Technology

One of the best features of the new Gmail is its quick-access side panel with easy access to Google Calendar, Tasks, Keep and your Gmail extensions. Now, Google is bringing this same functionality to Google Calendar, Docs, Sheets, Slides and Drawings, too.

In Google Calendar, you&ll be able to quickly access Keep and Tasks, while in the rest of the G Suite apps, you&ll get easy access to Calendar, Keep and Tasks.

In Gmail, the side panel also brings up access to various G Suite extensions that you may have installed from the marketplace. It doesn&t look like thatpossible in Docs and Calendar right now, though itprobably only a matter of time before there will be compatible extensions for those products, too. By then, we&ll likely see a &works with Google Calendar& section and support for other G Suite appsin the marketplace, too.

I&m already seeing this in my personalGoogle Calendar, but not in Google Docs, so this looks to be a slow rollout. The official word is that paying G Suite subscribers on the rapid release schedule should get access now, with those on the slower release schedule getting access in two weeks.

Update: Launch successful! Aeolus is in orbit and and signal has been acquired. We&re still waiting on solar panel deployment but everything is nominal so far.

An ESA mission 20 years in the making is set to take off today, launching the first satellite to monitor the planetwinds directly — and using a giant laser, at that. Aeolus takes off from French Guiana at nearly midnight CEST, about 2:20 PM Pacific time, and you can watch the launch live here.

Aeolus, named after the Greek god who was the keeper of the winds, is a satellite designed and approved way back in 1999 but only recently completed and deemed ready for launch. Itessentially a vehicle for a single payload, the Atmospheric Laser Doppler Instrument, or &Aladin,& essentially an orbital lidar system.

Once in orbit, Aladin will blast the surface with a 10-megawatt ultraviolet laser 50 times per second, tracking the minute changes evident in the reflected beam caused by air molecules and other matter in the atmosphere. Twenty separate measurements done on the laser light allow the satellite to determine the exact velocity of the wind where itpointing.

Believe it or not, measuring the wind from space hasn&t really been done. Sure, you can observe cloud patterns and infer that air in some places is behaving in a certain way. But there has been no space-based, global-scale mission to directly measure the direction of the wind.

This information should prove extremely valuable, as it will allow for much improved weather prediction, especially in areas like the tropics where there are fewer stations and weather balloons (yes, they use them) from which to collect data. As such, the Aeolus mission may help understand and predict the genesis and paths of tropical storms, giving people more timely and accurate warnings.

Weather in areas rich in balloons should also be improved by a few percent of accuracy — which doesn&t sound like a lot, but really is, especially for aerospace businesses, farmers and others whose livelihood revolves around the weather.

Ironically (though not particularly worryingly), Aeolusfirst intended launch date was scrubbed because of high winds. If only there were a satellite that could have helped predict that.

Aeolusorbit is a slightly unusual one called a sun-synchronous dusk/dawn orbit. It will hover at 320 kilometers above the terminator, the line demarcating night from day, while circling around the poles every 90 minutes. So itzipping in the north-south axis at great speed, and takes a week to sample the whole globe.

Data is fired off to a station in Svalbard, Norway once every orbit, and the plan right now is to distribute that data within three hours to the meteorological authorities who will be using it for their own purposes.

The mission is only planned to last three years, since itmore of a technology demonstration than a full-scale semi-permanent satellite. If Aeolus proves as useful as it promises to be, another satellite or perhaps several may be launched with improvements and perhaps other instruments.

The satellite has been in French Guiana since July and has been loaded up atop a Vega rocket since earlier this month. Live coverage should begin at 23:00 CEST, 14:00 (2:00 PM) Pacific time, and liftoff is planned for 20 minutes after that. It should take almost an hour for the full deployment process to take place, so we&ll know shortly afterwards if all went well.

According to Chinese numerology, 48 represents a determination to prosper — as in business. How fitting, because 48 also represents the number of hours you have left to reserve your place in Startup Alley, the huge exhibition floor at TechCrunch Disrupt San Francisco 2018, which takes place on September 5-7.

Disrupt events are all about creating prosperity, so if you want to exhibit your early-stage startup in front of more than 10,000 attendees — including influential investors, technologists, entrepreneurs and media — buy a Disrupt SF Startup Alley Exhibitor Packagebefore August 24 at 5 p.m. PT.

Startup Alley will be home to more than 1,200 early-stage startups and sponsors from just about every vertical. Secure your spot and you can join them as they showcase their latest tech products, platforms and services to potential customers, future investors and more than 400 media outlets.

What do you get in your value-packed Startup Alley Exhibitor Package We&re glad you asked.

• Two Founder passes for all three days of Disrupt SF 2018
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• Attend the TC After Party

Plus, every Startup Alley exhibitor has a chance to win one of two Wild Card slots to compete in Startup Battlefield — this yeargrand prize is a whopping $100K. Not only did that happen to Recordgram at Disrupt NY 2017, they went on to win the entire Battlefield!

Only 48 hours left to capitalize on the prosperity potential awaiting you in Startup Alley at Disrupt SF 2018 on Sept. 5-7. Go buy a Disrupt SF Startup Alley Exhibitor Packagebefore time — and opportunity — runs out.