Computex 2014 is on next week, make sure you drop by and visit GIGABYTE

GIGABYTE has some interesting products to show off at Computex next week. Make sure you come over or watch the coverage here and elsewhere.

Through the Google lens: search trends May 23-29

This week we saw searches on everything from surprises on the court to retro reads.

Books in the news
On Wednesday, the beloved author Maya Angelou passed away at the age of 86. More than 2 million searches have taken place this week as people looked for information about her life and work. Popular queries related to the author this week include [maya angelou quotes], [maya angelou poems] and [still i rise].

Take a look, it’s in a book… on the web? More than 30 years after it first premiered, the beloved PBS show “Reading Rainbow” was in the news this week when former host LeVar Burton formed a Kickstarter campaign to fund a Reading Rainbow literacy program. In less than 24 hours, Burton had met his goal of a million dollars.

Sporting surprises
The NBA and NHL playoffs continue to dominate sports fans' minds, but this week in addition to the more expected [rangers], [blackhawks], [heat], [spurs], etc. there were a few less common sporting searches. Rapper 50 Cent threw out a first pitch for the Mets on Tuesday, and it was a little, um, off the mark. People headed to Google to look for video and GIFs of the wild pitch. Some might say 50 Cent may want to stay in da club and off the mound.

Meanwhile in tennis, French Open number-one seed Serena Williams was defeated by a lower-ranked young player, Garbine Muguruza, who grew up idolizing Serena’s game. Finally, anticipation for summer soccer is heating up. Late last week we learned that player Landon Donovan would not be included in the United States’ World Cup roster this year. Searches for Donovan immediately spiked to reach a new high for the last year, with related terms [klinsmann] and [landon donovan twitter] rising as well.

Long weekend festivities
This week marked Memorial Day in the U.S., and many Americans celebrated with [parades] and [fireworks] to honor service members, and also hit up the mall for weekend [sales]. Other celebrations took place this weekend too: amidst a host of college students walking across the dais this weekend, there was one grad who's more known for her prowess in a fictional school. Harry Potter star Emma Watson graduated from Brown University (the Hogwarts of Rhode Island) this weekend, and searches for the actress were even higher than when she presented at the Oscars (woo, education!). But no weekend wrapup would be complete without at least a mention of... yes, Kimye. The long-anticipated and not-so-secret nuptials of Kanye West and [kim kardashian] took place in Europe over the weekend, leading hordes of curious searchers to look for dirt on the dress, the rehearsal dinner and more.

Last but—in my book—certainly not least: comedian Bill Murray showed up unexpectedly at a bachelor party in Charleston, South Carolina, where he gave a toast with some life advice on finding “the one.” Because if anyone knows how hard it can be to find the one, it's Phil Connors.

Posted by Emily Wood, Google Blog Editor, who searched this week for [yamasho] and [bee dance meaning]

Assign Vault privileges based on organizational unit

The Manage Exports and Manage Searches privileges in Google Vault can now be granted to a user for an entire organization, or only for specific organizational units (OUs). For example, you can assign a Vault administrator the Manage Searches privilege for your whole organization and the Manage Exports privilege for one OU. Privileges are still assigned in the Admin console by your Google Apps administrator.

Release Track:

Rapid release and Scheduled release

For more information:

https://support.google.com/vault/answer/2799699

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Staying safe this hurricane season

Earlier this month, Vivek Maheshwari was heading to the airport after a business trip in Denver when he received a public alert notification on his phone telling him there was a tornado heading his way. Luckily, the storm was still a few miles off, so he was able to find an alternate route to the airport and make it home safely.

Easy and timely access to information can make a huge difference in times of crisis—whether to help people like Vivek get out of harm’s way, or to help those affected after a disaster has occurred. The web can help by providing access to official alerts from government organizations, news reports and on-the-ground updates from social media. The key is making sure that all that information can get to those who are affected—as quickly as possible.

That’s one of the things our Crisis Response Team focuses on. Since 2010, we’ve been working to make disaster-related information immediately available and useful in a crisis, through tools like Public Alerts, Crisis Map and Person Finder. And since next week marks the start of hurricane season in the North Atlantic, we thought we’d provide a few tips to help you prepare for potential summer disasters—from tropical storms to wildfires to floods.

Make sure you’ll receive Public Alerts
Google Public Alerts, launched two years ago, is a tool that sends people alerts from authoritative sources like the U.S. National Weather Service or the Japan Meteorological Agency during emergencies. They’re accessible through the Google search app on your mobile devices and Google Chrome on your computer, as well as in search results for related queries and on Google Maps when relevant.

People have used Public Alerts to get to safety before a landslide in Colombia, set up sandbags before a thunderstorm in Utah, and get off the road before an ice storm in Kentucky. To make sure you get the information you need to know when you need it, get Google Now on your Android device, iOS device, or computer.

Public Alerts are now available in seven countries (U.S., Australia, Canada, Colombia, Indonesia, Japan, Taiwan) and will continue to roll out to new countries this year.

Install emergency preparedness apps
There are a number of great apps which can help you prepare for or outlast an emergency. For example, a flashlight app can be useful if the power goes out and you don’t have access to a regular flashlight (use a regular flashlight if you can to conserve your phone’s battery). The first-aid and disaster preparedness apps from the Red Cross have a lot of valuable information. And the official FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) app has information on how to stay safe during a disaster, the locations of FEMA disaster recovery stations, and more.

And remember, when bad weather is on the way, keep your phone plugged in and follow this advice to conserve battery life on Android. If you’re using an iOS device, try these tips.

Get helpful gadgets
A waterproof phone case can help protect your phone during floods or heavy rains and a portable solar-powered charger will help keep your phone’s battery alive. It may also be a good idea to invest in a cell phone signal booster which gives you a greater chance of connecting to an operational cell tower.

Of course, tech can only take you so far, so make sure you have the basics (like a disaster supplies kit and a family emergency plan) covered too—Ready.gov is a great resource.

While it’s impossible to predict the weather, we hope these tips help you and your family prepare for the possibility of things going wrong. Stay safe this summer!

Posted by Payal Patel, Google Crisis Response Team

Which review sites do you read before you buy PC parts?

Most people these days read reviews before deciding which PC component to buy from their favorite retailer. Tell us about your "go to" review sites...

Newegg shows off extreme overclocking live

Check out Newegg’s video on extreme overclocking featuring the GIGABYTE Z97X-SOC Force motherboard.

Cloud based migration of email to Google Apps

Starting this week, we are making it easier for businesses to migrate email into Google Apps using our cloud-based data migration service. The data migration service can be configured via the Admin console to connect to your mail server and migrate email over to Google’s Gmail servers. You no longer need to download tools like Google Apps Migration for Microsoft Exchange and install them on local servers. In addition, you can also monitor and track your migration from anywhere by logging into your Admin console.

The data migration service currently works for email. Support for contacts and calendar migration is currently being developed.

The email migration feature will be rolled out to all domains over a period of 4 weeks.

Release Track:

Rapid release and Scheduled release

For more information:

https://support.google.com/a/answer/6003169

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New date picker in Gmail advanced search

A date picker has been added to the advanced search function in Gmail, making it easy for users to select a date by which to refine their search.

Release Track:

Rapid release, with scheduled release coming in June

For more information:

https://support.google.com/mail/answer/6593?hl=en&ref_topic=3394914


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A new learning environment at Mater Dei in Brazil

We launched Google Apps for Education because we believed it would help students learn more collaboratively and help educators spend less time on administration and more time on teaching. It’s been thrilling to see how some schools take “going Google” to the next level and into their own hands—coming up with even more creative ways of incorporating technology in education. Recently we came across one of these schools: Colégio Mater Dei in Brazil.

In 2013, Mater Dei deployed Google Apps for Education as part of a move to incorporate technology into the academic environment. After they started to see early results, they came to Google with a plan: create a space on campus that’s designed from the ground up to be a technology-powered learning center for K-12 students. Last week, that idea became a reality when Mater Dei launched what we’re now calling the Google Learning Space.

Transforming a part of their campus that used to be a traditional library, the school set up a high-performance wireless network in a room full of bright, colorful cushions and chairs where students can brainstorm, meet to discuss projects and talk with their teachers. There are two smart TVs with Chromecast installed, so students can project assignments, presentations and videos easily. There's a library of tablets and Chromebooks that students can use, all featuring Google Play and Google Apps.

High school history students collaborate on tablets in the Google Learning Space

The school’s ultimate goal is to increase collaboration amongst students and encourage them to think more creatively instead of learning by rote memorization. And so far, the results seem to be good—the school is already experimenting with new ways to teach and learn. For example, kindergarten teachers are helping students “visit” countries around the world with Google Earth and the Cultural Institute. Electronics teacher Andre Godoy is using Google Sites and Google Glass to help his students build a formula that can move a robot with a swipe of the finger. And biology teachers have started using the Google Play app Biodigital Human to help bring anatomy to life in 3D; students can add, remove and manipulate each organ of the body using the app, gaining an understanding of various diseases and how treatments are developed. Best of all, students and teachers seem more energized and excited to participate in class.

Grade school students work with interactive biology apps from the Google Play Store

The Google Learning Space is just one example of how bringing technology into the classroom can have a real and immediate impact on both teachers and students. We’re excited to keep working on products that can help kids learn—in Brazil and around the world.

Posted by Milton Larsen Burgese, Google Head of Education, Google Brazil

Z97X-Gaming 3 ready for action

Goldfries.com got their GIGABYTE Z97X-Gaming 3 ready for action, you got yours yet? Click on the image to find out more about our new gaming boards

Getting to work on diversity at Google

We’ve always been reluctant to publish numbers about the diversity of our workforce at Google. We now realize we were wrong, and that it’s time to be candid about the issues. Put simply, Google is not where we want to be when it comes to diversity, and it’s hard to address these kinds of challenges if you’re not prepared to discuss them openly, and with the facts. So, here are our numbers:

There are lots of reasons why technology companies like Google struggle to recruit and retain women and minorities. For example, women earn roughly 18 percent of all computer science degrees in the United States. Blacks and Hispanics each make up under 10 percent of U.S. college grads and each collect fewer than 10 percent of degrees in CS majors. So we’ve invested a lot of time and energy in education.

Among other things, since 2010 we’ve given more than $40 million to organizations working to bring computer science education to women and girls. And we’ve been working with historically black colleges and universities to elevate coursework and attendance in computer science. For example, this year Google engineer Charles Pratt was in-residence at Howard University, where he revamped the school’s Intro to CS curriculum.

But we’re the first to admit that Google is miles from where we want to be—and that being totally clear about the extent of the problem is a really important part of the solution. To learn more about our work on diversity—for our workforce, for the web and for the tech leaders of the future—visit google.com/diversity.

Posted by Laszlo Bock, Senior Vice President, People Operations

Update May 31: We updated the language of this post to correct the number of degrees black and Hispanic students earn in CS majors, which are 8 percent and 6 percent respectively, according to the National Science Foundation.

Better data centers through machine learning

It’s no secret that we’re obsessed with saving energy. For over a decade we’ve been designing and building data centers that use half the energy of a typical data center, and we’re always looking for ways to reduce our energy use even further. In our pursuit of extreme efficiency, we’ve hit upon a new tool: machine learning. Today we’re releasing a white paper (PDF) on how we’re using neural networks to optimize data center operations and drive our energy use to new lows.

It all started as a 20 percent project, a Google tradition of carving out time for work that falls outside of one’s official job description. Jim Gao, an engineer on our data center team, is well-acquainted with the operational data we gather daily in the course of running our data centers. We calculate PUE, a measure of energy efficiency, every 30 seconds, and we’re constantly tracking things like total IT load (the amount of energy our servers and networking equipment are using at any time), outside air temperature (which affects how our cooling towers work) and the levels at which we set our mechanical and cooling equipment. Being a smart guy—our affectionate nickname for him is “Boy Genius”—Jim realized that we could be doing more with this data. He studied up on machine learning and started building models to predict—and improve—data center performance.

The mechanical plant at our facility in The Dalles, Ore. The data center team is constantly tracking the performance of the heat exchangers and other mechanical equipment pictured here.

What Jim designed works a lot like other examples of machine learning, like speech recognition: a computer analyzes large amounts of data to recognize patterns and “learn” from them. In a dynamic environment like a data center, it can be difficult for humans to see how all of the variables—IT load, outside air temperature, etc.—interact with each other. One thing computers are good at is seeing the underlying story in the data, so Jim took the information we gather in the course of our daily operations and ran it through a model to help make sense of complex interactions that his team—being mere mortals—may not otherwise have noticed.

A simplified version of what the models do: take a bunch of data, find the hidden interactions, then provide recommendations that optimize for energy efficiency.

After some trial and error, Jim’s models are now 99.6 percent accurate in predicting PUE. This means he can use the models to come up with new ways to squeeze more efficiency out of our operations. For example, a couple months ago we had to take some servers offline for a few days—which would normally make that data center less energy efficient. But we were able to use Jim’s models to change our cooling setup temporarily—reducing the impact of the change on our PUE for that time period. Small tweaks like this, on an ongoing basis, add up to significant savings in both energy and money.

The models can predict PUE with 99.6 percent accuracy.

By pushing the boundaries of data center operations, Jim and his team have opened up a new world of opportunities to improve data center performance and reduce energy consumption. He lays out his approach in the white paper, so other data center operators that dabble in machine learning (or who have a resident genius around who wants to figure it out) can give it a try as well.

Posted by Joe Kava, VP, Data Centers

Kids react to old computers! This is brilliant, check it out hahah

Just press go: designing a self-driving vehicle

Ever since we started the Google self-driving car project, we’ve been working toward the goal of vehicles that can shoulder the entire burden of driving. Just imagine: You can take a trip downtown at lunchtime without a 20-minute buffer to find parking. Seniors can keep their freedom even if they can’t keep their car keys. And drunk and distracted driving? History.

We’re now exploring what fully self-driving vehicles would look like by building some prototypes; they’ll be designed to operate safely and autonomously without requiring human intervention. They won’t have a steering wheel, accelerator pedal, or brake pedal… because they don’t need them. Our software and sensors do all the work. The vehicles will be very basic—we want to learn from them and adapt them as quickly as possible—but they will take you where you want to go at the push of a button. And that's an important step toward improving road safety and transforming mobility for millions of people.

It was inspiring to start with a blank sheet of paper and ask, “What should be different about this kind of vehicle?” We started with the most important thing: safety. They have sensors that remove blind spots, and they can detect objects out to a distance of more than two football fields in all directions, which is especially helpful on busy streets with lots of intersections. And we’ve capped the speed of these first vehicles at 25 mph. On the inside, we’ve designed for learning, not luxury, so we’re light on creature comforts, but we’ll have two seats (with seatbelts), a space for passengers’ belongings, buttons to start and stop, and a screen that shows the route—and that’s about it.

A very early version of our prototype vehicle, and an artistic rendering of our vehicle

We’re planning to build about a hundred prototype vehicles, and later this summer, our safety drivers will start testing early versions of these vehicles that have manual controls. If all goes well, we’d like to run a small pilot program here in California in the next couple of years. We’re going to learn a lot from this experience, and if the technology develops as we hope, we’ll work with partners to bring this technology into the world safely.

If you’d like to follow updates about the project and share your thoughts, please join us on our new Google+ page. We’re looking forward to learning more about what passengers want in a vehicle where their number one job is to kick back, relax, and enjoy the ride.

Posted by Chris Urmson, Director, Self-Driving Car Project

OCAU Z97 comp is over, winners announced

I wanted to congratulate all the competition winners from the recent Z97 OC comp on OCAU forum (Overclockers Australia). GIGABYTE sponsored the competition with all top 3 prizes being Z97X-SOC Force and a participation prize (Z87X-OC).

This competition was based on 3 tests:

• Stage 1 Catzilla - 576P - CCC (crap card challenge) GT610 test
• Stage 2 Superpi 8M - 4GHz Cap 
• Stage 3 3dmark01 - CCC (crap card challenge) GT610

The competition was not that straight forward. Contestants had to learn how to solder modifications on a really cheap graphics card (Nvidia GT610) and see if they can extract more MHz out of the GPU via mods and various cooling techniques. The modified card could be used on two different stages and it proved to be more than a handful. In the end, Robbo2 was the overall winner with the first place in Catzilla, while Newlife managed to snag the 3DMark01 round and bullants took the 8M superpi but has not contested the rest of the stages. GT610 GPUs operate at 810Mhz stock core and 600MHz memory. There guys were able to run them at 1400MHz core and over 900MHz memory for good measure!

• Robbo2 @ 26Points - First Place Winner
• Newlife @ 18 Points - Second Place Winner
• T8y @ 16 Points - Third Place Winner

Participation prize (Z87X-OC) went to a new Aussie rookie overclocker Paulie_AU who put a fantastic effort and is one of our future overclocking hopes with some great performances in HWBOT Rookie Rumble cups. Good luck Paulie on the next stage of that competition!

I’ll leave you with some memorable images from the competition itself which you can check out at OCAU forum. 

Big shout-out to Matt (zeropluszero) for his hard work in organising and managing this competition. Great ambassador for the OCAU HWBOT team!

Through the Google lens: search trends May 16-22

This week people searched to learn more about unfamiliar faces and rising stars—on TV, courtside and even on our homepage.

Winner winner, TV dinner
People gave their “w” and “o” keys a workout this week as they turned to search to ask “who won…” in the season finales of reality show competitions “American Idol,” “The Voice” and “Dancing with the Stars.” After Josh Kaufman won "The Voice," many searched to watch some of Kaufman’s past performances on the show, like [stay with me]. Meanwhile on “Dancing with the Stars,” searches for ice dancer [meryl davis] were almost as high this past week as in February, when she won an Olympic medal in Sochi. Fans of Davis looked to find out if she’s dating her “DWTS” partner Maksim Chmerkovskiy: searches for terms like [meryl davis maksim] and [meryl davis boyfriend] have been trending.

Basketball’s surprise star
NBA fans met a fresh face this week at the NBA Draft Lottery. The designated representative of the Milwaukee Bucks was Mallory Edens, the daughter of the team’s new co-owner. And, even though the Bucks slid to the #2 pick (after having the best odds to land #1), it seems Mallory pretty much won the Lottery anyway. And she wasn’t the only one who became an overnight sensation at the NBA’s annual festival of ping pong balls and sealed envelopes: searchers also looked for information about [anjali ranadive], the daughter of the Sacramento Kings’ owner, who was also at the draft.

In other sporting news, the [preakness 2014] raced to the top of the Google charts last weekend with more than 1 million searches, as Kentucky Derby-winning California Chrome won the second of three races on the way to the coveted Triple Crown. Looking ahead to the Belmont Stakes, fans are searching for [california chrome belmont] and [california chrome odds].

Inventions and discoveries
The subjects of not one but two Google doodles were on people’s minds this week. On Monday, we celebrated the 40th anniversary of the Rubik’s Cube with an interactive, 3D doodle. Presumably after killing a few minutes (or hours) of their workdays trying to solve the vexing puzzle, people searched to learn [how to solve the rubik’s cube] as well as [rubik’s cube record]. Then searchers looked for information on [mary anning], the paleontologist who was depicted uncovering a plesiosaur skeleton on our homepage on Wednesday. It’s fitting that Anning’s birthday celebration happened this week, since dinosaurs were already trending, thanks to the discovery of a new [titanosaur] dinosaur thought to be the biggest ever discovered.

Posted by Emily Wood, Google Blog Editor, who searched this week for [rei compression sack] and [smokestack sf]

Gaming tournaments getting close to the US$10 million prize money mark, Olympics next!

New era of sports tournaments is upon us and it’s growing exponentially. I know this sounds unbelievable but I can see how Olympics will have a gaming tournament element in not too distant a future.

Alright, I’ve said it. E-Sport will one day be just as big and popular as just about any other sport we currently have at Olympics. I can see the 40+ year old’s cringing now and blurting out one liners, “when I was a kid, we used to…”. Those days are long gone! I was in the transitional phase so I should know a thing or two. My generation is the first of its kind to grow up with gaming platforms such as Spectrum, Commodore64, Amiga, Atari, PCs and many others. I am showing my age here but it’s worth reminiscing about those all-nighters me and my friends put in playing all sorts of games. Competing in the virtual world and getting a taste for something new, something exciting that no one has experienced in our history.

Physical sports have been around for a very long time and technology has opened our minds to new possibilities, new ways to compete and have new lifestyles. Attitudes are changing from generation to generation as most of us from the first “gamer” generation have grown up now and have our own kids. Our kids now have taken gaming to a whole new level and it is literally becoming a professional sport with pro teams, team managers, sponsors, huge prize pools and big audiences. Gamers are becoming celebrities in their own right and they are the role models to a lot of kids. The technology at the same time is also much more accessible from simple iPods and Android phones to consoles and PCs. Some of the “old” gamers are now team managers or sponsors or supporting fathers and mothers of these crazy kids. Before long we’ll be the grandparents and will tune in to watch some some Korean dude slaying everyone in Dota 5 LOL

Our friends from MEKA.Tt eSPORTS page put up a stunning graph showing where the tournament prize money has sky rocketed to currently and it is only going to get bigger! It’s pretty clear that Dota2 and League of Legends are the games predominantly driving this push and what they both have in common is they are easily accessible, inexpensive and can be played on very basic hardware due to such strong technological advances of recent time.

This is not a new idea that I am discussing here but it is one that has opened up to me in the last couple of years as a real possibility for someone who is in the industry and is sponsoring professional gaming teams and can see such a large amount of young generations investing serious amounts of time into this hobby. I ended up coming across a petition website today which has close to 100K signatures for gaming to becoming part of Olympics. I guess there are another 100K likeminded individuals out there who share my views and I didn’t even sign that petition! Phew!

There are still a lot of hurdles that present themselves for future gamers. One is internet infrastructure which is a very important aspect for some types of games. I remember speaking to the best Counter Strike and other FPS (First Person Shooter) gamers in Australia and getting told that ping times (essentially internet/game response times) affect a lot how well you can play online against other people. It was also evident that some of the best players were in healthy internet infrastructure countries such as USA, Northen Europe (Sweden, Finland, etc) or Korea. This is one area which will drastically improve over the next decade as many countries are now investing in this type of infrastructure. Places such as USA (Google fiber), UK, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, China, Indonesia, etc, all have plans in near future to improve in this area.

TV coverage is another major change that will probably evolve over time. Every time I travel to Taiwan for work, I am surprised to see video gaming channels dedicated to competitive gaming because Australia is still so far behind the times when it comes to that. You would expect otherwise as we certainly don’t lack gamers here. It’s just not reached that level yet I think. It will and that will be the major break through.

The real question is will gaming be included in Olympics by 2024 or before that, enjoy your weekend guys and happy fragging!

New features in Google+ for Android

The Google+ app for Android has been updated to provide several new features to enhance content viewing and sharing.

Highlights include the new navigation menu, which makes it easy to switch between your circles and communities. Tapping the new pencil icon in the bottom right allows for easy sharing, including a live camera feed in the picker for in-the-moment photo capture. Finally, the app's main menu now naturally slides out of the way, allowing posts to fill the entire screen.

Release Track:

Rapid release and Scheduled release

For more information:

https://plus.google.com/+DaveBesbris/posts/Fpsv7ugKX9N

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New features in Google+ for Android

The Google+ app for Android has been updated to provide several new features to enhance content viewing and sharing.

Highlights include the new navigation menu, which makes it easy to switch between your circles and communities. Tapping the new pencil icon in the bottom right allows for easy sharing, including a live camera feed in the picker for in-the-moment photo capture. Finally, the app's main menu now naturally slides out of the way, allowing posts to fill the entire screen.

Release Track:

Rapid release and Scheduled release

For more information:

https://plus.sandbox.google.com/+DaveBesbris/posts/Fpsv7ugKX9N

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Domain management of Google Drive Apps

Last year, we launched a new and improved Google Apps Marketplace experience, allowing admins to be able to find, manage and deploy third-party applications directly from the Google Apps Admin Console.

Earlier this year, we launched the ability for admins to allow their users to install applications that integrate with Google Drive. If this setting was disabled, however, admins were not able to install Marketplace apps that integrate with Drive.

With today’s launch, Marketplace applications deployed by admins will be able to integrate with Google Drive for users who are provided with the app, even if this Admin Console setting is disabled. In essence, admins can now whitelist the Drive applications that their users can install.

Release Track:

Rapid release and Scheduled release

For more information:

https://support.google.com/a/answer/172482

https://support.google.com/a/topic/1056394?hl=en&ref_topic=27380

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Bright ideas for an even better Bay Area

Local nonprofit heroes are making a difference in our community, and we want to do more to support them. As part of that mission, we recently launched a Bay Area Impact Challenge with a question: working together, what can we do to make the Bay Area an even better place to live?

Provide training and job opportunities for people with disabilities. Match surplus medical supplies with community clinics. Bring mobile showers and toilets to the homeless. These are just a few of the nearly 1,000 thoughtful and creative proposals we received.

A panel of community advisors—Honorable Aida Alvarez, Secretary Norman Mineta, Chief Teresa Deloach Reed, Reverend Cecil Williams and Barry Zito—joined Googlers to narrow down the pool to the 10 top finalists. Each project was selected for its community impact, ingenuity, scalability and feasibility.

Now we need your help deciding which projects to support. Which one do you think will make the biggest impact in our community? Vote now for the four ideas that inspire you.

Your votes will decide which projects get up and running in a big way—with $500,000 going to each of the top four projects, and $250,000 to the next six. An additional 15 nonprofits that entered the Challenge have already received $100,000 each in support of their work.

Cast your vote by 11:59 p.m. PST on June 2, and join us in celebrating the community spirit that makes the Bay Area a great place to call home.

Posted by Jacquelline Fuller, Director of Google.org

Case modding done right!

Check out this video from Made By Kier featuring the new GIGABYTE Gaming logo using CNC. Nice work!

GIGABYTE Z97 overclocking guide by sin0822

Sin0822 does a lot of forum write ups from OC guides to indepth looks at board spec when new gen stuff comes out. There are always interesting tidbits in there to have a look at. In this particular instance, sin0822 has done a full out overclocking guide with the new Gigabyte Z97X-SOC Force motherboard and also compares some differences to the old Z87X-OC. There is also a video covering overclocking and some main features.

Check out the OC guide at your favourite forum here: Xtreme Systems, Overclock.net, Overclockers Australia and Tweaktown Forums.

New Google Apps Mobile Management features for Android

The Device Policy mobile app for Android has been updated to provide several new features to assist organizations with meeting the challenge of both helping employees be more productive and protecting corporate data.

The new features include inactive account wipe, support for EAP-based WiFi networks, compromised device detection, and additional reporting fields to help admins better understand the devices their employees use and to troubleshoot issues.

Release Track:

Rapid release and Scheduled release

For more information:

http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2014/05/new-google-apps-mobile-management.html

https://support.google.com/a/answer/1734200

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Google+ Stories

Google+ Photos added a new feature called Stories. Google automatically groups some of your best photos and videos, based on the date and the place where they were taken, and creates animated stories you can edit and share with other people.

"Google+ Stories can automatically weave your photos, videos and the places you visited into a beautiful travelogue. No more sifting through photos for your best shots, racking your brain for the sights you saw, or letting your videos collect virtual dust. We'll just gift you a story after you get home. This way you can relive your favorite moments, share them with others, and remember why you traveled in the first place," explains Google.

Here's an example:

To find all the stories generated from your photos, go to Google+ Photos, click "More" next to "All photos" and select "Stories". They have pretty accurate titles like: "Friday afternoon in Istanbul", "Trip to Paris", "Weekend in Belfast".

There are many other new features in Google+:

* Auto Awesome Movies are now available on Android, iOS and the web, so lots more people will receive highlight reels of their photos and videos.

* You can now create animated GIFs and photobooth-style images on demand. Just tap the new plus button in Photos, and select either Motion or Mix. (Android only?)

* You can now browse your entire photo library, as well as your highlights, by date. Just drag the new scroll bar to move forwards or backwards in time.

* Really big photo libraries are now supported on Android, so you can access your many thousands of photos quickly and easily.

* You can now browse your entire photo library, as well as your highlights, by date. Just drag the new scroll bar to move forwards or backwards in time.

*  A new navigation menu makes it easier to switch between your favorite circles and communities, as well as other places in the app.

*  It's a lot easier to share content from your phone or tablet. To give it a try, just tap the new pencil icon at the bottom right of the stream.

*  The app menu now slides away as you move down the stream, letting posts fill the entire screen.

G.Skill brings another OC show to Computex 2014

Last year G.Skill put a crazy overclocking show for Computex crowds which was very popular, had lots of giveaways and records were broken left right and centre.

GIGABYTE is joining the show this year as well with HiCookie, Sofos1990 and dinos22 on the stand. This year there is also a US$10,000 overclocking tournament happening on the stand as well, should be good fun. Here are a couple of videos from this year and last year’s show wrap up, check it out!

Google+ Stories and Movies: memories made easier

A suitcase full of dirty clothes. A sad-looking house plant. And 437 photos and videos on your phone, tablet and camera. This is the typically messy scene after a vacation. And although we can’t do your laundry (thanks but no thanks), or run your errands (well, maybe a few), we’d still like to help. Enter Google+ Stories, which can automatically weave your photos, videos and the places you visited into a beautiful travelogue.

No more sifting through photos for your best shots, racking your brain for the sights you saw, or letting your videos collect virtual dust. We’ll just gift you a story after you get home. This way you can relive your favorite moments, share them with others, and remember why you traveled in the first place.

Stories will be available this week on Android and the web, with iOS coming soon. In the meantime you can browse my story below (click to start), or explore a few others by paraglider Tom de Dorlodot, DJ Steve Aoki and Allrecipes photographer Angela Sackett.

When it’s less about travel, and more about today's events (like a birthday party, or baby’s first steps), Google+ Movies can produce a highlight reel of your photos and videos automatically—including effects, transitions and a soundtrack. Today we’re bringing Movies to Android, iOS and the web, so lots more people will receive these video vignettes.

A movie of my daughter’s first bike ride, created automatically by Google+

To get started with Stories and Movies, simply back up your photos and videos to Google+. And that’s it. Auto Awesome will get to work in the background, and you’ll get notified when a story or movie is ready.

In fact: if your photo library is already online, you may already have stories waiting for you. So look for the new app in Google Play, view the full list of improvements on Google+, and enjoy your walks down memory lane.

Posted by +Anil Sabharwal, Director of Product Management