Saturday, June 15, 2013

Google, Google, and More Google!

This week on the podcast we're talking about Google, Google, and more Google. Also, your questions about keeping to a budget, cold-emailing your dream job's company, and freeing up space on your iPhone.

Here's how you can listen to our episode:

Google I/O Roundup: We attended Google I/O last week and learned about what’s next for the company.

Gmail Users Can Now Try the New Hangouts: Gmail users can now try the new Hangouts right from Gmail, though it removes the ability to call phones with Google Voice. Luckily, you can revert back to the old chat if you want and Gmail calling will be officially restored in the near future.

Google Chrome 27 Out of Beta, Loads Pages 5% Faster: Chrome 27 is out of beta and available for download now. The biggest benefit: It'll load pages 5% faster. And voice search. Google Now in Google!

Google Unveils Play Music All Access, a Subscription Music Service: Google took the wraps off of Google Play Music All Access, a new subscription music service, that offers playlists and music suggestions based on songs you already own and love. The service is already packed with music from Google Play Music, and any songs you see you can play or turn into a streaming radio station.

Google Music All Access: Should It Be Your New Streaming Service? Google unveiled Google Play Music All Access, a subscription music and internet radio service that opens the door to millions of tracks, all intermingled with the music you already own. Sounds great, and the price is competitive, but should you ditch your current streaming service for it? Let's take a look.

Yahoo! Acquires Tumblr: Yahoo has acquired blogging service Tumblr to the tune of $1.1 billion, news that CEO Marissa Mayer posted to her own Tumblr (and subsequently, Yahoo's corporate Tumblr). They promise to keep it independent and "not screw it up."

Flickr Offers 1TB of Free Space for Your Photos, $50 Yearly for No Ads: Yahoo, in an attempt to make its photo-hosting service Flickr relevant again, decided to offer 1TB of free space to all users. The downside? Everyone who doesn't pay $50 per year gets ads.

Twitter Gets Two-Factor Authentication: Twitter finally added two-factor authentication and you should enable it right now. We probably don't need to tell you why, but just in case you forgot about social engineering hacks you want to enable this feature to protect yourself.

Is it appropriate to send my dream job a cold-call email asking about employment opportunities and, if so, how do I go about asking? Be clear you really want to work for them, not that you just really want the job. Try to get to know someone at the company by offering to buy them lunch or just stopping by to meet the receptionist, then ask for advice about how to approach the company. If sending them a cold email, be concise and ask what one has to do to get a job and when you should look for the next opportunity. Just asking for a job might get ignored unless your timing is perfect.How can I digitally catalog my mom’s belongings so the entire family of both Android and iPhone users can easily look up what box they’re in? The caller suggested Evernote and we think that's the way to go, too. Springpad might be one other alternative, or even a spreadsheet if you want something really simple (although Google Docs isn't fantastic on smartphones).I'm 20 and financially irresponsible, mostly because I eat out too much. How can I balance my budget and start cooking more? Budget with Mint or get a bank account that automatically saves money for you. To cook more, plan your meals. These simple recipes are a good place to start.Is there one good way to convert iPhone videos (quicktime,.mov) to a Windows Media Player format? Nope, not without spending some money on robust video conversion software. MP4 works pretty much everywhere so we suggest converting to that using Handbrake (free).I am a teacher and want to move to paperless classroom. Is there an easy way for lots of people to scan documents quickly? Looking to buy stuff for the classroom next year. Any products ideas? Doxie works really well, and you can move them around the class really easily. It integrates with Evernote so you can put all the scans into one notebook and share that notebook with the entire class. If you don't like Doxie, check out these alternatives.What do you recommend for freeing up space on iPhone? Transfer pics and video to a flash drive? Is that just drag and drop? Yes, you answered your own question. :) Plug in the phone on a Mac and open Image Capture to drag and drop files wherever you want. On a Windows PC, just access the phone like a drive and find your pictures and images in the DCIM folder like any camera. If you want to try and free up more space, you can see what apps are using the most space in the General section of the Settings apps. If something is using most of your iPhone's storage, you can go into that app and delete what you don't need.There are two ways to send in your question:

Please keep your questions as brief as possible. This means about 3-5 sentences for emails and 30-60 seconds for calls and videos. Your questions can be specific, but broader questions are generally better because they'll apply to more people. For example, "how can I breathe new life into my old PDA?" is much better than "what can I do with an old HP iPAQ 210?" Either way, we look forward to hearing from you!

Newspaper, Computer, Clock (by Brandon Hopkins), and Alert (by Dima Yagnyuk) provided by the Noun Project.

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