Low Tech Google And Outlook Calendar Sync

For years I've tried a bunch of different methods to keep my personal and work calendars synced. My companies insists on using Outlook/Exchange Server, and I prefer Google Calendar because I can get it on all my devices. Most of the time my personal and business schedules don't overlap, but on the occasion they do, I want to make sure both calendars...

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Google Sphere

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Google+ Blogging For The Past Month

This past month I took a challenge from +Mike Elgen to blog exclusively on. Turns out I was about as hit and miss with long form posts as I am here on thomallen.com. I always post short form images, links and likes several times a day, that didn't change. Bottom line, I didn't blog any more or less.On the subject of blogging and this site, a friend has gone through my blog and given me some pointers on SEO. I suck at SEO and he doesn't, so I'm listening to him. His suggestions included blogging more often, longer, and on topics...

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Exclusively Blogging On Google+ For One Month

Follow me here. See ya in a mont...

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Android 4.2.2 Arrives For My Nexus 7

This little message popped up when I turned on the Nexus 7 today. w00...

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Nexus 7 Here To Stay

I was pretty excited about winning a Nexus 7 at a recent Google Chrome Developer challenge. I wanted a Nexus 7, and it was on my "buy" list. As it stand right now, there's only one thing I can do (aside from rooting the device) on my iPad 3 that I can't do on the Nexus and that is watch Amazon Prime Instant Movies. That issue makes no sense to me, and is extremely frustrating. If there were an Amazon viewing app like the one on an iPad, I don't know that I would use my iPad as much.I'm learning how Android works. It's much...

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At The Mercy Of Cloud Storage

I'm a big cloud services user. I have cloud storage accounts with a net of nearly 100GB of free space. I use a lot of the space for archives, but lately I've been using Google Drive to keep my school documents available no matter I am. And today that system failed. Early this morning, apparently before a major Google services outage, I...

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Google Drive And Cloud Storage

I couldn't resist writing my own something about Google Drive today. Cloud storage is hot this week, and the foreseeable future. Google didn't get it right out of the gate, most don't. But I can tell you that Google Drive will become common cloud storage for a lot of people. Dropbox is the 800 pound gorilla in cloud storage for consumers, and doesn't...

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Google+ Shouldn't Provide A Post API

I've been disappointed that Google doesn't provide an API to post to my Plus stream. It's really selfish but I want to post from any of the client tools I use, and that is the problem, so does everyone else. As Google's Vic Gundotra says, "your stream could be easily overwhelmed", and I agree. Looking at this problem from their point of view, with pretty weak noise control, Google+ would quickly turn into an out of control Twitter. The sad part is the difficulty of preventing people from abusing the API. Throttling and whitelisting...

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5 Tech Stories Worth Reading

Netflix Headed For A Brick Wall?It was bound to happen, subscriber backlash over pricing, and recent news that major content providers are cutting ties with Netflix. Read more of the story here: http://thom.ws/mUNE5CIs Steve Balmer Actually Surprised At The Crappy Windows Phone 7 Sales?Steve, you have to actually build a brand, a community, and a solid app store before you can start to capture market share. Oh, and if you have to battle the retail sales folks for pushing people away from your product, you will have an...

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5 Tech Stories Worth Reading

1. Sources: PopCap In Late Stage Acquisition Discussions With EA For $1 Billion+ PopCap Games is in late stage acquisition discussions for a sum of over $1 billion — we’ve now heard from two sources that the buyer is Electronic Arts.2. Google Invests $102 Million More Into California’s Alta Wind Energy Center According to an official company blog post today, Google is increasing its investment into California’s Alta Wind Energy Center (AWEC) by $102 million, bringing its total investment in the renewable energy facility to...

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5 Tech Stories Worth Reading

1. Five years from now, there’ll be no such thing as a webpage Every time Facebook changes its interface, an outcry erupts in my News Feed. Without fail, my network transforms into a village and Mark Zuckerberg is our Frankenstein. Minor tweaks send us into an outrage, and we want Facebook’s head on a platter for our momentary confusion. But then a few days pass, and instead of anger, we see adaptation. The voices of dissent subside and we’re back to business as usual. After all, you’d be hard pressed to find anyone who can...

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5 Tech Stories Worth Reading

1. PlayStation Branded 3DTV Announced, Coming Bundled With A Copy Of Resistance 3Do you like the idea of all this new-fangled 3D technology in games but can’t stump up the cash for a new TV and 3D glasses? It seems like you aren’t the only one, and Sony has been listening to your pleas.2. Google Maps can now tell you when your bus or train is lateGoogle has offered travel information in Maps for quite some time, but now it’s going real-time – in a handful of cities, at least.3. Square Raising New Round, Joining Billion Dollar...

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5 Tech Stories Worth Reading

Today's Tech Stories I found interesting:1. Google WalletGoogle is getting into the mobile payment market.2. Twitter Photo SharingTwitter is finally putting a photo sharing service online. But can we expect constant outages with Twtimg as well? One interesting note, especially for developers. Twitter is going to crate it's own version of your stand alone client application. If you rely on Twitter for your core business, expect to be challenged, by the source.3. Apple iCloudApple plans on announcing it's newly minted iCloud...

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Google eBook Store - The Good And Bad

Today I received a notice that Google had opened their long awaited digital book store. I was excited to see what they had to offer, so I promptly loaded up the site. The interface Googlesque; clean and simple. Android, iPad/iPhone/iTouch, the Web, the Nook and something from Sony. Having all the mobile devices is great. Sorry BlackBerry,...

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Why Microsoft Shouldn't Aim At Google Or Apple

I read this Wired article today, and I had too cringe hearing Microsoft is taking aim at Google and Apple. Why would they want too? They own such an enormous desktop market, and they could own the mobile space too, but not trying to come at it from the rear. Utilize your existing customer base to build the best mobile experience for Windows users....

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Google To Stop Supporting Older Browsers

I just got an email from Google stating that starting March 1st, their web applications will no longer support older browsers, instead, pushing the new HTML5 standard. Here is what they said;In order to continue to improve our products and deliver more sophisticated features and performance, we are harnessing some of the latest improvements in web...

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My Take On 2010 Technology Predictions OS Wars

In my first post I talked about the platform wars, today I want to talk about the Operating Systems (OS) Wars.There are really only three operation systems on the market people will generally know; Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac OS X, and Linux. There are a couple of operating systems that are getting some buzz, but most people don't know they are using them, or don't recognize the fact they are operating systems. These are mobile or light weight OS's, like Google's Chrome OS, Android, Windows Mobile, iPhone, and Palm Pre.Desktop...

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Now You Can Access Google Tasks In Mail, Calendar and Mobile Applications

Finally, Tasks are part of the Google calendaring application. The Task feature has been available for a while now, but it wasn’t available as part of the calendaring system, where I believe most people want and need to use a task management system.As is typical with Google, it’s not a flashy part of the calendaring system. Looking at the image below,...

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Google Offers Mobile Friend Finder With Latitude Service (But Not For The iPhone)

Google pushed out a new product today called Google Latitude. It basically lets you find friends in geographical locations via Google Maps. This is pretty cool. Loopt has been doing this for a while, and so have others. I'm not really sure I see the value in this, other than its a great way to stalk your friends. If I really wanted to know where someone was, I would just ask them.The interesting part is it wasn't released for the iPhone. It does work on the Android of course, Blackberry and Windows Mobile. But with GPS and...

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