The following features are now available to domains on the Scheduled Release track:

Gmail:
- Improved label visibility controls: The “Hide read labels” and “Hide Labels from Subjects” labs to help people manage their ever-growing lists of labels have graduated from Gmail Labs. Some improvements to how they work have also been made. Instead of simply hiding all labels from subject lines, you can now choose which labels to show or hide. We also revamped the Labels tab in Settings as well as the dropdown menus for each label in the label list.
- Priority inbox cleanup: If users have enabled Priority Inbox but have not used it in a while, they will see a "clean up" button which will mark all old important messages as read.

The following features are now intended for release to these domains on March 22:

Google Docs:
- A refreshed documents list interface making it more useful to find, explore and share items.

Release Track:
Scheduled*

Editions included:
Google Apps, Google Apps for Business, Government and Education

Languages included:
All languages supported by Gmail and Google Docs

For more information:
Label Visibility: http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/dealing-with-label-overload.html
Documents list Refresh: http://docs.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=1107581

*Scheduled Release track: Domains with ‘Enable scheduled releases’ checkbox enabled in the administrator control panel. Learn more

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A new two-track release process has now rolled out to all Google Apps domains. This new process is aimed at helping administrators balance the benefits of accessing improvements as soon as they're ready with the task of integrating the changes into their organization.

Our new process has two release tracks that Google Apps administrators can choose from:

Rapid Release: Customers on the Rapid Release track have access to new features as soon as the features have completed testing and quality assurance, and are ready to roll out.

Scheduled Release: Customers on the Scheduled Release track gain access to new features on a regular, weekly release schedule following the initial release of those features. This delay allows time for administrators to familiarize themselves with new features using a test domain, educate support staff, and communicate any changes to their users. New features will be released on the Scheduled Release track each Tuesday, with at least a one-week notice following the initial feature launch.

Editions included:
Google Apps, Google Apps for Business, Government and Education

Languages included:
Control Panel: US English Only (Next Generation Control Panel)

How to access what's new:
- The “Pre-release features” checkbox has now been replaced with “Enable scheduled releases”. This causes no change in behaviour for existing domains.
- If your organization previously had “Pre-release features” enabled in the Google Apps control panel, then you will be placed on the Rapid Release track and continue to gain access to new features as soon as they’re ready. Otherwise, your organization will be placed on the Scheduled Release track.
- You can change your selection by choosing how you would like to receive new features in the Google Apps control panel.
- If you're considering a switch to Scheduled Release, note that you may currently be using some features that are only available in Rapid Release.
- New features for Gmail, Contacts, Google Calendar, Google Docs and Google Sites will be following this new release process going forward.

For more information:
http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2011/03/new-google-apps-feature-release-process.html
New launch resource site: whatsnew.googleapps.com
List of features currently available to Rapid Release only: http://www.google.com/support/a/bin/answer.py?answer=172172

Q1 2011 Apps Innovation in Review recorded webinar: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daraZ87FyIQ

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A new minimum password length has now been introduced to Google Apps domains. If administrators manage user passwords using the Control Panel, the new minimum is 8 characters instead of 6.

If domains are using a Single Sign-On system, then the administrator is responsible for this authentication system so are not affected.

If admins are using a password-sync solution, then please ensure that the system is sending hashed passwords to Google. If it's sending hashed passwords then users are not affected by this new requirement.

If the password-sync solution is sending plain-text passwords, then this is not recommend and the domain will be affected by this change.

Please note that this change only affects new passwords and password resets, not any existing passwords.

Editions included:
Google Apps, Google Apps for Business, Government and Education

Languages included:
All languages supported by Google Apps

For more information:
http://www.google.com/support/a/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=139399

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Starting July 2, 2011, RIM will be deprecating support for BES 4.1.6 and 4.1.7. As a result, Google Apps will stop supporting these BES versions starting July 2, 2011. Google Apps Connector for BES 3.x will still be supported for BES 5.x. We strongly urge customers to upgrade to BES version 5.x and version 3.x of the Connector. You can download latest version of the Google Apps Connector from https://tools.google.com/dlpage/appsconnector

Editions included:
Google Apps for Business, Government and Education

How to access what's new:
https://tools.google.com/dlpage/appsconnector

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We recently introduced the Google Apps Collaboration Dashboard which shows how content is being used in your domain. Collectively, these reports give you detailed views into the creation, manipulation, and sharing of this content. The dashboard shows the size and volume of your account's collaborative network across all of your users. Understanding these collaborative network trends is critical when managing and improving how information is effectively shared across your account.

Editions included:
Google Apps for Business, Government and Education

Languages included:
US English Only (Next generation control panel)

How to access what's new:
Administrators can log into the administrator control panel and access the new dashboard in ‘Advanced tools’, then ‘View Usage & Reports’.

For more information:
http://www.google.com/support/a/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=142566

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For Domains with ‘enable pre-release features’ checkbox disabled in the Administrator Control Panel:

The following features are now available to these domains:

- Visible Bcc: Gmail will now provide email recipients an indicator when they are added via Bcc on an email. We will add a visible Bcc header only to messages sent from another Gmail user, not from external sources. Each Bcc recipient will only see themselves on the Bcc list.

- PDF attachments showing the ‘View’ link open with Chrome’s native PDF viewer if available.

The following features are now intended for release to these domains on March 15:

- Improved label visibility controls: The “Hide read labels” and “Hide Labels from Subjects” labs to help people manage their ever-growing lists of labels have graduated from Gmail Labs. Some improvements to how they work have also been made. Instead of simply hiding all labels from subject lines, you can now choose which labels to show or hide. We also revamped the Labels tab in Settings as well as the dropdown menus for each label in the label list.
- Priority Inbox cleanup: If users have enabled Priority Inbox but have not used it in a while, they will see a "clean up" button which will mark all old important messages as read.

These features are already available to domains with the ‘enable pre-release features’ checkbox enabled.

Editions included:
Google Apps, Google Apps for Business, Government and Education

Languages included:
All languages supported by Gmail

Please register for our webinar: 'What's New in Google Apps - March 2011'
Register: Wednesday, March 9, 2011 at 4pm PT, Thursday, March 10 8am SGT, 9am JT
Register (Repeat): Thursday, March 10, 2011 at 7:00 a.m. PT, 10:00 a.m. ET, 15:00 BST, 16:00 CEDT

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You can now edit your documents on the go in 45 languages on Android with Froyo (version 2.2) and on iOS devices (version 3.0+) including the iPad.

Editions included:
Google Apps, Google Apps for Business, Government and Education

Languages included:
Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Croatian, Czech, Dutch, English, English (UK), Filipino, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Gujarati, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Kannada, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Malayalam, Marathi, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Portugal), Portuguese (Brazil), Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Tamil, Telugu, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese.

How to access what's new:
- Access your Google Docs from a supported mobile device to edit on the go.

For more information:
http://www.google.com/mobile/docs/
http://www.google.com/support/mobile/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=77421

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For Domains with ‘enable pre-release features’ checkbox disabled in the Administrator Control Panel:

The following features are now intended for release to these domains on March 8:

- Visible Bcc: Gmail will now provide email recipients an indicator when they are added via Bcc on an email. We will add a visible Bcc header only to messages sent from another Gmail user, not from external sources. Each Bcc recipient will only see themselves on the Bcc list.

- PDF attachments showing the ‘View’ link open with Chrome’s native PDF viewer if available.

These features are already available to domains with the ‘enable pre-release features’ checkbox enabled.

Editions included:
Google Apps, Google Apps for Business, Government and Education

Languages included:
All languages supported by Gmail

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Previously available in a number of languages, the ability to upload documents into Google Docs using Optical Character Recognition (OCR) has now been expanded to a total of 34 languages. OCR analyzes images and PDF files, typically from a scanner, extracts text and some formatting and allows you to then edit the document in Google Docs.

Editions included:
Google Apps, Google Apps for Business, Government and Education

Languages included:
Full list of supported languages available on the ‘Upload Files’ page.

How to access what's new:
- In Google Docs, select to upload a new file that you want to be converted from an image/PDF to Google Docs.
- Check the box for ‘Convert text from PDF or image files to Google Docs documents’ and select the original source language from the dropdown list.
- Select ‘Start upload’ to convert the document into Google Docs.

For more information:
http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2011/02/optical-character-recognition-ocr-in-34.html
http://docs.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=176692&hl=en

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User Managed Storage is a service that has allowed users to purchase more storage space when they fill the allotted quota on their personal Google Accounts. Over the next couple of days, we will be rolling this service out for Google Apps users as well, allowing the purchase of extra storage for Google Docs, Picasa Web Albums, and photos from Blogger. Any of these products that is over its storage quota can use the extra storage on a first-come, first-served basis. Users that upload lots of files to Google Docs, sync their Office documents to the cloud using Google Cloud Connect for Microsoft Office, or store and share pictures using Picasa or Blogger can now expand the storage space available for these files.

Additional User Managed Storage cannot be pooled or transferred to another Google Apps account and cannot be used for Gmail.

User Managed Storage is enabled or disabled by the domain administrator, and the end user purchases additional storage using his or her Google Checkout account at the domain. Data stored within User Managed Storage is subject to the same ownership policy as other data in the Google Apps account.

Please note that this functionality is only for Google Apps domains that have already transitioned to the new account infrastructure for Google Apps accounts. This change does not affect any domains that have not yet transitioned to that infrastructure.

Editions included:
Google Apps, Google Apps for Business and Education

How to access what's new:
- In order to allow end users to purchases individual storage, administrators must first enable the service ‘User Managed Storage’ in the ‘Organisation & Users’ -> ‘Services’ section for their administrative control panel. Google Checkout must also be enabled for the domain so that end users can purchase the storage.
-If the ‘User Managed Storage’ service is allowed, end users can purchase additional storage at https://www.google.com/accounts/b/0/PurchaseStorage.
- Google storage purchases are non-refundable. You can upgrade storage plans for the pro-rated difference at any time but paid storage for one Google Account cannot be transferred to a different account.

For more information:
http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2011/03/now-available-with-google-apps-user.html
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