Here is the July – 2009 Edition of Google friends newsletters on IGoogle Watch. Subscribe to the IGoogle Watch RSS feed to get instant updates. We hope you enjoy this month’s updates on Google’s products, services and hope all friends are having a great summer so far..
POWER TIP
Calendar Labs
Earlier this month, we launched Calendar Labs. Like Google Labs and
Gmail Labs, Calendar Labs is a place to try out early, experimental
features as well as provide feedback to the team that built them.
There are six experimental Calendar features so far, including "Next
Meeting" which shows you how much time you have to procrastinate
before your next appointment and "World clock", which lets you keep
track of different timezones when you schedule meetings. You can test
these features out by going to the Labs tab under Settings.
NEW PRODUCTS & UPDATES
Moon in Google Earth
Forty years ago on July 20, 1969, the crew of Apollo 11 took the first
human steps on the surface of the Moon. In celebration of this
historic occasion, we launched Moon in Google Earth, an interactive 3D
atlas of the Moon. You can now explore a virtual Moonscape, follow
guided tours from astronauts Buzz Aldrin (Apollo 11) and Jack Schmitt
(Apollo 17), see the latest rover concepts by teams competing in the
Google Lunar X PRIZE, view high-resolution "Street View"-style
panoramic photos, watch previously unreleased video footage captured
from the lunar surface and much more. Moon is viewable using Google
Earth 5.0.
Favorite Places on Google Maps
Ever wonder where culinary expert and chef Alice Waters goes for
organic and sustainable food in the San Francisco Bay Area? Or where
Iwona Blazwick, director of the Whitechapel Gallery in London, goes to
experience art in that city? We’ve teamed up with a variety of experts
around the world to share some of their favorite local places and
businesses on Google Maps. We hope you enjoy exploring all of these
favorite places.
http://www.google.com/favoriteplaces
Google Docs template gallery open to everyone
We recently opened up the Google Docs template gallery to everyone.
Now, people can share their own documents, spreadsheets, presentations
and forms so that others may re-use them. The public template gallery
makes it easy to sort and browse templates by category, usage, rating
and document type. The template gallery is also available to Google
Apps Premier and Education Edition customers, making it easy to
privately share common document templates within companies and
organizations.
http://docs.google.com/templates
Your world in 3D
One of our favorite features of Google Earth is flying around the
world’s cities in 3D. If you turn on the "3D Buildings" layer in
Google Earth you can access thousands of buildings as photo-realistic
3D models. Plus, if there’s a building (or an entire town) that you’d
like the whole world to see, you can build your own models using
Google SketchUp and then add them to Google Earth. Not only is it a
great way to benefit your community, we think it’s pretty fun.
http://sketchup.google.com/yourworldin3d
MISCELLANY
Sure, you get this newsletter every month with news from Google. And
maybe you also read one or several of our official blogs. But what if
you’re craving more frequent updates from us? We have a variety of
Twitter accounts that you can follow to get ongoing news, tips and
more on a variety of Google products and services. Besides our
official @google account, you might be interested in news from
Australia or Brazil, the latest advances in computer science research,
help with advertising or updates focused on a specific product like
Google Earth. We’re adding new accounts from time to time, too — you
can see a list of all our official accounts on the Official Google
Blog.
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/google-accounts-on-twitter.html
