Google Takeout gets a makeover, hopefully easier to use now

Google already makes it very simple for you to pull your data from some of its many services, via the Takeout transfer tool on the web. Up until today, however, Google Takeout wasn't necessarily pleasing to the eye, despite being extremely useful at letting users extract their archives. As a way to alleviate that, the search giant has quietly given Takeout a design makeover, bringing the user interface more in line with its other products, like Gmail and Google Drive. Still, it's not all about the visuals here -- Google Takeout is now also more thorough, allowing you to pull specific data from each service. For example, with Google Play Books, you can choose to include select files, rather than only having the option to download all at once. Just don't go too crazy creating archives, since they do take up space from your Drive's free storage allotment.

Apple Bendgate...Don't we have something better to talk about

Still trying to figure out what the big deal is with this "Bendgate".  So the phone has some bend to it.  I would think that would be a blessing for the thousands of people who sit on their phones.  A bit of flexibility would seem beneficial.  Finally, what is the mindset of somebody who takes the time to find out how much their phone will bend?  Maybe in the next couple of days I'll find a legitimate reason why this is a big deal....

Comcast at least making an attempt to get better...maybe

Comcast, which makes more money than Goldman Sachs despite being voted Worst Company in America twice, may be getting serious about improving customer service.

Today, president Neil Smit reiterated that customer service is Comcast's number one priority, appointing an executive to a new position focused on "reimagining the customer experience."

Charlie Herrin, formerly a special vice president of product design and development, is now special vice president of customer experience, reporting to Smit and COO Dave Watson.

"It may take a few years before we can honestly say that a great customer experience is something we’re known for."

"Transformation isn’t going to happen overnight," Smit says in a blog post. "In fact, it may take a few years before we can honestly say that a great customer experience is something we’re known for. But that is our goal and our number one priority… and that’s what we are going to do."

Herrin will be working across all of Comcast's departments, including customer service, technical operations, sales, marketing, training, and product development. Herrin "will listen to feedback from customers as well as our employees to make sure we are putting our customers at the center of every decision we make," Smit writes.

Comcast is taking heat for its lousy customer service in part due to its controversial proposed merger with Time Warner Cable, which would merge the nation's two largest cable companies. AOL executive Ryan Block also called attention to the issue over the summer when he published a particularly exasperating Comcast phone call on SoundCloud.

The company says it has been making an effort to improve customer service, pointing to efforts to integrate the fragmented company and shorten technician visit windows (although there is evidence that the latter choice may have actually caused more customer frustration).

Surf the web anonymously with Tor

Recently, BoingBoing ran an article about how some librarians in Massachusetts were installing Tor software in all their public PCs to anonymize the browsing habits of their patrons. The librarians are doing this as a stand against passive government surveillance as well as companies that track users online and build dossiers to serve highly-targeted advertising.

It's an interesting project and a bold stand for user privacy. But the good news is that if you want to browse anonymously, you don't have to go to the library to use Tor. Connecting to the Tor network from your own PC is quick and painless thanks to the Tor project's dead simple Tor Browser.

Click here for the article telling you to do it.

New Google Now Flight Card will alert you to price drops

Next time when trying to find a bargain airline ticket you may get a little nudge from Google Now. A new card is showing up for some users that notifies you of price drops on itineraries looked up in flights search. 

It appears (for now) to only interact with those who perform a search through Google's nascent flight-finding service. Like other Google now cards, you can turn it off if you don't want to see further updates.

Google Now is a particularly useful tool that mines your Gmail, search history, and other data to provide you with contextual information. It will alert you to traffic congestion, remind you of hotel check-ins, and offer articles to read. 

Get notified when prices drop on that next trip you want to take.

Google keeps rolling out changes to the service, though they tend to be staggered as some get the new features long before others. If you don't see the new cards yet, just be patient and they will eventually show up.  

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Students can get Office 365 for free

Microsoft yesterday made it easier for school and university students to obtain a free subscription to Office 365 by sidestepping institutional IT and going to the self-serve line.

A year ago, the Redmond, Wash. technology company announced "Student Advantage," a program under which educational institutions that licensed Office Professional Plus 2013 or Office 365 ProPlus could also hand Office 365 ProPlus subscriptions to students, free of charge.

To participate in Student Advantage, school districts and universities must have licensed Office for staff and faculty institution-wide.  The main problem was how to actually get the software and proving who you are (ie. eligible student).

Yesterday, Microsoft removed that barrier by founding a self-serve process for students and parents. Students 13 or older can obtain Office 365 for free using only their school-assigned email address.

When the email address is entered into this form, Microsoft does an eligibility check. If the district or university meets the requirements -- again, it must have licensed Office for all faculty and staff via a volume license agreement -- and the student's email address is valid, the student or parent can download the latest version of Office for Windows PCs or Macs. Like most paid Office subscriptions, the free Student Advantage allows local installation on up to five PCs or Macs, activation of Office for iPad and one terabyte (1TB) of OneDrive storage space.