Google Operating System (Unofficial Google Blog)

Minggu, 06 April 2014

A YouTube Experiment Resizes the Player Dynamically

There's a new YouTube experiment that changes the video player's size, depending on the browser window's size. When resizing Chrome's window, YouTube switches from 360p to 480p and to 720p, while the player gets bigger.

Here's the same video in a larger player (480p) and an almost fullscreen player (720p) on a 1080p display:

Here's the regular YouTube interface. The screenshot shows a maximized Chrome window on a 1080p display, just like the previous screenshot:

YouTube's "stats for nerds" show the size of the player ("dimensions") and the video resolution:

The nice thing is that the player resizes automatically and you don't have to click a button. It's the power of responsive design. The YouTube player still has a "large player" button, but it only moves the right sidebar and centers the player.

How to try the new interface? If you use Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Safari or Internet Explorer 8+:

1. open youtube.com in a new tab

2. load your browser's developer console:

* Chrome or Opera 15+ - press Ctrl+Shift+J for Windows/Linux/ChromeOS or Command-Option-J for Mac

* Firefox - press Ctrl+Shift+K for Windows/Linux or Command-Option-K for Mac

* Internet Explorer 8+ - press F12 and select the "Console" tab

* Safari 6+ - if you haven't enabled the Develop menu, open Preferences from the Safari menu, go to the Advanced tab and check "Show Develop menu in menu bar". Close Preferences and then press Command-Option-C to show the console.

* Opera 12 - press Ctrl+Shift+I for Windows/Linux or Command-Option-I for Mac, then click "Console".

3. paste the following code which changes a YouTube cookie:

document.cookie="VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE=E_OLzg3yeLw; path=/; domain=.youtube.com";window.location.reload();

4. press Enter and close the console.

To go back to the regular interface, use the same instructions, but replace the code from step 3 with this one:

document.cookie="VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE=; path=/; domain=.youtube.com";window.location.reload();

{ Thanks, Maurice Wahba. }

Jumat, 04 April 2014

Google Keep OCR

Google Keep has recently added a few new features. You can now upload images and Google automatically performs OCR and indexes the text, so you can quickly find images by searching for a few words from the images. This is not the smart visual search feature from Google Drive and Google+ Photos, but it's still useful. You can also transcribe the text, so that you can actually extract the text from the image. Another options lets you "make a copy" of a note.

If you click the 3-dot menu icon from a note that includes a list, you can change list settings. New list items can be added at the top or at the bottom and checked items can be moved to the bottom. By default, the changes also apply to new lists, but you can uncheck this setting.

Here's what happens after enabling "move to the bottom" for checked items:

When you delete a note, it's now moved to the Trash and it will be permanently removed after 7 days. Go to the Trash to empty it or restore some of the notes you've accidentally deleted.

The Android app was also updated with support for multiple accounts, a yellow action bar that changes color with notes and the same new features from the desktop interface.

Personalize Google's App Launcher

Last week, I mentioned that you can customize Google's app launcher, but the feature didn't work well: changes weren't saved. Now it works well and you can reorder the apps using drag and drop, but only if you're signed in to your Google Account. You can also add new shortcuts: go to Google Keep, Google Sites, Play Music, Webmaster Central, Google Voice, Google Patents, Google Groups, click the app launcher icon and then click "Add a shortcut".

There's no way to remove shortcuts, but you can always drag them to the second page, so they're out of the way.

Here are the default apps in the US:

I also found a strange issue: some of the shortcuts are greyed out and nothing happens when you click them. It may have something to do with using the US interface outside the US.

No More SMS in Gmail Chat

A few days ago, Google removed the experimental SMS feature from Gmail Labs, which was launched back in 2008. "As of April 1, 2014, sending SMS messages to phone contacts through Chat in Gmail will be discontinued for all supported mobile operators. All existing users can opt in to Hangouts and select to receive messages in SMS settings," informs Google.

If you're in the US or Canada, you can send SMS from Google Voice. You can also switch to Hangouts and "continue receiving SMS messages as follow-me (i.e. if you're offline and receive a Hangout message, you'll get an SMS message)."

Google says that "by streamlining our services, we're able to focus on creating the best possible products for our users," but I suspect that Google wants to discontinue Gmail Chat and switch all the users to Hangouts.

Unfortunately, the SMS feature from Hangouts is more limited and supports less countries. When clicking this link, I get this message: "We're sorry, the feature you are looking for is currently only available in a limited number of countries."

There are plenty of other ways to send SMS online. You can use the SMS feature from Yahoo Mail or Yahoo Messsenger, use MightyText, which has a nice web app, browser extensions, an Android app and also integrates with Gmail.

{ Thanks, Beta Aly and Michael Hardt. }

Selasa, 01 April 2014

Gallery for Custom Gmail Themes

Gmail Skins is a site with nice pictures you can add to Gmail as custom themes. The site was built by Greg Bullock, from the Gmail team.

You can sort photos by date, title or popularity, select a category like macro, water or nature, find your favorite image and set it as a Gmail background. There are two options: light themes and dark themes.

The site also lets you upload your own photos to the gallery. "Only upload images which you own.
Only images which are 1) mega-awesome and 2) sufficiently large will be published."

{ Thanks, Greg. }

Share Gmail Themes

If you use a custom Gmail theme, you can share it with other people. Unlike regular Gmail themes, custom themes use the picture you've selected, so you can generate a permalink that allows other Gmail users to quickly switch to your theme.

Just go to Gmail's Themes page, go to the "custom themes" section and pick "share your theme" if you already use "custom light" or "custom dark". If you don't use them, click "custom light"or "custom dark" and select a background image.