Sherrie's dashboard

This week, we have more exciting new developments to share with our user community.

Among a number of subtle changes in our product, we also have some notable improvements. In this update, I want to alert you to the following:

1. two new apps that are now available (Zoho Writer and Zoho Sheet)
2. a feature improvement that helps you better manage the emails and text messages you receive from AirSet
3. the Files application is now more visibly displayed on the "Start" menu
4. more widely used apps are now rearranged and moved towards the top of the "Start" menu
5. new "Manage Email" in all the email footers

So let's get into it...

Zoho Writer and Zoho Sheet are now integrated into AirSet

In a nutshell, now you have an online word processor and spreadsheet application in AirSet!

Zoho has an open API that allows AirSet to freely integrate Zoho service offerings into our product. From the "Start" menu, you can launch Zoho Writer or Zoho Sheet. In a popup dialog, you can choose to create a new document or open an existing document in Microsoft Word format (.doc, .docx), Excel format (.xls, .xlsx), OpenDocumen format (.odt, .ods), or OpenOffice format (.sxw, .sxc). You are then sent to a browser window where you can start working.



From the Files app in AirSet, you can also view and edit documents in all of the aforementioned formats. Additionally, you can view (but not edit) PowerPoint documents.

The addition of these new apps is just incredibly powerful! It truly integrates new functionality into AirSet and makes working together with other AirSet users even easier than before.



Earlier I received a Word document from an outside consultant. In order to make changes, I opened this document in AirSet using Zoho Writer. After I was done, I saved the document and an Activity Alert went out to my teammates letting them know about the changes that I had made. I then sent a "Web Mail" back to the outside consultant with the latest draft using the AirSet Messaging app, and used the "Add Attachment" feature to attach the file in the email. And I completed the entire task without leaving AirSet.

From a group collaboration perspective, these new apps provide a compelling way for team members to work together in a cloud computer. When one member works on a document, and other members in the same group try to access this document, they will see a warning message. This will prevent the scenario of maintaining multiple versions of a document on various PCs by different members. And the process is just simple.

Cool, huh?

Feature improvement: manage your AirSet emails and text messages

The email and mobile preferences menu items have been replaced by "Manage Email..." and "Manage Mobile...", respectively.



With these changes, you will have better access to the control settings that allow you to manage how and where you get emails and text messages. You will also have a one-stop location where you can manage your email addresses and mobile numbers.





Changes in the "Start" menu

Most notably, the Files app was added to the top left side of the "Start" menu. This was a request from many of our users who were having difficulties finding the File app in the old menu. Moreover, we've rearranged the "Start" menu and moved some of the more widely used apps toward the top (e.g. Calendar, Contacts, Lists).



More changes...

In all of the emails that are sent by AirSet, we added a new footer link that points to the new "Manage Email" functionality. Hopefully this will provide you with another entry point to better manage the emails that you receive from AirSet.

Last but not least, we continue to improve the functionality of AirSet. Most of it is not visible to the eye -- it's like working on the engine under the hood... For this week, the only other noticeable addition that we made is "today's date" in the footer of the Calendar views. :)

I am thrilled to share with you that the "AirSet for iPhone" feature is now in private beta!

"AirSet for iPhone" is a program that syncs AirSet with your iPhone by emulating a Microsoft Exchange server. Once enabled, you can view your AirSet Calendars and Contacts from the native applications on your iPhone, as well as make updates to your AirSet Calendar and Contacts directly from your iPhone.

We have received many many comments and questions regarding the iPhone from our user community in the past year. Thank you for your patience and your support. In order to create the best possible experience for our users, we'd like to invite a limited number of AirSet users to participate in the private beta and help us test the product.

To participate and learn more, please visit the "AirSet for iPhone" beta website at:
iphonebeta.airset.com

To indicate your interest, please click on the "Join now" button on the above website and join the "AirSet for iPhone beta" cloud computer. If selected, you will receive an email confirmation from AirSet.

Setup instructions are made available only to the members of the "AirSet for iPhone beta" cloud computer.

We also ask all selected beta testers to please only express your comments and feedback in a private forum inside the "AirSet for iPhone beta" cloud computer.

Thanking you in advance for your help!

Best,
Sherrie

Hi there,

I want tell you about a couple of exciting new and improved features...

The new "Invite Members to Join" feature

We added a new item called "Manage Members" in the "My Network" menu to make the add/manage member features more discoverable.



In the "Manage Members" section, we also added an "Invite Members to Join" feature.



You can still use the existing "Add Member" feature when inviting members to use a group cloud computer. But now there is a new and improved method available when you send an email invitation to a group of people that you would like to invite. This feature is especially helpful if you want to send an invitation to a distribution list -- when you don't have the email address of each invitee (or don't want to type in all the email addresses by hand).

The invitation includes a special link back to the AirSet site. When an invitee follows the link, he will be presented with a dialog that asks him to register or to log in (if he is already a registered AirSet user/ member of another group).

When the invitee completes registration or login, he is then added as a member of the group, pending approval. Learn more about this feature in the User Manual.

Calendar improvements

We added "Quick navigation" to the Calendar so that our users can easily navigate to a different month or year. The "Month" and "Year" in the Calendar header are now links to drop-down displays for you to quickly select the month or year that you are looking for.



We also simplified view mode options in our calendar header to "Day", "Week", and "Month", and added a clearly labeled link to "today's calendar." Though the full range of views are still available from the "View" menu.

Another feature improvement in the "Month View" is that the "day of week" labels are now always visible when you scroll the page.

Last but not least, small addition to Web Publish...

When creating your web documents using the Web Publish application, you can always create hyperlinks to existing AirSet content to a number of applications and features under the "To AirSet" option. In this release, we added two new links that will allow our users to create hyperlinks to the "Import Calendar" and "Subscribe to Calendar" dialog windows. If you are a savvy Web Publish user, be sure to check this out!



Sherrie