and then empty dispensers of little plastic "bacteria" into a miniature plastic sink at the opposite end of the table. Referees in black-and-white striped shirts started and stopped the clock and kept their eyes out for penalties while the MC gave play-by-plays of the action. Meanwhile, parents and coaches crowded around, cheering and taking photographs, and the action was broadcast on a jumbo screen for all to see.

When not competing at the tables, teams met with three different sets of judges. One panel of judges asked students about their robot (how they designed it, how it worked), while another set asked about core values (how they worked together as a team, the learning process, camaraderie). In front of the third set of judges, the teams presented their research projects and answered questions. The research project, while unrelated to robotics, aims to incorporate research and problem-solving—keys to the success of any real-world engineering team—into the competition.

At the end of the day, we announced awards. The team Nibbles & Bytes took home the Core Values award, Decon Droids won the award for best Research Project, Xtreme Creators won for Robot Design and the Flying Cougar Cyborgs won for Robot Performance. The LegoNauts took home the Champion’s award. Seven teams advanced to the district championship, which will take place in Redwood City, Calif. in January. Eventually, the tournament reaches the national, and then international, level.



It’s important, not to mention fun, to support creative outlets for young people to get involved in computer science and technology. Competitions like FLL introduce a whole new generation to the world of technology and engineering, and it’s always a blast to support the students who are participating—even if I am a bit exhausted after that conga line.

If you want to get involved with FLL, you can check the website to find out if a team exists in your area, or register a new one.

Posted by Glenn Trewitt, software engineer and FLL tournament director

More spring cleaning out of season

This is our third blog post in our off-season spring cleaning series. To recap, we’re in the process of shutting a number of products which haven’t had the impact we’d hoped for, integrating others as features into our broader product efforts, and ending several which have shown us a different path forward. Overall, our aim is to build a simpler, more intuitive, truly beautiful Google user experience. In terms of the details, here is the latest update:

• Google Bookmarks Lists—This is an experimental feature for sharing bookmarks and collaborating with friends, which we’re going to end on December 19, 2011. All bookmarks within Lists will be retained and labeled for easier identification, while the rest of Google Bookmarks will function as usual. As Lists was an English-only feature, non-English languages will be unaffected.
• Google Friend Connect—Friend Connect allows webmasters to add social features to their sites by embedding a few snippets of code. We're retiring the service for all non-Blogger sites on March 1, 2012. We encourage affected sites to create a Google+ page and place a Google+ badge on their site so they can bring their community of followers to Google+ and use new features like Circles and Hangouts to keep in touch.
• Google Gears—In March we said goodbye to the Gears browser extension for creating offline web applications and stopped supporting new browsers. On December 1, 2011, Gears-based Gmail and Calendar offline will stop working across all browsers, and later in December Gears will no longer be available for download. This is part of our effort to help incorporate offline capabilities into HTML5, and we’ve made a lot of progress. For example, you can access Gmail, Calendar and Docs offline in Chrome.
• Google Search Timeline—We’re removing this graph of historical results for a query. Users will be able to restrict any search to particular time periods using the refinement tools on the left-hand side of the search page. Additionally, users who wish to see graphs with historical trends for a web search can use google.com/trends or google.com/insights/search/ for data since 2004. For more historical data, the "ngram viewer" in Google Books offers similar information.
• Google Wave—We announced that we’d stopped development on Google Wave over a year ago. But as of January 31, 2012, Wave will become read-only and you won’t be able to create new ones. On April 30 we will turn it off completely. You’ll be able to continue exporting individual waves using the existing PDF export feature until the Google Wave service is turned off. If you’d like to continue using this technology, there are a number of open-source projects, including Apache Wave and Walkaround.
• Knol—We launched Knol in 2007 to help improve web content by enabling experts to collaborate on in-depth articles. In order to continue this work, we’ve been working with Solvitor and Crowd Favorite to create Annotum, an open-source scholarly authoring and publishing platform based on WordPress. Knol will work as usual until April 30, 2012, and you can download your knols to a file and/or migrate them to WordPress.com. From May 1 through October 1, 2012, knols will no longer be viewable, but can be downloaded and exported. After that time, Knol content will no longer be accessible.
• Renewable Energy Cheaper than Coal (RE<C)—This initiative was developed as an effort to drive down the cost of renewable energy, with an RE<C engineering team focused on researching improvements to solar power technology. At this point, other institutions are better positioned than Google to take this research to the next level. So we’ve published our results to help others in the field continue to advance the state of power tower technology, and we’ve closed our efforts. We will continue our work to generate cleaner, more efficient energy—including our on-campus efforts, procuring renewable energy for our data centers, making our data centers even more efficient and investing more than $850 million in renewable energy technologies.

Posted by Urs Hölzle, Senior Vice President, Operations & Google Fellow

Which came first, the turkey or the hand?

Creating hand turkeys remains one of my favorite elementary school memories—glue on the table, colorful feathers stuck to your sleeve and glitter everywhere. This year, you have the option to skip the actual mess involved with making these classic Thanksgiving decorations and craft a unique turkey from the comfort of the Google homepage.

Whether you want to customize the headpiece, feet or individual feathers—or just prefer a random surprise by pulling on the turkey's wing—there are many ways to show off your creativity. We can’t stick your creations on our fridge, but thanks to a collaborative effort between our engineers and artists, you’ll be able to share your turkeys via Google+ or a shortened URL. This way all your friends and family, wherever they may be, can see your festive creation.

The doodle will be up from now until Thanksgiving in the United States, and you can make as many different turkeys as you like. With nearly three days to express your inner child or artiste and millions of possible combinations, you may find you unlock a surprise or two... or three... or 12!

Posted by Willie Real, Doodler

GoToMeeting By Citrix Online

GoToMeeting is the easiest and most convenient way to attend online meetings – and now you can take it to go! Download the free universal app and join a meeting on your iPad®, iPhone® or iPod touch® in seconds just by tapping the link in your invitation email. View slide presentations, design mockups, spreadsheets, reports – whatever meeting presenters choose to share on-screen.(itunes description)
Compatibility-iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPod touch (3rd generation), iPod touch (4th generation) and iPad. Requires iOS 4.2 or later.
Awesomeness rating-7.9/10
http://itunes.apple.com/in/app/gotomeeting/id424104128?mt=8

Run Fast for iPad By Cascadia Investments Inc.

Run Fast is an addictive game where, the goal is to Run and jump over to the next tree bridge. The challenge is the quick reflex and accurate timing required to jump to the next bridge and avoid the Pits of death! As you run you need to avoid falling into those death traps which actually are the gap between the tree bridges..!Simple tap controls.
Compatibility-iPad. Requires iOS 4.2 or later.
Awesomeness rating-7.0/10
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/run-fast-for-ipad/id389295529?mt=8

PaperPort Notes By Nuance Communications

PaperPort Notes is a handy note taking app.You can combine documents, web content, audio, typed text as well as hand written notes into a single document and then edit them as you want ,for example drawing directions on a map.Simple but powerful app.
Compatibility-iPad. Requires iOS 4.2 or later.
Awesomeness rating-8.5/10
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/paperport-notes/id476134017?mt=8

Feel Electric! By Sesame Street

An app for kids.Are you feeling delighted? Astonished? Anxious? “Feel Electric!” explores all these emotions and more! Part of the Military Families “Finding the Right Word” initiative, this app offers engaging tools that use content and curriculum from The Electric Company to provide opportunities to explore emotional vocabulary and self-expression. Hosted by Electric Company cast members Jessica Ruiz and Danny Rebus, “Feel Electric!” features three fast-paced games, a digital diary to record daily moods, a zany story maker, and more!(itunes description)
Compatibility-iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPod touch (3rd generation), iPod touch (4th generation) and iPad. Requires iOS 3.2 or later
Awesomeness rating-7.6/10

Christmas Tale HD By TabTale LTD

Christmas tale hd is a book/audiobook app.It also consists of some interactive features like decorating your living room and the christmas tree .Beautiful app for the kiddies.Let the spirit of christmas roll in!!!
Compatibility-iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 4.0 or later.
Awesomeness rating-7.7/10
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/christmas-tale-hd/id402016391?mt=8

GIGABYTE X79-UD5 unboxed on video by Linus

One of my favorite ways to enjoy a new product, vicariously and from a distance, is to watched it being unboxed. It can be a thoroughly sensual journey through the many layers of a product’s personality. Or at least sometimes it is. Indeed when it comes to the dark arts of product unboxing, our buddy Linus bring his own utterly unique approach to the sport, ploughing through the ceremony as if life itself would grind to a halt if he stopped to draw breath.

Check out this new unboxing video from Linus where he tackles our X79-UD5. It’s a roller coaster ride you’ll hope never ends!

You can learn more about the X79-UD5 here. Our X79 series details are here.

Sting 25 By @radical.media

Sting 25 explores the life, music and activism of one of the world’s most influential musicians. With unparalleled access to seminal performances, rare photos, and personal stories, this comprehensive appumentary depicts the past 25 years of Sting’s career as a renowned musician and humanitarian.Discover the evolution of Sting’s solo career, the influences that have shaped his music, and his ongoing efforts as a global citizen and activist. The many facets of his career come to life in this appumentary through handwritten lyrics and journal entries, rare and intimate photos, in-depth interviews, and a variety of live concert footage, including EXCLUSIVE, all-star performances from his Sixtieth Birthday Celebration at the Beacon Theatre.(itunes description)Honestly,for sting fans only,others might not find much in this app.
Compatibility-iPad. Requires iOS 4.3 or later.
Awesomeness rating-8.3/10
http://itunes.apple.com/in/app/sting-25/id478115302?mt=8