New features in Google Apps

News update from the Google Apps for Education Team:

With the school year in full swing, we have several new product features to help you stay ahead of the game. We’ve specifically focused on responding to feedback with our new Unthreaded Conversation view in Gmail, and collaboration with our new revision history interface in Docs. We also have milestones to celebrate: our four-year anniversary and having 10 MILLION students, faculty, and staff using Google Apps for Education! To stay on top of announcements, you can get new feature notifications by email or subscribe to the RSS feed.

New features in Google Apps

Unthreaded Conversation View
Gmail now offers users the ability to switch between conversation view and the traditional message-based unthreaded view. When a user switches to unthreaded view in 'Settings', messages are no longer grouped together into a conversation, and each message is shown as a separate entry in the inbox.

Read more about unthreaded conversation view in this blog post.

Priority Inbox
Priority Inbox is a new, alternative view of your Gmail inbox that helps solve the problem of email overload. With Priority Inbox, Gmail automatically identifies your important email and separates it out from everything else, so you can focus on what really matters. Priority Inbox is still in beta and is not the default view for Gmail users.

Read more about priority inbox in the Help Center.
 
Revision History in Docs
We updated the revision history interface to make it easier for collaborators to manage document revisions. Click on 'File > See revision history' to see the new interface. Users can click on an arrow to see the timestamp or use the arrow keys to navigate the changes. Changes to text are now also color-coded based on each collaborator, making it easy to tell what has been added or deleted.

Read more about the new revision history interface in the Help Center.

New version of Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook®
We released a new version of this tool which now supports Microsoft Outlook® 2010 in both 32-bit and 64-bit editions. In addition, this version also includes improvements to rich contact data from the global address list, as well as enhanced support for 'custom from' addresses. 

Updated Gmail app for Android devices
We recently released a new version of the Gmail app in Android, so Gmail updates aren’t tied to Android version releases anymore. Now you can get new Gmail stuff faster without having to wait for system updates. In this new version, we improved message replies, access to quoted text, and more. More information on this release here.


Get started with USciences Google Apps Domain
Logon with your USciences username and password at start.online.usp.edu.

Google Apps for Education Training Center

Google has released an online learning environment dedicated for educators and students to learn how to effectively use Google Apps in an educational context.

USciences has two Google Apps domains:

1. Online.usp.edu: our own "closed" domain used for faculty, students and staff to communicate and collaborate. The USciences username and password is required to access this domain and no content is made public - ideal for student wiki assignments.
2. Sites.usciences.edu [coming soon!]: our new "open" domain used for faculty to promote their own scholarly activity to the general public. This domain is ideal for creating faculty profile pages and for displaying laboratory research. 

Enter the Google Apps for Education Training Center:

Academic Tech Webinar Series: Google Docs

	Join us for a Webinar on June 3 The University has recently rolled out Google Apps for Education. This optional resource will give all faculty, students and staff a state-of-the-art communication and collaboration platform to supplement our existing infrastructure. This webinar will concentrate on how to use Google Docs. Docs gives us the ability to share and collaboratively edit documents compatible with Word, Excel and PowerPoint from any web browser, any time and any place. All content resides in our own protected domain and requires a login and password. Educational Objectives: attendees will learn how to:     * Create and upload documents compatible with MS Office (.doc, .xls, .ppt)     * Create Forms that can be used to collect data that fill in your Google spreadsheet     * Collaboratively edit documents and drawings in real time     * Share large data files with colleagues on or off campus     * Embed documents and presentations in Angel courses and community groups Title: Academic Tech Webinar Series: Google Docs Date: Thursday, June 3, 2010 Time: 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM EDT After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar. System Requirements PC-based attendees Required: Windows® 7, Vista, XP, 2003 Server or 2000 Macintosh®-based attendees Required: Mac OS® X 10.4.11 (Tiger®) or newer Space is limited. Reserve your Webinar seat now at: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/224849075

Google Gives Voice to Students

The Google Voice Service provides a phone number, free of charge. Inbound calls to your Google Voice number are forwarded to all your actual phones, home, work, and cell per your settings. It also has some impressive features including custom voicemail greetings, call screening, and even transcription of voicemail messages to text. Google is rolling out this service slowly across the US, so you need an invitation to get a free account. This week, however, Google decided to give these accounts to any student who requests an invitation!

In a recent Google blog post, they said Voice is great for students:

We've found that Google Voice can be useful in many different ways to many different people. But one group of people that it's especially well-suited for is students. We've heard college students in particular really appreciate getting their voicemail sent to their email, sending free text messages and reading voicemail transcriptions rather than listening to messages (especially handy while in class).

Hear more about Google Voice and other recent Google developments on my podcast at entitled "What Has Google Done? Free Google Voice for Students and more!" at www.RodsPulsePodcast.com.

Going Google at USP - Preview

Join us for a Webinar on April 23

The University of the Sciences is rolling out Google Apps for Education on April 29. This optional resource will give all faculty, students and staff a state-of-the-art communication and collaboration platform to supplement our existing e-learning infrastructure. We will have the ability to share and collaboratively edit documents compatible with Word, Excel and PowerPoint. We can create unlimited Wiki websites (Sites in Google parlance) and stream videos from our own private branded YouTube-like site. All content resides in our own protected domain and will require a login and password. Content is not exposed to the public through search engines.

Space is limited. Reserve your Webinar seat now at: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/149845666

Title: Academic Tech Webinar Series: Going Google at USP Preview Date: Friday, April 23, 2010 Time: 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM EDT Where: Your Desktop After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.

University of the Sciences is Going Google!

The University of the Sciences will be rolling out Google Apps for Education soon. This optional resource will give all faculty, students and staff a state-of-the-art communication and collaboration platform to supplement our existing e-learning infrastructure. We will have the ability to share and collaboratively edit documents compatible with Word, Excel and PowerPoint. We can create unlimited Wiki websites (Sites in Google parlance) and stream videos from our own private branded YouTube-like site.

All content resides in our own protected domain and will require a login and password. Content is not exposed to the public through search engines.

View this 30 minute recorded webinar to get oriented to the features of this new offering:



Stay tuned for additional posts as we prepare for the official roll-out.