Biking Navigation in Google Maps Gets Half a Gig Meter Boost

If you are a rider who loves to jump on the bike and get ready for a trip, chances are you either already know the route or already tucked a paper map in your back pack. If that's event partly true, you are in for a good surprise or rather a gift from Google' Android team. Its time you forget the paper maps and not worry about getting lost on a trip to an unknown path. Its time you pull out your android device and plant it right in front of you on the bike. Your android device is turning itself to your route guide now as Google Maps for Android pushes out an update to the app that is supposed to add around half a giga meter of biking navigation and that too in 12 countries.

Google announced on Thursday that they are "bringing mobile biking directions and navigation" in the 10 countries that already had the option for desktop biking directions. These countries include Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK.

Apart from this the Google Maps Navigation (beta) gets a turn by turn voice guided biking navigation in all the countries that already have biking navigation. "Mount your device on your handlebars to see the turn-by-turn directions and navigation, or use speaker-mode to hear voice-guided directions" is what Larry Powelson(Software Engineer, Google Maps) posted on official Google blog. It was a couple of years back when Google added biking directions to Google maps in US and Canada. With this update there is now around 530K KMs of green biking lines in Google Maps.

Here is how the bike route reads:

• dark green lines on the map show dedicated bike trails and paths with no motor vehicles
• light green lines show streets with bike lanes
• dashed green lines show other streets recommended for cycling

So the next time you plan some time out with your bike, don't forget your android device and do share with us how it went !

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Bringing Google Plus To Work

Google has been evolving with their social network Google+, pushing updates that help people in more than one way. So while the recent updates have been focused around individual profiles on Google plus, on Wednesday Google announced a tool inside Google plus but specifically designed for business. The features accompanying the tool will be in a full preview mode for the Apps (Google Apps) customers. The preview mode will be free till the end of 2013 after which the cloud base storage charges (it seems) will apply.

In a nut shell here are the features that are available to start with for the organizations that have gone Google. They will be able to use and test these while Google will continue to add more features and admin controls that are tailored for organizations. 

Private sharing for your organization
For Google Apps users, there is now an option to mark the posts that they create as 'restricted'. These posts will be like locked and there will be no option to re-share them in anyway. However, there is a flexibility to share the posts with your partners and colleagues outside your organization but only while you are creating the post. Once the post is published, that is how it remains. 

Video meetings integrated with Gmail, Calendar and Docs

Back in July Google integrated Hangouts in Gmail. So while you were separated in your geographical locations you could be face to face in discussions and also while editing a doc right within the hangout session. With the current updates already rolling out from Wednesday, user will have an option to add hangout to a Calendar event "allowing attendees to join the meeting directly from the invite or Calendar entry."! 

Administrative Controls
Admins will have the rights to set company-wide defaults for post restrictions or to enable any restricted Hangouts so as to facilitate the private meetings within an organization.
 

It looks like with this push Google is not stopping, at least for a while. Clay Bavor the Product Management Director at Google Apps said in a post on Google' official enterprise blog that they "have a lot more planned for the coming months, including a mobile version of Google+ for enterprise users and more administrative controls. "

If you are a Google Apps customer and believe in this trend called "going Google" by the search giant then here is the link that should interest you. Have a good time with the tool and do let us know in case you go by it in your company!

[Image Credits: Google' official enterprise blog]

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Facebook iOS Camera App Updated

The Instagram deal may not have closed fully yet but Facebook seems to be showing the cards and the next steps on mobile arena. The company is really taking the mobile market seriously and in fact seems to be going ahead from where they were some time back, plus improving on the web user experience as well. Back in May this year, they introduced the iOS Facebook Camera app which though didn't full fill all the expectation of the Apple smartphone users but promised enough to be an exciting prospect. At the time of the launch the app received a mere 2.5 rating on the app store, with user commenting on the lack of features that disturbed everyone, the support for albums!

The new update in the app store which is version-ed at 1.1 provides users with the ability to create albums. This is a straightaway sign that Facebook is listening to its users, at least as far as the camera app is concerned. iOS users will now be able to create and edit photo albums from within the Camera app itself. The current version update also provides a few other features apart from the bug fixes:

• Notifications for tags, likes and comments
• It’s possible to add photos to an album you choose, or create a new album
• Likes and comments are available for posts with multiple photos
• Likes are available for individual comments
• Names and profile pictures display for everyone who liked a photo
• Long captions are easier to read when you expand photos to full screen
• Translated to 10+ languages including French, German, Japanese, Italian, Chinese, and Spanish
• Bug fixes
  

While you click a pic using the Facebook Camera app, the photos go to a default album labeled 'Mobile Uploads', this has been the case since the launch of the app back in late May 2012. What changes now is the appearance of a new albums icon as you click a photo in the app. Once you tap this icon, you will be given a choice to either create a new album or choose an existing one to which the photo will be added. The update provides a new tab called 'News' in the app which will notify you of all the likes and comments on the uploaded photos. Users are also able to now like and comment on a photo feed which has multiple photos.

As per Facebook the Camera app has been taken to a standalone thing since looking for a notification about the photo that you were tagged on shouldn't have to have you looking at the whole web application of the social network site. So ideally if you are looking for some information about your photos, it should be the Camera app that catches your attention rather than the whole web app and its features. Which according to us, seems to make sense.

The update to the Camera app comes soon after the company released a new version of the main native app on iOS as well as Android suggesting that they are really serious on what goes out to the users using the smartphone version of the social media site. Why the Camera app(with the new updates of 1.1) isn't there for the Android users yet is a mystery even we are trying to get answers for. Till then enjoy the new album creation feature and do let us know how you like the new notification enabled News tab in the Facebook Camera app!

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Brand Ambassadors of ApnaCircle.com

Last month we covered the start of the Brand Ambassador Competition on ApnaCircle.com. The competition which was to end around the beginning of this month was extended, it seems due to the number of entries and responses received in the Brand Ambassador group on ApnaCircle.com. The competition finally came to an end yesterday, while the winners were announced on the same group as well as ApnaCircle' Facebook and Twitter accounts.

We present to you the 4 Brand Ambassadors of ApnaCircle.com. Starting from the top left and moving clockwise we have; Ankit Sharma, Smriti Srivastava, Ghanshyam Mishra and Seema Sharma.

The announcement that was made yesterday from ApnaCircle' official Id didn't mention what next steps would be. If the Ambassadors would be called for an official meeting with the office staff or the certificates and goodies would be couriered to them is still not known. The Brand Ambassadors however have been informed to inbox their numbers to the ApnaCircle official account on the site so the company officials could get in tough with the winners. The winners were obviously very excited to have won the competition and the chance to be related to one of the leading Indian professional portals. The enthusiasm was apparent in the as one of the winners, Ankit Sharma already has updated his background information with "Brand Ambassador, ApnaCircle.com" information.

Here is a brief intro about the winners and their respective videos that won them the competition.

Ankit Sharma: B.Tech. student from ITS engineering college, Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India. A blogger and a webmaster by choice. Runs MTU Khabar. He also suggests SEO related work to some sites so connect with him in case you are looking for some help on SEO front. His video post on the ApnaCircle group received around 18 views but on YouTube he collected a good 342 views. 
On your left is the video that Ankit uploaded to his account on YouTube. Enjoy his video and the confidence that the young budding entrepreneur shows off :)

Smriti Srivastava: She is also a B.Tech Engineering student from the central part of India, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India to be precise. Pursuing her degree in the IT field from one of the top colleges in the city, LNCT which is affiliated to Rajiv Gandhi Technical University.
Her video post on the ApnaCircle group collected a massive tally of 90 plus views and more than 20 comments, which considering the competition were healthy enough. Her YouTube video uploaded from her official Id and presented here on your right again had a decent 70 odd views. Have a look at her video here and decide for yourself on the confidence the lady has in herself and her prospects as a Brand Ambassador.

Seema Sharma: A HR in recruitment with a total experience of more than 3yrs, Seema is very active on the site and has the biggest and widest network on ApnaCircle.com amongst the 4 Brand Ambassadors with a whooping 1500 odd contacts in her profile.

She is currently stationed in Chandigarh and works with Siddhivinayak Corporate Services. The only one of the  to have gone past the 3 figure mark as far as the views on ApnaCircle' group video post is concerned and was able to impress 12 profile on the site to comment in her post. The YouTube video was again a good hit with 16o odd views there. We give you her video here on the right to see, know and connect with her on ApnaCircle portal.

Ghanshyam Mishra: Another one of the winners from the Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh are of India. Gaurav is very active on the ApnaCircle portal and loves to "create opportunities to meet new people".

He is an MBA student from the very famous Galgotias Business School in Greater Noida. Another ApnaCircle member with 1000 plus contacts on the site. His video post on the site collected only 9 views but the YouTube video, shown here on the left, collected a good 238 views. Connect with him and expand your network. We leave you with his video, enjoy the day!!

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Jumpin Naani vs Naani Campaign

Time and again we all get surprised on the ways web users and even brands use their social media presence. And not only how they use it but also for what they use it for. Considering these two areas, we bring to you today a very nice way of helping an NGO by a very popular brand of juice drinks, Jumpin!

Remember the scorching summer afternoons when after running around the playgrounds all we required was a nice place to sit under a tree shadow and some cold juicy drink? I never mind the Jumpin anyway. That however is a different nostalgic story where this brand always a friend :) What we highlight today is a fun way to help that Jumpin is bringing in with its Naani vs Naani Face-off campaign that is currently doing the rounds.

The idea of the campaign is very entertaining and has bought back the, much loved by children (as well as elders), yesteryear's song "Naani teri morni ko mor le gaye". This was a melodious song from the film Masoom in 1960.

Coming back to Jumpin' campaign. As part of the campaign Jumpin has come up with the Share the Video thing where for every video share the company will donate 2INR to a NGO called Save the Children. Save the Children is world's leading independent organization for children that works to inspire breakthroughs in the way children are treated to around the world. The idea is to achieve immediate and lasting change in the lives of these children.

Here is the video that Jumpin created and we talked about a little here. Its also uploaded on Jumpin's YouTube channel in case you want to take part in the campaign.

Let's see if Naani' moonwalk can impress you ;). We will be sharing the video to do our part, will you?

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Google Testing Gmail Results in Search

Ever experienced the results for which you were Google-ing for some time was available in your mail (Gmail to be more specific)? You are not alone, once or twice we all landed on our face as we already had what we were searching for. Google thinks and says "you shouldn’t have to be your own mini-search engine to find the most useful information— it should just work,".

That's precisely why the search giant has started a pilot program for its search results. The program will let users have results from their Gmail in normal search queries. Users will be able to signup to have the feature enabled n their account. Google plans to include mail service other than Gmail in their search queries but there is no news if other services have shown interest in the offer. The feature is only available in English to start with and will work only with the @gmail.com results and not with a Google Apps account. You can register for the feature here, and hope that you will get picked up.

The more official announcement about the feature was made in the blog post by their SVP Amit Singhal on company' official blog. He mentions about the more useful features that they are working on. Like, searching for [my flights] will have your flight confirmation emails organized and presented on your search screen in a beautiful manner that will make the search more exciting.

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Google Plus Launches Vanity URLs

After Facebook and Twitter offered the feature to its customers some good time back, its seems the Vanity URLs are again in fashion. Not that they ever went out. So after ApnaCircle launched Personalized URL feature a couple weeks back, its now the turn of the search giant to finally announce the feature a good 3yrs later Facebook started it for its users. More reasons why it was long due.

Vanity URLs, to reiterate again, are also called Personalized or Custom URLs and are a good way especially if you want to pass it along to your network. As is it becomes easier for people to remember them that way, rather than having to deal with a URL like https://plus.google.com/110591781802668078167/posts, where no one (apart from Google itself) what the numbers mean. For records, by the way, the URL that we just provided is Social Crunching' profile on Google Plus! With this feature in place now, we would be able to create a URL for our profile like: https://plus.google.com/+SocialCrunching/posts, ensuring a good time for our readers to remember the link.

The only problem however is that the feature is, as of now, open only for some verified profiles and brands. This is the post from Google Plus' official page on the social network:

If you are interested in the full post here is the link to it. Like Saurabh mentions in the post the feature will be available to people and pages worldwide but currently is available to a restricted verified profiles and brands.

The selected celebrities whose profiles are now using the new feature include the English football start David Beckham', Madonna and Hollywood start Hugh Jackman to name a few. The brands that have moved to on the custom URLs include names like Hugo Boss, Delta, Ubisoft, Toyota.

Though he mentions in the post that the feature will be rolled out to all the users and pages, the time frame of the same wasn't to be mentioned. As it stands we will wait for another official announcement straight from the horse' mouth. Here is how we found it on the Google Plus own page on the social network:

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