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Google Docs: Everything you need to know about the online word processor
The one Google Docs guide to rule them all
Google Docs is Google's browser-based word processor, which many use as a free alternative to Microsoft Word. While you can use it to create and format documents, an interesting feature of Google Docs is that it allows people to collaborate in real time. You can work with others on the same document, whether using your laptop at work or a budget Android smartphone while traveling.
Google Docs is making it easier to follow who's editing shared files
See when edits were made and what was changed with "Show Editors"
Google Docs made its name on collaboration. With documents synced and auto-saved across the web, jumping into an upcoming project for work is quick and simple. Of course, when you're working with multiple team members, knowing who edited what can be challenging. With its latest update, Google Docs has made it a lot easier for Workspace users to keep track of changes.
Collaborative Spotify playlists are getting more personal
So that's who added Anastasia to the Disney playlist
As one of the top music streaming services around the globe, Spotify is always testing out new features and improvements to make sure it holds onto that market share. Making playlists with friends has long been one of Spotify's most helpful features, and now the company is announcing a list of upgrades that make collaborating on a playlist easier than ever.
Master & Dynamic teams up with Leica to create striking new headphones and earbuds
The MW07 Plus true wireless earbuds and MW65 over-ear headphones get a matte black makeover
New York audio brand Master & Dynamic already makes some of the most stylish headphones and earbuds around, but their ongoing collaboration with camera maker Leica has been responsible for some of the most attractive pieces. The two have once again teamed up to re-style the MW07 Plus true wireless earbuds and MW65 over-ear headphones, and the results are rather stunning.
We've all written to someone about an urgent topic, only to get an automatic reply in return saying the person is currently out of office. Google is rolling out a new feature in Gmail and Calendar to help you avoid unnecessarily contacting people who are unable to reply, as it will now let you know your co-worker is out of office before you even write to them.
Google Docs made collaborating on files so much easier, as it lets several people edit the same document concurrently, without having to worry about version numbers or consolidating changes. However, there are times when you can't use the service and have to rely on locally saved files. This is often the case when interacting with clients or people unfamiliar with collaborative software, who send their edits without activating Revision mode. For these cases, it's always handy to have the computer compare the two versions and highlight changes for you. Although Microsoft Word has been capable of doing this for ages, Google just made it possible on its software.
SMS is garbage, but here in the US, it's ubiquitous. Rich Communication Services messaging — RCS for short — is a fan favorite candidate to replace it. The hope is that, eventually, everybody will be able to text everybody else in a way that doesn't suck. Google and Samsung announced today that they're working together to that end, collaborating to make sure each company's RCS platform (and messaging app) plays nice with the other.
In a rather unconventional move, Amazon has announced a partnership with Best Buy. The next generation of Amazon Fire TV Edition-branded smart TVs will be exclusively sold by Best Buy at retail stores, on BestBuy.com, and most interestingly, by Best Buy on Amazon.com as a third-party seller for the very first time.
Getting things done is easier when a team is all on the same page, so keeping individual to-do lists might not be ideal. Taskade is a new app that seeks to make your bullet lists and random thoughts more collaborative with quick sharing and built-in chat features. It's free, too.
For the first thirty years of my life, I was a lone wolf both offline and online. Then a funny Tinder conversation (of all places, gosh do I know!) with a stranger turned into a dinner, and we were pretty much inseparable since. Suddenly, most of the "me" decisions became "we," and as much as I like to think that choosing between Google Drive and Dropbox isn't a life or death situation, I do rely a lot on the services I use daily. They have to enable me to do things efficiently and smoothly, not stand in the way. My online choices were never a matter of flipping a coin but a thoughtful process that became doubly so when I knew I had to collaborate and share part of my data with someone else who might have different tastes and requirements than mine.
While you can stick to just one pane at a time, you can also go up to three. Even if most of the chatting goes on in a single channel, it can be very helpful to have other channels, maybe those where most of the activity comes from bots, open to view activity in a live feed type of environment.
Last summer, Microsoft launched Planner as part of its Office 365 suite of productivity apps for businesses and schools. It could readily be described as a Trello style kanban board with the collaborative functionality of a tool like Basecamp rolled in as well. After the launch of the iOS app last week, Microsoft is now bringing Planner to Android.
I had never heard of GigJam before today, but it immediately impressed me. This Office365 service, which started out as a closed Preview then was opened to everyone on Windows, Mac, and iOS in June of 2016, is now out of its testing phase and finally available on the Play Store.
LG is still cheekily announcing bits and pieces of its G5 flagship before the phone itself. After hinting at the always-on display and unveiling a fancy touch cover for the phone, it's now ramping up expectations about the audio performance of the G5 by announcing a collaboration with B&O PLAY, a sub-division of Bang & Olufsen, the well respected Danish audio and video company.
Dropbox doesn't just make syncing and backing up files easier done than said, it serves as a great way to collaborate on projects too. But managing shared folders and permissions isn't as simple as dragging files into a folder and watching them fly off into the sky (that's how the cloud metaphor works, right?). To address this, Dropbox has unveiled a new feature to simplify life for teams.
In the latest version, Dropbox adds a much-needed favor for collaborative teams and users who rely on effective communication across updated files. But who gives a crap about that, because the app has also added GIF support.
In its ongoing effort to make classrooms, well, more Googley, Google has a new batch of updates for its Classroom program today.
It's challenging to differentiate yourself in a field crowded by the likes of Evernote, Todoist, and Wunderlist. All of these services can manage your lists just fine, and they can each sync across whichever devices you want them to. So what does Any.do have up its sleeve for its big 2.0 release?
Box is a cloud storage provider that is challenging for the average consumer to get excited about. That's because while competitors chased around general users, Box kept its sights focused primarily on the enterprise market. Yet you don't have to be a business client to take advantage of the latest update, as the service is available for free to consumers as well.