New Dropbox Extension for Chrome adds a new feature to Gmail

Dropbox has released a new extension for Chrome that adds a nice new feature to Gmail. It's call Dropbox for Gmail. It allows you to more easily share files within Gmail. You can quickly add a link to a Dropbox file from within Gmail, just like you can link to a Google Drive file. There will be a Dropbox icon in Gmail's compose window that you click to browse and select files.

This is a great resource for people using Gmail and Dropbox. Check it out on the Chrome web store.






Related:

Dropbox adds new features - document preview and photo sharing

Lots of Great File Sync/Backup/Share services

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Google Inbox - a replacement for your email with some new features

Google's Inbox is there new email client that has a different layout and different ways to handle emails. I've been using it for a while now and love it.

Your emails are bundled by category (Promos, Purchases, Social Media, Travel and others) to keep them organized, you see each email at a glance in the main page, you can snooze an email (reminder for later) and pin emails to make sure they stay put if they are important. In addition, you can mark emails as "Done" which moves them into a different folder, but doesn't delete them, so you can still search for them. 

You can even set reminders for tasks at the top of the inbox - no more separate task list (this is new). There are also "assists" that help you remember what you need to do with that task and gather information related to the task (like your confirmation email, person's phone number, etc.) You can read more about these new features here: http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2014/12/assists-in-inbox-extra-helping-hand-for.html

These features are great for educators too - sort emails easier, snooze an email to work on later, set reminders, and more. 

You can read more about it and request an invite here: http://www.google.com/inbox/

Evernote releases some great new features

Evernote is my go to app. In fact, in my position as CIO, I use two apps for 90% of my work - Outlook for email and calendar and Evernote for all my notes, project planning and more. I keep meeting notes, project management, reference files, clip websites and even save emails with Evernote clipper for Outlook. I use it on all my devices: desktop, smartphone, Nexus 7, Livescribe pen, and ScanSnap scanner and Chromebook and it is an indispensable app.

One thing I love about Evernote is that they are always working to improve it. This month, Evernote has announced some great new features.

The first new feature is reminders. Reminders allow you to add alarms to notes, create a to do list by pinning notes and mark tasks as they are complete. I use them for tasks and even to remind me to check notes for other information and tasks inside meeting notes. This feature is available on all platforms.

The next feature is using the Chrome web clipper to clip Gmail emails and attachments. I use the Outlook clipper and it's a great way to save emails, and their attachments, to Evernote. With Gmail being so popular, and so many schools using Google Apps for Education, this is a great feature to have. Save the important stuff to your Evernote account and keep you email account clean.

Evernote has also improved Penultimate for iPads and Evernote Food.

The Evernote blog is a great way to find out about features and tips. This weeks tip is organizing your notebooks in Notebook Stacks, which is a great way to keep things organized.  Learn more →

Evernote is a great tool, that just keeps getting better.


Evernote for Education Resources

Gmail adds great features for multiple language support and use

Google has just announced some great new features to Gmail that can help teachers communicate with people around the world, as well as help English Language Learners.

The new features include over 100 virtual keyboards and transliteration tools to allow you to type in the language and keyboard layout that you want to, no matter what computer you are on. It is available in Settings > Language > Enable input tools. 75 Languages are now supported.

Once enabled, the Input Tools icon will appear next to the Settings button in the toolbar.

Input Tools are also available in Chrome extension, the Windows desktop client or the Android app.


Related:

Google for Education Resources

Star and Label Gmail messages before sending - organize and follow up

 

Gmail now lets you star and label outgoing messages before you send them. This is a great new feature that allows you to organize messages right from the start.

It can also be useful to help you remember to follow up on important emails by labeling in a category like "follow up" or starring them. You can also do it in the sent folder after you have sent an email.

Educators could use this to organize sent emails by topic (parent communication, student issue, etc.) and then make it easier to follow up on emails that haven't been returned.

 

Source: The Official Gmail Blog 

Related:

Google for Educators resources, tools and tips

Why I use Google's Products as an Educator

My Favorite Resources for Teachers and Students

Google updates image search, goo.gl, and gmail with new features

Google has been busy this week with updates and new features to many of it's products and services. They updated Google Calendar's favicon to display the actual date instead of just "31", A Google A Day puzzle, and Google Docs received pagination and native printing. Now, there are three more updates from Google. These updates will be rolling out over the next few days. 


1. Google Recent Image Search - Google's image search has increased the speed of indexing of images and highlights recent results by showing a small label below the image with the date the image was posted online. This can help when searching for a timely or newsworthy topic and wanting to see the newest images. 




2. Goo.gl URL shortener gets new features - goo.gl is Google's URL shortening service. It has a lot of great features, described here, and just got some improvements. When you create a new short URL on the goo.gl site, the new URL text will be automatically highlighted to make it easier to copy to the clipboard. 

One of the cool features of goo.gl is the dashboard where you can see past url's you've shortened and how many times someone has clicked on that shortened url.  You can now remove items from the dashboard to only keep the ones you really want to track visible.

You can also now report goo.gl URLs that are for spam sites using goo.gl/spam-report. 




3. “Don’t forget Bob” and “Got the wrong Bob?” are two Gmail Labs features that help prevent you from forgetting to include someone on an email, and sending a message to the wrong person with a similar name to the person you meant to email — like emailing Bob (your boss) instead of Bob (your friend). 

As you type in your recipients, Gmail will automatically make suggestions based on the groups of people you email most often. When you see a suggestion to add a person you’ve forgotten, all you have to do is click on their name to add them.



Similarly, if you click on a suggestion to replace a mistakenly added recipient, the proverbial “wrong Bob” will be replaced by the right one.

All of these updates should make users of Google's products feel comfortable and reassured that Google will continue to support and improve the products that they've come to depend on. 




Reference: Official Google Blog (and images are from here also)


(I've written a lot about Google's apps. I do not get paid or compensated by Google for this. I have found their apps to be well designed and easy to use.)