Online support

If you want to get good support for the products you own, your best bet is usually to skip calling the official support line and find other real users of your product. Somewhere out there, you can be sure, there's a geek who knows the ins and outs of the ice maker on your Frigidaire. Or at the very least, how to troubleshoot your HP Windows Home Server box.

(Click on the form to try it for real.) The spreadsheet in Google Docs now supports independent form entry. That means that if someone wants to use a Google spreadsheet as a database, they can ask others to fill in data by putting information into a nice, compact form, instead of into the spreadsheet itself. As is typical in Google Docs, this feature is simple, easy to use, but somewhat underpowered. For example, the form cannot be easily embedded in a Web page, and there"s no data validation on form entries. I still recommend WuFoo for online data collection, and there are other good online databases allow embed forms (and export data to a spreadsheet for quick processing). ***

Since I started synchronizing my e-mail inboxes a few months ago, I rarely even open my Outlook mail client. I much prefer seeing the messages sent to my ISP's POP account and those sent to my Gmail account together in my Gmail inbox. But I still have to open Outlook to view my calendar, which I've been using for years, even though I now put many of my nonwork appointments in Google Calendar, which I can access from my iPhone or any Internet-connected PC. I thought I found a free program that would let me synchronize the two calendars automatically. Synchronization Technologies' SyncMyCal claims to let you sync multiple Outlook calendars with your Google Calendar. ***

The move to archive nearly everything we do online has been spearheaded mainly by Google in both Gmail as well as Google Web history. The same thing is happening in the chat space with Meebo and Google Talk, as well as desktop chat clients that have had integrated chat logging for years now. The one thing missing has been a way to take those locally saved conversations and make them available for search and reading while away from your home machine. IM History and Simkl are two companies have jumped on the task in an attempt to let people archive everything they"ve talked about, as long as they"re willing to trust their log-in information to a third party. Like financial service ***

Per my previous rant on Web start-ups that lack a Big Idea, here"s one I appreciate, since it"s trying to solve a real problem: NetBooks. This company has built a Web-based suite of interconnected apps designed to run a small business. It"s a noble effort, because the small-business market is murder. It"s not that there"s a lack of customers, it"s just that they are so hard to reach and so different from each other. Building a universal small-biz app is a tricky balancing act. It looks to me like NetBooks might eventually pull it off, although I"d wait for a Version 2 before I"d recommend the service to my friends who run their own small businesses. ***

Here"s a twist on the all-in-one cell phone chat client--make it call your contacts too. Fring is a free VoIP and chat client. The downloadable app harnesses your cell phone"s Internet connection into phone calls and chats with buddies on Skype, Twitter, MSN Messenger, Google Talk, and ICQ. Your carrier will slap you with no accruing SMS fee, but you"d better have Wi-Fi reception or an unlimited data plan if you want to chat freely and stay in the black. ***

Customers who want to try running software on Red Hat Enterprise Linux using Amazon's Elastic Computing Cloud now can get started. The leading Linux seller announced Monday that its beta program for the online service is now open to the public. The for-fee program includes email-based support. Initially, the service will use the latest release of RHEL, version 5.1, but new releases will be issued later, Red Hat said. ***

Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint and their Office allies can be great applications, but not everybody needs everything they offer. How do you know where to start when shopping for alternative software? You"ll save money with a different brand, but will it do the trick? Should you buy boxed software, download freebies for your hard drive, access browser-based apps, or juggle all of the above? We"ve reviewed nine productivity suites--including downloads and online services--and cooked up a jumbo chart mixing up their gumbo of features and file formats. IBM"s release of Lotus Symphony beta added more spice to the stew last week, while continuous updates to the online applications keep us on our toes. All nine products support traditional Microsoft Office files, although not all can read the new Office 2007 formats. ***

As I said last week in my post about Apple's iPod announcements, I ordered a new 160GB iPod classic as soon as the Apple Store was back online. It arrived today (Monday)--five days later, from Shanghai--with my custom engraving. I think that's pretty darn excellent. The iPod packaging has gotten a lot smaller. A box the size of those that contained my first two iPods (a third-generation model, then a fourth-generation iPod when the third-gen model died) could probably hold about six of the new iPod classic packages. I saw the new iPod nano packaging at a local Apple Store this evening, and it's much smaller--and very cool, since it presents the iPod itself under clear plastic. Anyway, when my iPod arrived, I turned it on and selected English as my preferred language. ***

Today, Google is opening up its educational tier of Google Apps to nonprofit organizations within the United States. Registered 501c3 nonprofits will be able to use and deploy the educational version of Google Apps, which gives organizations unlimited users, free phone support, API integration, and e-mail migration (to transfer existing in-boxes to the Apps version of Gmail). The company made the announcement this evening at the Google campus in Mountain View, CA where several nonprofits--including Mercy Corps, Idealist.org, ***

Skype's business model is taking a distinct eBay shape. The latest software from the Luxembourg-based Internet telephony specialist, acquired by the online-auction king in 2005, enables users to offer services over the company's Internet voice and video network. Skype 3.1, which was released on Wednesday for Windows PCs, includes a feature called SkypeFind that lets users list and rate local businesses. It also includes a beta version of Skype Prime, a "marketplace which brings together those people who have expertise or knowledge to sell with others who are seeking advice and happy to pay for it," according to the company. ***

Calgoo, the Java-based app that syncs up your online and offline calendars (previous coverage here), launches its second version today, and has graduated from a closed beta to a public download. With the update comes support for iCal, Microsoft Outlook, and both tiers of Google Apps (free and premiere). It"s also undergone a face-lift that makes it similar to Apple"s iCal with a touch of Outlook. ***

So Adobe made a huge revelation today, saying it plans to launch a web-based version of Photoshop within six months. The free, ad-supported site will compete with PXN8, Fauxto, Picture2Life, Picnik, Preloadr, Snipshot (formerly Pixoh) and other online photo apps covered here in the past. ***

One can’t underscore the importance of backing up data. We have all had a terrible experience when we have lost our data. Of course there are hard drives, and other data back solutions. Lately online storage solutions like Box.net and Xdrive, DivShare, Crashplan, and Dropboks have become popular. Add hosted file service for sending large data files called YouBackItUp to this ever growing list of solutions. Similar to YouSendIt and senduit, YouBackItUp holds your uploaded files for up to 20 days, and provides a link for downloading. ***

A correction was made to this story. Read below for details. Janus Friis and Niklas Zennström, the duo that brought the world Skype and Kazaa, have chosen a name for their new online-video start-up. The two want people hungry for Internet entertainment to roost at Joost. Company executives had referred to the new company for months by the codename "The Venice Project." They chose Joost because they like the ring of it, according to a spokeswoman. The word doesn't have any meaning in Danish or Swedish--Friis' and Zennström's respective native tongues. The plan, according to Joost CEO Fredrik de Wahl, is to offer studios, cable stations and anyone else who wants to distribute high-quality video over the Internet, a fast, efficient and cheap distribution method. To do this, the company will rely on the peer-to-peer technology that helped Friis and Zennström build Skype and Kazaa. ***

Nsite, a hosted-applications company, is expected on Tuesday to introduce tools to customize its online sales application, and it's relying heavily on AJAX, a Web development technique. The company is expected to debut two new sales-related application services: Nsite Channel Management and Nsite Quote Management. As part of the release, Nsite has introduced software that allows users to customize Nsite's services or to create new ones from a library of existing services. The tools, called the Web Services Builder, provide a visual design tool aimed at business analysts rather than software programmers. With Web Services Builder, a person can create interactive applications using ***

Google's popular free Web-based e-mail service is testing phishing protection designed to alert members to potential e-mail fraud attacks. When a Gmail user opens a suspected phishing message, the software displays a large red dialog box stating: "Warning: This message may not be from whom it claims to be. Beware of following any links in it or of providing the sender with any personal information." The service also provides a hyperlink to information on Gmail's help pages about e-mail fraud. ***

update Microsoft is making a foray into the managed-services business, starting with a deal to manage the PCs for consumer products company Energizer Holdings. Under the terms of the pact, which has not been formally announced, Microsoft will take over responsibility for managing, updating and supporting the battery maker's roughly 6,000 computers. It will also host a variety of applications, including e-mail, portal and instant-messaging services. The deal is expected to be phased in over the next serveral months. The Energizer pact is the first of several that Microsoft wants to run as part of a project the company hopes will help it better understand its customers' needs, a Microsoft executive told CNET News.com. ***

America Online launched on Wednesday the latest version of its instant messaging software, expanding support for sharing pictures and adding several subscription-based features. As earlier reported, AOL Instant Messenger 5.9 adds a collection of new features meant to encourage personalization of the messaging application, including animated buddy icons, sound effects and "wallpaper" images. A handful of the personalization upgrades will be marketed via subscription, as AOL attempts to garner revenue from the software which it distributes for free via download. The company will charge $1. ***

ICQ is taking a step back to simpler times. The popular instant messaging service owned by America Online on Monday released a slimmed-down version, called "ICQ Lite," that targets first-time users with its simplicity. The service is smaller, with a 1.7MB file size compared with the standard 3.6MB. But most notably, ICQ Lite comes with fewer of the bells and whistles than its full-featured ICQ cousin. "ICQ Lite appeals to consumers who have never used ICQ before, as well as long-standing ICQ users who don't always need all the options of the full-featured ICQ," Ariel Yarnitsky, co-general manager of ICQ, said in a statement. ICQ Lite focuses on the basic elements of instant messaging such as real-time text exchange and a search engine for other ICQ users. The software lets people send messages to cell phone users via SMS (Short Message Service) and transfer files, and it offers multilingual support. ***