This is part of a regular series of Google Apps updates that we post every couple of weeks. Look for the label “Google Apps highlights” and subscribe to the series. – Ed.

Recently we introduced powerful, time-saving features in Gmail: Priority Inbox and the ability to call phones right from Gmail. Google spreadsheets added new features, and many more businesses and schools moved to the cloud with Google Apps.

Cut through the clutter with Gmail Priority Inbox
Since its beginning, Gmail has been helping people cope with large amounts of email, whether it’s with more than seven gigabytes of storage, really fast search, great spam filtering or automatically organized conversations. This Monday we launched Priority Inbox, which helps you get through your inbox even faster by automatically putting important messages front and center. The more that you use Gmail, the better Priority Inbox will become at categorizing the email you receive. Our research suggests that the typical information worker can save a whole week of work time each year with this feature!

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Windows 7 was released about 10 months ago and it currently has a market share of 20%.

If you are one of the 80% of users who might be afraid to upgrade from Vista or XP because you feel it is completely different to what you are used to, you should read MakeUseOf’s new guide, “The Windows 7 Guide: From Newbies To Pros”.

That being said, even those who have been using Windows 7 for some time likely to find a few useful tips here.

Download: The Windows 7 Guide: From Newbies to Pro’s Now

In this 8 chapter guide, you will be able to switch from your current operating system to Windows 7 with ease. The guide covers everything you need to know from checking if your computer can run Windows 7 to utilizing all of the new features not found on other Windows versions. Plus a few handy tips.

By the end of the guide, you should know how to:

• Check if Windows 7 is compatible with your PC.
• Use the new task bar and desktop interface.
• Customize your user experience.
• Mange your documents and files properly.
• Use and install the missing essential software.
• Setup a home network and share documents and printers.
• Install and play games.
• and more

DOWNLOAD : The Windows 7 Guide: From Newbies to Pro’s Now

or

Read it online on Scribd

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In 1978 Gary Thuerk sent the first ever spam email advertising a new range of microcomputers to 400 users of the ARPANET service. In 2010 we’re still looking for a solution to this increasingly frustrating problem, and most of us don’t want to pay.

We get quite a lot of spam here at MakeUseOf, but then so does anyone with an email address these days. Even if your email’s not public, many users get targeted by so-called “dictionary” attacks against their email providers. One solution is to use temporary email addresses, but if you’re already receiving a lot of spam then the problem’s going to remain.
So if you’re can’t see your inbox for junk and need a break from hitting “delete” then maybe you should try one of these free services.

Gmail

Ok, so it’s not a spam blocker per se – but it’s one of the many features you can take advantage of and it gets the job done. Gmail uses a spam filter known as Postini, which is usually a commercial affair. By using Gmail you’re essentially getting a very expensive spam filter completely free of charge.

The beauty of Google’s email service lies in the ability to connect your bog-standard POP3 accounts, allowing you to “collect” your mail from Google’s web interface. Gmail’s advanced spam filtration will help filter all incoming messages, and any detections will be labelled accordingly and kept out of sight.

Once you’ve registered (choose a good spam-proof address), you can add an address under the Accounts tab in Gmail’s Settings. You won’t need to go quoting your new email, as you’ll still effectively be using your old accounts.

Using the Send mail as tool in the same configuration panel will allow you to send email from the addresses you’ve added too, and all you need to check and send mail is a web browser.

Spamfence

What’s better than one email address? Two, it would seem.

With integrated virus protection, this spam filter works by forwarding mail from your main (probably public and spam-riddled) inbox through the Spamfence filters and on to another private “clean” email address. Any messages that are detected as spam along the way will be marked accordingly, and you have full control over what is done with these messages.

The service adds a subject header to each message, so if you want you can allow everything through and make your own rules up with your client. Think of the extra virus protection as a free gift, not that the service will cost you anything.

Spamihilator

If you’re a Windows user with a mail client such as Outlook, Thunderbird or Eudora then chances are you’ll be looking at a solution you can download and run alongside your existing setup. Spamihilator is just that, and it even claims to have a 98% success rate.

The filter sits between the big bad internet and your client, removing messages it deems to be spam. You can also train this filter, so after a while it’ll know what to do based on your previous decisions. There’s a training area to help get the learning process started, and you can even add specific words to a blacklist (thus removing future emails featuring these words).

That’s not all, there’s also link filtration and the ability to download plugins. Spamihilator provides a load of protection from spam, and it’s completely free.

MailWasher Free

The only program on this list with a commercial bigger brother, MailWasher Free is a simple program that can help clean up your POP3, IMAP or webmail email address. Download the program, connect to your email and preview as many incoming messages as you like before deciding whether you want to download them or not.

Using a similar Bayesian filter as Spamihilator, this program will also learn from your actions and train itself to adhere to your rules once you’ve made a few spam-busting decisions.

Being the “Free” version, you’re limited to a maximum of 1 email account (and lose out on search, a customizable interface and updates). This isn’t so bad, the free version really is free (forever) and if you do decide you really like it, then you could always treat yourself.

Conclusion

Spam’s just as annoying as it ever was, but with a couple of clever moves on your part you can help minimize it. If you’re feeling a little more adventurous, check out Ryan’s guide to setting up SpamAssassin on Windows. And don’t forget to mix it up, for example connecting your POP3 mailboxes to a Gmail account, through Spamfence and then onto another clean account will probably work wonders for your junk email problems.

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According to the Financial Times, Google [GOOG] intends to launch a pay per view YouTube movie service before the end of the year. It seems that Google have been in talks with a range of Hollywood movie studios for a couple of months.

The YouTube pay per view movie service is tipped to launch around the world before the end of the year, and users would be able to watch new movies for about $5.00.

The movies would be streamed to the users computer and not downloaded, and it seems that titles would be available at the same time as new DVD’s are released.

YouTube have been trailing a video rental service since the start of the year, but they have only had a handful of indie titles available, adding in major movie studios and popular movies could make the service popular.

If Google do manage to come to an agreement with a range of movie studios, the service could end up being competition for Apple’s iTunes movie rental service.

via Engadget

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Computer systems, like any other device, need maintenance. Computer maintenance is generally different from vehicles, appliances and others, mainly because you have to maintain not only the hardware but also the software that you use on your computer.

Software can get outdated, you might have cruft and then there are chores related to the operating system itself – registry, virus cleaning and the likes.

While you might have to shop around in the local market for hardware maintenance, for software PC maintenance we have some very good free utilities that you should check out.

Cleaning Tools

As is obvious from the name, these help you keep your system clean. What they clean your system of, depends on what you are using. There are registry cleaners, file system cleaners, secure file erasers and general purpose all in one solutions.

Most of these operate on the registry, optimizing it for performance. There are others which delete temporary files and dangling shortcuts. While the gain is not substantial, you might experience a snappier performance if you have not cleaned up your computer for a while.

As for the solutions available – CCleaner is well known in the field. It can clean browser tracks and cookies for almost all popular browsers out there, take care of unused icons, invalid shortcuts, DLLs and clean the MRU and recent document history as well.

Another popular choice is nCleaner. nCleaner offers similar functionality along with scan scheduling, a tweaks manager, services manager, a resource monitor and system advisor.

Uninstaller

The Windows Control Panel provides functionality that lets you remove unwanted applications from your computer. It does a decent job for the occasional use that you might put it to. However, if you try out a number of software, or if you have experienced a stubborn software that refuses to uninstall, you should look into some of the 3rd party software managers and uninstallers.

Revo Uninstaller and IObit Uninstaller are the better ones out there. They offer features like letting you track the most storage hungry software or the ones you rarely use in addition to managing installed Windows updates. Such software usually features a force uninstall mode that lets you override settings or locked files that may be preventing an uninstaller from functioning.

Software Updater

Keeping software up to date is important. Not only for keeping up with the latest features but also for bug fixes and security updates. Many software these days have an update feature built in, web browsers being an excellent example. The software can talk to a server and let you know of important updates or newer versions.

For other software that do not have the feature built in or if you are more interested in a Linux-like centralized update mechanism, you can have a look at some of the previously covered software updaters. AppSnap, QWinApt or Techtracker should be a good place to start.

In addition there are other ways like subscribing to update feeds and some additional tools are detailed here.

System Info Tools

While these do not help with maintenance in a direct way, these are certainly indispensable when you need to figure out what is going on with the computer. There are tools that let you view detailed information about your computer and then there are those which can let you monitor the performance of the computer and what is going on inside.

Troubleshooter/Fixer

It is very difficult to offer a generalized solution for each and every problem your computer might run into. There can be network issues, security issues, slowdown due to cruft or under performing hardware, each asks for a different course of action.

That being said, there are certain issues that crop up frequently and are encountered by many users. Automated detection and fixes are available for many such problems.

Windows troubleshooting is a good place to start. In addition there are software like FixWin and Microsoft’s FixIt center that take care of such common problems for you. If you are still stuck, hop over to MakeUseOf Answers, and we will try to help you along!

Many problems can also be attributed to viruses and spyware, so you should keep a good antivirus or malware removal tools like McAfee’s Stinger and Malicious Software Removal tool handy.

If you know of any other good PC maintainance software that we might have missed, give us a heads up in the comments!

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