Today Google introduced five new themes for Gmail users. The new themes are basic black and basic white, android style, nature, and another home-style theme called marker (images below courtesy of the Gmail Blog).

These themes are now available, and are accessible the usual way by clicking "Setting" on the top of the page, them selecting "Themes".

"Android Theme"

"Left: Black Theme; Right: White Theme"

"Marker Theme"

"Nature Theme"

Nuff Said!

|

Over the past couple days Google has unveiled some new toys from the depths of their labs. The first of which is new (not all new for Microsoft Office users) to Google Docs, and the second is a way to stay up to date with their new products through Google New.

Since the launch of Google Docs, they have been improving the application to make it easier for people to use and to convert to from there usual Microsoft Office suite. Although this update is not as major as uploading any file type, or exporting documents, releasing these new fonts makes compatibility with MS Office easier. The new fonts include: Droid Serif, Droid Sans, Calibri, Cambria, Consolas, and Corsiva. It has also been noted that they do plan on releasing new fonts for Greek and Herbrew Languages soon. For samples of the font check out the Google Blog.

Google New is a way for people like you and me to stay up to date with all the exciting new products that the great minds at Google Labs are working on to make your web surfing easier for you. Check out the promo video below to see what you can find on Google New.

|

Google has just released a series of short youtube videos on the creation of the Nexus One.
Here is Chapter One: Concept & Design.

|

As of last Tuesday, January 12th, 2010, Google Apps allowed users to upload any type of file they wanted. The only catch, the limit per file is 250MB.

Prior to this update, users were only able to upload pdfs, spreadsheets, powerpoints, and word documents. Users now have a 1GB limit for storage, but can purchase additional space for $0.25 per year. For business or school clients, more options will be available in the new year.

Also available in the gmail labs is the option for viewing attachments as a google doc instead of downloading the file.

|

Tired of typing out the entire URL to share with your friends and family. Well look no further than goo.gl and fb.me.

goo.gl is a URL shortener that:
"takes long URLs and squeezes them into fewer characters to make a link that is easier to share, tweet, or email to friends. The core goals of this service are:

• Stability – ensuring that the service has very good uptime
• Security – protecting users from malware and phishing pages
• Speed – fast resolution of short URLs

Google URL Shortener is currently available for Google products and not for broader consumer use."

Since the growth of twitter where you only have 140 characters to share the entire message to all your followers, services such as bit.ly have thrived. Seeing as Google is taking over the social media front by planning to integrate wave into all your online needs, goo.gl is only another step in the internet giants path to domination.

fb.me is another way that facebook is shortening its URL length, after users were allowed to change their profile from a number to a unique string. fb.me is an easy way to access the facebook homepage and also by adding the custom URL facebook has to the end of fb.me, you can access that persons page with ease and as little typing as possible.

This is only another way that technology has made the user more lazy than they have been in the past

|

Being a huge Google fan I stumbled upon the fact that you can now add extensions to chrome. Since it took me a few tries and a couple google searches to realize how to add the extensions i decided to make it easier for others.

Similar to Firefox's extension gallery, Google Chrome had begun to unveil its' own extensions for users. Now users who have multiple google services can compose emails, add tasks, check waves and even tweet anytime they are surfing the web with google chrome.

The only difference is that as of now the only way to add these great extensions is by downloading the developers channel here.
(This will help you get rid of the "invalid value permissions[0]" error that you receive without the channel)

Scroll down and choose the dev channel for either windows (even windows 7 works, thats what I use), mac or linux. Although i have not checked on mac and linux i am confident that it will work.  After the installation is complete you will have to completely close chrome, even the new window that opens after the installation.

Here is a list of 11 useful Chrome extensions for people who are new to the extensions gallery (thank you tech crunch).

Enjoy
DPP

|