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Google Hangouts now lets App customers video chat with up to 25 participants

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You’ll soon be able to hold video chat meetings with much larger groups as today Google begins increasing the number of participants Apps customers can have in a Google Hangouts video call at any one time. The old limit of 10 participants today gets increased to 25 users.

The change comes to Apps customers only— Business, Government, and Education—  while all other Hangouts users will still have the old limit of 10 participants for video.

Google notes that it will only show “the 10 most active video call participants” along the bottom of the video chat to maintain quality, but it will switch on the fly between active users for the new limit of up to 25 participants.

All Apps customers should start to see the new participant limit increase roll out over the next few days.

PSA: First Android for Work online conference happening November 4th

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Google isn’t just building Android for mainstream consumers — the company also wants to tackle the business sector. And to educate business owners on why they might want to take advantage of what Google has to offer, the Mountain View company is holding its first Android for Work online conference, dubbed Android for Work Live, on November 4th.

At Android for Work Live, you’ll:

  • Hear from Andrew Toy, product management director for Android for Work, who’ll discuss the broad vision of Android in the workplace and how businesses can mobilize every worker and workflow.
  • Learn how Android’s vast selection of devices – from affordable phones to locked-down hardware and customized devices – creates choice and agility for BYOD, corporate deployments and single-purpose scenarios.
  • Get an in-depth look at how companies can rely on Android’s built-in multi-layered protections to keep business data secure and managed across all devices in an overview from Adrian Ludwig, technical lead for Android security.
  • Hear insights from Android customers, including Guardian Life Insurance Company.

If this sounds interesting to you, Google says you can register for the event over at the Google for Work website.

Sony Mobile CEO: Cash flow is ‘very healthy,’ no plans to leave the smartphone business

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Following news of intense mobile unit layoffs and more than underwhelming 2014 results, rumors began spreading that Sony Mobile had plans to essentially shutter its smartphone business. These were proven false for the time being when the company launched its Xperia Z4 handset (and the subsequent Xperia Z4v for Verizon stateside), but now Sony Mobile CEO Hiroki Totoki has come out (via Arabian Business) to further reiterate that it has no plans to leave the smartphone business…
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Pro-tip: Use Boomerang for Gmail to schedule emails to be delivered later

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For many of us, email is a necessary evil. Necessary because most of the business world still uses email to communicate important information, evil because it can end up controlling your life. When someone emails you with a question, or a request, or whatever else, they’re putting you on the offensive – giving you tasks to accomplish and things to do. But there’s one selfish act you can take to make the experience a little better for yourself – scheduling.


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Samsung announces Q1 2015 revenue of $44 billion, operating profit of $5.63 billion

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After releasing its earnings guidance earlier this month, Samsung has just posed its official Q1 2015 earnings. The company reports an operating profit of $5.63 billion off of revenues of $44 billion. These numbers represent a drop in operating profits year-over-year, down from $7.8 billion in Q1 2014.


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HTC posts Q1 2015 earnings guidance, expects revenue & profit to be up year-over-year

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Samsung released its earnings guidance for Q1 2015 earlier this evening, and now HTC has done the same. Reuters reports that HTC expects a net profit of $11.6 million for the first quarter of 2015 off of revenue of $1.3 billion. While these numbers are down slightly when compared to Q4 of 2014, they are up significantly from the year ago quarter.


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Facebook unveils platform to integrate third-party apps, customer support for businesses into Messenger

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During its F8 Developer Conference today, Facebook announced a new Facebook Messenger Platform that will allow third-party apps to integrate with its popular Messenger app.
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T-Mobile promises rates won’t rise, now paying Verizon Edge & AT&T Next bills for switchers, more

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Today during its latest Un-carrier event, T-Mobile announced new initiatives including brand new plans and pricing for businesses and a promise to all of its customers that it won’t increase prices. It’s also paying off bills for those locked into leasing plans on other carriers if they switch to T-Mobile. 

That “Un-contract” guarantee that prices won’t increase goes for all of its Simple Choice plans (including Simple Choice promotional plans) as long as you remain a T-Mobile customer with a qualifying plan. However, the carrier will only offer the guarantee to those with unlimited 4G LTE data for two years. The guarantee will automatically start for all existing customers on March 22nd.
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Google testing new direct-to-business chat platform powered by Hangouts

Matt Gibstein on Twitter: %22Super interesting: @Google search now offering the ability to chat with local businesses (a la @Path Talk). http:::t.co:eksoBhZ6wk%22 2015-02-24 16-08-49

Google is testing an interesting new feature in search, as spotted by one Matt Gibstein on Twitter. As you can see in the above screenshot, there’s a small “Chat” icon next to the phone number of a business called “Dizengoff” in Philadelphia—and it looks like clicking it will launch you into a chat session directly with that business via Hangouts. 
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Samsung issues Q4 2014 earnings guidance, expects 37% decrease in profit year-over-year

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Samsung tonight has issued its earnings guidance for the fourth quarter of 2014. The company says that it expects to, yet again, report a decline in operating profit and sales. Samsung estimates that its operating profit for Q4 2014 as 5.2 trillion won, or $4.5 billion. That’s a decrease of roughly 37 percent when compared to the $8.3 billion reported in Q4 2013. The number does, however, beat analyst expectations of 4.8 trillion won.


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Google rolls out mobile Lightbox ads globally; adds custom columns to AdWords reporting

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Lightbox – the scalable multimedia ads that Google first introduced to the desktop back in 2012 and finally brought to mobile devices in September of this year – are now available to all AdWords advertisers globally.

The Lightbox format allows advertisers to quickly and easily combine existing video, images and maps in an HTML5 ad that will scale correctly for all standard ad sizes and devices. Hovering over the ad expands them to full-size no matter what the device … 
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Uber could take on Amazon as it taps Google’s head of same-day delivery business

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Uber has already disrupted taxi service in metropolitan areas like San Francisco, New York and Chicago with its affordable and convenient ride-sharing service, and now the multibillion dollar startup could be planning to use its massive fleet of vehicles and drivers to take on delivery services like Amazon Prime, Google Express, FedEx and UPS.
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Android picks up five points from iOS in the enterprise market, reaches 32 percent market share

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The latest enterprise market share data from Good Technology shows that Android gained five points from iOS, hitting almost a third of the market at 32 percent while iOS fell from 72 to 67 percent. Windows Phone remains flat (and irrelevant) at just 1 percent. (BlackBerry data is not included as the company uses its own servers and activations are invisible to Good Technology.)

What’s particularly impressive about the numbers is that Good’s technology mostly connects mobile devices to Exchange servers and organizations that use Google services for enterprise, which are more likely to Android, aren’t being counted here…


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Sprint partners with Google to sell Google Apps for Business w/ free support, training

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Sprint and Google announced a partnership today that will see the carrier sell Apps for Business, Google’s productivity suite of products for enterprise, while offering deployment and support as a complete solution. Sprint is essentially becoming a reseller as part of the Google Apps Partner Program.

“Google Apps helps businesses work better together with familiar tools they can trust,” said Murali Sitaram, director of strategic partnerships for Google Enterprise. “Our partners are critical in this effort, providing valuable cloud and mobility solutions to customers of all sizes and across diverse industries. We are pleased to welcome Sprint to the Google Apps Partner Program, where they will provide Google Apps and added services to help customers work the way they live.”

In its press release, Sprint said its offering of Google Apps for Business will include “24/7 support and online training included at no charge … all with a mobile-centric approach that enables the use of Google Apps on mobile devices.”


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Google boasts that it generated $111 billion in economic activity for 1.5 million US businesses in 2013

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Google has published its annual Economic Impact Report (PDF) that reveals some interesting statistics about how the web and its tools are helping American businesses. Last year, the report claims that Google tools helped generate $111 billion of economic activity for 1.5 million businesses, web-based publishers and non-profit organizations across the United States. 
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Google continues enterprise push for Google apps with delegated contacts search

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Google has announced a new feature for enterprise users of Google Apps: the ability for assistants and other team members to search for particular people in their boss’s contacts list.

Contacts delegation allows enterprise users to delegate full access to the contacts in their “My Contacts” group without granting access to their mail or anything else in their accounts. […]

To save users time when locating specific delegated contacts, we’ve now added search functionality. Delegates can search delegator contacts by selecting the delegator contact group in the navigation pane, and then searching.

It’s not the most exciting of new features, but is one of those small things that can make a worthwhile difference to a PA who might have to contact a dozen or more people a day – and every improvement like that helps Google build its case for broader enterprise adoption of Google Apps.

HTC One M8 and mid-range phones put the company back in the black after a string of losses

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HTC, which started losing money last October, has kept its promise to return to the black in Q2 this year according to unaudited figures revealed in a brief statement.

Unaudited quarterly revenue was NT$65.06 billion and net profit before tax was NT$2.76 billion. Operating profit was NT$2.43 billion, and net profit after tax was NT$2.26 billion

The company said in February that it planned to follow Samsung’s lead in making handsets across all price-points, stating that it had “missed a huge chunk of the mid-tier market.” Revealing further losses in April, the company said that it expected to return to profit in Q2 thanks to both new mid-range phones like the Desire 816 and its well-regarded flagship One M8 … 
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Google announces its first Glass at Work Certified Partners

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Google Glass may not have the best reputation in the workplace, but Mountain View is trying to change that. Today, the company announced its first wave of Glass at Work Certified Partners. This daring new brood looking to push Google’s wearable computer into the enterprise market include partners like APX Labs, Augmedix, CrowdOptic, GuidiGO and Wearable Intelligence.


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New ‘Google My Business’ service allows businesses to manage Search, Maps and Google+ information

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Google, in a post on its “Google and Your Business” blog, has just unveiled a new service for small business. Dubbed Google My Business, the service is essentially a central location for small business owners to control how their businesses appear in Google search results, Maps, and more.


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Google buys enterprise mobile device management startup Divide

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The Wall Street Journal reports that Google is purchasing Divide, a company that builds mobile device management software for enterprise customers. Divide confirmed the deal in an announcement on its website saying it will be joining the Android team and that existing customers will continue to be able to access the service (above).

Divide provides a cloud-based service that lets companies and large organizations oversee and manage mobile devices used by employees on their networks. The software can create separate work environments on personal devices used by employees, offers a number of security features, and also supports both Android and iOS:
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See inside the Galaxy Gear 2 as iFixit gives it high repairability rating

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iFixit has done a tear-down of Samsung’s Galaxy Gear 2 smartwatch, giving it a score of 8/10 for repairability. The company praised the ease of replacement of the watch-strap, and says that it’s easy to open the case and replace the battery.

The only bad news is that the display assembly is a fused unit, meaning any failure in its components would require the entire assembly to be replaced.

The Gear 2 ditched Android in favor of Tizen, and better power management means that the battery now lasts 2-3 days. The watch goes on sale on Friday, but pre-orders are available on Amazon.

Google Apps paying $15 to acquire each new customer through new referral program

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Google announced today on its Enterprise blog that it’s introducing a new Google apps referral program that will see the company payout $15 for each new customer referred through the program.

Many of the millions of Google Apps customers learned about tools like Hangouts, Drive and Gmail for business from their customers, friends and networks. To help continue the momentum, we’re launching the Google Apps Referral Program. The referral program makes it easy to share Google Apps with your network and show them how they too can use these tools at work. To show our appreciation, we’re offering a $15 referral bonus for each new Google Apps user you refer.

Those interested in joining the referral program will need a valid taxpayer ID number and bank account for direct deposits. Google also says it will provide email and website templates that can be used to send a unique referral link to potential customers.Google Apps users in the US and Canada that are interested in joining the referral program can do so here.

Update: We had a quick Q&A with Google pasted below:

  • Are you phasing out the $5/user/year you guys give to IT service providers or is that staying? This program does not impact the amount provided to Google Apps Resellers.
  • Is it an affilaite program?   After joining the program, members will receive $15 for every user that signs up from their recommendations. In order to receive the incentive, referrals must be Google Apps customers for at least 4 months. Then we’ll make a direct deposit to the referee’s bank account every month for the amount they’ve earned. 
  • How long do people have to stay in the program for a payout? I’m assuming the $15 comes with a year program signup. In order to receive the incentive, referrals must be Google Apps customers for at least 4 months. Then we’ll make a direct deposit to the referee’s bank account every month for the amount they’ve earned. 
  • Will Google be expanding this to include $ on apps or Android apps or hardware/Nexus products? (Hope so!) We’re excited about today’s launch of the Google Apps Referral Program, but have nothing else to announce.

The fine print from Google is below:
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Survey: workers willing to pay out-of-pocket for Google and Marketplace apps

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The Wall Street Journal points to a recent survey in which over 1,100 IT administrators and business users were asked about their use of Google Apps in the workplace. According to the report, over two-thirds of respondents said that they prefer Google’s services to the point that they would be willing to spend their own hard-earned money on Google Apps for use in the office.

The survey also indicates a strong correlation between businesses that allow workers to bring their own devices for use at work and support for Google’s software. Of those surveyed, 83% said they brought their own mobile devices to work. It seems that Google’s move to create software for everyday usage has created an path to the workplace through employees who want to make their work tasts as easy to manage as their personal tasks.


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Using your own smartphone at work? Watch that it doesn’t get wiped when you leave …

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Employees who use their own electronic devices at work under a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) arrangement may have unwittingly authorised their employer to remotely wipe their device when they leave the company, reports the WSJ.

In early October, Michael Irvin stood up to leave a New York City restaurant when he glanced at his iPhone and noticed it was powering off. When he turned it back on again, all of his information—email programs, contacts, family photos, apps and music he had downloaded—had vanished […]

It wasn’t a malfunction. The device had been wiped clean by AlphaCare of New York, the client he had been working for full-time since April. Mr. Irvin received an email from his AlphaCare address that day confirming the phone had been remotely erased.

A survey found that 21 percent of companies perform a remote wipe of employee-owned devices registered on the company network, with employees ostensibly agreeing to this when they connect to the company network.

Many employers have a pro forma user agreement that pops up when employees connect to an email or network server via a personal device, he added. But even if these documents explicitly state that the company may perform remote wipes, workers often don’t take the time to read it before clicking the “I agree” button.

The legality of the practice has reportedly not yet been tested in court.

In principle, backup should allow wiped Android devices to be restored, but you may want to pay a little more attention to the small-print next time one of those corporate messages pops up on your screen, to find out what it is you’ve been agreeing to …