technosurfer.net

Cool Gdocs Feature: Composing email drafts from WITHIN Google Docs [ZDNET]

noreply@blogger.com (dgftest) — Fri, 27 May 2022 02:28:00 +0000

As Jack Wallen explains:

"Every so often Google unveils a new feature that's so cool and helpful that I can't help but get excited. Such was the case when it became possible to compose an email directly from within a Google Docs document."

Original article here:

https://www.zdnet.com/article/how-to-compose-an-email-from-google-docs/

Joanna Stern: Apple’s $1,599 Studio Display vs. Other Monitors: You Won’t Get What You Pay For

noreply@blogger.com (dgftest) — Thu, 17 Mar 2022 15:55:00 +0000

"Even if you aren’t a sharp-eyed professional, you will notice one big difference when these monitors are on your desk. The LG models come default with height-adjustable stands. Apple’s basic stand allows you to tilt the screen, but if you want it to tilt and move up and down, like you’re some pampered royal, that will cost an extra $400. Or you could just put that fancy new $1,600 monitor on a stack of old books. Your choice."

~ Joanna Stern's latest in the WSJ

https://www.wsj.com/articles/apples-1-599-studio-display-vs-other-monitors-you-wont-get-what-you-pay-for-11647521601?reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

PSA: Yet another phishing attempt to Yahoo Mail users

noreply@blogger.com (dgftest) — Sun, 09 Jan 2022 22:57:00 +0000

Unfortunately, many will see the "Yahoo Mail" portion of the From: field and not check that the sender is a different account (joanmarck@yahoo.com, possibly an innocent person whose account is being impersonated by the hacker), and may click on the link.

(in the below, the link has been removed)

----- Forwarded Message -----

From: Yahoo Mail <joanmarck@yahoo.com>

Sent: Sunday, January 9, 2022, 05:26:03 PM EST

Subject: Re: Thank you

YAHOO PASSWORD

The Classic version of Yahoo Mail will be replaced by our new version on the 9th of JANUARY 2022. So it's time to verify, before you lose your email access.

Please click here Log-in Restore to re-validate your mailbox.

Note: Failure to comply within 24hrs might lead to permanent deactivation.

Microsoft warns: "Hackers could use the vulnerability to install programs, as well as view or delete data" (thehill.com)

noreply@blogger.com (dgftest) — Thu, 08 Jul 2021 03:36:00 +0000

"Microsoft on Wednesday said that users of its Windows operating system should install updates after a cybersecurity company accidentally published a guide on how to exploit vulnerabilities in the service."

Full article here:

Microsoft urges users to update PCs in security warning | TheHill

The flip phone is back.

noreply@blogger.com (dgftest) — Mon, 29 Apr 2019 22:06:00 +0000

Have people had enough of constant connection? http://flip.it/Gb4g11

Engadget: Chrome update stops websites from tracking you in Incognito Mode.

noreply@blogger.com (dgftest) — Thu, 25 Apr 2019 04:24:00 +0000

https://www.engadget.com/2019/04/24/chrome-74-update-stops-websites-tracking-incognito-mode/

Microsoft Teams: Next phase of evolution of Skype for Business

noreply@blogger.com (dgftest) — Mon, 25 Sep 2017 22:56:00 +0000

Microsoft is going to move all communications features into the Teams client and will be making the Teams client the core communications client for Office 365 users, replacing the current use of the Skype for Business client.
Source: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2017/09/microsoft-ignite-2017-news/

5 interesting examples of "cognitive computing" benefits to patients + healthcare providers

noreply@blogger.com (dgftest) — Wed, 24 Aug 2016 17:06:00 +0000

http://mobile.eweek.com/database/slideshows/5-ways-cognitive-computing-is-advancing-health-care.html

Upcoming enhancements to Waze: Plan ahead

noreply@blogger.com (dgftest) — Thu, 17 Mar 2016 11:44:00 +0000

Waze’s new Planned Drives feature takes the uncertainty out of planning future trips http://mobilesyrup.com/2016/03/16/wazes-new-planned-drives-feature-takes-the-uncertainty-out-of-planning-future-trips/

Review your account security + receive 2GB additional Google Drive storage

noreply@blogger.com (dgftest) — Wed, 10 Feb 2016 11:50:00 +0000

Simple and free:
http://gizmodo.com/you-can-get-2gb-of-free-google-drive-storage-today-1758004392

Retrofit a legacy hospital? Yes, with the right infrastructure: Mackenzie Health CMIO

noreply@blogger.com (dgftest) — Fri, 06 Nov 2015 04:20:00 +0000

Smart Beds and other recent thoughtfully designed public health innovations: http://www.canadianbusiness.com/innovation/digital-health-care/

Future States blog: Swimming analogy to understand risks of overconfidence

noreply@blogger.com (dgftest) — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 04:50:00 +0000

Heard Malcolm Gladwell's outstanding presentation today (at The Art of Management conference), re: the overconfidence of experts that led to the 2008 financial crisis, as compared to the mistakes of General Joseph Hooker's overconfidence in the Civil War Battle of Chancellorsville . I was reminded of an outstanding "Swim Season" Future States blog post by Demian Entrekin in his Future States blog. Both Gladwell and Entrekin suggest the very real risks of overconfidence, even by those considered experts in their fields. Here is part of Entrekin's IMHO brilliant swimming analogy (full post at http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/ppmtoday/swim-season-37499):

"Imagine two swimmers.

Both swimmers are trying to get from one island to another.

On the other island there is a clear destination...

Both swimmers jump into the water at the same time.

The first swimmer puts his head down and begins to swim...

The plan is to waste no time.

The plan is to keep swimming until the destination has been achieved...

The second swimmer has a different plan.

The second swimmer will take 100 strokes and then stop.

When the second swimmer stops, he will wait until he sees the destination...

The second swimmer notices that the target has moved.

The first swimmer keeps going hard and strong.

The second swimmer stops again and notices a current has taken him off course.

He makes a small adjustment and continues swimming.

The first swimmer begins to tire.

The second swimmer continues to stop and make adjustments...

The first swimmer finally decides he must stop and take his bearing.

The second swimmer sees the shore.

The first swimmer sees the two islands in the distance.

The second swimmer feels tired but also sees the end.

The first swimmer begins to swim back against the current, a sense of panic setting in.

The second swimmer reaches the shore.

The first swimmer now wonders which island is the destination."

5 things you can do with attachments in Gmail - Official Gmail Blog

noreply@blogger.com (dgftest) — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 03:51:00 +0000

Nice article explaining 5 attachment-related gmail features, including my favorite: "Never forget an attachment again":

However, I continue to be amazed that google, The King Of Search, have not enabled searching your gmail to find the matching content in your messages' attached PDF's (yahoo has).

First Look at the iPad for eLearning - Interactyx

noreply@blogger.com (dgftest) — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 22:21:00 +0000

Excellent review, thanks to Patrick for this excellent Interactyx blog post, clarifying some of the criteria to consider when evaluating Kindle vs. iPad:

First Look at the iPad for eLearning - Interactyx: "...It appears Apple has struck a significant blow to Amazon's Kindle with an aggressive pricing structure that matches that of the Kindle DX, yet with a full colour screen and functionality that significantly exceeds that of an e-reader. I also expect Amazon to respond shortly with new pricing structures and a color version. A little competition is always good.

The ipad's reasonably large, vibrant display certainly are a step up from smartphones for visual content, and for me personally, a step up from a Kindle as well... if remote viewing and reviewing of (non-Flash) content is the key it certainly looks like a capable tool in that respect..."

Google Patent for Data Center Cooling Innovations - Data Center Knowledge

noreply@blogger.com (dgftest) — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 16:46:00 +0000

A diagram of an 'air wand' indicating the location of cooling vents in wand, a key feature of a patent application by Google data center engineers:

It's nice to see that Google is dedicating not only significant engineering but also legal resources, towards patenting innovative data center cooling techniques. Hopefully, this will lead to an affordable, reusable solution that can help organizations similarly optimize their cooling. As has been documented, cooling typically contributes to up to 50% of a data center's total energy costs (e.g. see for example The Greening of IT: How Companies Can Make a Difference for the Environment by John Lamb, p. 136), so of course cooling innovations can be quite significant towards reducing both carbon footprint and operating costs..

"Google Patent Reveals Data Center Innovations
November 30th, 2009 : Rich Miller

Google has revealed some of the secret technology inside its mighty data centers, but its engineers are busy cooking up new secrets.

An example: Google is seeking to patent an advanced data center cooling system that provides precision cooling inside racks of servers, automatically adjusting to temperature changes while dramatically reducing the energy required to run chillers.

The cooling design, which could help Google slash the power bill for its servers, reinforces Google’s focus on its data centers as a competitive advantage in its battle with Microsoft and other rivals for leadership in cloud computing. The company has customized much of the operation of its data centers, which serve as the engines powering its massive Internet business. Google builds its own servers and networking switches, and now appears to be customizing the racks that hold them.

Precision Cooling via ‘Air Wands’

The innovative rack cooling design features an adjustable piping system, including “air wands” that provide small amounts of cold air to components within a server tray. The chilled air enters the top of a rack through two vertical standpipes, which branch off into air wands – long, thin pipes lined with vents that release cold air.

The air wands can pivot to target cold air on specific components, or be swung to one side to allow equipment to be removed from the rack. Dampers on each standpipe can open and close to regulate the volume of air flowing into the pipe and air wands, while the vents on each individual air wand can be adjusted to point up or down, allowing for a highly configurable system..."

Full Article from Data Center Knowledge: http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2009/11/30/google-patent-reveals-data-center-innovations/

Well-done quality improvement is not punitive; it’s educational: Dr. Brent James, NYTimes 8Nov2009

noreply@blogger.com (dgftest) — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 04:17:00 +0000

Seems doctors may have some meaningful insights to share with IT executives and project managers, regarding effective management of a quality improvement initiative. A fascinating NYTimes article by David Leonhardt explains how Dr. Brent James is standardizing certain healthcare procedures, thereby significantly improving certain types of patient outcomes. Even straightforward checklists seem to help a lot. Leonhardt also provides the successful example of

"...the Pronovost checklist. As many as 28,000 people in this country die each year from infections that come from intravenous lines. Several years ago, Peter Pronovost, a Johns Hopkins physician, developed a simple list of five steps that intensive-care doctors should take before inserting an IV line, in order to prevent the introduction of bacteria. The checklist reduced the infection rate to essentially zero at 108 hospitals in Michigan where it was adopted. Pronovost published the results in The New England Journal of Medicine in 2006. But most intensive-care doctors are still not using the checklist. To insert an IV line, they continue to rely on their own judgment."

Also helpful and relevant for IT in my experience, is the statement by Dr. James that

"quality improvement is a process, not an event. In part it works by finding variation and drawing attention to it... And well-done quality improvement is not punitive; it’s educational."

Full article:
If Health Care Is Going to Change, Dr. Brent James's Ideas Will Change It - NYTimes.com

Why didn't Amazon Wifi-enable Kindle?

noreply@blogger.com (dgftest) — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 15:26:00 +0000

Don't expect Kindle sales to rival the iPod Touch any time soon... As has been reported, Amazon did not enable Wifi capability for the latest Kindle.

The ongoing delay of Kindle availability in Canada therefore seems (if not logical) at least somewhat understandable. After all, the complexity of finalizing such a deal clearly depends on some sort of Amazon negotiations with 1 or more Canadian wireless carriers. As reported in the Financial Post:

Amazon's Kindle goes global -- but not to Canada, Matt Hartley, Financial Post, 2009-10-07

"Amazon.com Inc.'s popular Kindle digital book reader is now available to literary enthusiasts outside the United States, but Canadians hoping to get their hands on the device are still out of luck...

On Wednesday, the Seattle, Washington-based Internet retail titan announced it was trimming the price of the Kindle ebook reader from US$299 to US$259 while simultaneously introducing a version of the device designed to work in more than 100 countries and territories around the world.

The new international version of the Kindle costs US$279 and will begin shipping on Oct. 19 to countries such as Bolivia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Hungary and Japan...

Canadians, however, are still unable to purchase Kindle devices through Amazon or download Kindle content, such as digital books and newspaper subscriptions."

Additional observations re: Amazon Kindle vs. Sony's Reader in Canada [the latter is already available in Canada] via: Bonfire of the Banned ITs: Why you can’t get the Kindle in Canada, Omar El Akkad, Globe&Mail, 2009-08-08:

"...Part of the Kindle's popularity lies in the massive number of titles Amazon has leveraged to create the Kindle store. There are now more than 350,000 titles available at the store.

Other e-reader manufacturers are also getting in on the game. Sony, for example, has a product currently available in Canada. However, the Kindle's combination of name recognition and huge title support have given it most of the headlines – akin to the iPod and iTunes store for Apple in the world of online music. "

IBM/Lotus Enterprise Microblogging Debuts: What about Microsoft?

noreply@blogger.com (dgftest) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 02:44:00 +0000

Is IBM onto something here, ahead of Microsoft? Indeed, Lotus-based organizations should see benefit from the secure enterprise microblogging as described below. Seems organizations based on Exchange would similarly benefit, if the upcoming Exchange 2010 release would include these "publish/subscribe dialogues" within the enterprise, similar to Twitter (but no indication of that from the Exchange 2010 Beta so far). Exchange's unified messaging since Exchange 2007 may be useful and have significant benefits, but IMHO not as simple and easy to use as a Twitter-like service could/should be, if integrated intelligently into the enterprise architecture. Here's further information courtesy of IBM Enterprise Microblogging Debuts - Technology For Change:

"Lotus Connections now boasts a Twitter-like service that lets employees establish and maintain publish/subscribe dialogues within their organizations.

At its Center for Social Software symposium being held this week in Cambridge, Mass., IBM announced the release of a microblogging and file-sharing facility bolstering the Lotus Connections suite of enterprise social networking tools. The Twitter-like service enables employees to establish and maintain publish/subscribe dialogues within their organizations.
Additional features added to Lotus Connections include support for iPhone and Nokia S60 mobile devices, including microbrowser access to Profiles, Activities and the Lotus Connections blogging tool..."

Measurement + Monitoring of Data Centre Energy Use Immature Through 2011: Gartner

noreply@blogger.com (dgftest) — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 17:20:00 +0000

As previously posted, "cheap" servers really aren't cheap at all (Infoworld 5/2008), since recurring server operational costs are often as large or larger than the initial hardware capital investment. Below is a related update from Gartner, reminding us that "you can't manage what you can't measure". Here is Gartner's explanation of the importance of metrics for reducing data-center energy consumption [emphasis mine]:

Gartner Says Measurement and Monitoring of Data Centre Energy Use Will Remain Immature Through 2011:
“...when asked which energy management metrics they will use in the next 18 months, 48 per cent of respondents have not even considered the issue of metrics. However, without metrics it is impossible to get accurate data, which is essential to evaluating basic costs, proportioning these costs to different users and setting policies for improvement.

'These metrics form the bedrock for internal cost and efficiency programmes and will become increasingly important for external use', said Mr Kumar. 'Organisations that want to publicise their carbon usage through green accounting principles will need to have their basic energy use continuously monitored.'

Mr Kumar also urged organisations not to rely on internal metrics saying that evaluating server energy needs to be done in an open and transparent manner...”

hat tip / source: http://twitter.com/Gartner_inc/statuses/4339604501

Mashable: Carrier Pigeons beat ADSL, but Memory Card capacity growing even faster

noreply@blogger.com (dgftest) — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 04:08:00 +0000

'Winston' the racing pigeon after flying with a 4GB SD card in Durban, South Africa.(EPA/STR/Corbis, as per THE WEEK)

Mashable: "...Internet lines getting faster, but memory card capacity is getting bigger even faster. If you need your data to travel fast, use a carrier pigeon."

Of course, this is not the only situation where "low tech" wins over conventional methods... e.g. in some situations and for some audiences, email reliability (or lack thereof) cannot match the simplicity and immediate hardcopy accessibility of conventional fax transmissions. In any case, IMHO this is at least worth a smile :)

Full article from Mashable:
CARRIER PIGEONS: Still Faster Than ADSL

Hat tip: http://www.theweek.com/article/index/100380/Highspeed_Internet_vs_carrier_pigeon

Gmail outage resolved thanks to flexible technical architecture [Official Gmail Blog]

noreply@blogger.com (dgftest) — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 02:40:00 +0000

Google's Site Reliability Czar: A clear explanation of today's gmail outage, as quoted below.

IMHO, as painful and widespread as the outage was (a side-effect of "routine upgrades"), urgent and ultimately successful action was taken towards resolution. And of course, the true "secret sauce" that enabled this resolution, is the underlying foundation of the "flexible capacity" which "is one of the advantages of Google's architecture".

Here is the full Official Gmail Blog post:

Official Gmail Blog: More on today's Gmail issue: Tuesday, September 01, 2009 6:59 PM
Posted by Ben Treynor, VP Engineering and Site Reliability Czar

"Gmail's web interface had a widespread outage earlier today, lasting about 100 minutes. We know how many people rely on Gmail for personal and professional communications, and we take it very seriously when there's a problem with the service. Thus, right up front, I'd like to apologize to all of you — today's outage was a Big Deal, and we're treating it as such. We've already thoroughly investigated what happened, and we're currently compiling a list of things we intend to fix or improve as a result of the investigation.

Here's what happened: This morning (Pacific Time) we took a small fraction of Gmail's servers offline to perform routine upgrades. This isn't in itself a problem — we do this all the time, and Gmail's web interface runs in many locations and just sends traffic to other locations when one is offline.

However, as we now know, we had slightly underestimated the load which some recent changes (ironically, some designed to improve service availability) placed on the request routers — servers which direct web queries to the appropriate Gmail server for response. At about 12:30 pm Pacific a few of the request routers became overloaded and in effect told the rest of the system 'stop sending us traffic, we're too slow!'. This transferred the load onto the remaining request routers, causing a few more of them to also become overloaded, and within minutes nearly all of the request routers were overloaded. As a result, people couldn't access Gmail via the web interface because their requests couldn't be routed to a Gmail server. IMAP/POP access and mail processing continued to work normally because these requests don't use the same routers.

The Gmail engineering team was alerted to the failures within seconds (we take monitoring very seriously). After establishing that the core problem was insufficient available capacity, the team brought a LOT of additional request routers online (flexible capacity is one of the advantages of Google's architecture), distributed the traffic across the request routers, and the Gmail web interface came back online.

What's next: We've turned our full attention to helping ensure this kind of event doesn't happen again. Some of the actions are straightforward and are already done — for example, increasing request router capacity well beyond peak demand to provide headroom. Some of the actions are more subtle — for example, we have concluded that request routers don't have sufficient failure isolation (i.e. if there's a problem in one datacenter, it shouldn't affect servers in another datacenter) and do not degrade gracefully (e.g. if many request routers are overloaded simultaneously, they all should just get slower instead of refusing to accept traffic and shifting their load). We'll be hard at work over the next few weeks implementing these and other Gmail reliability improvements — Gmail remains more than 99.9% available to all users, and we're committed to keeping events like today's notable for their rarity."

HighlightCam Cuts Long Security Camera Videos Down to the Action

noreply@blogger.com (dgftest) — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 13:03:00 +0000

Mashable has a nice writeup today regarding HighlightCam.com :
HOW TO: Quickly Cut Long Videos Down to the Juicy Parts:
"...finding the important parts of these [security camera] videos is painful. That’s because there are hours of footage to sift through. Really, do you want to fastforward through a 12 hour video just to find out what your dog was doing? Yet if you don’t, then you’ve lost the point of having the camera in the first place.

Now a new YCombinator-funded company, HighlightCam, has built the software to take hours of video and compress it into just the minutes with the important stuff – you know, when the dog starts barking, the baby falls out of the crib, or the crook turns on the lights.

So how does HighlightCam pick out the juciest bits of long videos? The web-based software, which has both a free version and an $8.99 per month version, is able to detect movement, light changes, and any variations from the norm. You can pick out how far down the video should be cut – one minute, five minutes, ten minutes, whatever you’d like. You can even get the best parts of YouTube (YouTube) videos with the software, as was demonstrated to us today....

One hour of video, cut down to under a minute, with only the important stuff shown. It’s already caught employees stealing from cash registers, something you’d probably miss if you sifted through the full video. It’s cheap, accessible, usable, and from what we’ve seen, really accurate at pinpointing key events. And with a free version, you can start using it without spending a dime."

Also worth noting as per http://blog.highlightcam.com/ , in fact not only motion but audio is also used as a cue to detect the highlights:

"HighlightCam records your footage all the time, whether there’s motion or not. We then find the highlights using a bunch of different cues, including motion and audio.

A tiny mouse running across the floor, or a loud conversation held off-camera—if that’s the most interesting thing that happened in an hour, that’s what we’ll show you!"

3 Reasons a CIO Should Care About Twitter — CIOUpdate.com

noreply@blogger.com (dgftest) — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 02:28:00 +0000

Senior IT executives / CIO's can also benefit from Twitter, according to CIOUpdate.com . The relevant observations excerpted below are a nice complement to my recent post Re: Should Project Managers Twitter? . So here are some of the potential business benefits of Twitter which (when balanced against the known Twitter security/privacy issues) can make sense for many organizations:

3 Reasons a CIO Should Care About Twitter — CIOUpdate.com: "...If all the buzz in the mass media isn’t enough to get you interested in Twitter, here are three solid business reasons why CIOs should devote some time to learning more:

1. Get Targeted Insights Faster - ... Some of the smartest people I meet haven’t devoted themselves to publishing or publicity that gets them a high Google ranking. But they are willing to share their experience and make themselves available for legitimate conversations.
Enter Twitter. Anyone can post their 140-character question, idea or comment on any topic. While the stream is uncensored and unfiltered, it is highly searchable. And because responses come in real time, it’s a channel that is particularly suited for time-sensitive information.

2. Participate in Social Media Innovation - ... the availability of Twitter’s API may present a direct opportunity for you and your company’s brand and products. Is there a way to utilize Twitter to support customer service (see @ComcastCares), promotions, order tracking, etc?

3. Expand Your Professional Network: ... as Twitter participation stabilizes will a valuable professional community emerge? There are some early signs that a viable CIO community exists on Twitter. At this point, I’ve identified over 70 CIOs across 20 industries. You can keep tabs on the growing community at http://www.ciodashboard.com/cio-twitter-dashboard . ..."

MS Exchange2007/WinServer2008 compatibility issues

noreply@blogger.com (dgftest) — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 19:16:00 +0000

Seems that waiting for Exchange Server 2010 - rather than upgrading now to Exchange Server 2007 - may make sense for many organizations currently running Exchange Server 2003 [or earlier]. Although this seems somewhat inconvenient, I expect many organizations can deal with this successfully in several ways, given sufficient planning. This sort of constraint reminds me of the situation approximately 4 years ago, when some Microsoft shops wanted to wait until MS SQL Server 2005 became available for purchase, rather than immediately purchasing a SQL Server 2000 license. In fact, the Software Assurance up-front purchase (to purchase SQL Server 2000 with SA that would include upgrade to SQL Server 2005) might have seemed logical at the time for many organizations.... But of course, evaluating the full TCO of a subsequent upgrade to SQL Server 2005 would have involved more than the initial hard cost of purchasing Software Assurance. So perhaps the best decision (then and now) as to whether to invest in Software Assurance depends on the particular upgrade and change management capabilities for the specific organization.

The recent Exchange2007/WinServer2008 issue was explained in the recent Microsoft Exchange Team blog posting explaining that Exchange Server 2007 won't run on upcoming Windows Server 2008 R2. Further insights available from SearchITChannel.com: Dilemma: Exchange Server 2007 won't run on next Windows Server:

"...Customers upgrading to Windows Server 2008 R2, due later this year, will have to upgrade to Exchange Server 2010, which is also due this year. This news, disclosed in the fourth bullet point in a July 17 Microsoft Exchange Team Blog post, means Microsoft partners have to sell Exchange Server 2007 without the promise of support on future OSes and without Windows Server 2008 R2 interoperability with Exchange Server 2007... said Planet Technologies lead infrastructure engineer Mike Crowley: "If people stick with Exchange 2007 on Windows 2008 because 'it works,' I wouldn't expect them to want to upgrade the underlying OS just because a new one is available."

Latest Google Maps for Mobile v3.2 Rocks on WinMo6.1

noreply@blogger.com (dgftest) — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 19:49:00 +0000

On my Samsung Jack running Windows Mobile 6.1 [smartphone, not touchscreen edition], I found the My Maps new features of Google Maps Mobile 3.2 to be excellent. The upgrade from Google Maps Mobile v3.0 (Over-The-Air download, clocking in at 1.0 MB) went through perfectly on the first try, as did the new My Maps feature. Quick and simple access to one's "My Maps" info is a real enhancement to the user experience for busy smartphone users trying to get somewhere quickly. IMHO this - together with Google Maps Mobile ability to either read my GPS (when it finds satellites) or locate me via cell towers when the GPS chip cannot - makes Google Maps for Mobile version 3.2 a true killer app.

Official Google Mobile Blog: Layers of fun in Google Maps for mobile 3.2: "...the latest version of Google Maps for mobile allows you to view many layers of information on your map at the same time. Layers make it easier and more useful to find and interact with geographic content, like public transit, traffic (with incidents!), local search results, Latitude friend locations, Wikipedia and more. You can also see your own My Maps content as a layer on Google Maps for mobile. And finally, multiple layers can be combined at the same time to give you a content-rich view of what's around you..."

Hat Tip: http://lifehacker.com/5320514/google-maps-adds-multiple-search-function