If you are using Google Apps for your business or organization, you’ll want to be aware that Google is enabling a new addressing structure called IPV6 [wiki] on their websites tomorrow, Wednesday, June 8. There is some potential for problems, but most people will be okay. Below is the message I received from Google. I’ve added bold to one particular sentence that allows you to test your system now.

Dear Google Apps administrator,

On June 8th, 2011 — World IPv6 Day (http://worldipv6day.org/) — major web companies, including Google, Facebook, Yahoo!, and Microsoft, will enable IPv6 on many of their websites for 24 hours to test how IPv6 performs in the real world.  That day, we’ll be using IPv6 (http://worldipv6day.org/faq/index.html) for Google Apps, including Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs and Google Sites.

More than 99.9% of people shouldn’t have any problems during this industry-wide test, but your experience on June 8th will depend on your computer and network configuration.
- If you only have IPv4, you’ll simply use IPv4 as usual and not see any test-related problems.
- If your configuration is ready for IPv6, you’ll automatically use IPv6 and not see any test-related problems.
- In rare cases if you have IPv6 enabled but not configured properly, you may have connectivity issues with Google Apps and other test sites on June 8th.

If you’d like to start checking your organization’s IPv6 preparedness before June 8th, you can instruct your users to visitipv6test.google.com from the devices where they access Google Apps, like primary work machines, tablet devices and home computers. If you discover IPv6 connectivity problems, you can find troubleshooting tips and more information here:http://www.google.com/support/websearch/bin/answer.py?hl=en&topic=8995&answer=1299266

If you are having a major issue related to this from now until the end of June 8th, 2011 and need to contact us about IPv6, please submit your inquiry here: https://spreadsheets.google.com/a/google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dGx2UnV1RTdEY25HSlJ4VGQ2QW9jM2c6MQ.  We will get back to you as soon as possible.

Thank you,
The Google Apps Team

You have received this mandatory email service announcement to update you about important changes to your Google Apps account.

This spring, I made the switch from the Apple iPhone to an Android phone (Motorola Atrix). It’s been a good great move for me. I’m a huge fan of Google’s products – I use GMail, Docs, Calendar, Search, Picasa, Chrome, Reader and lots of other Google products on a daily basis. I also use Google Apps for my own business and for many of my clients.

Before I made the switch, though, I carefully made a list of the iPhone apps I used the most. Then I cross-referenced to make sure an equivalent or an alternative was available for Android. The only app that came up short was Scrabble, but by that time many of my friends were talking about Words With Friends, so that was fine with me.

As you’ll see in the list below, I use my phone for much more than playing Scrabble – it’s an essential part of my business toolkit. Here are the apps I recommend:

• ACS Church Life (church membership database)
• Amazon.com
• Bible (LifeChurch.tv)
• Battery Indicator
• Cloud Print (Connects with Google Chrome’s Cloud Print Service)
• Dropbox (I can’t recommend this one strongly enough)
• Evernote
• Expensify
• Facebook
• Flash Player
• Foursquare
• GMail
• GoDaddy.com Mobile Domains
• Google Books
• Google Docs
• Google Maps (the navigation feature of this software is AMAZING)
• Google Reader
• Google Voice (only useful if you have a Google Voice account – get one here)
• Grocery IQ
• HootSuite (hands down the best Twitter client I’ve used mobile or desktop)
• Kindle
• Mint.com Personal Finance
• NPR Podcasts
• PayPal
• RunKeeper
• Skype
• SwiftKey Keyboard (I’m just starting to use this one, based on the recommendation of 13,000 reviewers)
• Vlingo Virtual Assistant (The more I use this app, the more I like it. The newest version for Android 2.2 and higher has an InCar mode that will read email and text messages to you, all the while listening for your voice commands. This app will see more and more screen time from me.)
• Webroot Mobile Security Basic
• Words With Friends

And there you have it, that’s a list of the apps I use regularly and will recommend to any Android user.

There is some news that I’d like to share with you -

• I have opened an office just off Cedar Bluff in west Knoxville. The new office space allows me to be more accessible to customers. The new space is located at 9040 Executive Park Drive, Suite 263, Knoxville, TN 37923 [click for a map].
• Allyte Workshops for Non-Geeks are now available. Click here to see the full list of upcoming workshops. I’d love to hear your ideas for other workshops, too!
• For useful tips and resources, the Allyte Blog is a great resource. It’s updated regularly with tech information for non-geeks. You can also sign up for an e-mail so you can get these tips delivered to your inbox.
• Allyte is now listed on Yelp, the wildly popular web resource for local business reviews. The reviews for Allyte are sparse, so I’d love to have you write a review for Allyte on Yelp. To write a review, just go to http://yelp.com, sign up for an account and do a search for “Allyte“. Click on the red “Write a Review” button and follow the instructions.
• Can we send you some cash? I love referrals! Word-of-mouth advertising is the single best way I’ve found to grow my business. So, for the month of February, if you send me a referral that turns into a paying customer, I’ll send you a check $10!

I’m a dedicated GMail user myself, but many of my clients use Outlook just as dedicated-ly as I use GMail. Lifehacker came out with this list of the Top 10 Outlook Boosters a while back, but it’s worth looking at again. Here are a couple of the handiest tools in the list:

# 10 – Never Forget Attachments. GMail has a labs tool available for this same task. It’s saved me a little time on more than 1 occasion!

# 6 – Kill your duplicate contacts. How great is it to get rid of the redundant redundancy?

# 1 – Sync Outlook with nearly any app/device/calendar. Wouldn’t it be great if we could all get along so well?

Here’s the link to the entire post of the Top 10 Outlook Boosters.