Wayne Schulz

I just noticed that Google Wave has received what seems to be a long overdue feature. The ability to hide all those inline replies which can be made to a Wave and tend to also make it look very cluttered. Previously you’d have to direct Wave participants to make comments either in a separate blip or suffer the ugly appearance that their inline replies left. Now by clicking a particular blip’s pull down menu you’ll see there are two additional options. Hide Inline Replies and Show Inline Replies. Check out the example of what hiding an Inline Reply does. [...]

Google tonight announced the Google Apps Marketplace. The store will provide for applications that can be integrated into Google Apps. Intuit demonstrated their Payroll application built into Google Apps – using a single sign on and some integration of items (click to download paystub) to the calendar. Most of the applications demonstrated appear to take the already available gadget add-in feature and integrate it a bit tighter to Google Apps.

Google Apps Marketplace

Amazon has the new Palm Pre Plus (Verizon) marked down to a relatively cheap $49 (requires 2 year contract) with no rebate required. This bests the official price on Verizon Wireless by $100 and is $30 cheaper than the Sprint version (less memory). The Palm Pre Plus has had generally good reviews though has been hampered by an initial lack of third party applications when it was first introduced on Sprint last year. The device has also been criticized for seeming sluggish although a recent 1.4 OS upgrade appears to have diminished speed complaints somewhat. The strength of the Palm Pre Plus is that it easily synchronizes your contacts, calendar and emails from a variety of sources (Google being one of the most popular) along with the social contacts from Facebook. The biggest downside to the phone is that Palm recently issued a warning that the devices aren’t selling nearly as well as they projected causing many to question how long Palm can survive as an independent entity.

Palm Pre Plus – Verizon $49

Swype has once again opened up their beta program for Android owners seeking to test the keyboard replacement. Instead of relying on awkward keypresses, Swype allows the user to form letters by dragging a finger from letter to letter.

The interesting part of Swype is that you don’t have to touch each key precisely. Just getting close to the key is enough to register the letter. An on-board dictionary is excellent at accurately guessing the word you are trying to type. Register online now and the company will instantly send you a link to download the Swype beta.

Update: March 6, 2010 – The Swype Beta stopped working for me on my Google Nexus One phone. It also presents a warning about it being configured for another phone. There’s also no voice input (as is available on the 2.1 devices).

Swype for Android Beta via Android Central

Apple has just made an announcement that starting March 12, 2010 you can pre-order the Apple iPad Wi-Fi model. Orders for the 3G cellular enabled version will begin later in April. The magical “go live” pickup date is April 3 when you can stand in line with a few hundred other Apple fans to get your new iPad. Both models will be available in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the U.K. by late April. The iPad, which features a touch screen similar to the iPhone, will cost between $499 and $829. Apple says it will include 12 new applications designed especially for the device. [...]