Use Gmail and Google Docs to Easily and Quickly Track Anything

Google Docs and Gmail can be used together to create a simple yet flexible way of tracking just about anything. For example, you can easily track your expenses, create a workout log, or set up a food diary. Here's how.

The Power Tips for Google blog offers this awesome tip for setting up a form in Google Docs and then quickly accessing it in Gmail. The system is really easy to set up:

1. Basically, create a spreadsheet in Google Docs and then go to Tools > Create form in the menu.
2. Edit the form to add the items you want to record (e.g., date, amount, payment method, description, categories, etc.)
3. Click on the "Email this form" button to email it to yourself.
4. Whenever you want to add log something and have it entered into your spreadsheet, you can quickly submit the form from within that email.

That's it!

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Well, one more thing. For easy access to the form, enable the "Quick Links" lab feature (under Settings > Labs in Gmail) and you can add a permanent link to the form to your menu.

There are lots of ways you can use this. Our one-minute personal inventory form would be great to set up with this system. You can even share the form with other people, for simple group tracking.

source:lifehacker.com

Android 4.1jelly bean update rolling out for samsung galaxy s3

It's perfectly understandable that recent Galaxy S III purchasers are anxious to hear Android 4.1 Jelly Bean will make its way to Samsung's flagship, and now we've finally found the updated version on the device at IFA 2012 in Berlin. The Galaxy S III in question is Vodafone Germany's yet-to-be-released LTE variant (GT-i9305), and, completely as expected, it's no different than what we saw on the Galaxy Note II earlier this week. Many of Android 4.1's changes are obscured under Samsung's heavy TouchWiz skin, though Google Now and the new voice features are, of course, present. The noticeable improvement that we noticed on the Galaxy Nexus thanks to Project Butter wasn't nearly as apparent on the Galaxy S III, unfortunately.

For those interested in the fine details, the phone was running version 4.1.1 of the operating system. If you noticed that the phone doesn't look quite like Pebble Blue, you'd be right — it looked more like a plum purple. Curiously enough, that color wasn't part of Samsung's recently announced lineup of new colors for the device. We still haven't any official word on when we can expect the update to arrive to phones, but the most recent rumors suggested it'd be out right about now. What does seem clear, however, is that Vodafone's LTE Galaxy S III will launch with Jelly Bean when its released in Germany come mid October.

Apple again against samsung

You didn't think Apple is done with the lawsuits after its victory against Samsung last week, were you? The Cupertino company has filed another patent infringement lawsuit against Samsung, adding an additional 22 devices to the list of alleged offenders.

The new list of smartphones and slates includes Samsung heavy hitters such as the Galaxy S III and the Galaxy Note 10.1. They were not included in the lawsuit Apple won last week -that one actually involved mostly products which are hardly available on the market these days. There are some devices, which were part of the original suit. This time however, they are listed for infringing different patents.

Here goes the full list of devices:

Samsung Galaxy S III Samsung Galaxy S III (Verizon) Samsung Galaxy Note Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket Samsung Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch Samsung Galaxy S II Samsung Galaxy S II (T-Mobile) Samsung Galaxy S II (AT&T) Samsung Galaxy Nexus Samsung Illusion Samsung Captivate Glide Samsung Exhibit II 4G Samsung Stratosphere Samsung Transform Ultra Samsung Admire Samsung Conquer 4G Samsung Dart Samsung Galaxy Player 4.0 Samsung Galaxy Player 5.0 Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9

It must be noted that the structure of Apple's complaint leaves an open possibility for more devices to be added to the above list. As always, we'll keep track on the whole affair as it develops.