STEP ONE – CONNECT THE GBOARD
[Apple users please close/cancel keyboard set-up assistant]
STEP TWO – ENABLE KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS WITHIN GMAIL
STEP THREE – BEGIN USING THE GBOARD!

AMPLIFIED INSTRUCTIONS:

1) Connect the Gboard to any free USB port on your laptop or desktop computer. PC computers should automatically detect and activate the keyboard in just a few seconds. Apple computers may launch Keyboard Setup Assistant to try to identify the keyboard. You must close this assistant (hit the red button on the top right of the dialog box).

2) If you have not already done so, you must ENABLE KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS within your GMAIL SETTINGS. This option is found under the GENERAL tab within your settings. This is a critical step, and the Gboard will not work without shortcuts enabled.

3) The Gboard will now activate the desired shortcuts. Please read the usage tips below for some common errors and ideas for how to best use the Gboard.

USAGE TIPS:

a) The Gboard works by sending the same keystrokes as a traditional keyboard. This means that whenever you have the cursor focused in an input field, hitting the keys on the Gboard will result in standard characters being generated. That’s why we included an “ESC” key. Use the ESC key whenever you’d like to exit an input field to use a shortcut command.

b) You’ll notice there is no “SEND” shortcut on the Gboard because it can cause undesired results if used in the wrong context. So here’s a tip for sending an email without using your mouse. To send an email, after finishing composition, hit , on your main keyboard. Using the main keyboard and Gboard keyboard together in this way to use Gmail even faster!

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Whitten highlighted four areas – content, community, curation, and control – governing the evolution of the television and video content.

“I don’t believe we are currently in the golden age of the television or the golden age of the game console or the golden age of the Internet; frankly, five years from now I don’t know that you’ll be able to tell the difference between those worlds,” Whitten said.

Not surprisingly, Whitten used his talk to highlight recent additions to the Xbox 360 platform. With Netflix running on top of Xbox Live, consumers and gamers alike have access to hundreds of thousands of movies. Whitten called the shift between the Xbox 360 as a gaming platform and its evolution to a video platform as the “biggest surprise” of his job.

Microsoft implemented the Sky Player on the Xbox 360 in the U.K. in late October, adding Sky TV’s video content and on-demand programming for a subscription fee. While Whitten said that the service is now available to all, he also added that it was a “mistake” to launch the service as a full-fledged option, rather than roll it out on a limited basis. The service crashed three days after launch under an unexpectedly heavy bandwidth load.

It’s difficult to think of “community” as an addition to the service, Whitten said, since the Xbox originally launched as a matchmaking service allowing gamers to play and interact with each other over the Internet. In June, for example Microsoft signed deals to integrate Facebook, Twitter, and Last.fm, which the company recently rolled out.

In the areas of curation and control, however, Whitten looked more to the future than the recent past.

In the 1950s through the dawn of cable TV, Americans shared TV experiences, whether it be the network news or the annual viewing ofThe Wizard of Oz. Now, Whitten said, users have to think in terms of 2.1 million people watching a billion channels of experiences.

“It’s hard for me to think of that even in terms of a programming or channel guide,” Whitten said. “It’s hard for me to think of a channel 1 billion. I imagine you’d need a really good ‘up’ button on the remote control.”

In the future, content will be organized according to brand and/or user, Whitten said. When a user views a Nancy Grace or “The Daily Show” or a Bill O’Reilly, a user has a pretty good idea of what content will be associated with that particular name. But that direction will have to intersect with automated recommendations byNetflix and others.

“The context is not 1 billion channels, but one,” Whitten said. “One channel, with what I want, when I want it.”

And as Microsoft and its partners become more sophisticated about trying to determine what content users will be interested in, the methods of controlling or providing input to that content will become more sophisticated.

“With the flick of my wrist I can change a channel,” Whitten said. “With the power of my voice I can start a movie.”

Watching a movie is a passive input, but a TV should understand what you’re trying to do, Whitten added. “Laughter is an input,” he said. “Yelling at the TV when I know an answer on ‘Jeopardy’ is an input. Attention is an input. The number of people in the room at one time is an input.”

Microsoft’s goal is to make it easy and simple to find the content consumers want, and to share it with friends, Whitten said, and to enable experiences they care about. “It won’t be a remote control” that consumers use,” Whitten said. “A remote control is already too hard.”

Instead, Whitten said he envisions a future where Natal recognizes the users in the room, and their voices as well. Knowing the identity of the users will coalesce the content they’re interested in, and allow one of multiple users to control the interface. (In one recorded demonstration, Natal picked up on a user’s voice to control a game.)

“I believe that this will be the largest leap of TV experience since the remote control,” Whitten said of Natal.

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What does this mean? On Black Friday, anyone who calls 888-376-4336 and does a Google Search by voice, will see their results displayed on either the Reuters sign or the NASDAQ sign in Times Square. So, if you say something like “new Jonas Brothers CD,” the display will come up with a giant Google Map complete with signs showing you where you can find that. Also included is the embarrassment that everyone in Times Square has just seen what ridiculous thing you are searching for.

This is all a big promotion for Droid, the new Android phone built by Verizon and being heavily pushed by Google. And the promotion has actually been going on for the past couple of weeks in New York, but it previously has only run during 90 minutes timeslots in the afternoon or night. On Black Friday, it will be running for 20 hours straight. I would love to know how much that advertisement cost.

Here’s a site with the countdown to the event complete with the message: “Droid will do Times Square for 20 hours…” Minds out of the gutter, folks.

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Today we are open-sourcing the project as Chromium OS. We are doing this early, a year before Google Chrome OS will be ready for users, because we are eager to engage with partners, the open source community and developers. As with the Google Chrome browser, development will be done in the open from this point on. This means the code is free, accessible to anyone and open for contributions. The Chromium OS project includes our current code base, user interface experiments and some initial designs for ongoing development. This is the initial sketch and we will color it in over the course of the next year.

We want to take this opportunity to explain why we’re excited about the project and how it is a fundamentally different model of computing.

First, it’s all about the web. All apps are web apps. The entire experience takes place within the browser and there are no conventional desktop applications. This means users do not have to deal with installing, managing and updating programs.

Second, because all apps live within the browser, there are significant benefits to security. Unlike traditional operating systems, Chrome OS doesn’t trust the applications you run. Each app is contained within a security sandbox making it harder for malware and viruses to infect your computer. Furthermore, Chrome OS barely trusts itself. Every time you restart your computer the operating system verifies the integrity of its code. If your system has been compromised, it is designed to fix itself with a reboot. While no computer can be made completely secure, we’re going to make life much harder (and less profitable) for the bad guys. If you dig security, read the Chrome OS Security Overview or watch the video.

Most of all, we are obsessed with speed. We are taking out every unnecessary process, optimizing many operations and running everything possible in parallel. This means you can go from turning on the computer to surfing the web in a few seconds. Our obsession with speed goes all the way down to the metal. We are specifying reference hardware components to create the fastest experience for Google Chrome OS.

There is still a lot of work to do, and we’re excited to work with the open source community. We have benefited hugely from projects like GNU, the Linux Kernel, Moblin, Ubuntu, WebKit and many more. We will be contributing our code upstream and engaging closely with these and other open source efforts.

Google Chrome OS will be ready for consumers this time next year. Sign up here for updates or if you like building your operating system from source, get involved at chromium.org.

Lastly, here is a short video that explains why we’re so excited about Google Chrome OS.

Update at 8:55PM: Watch the video of our Google Chrome OS event, which took place earlier today.

Packed with beloved characters and remarkable new features, New Super Mario Bros. Wii takes the classic side-scrolling adventure of the Super Mario Bros. series and gives it a manic multiplayer boost. Featuring free-form multiplayer action, players can save their companions from danger or literally toss them right into it. While controlling Mario, Luigi or one of two playable Toad characters, players can jump in and join a friend’s Story Mode game at the start of any level. The game also features two dedicated multiplayer modes, Coin Battle mode and Free For All mode, that let players easily select their favorite stages and compete across a variety of objectives. Each copy of New Super Mario Bros. Wii comes in a red case with a foil-stamped cover.

Among the new features in New Super Mario Bros. Wii is Mario’s ability to transform into Penguin Mario, which allows him to toss snowballs and slide on his belly at breakneck speed. Players also can hop onto a Yoshi character and use his tongue to eat enemies, items and fireballs. The game also makes use of the Wii console’s unique motion controls, allowing players to tilt the Wii Remote controller to control seesaw platforms or shake it to send Mario skyward in his new Propeller Suit.

New Super Mario Bros. Wii introduces a new feature called Super Guide that offers players optional game-play tips if they are having trouble getting past particular parts of the game. Super Guide lets players watch as a computer-controlled Luigi character makes his way through any stage that the player finds difficult. At any time in the video, the player can take control of Luigi and complete the stage at his or her own pace.

“As the holiday season draws near, it feels especially appropriate to offer consumers a new Mario adventure that they can enjoy together with family and friends, for the first time in the series’ illustrious history,” said Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of Sales & Marketing. “New Super Mario Bros. Wii has something special for everyone, and lets players of all abilities explore the imaginative world of the Mushroom Kingdom like never before.”

Since the series’ debut in North America on the NES in 1986, more than 222 million Super Mario Bros. games have been sold worldwide. Mario remains one of the most recognizable characters in the entertainment world, and stands as a symbol of fun worldwide.

Remember that Wii features parental controls that let adults manage the content their children can access. For more information about this and other Wii features, visit Wii.com.

For more information about New Super Mario Bros. Wii, visit www.mariobroswii.com.

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Get ready to pull your jaw back off the floor. It seems the recent dramatic headlines of ‘One-Million Xbox Live Users Banned’ may have been over-dramatic, according to Xbox Live general manager Marc Whitten. In an interview for Venturebeat, the Microsoft man said that the numbers of gamers banned for using modded consoles was nowhere near a million.
Whitten said: “We didn’t release the number [of one-million banned modders]. I cannot explain to you why people would think it was a million people. It wasn’t a million people. Check the veracity of that claim. It was one news source.”

So there you have it, it seems there’s been a bit of Sunday Paper-esque tabloid-ery, that consequently ripped through the industry like wildfire. As Whitten implies, the actual figure of people banned would seem to be a lot smaller than those original reports. Meanwhile, in further developments, the Boutique law firm Abington IP has launched a lawsuit against Microsoft, accusing the giant of delaying the Xbox Live bans until AFTER the release of AAA titles such as Halo 3: ODST and Modern Warfare 2.

It believes it wanted to secure maximum new Live subscriptions before punishing owners of modded machines. It’s asking banned Xbox Live subscribers who didn’t get refunded, to lend their names to the cause.

The site reads: ”If you are an Xbox Live subscriber, had your modified Xbox console banned from Xbox Live, were not refunded a prorated sum for the time left on your subscription or have experienced other problems as a result of being banned, and would like to participate in a class action against Microsoft, please submit your information below.”

Which on both sides, makes for very interesting reading, especially as the lawsuit seems to be encouraging ’suspected game pirates’ to counter-punish Microsoft for its own questionable dealings. Doesn’t it? Thoughts please!

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All hail the Sky Player for Xbox. As well as being a video-on-demand system online, Sky Player has been streaming live channels for over a year to PC users, and Sky Player for Xbox tries to replicate that experience on a games console.

It’s a nice idea – and it effortlessly makes the best possible use of the Xbox 360’s luscious new interface to create a service that’s lots of fun to use.

It’s expensive to non-Sky subscribers though and certainly a niche product in the mass market, but for Sky converts it’s essentially a VoD solution for the home (or a second home) that beats Sky Anytime hands-down.

The look and feel of the interface is stunning. ‘Xboxy’ is the only way to describe it; sweeping between the icons for live channels, VoD content and movie listings is familiar and effortless.

There’s no way to personalise the service and it doesn’t make recommendations about content it might think you like, but it’s so easy to use and the on-screen menus are mostly lightning quick.

FEATURES

Most Xboxy of all the features is Party mode, which only works with live TV channels.

The screen shows your avatar watching a huge TV screen, which fills most of the space. Send invites to your friends and if they accept, their avatars appear next to yours, and interact using an E-mote; a small dial appears on the screen and you can play your avatar like a puppet, making him shout at the screen or clap ferociously.

Back to the serious stuff. Scroll to live TV and you’ll find a thumbnail playing the last live channel you visited (with sound) alongside a stack of other channels and a TV guide, though it only gives listings for the next 48 hours and can’t handle reminders.

In terms of content, Sky Player is an exact copy of the online version, but unless you already have access to (or stump up the cash for) the Entertainment or Sky Sports packages, it’s not much to get excited about.

The 16 free live channels comprise GOLD, Sky Real Lives, Sky Arts 1, MTV, Sky Sports News, Eurosport UK, Sky News, Nat Geo, Nat Geo Wild, History, Eden, Cartoon Network, Boomerang, Nickelodeon, Disney Channel and Nick Jr.

Add an Entertainment Pack and you’ll receive both the Sky Screen channels, which show the latest blockbusters on a loop – though that does seem decidedly old fashioned in the age of VoD.

Buy a Sky Sports Pack and you’ll get Sky Sports 1, Sky Sports 2, Sky Sports 3, Sky Sports Xtra, ESPN and ESPN Classic.

The movie VoD section is excellent and surely the backbone of Sky Player’s appeal. Stuffed with 421 movies (to be exact), you can browse via A-Z, genre, latest additions or most popular.

Choose one and you get a synopsis and information on the length, file size (for a future download service perhaps) and, best of all, a list of related films, which makes navigation even easier.

Aside from movies, there are repeats from Sky Sports, and a mix or free and paid documentaries from Sky, Nat Geo and the History Channel (at £0.98 an episode).

Some material – and occasionally, the interface as a whole – can be slow to load. Once it’s playing, you can call up a FF/RW/pause control and speed through content at 2x, 4x, 8x and 16x speeds.

VERDICT

We used the service on a 2Mpbs broadband line and the service struggled, buffering constantly, though upped to 6Mbps it worked without a hitch. If you do struggle, medium and low quality settings are available, but picture quality is very poor.

The advice is clear; don’t think about getting Sky Player on Xbox unless you always have upwards of 2Mbps.

What you’ll actually be able to watch on Sky Player depends on your regular Sky subscription.

If you already subscribe to the Sky Sports package via the satellite service, you can watch those same channels on your Xbox360 for free, wherever it’s used – though Xbox LIVE Gold membership is a prerequisite.

If you’re not a Sky subscriber and are looking at this as a way of getting live Premiership football into your life, you’ll need an Xbox LIVE Gold membership (£39.99 per year), a £15 Entertainment Pack for the movies, and a £19 Sports Pack.

That works out at £468 a year, though there is a £29.99 introductory deal that gets you three months of Xbox LIVE Gold and Sky Sports for a month.

If Sky Player and Xbox want to rival the BBC’s iPlayer as well as the PS3’s VoD service, it’s going to have to be super-slick, easy to use – and affordable.

In typical Sky fashion, Sky Player on Xbox fulfils those first two criteria with aplomb. Equally typical is its premium price for non-Sky subscribers, but if you’re already signed-up to its satellite service, Sky Player for Xbox is an innovation that introduces VoD and multiroom in the smoothest way possible.

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Entry into the smart phone category reflects Dell’s continued expansion into mobile internet products and services through value-added relationships with leading operators. Earlier this year Dell was the first mobile PC manufacturer to embed China Mobile’s 3G technology and services into its netbooks and quickly became the leading seller of netbooks through retail outlets in China. In addition Dell has existing agreements with other leading global telecom providers, including Vodafone in Europe; Australia/New Zealand, AT&T and Verizon in the U.S.; M1 and Starhub in Singapore; and Maxis in Malaysia, creating more opportunities to meet the needs of a connected lifestyle.

“Our entry into the smart phone category is a logical extension of Dell’s consumer product evolution over the past two years,” said Ron Garriques, President, Dell Global Consumer Group. “We are developing smaller and smarter mobile products that enable our customers to take their internet experience out of the home and do the things they want to do whenever and wherever they want.“

“This signals an important milestone in the long term partnership between China Mobile and Dell,” said a China Mobile spokesperson. “We are excited for Dell to be among the first manufacturers to introduce new technology based on the OPhone platform. We look forward to working with Dell as it brings innovative new products and services to add value to our customers’ lives.”

“As a leading innovation company in Brazil, Claro is proud of being the first wireless carrier in the world offering the 3G version of Dell’s smart phone. This confirms the Brazilian market strength and Claro as a leading actor in introducing new technology products and services to the country”, said João Cox, president for Claro. The initial Mini 3 smart phones are designed around the Android platform to best deliver power, flexibility and customization opportunities for both users and carriers.

Dell’s Mini 3 smart phones reflect the elegant look and style that demonstrates Dell’s commitment to design innovation. Details of phone models will be announced on a partner-by-partner basis when devices are available in stores, anticipated in late November for China Mobile and year’s end for Claro.

About Dell

People worldwide can buy Dell (NASDAQ: DELL) online, by phone and through more than 43,000 stores.

About China Mobile

Officially established on April 20th, 2000, China Mobile Communications Corporation (“China Mobile” for short) has a registered capital of RMB 51.8 billion and assets of over RMB 700 billion. China Mobile has been playing a leading role in the development of the mobile communications industry in China and holds an important position in the international arena as well. Listed among the Top Fortune 500 companies for 8 consecutive years, China Mobile’s latest ranking is No.148; China Mobile was also a partner of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.

Key features

• Slide-n-tilt 3.2″ 16M-color resistive touchscreen of 640 x 360 pixel resolution
• 5 megapixel autofocus camera with dual-LED flash and VGA@30fps video recording
• Symbian OS 9.4 with S60 5th edition UI with kinetic scrolling
• Slide-out three-row full QWERTY keyboard
• ARM 11 434MHz CPU and 128 MB of RAM
• Quad-band GSM support and 3G with 3.6Mbps HSDPA support
• Wi-Fi and GPS with A-GPS
• Digital compass
• 8GB onboard storage
• microSD card slot with microSDHC support
• Built-in accelerometer
• 3.5 mm audio jack and TV-out
• Stereo FM Radio with RDS
• microUSB port (charging) and stereo Bluetooth v2.0
• Web browser has full Flash and Java support
• Nice audio reproduction quality
• Office document viewer

Main disadvantages

• The S60 touch UI is still inconsistent
• Outdated camera interface and features
• No DivX or XviD video support out-of-the-box
• No smart dialing
• No office document editing (without a paid upgrade)
• No camera lens protection
• No FM transmitter (though that may be stretching it too far)

Nokia N97 mini vs Nokia N97

• More compact (113 x 52.5 x 14.2 mm, 75 cc vs 117.2 x 55.3 x 15.9 mm, 88 cc)
• Lighter (138g vs 150g)
• Smaller display (3.2″ vs 3.5″)
• Less internal memory (8GB vs 32GB)
• Smaller battery (1200 mAh vs 1500 mAh)
• No lens cover
• No FM transmitter
• Arrow keys vs D-pad

The N97 mini has quite a task on its hands, constantly being compared to the more high ranking Nokia N97 even though it comes later to the market. As usually happens in such cases, the price difference that would have been present if both handsets were launched simultaneously is reduced and the balance of powers has shifted. Still the reduced display (and mostly body size) is a welcome change for many users, who used to find the Nokia N97 intolerably bulky. We certainly hope it’s got a few tricks up its sleeves so it can put up the original N97 a good fight and differentiate enough beyond size and pricing.

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“Everyone wants to tweet, everyone wants to Facebook and I can tell you that we will expand the types of services we offer over time because we think this is just the core element for what the future of entertainment is,” said Neil Thompson. “That’s what we are trying to define and deliver all at the same time. The social capabilities that we bring are going to be at the heart of what we do in the future.

“Whatever technology that is, it is going to be a core part of the future. We never stop developing.”