Classic Google Maps, No Longer Available

Classic Google Maps has been replaced by Google Maps Lite back in April, but they were still a few URLs you could use to access it. Now they no longer work, so you'll have to get used to the new interface or switch to a different service like Bing Maps or Here.com.

Last week, I had to print some directions in Google Maps and I realized that the classic Google Maps had a much better printing feature. You could include a map for each step or add Street View imagery. The new Google Maps offers two options: print text only or print including maps. There are fewer maps included since directions are now grouped and you can no longer customize each step.

Google's Updated Privacy Policy

Google has recently changed its privacy policy and there's a page that shows the differences. It's not clear if there are actual changes or the updated privacy policy only clarifies some existing features.

The new privacy policy states that information like your name, email address, phone number or credit card could be stored with your Google account, which is not something new. Another change is that the "cookies and anonymous identifiers" section is now called "cookies and similar technologies", which is a broader title.

The following text:

We and our partners use various technologies to collect and store information when you visit a Google service, and this may include sending one or more cookies or anonymous identifiers to your device.

... has been replaced with:

We and our partners use various technologies to collect and store information when you visit a Google service, and this may include using cookies or similar technologies to identify your browser or device.

Basically, Google removed all the references to "anonymous identifiers" from the privacy policy and replaced them with "similar technologies", which includes anonymous identifiers, but also HTML5 Local Storage, local shared objects (Flash cookies), Web beacons and more. The privacy policy clearly states that Google can use cookies and similar technologies to identify your browser or device. Google says that it uses "these technologies to collect and store information when you interact with services we offer to our partners, such as advertising services or Google features that may appear on other sites."

There's also a new paragraph:

Information we collect when you are signed in to Google may be associated with your Google Account. When information is associated with your Google Account, we treat it as personal information. For more information about how you can access, manage or delete information that is associated with your Google Account, visit the Transparency and choice section of this policy.

Undo Send Graduates From Gmail Labs

After spending 6 years in Gmail Labs, "undo send" is now a regular Gmail feature. You can find it in the settings, bellow "send and archive". The feature is disabled by default, but it's enabled if you've already used the Gmail Labs feature.

So what's so great about "undo send"? Gmail doesn't send email immediately and there's a short delay that lets you undo sending the message, just in case you changed your mind, you noticed a mistake or you picked the wrong sender. There are 4 options for the cancellation period: 5 seconds, 10 seconds, 20 seconds and 30 seconds.

After sending a message, you'll get an "Undo" link next to "Your message has been sent". If you click the "Undo" link, you can edit the message, save it as a draft or delete it.

"Undo send" has been recently added to Google Inbox for desktop and mobile. Mashable reports that Gmail's mobile apps will also add this feature: "Google said it will roll out the feature to mobile in the future but didn't elaborate on the timeline."

Send Tweets with Rich-Text Formatting using TallTweets

You can post messages of virutally any length to Twitter using TallTweets. The web app bypasses the 140 character limit of Twitter by either converting your tweet into a PNG image or by breaking the long snippets of text into multiple tweets and sending them all in quick succession. Amitabh Bachchan, Bollywood’s biggest star, once recommended it too.

Compose Tweetstorms & Tweetshots

A new release of TallTweets has just been rolled out and it includes several new features and enhancements. The interesting additions are:

1. TallTweets now supports rich-text formatting so you can use bold text, write in italics or even mark words with the yellow highlighter. See image tweet.
2. You can compose Tweetstorms (numbered tweets, sent sequentially) and TallTweets will offer a live preview as you type so you know exactly how the tweets will look like in your timeline. See Tweetstorm
3. TallTweets has gone international and now supports all languages including Hindi, Arabic, Malay, Chinese and more. In fact, if you use the “tweet as image” option, you can even send tweets in languages that are not officially supported by Twitter yet.

To get started, go the Tall Tweets website and sign-in with your Twitter account. Next choose the tweet style (tweetstorm for text tweets, tweetshot for image tweets), compose the tweet and then hit the Send button.

The TallTweets website is mobile-friendly so you can should be able to send tweets from your mobile and tablets as well. On the technical side, TallTweets uses an HTML5 library to convert text into images in the client’s browser itself.

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The story, Send Tweets with Rich-Text Formatting using TallTweets, was originally published at Digital Inspiration by Amit Agarwal on 24/06/2015 under Twitter, Internet.

Add Google Drive Files to Google Calendar Events

The latest version of the Google Calendar app for iOS brings a few useful features, catching up with the Android app.

You can now add Google Drive files to calendar events in the iOS app, as well as the desktop Google Calendar site. This feature was already available in the Android app since February and in Google Calendar Labs since 2009. "Event attachments" graduated from Labs and it's now available for everyone (including developers).

If a Drive file isn't shared with all the guests, you'll see a prompt and you can change how the file is shared.

Here's a screenshot from the desktop site (the feature may not seem new if you've used the Event Attachments feature from Google Calendar Labs):

Another feature already available in the Android app is the 7-day view, which lets you see more events at a glance. You can now switch to the 7-day view in the iOS app and customize your calendar with week numbers in the settings.

Google takes advantages of the improved notification features from iOS8 and adds interactive notifications for events, so you can email guests or view the map without having to open Google Calendar first.

Picasa Web Albums, Back to the Future

Picasa Web Albums is fully functional again. The site no longer redirects to Google+ Photos and the search feature works, at least for personal photos and videos. The search feature was removed in 2013.

I thought that Google will discontinue the service and replace it with Google Photos, since Google+ is no longer required. For now, Picasa Web Albums is here to stay and that's surprising.

Google+: Then and Now

Here are 2 screenshots that show the importance of Google+ today and a few years ago. Back in 2013, Google changed the navigation bar and added an app launcher: the first shortcut was for Google+.

Google has recently tweaked the app launcher. The first shortcut is now for "My Account", followed by Search, Maps, YouTube, Play, News, Gmail, Drive and Calendar. Google+ is now the 10th shortcut, right next to Google Translate and Google Photos.

Google Wallet, Rebranded as Google Payments?

A few weeks ago, I posted about Google Payments, a service that could replace Google Wallet. If you open Google Wallet's site, you'll notice that the name of the service is now Payments. There are still references to the Wallet Card and Wallet Balance.

Another change is that payments.google.com no longer redirects to wallet.google.com, but shows the same site.

Google says that "the Services offered by Google Payments are covered by the Google Wallet Privacy Notice. The Google Wallet Privacy Notice will be updated effective June 30, 2015." The link sends users to this page, which is the Google Payments Privacy Notice.

{ Thanks, Kevin. }

Free Google Play Music Radio

Google Play Music is a great music streaming service, especially if you pay for the All Access subscription. If you're not a subscriber, you can only listen to the music you uploaded/matched using Music Manager or the Chrome app and the music you bought or got for free from Google Play.

When Apple launched iTunes Radio in 2013, it seemed ironic that Apple offered a free ad-supported service, while Google had a paid subscription service. Now that Apple Music is ready for launch, it's time for Google to offer the missing free radio feature.

"Google Play Music now has a free, ad-supported version in the U.S., giving you a new way to find just the right music and giving artists another way to earn revenue. Our team of music experts, including the folks who created Songza, crafts each station song by song so you don't have to. If you’re looking for something specific, you can browse our curated stations by genre, mood, decade or activity, or you can search for your favorite artist, album or song to instantly create a station of similar music."

The free radio feature is already available if you're using the Play Music website and it's rolling out this week to the mobile apps for Android and iOS. It's US-only, for now.

Can I Upgrade my Computer to Windows 10 for Free?

Windows 10, the latest version of Windows, will be released on 29^th July. The new Windows OS has received rave reviews from people who are currently testing it as part of the Windows Insider program but there has been some confusion around the upgrade path. Will you be eligible to download a free upgrade of Windows 10 or will you have to pay for the license?

Who Can Download Windows 10 for Free?

This quick flowchart breaks it down in simple English.

If you have a computer that is running a genuine copy of Windows 7 or Windows 8.1, you will get a free upgrade license of Windows 10. If you are running a pirated copy of Windows, or if you have Windows Vista or XP installed on the machine, you’ll buy a new license for Windows 10 and perform a clean install.

The Windows 10 Home license will be $119.99 while the Windows 10 Pro version would cost $199.99.

If you would like to try Windows 10 but without affecting your existing Windows installation, you can join the Windows Insider program, download the Windows 10 ISO and install it as a Virtual Machine using VirtualBox. These preview builds will however expire after some time and the fresh builds are automatically installed as and when they become available.

You can follow the official Windows blog to learn more about the upcoming Windows 10 release or join the Windows Insider program to download and use the Windows 10 beta before it is generally available.

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The story, Can I Upgrade my Computer to Windows 10 for Free?, was originally published at Digital Inspiration by Amit Agarwal on 23/06/2015 under Windows 10, Software.

Mobile Google Search Tests Oversized Header

I'm not sure if this is a bug or a new Google experiment, but I've noticed a different mobile search interface that uses more space for the header. There's a Google logo, a search box and a list of specialized search engines below the search box. It's based on the experimental interface I've mentioned in a previous post.

If you enable the search tools and restrict results to a certain date range, the new header uses even more screen real estate.

For some reason, this experimental interface is only used when searching from Google's homepage. Chrome's search box sent me to the compact UI.

Google Promotes Privacy Checkup

There's a new promotional message that's displayed when you sign in to a Google account. Google encourages you to use the Privacy Checkup feature from the new My Account page and "take control of your Google privacy settings".

The page lets you "review and adjust what data Google uses to personalize your experience, and update what information you share with friends or make public."

You can choose what Google+ profile information you share with others, manage what you share on YouTube, personalize your Google experience by enabling or disabling features like Web & App Activity, Location History, YouTube Search and Watch History. You can also manage ad settings and opt out of ads based on your interests.

All of these features were previously available, but this is a simplified step-by-step guide, just like the Security Checkup. Google wants to make sure you are "always in control of your data and information".

Google Apps Menu

When you mouse over your name in Google's navigation bar, there's a tooltip that says: "Looking for Google+? Click the Google Apps icon to the right."

Mouse over the grid icon and there's a new tooltip: "Google Apps".

This used to be called Google App Launcher, since it was similar to Chrome's App Launcher. Google's help center articles still use this name: "To switch between Google products, click the App launcher icon and select the one you'd like to use."

Google Apps is the name of a suite of productivity tools for business, education, nonprofit organizations and more, so it's a bit confusing to use the same name for the launcher feature.

How to Transcribe Video Files to Text with YouTube

A college professor is looking to transcribe some audio files as text and publish them online. He wrote – “We have some old lectures recorded on reel-to-reel tapes. We have digitized the audio lectures using Audacity and would now like to transcribe the audio and publish the lectures as text. What is the best way to proceed?”

A quick Google search will return a list of paid transcription services where you can hire people who will accurately transcribe and convert the audio content of your digital files into text. However, if you are looking for an inexpensive and automated option, YouTube can help.

When you upload a video file to YouTube, it will automatically generate subtitles or closed captions for that video. Google uses speech recognition to transform the speech portion of your video into closed captions that are displayed in the video player when the viewer hits the CC button (see screenshot).

If a YouTube video has the “CC” button, you can download the transcription as text.

If your video has decent audio quality and there not too many people speaking in the video at the same time, YouTube will automatically make a text transcript that may not be as accurate as human transcription but would do the job. The transcript is hidden inside obfuscated JavaScript but there’s a way to download it as plain text file.

Download Audio Transcriptions from YouTube

Here’s a quick guide on how to transcribe audio or video files to text with the help of YouTube.

1. Go to youtube.com/upload and upload your video file. If you have an MP3 audio file, you may use a tool like Windows Movie Maker, iMovie on Mac or FFMpeg to convert the audio into a video file before uploading to YouTube.
2. Wait for YouTube to completely process the video. The machine transcriptions may not immediately become available after uploading the video.
3. Open the YouTube video page in Chrome and look for the CC button in the player. If it exists, the transcribed audio can be downloaded as text.
4. Press F12 on Windows, or Option+Cmd+J on Mac, to open the JavaScript console inside Chrome Developer tools and paste this code:

if(yt.config_.TTS_URL.length) window.location.href=yt.config_.TTS_URL+"&kind=asr&fmt=srv1&lang=en"

It will open the transcribed text of the uploaded video in the current browser tab as shown in this short video. Save the file with a .html extension and double-click to view the transcription in plain text.

The same trick can help you download the closed captions of any video on YouTube even if you are not the uploader. And you can replace “en” in the URL with “fr” or “es” to download the transcriptions in another language.

Download the audio transcription from YouTube as text

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The story, How to Transcribe Video Files to Text with YouTube, was originally published at Digital Inspiration by Amit Agarwal on 23/06/2015 under YouTube, Internet.

Google Notifications Settings

Google's notifications box from the navigation bar has a new settings button. For now, it shows a single service (Google+) and it lets you enable or disable notifications from Google+. If you disable Google+ notifications, you'll actually disable all notifications.

Here's a screenshot that shows the only option that's currently available: "allow notifications here from Google+". For the first time since Google+ was launched, you can now disable Google+ notifications from the navigation bar.

Maybe in the future Google will show notifications from other Google services: Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Drive, YouTube. That's why the title is now "Google Notifications" instead of "Google+ Notifications".

{ Thanks, Mukil Elango. }

How to Let Others Upload Files to your Dropbox Account

A class teacher needs her students to submit homework at the end of the week. A company wants designers to send the mockups and design drafts for review. A news organization is asking public to upload documents to their website. An event organizer is requesting attendees to send any photos or videos that they may have taken at the event.

What do you think is the easiest solution for all these use cases? Yes, e-mail. People can send you files by email and you can then use the Save Attachments script to automatically download these files to your computer. The big problem is that you cannot receive big files via email and second, it does take some work to organize stuff that arrives in email.

Wouldn’t it be easier if you could create a public folder on the Internet where anyone could go and simply upload the files instead of sending them to you as file attachments. Students can upload assignments, designers can upload mockups and your friends can upload photographs.

Let Anyone Upload Files to your Dropbox

This is the essence of Dropbox Requests. The requests service would let anyone –  your clients, work colleagues or even anonymous strangers – directly upload files to a designated folder in your Dropbox account easily and quickly.

They do not need a Dropbox account and you’ll get an instant email notification as soon as new files are added to your Dropbox. And you can accept files as big as 2 GB provided you’ve enough free space in your Dropbox.

Such a feature is missing in Google Drive but you can build a form that would let anyone upload files to your Drive with the help of Google Scripts.

Your Dropbox Request link is “unlisted” meaning anyone can access your file upload form if they know the URL. Also, when uploading files, the uploader would have to write their name and email address in the upload form but these are not verified so the upload will happen even if they enter fake information.

Dropbox shares no other details of the file uploader with the folder owner though they should be recording your IP address in their own database. Thus, Dropbox Request may not be an ideal solution if you are operating a Wikileaks like website where you would not like people to leave a digital trail. Here are some more Dropbox tips & tricks.

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The story, How to Let Others Upload Files to your Dropbox Account, was originally published at Digital Inspiration by Amit Agarwal on 21/06/2015 under Dropbox, Internet.