Just a few links and notes from things I found interesting at #DF14 and in the Winter '15 release. 

Sales Cloud

• New Name - Sales Cloud1
• New Mobile Features
  • Today
  • Tasks 
  • Notes 
  • Actions from the lists
  • Sales Path

• Service Cloud is also renamed Service Cloud1
• Referral Program

http://blogs.salesforce.com/company/2014/10/10-dreamforce-annoucements-that-will-shape-sales-2015-new-salesforce-e-book.html or direct download https://secure2.sfdcstatic.com/assets/pdf/misc/10-Dreamforce-Announcements-That-Will-Shape-Sales-2015.pdf

http://www.cirrusinsight.com/blog/sales-cloud1-and-service-cloud1

Deduping

• Forget about it for a while. 
• First release only uses Data.com. 
• But it will be cool eventually. 
• Don't leave deduping until then. Get started now. Even with the free Dupe Catcher. But see Deduping Tools

Lightning

• A suite of services for the Salesforce1 platform
  • Process Builder
  • Components
  • App Builder
  • Lightning Connect
  • And they have stuck Schema Builder in there (have you ever used it?)

https://www.salesforce.com/form/conf/platform-lightning-process-builder.jsp?leadcreated=true&landing_page=%2Fform%2Fdemo%2Fplatform-lightning-process-builder.jsp&videoId=&redirect=true&d=70130000000lzTlAAI&DriverCampaignId=70130000000sUVb&playlistId=&__element=pre&FormCampaignId=70130000000lxJn

• Was named Aura before release

http://salesforce.stackexchange.com/questions/53232/what-is-the-difference-between-aura-and-lightning-frameworks

Process Builder

https://help.salesforce.com/servlet/servlet.FileDownload?file=015300000035wMDAAY

Lightning Connect

• Also known as External Objects
• Cool - get data from other systems into Salesforce
• Uses OData

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Data_Protocol

• Next release will be read only and no reports, but writing and reporting will come later. 

http://appirio.com/category/tech-blog/2014/09/integration-friday-episode-6-overview-odata/

Analytics

• Aka Wave (no, not Google Wave). 
• You are unlikely to afford it - apparently $250/user/month to build and $150/user/month to view. 
• But get prepared for it anyway

http://blogs.salesforce.com/company/2014/11/4-tips-become-analytics-ready-gp.html?d=70130000000tP4G

• There is a new feature coming to surface Salesforce data in Excel - get started with that. 

https://developer.salesforce.com/page/Salesforce_Reports_for_Excel

http://cloud4good.com/announcements/salesforce-microsoft/

• Plus there are third party apps that do pretty dashboards if you want to start with that (even though Analytics is way more than dashboards). 

Development

• Trailhead

https://developer.salesforce.com/trailhead

Overall

• Go back and find the new release items that you may have missed recently. 

http://cloud4good.com/announcements/salesforce-hidden-gems/

• Look at your processes. Define them on paper. Get ready for Process Builder. 
• Know that you don't need a developer to do cool stuff. 
• Get into Chatter. 
• Start using Mobile. 

My Picks

• My favourites recently are:
  • State and Country Picklists
  • Publisher Actions
  • Flows
• Upcoming interestingness
  • Tasks and Notes
  • Today
  • Process Builder
    • Create Chatter Posts
  • Headless Flows / Flow Triggers
  • New UI
  • Deduping