Say hello to Gmail voice and video chat: “Posted by Justin Uberti, Software Engineer


I’m a big user of Gmail chat. Being able to switch from email to chat as needed, all within the same app, is really great for productivity. But people can only type so fast, and even with our new emoticons, there are still some things that just can’t be expressed in a chat message.

That’s why today we’re launching voice and video chat—right inside Gmail. We’ve tried to make this an easy-to-use, seamless experience, with high-quality audio and video—all for free. All you have to do is download and install the voice and video plugin and we take care of the rest. And in the spirit of open communications, we designed this feature using Internet standards such as XMPP, RTP, and H.264, which means that third-party applications and networks can choose to interoperate with Gmail voice and video chat.

Once you install the plugin, to start a video chat, just click on the ‘Video & more’ menu at the bottom of your Gmail chat window, and choose ‘Start video chat.’ You’ll have a few seconds to make sure you look presentable while it’s ringing, and then you’ll see and hear your friend live, right from within Gmail. You can click the ‘pop-out’ iconto make the video larger, or click the fullscreen iconin the upper left-hand corner for a fully immersive experience. See this all in action in the video below:

Via Gmail Blog

Still buggy on Mac, let’s see if this version is what version 1 should have been… Looks promising.

Tags: browserweb mac 2.0

Via Common Craft

The Google Chart API is an extremely simple tool that lets you easily create a chart from some data and embed it in a webpage. You embed the data and formatting parameters in an HTTP request, and Google returns a PNG image of the chart. Many types of chart are supported, and by making the request into an image tag you can simply include the chart in a webpage.

Check out this little “Hello World” sample:

http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?cht=p3&chd=s:hW&chs=250x100&chl=Hello|World

I don’t know how long this has been around, but I found out only a week or so ago. The Google Chart API will be very useful for me in a bunch of reporting projects.

If you are into Ruby check out Ruport (Ruby Reports) and the Online book I found online.

Via Google Code

Via BetterExplained

Over the course of a month, he and Humanized’s Web/Systems Architect Scott Robbin worked weekends to bring the idea to life. The site launched on November 8, 2007 and instantly generated significant buzz around the world. Hundreds of bloggers and news writers have praised its elegant user interface, beautiful design, and all-around utility.

Simple, elegant and works great. Love it!

Via Humanized Blog

Blueprint is a CSS framework, which aims to cut down on your CSS development time. It gives you a solid CSS foundation to build your project on top of, with an easy-to-use grid, sensible typography, and even a stylesheet for printing.  

• An easily customizable grid


• Sensible typography


• A baseline (like the background here)


• Perfected CSS reset


• A stylesheet for printing


• No bloat of any kind

I’m going to download it and play with the tutorial. More on this later.

Via Daring Fireball

Want the fastest way to put your Mac right into a deep, sleepy-bear hibernation-like sleep (no whirling fan, no dialogs, no sound — nuthin’ — just fast, glorious sleep). Just press Command-Option and then hold the Eject button for about 2 seconds and Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz. It doesn’t get much faster than that.

Via Apple Pro Tips

As John Gruber puts it, the big question is whether …

The biggest question, as I see it, is whether Apple plans to introduce iPods that are more or less just the iPod app from the iPhone (i.e. just music and video players), or iPods that are everything but phones, with Wi-Fi networking for email, web, and more.

I would love to see an iPod with Wi-Fi networking being able to do email and web as on the iPhone. Better yet, an iPhone that shipped officially in Europe.

What will come first? My bet: new iPods.