Nice, now I no longer need to switch to a Windows machine just for these features.  I haven’t used it yet, though, so no comments on the functionality.

Voice and video chat for Linux is now available. This supports Ubuntu and other Debian-based Linux distributions, and RPM support will be coming soon.

via Google Apps update alerts: Gmail: Voice and video chat now available for Linux.

Nice, I’d been hoping for this change.  I hope they add Reader to the bundle soon.

The Start Page is being automatically be converted to iGoogle. The Start Page gadgets your users have configured will be migrated to iGoogle pages, after which users can modify their iGoogle gadgets, tabs and themes. Your Start Page web address will automatically redirect your users to iGoogle.

via Google Apps update alerts: iGoogle now replacing the Start Page.

Congratulations, Google!  Here’s looking forward to helping various government agencies migrate to Google Apps!

Google introduced Google Apps for Government, accommodated by FISMA certification. FISMA is essentially the government’s seal of approval of Google Apps as a secure cloud computing collaboration platform, something Microsoft lacks for its own cloud suites.

Google July 26 launched Google Apps for Government and earned a key security credit that makes its collaboration software for the cloud viable for federal agencies.

via Google Apps for Government Meets Federal Security Standard – Cloud Computing from eWeek.

This is a wonderful new feature, and I’m eager to explore its possibilities.  Being able to control features by organizational group will help with policy enforcement.

Don’t forget to enable the next-gen control panel before looking for the features!

Google Apps administrators can now segment their users into different organizations and control which Google services are enabled/disabled for each of those different sets of users.

- Allows creation of organizations in a tree-like hierarchy
- Manage membership of users into one organization
- Specify policies for which services are on/off by organization

via Google Apps update alerts: User policy management now in Google Apps Control Panel.

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — Enterprise information security professionals, by nature, tend to be somewhat paranoid, especially regarding new and emerging technology. So to this observer it seemed somewhat surprising not only to hear two Google Enterprise desktop customers extol the security and privacy of the search giant’s enterprise productivity offerings, but also to watch about 200 of the attendees at Gartner Inc.’s Security and Risk Management Summit 2010 hanging on every word.

[...]

Loveland said his employer, a $6 billion global packaging firm, wanted to standardize its email and collaboration tools across geographies. His key privacy concerns were providing users unfettered access to corporate data – both email and shared documents — from virtually any Internet-connected computer, and offering the ability to sync with mobile devices not managed by the company.

This is also a boon to securing your corporate network – rather than needing to open up your Intranet to outside access for your employees on the go, your users may need less access to corporate resources, allowing you to close up some ports and access points to the Internet in general if all the docs, email, and calendaring are on Apps.

Also, are your own servers as hard as this?

“Google’s security strategy revolves around hiring talented security professionals and building multiple wholly owned data centers,” Bolt said. Those data centers, according to Google, feature custom-built servers running a hardened version of Linux with no video cards, drivers, USB ports or any other service that could risk compromising security. ”These layered security practices span the physical and logical, and they hire the right people and install values of security.”

via Customers pleased with Google Enterprise desktop security – Security Bytes.

This is my favorite new G.A. feature of late – management of multiple domains from a single domain of your choosing.  I can then assign e-mail addresses in any of the domains, and all contacts are shared between all the domains.

- After adding a domain, when admins now create a new user, they will have the choice to create the user with username@domainA.com or username@domainB.com.

via Google Apps update alerts: Multi-domain management now available in Google Apps.

This is good information to share around your organization, to either take advantage of, or to avoid accidentally misusing.  New sharing settings in Google Docs:

Private: Private docs are accessible only to people or groups you’ve explicitly invited to the file. Anyone trying to access the file will have to sign in to verify that they have access to the file.

People at your organization with the link: Docs set to this option are accessible to anyone inside the domain who knows the URL of the file. If you also select the ‘Allow anyone to edit’ option, anyone with the URL will be able to view and edit your file. This option allows you to easily copy and paste the file’s link into chat, email and calendar invites.

People at your organization can find and access: Docs set to this option will be indexed by Google Docs search and may be opened by anyone in your organization.

If your Google Apps administrator allows sharing outside of your organization, you will also be able to make a file Public on the web or available to Anyone with the link (no sign in required). Administrators can also control the default visibility setting from the control panel.

via Google Apps update alerts: New sharing settings in Google Docs.

Here’s some handy-dandy new search shortcuts that’ll be nearly impossible for the executives to remember!

How to access what’s new:

In the Docs list search box, you can now find your documents by using the following new search operators

:- Type of doc: type:{document, spreadsheet, presentation}

- Docs edited before or after a certain day: [ before:YYYY-MM-DD ]

- Docs owned by foo: [ owner:foo ]

- Docs with foo in the title: [ title:foo ]; [ subject:foo ] does the same thing

For more information:
http://docs.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=50094

via Google Apps update alerts: More ways to search in Google Docs with new search operators.

On Thursday, TechRepublic will be hosting a live webcast on why this company chose Google Apps.  You must be registered with Tech Republic before you can register for the webcast.

Overview: A global organization with 7,800 employees and 90-plus locations, Brady Corp. was one of the early adopters of cloud computing in the manufacturing industry. When executives at headquarters challenged the IT group to provide best-in-class solutions with the lowest possible cost of ownership a vendor search was begun. After months of analysis and vendor proposals the team selected Google Apps hands-down. Brady deployed Google Apps in a “Big Bang” roll-out. Today, Google Apps is delivering value worldwide and a pace of innovation that can’t be matched by other cloud providers.

via Live Webcast: Choosing Google Apps as Best-in-Class Cloud Solution, from Google – Webcasts and audiocasts with leading IT vendors — courtesy of TechRepublic.

Nice!  Being able to drag-and-drop attachments into Gmail brings it a huge leap forward in ease-of-use and desktop integration.

- You can now drag and drop attachments directly onto a message when composing a new message.
- You can now insert a calendar invitation directly from the compose window in Gmail.

Google Apps update alerts: New in Gmail: Drag and drop attachments and insert a calendar invitation.