The Good NET Guide

Posts Tagged ‘announcement’

Zoho, a web-based productivity suite that was called a “fake Office” by a Microsoft VP, is announcing a significant partnership with Google today. The startup will be a launch partner for Google’s recently launched Google Apps Marketplace, which allows vendors to sell applications that compliment Google Apps. Here are our notes from the announcement. Zoho will be integrating two of its over 20 business applications – Zoho CRM and Zoho Projects with Google Apps.

So starting today, Google Apps users will be able to add on-demand CRM app Zoho CRM and project management software Zoho Projects into Google Apps. While Zoho has previously rolled out the ability log-in to its applications via your Google Apps IDs, the two applications have been specially formatted for further immersion into Google Apps with App’s extended APIs. IT admins will now have an option to add Zoho Apps to their domains through Google Apps Marketplace. Once the IT admin adds a Zoho application to their domain, all users within the domain will have access to the Zoho Application through Google universal navigation.

In the version of Zoho CRM for Google Apps, Zoho will allow Google Apps domain admins choose the users he or she wants to provide access to Zoho CRM and can import users from Google Apps contacts. And if you have Mail Add-on enabled in Zoho CRM, you can POP your email from Google Apps to Zoho CRM. These emails will show up in the CRM system automatically for each contact. Emails sent from Zoho CRM will also show up in Gmail in Google Apps.

Zoho CRM and Projects will also be integrated with Google Apps Calendar. Google Apps users will now be able to subscribe and view their CRM and Projects events right within Google Calendar. Additionally, Zoho Projects and Zoho CRM allows you to attach documents directly from Google Apps.

The fact that Zoho was chosen as a pilot partner for this program isn’t surprising. Although some of Zoho’s applications compete with Google apps products, the startup has consistently pushed interoperability with Google Apps. Over the past two years, the startup launched a deeper integration with Google Docs; and the ability to log-in with Google and Yahoo IDs. And according to our latest stats, Zoho has definitely reached over 2 million users, and has a loyal follower base.

MSI has added another skinny notebook to its X-Slim series with the announcement of the 13-inch X360 model. This one makes use of an Intel Core i5 ultra low voltage CPU clocked at 1.06GHz alongside Intel’s HM55 graphics chipset

Original post: 
MSI X360: Intel Core i5, three pounds, less than an inch thick

Xbox LIVE was previously known to censor or even ban gamers who indicate or even hint they were of an untraditional sexually orientation. This could either be from listing it in user profile or using a slang term in a tag

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Xbox LIVE Terms of Use reverses policy on sexual orientation/identification

Yup , 90 million Windows 7 licenses sold. I think that means we can call it a success. Microsoft made the announcement this week at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media, & Telecom Conference in San Francisco

Here is the original: 
90 million Windows 7 licenses sold. Were you one of them?

Samsung might be joining Panasonic in offering portable Blu-ray players if a Ben Lyons twoot is to be believed.

See the original post:
Is Samsung launching portable Blu-ray players tonight?

What’s in a name? Would a Nexus One by any other name still be as sweet? Yep. In fact, it might just be a bit sweeter.

Though it lacks almost any indication as such, Google’s Nexus One is actually made by HTC. HTC reserved the rights to the hardware design, and today they’re making good use of that decision with the announcement of the HTC Desire. It’s essentially the Nexus One reflavored to HTC’s liking

Read the rest of this post at MobileCrunch >>

As we expected after the leaks we reported on MobileCrunch yesterday, HTC has just dropped the good word on three brand new handsets at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

The first up is the Android 2.1-powered HTC Legend, which is essentially a spiritual successor to the much-loved HTC Hero.

Read the rest at MobileCrunch >>

Only when you’re talking about a phone designed in the same vein as the massive (though drop-dead gorgeous) HTC HD2 with its 4.3 inch display would you ever call a phone with a 3.2″ display “mini” .

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HTC makes the HD mini official

Earlier today, I was ousted as the mayor of the Googleplex Patio on Foursquare. Turns out, it was this guy. KrazyDad was a man on a mission: to show the holes in Foursquare’s check-in based system. And boy did he.

To be clear, anyone who has used Foursquare quite a bit is likely well aware of these holes. For example, there is nothing to stop you from checking-in anywhere in the world you want except that it’s easier to do it at a venue close by that automatically shows up on your list. But this guy, KrazyDad, used Foursquare’s API and some scripts to do his dirty work. In the end, he had captured dozens of mayorships across a range of fake Foursquare accounts.

In the past, cheating hasn’t been that big of a issue on Foursquare because, well, who cares? The only thing you’re doing by cheating is exposing to those who catch you that you’re pathetic. But increasingly, Foursquare is gaining special deals that reward heavy participation. For example, a pizza place in San Francisco will give you a free pizza if you’re the mayor of that venue on Foursquare. It’d be a lot easier to cheat to become the mayor there rather than go there several times.

It’s not unlike the “douchebag” problem that Foursquare is facing. That is, early-on, the first adopters of the service didn’t mind that there’s a badge called the “douchebag” badge. In fact, it added a funny element to the game. But now, as Foursquare moves more mainstream, some users are starting to complain about it. Likewise, more users are starting to complain about cheating.

So what can they do?

Well, at least as long as I’ve been using the service (about a year now), Foursquare has been thinking about the cheating issue. The problem, with regard to false check-ins, is that the only solid way to do this is to a check-in to your actual GPS coordinates. The problem with this, as Gowalla knows all-too-well, is that it can be hard (and in some cases impossible) to get GPS data while users are indoors. This is a major issue if you’re meant to check-in at a venue, obviously. Gowalla has actually had to ease up on its GPS check-in restrictions, to ensure more people could use the service.

One thing Foursquare used to do (though I’m not sure if it’s still in place) is watch the rate of check-ins. If you do two or more too quickly, they would warn you to slow down (and even call you out for cheating). Still, that isn’t much of a deterrent if someone really wants to cheat.

Those of you who follow Mike on Twitter may have noticed that he’s constantly checking-in at places like Israel one minute, and the Burbank airport literally the next. He’s been basically playing the same cheating game that KrazyDad has, but he’s been doing it for months (where’s the post, Mike?). Frankly, I’m not sure how concerned Foursquare has been about the cheating aspect. I’m sure they’ll say that they are, but really, these cheaters are just heavy users pushing others to care about the game more. When I saw the guy had ousted me as the mayor of the Googleplex, my immediate response was to want to go there and reclaim it. I’m hardly alone in this.

That said, with the growing number of actual revenue-making business deals, Foursquare will have to address this sooner rather than later. The point of every game is to win it. And sadly, where there’s a game, there’s a person willing to cheat at it.

This year’s TED conference is in full swing, bringing with it the usual complaints from people who aren’t going and the often thinly veiled boasts from those who are. And it looks like the 1,500 fortunate people in attendance are getting a nice bonus on top of their days mingling with some of the world’s brightest minds: Google is giving all of them a free unlocked Nexus One.

Of course, many of the people in attendance are well off and don’t need Google to give them a phone. But it’s a pretty brilliant idea: many of them are also very influential, and there are plenty of various company executives in attendance.

This isn’t Google’s first Oprah Moment — last year it handed out HTC Magic phones to everyone attending its I/O developer conference.

Here’s a good pair of tweets by Wil Shipley describing the announcement: