Google enhances and open sources its Update software

Google has both refreshed and open sourced its Google Update software, which is code-named Omaha. By making the software available under the open source Apache license, developers working on an auto-updater can use Google's code, which also enables Google to publish updates and plug security holes.

"Omaha allows us to add features seamlessly and address any bugs or security problems, all without concern that these updates will disrupt our users," wrote Myles Jordan of Google's software engineering team in a blog post on Friday. "Omaha allowed us to ship 12 versions of Chrome beta in 4 months, without requiring Chrome users to work hard to keep their browsers up to date. Such behavior is very useful for new features, but essential for security vulnerabilities."

Jordan explained that Google products, including Chrome and Google Earth, all use Google update as a shared infrastructure for keeping products up to date on users' PCs.

Sharing the source code will also provide transparency and give users more control over the whole process, Jordan wrote, since Google Update runs behind the scenes on a user PC and there is no easy way to stop it.

"Obviously, we understand that not everyone is both willing and able to read through our code, but we hope that those of you who do will confirm for the rest that Google Update's functionality serves well to keep your software up to date," Jordan added.
Source: http://www.techworld.com.au/index.php?q=article/299057/google_enhances_open_sources_its_update_software&fp=4194304&fpid=1

Google Update Always Running in the Background? Not Anymore

Google open source blog informs that the google update the software used by Google Chrome and other applications for automatic updates, no longer runs in the background. "Until now, Google Update would always run in the background, functioning primarily as a reliable scheduler performing update checks at periodic time intervals. With today's release, Google Update now uses the Windows Task Scheduler to only run at periodic intervals."

I've checked the Task Scheduler and I've found that Google Update runs every hour. You can change how often it runs and even disable the task, but I'm not sure if other Google applications change your settings. "If this task is disabled or stopped, your Google software will not be kept up to date, meaning security vulnerabilities that may arise cannot be fixed and features may not work. This task uninstalls itself when there is no Google software using it," explains Google.

Since Google Chrome is regularly updated, it's not a good idea to disable the updater, thinking that you'll install the new versions manually.
The first good news is that you'll no longer see googleupdate.exe in the list of processes when you open the Task Manager. The second good news is that Google Update's team listens to users and constantly improves the software: Google Update is now open source and administrators can disable it using the Local Group Policy.

http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2009/07/google-update-always-running-in.html

Google's Android seen gaining support

HELSINKI (Reuters) -

Google's Android operating system is gaining support in the mobile industry, with 8 million Android phones to be sold in 2009, up 10-fold from a year ago, research firm Strategy Analytics said on Monday.

With the overall handset market shrinking as economies slow globally, the mobile industry is focusing investment on more advanced smartphones and their software.

Google's Android was introduced in the United States in the second half of 2008, and now all top cell phone vendors except Nokia have said they would use Android. "Android is now in a good position to become a top-tier player in smartphones over the next two to three years," said Neil Mawston, a director at Strategy Analytics.

Mawston said handset vendors and operators like T-Mobile and Vodafone are attracted to Android's relatively low-cost licensing model, its semi-open-source structure and Google's support for services.

Despite the 10-fold growth forecast for 2009, with 8 million phones sold Android would lag far behind market leader Symbian, andResearch in Motion, Microsoft, or Apple.

On average, the smartphone market is expected to grow 10-20 percent this year from 152 million phones sold last year.

Roughly half of these used Symbian operating system, while RIM sold 23.5 million, Microsoft 20 million and Apple 13.7 million phones, Strategy Analytics said.

Nokia bought out other shareholders of Symbian last year and gave all its software to an independent foundation, which now develops it on an open-source basis.

Nokia uses only Symbian software in its smartphones, while Symbian is also the key platform for Sony Ericsson, which has said it will also use Windows and Android as complementary offerings.

http://tech.yahoo.com/news/nm/20090511/tc_nm/us_mobiles_google

Google wave is a killer application watch out

A new service which–well, it’s one of the most ambitious services that Google or anyone else has cooked up? How ambitious? Project leader Lars Rasmussen says that it began with the question “What might e-mail look like if it were invented today?” ... It:

Is a service that looks like a rich piece of client software;

Behaves like sophisticated threaded e-mail;

Acts like IM when multiple collaborators are online at once.

Is one of the most real-time collaborative tools I’ve ever seen.

Has revision marking and versioning for workgroup editing.

Has instant photo sharing.

Allows its functionality to be embedded into blogs and social networks;

Can serve as a container for OpenSocial applications;

Has what Google says is a revolutionary spell checker;

Comes in mobile flavors for Android and iPhone;

Is an open-source project that lets developers write both Wave extensions ... and their own servers.

http://blogs.computerworld.com/google_wave_who_what_where_why_when

New Secure Data connector

New Secure Data Connector:

With Google Secure Data Connector, employees you specify can interact with authorized data from your on-premise applications within Google Sites, Google Docs and custom App Engine applications, even when employees aren't on your corporate network.

Editions included:

Premier and Education Editions

Languages included:

US English

How to access what's new:

To download and begin using the Google Secure Data Connector, administrators should sign into the administrative control panel, go to 'Advanced tools' and follow the links under the 'Secure Data Connector' section.

Learn how to upgrade to Google Apps Premier Edition to use this feature.

For more information:

http://code.google.com/securedataconnector/

Google India labs Google Notice board

Google India has launched a new application called “Google Noticeboard” helping people to share and easily access information over the Internet. Google Noticeboard is a Firefox extension that is installed and configured on shared computers by an operator. After the initial configuration, the Noticeboard application enables community members to exchange information over the Internet without an intermediary. As a part of the configuration, each community Noticeboard is associated with an email address and a list of contacts.

For more details follow google labs link

http://labs.google.co.in/noticeboard/