Along with snappy Sandy Bridge processors and beefy GPUs, Apple’s new MacBook Pros have a superfast, versatile new I/O tech called Thunderbolt. Whazat? More »

Google’s rolling out a Recipes search filter into its web results, allowing last-minute dinner finders to sort by ingredients, cooking time, and calories, and using recipe sites’ own internal language to bring out the recipe you’re hoping to find. More »

Many of you already use Google Docs for editing your documents, but there are still many people that are tied to desktop applications and haven’t experienced the numerous benefits cloud applications to bring. To help bring more people to the cloud and take advantage of features that result, we’re happy to announce that Google Cloud Connect for Microsoft Office is now available to everyone. Google Cloud Connect is a free plugin that improves Microsoft Office 2003, 2007 and 2010 on Windows PCs. It adds simultaneous collaboration, revision history, cloud sync, unique URLs and simple sharing to the Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint applications:

Take it for a spin on your Windows PC by downloading the plugin.

To learn more about how Google Cloud Connect can help businesses, check out the more detailed post on the Google Enterprise Blog.

Posted by: Shan Sinha, Google Apps Product Manager

Update: Many of you have also asked about availability for Macs. Unfortunately due to the lack of support for open APIs on Microsoft Office for Mac, we are unable to make Google Cloud Connect available on Macs at this time. We look forward to when that time comes so we can provide this feature to our Mac customers as well.

Certain extensions—like Gmail notifiers, for example—are great when your browser is running, but can't run when it's closed. Chrome's added a new feature that will let extensions stay open, even if you don't have any open browser windows. More »

So it’s perhaps not the most original moniker that Apple and Intel could have chosen, but it’s here just the same. After years of waiting Apple has launched its implementation of Intel’s Light Peak standard and it’s called Thunderbolt. It’s making its appearance on new MacBook Pro models and it’s promising 10Gb/second transfer rates. That’s dual-channel, too so you’ll get 10Gb/sec both to and from your devices. Apple suggests this will be useful for external RAID arrays, Gigabit Ethernet adapters, and also mentions support for “FireWire and USB consumer devices” along with HDMI, DVI, and VGA over DisplayPort. Apple expects that Thunderbolt will be “widely adopted as a new standard for high performance I/O,” but we think the USB 3.0 crew might have a thing or two to say about that. Full PR is embedded below.

Update: Intel has thrown up its page on the technology, and it looks like the Light Peak name is officially no more. Intel indicates this speed will be enough to transfer a full-length HD movie (roughly 10 – 20GB in size) in less than 30 seconds. Intel also reinforces that this is compatible with existing DisplayPort devices and it also uses the PCI Express protocol for enhanced compatibility. Daisy-chaining will be possible, along with bus-powered devices, and cables can be made using either optical or electrical construction.

Continue reading Apple and Intel unveil Thunderbolt I/O technology

Apple and Intel unveil Thunderbolt I/O technology originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 24 Feb 2011 09:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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After you install the Windows 7 Service Pack 1 that we mentioned yesterday, you might be wondering how to reclaim some of the lost drive space—which we’ll show you how today—but should you actually do it?

Note: If you haven’t installed the new SP1 release yet, be sure to read our post explaining what it entails before you do. Spoiler: it’s mostly bugfixes.

After you install the Windows 7 Service Pack 1 that we mentioned yesterday, you might be wondering how to reclaim some of the lost drive space—which we’ll show you how today—but should you actually do it?

Note: If you haven’t installed the new SP1 release yet, be sure to read our post explaining what it entails before you do. Spoiler: it’s mostly bugfixes.

From a layman’s perspective

Oh yes, the world’s first Android Honeycomb tablet really is here now. As Verizon announced earlier, you can snag a Motorola Xoom for $599.99 with a two-year contract, or splash out $799.99 for just the LTE-ready device. Alas, the WiFi-only version is nowhere to be seen just yet, but maybe some will show up in the stores later if not tomorrow, so hold on to your personal hotspot devices and keep believing. Either way, in case you’re still indecisive over this 10-inch goodness, maybe our review will help.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Update: Verizon’s been in touch to inform us of a policy change: customers who purchase the off-contract Xoom will now no longer need to be on a month to month plan. That said, we still see “Month to Month” as a compulsory option at the time of updating this post.

Motorola Xoom now available for purchase straight from Verizon, no data activation required (updated) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 Feb 2011 23:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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ZDbox for Android is an “all-in-one” toolbox app that makes it easy to find out what’s going on in your phone and gives you full control of different tasks. Those who geek out to numbers, fret not, ZDbox gives the exact battery percentage and traffic usage (with alerts!). If you want to set a do not disturb time range, lock some apps (like Gmail or messaging) or batch uninstall others, you can do that too. The interface is simple enough where you won’t have to learn new things to do new things. It’s still in beta, but has been working pretty well for me. [XDA Developers via Mobiputing] More »

Okay, so that doesn’t quite look like the oldest PC in the world, but it is running Jolicloud 1.1. And now so can many 10+ year old computers. The good guys at Jolicloud have updated the latest version of its Linux / Chromium-based operating system to support all sorts of old computer hardware, including legacy NVIDIA cards like TNT, TNT2, Quadro and early GeForce. Of course, you’ll still need at least 384MB of RAM to make it purr and you’ll want to make sure that you can connect to the net to take advantage of all the cloud-based applications. Oh, you’re still here? Dig out that old Gateway 2000 and start installing!

Jolicloud 1.1 now bringing old and dusty computers back to life originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 Feb 2011 20:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A judge told Lindsay Lohan on Wednesday he would sentence her to jail if she accepted any plea deal from prosecutors to avoid a trial for allegedly stealing a $2,500 US necklace from an upscale jewelry store.

Power Up Your XBMC Installation with These New Add-Ons

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Since their earliest days, Corning Incorporated has been a world leader in specialty glass and ceramics. Corningware ring a bell?  Corning also develops innovative glass for a variety of applications including, industrial, automotive, and commercial. Combining materials, science and process they look forward and imagine the possibilities with breakthroughs into reality. Watching this vide, which shows us how Corning envisions the future of glass, left me amazed. Here are just a few innovations:

Architectural surface glass – tough, thermally durable, display enabling

Appliance veneer glass – electronics enabling, scratch resistant.

Handheld display glass – thin lightweight, tough, touch sensitive

Automotive display glass – advanced interactive technology

Work surface display glass – application enabling

Impressive to say the least, I just wonder how much more effective and efficient it will make our day.  I am sure it will take longer to brush our teeth and cook eggs if we are interacting with the glass all the time.  But perhaps we already do that with our smart phones.  In either case I am looking forward to seeing beyond the looking glass.

Watch A Day Made Of Glass By Corning for more.

Have an infinitely modern day!

Posted by Shuangfeng Li, Software Engineer

We’ve made sharing and storing your images in Picasa Web Albums even easier by improving the image upload process. Now you’ll find a smoother upload flow, the five-at-a-time limitation has been removed, and you can upload HD video, too.

To get started from Chrome, Firefox or Safari click the Upload button, select an album and then choose the images and videos you want to upload. After your images have uploaded, you will see large thumbnails where you can easily add a caption, zoom in or delete right from the upload screen.

If you use Internet Explorer, you can continue to use the basic uploader or use the plug-in for drag-and-drop bulk uploading.

Another easy way to upload to Picasa Web Albums is from Gallery on an Android device. For example, with Android 3.0, Honeycomb, you can capture an image or video with your tablet’s camera and upload directly to Picasa Web Albums to share with friends.

We’re always working to improve Picasa Web Albums, please share your feedback in our forum. Happy uploading!