From Google:

Since the introduction of Gmail video chat back in 2008, many of you have told us that you love the direct, personal communication it provides. That's why we're excited to announce that video chat is being upgraded to a more modern video calling technology -- Google+ Hangouts. 

Unlike the old video chat, which was based on peer-to-peer technology, Hangouts utilize the power of Google’s network to deliver higher reliability and enhanced quality. You’ll be able to chat with all the same people you did before and, in fact, with Hangouts you’ll now be able to reach them not only when they are using Gmail but also if they are on Google+ in the browser or on their Android or iOS devices.

All Gmail users will benefit from this upgrade, but if you and the person you're chatting with also use Google+, you’ll get even more from the Hangouts experience. You'll be able to video chat with up to nine people at once, watch YouTube videos together, collaborate on Google documents and share your screen. Plus, Hangouts has a bunch of fun effects that you can try out...because any conversation is better when you're wearing a virtual mustache or pirate hat. 

more...

Google completely redesigned Google Groups from the ground up to offer a new and improved user interface, collaborative inbox, take and assign topic functionality, multi-domain support, advanced search operators, new ways of viewing group content, and much more. 

How to access what's new:  
When you navigate to the Google Groups page you will see a horizontal blue bar toward the top of the groups page saying, “The old Google Groups will be going away soon. Switch to the new Google Groups.” 

• Getting started with the new Google Groups
• User Help Center

From Google:

Today we're excited to launch Hangouts On Air to Google+ users worldwide. So if you have something to say—as an aspiring artist, a global celebrity, or a concerned citizen—you can now go live in front of a global audience. With just a few clicks, you’ll be able to:

Contacts delegation allows 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. This is a common delegation practice between some executive users and their assistants and may be used in any situation where a user wishes to share all of his or her contacts with another user.

Contacts delegation uses a familiar Apps sharing interface. You may delegate your contacts only to other users within your domain. Like mail delegation, you may delegate your contacts to no more than 25 other users at the same time. Delegation allows the sharing of the entire “My Contacts” list only. You cannot delegate a subset of your “My Contacts” or delegate contacts not in your “My Contacts.”

more...

Google is introducing Google Drive —a place where you can create, share, collaborate, and keep all of your work. Whether you’re creating a presentation with classmates or planning next year’s budget with colleagues, Drive makes it easy to work together. You can upload and access all of your files, including videos, photos, Google Docs, PDFs and beyond.

Google Drive will be rolling out in GoogleApps@UA over the next few weeks. Some users already see their drives...

Is your Drive ready?

more...    

By Andreas Tuerk, Google Product Manager

Every day we aim to make technology so simple and intuitive that you stop thinking about it—we want Google to work so well, it just blends into your life. But sometimes it’s helpful to step back and take stock of what you’re doing online.

Today we’re introducing Account Activity, a new feature in your Google Account. If you sign up, each month we’ll send you a link to a password-protected report with insights into your signed-in use of Google services.  

more...

By Ela Czajka, Google Software Engineer

Many of our users say the accuracy of our spam filter is one of the key reasons they love Gmail. And while we think you should never have to look in your spam folder, we know some of you may want to know why the messages there were marked as spam.

So starting today, we’ll be showing a brief explanation at the top of each of your spam messages. Simply look at any message in your spam folder and now you can find out why it was put there and learn about any potentially harmful content within the message.

more...

An unscheduled outage will prevent logins to Google Apps between 5 and 8 PM today.  If you login before the outage, you will be unaffected.

Some of you may have noticed over the past few weeks that some Google services are starting to get a facelift. The goal was to create a beautifully simple and intuitive user experience across Google. Google's new look provides a more modern and cleaner interface between all of the applications, utilizing space and colors to enhance the Google experience.

In Mail, you can now choose how many messages are on your screen at a time by choosing from three different display densities: Comfortable, Cozy and Compact. View a side-by-side comparison

Learn more about Google Mail's new look and watch a video explaining all of the new features.

Now entering the next stage of the redesign, Google is preparing to enable a whole new Google bar that will enable you to navigate quickly between services, as well as share the right stuff with the right people easily on Google+.

Instead of the horizontal black bar at the top of the page, you’ll now find links to your services in a new drop-down Google menu nested under the Google logo. We’ll show you a list of links and you can access additional services by hovering over the “More” link at the bottom of the list. Click on what you want, and you’re off.

To find out more about the new Google bar, take a look at this video or read our Help Center article.

On October 27th, Google Announced the highly requested Google+ social network is being extended to Google Apps @ UA customers. Google+ allows for University Faculty, Staff, and Students to communicate more effectively with one another. Google Apps users will have access to the same set of features that are available to every Google+ user, and more. In addition to sharing publicly or with your circles, you’ll also have the option to share with everyone in your organization, even if you haven’t added all of those people to a circle.

Like other added services, Google+ is not backed by the support agreement between Google and the University of Alaska. Support for Google+ is offered through the Google+ Help Center and the OIT Support Center.

Google+ is now available for all Google Apps @ UA users. You can create and access your Google+ account by using the More/Even More menus after you sign in.

Google has announced that all Google Apps for Education customers will be given 25GB of storage for their email inboxes free of charge. Google Apps @ UA received this upgrade on July 21st.

New Interfaces for Mail and Calendar

A new and bolder Mail and Calendar interface has made its way to Google Apps @ UA. These changes allow users to sort their inboxes various ways, as well as color code specific events in Calendar. In order to color code an event, you must have the privelages to make changes to that specific calendar in which the event is in.

Appointment Slots

Google has released a new feature to Google Calendar called Appointment Slots, which can be great for faculty scheduling office hours, or supervisor's showing time that they're available in their office. Visit the official Google Blog post for more details!

Google has just released a new feature to Google Apps @ UA customers called Account Delegation. This enables account holders to permit access to their email to other Google accounts.

For example, a director can permit their assistant to access mail to coordinate scheduling, work out travel, et cetera without having to provide the assistant the secure password.

To enable this feature, first log in to your email account. Go into Settings, and click the Accounts tab. There is a section entitled "Grant access to your account", with a link to click to begin the process.

Once you click on that link, a small pop up window will appear, asking for you to enter the address of the Google account you wish to allow access. Once you fill in the address, and click "Next Step", an email is generated and automatically sent to that account, containing a link for them to click on to verify the access.

Once they confirm, they will be able to log in to your account, using their password.

To switch to that account, just as with the multiple sign in, click the down arrow next to your email address in the top right. Select the other account to switch inboxes. You can also separate them by using different tabs in the same browser window, or different browser windows according to your preference.

The Federal Information Security Management Act of 2002, or "FISMA", is a United States federal law pertaining to the information security of federal agencies' information systems. FISMA applies to all information systems used or operated by U.S. federal agencies -- or by contractors or other organizations on behalf of the government. 

Google Applications for Government was recently awarded FISMA certification, the first cloud-based software suite to be awarded such a certification. While Google Apps for Education doesn't fit the same standards, this award speaks volumes to Google's information security practices.

OIT is happy to announce the release of the Google Apps @ UA Directory Gadget, a plug in that allows you to search the UA Enterprise Directory and find contact information directly from within Mail or Calendar. See our gadgets page for more information.