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Google today announced a combination of cloud data storage limits. Rolling out over the next couple of weeks to all users, the search engine is allocating a total of 15GB to users, shared across Gmail, Google+, and Google Drive. Business customers are offered 30GB of unified storage shared between the Google Drive and Gmail services.
Google has expanded the functionality of its Google Drive desktop app to simplify the process of sharing documents. Thanks to the most recent update, Google Drive files can now be shared with others directly from a Mac or PC's file system by right clicking on the file. The update is currently being rolled out to all users and may not show up immediately.
We live in a world positively soaked in data nowadays. Fortunately, the capacity to store that data has gotten bigger in volume, smaller in physical size, and cheaper per gigabyte as time progresses. Gone are the days where you'd have to lug a Zip disk around (remember those?) or stick your iPod into disk mode. At worst, you're carrying a USB drive with you -- though really, you should be relying on the cloud for by now. The issue is figuring out just what you're going to be keeping up there.
In fashion, trends come and go like breezes: quick, occasionally refreshing, and usually leaving little trace that they were there in the first place. It's the same in the world of computing, where we've gone in the space of a few years from desktops and iPods to ultrabooks and smartphones. One thing has remained constant amidst the ever-changing standards of computer form factors, though: you need a place to hold your stuff. Thus, among the fleeting fads there's one computing trend that looks like it might have staying power: cloud storage.
Google has updated its cloud-based storage service and Drive SDK to help developers protect data used in apps, similar to functions used in iCloud. The new app data folders are hidden folders within the Google Drive itself, helping to protect app-specific data from unwanted interference through malicious programs, or even the owner of the drive themselves.
Google won't be rolling out apps for its Gmail or Google Drive apps for Microsoft's Windows 8 or Windows Phone 8 platforms in the near future. This according to the product management director at Google Apps, who says that the company has not seen any indication of interest in apps for the new generation of Windows. Instead, Google is committed to continually growing and improving its app suite on iOS and Android.
Google has posted updates to two of its flagship iOS apps, Chrome and Drive. Chrome 23.0.1271.91 supports opening PDFs in other apps, and can save tickets and boarding passes to Passbook in iOS 6. To cope with garbled text on webpages, a text encoding detection option has been added under Settings.
Google has made a pair of significant tweaks to its online services. Gmail, notably, now allows users to attach up to 10GB to an email via Google Drive, versus the 25MB the service normally allows. This has some limitations however; people must, for instance, opt into the new Compose function, and recipients with dedicated email clients won't automatically have access to a locally-stored file. In effect Gmail is simply generating links to Google Drive, though this does ensure that recipients have the latest version of an item.
Google has added the ability to post direct links to Android apps in timelines on its Google+ social layer, allowing users to share favorite apps and games. Users can take advantage of the feature by pasting the URL of the app they wish to share. From there, Google+ will automatically embed the app and give viewers the option to install or buy the app.
Google announced today an expansion of the search capabilities built into Gmail and its standard search, giving users more access to other Google products. The feature is now in field trial mode, but Gmail and Google users will soon be able to view relevant files from Google Drive and Google Calendar entries alongside Gmail items when they search from within the email application. The field trial is currently only available for @gmail.com addresses, and only accessible in English.
Amazon's AmazonLocal iOS app debuted in the iOS App Store last week. The app allows users to locate deals and specials in their area and purchase them through Amazon. Users can redeem deals directly through their iPhones without printing vouchers, use the app for navigation assistance to find deals, directly contact participating merchants through the app, and share deals through Facebook, Twitter, email, and SMS. The app is available as a free download in the iTunes App Store. It is compatible with iPhones, iPod touches, and iPads running iOS 4.3 or later.
(Update: iOS app now available) Google's Drive file storage service is officially coming to iOS and Chrome OS, the company announced today at its second Google I/O keynote. Little has been announced about plans for the former, except that an app should launch for all iOS devices sometime today. One feature will be the ability to search through scanned documents, thanks to OCR technology; searching for "pyramid," for instance, should bring up images with the word in them even if the filename is completely unrelated.
Google Drive, the cloud-based storage system that functions as a file system for Google's Chrome OS computers, will soon be getting an offline mode, according to Google's Senior Vice President of Chrome & Apps, Sundar Pichai. The addition of an offline mode would address one common complaint about Google's browser-based line of computers, which recently received a refresh. Pichai also hinted that an ad-supported model for Chrome OS devices wasn't outside the realm of possibility.
The Chrome OS developer channel has been updated to add Google Drive integration, which means that users of Google's fledgling Chromebook line will likely soon see the search giant's cloud storage solution popping up in the next wide-release OS update. The addition of Drive, revealed earlier this week, is expected to address one of the major obstacles to file management on the line of web-only netbooks.
A Wired interview with Sundar Pichai revealed that an upcoming update to Google's Chrome OS will see tighter integration between the netbook OS and Google's new cloud storage offering, Google Drive. The update is expected to greatly improve the file system functionality of Chrome OS.
Google Drive wasn't Google's only release today. With less fanfare than the cloud storage announcement, Google also released the Google Drive Software Development Kid (SDK). The SDK allows developers to implement Google Drive integration and further allows an application to take advantage of Google's sharing, identity management, and storage.
Google posted Tuesday that users of Google's free email service would be receiving a 33 percent boost in storage capacity. Gmail users will now have access to 10GB of storage.
We've given Google Drive a quick tour to gauge how well it works as well as give a preview for when the eventual iOS app arrives. It promises relatively tight integration between Google services, but does it work well, and is there anything to make Dropbox users switch? Read ahead for a quick look.
Google as hinted has launched Google Drive, its own turn at cloud storage. The platform focuses on not just accessing files but working on them, including live collaboration through Google Docs on formats it supports. Drive makes details searchable and will convert scanned-in documents to text as well as check images for recognizable landmarks that can be searched later.
Google’s long-rumored Google Drive cloud-based storage service dubbed is tipped by insiders to arrive as soon as today. Hints that a launch may be imminent include an increase in Google Docs default storage from 1GB to 5GB that is starting to roll out, as well as a direct reference to the yet to be launched service in Google support materials.
Dropbox has updated its cloud storage service, adding new ways to share files. As noted on the company blog, users can now share files and folders anywhere in their Dropbox using newly created links.
Google's answer to cloud storage, Google Drive, made an inadvertent appearance at a Google+ hangout video very briefly available today. A developer was demonstrating a new app's sharing capabilities, and the previously leaked multicolored triangular icon rumored for the service was shown in the available destinations. The leak was discovered quickly, leading to the video being pulled and replaced with another version of the video lacking the footage in question.
The often-rumored Google Drive might have at last settled on a more definitive launch plan that would include true cross-platform access. A draft press release sliped to The Next Web had the service more closely following the Dropbox formula, where files were stored in a syncing folder or folders on a Mac or Windows PC. Although widely suspected, it's now believed to have an iOS app to match the Android and desktop components.
Signs that Google Drive is near ready mounted late Thursday with leaks promising more features. A screen cap of a pre-release download page for a Windows app has shown TalkAndroid that it should have 5GB of free space, not the 1GB rumored at one point. The same page also mentions phones and tablets in a sign mobile is a core part of Drive.
Google's long-upcoming Google Drive might be close to a real launch after leaks on Tuesday. The cloud storage service was slated by GigaOm sources to be coming during the first week of April. It would potentially be a step back from Dropbox, providing 1GB for free instead of 2GB and thus bringing more people into the paid version.
Google's cloud storage service, Google Drive, may indeed be ready for launch, with a GeekWire reader reporting the option was enabled in his Google account. He even shared the screen captures (embedded below), though they were modified to protect his privacy. The second image is said to be a blown-up logo for the service, which will appear in the browser header when the service is loaded.
Google's long-rumored cloud storage was confirmed getting close through a sighting at a Google-backed presentation. Johannes Wigand relayed an image to TechCrunch of Google Drive sitting in amidst a Google Docs section. While it would behave much like the storage woven into Google Docs today, it's now expected to have both desktop and mobile syncing apps to make it truly useful as general cloud storage rather than hide it in Docs as an extra.
